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First Israeli in Space
Sleepyman writes "CNN has a story about the first Israeli in space going on STS 107 Slated to takeoff today from NASA's Space Center in Florida this afternoon. Good luck to him and the rest of the crew of STS 107."
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For some reason, the scene from the end of Mel Brooks's film History of The World Part 1 just bounced into my head... :)
-MT.
What exactly is news in this ? The *nationality* of a astronaut ? Will we now have slashdot storeis about the first astronaut from all countries ?
/anything/ that is a) negative and b) involves israel, however indirectly, is a rabid anti-semite.
Apparently what he's doing or what the mission is for or anything of the sort is not interesting enough to be worth metioning, only the nationality is so sensational it deserves a story of its own.
Oh, and offcourse anything who says
This IS worthy Slashdot Science Section news, but NOT because of the "first person from country X in space" angle.
The important science news here is all about political use of the Space Shuttle, the security problems created thereby (how many lives and $millions would certain terrorists happily give to sabotage or shoot down this Shuttle?), etc.
(Yes, i know that the whole Shuttle program is at least as much about pork spreading as space science, and that's *very* old news.)
It's easy to make up & spread cool- and credible-sounding stuff. Finding & checking hard facts is hard work.
This is probably going to be off-topic, but Slashdot is a discussion site, and I'd like to get everyone's viewpoint.
I'm Jewish, but not Israeli. And it's an important thing to note that not all Jews are anti-Palestine. The Reform Jewish movement (Judaism has "movements", like Christianity has denomonations) has publically stated it's for the establishment of a Palestinian state. Several Orthodox (!) congregations have chimed in as well.
However, that doesn't mean that Israel should cease to exist. This is an overused analogy, but considering my wife is full-blooded Chickasaw, a useful one. The Chicaksaw (a Native American nation) were here first, but nobody expects the United States to dissolve and give back the land to the Native Americans. Instead, they've established semi-soverign "states within states" for the Chickasaw. How long does Isreal have to exist before they're considered a valid nation, and not illegal conquerors?
Now, in Israel/Palestine, the land is still ethnically divided across more geographic lines. Therefore, it'd be easier to make it two states, instead of states-within-states. I'm totally for this.
But, I've also often noticed that, among a lot of people today, it's "cool" to be anti-Israel. I'm assuming this is because their parents were pro-Israel. I dunno.
Think about it. Atrocities have been comitted on both sides. Great Britian, who had mandate over the land, gave it to the Zionists for a homeland. Was that right? Maybe, maybe not. But the UN recognized it, and the greater community of nations recognized it, so it happened. Now, we have suicide bombings, and tanks running down children.
I've lived all over the world, and it's amazing how different the media handles things. Here in the US, it's Palestinians bombing busses. In Europe, it's Israelis shooting houses. Given Europe's past history, I'd be inclined to believe that there is a bit more anti-Semitism in play than we are led to believe. (Before I get flamed into extinction - I'm not saying that all of Europe is anti-Semtic, I just think that European media is anti-Semetic, just like the American media is anti-Palestine. The media takes sides, don't forget). I lived in Europe for two years, and never had a problem. Just noting the media bias.
So, before you get on a high horse and say "look at how evil Israel is", yadda yadda yadda, remember that boths sides are to blame. *Both* sides. Not one, not the other.
And it sucks.
And now, for your enjoyment, the first /. posting by a cat:
(missed were the multiple function keys that were also stepped on.)Ilan Ramon, the Israeli astronaut, was one of the F-16 pilots who had bombarded and destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor back in 1981. If not for him (or rather, if not for the Israeli Air Force), ten years later (in 1991) the USA would have had to face an Iraq that owns nuclear weapons. Not a nice prospect.