Slashdot Mirror
Israeli Knesset Approves Biometric Database Law
Lord Duran writes "The Israeli Knesset approved a bill that will require every Israeli citizen to submit a visual scan of their face and a biometric scan of their fingerprints to a national database. I, for one, fail to see how this is anything but evil. TFA mentions the Israeli census was breached — I'd like to point out, for comparison, that it's still freely available on your peer-to-peer file sharing network of choice."
Everything they do is evil.
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
I wonder if the next step will be to require Palestinians to were a yellow star-and-moon on their clothes.
Every human being on the planet should be fingerprinted, retinal scanned and DNA sampled. If they've nothing to hide why should they object? Only scumbags with something to hide would want to remain in the shadows. Also, only those who have served their country in the military should have citizenship status and get the priviledges that offers (business and home ownership, drivers license, social security at retirement, etc). And automobiles should be required to have an alcohol detector so that they cannot be started if the driver has been drinking.
In 1994, a card-carrying skeptic told me that any "Mark of the Beast" (MotB) technology would NEVER come to pass because of the outcry that it was MotB Technology. His logic was that since everyone could see the prophecy of this type of people-control technology, including a unique database identity key and other well-known (now) DBA actions, that people would RESIST the fulfillment of the prophecy. Thus, the prophecy would be annulled by the fact that it was foreknown by a casual reader.
Ok, so... Where is it? Where is the outcry? With the potential for abuse reaching BIBLICAL proportions, who is resisting? The Wacko Christian Right (Of which you would consider me). It seems that the prophecy which this parallels would (if fulfilled) impact the Israelis the most. So, why are they doing it? Peace and Security? Oh, that's in the prophecy as well.
Look, I'm not saying this is Revelation 13:18 per se. It could be, it could NOT be. Who can know? IF IT IS... where is the outcry? All of us database/hAx0r/geek types can see this is a "bad" idea in and of its own merits. But if you tack on the potential to fulfill the best known end-times/Antichrist prophecy, shouldn't the world be shuddering in its collective shoes?
Are we?
It sounds to me like the trends in Israeli (Jewish) society are little different from the trends with Christian or Islamist fundamantalists -- they seek an exclusionist society with uniform beliefs. I believe this Sunday, Thomas L. Friedman made the point on a news talk show that there are a number of people within these societies (he was speaking about Islamist societies but it could be applied as well to Jewish or Christian societies) -- who want to turn back the clock to the 13th century -- where the Torah's and Bible's and Quran's dictated reality (if you could sort it out from what each of them says) is the fundamental reality -- and attempt to enforce upon the societies around them and the world that that *opinion* is the "real" reality. So for the Israeli's to push towards a more exclusive society (are they building settlements for the Palestinians, no, are they building settlements for the Christians, no, they are building settlements for the Jews -- and they fail to recognize that within the general trends in the world -- keeping control of a little bit of land is a historical artifact -- my solution to the problem of Israel/Palestine would be to use nanotechnology to construct a second copy of Isreal out in the Mediterranean creating dual Jewish/Islamic states -- using 50% of the atoms in the original copy -- So nobody could really say which is "better" (or maybe move it into a better climate where the rainfall is higher while the views are just as good) [and don't 'dis me on the concept, go read my Sapphire Mansions paper]. And so the only objection one can imagine is the faction of Israeli society that would object to 1/2 of their "homeland" atoms being moved to a jurisdiction under the control of the Palestinians. I mean *really* -- you want to claim that those are "Jewish atoms"???
Fundamentalists will never likely accept rational thought processes (in particular where science shows their beliefs are false), in large part that because current systems indoctrinate children with "beliefs" before their ability for "rational thought" develops. They seek to maintain their belief system and will from time to time act upon it. The only response the rest of us can take is to resist this and keep pointing out the contradictions and flaws in their thinking.
If you can't see the difference from the U.S. immoral but sadly at the time legal acts and Israel's clearly illegal acts there is no hope for you. You cynical conservatives are all about "the rule of law," except when you aren't of course, sigh!
Tired of all the isms, don't exploit people as an employer, or a government, mmmmK?