What a world, ladies and gentlemen. It really does deserve a moment of analysis and awe. Look how far we’ve come as a species. We have worked and worked, tried and failed, learned and re-learned, improved and enhanced almost every aspect of life and the world to get to where we are. Congratulations man - you’ve come a long way. Now here’s the kicker……   so what? What’s the point of all of this, and what are we going to do with it now that we’ve created it?

Ask the businessman, and he may answer the point is to expend as much energy as possible to yield the highest possible wealth and success in a single lifetime. Ask the musician, and he may answer the point is to create something beautiful that touches and enlightens the mind; and to bring world peace - apologies for the stereotype ;). Ask the atheist, and he may answer there is no predefined point - the whole thing is pure coincidence that can disappear as easily as it appeared.

This is something I think about a lot. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will one day die, and as rapidly moving and confusing as the world can be, it has been important for me to know what this whole thing is about, and what the end game is. I have been on an ongoing search for this, sometimes unbeknownst to myself, from the moment I was born.

I have had the phenomenal opportunity to live in two countries - two very different countries. The United States of America, and Israel. I look at the US, and see an endless loop of work ethic, consumerism, and momentary fads that ultimately lead to no end game. I see people trying to satisfy the desires of their soul with the desires of their body. I see the glorification of fabricated illusions, and the promotion of nothingness. It saddens me. I look at Israel, and I see something wildly different - an end game, true goals, spiritual fulfillment, and the strive to replace evil with good.

The original monotheistic religion, Judaism, is a very deep, complex religion. It is based around the belief and knowledge of a single Creator of what we call the world, as well as a single goal for mankind. It includes the strict observance of many hundreds of commandments believed to have been given by said Creator as guidelines for achieving this goal. It teaches the use of the physical aspects of existence for the purpose and perpetuation of the spiritual. What is this single goal? Tikkun HaOlam, in it’s original Hebrew, which in English I would translate as the completion of the world. Judaism believes the world was created incomplete, and mankind, the leader of all species, was given the tools to complete it, using its unobstructed freedom of choice.

This raises many questions, such as why? Why was the world created like this, and why was man left to complete it? These are vital questions that I unfortunately don’t have the time to attempt to explain here in a simple blog post. These are the questions the sages of Judaism have spent literally thousands of years investigating, probing, and studying tirelessly. I highly recommend exploring these areas of study, as I have found them to be very intellectually challenging, and truly perspective changing.

For now, I’ll touch on the question of how. How is man supposed to complete the world? The answer is relatively simple at face value. Use the tools he has been given to craft a perfect world - a world free of war, free of manipulation, free of greed and immorality. Every tool is like a yin yang that can be used for good or for evil. Nuclear energy can power the world, or blow it all up. The internet can help spread education, globalization, and medical advances, or can be used to organize a hateful intifada aimed at the destruction of people. The human organs that can be used to produce the next generation of life can also be used in unspeakable manners. A position of power can be exercised to help a lesser fortunate people, or to exploit the helpless.

The answer? Think. Think hard. The next time you set out to do something; the next time you set out to build something; think of the end game. Will you help fix the world, or are you adding to the noise distracting the rest of mankind in its goal? An iPhone is a monstrously powerful device. Please don’t use it to video tape your friend peeing on his neighbor’s lawn, and upload it to Facebook.

Thanks!

Weapons found on the Mavi Marmara

The May 31^st “Free” Gaza Flotilla incident has, for the most part, disappeared from news headlines, except for the occasional Turkish demand for Israel to apologize for its soldiers defending themselves in the deadly ambush meant to murder them. And I thought Israel was supposed to be the country with Chutzpah… Anyway, today I saw this headline: Lawyers ask ICC to prosecute Israel. Apparently, the lawyers representing the 9 Turkish terrorists who were killed upon the flotilla are asking international courts to prosecute Israel for war crimes due to the outcome of the humanitarian aid-disguised provocation. Wow.

It seems quite a lot of people in the world suffer from a severe case of short term memory. They have apparently forgotten that the IDF released video clips clearly depicting the Turkish “activists” on the flotilla smashing Israeli soldiers with metal pipes, throwing stun grenades at them, stabbing them, and attempting to steal their firearms. The IDF also released a huge collection of photos (1, 2) revealing the insane amount of knives, swords, pipes, clubs, and other deadly weapons that were on the flotilla in preparation of their well-planned, premeditated ambush.

Let’s for a moment play out this fantasy court case of Israel being tried for war crimes because of this incident. The way I see it is as follows: First, it would be a surprise if the prosecuting lawyers actually made it to the courthouse - remember, their memory is shockingly short lived. Assuming they arrive, they would make their case by stating Israeli soldiers killed 9 Turkish citizens who were peace loving activists, trying to get some basic life sustaining supplies to the starving Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Israel would respond by showing statistics of the enormous amount of supplies that regularly flow into the Gaza Strip, proving there is not an ounce of humanitarian crisis in the strip, as well as reiterate the repeated offer they made to the ship to transfer their cargo into Gaza under their supervision after it was checked for weapons. They would proceed to display the videos and pictures mentioned above, proving the flotilla was nothing more than a political stunt that forced IDF soldiers to defend themselves from being killed.

Israel’s victorious judgment would make global news headlines for approximately 1 day, and would pretty quickly be replaced by more headlines of Turkey demanding an Israeli apology over the war crimes it committed on the humanitarian aid flotilla. Granted, Israel is all too familiar with this simulation, and will thus ignore whatever ridiculous nonsense is launched its way. Israel clearly explained the causes for these unnecessary casualties shortly after the event, and that’s about the best it can do other than be better prepared for the next stunt the Arab world tries to play against it.

On the topic of news headlines, check out some of these recent headlines from the last week:

• Israel’s Stanley Fischer wins best bank governor of the world award
  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3967328,00.html
• Warrent Buffett says he’ll invest more in Israel
  Buffett: “If you are looking for brains - stop in Israel, there is no need to go further…”
  http://www.israel21c.org/201010148450/briefs/buffett-thinks-hell-invest-more-in-israel
• Israel to give Intel NIS 741M grant
  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3964054,00.html
• Jerusalem named top travel culture, sightseeing destination
  http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/InJerusalem/Article.aspx?id=190921

The Gaza Strip is a small area of land located in the South Western part of Israel. Before 2005, the area was populated by both Palestinians and Israelis, and the Israeli army and police force were stationed throughout the strip, like the rest of Israel. In 2005, as a gesture toward making peace with the Palestinian people, Israel withdrew its presence from the Gaza Strip, and handed it over to the Palestinian Authority, whom are supported and trained by the United States (as seen by the $500 million dollars pledged to it by Obama for 2010, and the more than 10,000 US Army personnel training PA forces in the West Bank). Israel forced thousands of Israeli citizens from their homes, demolished thousands of homes/apartments, shut down Israeli businesses, closed down Israeli farms, and withdrew every single Israeli army and police personnel from the strip - and handed everything to the Palestinian Authority.

Upon Israel’s departure, the Hamas terrorist organization immediately began fighting the Palestinian Authority within the strip, in attempt to seize it. They kidnapped PA members, and as can be seen in videos on the Internet, tied them up, brought them to the top of buildings, and one-by-one pushed them off, blindfolded. By 2007, Hamas had gained full control of Gaza, turning it literally into hell on earth. From the very moment Hamas was able to, it began firing rockets daily into Israel, aimed at civilians. Some days saw as many as 30 rockets, and for several years consecutively, Israeli families living near Gaza slept in bomb shelters. They also began digging an endless number of tunnels underground into Egypt, to smuggle more weapons and rockets into Gaza, which were/are being delivered from Iran. When I say endless, I am literally talking in the many thousands.

Because of this new situation in Gaza, and the sheer brutality of the Hamas terrorists, Israel enforced a blockade on the Gaza Strip, closely monitoring all items entering and leaving the strip, from the Israeli border - while still supplying and paying for the strip’s water, electricity, and basic humanitarian needs (Israel has noted several times that literally thousands of tons of basic humanitarian aid enter Gaza on a daily basis, and there is no humanitarian crisis there). Between April 11th and April 17th alone, 700 truckloads containing 17,412 tons of aid entered the Gaza strip via Israel. In addition to this, Israeli statistics point out that many hundreds of Palestinians are granted entry into Israel monthly, for medical attention and surgical needs - also provided for free by Israel.

This next point is very important: Gaza is blockaded by Egypt as well. While Egypt does not supply Gaza with water, electricity, humanitarian aid, medical attention, or free surgery, they equally blockade all entry and exit to/from Gaza via the Egyptian border. Why? Simple: they don’t want maniac terrorists running around Egypt, trying to impose Sharia law, machine gunning women who walk around with their hair uncovered. Because the world has less of an erection observing the Egyptian blockade on Gaza, the subject goes virtually undiscussed compared to the Israeli blockade.

Now onto the Flotilla: Several months ago, a group of 700-800 activists decided it would be a great idea to sail a number of ships carrying humanitarian aid toward Gaza in order to try and “break the Israeli blockade,” regardless of the fact that from the beginning, Israel stated very clearly they would not be allowed to reach Gaza. But nonetheless, they sought a showdown with the Israeli navy, to try and give Israel some bad PR. Why? They claim it is to help free the Palestinian people, however this is very obviously not true to anyone with an ounce of a brain. If they wanted to help free the Palestinian people, why would they try to face off against the ones providing them with free medical attention and tons of daily humanitarian aid, as opposed to the terrorist thugs who roam around the strip masked, toting machine guns, who literally kill people for singing in public (no exaggeration).

If the “free” Gaza Flotilla activists truly wanted to benefit the Palestinian people, they would be out on the streets of the world campaigning against the Hamas terrorists in Gaza who seize aid sent for the Palestinian people by the United Nations itself! Furthermore, what connection do these activists have to the Palestinians living in Gaza? are they from Gaza? are they Palestinian? Why don’t they try and help the millions being slaughtered in Darfur first? No one is giving them free surgery or a free supply of water. And how come they aren’t trying to break the Egyptian blockade?

From the beginning of this episode, this Flotilla has been supported by Israel’s greatest enemies; Turkey, Iran, Syria, + co. It is crystal clear this Flotilla has very little to do with the Palestinian people living in Gaza, and everything to do with unjust hatred against Israel. Some in the world see Israel as America’s spoiled child - as the country who does whatever it wants, and breaks whichever rules it sees fit. Perhaps this is why so many in the world have a subconscious hatred for the country - but I remind my readers that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, and the only country in the region threatened with annihilation, while being surrounded by Arab countries totaling to over 650x its size.

The Israeli Navy contacted the “free” Gaza Flotilla before its arrival and gave them 2 options: Either hand us over your humanitarian aid to be checked from a security perspective, and delivered onto Gaza, or be stopped by the Israeli Navy, and deported. The Flotilla ignored these options, and regardless of the fact that for weeks, they have been claiming they will respond without violence, as the ships were boarded by the Israeli Navy, the Flotilla “activists” used rocks, knives, pipes, and stun grenades to attack them, and stole one of the soldier’s pistols - as can be seen in these videos. This unfortunately led to a violent clash, resulting in at least 10 dead, and dozens injured. Hamas, who has been happily sitting on their chairs in Gaza are now smiling ear-to-ear, calling press conferences, emergency meetings, and the likes. They will see a huge PR boost from this, and will thus be granted more leeway to continue oppressing and destroying the lives of the Palestinians living in Gaza.

Thanks, “Free” Gaza Flotilla. You really helped the Palestinians out!

And the news from Israel? Sending stock prices soaring, and watering the mouths of venture capitalists / entrepreneurs worldwide, Israeli businessman Shai Agassi announced Sunday, plans for his company, Better Place, to release a country-wide electric car grid system in Israel, equipped with over 100 charging stations spread throughout the country. “Israel has taken on the problem (of oil dependency) and has decided independently to solve this for the entire world,” he said.

Better Place recharge pump

It continues to amaze me that while Israel, at its own will, takes world problems head-on, and is continuously looking at life in the framework of its future generations, building, improving, inventing, and solving, all toward a goal that can only practically be referred to as ‘a perfect world’ - its enemies continue to press onward in the many-century old religiously-driven fanatic crusade bent on destroying its existence.

How many field hospitals did Iran send to and manage in Haiti after its recent paralyzing earthquake? How many babies did Iranian doctors deliver in those field hospitals? And how many policemen and other security force agents did Iran send to Haiti to help keep peace & order during the aftermath of the disaster? The answers are 0, 0, and 0. Israel, on the other hand, set up the most advanced field hospital in Haiti, and delivered more than 7 babies, amongst performing many other types of specialized, critical surgery, on-site, while involved in round-the-clock search & rescue missions. Israel sent a taskforce of 210, compared with China’s 60 - not including the security personnel Israel sent after the initial days of the disaster.

Yet, the world continues to sit by idly, waiting for World War III to erupt in the Middle East, re: the Iranian nuclear crisis. If the US really wanted this problem solved, it could have been solved literally years ago, and would have disappeared from news headlines. But instead, in actuality, absolutely not a single thing has been done. Either world leaders are the most incapable people of implementing things they want accomplished, OR, they simply don’t really care about the outcome of this situation (not super wise for a world leader). Iran continues to fund and train terrorist organizations based primarily on Israel’s borders, but also throughout Africa, and other parts of the world, virtually without resistance. In fact, they actually receive quite a lot of funding from the Western world, via wonderful organizations such as the United Nations and The International Red Cross.

I was trying to wrap my head around how long this crisis has been going on without a single change in course. I took a quick scan at this very blog’s old posts, and I see that on November 28, 2008 I wrote an article emphasizing the importance of this crisis, stressing that something be done about it, and ASAP. It is now February 9, 2010, and can anyone tell me what has changed, aside from the larger # of enriched uranium centrifuges now in Iran’s possession + the many months they have had to further develop their missile delivery systems?

My true fear is one day sitting at my computer, writing the “I told you so” blog, after Iran announces its fully capable, deliverable nuclear warhead, and shocks the world by revealing its nuclear program actually WASN’T for nuclear power all along (gasp!). Only, that “I told you so” will be a bitter one, and not a ‘haha’ one, as I live just a short 1,000 miles from Tehran, and under 100 from its puppet terrorist organizations, Hizballah (to my North) and Hamas (to my South)… yeah, that’s gonna suck.

Why can’t someone just tell Iran to chill the chill out? Maybe if someone hooked them up with a cappuccino machine and XBox 360, they’d see there is more to life than trying to ruin everyone else’s short time on this earth. Leave us be, yo, we’re busy perfecting the world, and spending time with our families and friends! Get a life (preferably one that has nothing to do with us)!

Israel has since built a barrier wall separating the West Bank from the rest of Israel, which it has come under intense international protest for (regardless of the fact that bombing attacks have dropped by 99% since its construction). The US has been in favor of supporting the Palestinian Authority, in hope that it will be able to secure the West Bank, and develop it into a great economy and living situation for Palestinians there. In fact, just the other day, the Obama Administration pledged $500,000,000 for the year 2010 to help train PA forces, and have even sent US personnel and equipment to assist. And away we go:

• In 2007, a series of deals were made between the PA and Israel, with US backing, whereas Israel would remove certain members of Fatah (the ruling faction of the PA) from its most wanted list, if the individuals swore not to return to terrorist activities. The deals were meant to bolster relations between the PA and Israel, so they could jointly fight Hamas and other Palestinian “extremist” factions (I put extremist in quotes, because I think the extremists are only slightly more extreme than Fatah themselves). Here is one such example.
• On Thursday, December 24 2009, a father of seven, school teacher was murdered in the West Bank, on his way home from work. His car was shot at 10 times in a drive-by shooting. Put yourself in his wife or any of his seven childrens’ shoes for .5 seconds to understand the magnitude of this awfulness.
• This is the Palestinian Authority’s first true test on the ground in the West Bank. How will they respond? Israel notifies the PA of the incident, and grants them 24 hours to conduct an investigation, and come up with a result.
• After 24 hours, the PA has not turned over any suspects or produced any real results in the investigation. Israeli intelligence by now has already determined the 3 perpetrators involved in the crime, and thus, sends a commando unit into the West Bank to apprehend the men. The Israelis surround the house, and call for the men to come out. After a gunbattle, and one of the men sending his wife outside, the Israeli commandos take all 3 men out, fearful of an escalation.
• It is soon after revealed that one of the 3 men were on the list of terrorists Israel removed from their wanted list in 2007. The initial attack is claimed by Fatah, and they vow swift revenge for the Israeli escalation of violence in the West Bank.
• Mahmoud Abbas (head of the Palestinian Authority) fiercely lashes out against the Israeli operation, claiming it is a clear indication that Israel is not interested in peace with the Palestinian people, because it had entered the West Bank and handled the situation on its own.

I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here. My opinion is that Mahmoud Abbas is the one not interested in peace with Israel. If he were, he would have praised the Israeli operation for removing extremist terrorists, who clearly stood in the way of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Why exactly is he so outraged, and who is really to blame for this escalation of violence?

Meanwhile, 4 people are now dead, leaving widows and orphans with decades of suffering. Great job. Mahmoud Abbas has already started his usual complaining to the US that Israel’s intervention in these matters works against their training of the PA forces, and is a step backwards. I’m sure if Israel did nothing, and these 3 men were left alone to plot another attack in the near future, Mahmous Abbas would have been a much happier camper.

And in their usually biased fashion, Al Jazeera reported the incident as an Israeli raid of the West Bank, ending in the killing of 3 Palestinians, without mentioning a single word of the drive-by shooting on Thursday, or the deals of 2007. They also managed to bring up last year’s war in Gaza, obviously noting the large Palestinian death toll… they seemed to have forgotten to mention the 6,000 rockets shot into Israel for the 3 years leading up to the war, which was the primary cause of the war.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response was: “Our policy against terrorism is clear. We will continue to respond aggressively - against any attack on Israeli citizens and against any firing of rockets or missiles at Israeli territory.”

Had Fatah’s men not killed the innocent school teacher for no reason, the population of earth would be 4 greater than it is now. A perfect example. The cycle continues.

Following the vote, the Jewish population happily accepted this plan, even though their portion was not contiguous, and included hundreds of miles of desert land. The Arab population rejected the bill, and immediately (literally, the next day) launched a massive, multi-front war against the Jewish population. Unfortunately for them, they lost. The Israelis survived the attack, outnumbered 10 to 1, and even pushed the Arab population back to setup defense paremeters. The Israelis sustained over 6,000 casualties in a matter of months.

Ever since then, the Arab world (with overwhelming support in the UN) has attempted to extract more and more “land for peace” trades with Israel, whilst igniting 8 regional wars against it in a period of 60 years, and bombarding it with terrorist attacks in the forms of suicide bombers, rocket launches into Israeli cities, machine gunning school kids to death, explosive booby traps, and much much more. They have also kidnapped Israeli soldiers, trading them back to Israel at a ratio of 1000:1, hijacked planes full of Israelis, and have continuously smuggled lethal weapons from all parts of the globe into the region, to murder Israelis with.

To be very blunt, the world hasn’t said shit about any of this. Instead, the UN has filed more motions against Israel’s behavior than any country on earth (by a long shot), and has labeled the country racist, comparing them to the Nazi regime, and the situation to the South African apartheid.

So let me get this straight: In 1967, when Israel miraculously survived a 5-way coordinated attack against it with a hail mary preemptive strike, THEY were the ones to blame? During that war, the Israelis pushed the Syrians off of the Golan Heights, seeking an end to the 19 years of daily shelling against it from the Syrians. And Israel is the occupier? When the Jordanians attacked West Jerusalem from East Jerusalem, and Israel ousted them there as well, again, THEY were the ones to blame? If Israel had just stood there and let themselves be raped and hacked to pieces - I suppose that may have found more favor in the eyes of the UN? Literally, every single step Israel has taken to protect its citizens in the last 62 years has been met with worldwide protests and uproar.

After Israel won the 1948 war, the Arabs said “okay, just withdraw to the previous borders, and then there will be peace.” Oh really? So why wasn’t there peace before the war then? They said the same exact thing in 1956, 1967, 1973, and have been saying it every day since. The current saying is “withdraw to the 1967 borders, and THEN there will definitely be peace.” Give me a break.

Meanwhile, every UN resolution against Arab terrorist organizations has been 100% ignored, and nobody has said a single word about it. UN resolution 1701 demands the Lebanese government disarm the Iranian-supported terrorist organization Hezbollah, which sits on the northern border of Israel. This resolution was passed in 2006, in order to get Israel to stop bombing Hezbollah infrastructure and weapon caches. At the time, they had 7,000 rockets in their arsenal. Now, not only do they have an estimated 30,000 - 80,000 rockets, but they were also voted into the Lebanese parliament. Amazing.

Let me just say that for the last 62 years (and even before then), Israel’s stance has not changed one iota: Stop attacking and killing us, and we will stop having to defend ourselves. Simple as that. But no, that doesn’t exactly work for the world. Instead, the world demonizes Israel for its US backing, and world class military. Why do you think Israel seeks such a military? Well with 8+ wars having been waged against it, and a non-stop barrage of terrorist attacks, I can kind of see why.

As I write this, a German mediator is attempting to negotiate the Hamas terrorist organization trading 1 Israeli soldier who has never killed a human being in his life, for 1000 Palestinian terrorists, who combined have killed hundreds, if not thousands of Israeli men, women, and children. And American news channels are covering the story as though it’s totally normal. “Yeah, I wonder if Israel will agree. Hmmmm, how interesting.” How come nobody has yet said “Are you fucking kidding me?”

Fair is fair. I rest my case.

First of all, let me just say that 9/11 was absolutely awful in every way. It was sad, unfair, and shocking. Why did these people have to die, and why must their friends and families now suffer the rest of their lives with the absence of their loved ones? I believe every one of them were entitled to live a long, fulfilling life… which brings me to my main point. When will this madness end?!

Browsing through the news today, I saw these two articles:

• Iraq blasts kill at least 103 (more than 197 wounded)
• Twelve dead as car bomb targets Pakistan army

Here is a quote from the 2nd link: “…killing 12 people in the third attack in 24 hours…” Third attack in 24 hours? Are you kidding me? That’s unbelievable. What makes any of the 103 people in Baghdad or the 12 people in Pakistan different from the approximate 3,000 Americans?

My point is this: These bomb blasts occur so often. Wait a few days, or a number of weeks, and the death toll from bomb blasts like these will equal a brand new 9/11. Is the world “changing” every few weeks? Why does the world change only when Americans die? Does the starbucks coffee in their systems make them more valuable human beings?

The answer is this: Countries only act in favor of their interests, and unfortunately this includes even opposing or fighting terrorism. Russia’s interest in Iranian oil money has made them “open minded” to Iran’s “peaceful” nuclear aspirations, while North Korea’s own nuclear program has rendered them perfectly okay with Iran’s worldwide support for terror (a.k.a. mass murder).

What will it take for the world to finally stand up to terrorism? It seems like only massive terrorist attacks in every country on earth could stem the tide - but by then, the world will have lost. Why is it okay for thousands of Kassam rockets to fall on innocent Israeli citizens, but NOT okay for a subway to be bombed in London? Why is it okay for endless rape and bloodshed to occur daily in Darfur, or for Palestinian extremists to blow themselves up in crowded Israeli markets, but NOT okay for planes to be flown into the Twin Towers?

When will the world realize terrorism is terrorism, and terrorists are not to be “negotiated” with around a table, while everyone sips their hot drinks, all whilst their comrades are back at home building more explosive devices, and smuggling more weapons to all parts of the globe? I have some bad news: the world is losing in the war on terror.

Terrorist organizations now have their own “Foreign Ministers”, their own newspapers, and even give their own press conferences (of course their faces are covered because, well, they ARE wanted murderers)… but hey, let’s give them a chance - let’s see what they have to say! Could be important.

If people don’t start waking up, and realizing this is not a game, terror will continue spreading worldwide, with very little resistance against it. I leave you with the following video, entitled “A Former Terrorist Speak Out”

The basic goal of software development is shockingly simple: make it possible for a human being to accomplish a task, or tasks, that they either could not or would not want to accomplish with the limitations of a human brain / human laziness. Example: say I had 500 pictures I wanted to shrink. Instead of resizing each of them inside a program like photoshop, I could write a program that shrinks pictures, and then just loop it through all 500 pictures, and wallah, I’ve just saved some precious guitar playing time. Very complicated software is this same idea multiplied, possibly with more intricate tasks.

So in short, one could say that the idea of programming is to expend effort upfront, to create reusable tools, and then to sit back and enjoy them. I actually believe this is the exact same concept of life, on a grand scale. Throughout the course of life, people develop several kinds of skills and tools: physical abilities, mental abilities, and the ability to gather and use information in many ways. I believe that after life, people are stripped of their physical selves, and are left with only the tools and information they developed and gathered in their lifetime… meaning, a person spends their life developing themselves, and in the after life, using the tools they’ve created, and being the person they developed themselves into with the information they gathered.

Sometimes programming is fun, interesting, and even exciting (yeah!!), but often times, it can become cumbersome, difficult, frustrating, and can reduce your supply of instant coffee drastically. The tough part is keeping your eye on the prize: a perfectly developed software application that can be used for the rest of eternity without any errors, and that can accomplish many tasks, well. So to, life can become extremely pressing and uncomfortable at times, but the goal remains: make yourself into the person you want to spend the rest of eternity being.

Who do you want to be for the next 15 billion years (and then some) ?

On October 26, 1994, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin and Jordanian Prime Minister Abdelsalam al-Majali signed a peace treaty that ended almost 50 years of warring between the two countries. The main points of the treaty were that the two governments agreed on (1) Official borders between their two countries, (2) Normalization of relations (opening of embassies, granting of tourist visas), and (3) Respect of sovereignty and territories. What caused this, and what took so long?

Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Jordan consistently subscribed to an anti-Israel policy, and participated in multiple attempts to destroy it. They did so especially in the Israeli War of Independence (1948), and Six Day War (1967), however the entire time the Jordanians controlled East Jerusalem (1948 - 1967), they made it exceeding difficult for Jews to live in Jerusalem. They would snipe at Jewish mothers shopping for their families, and would pour garbage onto those who came to worship at the Western Wall, among other things. So if Jordan was not down for having Jewish neighbors, then why the peace treaty?

I believe Jordan agreed to peace for a few reasons. The first is that their anti-Israel position was costing them bigtime. For starters, they kept losing wars. Particularly during the Six Day War, Israel sent a message to the Jordanian government on the morning the war broke out, and told them Israel would not attack them if they stayed out of the war. Instead, Jordan decided to try and capture West Jerusalem, and failed miserably. Israel not only stopped them, but was forced to take over East Jerusalem, causing many Jordanians to flee. This also gave Israel complete control over the Western Wall. Was that worth it?

Additionally, Israel consistently offered the possibilities of trade between the two countries, as well as other forms of economic development that the Jordanians simply refused to acknowledge. But things changed during the 70s and 80s. In 1970, Jordan waged the war of Black September against the PLO who were based in Jordan at the time. In response, Syrian troops entered Jordan to fight on behalf of the PLO. In an attempt to try and contain the situation, Israel flew fighter planes over Syrian airspace, to indicate they should stop - and they did. In the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Jordan did not participate in the joint surprise Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel, perhaps indicating they had learned their lesson.

Eventually, Jordan caved. They realized they could not beat Israel militarily, and that they were losing out by not embracing a relationship with Israel where both countries could capitalize on economic opportunities, and could benefit from the sharing of certain intelligence. So what does this have to do with what Israel said about Lebanon?

Last week, the Lebanese military uncovered machinery buried underground in Southern Lebanon. Upon their discoveries, the machines were immediately blown up, seemingly remotely by Israel. The general theory is that during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israel planted wire tapping devices in the ground, to keep a good eye on the Iranian backed terrorist organization, Hezbollah. When confronted about it by the UN, Israel did not confirm or deny it had planted anything in Lebanon, but told the UN it would continue gathering intelligence there while Hezbollah still controlled part of Lebanon.

The underlying theme, as it seems to me, is that Israel does what it needs to in order to ensure its own security and defense capabilities. As soon as it is no longer threatened by one of its enemies, Israel is more than happy to embrace a two-way relationship with them. Israel did not only not hold a grudge against Jordan for the previous 50 years, but also did not hesitate to sign a peace treaty with even Egypt, who tried MUCH harder than Jordan to destroy Israel. Meaning, if the Middle East would finally recognize a tiny Jewish state in their midst, and decided to work with them instead of against them, all countries would benefit. Perhaps the 21st century could finally be the one where the Jewish nation for the first time doesn’t have an attempt made for its complete destruction? Maybe? But then again, Iran’s nuclear program is probably for peaceful purposes.

P.S. If you think Israel is going to sit back and let Iran school the world while obtaining a nuclear weapon, you gotta be out your mind. Crack a history book.

Iraq hit by triple car bombing

The article can be summarized in these sentences: “The first bomb appeared to target people queuing outside a municipal office to claim various allowances, he said. The second detonated when police and firemen arrived on the scene, and the third blew up on the road to the hospital.” At least 23 dead, 81 wounded.

First, I’d like to mention that although this triple bomb idea seems creative, it’s actually old news. This exact strategy was used in an attack against Israel in the mid 90’s, during the reign of Prime Minister Rabin. The second bomb that had gone off did kill officers and personnel on the scene helping victims of the first bomb, however the third bomb prematurely detonated, and missed. Ever since then, Israel has been prepared for this type of an attack in their response protocols. (We rock?)

Second, I’d like to state my opinion which is that suicide bombings (and terrorism in general) cannot be stopped by anything other than force. I personally feel awful that there are so many people that care so little about their lives that they would happily use it up to destroy the lives of others, but I think a lot of the blame for this goes to the leaders of those people who encourage these acts, as opposed to trying to help and improve the lives of the individuals they are attempting to represent.

I’m additionally saddened by the fact that these double and triple bombings are no longer shocking to me, as I am reading about another suicide bomb / car bomb in Iraq or Afghanistan almost daily. So what is the correct response?

Let’s look at what Israel did, because it is run by the smartest human beings that currently exist: In 2002, Israel began constructing the Israeli West Bank Barrier which separates the West Bank from the rest of Israel. It is a highly controversial barrier. Those on the left side of politics say the wall is a guise for secretly annexing parts of the West Bank, since the wall juts inward to the West Bank in a number of places, and also that it makes life for the Palestinians in the West Bank significantly more difficult. Those on the right say it was and is desperately needed to improve security against terrorism. Who’s right? Well, suicide bombings inside of Israel are down 99.99% since the constructional of the wall - you can make up your own minds.

I am a supporter of disproportionate response to suicide bombings and acts of terror. One could argue that being a democracy means abiding to the international laws of war, the Hague Convention (etc), and that every democracy must deal with these problems proportionately and legally. However, I feel that is appropriate when dealing with other democracies, not terrorists who are prepared to cross every line imaginable, and then some.

Dealing a disproportionate response does two things: (1) Clearly sets the price for committing acts of terror very high, and (2) Diminishes the terrorists’ abilities to carry out these acts, because the responses are ideally devastating their infrastructure, bomb making facilities, and weapons caches.

The only last point is that for this to really work, the UN needs to be dismantled for its idiocy, and support for worldwide terror. That’s about all… Did I mention Iran’s building a nuclear bomb?

EDIT: Just thought I would add that this morning, I checked the news as I normally do, and what did I find? 41 dead as suicide blast hits northwest Pakistan. I rest my case.