SHOULD NOT WATCH NEWS

I really should not watch the evening news. It is not good for my blood pressure, or the TV itself. I have no idea how I controlled the urge to throw something at the TV last evening or how I came out of it without another stroke or heart attack.
We really have lost any claim to being members in good standing of the human race, never mind any claim to any moral high ground on any issue.
For some inexplicable reason refugees from Darfur have arrived here by way of Egypt. And what have we done with them? We have built two tent cities in the desert near a pre existing prison, separated the men from their wives and children and locked them all up. Why? I don't know because no actually asks that question. They just report on the conditions and that those people have no access to anything other than their jailers, no phones, no TV, no radios, no nothing.
I don't know who those poor folks are; if they are Muslims, Christians, or whatever. I do know that they are human beings who managed to escape the killing ground their country has become and against all the odds and reason made the mistake of finding their way here, where they have been locked up like animals. Actually, the animals in our zoos have better living conditions.
Some of them have actually been granted permission to leave the tent camp if they have an Israeli willing to take responsibility for them, but they have no way to make contact with anyone outside of their own camp, and they can't even read the letter informing them of that. They have to rely on a translation by an officer who doesn't have enough English to make a comprehensible translation.
I was so upset by the way we are handling these refugees that I actually vibrated from rage for a good half hour after the news.
I'm not quite sure what the answer is to this, but at the very least, if they must be 'held' they should be in something other than tents in two different places separated from their families. It also ran through my mind that at least some of them could be employed by some of us cripples until I remembered that this could be bad for those of us who run dodgy agencies to supply us with 'foreign care givers'. Finding a humane solution will most likely run aground on the shoals of more than one special interest group and everything will be left as it is until someone finds a way to exploit them.
And I have no doubt that we will expect better from the world when we turn into refugees ourselves, when we get ourselves exiled yet again. This sorry episode is bringing that day ever closer at warp speed.

WAIT JUST A MINUTE THERE

Yesterday an officer in the IDF took a wrong turn (or so he claims) and ended up in a "Palestinian" concentration("refugee" camp) in/near Jenin, and was rescued by the "Palestinian security forces. Our 'fearless' leaders are now fawning all over the officer's saviors. Sorry, but something just isn't right there. An officer of his rank made that kind of a mistake and found himself there by accident and was saved from a lynch at the last minute by Abu Mazzen's merry men? That was such a well posted road that you'd have to blind to not know you were on a black (closed) road.
I guess I'm just disillusioned and paranoid enough about Olmert to actually think the whole thing just might be a set up to earn Abu Mazzen more brownie points with just about everyone and their uncle. And this happened on the same day that Hamas sent demands of more prisoner releases in return for a video clip of Gilad Shalit? Not for his release mind you; just for a glimpse of him. Sorry, but the whole Jenin thing is a bit too convenient and I for sure would not put it past the Ehuds-Olmert and Barak to come up with such a ploy. It's too bad that an officer was sacrificed for them. I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong, but, I fear I'm spot on the money again. What a mess we are allowing them to make.

MISSING THE MAIN POINT

I really don't like waking up in the middle of the night because a light bulb turned it self on at maximum brightness in my head. It's even more annoying when it sheds illumination on something so obvious that should have been realized even in the light of day.
Two points were clarified by the middle of the light bulb, one of which leads directly to the second.
It really doesn't matter what the so called palestinians are called unless accuracy is of more importance than anything else. Whatever they are called, they are still an issue that needs to be resolved. That they have managed to convince just about everyone and their uncle that they are a separate entity is irrelevant to the issue simply because they have to be dealt with in the present reality which precludes the originally intended solution which was Jordan before they reinvented themselves as Palestinians. The Jordanians do not want them. They have enough of them there as it is and are trying as hard as they can to stay out of the whole thing. The Egyptians were never really in the mix because Gaza was theirs pretty much by default. They are as scared of them as the Jordanians and for good reason. If the more fanatic Islamist Hamas, (Iran's local proxy) gain more power than they already have, both Jordan and Egypt will in effect have Iranian Islamist fanatics right on their doorsteps. And Israel as a buffer and convenient target will be gone.
Without us as a distraction, it won't be long before a unified Jihad is launched against the West, and it will be too late to stop them by that point.
So, maybe recognizing the Palestinian lie isn't as irrelevant as I think it is because recognizing it is the first step in dealing with them.
So, how do we (and the rest of the world) sort the mess? I'm not sure at this point, but what I am sure of is that America and Europe have to take a good hard look at the whole picture including the historic aspects and stop pandering to, and appeasing them. Someone has to say "Stop" and force the so called palestinians to get their act together and start taking care of their people rather than putting most of the money they are getting in Swiss banks and buying weapons at the expense of building a solid economy for their citizens. That's a start that could possibly lead to them realizing that terror will get them less than a prosperous citizenry will. The problem with that is that they can not really be trusted to do more than pay lip service to the International communities demands in this area. They have yet to live up to so much as one clause in any of the too numerous to count agreements they've signed. It's always Israel that has to make 'good faith concessions'. And that has to stop right now. It's their turn.

I HAVE DONE MY CIVIC DUTY FOR TODAY

I just rolled in after voting for the Likud party chairman. Do I really have to specify who I voted for, or can you figure it out for yourselves?
Had a quick chat with several of the local Bibi faction and we pretty much agree that Bibi will not only win this primary, he will also be our next P.M. if only because none of the other candidates are in a position to win. I'd much prefer that he win because he's seen as best suited for the job, not just as a last ditch default candidate.
Things are seriously wrong here. From the top, right down to the grass roots. It drives me wild that absolutely no one will take responsibility for their own messes. Our fearless leaders act as if laws are for others; not them. Sorry, but if you want to pose as a democracy, the laws apply to you too.
Lately we've had several incidents where teenagers killed other teens. I feel really bad for the parents of the dead kids, but, I can not for the life of me figure out why the parents think that anyone in the government is at fault. Those poor bereaved moms set up a protest tent outside Olmert's office. I don't know what they thought the government can do about homicidal teens. Maybe they were hoping that the elected would set an example and resign while taking responsibility for the mess we are now in. That is so not going to happen.
On the local front, our mayor is almost through with his trial. One of papers covered his defense in detail and what I don't 'get' is how he can avoid a conviction. Since when can a candidate for any office use "I didn't know what my people were doing in my name" as a defense? Even if he really didn't know (got a bridge for sale; anyone interested?) what they were doing in his name, he still is the one ultimately responsible for all the illegal shenanigans, and should have resigned immediately the moment the story broke instead of blaming everyone else and besmirching the reputations of those who made the original complaint. Our intrepid mayor really is a piece of work, and I hope he gets a nice long prison term to reflect on it. He really deserves it.
There, I think that's the root of what's wrong with us these days. It's never our fault. Someone else is always at fault and responsible. Things will not get better here until we figure that out collectively. And I'm only talking about things on a personal level, not trying to say that we are at fault for the so called palestinians plight. That is 100 percent their own damn fault.

POLIO UPDATE

If it wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny. Our fearless Prime Minister is so scared of a bunch of cripples in wheelies that he brought in police and anti terror back up to protect himself from us. On second thought, maybe he was right. We can be a dangerous bunch when we get going. After the 1999 and 2002 demonstrations all the government ministry buildings have been barricaded so that the public they serve and which pays their salaries can't get in. One of the organizers was talking with the head cop and he made a comment about the building not being 'his' Boy oh boy did he get a lecture from me about it in fact being his as it is also ours. Not that it did any good. We had two people who had to charge their electric chairs and the security jerks wouldn't let them come 3 meters inside the outer barricade to use the outlet in the guard shack. That really set me off and one the cops actually had the unmitigated gall to tell one of them to stop moving all over the place so he wouldn't need to recharge the batteries. I'm lucky I wasn't arrested for yelling at him that day might well come when he'll be in the same situation, and that as he pace back and forth on his own two feet, that's exactly what Avi was doing on his scooter. In the end they let him take the scooter in, but he had to wait outside the barricade on someone's spare wheely. It really is too much. In the end it was decided to make a partial payment to the polio people, but we might well be back to make them hand over the rest. At least that gives some time to organize a small scooter to take. I simply can't manage that area in a regular wheely and I can't get Harley Too in the car.
This government really doesn't want to go there with us. I have a picture of the cops talking with Avi. I'll add it here later. Along with some others of the demonstrators.

DISGUSTING GOVERNMENT

In the 1950s the then government of Israel decided not to import and use the new anti polio vaccines and the surviving results of that decision are now starting to suffer from post polio syndrome. There has been talk about compensating them for that horrendous decision for years and recently the Knesset passed a law to pay a fairly generous one time compensation and a monthly addition to their disability benefits. The process was supposed to start in September but now our criminal government is trying to get out of it. For that alone I think they should all be sent to prison, or given polio themselves.
Even worse there has been a lot of talk recently about government treatment of holocaust survivors. Much was said back in the day about the neccessity of a Jewish homeland for the survivors, and they were indeed brought here after WWII. The German government paid millions of marks both to the governmemt of Israel and to individual survivors who are now dying daily in large numbers. The great majority of those who are still alive live well under the poverty line, and the government lead my that Olmert man has ever so generously offered to give them an additional 80 shekels ($18.30) a month. The survivors had planned a demonstration along side of one by the polio victims tomorrow. It seems the survivors have been promised more money and have cancelled their plans to demonstrate. The polio folks are still going to demonstrate and I just hope the survivors don't regret their decision to cancel. This government can not be trusted for a minute to keep their word about anything.
I'm taking Rivkah home tonight and going to the demonstration tomorrow even though polio is not one of the things I suffer from. The way I look at it, it's everyone's fight. Not only was the vaccine not imported, many polio kids were experimented on medically with life long consequences. They deserve all the compensation they can get and I'm more than happy to help them fight for it.
This government really does have to go.