Hebrew anyone?

Here is a link to an article in Hebrew where I found an eye-catching cartoon of Obama painting the white house black. From just the cartoon and a blog I saw written about this, it seems to me as an incredibly racist cartoon. I think that race is a testy issue in the Israel as it clearly has an effect on the relations between the Ashkenazi Jews and the Mizrahi Jews and the Palestinians.

I don't feel right speculating about this cartoon before I know what the hebrew says that is written around it. Can someone help me out?

ימים של קלות דעת צורמת בסיקור"

The Internet as a key to peace?

I was talking with a friend of mine last night about Israel/Palestine and she claimed that Obama said, "Jerusalem for the Jews". Now, as I am still not sure if he really did say this, I "stumbled" upon an article on Al Jazeera's website "From Gaza to Obama" that had three Palestinian accounts of the recent blow up in Gaza and what they think Obama can do for them seeing as many said that the fighting happened when it did becasue Obama was just about to be in office. These personal accounts struck a chord as I was thinking about the lack of home/place that both peoples have experienced or are experiencing now. The recent violence up rooted the people of Gaza to yet another extreme, but again, this lack of home is affecting both sides, just in different ways.

What I found most intriguing about this article was not so much the body of the text but the responses that are coming for all across the world. It was here that I found a reference to Obama's quote that I referred to above:

miguel lupianez United States		21/01/2009
Gaza/Obama
He's a fool on this subject,and the people of Gaza and Palestinians should expect nothing as he has said that Jerusalem for the Jews only and believes isreal had the right to throw out Palestinian out of their home and into misery/ghettos,just because isreal says there was no government there.Perhaps he suffers from memories of his own people being dumped into ghettos after their so called liberation.In this aged of independent minds his vocalness using religion makes him like like a real idiot

He makes an extreme claim, but in the spirit of blogging, I think there are some interesting parallels to draw here. The reason why I say that I don't know if Obama really did say this is because I couldn't find a more credible source than this man's blog post (which is clearly not reliable). That said, it's very interesting the dynamic of the conversation that came before and after his posts. There are people from all over the world posting and in 33 of those posts only one is from an Isreali or Palestinian:

A simple Israeli guy who just wants to live in peace Israel		22/01/2009
The Israeli point of you
Not of all us are bad people. In fact, most of us are deeply upset by the suffering of Gazans. Take it from me - Israel would give the whole West Bank and Gaza back if it knew that there will be peace. The fear is that, as many Gazans have explicitly said, they don't want us here at all. They want us all in the sea, dead and will continue to attack. I didn't choose to be born here and also have nowhere to go. I pray that one day some sensible leaders will come and save both peoples!

I feel like personal accounts are the only way that people across the globe are going to begin to understand and/or begin to thinking about and demanding a peace process. Maybe the internet is a good way for both Isrealis and Palestinians to communicate with eachother in ways they they are not communicating today. As has been pointed out from many sources, there is little to no communication between the vast majoity of these neighbors. Could the internet be used as a key to get everyday people communicating and taking strides towards peace?

Syria

In a recent story featured in the Jerusalem post,http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236269380382&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull, Syrias president Assad was quoted as saying peace talks between Syria and Israel cannot continue until the, "issue of one-and-a-half million Palestinians is solved." Inderect talks between Syria and ISrael were underway until Israel invaded Gaza. Many feel that a solution to the conflict between ISrael and Palestine could be solved through Syria negotiations. That Palestinians would see ISrael's negotions as a major step towards wanting peace and it would lead towards more disscusions. IT would also hopefully put a stop to Syrias support of Lebannons Hezbollah. What really stands in the way of this is Assads demands of right of return for Palestinian refugees. If the refugees get the right of return that would mean there would be a majority of Palestinians over Israelis. Basically ISrael would not be Israel anymore. I dont believe that Israel would evr allow a right of return but I think it must do something for the refugees. The refugees are often considered second rate citizens in the countries they fled to and are very impovered. I think Israel must provide them with sanctions or help them in some way in order to show the current Palestinians they are attempting to do something about the problem.

Turkish PM at Davos economic forum

About a month back at an economic development forum the Turkish Prime Minister Ergodan was speaking about the Israel/Palestine conflict and was given substantially less time to speak than the Israeli Prime Minister. He was speaking passionately on the issue and then was cut off by the forum and then stormed off stage. When he returned to Turkey he recieved a hero's welcome from thousands of Turks. Here are a couple stories with videos, I highly recommend you check it out. To me, this is an extremely interesting happening in the international sphere. Turkey a country that desperately wants to join the European economic and political alliances is proud that their leader vehemently showed his views on an international stage probably because they support the Palestinian cause with a lot of passion. It was an interesting moment that I feel was revealing of a lot of the predominantly Muslim nations' views on the conflict. 

I was in Dubai right after the recent Israeli destruction of Beirut and a lot of Lebanon and there were posters everywhere telling the population to donate money to Lebanon to rebuild and they raised millions of dollars on this campaign. My question is that if the Muslim world feels so strongly about the injustice they feel, why is this revealed through the media in such small and non-effective mediums? Why don't the Muslim nations stand up against the occupation more because it seems to me that its obvious that they strongly oppose it? Is it the fear of the defence that Israeli backed by the superpower United States? Why aren't there widespread protests by the Muslim community that surrounds the conflict on every side? 

Hamas/Fatah

With Hamas now refusing to have a joint party with the secular Palestinian group Fatah.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236269376833&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Hope is fading for talks with Palestinian leadership. The U.S. will not speak with Hamas as it is considered a terrorist group but also the Palestinians people representitive governement. This made me consider if this is really a good policy or not. Yes a lot of acts commited by Hamas is terrible but I dont know is refusing to speak with them is the right thing. It could perhaps further isolate and radicalize the people.

Another approach

Israel is often blamed for using to much force in Gaza, but the Israelis retaliate accusing Hamas of bombing ISrael for the past 8 years. I feel that this is a tough issue because how is Israel not suppose to re-act? I feel that Israel could put a stop to the attacks if they invested into preventing the missles from entering PAlestine. There are major tunnels going from Egypt into Gaza were weapons are smuggled. I feel that Israel should be putting more pressure upoun Egypt who they have good realations with into making sure no more arms go in. This would hopeful cut back on missles fired into ISrael