ok, I got the online class open a week early so people can browse (and drop if it's not what they want). one person already did the course readiness form so I know everything is working.
two more syllabi to go. hope to get one done today and possibly printed tomorrow. I have a retreat from Wed 3pm until Fri 3pm, so if I want a syllabus ready for the 7:45am MWF class, I think I have to get it done now.
we obviously have a lot of family discussion going on here about what's happening in Israel. almond joy came home with lots to say and, I suspect, really mixed feelings coming from towns and kibbutzim that were being shot at, and yet she's pretty opposed to any civilian casualties in Gaza. so it's been pretty volatile around here.
I read Haaretz mostly, just know that this is probably one of the more leftist sources. some recent links for fairly typical Israeli views are here: Treppenwitz and Not a Fish.
From Imshin, last week:
Take this war in Gaza for instance. Do you know what they do before they bomb a residential building? They call up the people living there on the phone, tell them that it is the IDF calling, inform them that there is a weapons factory (or a Hamas terrorist or a weapon storeroom or whatever) on the first floor (or second or third or whatever) and tell them that the IAF is now about to drop a bomb on them, and that they should please vacate the building right now!
Since this thing started, the IDF has apparently already called up over one hundred thousand Palestinian homes to warn them (as of yesterday) - or so I heard on Kol Yisrael’s Reshet Bet radio station five o’clock news last night! Incredible.
Maybe I got that number wrong. It doesn’t make sense. There haven’t been nearly that many attacks or bombs dropped, surely. Even if you take into account that a lot of the buildings will be highrises, so they’ll be making more phone calls than dropping bombs. Still even if it’s only a tenth of that, four hundred casualties is an incredibly low figure.
Some of the idiotic Palestinians, of course, think to be very clever and go up on the rooftop with all their families in response to such a phone call (as in human shields blah blah). Then the IDF shoots a specially developed warning missile to the corner of the roof to show they mean business. Then they vacate.
So much for Israel being inhumane baby killers. In much of the world you don’t get much more humane than that in peacetime, nevermind in the middle of a war.
How about the bastards who’ve been launching missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians (with no weapons factories on the first floor) for the last eight years doing us such a courtesy? As if.
Finally, on one of my listservs, an article from the Guardian. I know, I'm biased. yes, we have relatives in the south, near Gaza, in Beer-Sheva, etc. I'd like to tell ben t. that there wasn't an embargo, but there was, and there is pain. but there is also evidence of huge stockpiles of weapons meant to be used against Israel. if they're putting them in mosques and apartment buildings, I'm not sure that I can make a case for a different approach than what Israel is doing right now.
I'm working my way through reading these articles. As always, I'm grateful for your postings as I am so ignorant about the history of the area.
Posted by: joanna | January 15, 2009 at 09:58 AM