An Election Campagn 100 Days Long? Don't You Wish?

Now here is how elections should be held in America, in the 21st century. With all our communications capability, there is no need for a 20 months long campaign. I wonder if both the candidates could pass a CDL blood test? (Commercial Drivers License). For amphetamines - uppers.

The 120 seat Knesset will be chosen, as in the UK, for a 5 year term unless an election is called sooner when the ruling party cannot organize a governing coalition. That is what happened in this case.

JERUSALEM* - A spokeswoman for Israel's Parliament says national elections will be held in mid-February. Hila Mizrachi says elections have been tentatively set for Feb. 10. But she said Tuesday there remains a possibility that lawmakers will pass legislation moving the date a week later to Feb. 17.

That leaves three and a half months for what is expected to be a tough election campaign with -significant ramifications- for Mideast peace talks.

NOT REALLY. WE’VE BEEN HEARING THIS PROPAGANDA AT EVERY ELECTION SINCE 1967. MORE ISRAELI HOOPLA TO KEEP THE AMERICANS OFF THEIR BACK.

NO ISRAELI TAKES IT SERIOUSLY. THEY ARE BUSY ETHNIC CLEANSING THE WEST BANK. WHEN THAT IS ARAB-FREE, THEY WILL BE READY FOR “PEACE.”

Israel moved to hold new elections this week after Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni failed to put together a new governing coalition. She was chosen to lead Israel's ruling party after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would step down to face corruption allegations.

HIM LIKE ARIEL SHARON WHO (AND HIS SON) IS ALSO ACCUSED BUT NOW LIES COMATOSE AT TAXPAYERS EXPENSE.

Polls this week show Livni running neck-and-neck with her rival, hardline Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu. A JEWISH BUSH43 CLONE.
news.yahoo.com...

* The US still regards Tel Aviv as the capital of Israel. Our embassy is located there. We do however maintain a building in Jerusalem which the Ambassador uses frequently. Sort of a technical thing. Many countries do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel because that would violate the United Nations Charter and several UN Resolutions.

PS. My comments are in caps.


[edit on 10/28/2008 by donwhite]

reply to post by donwhite


What...

You didn't find this 1000 day election... Entertaining...


ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED...



Back in the days of human lore, 2000 years ago. The ruling goverment had means of controling the pupulace. Through Games and Races...

Nothing against Games and Races, but in todays world, in stead of using the Collusium, or the Circus Maximus.

The more disracted the populace is from the issues, the better off those in power are.

Don...

Can you give an nice summary about the State of 'Isreal' in the modern(postWWII) era?

And what happen in the Isreali elections?

reply to post by TKainZero

Don ... Can you give an nice summary about the State of 'Israel' in the modern (post WWII) era? And what happen in the Israeli elections?

In 5,000 words or less?

Prior to 1948, private property in old Palestine was owned about 80-90% by native Arabs or Palestinians as we have come to call them. 10%-20% by Jewish people. Arabs claim 90% and Jewish people claim 20%. Jewish refugees or survivors from War 2 were flocking into Palestine driving the British mad as they tried to keep viable their League of Nations mandate until the UN could take it over.

Then the United Nations under the urging of the United States created the State of Israel in May, 1948. Arab rejection launched the Israeli War of Independence. The better motivated Israelis pushed back the native Arabs who had some help most notably from Jordan, but also a little from Egypt and Syria. The Arabs agreed to a cease-fire or Armistice.

The UN drew the Armistice Line which turned into a jumbled mess without adding in the life-death antagonisms felt by the 2 warring sides it was meant to keep apart. A failure. 1949.

1956 saw Israel join France and Great Britain - I use that name in preference to UK by intent as it was more old British empire thinking that drove the British into the Suez war - but Eisenhower wanted nothing of that and “ordered” Britain and France OUT of Suez. We were still paying the bills then so they had to go.

Things rocked along until June, 1967, when Israeli intelligence pointed to a joint attack by Egypt and Syria. The one-eyed tank commander Moshe Dyan trained by ex-Nazi Blitzkrieg generals, surprised even Israel’s PM Levi Eshkol by the success in what came to be known as the Six Day War. June 5 to June 10, 1967.

Jews enjoyed boasting that like GOD, after 6 days they too rested. Added up, Israel’s IDF had captured not only the Golan, but also the West Bank - ancient Samaria and Galilee occupied by Jordan under the UN Armistice - East Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel lost relatively few men whereas the Arabs lost 1000s.

At this point moderate Israelis began to speak of Land for Peace. The public was about evenly divided, 48% Yes on peace and 48% No on peace. Labor was for peace, Likud was for more. The balance of power in the 120 seat Knesset fell to the ULTRA Conservative Religious parties. Long and short is the Likud made a bargain giving the Religious control over much of Israel civil law in return for their support to form a government. Opportunity missed.

The 1973 Yom Kippur War was commenced by Egypt and Egypt nearly overwhelmed Israel. Mossad intelligence failure. It is reported that the Israeli PM warned the Egyptians that he would use the Sampson Option rather than see Israel defeated. That was a threat to atom bomb the Aswan High Dam. That in turn would flood the Nile all the way to the Meditererrean Sea, killing 10-20 million Egyptians. Or more. In any case Jimmy Carter brokered a peace which holds to this day.

In 1983, Israel attacked Lebanon and remained in the area next to Israel until 2003. Then, Israel again attacked the Lebanese in 2006. Lebanon is a failed state. Lebanon began in 1920 as a COMMUNION state in which the Maronite Catholics (30% of the population) were given control of the government by the occupying French. That is still the root cause of the Lebanese tragedy. Positions are allocated to COMMUNIONS that is, by religion. The majority Lebanese are Muslims, but cannot get equal representation in the Parliament.

First Ariel Sharon and now Elmud Olmert of the old Likud Party have both failed to end the crisis between the Arabs and Jewish people both claiming the same land. I believe elections are to be held in February, 2009. I regret to report that the land for peace forces - say Labor - has declined in popular support. If the conservatives win, it will be more war, but if the liberals win, there is a 30/70 up to a 50/50 chance for peace.

We cannot resolve the al Qaeda problem until we resolve the Arab Israeli conflict. Arabs blame the US (and Jews depend entirely on US support). The minimum the Arabs will accept is the West Bank, Gaza and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount being Holy Site #3 in Islam. The al Aqba Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Jerusalem must be shared. The West Wall (Wailing Wall) is the #1 Holy Site in Judaism. All Jewish settlements must be removed promptly. An unobstructed roadway between the West Bank and Gaza must be provided.

In return the State of Israel has a right to expect an unarmed New Palestine. Only police type arms will be allowed. The borders between New Palestine and Israel must be “normalized.” I believe the US could/should provide 10,000 soldiers for 10 years as border guards and to enforce peace by aiding the two sides to disarm their citizens and to enforce their own laws against violence which both have.

We could have peace, but as they like to say, time is running out. I have heard that for more than 30 years, by the way. It must be a very large hour glass?

Thanks my take.


[edit on 11/14/2008 by donwhite]

Great summary


Not a simple history for the most controversial 60 year old country on the planet.




This history of this region, and the histories of these peoples, combined make this situation one the no American can easily understand.

More mens lives have been lost on the land surrounding jeruselem, then in all of American History.

Isreal is 1% of the Middle East.
but in this 1% of land, the VAST ammount of modern(4000 years) history has focused around this region.


In my study of post WWII military history and tactics.

There may not be a better example of a force cripleling blown, then what the Isreali air Force did to Egypt in the 6 days war. Rivialed only by the attack on Peral Harbor, the Isreali Air force was able to destroy upwards of 80% of all Egyption Fighters. And established Air Dominance for the entire war with the first strike.

Is the people of Isreal not entiled to their share of Jewuselem?

reply to post by TKainZero

Not a simple history for the most controversial 60 year old country on the planet. This history of this region, and the histories of these peoples, combined make this situation one the no American can easily understand.

Yes. Exactly. This region - the Middle East - was occupied by semi-nomads “forever” it seems, who settled in only a few cities. Mecca. Medina. Damascus. Baghdad. Jerusalem. Post 1453 and until 1918, all the region was under the single control by the Ottmans sited at Istanbul. The Ottomans in turn created a very competent bureaucracy and generally left each region to its own devices provided they sent forward the appropriate taxes.

Borders in the Western style were unknown. What’s the point drawing a line across the desert? On old maps the central Arabian peninsula is marked, the “Unknown Quarter.” It was UNKNOWN to us, but not to the people who lived there.

Unfortunately for the world in 2008, the transformation of war ships from coal to oil began in the 1890s and this region was already known to have the oil. In the late 1890s, the Germans made a deal with the Ottomans to build a railroad from Berlin to Baghdad. This was to rival the already French railroad running from Paris to Istanbul. Made famous by Agatha Christie and the Murder on the Orient Express.

While in Baghdad, the Germans made a tentative deal with Tehran and the Shah of Persia to extend the railroad to Tehran. In the last half of the 19th century railroads were the FUTURE! Everyone who was anyone wanted a railroad! Don’t forget that before the railroads linked Istanbul and Baghdad and Teheran to western Europe, trips took several weeks and involved mostly overland in horse-drawn carriages mixed with some smokey steam boats.

Railroads FIXED all that. Well, comparatively speaking. The great expansion of railroads began here in the Civil War when Lincoln gave 10s of 1000s of acres to entrepreneurs in exchange for a transcontinental railroad. Railroads were king all the way from 1860 until Henry Ford put them out of the passenger hauling business with the Model T.

When Italy backed away from the Central Powers and shifted to the Allied cause, the German inveigled the Ottomans to join with them. That turned out to be the worst mistake in judgment made by anyone in World War One. France and GB (I know it was even then the UK but that is misleading IMO) set about to divide the spoils of war. The US meant to be there but for the mis-handling by Pres. Wilson of the Treaty conference at Versailles. (He refused to take Republicans with him to participate in the discussion). Basically, the Brits got Iraq, Kuwait and Palestine along with Jordan. The Brits had already set up the Ibn Saud family to conquer all of the Arabian peninsula.

Sucking hind teat, the French settled for Syria and a new state around Beirut - the real object of the French - called Lebanon from the famous biblical “Cedars of Lebanon.” In those olden days before European map makers took charge of the world, the Middle East was centered around cities. Hegemony waxed and waned and control outside the cities followed. The ruler of Mecca or Damascus didn’t give a dam what happened 10-15 miles away.

It resembled today’s Metropolitan Statistical Areas employed by our own Census Bureau to describe areas tied together mostly by economic factors. I lived in Louisville and across the Ohio were 2 cities, Jeffersonville and New Albany in Indiana but the 3 cities make up thee Louisville MSA.

Along come the map makers who draw a line on a piece of paper 2,000 miles away and they will KILL you if you cross that line improperly. Wow! The locals are still amazed at the foreigners dependence on lines drawn in sand. But they are able to play our game but in their own way. Watch Iraq. By 2010 you won’t be able to tell the US was ever there.

OK, let’s end this one.


[edit on 11/15/2008 by donwhite]

reply to post by TKainZero

More mens lives have been lost on the land surrounding Jerusalem, then in all of American History. Israel is 1% of the Middle East. but in this 1% of land, the VAST amount of modern (4000 years) history has focused around this region.

Au contraire. Yes, hyperbole is common when referring to ancient Judea. But that’s only because our RELIGION began there and we know more about it than we know about China or Indian, for 2 examples. In real life most of the numbers commonly associated with Jerusalem are grossly exaggerated.

First off, ancient peoples were not so conscious of numbers like we are. I believe it is true the US Con was the first to require a census every 10 years. The Age of Enlightenment in action. Best expressed here in the adage carved into the portico of the 1936 Supreme Court Building, “Equal Justice Under Law.” We’re not there yet but as we witnessed November 4, the American people are willing and ready to MAKE IT TRUE.

There are Roman numerals, there are Arabic numbers but there are NO Hebrew numbers. When you are a sheep raising semi nomadic people, living around the Negev Desert, numbers are not much needed. Remember also the ancient Hebrews did not write the vowels. Sure, they had vowels in speech but they did not write them. Further, there was NO punctuation in ancient Hebrew. No space for sentences or paragraphs the way we have today. Due to the scarcity of writing material - usually velum - only important things were put into writing. Number were not important.

Also keep in mind that in the West until the 14th century - the beginning of modern times per Barbara Tuchman in her “A Distant Mirror” - probably fewer than 5% of the population could read and write. This is why we see all the beautiful statuary, insuperable paintings and distinctive carvings in the Middle Age cathedrals, to teach religion to the illiterate common folk. Who inverted the saying “a picture is worth a 1000 words?”

The issue of FRESH water has recently come to my attention. It is both fascinating and alarming to study water. If the earth has 250,000,000 cubic miles of water, I am also told there is but 10,000 cubic miles of drinking water. Already 1/6th of the earth’s population is without a reliable source of safe drinking water. And the amount of water is constant but our population continues to grow! As in energy, Americans use more water than any other people on the planet. We do need to get a grip on ourselves.

I said all that to say this. In a semi-arid place like Jerusalem, where it rains 2 months out of the year, sometimes, you cannot sustain a very large population. Based on minimal human needs - 2 to 6 liters per day - a population of 5,000 (which seems likely to me) would require hauling in 5,000 gallons of fresh water a day. Every day. We can live without oil but we cannot live without water. The numbers cited for attendance at the annual Passover Feast at the Temple are ridiculous. Those numbers often originated in the 1609 King James translation of the older texts. Invented out of whole cloth to put it another way.

Despite the story in Matthew of Jesus and Bethlehem and the Roman census, there is no record of a census anywhere outside Matthew and none in Rome. Which is not the same as to say it did not happen. Obviously someone wrote it at some point in time and the writer probably expected his readers to believe him. So I cant’ dismiss it as a recent fabrication although I do hold to a most likely 3rd-6th century fabrication.

What goes in must come out. A truism. Same with food and water. Which brings me to a dirty job. Sewage. Do you know the limiting factor in oasis in the desert in olden days? Human (and animal) waste! When the stacked up human (and animal) waste got so strong people could no longer breathe the air and the water got so contaminated they could no longer drink it, it was time to move on to the next oasis.

Think of Jerusalem as an oasis. Where do you put the human waste generated for 5,000 people every day? Can you imagine a town of 5,000, like Wasilla in Alaska, suddenly influxed with 50,000 as some “authorities” like to claim attended the Passover Feast in Jesus time? Who had the contract to haul the crap away?

That’s it. Big numbers from the olden days are bogus. In the book of Numbers where it gives the count of males in the tribe of Benjamin at 300,000 we should take the real number to be 300. Which is not to address the issue if there ever was a tribe of Benjamin outside the writer’s story-telling.

[edit on 11/15/2008 by donwhite]

reply to post by TKainZero

In my study of post WWII military history and tactics. There may not be a better example of a force crippling blown, then what the Israeli air Force did to Egypt in the 6 days war. Rivaled only by the attack on Peal Harbor, the Israeli Air force was able to destroy upwards of 80% of all Egyptian fighters. And established Air Dominance for the entire war with the first strike. [Are not] the people of Israel entitled to their share of Jerusalem?

Yes, I must agree. FYI, in 1956, I was in W-DC. I went to the Israeli Embassy to volunteer my services to the IAF, me having just been honorably discharged from the USAF as a aircraft radio and radar repairman. After the opening amenities about the weather, they asked if I spoke Yiddish. To which I had to say NO. They said,”Thanks but no thanks” as we accept only people conversant in Yiddish. Whether that was true or just one quick way to sort out non-Jewish people from an otherwise indistinguishable young, thrill-seeking American WASP like me, I don’t know.

I said that to lay my claim for being anti-Holocaust and PRO Israel in 1948 and on until 1983 when my support began to waver. I have overlooked but cannot forget the USS Liberty. Why it happened no one will tell us. If I ever had doubts about Isreeal being worthy of America's support those were dispelled in the 2006 IDF rampage in Lebanon. I now see Israel as having morphed into just another errant state with little or no regard for its neighbors. That's very UN Jewish.

Sitting in the middle of 100 million Arabs, but FAT with the blind support of the United States and maybe 300 atom bombs stockpiled around the country, the right wing Religious have not only gained control of the government but have brought along perhaps 60-60% of the Israeli population.

Do not forget there are 1 million NEW Israelis who were former Soviets admitted into Israel post-haste 1989-1991 to offset the demographics favoring the Arabs. Those people have no tradition of democracy but do have a tradition of autocracy! Accommodation with the Arabs who lived there is NOT on the ex-patriate Soviet's agenda. That same future fantasy unfortunately fits in well with American END TIME religionists of which Bush43 is one. Sarah Palin is another. Rev. Hagee. Pat Robinson. Jim Dobson. Phyllis Schaflay. Joel Osteen. And etc.

LAST. Yes to Jews and sharing Jerusalem. I’m not sure I like the world ENTITLED because that leads to claims GOD gave the Jews the Promised Land. There are 3 places in the OT - Hebrew Bible - where that promise is mentioned. The land described differs in each instance. See my earlier post on borders. The most inclusive PROMISED LAND attributed to GOD includes Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and of course, all of old Palestine and maybe the Sinai peninsula down to the Suez? Whatever is our belief system, we cannot run the world out of the KJV of the Holy Bible.

The Temple Mount features the al Aqba Mosque and the Dome of the Rock on top, both holy sites in Islam. Holding up the mount on one side is the West Wall or Wailing Wall, the most holy site in Judaism. It is Jewish mythology - or legend to be kinder - that the West Wall is the LAST remnant of Solomon’s Temple. The real problem is that most secular scholars now agree that the first three kings of Israel were either legends or myths. That neither Saul, David or Solomon were real people. There never was a Solomon’s Temple in part because there never was a Solomon.

CONCLUSION. We know from historical records the place now called the West Wall was reconstructed in the 4th century and again in the 11th or 12th century and maybe at other times as well. What’s there today may not be over 600-800 years old! But even if the Jews of Israel admitted this to be true, it puts them in no lesser light than Christians who claim Jesus arose for the dead at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher or Muslims who claim the Holy Prophet Mohammad went to Heaven from the rock under the Dome of the Rock. All three groups of religionists are arguing endlessly and killing 1000s of each other over ancient fables. All hokum. That’s the sad part.


[edit on 11/15/2008 by donwhite]

POSTED HERE FOR GENERAL REFERENCE

Middle East. Until World War II, it was customary to refer to areas centered around Turkey and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean as the "Near East," while the "Far East" centered on China. The Middle East then meant the area from Mesopotamia to Burma, namely the area between the Near East and the Far East. In the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term "Middle East" gained broader usage in Europe and the United States, with the Middle East Institute founded in Washington, D.C. in 1946, among other usage.

With the disappearance of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, "Near East" largely fell out of common use in English, while "Middle East" came to be applied to the re-emerging countries of the Islamic world. However, the usage of "Near East" was retained by a variety of academic disciplines, including archaeology and ancient history, where it describes an area identical to the term Middle East, which is not used by these disciplines (see Ancient Near East).

The first official use of the term "Middle East" by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, which pertained to the Suez Crisis. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles defined the Middle East as "the area lying between and including Libya on the west and Pakistan on the east, Syria and Iraq on the North and the Arabian peninsula to the south, plus the Sudan and Ethiopia."

In 1958, the State Department explained that the terms "Near East" and "Middle East" were interchangeable, and defined the region as including only Egypt, Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Qatar.

At the United Nations, the numerous documents and resolutions about the Middle East are in fact concerned with the Arab-Israeli conflict, in particular the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, therefore, with the four states of the Levant. The term Near East is occasionally heard at the UN when referring to this region.

The Levant is a term that traditionally describes the Eastern Mediterranean at large, but can be used as a geographical term that denotes a large area in Western Asia, roughly bounded on the north by the Taurus Mountains, on the south by the Arabian Desert, and on the west by the Mediterranean Sea, while on the east it extends into Upper Mesopotamia. The term Levant is somewhat synonymous with the term Mashriq derived from the Arabic consonantal root sh-r-q, relating to "the east" or "the sunrise". An imprecise term, Levant refers to an area of cultural habitation rather than to a specific geographic region.

The Levant region covers the eastern Mediterranean nations of Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian territories, Iraq, Cyprus, and parts of Turkey and Egypt. The term Levant, which first appeared in English in 1497, originally meant a wider sense of "Mediterranean lands east of Venetia." It derives from the Middle French levant, the participle of lever "to raise" - as in soleil levant "rising Sun" - from the Latin levare. It thus referred to the Eastern direction of the rising Sun from the perspective of those who first used it and has analogues in other European languages, notably morgenland - or a closely related word meaning morning land- in most Germanic languages. As such, it is broadly equivalent to the Arabic term Mashriq, "the land where the Sun rises".

It is similar to the Ancient Greek name (Anatolía) which means the "land of the rising Sun", or simply the East. It derives from “the rise, especially the sunrise”, resp. from “to rise,” esp. said of the Sun or Moon “to go, rise,” come into existence. For the Greeks, Anatolía is a synonym of (Mikrá Asía) Asia Minor, not of Levant.

Arabia. The Arabic term Rub' al Khali which translates as Empty Quarter in English, is one of the largest sand deserts in the world, encompassing most of the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula, including southern Saudi Arabia, and areas of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. The desert covers some 650,000 square kilometers (250,000 sq mi), more than the combined land areas of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France and almost the land area of Texas.

Desertification has increased through the millennia. Before desertification made the caravan trails leading across the Rub' al Khali so difficult, the caravans of the frankincense trade crossed now virtually impassable stretches of wasteland, until about AD 300. For example, Iram of the Pillars, a lost city, depended on such trade. More recently, tribal populations were also present in certain parts of the Empty Quarter, with the largest in the Najran region. A few road links were connected with these tribal settlements to the water resource and oil production centers.

Geologically, the Empty Quarter is the second most oil-rich places in the world. Vast oil reserves have been discovered underneath the sand stacks. Sheyba, in the middle of the desert, is a major Arab light crude oil-producing site in Saudi Arabia. Also, Ghawwar Field, the largest oil field in the world, extends southward into the northernmost parts of the Empty Quarter. From Wikipedia