Solstice Coil
Okay, Update on that whole Concerts in Israel Thing...
I don't want to get too political here, but I feel like there should be an update after the previous post.
After the events of the Flotilla a week and a half ago, some major artists who were supposed to perform in Israel, the most notable of them being The Pixies, decided to cancel their concerts in Israel at the last minute.
This situation is very complicated, and I won't elaborate too much on it since this is really not the place. Also, I've wasted a lot of time and energy in the past week arguing with people on Facebook and other places and all I got to show for it is frustration, so it's not really worth it.
I will say this: while it is very unfortunate that people had died, it has been clearly proved that the "peace activists" aboard the Marmara were not peaceful at all. They were armed and spoiling for a fight. That doesn't mean that they deserved to die, but it does mean in my opinion that the actions of IDF soldiers were justified. Maybe there was another way to resolve this without bloodshed - military experts here say there wasn't. Either way, if those had been real peace activists, and if they hadn't struck the first blow - none of this would have happened.
As for The Pixies canceling their concert - I think that's a mistake, which is caused by political pressure and serves no purpose other than disappointing Pixies fans in Israel (which I am not among them, but that's beside the point.) If they had a political stance against Israel's policy concerning gaza, they shouldn't have booked the show in the first place, since this policy has been in effect since the 2006 Lebanon War.
Meddling in municipal politics
The following post is about the municipal elections in Tel Aviv and will be written in Hebrew. If you do not know hebrew and wish to know what this is all about, tough. :)
בדרך כלל איני עוסק בפוליטיקה.
למעשה, בדרך כלל איני כותב בבלוג הזה דבר, ואם אני כבר כותב משהו, הוא לא עוסק בפוליטיקה. ישנן מספר סיבות לכך, בין היתר העובדה שאין בישראל מספיק פוליטיקאים ששווה לכתוב עליהם משהו, והעובדה שאני משתדל להמנע מלהעסיק את עצמי ברפש המקומי. יתר על-כן, אני מחזיק בתיאוריה הגורסת כי אידיאליסטים הם זן נכחד בדמוקרטיה פרלמנטרית (פוסט על כך יבוא בהמשך) ולכן איני נוטה להסחף אחר מועמדים מבטיחים.
ברם, בעוד חודשיים תיערכנה הבחירות לראשות עיריית תל אביב ולראשונה מזה שנים ישנו קונצנזוס לגבי הצורך המיידי להפטר מרון חולדאי, וצץ לו מועמד חדש ומבטיח בדמות דב חנין, אשר תומכיו פתחו בקמפיין ויראלי רחב היקף על מנת לסייע בבחירתו לראשות העיר.
אני לא בקיא מספיק במצע של מר חנין או תנועת עיר לכולנו, אבל הערך בוויקפדיה מצייר אותו כמדינאי משכמו ומעלה, וזו סיבה מספיק טובה מבחינתי.
The right to privacy in danger
This only concerns our Hebrew speaking audience, but I think that it's something that everyone should hear about. A new bill proposal by ultra-Orthdox party Shas is threatening freedom of speech and the right to privacy on the internet. Basically, what they're offering is that all ISPs will be forced to provide "filtering" services to their customers BY DEFAULT. This means that if you're over 18, and you wish to enter sites with any adult content in them, you'll pretty much have to call your ISP and say "hey, can I please have my porn?" Aside from the fact that there is no real filtering technology that could work as accurately as the Minister of Communications claims that they have and that this will not protect children in any way, this is simply degrading, outrageous, and one step away from turning Israel into a very, very dark place. This bill must not pass and we, as citizens of this country, should do everything in our power to prevent this from happening. This country is in bad shape enough as it is. Giving more power to religious fanatics who are afraid of their own bodies certainly won't help anybody.
