Israel

A Bunch of Religious Issues in the Mid East

September 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It is not even worth trying covering all of it, but in what might seem like a serious regression the whole area moves back to its religious fights, and it is not exclusively Muslim-Jewish thing, its only the continuous riots in Syria (yes, still going on, no one cares really) the suffocation of the liberal democratic revolution in Egypt by the Muslim brotherhood and much more, so here is just a taste of what is going on in that part of the world –

Title – Turkey Detains 40 Jews at Istanbul Airport, forced to strip, passports confiscated

(here is the link to the article) On the escalating situation between Turkey and Israel, now the Israeli diplomats have been expelled from Istanbul, and officials in the airport have harassed Israelis coming into Turkey (which is almost nuts, to bother tourists coming in to your country).

Title – Israeli Settlers Burn Mosque Near Nablus

(link to the story) The West Bank Jewish Settlers take advantage of the situation in the south of the country and the political system inability to deal with extreme Jews harassing the Arab-Palestinian population and torch a local mosque, adding graffiti in Hebrew on the walls, just to make sure everyone knows its a Jewish thing.

From Africa – Title – Youth Kill Family of 8 in restive central Nigeria (which should actually read “Christian Family of 8 Slaughtered in Nigeria”, link here)

nigiria1 — Killings on Both Sides in Nigeria

The bloody history of Muslims and Christians in this part of Africa does not let go, and it is becoming a bloodier present. This evergreen hatred between the two religions is now at a boiling point, with killings on both sides going on daily.

Shaking Regression in Turkey

September 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Turkey has been on (some) headlines for some time now, it does look like this great country is on a down slope, the only question is how and when will it stop. It starts with an ambitious prime minister who is close to Islam, who is a devote Muslim and who seems to have fantasies of time long gone, of the Ottoman empire.

Turkey’s prime minister Erdogan has been leading his country since 2003 helped the Turkish economy overcome monstrous problems and in the last few years has been focusing on strengthening ties with Iran and Syria, in what looks like an effort to become a significant leader of that region, maybe even the pan-Arabic leader.

Erdogan has lead a no tolerance policy in everything to do with the Kurdish people (who Turkey bombs and kills whenever diplomatically possible), the Armenian genocide (carried out by Turks from 1912 to probably 1923, murdering a million and a half Armenians within the territory of the Ottoman empire) and the ~~Jewish people~~ state of Israel.

While he instructs his ministers to not respond to any questions about Armenians and Kurds, he is more than happy to give his opinion on Israel. This country has been a close ally of Turkey for the last 25 years and had cooperated with it militarily and economically, however Israel has suddenly become an obsession for prime minister Ardogan, mainly the Gaza blockade and the treatment of Palestinians.

This could all be true and real, however it is very difficult to believe that Turkey is so shocked by an occupation of a territory, because Turkey is unlawfully occupying a part of Cyprus for the past 36 years. Treatment of terrorists who are in a autonomous region is something that the Turkish government regards as a free zone for bombing and deporting locals from, like it currently does with the Kurdish population, and talking about massacres and slaughters (which Israel is not, by any way, doing to the Arabs in or out of its country) is something the Turks know all too well from the Armenian episode. So why in the world would Ardogan make war like threats upon Israel on issues which he and his country has been ankle deep involved in for a much longer time than Israel?

Maybe because they are Jews, and the Palestinian topic is of everlasting interest on the Arab street and Erdogan thinks he could gain points on this. Maybe because the Turkish economy is losing altitude in an alarming rate and is about to lose major credit points on the global economical arena, or maybe as a Muslim the Turkish prime minister simply can not stand the Jews, could be.

Turkey is now said to be looking to partner up with the fastest fundamentalist around – Egypt, in what seems like the non stop dance for political points Erdogan is doing in the Arab world (failed miserably with Bashar Assad, the Iranians too).

So now we are on the doorstep of a physical confrontation between Turkey and Israel, while Turkey’s army just had four of its top general resign because of what they regard as a dangerous Islamisation of the country, which was transformed to secular by the spectacular Ataturk who revived the Turkish people. The prime minister has replaces those generals with his own people, who see things like him, and we are now about to find out if the major investments of the U.S. and Israel in Turkey will not come back to fight in the name of Islam and personal glorification.

turkey10b — Turkey prime minister Erdogan and wife

The Egypt Israel Issue

August 26, 2011 by Leave a Comment

In the recent weeks there has been mounting tension between Arabs and Israelis, as well as Muslim and Jews, in the south of Israel, along the Israeli-Egypt boarder as well as with the boarder with Gaza (which, in contrast to what many think, is a boarder, meaning no Israelis occupy Gaza and there is a clear physical barrier between Israel and Gaza). The main reason for the tension are terror attacks carried from within the Egyptian territory as well as the continuous bombardment of Israeli cities along its Gaza boarders by a wide range of “opposition organizations” who pretty much do whatever they want in that piece of land called Gaza.

Today (Friday) the Egyptians are planning a million man march against Israel. Egypt was the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and got a lot from this act, it got huge American support throughout the years, the second or third strong army in the middle east (based all on US funds) and steady flow of funds from the American congress. Israel gave Egypt the land they lost in wars that they initiated (not to save the Palestinians as they were of no concern before the 1980’s) and Israel kept its boarder clear and clean. Egypt had a couple of fall outs on the boarder, once a boarder guard got “crazy” and shot 7 kids on a bus, another time a solider decided he wanted to kill Jews and attacked a few Israeli cars.

The mounting tension is much more a result in the change of the Egyptian people’s internal politics and the fact that none of the candidates for presidency will defend the peace with Israel, due to religious reasons and nothing else, the Jews are the last thing anyone wants to accept in Egypt today. So a million men march will mostly mark the growing danger to the peace agreement on the Egyptian side of the boarder, and Israel can not do anything about it, not unless they all go to the embrace of Islam, which I doubt will happen anytime soon.

Is This the New Egypt ?

August 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

It looks like Egypt is slowly becoming an extreme state, with a mob that is calling the shots locally, as well as an elite that is indifferent to anything that physically threatens its survival. At the moment Egypt is doing a diplomacy dance with Israel over the terror attacks of last week in the south of Israel, in this attack (it seems) that terrorists dressed as Egyptian soldiers attacked Israeli cars and buses, killing at least 8 and wounding 40. Israeli response involved heavy fire across the boarder, and left 2 (real) Egyptian soldiers dead, Israel did not apologize on the spot and it seems that this alone is a reason for the mob in the cities to call out to end the peace agreement with Israel.

This lack of tolerance to any kind of action by a non Egyptian or non Muslim in this country is now becoming a trademark of post revolution Egypt, where Christian Copts are now daily targets for anger ventilation by mobs around the country, only last week a Christian was left dead and 4 injured because of a road accident in the province of Minya in Egypt.

And all this is no mistake, as the Muslim brotherhood is taking over the country it is steering its population towards religion, the people who make this brotherhood are the same ones who planning and executed the murder of Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s president before Mubarak, who set the peace agreement with Israel and reformed the country to a more secular approach.

But it looks like the Muslim Brotherhood will do everything in its power to move the time back, and march Egypt to the darkness of the past, where Christians and Jews are the sons of pigs and monkeys rather than citizens and allies.

Rabbi Fails to Deliever Miracle & Gets Killed

August 3, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Israel is a strange country, it’s one of the most difficult puzzles to anyone who is a non-believer or atheist, this is the country of the Jewish people, if you’re Jewish you will be accepted there (however criminals and people with issues are not automatically let in).

One of the things they say about Israel (I think it was Sam Harris that said it once) is that the problem is that its not a country that is dedicated to a religion but rather a religion that has been forced to confine itself in one country that would not systematically abuse an ethnic or religious group, in simple words the state of Israel was created so Jews could have one place that does not repeatedly murder and abuse them.

So we all know that Israel is the land of the Jews, but do not expect to see a lot of Rabbi’s dressed in black when you’re in the airport, Israel is a secular democracy with a majority of non religious Jews. Many of the secular Jews call themselves “traditional” because the keep the main holidays, and that is all they do. Many others have little or nothing to do with the religion and you will find life in the big cities of Israel to be very much like any other western city, even on the Sabbath.

The news out of Israel in the last week told of a great Rabbi that had been murdered by a visitors, a man who met with the Rabbi to ask him to help out in some martial problems had waited a couple of months for the miracle to work, when it did not he decided that he will pay a visit to the old Rabbi and kill him for his false promises (even though its almost certain that nothing had been ever promised).

This is one of the things that makes it very difficult for an atheist to overlook, people who are not “really” religious visit a very religious individual, many times with some sort of offering, like a donation or even direct payment for the time and services, in hope that the “holy” person will proceed to pray and work miracles for them and their needs. How profane can that be, on both sides, to have one even suggest that he can perform miracles, and for the other to shortcut his way into a better position, leveraging the good ranking the Rabbi has with the almighty.

And when you act like humans did thousands of years ago, visiting a shaman or a sage to have a better life, offering them compensation in return and expecting miracles to happen, it also makes perfect sense to punish the shaman if he does not deliver, not only what he might promise or suggest, but also if he fails to deliver what was expected subjectively of him. So a punishment of stabbing someone to death as punishment for not fulfilling his duty makes perfect sense if you try and think 2,500 years back.

One final word about this Rabbi, he was a grandson of one of the better known Kabalist Rabbis of Israel, and continued to do the same as his grandfather did, which is mostly helping the community and learning the bible, these people are not the rich preachers of the U.S. and most of them live in very modest homes and humble lifestyles. This man really did try to help out people, he spent a lot of time seeing and meeting people with problems, it is only a shame that instead of dropping god and the ancient books or yore he did not turn to the light and learned psychology or medicine to really help people progress.