May 2012
18 posts
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Netanyahu's Arab Neighbors
NETANYAHU’S ARAB NEIGHBORS
It’s often said that Israelis have insulated themselves from the Palestinians. Two miles from Tulkarm, but a thousand miles psychologically. Without a doubt, this distance is there. Whether for ideological reasons, or Jewish majorities in specific areas, it becomes all too easy to imagine Israel as a monocultural entity, isolated as much from its neighbors as its own diversity.
There are certain instances, however, when it becomes impossible to labor under any such pretenses. One such instance is in northern Israel, where Arabs still constitute the majority of the population.
Go to the supermarket in an immigrant town like Or Akiva, and you’ll stand in checkout lines behind local women in hijab. Go to McDonalds at the kibbutz nearby, and there will be families from Wadi Ara. Turn on the car radio, and you’ll hear Arabic sports broadcasts. The overlapping of communities is unavoidable.
Nowhere is the irony of this situation more noteworthy than the border between Caesarea and Jisr az-Zarqa, the former, a wealthy beach town, the latter, an impoverished Arab fishing village. Home to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Caesarea is best known for its mix of wealthy Israeli and foreign Jews who own vacation homes there. Jisr az-Zarqa, for being the last coastal town to still be populated by indigenous Arabs.
Considering Netanyahu’s conservative politics, it would be difficult to imagine him feeling comfortable about having to live in such a milieu. And yet Bibi has for a number of years, long before he resumed his present job as Prime Minister. Though it is doubtful he’s stood in line at the nearby supermarket in Or Akiva, there is no disputing his inability to avoid listening to the sounds made by his Arab neighbors less than half a mile north.
To wit, the following recording of Jisr’s evening call to prayer (if I remember the time correctly) was made on May 15, 2010, two blocks from Bibi’s home. Audible throughout the neighborhood, including the kitchen of a family whom I was visiting, I imagined that the Prime Minister was hearing the exact same thing.
via Souciant
MACHINE POLITICS →
newyorker.com
Via The New Yorker, May 7, 2012
by David Kushner
This is the story of George Hotz the man who first jailbreak’ed the iPhone and then hacked the Sony PS3. The future of personal computing is linked to this story. The industry would like do do away with general purpose computers for consumer use and focus the future on walled gardens like the PS3, the iPad and iPhone. A future were it will be illegal to hack (alter or reprogram) your own property. In this future scenario we will only be renting the right to use the device, it will legally belong to the manufacturer.
For background on the coming war on general computation see Cory Doctorow talk to the Chaos Communication Congress
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“Throughout history, religiously conservative males have had to confront one of the greatest sources of their moral failure: the male libido. The male libido—the fact that men are sluts—is a sore spot of any male community wanting to pursue purity and holiness. And what has happened, by and large, is that rather than admit that males struggle mightily in the sexual realm, males have externalized the blame and projected their libido onto women. Rather than blaming themselves for sexual sin males have, throughout history, blamed women for being temptresses. The Whore was created to be the scapegoat to preserve male self-righteousness. Rather than turning inward, in personal and collective repentance, men could blame women, blame the whores, for their sexual and moral failures. It’s not our fault, the men say, it’s the whore’s fault.”
—Whores: A Meditation on Gender and the Bible (via azspot)
