iKibbitz collectively giving unwanted commentary

In any place that “sticky” situations might arise from, such as border crossings in Israel, humor can be derived. This is one of those situations. Haaretz reports:

Israel Border Police officers shot at an American student’s laptop as she entered Israel via Taba, Egypt, two weeks ago.

Lily Sussman, 21, wrote on her blog that border police subjected her to two hours of questioning and searches prior to shooting her Apple Macbook three times.

You should check her blog for pictures of the Apple Macbook, and to learn about her experiences.

Here are some selected comments from the readers of Gizmodo offering their jokes and “insight”:

>Random434: It’s illegal to transport fruit, or other produce, accross borders.

>otko: Nine times out of ten it’s an electric razor, but every once in a while… it’s a dildo. Of course it’s company policy never to, imply ownership in the event of a dildo… always use the indefinite article a dildo, never your dildo.

>LVP: It’s Israel. They shoot first and ask questions later.

>minibeardeath: Israel: “I’m a PC”
>Yerzriknot: Hamas: and I’m a Mac.
>PacJack360: Who gets to be Linux?
>Yerzriknot: Egypt

>FightingChance: Israel is supposed to be lovely. I think, if you want to visit, take this simple test: is your skin brown, like someone from the middle east? If so, you may want to skip it. Israel survives via racial profiling which is both non-PC and very effective.

>Span_Wolf: Are gays allowed? That seems like it also might be a hot button. Oh man, just hope you aren’t a brown gay of the wrong religion vacationing…

Somehow, the hard drive came out undamaged. The tourist is now maneuvering the Israeli bureaucracy to get reimbursement for the damaged laptop.

I saw Bardley Burston’s column this morning about Ray Hanania whom I know most of as an Israeli Arab (who now lives in Chicago) satirical writer for Israeli newspapers. So I decided to look him up on youtube (why youtube?) and see if there is anything of him. Apparently he’s a comedian and I found this 9 minute video of him and an African American Jew (that’s two strikes against him already) on a comedy tour. The picture and sound quality isn’t great but it is manageable.

Charlie Rose (11/23/09) had an excellent discussion today with Eugene Rogan and Stephen Cohen about American foreign policy in the Middle East. Sara Ivry of Tablet Magazine also has an interesting discussion with Mr. Cohen. If you haven’t heard of Tablet Magazine yet, I recommend you visit their site. For me, it has been a source of free and quality reporting on issues important to Jews.

Part 1 of 3.

I feel a bit uncomfortable posting this. I’m a liberal Democrat yet I agree with much of the economic policies Prager and his guest discuss. I grew up on a kibbutz but I strongly believe that it is not sustainable.

The headline above is not real, but it might be in the not so distant future with the reports about the increase range of Israel’s enemies. And with the ‘Goldstone’ name increasingly becoming a pariah among Jewish intellectuals, why not name future rockets that hit deeper into Israel with the one that helped legitimize them.

Outside observers tend to label Israel, and all foreign countries, with narrow labels. Depending on which side of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a blog resides on, that blog will tend to highlight articles from the Israeli press (as well as the American and European press) which fit their vision of Israel and their argument. But in reality, the narrow vision that hardliners on both sides of the conflict present don’t give a complete understanding of Israel and what its press says about itself. The following are pairs of headlines that give opposite nuances to different issues within Israel.

Antisemitism:
Convicts help rescue neglected Jewish cemeteries in Poland vs.
When anti-Semitism is just a click away

Religious Influence:
Israel seeks crackdown on women who fake religiosity to dodge IDF vs.
Jerusalem Haredim protest Shabbat opening of Intel plant

Refusniks:
IDF vows ‘zero tolerance’ for soldiers who refuse orders vs.
Israeli refuseniks confront the IDF, from Ni’lin to Tel Aviv

Introducing mbrown0315, Youtuber extraordinaire, and I found his channel full of strong arguments.

More to come.

I came upon this while surfing the web, UNSETTLED by Adam Hootnick.

Using the method I introduced yesterday to quantify the UNHRC vote on the Goldstone report, here are the results on the recent vote in the UN General Assembly on the resolution endorsing the Goldstone report.

Bonus question:

Yesterday, Israeli commandos seized Iranian arms intended for Hezbollah on a ship carrying the flag of which country, and in which group above is that country in according to yesterday’s UNGA vote on the resolution endorsing the Goldstone report? (Hint: It got a rating of 2.0)

Too see the details of my findings, just email me and I’ll send you the excel sheets.