Borderline at Best
I've looked at this thing nine ways from Sunday. McLaren's hit was a borderline penalty. Were Zednick not smaller than me and had he not skated into the middle of the Bruins zone with the puck with his head down, there wouldn't have been any call at all. ESPN is dependably making a mountain out of a mole-hill. Steve Buckley in the Boston Herald wrote a really embarassing column. Also, those calling the hit premeditated or a cheap shot are truly kidding themselves. Good hard hit that got away from him. I feel bad for Zednick, but he knew what he was setting himself up for when he cut to the middle. Here's hoping he gets well soon as is back on the ice next season.
- posted by levinson @ 4/26/2002 12:00:00 PM

 
True Human Tragedy
There was no massacre in Jenin, but there has been a UN panel appointed to investigate what crimes Israel may have committed there. This report will result in nothing but spitting hatred at Israel, though no crimes will be reported. My question is why there isn't a UN panel being appointed to investigate what the Palestinian Authority [PA] is doing to the children with whose safety is it charged? Debka today has a chilling story of a 14-year-old recruited in Gaza to carry out a suicide attack who turned back. The story was broadcast on Israeli television last night, but has not been reported in the western press. As human tragedies go, this is as bad as it gets, but no one seems to be paying attention. It seems that the actions of Israel are not radicalizing an entire generation of people, so much as the PA is trying to recruit as many members as possible from that generation before they grow up.
- posted by levinson @ 4/23/2002 07:05:00 AM

 
Strategy
So let's see. Zinni goes to the region, terror strikes increase (with Israeli reprisals), he accomplishes nothing and the terror subsides. Cheney goes to the region, terror strikes increase (with Israeli reprisals), he accomplishes nothing and the terror subsides. Powell goes to the region, terror strikes increase, he [thus far] accomplishes nothing. Do I detect a pattern here?
- posted by levinson @ 4/12/2002 07:27:00 AM

 
Straight Talk
During any military operation, the wrong people get killed. It is one of the horrendous facts of war-time that people who do not take up arms are killed by those who do (either for or against said people). What I find most difficult with the reports of the Israeli operation is getting the straight story from the press. They have become so accustomed to spin that it's hard to tell what is based in fact and what comes from reports they've read elsewhere. Take the Wash. Post's report of the Jenin fighting today. "Many refugees who had fled to town to escape the camp's dusty streets and cinder-block hovels where the bloodiest fighting unfolded said their homes had been pulverized. They described bodies lying in the streets." Given this paragraph (taken in full from the story) you'd expect there to be quotes next in the story. "'There are uncountable numbers of houses that have been destroyed,' said Riad Ghaleb, 28, a produce seller from the camp. 'When you see them, you go crazy. The helicopter fired so many rockets at our neighborhood because three soldiers were killed there in a house near where I live.'" This is terrible. I am fairly accustomed to moving, but if I had spent years building a home and family, seeing it wiped out in an instant by an opposing military force would both depress and enrage me. But wait a minute, what about the bodies in the streets? The Post produces no quotes of people talking about bodies in the streets. There are reports of people being killed. The opening paragraph of the story tells of civilian casualties (though again without direct quotation). I'm not attempting to belittle the true plight of the Palestinian civilians, but words are extremely important and I simply no longer trust the media to give me the straight story without trying to tug at my heart-strings in some way that is not supported by evidence in their story. In the past two days, I've seen many reports that talk about people talking about bodies strewn in the street of Jenin, but no quotes have come out. There are no photos because the Israeli military has closed off the camp.

Salon also has an accounting of what's going on in Jenin, and it is important to read the stories one after another to further discern my point. "'That is where the soldiers made me and my children wait for two and a half hours without food or water,' recounts Khitam Kamel, a 34-year old mother of 11, who fled the Jenin refugee camp last Tuesday, a week after Israeli forces launched their assault on the town. 'What happened to us and to our people in the camp, I cannot tell you, it was terrible. Now I will gladly give the last of my children as martyrs until we liberate ourselves.'" What is happening to families uprooted in Jenin is terrible, but listening to this account, you have a woman planning to give her children as murderers because she was made to wait for two hours without food or water. There is undoubtedly more to her story, but unless Salon is willfully deceiving us, she didn't tell them anyhing more of her plight than having to wait without food and water. Again, it is important to contrast the reporting style of the Post and Salon in this case. "'On her trip out she saw one body but no wounded people -- in contrast to reports of bodies littering the streets. There were scenes of enormous destruction, though. 'On both sides of some streets, the houses have been half demolished by bulldozers or passing tanks. Others houses have been completely destroyed by missiles or explosives.'" This tells the same story as the Post, but directly refutes the assertion given by the Post without backing that there are bodies strewn in the street. "'They called me a terrorist, saying that Force 17 carries out attacks against Israelis. I said that I only joined because of the salary, but they called me a liar and hit me and kicked me,' he says. His body, though, shows no signs of beating." Having read the accounts, would the Post have included the last significant sentence in the quoted report? There's a war on in Israel and it's important that the major national publications give it to us straight.
- posted by levinson @ 4/12/2002 07:23:00 AM

 
Missing the boat again
Apparently W isn't the only one that thinks Israel should stop defending itself. Unsurprisingly, the NY Times feels that Israel should pull out. In expressing this opinion, the Times feels that the most important reason for ending the Israeli action is that the US asked them to. "The prestige of the United States is on the line in an effort to help Israel, and the Israeli government is doing nothing to make the job easier." Well our prestige is all well and good, but there is a war of terror being waged against the Israelis, so I think their lives count a little more than our prestige. Further, the Times tries to spin its views as conventionaly wisdom. Such phrases, "there can be little doubt," "[i]t is increasingly clear," try to give legitimacy to its feelings, but read more like weak spin terms. "Yet Mr. Sharon says he will remove the tanks and troops whenever it suits him. This is an insult to Mr. Bush and the United States." All right then, let's pull the tanks out and let the intifada continue to kill more citizens just so the US doesn't get its feelings hurt. The entire editorial is just one long whine that is truly sad. There are some very legitimate reasons to protest the Israeli action, but the prestige of the US is not one of them. Maybe I'm just standing on the dock though.
- posted by levinson @ 4/09/2002 07:27:00 AM

 
And this time he means it
Does anyone else get the sense that there's a little of do as I say not as I do in W's rhetoric towards Sharon? I mean, W's the great unilateralist and he's telling Sharon not to act unilaterally to defend his country.
- posted by levinson @ 4/08/2002 10:32:00 AM

 
Kissing Cousins
This will certainly make a lot of family reunions a hell of a lot more interesting. How many pairs of cousins do you think will be getting up at reunions, weddings, Thanksgivings and other family events with "something to share" with the rest of their clan? High, high comedy.
- posted by levinson @ 4/04/2002 06:56:00 AM

 
Palestinian Side
A very interesting Op-ed shedding some light on the Palestinian side of the current conflict. The piece would seem to take us from the 1993 Oslo accords to the present. It almost does this. Unfortunately, it omits entirely the negotiations between Arafat and Barak in which Arafat rejected a Palestinian state and after which began the second intifada. I have yet to find an explanation from the Palestinian side as to why Arafat did this and why it was justified. Moreover, directly on the heels of the failed negotiations, Arafat went back to his roots and took to violence. This is the question in the west. Why did Arafat reject a Palestinian stae in favor of violence?
- posted by levinson @ 4/02/2002 07:37:00 AM

 
Oh yes, they're ready for peace
It bears asking, what is the mindset of the Arab states? Well this is a good indication. The Palestinians aren't terrorists, the Israelis are. Moreover, "[t]he impotence of Muslim countries to do anything to remedy the situation adds to this frustration and anger." So Muslim countries are helpless and vent their anger at their own impotence by being terrorists. Their impotence and frustration however justifies this terror. Continuing, "[t]he world must deal with these misguided people not just by hunting them down but also by removing the causes of their anger and frustration." So the west, meaning the "world," must somehow (they don't suggest how one should deal with the people they govern) but remove the causes of anger. Translation, would the western powers please come here and placate our people by removing Israel entirely. You may read it differently if you can make sense of it. That, however, is a sampling of the countries that support oppression and terrorism and want to destroy Israel. And they want our help because they admit they are helpless fools. Naturally they feel they are capable of leading an all Muslim middle east though.
- posted by levinson @ 4/01/2002 01:31:00 PM