Israeli Ministers Support Ban on Gay Pride Parade

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Tuesday June 05, 2007 · 10:07 AM PDT

2007/06/05 · 10:07

The religious right in Israel are promoting a bill in the Knesset that would amend the country's basic law to include "the Jerusalem municipality is authorized to bar parades and processions on the grounds that they disturb public order, offend the public's sentiments or on religious grounds."

This is intended to enable the banning of the annual Gay Pride March which is the subject of a concerted hate campaign. The wording of course would enable any protest over matter of controversy to be banned, including the mass protests over the Prime Minister's performance in the Lebanon War.

On Sunday, the bill passed its first hurdle when a committee of ministers approved it. It will now go to the Knesset for consideration. Haaretz speculates that:

The bill's approval by the committee could indicate that the (ruling) coalition will vote for it. Kadima Ministers Jacob Edery and Gideon Ezra both supported the bill, as did Tourism Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch (Yisrael Beiteinu).

londonbear

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Monday June 04, 2007 · 4:24 AM PDT

2007/06/04 · 04:24

Today there is a meeting at Ben Gurion University in Israel to discuss the use of computers in terrorism and counter-terrorism, sponsored by NATO. One Jewish professor from California, the Director of one of the largest artificial intelligence research labs in the U.S. will not be there. He had been invited but was then "dis-invited" in light of his political views.

Last week the British University and College Union (UCU) held its first conference and passed a motion which is falsely represented as "boycotting Israeli academe". One comment made in reports compared the impact of such a boycott on Israel to the impact that the Anti-Apartheid sporting boycott had on South Africa. Judging by the hysteria that has flowed from both Israel and Jewish supporters of Israel in the USA, this characterization hit the spot.

londonbear

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Thursday May 31, 2007 · 11:11 PM PDT

2007/05/31 · 23:11

Tul Bahadur Pun VC is one of only 12 living holders of Britain's highest medal, theVictoria Cross. He earned it fighting during the Burma campaign in World War II, for the British, as a member of the Ghurka Regiment. Such is the courage of these Nepalese fighters that they comprise one third of the 12 surviving holders of the medal. Below the fold, I reproduce the main part of the citation Mr Pun received.

Mr Pun was an honored guest at the coronation of the current Queen. Now he is elderly and infirm. Like many of his colleagues, is forced to live in Nepal because of the meanness of the pension scheme for the regiment, that gives them less than their equivalent in a purely British regiment. He has multiple medical problems and has only intermittent access to treatment and medication. He has to be carried down the mountains to get to a doctor.

He wants to come to Britain to get the treatment this country owes him for his service to it. The British embassy in Nepal has refused his application to settle in Britain to receive it on the grounds that he "failed to demonstrate strong ties with the UK"
Update [2007-6-1 12:54:49 by londonbear]: The campaign has worked! See below

londonbear

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Wednesday May 30, 2007 · 10:18 PM PDT

2007/05/30 · 22:18

Like some aging pop star, Blair is on his "Farewell Tour". This week he is in Africa. On Thursday he goes to South Africa and on Tuesday dropped in to Libya to sell some arms to his old mate Gaddafi, in the name of the War on Terra you understand.

It is his Wednesday stopover that should be noted tho as it goes towards understanding why he got involved in Iraq. It is in Sierra Leone where he has his greatest popularity, wildly so. He was installed with the honorary title of Paramount Chief and was greeted with the sort of welcome that Rumsfeld must have imagined Bush would have in a "liberated" Iraq

londonbear

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Tuesday May 29, 2007 · 11:39 PM PDT

2007/05/29 · 23:39

The Neocons constantly complain that the media fail to report all the news from Iraq. That's true but Tuesday is a prime case in point where news from Iraq is not reported and that news is an indicator that things are going badly wrong.

Because it involves five Brits of course you might not expect it to make the headlines, despite it being the top story on news stations here. Yet it failed to get any coverage at all in the CBS evening news while a couple of whales and a cicada showing in Chicago did. To their credit, ABC Evening News did report it and indicate some of its significance.

londonbear

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Tuesday May 29, 2007 · 4:41 AM PDT

2007/05/29 · 04:41

A minor sidenote in the weekend news has been a rise in the price of pork in China. It is such a staple in the modern Chinese diet that its rise has pushed the inflation rate above 4%.

This would not be significant if the reports did not throw up some detail which relate even to the price of gasoline in the USA.

londonbear

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Wednesday May 23, 2007 · 5:57 AM PDT

2007/05/23 · 05:57

On Wednesday the Blair government lost a case in the Court of Appeal. If it is not successfully appealed in the House of Lords or Supreme Court, it will enable the Chagos Islanders to return to their homeland. The best know of the islands is Diego Garcia and it was to build that US air base, sometimes called the Indian Ocean Guantanamo, that the islanders were illegally evicted.

The islanders will not be able to go to Diego Garcia itself, in the same way the Cubans cannot enter Gitmo, but they should be able to return to the other islands.

londonbear

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Monday May 21, 2007 · 9:22 PM PDT

2007/05/21 · 21:22

Much of my Monday was spent anticipating the loss of an old friend. I live in sight of the Cutty Sark at Greenwich. Like many London schoolkids, I was taken there to get an appreciation of the country's maritime history. One of the joys of moving to my present apartment was the view downriver to see her and the surrounding buildings. I knew the Christmas season had arrived when I saw the tree and its lights lashed to the top of her highest mast.

It was not only to be a loss for me, she was part of a World Heritage site. She was the only surviving tea clipper from the 19th century and was the never quite the fastest but was one of the most beautiful, elegant and functional. A true queen of the seas even if she had become a bit sorry in her dry dock in recent years. The disaster was even more profound when the police announced that the fire was suspicious. Had vandalism destroyed what wars and nigh on 150 years of changing economics and wars could not? Would the course for the 2012 Olympic Marathon lose one of its landmarks?

Slowly though, later in the day, better news started to emerge. Hope is starting to rise that she may emerge not quite the same but better than could be anticipated even on Sunday.

londonbear

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Monday May 21, 2007 · 3:03 PM PDT

2007/05/21 · 15:03

Channel 4 in the UK has broadcast couple of documentaries on Israel/Palestine to mark the 40th anniversary of the occupation of the West Bank. The pair were personal investigations of the history and current situations by the two presenters, Rod Liddle, a former senior BBC journalist and Paddy Ashdown.

Liddle concentrated on investigating whether the occupation of the West Bank has eroded Israel's claim to be a democracy. Ashdown focused on Jerusalem. Most importantly, he proposed a series of five elements essential to bring about peace. These would involve changes in the present orthodoxy of the need to follow the Olso and Camp David processes.

londonbear

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Wednesday May 16, 2007 · 8:11 AM PDT

2007/05/16 · 08:11

One of the results of the recent discussions of the Israel/Palestine diaries has been to embolden those who want to rid the site of those they see as pro-Palestinian. I am such a target and I await an email from Hunter informing me I have been banned. I think it is useful to examine what got their ire and I will do so over the flip.

In case those who avoid I/P discussions are unclear, let me make this clear. The purpose of this is to close down dissemination of facts inconvenient to those whose uncritical support of any and all Israeli government action goes far beyond most Israelis. The irony is that they are attempting to close down the sorts of debates that freely circulate within Israel. For Americans, Israel must only be seen the Nelson's eye of AIPAC. There have been various attempts at this, culminating it seems with such disruption on the site that the FPs will refuse to allow the topic at all. This was apparently after the failure of a threat that the exposition of a neutral or pro-Palestinian view would endanger Democratic candidates being elected.

I would argue the contrary. This tactic is getting Daily Kos a reputation for censorship which will ultimately damage its influence.

londonbear

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Monday May 14, 2007 · 2:36 AM PDT

2007/05/14 · 02:36

I'd just like to flag up two British sporting heroes who were in the news this weekend. Both in their own ways are inspirations. One is comparatively little known outside Britain or their own specialist field, the other is becoming successful and should be known worldwide, perhaps even gaining a championship this year.

londonbear

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Sunday May 13, 2007 · 6:44 PM PDT

2007/05/13 · 18:44

The more reports come out, the more it is becoming apparent that the use of biofuels in the form of ethnanol (or indeed most forms of bio-diesel) is a false road to prevent global warming. Bush's push for it must therefore be seen as the policy of Mr Micawber, the belief that "something will turn up" to avoid the need for radical changes. Indications are that again he is gearing up to emasculate the outcome of the upcoming G8 discussions on global warming and lay landmines for a future administration.

What I want to bring together are three news items that appear at first to be separate but when taken together must inform future energy policy. That, I would suggest, is not a case of substitution, as in ethanol for gasoline but avoiding usage as in investing in public transport and radically changing infrastructure and work patterns to avoid the current levels of travel for work.

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Israeli Ministers Support Ban on Gay Pride Parade

The Two Faces of Israeli "Academic Freedom"

Disgrace of British Treatment for Ex Soldiers

Tony Blair - Paramount Chief

Unreported Iraq (at least by Katie Couric)

Chinese Pork

Chagos Islanders Win Right of Return

The Grand Old Lady Is Singed But Survives

Practical Proposal for Peace in the Holy Land

I Await My Ban

Two British Sporting Heroes

Bush, Global Warming and the Fallacy of Ethanol