Sorry for the long time between posts. I’ll be honest, its because nothing really noteworthy has happened, until now. As I’m sure you’ve all been aware now, there has been another terrorist attack in Israel, specifically Jerusalem. As you can see from this awesome clip below, the terrorist gets absolutely destroyed, enjoy.

Unfortunately, the terrorist managed to kill three people and wounded 45 people.

The driver rammed at least two buses, overturning one, and crushed several cars in a five-minute spree just after midday (7pm AEST) in west Jerusalem.

However this brings up some important issues; how was this guy allled to get into Israel? Quite easily actually.

He was identified as an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, whoheld an Israeli identification card, with full access to all parts of the country.

As well as this the guy was known to the police for raping a former girlfriend, he served two years. Hopefully, next time Israel will do a better job in not letting these people get citizenship. I really think that a citizenship test should be given to every Israeli citizen. Of course this begs another questions, why are we issueing Israeli ID cards to a possible fith element anyway?

The attack came at a highly sensitive time in intra-Palestinian politics, with Hamas struggling to hold together the truce with Israel, which has seen limited supplies allowed into the Gaza Strip in return for a stop to rocket fire on Israeli settlements.

Egypt immediately locked the Rafah crossing into the Strip, which had been due to open around the time of the attack. Hundreds of Palestinians on either side rioted in response.

Israeli security forces were last night interrogating the terrorist’s family, amid calls by enraged members of parliament for them to be deported en masse to Gaza.

More on this event here.

This is was news yesterday but I thought I may as well add my 2 cents in just for fun. Yes, we nearly had a record. The truce only lasted 6, repeat 6 days! Guess who violated it? Was there even a hesitation when you said Hamas? Probably not. However that is strictly not correct, it came from Islamic Jihad which although:

did not agree to the truce but had vowed not to violate it.

However, it may as well be the same thing in my opinion. Now is the world starting to wake up about these people? They don’t keep their word, we knew that already. Hamas is the government in charge of the Gaza Strip, yet they can not even keep their allied terrorists (or as MSM says ‘militants’) under control. Never mind that Israel took down a terrorist (he was a senior in Islamic Jihad person which was the reason for the attack) in the West Bank, where there is no truce. Never mind Israel is completely in its right to target terrorists, Hamas replied that:

Hamas blamed Israel for yesterday’s violence, saying it had “provoked” Palestinian armed factions with the killing of the two men in Nablus.

Still what do you expect. I could now go into a rant about Olmert trying to save his political skin by destroying Israel’s chance to destroy Hamas, but if you’ve read the blog you already know my views on this.

On a lighter note, I am going to be seeing You Don’t Mess With the Zohan on Sunday. Review will follow. Oh and more good news, regular blogging will follow from this Friday as I will be on a break, so expect posts at least once every second day.

Remember in March I was talking about going to a Children of Bodom concert? Doubt it. Well anyway I went last night, yes that’s right smack bang in the middle of exam period with an exam the next day… Anyway, turns out it was worth it.

The concert was definitely the best ‘extreme’ metal concert that I have been to (I’m comparing it against Trivium and DragonForce). It was at the Enmore Theatre and I was in the front section, which was easily the best for such a concert. The mosh was quite fun, lots of people getting smacked around and falling down in the death circle. One of the funnier incidents that I saw consisted of one guy going on his hands and knees at the edge of the death circle. I was thinking to myself what the hell is he thinking someone is going to crashing into him. The next second, I saw another guy run out of nowhere, step up onto the guy’s back and launch himself ass first into the people in front of him. Needless to a lot of people got owned and much laughter was had by all.

The concert itself was great, while there was no real special effects (just a bit of lighting here and there), the band itself made up for that with the sheer heaviness of their playing. Laiho was of course a god with the guitar while the rest of the band were giving it their all as well. The two supporting acts were (surprise, surprise) absolutely terrible. The second supporting act, Synperium, consisted of blast beats and a singer who was not only overweight but sounded like a combination of someone gurgling and coughing at the same time. Needless to say, my friends and I left the concert and went to the local pub until Bodom came on.

My definite highlights of the concert included the opener Sixpounder (how could someone not love that song?), Hatecrew Deathroll and In Your Face. Needled 24/7 was also great as well.

As always, I can never remember the set list, so if you can add to my very incomplete list, please do in the comments section and I’ll add it, thanks.

Set list (in no particular order):

Sixpounder

Bannded from Heaven

Needled 24/7

Hatecrew Deathroll

Angels Don’t Kill

In Your Face

Living Deadbeat

Laiho Looking At A Speaker

Fun In The Mosh

(The guy in the shirt which says Pure Fucking Metal got so owned…)

Janne Wirman Strutting His Stuff On The Keyboards

Who Looks More Like The Devil Incarnate?

Hey heroes fans, its been a while since the last post but here is some exciting news! Enjoy!

William Katt (Perry Mason, Greatest American Hero), according to Newsarama is to make an appearance on Heroes.

“I just filmed it last week,” Katt says of his appearance on Heroes. “I play a really, really wonderful, seedy, smarmy-mouthed reporter that goes after Ali Larter. It was a lot of fun.”

…but wait…on the right…isn’t that Linderman?
Isn’t he…dead?
Well, we got a spoiler after the ‘Continue…’ jump

The Linderman Spoiler:

Malcolm McDowell (Daniel Linderman on Heroes) was at the NY Big Apple Comic Book Convention (June 7-8, 2008), and when asked about his possible return to Heroes he was quoted saying: “Yes, Linderman will be back next season, for five episodes.”

Revived? Flashback?…only time will tell.

Stay tuned for updates!

I must be crazy. That’s the only reason why I would be posting during an exam period about to take an exam that I will most likely only scrape a bare pass! However, when I see the amount of stupidity in the world I can’t help myself. Why, oh why, does Olmert think it will be actually beneficial to have a temporary peace (Tahdiya) with Hamas? It doesn’t make sense, they aren’t interested in permanent negotiations. Here’s a few reasons why from Jonathan Dahoah Halevi.

• Hamas regards the temporary cease-fire as a tahdiya and not a hudna. A tahdiya - “a period of calm” - is used by Hamas to describe a simple cease-fire. A hudna implies recognition of the other party’s actual existence, without acknowledging its legitimacy.
• In an interview with Al-Jazeera (April 26, 2008), Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal clarified that for Hamas, a tahdiya is “a tactic in conflict management.” He added that it “is not unusual for the resistance…to escalate sometimes and to retreat a bit sometimes as the tide does….The tahdiya creates a formulation that will force Israel…to remove the siege…and if it happens it will be a remarkable achievement.”
• Official sources in Israel have explained that Hamas’ interest in a lull in the fighting is a result of its “distress.” But the organization did not experience “distress.” Hamas has introduced and maintained law and order in Gaza, strengthened its overall control, suppressed opposition, and achieved broad popular support for its policies.
• One diplomatic consequence of the tahdiya will be increasing pressure on Israel to accept a future reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah. That could lead to increasing demands on Israel to negotiate a permanent status arrangement with a joint Hamas-Fatah government, while Hamas remains committed to its political program of the elimination of Israel.
• The cease-fire also grants Hamas a golden opportunity to expand its military build-up for the next round of terror and violence. Emulating Hizbullah’s strategy, Hamas is striving to acquire longer-range and more destructive missiles to be used for deterrence and as a sword on Israel’s neck.

To summarise, for some reason, Israel believe that by going along with this ‘ceasefire’, which by the way will not last the week (if it does I will be genuinely surprised), in order to get their captured troops back through further negotiations. What they don’t understand is this will aid Hamas, and as you can see above, was probably what they were hoping for. Now all Hamas has to do is sit tight and rearm baby! Instead of this piss-poor excuse for a truce, Israel should be in the Gaza Strip right now engaging Hamas, not in dialogue, but the traditional kind of engagement, the one that actually works with these people.

I use to really dislike, scratch that, hate Krudd, but know, I just think of him as a poor naive little fool. Just look at his latest announcement, ‘Rudd Calls for Nuclear Disarmament’, I mean what world is he living in? Nuclear disarmament didn’t solve anything, it certainly didn’t solve the Cold War. Unless he mean forcibly taking off nukes off everybody that is to juvenile to use it, *cough* Iran, North Korea and Pakistan *cough*. Then I completely disagree with his statement. One of the key reasons that Israel exists amid a sea of enemies and still survives (besides it wonderful army) is undoubtedly due to its nukes.

“In this 21st century that we, the people of the Asian-Pacific region, should resolve afresh to make the Asia-Pacific century a century of peace and that the world at large should aspire now for a world free of nuclear weapons.”

Anyway, its not like anyone will be taking his suggestion seriously, he has just made himself out to look like an idealistic idiot.

D-Day today. It is the 64th year since Allied troops landed in Normandy, France. For me, this is one of the most important days of the year. I’ve never really cared that much about VE Day or VJ Day, they have always seemed not as important.

I just watched a movie called Windtalkers which actually has nothing to do about D-Day but, everything to do about the Navajo Code that the Americans used in World War 2. It just got me thinking about these guys that go off and leave their girlfriends/wives behind and fight in a war from which they may not return. I really have no idea what must be going through their minds, it must be terrible to realise that you may never see your friends and family again.

I have exams coming up in the next few weeks, so once again there will be a lack of posts, however after that I have a huge break, yay! So expect some political insight (hopefully good) on McCain vs. Obama. McCain for the win!

Funny list that I found courtesy of LGF, here’s the link for it.

Category 1: The Seed Planters

Examples: Steve Emerson, Daniel Pipes, Bernard Lewis
Usual Profession: Academics
Main Motivation: Zionism

Category 2: The Theological Warriors

Examples: Robert Spencer, Craig Winn, Pat Robertson
Usual Profession: Christian preachers
Main Motivation: Religious bigotry

Category 3: The Media Voices

Examples: Michael Savage, Sean Hannity, Fox News, Ann Coulter
Usual Profession: Radio and TV personalities
Main Motivation: Money

Category 4: The Fringe

Examples: LGF, Joe Kaufman, Jewish Task Force
Main Motivation: Racism

Category 5: The Politicians

Examples: George W Bush, John McCain, miscellaneous Republican politicians
Usual Profession: Politicians
Main Motivation: Need to court the anti-Islam vote

A few days ago I mentioned that I talked with Mr Dor Shapira about the chances of peace between Israel and Syria in regards to Israel returning the Golan Heights. I also linked you to this article which summed up the peace talks in a couple of sentences:

Cynics might also suggest that Israel’s beleaguered prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is using talks with Syria as a diversion from his troubles with the police in connection with allegations of corruption and money laundering.

A new peace process could divert international attention and persuade the major powers that making peace is more important than bringing Hariri’s killers to justice [Syria].

Now I’ve just looked at another article which confirms what I quoted above and also gives a few new interesting angles. It should be obvious now that even though Assad and Olmert are trying to get some sort of ‘peace’ and use it for their own political advantage its not going to happen as there are just to many factors that are coming into play.

First, not many people both in Israel and in the international community believe that Syria will actually honor any sort of agreement with Israel. Why should they? Most of their support comes from Iran which is absolutely committed to Israel’s destruction. Syria is Shiite, while most of the Middle East is Sunni, who else would they turn to if they isolate themselves from Iran, which is what Israel is asking for.

Second:

Assad reminds Israelis far more of Arafat than of Sadat. So far, Assad has refused even to hold direct negotiations with Israel, preferring Turkish interlocutors. Give me the Golan, he is in effect saying, and then we’ll see what kind of peace develops between us.

Not only is this guaranteed to have no positive outcome of the negotiations, it doesn’t take into account the fact that a lot of Israelis actually like the Golan with its natural beauty far more then they like the urban wasteland that is Gaza or the vast deserts of the Sinai.

View of the Golan Heights

Of coarse the most pressing issue of giving back the Golan Heights is the military strategic value that they hold. If Israel has no guarantee that Syria won’t break its links with terrorists, who says they won’t go back to their old game of shooting at Israeli civilians and soldiers alike from the Heights?

View of Syria from an Israeli Bunker

The article summarizes the situation quite nicely which shows just how correct the quote at the top is.

Israel’s Olmert hopes that peace negotiations will deflect attention from his own woes — allegations of corruption dating in part from his days as Jerusalem’s mayor. Other Israelis, though, are wondering how helping Assad destroy Lebanon and escape justice can possibly be confused for Israel’s national interest, let alone for a peace process.

A really interesting documentary/talk show/discussion has just come out from SBS (an Australian TV channel) which would be a good watch particularly in today’s political environment. The documentary is called In Good Faith and is about the impact of religion in faith-based schools. It goes into detail about whether religion should be taught in science classes, etc. Personally I believe that religion should have no part at all in science class because science is fact and religion is not. However I am all for religion being taught in schools especially if it is a faith-based one. I myself went to a Jewish faith based school and I really enjoyed. There was no religion in the science class but we did Hebrew up until year 8 (13-14 yo) and Jewish studies to year 10 (15-16 yo). The links below go to SBS’s media player however I have no doubt that in the future this documentary will be up on YouTube.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3