All In A Days Work

Reuters

Israel is imposing tighter controls on arms exports as part of an accord with the United States, ending a dispute over the sale of advanced Israeli-made weaponry to China, senior security officials said on Feb. 27.
They said an Exports Control Department was being opened in Israel’s Defense Ministry which, in consultation with the Foreign Ministry, would monitor and potentially limit the sale of weaponry to countries appearing on U.S. watch-lists.
“We will certainly be taking American views on this-or-that client in guiding our export policies,” one official said.
There was no date given for when the new department would begin work.
The moves were part of a fence-mending agreement last year between the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon aimed at defusing U.S. ire at Israel’s sale of Harpy attack drones and other advanced technology to China.
Washington, which gives Israel $2 billion in annual defense aid, complained the exports could endanger its ally Taiwan.
Israeli officials previously said Washington had also sought oversight on its lucrative defense exports to India.
Israel denied wrongdoing, and some Israeli security experts accused the United States of trying to curb foreign competition to its arms firms. But the U.S. complaint prompted Israel to apologize and reshuffle top defense officials.

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Haaretz

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday that he hoped Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas would stay in office, playing down remarks made earlier by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni branding Abbas as "irrelevant." 

Olmert sided Sunday with Livni, telling American envoy David Welch that Jerusalem refuses to see Abbas as the "good guy" and Hamas as the "bad guys." He told Welch that Israel cannot conduct a dual policy - one toward Abbas and one toward the rest of the PA. 

On Monday, Olmert said at a gathering in Tel Aviv that he continued to stand by Livni, adding that her remarks had been misunderstood.
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ynet

Speaking at combat soldiers' convention, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says 'Hamas doesn't threaten our lives,' adds he hopes Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas does not quit his post.

Israel will continue to fight terror but will also seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday evening, speaking at a combat soldiers' convention in honor of ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"In the next four years we will act to separate from the Palestinians in order to live in a country with a solid Jewish majority," Olmert
said. "Hamas doesn't scare us, it doesn't threaten our lives, and we're not frightened by it. But we're unwilling to assume there's no chance for any kind of diplomatic initiative."

"We'll fight Hamas, we'll fight terror, but we'll seek out every way to find a diplomatic horizon that includes living together on the basis of a compromise that will guarantee the State of Israel's Jewish character," Olmert said. "We'll fight it (Hamas) if necessary and we'll dictate the terms and timetables."

Smashing Skulls

To all my dear readers, I apologize. The distance between posts is due to the fact that my computer recharger is being processed through a parcel system, which finds it whimsical to keep me on tender hooks day after day. But, salvation to you all will come with the arrival of that little package.

Reconnecting with friends, after a period of disconnect, is difficult. This observation I made when I was home for yud shevat. The distance - that time creates, the experiences of the intermission, stand in between you, and the person you departed from.

I hope this isn’t the case with you, my dear reader.

Cartooning Around

Sitting on the tarmac for twelve hours, with a world of ice swirling about my small airplane window. The economist suddenly seemed to be quite good reading material. a cartoonists angle, to a cartoon like story, in this cartoon like world, seemed to make sense. the journalists writes as follows, the right to free speech is a hard won right, to print caricatures poking fun is the right of a free press even at the expense of individuals or religions taking offence. yet freedom of expression doesn't mean you repeat blasphemy into a religious man's ear, of course we must be sensitive - but not to the point of silence.

Holocaust deniers should be free to wish away the death's of six million, let them be seen for the fool's they are. I quote "denying the holocaust should certainly not be outlawed: far better for those who deny well documented facts expose themselves to ridicule than pose as martyrs".

Is there a differentiating principle that creates a boundary between saying something like- Muhammad is the creator of a libel's murderous religion or denying a historical fact by saying the gas chamber's never existed? I believe the answer is an the affirmative. Hitler had a free press, Joseph Goebells was free to write any insidious propaganda that suited Nazi genetic design's. Jews being inferior genetically was a cornerstone to Nazis believing that killing a Jew wasn't an act of murder.

The free press that directly led to the slaughter of the holocaust, is the lesson of the holocaust. a free pen is as dangerous as a loaded gun. what’s different about these silly cartoons of Muhammad with a bomb in his turban, well, the truth hurts. Islam so it seems, can explain away mass murder but can't accept a cartoon that caricatures there reality, the quran begs for a jihad the slaughter of every non-believer. and all these crazy Arabs are rioting as if its irksome, well ill tell you what’s irksome - that every Palestinian screams for Jewish blood I think that’s cause for rioting, so how about it?

Jews

Home for Yud Shevat

I have gone dormant over the last few days because I’m currently home, taking a long awaited break from the rigors of child discipline - teaching makes one old and tired. I now understand why teachers during my adolescence seemed to drudge in and out of the classroom.

Yud Shevat means a yearly rebirth and rededication to the concepts that lie at the foundation of chabad. In the mist and fog of a year especially on “shlichus” we may lose focus, we may ask ourselves why am I here? Who’s life am I changing? Questions questions - yud shevat supplies the answers. so this yud shevat sit farbreng and solidify once again those ideas which in the end are the key to happiness.