Monday, December 24, 2007

Hey Look

My son is learning how to build a website - if you want to check out his work, take a look at:
http://www.planetnana.co.il/yehoshua1997/

It's still very much a work in progress, but be sure to check back soon.

If you want to write to him, his email is: yehoshuasedley -at- hotmail.com

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Neturei Karta in Iran

For those (including my brother) who were worried about Neturei Karta and their support of Iran were probably relieved to finish Messechet Ketuvot and find sources for Neturei karta, after all - doesn't דף ק"י-קי"א say:

דאמר רב יהודה כל העולה מבבל לארץ ישראל עובר בעשה שנאמר (ירמיהו כז) בבלה יובאו ושמה יהיו עד יום פקדי אותם נאם ה'

Rav Yehuda Says: Anyone who goes from Bavel to Eretz Yisrael transgresses an Aseh - "They will be brought to Bavel, and there they will be until I redeem them".

You see - by going to Iran instead of Eretz Yisrael, Neturei Karta were just showing that they posken by Rav Yehuda.

I fee MUCH happier now :)

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Funding the Palestinians

Well, so far I haven't entered into the world of Politics - although I may do that more in the future, however I just saw this interesting article that I thought I should link to.

There is a common mis-conception that Poverty is directly related to terrorism - i.e., the poorer an individual or society is, the more likely that they will use terror or violence, after all - what have they got to loose?

This is possibly the motivation of the EU and the rest of the International community to pledge millions of dollars (Euros?) into the Palestinian Authority.

The reality is exactly the opposite; when an individual or society is very poor, they are worried about putting food on the table and a roof over their head. It is only once the have less financial worries that they start to worry about politics, or radical politics that leads to terrorism.

I just saw an interesting article that backed this up, look at the following tables (taken from www.camera.org )
The Red line shows aid given to the Palestinians, the Green Line shows the number of Palestinian Homicides.
Seems like there is a pretty strong relationship...


If you adjust the Green Line by a year, it seems to indicate that there as almost 1:1 relationship between money to the PA and terrorism within a year.

Makes you wonder why the Europeans are so keen to give Abbas money.

Any thoughts?