Haggai's Place

:: Friday, July 16, 2004 ::

Hanging it up
I'm going to stop posting here, maybe not for good, but at least for a while.  I haven't had much to say lately anyway, and there's also the factor of starting one of those strange aspects of modern life that I've never partaken in--an everyday full-time job.  I'll be working at this place, starting sometime next month.  I'm not exactly sure what I'll be working on, but it looks like a really interesting place, very much along the lines of what I was hoping to find after finishing my thesis at Michigan.  I'm already staying with a friend in Maryland, and I'm starting to look for a place to live closer to where I'll be working, on the northern Virginia side of the Washington DC metro area.  New e-mail, as well, which is indicated above. 
 
Thanks to everyone who's stopped by here at any point.   


10:23 AM

Nothing new here
Those tricky Israelis, always setting off bombs against themselves. Or so says Arafat:

Arafat suggested that the attack was an act of provocation carried out by Israel following the ruling of the International Court of Justice in The Hague against the West Bank security fence.

Arafat said: "We are against such kinds of bombings, and you must never forget that the Israelis are completely behind it as they have been in the past."

Speaking to reporters after meeting with UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner General Peter Hansen, Arafat added: "You know who is behind these acts, which are aimed at harming the court decision. Europe knows it, the Americans, the Egyptians, the Jordanians, and the Israelis also know it."

The article goes on to point out that this is par for the course with Arafat. Yossi Alpher summed up his own personal experiences on that front a couple of years ago:

[I had] a meeting with Arafat in his office in Gaza; it is typical of the three or four such meetings I have participated in over the years since 1994. Arafat explains that Israel is really two-thirds an Arab country: the Israeli Arabs and the "Jewish Arabs" (i.e., Sephardic and Yemenite Jews) already make up 70 percent of the population. He goes on to blame the Mossad for Palestinian suicide bombings. When his leadership is questioned, he goes on an egomaniacal rant: "I am Mandela, I am de Gaulle." He is asked about a CNN clip in which he is seen praising children who recite slogans of incitement; he says he will discipline their teachers! In short, he comes across as a liar who is totally out of touch with Israeli (and Jewish) reality. From this performance it is but a short distance to his insistence in 2000 on the right of return and his rejection of any Jewish link to the Temple Mount, and to his denial of the Iranian arms ship in 2002.

10:40 AM