Their shirts say WHAT?!?!?!?!!

This is my third time trying to save this to my blog. I'm not sure if its my computer or if my internet connection has just been horrible for the past 5 days, but it won't save! When I copy and paste it from my word processor program to this blog page and push publish post th page would just continually load but not post. I am 90% sure it is my internet connection though because my neighbors said they had a hard time with their internet this weekend as well. I jsut don't want you to think I didn't do my blog post ON time. I finished it on Thursday evening. Anyway, I saved the document to a flash drive and came to the lobrary to post it so this SHOULD work perfectly with no flaws :) HOPEFULLY!! Darn you technology!

As I was searching for an article to write my blog post on ON Haaretz.com I actually came across an ad that caught my attention. Now, keep in mind this was a couple of days ago, so I am not EXACTLY sure what the ad said, but I remember the premise. Upon researching the subject matter I discovered it was not an ad, but just a headline. Haaretz was the Israeli newspaper that discovered Israeli Army T-shirts that mock killing Palestinian women and children during the Gaza offense. The t-shirts are absolutely disgusting. I believe that because it was an Israeli newspaper that discovered the t-shirts is the reason I had immense trouble finding the actual article that HAARETZ wrote upon discovery of the t-shirts.

I searched the web for anything I could find about these gross t-shirts and I came across this website that actually shows a picture of them. The t-shirts depict the shooting of Palestinian mothers and children including images of dead babies and destroyed mosque's. The t-shirts were PRINTED for Israeli soldiers after deployment or after they had finished a part of training. The most disturbing of them all, was the one I saw with a huge target on child. The words underneath this picture are "The smaller, the harder". This is speaking to two different points. For one, the smaller the size of the person you are trying to kill, the more difficult it will to hit your target. Secondly, according to a soldier interviewed by the newspaper, because it is a child there is a moral issue. In my opinion the Israeli soldier who committ these crimes during wartime have no moral fiber whatsoever.

Another slogan I read about was, "Won't chill till I confirm a kill". I was so outraged at these slogans! Especially because someone had the audasity to actually put it on a t-shirt and distribute them!! Are you kidding me?! That's ludacris. Of course wartime is difficult and many hard decision need to be made, many concerning life and death. However, I do not think there should ever be a soldier that is that "gung ho" about killing, ESPECIALLY killing a child no matter what the circumstances. In addition, these emotions that these soldiers are possessing that make them happy to kill are only fostering more deadly and violent ideas. This controversey follows more stories about soldiers' abuse of civilian's during the Gaza offensive. These revelations suggest a "pattern of immoral conduct in the army". How can we expect and trust that innocent civilians will behave and act morally if it isn't even expected of the federal army! This is just opening pandora's box. This isn't a few rotten apples! This is becoming the norm of this army and that is very frightening!

I do find this article reliable because of the plethora of articles I was able to find to support the first one's claim. In addition to this, an ex-soldier and campaigner of BREAKING THE SILENCE Michael Manikin, told a local newspaper that he also thinks this is a pattern. The realiability in the article also lies in the tone of the author in these articles. They do not sound bias and they do not sound excessively accusatory. To some degree they will sound like they are attacking the soldiers, but that is simply because of what they are discussing.

I saw the future... not really, but it got your attention didn't it?

Bill Richardson, former US ambassador to the United Nations and New Mexico governor, wrote an article about US involvement in Israeli peace negotiations for CNN. I read the article this morning and it just reittereated many of the points I made in what I posted yesterday. Richardson stressed the importance for Americans to rally behind the President in his daunting efforts because this is obviously not as easy task. President Obama also added that the United States seeks peace agreement on all fronts including Lebanon and Syria.

How awesome is that!! Disregarding the United States' actual motives or negative factors concerning mingling of middle eastern countries, it finally seems like someone is putting peace in the middle east a the top of their list!! I feel like Obama has the same sense of urgency for middle eastern peace as he does for health care reform. The 5 billion dollar decision is still being persistently challenged, but we're taking steps in the right direction to correct a gross injustice.

:) I'll get off my soap box now because this isn't what I am primarily suppose to use this website for, but it has been helpful in helping me express my thoughts and opinions in an articulate way. I love blogging!

Since I'm here, I would also like to bring your attention to something else I read AND heard on the radio this morning. Thailand, the country with one of the worst cases of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, has announced a breakthrough with an HIV vaccine!! After monitoring over 16,000 Thai volunteers over a course of three years, they found that only 51% of the test group as opposed to the 74% of the placebo contracted the HIV virus. That is a HUGE deal!!! The HIV virus claims the lives of countless people every year and this is the first time postive news about a vaccine has been given to the media. Having visited Thailand I feel even more excited at this breakthrough because many people there suffer from the disease. News of this vaccine has basically made my day!! It's a wonderful day to be alive :)

I don't know why I can't get the article to be all one font!! When I go to edit post it seems like everything is okay... and then i publish it and that happens!! it is so frustrating!!! GRRRR!!! :(

STOP LAGGING says the US

Greetings! I hope everyone is having a good semester so far :) With the craziness of the budget cuts its a miracle that we have made it this far!

I read 2 seperate articles on the same topic. Both were concerning peace negotiatons between the Israeli's and the Palestinians. The first one was from the point of view of the Palestinian coeditor of "bitterlemons" andthe director of the Government media centre. The entire article is obviously his own personal views. He proceeds to discuss the "diplomatic activity" of the region. Israeli officials are eager to convince the media that a speedy settlement will be made between Israel and the US on the construction freeze. A settlement concerning the construction freeze, in Israeli eyes, will thus allow Palestinian and Israeli negotiation talks to continue. The author of the article Ghassan Khatib says it is too soon for Israeli officials to really validate their claims of a quick negotioation process. The US middle east envoy, George Mitchell, clearly and publically states there is no official agreement over the settlement construction freeze. The Israeli public is sensitive to US-Israel relations and US President Barack Obama and Mitchell are well aware of this

When Mitchell met with the Israeli Prime Minister, both made it clear that no formal agreement had been reached. The media is being used to sway public opinion in Israeli so tensions will not rise. An agreement over the issue between Israel and the United States has sparked talks of US initiative. This is primarily an Israeli view hoever, as anything that has been leaked about it only concerns borders and leaves the refugee issue and of Jerusalem for later.

The authors believes it is dangerous to enter premature talks of a negotiation between Israel and the US because it could potentially backfire and damnage any "renewed credibility for the Palestinian leadership." The author seems to have a lot of faith in the Palentinian government. This is evident through his views concerning the current Palestinian President and Prime Minister.

Ghassan Khatib is a reliable source, but it shoul be understood that his Palentinian point of view is his own personal opinion and may not necessarily reflect the views of other local Palestinian citizens. I DO feel like the author paid close attention to detail, especially when he reported a conference between Mitchell and the Israeli Prime Minister. The writer stayed objective, but seems far more critical of Israeli motives than anything else.

The other article I read was more about US involvement with peace negotiations. It was titled "Obama growing weary with Israel, PA leadership". From the point of view of the articles and a high percentage of Americans, Obama is trying to make moves. When I say make moves, i mean taking action in a quick, and efficient manner. Apparently, Obama called for immediate final-status talks at the beginning of Tuesday's meeting stating "permanent-status negotiations must begin, and begin soon." Mitchell said the mechanisms of the negotiations were definitely still being worked out. A US offcial said that both sides were holding out on different things before they would let peace negotiation talks resume. However, the first article i read did not speak on the fact that a peace settlement concerning the freeze's is not the only obstacle in the way of permanent-status peace agreements.

I trust that both articles are objective and both used enough details to support all their claims. In the second article there were even pictures! :)

I am impressed with President Obama's sense of urgency for peace and I feel like his priorities are in the correct order. With domestic issues being debated and questioned in the United States on a daily basis, it is comforting to know he is directing his attention across the board and really giving his administration a good head start.

I will probably have something more to add to this tomorrow morning :) I always feel especially opinionated in the early hours of the morning. Theres also a possibility that I won't add to more to this post which, I think, is also acceptable because the information and analysis I have provided thus far as sufficient to complete the assignment .

"the article" in the last paragraph and "Palestine" in the second paragraph are both links. i just realized that they weren't a different color.

bitterlemons: what kind of name is that for a website?! :)

HELLO! Krystal here :) holler! This whole blogging thing is so innovative! I know my elders have this misconception that because I was born anytime after 1985 that I should know everything about computers and the internet. This is TOTALLY FALSE! I'm not computer illiterate or anything, but I find technical things about the internet like making links to be a bit difficult. Anyway, I didn't want to just JUMP RIGHT IN to my blog without some tye of "shpeal" of my thoughts on blogs.

I read an articles from the bitterlemons website about unilateral declaration of independence for Palestine. 2 of the most top senior leaders have expressed their expectation of this declaration whether the decision is reached out of failure of bilateral negotiations of a 2 year state or as a proposal of a two year Palestinian constitution. The issue of what Israel will decide to do if peace negotiations fail and the Palestinian government converts from what has been dubbed "de juro state apparatus" (by way of institution building) to a de juro territory still remains. The question you need you need to ask yourself is if the world and United Nations will recognize Palestinian UDI (unilateral declaration of independence). Although it has not in the past, speculation suggests that if Israel is blamed for failed negotiations then Palestine would in fact gain widespread independence and acceptance. Once the dust settles after the negotiations have failed (from an Israeli perspective) Israel will most likely be forced to accept "conditional recognition to a self declared independence".

In terms of discussing the reliability, I did find the article to be reliable as the author was the former director of the Jeffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. The other seemed objective but also had an accusatory tone when speaking out negotioations in terms of Israel. I feel like I received accurate details of the situation in question and received accurate places to find further resources if needed. Although I trust the validity of the author I still found it odd that he was almost sure Israel would reject any peace effort brought forth by Palestine.... AND HE'S ISRAELI. This view is in no way nationalist and had a negative tone. Overall, I found it to be informative and educational. It was not particularly easy to read, but after re-reading it a few times I was able to decipher the message and different political leaders mentioned. I don't feel like the author used anything to catch my attention in the beginning which is another reason why i found it to be dry reading material. However, becuse he jumped right into the topic, his reliability was affirmed.

new blog :)