The Flashlight, November 24-30, 2007
THE FLASHLIGHT, November 24-30, 2007
The Middle East Conference
``` NYTimes, 11-24-26; W Post 11-28; Haaretz 11-29. Forty nations, including 16 Arab Nations began a conference in Annapolis on 11-27 to renew negotiations on the Israel/ Palestine conflict. Only Iran and Hamas were not invited. Libya and Kuwait were invited but declined to attend. The new negotiations will begin December 12, and the expressed hope of the leaders is that they would be completed successfully by the end of 2008. The Arab Nations represent a united bloc.
The Economist 11-24. There is a widespread understanding of what a just solution would be. If President Bush affirms it, he will help moderates on both sides.
Haaretz 11-29. Pres. Olmert of Israel told the leading Israeli liberal newspaper that if there is no two-state solution, Israel is “finished.” In a single state there would be terrible conflict, as in South Africa, over voting rights.
PBS 11-27. Major problems are 1) The 270,000 Israelis currently in West Bank settlements judged to be illegal under international law and 2) the Palestinians remaining in Jerusalem and constituting one-third of the population.
Iraq
NYTimes 11-25. Civilian deaths are down 75% in Baghdad since last June. The surge is over; the current troop level is 162,000. It is expected to fall by the end of December by 5,000, and by next July by 20,000.
Pakistan
NYTimes 11-28. Musharraf resigned as general in the army and was sworn in as President as a civilian. [after a rigged election]. 11-29. Musharraf promised to end the emergency rule and restore the Constitution as of December 16. General Kiani, the Army intelligence chief, will take over leadership of the Army. The former Supreme Court remains under house arrest. Musharraf welcomed opposition leaders Benazir Bhotto and Nawaz Sharif.
France
NY Times 11-28. In the suburbs of Paris undereducated and unemployed youths of Arab and African descent rioted, as they had done in 2005. But this time they were armed with hunting rifles and they wounded, in some cases severely, over a hundred policemen. The government has been planning programs to improve the lot of the immigrants, but little has been accomplished so far.
Lebanon
Guardian 11-30. The Lebanese Government has nominated army chief Michel Suleiman as President. With the aid of the international community, Suleiman was able to deploy Lebanese army troops in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon for the first time in 30 years.
United States
Social Mobility: The Blacks
The Economist 11-24. In a study of the period 1968-2006, social scientists have found that American blacks in the middle fifth income group in the population suffered from declining real incomes and downward mobility. At all income levels, blacks are less likely to exceed the income of their parents than are whites. The probable causes of this are:
1. The failure of black males to complete a college education, which has become necessary to get a good job.
2. The disintegration of the black family. Most black families have only one wage earner, a female.
3. Whites in the middle fifth of income have five times the wealth as blacks. Their extra cash cushions them against job loss and illness. They can more easily get credit and help from relatives.
Science and Morality
Time, 12-3, pp. 54-60. Written by Tiffany Sharples and Alexandra Silver. Scientists have been finding that all people have some moral aptitude. When people “turn bad,” it is usually when they become involved with others outside their own family, community, tribe, or nation. In wartime, it is necessary for them to dehumanize the outsiders in order to slaughter them. In most cases of genocide there is a “moral entrepreneur” who exploits tribalism for evil purposes.
Religion: The Publication of the New Testament
Free Inquiry 11-28. It has long been thought that the publication of the New Testament was the result of a process over many centuries. David Trobish, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, argues that the process lasted only a little over one century. He is author of The First Edition of the New Testament, Oxford, 2000. He attributed the publication to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna (Izmir) in what is now Turkey, and sets the date as between 156 and 168 c.e. [common era, formerly A.D.] His careful scholarly arguments are interesting.
Book Review: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine, by David Shulman
The review is by Avishai Margalit, “A Moral Witness to the ‘Intricate Machine,’” and it appears in The New York Review of Books, December 6, 2007, 34-37. David Shulman, winner of a MacArthur genius grant and expert on the cultures of India, spent four years in Israel as a “moral witness” to Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. He was a member of Ta’ayush, an Israeli-Palestinian peace organization. This is a diary of his observations. In particular the group struggled against younger Israelis in West Bank settlements:
“Israel, like any society, has violent sociopathic elements. What is unusual about the last four decades in Israel is that many destructive individuals have found a haven, complete with ideological legitimation, within the settlement enterprise.. Here, in places like Chavat Maon, Itamar, Tapuach, and Hebron, they have, in effect, unfettered freedom to terrorize the local Palestinian population, to attack, shoot, injure, and sometimes kill – all in the name of the alleged sanctity of the land and of the Jews’ exclusive right to it. “
The Middle East Conference
``` NYTimes, 11-24-26; W Post 11-28; Haaretz 11-29. Forty nations, including 16 Arab Nations began a conference in Annapolis on 11-27 to renew negotiations on the Israel/ Palestine conflict. Only Iran and Hamas were not invited. Libya and Kuwait were invited but declined to attend. The new negotiations will begin December 12, and the expressed hope of the leaders is that they would be completed successfully by the end of 2008. The Arab Nations represent a united bloc.
The Economist 11-24. There is a widespread understanding of what a just solution would be. If President Bush affirms it, he will help moderates on both sides.
Haaretz 11-29. Pres. Olmert of Israel told the leading Israeli liberal newspaper that if there is no two-state solution, Israel is “finished.” In a single state there would be terrible conflict, as in South Africa, over voting rights.
PBS 11-27. Major problems are 1) The 270,000 Israelis currently in West Bank settlements judged to be illegal under international law and 2) the Palestinians remaining in Jerusalem and constituting one-third of the population.
Iraq
NYTimes 11-25. Civilian deaths are down 75% in Baghdad since last June. The surge is over; the current troop level is 162,000. It is expected to fall by the end of December by 5,000, and by next July by 20,000.
Pakistan
NYTimes 11-28. Musharraf resigned as general in the army and was sworn in as President as a civilian. [after a rigged election]. 11-29. Musharraf promised to end the emergency rule and restore the Constitution as of December 16. General Kiani, the Army intelligence chief, will take over leadership of the Army. The former Supreme Court remains under house arrest. Musharraf welcomed opposition leaders Benazir Bhotto and Nawaz Sharif.
France
NY Times 11-28. In the suburbs of Paris undereducated and unemployed youths of Arab and African descent rioted, as they had done in 2005. But this time they were armed with hunting rifles and they wounded, in some cases severely, over a hundred policemen. The government has been planning programs to improve the lot of the immigrants, but little has been accomplished so far.
Lebanon
Guardian 11-30. The Lebanese Government has nominated army chief Michel Suleiman as President. With the aid of the international community, Suleiman was able to deploy Lebanese army troops in Hezbollah-controlled southern Lebanon for the first time in 30 years.
United States
Social Mobility: The Blacks
The Economist 11-24. In a study of the period 1968-2006, social scientists have found that American blacks in the middle fifth income group in the population suffered from declining real incomes and downward mobility. At all income levels, blacks are less likely to exceed the income of their parents than are whites. The probable causes of this are:
1. The failure of black males to complete a college education, which has become necessary to get a good job.
2. The disintegration of the black family. Most black families have only one wage earner, a female.
3. Whites in the middle fifth of income have five times the wealth as blacks. Their extra cash cushions them against job loss and illness. They can more easily get credit and help from relatives.
Science and Morality
Time, 12-3, pp. 54-60. Written by Tiffany Sharples and Alexandra Silver. Scientists have been finding that all people have some moral aptitude. When people “turn bad,” it is usually when they become involved with others outside their own family, community, tribe, or nation. In wartime, it is necessary for them to dehumanize the outsiders in order to slaughter them. In most cases of genocide there is a “moral entrepreneur” who exploits tribalism for evil purposes.
Religion: The Publication of the New Testament
Free Inquiry 11-28. It has long been thought that the publication of the New Testament was the result of a process over many centuries. David Trobish, Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine, argues that the process lasted only a little over one century. He is author of The First Edition of the New Testament, Oxford, 2000. He attributed the publication to Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna (Izmir) in what is now Turkey, and sets the date as between 156 and 168 c.e. [common era, formerly A.D.] His careful scholarly arguments are interesting.
Book Review: Working for Peace in Israel and Palestine, by David Shulman
The review is by Avishai Margalit, “A Moral Witness to the ‘Intricate Machine,’” and it appears in The New York Review of Books, December 6, 2007, 34-37. David Shulman, winner of a MacArthur genius grant and expert on the cultures of India, spent four years in Israel as a “moral witness” to Israeli treatment of the Palestinians. He was a member of Ta’ayush, an Israeli-Palestinian peace organization. This is a diary of his observations. In particular the group struggled against younger Israelis in West Bank settlements:
“Israel, like any society, has violent sociopathic elements. What is unusual about the last four decades in Israel is that many destructive individuals have found a haven, complete with ideological legitimation, within the settlement enterprise.. Here, in places like Chavat Maon, Itamar, Tapuach, and Hebron, they have, in effect, unfettered freedom to terrorize the local Palestinian population, to attack, shoot, injure, and sometimes kill – all in the name of the alleged sanctity of the land and of the Jews’ exclusive right to it. “
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