Conflict in the Caucasus

Armenia is part of CSTO – Collective Security Treaty Organization akin to NATO which is a Russia-led military alliance of seven former Soviet states and Azerbaijan is not a part of the group. The CSTO’s mission is to secure the collective defence of any member that faces external threat and if tensions escalate, Armenia can always invoke the CSTO. Azerbaijan was founded in 1918 after the collapse of Tzarist Russia. Before that Azerbaijan was part of different empires and dynasties - mostly of Persia. The word “Azerbaijan” is a Persian word meaning land of fire and Azeris are Turkified Iranian people, they spoke old Azeri which is Persian. The Azeris are nice people and good friends of Israel. The Armenians are a small people with large claims to lost territories (see map).

Every Project Ends in the Courts

In my former blog I commented on the low quality of the Sharona Bldg. Years after, the buyers of the shops and offices are demanding 80 million dollars from the builder Gindi Real Estate. The Judge froze Gindi's bank accounts for 15 million US$. The problem is that (1) the grease interceptors stand in the parking level, that the buyers consider their own, (2) apart from the imaginary environmental nuisance, they claim it reduces the value of their property. First thing they demand to register their claim so it will be transferred should they sell their offices, shops, etc. Happily, I was not involved in the design of the Sharona bldg's systems. Details in Hebrew follow. בחודש אפריל 2016 הגישה נציגות הדיירים תביעה נגד גינדי החזקות, מנהלי החברה ובני משפחת גינדי, שבה דרשה לסגור את "שרונה מרקט" - שוק האוכל שפועל בקומת הקרקע של הפרויקט - שגרם לדבריהם למפגעים תברואתיים. עוד טענו הדיירים כי גינדי השתלטה על חלקים ברכוש המשותף של הפרויקט וביקשו מבית המשפט צו שיאכוף את ההפרדה "בין מערכות המרקט ומגדלי המגורים". דיירי מגדלי שרונה, המיוצגים ע"י עוה"ד צבי פירון, אפרת רנד וניר פרץ ממשרד מ.פירון ושות', טוענים עתה כי אם יימכרו החניונים לצד ג' לא ניתן יהיה להעביר את בורות השומן המצויים היום בחניוני המגורים לחניון שרונה מרקט ולא ניתן יהיה לחייב את הקונה לאפשר לדיירים לעשות שימוש בחניון התפעולי המצוי בקומה מינוס 2 ומהווה את אחת מדרכי הגישה לבניינים. הדיירים דורשים אפוא "להורות על רישום הערה בדבר הגשת התביעה שבכותרת, על מנת ליידע צדדים שלישיים בדבר המחלוקות הנוגעות לחניונים ובדבר זכויותיה של התובעת בהם".

Systemic Racism Reaches Europe

The pic of the Van Der Leyden (center, red pullover) European Union Commission was commented in a Spanish journal as "racista" because there are no representatives of minorities. 10% of Europe's population is gypsy, African, South American, etc. but the ruling political class is - according to the pic - 60% elderly European women and 40% elderly European men (incl. homosexuals). They have decided to investigate the percentage of minorities everywhere - following the shining (and burning) example of America.

What worries Iran

“If the Zionists enter this region (Persian Gulf) and incidents happen that would disrupt our national security and defense, we will view them (the UAE) as the enemy’s base and we will deal with them in the same way we deal with the enemy,” said Bagheri. Bagheri is a military intelligence expert with a Ph.D. in political geography. He has been identified as the IRGC Command Network that "dominates the upper echelons of Iran's military and controls planning, operations, intelligence, covert and irregular warfare operations, and internal security."

My City: 20% Infected with Corona

Kfar Saba Municipality reports that 20% of the population carries the coronavirus. Probable world record. Probably they mean that 20% of the sampled is positive, no world champion, in Bney Brak is 50%. We are a herd with no immunity. I did not go the synagogue this Yom Kippur. Closed like a hermit. נזיר.

About the Khazars

What language they spoke? Hungarian. Why they disappeared so suddenly? An allied Russian-Mongol campaign destroyed the 300 years old Khazaria. What happened to their capital city Itil? The river Don changed its course near the delta and it became a swamp. The Khazars were White or Asians? They were Turks, they looked Europeans with Mongol mix. Like Turkmen. Did they practice Judaism? A horseback nomadic kind of. They retained their cult of Tenger (Tengri) the chief deity, the Taltos, the magic shaman, the Boldogasszony, the miracle female deity, Turul madar - the totem bird of the Magyar nation, and so. With the passing of the centuries, some assimilated and a few became totally Jewish. The Kabars - a Khazar tribe - led the Magyar allied tribes in their invasion of what is Hungary. Why Hungary? Because Hungary is the only non-forested land in Europe, with grass for the horses. Where can Khazar descendants be found today? As such, nowhere. The Nazis exterminated their remnants. Were they recognized as Kosher Jews? Yes.

James Thompson: We are being titrated

Now we are in a time of uncertainty, and the advice and exhortations are likely to change every couple of weeks. Adults should understand that we are titrating our responses to a hazard, and that even though case increases are probably not exponential, they are on an upward path. That said, it is hard to obtain commitment when the rules vary so much. Insurrection seems unlikely, but actual non-compliance will probably increase.

My beloved city Kfar Saba has just been declared "Red City", meaning that the number of infected is increasing exponentially and has passed some number. Prof Thompson explains that the number of positives is unrelated to the number of people falling ill. But fatties like me are in danger. More than that I did not understood. Anyway, I am at home trying to work. Found several projects misfiled and forgotten - now is the time to update my work schedule.

The West Bank according to the CIA

The CIA maintains a useful data bank. I believe no voluntary distorsions are included, but somehow the data on the West Bank seems to mirror a place I do not know. Gross Natonal Product = $9.828 billion (2014 est.). Since population is about 2.9 million (including 0.5 million Jews), it is 3,500 $ per capita. It is in the Nigeria - Bangla Desh group. However, One does not see human misery in the roads or in the villages. On the contrary, one sees palatial buildings and brand-new Mercedes Benz cars. Many schools and universities, at middays the streets are full of uniformed children coming from school, and the statistics too prove that the youth is studying. This is an active, enterprising, commercial people. Yet every second Palestinian I talk with, dreams of moving to Europe or America. Against all the rethoric and posturing of "return to Palestine", most seem to be searching for ways to joing their relatives in the West.

Hope vs Hopelessness

The corona epidemic is getting to our nerves. Today, 7000 infected in Israel. My daughter feels all kinds of symptoms and fears having the disease. She succeeded in infecting - with her hysteria - my wife. I have two clients phoning me all day - why I don't answer and why I am not advancing with their projects. I wish they would disappear. I'll have to face them sooner or later, tomorrow or Friday. 

I had planned my life so that I shall work till age .. (my current age) . It seemed so far away that I did not plan anything after that.  Life passed without noticing and now I have no future plans. Everybody says that not working causes hopelessness, depression, disease and early death. I have several professional articles half-written, and I am not finishing them because of "what for?" I believe it does no good for my children to inherit much, or am I just an old miser?

Woody Allen convinced himself that had brain cancer and walked aimlessly and then entered a cinema where he watched a Marx Brothers film. What the Hell, I am enjoying it! and went to work. 

The CIA, Mobutu Sese Seko and el Che Guevara

  I am rereading A Bend on the River by Naipaul. In the novel there is a Belgian teacher, former adviser of Mobutu and now, disgraced, edits his speeches in the hope of regaining his favor. I tried to find if there was such book or it was the writer's invention, and voila! there it is on the internet (in French). The drama of the Belgian Congo has been forgotten, and as is my boss M. Portalis's Latinoconsult project in Katanga. See the documentary on YouTube. 

In the movie there is an interview with the CIA agent who tells how they tried to identify potential leaders around Lumumba, and how - later - he received the order to eliminate Lumumba. Lumumba was trying to align his strategic, copper and uranium mining country, with the socialist camp. The order was carried out by Mobutu, whose faithful service was rewarded with firm support from the West. that allowed him to steal millions and enjoy it undisturbed in Europe. 

When later the mining province of Katanga tried to secede with the assistance of the Che, the rebellion's leader Kabila was persuaded to change sides and the rebels were liquidated by South African soldiers.  Kabila became President of the Congo, and after he was assassinated, his son Joseph inherited the post. El Che said that the rebels were not serious and moved to start a guerrilla in Bolivia. Naipaul's Indian trading families are back in Stanleyville (whatever it is called now). The book has been accused of pro-colonialism, in my opinion, rightly. Moreover, it is racist, he explains the riots, the massacres and the rage of the Africans "for being what they are" - an enigmatic yet crystal clear diagnosis of postcolonial Africa. And not only Africa. 

Harvard Haram!

 

I am reading about Jewish girls passing for Afro-Americans, for Portorricans, etc. to get into good universities in the USA and enjoy  priority hiring for good jobs. Noia my granddaughter has reddish Afro hair, so she may claim privileged minority status. She could be admitted by Harvard, thanks either to her hairstyle or her Ashkenazi IQ, a rare, lucky combination. But I am against it. Harvard Haram as in Boko (Book in Hausa) Haram. If I have influence left, she is headed to an ulpana in Jerusalem. Alas, she will do what her mother and grandmother decide. 

New Jewish Year

At 2 PM today the country goes into isolation for three weeks. The coronavirus epidemic is raging and each day some 5000 catches it.  There are 50,000 active cases aka sick people. For the younger people is a bad flu, for adults it may take two weeks in bed, for elders like me it means a stay in the hospital on respirator and then a painful death.  As for me, I must be in good shape and healthy since last night I had a wet dream. I am surprised since it is an adolescent exuberance  uncommon at my legendary age. Six signed contracts are waiting - a lot of work - I need motivation. Grandchildren are sick, Shkeddy has the aftosa virus (the hoof-and-mouth disease which I knew as a South American bovine disease), another is allergic to gluten. Friends are not calling and when they do, we have nothing to talk about. 

The TAPLINE: Israel Finds its Niche

 ARAMCO built the TAP oil line between the  pumping stations in Saudia and the port of Haifa, bypassing the expensive maritime route of the Suez Canal. For a hundred years, a TAPline lays unused because political instability of the Middle East. Now, the United States, after a generation of wars has quieted down the area and the TAPline, that never died, is being revived.

Israel, Egypt and Greece are building a gas line to Europe. If the two systems are joined, we have complete secure energy supply to Europe. The loser will be Russia, that will be outpriced from the European market. The winner will be America, having its fingers holding the energy aorta of Europe. Israel will realize its foundational dream of integrating itself into the British (now American) global economic system. BTW, all the troubles of Argentina started when it lost its position as food supplier within the British "imperialist" system.  Till now it cannot find a place in the new system. 

 I am reading secret English reports on the perspectives of the Jews in Eretz Israel after the Mandate. The tone is arrogant even antisemitic. The Jews live from donations and have zero fighting inclination and skill. They did not gave us a year.  

Jews Praying In the White House

 History Made Today. 

Why am I so poor?

 

Median Jews are Well-to-Do.

I am a Median Jew. 

Ergo, should have an income of 100,000 US$ but  do not have it. 

Why?

Race	Median Income
Jewish	$97,500
Asian	$76,260
White	$60,256
Pacific Islanders and Native Hawaiians	$60,133
Hispanic	$42,491
Black	$35,398

P.S.: I must be Hispanic. Or Black. Am I Black?

Kevin McDonald is Wrong

MacDonald wrote that if not for the expulsion of the Jews from England (in the 12th century), a native middle class could not have  developed.

 Reading Naipaul's Bend in the River about Salim, a Hindu shopkeeper in Stanleyville, I reflected that after the Indian middle class was expelled from East Africa, no native middle class took its place. Fifty years after, natives are not filling their economical niches. The same in Zimbabwe, after the foreign race middle class left, there are no signs of the development of a capable Black replacement.  May be it is too early, could be. 

Old Shatterhand in the Prairie Fire

California and Australia are burning, and people is wondering why. From early childhood I have the vision of the prairie (America's open grassland) burning and killing everything in its way, thanks to Karl May's adventures of Old Shatterhand (a German) and his blood brother Winnetou  (a Mescalero Chief). Once Old Shatterhand found himself downwind from a prairie-fire, in mortal danger. He took his faithful Bahrentotter and killed a buffalo, emptied its insides and sewed himself in the carcass. The fire passed over him  in a few minutes without harming him and, I imagine, afterwards he enjoyed a copious "asado". 

Thus I am not surprised by the fires and don't talk me about climate change. 

Wrong Numbers

 Long-term forecasts are uncertain. But in the long run, the "demographic transition" algorithm shows that global demographic development naturally seeks a stable equilibrium as the population gradually adapts to its ecological niche's limits.

Nonsense.  Populations have suffered tremendous changes in the last thousand years. No equilibrium. 

Trigger Level in Lead Concentration in Water

 

On October 10th (Hey, we are September 13 !)  EPA announced the long-awaited proposed revisions to the Lead and Copper Rule (LCRR) which was promulgated nearly 30 years ago under the Safe Drinking Water Act. There are some meaningful and significant changes in its nearly 350 pages. A combination of regulation and public awareness regarding lead risks has been effective and, as the proposal points out, the median blood lead level among children in the US has decreased by 95% since 1976. However, even low levels of lead can pose risks to children’s developing brains and bodies and lead can also be harmful to adults.

Replacement activities would be tied to concentration thresholds differently. Though the Action Level (AL) would remain at 15 ppb, the proposal introduces a new Trigger Level of 10 ppb. The primary goal of the Trigger Level is to provide utilities with an opportunity to identify treatment issues before a monitoring violation occurs.

I have not read the 350 pages but seems to me that there are no meaningful nor significant  changes. 

Thinking about Turkey

 

Turkey's foreign exchange reserves (black line) have reached minus 60 billion. Net debt. The coming step is a deep devaluation of the lira. This is a playable situation, although one must remember Eliezer Fishman's losses on the same place. 

In the meanwhile, the seqel is strengthening. Economically, Israel is strong. This corona epidemic is focusing the public's anxiety and desperation on Netaniyahu. But he is a good leader. 

A Bahrain Jew

 A remarkable Iraqi Jew I met in Tel Aviv in the mid-seventies had been the accountant of the Arabian American Oil company at Bahrain. When Israel achieved its independence, the Arabs rioted and the community moved to safety in Bombay, India. Bahrain is an island situated at two days navigation from Basra, Iraq, the port serving the Gulf. Basra had a community of merchant Jews, and they traded in the booming Gulf seaside villages aka Trucial States. Jews could not participate in the caravan trade of the mainland,  due to Wahhabi fundamentalists. This respectable Iraki Jew told that Bahrain houses had flat roofs, and the community moved on the roofs when they escaped for their lives. He spoke a painfully correct Hebrew, like my Father spoke Spanish, having learnt the language as an adult. 

The climate is horrible: August-September average 40 C and the northern wind brings humidity, creating a day-and-night suffocating climate. Bahrain and the rest of the Gulf Arab settlements are now very wealthy and westernized, and they tolerate Christians and Jews. Most of the population is transient, Arabs from the Levant and Pakistani, Malaysian, etc. The future is unknown: the climate change may turn the place uninhabitable by 2100, and the oil may become worthless. The current cities are built on abandoned ruins of undiscovered civilizations, nothing lasts forever.  Pic: the Kedourie Family. of Bahrain. 

Addendum:  Bahrain is welcoming Jews and grants them citizenship, which is more valuable than a Green Card. 

I could not avoid posting this picture of the King of Bahrain and the local Habad emissary. What a pleasure to find some-body fatter than I am!

Hard Times

In the last week I have worked very little,  lack of energy. Today I took part in a ZOOM meeting of a Commercial Center project under The HaEmek Hospital. I asked for my proposal to be signed, and the bastards changed the content: things I wrote were changed to the opposite. I resigned the job. Depressing. 

The Revenue hit me with a large amount for 2019 and this month I am paying more tax than my income. Depressing. 

The University is open and my absence has gone totally unnoticed. Twenty years driving to Ariel and now I am a stranger.

I am searching for a purpose but nothing interests me. I am going to bed to read Naipaul's Stanleyville story. Pic.: There were no roads and all the traffic moved with the weekly steamer.  It took a week on the Congo River to reach the capital (2000 km). The verbosity of Naipaul is tiring. He over-analyses his feelings in every situation. The description of the Indian trading settlement in Zanzibar and East Africa is interesting. Till Idi Amin expelled them. 

 

Substitute Godesses

 Belief in a god or gods who intervene in the world to create order is a core element of global religions,” (Adam Green).

Without belief in that God, people choose to subscribe to conspiracy theories. While there are certainly unseen actors, more elaborate and improbable conspiracy theories are obviously a substitute for God for those who can no longer make themselves believe in Him.

Things just aren’t all that well-run. If only it all was a giant conspiracy theory. Then we could all rest assured that like the stock on any other well-run ranch, we would be properly fed and watered before we were sheared.

…but we haven’t even that consolation. If anyone is in charge, they’re spectacularly incompetent.

Ill.: Athena and Poseidon, competing for the title of Patron God of the City. Athena won. Athena never had a lover and was known as Athena Parthenos, “Virgin Athena”. The temple Parthenon takes its name from her virginity. Mary, the wife of Joseph and mother of Jesus and his brothers, is also believed to be a virgin. What obsession these peoples had with virginity?

The Attraction of Judaism

We are a very small people but exert a disproportional influence on humanity. A large number of people from all over the world tries actively to join us. I think it is because of our aura of success and wealth, however precarious the reality turns out to be. On the other hand, we are engaged in a competition to protect Jewish majority in Eretz Israel, so we cannot be too selective, and anyone with some (presumed) blood connection to the historic Jewish people is accepted. And because of this existential imperative of having a larger head count, Israel is forced to follow a pro-natalist policy. And a westernization policy for its Arab minority ("westernization" does not mean becoming Western, European or American, since Oriental peoples like the Japanese are the undisputed champions in not reproducing). Pic.: Bnei Menashe immigrants (they are from NorthEast India, no genetic link to any Middle Eastern people).

Second wave in Israel

Coronavirus cases peak - 12% of those tested have the virus. More than 900 people are hospitalized, including 476 in serious condition, among them 137 who are intubated. 

 People is fed up with the disease and the quarantine ordered by the government, one week we are clean and the next general closure and isolation of cities. People arrived to the conclusion that the government does not know what to do and tends to ignore it. The protests are growing, but they are focused on Bibi as if its decapitation would solve something. The police is confused, are unable to distinguish between violent protesters and the inoffensive jobless artists present in search of a public. Yesterday, Shoshke, a parody of Sara Netaniyahu, was arrested "protesting" in front of the Netaniyahus residence for being "sexually offensive" (sic). 

Katza Closed

Kfar Saba is a Green City yet we feel the virus floating in the hot air above it. The main school Katzenelson is closed and two kindergartens. I feel depressed because this unending stress. Pic.: We may be the most liberal, secular city in this country, but in the Katzenelson School events the girls sit behind the boys.

Beethoven: Triple Concerto in C major, op. 56

News from Argentina

I talked to my relatives in Argentina. They are all working. Schools are closed and people live in fear of street crime. 4000 additional policemen (pic) were sent to the Buenos Aires Province to increase personal safety. From my vantage point, their situation is sustainable. 

Argentina's foreign debt of 323 billion US$ is, however, unsustainable. After 160 days of quarantine, 400,000 people are sick and 8,000 have died. 

Kfar Saba Boiled and Steamed

 

The heavy heat will continue over the weekend, with the heat becoming oppressive on Friday afternoon. Along the coast, the air will be extremely muggy.

In Katzrin, temperatures on Friday are expected to reach 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit), while in Tzfat, Rehovot, and Beit Shemesh, temperatures are expected to reach 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit). Nahariya, Haifa, and Tel Aviv will see temperatures of 34 degrees (93.2), while Tiberias and the Dead Sea area will reach up to 45 degrees (113 degrees). In Tayibe (NEXT TO KFAR SABA CITY), the heat will reach 37 degrees  * (98.6 degrees), while in Ariel, temperatures will reach 39 degrees (102.2 degrees). Jerusalem and Mitzpe Ramon will see temperatures of up to 40 degrees (104 degrees), while Be'er Sheva could see temperatures of 43 degrees (109.4 degrees) and Eilat of up to 47 degrees (116.6 degrees).

(*) It is 10 AM and already it is higher!