Jewish Soldiers out in the Cold Rain

Shabbat morning and it is cold and raining in Israel. The Army is on alert because of the ajusticiamiento of the Irani general. The word in Spanish means to make justice to a criminal, execution. I remember my own soldiering times in the Northern front line, wet and freezing in the mountains, like this morning. 

Revolution coming for Central America

The corridor stretching from Southern Mexico to Panama is in its tenth year of drought. The Panama Canal, the chocking point of the world's maritime trade, is drying up and is becoming unserviceable for large vessels.  Pic. 

Millions of people in the dry corridor needed food aid due to drought between 2014 and mid-2016, which resulted in losses of the corn crop. Drought impact has been especially severe in Honduras^[ and Guatemala. 

This explains the sudden pressure of illegal migrants on America's Southern border and Trump's building the border wall. 4 million (would be) climate change migrants from Central America and Mexico are projected according to a World Bank report. The misery will cause serious political disturbances. 

Paranoia

I bought a disk-on-key and paid with a credit card. Ten minutes later appeared on my computer monitor an ad for a disk-on-key, the first time ever. This thing happens all the time. Conclusion: "They" have access to my credit card account, or the seller's computer/printer, and want to sell me a disk-on-key. If so, why are they offering me after I already bought one? I welcome surveillance when they offer me things I may need. No one "out there" ever hurt me but the idea that they are watching and studying me all the time is unsettling. 

Israel: Silent Member of Regional Alliance

The vision of Israel integrated into the regional political structure is becoming a reality. Shimon Peres and many others thought that water supply would be the vehicle leading to this situation, but now we are watching natural gas causing this integration. 

Yesterday, Egypt condemned in the “strongest terms” the Turkish parliament’s decision to authorize the government to deploy troops to Libya. "Such interference will negatively affect stability in the Mediterranean, and Turkey will fully bear this responsibility.” Any Turkish military “interference in Libya threatens Arab national security, in general, and Egyptian national security, in particular,” the statement said. Israel has not been mentioned, but we are implied in Egypt's statement. 

Now I want to hear from Italy that we are its Eastern Mediterranean ally.  Italy is not a martial power like France, but it is part of Europe. All in all, the geopolitical situation of Israel is slowly improving. 

Tension between Hellas and Ionia

The geopolitics of the Antiquity has a way of not going away. Israel (Judea) and Greece (Hellas) and Italy (Rome) are coalescing in a block to build a long submarine pipe line to sell gas to Europe.  The Ionian settlements on the Asian seaboard, once Persian satrapies and now Turkey, aspire to become the energy hub of the region and want to control the sea. The conflicting projects caused Turkey to ally with the GNA faction in Lybia and to send a  military expedition to sustain the alliance. The GNA is in danger of being defeated by the forces of General Khalifa Haftar. In the pic Fuat Aktay pasha, a high officer in the court of Sultan Erdogan. No natural light, everything dark brown, a 19th Century desktop penholder with its ink bottle and a large official stamp holder. On the wall, a classic 150 years old print of Ataturk. Behind, an ornate mahogany cabinet with gilded bronze mounts and handles. The office suggests a man living in the 18th Century. 

The (non-Racist) Elephant Dung Gin from South Africa

The Economist reports that there is new gin in the market in South Africa, at 45 dollars a bottle, distilled with or from pure, natural, organic, non-GMO elephant dung. The gin has a je ne sais quoi reminding one of ... elephant dung or the smell of the veldt; this gin embodies the spirit of Africa. The Economist, always topical, comments that even Africans can now enjoy the new gin (if they have money) because, under the apartheid regime, they were unfree to get drunk on White alcoholic delicacies and had to do with inferior stuff. I doubt Africans with 45 dollars in the hand were refused a bottle of gin, and anyway, what is the point of mentioning that in a note about elephant dung gin?    

The Truth About Demolition of Arab Houses in Israel

The article in the fishwrap HaAretz today analyses why the Arab sector building is almost universally illegal according to the country's law and why the enormous budgets appropriated for the Arab sector are not used and at the end of each fiscal year, return to the State. On the graph we see that only 9 Arab municipalities used more than 40% of the State budgets,and and on the left end, 3 used up less than 10%. 

This validates my personal experience, when I was working in the Water Administration. My Dept. had a budget of about 250 million dollars to be "lent" for public water and sewage projects in the Arab sector. Half of each loan was a grant, not to be paid back, and the rest … too. I mean they never paid back and the loan was recycled annually and then erased. Yet we never succeeded in spending more than half of the budget, due to lack of suitable, bankable projects. The Arab sector had no working municipalities and city engineers able or interested in talking to us, and the sewage flew on their streets as in the Middle Ages.

Regarding the illegal construction going on, the issue is that according to the law, each building has to have a municipal permit, and almost none has. The Arab municipalities are a chaos, there is no one to submit a plan and if even if submitted, since there is no city planning at all, cannot be approved legally. The law say that illegal buildings have to be destroyed, and in the Jewish sector, they are. In the Arab cities and villages the Law is silent, not applied, but the people is worried from a strong rightist government may be willing to confront the issue. 

The article comments that Representative Achmed Tibi (right), trying to neutralize the menace, had formed a political alliance with Moshe Gafni (left pic), from the ultra orthodox sector, and both camps  - Arab and Haredi - are de facto political allies. 

Anyway, Ariel University is graduating hundreds of Arab civil engineers and in a few years the Arab municipalities will catch up and regularize their planning situation. In general, the Arabs have advanced much in the last decade in Israel. They have entered the universities are working in the general economy and making money.