Fake News on Biden

All the denials in the world can’t hide the possible president-elect’s worsening dementia. At a recent campaign event, Biden introduced his granddaughter as if she were his dead son: “This is my son Beau Biden, who a lot of you helped elect to the Senate in Delaware.” Wrong gender, wrong generation, wrong sentence. He tried to correct himself. “This is my granddaughter, Natalie.” Actually, Natalie is a different granddaughter. His son Beau died five years ago. Beau never even ran for the Senate. This is dementia, not “stuttering.” 

In my world, a 77 y.o. man makes mistakes. I for instance, do. In October 2009, Beau - Joe's beloved son -  was considering a run for the Senate. He would have been elected but died of cancer before. Is this mistake in an emotionally charged point predictive? This tragic old man is mourning, sure. Who would not? 

Xeroxat stimulating zooplancton growth

Human antidepressants are found in wastewater and they end up in nature," says Professor Sigurd Einum at the Norwegian University (NTNU). Small changes in the concentration of dopamine affect daphnia, a water flea, stimulating its growth rate and behavior.

New pandemic COVID-20

The State Serum Institute of Denmark warns the world that the corona virus has mutated in minks and infected humans. The new strain shows diminished sensitivity towards antibodies. There are between 15 million and 17 million mink in Denmark. Minks are being culled also in the Netherlands and Spain.

Our Tanks in Beirut

 I remember when Israel conquered Beirut (pic). My colleagues in the office were lamenting that we had to do it. I was the sole dissenter who said that it was good to win wars and occupy enemy capitals. My generation are Diaspora Jews who are afraid of  walking erect and winning a fight. 

Vienna: Attack on a synagogue

  

It is frightening to be a Jew in Europe. 

Change Will Come from Outside

 The Israeli left is so despondent and desperate, that they are begging for foreign intervention.  The despicable fishwrap I read, HaAretz, publishes today a long article by someone called Ilem, who arrives to the conclusion that even in the case that Netaniyahu is expelled (מסולק), nothing will change. 

The only possibility of change in Israel, for Ilem, is the wholesale elimination of the elite. He envisions that globalization will lead to its fading away as they adopt a cosmopolitan world view and leave to countries that offer brighter opportunities. 

This was (and continues to be) the illusion of the Arab leadership, that never understood what these highly educated and wealthy Jews are looking for in this remote, malarial, impoverished corner of the Middle East. Pic.: The Palestine Water Supply Company, Tzfat 1920. 

Israel's busiest industrial zone

 

Driving home from Ariel, I enter sometimes to the industrial zone of Kfar Kassem  - not the upper Jewish Qesem but the lower Arab illegal area. I like the generous salami sandwiches and the air of informal Arab shuk atmosphere.  The place is a lowland, flooded in winter, dirt roads, chaotic and noisy, extending over 2800 dunams (over 500 acres) of land zoned for agricultural use adjacent to Kfar Kasem, at the junction of Route 5 and Route 6 (the Trans-Israel Highway). In the "Heart of Israel". 

It is known that the Kfar Kasem Municipality had issued hundreds of permits for “agricultural and livestock pens” – but in the entire compound, there’s not one single, solitary little sheep to be found. With these fictitious permits, hundreds of massive industrial structures have been built, which are being used illegally as warehouses and logistical centers, and as commercial, industrial and leisure facilities. The city of Kfar Kassem collects about 10 million dollar municipal taxes per year. 

Every Israeli institution wants to regularize the situation, to build drainage and internal and connection roads, etc. Kfar Kassem has about 50,000 Arab inhabitants, and political power. Not even the police wants to perturb the peace. The Municipality does nothing regularize and legitimate the situation, why should they since they love the chaos, the freedom and the multiple possibilities for corruption.