Another water conflict?

The Pakistani government said it would view any attempt by India to stop or divert water belonging to Pakistan as an "act of war."

"Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty... will be considered as an act of war," said the statement by the prime minister's office.

The Indian government announced the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty as part of a host of retaliatory measures it took against Pakistan.

I wonder what happened after President Trump protested Mexico's disregard for century-old water accords. 

Wasting time

 
The internet has studied me and is sending me pictures, short reels, and articles that I cannot resist and that trap me into watching them. I just spent two hours in front of the computer and asked myself what I learnt - in fact, what did I do? I cannot answer myself; I just wasted the whole morning. 

Ecoterrorism

On Earth Day,  a somewhat heathen Eco-celebration of Nature, ecoterrorists or just garden-variety vandals cut down the trees in Los Angeles.  

They are (were) Indian laurel fig, Ficus microcarpa. We have these giant trees on my street.  Thousands of fruit bats, green parrots, and unidentified flying things inhabit them. 

How the British became Christians

 I am reading about the almost instant conversion of the English nation from ancient German paganism to Christianity. Pope Gregory begged European kings to send missionaries because the English were ready to convert, but there were no volunteers. So Rome sent monks armed with the Rule of Benedict (pic). Once they understood the system, they adopted it enthusiastically. The only obstacle was Danish immigration, but those Vikings, too, forgot their Scandinavian gods as soon as they saw the English winning in war. England filled up with monasteries and nunneries, and schools to prepare monks, and soon they were sending missionaries back to the continent. Ireland had a different shade of Christianity, and they, too, were very missionary. I think the British have a natural talent to organize themselves and an inborn inclination to reform and reorganize the rest of the world.

Yale lecture on text analysis

 

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This quiet Friday afternoon, I watched lectures by a Yale University teacher (Prof. Martin) about the New Testament. By cutting up and comparing the historical text, he arrives at an understanding of what may have happened. Paul (Shaul) from Tarsus had great success among the Greeks. The main community of Jerusalem was strictly national Jewish, and Paul - in his letters - tries to demonstrate that he was equal to the apostles and leader of the nascent Church. Interestingly, the Greeks easily discarded their gods and philosophy and adopted a narrative (i.e. religion) based on revelation. They liked the story of Moses coming down from the mountain with two tablets with commandments more than Plato's reasoned dialectics.  

My opinion:  Paul's movement ultimately seized power in the Roman Empire, which proves that from the beginning it had been a subversive POLITICAL movement. In retrospect, this outcome justifies the Roman occupation's execution of Jesus for being a political rebel, intent on becoming King of Judea.

Family Prayerbook

It was printed by Schlesinger Jos. Budapest-Wien a hundred years ago. Now that I speak Hebrew, the translation seems rather poor to me. Hungarian words and expressions have evolved to the point that it sounds artificial and wrong to me. 

The Morag

The Economist published a map of the Morag Route, which is intended to isolate and later to depopulate the Rafa sector.  Morag was an Israeli settlement established in 1972. It was located in the southern part of Gaza. In August 2005, Morag was evacuated along with all other Israeli settlements in Gaza as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan implemented by then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. This disengagement involved the removal of approximately 8,000 Israeli settlers from all 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. The reconquest of Morag proves that the evacuation of the Gaza Strip in 2005 was a mistake and a tragedy based on the delusional evaluation of the Palestinians.

 Morag (מורג) means "threshing sledge" - a farming tool traditionally used to separate grain from chaff. The Romans called it tribulum, but it was known already in Pharaonic times.