Encouraging

I've been encouraged twice this past few days on the "situation" in the Middle East. First, on Friday we had the awesomest guest speaker in my usually tense "Gov't and Politics of the Middle East" class: a Northeastern student who was a member of the Israeli special forces. Itai, an undergrad with a distinct Israeli accent, flew helicoptors and blew up buildings from the air, but he is the most optimistic, balanced, pro-peace person I've met since 1999. He has Palestinian friends, and misses being able to go to Nablus or Bethlehem for lunch. One of his best friends was killed in the Passover bombing, but he's not bitter, and he equates Palestinian extremists with Israeli settlers and religious extremists, whom he dislikes for their strong-arm tactics in the government. He has little respect for politicians on both sides, and said with a chuckle that "if you leave this problem to the people, they will solve it in one hour!" Itai's focus is on the people, and while I approach the problem from a Christian perspective, seeing the need to redeem lives one at a time, I applaud his approach - mending peoples' hearts, one at a time; "you should put hope into these people, not hate!"

His perspective on the military is admirable; he sees its role in defense, and does not consider it a malicious organization at all, repeating that under no circumstances whatsoever would the army target civilians. At the same time, he knows it doesn't have the leading role in making peace, and wants to see negotiation, not force, used by leaders on both sides.

This guy, who just started a pro-peace organization - "Connections" - with students from another class, even had a good word about the two leaders. "Prime Minister Sharon", he said respectfully, "is a great general, but he's not the right man to lead his people." Likewise, "Arafat has a great vision for his people, but he cannot implement it."

The second piece of encouragement is no surprise: today's news that Israel has agreed to let Arafat go in exchange for the assassins of Israel's deceased Tourism Minister. This is especially a victory for the Bush administration, but I fear it will not bring a whole lot of change to the situation. Sharon has allowed 33 settlements to be established (see NYTimes map) since he became Prime Minister, and Arafat seems to either lack control over even the Fatah, or to be allowing the suicide bombings to go forward.

Getting Nosy With Z

If you missed the introduction of Z's first true girlfriend, look a few posts down to "Z Returns"
The Chops Intelligence Agency asked Z some questions tonight, and he gave out a little info on Grace. Here's the transcript:

CIA: What do you actually call her? Honey? Sweetie?
Z: Actually, I just call her Grace. It's only been a few weeks. Oh wait... I was calling her Gracie tonight... woah, it really is a slippery slope here...
What was your most recent date?
Tonight we went out to dinner and a concert. Very romantic.
Yes, very. For all the visual learners among IR's readers, could you give us the 411?
Sure. 5'6", blonde, blue eyes. 19 inch waist, size 4 shoes. No, I'm just kidding about those last two, but she's really cute.
Wow, not bad. A few compatibility questions: what's her take on male freedom of expression?
You mean belching, flatulence, pit-stains and stuff? She's basically hear no evil, see no evil, smell no evil.
I really admire that in a woman. So, to get all touchy-feely, what was going through your head when you first kissed her?
Who said anything about a kiss?!?! This is a kosher relationship! You better not put anything about a kiss on that blog thing! Seriously, don't embellish on anything I say, ok?
Don't worry. OK, last question: How much can she bench?
Hmmm... about 195.
195? WOW!
Well, she picked me up with ease...
Awwwwww....that was brutal!

Our Sympathies

Are with die Bevölkerung des Deutschlands, who have had a horrific school shooting. Where Columbine was thirteen plus suicides, this was seventeen plus suicide in a much more compact nation, where das volk's identity is going to be seriously torn. The NYTimes makes a good note of the fact that this is the worst case of random violence since World War II, when about fourteen million innocent people were slaughtered for reasons more unfounded than this evil youth's vendetta against his school's teachers. Now, I am sorry to bring up this touchy subject at a time of national grief in das Vaderland, but I would respectfully warn Germans not to get a victim complex out of this; that would only lead to international blunders. Incidentally, my professor mentioned exactly that sort of blunder after class today: the Bundesrepublik offered to send its troops as a buffer zone between Israel and the Palestinians. Good intentions, but German checkpoints in Israel? Uh-uh. So again, sympathies are with you, Germany, and I honestly think that you are the most like America of any continental European country, and having experienced this sort of thing before, we kinda know how you feel. May God heal your wounds.

All About Me

I sat down yesterday and some figgerin'. I do this probably twice a year, but that's infrequent enough that every time I have a different perspective on it. This year's perspective? I could, if I really wanted to, graduate after the Winter quarter. That would involve cancelling my co-op, or at least pushing it back six months, and getting a B.A. in Economics and International Affairs. Since I'm in no rush to finish, don't want to lose the great co-op, and it's much better to get a B.S. in Economics, and that just takes four more courses, under the current system.

But nearing graduation, even if you don't actually graduate, is distantly akin to having a brush with death: you come face to face with your own mortality. I can't be in college forever, and it's beginning to sink in. Like most young people, I feel like I'm never going to die, but I'll probably be graduating in two years, or, if my friend Chris' warnings about Lebanon hold up, I won't have to worry about graduating at all. Maybe I should set up a few correspondence courses ahead of time, just in case I'm taken hostage by Hezbollah. Yeah, that's definitely a good back-up plan; good thinking Salim. That's going in the little black scheduling book: "set up ad hoc correspondence courses!"

Sorry, my thoughts ran away with me there. In reality, I'll probably follow this basic outline for the next two years, ensha'allah:
- Summer '02 in Beirut.
- Fall '02 in D.C.
- Winter '03 in D.C.
- Spring '03 at N.U.
- Summer '03 maybe classes, maybe other.
- Fall '03 in classes.
- Spring '04 in classes if I didn't do them in Summer '03.
- June '04 GRADUATION! Two years away... that's plenty of time. I don't think it'll be too bad; only a year out of those two will actually be spent in classes, and it may well be that I graduate in December of '03, especially if I can get some requirements waived. That's not bad; I'll be 21 years old, which means if I don't get a job I can legally become an alcoholic and spiral out of existence.

What am I really going to do upon graduation? God only knows. I'll earn plenty in D.C. this Fall, but I need to be careful with my budget; first of all, I'd like to reimburse my mutual funds for the money I'm taking out (~$5000) to do this Beirut thing. I won't be able to recoup that whole thing and still have cash left over, but if I can work while I finish school, or get a well-paying summer job after just one quarter back (that will depend on whether they offer enough classes to make summer school worthwhile), then I should break even by graduation. Of course, my instinct upon graduating will be to take time off and go somewhere, maybe do missions training or something, but I have no idea what The Guy Upstairs has in store for me, and I'm willing to do whatever He requires.

To get into some specifics, I have yet to take ECN/IAF1190 "The Global Economy", 7 Econ electives, a Senior Seminar in Int'l Affairs, a junior/senior Honors project, ECN1260 "Applied Econometrics", and an IAF elective. That's all if professors agree with me on what meets my requirements, and it's under the Quarter System. The Semester Shift may help or hinder me, but I'm reasonably confident of being able to finish in three quarters/semesters after this one. Seven quarters down, three to go. I'm going to look into a piece of paper they sent me today saying there's a $5,000 grant for a few qualifying Honors projects, and so I'm going to find out what the Honors project is in International Affairs and maybe in Econ. Honestly, I don't like Economics, and I'm wondering if it was wise to use it as a major... I could graduate next year if I downgraded it to a minor. However, I think that would be irresponsible of me: I can do econ passably well, and to only major in IAF is to handicap myself for life and to ignore one of my gifts - a brain capable of basic quantitative analysis. I think irresponsible pretty much sums it up: even if I don't do grad work in it, I should at least put in the months that it will take to get myself a good degree. No disrespect to IAF, I love it, but it's very easy for those who are willing to show up and do the homework, and employers know that. IAF majors are near the bottom of the payscale, whereas Econ ones are near the top. Of course, life's not about money, but school largely is. Yes, with my IAF skills maybe I can get a job, irregardless of pay, that helps bring peace or well-being to people and serves others, but ultimately willingness is much more important than knowledge when it comes to helping humanity or the Kingdom in most capacities. By contrast, earning a salary is often highly contingent on having educational credentials. Neither of those generalities hold all of the time, but I can't assume I'm going to be an exception to the rule all my life, and so I believe that getting a B.A. in IAF and a B.S. in Econ is the responsible thing to do in my situation.

Who am I arguing with here anyway....???

Z Returns

Remember my friend Z? The old friend at the small Christian college in Pennsylvania? A month and a half ago I posted the true story of his love's labours lost. Now the carrier pigeons have just come in with more news: Z is no longer single! Yes, for all of you who thought that Z would be single just as long as his name was last called on every roll... you were wrong. Information is still filtering in from the field, but here's what the CIA (Chops Information Agency) has so far:

You know how underfunded Christian outdoor concerts are... a few percussion-happy boy bands with evangelism on their minds, a lot of youth-group Christians, and a preacher who doesn't mind being associated with the boy band following their performance with a gospel message. Sometimes they find nice, small places to hold the concert in, so it looks full even if half of the 16 people who promised to come don't show. OK, that's an extremely cynical view of what are often fantastic events, and I would be much more positive about them, but I wanted to paint an accurate picture of the concert that Z found himself attending. It was in a rural town half an hour from his college, and there were probably 30 people there, including four of Z's friends who had driven together from school.

Between two undifferentiable punk-rock songs, Z started a conversation with the young woman next to him. Also a student from the same university, she had driven up alone because her cousins lived in the town and the band was friends of one of the cousins. Z suddenly remembered a class that they'd taken together freshman year. Grace didn't remember the class, and didn't think she'd ever taken it, actually, but she trusted his memory and they carried on the casual conversation a little to the side, and out of the main line of fire of the 5-foot speakers. It certainly wasn't a pickup, that would be below Z, and I wouldn't believe him if he said he blatantly picked up a girl at an outdoor concert - he really is a gentleman, albeit a lonely one.

Maybe it's no secret where this is going, but how it got there is certainly entertaining, and is probably the main reason this story has come through intact - even if it's Z's first instinct to keep his love life a secret, this story is priceless, and his friends made sure it got around (and Z's cool widdat; I got his permission before publicizing this). Anyway, Grace was planning to go back to her cousins' to say goodbye before returning to campus, so they agreed to keep an eye out for each other on campus, shook hands, and nodded bye.

Their respective cars were parked next to each other, which isn't saying a lot at a barely attended small-town concert; there were only two other cars anyway, and both of those were already leaving. Z's pal, the jalopy's owner, hopped into the drivers seat, revved the engine and pulled out. Oh wait, the car didn't pull out. Neither did it rev... "Z! Did you leave the backseat light on?!?!" "Did I? I thought I got that before I got out... yeah I did, see it's not on." "I know it's not on. Lights tend to go out when the battery dies!" "Oh, sorry... um, do you have jump cables?" "No, do you?" "Geez, lighten up, it's just a battery..."

Z's sentance kinda tailed off when he realized Grace had walked up holding a well-endowed pair of cables. The rest is history: six highly intelligent students, all sober and in good standing at a respected educational establishment, trying to fix one of the simpler problems common to automobiles. A good 90 minutes later, they were on the road. It was 9:30 pm by this time, and Grace called her cousins to say she had to get back to school and would see them sometime soon. She invited Z to keep her company on the drive and the rest is really history.

I AM GOING TO BEIRUT!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! JUST WHEN I'D GIVEN UP ALL HOPE OF BEING ACCEPTED THEY SENT ME AN EMAIL READING Dear applicant, I am pleased to inform you that you have been accepted in the AUB Summer Arabic Program 2002. Please confirm whether you will be attending the program as soon as possible. You will be required to pay a non-refundable deposit of $200 by April 30th in order to reserve your place in the program. You will receive an official letter of acceptance with more information very soon. Congratulations, and I look forward to welcoming you in Beirut.

Yesterday I'd already begun to wrestle with the difficult question of what to do with my summer if I wasn't going; we aren't going to have a house, so it wouldn't be easy. But God came through and answered this prayer! Praise to Him!

Worshipful.com

An old friend, Daniel Naronha, is doing an admirable little project of questionable legality (he's since assured me that he's working within the law, or at least within one of its loopholes): an online worship song directory. It's got just 17 songs now, but I trust it will grow (at least, if they don't decide he's violating copyright law... so enjoy it while it lasts). Recommendation of the day: http://www.worshipful.com.

Search and Destroy

The latest edition of S&D, my periodic feature on who's getting here how, highlights two very unique searches. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

What did people think about the OK Bombing at the time it happened? (76th result)
and
And how did I get rated sixth for the search "Political Cartoons" + Molestation. I mean, that's just wrong...

More S&D:
Divest from Israel T-Shirt. Ri-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ight. IR's the 7th result there!

"from the heart of the world: the elder brother's warning". Actually, that's a case of post-modern search results: the reason IR showed up on that search was that someone had reached it in February when searching for "from the heart of the world: the elder brother's warning review questions". In an early edition of S&D I posted that, and it generated this hit; my apologies to whoever's searching for the heart of the world, we hate to disappoint.

Vive le Nation

Here's a summary of last Saturday's French Revolution game at Darren Dorna's house, written by the host and game-inventor himself:

We had seven players, so I chose to sit out and instead act as referee. The Convention started off leaning extremely conservative, which left the Leadership on the map extremely radical - an interesting situation. A powerful conservative government quickly formed, made up of the highly influential Petion (Craig), the royal wannabe Philippe Egalite (my sister-in-law Jenny), and another conservative statesman (forget which one - played by David). A radical Opposition coalition formed shortly thereafter, consisting of two propagandists Desmoulins (Bruce), Saint-Just (Jonathan), as well as a legislator (Lindet? - played by Salim). A seventh statesman (brother-in-law Patrick) went moderate as a swing voter, although he fairly quickly sided with the conservatives.

Through some clever maneuvering and politicking, the radicals managed to quickly organize the little support they had in the convention, and were soon in a position to threaten the conservatives for leadership in the government. The opening shot consisted of having one of their own appointed President of the convention, a move that greatly alarmed the conservatives. The conservatives responded by ruthlessly attacking their factions politically, stealing Deputies and Officials in an open bid to maintain their hold on power. This effort was viewed very negatively by the radicals (surprise, surprise), who became extremely uncooperative and began working to take advantage of their influence in the provinces to undermine conservative power. Through their leadership, the Paris commune reached a highly dangerous level of organization, and when bread riots broke out in Paris the conservatives were powerless to refuse their demands for reform, further threatening their hold on power.

On the military scene, the conservatives (who controlled the noble-dominated officers) managed to train a very competent army to counter the Austrian and Prussian armies poised to invade the northeast. Ironically, however, on the eve of battle, the radicals proposed to reform the military, and were able to push the legislation through despite conservative opposition. The Austrians attacked shortly thereafter, and the First Army, caught in a dangerous period of transition in the wake of reforms, were roundly defeated and sent reeling back to Paris. The northeast was secured by the Republic's enemies later that year (1794), crippling France's economy and contributing to the rapidly growing inflation. The Second Army, which found early success campaigning in Italy, was unexpectedly defeated by an Austrian counter-attack around the same time and was sent retreating back to France.

The conservatives were clearly unable to pull the government together, and having initiated an all-out war with the radicals they found themselves paralyzed, with all their effort going into clinging to what little power they had left, and staving off the efforts of the radicals to overturn them and take the helm. At one point they resorted to assassination - a desperate measure that managed to temporarily fend off a radical coup, but which ultimately solved none of their problems. The conservatives finally admitted defeat indirectly (but loudly) when they openly declared themselves to have royalist sympathies. Clearly, their hope now was that Philippe would be installed as King should the Republic fall, Louis XVI having been guillotined early in 1793. David, seeing that he would be left out of a royalist victory, abandoned the conservative coalition giving the remaining radicals the oppotunity they needed to sieze power.

Alas, it was too late. Before giving up the reins of power the conservatives had quite deliberately sabotaged the financial health of the Republic, and inflation had gone through the roof. When bread riots broke out again in mid-1794, with the Prussians at the gates of Paris, the entire convention was dragged off to the guillotine by the vengeful mobs. Thus, the now-royalist conservatives met their end even as their saviors (the Prussians) were poised to deliver them. And the radicals themselves were destroyed by their own supporters, bitter and disillusioned by the inability of the convention to deliver them from their enemies.

All in all a most enjoyable session...

Bush Is A Genius

Well, if he pulls this one off he is. Apparently, relations have soured between Mexico and Cuba. And every Republican and most Democrats since JFK have wanted to invade Cuba and get rid of Uncle Fidel. Bush is the first one to have a Mexican ally who could do the dirty work for him. Castro just attacked the Mexican Fox by releasing a tape of a conversation the two had prior to the Monterrey Summit, in which Fox asks Castro to keep it down and not complicate relations between the U.S. and Mexico. According to the NY Times "Mr. Castro acknowledged that his disclosures could further strain relations between the two nations."

And yes, of course I know how unlikely it is that the two would actually come to anything more serious than a diplomatic chill, but that's still a serious victory for Bush, who has wanted to isolate Castro in an increasingly sympathetic Latin American environment. His last attempt, courting the Venezuelan opposition, backfired right in his face, but this time he did it right: let your ally do all the work.

Salvation

Mute Troubadour posted an excellent piece on salvation recently:"...As a preacher friend of mine from Australia likes to say, "There are three tenses of salvation in the Bible. We are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved." The latter two are part of constant and faithful discipleship."

I think the "salvation transaction" he mentions earlier in his post is symptomatic of the oversimplification of Christianity that Americans tend to perpetrate. Whereas Biblical faith is a very deep and complex phenomenon, we feel the need to say everything quickly and succinctly and accomplish everything - such as salvation - instantly, often at the expense of a measure of truth and honesty.

Housebuilders

Tonight I'm attending a Housebuilders meeting. Housebuilders, in my humble opinion, is one of the best aspects of Campus Crusade for Christ at Northeastern, and one of the most useful institutions I've seen in any Christian group. It consists of approximately bi-weekly meetings for the purpose of building up the group. This is accomplished by a number of avenues; including prayer, feedback and ideas for the main weekly meetings, meeting time for teams, and just a forum to bring up any concern or idea pertaining to Crusade.

Un Seisme

In another earthquake, this one of the French political variety, Prime Minister Leonard Jospin failed to qualify for the run-off presidential election in France. The election had very low turnout, and since Jospin and Chirac were considered shoo-ins for the "real" election on May 5, most French just voted their conscience or to make a statement. Apparently, enough people are anti-immigration and anti-EU to give 17% of the vote to the far-right Le Pen, edging Jospin out.

This is only the latest in a series of electoral backlashes against regionalization in Europe; we all remember the debacle in Austria with the rightist premier, and apparently Italy, Portugal and Denmark have turned right recently as well. The NY Times reports: "Mr. Le Pen's defeat of Mr. Jospin was the latest in a series of blows to the European left that began in Italy last year, spread to Denmark and Portugal and could engulf the Netherlands and Germany next."

As a somewhat populist conservative (though not a rightist in the full sense of the word), I can't help but grin at the chagrin of the European liberal elites. They've always thought themselves superior to the Americans, and they lead like elites, rather than following the will of the people. This wake-up call will slow European unification, and will force politicians to take the important intangibles of culture and national identity into account.

Earthquake

I slept through it, but some of my friends felt the earthquake in the Northeast on Saturday morning. Epicentered near Plattsburgh, NY, it caused some damage there at 5.1, but here it was a tremor. That's big, exciting news for the Northeastern University Seismic Recording Station, which is pretty useless most of the time.

Good Laughs

From Doonesbury. Apparently there has been an important development in the peace process!

New E-Mail!

I'm sick and tired of Yahoo! messing up my mail. So I'm moving. My new email address is sfurth@coe.neu.edu. I also have an account at s.furth@neu.edu, but that gets half a dozen announcements a day of various on-campus events, and it's out of control! Besides, NEUmail has a poor GUI and a distinct lack of tools. COEmail, by contrast, has all kinds of bells and whistles... appropriate for the College of Engineering.

Edward Said

This famous Palestinian-American has a frontline editorial piece in al-Ahram Weekly. It is, on a first reading, an uninteresting bit of redundancy from an otherwise fascinating man.

Terje Roed-Larsen

Tal comes down hard on Norwegian diplomat Terje Roed-Larsen for his "leftist" stance on the conflict in Israel. I had to smile reading the piece, wondering how it would have changed if Tal knew (and perhaps he does know, but he didn't let on) that Terje is the person most responsible for bringing Israel and the PLO together in 1993 in Oslo, which began a peace process that Clinton quickly took over and which died about a year ago, by all accounts, though its skelaton is still on the ground in the Territories.

More on Terje: He's quoted as saying "Israel's operation may have dismantled the physical infrastructure of terror, but this is easily rebuilt. Meanwhile, the mental infrastructure of terrorism is building up, the mentality of hate and confrontation, and this is very difficult to undo." I completely agree. While the high-grade explosives we've seen lately witness a significant terror infrastructure, I don't think Israel is being surgical enough to possibly have a net gain out of this operation: they're hurting themselves in the long run by escalating the violence.

My Own World

I found this wide path along the highway a mile from my house... between I-93 and Gulliver's Creek, down where the Granite Railway was. I walked and ran along it Sunday night. It seems now like that's in a different world. I ride my bike a quarter mile away, on the other side of the highway every day, but I can make no connection between the two sides of the highway. It was a world all of my own, nobody else that I know knows about it, and there was no evidence that anyone had been there except the highway maintainance people, who cut down the rushes each year. It was my world, and I ran there, and I was a little boy again. My world has two entrances, one at each end. But unlike most other places, when you're in it you lose a you can't see them, and when you drive there you can't see into my world; I know because I've driven there at least 1,000 times over 15 years. And in a little bit I'll be moving, just forty days after finding my own world.

Free Private School

Who sends their kids to private schools? Those who can. Everybody else? Public school. Now, call me a genius if you want, but it seems obvious to me that private schools are more desirable to most students and parents. That said, I applaud the Philadelphia School Reform Commission's decision to turn over 42 failing Philly schools to private companies. If they give the companies (and other entities, including an NGO and 2 universities) enough leeway, the schools could become very much like private schools, at least from the institutional side.

Now, they can't become like bona fide private schools: one of the important determinants of how well students learn is the intelligence and involvement of those around them. Private schools have a serious edge in that department since those that attend come from families that place a high value on education (since they were willing to spend some obscene amount for schooling their kids), they generally come from 2-parent homes, and I hate to say it but they can also be congenitally brighter (smart people tend to make money and to have smart kids) than their "average" counterparts. All that can't be introduced in Philly, but if the competition factor is introduced in the institutional side, teachers will have a serious incentive to, um, teach, and the administrators will have an incentive to hire effective employees, pay competitive salaries, and do what private schools have been doing for years: outperforming their public counterparts.

Others have made the above arguments much better than I can, so my apologies.

Humbled

Have you ever heard a keynote speaker introduced, and they tell all the stuff that he's done and build him up, and then he gets up and says "Well, I'm really humbled by that introduction/by your applause" or something like that? I've heard it a dozen times, and it comes across quite fake more often then not. But, for the first time that I can recall, I know what they mean. Recently I was honored in front of a group of friends, not in a "build-up-the-speaker" sort of way, just casually (which made it all the more sincere and touching), and the effect on me was of feeling humbled. Not humiliated - far from it, people were complimenting me - but humbled, and I really can't explain how someone saying good things about you makes you feel smaller, less powerful, less arrogant. As a guy who struggles with pride, compliments usually have the opposite effect on me, but this was quite different and very refreshing. I can truly say that by no doing of my own, God has given me favor with my peers, and the respect I apparently command in some circles is not of my own doing.

OK, so this is an odd post... I hope you all look at it in the best possible light, because I'm tired out from a great game of frisbee and exhausted by the heat (92 degrees and humid!), so my writing and thought processes aren't what they should be.

Michael's Letter

A very insightful email on the current conflict... refer to the previous post for context. Posted at 0200 April 2, 2002.

Well, its 1am and I'm looking at 21 emails, but for the first time I'm actually glad I got them all. I am not in the habit of discussing such things via email (preferring personal conversation), nonetheless it seems too late to close this discussion and so I will throw my opinion out there. I am Jewish, and for the past week this is the only thing I've been hearing about. It was discussed at Passover dinner, my relative's birthday and every other family function I've attended recently. Outside of Kuwait economic policy this is the only thing on my mind and like the rest of you I am saddened by the current events. It seems that peace is impossible as long as leaders like Sharon and Arafat persist, neither interested in peace and neither serving his people. Sharon's response is unjustified, fruitless and logically pointless given the history of the conflict. However, if there were similar bombings in the US I think the people of this country would react at least, if not more violently against their perceived attackers and therefore are not in a position to question such a reaction, they would do the same in a knee-jerk response any day. The question should not be about the destructiveness of Sharon, that is self evident. The question is "what is Israel to do?" I hear criticism all the time, I criticize Israel myself, but what is Israel to do? Certainly not massacre and oppress Palestinians, undermining Arafat, but what instead can force a change in the current environment? Unfortunately in the history of the conflict the current violence is not shocking or surprising. I saw Israel's atrocities being recounted in someone's email; we all know the PLO's list is no shorter. There is no point in this type of debate since we all know that no side in the conflict is innocent. What should be brought out is a realistic appraisal of the situation. Arafat does not want peace, if you study the history of negotiations he always specifically demands concessions that are obvious deal breakers and therefore destroy agreements. His tactics are focused on short, interim measures instead of anything that will bring a long term resolution to the situation. The PLO began its career by serving not the Palestinians in the occupied territories but those who emigrated outside and almost completely forgot about their cause while they were exiled in Lebanon. Unfortunately, I have yet to see it do anything for the people it claims to represent. As for Sharon, I think he is the direct result of how the Palestinians treated Barakh. Instead of taking the PM's moderate stand, concessions, willingness to truly achieve peace and working with him to end the conflict, his stance was viewed as a weakness, taken advantage of and attacked. So, while I do not justify Sharon's actions, I feel the Palestinians have only themselves to thank for getting him into power. The columns email-ed by Dan are concerning, but one should be objective when reading him. Passionate descriptions and personal accounts easily give way to exagerration, misunderstanding and lies. While the writing is not propaganda (I lived in the USSR and I know propaganda when I see it), the motives of the people writing and those emailing this around should be questioned. I have no doubt that questionable military behavior is going on, but this is the brutality of war, we focus on the Israeli's while deep inside we all know that if the Palestinians had the military advantage they would do the exact thing. Also, do not jump so quickly at Ted. While I disagree with him to some extend, I am sure he had reasons for saying what he did and as someone who has worked with him for quite sometime I assure you he is not a racist, nor is he a single-minded conservative. Please respect his opinion no matter how provocative it may seem. Wish I could say more, but I don't want to make this long email even longer. Hopefully this discussion will continue. Michael K.

The Ted Letters

As you all know, I am a member of NU's United Nations Association. Part of the group's infrastructure is a list-serve, which is generally used for announcements, updates and reminders. Occasionally someone will post a plug for an event that might interest members - the "Meet the Candidates" series for the upcoming Mass gubernatorial, or a documentary at the Coolidge Corner theatre - or a news analysis about important current events. With the group's focus on the Middle East, it's not uncommon to see a talk by "Jews for Peace" announced, or have someone send a collection of emails from Palestine and elsewhere urging pressure on the Sharon government. That last, in fact, happened, and thus began <'cue galaxy theme music> the saga of the Ted Letters.

The President of the UNA, Dan, sent out the collection of emails in question. I personally deleted it, which is my general policy with forwarded emails. It was obviously pro-Palestinian, and that's OK, since it's not the opinion of the UNA per se, and dialogue on issues has been tolerated as long as the raw number of emails is kept down, since every email goes into 115 inboxes.

Dan's introduction to the forward read: "This article is long, but it's worth it -- emails from the Occupied Palestinian Territories from regular people over the past few days. -Dan".

That was sent on April 1st, at 6:30pm. By 7:15, two emails had been generated in response: a member asking to be removed from the list, and another member - Ted - replying to the content. I credit Ted with keeping it brief: I don't believe two ounces of these emails and I hope most of you won't buy into this propaganda until you check the facts yourselves. The only sympathy I have is for the poor Israeli civilians who are massacred every day by these deranged Palestinian terrorists. -Ted

Dan replied within minutes, and was fairly diplomatic, though his opening line, "I’d think that you might want to meet 1 or 2 Palestinians before you go off with a comment like that", raised Ted's ire, though his response was still generally diplomatic. However, his opening line would get him in trouble as well. His email began, with no introduction:

Dan wrote: "I'd think that you might want to meet 1 or 2 Palestinians before you go off with a comment like that."
A comment like what Dan? Are you saying that the terrorists are not deranged? Maybe you don't think I'm being politically correct here but I thought someone who straps explosives to themselves and blows up innocent men, women, and children would fall into the deranged category.

To the well-trained, racially-sensitive, modern student, this quote contains a grave error: Ted's train of thought jumps over the "Palestinian" part to the "terrorist/comment" part, and we're left wondering if Ted equates Palestinians to terrorists, or if he's just being hasty. I'm sure the latter is the case, but in the tension surrounding the issue of late it's should have come as no surprise that this statement (which I, for one, did not know how to interpret at the time), along with the "only sympathy" phrase in Ted's first email, would prove a sufficient spark to cause a firestorm of email, anger, and recrimination.


I read the above emails with increasing consternation. I knew that there were plenty of people in the group trigger-happy enough to write a nasty, ad hominem note to Ted without taking the time to consider what they were doing. So, after really thinking it over, I decided that as a well-respected member of the group, an acquaintance of Ted's, and a part-Jew part-Arab, I could diplomatically respond, hopefully short-circuiting an inflammatory reaction. Two more people had asked to be removed from the group, one saying "[remove] me as well Dan, I am tired of Ted." I guess it should be stated that Ted was the most frequent poster non grata on the list, often plugging College Republican events and membership, and always coming across a bit arrogantly. Anyway, I wrote a piece to refute Ted and to try and close the debate. I hadn't read an earlier email of Dan's basically saying "let's stop this now", and the rest has become history. Here's my piece, in all its glory:

Folks - Having read Ted's two emails, I'm somewhat disturbed. I hope nobody associates Ted's opinions and attitudes with conservatives, Jews, or Americans. Being all 3, I like to think I take a much more balanced view of the situation, deploring all civilian deaths, supporting sovereignty for both sides, and having a low opinion of both leaders. Ted has stated that the "only sympathy" he has is for Israeli victims; I'm not scolding him for his sympathy, but rather for his "only". Secondly, he decided that the Jewish woman from Minnesota misrepresented her own people's opinion. To my knowledge Ted is not Jewish, and even if he is it doesn't give him a license to decide the "proper" Jewish opinion. Lastly, I don't disagree that suicide bombers are deranged. It's just that to most of us, Palestinian is not a synonym for terrorist, and while political incorrectness can be refreshing at times, but Ted's comment came across as straight-up racism to at least one reader. Salim Furth (Ted - I agree that we shouldn't overload inboxes, but since you spoke publically, I felt the need to say this publically. Please write me personally if you want to debate this. Also, since you and Dan each felt it necessary to give yours, here are my credentials: I have lived in Israel proper, the West Bank, Jordan, and Egypt. I'm one quarter Jewish and one quarter Arabic. I've eaten with friends in a Palestinian refugee camp and a Jewish Tel Aviv apartment inside the same week. My major is IAF with a focus in the Middle East. I really don't want to boast, but it seems entering this debate without first stating my "credentials" could be hazardous.)

Make what you will of my email. I was told by at least four people that the above was "professional", "very diplomatic", etc., and no third party has criticized me in any way for it, so I'm fairly confident that the amount of thought and re-writing I put into making my email say exactly what I meant paid off.

However, Ted had offended people other than me, and they wanted their say as well. I'll stop quoting at length for now, but one more person chimed in - again quite diplomatically - refuting Ted. One more person asked to leave the group, and two people - including the Professor - demanded that the debate cease. The demands were unheeded, and another somewhat matronizing refutation of Ted came out soon after. My Ukrainian Jewish friend Michael, the only NU student to win 2 awards (in as many models!), a good friend of Ted's, and a young man of supreme talent and confidence chimed in next. He supports the state of Israel more than most in the group, but his view is probably the most balanced. His email was a gem, and I'm going to post it as an annex in another post; it's only marginally related to the saga, but I think it deserves exposure.

An Iranian student, Pars, picked up the next day, writing in opposition to Israel, with no mention of Ted or Dan. Professor Sullivan, passionate himself about this issue, nevertheless sent out a terse "What part of "enough" do people not understand?" This was followed by 3 emails (two from a person who had already made the request once) asking to be taken off the list, and an email bemoaning the exodus of members. The fire swelled to new heights when an Israeli student, Alon, posted a factually ludicrous, one-sided, and mercifully brief response to Pars' email. Next on the play-by-play was a humorous query as to whether people had confused the group with the Crossfire Bulletin-board.

But enough of this - now things came to a head. Dan, I, Professor Sullivan, two of the others who had refuted Ted, as well as Michael, were all in D.C. for the Model Arab League. Ted logged into Michael's account and sent out another email. This one was not brief, and it was not focused on the issues. I won't post it all, only the part addressed to me. Ted defended himself, eloquently but with an overdose of emotion, and made a few valid points which were all but invalidated by their inflamatory context. This paragraph was addressed to yours truly:

Salim, your comments are the most hurtful considering you’re the source. You should be ashamed of yourself. You know damn well how terrible it is to call someone a racist and yet you decided to characterize me as one in a public forum. You have some nerve Salim. Don’t EVER consider conversing with me again until you apologize to me and publicly recant your statements. You should think a little more next time before you attack someone’s character in public. Moreover, I never said I was speaking on behalf of any group or religion, so don’t accuse me of doing so. And lastly, don’t try and characterize my stances on the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for me since you don’t have the slightest clue what I think and believe.

I won't get into apologetics here except to say that his last statement isn't quite accurate. While I'm certainly no expert in "What Ted Believes", I have not had the choice of remaining ignorant on the matter: he has a history of expressing himself in all and sundry fora, and his thoughts and beliefs are as well known as any student's at N.U. And, looking over my email, I don't see where I refer to anything that he didn't say in previous posts, so I have to assume he was guided by emotion more than reason in composing this. To his credit, he earlier in this last email recanted the controversial "only sympathy" statement, which was his #1 offense in my book.

Mercifully, I haven't run into Ted on campus, and I'm hoping I don't until enough time is elapsed that we can both pretend this didn't happen. I've never seen him much anyway, so it's not a real change or anything, and though I know some might say I'm not following the Biblical prescription for conflict resolution, all the good sense of which I am possessed tells me that dealing with this straight-up, which is my preference 99 times out of 100, would only worsen matters in this case.

I'm not sure why I wrote this saga, but it was interesting, and I managed to waste a good long time doing it. Which means I have to run and do homework now, so a good night to all.

It's All Comin' Off Tonight!

Anyone who wants to witness this historic event better pipe up soon!

Big Fish

Marwan Barghouti became a major figure in the Fatah movement two years ago. He was the populist alternative to Arafat's two-faced fawning, and though secular he was certainly not pro-Western. His star had been rising throughout the Intifada, and he probably had as much on-the-ground power as Arafat up till today.

Until today, because he has been captured by Israeli troops and placed under arrest as a militant. Rhetorically, he has supported terror operations only inside the West Bank and Gaza, which is quite a moderate position. However, Israel suspects (probably with good reason) that he has supported attacks across the Green Line, and Hussam Khader predicts that Israel will try to reach Arafat through Barghouti. Whether that's the plan or not, you can count on an outrage within Palestine, especially Ramallah, and torture for Mr. Barghouti, who was a likely heir to Arafat, and may be now in position to be the rallying-cry of his people and perhaps their leader later on.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame...

...If they don't win it's a shame. And it was: Mike Mussina ruined an otherwise perfect afternoon. He pitched a perfect game into the sixth inning, and the Red Sox' Willy "Boom-boom" Banks allowed three runs without getting an out right when Mussina was tiring. We got two on a no-doubtah by Manny in the bottom of the seventh. In the seventh and eighth both we had runners on the corners with two out and failed to deliver; some clutch hitting would have been in order, but it's a tough pitching staff and they only blow so many leads a year, so the Sox can still consider themselves fortunate.

The A-ri-ZON-a chant caught on instantly in the eighth when Mariano Rivera was coming on, and was sustained by at least three sections of the bleachers for the duration of his warmups. Another good note is that Manny hit well for his third game in a row, raising his batting average 99 points to .273.

Deja Vu

Another phenomenal win over the hated Yankees! Despite getting touched up in the first, the Sox were able to hang tough, take advantage of pathetic fielding by the Yankees, and grab victory from the jaws of Mariano Rivera. It's a good weekend to be a Sox fan, and we're counting on them to win tomorrow - I'll be at the game! - and then go for the sweep. YANKEES SUCK!

The Yankslayer

He was not known for his aim, nor for his quick draw, nor even for the excellence of his trusty musket (which honestly never deserved the adjective "excellent"). His young days were spent in Texas, dueling with comers from all parts of the country, and not doing particularly well in those duels. He did however, have one secret weapon, a silver bullet. This ammunition didn't seem to work any differently than lead when applied to most people. However, anyone versed in the most basic lore of the land knows that a silver bullet is the only thing that can stop werewolves.

Miles across the prairie lay a remarkable but oppressed town, known to all and sundry as "the Hub of the Universe." The posse in the Hub had a feud with a particular ring of bandits, and had failed to soundly defeat them in 84 years. However, the Yankslayer had had particular success in the past against this corrupt ring, who were rumored to be werewolves. In fact, everytime they came to the Hub, the horrified residents would run to their large green fortress, and chant that the enemy sucked blood, a chant later shortened to just say that they suck. Not only did they suck, but when they bit a member of the Hub's posse that member would become a werewolf like them, and leave the Hub for the ring's run-down base down at the Big Rotten Apple. Thus was the Hub robbed of such redoubtable gunslingers as "the Babe" and "the Rocket."

It was with all this in mind that the Yankslayer was summoned to the Hub, in exchange for a trigger-happy buffalo soldier. The Yankslayer was an ignominous part of one small scuffle last week, not immediately endearing himself to the town. However, in their first encounter with the True Enemy, the Yankslayerbrought out his silver bullet and outgunned the enemy Duke. Now a hero, his gun will (or at least should) be reserved for facing the Yankees. Darren Oliver, the Yankslayer, is now 6-1 lifetime against the Evil Empire despite his 5.03 ERA. IMHO, he can platoon with ace Pedro Martinez, who is 0-5 in his last 5 decisions against the Yankees.


Out of curiosity, I calculated out the amount of person-hours spent watching a single Red Sox game, counting only those fans in the ballpark. It comes out to a bit over 12 years!

Peter Rabbit

I usually don't admit to doing these, but this was just too funny not to post. Which children's storybook character am I? Isn't it obvious? What a resemblence!



which children's storybook character are you?
this quiz was made by colleen

A-ri-ZON-a!......A-ri-ZON-a!......A-ri-ZON-a!......

If you played right field for the New York Yankees would that get on your nerves? How about if you were Mariano Rivera? That's my hope. I'm going to the game on Sunday with the gang, and I'm in full support of using this new heckle while the taste of defeat is still fairly fresh. Thanks to Bambino's Curse and the Dirt Dogs's New Red Sox site ... pass it on.

Again

There's been another suicide bombing in Jerusalem. Six died on the scene, as well as 7 serious, 4 moderate, and 53 light injuries, according to Haaretz. I'm not the first to notice, I'm sure, but I haven't heard anyone point out the increased effectiveness of suicide bombers in recent months. Apparently, someone is supplying better explosives or at least better (or more) ingredients to the Martyr's Brigade, with horrific results. This of course speaks of a real terror infrastructure, and I don't doubt that this is pretty much common knowledge in Israel. Of course, I disagree with Sharon's way of dealing with it, but I admit that I don't have a really good alternative. I guess if I had to make the decisions I'd probably withdraw from all but the most crucial defense positions and almost seal the border. It wouldn't be pretty, but if enough money made it into the Territories to allow an economic development then it might be a way out.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, the perpetrator of this crime was a young woman. In and of itself, that's not extremely relevant, but the increasing number of femmes fatales will have bad consequences for the rest of Palestinian women, who until a few months ago were a fairly nonviolent demographic. So more Palestinian women will be searched, a very humiliating and infuriating thing for those in particular who don't like to show any more than their hands and face. And the increased humiliation and infuriation can only lead to more violence... sensing a theme here?

New Links

Ladies and gentlemen, I draw your attention to three new links. I added the Times and le Monde to the News & Analysis section to add a European perspective (ok, I admit it; I can't read much in le Monde, but it makes me look cosmopolitan). Also, thanks to Edward Cossette for linking to a very articulate Israeli blog, Tal G. in Jerusalem, which has been added to the Journals section.

Only If They Take Out Internet Gambling Spam Too
An interesting bill was brought to the floor of the Kentucky House a few weeks ago. Thanks to Iain Murray.

Color By Number

14 - days since the Passover bombing and the initiation of Israel's current campaign, Operation Protective Wall.
20 - Pentagon and CIA officials would make up the international observer body proposed by Colin Powell.
22 - villages and 2 towns were left by the rolling Israeli military machine last night. I have to give Sharon credit for that - coming in and then leaving is a lot better than coming in and lingering!
121 - Palestinians who were on the Israeli wanted list arrested in Operation Protective Wall.
300 - early estimate of Palestinian civilian casualties in the past two weeks.
4,185 - Palestinians arrested in Operation Protective Wall.
40,000 - people have been to a hospital with Intifada-related injuries in the last 19 months.

Search and Destroy

Another interesting search result on Google brought a surfer here: cool reasons to commit suicide. So here's a shout-out to all my morbid and necrophile readers!!

It's an absolutely gorgeous day in Boston!

Wasting Time

I'm really kicking myself... this quarter when I finally have free time after a hectic winter, instead of using the time for anything remotely valuable, I waste it doing things like blogging.

A New Low

Though I've been very involved in the news the last week, I haven't posted here. I guess it's kind of pathetic to try and stay abreast the "situation", as it's now generally referred to. I really respect Bush and Powell a lot more for putting America's foot down, and for having Powell make a visit to the Middle East; that says a lot. As for the "situation" itself, I do believe it has reached a new low, with open war raging in a number of Palestinian cities, while most Palestinians and Israeli citizens stay locked in their homes whenever possible. Very few analysts are talking about redeeming the peace process now; if I didn't know that time was moving forward, I'd say that we were further from a lasting peace than we were yesterday and the day before. Somehow it seems only to get worse... where will it go? Genocide? Mass chaos throughout the Mediterranean and Arab worlds? Suicide bombings in the U.S. and Europe? Anti-semitic and anti-Arab violence around the globe? A third wave of refugees? All of these seem more realistic than "a lasting peace", or "a two-state solution" at this point. Thanks for staying, Happy Hour is supported by you our readers and by the following sponsors.... whatever.

2001: A Honda Odyssey

OK, everybody's interested in destruction, so here's the full story:

It's been a long day; after five hours of sleep, I attended the plenary session and awards ceremonies. Then I visited my aunt and cousins out in NW, and picked up my parents' 2001 Honda Odyssey, which I had parked there for the week. I returned to the Capital Hilton hotel, picked up my bags, as well as my friends Josh, Alejandra, and Jawad, and pulled out by 3:15. They drifted off to sleep one by one; Alejandra was slumbering shotgun before we left the Beltway, while Josh stayed awake until after the Delaware Memorial Bridge. When we reached the heavy traffic outside New York, they had all begun to wake up as the ride became less smooth. It's now about 7:15pm. I check the odometer; we'd gone 193 miles, I believe, since I reset it at the outrageously priced gas station on Georgia Ave near the Beltway. I also notice that with just 8,500 miles on it, our trip, when complete would represent a tenth of the car's total miles, a fact that I shared with my friends. I put my conversation with Ale on pause as the traffic gets gnarly a mile before Exit 10. A white car wants to merge from the left shoulder, and starts to move a bit aggressively towards my left lane. However, I'm going fast enough that it's a lot easier just to blow by at 25 or 30 mph, so I do that. A moment later, the traffic snags again, and I have to slow down. Surprisingly, as I'm about to resume speed, I see that the white car has pulled even with me and is going to merge in front of me whether I like it or not. So, what's the point of arguing? I don't want to be in front of an aggressive driver. Tap the brakes... resume speed... I'm accelerating behind the white car... the white car is braking fast, my foot jumps to the brake, goes down hard. I'm not going to hit them, I braked in time. Woah, they're still stopping; that's not a pause it's a full stop. Braking isn't enough! We're going to hit them! Crunch. The cars have become entangled, and I can see immediately that my friends are alright, but that we won't be going anywhere in this car tonight. I don't know whose car is steaming, they're so close together, or maybe it's just my imagination. Anyway, there are 4 or 5 cars stopped; they had stopped so close together that my hitting the rear car sent a shock through 2 more, I think. The phone's right beside me, but I'm too shaken to use it for a few minutes. My mind and emotions are running in overdrive, and I know that my friends are OK, and they're comforting me, and I'm OK. I know that the car is hurting and that I just crashed my parent's brand-spanking-new Honda, and they're already in a tight cash situation what with buying a new house. I surprise myself by not crying, or perhaps being unable to. Eventually I get out of the car, try to talk to the people in front of us, who I see calling the police. I call my home, and my father picks up, thankfully. "I'm not hurt, but...". As far as I know, that's the best way to begin these kind of conversations. And yes, I admit I've rehearsed it.

Anyway, the rest is history. We checked the damage, disengaged with the white car, which was a rental full of Puerto Ricans. We exchanged info with them, and with the car in front of them later on, though the latter were uncooperative in the extreme. The cop who showed up some 15 or 20 minutes after the incident was a jerk too, and made up for what he lacked in helpfulness in rudeness, to twist a phrase. We were planning to drive away to the nearest garage, but Josh's diagnose of a cracked radiator, made with the help of the towing truck guy's flashlight, discouraged us from that course of action. Instead we asked to be towed, which we were while still in the car. The ride was brutal, and my friends, who know more about cars than I, were swearing at the driver for his carelessness every time our car jolted on it's jaunty angle. We were dropped with our luggage but minus the car at a strip mall, where we first shared two pizzas, and then moved to Dunkin Donuts at closing time. My father, who volunteered to drive down and pick us up, was there by 12:15, and drove us all the way home as well. We got back at 5EST/6EDT, and I slept until 4:30 EDT!

And that's all I have to say about that.

Quite a Trip

I really have more important things to do, but here are the headlines for this past week's D.C. trip:

Visited the Kuwaiti chancery, where the number two guy gave us all kinds of information.

Visited the State Department, and got straight talk from a policy officer.

Participated as Vice-Chair of the Council of Arab Environmental Affairs Ministers in the 20th annual National University Model Arab League.

Was selected as Chair of the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior for next year's model.

Was offered and accepted a job as the Press Intern at the U.S. Peace Corp.

Saw a number of friends and family.

Got in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike. Nobody's hurt, and I maintain that it wasn't my fault, but my parent's brand new car is in a garage in Perth Amboy nonetheless.

Opening Day

I had to turn down the offer to take my brother to the game today for his birthday. I went to class instead, because I'll be missing the next 4 days, so missing 2 classes today was unconscionable. I miss one game... and look what happens! Pedro gives up 8 runs, 7 earned, Nomar makes an error, and the Sox are on their way to the highest-scoring slugfest in the league. Sheesh. And it's not like my classes were that much fun, either.

The This Blood performance went well today. Due to the bitter weather, only half a dozen folks actually stayed and watched it, but I think the fact that we publically did an openly evangelical event on campus is significant in opening up the campus to that type of free speech. Not that it's closed, just a little hostile. And it was so little work, bureaucratically, that I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Perhaps we will, when the weather's much nicer and we can garner a much larger audience... I'll have to see what the others think of that idea.