If that’s the situation, a writer without a high degree of expertise in a certain field, or special gift in an unusual subject in which visitors might be interested, could probably be more productive by joining a community, a niche-subject social network, a discussion group around a certain topic, etc. than simply by writing a …
(Journal entry from October 31.) We arrived today in Bedouin Garden Village south of Aqaba, and I am looking out from the balcony to the beach, across the road that leads from Aqaba to the Saudi border. The sea is blue and flecked by white tips of foam and the mountains on the other side …
It was our 25th anniversary and we wanted to celebrate by doing something special. So, after considering flights to various destinations we decided on Jordan, since neither of us had spent much time there. We took the bus to Eilat, crossed to Aqaba, and visited Wadi Ram and Petra, with a final day, for relaxation, …
If peace ever comes to the Middle East it will be because certain people, who should have known better, have put aside their accumulated skepticism, suspended their disbelief for a time, and taken the plunge. And after peace is here, most serious, committed activists will say, “What this is peace? Nah! This is nothing like …
Nine Burmese demonstrators killed in one day. The news sites say that the conflict in Burma pits the country’s two most powerful forces, the monasteries and the Junta against one another. Guns against spiritual force – a kind of symmetry. Eleven killed in Palestine the same day. Israel may be hoping the events in Burma …
Calling all tourists to Bamiyan (BBC) What a pity that I missed Bamyan, or the lakes of Bandar Abbas, when visiting Afghanistan around 1975. But I did catch the Blue Mosque in Mazar i-Sharif and other nice things. Back then, the accommodation was halfway decent. If there didn’t happen to be a hotel, you could …
NSWAS resident Maram Masarwi wrote an op-ed for Haaretz, Needed: An Arab Martin Luther King, Jr., in which she speaks of the influence of the Hamas takeover in Gaza upon Arab society in Israel. She says that this brings into focus the ambivalence Arab citizens feel towards Israel, and describes the continuing painful process of …
On the advice of Joanna (who thought it could be useful for Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam), I signed up for Facebook. My only previous experience with social networking was with social bookmarking (delicious and ma.gnolia), which I related to more as a way of storing my bookmarks for access between different computers, than for …
In these days, a new version of Microsoft’s operating system is due to appear. Windows Vista. And, today, I read through the forty pages of the first draft (in poor English) of The Future Vision of the Palestinian Arabs in Israel. Ze’ev Schiff, in an article currently online in Ha’aretz, wrote an article about it …
After the conclusion of Israel’s “Summer Rain” campaign in Lebanon, Israelis just want to get back to normal. They emerge from the war with less belief in their leaders and less faith in their army. A majority would probably like to see a big shake up in both, but don’t have the energy to make …