The Tea Partiers are not violent for the most part and are not beating opponent with their canes while riding on their government paid electic scooters. They are no thugs.
I consulted Wikipedia...because I honestly didn't know. There's Shas with 11 seats. There's United Torah Judaism with 5 seats. And there's The Jewish Home with 3 seats. That's 19 out of 120 seats. Enough in Israel's fragile democracy to make an unfortunate and huge difference. Bear in mind, it also doesn't include the secular far right, which is arguably not entirely unlike Germany's NPD or Britain's BNP. As much as the posters on this board give you hell, I don't think you are sympathetic to a guy like Avigdor Lieberman, whose secular but Putin-ite Yisrael Beiteinu has 15 seats and often votes with them. I'd offer more due diligence, but I have to go meet a pretty English punk chick. As much as this is important to me, she's really, really hot. You can read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Israel
LOL someone is going to be in trouble over this...speaking the truth is a no no. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12374753 Egypt unrest: US disowns envoy comment on Hosni Mubarak The US state department has distanced itself from comments by a US special envoy, to the effect that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak should stay in office during a power transition. Spokesman Philip Crowley said Frank Wisner's views were his own, and not co-ordinated with the US government. The statement came as protesters kept up demands for Mr Mubarak to quit now. Mr Mubarak has vowed to stand down in September. Earlier, he replaced the leadership of his ruling party. The entire politburo including his son Gamal lost their jobs. Hossam Badrawi, a reformer and top physician, took the post of head of the policies committee, held by Gamal Mubarak, and that of secretary-general. On Friday US President Barack Obama urged Mr Mubarak to "make the right decision" and to begin the transition "now", without explicitly saying he should step down. Protesters still occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square, but their numbers have fallen from Friday's huge rally there. But the BBC's Yolande Knell in Cairo says the city is still remarkably quiet 12 days after the protests began as people wait to see what happens next. 'Critical' leadership Mr Wisner, a former ambassador to Egypt, was sent by President Obama to Cairo on Monday, apparently to urge Mr Mubarak to announce his departure. "We need to get a national consensus around the pre-conditions for the next step forward. The president must stay in office to steer those changes," he told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. "I believe that President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical - it's his chance to write his own legacy. "He has given 60 years of his life to the service of his country, this is an ideal moment for him to show the way forward." But in Washington, state department spokesman PJ Crowley said: "We have great respect for Frank Wisner and we were deeply appreciative of his willingness to travel to Egypt last week." "He has not continued in any official capacity following the trip. The views he expressed today are his own. He did not co-ordinate his comments with the US government." The resignation of leading officials of the ruling National Democratic Party was announced on state TV. "The members of the executive committee resigned from their posts. It was decided to name Hossam Badrawi secretary general of the party," it said. Secretary-General Safwat al-Sharif, a highly unpopular figure for the protesters, lost his post. The TV report said President Mubarak, as party leader, had accepted the resignations. The BBC's John Leyne in Cairo says that while the new secretary-general, Dr Badrawi, is seen as a liberal he is still close to the ruling family, and this is another indication of the turmoil in the ruling elite. Mr Mubarak has already said he will not stand for re-election as Egypt's president in September, but insists he must stay until then to prevent chaos in the country. Protesters are demanding that he goes immediately.
Egypt protests: Muslim Brotherhood 'to join talks' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12375426
Haha @ Israel sending in ground troops and allowing the US to play the good guy role by telling their puppet Mubarak to give into the people, after they planted him there and allowed him to break his word on stepping down time and time again. But I won't hate the player, I accept the game. I think Islamic law (an educated, modernist interpretation of it) will be the best way to rule over Egypt after Mubarak steps down. Obviously this will get the US' panties in a bunch and they'll plant all kinds of insurgencies and spies in their latest anti-Communist brigade, but religion backed by the army is the only thing that can unite unmitigated chaos by the entire blue collar sector of a 3rd world country. And the rest of the Arab world will be watching very closely as materialism and consumerism takes second place to a more humanistic way of life that lessons the income gap between the rich and working class. An honor based society where people deviate less because of their allegiance to God. Would appreciate it if someone could breakdown the likelihood of it being implemented. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_economic_jurisprudence
I'd say little to none. Far more likely is that it becomes a secular country with modernist Muslims naturally dominating the political scene. It will very quickly become similar to the US in that > if you don't attend church on Sundays, you can kiss your chance goodbye.
That link had nothing about the really, really hot English punk chick. In fact, ... it was kind of like the exact opposite of what you promised.
Zionism is garbage. Secular nationalist ideology? Is that the kool aid they're drinking now? This is an excellent example of Israeli propaganda. I'm sick of hearing it. Zionism is as secular as a nativity scene. I don't support the existence of religious states and unlike ATW, I don't give a damn what religion it might be. If a Muslim country kicked a million Jews of their land, occupied even more lands, attacked its neighbors and destroyed their infrastructure with impunity, conducted state sponsored assassinations, continued to refuse the placement of UN peacekeepers, the world wouldn't stand for it but Israel is on a perpetual pass for its behavior. It's absurd.
Zionism began in the 19th century when a bunch of European socialist Jews bought land from the Ottomans and settled here. They came to escape two kinds of persecution, the kind that Alfred Dreyfus suffered that convinced them that no European state would ever accept them as equal citizens, and the religious backwardness of their own communities. Their leadership went to the trouble to learn Turkish and even study law in Turkey. A lot happened since then. The First World War, the British Mandate, and then statehood in 1948...and the naqba, which many right-wingers in Israel want to make illegal for Palestinians to commemorate. As a reaction to Israeli statehood, 800,000 to a million Jews were persecuted and/or kicked out of Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen , and eventually came here, where their religious traditions and right-wing politics did much do irritate the European snobs that built the country. So yes, Muslim states did kick out a million Jews, and not much was said about it. Then there's the 1967 war, which brought Gaza and the West Bank under Israeli military control...and it's been that way since. And the very, very religious and intolerant people who decided to build settlements there like to play loose with history, and claim they are no different than the Kibbutzniks that came during the Ottoman days. When Ben-Gurion was told that East Jerusalem (and the Temple Mount) was captured, he mumbled "Who cares about a bunch of old rocks?" But over the last 40 years, it became part of the narrative, the importance of places of Jewish antiquity, like the kotel , like Hebron and new traditions got created, like swearing in new officers in front of the kotel. If you ask these settlers about it, they claim to be the "real" Zionists. And anyone that disagrees deserves to be killed. They also think non-Jews shouldn't be here, and none of them are too happy with the liberal court system and the existing laws that are supposed to respect the rights of minorities, and since 1967, they've done a great job of eroding the state's democracy, changing the curriculum in schools to suit their own nationalist-religious agenda, bringing Orthodoxy more and more into mainstream society, avoiding peace and by continuing to build, preventing either annexing the Territories outright and at least allowing Palestinians there the right to vote or allowing them to create a state. So I say all of this not to "win" an internet debate, but to make you understand that when you use Zionism the way you do, you play totally into the propaganda, and you allow the wingnuts to own the definitions and blur the lines. You give them the chutzpah to dive like Vlade Divac and point at you and say "look the anti-semite is oppressing me, let's build a wall to protect ourselves!" In my own opinion, Zionism achieved it's desired goal years ago. They wanted a state, and they have one. They never intended to occupy anyone or live in perpetual war or bankroll a fifth column of people who want to create a theocracy, and it's important not to let the people that do these things abuse the term. I think nationalism is an anachronistic 19th century idea, but Zionism is no more inherently evil than Palestinian nationalism and both have every reason to be respected. I'll also leave you with an anecdote. A friend of mine is a huge peace activist, and he demonstrates almost every week at the wall, both at great risk to his life and his freedom. He's already blacklisted by authorities for being a radical and he gets hassled when he comes and goes from the country...for doing something most people would support, democracy for everyone, an end to the Occupation, and peace. For those that don't want to read his story, he was told that an Israeli flag with the word "Peace" written in place of the Star of David needed to be replaced with either a communist flag or a Palestinian one if he wanted to participate in the demonstration, despite the fact that most of the people were Jewish Israeli, nor were they communists. Because the presence of the "Zionist" flag was not "permitted", local and foreign media dismissed the 3,500 people there are "just a bunch of radicals and angry Arabs", despite the fact that it was a genuine effort of people from all walks of life to come together in a reasonable demonstration against injustice. This sort of thing happens a lot. Things like flags and words can be redefined by people and they lose their meaning, or worse, can be used as instruments to silence debate or healthy discourse.
<embed src="http://www.goldmic.com/videos/watch.swf" quality="high" wmode="transparent" flashvars="xv=5498&xa=0&xr=1" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="450" height="364" id="goldmicvideo" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" />
Considering your disdain for Muslims praying in public, I'm not surprised you found the picture "amazing"
1) My disdain for ostentatious praying in public is not limited to Muslims doing so. I think prayer and sex are personal and doing it in public outside of places that are designated to do it are an invasion of everyone else's private sphere (although I am guilty of at least one of the two violations ). 2) You either intentionally or unintentionally misunderstand why I posted this picture: In this case, I think it is different, because here, the prayer is a statement of peace and non-aggressiveness (rather than an invasion of other people's sphere as described above) as opposed to the apparent aggression by the police. And not even the aggressive act of using the water cannon can phase them. Prayer in this situation is certainly a more powerful and admirable act and gives the protesters a lot more credibility than looting...
