The Scribbler

London - published on 9 September 2004   Beyond Images Briefing 107 – www.beyondimages.info/b107.html In the aftermath of the Beslan school massacre, the following article was published by prominent Arab journalist Ahmed Rahman Al-Rashed in the pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.  It was also published on various news agency websites.  Al-Rashed is general manager of Al-Arabiya news channel.   In the article, Al-Rashed describes terrorists as the “end-product” of a “deformed” Islamic culture.  He calls for Muslim societies to embark on self-criticism, and to end their “history of denial” and their justifications for “heinous crimes”. Innocent Religion Is Now A Message of Hate by Ahmed Rahman Al-Rashed 6 September 2004 It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims. The hostage takers of children of Beslan, North Ossetia, were Musl...

Today is Shira’s 2nd birthday. It is pretty special in that it’s probably the last one she’ll have that she’s unaware of. By next year, she’ll be pretty clued up to what birthdays are all about. I have to say that I’ve thorougly enjoyed her innocence! Shira is entering the terrible two’s as they call them. If she’s anything like her sisters, she’ll be fine until next August 31st and then, she’ll provide us with nine months of the terrible three’s. Right now though two years down the line, she is 100% edible and gorgeous. Long may it last and although you don’t quite know what it means….Happy Birthday Shir Shir. You’re a stunner!

Please read the following scenario carefully before attempting to answer the question. A newly qualified teacher starts working in a State School. As instructed, he sends his bank details via the school the Payroll Department in the Local Council. As per the norm, he is paid by cheque for the first month since he hasn’t yet been put onto the payroll system, which will pay his salary straight into his bank account. In the Council’s Human Resources Department, HR Assistant Alex Dashmuck receives the teacher’s bank details, soon after they are sent and promptly files them away in the teacher’s personnel folder, instead of submitting them to Payroll for processing. As a result, at the end of the second month, the teacher doesn’t get paid at all. You are the Head of Human Resources at the Council. Do you: a) Have a gentle word with Alex and admonish him/her for this mistake (even though this is already the fourth time this has happened in the last six months)? b) Give Alex a verbal warning ...

I went back to school today, for the first time since 22 July. All new starters have been invited to attend two induction days, ahead of the commencement of the new term. The fact that we are also being paid extra to attend, does not come into it in any way (perish the thought!). Anyway, it was nice to meet the new faces. Tomorrow, we are going to have our photos taken for the staff bulletin board (say “don’t you dare throw that thing at me or I’ll have you in for six hours on Sunday morning, you little shit”) and get to know the new year 7 intake. The biggie will be next Monday when we give our first lessons. If we screw up, we’ll be paying for it throughout the next year. I have to basically be a total bastard until Christmas if I want to have any control over my class. If I don’t get it right on Monday morning, they will be all over me by the next lesson. Talk about pressure! I still don’t have too much of an idea of what I’m going to be covering but I met with my Head of Department...

My heart goes out to anyone who has experienced the horror of Katrina. If you are reading this and have been affected, please know that my thoughts are totally with you and your families. Today, we are all Louisianans and Mississippians and may the Good Lord protect you all from any more harm.

I know that I said I would be stopping with my Gaza stuff, but (!) I was sent this and really feel it is important to show a different opinion, parts of which I agree with. Yakar is an orthodox study centre which takes an alternative viewpoint to traditional Judaism (more in line with Kabbalistic thought). The centre in London (there are a number in other cities, like Jerusalem) is headed by Rabbi Jeremy Rosen who wrote this article. “There have been so many different reactions from all over the world to the withdrawal from Gaza and parts of Samaria, focussing on different and often totally opposite perspectives. This is my personal response and, as usual, it is concerned primarily with the religious aspect.   If one is going to take a religious position, then I stand fair and square with the Hassidic Satmar anti-Zionists. They argue that the religious ideal of a return to Zion is in the hands of God. Any attempt to return to Zion formally and officially is, to them, a blasphemy which ...

Israel has left Gaza and the terrorists thank us by sending suicide bombers from the south Hebron Hills – one of the few areas where the fence hasn’t been built. If that’s not a reason to continue with some frenzied fence building, I don’t know what is – cos I sure as hell don’t want our brethren to leave the birthplace of Judaism: Hebron.

I’m sure I’m the last one to find this out, but you can now post your entries from Word, using the Blogger add-in. I know that some of you have lost some posts in the past when using the online method, so this should definitely come as a tonic. The only drawback is that you can’t include images (yet.) I’ve published a few posts this way and it works really well. You can find it somewhere on the Blogger website!

Today was Michal’s 5th birthday, hence the visit to the cinema (at 10 am!) which was followed by lunch in a restaurant (if you can consider hot dogs to be lunch) and a wonderful double birthday party (Shira is two on Wednesday) at home attending by my in-laws and Dana’s brother, sister-in-law and their very cute 14 month old daughter. Whilst the four of us were at the cinema, Dana ( no doubt ably assisted by Shira) cooked up a wonderful feast of cakes and tarts. Dana really is an amazing cook (and if this doesn’t get her to comment on my blog, I give up). My little Michali is five years old. I can’t quite believe it’s five years to the day since she popped out in that pool of water and her little screaming head emerged, ready for its first swimming lesson. Does time fly or what?

I have to say that I approached this film with a certain level of trepidation. My experience of 3D movies has not been too positive and I remember the last time the genre hit the big screen with very mixed emotions. In 1983, I went to see "Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone", a 3D space "extravaganza". The director fell into the trap of many of 3D film maker and concentrated on scaring the wits out of the audience by throwing everything he could (in 3D) at the audience - explosions, debris, meteorites - you name it - at the expense of penning any sort of comprehensible script. I remember emerging from the cinema with a gargantuan headache, still not knowing what the story had been about. Making films in 3D is therefore a tricky business and definitely not one to approach lightly. I'm therefore delighted to report that Robert Rodriguez has made a thoroughly enjoyable entry into the genre, that for once doesn't compromise a good storyline with overb...

As a matter of personal interest, like many other bloggers, I like to track the hits I get on this site. The program I use is called Statcounter and before you start worrying, it doesn't give me any personal information about who visits (unless their IP address is traceable and then I only know the domain name!). I enjoy writing the posts because it is a way of expressing myself. It's nice to know that people are reading your thoughts, although I don't write, so as to be read. If you know what I mean. Saying that, if people are reading my blogs, it's interesting to know where my thoughts are being read. With this in mind, I please look at the following screenshot of countries in which my posts were read yesterday: I find it staggering (and fantastically ego boosting) to see that I’m being read around the world – from Australia to Canada. I also feel quite vulnerable that all these strangers in countries I’ve never visited, know exactly what’s going on in my mind! On se...

I've added a link for the wonderful Dry Bones cartoon strip. You can find it just below the animated lady on the couch, in the left hand column. For those who don't know, it is an Israeli institution, debuting in 1973. I love the strip for it's wry, humerous and very Jewish way of looking at the Middle East situation (and the rest of the world) from a wonderfully refreshing angle. Always right on the mark, I highly recommend it.

I've noticed that a few of you (bloggers) have opted to ban anonymous comments from your blogs. I haven't had any yet, but the option to post thus, is available. Question. Should I restrict such comments? In doing so, would I be removing the option for people to post exactly what they feel and in doing so, invoking some sort of censorship? I suppose I would only need to do this if people start abusing the anonymous option. Right? Opinions requested please (anonymous or not.)

You will no doubt be relieved to read that I'm enacting closure on the topic of the Gaza disengagement as I think I've pretty much said (or quoted) everything I wanted to about it. I think it's "business as normal" from now on. Besides, school starts next week and I'll have enough to report from my first year of teaching, without flogging what is fast becoming "a dead horse". What's done is done, let's all move on.

Dana, my fab wife and the other scribbling teacher in the house is amused by my recollections of my first date. She really makes me smile though, when she comes back from the supermarket this afternoon beaming. "I bought you something to show that I support your blog writing." she says coyly. I'm intrigued. What can it be? With a grin, she gives me... ...The DVD of Trading Places . I'm still chuckling twenty minutes later......... and the best thing is that this one comes slap-less. What a gal!

This article explains my own reasons for backing the Gaza disengagement. I have always gone with the fact that Gaza was never really a "Jewish" area (although Jews may have lived there on and off throughout history). From today's New York Times Palestinians on the Right Side of History By BENNY MORRIS There is, from the historian's perch, something fitting about the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. I am not speaking about the fact that this appallingly overcrowded area has 1.3 million Arabs who need every inch of its 140 square miles to even begin to imagine a better life and who regard their former Jewish occupiers as nothing more than robbers. I mean instead that for the greater part of ancient history - that past in which the Jewish people anchor their claim to Israel - the Gaza Strip was not part of the Jewish state. The embattled settlers may have screamed last week that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was expelling Jews from part of Eretz Yisrael, "the l...

I have been asked to post this on my blog. Background "Oct 4, 2003 - Assaf Staier, 11, of Haifa was one of 21 people killed in a suicide bombing carried out by a female terrorist from Jenin in the Maxim restaurant in Haifa. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. The blast devastated the restaurant, of joint Jewish-Arab ownership, on Hahagana Boulevard near the southern entrance of the coastal city. It was packed mostly with regular Saturday customers. The bomber, Hanadi Jaradat, a 29-year-old lawyer from Jenin, managed to get past Maxim's security guard before blowing herself up in the middle of the restaurant. The security guard, an Israeli Arab, was killed in the attack, along with three other Israeli Arab employees of the restaurant. The victims included five members of the Almog family from Haifa and five members of the Zer-Aviv family from Kibbutz Yagur. Four children were killed and 60 people were wounded in the bombing. Three generations of the Almog f...

Between two o' clock and four o'clock this afternoon, I reached a state of perfection in my life. Let me explain. I don't know if this idea exists in other countries, but here we have some farms that operate a P.Y.O. (pick your own) system. You turn up at the farm, see what they've got growing, grab some baskets and a trolley and fill them up to your heart's content. You walk back to the shop, pay and go back to your car, laden with filled baskets and carrier bags. We took the girls to a nearby P.Y.O. farm. There we were, the six of us, enjoying a rare family outing. The sun was out, the kids were not arguing and both Dana and I were in fabulous moods. We walked across fields and hills filling our baskets with fresh strawberries, raspberries, spinach, red and white onions, corn and beetroot. The wierdest moment was stepping through the onion field. I have to confess that I never knew how onions grew and it seemed really weird just being able to pluck them out of the...

Thanks everyone and wow!

I was sent this by the Middle East Media Research Institute . I think that it speaks volumes about the value of human life, as seen in different cultures. Al-Jazeera Special on Female Suicide Bomber Hanadi Jaradat The following are excerpts from a report, by Al-Jazeera TV that aired August 16,2005, about female Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat. Jaradat was responsible for the October 2003 bombing of the Arab-owned restaurant Maxim in Haifa, Israel, which killed 19. (To view this clip, click here ). Hanadi Jaradat: "By the power of Allah, I have decided to become the sixth female martyrdom-seeker, who will turn her body into shrapnel, which will reach the heart of every Zionist colonialist in my country, and every settler or Zionist who has tried to sow death in my country. We are not the only ones who must sow and reap..." Reporter: "Her cousin Sami was the one who filmed her." Sami Jaradat: "I filmed her with a video camera. There was no need to pre...