2nd Half
Bob Monsour

Diving ever deeper into web development and continuing the self-struggle on the tennis court

   

Search

March 16th, 9:50pm 0 comments

If it can happen to James Baker in 1991, it can happen to Joe Biden in 2010

History, in this case geopolitical history, has a way of repeating itself. For those who follow events in the Middle East, you are aware of the recent dust-up in US-Israeli relations. On Tuesday, March 9, 2010, news was released that a plan had been approved to construct 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem. Vice President Joe Biden had arrived in Israel on March 8th to lend political support to the Israelis and the Palestinians who had both agreed to embark on proximity talks to be led by special U.S. envoy George Mitchell. Biden was not pleased with the news and proceeded to let the Israeli government know of his (and his country's) displeasure. The confrontation has now seemed to delay the start of the talks as Mitchell has postponed his trip to the region. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton has also chimed in strongly on the news. And the sad saga continues.

As an Arab-American and the father of a 15 year old son who has become very interested in his Arab heritage, I've been sharing what I know about the history of the conflict and recently realized that I really didn't know that much. So, I began reading "The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs" by Ahron Bregman and Juhan El-Tahri. This is an incredibly fascinating account of the conflict during the period from 1948 and 1998. It was based on the work they had done for a BBC TV documentary series. It contains significant first-hand accounts of critical events over the period as collected through direct interviews with many of the key participants.

I completed the book earlier today. As I mentioned, being a follower of the Middle East, I have been closely watching the reports and analyses of the recent challenges arising in the US-Israel relationship. The following episode, as copied from the book (page 209), is a not-so-eerily similar episode from April 1991. Note that the purpose of then Secretary of State James Baker's trips to the Middle East was to get all of the parties (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and the Palestinians) to agree on the form and process for a peace conference to be held in Madrid, Spain.

"On 8 April, after a brief return to Washington, [James] Baker landed in Israel and was met with a new problem. That day, the Isralis had declared that they were building a new settlement in the occupied territories. The Israelis were signaling to Baker that the West Bank was part of Eretz Yisrael and would not be given away. Baker was Furious; he saw this as an attempt to sabotage his mission. He knew that it would infuriate the Arabs and Palestinians who were already incandescent about the settlements the Israeli government had build on the land it had occupied in 1967. Baker's assistant, Dennis Ross, recalls how his boss confronted Prime Minister Shamir: 'I'm working damed hard to try to produce a peace process that's going to serve your interests and, if you want me to be able to do it, you cannot confront me with a settlement every time I show up.' Shamir tried to belittle the action and said, 'Well, it's a small activity and, frankly, it's Sharon's doing.' Baker said, 'Then talk to Sharon. I don't appreciate it.'"

If Baker didn't appreciate finding a new settlement each time he arrived in Israel, the Palestinians did not either. Hana Ashrawi [a Palestinian representative] greeted the Secretary of State by saying, 'Mr Baker, maybe you should stop coming to visit us because we cannot afford to pay the price of your visits.' Faisal Husseini recalls: 'I brought him  maps of the West Bank and Gaza. One map represented the situation before '67, and the other showed the present situation ... a very ugly picture of how the settlements had expanded.' Hanan Ashrawi then said to Baker: 'If you want a Palestinian delegation in the talks, you should get us an immediate cessation of all settlement activities.' Baker recalls saying to Husseini: 'Let's talk about how we're going to get the negotiations going. If you want to stop the expansion of the settlements, then you had better engage immediately in the peace process. You have no other alternative...'

I'd urge anyone interested in understanding the people, politics, and intrigue involved during the 1948 to 1998 period to get the book. It's a quick and engaging read. All I can do is hope that cooler heads in the region will someday prevail.
Link to the source of the above map of the Jerusalem area: http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1309
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 23 hours ago

0 Comments

March 10th, 4:23pm 1 comment

New iPhone/iPad gestures...

I couldn't help myself...I came across this post titled "New Gestures coming to an iPhone/iPad near you: triple tap and long press" and felt compelled to share several other heretofore unknown gestures that one might imagine if one were to develop their own set of crude, teenage gestures. Voila!

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 7 days ago

1 Comment

March 9th, 8:48am 0 comments

The real hope of economic peace | The Middle East Channel

As much of the conflict centers around occupation of land, the real way out, as discussed in this article, is through economic development.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 8 days ago

0 Comments

March 6th, 3:56pm 0 comments

A gorgeous 1940(?) chevy as captured by my son with my iPhone

We found ourselves coming home from the mall and followed this beautiful Chevy right in front of us. We didn't get a full view, but from what we saw and the photos my son took, and some copious googling, it looks a lot like a 1940 Chevy. Anyone have a better date on this?

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 11 days ago

0 Comments

March 6th, 3:15pm 0 comments

Israeli Raid Cancelled After Very Stupid Facebook Post - Facebook - Gizmodo

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 11 days ago

0 Comments

February 26th, 8:27pm 0 comments

Dogs at rest? Not surprised

 

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 18 days ago

0 Comments

February 25th, 12:26pm 0 comments

Shocking numbers about Medicare

Se. Kent Conrad of North Dakota just shocked the hell out of me. He said that 50% of Medicare spending goes to 5% of Medicare recipients who are chronically ill. He went on to say that this is primarily due to poorly coordinated care, citing that these patients take, on average, 16 different prescription medications. He continued to say that this is largely due to a total lack of coordination and that most often, many of these prescriptions should not be being taken.
Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 20 days ago

0 Comments

February 25th, 10:27am 0 comments

Media sickness

As expected, all the media wants to do is figure out "who's winning" the healthcare debate. They're more partisan than the politicians. Sickening!

   

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 20 days ago

0 Comments

February 23rd, 2:06pm 0 comments

Great Q & A item from Tim Cook, Apple COO at Goldman Sachs Technology Conference

This question and answer item from Tim Cook, COO of Apple, says a lot about why they are dramatically successful with most of the products they develop.

Q: How do you stop hubris from creeping in?
A: [The] Executive team in the company spends a lot of time thinking and discussing how to retain and recruit the best talent in the world. At the end of the day, I know it's a cliche, but people are our most important asset in the world by far. It's people who deliver innovation. We are the most focused company that I know of or have read of or have any knowledge of. We say no to good ideas every day. We say no to great ideas in order to keep the amount of things we focus on very small in number so that we can put enormous energy behind the ones we do choose. The table each of you are sitting at today, you could probably put every product on it that Apple makes, yet Apple's revenue last year was $40 billion. I think any other company that could say that is an oil company. That's not just saying yes to the right products, it's saying no to many products that are good ideas, but just not nearly as good as the other ones. I think this is so ingrained in our company that this hubris you talk about that happens to companies that are successful and sole role in life is to get bigger, I can tell you the management team at Apple would never let that happen. That's not what we're about. Small list of things to focus on.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 22 days ago

0 Comments

February 18th, 8:44pm 0 comments

Stuart Hall High School Basketball

         

HS ball at it's best...SHHS went on to win 47-40!!!

Now, on to the finals agains University on Saturday night. Sadly, we'll have to miss it due to family travel.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted 26 days ago

0 Comments