=jr6j03a Journal, From 3 Jan '06 Succeeds =jr6j1b.txt ================================================================= He was, after all, an honoroable old horrible. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Got a bottle of Jose Cuervo real Tequilla in Andermatt. But the problem is, it really tastes like tequilla. You just about expect to spit out the cactus_bristles. Not like the clean dry taste of Jose Cuervo white tequilla. Shalom Schwartz at Mevo Modi'in would serve that between courses of the Shabat meal. Cleansed the palate very nicely. I find it so hard to believe that any of us ever grew up. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Sex is nice enough, I suppose -- (truth to tell, it's only sometimes somewhat pleasureable, but I don't want to sound unpatriotic like a fairy -- at Belmont High School, where I came of age, the two were more or less synonymous, along with being hyper_intellectual, of course (BuckMinister Fuller said that first) -- hyper_intellectual was anyone who used a four_syllable word more than once a fortnight -- which is why I'm so charmed now by the pop song of the 1950's, "no particular place to go" -- -- but its main attraction is that it offeers a way of self_transcendence, however momentary -- (at Oberlin College in the late 1950's, in the last gasp, so to speak, of parietal rules, Dean Mary, Dean of Women, would say, in her annual lecture to them: Now remember girls, an hour's pleasure is not worth a lifetime of regret, ' to which the intelligent young women of my peer group would respond, 'How do you make it last an hour?' -- indeed, in these sheltered times, just about the only way of self_transcendence available to most of us -- assuming one's allegiances to not leave room for joining the U.S. Army of course -- for the Israeli army, having real enemies, does not enourage heroism -- (and Ezer Weizman once said: Don't be so quick to give your life for your country; make the other son_of_a_bitch give his life for his country -- During the 1950's Sinai campaign Ezer Weizmann shot down 2 or 3 British planes, and sent back a message of condolence: Sorry boys, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But then he got the secular analogue of religion, and betrayed away the Sinai. Begin was a brave man when he stood alone, but too easily influenced -- by Dayan, and by Jimmy_the_Grin -- and many say, by Sharon, though had the campaign to destroy the PLO succeeded, as it would have but for last_minute intervention by the USA -- they got to Reagan with that faked picture of the armless girl -- we would not have had, and lost, the intifada Leary said, Old men should not be allowed to serve in government. He meant, when they can no longer make babies, they become heartless -- he had in mind LBJ in Vietnam, no doubt -- but now it appears that LBJ was just a political coward and weakling who was more or less dragged into Veetnam by "the best and the brightest" -- notably McNamara -- the same types who nowadays the call the neo_cons, who trashed Afghanistan in passing -- finished trashing what little was left of that great culture after the USSR and then the CIA had pretty much ruined it -- amd then dragged us into Iraq for a few vanities -- so Bushie could prove he was better than Daddy, and so Rummy could show off his fast mobile strike force -- an old pouf playing with toy soldiers, and not hearing them scream -- -- but in the USA these are men whose miliitary experience was limited to dodging snowballs -- in Israel, they were all real soldiers, most of them recklessly brave, and then they grow old and mushy, confronting whatever disease they will die of, and no doubt regretting if not repenting all the people they've killed -- and so the Israel Left, exceptionally well_educated young men who likely went into Intelligence and now regret all the prisoners they tortured in this war or that one, try to do tchuva, but lacking the support of Jewish religion, try to do tchuva by giving away as much of the land as they can -- ie, any parts where they don't know, or at least see socially, whoever lives there -- to those same skulking little jackals whose pawns they had so forcibly interrogated -- and so the old men of Israel dream of leaving a gentle legacy to their grandchildren, and put their brains on hold and try to give away whatever they can to whoever will take it, like old John D. Rockefeller with his damned dimes, standing on the streetcorners of Manhattan trying to give them out to everyone he'd ruined (my father told me that tale, when I was a chld) -- and so PVK says, Meditation is the greatest luxury this world affords. (that's on some Zenith tape, as a passing remark) The End. Cf. Norman Mailer, who says, I think in 'An American Dream', if you can convince him you are less X than him, and less queer than him, and less stupid than him, then, if he is an honest sort, he will think you should run for President. ------------------------------------------------------------- The Swiss newspaper classified sex ads include a number for sex with transexuals. As one of the MK's said of 'Dana International', even in Sodom they did not have something as grotesque as that. Something for the man who has , or has had, everything, I suppose. A peculiar form of titillation. I suppose the next thing will be cross_grafts of humans with animal parts. The Swiss are so rich and so conventional that for novelty and adventure they can turn only to perversion. Really, they should ship the lot of them to Singapore and give the land to Israel. At least our young people still have a nostalgia for adventure, and then settle into adequate marriages and raise real children, rather than waiting until they're practically too old and then spending a fortune trying to do it hi_tech, or buying one. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Why can't anyone invent a self_heating coffee cup. So it keeps your coffee warm. And an illuminated computer keyboard -- the way cellphones light up. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Jan '05 -- No more than about 5 below, as usual, but instead of the usual windless days, this is one of those days -- you get one or two of them every two weeks , more or less -- when the wind is gusting, as usual to around 40 MPH -- I pretty much think temperature in Centigrade now, after 20 years away from the USA, but my sense of wind is still based on sailing in the MIT basin in my -- youth, I would rather say, than childhood, for I never felt like a child -- not that I was deprived of it, just that I always took myself reasonably seriously -- Anyhow, I don't really feel like schlepping down to Olivone today, with a heavy pack -- I just can't pack light, a few changes of clothes -- 3 sets of underwear, including socks -- one can't risk wet feet -- and a change of pants and shirt in case the pants get wet and the shirt sweaty -- a bit of emergency equipment, and a book of two for psychologic emergenies, a pair of workshoes so I don't have to wear moonboots on the pavements -- and the pack is full and too heavy not to be a chore. And a strong wind when it's below freezing constitutes a real risk of chill. I could hustle a ride down, but as I get older and more dignified, hustling rides no longer seems like a great beatmol advemtire- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Putin seems to have blown it with his attempt to quadruple to the price of natural to Ukraine -- to which Ukraine immediately responded by diverting gas intended for Europe -- which immediately responded by reconsidering its dependence on Russian natural gas -- which will have a major impact on Russia's economic credibility -- and all that from spite that Ukraine is moving out of the Russian economic_political orbit (in that order of priority, I think) into the European one. It seems to me that Putin has now really blown it, and should have to resign, if Russia were more than the facade of a free system. There does not seem to be event the strong oligarchy that existed in the post_Stalinist__pre_dissoluton phase of the USSR. In those days, a post_Stalinist dictator would be quietly replaced if he got too far off_course. Now many will make noise, but with the political crushing of the oligarchs, -- especially that Jewish head of Yukos, who seems to be an exceptional person, a brilliant businessman who had the ethical courage as well to have been a great political leader -- and now will most likely be murdered in prison, whever Putin , who should be a master at such things, contrives a way to deniably kill him - - Putin seems to have no significant opponents, nor even colleagues -- so his neo_imperialist nostalgia may geet the best of whatever little statesmanship he has -- -- Gorbachov had great vision and humanityy, it is a miracle of history that he appeared on the world stage, and effected a great historical change in the brief time until he was deposed. The world shows great inertia; a dictator can murder who he will, the world will make much noise about it, and then subside into its usual inertia as everyone goes about their incompetent pursuit of happiness -- I mean, HIK says, of riches, I fly from those who pursue me. So too, for happiness, all but the shallowest imitation of it, like New Year's eve in a middle_class whorehouse. Everyone knows, the only way to be happy is to stop thinking about yourself, and to try to do things for others. I mean, Putin had to be crazy, to try to cut off gas to the Ukraine when he trans_ships gas to Europe through Ukraine -- and then further to cut off gas from Turkemestan tran_shiped through Russia -- and then disingenuously to complain that Ukraine was not playing fair in diverting gas trans_shipped by Russia through it - - and all that when for Putin, establishing a strong economic relationship with Europe is far more important than trying to bully the Ukraine back into line -- and far more likely to succeed, especially with the USA backing Ukraine -- Well, this looks like a real world_crisis, and as usual Bushie is asleep_at_the_switch (that's USA railroad slang) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Re: IHT 4 Jan '06 (Cohen) It is a pity that Roger Cohen, Globalist, considers loyalty to one's own people too passe. If he is so concerned about vengeance, let his look to the USA's 30 Death Row's, rather than to Israel, which, unlike the USA, suffers chronic strategic terrorist harassment, and struggles to deter it with minimimum loss of life -- even its enemies lives. It was not "revenge for the Holocaust" , but the need of the Jewish people to lead free lives and defend themselves from future enemeies, that motivated re_establishment of a Jewish state within its religious_cultural homeland. The self_stytled 'Palestinian' descendents of migrants from adjacent Arab areas who lived there were not in general '"displaced", but profited economically and gained in cultural and political freedom from Jewish rebuilding of a land dessicated by 2000 years of successive exploitative occupations. The U.N. Partition Plan of 1947, although accepted by the provisional government of Israel, was not equitable, it was an appeasement of the Arab insurrection. It offered the Jewish people an unviable fragment of the land of the defeated Ottomoan Empire mandated by the United Nations to Great Britain for a future Jewish state. As for what Roger Cohen, following T.E. Lawrence, romantically and incorrectly personfies as "the Arab world emerging from the humiliationn of Western colonial rule" -- that was the Ottoman Turks, not the bloody Brits. And in retrospect, altough one may regret the end of tribal cultures, the Arab peoples of that region, like the peopels of Africa seem in most cases to have fared better under European imperialism than they subsequently did under their own local despots. National self_determination is not a precondition of individual self-actualization, and is in general counterposed to it. This is exemplified by modern facist and communist dicatorships, as well as by the rapacious tyrannies of underdevleoped regions, of which the PLO and its jihadist couterparts are merely the most recent. Incidentally, the phrase 'an eye for an eye' appears in the Torah only as a quotation from the code of Hamurabi. And it appears in the Torah only to be greatly restricted -- as a prohibition gainst inflicting injury upon slaves. Moreover, rabbinic interprettion substitued monetary compensation for physical retribution. It is a pity that Roger Cohen apparently forms and peddles his opinion of Isreal, not from living there, but from going to an American movie. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Re: David Anson, reviewing 'Munich' in Newsweek 19 Dec '05: I think that Spielgerg's 'Munich' -- which I firmly intend not to see -- will rank as a major contemporary anti_Jewish movie, second only to that faggot's shlockbuster about Jesus a year or so ago. It's a bit of a pity, since Spielberg no doubt fancies himself a mainstream USA liberal Jew, and did try to do some soiid work in preserving the memory of the Shoah -- though I'm not quite sure why anyone would want to. Nor if it occurred to Spielberg that if you preserve the memory of wrong done to you, you must somehow rectify that wrong, and that the simplest rectifiction, if not necessarily the best, is not forgiveness --- that's frightfully hard, and as PVK has noted in an annecdote, though not quite taken into account, if you can't forgive someone whole_heartedly, you just make your own hurt worse by trying to. Anyhow, "he who sups with the devil needs a long spoon", and that goes for USA liberal Jews who never saw and barely read of a bus_bombing, but imagine themselves giving Israel constructive criticism. Get lots of invites to wine_and_cheese parties, thought, and no problem in buying property in Stamford Connecticut. So anyhow, Spielberg winds up playing into the Christian triumphalist myth that Judaism is 'an eye for an eye' -- that its basic ethic is revenge -- whereas the essence of Christianity is forgiveness. Yeah sure; but there are 30 Death Rows in the USA. And when Israel executed Eichmann, it was said that "we did so only because we had no choice". And from that myth follows a very dangerous corollary, especially in the context of Israel's rather recent policy of 'targeted killings' -- where the civilized world eschews extra_judicial executions in favor of a simple dispassionate carpet_bombing of any area in which an alleged perpetrator is believed to be hiding. The corallary is that Israel should eschew retalliaton, and even more so, eschew pre_emption -- and instead, "give peace a chance" (John Lennon). Though nobody quite asks, what happens if you take that chance and lose. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Looks like the only way to minimize the risk of avian flu is to minimize poultry farming, especially low_tech poultry farming. So that's like the Brits livestock slaughter -- the foot_and_mouth disease freakout, which was quite unnecessary -- there was no risk to public health, only to England's overseas meat exports. And England did it, but England is one of the world's richest countries, and avian flu is coming from the world's poorest countries. And all of them more or less dictatorships, for better and/or worse. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Re: Newsweek 19 Dec '05 (Micheael Craig Miller, M.D., www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek The author writes: "Addictive substances hijack the brain's reward system, weakening our resolve to make wise choices, even when painful consequences are sure to result. Sepcifically, they stimulare the release of the chemical messenger dopamine into a region of the brain called the nucleus acubens. Cocaine and other stimulants cause this change directly. Other substances -- alcohol, narcotics, nicotine and marijuana -- act indirectly. But in each case, the sensation is self_reinforcing. Feel it once and you want to feel it again." Well, one might say the same of eating a steak dinner at a 5_star hotel. There's a very simple factor of habituation that this writer seems to have overlooked. I tried Bombay Gin, and rather liked it, so I take a sip whenever I can. But then I tried Cuevero Tequilla, and got to rather like it, so now I reach for that bottle rather than the Bombay Gin. And before that I was drinking Williams, which is a pear schnapps. But now the thought of it does not turn me on. It's not that one is more pleasureable than the other -- all three are first_rate liquors. Just a simple matter of habit. So this seems a very weak psychologic analysis on which to base a program of pharmaceutical treatment. It's sort of the Freudian theory of pleasure in reverse. Freud said that pleasure is the alleviation of tension. This says that addiction is merely a craving to repeat a previously_experienced pleasure. But addiction seems to be minimally pleasureable. And decreasingly pleasurable. And the primary motivation to repeat addictive behavior seems to be, not a craving for a pleasure, but an experience of displeasure that one wishes to alleviate. If the author's theory were true, one might treat addiction by finding a physiologically harmless way to stimulate the same pleasureable response. So instead of trying to block dopamine uptake, one would find harmless ways to stimulate it. As it stands, the treatment seems to consist, in its first phase - - and physiologically the treatment has onnly a first phase: its second, and essential, phase is a matter of behavioral psychology, not physiology -- not in getting the drunk to drink less, but in making him enjoy it less -- which does seem to be worst of both possible worlds. And damned Puritanical at that. A bit like treating female sexual addiction -- a most implausible and thoroughly sexist notion past the point of gynophobia -- by cutting out the clitoris -- a most anti_religious attitude (and Marilyn Strauss Lidov, zl'b, said, that her mother once said: If the good LORD made anything better than sex, 'HE' kept it to 'HIM'SELF . ( I must say, Goddess_worship is a much more useful concept for such situations, as Jean Auel gracefully brings out in her 'Earth's Children' fables of prehistoric humankinds.) misleadingly termed 'female circumcision'. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Oy. Pass me a bananna. ---------------------------------------------------------------- "The Twelve Days of Christmas" are precisely that -- from Christmas Day, Dec 25, through Epiphany, Jan 6, which is also celebrated as the Christian Orthodox -- Greek Orthodox for sure, but I think also other orthodx -- Christmas. Amazing that in 50 years I never read that, nor was told. To have Christmas on just one day is much too intense, and also insuffient. The darkness of the time of year demands more -- Christmas is the winter solstice, and Chanuka embracs the dark of the moon of that time. Nor can I believe that Chanukah was merely a belated Sukot, for which, of course, cleansing the Temple would have been a pre_requisite. For one would be a bit embarassed about not having celebrated a Festival until 3 months later -- they are harvest fetstivals, and so time_bound. So one would ot commemorate a belated celebration, much less perpetuate it. One would simply try to do it on time thenceforth. One would commemorate the recovery of the Temple, of which cleansing it would be the first step -- but if there was not then enough pure oil to do so, the cleansing would have been continued and the rededication postponed until all was in order. There was not then any festival that demanded haste, nor a miracle. It was not as if the Temple had been recaptured 2 days before Pesach. So Chanukah would have been perpetuated only as a semi_secular day of note. The modern goyische custom of decorating with lights at Christmas -- and those lights are put up before Chriistmas, and remain in place through the New Year -- in our house, we always took the Christmas Tree out the day after New Year -- it was primarily the Christmas tree that was decorated with lights -- almost every Christmas tree would have lighs as well as decorations, though the decortions could be delightfully gentle and subtle, and the lights were never better than a bit garish -- . But secondarily, many homes put lights -- always electric lights, never candles -- maybe in the 1800's they put candles in the windows, I don't know -- but they would have to have done so, to light up the house -- and to welcome holiday guests (the Christians make much of having guests at that season, we do so only at Sukot, although Chanuka was a belated Sukot the first year -- but had it been commemorated as such, we would likely have had a few residual customs, as with Pesach Sheni, when there is a little_observed custom of eating a piece of matza -- I think in addition to, not instead of, one's bread. For that Rabbi's would have damped down anything that seemed revisionistic. Too, many Christians decorate the fronts of their houses with Christmas lights -- we would usually ride around in the car the eveing or so before Christmas, to look at the displays of lights. So clearly Christmas is recognized as to some extent a holiday of many days -- in some sense, as a season -- the commercial decorations begin the day after Thanksgiving, and last through New Year's day, though no longer -- so you see, Epiphany has been quite ignored -- maybe the Roman Catholic Church had it repressed in the lands under their sway . One year at New Buffalo I did my best to celebrate something like twelve days of Christmas, maybe a bit more, though I did not know when to stop and when to end. I thought it quite important to have copper on the walls -- they say it makes an environment secure from evil spirits -- and to have spices --hot spiced wine especially. And nice candle_lights. And fire_light of course. Bright tinkling bells are also nice, that seems to be a basic custom for keeping the vibes free of evil spirits -- the High Priest wore bells, a custom preserved in the Roman Catholic Church. The sleigh_bells , especially in Russia but also Europe. Not strictly functional, but a lovely idea to brighten things up. The Christian custom of playing and singing merry songs -- indeed, the keynote is merriment, with solemn recognition of the advent of Christ only secondary. And properly too, it is the birth of Christ, not his crucifixtion -- and oddly and I think improperly, in Chhristian commemoratin the crucifixtion seems to take the foreground, with the resurrection put into the background -- although Easter is a celbration of the resurrection, where Good Friday passes only as a necessary prelude -- not precisely of repentance, which is sspiritually the precondition for resurrectdion -- so its little surprise that in the good old days, the more loutish Christians would be at least inclined to observe it by beating up Jews,not having been offered any more appropriate observance -- one year, as I lay freaked out on the beach on Rodos, one church sounded a huge deep bell, solemnly, one stroke at long intervals -- it went through the whole town, and through to one's soul -- the most devestting sound I ever have heard, after a few dozen repetitions, psychologically unable to move nor distract myself from it, I just continued to lie there on the stones, and cursed it. That was '02 I think:; the next year they did not do it. And after that I was out there, thank Heaven. And still pretty much intact, as far as I know. Well, this is the dark of the morning of the day after Epiphany -- it's 06:11 AM, 7 Jan '06 -- daybreak in about 3/4 of an hour. Dark thoughts for a dark morning. Mazaltov, now back to work. P.S. -- Here, and elsewhere too I think, they often set off fireworks to celebrate the New Year. Fireworks are both light and noise. A very Chinese custom. Noise is supposed to drive away the evil spirits. Well, I suppose it would give a melancholiac something to think about besides himself. And everyone knows -- the Indians one implied as much in a tipi meeting -- evil spirits are from inside us, they do not have external existence. Not even in the half_realms, singular or plural I don't know which, of existence. Which is Hades, I presume. Oy. "The world needs fixing", as R. Shlomo used to say. I have that down on a transcription somewhere. ------------------------------------------------------------------ As for poor old Sharon, they should pull out the plug and let him go in peace. I don't really believe that one is necessarily "racked to the world" (King Lear: "He hates him who would rack him to this world") by being kept on artificial life support -- I mean, anyone who's a bit adept can transcend his body -- but it can't make it easier, still being in it. Someone said, PVK once said -- this would have been in the good old days, ca. Abode 1970s -- cremation is quite a shock, better to bury the body -- I think I heard that from Charisma, aka 'Alita, Ms. Robin Giber, she should never be allowed behind the wheel of an automobile, because she always rides about 25 yards ahead of the engine -- but in later years, Zenith 1990's, PVK repeatedly said he would not take such questions as, whether it was better to bury the body or 'incinerate' it -- though he does say, on the portion of his last interview that ZR happened to show at Zenith '05 SetUp Camp, and that I happened to see, that he regrets have allowed them to cremate his mother -- tho the only reason he gives on what I saw on tape -- one cannot assume that anything we see him say, howwever continuous it seems -- and with all the pauses PVK ordinarily makes, one just can't tell how continuous that is -- has not been elided in an edit -- the only reason that he gives is that cremation is contray to the teachings of Islam (as it is also to the teachings of Judaism) -- though his mother was brought up as a Christian Scientist, tho I don't know if after her marriage she turned to , or even converted to, Islam -- But in any event, it can't be easier to get out of your body if it's still stitting there in the hospital, not to mention although those useless visitors, nine tenths of them just stoppong by for the photo op -- I mean if ever there was a guy who needed rent_a_minyan, that fat old get is it -- the left has always hated him, whatever they now say -- damning with faint praise, as the saying goes -- and he simply betrayed the right -- no doubt he once showed heroism, organizational if not personal -- in the 1973 war -- though he was not a personal coward, unlike, eg, Bushie, and Rummie and Cheney too -- and he does merit credit for trying to knock PoopooFace out of Lebanon, and zap him once and for all -- no doubt he dragged Begin into Lebanon, but by then Begin was most likely demoralized by his sellout at Camp David -- not a sellout, Begin could not have been bought by anything , but a cave_in -- show the guy a bit of pseudo love and he collapeses, maybe -- and if Jimmy_the_Grin was good at anything, it was plastic imitation Christian love -- but after that, Sharon becomes a mediocrity with an intellect to rival Rabin's -- The question is not, why did they take him to Hadassah hospital from the Negev in an ambulance not a helicopter -- I mean, a guy is bleeding from a cerebral hemmoraghe, he does not want a helicopter ride -- but the question is, why, after his first stroke, which was very minor, did they not keep him in hospital for a while -- and plugged in to all their little machines -- Well, he did his destined evil, if evil it was -- maybe it was for the best, though I sure do doubt it, and I don't suppose they'll be refurbishing the Club Med in Ashkelon any time soon -- just about the last and most beautiful beach in israel, except for an undertow that can take you half_way to Cyprus before the first seating for lunch -- and now all it is is another testing ground for home_made Kasam's -- and he had no future -- my guess, when he first formed that Kadima party, was that he would not get more than 7 seats tops -- now I'd say, 2 or 3 at best -- Mofaz and Olmert, if they can't find a palce to scurry back to -- Nor would the country have gone along with any more evacuation of west Bank settlements -- Olmert is a decent man, but i doubt he can carry the people, he's no war hero -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- A largae part of dreams are just a matter of lingering impresions -- as when when you put a rubber band arouund your socks, and when you take it off at ngiht, the skin takes a long time to come back to full shape, holding the impressin for some hours. So too, what one has been thinkng of before going to bed tends to assert itself, as a rthr inaapt choice of symbol, inone's dream. fo rme, it is oftne the form of the names I give to coputer files, that appears in my dreams as a szmbol for whatever I am more deeply worried aobut. ----------------------------------------------------------- Ah, the dividends of peace from the civilization of Old Europe. The 7 Jan '06 Basler Zeitung, I suppose the closet thing Switzerland has to a national journal of note -- no news here of the newest whorehouse, just the usual discreet classifieds for whipping, transexuals, heterosexual sodomy and the like -- features of cartoon of Sharon, as he lies comatose and dying from a stroke -- he is depicted, a fat bent old man, walking away from a huge and most intimidating bulldozer named Sharon, an Israel flag flying from the driver's safely shield upholstered seaat -- in his left hand is a small green olive branch, his right hand, more prminent, is drenched to the fingers in red dripping blood. The cartoon is titled zeitzeichen and singed, Schrank I wrote a Letter_to_the_editor, in English, something like: "I must say. I found your cartoon of 7 Jan '06 rather cruel -- and inaccuratae; I doubt you will find many active generals who have done more than Sharon to minimize unnecessar casualities." I wasn't even thinking of the Lebanon War, which was Sharon's War -- his only one -- but even then I think oone could argue that his tactics did not cause excessive civillian casualties. The Israel army did, of course, risk and sometimes lose its soldiers in contacts with apparent civillians who might or might not have been about to attack the individual soldiers -- and sometimes did. On the other hand, there was quite a bit of artillery shelling and bombing of Beirut, as I recall. And had it come to an invasion of Beirut, casualities to Israeli soldiers were expected to be high. I was thinking primarily of the policy of 'targetted assassinations' -- I don't think one can atribute it to Sharon, but he did make much use of it. And that is, though 'extra_judicial executions' cannot in general be endorsed, a tactic that minimizes casualities, especially to non_combatants. And of course that is how Sharon began his career -- leading retaliatory raids into Jordan after terrorist attacks. ------ The Swiss are frightfully polite, but I don't suppose they much like Jews. Not that they see all that many of them, and most of those they do keep their place and make lots of money quietly -- the little ghetto of black_coats in Zurich. They don't give a damn for the goyim, and the goyim ignore them. As for Israel, they'll never like us, whatever we do, and its a bit pitiful and embrassing to see so many of our supposed leaders just keep trying. As Sharon did, and now they spit on the old basard before he's even in his grave. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ================================================================= sa, Campra, 8 Jan '06 -- 9 teveT I reckon, the stars are out. =================================================================