A great interview at the Washington Post with Ali Abunimah, creator of the Electronic Intifada.

Pictures

I found finally some pictures of the conflict. The army that receives 3 billion dollars in US tax payer money vs the rocks.

Davos

Last year I went to Davos, and had a chance to see the debate between Peres and Arafat. I did not know much about the story of Israel and Palestine at the time.

Arafat was supposed to go first, and Peres second. But Arafat had a technical problem (his translator I believe was not there). Peres went first, and delivered his speech. Not knowing much about the situation back then, I only concluded that Peres was just another politician delivering a regular speach: no content, but a lot of promises. I noticed immediately this, being a mexican. Being a mexican and living in Mexico makes you very sensitive to this particular kind of speaches: content free and promises that make you look good, but with no intentions to deliver.

I figured `This is Davos, probably every speach is just like this'. Politicians at their core.

The turn came to Arafat to speak. I do not remember the content of his speach (and I wish the speach was available on-line somewhere; Update: found a transcript), but it was a very sad thing to listen to, and it touched a nerve to listen to the story this man was telling.

Arafat was trembling, and you could see that he was a man that had a lot of pain.

Klaus Schwab closed this debate on peace, by asking each leader to say what they wished for the other country. Peres answer was exactly what you would expect from a mexican politician. I know this because I can not remember anything interesting about it.

But Arafat's reply said something that immediately caught my attention: `I wish to the Israeli people, and the Israeli children that they do not ever have to live the lives that the Palestinian people and the Palestinian children'.

This was a translation, and I do not remember the exact words, as that happened more than a year ago, and transcripts of the closing remarks are not to be found.

The Destruction of Culture

I guess children were hiding weapons of mass destruction in their paintings.

Some Real Audio about Israel Channel 2 Broadcast. About the ambulance that could not pick her wife up: `Its a mistake'. The Israel Occupation Forces must be really dumb to make 1,500 mistakes like this, either that, or they are confident that the world is stupid.

The good news is that 50,000 to 100,000 Israeli citizens (depending on your source) protested in Tel Aviv the government policy of occupation of Palestine.