Note: this is an English translation of a previous entry which was written in Hebrew especially
for the Israeli Independence Day.
Happy Independence Day Everybody! I decided to write this entry for the
Israeli Independence Day, but it is probable some of you will be pleased
by it. The entry is written in Hebrew, due to patriotic feelings,
but I'll probably translate it into English later and post it as
a separate entry.
The story went like this: I talked with
Peteris Krumins on Freenode, and
he told me that he is about to graduate with his Bachelor Degree in Physics.
(Good Luck and Mazal Tov!) In any case, we discussed graduation ceremonies
in Israel and Latvia (which is Peteris's home-land), and he referred me to
a few
photos of a graduation ceremony in Latvia.
The first picture that caught my eye was
this
picture of several girls who were apparently about to receive their
diploma. As one can see they are incredibly cute, but I found their
costumes very funny in comparison to what I am familiar with. Peteris told me
that these are standard formal costumes of girls there, and he asked me if I
could find him photos of Israeli females in formal dresses.
So I went to Flickr and searched for
"israeli girls", and what do I find? Uniforms upon uniforms. My eyes
became black from all the Khaki. High-quality photos of good-looking
female soldiers, but that's it - only soldiers. Peteris told me that these
photos were a hit on Digg, Reddit and the rest of the social bookmarking sites,
which may be the reason why Flickr ranks them so highly.
OK, a female solider in uniform (or a male soldier in uniform) is not such
an uncommon sight in Israel, given that most girls serve in the military
for two years starting from the age 18, and some of them also choose
to become officers or serve permanently. But most of the women we
see in Israel are not wearing uniforms. So this search in Flickr gives a
false and political impression.
The search
"israeli woman" does not display only soldiers, but it too has a very
political orientation.
Now here's the substance of my complaint: I think Israel is perceived as
a hyper-political and hyper-security-obsessed country, both by the citizens of
the world and by its own. I'll give a few examples:
-
When I studied civics in the 11th grade, the Civics teacher (whom I remember
quite fondly) asked the class to which committee of the Knesseth, the
prime minister was obliged to be summoned, and the students said
"The Committee of External Affairs and National Security". But, the correct
committee was "The Committee for the Critique of the State", and the teacher
noted that it was an indication that we perceive the national
security as too important (and she noted that beforehand as well).
-
In this essay Paul Graham
proved "scientifically" that it would be a pointless mission to establish
a "Silicon Valley" (i.e: a hub of startups) in Israel. He probably didn't
hear of companies such as
Mirabilis,
Check Point,
Zend
and many other examples of numerous, high-quality former Israeli startups.
Most of the companies I have worked for as a programmer in Israel have been
startups. There isn't a shortage of them, and there were many like that even
during the recession.
-
When I wrote the entry
"A
Brief History of Linux in Israel" on the Hackers-IL wiki, I
originally wrote that Israel had many
problems including "heavy taxation, irrational and abundant regulations, quite a lot of terrorist activity, etc.". Someone (who I think was an Israeli)
deleted what I wrote and left only the "large amount of terrorist activity".
With all due respect, the terrorist activity is not the worst problem that
hurts Israel. More Israelis have died from road accidents and from smoking
than from terrorist activity. And, as I noted, the high tax liability harms
Israel much worse than the terrorist activity, and Israel won't lose anything
(and will even greatly benefit) the more it will lower it.
Thus, the editing was misleading.
-
Too many foreign people I have talked with from outside Israel in Internet
chats have asked me if Israel was safe. Apparently, their impression
is that there is shooting in the streets, missiles falling everywhere
and that Israel is not safe. But the reality is that most Israeli residents
feel perfectly safe.
Naturally, I, too, am not
a Tallith
that's entirely azure.
My first
serious story was based on the political situation on the
Israeli-Lebanese border, although in my defense I must say that it has
a much more universal message. I have also written
some essays about
politics as well as many political posts on my blog, albeit not all
of them are about the political-defensive state of Israel.
But I think that as a people, we Israelis are too obsessed with the military
and the national security of Israel. If you ask me, the main reason our
security status is so terrible is
the
fact that Israel has constitutional discrimination. Until we completely
eliminate it, it will beget institutionalized and private discrimination and
racism, as well as non-supportive treatment from even amongst the most
liberal of the Arabs and the rest of the world's citizenry. And I'm saying
this as a Jewish Israeli. If I may contort what
Yoda said: "Do or do not.
But don't do for a Jew and don't do for a Gentile, or vice versa."
As Israelis in Independence Day, we should remember that the IDF and the
National Security are a means, not an end. The end is that the citizens
of Israel would be able to live good, peaceful, happy and prosperous lives.
Happy Independence Day to all Israeli Residents!
11 מאי, 2008 04:03 PM
, וכן GeForce 4 MX ישן שהיה מותקן במחשב אחר (היידרה המנוחה), בשניהם זה נתקע. הסרתי את כונן ה־S-ATA החדש שלי, וכן התופעה עדיין קרתה.
) ופתאום שרת בחווה שלי נפל .. אני יכול תוך שניות להתחבר לשירות cloud של אמזון .. להזמין שרת ולקבוע אצלו שהקבצים לשרת נמצאים על iSCSI שהוא בעצם הטלפון שלי שמייצא אותם דרך GPRS או דרך wifi .. כלומר , אני אוכל להחזיר יחסית מהר לפעילות שרת תוך שימוש בטלפון שלי כ storage מרוחק , דרך רשת wan , לשרת שלי ..
