Another great article

Here

The Riddle of Hate

UPDATE: apprently, YNET themselves have translated the article. I didn't need to do it myself.

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The following article appeared in YNET, an Israeli online newspaper, about a week ago (7/20 I believe). It was written by Yair Lapid, a long-time journalist who always tends to come up with what I consider very powerful columns when the times call for them. I had to share it with you, and so I have taken it upon myself to translate the article to english and post it here. I think he brings up a very important question, and one that I can't answer. Can you?
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The Riddle of Hate

One hundred years of conflict, six and a half wars, billions of dollars wasted, tens of thousands dead, not including the boy who was lying next to me on the rocky shore of Lake Kireon in 1982 as we both looked at how his intestines were spilling out of his body. The chopper took him and to this day I don't know whether he survived. All of that, and it is still impossible to understand.

It's not all that has happened, but also what had not - hospitals that were never built, universities that were never opened, roads that were never paved, the three years that were taken from the lives of millions of young conscripts in army service. And we still don't even have a clue as to the solution to the riddle that started it all:

Why do they hate us so?

I am not referring this time to the palestinians. Their conflict with us is intimate, focused, with a direct impact on their lives. Without answering the question of who is right, it's clear that they have very personal reasons not to tolerate our presence here. We all know, too, that eventually it will be solved personally, between us and them, in blood, sweat, and tears that will whet the pages of our agreement. Until then, at least it's a war that's understandable, even if no sane human being can accept the methods through which it is being waged.

It's the others that are impossible to understand. Why Hassan Nasrallah, together with tens of thousands of his supporters, dedicates his life, his considerable and obvious talents, and the fate of his country, to fight a country he has never seen, people he has never met, an army that has absolutely no reason to fight him?

Why children in Iran, who can't even locate Israel on the map (mostly because it's so tiny), burn its flag in town square and offer to commit suicide for the purpose of its demise? Why egyptian and jordanian intellectuals incite the innocent and helpless against the peace agreements, even though they know that their cancellation will set their countries twenty years back? Why the syrians are willing to remain a depressed and hopeless third world country, in return for the dubious pleasure of financing terrorist organizations that eventually will threaten their very own existence? Why do they hate us in Saudi Arabia? Iraq? Sudan? What have we ever done to them? How are we even relevant to their lives? What do they know about us? And why do they hate us in Afghanistan? They don't have anything to eat over there, how do they have the strength to hate?

So many answers to this question, and still it is a mystery. Truthfully it is a religious matter, but even religious people make their own choices. The Kuran (together with the "Sharia" - the Islamic parallel to the jewish "Halacha") contains thousands of laws. Why do we occupy their minds so much?

After all, there are so many other countries that have given them much better reasons to be angry. We didn't start the crusades, we didn't rule them throughout the colonial period, we never tried to convert them. The mongols, seljuks, greeks, romans, crusaders, ottomans and english, they all conquered and destroyed and pillaged the whole region. We never even tried, how come we're the enemy?

If this is about sympathy with the palestinians, then where are the saudi tractors rebuilding Gush Katif(1)? What happened to the indonesian delegation building a school in Gaza? Where are the kuwaiti doctors with new medical equipment? There are so many ways to love your brother, why do they prefer to help them hate?

Is it something we're doing? Fifteen hundred years of anti-semitism have taught us - in the most painful way possible - that there is something about us that makes the world mad. So we did the one thing everybody wanted: we went away. We created our own tiny state, where we could bicker with each other without bothering anyone else. We didn't even ask for much in return. Israel's territory is less than 1% that of Saudi Arabia, with no oil, no minerals, and was not part of another country. Most cities being bombarded were not taken from anyone. Nahariya, Afula and Karmiel did not exist until we created them. The other missiles hit places that no one ever doubted our right to them. Jews had lived in Haifa as early as 300 BC and Tveria(2) was the location of the last Sanhedrin(3), so nobody can claim we stole them from anyone.

But the hatred continues. As if no other destiny is possible. Active, poisonous, ever-lasting hatred. This last Saturday the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called again "to work towards the disappearance of Israel", as if we were bacteria. We've grown so used to it that we don't even ask why.

Israel doesn't hope and has never hoped that Iran would disappear. As long as they wanted it we had diplomatic relations with them. We don't share a border or even bad memories. And yet they are willing to stand against the whole of the western world, face a trade boycott, hurt their standard of living, demolish the little that's left of their economy, and all that for the right to hate us passionately.

I am trying to remember and can't: have we ever done anything to them? When? How? Why did he say in his speech that "Israel is the main problem of the Islamic world"? More than a billion people live in the Islamic world, most of them in horrendous conditions. They suffer hunger, poverty, ignorance, blood wars from Kashmir to Kurdistan, from dying Darfur to scarred Bangladesh. How come we're the main problem? How exactly are we bothering them?

I refuse to accept the argument that says "that's how they are". They said that about us so many times, we became suspicious of it. There has to be another reason, some dark secret that causes half the population of Lebanon to cause a quiet border to fire up, to kidnap the soldiers of an army that had already retreated, turn their country into piles of rubble at the exact moment when they have finally eclipsed twenty years of disaster.

We've grown used to giving ourselves all sorts of learned explanations - "it's the Iranian influence" or "Syria is behind the scenes" - but that's too easy an explanation. Because what about them? their thoughts? What about their hopes, loves, desires and dreams? And what about their children? When they destroy their children's lives by sending them to die, do they see it as satisfactory to say that it was all worth it just because they hate us so much?
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(1) Gush Katif - area vacated in Israel's one-sided withdrawal from the gaza strip in 2005.
(2) Tveria - Tiberias
(3) Sanhedrin - jewish high judaical and ecclesiastical council

Wonders of Medicine, followup

Got the results, and at least empirically, it seems like the fist theory is working.

How odd.

Viruses Mk III

It's difficult to write this post because I'm laughing so hard.

Either Gateway somehow found out about my blog (traffic here tripled since I've posted this) and are freaking out because they don't know who I am and how to get a hold of me, or this is just cosmic happenstance.

I just got ANOTHER Fedex with ANOTHER replacement disc for the one with the viruses, and ANOTHER letter pleading with me to send that bad one back. In fact, I am now the proud owner of FOUR recovery discs - the one with the scratches, the virus one, and two more that Gateway keeps sending because, I dunno, they feel bad?

Regardless, this is just too funny.

The wonders of medicine

Because I'm diabetic, I have to do pretty regular (quarterly) blood tests at a lab, designed to catch any possible complications before they become, well, complications.

The past couple of times I did my bloodwork there has been a problem. Each time an unusually - and dangerously - high potassium level was registered. In each case they called me back for an emergency "validation" test, which, using a different protocol was aimed at making sure that the first test was not an error (mostly because nothing else came back abnormal, and at that high of a level, I was a candidate for an immediate and massive heart attack). In each case, the validation test came back completely normal.

Something was obviously wrong in the testing methodology, they just didn't know what.

Well, today I did my bloodwork again, and when the phlebotomist saw me she said, all smiling: "we've been waiting for you!" (yes, woohoo). They think they figured it out. I wanted to share this with you because the apparent solution is extremely weird, and might be useful for you if you happen to have the same issue with your lab.

Apparently, rolling your hand into a fist before blood is taken for the potassium test causes potassium levels to register as falsely high! OK, that sounds like voodoo science, but then I thought back to the previous two occassions, and something does check out; the phlebotomist who took my blood in the mornings, where the test came back high, always asked me to clench my fist and pump before she took the test. The one who did it in the afternoons (because the result came back so high they had to validate) never did - and the results from test taken by her were always normal.

Odd as it can be, but it looks like there's something to it after all. I'm terribly curious the see the results from this time around now.

Viruses Mk II

If you read my previous entry on this issue, you know by now that Gateway had sent me a recovery CD/DVD for my M460 laptop that came complete with a virus.

While I considered it an amusing story for sure, I mainly felt pity for both Gateway's customers who received the CD, and the poor sod in the lab who allowed the mistake to happen. Otherwise I forgot about it.

Well, today I receive a Fedex from Gateway, with a new disc and a letter. In the letter they mention, without going into specifics, that the previous disc sent to me may have caused a problem and that I should try again with this new one. They also included a free - and entirely useless, apparently, seeing as it didn't help them catch that virus in the first place... ok, ok, I'm just poking fun - one-year subscription to McAfee anti-virus...

Oh, the irony.

Of course, they also want me to send them the other disc back. Uh huh. No way, guys; that one I'm keeping. It's just too darn amusing to give it back to you. Maybe if you offer me something else (start by refunding the cost of the CD, then we can talk), I'll hand it back.

Otherwise, it stays right here. My precious.

Viruses

Update #1
Update #2

Oh... my... god.

Those who know me know that I am, at least in theory, a computer security dude. They also know that one of my passions, if you will, is to educate the common person about issues of computer security, because I strongly believe that it doesn't have to be rocket science, at least not for most people.

One of the questions I always get asked is "how do I catch viruses? in real life, how does it happen?" and I generally explain the common methods (downloading files without following common sense, having a non-current anti-virus software, etc). But today I encountered one that just takes the biscuit. Actually, I can't really say "today", as it has been a week and a half. But let me tell you my story.

About two weeks ago, my wife's laptop, a Gateway M460, croaked. For whatever reason, the OS (XP, what else?) lost its marbles, and had to be reinstalled. Well, after backing up her data, I went into the recovery mode - only to find out that the recovery partition was never completed, and that it needs a CD that I was never provided by the seller of the PC (a legitimate store, again in theory; don't buy computers from RecoupIT is now a new recommendation).

Oh well, I thought. I hate XP anyway, let's put Win2K on. Did that, only to find that there are no hardware drivers available for Win2K. Alright, then. Back to XP. I call Gateway, pay them the $35+shipping to get the recovery CD (or DVD) sent to me, and wait.

The disc arrives - and is defective, certain files would not be copied as part of the recovery process. Two obvious and pretty scratches on the disc surface later, I call Gateway again and ask them to resend the disc, which they do.

Fast forward to today. I get the disc. I use it to recover the machine - remember, the drive has been already low-level formatted, reinstalled with a different OS, then formatted again before the show begins. There is no trace of anything on it.

PC hums along nicely, and about 45 minutes later, the OS is reinstalled. I go about copying her old data onto the new machine, including installation files for things like AVG (my favorite anti-virus software), which I promptly run. Oops! It discovers a bunch of virus infections, including in itself. "Ah!" I say, reaching the obvious conclusion. Her PC must have croaked because it was infected with a virus; it infected these executables before I backed them up. No biggie; I can always download those softwares again from their respective providers.

So I start over, format the drive, then run the recovery disc again. When it's ready, I download the first two important applications - Firefox and AVG. I install the first, then the second. WHOA! How on EARTH did the computer get infected again?

Hold on. Back to square one. I pull out the disc - remember, this is the recovery disc used to rebuild a machine from scratch - and put in my machine, the one I use for my work in the security field. Then I scan it.

Voila! It's the frigging recovery disc that includes the virus!

Let me repeat that, in case you didn't quite catch it.

THE RECOVERY CD/DVD SENT ME BY GATEWAY TO USE IN ORDER TO REBUILD THE FAILED GATEWAY LAPTOP FROM SCRATCH COMES WITH A VIRUS "BUILT-IN". It's in the bundled applications (if you care, its under I386/Apps/07192 - the bundled googledesktop and googletoolbar apps).

Now that's one for the record books. Really not a huge deal - I download and run vdcleaner, which takes care of the nuisance (the virus is hidrag.A, a parasitic but for the most part non-destructive virus), and keep going. Takes an extra 10 minutes during the installation process once you know it needs to be done.

But I can't help but think about all those poor Gateway customers who use this disc without knowing what hit them. I mean, the one piece of software you would trust is the bloody recovery disc provided with the PC, right? Wrong. I just wonder which poor sod at the Gateway lab is responsible for this particular piece of stupidity.

The fun never ends.

A Golden Opportunity

With all that's happening in Israel and Lebanon right now, I wonder if Israel is facing what it might consider a golden opportunity to completely reshape the middle-east conflict.

Here is the idea: Israel goes into a full scale pre-emptive war, similar to the six-day war but a little easier, since it's only against Lebanon and Syria. Syria's army is so dilapidated, and Lebanon's practically non-existent, that my estimate is it would take Israel about 4 days to get to both Beirut and Damascus, completely obliterating both the Syrian and Lebanese armies in the process.

The world, of course, will be aghast at this, but it will also be conflicted and divided; this war would be just as justified as the US invasion of Iraq - heck, much more so - and the US will have to figure out how it wants to respond, and it will, out of necessity have to back Israel. Well, guess what - as long as the US backs Israel in the UN, Israel can continue operations. It's that simple, due to the veto power in the security council. Yes, there will be demands to stop, back off, be nice, but there will be no teeth to them. Oh, and don't forget the US is still fully deployed in Iraq - I want to see the arab country that dares to rattle its weapons at Israel during all this, and yes, I do mean Iran. Bush would love nothing more than to have a pretext to go after the Mullahs, and I'm sure those feelings would be echoed in the Pantagon.

Under this scenario, which I think is completely realistic, 4 days later Israel has quintupled its territory, essentially unopposed. If there is anyone in the world who thinks Syria and Lebanon stand a chance in hell of even resisting the onslaught, please stand up. But I don't think so.

Now comes the next step. Israel at that point immediately ceases military operations, "giving in to world demands". At the same time, it begin transferring all the palestinian population from the gaza strip and the west bank into newly acquired Syrian territory. Of course, it completely denies this operation to the world for as long as it can, and does its best to seed confusion in world media while it is going on.

This transfer will take about a week, two at the most. Yes, some civilian palestinian population will get killed, but most will figure out they have no chance at resisting, especially if Israel does this with an iron fist; there is nothing like a few thousand deaths to quell something like the intifada. In other words, get on the trucks or you're dead. You have 10 seconds to comply. Next?

By that time, the world of course will have learned of all this, and even the US will have to shift its support and lift its veto. Fine. Once the UN resolution comes down, Israel complies, and steps down. It then, out of its own accord, backs off to the "2006 lines" - those of, well, today, July 13th.

The end result? Israel faces some serious political and diplomatic pressure for a little while - but really, what is the world going to do? So it deals with it, and lets the rage pass. The Palestinian problem disappears in its current form. Israel never, ever, ever allows them back, no matter what is promised it in return - it just doesn't happen. Israel regains the respect of the arab countries (as much as I hate to say it, that's how it works in that part of the world), eliminates its inland terrorists, flexes its muscles in a serious enough manner to scare the world into rethinking its position on how much force Israel actually has, redraws the lines of the conflict, and five years down the road, is in a tremendously improved reality.

I think that because of the current world political environment, this would work. I don't think it would work after the US gets out of Iraq, and the presence of the US army there is a critical component of making this a realistic endevour. I think Israel would be stupid to waste the opportunity, not from a personal pespective, but from observation and assessment of the geopolitical environment. A golden opportunity, very similar to the six-day war (which had a tremendous long-term positive impact on Israel). Again, I am not saying I am personally in favor of it, only that I think it's realistic. Could happen. Might happen. What do you think?