The speech that was never delivered

This is the unspoken speech that was to be delivered by the Israeli minister of finance at the gay pride parade in Tel Aviv, today June 7th. Lest I give someone the wrong idea, he failed to deliver the speech due to shouts regarding his economic policy. The original (in Hebrew) is at https://www.facebook.com/YairLapid/posts/547990448592644.

"I would like to talk about love.

Straight politicians, when they talk in front of the GLBT community - in front of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and gender-queers -always talk about rights. They're right, but before we talk about rights, we need to talk about love.

Because love is the most basic right of all. To talk about sexual orientation is important, but that does not define people. What defines us is the right to love who we love. The right to walk hand in hand in the street, the right to kiss him on a bench in the boulevard, the right to bring him home to dinner on a Friday night.

And the right to marry him.

The right to marry is recognized in the world as fundamental right. It is secured in article 16 of the declaration of basic human rights of the UN from 1948. Israeli supreme court judges wrote, here in Israel, in a ruling from the 13th of June 2006: "The right to a family gives meaning and reason to life."

Here with us is the first gay couple married this week in France after the passing of the new law. I congratulate you on the marriage and the law. Vincent and Bruno, Mazal Tov!

It's time Israel will join Argentina, Belgium, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Uruguay, Denmark, Canada, France, Iceland, Brazil, Netherlands and half the states of the US - and pass the gay marriage law.

Because every man here. Every man who is a part of the community, has the right to love someone, build a family with him, have children with him, through surrogacy or otherwise - be a dad and a dad, a mom and a mom, and to marry each other.

A week ago the media published the story of Miriam, a 16 year old girl from a high school in the South, who drew the rainbow flag on a wall in class. The class was incensed, the principal was called and she decided to do a "democratic election" - that how she called it - whether to erase the flag from the wall. The children voted and decided to erase the flag. They did so. Because they did not understand they are also erasing something from this girl's soul. The aggravating part of this story is that the principal thought she was doing something democratic.

This isn't democracy. Democracy does not step on someone because of what he is. Democracy can't forbid a man to be what he is. This flag is not about sex, and anyone who sees something sexual in it has a problem. This flag is about freedom, the fundamental right to be who we are, the right to love.

And I want to say something to this girl, at age 16, one of the hardest things to do is stand in front of the majority, know they are thinking otherwise, and still believe you are right. But I want to tell you - you are right.

You are right and they are wrong. They are ignorant, they are cowards - because only cowards behave that way to those who are different - and your principal is less smart than you, because she doesn't understand her role is to protect your right to be what you are, and she missed a unique chance to explain to the other students that in an argument between prejudice and love, love will always win.

You are the proof that love wins.

I love you, and proud to be here today, and have a wonderful gay pride week.

Thank you very much."

Israel, (not) the Apartheid state

A lot of people, such as these, these and these, call Israel the Apartheid state. To examine whether Israel is really one, let’s go over the definition of Apartheid and see whether it fits what we know about Israel.
As this is a blog, I'll trim, snip and condense in the interest of not boring the crud out of you. Suffice to say you can find the full definition at wikipedia.

So are we Israelis racists?

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation

As much as people would like to call Israel a racist state, the fact is that Arabs and Israeli Jews look pretty much the same. Below is a sample of notable persons. See if you can tell who is the racist occupier and who is the Islamist terrorist.

Did you get it right? Select the text in black below to find out.

Starting from top left and going clock-wise:

Khaled Mashal – Arab. Leader of the Islamist Hamas movement
Eli Yishai – Jewish. Leader of the Jewish religious party, Shas
Hanin Zoabi – Arab Knesset member
Karin Arad – half Arab, half Jewish sex guru
Mira Awad – Arab singer and TV star
Rana Raslan – Arab model and Miss Israel
Salam Fayyad – Arab. Palestinian prime minister.
Moshe Mizrahi – Jewish. Former deputy commissioner and Knesset member.

Citizenship

In South Africa, non-white political representation was completely abolished in 1970, and starting in that year black people were deprived of their citizenship.

Israeli Arabs are full citizens of Israel and can vote and get elected. Over the years, Israel has had Arab Knesset members, government ministers, judges (incl. supreme court) and senior officers in the armed forces and police.

Segregation

The government segregated education, medical care, beaches, and other public services, and provided black people with services inferior to those of white people.

Education is somewhat segregated, with Arabs focusing more strongly on learning Arabic, though there are mixed schools. I’ve personally had an Arab teacher in elementary school.

Medical care is not segregated and filled with Arab practitioners in every hospital and pharmacy. 45% of pharmacists are Arabs. As is my dentist.

Beaches and parks are free for all. As are rest rooms, water fountains and shops.

Denial of Life and Liberty

Denial of the right to life and liberty by murder, serious bodily or mental harm, torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. 

Israel is a democratic and free country. It's not perfect, but you can't kill people, torture or arrest, without consequences. Even Arabs.
You can tell the above is true by looking at the supreme court rulings.
Also, unlike South Africa courts, Israel has a strong judicial system. It routinely overturns government decisions. Palestinians make frequent use of this appellate court. It is used because it works.
I could go on but will stop here. The problem is that most people reading this blog (if any are) either know this already or don't know enough about Israel. The only way to really know is to visit.

Discrimination

Prevent participation in the political, economic and cultural life of the country.

Politically, Arabs are represented in the Knesset by their democratically elected officials. Around 10% of the Knesset members are Arabs.

Economically, Arabs are integrated into nearly every field (with the exception of the defence sector). There are Arab doctors, lawyers, professors as well as waiters, truck drivers and customer service representatives.

It is true this is not enough.There are public and private sector initiatives to improve the situation. This google page should link to a whole bunch. In addition, there is official affirmative action in government hiring.
Culturally, Arabs are present in sports, television, radio and film.

Population Segregation

Any measures designed to divide the population along racial lines and the prohibition of mixed marriages 

Arabs are free to live anywhere in Israel. Indeed, Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, Acre, Ramla and Lod are all mixed cities. My parents have leased an apartment to a couple of nice Arab students in Tel Aviv University.

Marriage in Israel is by religion (not race) so mixed couples are forced to marry outside of Israel, mostly in nearby Cyprus. Around 10% of Israelis marry abroad for this reason. Mind you, couples who convert, can freely marry in Israel.

Summary

It makes me sad and angry when people consider Israel to be an Apartheid state. It is certainly not a perfect place, but whether you are an Arab or Jew, it is a good place to live, and so does my dentist.

The Lies and Statistics of the Breast Cancer Lobby

In the US, nearly 300 thousand women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. Nearly 40 thousand women die. About 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in her lifetime.

Breast cancer is the celebrity of the cancer world. Celebrities such as Kathy Bates, Ann Romney and Edie Falco survive to appear on television and commercials during the one month every year dedicated to raising the awareness for breast cancer. 

It's also not surprising that all this media attention is getting results. 25% of research grants and 18% of the money went to breast cancer, more than twice the next type (lung cancer).

Unfortunately, this focus on breast cancer is killing women!

 

The Folly of Allocating Resources by Media Buzz

When we talk about disease, prevalence isn't everything. We really should ask 3 questions:

• How prevalent is it?
• How lethal is it?
• How long does it take to die from it?

How about breast cancer?

• 300,000 will be diagnosed (1 in 8)
• 40,000 will die 
• 89% will live past 5 years, 77% will live past 15 years

Meet the devil - Pancreatic Cancer

• 43,920 will be diagnosed 
• 37,390 will die 
• 80% will not last the year, 96% will not live past 5 years.

This is the exact opposite of breast cancer. There are no inspirational tales of survival. There are no celebrities available to tell their story. No one survives to start a support group, go fundraising or lobby for more research. They die before they get a chance.

 

The Problem

The problem with the breast cancer lobby is that it worked. It solved the problem. Women today have an excellent chance of a long and normal life.

Every year, nearly 20,000 women in the US die from pancreatic cancer. It's about half the number of deaths from breast cancer. But they die a lot faster. Most don't last the year compared to the vast majority who survive to live a full lifetime for breast cancer.

It's time to shift the focus elsewhere.

www.breastcancer.org
www.cancer.org
www.pancreatic.org

The Internet, Product Reviews and Cynicism

I'd like to tell you a story about how I read the most cynical, shameless and well, 'Hutzpah' review on the Internet. We all (should) know that the Internet isn't what it seems. You look for product reviews in different web sites and if it's all the same, it should mean it's correct. But thanks to some clever SEO, all these different sites could really be one guy pushing an agenda. The following story, isn't like that. It's about a guy who thinks we're morons.

So I was interested in Rosetta Stone, a software for learning languages. What's the success rate, what happens after you finish it, etc. Googled some reviews and stumbled on the following website - language101.com. Here are some pearls from the review.

"I wish I didn’t have to say that because the people who work at Rosetta Stone are a talented great bunch of people.  Hopefully they will eventually develop language learning programs that really work."

Harsh words, but there's more!

What Works Better than Rosetta Stone?
There are two companies with programs that work much better than Rosetta Stone.  They are Pimsleur and Language101.com.

Dude, that's like your own website?!

There is a link to my Pimsleur Review near the bottom.  The overall Rosetta Stone review starts just below this.  If you are learning Japanese, you will want to read our Rosetta Stone review for Japanese.  There’s a link to it near the bottom.

I would totally read your in depth and impartial review. I'd even look at the review of the Japanese version or that Pimsleur product, if it weren't for what came next:

Try Language101.com – Click Your Language then “Try It”

No, I think I'll click on the back button or possibly that x in the top right corner of the window. I didn't bother imitating the above graphics but I will just say this:

Fail!

The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel

It is a little confusing that the Jewish people speak Hebrew and lay claim to the land of Israel. You would expect them to speak Judaish and claim Judea. But that’s just the way we used to roll, back in the olden days, before Christ and the Roman Empire.

When Jordan demands the return of Dead Sea scrolls seized by Israel, it bases its claim on the 1954 Hague convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. But they are wrong because the Dead Sea scrolls are the earliest known surviving copies of the bible and they were written (partly) in Hebrew, not  Arabic.

Jordan, an Arab and Muslim country does not have claim to the earliest copy of the bible. The Jewish people have that claim. It is our holy book. It was written in Hebrew, our language and was found in Judea, part of the land of Israel.

When Jesus gave the sermon at the temple, it wasn't a random temple. It was the temple of the Jews. Jesus himself was Jewish and the original form of his name was Yeshua.

The Jewish people did not originate in Europe, but in Israel. We are not colonists. Other people may have a claim to it, but so do we.

Survey: Most people would eat puppies to survive a plane crash in the mountains.

The first post in my blog dedicated to the lies people tell.

This is a response to an article by Gideon Levy in Haaretz on the 23^rd of October – as published in Haaretz (requires subscription) by and the guardian.

“More than two-thirds of Israeli Jews say that 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank should be denied the right to vote if the area was annexed by Israel. Three out of four are in favour of segregated roads for Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank.”

Really?

Let me just start by saying I’m in favor of annexing the ‘settlement blocks’. 85% of all settlers live in these settlement blocks spread over 6% of the west bank. Inside these areas, 95% percent are Jews. Outside, it’s 2.6% 1.

Previous talks with the Palestinians focused on leaving these blocks in place. This is why any Israeli asked this question would assume it refers to them.

This brings us to the 2.5 million Palestinians in the second question. If all we’ve read were true, these 2.5 million would mean the end of Israel as a democratic or Jewish state. Fortunately, it isn’t true.

You see, only 5% of those would be annexed along with the areas. That’s around 125 thousand or two Knesset seats (out of 120). Hardly a game changer.

But when you forcibly link two inaccurate questions together, half of the Jewish public wants to annex all of the west bank and 70% would then deny the Palestinians there voting rights.

Other minor tidbits

Q: Is there Apartheid in Israel?
A: This is misleading in two ways. It doesn't mean we support it and it's vague.  A little apartheid (19% agree), is like a little pregnant. You probably mean discrimination and the answer is yes. We have discrimination (and affirmative action) in Israel and we're not perfect. But we're not the only ones and we're certainly not South Africa.
My dentist is Arab. So were the girls leasing my parent's apartment.  Also, a couple of Knesset members, a minister, a supreme court justice, several army generals, a deputy commissioner in the police and one beauty pageant winner.

Q: How do you feel about the segregation between Israelis and Palestinians on the roads in the occupied territories?

A: That's segregation by nationality, not ethnicity. It's also based on necessity - Ten years ago, Palestinian terrorists would overtake Israeli cars and open up with automatic fire. 

Q: Should we boycott those who call for a boycott on Israel due to the Apartheid?

A: Do I really have to say this? Half of the Israeli public thinks we should embrace these people and show them the real Israel. Another quarter thinks we should ignore them. Only 15% think we should respond negatively. 

Is there Apartheid in Israel? Are Israelis evil and immoral? Are puppies on the menu in restaurants?

The answer to all 3 questions is no. Nothing to see here. Move on!  

 1 Source: Shaul Ariely Haaretz