(Y2) politics

I began my stay in Israel in favor of a 2 state solution as the best of the bad choices of solution and i still hold the same opinion. when the plo comes out in favor of a one state solution and begins to advocate east jerusalem arabs signing up for citizenship that will be the point when the rubber hits the road in terms of how left i am willing to be.

I went to a few rallies: two rallies in Sheikh Jarrah where i felt alone and out of tune with the other rally'ers. one saturday night rally in favor of the new left contract, i arrived at the tail end of the rally because buses after shabbat start real late and the rally which was mostly for out of towners started real early and my reaction was mostly argumentative. some rally near the prime minister's "residence" that was either about corruption or about freeing gilad shalit, i don't remember which. I remember arguing a couple (at least 3) times with people at the "women in black" in kikar paris. I argued against a sign that said, "obama shut up" at the december 09 anti settlement freeze rally in kikar paris. the right wingers are a bunch of shits. i've had people tell me to leave israel, some asshole getting on a bus near mashbir and the people at the "obama shut up" rally and after the new left rally when arguing with rightists.

if any single event changed me politically it was the gaza war. I think the war went on too long and was too destructive and in retrospect they could have changed the siege rules to reach an agreement.

i was repulsed (too strong) at the rally against the turkish embassy in the aftermath of the mavi marmara (that i saw on t.v.).

my participation in the mondoweiss web site and even before that in the jewcy web site moved me to the left because of my needs to reach an intellectually consistent opinion, which is only necessary if one argues with leftists and is not necessary if i am sitting alone in my room reacting to each headline one by one.

my visit to karnei shomron was my most advanced stay in the territories and i have written about that before.

I didn't vote for obama.
I am against attacking the iranian nuclear project by israel and probably by america as well.
carey fredman's advocacy of attacking it plus his motorcycle accident afterwards, plus micha odenheimer's wife's vehement opposition to it, clarified the validity of the opposition to israel's attack on it.

I met phil weiss. i met shmuel from italy.

I felt the attack on the merkaz harav school before i even read about it.

I studied arabic and saw lots of arabs at the malcha mall.

I tried to cop in the old city but various factors stood in my way.