Sunday, January 13, 2013

Sangster's Thoughts: The Snow Shows The Difference Between Israelis and Palestinians

While preparing to write today, I happened to catch a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In the video, he is seen playing in the snow with his family.

If you can ignore the security, all around, it looks like any family would on a rare snow, in Israel.

After I was done with my other writing, I randomly decided to go search pictures of snow in Israel, and talk about the joy Israelis were showing for the snow.

Most of the pictures show people building snowmen, like above, or are of the Wailing Wall and other landmarks, in the snow.

Then I happened upon this picture.

It shows a Palestinian man, in front of a mosque, with what he created with the snow.

Instead of joy and snowmen, you see that he made a missile, with the snow.

To add to it he put M75 on it.

For those unaware, M75 missiles were debuted in the latest fighting between Hamas and Israel.

M75 missiles are capable of striking Jerusalem, from the Gaza Strip.

Think that's one isolated incident?

Here's another picture of Palestinians in the snow.

A group of Palestinians made a tank, with snow.

They built it upon the trailer of a truck.

After they finished, they paraded it through the streets of Gaza.

These picture does so much to capture why there is not peace in the Middle East.

Israelis would gladly live in peace, they've even repeatedly offered their own lands, to gain it.

However, for Palestinians there can be no peace, as long as Israel exists.

They base their entire lives upon the death and destruction of their neighbors, even raising their children to have no other thought process.

Not even the magic of a rare snow can shake them from their mindset of war, death, and destruction.

For those that still want to see some of that magic, here's the video of Netanyahu:

Russians Protest Ban on American Adoptions

Twenty thousand marched through Moscow, on Sunday.

They marched to show their outrage against Russian politicians for voting through a ban on American adoptions.

Other cities saw smaller protests, with only St. Petersburg's gathering more than a thousand.

It is but another sign of the widespread discontent for the Russian government.

Protest organizers are trying to use the public's anger to remind them that the current Russian government may have bought it's seats, rather than being duly elected.

The Kremlin used the protests to continue painting the opposition as anti Russian and being paid by the US.

350,000 Parisians Protest Gay Marriage

Around three hundred and fifty thousand people marched through Paris in protest, on Sunday.

Three separate marches converged on the Champs de Mars, next to the Eiffel Tower.

They came out to protest government plans to legalize gay marriage and adoption.

Polls show the nation to be quite split on the issues.

For many French people allowing homosexuals to adopt is a bigger issue than allowing them to marry.

President Francois Hollande has pledged to see both allowed.

France already allows for civil unions, between same sex couples.

Fiat Expanding Jeep Production Into China

Fiat Jeep for China
Fiat is going to stick to it's promise not to move Jeep production out of the US.

They are also going to begin producing Jeeps in China.

Models made there will be aimed at the Asian and Russian markets

Most Americans may not even be recognize the planned models, as Jeeps, as they are getting a make over to be more appealing to non American tastes.

The company is expected to make the announcement, on Monday, at the Detroit Auto Show.

14 Pakistani Soldiers Killed

Pakistani soldiers on patrol
Fourteen Pakistani soldiers were killed, while on patrol, Sunday.

Their patrol was hit by a roadside bomb, in the North Waziristan region.

Twenty-one more were injured by the blast.

Mujahideen Ansar, a group allied to the Taliban, claimed the bombing, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistan's allowing US drone strikes.

On Saturday, the Taliban had called for a ceasefire, in the region, making it possible that Mujahideen Ansar was also showing no cease fire would be acceptable.