An Exciting Visit and Some Other Thoughts

Posting this during a short break in between preparing a small feast for this evening... We're expecting a very special visitor here within a week's time. It's Khaled Diab, aka DiabolicalIdea on the Metalks.com forums. We still have some activity over there, but out of the public eye, in a private forum which essentially includes the former staff members there. Khaled and myself have also had some interesting exchanges over the past few weeks, posted on his site here -
Exchange of Friendly Fire

I am very excited about this visit. The general plan is to turn Khaled into a true Zionist and a bearer of the new gospel to his fellow Arabs across the Middle East. Well, no, not really :p Actually, until I started Metalks, I had no idea that Zionism was such a loaded concept. It was the most natural thing in the world to me. Sure, I'm an Israeli and Jewish, therefore, I'm a Zionist. Simple, really. Nothing to ponder over for too long. When I grew up, I even assumed that all Jews were Zionists. I was somewhat shocked, to tell the truth, when confronted with what some people thought about Zionism. Turned out that for many people around the world, we're this brutal, violent and scary entity. Who knew. I always thought we were supportive of social justice and peace among the nations. Who could possible have anything against Zionism? and this is only a slight exaggeration btw, from what it felt like - that discrepancy between my own perception of Zionism, and that of others.

In a way, I am looking forward to seeing my country through Khaled's eyes, and showing him what it looks like to us. I think this can be an enlightening experience, for both of us. I am sure it will be for me. I will post more as we go along, and I know that Khaled will do the same on his blog. Best place to catch Khaled and his thoughts are on his site: diabolicdigest.net.

On another topic, I just wanted to note here, for all to see, and for future generations... I still think that my government is making a HUGE mistake nowdays. Syria is coming forward, albeit hesitantly, with a peace offering of sorts. I expect Israel to embrace that and jump on the opportunity. You have to be blind not to see that this is our best, and maybe even our only, chance at solving the Hezbulla problem. Peace with Syria, in effect blockading Hezbulla, is the only effective measure there. We're missing on that, and I'm afraid we might be heading for round 2 of the war as well, judging by the tunes coming from the HA in Beirut...

I can see two reasons why Olmert doesn't grab the opportunity. Ok, maybe three. The first, is that him and his advisers are complete idiots and don't see the situation which is very clear to me - that this is the way to bring down HA. No military solution will achieve that. Why get dragged into a second round of pointless fighting that will only bring on more tragedy on the Lebanese people and on Israel? Now, assuming that they're not complete morons, and can see as much, I can see two things possibly holding Olmert back:
1. The Americans saying they don't want us to talk to Syria, it being part of the axis of evil (I think that's the term?). Personally, I think it's appaling that our PM will sacrifice the lives of our soldiers and of civilians in both countries to appease the Americans. The price is too high.
2. Internal Political hurdles. Namely, the right-wing parties will resign from the government, possibly bringing down the coalition. That indeed is a huge problem. I think this is where the left needs to step in and assure Olmert of a political blanket.

Why is none of this happening? Beats me. To be honest, I don't have too much time to watch the news or read the papers. I just hope someone gets it somewhere in this country and realizes that now's the time to act.