Sir Paul McCartney,

We write to you with sadness and urgency as we hear that you are preparing to perform in Israel at the end of this month, and we ask that you cancel this performance. As Jewish North Americans, we are outraged at the policies the state of Israel has implemented in our names and with our government's financial support for more than sixty years. Palestinian people in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem live under occupation and siege; Palestinian citizens of Israel have fewer rights than Jewish citizens of Israel; and Palestinian refugees, who make up two thirds of the Palestinian population, have been denied their internationally recognized right to return to their lands and their homes since 1948.

At the same time, we write to you with hope that you will heed the unified Palestinian civil society call for boycott against Israel until it complies with international law.  Boycott is a nonviolent tool that has been used by ordinary people countless times to hold countries responsible for atrocities when our governments fail to do so.  In South Africa, the boycott movement helped bring about an end to the apartheid system.  The boycott is both collective and individual.  In this case, we call on you as an individual to take a stand against Israeli apartheid and cancel your performance.

Whether you perform or not, you are making a statement.  If you perform this month, at a time when Israel is celebrating sixty years of existence, you indicate that you support the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people (now millions) and the ongoing policies of ethnic cleansing of an indigenous population from their land.  If you cancel your performance, you indicate that you will not, in the name of profit, turn a blind eye to both the suffering and the call to action of millions of Palestinian people.

With stature comes responsibility, and we hope you do not take yours lightly.

Sincerely,

The No Time To Celebrate Campaign
a campaign organized and implemented by thousands of Jewish people in the US and Canada this past spring to protest Israeli Independence Day activities and to commemorate the Nakba (1948 displacement of Palestinian people)

So we've heard about it for a year, I've put posts about it on the blog, and talked about it on the podcast. Finally, The Force Unleashed demo is here! Except...I'm not that impressed.

Seriously, I'm not. I expected this to be a great game, but instead I am left with a stale taste of mediocrity. So what's not cool about it? Well, quite frankly, the Force! As I loaded up the game, the first thing I noticed was that everything seemed way too dark. Even after adjusting the brightness I couldn't help but think the darkness was there to hide the so-so graphics the game has. But that's just visuals. If the game is good enough we can all get past that. However, it's really not. Wave after wave of enemies are exactly the same. Picking them up with the force? They make the exact same movements. Hit them multiple times with a lightsaber? They still all react the same. (Speaking of lightsabers, why in the world can't you cut limbs off)

The one point where the demo starts to look up is when you get a "chargeable" force push. Now standing behind a pile of crates you feel powerful as hell. Watch as Stormtroopers start racing down the hallway, you release the force charging button, and every crate around you goes flying at them. That's cool! You can also use this ability to blast through doors which react, surprisingly, far more different than the enemies do. You might be able to get through your first door with only one Force push, while the next one might take two or three. So basically the charge Force push saves the whole demo. As you move on you come across the ol' Chicken Walker (AT-ST). This is your first, and only, mini boss you get to face in the demo. Just like with every other enemy in the game, you run up and start bashing away switching between the buttons for lightning and saber attack. However, do you remember those QTEs/Timed button presses I've talked about before? Well they're there all right and they show up mid-bash. So in other words, they pop up and you instantly miss it unless you're going quite slow.

It's not as bad as I thought though. One tap of the force lightning button will get you right back to the QTE, and, once you successfully complete it, will do something pretty darn cool. So no Bourne Conspiracy crap here. Whew! So all in all, this demo is good. Just not the great I was really really hoping it would be. That always seems to be the way things go though. The more you want something to be great, the harder and closer you look at it, and the worse it seems. I'll probably wait until Christmas to pick this one up, but everyone should at least try the demo. Every Star Wars game is fun even if they royally suck! (Not saying this one does or anything :-D)

Moving on! Soul Caliber IV! Wow, this is the first fighting game demo I've played that I actually wanted to replay multiple times. This is a marvelous fighter which, thankfully, is quite forgiving to button mashers like myself.

The arenas look very very nice. I mean, play Face Breaker and then play this. Would you rather be fighting in a trailer park or one wicked looking castle? Even more than that though, the moves look fantastic! I have yet to see a kick that doesn't hit the opponent realistically. Even when a gargantuan demon hurls his sword forward in a dashing uppercut it still looks fluid and amazing.

Breaking an enemies armor is unbelievably satisfying, and occasionally having a team mate back you up when you're down really makes this game special. The only thing I can say that's negative is the fact that the story is a little lack luster. But that's to be expected in fighters.* You really can't give too much reason for beating 30 dudes up, but when the fighting is cool and the games is a fighter, well, that's good enough for me! I'm seriously considering picking this game up once I finish Castle Crashers. I'm usually not a fighting fan, but this will be the first fighting game good enough to make me pick it up since...ever.

So there you have it! Two demos worth the download. Have fun, and leave some comments if you have them.

*Look! A foot note! This is new indeed. Seriously though, if you want to play a bad fighter download Face Breaker. It may not be 100% horrible, but I did not enjoy getting the crap kicked out of me by a fat guy in a trailer park.

An Israeli historian suggests the diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East

Every Israeli knows that he or she is the direct and exclusive descendant of a Jewish people which has existed since it received the Torah (1) in Sinai. According to this myth, the Jews escaped from Egypt and settled in the Promised Land, where they built the glorious kingdom of David and Solomon, which subsequently split into the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. They experienced two exiles: after the destruction of the first temple, in the 6th century BC, and of the second temple, in 70 AD.

Two thousand years of wandering brought the Jews to Yemen, Morocco, Spain, Germany, Poland and deep into Russia. But, the story goes, they always managed to preserve blood links between their scattered communities. Their uniqueness was never compromised.

At the end of the 19th century conditions began to favour their return to their ancient homeland. If it had not been for the Nazi genocide, millions of Jews would have fulfilled the dream of 20 centuries and repopulated Eretz Israel, the biblical land of Israel. Palestine, a virgin land, had been waiting for its original inhabitants to return and awaken it. It belonged to the Jews, rather than to an Arab minority that had no history and had arrived there by chance. The wars in which the wandering people reconquered their land were just; the violent opposition of the local population was criminal.

This interpretation of Jewish history was developed as talented, imaginative historians built on surviving fragments of Jewish and Christian religious memory to construct a continuous genealogy for the Jewish people. Judaism’s abundant historiography encompasses many different approaches.

But none have ever questioned the basic concepts developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Discoveries that might threaten this picture of a linear past were marginalised. The national imperative rejected any contradiction of or deviation from the dominant story. University departments exclusively devoted to “the history of the Jewish people”, as distinct from those teaching what is known in Israel as general history, made a significant contribution to this selective vision. The debate on what constitutes Jewishness has obvious legal implications, but historians ignored it: as far as they are concerned, any descendant of the people forced into exile 2,000 years ago is a Jew.

Nor did these official investigators of the past join the controversy provoked by the “new historians” from the late 1980s. Most of the limited number of participants in this public debate were from other disciplines or non-academic circles: sociologists, orientalists, linguists, geographers, political scientists, literary academics and archaeologists developed new perspectives on the Jewish and Zionist past. Departments of Jewish history remained defensive and conservative, basing themselves on received ideas. While there have been few significant developments in national history over the past 60 years (a situation unlikely to change in the short term), the facts that have emerged face any honest historian with fundamental questions.

Founding myths shaken

Is the Bible a historical text? Writing during the early half of the 19th century, the first modern Jewish historians, such as Isaak Markus Jost (1793-1860) and Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), did not think so. They regarded the Old Testament as a theological work reflecting the beliefs of Jewish religious communities after the destruction of the first temple. It was not until the second half of the century that Heinrich Graetz (1817-91) and others developed a “national” vision of the Bible and transformed Abraham’s journey to Canaan, the flight from Egypt and the united kingdom of David and Solomon into an authentic national past. By constant repetition, Zionist historians have subsequently turned these Biblical “truths” into the basis of national education.

But during the 1980s an earthquake shook these founding myths. The discoveries made by the “new archaeology” discredited a great exodus in the 13th century BC. Moses could not have led the Hebrews out of Egypt into the Promised Land, for the good reason that the latter was Egyptian territory at the time. And there is no trace of either a slave revolt against the pharaonic empire or of a sudden conquest of Canaan by outsiders.

Nor is there any trace or memory of the magnificent kingdom of David and Solomon. Recent discoveries point to the existence, at the time, of two small kingdoms: Israel, the more powerful, and Judah, the future Judea. The general population of Judah did not go into 6th century BC exile: only its political and intellectual elite were forced to settle in Babylon. This decisive encounter with Persian religion gave birth to Jewish monotheism.

Then there is the question of the exile of 70 AD. There has been no real research into this turning point in Jewish history, the cause of the diaspora. And for a simple reason: the Romans never exiled any nation from anywhere on the eastern seaboard of the Mediterranean. Apart from enslaved prisoners, the population of Judea continued to live on their lands, even after the destruction of the second temple. Some converted to Christianity in the 4th century, while the majority embraced Islam during the 7th century Arab conquest.

Most Zionist thinkers were aware of this: Yitzhak Ben Zvi, later president of Israel, and David Ben Gurion, its first prime minister, accepted it as late as 1929, the year of the great Palestinian revolt. Both stated on several occasions that the peasants of Palestine were the descendants of the inhabitants of ancient Judea (2).

Proselytising zeal

But if there was no exile after 70 AD, where did all the Jews who have populated the Mediterranean since antiquity come from? The smokescreen of national historiography hides an astonishing reality. From the Maccabean revolt of the mid-2nd century BC to the Bar Kokhba revolt of the 2nd century AD, Judaism was the most actively proselytising religion. The Judeo-Hellenic Hasmoneans forcibly converted the Idumeans of southern Judea and the Itureans of Galilee and incorporated them into the people of Israel. Judaism spread across the Middle East and round the Mediterranean. The 1st century AD saw the emergence in modern Kurdistan of the Jewish kingdom of Adiabene, just one of many that converted.

The writings of Flavius Josephus are not the only evidence of the proselytising zeal of the Jews. Horace, Seneca, Juvenal and Tacitus were among the Roman writers who feared it. The Mishnah and the Talmud (3) authorised conversion, even if the wise men of the Talmudic tradition expressed reservations in the face of the mounting pressure from Christianity.

Although the early 4th century triumph of Christianity did not mark the end of Jewish expansion, it relegated Jewish proselytism to the margins of the Christian cultural world. During the 5th century, in modern Yemen, a vigorous Jewish kingdom emerged in Himyar, whose descendants preserved their faith through the Islamic conquest and down to the present day. Arab chronicles tell of the existence, during the 7th century, of Judaised Berber tribes; and at the end of the century the legendary Jewish queen Dihya contested the Arab advance into northwest Africa. Jewish Berbers participated in the conquest of the Iberian peninsula and helped establish the unique symbiosis between Jews and Muslims that characterised Hispano-Arabic culture.

The most significant mass conversion occurred in the 8th century, in the massive Khazar kingdom between the Black and Caspian seas. The expansion of Judaism from the Caucasus into modern Ukraine created a multiplicity of communities, many of which retreated from the 13th century Mongol invasions into eastern Europe. There, with Jews from the Slavic lands to the south and from what is now modern Germany, they formed the basis of Yiddish culture (4).

Prism of Zionism

Until about 1960 the complex origins of the Jewish people were more or less reluctantly acknowledged by Zionist historiography. But thereafter they were marginalised and finally erased from Israeli public memory. The Israeli forces who seized Jerusalem in 1967 believed themselves to be the direct descendents of the mythic kingdom of David rather than – God forbid – of Berber warriors or Khazar horsemen. The Jews claimed to constitute a specific ethnic group that had returned to Jerusalem, its capital, from 2,000 years of exile and wandering.

This monolithic, linear edifice is supposed to be supported by biology as well as history. Since the 1970s supposedly scientific research, carried out in Israel, has desperately striven to demonstrate that Jews throughout the world are closely genetically related.

Research into the origins of populations now constitutes a legitimate and popular field in molecular biology and the male Y chromosome has been accorded honoured status in the frenzied search for the unique origin of the “chosen people”. The problem is that this historical fantasy has come to underpin the politics of identity of the state 
of Israel. By validating an essentialist, 
ethnocentric definition of Judaism it encourages a segregation that separates Jews from non-Jews – whether Arabs, Russian immigrants or foreign workers.

Sixty years after its foundation, Israel refuses to accept that it should exist for the sake of its citizens. For almost a quarter of the population, who are not regarded as Jews, this is not their state legally. At the same time, Israel presents itself as the homeland of Jews throughout the world, even if these are no longer persecuted refugees, but the full and equal citizens of other countries.

A global ethnocracy invokes the myth of the eternal nation, reconstituted on the land of its ancestors, to justify internal discrimination against its own citizens. It will remain difficult to imagine a new Jewish history while the prism of Zionism continues to fragment everything into an ethnocentric spectrum. But Jews worldwide have always tended to form religious communities, usually by conversion; they cannot be said to share an ethnicity derived from a unique origin and displaced over 20 centuries of wandering.

The development of historiography and the evolution of modernity were consequences of the invention of the nation state, which preoccupied millions during the 19th and 20th centuries. The new millennium has seen these dreams begin to shatter.

And more and more academics are analysing, dissecting and deconstructing the great national stories, especially the myths of common origin so dear to chroniclers of the past.

Shlomo Sand is professor of history at Tel Aviv university and the author of Comment le people juif fut inventé (Fayard, Paris, 2008)

Nu dit dingkje heeft volgende specs.

HP 614c
Marvell PXA270 @ 520 MHz
128 MB RAM
256 MB ROM
2,8 inch @ 240*320 pixels
WiFi 802.11b/g
(a)GPS
Bluetooth 2.0/EDR
3G - UMTS/HSDPA
Cam @ 3 Megapixels
2GB microSD

En hij draait op Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional.
Nu is er sinds enige tijd een nieuwe windows mobile versie op de markt, de 6.1. Dit uiteraard met de meest grave verbeteringen tov 6.0.
Het enige ECHT spectaculaire is de performance winst.
HP had al vrijgegeven dat ze niet/nooit/vergeet het/impossible/ondenkbaar zelf een upgrade gaan uitbrengen naar 6.1... Wat verdomd spijtig is...

Gelukkig heeft de wereld de Russen nog :)
Op het forum van xda-developers (van die manne da vanalles doet met windows mobile) is een post verschenen van een rus die windows mobile 6.1 geport heeft naar de HP614c.

PRACHTIG!!!

Op dezelfde dag als men ipod-spielerij ook een beetje met men gsm aant spielen geweest. :)
Backup van huidig ROM gemaakt, en custom rom geflashed :)
Momentje van stress, want ik wist niet ofdat men gsm het ging overleven of niet :) (aah, de risico's van het vak :) )

Maar jawel, alles overleefde het en men gsm begon rustig Windows Mobile 6.1 in zen geheugen te laden :)

En amai, da toestel is nog nooit zo snel geweest!
Prachtig, ideaal, zalig :)

Vroeger durfde die al wel eens blijven hangen... Nu nog geen honderste van een seconde :)
The way of life, as it should!

Hi loyal friends of the HQ,

It's been a while since our last post, but unfortunately Gadget Boy had to undergo an upgrade [courtesy of the NHS] and has been inundated with viruses ever since!

Anyway we are back in business and there's a lot to tell you about.

1. The HQ website will be updated shortly - check out Jeffrey's grooming guide and Robert's fitness regime. Plus, a new Boys Toys review from Gadget Boy!
2. Jeffrey reached the Big 60 and celebrated with family, friends and customers.
3. We will be updating this Blog and our new blogs [more to follow].
4. Check out Gadget Boys Home at www.tegic.co.uk
5. Jeffrey is the FaceBook Poker King [Poker Queen - according to Robert!]

It's good to be back and let's get this show on the road

Cheers!

Gadget Boy

Cuando Paul McCartney (o William Campbell, véase el post La página de Paul McCartney muerto) vino a la Argentina allá por el 93, recuerdo que una pregunta que nos hicimos en la cancha de River fue: ¿Y qué hace esa boluda con todos esos peluches? La "boluda" era Linda McCartney que medio de prestada en escenario, hacía las veces de "segundo tecladista", y cuyo instrumento estaba atiborrado de peluches: ositos, conejos, otros ositos y más conejos.

Cuando Linda Mccartney se murió, 5 años después de venir a la Argentina, el 17 de abril de 1998, recuerdo que con el mismo amigo comenté: Qué boluda, comiendo vegetales toda su vida. Ella murió de un cancer de mama al que le presentó dura batalla por casi tres años.
Se podría decir que mi visión siempre cómoda, alejada y prejuiciosa, me decía que Linda era una boluda. Esta post no desmiente la sensación, pero demuestra que por la mistad de lo que hizo Linda McCartney ya hay muchos que pretenden el paraíso. Y es una injusticia.

Dando vueltas por un post de un amigo, pay29a (que hoy se dió una vueltita por este blog), me encontré con una serie de fotos de Linda McCartney, en adelante Linda Eastman. Y no me refiero a fotos de ella, sino a fotos tomadas por ella.

¿Quién se animaría a decir que esta no es una de las 5 fotos más famosas de The Beatles? Nadie. Y ni hablar del resto, tanto las famosas como las medio lado b que hizo durante los 60 a distintos personajes del rock. Conocido es el hecho de que conoció a Paul a través de su trabajo, pero, entiendo, su trabajo en sí se mantiene entre las sombras.

Ojo. Ojo. Ya sé, sé que publicó un libro con una antología de fotos, pero lejos está el mundo de haber reconocido, por mérito propio, su excelente trabajo. O bien yo me quedé afuera por puro prejuicio. En ámbos casos, le convido con estos datos (y el vínculo y las fotos)

Linda Louise McCartney (cuyo apellido de soltera era Eastman) fue una intérprete musical y compositora y fotógrafa, además de esposa del ex Beatle Paul McCartney. Nació el 24 de septiembre de 1941, en la ciudad de Nueva York. Falleció el 17 de abril de 1998. Era ecologista y vegetariana. Como amante de la vida natural, Linda hizo mucho para ayudar a las organizaciones contra el maltrato a los animales. Dio su apoyo a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). También libró una gran batalla contra la deforestación de Inglaterra. Su pasión por la comida vegetariana la llevó a escribir un libro de cocina reconocido mundialmente como uno de los mejores del género. También creó una importante línea de comida vegetariana congelada que existe hasta hoy.

Falleció el 17 de abril de 1998 en Santa Bárbara, California a la edad de 56 años, de un cáncer de mama al que combatió durante más de tres años.

Para ver más fotos (aunque no hay tantas en Internet) pueden pasar por esta galería que mantiene on line James Hyman.

Bonnefam tane sa, li sauter mari content, 50 ans encore!! mo capave alle rode ene lotte ti zenesse.

Li tirer alle guette ene chirurgien esthetique( ene lotte chacha sa) refaire so lecoerp et so figure nette, zoli fam bien maquiller parer pou alle chaker mais couma li sorti ene bus devire jette li lor coaltar, direct cotte St Pierre.

Bonnefam encolere alle guette Bondieu et dire li : meme toi pas capave fere toi confiance, to dire moi mo ena encore 50ans pou vive et ene sel coup to ramasse moi !!

Bondieu dire: Hein toi sa, bez sa,sorry mo pas fine reconnaite toi do matelot  !!!!

Five protestors were arrested at Edinburgh's Queen's Hall today and charged with disrupting the performance of the Israeli Jerusalem Quartet, musicians, who enjoy a double status as ‘Cultural Ambassadors of Israel’ as well as ‘Distinguished IDF Musicians’.

While the siege of Gaza continues, Israel should not be allowed to conduct ‘business as normal’  and musicians associated with the murderous Israeli Army, its state, or its illegal occupation should be denied any platform.

About a dozen music-lovers returned their tickets at the gates after realizing the concert was a means for Israel to legitimise its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.  Gratifyingly, a further small but significant number of the audience left and expressed their support, one couple thanking the demonstrators inside and out ‘for awakening our consciences’.  One music-lover who had complained about the harsh ejection of a demonstrator from the hall was told to leave as well!

Earlier this week, local Jewish writer and journalist, Marion Woolfson had written to festival organisers asking that they rescind their invitation to “the representatives of a country that practices ethnic cleansing and a form of apartheid which even those who have lived in South Africa have said is worse than anything thought up by the former rulers of their country.”

Police prevented protesters outside the venue from setting up a simulated checkpoint. Graham McVitie, spokesman for the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign that organised the protest said that the checkpoint was designed to mimic one of around 600 Israeli controls scattered throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories: “These checkpoints are designed to restrict movement within Palestine and strangle its economy.”

Mick Napier, Chair of the Scottish PSC, said: 'Everyone loves music, but Israel's mountain of crimes against the Palestinians weighs more in the scales than some Scots enjoying a piece of music, or a cricket game, or a film, indifferent to the crimes their government supports.  People stopped games by the old South Africa's apartheid sports teams; we can do no less with the cultural ambassadors of Israel's apartheid and ethnic cleansing.'

Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Press contact: asif Dean  00 44 (0)7740 796 790

In 2006, during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, Edinburgh International Film Festival organisers returned sponsorship money provided by the Israeli embassy.

Israel is also under increasing pressure from Trade Union boycotts. Last year, Britain’s University and Colleges Union (UCU) caused unrest in Israel when its conference voted to discuss a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

Former US president Jimmy Carter also faced heavy criticism last year on publication of his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, in which he compares Israeli policies with those of Apartheid South Africa.

So I writed even MORE last night.  But only like a little less than 2,000 words more.  You know, in the book, Stephen King says that 2,000 words is 10 pages.  So, that means that I have a good, oh,  60 pages.  Now isn't that cool!
I find it cool.
You don't have to though.

Anyway!

I have no idea what's going to happen next, and don't ask what it's about, because I really don't know.  I mean I kinda know what it's about, but really I don't.  I just started with this little idea and ran with it.  So, you see, it sort of happens as I write it.  Which is cool, because it takes little thought really, just typing.

Anyway!  New topic this time!

My dad got a wood permit this morning.  That means I have to wake up tomorrow morning, and actually get up for something.  So, we have to go at least "exploring", he said.  Well, anyway, eventually, we're going to have to go and actually go woodcutting.  Meaning it's gonna be cold, and probably colder as the  months go on of course, and then have to do all the stuff that goes with that.
I really don't like it.  Simply because it's cold, and it's early in the morning (9, 10, 11, in the morning, when I don't have to be up, is early, okay?) and it's painful and all my muscles are sore afterward and it's a pain in the back and knees and legs!  For reals.

Okay well I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go eat lunches.  I'll probably have some great things to share later.
I hope.
TOODLES!

About 40 activists entered Gaza by sea with Jeff Halper

Police in Israel have arrested an Israeli citizen who entered Gaza with a group of pro-Palestinian activists.

Jeff Halper, a US-born Israeli citizen, was arrested after he entered Israel through the Erez border crossing.

He is accused of breaking Israel's law forbidding its citizens from entering the Gaza Strip.

Mr Halper was part of an international group of protesters who entered the Gaza Strip by boat to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2007 when the militant group Hamas took control of the territory by force.

Since then, Israel has allowed in little more than basic humanitarian aid as a means of isolating Hamas and persuading militant groups to stop firing rockets into Israel.

The closure of Gaza's borders by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities has also meant that very few Gazans have been able to leave.

Activists

Mr Halper spent three days in Gaza with the group of about 40 activists from 17 countries before crossing into Israel.

"He is being questioned at the police station in Sderot for entering the Gaza Strip in defiance of a military decree banning Israeli citizens from doing so," said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

The activists on board the boats included Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is now an international Middle East peace envoy. Also on board was left-wing Greek MP Tasos Kourakis.

Israel withdrew its settlers from Gaza in 2005, but it still controls its coast, airspace and borders, and, until a ceasefire with Hamas was agreed in June, carried out regular military operations in the territory.

However, correspondents say the truce has not improved the situation for Gaza's population, except to reduce the number of Israeli incursions and the number of rockets fired by Palestinian militants.

The tax mans taken all my dough,
And left me in my stately home,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
And I cant sail my yacht,
Hes taken everything Ive got,
All Ive gots this sunny afternoon.

Save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

My girlfriends run off with my car,
And gone back to her ma and pa,
Telling tales of drunkenness and cruelty.
Now Im sitting here,
Sipping at my ice cold beer,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.

Help me, help me, help me sail away,
Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay.
cause I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

Ah, save me, save me, save me from this squeeze.
I got a big fat mama trying to break me.
And I love to live so pleasantly,
Live this life of luxury,
Lazing on a sunny afternoon.
In the summertime
In the summertime
In the summertime

El término "heavy metal" se obtuvo de unos versos de la canción "Born to be wild" (1970), tema que los llevó a la fama al ser incluído en la exitosa cinta Easy Rider. Aún cuando Steppenwolf tiene un séquito importante de seguidores, no lograron con sus discos posteriores alcanzar el éxito obtenido por esta canción, lo que los llevó a la separación en el año 1971.

En 1979 la banda se reunió nuevamente para grabar un nuevo disco de estudio, Night of the Wolf, que permanece inédito.

Two converted fishing boats set sail from Cyprus today carrying more than forty activists and humanitarian workers who are part of the Free Gaza movement that is trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip. The Israeli foreign ministry said in an open letter to the participants, “We assume that your intentions are good but, in fact, the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organization in Gaza.” We speak with three of the activists at sea: Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement; Lauren Booth, a journalist and sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair; and Israeli anthropology professor Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. [includes rush transcript]

[audio=http://media.switchpod.com/users/democracynow/ftp/dn2008-0822-1.mp3]

“Free Gaza” Boats Set Sail from Cyprus | Download MP3

Guests:

Huwaida Arraf, human rights activist and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. She teaches Human Rights Law at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. She is on the boat Liberty.

Lauren Booth, journalist and broadcaster. She is the sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. She is on the Free Gaza boat.

Jeff Halper, Israeli professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. He is on the Free Gaza boat.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Two converted fishing boats set sail from Cyprus today carrying forty-one activists and humanitarian workers who are part of the Free Gaza movement that is trying to break the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The boats—the Liberty and Free Gaza—left the southern port of Larnaca this morning for the estimated thirty-hour trip. Israel has warned the activists to steer clear of Gaza, which it says is “the subject of an Israeli Navy advisory notice” that warns off foreign vessels from the “designated maritime zone.”

The Israeli foreign ministry said in an open letter to the participants, “We assume that your intentions are good but, in fact, the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organization in Gaza.”

AMY GOODMAN: We are joined right now by one of the activists at sea on the boat Liberty. Huwaida Arraf is a human rights activist. She’s co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement. She teaches human rights law at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem.

We welcome you to Democracy Now!

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Thank you for having me.

AMY GOODMAN: Huwaida, tell us just where you are. And when did you set sail?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We left the southern port of Larnaca at approximately 10:00 a.m. our time. We are headed straight for Gaza. We are two vessels, sailing without problems so far. The water is a little choppy, but everyone is in high spirits. If everything goes OK and we are not blocked by the Israeli navy, we expect to be there within the next twenty-four to twenty-six hours.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And what do you hope to accomplish? What kinds of medical supplies do you have?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Well, we are carrying onboard approximately 200 hearing aids that were requested by a society in Gaza for the children, because it’s not very well known, but many of Gaza’s children are going deaf because of the Israeli—the sound—the sonic booms that they constantly let off over Gaza. They actually requested 9,000. We could not arrange it in this time. We’re also carrying some urgently needed medical supplies.

However, we are very adamant and clear that this is not—ours is not, you know, a humanitarian convoy, because we do not intend to keep putting band-aids on Gaza, when what’s happening is that Israel’s policies are starving the people and causing them to basically cease to—or just exist on handouts, and that’s not what we’re after. We are out to show that the people of Gaza have human rights and deserve to be able to make a living and not just live on handouts, because Israel completely blocks them from travel, blocks them from coming in and out and completely controls their life. And right now, they are trying to starve and humiliate an entire people.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, press reports in England have quoted the Israelis as saying that they—the Israeli government as saying that they regard you as no better than pirates. Have you had any direct contact with Israeli officials or have any idea what you might expect in their response?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Well, that’s ridiculous. We’ve been very open in our communication in—as far as what we’re doing and why we’re doing it and pointing out that Israel has grossly abused its authority as an occupying power. In 2005, Israel pulled its illegal settlements out of Gaza and now says—tries to claim that Gaza is free. But clearly, this is ridiculous. Well, they have been rejected by the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international human rights and humanitarian organizations, because Israel still exercises effective control over Gaza. And we see that, because Israel controls Gaza by air, sea and land, which is why they’re saying that they’re going to block us from coming in.

Now, so we have instituted many communications, put all of our intentions on the website. We even, before leaving the port of Larnaca, we had the Cypriot port authorities check our boats to ensure that we are not carrying anything that we didn’t say we are carrying, that we don’t have any weapons or any other contraband that constitutes a security threat to Israel at all. And we even, a few—a couple of weeks ago, an invitation to the Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni to come with us, to come with us if she’s worried about a security threat and to come with us to see what Israel’s policies are actually doing to the people of Gaza. Now, they rejected that invitation and claim—you know, claim that they’re going to blockade us anyway. But it’s very clear that if they’re going to blockade us, it’s not for a security purpose.

And that is why, actually, we’re on this mission, because, as an occupying force, Israel does control the Gazan waters. Now, we argue that Israel’s occupation, in itself, has become illegal, because for over forty-one years it has been in violation of UN Security Council resolutions, and Israel has abused its power by placing an entire civilian population, which Israel needs to be responsible for—you’re responsible for the people that you occupy, their well-being—but Israel has completely abused their power and is starving the people of Gaza, and it’s placing an entire population, 1.5 million people—it is collectively punishing them. This is not only illegal under international law, but it’s also immoral, which is why we’re setting out on this journey.

Because of the state that exists over the past couple of years that Israel has had this stringent siege over Gaza, 200 patients in Gaza have died because they have not been able to access the medical—to leave Gaza to access the medical care they need. 80 percent of the Gazan people, according to the United Nations, are living—cannot survive without handouts. You have hundreds of students that seek to pursue their education abroad that cannot leave. You have a horrendous sewage crisis, because Gazan people cannot import the materials they need to construct adequate sewage systems, so you have UN organizations claiming that pretty soon there might be an outbreak of waterborne diseases. You have fishermen that try to fish and get shot at when they go out more than three nautical miles. And so, the situation is really unbearable, a manmade humanitarian crisis. And the international community, governments, institutions that are supposed to uphold people’s human rights are not doing anything about it. And that’s really the purpose of our mission—

AMY GOODMAN: Huwaida Arraf, can you describe who is on the two boats, the Liberty and the Free Gaza? We are trying to reach the other boat right now with Lauren Booth, Tony Blair’s sister-in-law, journalist, and Jeff Halper, the Israeli professor of anthropology, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. But who else is on these two boats?

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Sure. We have approximately—we have forty-three civilians from seventeen different countries. We have on our—on the Liberty, which I’m speaking to you from, eighteen people. We have a Greek member of parliament that was with us. The Greeks, which we started our journey from, has been very supportive, as have the Cypriot officials. We have, as you mentioned, Lauren Booth, Tony Blair’s sister-in- law, and Jeff Halper and many other average civilians. I think we—it’s a really good representation of the international community. We have a doctor, we have lawyers, we have nurses, we have students, we have professors, not necessarily big names, but concerned people from all over the world that are saying that we’re not going to sit by and watch this happen. [inaudible]

AMY GOODMAN: Huwaida, I just wanted to ask if, by any chance, as we’re talking to you, if you could tell people on your boat to tell the others we’re trying to reach them. We had reached them all morning. Now we’re not able to reach Free Gaza, the other boat. But if you could tell them that, maybe they could—I don’t know how you two communicate, the two different boats.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We do have satellite phones, which I’m speaking to you now from, and we also have walkie-talkies. And we have the VHS system. So we have various means of communication.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, could you—

HUWAIDA ARRAF: We have not had a problem reaching them, but—

AMY GOODMAN: We are right now. But could you also tell us—we’ve heard that you’ve gotten death threats before you left Cyprus—what is the situation?—and that you had frogmen, police, checking out the bottom of the boats, Cypriot police, underneath the boats before you set sail.

HUWAIDA ARRAF: Yes. Well, over the past couple of weeks, we’ve been into many harbors. And we have tried to be vigilant about security, because we’ve learned from previous experiences, and specifically in 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization tried to organize a similar boat to Palestine, and that boat was—that boat was actually attacked, it was exploded. So we’ve had people on twenty-four-hour watch. And before leaving each boat—before leaving each port, we’ve done dive checks. We’ve done our own dive checks in Cyprus. The Cypriot authorities volunteered to do that for us, so they checked out the bottom of our boats. And we were very adamant about wanting them to also give our boats a clean bill of health, so that Israel cannot say that they’re preventing us from going in because of any kind of security reason. So they checked our boats. They’ve checked all of our belongings, everything we have on board, and have said that there are no weapons or there aren’t any other contraband. And hopefully, if the bottom of the boat check was clear, then these vessels are good to go.

And we’re going to keep sailing until we reach Gaza or until, you know, Israel decides to—what they’ve said is that they’re going to forcefully block us. If they do blockade us, we are prepared to stay out at sea for as long as our water and our food holds out. If we start to run low, we will go back to Cyprus, we will restock, and we will come back out, insisting that we have a right to go through. As long as there isn’t any kind of security concern, Israel cannot completely isolate the Palestinian people, the Gazan people, and cut them off from the rest of the world. Now, the other possibility is that they could decide to fire at us, they could decide to shoot at us, or they can decide to forcefully board our boats and arrest us. Again, this will be illegal. We constitute no security threat. And actually, we invite—you know, we’re leading the way right now. Any other vessel, anyone that has a boat that wants to come join us, we invite them to.

AMY GOODMAN: Huwaida Arraf, we are moving on to our next segment. If you all could reach the other boat, tell them we are trying to reach them, we’ll try to reach Lauren Booth and Jeff Halper later in the broadcast. Huwaida Arraf is a human rights activist, co-founder of International Solidarity Movement. She teaches human rights law at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. She is in the Mediterranean Sea right now on the Liberty. Two boats, the Liberty and Free Gaza, are attempting to make their way from Cyprus, where they just set sail, to Gaza. The website is freegaza.org. We’ll try to reach them later in the broadcast. Thank you for being with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: I want to warn our stations, we’re going to be a little late with break, because we have reached the other boat that has set sail from Cyprus to Gaza. This is Free Gaza. The other boat is Liberty, where we were speaking with Huwaida Arraf.

Lauren Booth is on the line with us now, journalist and broadcaster, also the sister-in-law of the former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Lauren Booth, welcome to Democracy Now! Explain to us why you’re on the Mediterranean Sea right now in this ship called Free Gaza.

LAUREN BOOTH: Thanks very much for calling. I’m on the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Gaza—I don’t want to say exactly where—because we are—the Free Gaza movement, whom I am joining to report on, is trying to break the blockade of Gaza that has been going on since 2006 by Israel. Israel does not allow essential items into Gaza, increasing the suffering of an already impoverished people.

JUAN GONZALEZ: And could you tell us why you’ve decided personally to get involved? Obviously you’re a high-profile figure, and I’m sure that the former prime minister, your brother-in-law, has his own opinions of your actions.

LAUREN BOOTH: It’s his duty as Middle East envoy to be aware of movements like this who want to help the people that he’s supposed to be partially representing. And unfortunately, Tony Blair has not been to Gaza in his role as Middle East envoy. So it’s unclear how he can represent the Middle East, when this important question of people being besieged in this almost-Medieval-style way is not addressed.

AMY GOODMAN: Is he supporting you in your effort to call attention, to challenge the Israeli blockade of Gaza?

LAUREN BOOTH: Can you say again? I missed that.

AMY GOODMAN: Is Tony Blair, your brother-in-law, supporting you in your effort to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza?

LAUREN BOOTH: Well, you’d think that Tony Blair would support the Free Gaza movement in its peaceful mission. Well, likely, I can’t say that there’s been any direct contact. What we do know is that Israel has been using a lot of diplomatic pressure to stop the mission from leaving Cyprus, from starting out in the Greek waters. But the Greek and the Cypriot governments and their local authorities were brilliant and very supportive.

AMY GOODMAN: What are you attempting to accomplish?

LAUREN BOOTH: The most important thing that could be accomplished tomorrow when we arrive in Gazan waters is an open contact between Gaza and the rest of the world. Economically, it will be great for them to start exporting. They have some wonderful produce. They have olive oil that they need to send out to the world. They have people who need to come and share their lives. They have voices that need to be heard. And [inaudible] that this is the first boat to do that in forty years.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Lauren Booth on the Mediterranean Sea. They’ve just set sail from Cyprus, heading to Gaza. We were speaking with Huwaida Arraf on the Liberty, your—the sister fishing boat that has been converted to go on this trip. She was talking about death threats before you left. Are you concerned about your safety, Lauren Booth?

LAUREN BOOTH: There have been some very strange situations in the last few days. Yes, my family have called at home and told, oh, that the boats would slightly be blown up when they reached Gaza. Other people who have Palestinian families have been under a great deal of pressure not to take part. And we’ve had some of our machinery interfered with and sabotaged. And just this morning, the port authority told us that there were Mossad agents operating in their ports, that they were very unhappy with, and that is why the Cypriot authorities escorted us out. We had a police escort follow us out of Cypriot waters. So, there is interference already going on.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, Lauren Booth, we understand you’re also there with Jeff Halper, the Israeli professor of anthropology and coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Would it be possible to pass the phone to him, that we might talk to him for a minute?

LAUREN BOOTH: I shall pass you on to Jeff, who looks like an old sea sort, real old sailor he is here. He’s just staggering—Captain Birdseye, if anybody knows Captain Birdseye. I’ll pass Jeff Halper over, the esteemed Jeff Halper.

AMY GOODMAN: We are talking to Jeff Halper—

JEFF HALPER: Hello.

AMY GOODMAN: —and Lauren Booth on the Free Gaza boat that is headed to Gaza.

Jeff Halper, welcome to Democracy Now! Can you explain why you’re on the boat and what the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions—why this group is supporting this trip?

JEFF HALPER: I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff, explain why you’re on the boat.

JEFF HALPER: What?

AMY GOODMAN: Explain why you are on the boat.

JEFF HALPER: I’m the only Israeli Jew onboard this mission. You spoke to Huwaida, I guess, who’s also Israeli, but is actually Palestinian. She just has Israeli passport. So I think it’s very important that there be an Israeli presence, because, after all, we’re the occupying power, and we have to take responsibility. And so, in a sense, symbolically, my presence here is a taking of responsibility by Israelis for the occupation and for the siege and the oppression for which we put the Palestinians under.

JUAN GONZALEZ: Jeff, some of the press reports have indicated you also have a Holocaust survivor among those who are as part of the mission. Could you tell us about that person?

JEFF HALPER: Yeah. Her name is Hedy Epstein. She, actually, the last—she didn’t join the ship. She fainted a couple days ago. She’s eighty-four years old, and there was some concern about her health. But she’s been with us for the last three weeks and fully intended to come, again, as a kind of a moral witness, you know, of a Jew, of a Jewish person who’s gone through the Holocaust, who feels a sense of responsibility towards, you know, what we’re doing to the Palestinians.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Halper, we have to—we have to—

JEFF HALPER: I think this is a common theme between Jews and Israeli Jews, and that is that we have to begin to take responsibility. We can’t always present ourselves as the victims. We’re not the weak party. And we have to take responsibility for what we’re doing. And that’s, I think, our central message to our own people.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff, we have to wrap right now, and we’re going to follow this journey you all take in these two fishing boats. But we’re headed to the Democratic and Republican conventions. What message do you have for Barack Obama and Senator John McCain from the Mediterranean Sea?

JEFF HALPER: Well, you know, I don’t expect from American politicians much in the way of justice or human rights. To tell you the truth, I think the way an American president could break through on this issue is to present it in American terms. If we’re against [inaudible], this occupation, this conflict, is the epicenter of instability in the Middle East, which is what James Baker called it, and it is absolutely counterproductive to American interests. And I am the American president; I’m not the Israeli president. And this occupation simply has to cease for American interests. I believe the vast majority of Congress and the American people would support that. That’s the only way to break through. As long as you look at Israel as an ally in the war on terror and Hamas and all that stuff, Israel has an upper hand, and human rights and justice get trampled underfoot. So I think framing it in an American way is the approach that I would suggest to these guys, because they’re not going to take a human rights approach.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeff Halper, I want to thank you for being with us. We will be in touch with you soon next week. Jeff Halper, Israeli professor of anthropology, coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. Before that, Lauren Booth, journalist and broadcaster, sister-in-law of the former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The boats are carrying 40 activists, 200 hearing aids and 5,000 balloons

Two boats carrying members of a US-based pro-Palestinian group have left Cyprus in an attempt to break Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The boats left the Cypriot port of Larnaca on Friday morning. The journey is expected to take about 30 hours.

The Free Gaza protest group said about 40 activists from 14 countries were on board the boats.

Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza in June 2007 when the militant group Hamas took control of the territory by force.

Since then, Israel has allowed in little more than basic humanitarian aid as a means of isolating Hamas and persuading militant groups to stop firing rockets into Israel.

The closure of Gaza's borders by the Israeli and Egyptian authorities has also meant that very few Gazans have been able to leave.

'Supporting Hamas'

Before Free Gaza's boats set sail on Friday, the Israeli foreign ministry warned them to steer clear of the Gazan coastline, which it said was "the subject of an [Israeli Navy] advisory notice" that warns off foreign vessels from the "designated maritime zone".

Truce barely eases Gaza embargo Guide: Gaza under blockade

"We assume that your intentions are good but, in fact, the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organisation in Gaza," the ministry wrote in an open letter.

The two vessels - named Liberty and Free Gaza - are carrying 200 hearing aids for children and 5,000 balloons.

"No matter what happens we have already achieved our goal by proving that ordinary citizens with ordinary means can mobilise a defence of human rights for Palestinians," organiser Paul Larudee told the AFP news agency.

"We want people to see the Palestinian problem as one of human rights, not feeding them rice," he added.

The activists include Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British PM Tony Blair, who is now an international Middle East peace envoy. Also on board is left-wing Greek MP Tasos Kourakis.

Israel withdrew its settlers from Gaza in 2005, but it still controls its coast, airspace and borders, and, until a ceasefire with Hamas was agreed in June, carried out regular military operations in the territory.

However, correspondents say the truce has not improved the situation for Gaza's population, except to reduce the number of Israeli incursions and the number of rockets fired by Palestinian militants.

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Caterpillar bulldozers have come to symbolise foreign involvement in Israel's occupation. But should the company be held liable if their products are used to break international law?

Bulldozers are the iron fist of the Israeli army, used to destroy Palestinian homes, uproot orchards and build illegal settlements. But it was the death of Rachel Corrie that brought to international attention a campaign to hold the company to account. Now a law suit has been launched accusing Caterpillar of human rights violations. (Inigo Gilmore)

This clip is an excerpt from the film -- "33 Days," by Mai Masri.   She is a Palestinian filmmaker with a Bachelor's degree in film from San Francisco State University.  This edited clip follows a theatre director who devotes his strength and time to the Lebanese children affected by the massive Israeli bombing that took place on Lebanon's city's and suburbs. Many Lebanese citizens were killed or greatly injured, while survivors were exiled out of their dwellings.
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