Greetings and salutations!

I want to begin specifically addressing two issues of personal interest. The first is the ongoing (for thousands of years now) conflict in the Middle East (particularly Israel and "Palestine"). The second is the movie I am most looking forward to in 2005 (a year of many excellent movies). The intro being given, let the games begin.

At least for now I'm going to avoid getting into the extensive back story of the present "Middle East" conflict. I'll be writing from a point of view which assumes the reader is familiar with the details, though I'm aware that's not the case. A lot of this will be bulletin point to point stylistics in response to news items. My main source of news updates, for those of you interested, is the New York Times. Let's save ourselves a lot of time and energy and not enter debates on the mass media for now.

The most recent major development in this ongoing story is certainly the death of Yasser (Yasir) Arafat and the resulting election in which popular moderate Abbu Mazen/Mahmoud Abbas was installed as the new president of the Palestinian Authority. Without doubt this has opened up a new window on the "peace process" and his considerable efforts certainly put pressure on Israel to make changes to their heavy handed policies toward their Arab neighbors. Of course, there are many Arab Israelis but I'll use that term as a general label.

Perhaps the most notable move on Israel's part has been their agreement to cease the effective targeted assassinations they've used in response to Palestinian attacks. This, combined with the warm words from Israeli PM Ariel Sharon and Abbu Mazen, and the forthcoming visit from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, gives reason for hope and the resurrection of the "Roadmap" to peace.

Of course, many problems remain. The "Roadmap" is hardly perfect and ghosts of the failed Oslo Accord continue to haunt the region. On the Palestinian side, the militant groups such as Hammas represent the biggest barrier to success. True fundamentalists, these groups are not interested in peace but only in the destruction of the state of Israel. On the other side of the coin, Jewish settlers in Gaza and the West Bank are nearly the only true Zionists left in Israel. They are likely to strongly resist any attempts to dismantle settlements (an element of the Roadmap) and may cause significant political and social disruption as time moves on. So both camps are going to have delicate decisions to make in the weeks ahead. Now you've been brought somewhat up to speed.

The thrilling movie I want to discuss is Square-Enix's production, Final Fantasy:Advent Children. Check out www.adventchildren.net for full details. The short story is that this film is based on the phenomenally successful video game Final Fantasy VII and takes place 2 years after the events of the game. The music is by Square patriarch Nobuo Uematsu and the CG animation is without compare. It is worlds ahead of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and a touch above the recent Polar Express. The film has been laded in all of it's festival appearances and is scheduled for DVD release in summer 2005.

And that's all for now.

With Hope,
Joseph