SECURITY UPDATE: There was an earthquake here last Friday - 5.0 on the Richter scale, centered on the Dead Sea, about 25s in duration, some damage, no deaths - click for details. I was surprised to feel an earthquake here but not frightened having experienced several during my time in Japan. Anyway, this follows the first suicide bombing here in just over a year, earlier in the month in Dimona - click for details or here (NY Times - Free Membership Required). Anyway, all that to simply confirm that I am fine :0)

Of slightly more concern is the recent threats of violence against Israeli interests from Hezbollah following the assassination of one of their top leaders - even though two PALESTINIANS have now been arrested in connection with the case - click for details. While both of these events are cause for concern, the reality is that everything remains stable at present and I'm not convinced that will change in the immediate future.

Of course, the news that citizen's groups in and around Sderot, a town frequently hit by Hamas rocket attacks, is encouraging residents to build and fire their own rockets in retaliation, even posting construction documents online, doesn't exactly instill much hope for the situation.

Of More General Conflict

In another disturbing example of horrific violence tied to Islamic terrorism, I have, just now (that is when I actually started writing this post some days ago), watched a 15 minute video being reported on Fox News. It is tremendously graphic and I actually stopped watching it at one point but it shows captives being executed including being burned alive. The release of this video raises some difficult questions. For starters, should it even have been made available to the public? To its credit, Fox didn't actually show the video on TV but the relevant links are displayed prominently on it's website. Their argument is that it provides insight into the minds of Islamic insurgents. WE ALREADY KNOW how sick and evil these people are; further evidence is unnecessary. Beyond that, as evidenced by the resulting talk-backs, these videos do little other than encourage the opposing views of people around the world, many of which are just as violent ("nuke them all") and unapologetically discriminatory.

That said, I certainly have little choice but to agree with those criticizing the typical response of western Muslims (e.g. "that is not true Islam; Islam is a religion of peace, etc). First off, these defenses are bold-faced lies which fail to live up to historical realities. Second - if the Muslim communities in the "civilized" world are so against this behavior, why the hell aren't they standing up and demanding it come to an end? Tacit support covered by pragmatic excuses is simply no longer acceptable.

It seems acts of violence are not limited to the Middle East or members of specific religions either. There has been a series of school shootings in the US in recent weeks, the latest being an attack during an assembly at Northern Illinois University which killed five people. As we race towards technologies meant to improve our lives, its hard to escape the feeling that humanity continues on an increasingly doomed path to its own destruction...and that's my more optimistic outlook.

Of My Life

I've now been living in Israel for six months now....wow...allow me a moment to repeat that in my mind...I've been LIVING in ISRAEL for six months. No matter what happens, that is pretty phenomenal, if I do say so myself. Being here remains a challenge, and I can't say how long it will last, but we'll see where things stand in another six months.

I now live in Kefar Sava (or Kfar Saba - depends on which sign you read) with my good friend Tolik and I am certainly happier than I was in Haifa. We have a great apartment and I really like the atmosphere of this small city. It seems somewhat more tropical and the people seem much more open and relaxed. It's really a refreshing change which I think outweighs the facts that I'm now further from the sea and things are slightly less convenient. I attend a local messianic congregation here and continue working in nearby Herzilya. However, my work situation will change once again as I will be moving on to new projects in March.

I might have posted these in the past but here are the specs on my new desktop computer:

AMD Athlon 64 5000+, ASUS M2N-E MB
2GB Kingston DDR2 800Mhz RAM, 250GB WD 7200 SATA2 HD
nvidia GeForce 8600 GTS Video 256MB
HP Deskjet F4172, MS Wireless Lazer 5000 HID
JBL Creature II Speakers, Samsung 22" Syncmaster 226BW Widescreen monitor

I purchased Valve's Orange Box on Steam so I've been playing a lot of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2, as well as Battlefield 2.

In related entertainment news, I was glad to hear that the writers' strike has come to an end, especially before the Oscars, which I make a point of watching every year. I want to say though, that both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert did an amazing job without their writers and that the whole "who made Huckabee" storyline, culminating in a violent showdown with Conan O'Brien, was simply one of the best things I've seen on TV in ages. Speaking of which, Colbert recently interviewed well known Christian speaker (who I've had the chance to see in the past) Tony Campolo on his show. Tony was promoting his new book, Red Letter Christians, which discusses how Christianity has been hijacked by the religious right in America - a refreshing call to action, in my opinion.

Anyway, as usual it's been too long since my last post and, also as usual, I've not written nearly as much as I originally intended, but that will have to do. My best to all of you and feel free to drop me a line!

With Hope,
Joseph

Israel Earthquake | Dimona Bombing | Red Letter Christians