The Learning Diary of an Israeli Water Engineer

A world ready for distribution

2013-05-20T09:17:00.003+03:00

The region’s outdated order is disintegrating.

But Washington’s still mesmerized by the artificial boundaries on the map. Nine decades ago, the diplomats at Versailles ignored the region’s natural fault lines as they carved up the Middle East, forcing enemies together and driving kin apart (while Woodrow Wilson turned his back on the Kurds). Only brute force and dictators kept up the fiction that these were countries.

Now the grim charade has reached its end. Iraq was carved out for British interests, while Syria was France’s consolation prize. Now Syria’s collapsing in a too-many-factions-to-count civil war. And Iraq’s in the early stages of its own dissolution; even a would-be dictator — another of our one-time “friends,” Nouri al-Maliki — can’t keep the “country” together.

One area after another, the Middle East is collapsing and making itself ready for a redistribution. In the absense of foreign imperialist powers (where have they all gone?) local chieftains are trying to build up small empires: Erdogan and the Ayatollahs. In the general reshuffling of the cards, we too may be apportioned a little morsel of real estate. I personally loved vacationing in Sinai, when it was ours.

Well-fed or Skinny?

2013-05-19T17:48:00.001+03:00

Both!

Hungary's Jewish Problem

2013-05-18T10:32:00.001+03:00

Hungary is being accused of antisemitism by the President of the European Parliament, a German, which does not mean that he is biased. Martin Schulz in an interview published in Metro, a Belgian paper, said that Hungary is making lists of the Jews living in the country. The Hungarian Foreign Ministry protested.

Yet Martin Schulz is right. There are several Hungarian language websites following Jews, half Jews and antisemites suspected of Jewish ancestry (there many of them), with venomous insinuations and comments. One site "Zsido-Figyelo" (The Observer of the Jews) publishes photos of hundreds of prominent Hungarians, mostly in the media and literature, exploring their Jewish genealogy and connection. For Hungarian Jews, this is most frightening. Most Hungarian Jews have changed their names to Hungarian sounding names (even excessively Hungarian) and keep their Jewish origins at a very low profile.

I remember my parents commenting that one of the true achievements of the local Communist party was that religion/nationality was not registered in anymore in government files (and they had files on everybody) and it did not figure in the identity card. That was the opposite of what was happening in the Soviet Union, where Jews were branded in their passports and names couldnt be changed. As remembered, the expulsion of Jews from the universities and public service in Europe started with the confection of lists, well within the living memory of older Hungarian Jews.

Hungary should repress antisemitism now because this disease can spread very fast and it is a real danger for European (and world) Jews. In my judgment, Hungary has collected already enough credits to merit an EU intervention.

From the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 to Syrian Civil War, 2013

2013-05-17T18:35:00.002+03:00

What caused the civil war in Syria? I think it was none other than the fatal Paris Peace Conference in 1919, when the two winners of the First World War divided the world between themselves. The two were England and France; Italy retired early from the conference and Wilson announced his doctrine that the continent of America belonged to the USA and went home. The Conference decided to impose punishing tributes on Germany, which led to its economic collapse and to Hitler, whose sole objective was to roll back the Conference's diktats (pic.: the Mirrors Hall of Versailles). Austro-Hungary was dissolved and new countries were formed, which led to one hundred years of tensions and wars in Eastern Europe, all to re-group the countries along ethnic reality on the terrain. The last "correction" was the creation of Bosnia, in the Balcans, a few years ago. The hundred years re-arrangement of borders may not have ended, as Hungary is very bitter and is ruminating on how to harmonize its borders with the area settled by ethnic Hungarians.

The Middle East was divided between England and France. The Zionist lobby led by Chaim Weizmann succeeded in achieving a "promise" that Palestine was to be Jewish; then, we were double crossed by a secret pact (Sykes-Picot) that gave Syria and Lebanon to France, and the rest to England. The British were mandated by the Conference to create a Jewish State in Palestine (see map) but they cut off Transjordan to create a kingdom for an Arab collaborator.

The peoples of the Middle East had been fighting to break up the artificial borders decided in Paris a hundred years, and to create ethnic frameworks where they can live in security and peace. Lebanon has been destroyed and cantonized, the shape of Syria is being fought out in these days and probably it will end as ethnic cantons, like Irak today. Syria may survive as a formal fiction, like Irak, while in fact the Kurdish areas are already autonomous from East Turkey to Mosul, and the Druze have formed one block with their brothers in the Golan, the Galil and the mountains of Lebanon.

For a hundred years, we Jews are fighting to make true the Paris Accords of 1919, and we are claiming Palestine for ourselves as promised but never delivered. We have taken possession of CisJordan; how and when the process will be completed may take another hundred years. From the perspective of one hundred years, the Paris Conference has originated immense human suffering. The people in Syria may not be aware that they are fighting a hundred years old injustice (worse, bad decision), but that is the cause that their country is being leveled. Israel still has not reached its natural borders. All these wars have to be fought off to the end, till the map reflects the ethnic reality on the land. It will take another one hundred years, may be, but it will be done. .

We are appropriating the Nakba

2013-05-17T06:45:00.000+03:00

Are we appropriating the Nakba? I think so. I have noticed it. And not only me: Susan Abulhalwa protests and writes:

Al Jazeera Stream contacted me a few days ago asking if I would participate on a show commemorating the Nakbe. I would be the only Palestinian, the producer said, “to balance things out” amidst various Israeli voices. Here’s the exact excerpt of the email:

“We are looking for a unique angle with which to cover this and one we were thinking of was looking at the Nakba through Israeli eyes and competing Israeli perspectives. We would also like to have a Palestinian guest join us on set however, to balance things out. As you noted, it would be 3-4 Israelis and just the one Palestinian – but as I said, the Israeli’s will include those very critical of Israeli society on this issue. We certainly wont have anyone in the discussion who flat out denies the Nakba.”

Nakba (The Catastrophe) is the Palestinian counter-version of the Israeli Independence Day, a black day for them. It is one of the main editorial subjects of the anti-Zionist paper HaAretz. It feels grotesque that Israeli Jews commemorate the Nakba, wear black T shirts and sing Arab songs about their tragedy. It is grotesque that Arab media wants Israelis to debate the Nakba and invite one Palestinian only to avoid making it a purely Israeli event. It must feel depressing for the Palestinians.

Live and Let Die

2013-05-16T11:19:00.000+03:00

From a James Bond movie. This internet thing is a mighty distraction, it does not let me work.

How could evolution lead to Suicide?

2013-05-16T10:21:00.004+03:00

Since we are autonomous machines evolved for reproduction, how can suicide be explained? Killing oneself is the absolute negation of our evolved essence. I could, with difficulty, explain that someone voluntarily stays childless, but I cannot explain the drastic ending of life. Yet it is very common. Americans are taking their own lives like never before. Suicide rates jumped dramatically and in 2010 more people died from suicide (38,364) than from car accidents (33,687). It could be some extreme form of protest, the desire to provoke culpability in others, or a shortcut to a death already unavoidable. Is that all?

Jason Richwine is a bigot who shows the pitfalls

2013-05-15T19:57:00.001+03:00

"Jason Richwine is a bigot who shows the pitfalls of partisan 'analysis' The disgraced Heritage Foundation fellow isn't just racist, he uses bad science. How did he get this far?", asks The Guardian's Ana Maria Cox.

The instant defenestration of Harvard Ph.D. Richwine is not surprising given the political debate going on in America on the subject of immigration. I wouldnt waste electrons on commenting if I had a faster computer, but since I have ten minutes till this machine processes my large file, I'll say that it is an American internal affair and I dont care. We in Israel take in everybody remotely Jewish, no IQ testing at all. Having said that, I think that Richwine's paper is wrong. He proves that immigrants have lower average IQ than natives and that this gap will not be bridged for several generations. That is not wrong, his error is adding the opinion that "that is BAD". And he says that taking in immigrants is BAD BUSINESS for America, they eat more than they produce.

But Jason dear, a country is not a business. The economic consequences of immigration are the less worry. Even if they are less productive than the natives, they will not harm the natives, since David Ricardo has demonstrated that "trade" can benefit both sides, making both richer.

And if immigrants should be let in on the basis of IQ, then 90% of the immigrants would be Chinese. Is that OK for America?

Well, now I should check if this slow and dumb machine has finished the job.

Sea Peoples

2013-05-14T21:04:00.002+03:00

The core of the Sea Peoples that devastated the Eastern Mediterranean 3000 years ago were called by the Egyptians Ekwesh or Akwasha, which is equivalent of the Achaean of Homer and Ahhiyawa of the Hitite text. The Karnak inscriptions clearly imply that the Akwash or Ekwesh were circumcised. Hardly anyone thinks that the Greeks of the Bronze Age were circumcised, but of course, no one really knows. They are also represented with fringed kilts and in the reliefs they look Semitic to me. In fact, all the Sea Peoples were circumcised, with the exception of the Peleset (who settled in the Coast and became Israel's bitter enemies. The Bible calls them uncircumcised, implying that everybody else was).

Ulixes unmasks Achilles

2013-05-14T08:53:00.000+03:00

The most I enjoy is reading Ancient Greek literature. Odysseus (pronounced as Ulixes) was one of the organizers of the Mycenaean expedition against Troy and was sent with the mission of recruiting Achilles. Achilles was the leader of the Myrmidons (the ants)), the elite corps of the Greek Army. But Achilles was nowhere to be found, he had been disguised as a woman by his mother Thetis, so he would not be sent off to war.

In order to discover which was Achilles, astute Ulixes asked if he could offer presents to the women of the court. He laid out some jewels and also a sword, spear, and shield. All but one of the girls were interested in the jewelry; the exception was interested in the weapons and picked up a sword. 'She' turned out to be Achilles. ("She" looked, apparently, feminine enough to hide among girls, not like Brad Pitt). Thus was Ulixes able to identify him and carry off him to the war. Achilles capricious behavior at Troy confirms that he had a girl's soul in the body of a warrior). Obviously Ulixes never heard about gender-equality and the blank-slate theory.

The “Sea Peoples” (as mentioned in Egyptian and Greek Records – in the later as Pelasgoi, meaning exactly “Sea People”.) were a historical coalition of the Aegean and western Asia Minor, whose invasions in the eastern Mediterranean around 1229-1187 BC caused destruction of Troy and the Hittite Empire.

The Alawi Miracle

2013-05-12T22:51:00.004+03:00

The Alawi (that is how they call themselves, implying that they are Muslims followers of Ali, the son in law of the Prophet, like the Iranians, but it is not true, secretly they are Eastern Christians) were the most oppressed, miserable, despised ethnic group in Syria before they seized power led by Assad Sr. This miracle, the transformation of a pariah minority into the owners of Syria took place in one generation. What changed?

According to J's baseless theory, the Alawis became so poor and desperate that had to sell their daughters to rich Sunnis of Aleppo, so that about 30% of the Alawi children born in that generation were of mixed blood. When you inject new genes into a highly inbred mountain people, you get an explosion of hybrid vigor, people of superior physical and military capabilities. These bastard, desperate Alawis volunteered to the French Colonial auxiliary corps, which they manned almost exclusively, fulfilling with enthusiasm the role of "running dogs" of the French colonialists. After independence, they joined the new Syrian Army. It is rumored that they also conspired to systematically push their people to the leadership of the Baath Party too, with success. In one generation, these despised people became the owner of Syria. They will not give it up anytime soon.

Massachusetts

2013-05-12T11:30:00.000+03:00

Mencius mentions a foreign traveler in 1864 who asked some random American to explain the war. ‘It’s the conquest of America by Massachusetts,’ was the answer. Massachusetts, of course, later went on to conquer first Europe and then the entire planet. More or less.

Okinawa or Ryukyu

2013-05-12T08:02:00.002+03:00

The Chinese are looking for a fight with Japan: Now, they are claiming Okinawa as theirs. Okinawans are different from the main Japanese ethnic population, and they were independent in the past under the name of Ryukyu Kingdom, which maintained a somewhat asymmetric diplomatic relation with the Chinese Empire (pic. a Chinese Diplomatic Mission). Okinawa is the main American base in Asia facing China. The 21st Century promises to be interesting as the last one.

Singapur's bizarre society

2013-05-11T18:58:00.001+03:00

Singapur is probably the wealthiest natural-resourceless society in the world, with 60,000 dollars GNP p/capita. To get there, they have sacrificed their children. So much for Confusian emphasis on filiality and ancestor worship. Singapur's birth rate is 0.79 child per woman, that is much below the 2.1 required for a self-sustaining population.

Moreover, it is a racially mixed society and I assume that the population's ethnic composition is not the one published, but there are fewer ethnic Chinese than officially counted. Singapur government is singularly honest and its statistics are most reliable, yet I imagine that like all multi-ethnic societies, head counting is sensitive. I know because that is so in Eretz Israel, and it was so in Nigeria when elections came. The Ibos wondered: How is that we have fewer children than the Muslims? Are our women less fertile?

Singapur population includes about 2% Eurasians. It seems to me there are more. The Dutch and the English trading companies registered more than 2 million passengers to Asia in 300 years, and only 20-30% came back to Europe. There must be millions of mixed Europeans in Malacca and Indonesia, as well millions of anglo-indians.

Singapur is also bizarre because it has evolved into a typical "Greek" city: only 63% are citizens, the rest are metics aka permanent residents. Since monetary incentives failed to increase births, they are forced to allow more immigrants. Prosperity keeps everybody quiet, for now, but the future is uncertain. Singapureans are well aware of human differences and tried consciously to manage it to create a prosperous and stable society, and in fact that is what they have today. But it cannot last.

Sectarian War in the Middle East

2013-05-10T21:14:00.000+03:00

The Syrian civil war is deepening the division among the Arabs: Sunni and Shiite. Qatar and Turkey head the Sunni, while Iran is the champion of the Shiite. America is thinking how to isolate the Syrian war, but already Lebanon is deeply involved. A common front against Israel is further away than ever. The Salafi extremists we hear about in Egypt are Sunni fundamentalists. I'm so uninterested in their differences.

Why Ancient Greeks Become Civilized

2013-05-10T18:46:00.004+03:00

Ancient Greeks were the most intelligent people ever (Galton and me think so). Why? The reason was the rigorous eugenic thinning of the population, expressed in the legend/metaphore of the Sphinx (pic). They imagined a monster that stopped travelers on the road and posed them a riddle. If they answered wrong and were found dumb, they died. Oedipus was asked: "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three at close of day?" Clearly, it is an IQ test and Oedipus solved it. The people of Thebes made Oedipus their king. They believed that intelligence should rule. The subsequent tragedy of the royal house may be a metaphore for the insufficiency of IQ for a happy end.

The Colonization of Hungary

2013-05-09T18:57:00.000+03:00

The Hungarian fear of EU colonization has caught my attention and I am following the developments through the Hungarian internet press. The process, once put in motion by the Jewish Congress in Budapest, goes on collecting momentum and it has been detached from the Jewish or Gypsy issue. The EU bureaucrat in charge of watching the member states's constitutional organization (there is such thing) is the Portuguese Rui Tavares (pic), representative of the European Green parties, has published a position paper damning the Hungarian regime. The Nepszabadsag Online reports:

... az új magyar alkotmányos berendezkedés megszüntette a zöldombudsman pozícióját, a jövő nemzedékek országgyűlési biztosát lefokozta, és megfosztotta korábbi jogköreitől). A dokumentumban az áll, hogy ha mindez – az Alkotmánybíróság kiherélésével és a közmédia megszállásával együtt – így marad, az ellentétes az EU alapjogi chartájával, és az unió a minden európai embernek járó egyetemes jogok helyreállításáig szankciókat léptet életbe; ez lenne a gyarmatosítás/gyámság alá helyezés/megszállás.

My translation: The new constitutional setup abolished the position of green ombudsman, downgraded the rank of the future generations officer and cut its responsabilities. The (Rui Tavares's) document states that all the above including the neutering of the State Controller (sic) and the occupation of the media, counters the Charter of the European Union ... so the restitution of the basic rights of European citizens requires sanctions - which could mean putting Hungary under a protectorate/colony status or occupation.

It's time that the Hungarian realize that building memorials to the Waffen-SS that "defended" Hungary against the Red Army is "not done" in today's Europe. It seems to me that all the prophesies that the Euro will collapse and the European Union would be dissolved were wrong - on the contrary, the EU is emerging as an aggressive colonialist power. In fact, Bismarck's Europe seems to re-assert itself. Those were good times for the world.

Poiseuille

2013-05-09T10:04:00.003+03:00

Conflicts in the academy are so bitter because so little is at stake, somebody said. A college is applying the Poiseuille equation (see below) to calculate pressure drop in siphons, which is perfectly suitable for hypodermic needles and the flow of blood in the body. But we are teaching future civil engineers and in this field other approaches are preferred. I suggested to use as example the Amud River canyon inverted siphon (pic left), a part of the National Water Carrier of Israel, and engineering wonder, that is more than 200 meters deep. I am not confident that my suggestion will be welcome.

Hungary fears to become an EU protectorate

2013-05-08T10:49:00.002+03:00

I'm reading the Hungarian press reaction to the current Jewish Congress's meeting in Budapest. The impact is much larger than I imagined. A quote from Nepszabasag, the main journal:

"Ilyet még nem láttunk! Bámulatos és precedens nélküli! Szélsőséges, és megalázó! Az Európai Unió gyámsága alá helyezné Magyarországot" - Schöpflin György fideszes brüsszeli képviselő.

"We have never seen such a thing! Amazing and without precedent! Extremist and humiliating! The European Union would like to put Hungary under Protectorate!" says Schopflin Gyorgy representative in Brussels.

What protectorate? In this case it may be the loss of full sovereignity and a de facto condition similar to a colony, but using the pre-existing native state as an agent of indirect rule. The cause may be inability to govern itself, or protection of minorities.

Swimming with the Current

2013-05-08T08:58:00.000+03:00

I reworded the article I wrote about water therapy for FLK and in less than one day it was accepted for publication. In the sanitized version I barely mention the hereditary origin of physical asymmetries and emphasize the possible environmental causes. Moreover, instead remarking that no therapy will change the underlying causes of the condition, my tone is most optimist and describe how the child will develop compensation mechanisms to the point that he will forget his "differentness". With this last article my daughter has a nice portfolio of professional publications in her specialty, child hydrotherapy. Lots of people want to consult her, but she is focused in studying and uninterested in developing the "business". I offer projects to my daughter the architect, but she doesnt want them. No one of my daughters wants my assistance or money.

Israeli urban middle class is having less children and more dogs. Being a realistic and practical person, I see here an unexploited business opportunity. Hydrotherapy for dogs. As far as I know, no one is offering this service in Israel, there is zero competition and the field is promising with a large profit potential. Well, someone else will make money on dog therapy, not my daughters. They have no vision.

Unhappy Norwegians

2013-05-07T21:02:00.002+03:00

An unmentionable blog (May 1, 2013) publishes a shocking reality: Frightened Norwegian Boys in Norway.

“There is a hierarchy, where ethnic Norwegian boys are on the bottom rung on the ladder. They will be targeted unless they accede to their rules, if they don’t they become Norwegian immigrants. If a Norwegian boy gets into trouble, odds are that he has a small family and a tiny social network. Unlike a Pakistani or Somali boy, he doesn’t have a clan of brothers and cousins and uncles who come rushing to his aid in the event of a conflict. Most of the time the only thing he has is a single parent.”

The above hits a note in my soul as I am an only child with no close relatives, who grew up among foreigners. I remember the feeling. I was a postwar Jewish thick-glassed nerd in Jew-hating Hungary, but these boys are not Jewish pariahs but tall and blond Norwegians, the real Vikings, the wealthiest and most secure nation on Earth. Shocking.

From the Moroccan Jews Website

2013-05-06T18:44:00.002+03:00

Moroccan joke.

Like all Jewish jokes, it is not antisemite only when told by a Jew.

J Engineering Corporate Code

2013-05-05T17:17:00.002+03:00

(1) J Engineering Corp. is reorganized as from today in the model of Mr TJ Watson's IBM, the world most successful company.
(2) The Personnel Management Dept. has been instructed that only clean cut WASPs will be employed. Smoking, drinking, tattooeing, piercing, dirty shirts, long hair, long fingernails are reason for immediate dismissal. In case a position cannot be filled by a WASP, a non too Jewish looking Jew is acceptable.
(3) In order to avoid accusations of sexism, racism, ageism, etc., no females, no Negroes, no Latinos, no old folks, no handicapped persons, etc. will be employed by the corporation. Positions requiring female capabilities like kitchen, coffee-serving, typing, secretarial work will be filled by discrete homosexual males.
(4) J Engineering is not a Friend of the Earth, it is a Business company. It does not support green causes, it couldnt care less about dolphins and turtles. Tree-hugging propaganda found on the premises will be cremated in an Auto-da-Fe public ceremony.
(5) The Company dressing code requires plain white or blue shirt, dark colored pants (no jeans) and black or dark brown leather shoes.No exceptions.
(6) All the personnel will attend the morning company flag raising ceremony at 0600 AM and sing the official company song "Ever Onward":

There's a thrill in store for all,For we're about to toast,The corporation known in every land.We're here to cheer each pioneerAnd also proudly boastOf that "man of men," our friend and guiding hand.The name of J means courage ever advancing;And we feel honored to be here to toast J Engineering.

Ancient Laodicea, Today

2013-05-05T07:11:00.000+03:00

We have news of a massacre that took place two days ago at the city of Baniyas, in Syria. The place is an ancient Phoenician colony that later was Hellenized and called Laodicea. The Syrian Army, reinforced by irregulars from the nearby Alawite villages, entered the town and killed indiscriminately people on the streets. The Middle East map is being redrawn following racial/ethnic lines and Baniyas is Alawite country.

Stop Frightening Me with the Poorhouse

2013-05-04T17:25:00.002+03:00

Economy Minister Yair Lapid turned 180 degrees and is proposing to increase government deficit spending. The stock exchange reacted violently - and corrected upwards. Several startups were sold to the Americans and Nobel Energy started to pump natural gas, saving us foreign exchange. The dollar contracted as touched by fire and the shekel raised 10%. I may avoid ending in a Jewish poor house (pic by Wladimir Makovsky).