Crossing the Green Line

A story on NPR points out how Israel's security interests are leading it to commit more resources to green energy:

It's something that is obvious when you think about it - Israel's relative strength in the region, and leverage with the west, is inversely proportional to global oil demand - but it's not something that normally comes to mind when thinking about Israel. It's nice to know that there is at least one country who's immediate security concern is, or at least should be, ending the world's addiction to oil. And this isn't just any country, it's a tiny place that happens to be a world leader in cutting edge technology.

The story points out how Israel has been slow to start investing in alternative energy, but there is really only one thing that can get a country to invest big and move quickly: national security.

Waiting for some good news

There doesn't seem to be much, especially not around speculation about the upcoming election in Israel. I wonder how long "Obama won the election" can stave off the encroaching pessimism.

who broke the ceasefire?

There was a good interview with Jimmy Carter on CBC radio this morning. Here's a question I was left with: did Israel attack Gaza on November 4th (election day in the US)? I heard an interviewer on Al Jazeera English make the same claim while debating someone on the question of who broke the ceasefire. Carter just pointed out that prior to that attack on Gaza, a ceasefire was in place and no rockets were being fired. This runs counter to the conventional wisdom in every media source I follow, American and Canadian. Even among the more left-leaning media, the story goes something like: Hamas broke the ceasefire by continuously firing rockets at Israel, but Israel's response was disproportionate. According to Jimmy Carter, Israel broke the ceasefire when it attacked Gaza on November 4th while no one was paying attention. Has anyone heard of this before? What actually happened on November 4th? Have you ever seen it reported in the MSM, or anywhere else?

The Big Picture

The Big Picture is a photo blog that publishes large-scale photos from news wires. Very little editorial, just the pictures. Sounds simple but one of the best edited and most striking blogs I follow.

A recent set of pictures (some graphic) from the Gaza Strip. Most pictures are taken from outside Gaza because of recent restrictions on foreign photographers.