The results and the implications

The elections results are here, and I can't say, that I'm too happy with them. The most likely coalition would be Kadima, Labor, Shas and Gil resulting in 68 MK. Peretz would most likely to demand to become the minister of finance, Gil will get the ministry of healthcare and Shas - ministry of internal affairs.
Remembering the old "Israel baaliya"* slogan

MVD pod Shas control? MVD pod nash control!
(MIA under Shas control? MIA under our control - Russian)

It seems that this time "MVD pod Shas control".
Crap. I'm not even mentioning the possibility of Amir Peretz taking the MOF. This could have disastrous implications.

* Russian immigrant party, joined the Likud on previous elections.

Got to shorten my list

I'm using Opera as my RSS reader. I'm adding to my reading list blogs, that I fing interesting, informative or funny. Unfortunately I'm being overwhelmed by the daily amount of posts, resulting in screening my RSS list and not adding interesting blogs I would otherwise add.
Today I was shocked by 76 posts in 32 hours. Yeah, many of them (28) are crap by Laur, but even without him it is still too much. Something has to be done :o)
Meanwile I've developed a system to screen some pages:

• Pages starting with words "Bloggin will be lite today..."
• Sport related posts
• Cat related posts
• Traffic related posts
• Posts that are too long

Sorry, I simply have no time to read them all.

Murderers went loose

Russian court of jury has concluded that the prosecution didn't succeed in presenting enough evidence in order to prove the suspected men guilty in murder of 9 (nine) year old Tajik girl.
9 year old Tajik girl was brutally murdered by a group of Russian skinheads. The authorities report that 11 knife wounds were found on the girl's body.
In other circumstances the obvious concussion would be that the prosecution was sloppy as it commonly happens in Russian Federation. Deep suspicions rise in this case, however. Russian court of jury suffers from serious lack of credibility due to some dubious decisions in the past, based on prejudice rather on the law.
Sad.
Very sad.

In light of my parent's coming vacation

Me and my mother are sitting in front of the computer filling the last online form. It's 11 PM and we have been doing this for two hours already. Finally the last form is finished. Two server disconnections and lots of silly and annoying questions are behind us. I'm printing out the filled forms, and we are both happy that there are no more forms to fill.

US authorities must be selecting visitors by their determination!

A cynic joke

Paraphrasing the old Nokia slogan:

ZAKA connecting people

From the almighty WWW.

Crappy survey

I agreed to take a survey. Received today a 90 page A4 size leaflet full of multiple choice questions. Started filling it now. What a headache!
I'll finish this one, but wont agree to another one unless they pay me accordingly. The reward they've given me isn't worth the 2 hours work.

A small, but pleasant victory against corruption

Naomi Blumenthal conviction and sentence went unnoticed in the blogosphere , but I believe that this could be an important step in returning the faith of the public in their government in Israel. Before some of you cry out that won't happen, I didn't say "would" I said "could". This can be a powerful message to the rest of the corrupt politicians that still in their chairs. You are not immune. You don't have the license to brake the law.
I know that for now it's a wishful thinking to believe that corruption would be defeated, but something must be done and this was a step in the right direction.

Tired of MSM

MSM journalism approach is getting on my nerves. I understand their need to sell their media channel but in order not to become yellow paper press there are some lines not to be crossed. Sadly even the most serious media channels sin with publishing rumors, empty speculations and shamelessly invading people private lives. This the main reason that I'm not reading printed press for over 4 years.
I don't believe that those editions worth my money.
Instead I've been reading news online. One particular site that I've been reading for the last 4 years is MIGnews.com (Russian). It attracted me with it's seriousness and spartan design. No useless graphics, needless pictures, and few commercials at that time. Simple, easy to navigate and fast. Unfortunately even they are starting to fail. Over the years they added lots of adds that make the site look like Christmas tree which drive your attention away from the news and triple the site's load time. Meanwhile the content is degrading as well. The last thing that got on my nerves was an article with a flashy headline:

Israelis have sluiced mud over Sharon Stone

It was about Ms Stone visiting Dead Sea mud baths therapy.

They expect me to take them seriously next time? Think again!

Hilarious elections campaign from Israel Beytenu

There are 3 questions:

Who will fight crime?

Who will take care of our young?

Who always keeps his promises?

With the same answer:

- Netaniyahu?
- "Niyet."
- Olmert?
- "Niyet."
- Liberman?
- "Da!"
"Da!" for Liberman!

Note:
While the whole text is in Hebrew, the words "Niyet" and "Da" are transliterated from Russian (with a Hebrew accent).

Another futile attempt from Microsoft

Yesterday Ynet has dedicated an article to another Microsoft's futile attempt to control piracy under the ridiculous program called Microsoft Genuine Advantage. With the latest security update, Microsoft has shipped a program that checks the OS if it's legal and if it is not, kills the updates and opens nagging screens. Unsurprisingly the comment area of the article became into support forum on how to cheat the copy protection software. As it looks, it isn't very hard, actually it is quite easy.
How nice that I don't really need to care anymore. I simply don't use Microsoft's products.

The next coalition, who it might be

Looking at the recent polls I started wondering what the next coalition would look like. Lets see the polls results first:

• Kadima 37 MKs
• Labor 19 Mks
• Likud 15 Mks
• Mafdal with Ihud Leumi 11 Mks
• Israel Beitenu 9 Mks
• Shas 9 Mks
• Yahadut Ha-Torah 7 Mks
• Meretz 6 Mks

I must warn you that I didn't find the official poll results, so even the numbers could be incorrect.
Now lets look at the possibilities:
Lets take a look at the first possibility:
Kadima, Labor and Meretz totaling in 62 Mks. This coalition is possible since all three parties share the same idea of further unilateral separation. The union of Kadima and Labor would seem quite natural since almost half of Kadima key members are ex-Laborists. On the other hand, Kadima might loose any public support since their voters voted center not extreme left.
Meretz could be replaced by any of the religious parties that would sell their support for many millions of government money. Now this I see as the most likely scenario.
The second possibility:
Kadima, Likud and Shas totaling in 61 Mks. The union of Kadima and Likud would seem natural for the very same reason as with Labor. Shas would, as always sell it's support for money, but I see the problem with Likud. I'm not sure whether Netaniyahu would agree to be in second place, especially after Olmert, and he has hopes of being prime minister again on the next elections, and being in this government could cost him that.
The third option:
The right wing coalition. Kadima, Likud and Israel Beitenu or Mafdal with Ihud Leumi – 61-63 Mks. The least likely possibility. I simply don't know how in this case Kadima would be able to fulfill it's promise of another unilateral disengagement. I know that neither Israel Beitenu or Mafdal with Ihud Leumi would agree to that. Kadima can't ignore it's own promise since in this case it would simply be torn apart from within.

After such thoughts, I think I need a drink.
I don't drink, but I still need one. It's damn depressing.

Another view on Hamas visit to Russia

During a political talk show on RTVi channel, an Ukrainian journalist and an expert in politics Vitaliy Portnikov has voiced an interesting opinion on the recent visit of Hamas officials to Moscow.
He said that by inviting Hamas to Kremlin, Russian government has placed itself into a political trap. If you take a moment and try to think what will be next, there are only two options concerning Hamas. Either they change their spots and turn into another Fatah or they keep openly support and use terror. In the first case they are going to deal with America, leaving Russia out, except for getting fake academic degrees (like M. Abbas). In the second, besides becoming a fair game for Israeli military, they will become an embarrassment to Russian government and the Russian government will have no choice but to stop dealing with them and by doing so acknowledge their mistake. In either case Russia looses.
Therefore another question rises: why did Russia invite Hamas?
There is no clear answer to that. There is a possibility that it was made in an attempt to satisfy Russia's longing to the lost days of glory when the Soviet Union was one of the world powers. It also could be used to keep a illusion that Russia is still calling the shots in both the internal Russian public opinion and in some other countries that for various reason prefer to live in their own virtual reality. Actually many in the west are also buying the bait, trying to figure out the reasons for Russia decision. So it is possible that this was their bet, which will not change the final outcome.
This is the reason that U.S government doesn't worry too much about this visit. Meanwhile, in Russia Hamas has received an American message: change you ways or leave the political arena, feet first.

Meretz election slogans

Did you hear/read the slogans from Meretz's elections campaign? I thought it was a joke when I saw it for the first time.
So let's not bore you and give some taste:


Call me naive,
but there will be a minimum wages for all the pensioners.


My mother isn't an Arab,
but I'll keep fighting for peace and equality.


I'm not a man,
but it is no reason why I should earn less.

I'm no Meretz fan. There is no fricken way I'm going to vote for these people. I'm not promoting them in any way, just want to show you how desperate they are.
For any of you who don't know who Meretz are, they are political party, very left wing. Their political program for is peace, equality, human rights, freedom of religion and from it, gay and lesbian marriages and so on. It all sounds very beautiful, but from my point of view, like many in Europe, they fail to see the line where their dreams shutter upon reality, to the point where pursuing them endangers the very existence of Israel.

Study and work? Not in my class!

There is something that has been eating me since I've heard it the first time.
It happens that in Ben-Gurion university in Beer Sheva, Israel, there are some professors and faculty heads that believe and stated at numerous occasions, that students should not combine working with academic studies, since it likely to hurt students achievements at both.
I happen to agree with this statement, and believe that if the student has an option to dedicate all of his time to studies, he should do so, but the university staff went a few steps further.
They make active steps in order to prevent students from working, by requiring obligatory attendance at some key courses and scheduling the lectures so, that they occupy as much weekdays as possible.
I would be happy to know if they were providing conditions for more students to be able to dedicate their time exclusively for studies, but this simply makes me furious.
What with the students that have other obligations that require them to work? What with those gifted ones who can successfully to combine studies with work? And finally, who granted them the right to set what should or shouldn't the students do outside the walls of the university?!

Today's news

1. French President Jacques Chirac is the first non-Arab leader who addressed Saudi Arabia's consultative council.
Congratulations, Jacques! The question is:
Are you going to trade with them first and nuke them later, or otherwise?

2. Al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri urged the terrorist organisation Hamas to fight on and not to accept agreements between the treators (PA former leadership) and Israel.
BTW the cartoons are a crusade led by the US.
These guys lack the imagination. How about something new next time?