rule of law

It is puzzling why at this very moment in history we need a citizenship law in the form Lieberman asks. It is possible that the reason lies in Lieberman origins, where doubts on ones religion/ideology/thougths/nationality/loyalty where daily life. It is possible that the reason lies in the weakness of our own feeling regarding our place here and what state and what sort of democracy we want. It might lie in the rows of tentative humiliations attempted by this government against the non-jewish and particularly arab community (doubt that the russians are the target). It might lie in the will to draw the peace process to a dead end while blaming everyone beside ourselves. Or simply it might lie in a misconception of what democracy should be... and the originators of this law are probably a support to this hypothesis. What is unfortunately missing from that law to make it more appealing to "the other" is the guarantee of equal rights, is the guarantee of the state to defend the rights of all its citizens. It misses an inherent concept of democracy that the originators most likely ignore: we are citizen of a state, not servants, we are individuals not part of the state ideology and the government must defend the rights of all of us, no matter our political view, our religion, our ideology.

2011 Meeting ISPS @ Sede Boqer

Dear colleagues and friends, 

I'd like you to take a moment and invite you to register to the coming 2011 Meeting of the Israeli Society for Plant Sciences. It will introduce you to the Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research and to the Sede Boqer area. We will have key note speakers Israeli Prize Prof Jonathan Gressel and Prof Jill Farrant of the Molecular and Cell Biology Dept, University of Cape Town. Last but not least, we are planning a post-meeting half a day trip to learn about ancient agriculture in the area. More info can be found in the website of the meeting. 

Hope you'll join us and re-discover Sede Boqer. Please kindly distribute the invitation among your colleagues.

Cheers and Shana' tova', 

Aaron

Wine in the desert

to life