Presidential Rape

It is a disgrace that Moshe Katsav is the president of Israel. Who would have ever thought that the head of our state would be a suspected rapist?!? Back in 2000, I was very sorry he was elected president, defeating Shimon Peres - I just thought he was nothing more than a petty politicians without the stature needed to serve as president.

It's hard to believe, but now even former Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, a horrible choice, would be an improvement. I hope that someone who isn't a member of the Knesset is elected president next: someone like writers Eli Amir or Amos Oz, or former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar.

Tags: Israel, Israeli Politics, Moshe Katsav, Moshe Katzav

Autism Politics

I've only seen clips of Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education", hosted live by Jon Stewart. They didn't talk much about autism in the footage I've watched, and I wonder how they represented it in the whole show. Anyone care to opine on it?

A charity event for autism sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it's more complicated than that. I doubt that any of the stars in Sunday's show even know about this complexity.

Other than the whole debate about whether or not vaccines are to blame for this condition, there's a debate between those who want to find a cure and those who advocate the acceptance of autistics as they are. This debate is about almost every aspect of autism:

• Should autism be cured? Or if autism is just an alternative form of neurological wiring, maybe there should only be intervention and treatment to make autistics' lives easier, like speech therapy and teaching certain social skills.
• What do you call autism? Many would find "disease" to be offensive. Even the term "developmental disorder", which I think is the most accurate, is unacceptable to some of those who see autism as part of humanity's "neurodiversity". According to this view, autism is different, but there is nothing wrong with it. "Condition" is probably the least controversial description.
• People with autism or autistics? Both terms seem the same to me, but there are certain groups who have a preference. By the way, on this issue, the divide is not always along the neurodiversity/cure line.
• Who should speak for autism? Parents of autistics or the autistics themselves? Yes, indeed, some autistics can speak for themselves, whether verbally or through writing. Autism Speaks, one of the organizations receiving money from the show, claims to speak for autism despite the fact that they aren't autistics themselves. Autism Speaks has distributed a video that pretty much shows autism as hell. I'm not sure people with autism would appreciate that.

Tags: Autism, Neurodiversity, Charity, Vaccines, Entertainment, Jon Stewart

Say No to Lieberman (Avigdor, Not Joe)

The Labor Party must block the entrance of Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) into Ehud Olmert's coalition government. Lieberman, who has different ideas with the underlying intent of taking away Israeli Arabs' citizenship, is the Israeli equivalent of Austria's Jurg Heider and France's Jean-Marie Le Pen. If Labor sits in the same government with him, it means the party only cares about its seats and not its principles.

Lieberman also wants to change Israel's parliamentary system into a presidential system. That would be a bad idea. We certainly need reforms in our government, but we should strengthen our parliamentary democracy. This can be done by doubling or tripling the size of the Knesset, raising the electoral threshold for entering Parliament, as well as possibly creating a second legislative house, among other things.

Tags: Israel, Labor Party, Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Politics, Politics