Two Unrelated Matters about Israel

I. From the Dubavian (from Dubai) blogger Buj al-Arab I get to read a charming article by one Jeff Gates who predicts, with sanguine malevolence that in five years Israel will not longer exist. Read Buj's pleasure in this prediction and the comments left on his blog:

Online reports of a study by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency cast doubt over the survival of Israel beyond the next two decades. Regardless of the validity of the report, with what is now known about the costs in blood and treasure that the U.S.-Israeli relationship has imposed on the U.S., its key ally, Israel could fall within five years.

Commenter says:

No one can claim that land is their "birth right" if they dont exist. I hope that next time, the Muslims who do end up in that situation commit mass genocide to make sure it's the last time.

Muslim Arabs should also start killing off christian Arabs in places like Egypt and lebanon... Jordan...

It will show it's benefits in the future.

In the interest of full honesty, Buj once remarked that above commenter is known among UAE bloggers as a nutcase. However, when I read Buj's blog and I read the presumably nutcase comments, I notice only a difference in style and sincerity, but not in substance: Buj clearly relishes the idea of an Israel destroyed without considering what this will mean to the 6 million Jews who currently live there. The other one only takes Buj's pleasure in the thought of Israel's destruction to its logical conclusion. They both pray for peace, though it is hard to figure out what they mean by "peace".

II: It is Nobel Prize season, and the nominees have been published.

From Israel,

YAKIR AHARONOV was nominated for the Physics Nobel.

"Prof. Yakir Aharonov is on the faculties of the University of South Carolina and Chapman University in Orange County, California. He, together with Prof. Michael Berry of the UK's University of Bristol, discovered the Aharonov-Bohm Effect and the related Berry Phase. The two theoretically predicted the effect, which was later proven experimentally and had a wide influence on the development of the basic principles of quantum mechanics. The effects clearly show that in quantum theory, the essence of electromagnetic forces is significantly different from the way in which they function in classical physics."

And for the Nobel in literature apparently Amos Oz is the favourite:

"According to the betting site Ladbrokes, Israeli author Amos Oz has the best odds of winning--the 4 to 1 favorite. The long shots are William H. Gass and Paul Auster, both with 100 to 1 odds. Bob Dylan clocks in with 25 to 1 odds. Americans Joyce Carol Oates and Philip Roth both have strong 7 to 1 odds. Haruki Murakami and Thomas Pynchon both weigh in with respectable 9 to 1 odds."

Considering this is a Swedish panel deciding I don't think Oz stands much of a chance to win this honour, considering the recent kerfuffle. But still, it appears that most literary pundits would like to see him take the award.

I myself am not a great fan of Oz. I read some of his novels and recall with special fondness "My Michael".

There are 8 Nobelists from Israel:

1. Robert Aumann, Germany, Economics, 2005
2. Aaron Ciechanover, Chemistry, 2004
3. Avram Hershko, Hungary, Chemistry, 2004
4. Daniel Kahneman, Economics, 2002
5. Yitzhak Rabin, Peace, 1994
6. Shimon Peres, (then Poland, now Belarus), Peace, 1994
7. Menachem Begin, (then Russia, now Belarus), Peace, 1978
8. Shmuel Yosef Agnon, (then Austria-Hungary, now Ukraine), Literature, 1966
9. 
   

I am discounting #5 and #6 since the peace for which the two leaders were awarded the prize never materialized. So, only 6 significant Nobels have gone to Israel thus far, one for each million, or one for each decade of its existence, or one for each war ...

Why I placed these two stories in proximity to one another should be obvious to anyone who has intelligence and some sense of irony.