9 thoughts on “Israeli fires: the blame game”

  1. I think it did rain.

    WRT divine punishment, the question is why it only happened now, since people have been failing to observe the Sabbath for quite some time now.

  2. Perhaps the time of HaShem is not our time: a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night…

  4. I guess Arab scam setting fires around Jerusalem are, too, sent to Israelis as punishment for insufficient Shabbat observance.
    (photos: @parking and around hospital Adassa Ar-Hatzophim. Reuters, AP)

  5. I usually try to let my DoubleQuotes sink in, as I’ve said, like two pebbles tossed in a pond, the interesting things being the ways in which their ripples interact, the ripples from one at different times (or seen from different perspectives) seemingly amplifying or cancelling out those from the other…

    In the long historical perspective, we humans are slowly emerging into a view of the world which (as I see it) owes less to fight or flight mechanism and more to our philosophical and contemplative traditions, allowing us to begin to place more emphasis on love than hate, and on cooperation rather than competition – a world in which, if you like, Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” and Kropotkin’s “mutual aid” can play a duet rather than fighting a duel.

    Duels and duets both interest me – hence the DoubleQuotes format.

    One of the things I was hoping to suggest with this particular DoubleQuote is that there are people who use “magical causality” to give divine sanction to their negative opinions to be found in more than one religious tradition, another is what we may be at the point where we can see through such sanctions, partly by acknowledging that they exist not only among those who are “other” but also closer to home, and perhaps (with my comment that I’d pray for rain) to give a hint that “magical causality” still serves a function in terms of inspiration, myth, dream and poetry in a world that is hopefully becoming awake to reason — but need not and indeed should not sacrifice imagination on the altar of realism.

    *

    Today’s news brings the contrast between pre-modern and modern thinking nicely into contrast with the debate between the Egyptian governor of South Sinai and an Egyptian marine biologist about the recent shark attacks off the beaches of Sharm El-Sheikh. The governor, citing reports that one of the sharks was found to be carrying a GPOS unit, said it was possible that Mossad was sending the sharks into Egyptian waters to damage the tourist trade – a suggestion the marine biologist promptly refuted:

    Marine biologist Hanafy refuted the allegations, saying that the Oceanic White Tip, blamed for the attacks, does indeed exist in Egypt’s waters. He also added that the existence of a GPS inside the shark does not mean there is a conspiracy at play, adding that these “tracking devices” are often used by marine biologists to study sea life.

    You can read the whole story on Ahram Online. It’s a curious and interesting world we live in.

  8. Hi, Rick — I seem to have pipped you at the post on that one! GMTA, perhaps?

    [edited after seeing your most recent comment to add:] yup, but you got there first this time around.

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