Folks:
I’ve set up a class=”textlink”>brand new tracking page to monitor the unfolding crisis in the Middle East. The page monitors Israeli and Lebanese blogs and aggregates their latest & most linked posts continually throughout the day, and additionally shows the most popular posts on the conflict from non-local bloggers.
The code is working well now, but I’d welcome suggestions on blogs that I may be missing. If you have suggestions for blogs that should be added (or if you think I’ve included a blog inappropriately), please let me know via e-mail.
One note on the layout of the page: if you’re wondering why sometimes the page shows Israeli bloggers at the top and sometimes it shows the Lebanese — it’s on purpose. I’ve deliberately coded the page to randomly select the layout each time it is generated so that each community of bloggers gets the top-of-the-page exposure equally…
Update: After prompting by Mickey Kaus, I did some searching for Palestinian blogs, and found a bunch. There is now a section devoted to Palestinian bloggers on the page, so check it out. As for why it wasn’t there in the first place: I simply was following links from bloggers I know to find ‘local’ blogs, and for whatever reason, none of them led to the cluster of Palestinian blogs I’ve now found. Still, it was fairly dense of me not to think of searching harder, so sorry about that, and thanks to Mickey for nudging me.
On a related note, a word on how I’ve selected the blogs for listing. My criteria has been simple: for each section, I’m looking for blogs that:
- Are written by a resident or expatriate of the area
- Have been updated within the past several days
- Appear to be posting regularly on the conflict
I’ve no interest in filtering based on content or views, but I have filtered out local bloggers who choose to focus their blogging on poetry or art rather than war. Quite possibly a wise choice for them, I suppose, but not terribly useful for the purposes of the tracking page…
There are three things that should be clear from the current events in the middle east.
First, there are far too many on the Arab side that only seek the destruction of Israel, so until the underlying hate is eliminated, there can be no peace.
Second, the idea that military responses to terror must be proportional is idiotic. That is where asymetrical warfare gets its strength, so proportionately is really just fertilizer for future terror.
Third, and most important, there is no such thing as land for peace. What we are seeing today is the effect of land for peace. Israel gave up land (or withdraw from land it was using as a buffer) and the only thing that resulted was the rockets and missiles can strike deeper into Israel and the terrorists can easily sneak across borders to launch attacks. I hope that what is happening now shows that land for peace is one of the worst policies to ever be attempted.
More on this topic at http://vengefulzhid.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-land-for-peace-never-works.html