Thru Other Eyes

Life Outside The Tunnel - Part II

In order to participate in the democratic process we need to be informed. Unfortunately limits of time and the tunnel vision that mainstream media creates rarely allow us to see the broader picture. This can lead to a lack of understanding and even worse to dangerous misconceptions. When it comes to the Middle East and relations with the Muslim world, our tunnel vision is a true recipe for bad policy and missed opportunities.



In the second part of Life Outside The Tunnel I'd like to share a few more hopeful points of view and developments that you may have missed or had no chance to see.

Life Outside The Tunnel

Our impressions of the conflicts in the Middle East and the tensions between the West and the Muslim world are naturally shaped and limited by what we know. And what we know of these weighty global issues is pretty much limited by the inescapable and inevitable tunnel vision created by our primary source of information – the mainstream media.

For example: The last weeks have been as usual a mixed bag in the Middle East. Bush’s visit was a resounding victory for Israel, an embarrassing defeat for the Palestinians and further confirmation of America’s self-righteousness for the rest of the Arab world. The resolution of the conflict in Lebanon was a welcome respite for the Lebanese but perhaps has sown the seeds for more serious problems in the future. The announcement of back-channel talks between Israel and Syria is hopeful but already the two sides are now fighting out their positions in the media which can only serve to significantly reduce any prospects for eventual success. Egypt’s mediation efforts over a possible Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas seemed to have died a silent death amongst all the real death that continues.

In other words, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Or do they? In today’s post I want to present a small tour of some hopeful things that may have been missed because they received such little and fleeting attention, or no attention at all, in the mainstream media. I hope this overview

The Emperor's New Clothes

Sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.....

Happy Mother's Day

To my Mom and to Moms everywhere. Have a great day! Anita Renfroe says it best...

60 Years

We can celebrate many things on this 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern day State of Israel. There is much to be thankful for. There is much that we have achieved. Israel has been the source of many innovations in the areas of water management and agriculture, science, medicine and technology. The country enjoys its own form of democracy and for many of its citizens it has created economic prosperity with an open and dynamic economy.

(NOTE: This article is somewhat longer than what I usually present here. For those who find it more convenient to read hard copy, you can download and print a copy at the end of the article.)

The fact that the state of Israel even exists, after thousands of years of Jewish statelessness,

Woops, Sorry. This Gas Tax Holiday Debate is Giving Me Gas

Am I the only one who thinks this presidential primary season is turning more and more into silly time at the happy farm? The gas tax holiday debate now raging between the candidates is nothing more than the idiocy du jour.

McCain got the ball rolling by proposing a summer recess from the 18-cent a gallon federal tax on gasoline. As he put it:

"I'd like to see families in America have a relief from ever-increasing costs of gasoline so maybe at the end of the summer, after this tax holiday, they could buy school supplies for their children."

Quite a sweet thought but since everyone agrees that the savings for the average American family would be around $30, McCain should have said ‘a bit of the school supplies for one of their children, maybe.’