Weekend Papers II This article describes severe societal and tribal pressures experienced by the small number of Israeli Bedouin women who pursue higher educations. Particularly interesting is an account of a symposium at Ben-Gurion University where academics concerned with preserving the structure of Bedouin society are berated by a Bedouin woman doctoral student.

When pro-Palestinian activists come here from abroad, what do they think is happening here and what are they trying to accomplish? According to this, one group entered Balata camp while the IDF was operating there. The activists became upset when the IDF began moving from house-to-house by breaking walls (which is what the IDF does when they suspect - as in Jenin - that houses have been booby-trapped). The activists offered to walk into the houses first ("the Palestinians wouldn't blow up their own houses" said an American woman from the group). The soldiers decline their offer and arrested them.

Haaretz includes an insane 2/3 page ad from the Gush Shalom ("Peace Block") movement. You can't tell from the ad what the group is advocating or who its members are. Apparently, Gush Shalom thinks that the way to win people to the Left is to tell them that Ariel Sharon has a secret plan to reconquer the Palestinian areas and eject all Arabs from the country. Gush Shalom believes that Israel deliberately encourages suicide bombings and that the US provides unlimited and unqualified support for the plan. Apparently Arafat's war has succeeded in driving all but the raving lunatics out of the peace movement.

If you are at Tel Aviv University at Sunday around 6PM, you can go to hear Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt of the German Liberal Faction discuss "Goals of German Foreign Policy" (Malka Brender Hall of Justice). If someone goes, please email me a brief.