I found this interesting article on FAIR's (fairness and accuracy in reporting) website which gives a better context for this conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It illustrates how Israel wasn't completely innocent leading up to this conflict. One of the most interesting parts is this:
"A major incident fueling the latest cycle of violence was a May 26, 2006 car bombing in Sidon, Lebanon, that killed a senior official of Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian group allied with Hezbollah. Lebanon later arrested a suspect, Mahmoud Rafeh, whom Lebanese authorities claimed had confessed to carrying out the assassination on behalf of Mossad (London Times, 6/17/06)." So Israel did in an indirect manner provoke Hezbollah. As a result of this event "on May 28, Lebanese militants in Hezbollah-controlled territory fired Katyusha rockets at a military vehicle and a military base inside Israel. Israel responded with airstrikes against Palestinian camps deep inside Lebanon, which in turn were met by Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on more Israeli military bases, which prompted further Israeli airstrikes and "a steady artillery barrage at suspected Hezbollah positions" (New York Times, 5/29/06).
Yet unfortunately, these events between Israel and Lebanon which were obviously written about in the media, were not a part of the discussion a when Hezbollah attacked Israeli soldiers. The current conflict has been "portrayed in U.S. media as beginning with an attack out of the blue by Hezbollah."
Not only that but " 'Of all of Israel’s wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared,' Gerald Steinberg, a political science professor at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told the San Francisco Chronicle (7/21/05). 'By 2004, the military campaign scheduled to last about three weeks that we’re seeing now had already been blocked out and, in the last year or two, it’s been simulated and rehearsed across the board.' " Thus the Hezbollah attack was just an excuse for Israel to go into Lebanon.
I've always felt that many times events portrayed in the media lack that important context in which to understand them. This time it is detrimental to the American public and its understanding of the current situation in the Middle East.
Monday, August 07, 2006
States struggling under Welfare Changes
This article in the Washington Post, is just another example of this Congress screwing over those in poverty. This Republican-dominated Congress and administration is again passing the buck to states and showing their brand of neglected federalism:
"By Oct. 1, state and local welfare offices must figure out how to steer hundreds of thousands of low-income adults into jobs or longer work hours. They also must adjust to limits on the length of time people on welfare can devote to trying to shed drug addictions, recover from mental illnesses or get an education" because of "new rules, written by Congress and the Bush administration [that] require states to focus intensely on making more poor people work, while discouraging other activities that might help untangle their lives."
Republicans look at those in poverty in such a narrow manner by thinking that the only thing they can do is get crappy low-wage jobs. These new regulations that they set in phase out other ways that those living in poverty can improve their lives. Furthermore, you can't force people to get jobs when they are unable to. According to the EPI, "a large number of TANF [the US Welfare system] recipients experience 'barriers to employment'—circumstances that make it more difficult (or impossible) to find and maintain a job" including "physical or mental health problems, a low level of skills, domestic violence, limited English proficiency, lack of reliable transportation, unaffordable child care, and inadequate housing." Thus poverty doesn't just entail whether you are working or not, it encompasses a variety of aspects that make an individual more economically vulnerable to poverty. These "barriers to employment" can be improved by providing "work supports in order to secure and maintain jobs that pay an adequate wage. For example, women who receive child care subsidies are twice as likely to remain employed after two years than those who do not. And those who receive employer-provided health insurance are 2.6 times more likely to remain employed after two years."
Furthermore, I think its hypocritical of these Republicans who preach the conservative message of "states rights" and less federal mandates to use the federal government including the Department of Health and Human Services which "issued [in late June] strict new rules defining what counts as work -- and who must be counted" and the Republican-controlled Congress which in a recent bill signed into law "compel states to find jobs for fully half their adult clients, and they increase the required work hours from 20 hours per week to 30."
If you are interested in poverty issues, I read over the summer a great book about poverty in America called One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All by Professor Mark Robert Rank. It will truly change your perspective of how poverty works in America and why we need to address the issue in this country. Some of the most startling stats from the author's research is that 3/4 of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend a year of their lives in poverty and 2/3 willl use a welfare program such as food stamps.
"By Oct. 1, state and local welfare offices must figure out how to steer hundreds of thousands of low-income adults into jobs or longer work hours. They also must adjust to limits on the length of time people on welfare can devote to trying to shed drug addictions, recover from mental illnesses or get an education" because of "new rules, written by Congress and the Bush administration [that] require states to focus intensely on making more poor people work, while discouraging other activities that might help untangle their lives."
Republicans look at those in poverty in such a narrow manner by thinking that the only thing they can do is get crappy low-wage jobs. These new regulations that they set in phase out other ways that those living in poverty can improve their lives. Furthermore, you can't force people to get jobs when they are unable to. According to the EPI, "a large number of TANF [the US Welfare system] recipients experience 'barriers to employment'—circumstances that make it more difficult (or impossible) to find and maintain a job" including "physical or mental health problems, a low level of skills, domestic violence, limited English proficiency, lack of reliable transportation, unaffordable child care, and inadequate housing." Thus poverty doesn't just entail whether you are working or not, it encompasses a variety of aspects that make an individual more economically vulnerable to poverty. These "barriers to employment" can be improved by providing "work supports in order to secure and maintain jobs that pay an adequate wage. For example, women who receive child care subsidies are twice as likely to remain employed after two years than those who do not. And those who receive employer-provided health insurance are 2.6 times more likely to remain employed after two years."
Furthermore, I think its hypocritical of these Republicans who preach the conservative message of "states rights" and less federal mandates to use the federal government including the Department of Health and Human Services which "issued [in late June] strict new rules defining what counts as work -- and who must be counted" and the Republican-controlled Congress which in a recent bill signed into law "compel states to find jobs for fully half their adult clients, and they increase the required work hours from 20 hours per week to 30."
If you are interested in poverty issues, I read over the summer a great book about poverty in America called One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All by Professor Mark Robert Rank. It will truly change your perspective of how poverty works in America and why we need to address the issue in this country. Some of the most startling stats from the author's research is that 3/4 of all Americans between the ages of 20 and 75 will spend a year of their lives in poverty and 2/3 willl use a welfare program such as food stamps.
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