Peretz appoints Arab Israeli minister of sport and culture

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3350893,00.html

Hearing all the gabble of protest against Amir Peretz one can fall into the trap of forgetting that he is a very capable minister of Defense of Israel,  leader of the Labour Party in Israel and an experienced, clever, veteran politician.

Some members of his party want to give us the impression that he's on his way out. This is definitely far from the truth. It is simply part of a battle going on in his party to take over leadership from him.

Some of these Peretz detractors are really inexperienced, unknown politicians like Avishai Braverman and Ami Alon who are making a crude attempt to get support for their bid for leadership in Peretz' place.

His other critics are Arab leaders of Arab opposition parties who see Peretz' liberal and fair policy goals for the Arab population as being more successful than anything they have ever done for the Arabs of Israel.

Peretz is not only a clever, veteran politician but more important he has a real agenda to bring about the social and cultural reform which Israel badly needs.

All his critics were united last week when, in the interests of furthering his goals for a better deal for the Arab Israelis he appointed an Arab, Ghaleb Majadele to a ministry which can really do a lot to bring Jewish and Arab Israelis together, namely the ministry of sport and culture.

These are the two aspects of society where different sectors meet. Jews and Arabs in Israel are crazy about soccer and basketball. Fans from both societies meet every week. Entertainment by actors, singers and artists are the meeting ground for the two cultures. Only good can come from a stronger Arab representation in the fields of sport and culture. It's about time we started bringing Arabs and Jews together in a united Israeli atmosphere of familiarity and better understanding.

Human endurance in Indonesia

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/01/03/ferry.survivors.ap/index.html

School kids killing each other