http://seablogs.hellbent.org/

Above is a local blog touting itself as "a Seattle weblog portal." Welcome to Seattle - sorry about the neighborhood. West Seattle had very few of those "anti-war" signs back when & almost none now. No impeach signs. Check out Alki sometime - nicest part of the city.

that op-ed on the road map still has me scratching my head. I wonder how the washington representatives in seattle fare - even in cali, with boxtop and feinstein, those two still despite their hatred of bush, dont spout the cycle of violence crap that clinton started. even congresspersons who are rape you with taxation liberal in the south, like waxman, berman, sherman, and even diane watson dont go off the reservation too much.

Well, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer certainly has a fitting name. An equally descriptive title, assuming the paper wasn't always like this, would be 'Seattle Past-Intelligencer'.

My delicate sensibilities restrained me from stating one relevant fact yesterday. But you'll face it sooner or later: you are now represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by one Jim McDermott.

Maybe some 'Dump McDermott' yard signs will restore some diversity to our politically monocultural neighborhoods.

I went back and read the P-I's editorial and I am not sure why you characterize it as " grotesquely biased." (Though there seems to be a sentence missing from what I read on the web and perhaps that's what you react to.)

On third reading, the only passage which I can imagine as even remotely objectionable (and btw I am a very strong supporter of Israel) is this sentence: "Yesterday, Israeli tanks and helicopters attacked targets in the Gaza strip; hardly a way to begin peace talks."

I don't know enough about the specifics of why such an attack to happen now, nor about whatever "private dance" may be going on between Sharon and Maze, (i.e. the consensus is that the Palestinian rejectionists must eventually be brought under control by the PA via force and perhaps it is easier for Mazen for Israel to eliminate them than for Mazen to do it).

But the timing of the attack does seem a bit unproductive. Sharon, if he is sincere, must support Mazen, not undermine him.

I'd also like to comment on Israel Harel's assertion (mentioned in an earlier post) that a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza would not be viable because of population densities. It's an interesting thesis but I believe that he has his facts wrong.

He calculates that the pop density of a Palestinian State in West Bank and Gaza would be over 580 persons/km, and he says it is "impossible to live with such overcrowding." He likens such "overcrowding" to Hong Kong and Singapore.

But his facts seem to be inaccurate.

According to statistics I just pulled down from UK National Statistics, http://tinyurl.com/c2mm, Hong Kong is 6,366 persons/km and Singapore is 6,300 persons/km.

Israel is, btw, at 291 persons/km and that includes the Negev desert, a considerable portion of the country.

(By way of further comparison, the Netherlands is 381 persons/km and South Korea is 472 persons/km.

Seattle, as another btw to give some ground sense of these numbers, is 2,686 persons/km --- if I did my miles to Km conversion correctly!)

Yes, to live well in density requires affluence. But living well in low density also does. Take a look at the statistics. There are plenty of poor countries with low density and plenty of rich ones (e.g. Netherlands and S. Korea) at high density.

The bottom line from my reading of Harel's article is that the Palestinian State, --- and there will be a Palestinian State --- must be helped by everyone to grow economically as rapidly as possible.

I'm really fascinated & concerned by the numbers set forth by Harel. ( A friend of mine has an expression which he uses all the time when it comes to political assertions, many of which involve numbers: "Do the math." Harel's article sems to be a prime example of why one should do so.)

What disturbs is that he does not mention the population density of Israel, if one excludes the Negev.

Israel is about 20,330 sq km.

The Negev is about 12,000 sq km, leaving a net of about 8,330 sq km.

The total population of Israel is about 6 million.

Ninety three percent, or about 5.5 million, of the population lives outside the Negev.

So that's a population of 5.5 million on 8,330 sq km or a density of about 660 people per sq km.

That is a figure _greater_ than Harel says is too high for a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza.

Perhaps I have my numbers all wrong; I have been wrong many times before. But if not, then such distortion of the discussion is rather sad and counterproductive. We have problems enough.

***

Btw, Howdy neighbor! Welcome to Seattle to the Sharkansky family.

Why did I call the P-I editorial grotesquely biased?
1) The statement: Yesterday, Israeli tanks and helicopters attacked targets in the Gaza strip; hardly a way to begin peace talks. It seems to blame Israel alone for the situation, ignores the fact that these were military targets, which the Palestinian "Authority" wasn't taking action against, and leaves out the part about the terrorist attacks, like the one in Tel Aviv, that took place since Abu Mazen became Prime Minister.

2) The statement the anniversary of Nakba, or what Arabs call the Great Catastrophe, in 1948 when several hundred thousand Palestinians were "displaced" by Israel's creation and the Arab attacks against the Jewish state.. It leaves out a number of bits of important context, such as the fact that the Palestinians at the time were offered a state which they refused to accept.

Oh, and don't let me let this gem of a quote slip through the cracks: "The more Israel cracks down on terrorists, the less chance there is for Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen to convince his own people about the rewards of a negotiated peace."

If Abu Mazen cracked down on terrorists, then Israel wouldn't have to. And should the Palestinians be justified in feeling outrage that terrorists are being stopped?

So, what should Israel do?

You spoke so highly about Israel Harel's attempt to show the idea of a Palestinian State laughably absurd based on "demographics."

I am curious if you can find any holes in my analysis which show that he is in error on basic facts, errors so embarassingly fatal that his argument melts.

"I still haven't found any signs that say "Impeach Saddam".

I've noticed that people who tend to gather in physically beautiful locales tend to ignore reality rather readily. Boulder, Santa Fe, San Francisco.....to name a few.

Stefan,

Welcome to Seattle! Glad you found Zoka already, that is one great coffee shop. A couple of years ago there was the honey bear bakery just one block up, but for some reason it was closed down unexpectedly one day. If you think the impeach Bush signs are bad, take a walk by green lake around 3pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The same group of about 20 that were standing around holding "no iraq war" signs 3 months ago have now recycled them to "Impeach Bush" in an environmentally friendly way of course. As my friends who come here to visit me from NY say, "Seattle is one looney place", but the coffee and people are really nice. Green lake is a great place to live, just don't talk too much politics unless you follow the "party line". I am really looking forward to reading your PI and Seattle Times commentary. Good luck in your new place!