Category: crazy ideas

Resettle Sudanese refugees in Gaza Strip

I do not understand how come I never saw any suggestion to solve the Sudanese refugees problem by resettling them in Gaza Strip.

I think it’s a simple idea with several advantages.

First of all, next time Hamas launch missiles at Israel, Israel will have the pretext to re-enter Gaza Strip and re-seize a part of it.

Then, the Sudanese refugees will be resettled in that part of Gaza Strip.  Plans for settling them will have been prepared beforehand.  Probably by rebuilding the Jewish settlements and following the same plans – even to the extent of building greenhouses to provide a living for the refugees.

Even if there are some subversive elements among them, most of the refugees probably just want to make a living and will be industrious workers – no need for Thai laborers there.  Therefore, it should be matter of a year or so before they are self-sufficient and after few years, they’ll be persperous enough to expose the lies of the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas that the Palestinians need a lot of economic aid just to survive.  It may be possible to adopt a rotating door policy, which will allow Sudanese refugees to stay for few years, get persperous and then qualify by being persperous for immigration into other developed countries.

Another factor is that once the Palestinians see that the more genocide the Sudanese government commits, the more refugees from Sudan will arrive at Gaza strip and the more they’ll be squeezed out of parts of Gaza Strip, they’ll influence the Sudanese government to stop persecuting minorities in Sudan.

Once the Gaza Strip is full of Sudanese, it is possible to start settling them also in the West Bank and start squeezing Palestinians out of it.

And the best of all – the idea will eliminate the moral problem that we, as Israelis and descendants of Holocaust survivors, have with throwing out refugees from genocide.

תרגום לעברית נוסף בתאריך 1.1.2011:

אינני מבין איך זה שלא ראיתי אף הצעה לפתרון בעית הפליטים הסודניים על ידי יישובם-מחדש ברצועת עזה.

אני חושב שזה רעיון פשוט עם יתרונות רבים.

קודם כל, בפעם הבאה שהחמאס ישגרו טילים לישראל, יהיה לישראל תרוץ להכנס מחדש לרצועת עזה ולתפוס שליטה בחלק ממנה.

ואז יהיה אפשר ליישב מחדש את הפליטים הסודניים באותו חלק של רצועת עזה.  התוכניות ליישובם מחדש יהיו מוכנות מקודם.  קרוב לוודאי על ידי בנייה מחדש של היישובים היהודיים תוך שימוש באותן התוכניות – כולל בנייה מחדש של החממות כדי לפרנס את הפליטים.

אפילו אם יהיו אלמנטים חתרניים ביניהם, קרוב לוודאי שרובם רוצים פשוט לקיים את עצמם ויהיו עובדים חרוצים – אין צורך בעובדים תאילנדיים שם.  לכן בערך שנה אמורה להספיק עד שהם יוכלו לפרנס את עצמם ולאחר כמה שנים, הם ישגשגו די הצורך כדי לחשוף את השקרים של הרשות הפלשתינאית ושל החמאס, שהפלשתינאים זקוקים לסיוע כלכלי מסיבי רק כדי לשרוד.

גורם נוסף זה שברגע שהפלשתינאים יראו שככל שהממשלה הסודנית מבצעת יותר טבח עם, יותר פליטים מסודן יבואו לרצועת עזה ויותר פלשתינאים יידחקו מחלקים מרצועת עזה, הם ישפיעו על הממשלה הסודנית להפסיק לדרוף מיעוטים בסודן.

כשרצועת עזה תתמלא בפליטים סודניים, ניתן להתחיל ליישב אותם מחדש גם בגדה המערבית ולהתחיל לדחוק פלשתינאים משם.

והכי טוב – הרעיון ימנע את הבעיה המוסרית שיש לנו, בתור ישראלים וצאצאים של ניצולי השואה, עם גירוש פליטי ג’יינוסיד.

License for drunk driving?

It is well known that each driver is affected differently by the same blood concentration of alcohol.  One driver may still be safe driver even with high blood alcohol concentration, whereas another driver may lose all ability to drive during the first hour after imbibing a drop of red wine.

Nevertheless, the Israeli law (and also in some other countries) prescribes a fixed limit for blood alcohol concentration under whose influence, driving is still legal.

I suggest that people, who so choose, submit to a reaction time under influence test.  Their reaction time will be measured without alcohol, then they’ll drink alcohol, and during the first few hours after having gotten drunk, their blood alcohol concentration and their reaction times are to be measured frequently.

There can be extra charge for this test, in addition to the standard driving test required to get a driving license.

From the test results, a figure of safe alcohol concentration for driving will be derived and stamped in their driving license.  They will also be informed about their actual alcohol metabolism rate, to help them plan their drinking activities.

The present alcohol concentration limit prescribed by law will henceforth be the default alcohol concentration limit for people, who choose not to undergo the optional reaction time testing as well as people who are not allowed to drink for the reaction time test due to their being under age.

 תרגום לעברית נוסף בתאריך 1.1.2011:

כידוע, כל נהג מושפע בצורה שונה מאותו ריכוז אלכוהול בדם.  נהג אחד עשוי להיות נהג זהיר גם בריכוז גבוה של אלכוהול בדם, בעוד שנהג אחר יאבד כל יכולת נהיגה בשעה הראשונה לאחר שתיית טיפת יין אדום.

למרות זאת, החוק בישראל (וגם בכמה ארצות אחרות) מגדיר ערך גבול קבוע לריכוז האלכוהול בדם, שמתחת לו עדיין מותר לנהוג.

אני מציע, שנהגים שיבחרו בכך, יעברו מבחן זמן תגובה תחת השפעת אלכוהול. זמן התגובה שלהם יימדד בלי אלכוהול, ואז ישתו אלכוהול, ובמשך השעות הראשונות לאחר ששתו, ריכוז האלכוהול בדמם וזמני התגובה שלהם יימדדו לעתים קרובות.

ניתן לגבות תשלום נוסף עבור המבחן, בנוסף למבחן הנהיגה הסטנדרטי הנדרש לקבלת רשיון נהיגה.

מתוצאות המבחן, יחושב ריכוז האלכוהול שעדיין בטוח לנהיגה ויוטבע ברשיון הנהיגה שלהם. יוסבר להם גם קצב המטבוליזם של האלכוהול בגופם בפועל, כדי לסייע להם לתכנן את פעילויות השתיה שלהם.

גבול הריכוז הנקבע כיום על ידי החוק יהיה מעכשיו והלאה ברירת המחדל לריכוז אלכוהול עבור אותם נהגים שיבחרו לא לעבור את מבחן זמן התגובה וגם עבור אלה שאינם רשאים לשתות לצורך מבחן זמן התגובה בגלל היותם צעירים מגיל השתייה החוקי.

The Onlo Solution to the Gaza Strip Problem

In this article I’ll try to suggest how would Salvor Hardin solve the problem of the Gaza Strip people (see also The Salvor Hardin plan for Syrian-Israeli peace).

E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Second Stage Lensman, chapter 22 “The Taking of Thrale” describes how the 2nd stage Lensman Nadreck (one of the goodies) performs psychological manipulations on the people of the planet Onlo (one of the groups of the baddies). The result of those manipulations was that once provoked, all people of Onlo slaughtered each other with the exception of three commanders, who then were slain by Nadreck.

Given Gaza’s Culture of Self-Destruction, it may be possible to design propaganda, a framework of blackmailings and bribes, manipulations and provocations, analogous to fictional Nadreck’s methods, such that the Gazans will kill each other in an orgy of frenzied assassinations – as long as there are people who adhere to the self-destruction culture. This may eliminate Gaza Strip as a problem for Israel.

There are precedents from the Roman Empire – they employed the Divide and Rule strategy for subjugating rebellious people, such as the Jewish nation about 2000 years ago. However they didn’t go as far as inciting a people to commit self-genocide.

There is the question whether the Onlo solution to the Gaza problem would be moral. To settle this question, consider the following.

  • The Gazans strive to kill Israelis. Israel has a right to self-defense.
  • If the psychological manipulations are properly designed, they would work only on those who follow the culture – exactly those people that are dangerous to Israel.
  • Neither Israel nor the rest of the world have the resources to deprogram all Gazans and peacefully eliminate their culture. So this problem is equivalent to the problem of dealing with a plague of infectious disease, for which the available economic resources may produce a cure only for very few people.
  • The Gaza Strip happenings may serve as a lesson to the Moslems worldwide, getting them to reject militancy and turning all branches of Islam into truly peaceful religions. This could save more lives than any lost in Gaza Strip.

Looking for research into visual information processing by humans

There is a family of cognitive tasks, whose successful execution requires continuous information processing by the visual center in the human brain. Examples of such tasks are:

  • Lipreading.
  • Combat airplane pilot following the airplane’s status displays during dogfights.
  • Following arena status displays during land battles by army unit commander (Israelis would recognize this as those plasma displays, which got bad rap during 2nd Lebanon War due to commanders staying in safe place while their soldiers risk their lives).
  • Ticker and notices to stockholders in stock exchanges, which need to be followed by stock traders.

Existing research in visual recognition, of which I am aware, deals with shape recognition, when the person being tested needs to perform a shape recognition operation not more frequently than once each several seconds.

What I need to find is research dealing with optimization of the way visual information is presented, so that recognition operations and subsequent information processing can happen several times each second.

So I am looking for help in finding such research. To be able to help me, you probably need to be researcher in the area of cognitive psychology and be aware of existing research worldwide.

If you know about such research, please let me know!

How is the Left in Israel undermining efforts to release Gilad Shalit and why?

During the last several months, I noticed that the strongest voices in favor of accepting Hamas’ terms for release of Gilad Shalit, and against tough negotiations – belong to the Left.

The question, then is:  why does the Left press Bibi Netanyahu to surrender to Hamas in the negotiations over Gilad Shalit?

The Leftist movements in Israel, such as Peace Now, have an agenda of demonstrating against the Israeli leaders whenever they try to play tough in peace negotiations with the Arabs, as if playing tough is equivalent to wish for war – rather than wish for peace from better position.  They throw to the winds the maxim that negotiations which end in satisfactory results – start with tough-looking bargaining positions.

In the case of negotiations for Gilad Shalit’s release, I suspect that the Left knows that the key for Gilad Shalit’s release is to act tough and even be cruel toward Hamas activists in Israeli prisons.  However they do not want that the Israeli public be exposed to the experience of tough negotiations with successful outcome.

Therefore, the Leftists would sabotage the process of negotiations by blaming the Israeli leaders for “abandoning” Gilad Shalit only because they try to play tougher in negotiations with Hamas.  Nevermind the fact that true abandonment means that no one is giving attention to the abandoned person; rather than having to do with the specific kind of attention being given.  The Leftists demonstrate – not against Hamas or the International Red Cross – but against Bibi Netanyahu and the other Israeli leaders.  They try to persuade Netanyahu to release dangerous terrorists, whose release is sure to lead to tens and hundreds of Israeli victims.

Seems that for the Left, it is better to keep the Gilad Shalit problem unsolved, rather than risk the lesson that playing tough in negotiations pays huge dividends.

The Salvor Hardin plan for Syrian-Israeli peace

According to Michael J. Totten, the ruling class of Syria can never make peace with Israel on their own, as they are Alawites – a minority in Syria. If they make peace with Israel, they’ll be considered as traitors and the Sunni majority would revolt and drown the Alawites in blood.

In the following I’ll try to formulate how Salvor Hardin would have dealt with the problem of getting Bashar al-Assad to make peace with Israel.

Since it is Salvor Hardin, the following principles are relevant:

  • “Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right”
  • “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent”

The key is to save Assad’s face and convince the Sunni in Syria that by making peace with Israel, Assad really does them good rather than being a traitor.

The plan would be as follows.

  1. A pretext for starting hostilities against Syria could be its hosting and supporting the Hamas leaders, who are opposed to release of Gilad Shalit for free.
  2. Hostile action would be to demonstrate power and ruthlessness by bombing some critical infrastructure, such as irrigation dams or key bridges. However, the hostilities are to be sufficiently surgical that there’ll be no casualties or bodily harm to people.
  3. The next step would be to prevent reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure as long as there is state of war between Syria and Israel.
  4. Once Syria capitulates and agrees to make peace with Israel and has accepted the humiliation of peace without the Golan Heights returned to it, Israel would extend economic aid to Syria in order to repair and upgrade the infrastructure destroyed during the hostilities. See below.

The biggest problem in carrying out the above plan is international public opinion. One way to counter it is to earmark few billion dollars for rebuilding Syria once there is peace, and arrange for those companies (presumably, French ones) which currently have construction contracts in Syria and are in position to get reconstruction contracts (for rebuilding Syria) to pull ropes and arrange for public relations so that there’ll be support for Israel’s actions.

Water quotas and bad socialism

Israel currently suffers from serious water shortage.  Efforts to alleviate the shortage are underway.  One of the efforts is getting people to consume less water each month, by providing them with a certain quantity of water at one price, and any excess consumption costs much higher price.

This is bad socialism and is harmful to the liberty of people, because water bills are by apartments.  So people need to declare how many people live in an apartment, and if someone moves to another apartment, the water bill payers of both apartments need to declare this change of living place.

A better solution would be to do what was done with bread few years ago.  Economically, it was necessary to raise the price of bread.  It was handled in a better way – the price was allowed to rise, but people, who live on welfare, got few extra NIS each month, to cover the extra cost of bread, so that they won’t be worse off.

In the case of water, poor people at any case lack the capital for investing into water saving measures – plugging any leaks in the water pipes, installing water flow limiters (חסכמים) in the taps, shower sewage recyclers, rain water collectors, etc.  Well to do people can afford to make the investment which will reduce their water consumption – but need economic motivation to do so.

My suggestion is to provide water to everyone at high price.  No need to report how many people live in each household.  No need to compute water quotas for provision at lower price.  However the monthly payments to people on welfare and on fixed budgets are to be adjusted upwards so that they’ll not be worse off than they were before.

Benefits of Free Software to people with disabilities

After attending the August Penguin 2010 conference, Ilana Benish wrote (in Hebrew) about the benefits of Free Software for people with disabilities.

I would like to make also the following points:

  • Working on Free Software projects, like working on any volunteer work, is a way for software developers with disabilities to prove their worth to prospective employers.  This can serve to overcome prejudices and resistance by prospective employers, especially those who were burned by people who proved to be capable of drawing a salary and incapable of delivering results.
  • Like working on other self-benefit projects, working on relevant Free Software projects can empower people with disabilities, who can now help themselves rather than rely upon other people to help them.

In favor of identifying with Shalit family’s pain, against freeing Gilad in exchange for terrorists who murdered Israelis

  1. My accounting is simple:The terrorists, who were released in exchange for Elechanan Tanenbaum few years ago, have murdered 29 Israelis by now in terror attacks.

    There is no doubt that the terrorists, whose release is demanded by Hamas in exchange for freeing Gilad Shalit, will murder even more Israelis in the next few years.

    The only difference among Gilad Shalit and those Israelis is that today we know who is Gilad Shalit, and we can associate with him a photo, parents in distress and a life story.  Whereas those dead Israelis are today nameless and we have no way to associate with them a photo, grieving relatives or life story.  Only after they have lost their lives, we’ll know who they were.

  2. Another aspect which no one seems to have thought about:Suppose Gilad Shalit is freed in exchange for all those terrorists and returns to live in Israel.  How will his life look like under the burden of Israelis who are killed or otherwise put at risk by those terrorists?  Won’t he feel obliged to live up to them as they sacrificed their lives to release him?  Won’t he be able to enjoy his life as a free man without onerous obligations?  Would he be able to live normal life under the weight of obligations to those who risked and sacrificed their lives to secure his release?

Anakin Skywalker and Turkey

Those days Turkey is rapidly transforming from an ally and friend of Israel into an enemy, to be almost as dangerous as Iran.

The Turkey-related news of the last few days never fail to remind me of the transformation of Anakin Skywalker in “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” into Darth Vader.

I wonder what will be NATO’s stand if war starts between Turkey and Israel due to Erdoğan’s plans to break through Gaza blockade by personally escorting ships and accompanying them by Turkish navy ships.

Addendum:
I don’t like the incitatory slant of the article, however it provides a possible explanation of the environment which allowed Turkey to make the transformation into an enemy of Israel:  Turkey-vs-Israel. ANOTHER War in the Middle East?

I am not as optimistic as the article’s author about Israeli chances of winning a war against Turkey, because Turkey has been provided over the years with Israeli military technology.  Even today, the relevant contracts haven’t been suspended yet as far as I know.

The only way I see to avoid a Turkish-Israeli war is for the Turkish army to get hold of its wits and overthrow Erdoğan in a military coup, similar to past coups, which happened in Turkey over the years.