Israel’s Glass Ceiling

Just while Tzipi Livni wins the hearts of the members of her party to get ready for the new premiership, and Syria and Israel carry on their feverish yet surreptitious discussions, a bomb exploded in Damascus. Apparently, there are people who simply abhor the idea of Israel-Syria getting cozy and talking about the long awaited peace in the region.

Bombing has become the fastest growing new world fashion. For the past several months, never had a day gone by without a bomb exploding somewhere on the globe, often accompanied by traumatic casualties.

Complete lacking of respect for others is inexcusable; ignoring the lives of the innocence constitutes a heinous crime far beyond human acceptance. The world seems to be at a loss in tackling this notoriously loathsome felony.

Perhaps the bombers have been the neglected ones, opting for the wrong way to voice their grief. But is there a way out?

kitty-kat:
right and wrong!. Livni's reaction toward "hasan nasrallah" in august 2006 was joking!.Livni asked about the number of mobile of "Nasrallah" to delegate with him about the captured Isralis !.On the other hand,the idea of "caring kids" by males while females are working and gaining money is only accepted if your father can "lactate" by his "own" breast & your uncle is capable to have a "balloned abdomen" i.e: getting pregnant !

Israeli men are forced into the army much longer then Israeli women, and they do much more of the fighting in Israel's endless wars. So yes, sexism is not at bay in Israel - but it is sexism against men, not against women.

Note Joanna Chen's double standard in politics - when people throw mud at a male politician, that's just normal. But when people throw mud at a female politician, that's sexism.

There is no glass ceiling. If men too had the option to stay at home with the kids with women supposed to work to earn a living, there would be more female executives and parlimentarians.

Give her a chance. May be she is the better prime minister after all.

Let's look at the first and last sentences in the 2nd paragraph: "At first glance, the Jewish state's top political echelons might look like an egalitarian paradise???especially in the male-dominated Middle East... On average, only 8 percent of the seats in Middle Eastern parliaments are held by women, according to a recent U.N. report." The latter sentence would seem to support the previous contention, but in context it tries to portray Israel as sexist. Taken together with the first sentence, though, it tells us nothing. What about Livni's name? In some contexts it could parallel referring to Barack Hussein Obama - or George Walker Bush. And, finally, Ehud Barak met with the Likud leader, former PM Netanyahu, who is currently leading in the polls. Considering that they're not best of friends, I'd bet Barak met with Netanyahu because he thought it was prudent. Or he's a sexist, racist, communist who hates left-handed people. Whatever floats your boat.

Israel is a stridently racist society, so why should it be a surprise that it is strongly sexist, too? When Democracy attempts to compromise with Theocracy, what happens is that it is compromised by theocratic principles (and what else is a specifically "Jewish" State?). The loser is Democracy.

It's apparent that since the prospect for Livni's taking over premiership is not as good as it originally appeared on paper, another woman writer tries to pre-empt any opposition or negative view of the woman as some sort of a "sexist" behaviour. The data she cites, such as only 8 percent of Middle Eastern parliaments are women doesn't have anything to do with whether Israel is still a bastion of Neanderthaal macho men, since the figure include all Middle Eastern countries, including such feminists' paradise as Saui Arabia and so on. And the fact that Meir is not so popular in Israel also have nothing to do with sexist attitude, it's her policy, as even the writer quotes, that make Iareali people not particularly fond of her. But to this author, any negative view of politicians, if they happned to be female, are automatically evidence of "sexism", end of discussion. Only criticism of male politicians are allowed. And since when calling other politician by a full name Tzipora become a sexist act? And what exactly Livni's advisor is whining about? Do they want to ban all meetings between two males inthe country. As if they want to say, "from now on all meetings between more than two males are banned in this country as it is considered a subversuive act against feminists utopia.".