Some Untitled Thoughts

@nra: If people want to kill, you can’t stop them. Even a fork can be deadly.

@nickkristof: What makes guns different is their lethality. That’s why the military doesn’t arm our troops with forks.

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—	“Looking for Lessons in Newtown” -Nicholas Kristof for the New York Times

It never ceases to amaze me how short-sighted Americans are when talking about the Middle East. Says the New York Times:

What is striking in listening to the Israelis discuss their predicament is how similar the debate sounds to so many previous ones, despite the changed geopolitical circumstances.

We’re talking about 125 years of political tension, 137 years of ethnic violence, and thousands of years of brewing resentment, and you think you’re going to change it by offering a solution based on logic? This conflict has survived the rise and fall of communism; both World Wars; the rule of what is now Israel pass through the hands of two foreign powers and what is now the Palestinian Territories through four; the fall of the British and Ottoman empires; the shift in global power from Europe to the US and the changes in alliances this caused; 20 years of peace processes; and anybody who was born before it started. The Arab Spring is hugely meaningful for the Arab world but for the relationship of Israel and the Arab world? Not so fast.

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[1] I’m counting by the official declaration of the Zionist party by Theodore Herzl in 1897; the first recorded incident listed in the Wikipedia article on History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, probably the closest thing you’ll ever get to an objective point of view (caveats said article, appropriately “though it is not clear which incident came first and which was the retaliation”); and the bible.

[2] I’ve tried as hard as possible to write this objectively, but I guarantee everyone with even the slightest connection to Israel or the Arab world who reads it has an emotional assumption of which side I’m taking. Even I do despite explicitly trying to write it unemotionally.

How often do you think this is a problem?

Many students believe that if they have a great idea, they should be able to magnetize their audience toward them because their audience will recognize the ‘greatness’ of that idea—that they’ll get on board because the idea is so good,” she continues. “I try to show students that it doesn’t work that way—you have to go meet people where they are and then all move together. You have to connect with them before you can lead them.

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—	Amy Cuddy, speaking about her classes at Harvard Business School.

Charging station disguised as wheatgrass #undercoverplant (Taken with Instagram at #IABMIXX Conf + Expo 2012)

[Connecting through business] is more effective than talking politics straight up.

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—	Arab-Israeli entrepreneur Nuseir Yassin, speaking to the New York Jewish Week about his participation in DreamIt Israel

In every market most deals don’t make sense.

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—	Sandy Miller, Partner at Institutional Venture Partners

Fox reported the facts as they came in.

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—	Fox executive Michael Clemente, refusing to issue an apology for the network’s error in reporting that the Supreme Court had ruled Obama’s health care reform unconstitutional.

Serious fire on Broadway & 92nd; FDNY all over it. Cliché but I’m proud to be a New Yorker (Taken with picplz at Broadway Mall in New York, NY.)

This is the real deal #nysbravest (Taken with picplz at Broadway Uws in New York, NY.)