Zcom_simple

Hello,

Blogs are a familiar feature on the internet - where users post content in an accumulating manner, with comments, and search options, etc. They facilitate expression and exploration, and via attached comments, also debate and synthesis.


Reading and
Navigating Blogs

Our blogs are quite powerful. Each writer can post, as is typically the case. Sustainers who have the option can also post, however. All Blogs appear in the blog system, and sometimes also in content boxes the top page of ZNet - and always via the left menu of the top page - and can be found via searches, etc.

Commenting on blogs follows the blogs, attached at the bottom, and blog comments, like all others, are also visible in many places that show comments including in the forum system. In addition, the entire blog system gathers content for everyone - but one can look at the accumulating content in many ways.

  • For example one can look at one writer's efforts - so one is seeing what is effectively a blog system for that one writer, or Sustainer.
  • One can also look at the content by topic, seeing blogs that are tagged as being about a certain topic - or place, as well. Thus, when doing that, it is a blog system about a topic, or a place, with many contributors.
  • One can look at only writer blogs, or only sustainer blogs, as well.
  • One can look at blogs for particular Groups, too.

All this is easily done using the left menu. Searches allow even more variables and refinements.


Creating Blog Posts

If you are a Sustainer with permission, and are logged in, you will see a link in the left menu for you to post a blog - and you can use that to post one, and then tag it various ways (such as with a topic or place, or a group tag), and once you do, it is in the system with you as the author.

You can also use the console button to the left to post a blog - anytime and from anywhere in the site, as long as you are logged in.

Meanwhile, enjoy the blogs - and, by the way, if you are a Free Member or a Sustainer with a ZSpace page, of course you can put one or more content boxes on it, pulling blog links of any sort you may want to filter for, for example, by you or by your friends or by others - and by topic, about places, for groups, etc.

Blogs

GPF Global Policy Forum's Blog

Web Address: http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/Global Policy Forum
Bio:   Global Policy Forum or GPF, founded in 1993, is an organization seeking to promote accountability of international organizations such as the United Nations ... (More)

All Global Policy Forum Blogs

A Goodies Basket of Diplomatic and Security Guarantees for Israel – In exchange For a Mere 90-Day Settlement Freeze

By GPF Global Policy Forum at Nov 23, 2010


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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel seems to have secured enough votes from his Security Cabinet to approve a US-backed settlement freeze which is suppose to break the current impasse in the peace negotiations with the Palestinians. The Washington Times reported that Mr. Netanyahu brought the proposal before the Cabinet with “great determination” to secure a positive vote. According to theNew York Times, President Obama commends Mr. Netanyahu for taking such a constructive step –“it’s not easy for him to do.”

From these descriptions, one is led to think that Mr. Netanyahu is making quite a noble effort in the name of peace by accepting the harsh terms of the proposed freeze. Hardly. For a mere 90-day freeze on construction in the West Bank – Jerusalem is excluded from the freeze – Mr. Netanyahu is being handed a goodies basket of diplomatic and security guarantees from the US. The deal is incredibly lop-sided especially considering the widespread opinion internationally that Israel is violating international law by continuing settlement construction.

The proposed deal, negotiated by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, means Hanukkah has come early for Mr. Netanyahu. In exchange for a one-time-only 90-day settlement moratorium, Israel will receive 20 F35 Jets worth $3 billion, a promise that the US will veto any future Security Council resolution that recognizes Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza without Israeli agreement, as well as assurances that the Obama administration will not press for any further settlement freezes. Yet supposedly this was “not easy” for Mr. Netanyahu to accept.

The effect this deal will have on the peace process is questionable. The effect this deal will have on broader peace and security in the Middle East is unfortunately clear. The new F35 Joint Strike Fighters Jets that are part of the deal have not yet even been deployed to US forces. Funneling more highly advanced arms into the Middle East, while a welcome boon for US arms exporters, will only fuel the upward spiral of military spending and the Middle East regional arms race. Meanwhile, despite showering Israel with gifts, the Palestinian question will in all likelihood still remain unresolved once the 90-day freeze is over.


Global Policy Forum

Global Policy in Brief
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