Debka.com

[cerulean]

Any thoughts about the validity of this site? Some of the things stated on it turn out to be valid, while others appear to be false leads. Needless to say, getting objective news from the Middle East is sometimes fairly difficult.

[NewsGuy]

I love Debka.

But they have a mixed track-record of accuracy.

For example, they were right about reporting on the Karine A boat before the other major news outlets got hold of the story. They have also been right about many other reports, and their analysis is top-notch.

But they have also been wrong about some things. The most recent issue I remember offhand is they reported on a buildup of Israeli troops in the West Bank after one of the recent suicide bombings. According to Debka, the IDF was about to open a major, wide-based offensive on the PA. This did not happen.

So, I would recommend Debka as a military opinion/analysis site, but I have doubts about the accuracy of some of their news reporting and predictions.

Taking a look at their competition, they are at least as good, if not more in-depth than Middle East Newsline (http://www.menewsline.com/). In anay event, both these sites would greatly benefit from a better Web design befitting their great content.

I would also point out that DebkaFiles probably requires a lot of time and effort to update regularly, so it's vital for the site owner to find a revenue stream for the site. Otherwise, I would be surprised if Debka.com will be able to continue providing regularly updated content.

[cerulean]

I recall Debka saying something like there were numerous Chinese fighters in Afghanistan fighting along with the Taliban and Al-Qaida. That doesn't appear to have been the case.

Similarly, for Flight 587 that crashed over New York (the flight headed for the Dominican Republic a few months ago), Debka suggested it was a person in a washroom with a small bomb who brought it down. This seems unlikely based on the forensic evidence to date.

Thanks for the Middle East Newsline link.

This is an interesting demographic profile (196 pages long) about Palestinians in West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

http://www.fafo.no/pub/rapp/353/353.pdf

Note that while I did note some anti-Israel bias in the text, I think it is still worth posting. According to the CIA Factbook at

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

the fertility rate is an average 6.42 children per woman in the Gaza Strip. (It is "only" 4.9 children per woman in the West Bank.)

I've been wondering for a long time if this type of fertility rate is one reason suicide bombing appears to be such an accepted reality for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by cerulean
the fertility rate is an average 6.42 children per woman in the Gaza Strip. (It is "only" 4.9 children per woman in the West Bank.)

I've been wondering for a long time if this type of fertility rate is one reason suicide bombing appears to be such an accepted reality for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

I've thought for a long time that the Palestinians' main problems had nothing to do with Israel.

More likely their misery is mainly caused by poverty, lack of education, public corruption and overpopulation. None of these has anything to do with Israel.

But maybe you're right that suicide bombers have to do with a strategy to stop overpopulation. Probably has to do with all the factors I mentioned.

[cerulean]

I wasn't exactly thinking of it as a strategy to stop overpopulation, per se. I was thinking more in terms of how a family might be more willing to give up one or two sons out of six or seven children, than would a family with fewer children. Of course the fact that the suicide bombers' families get rewarded with material goods probably has something to do with it also.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by cerulean
... Of course the fact that the suicide bombers' families get rewarded with material goods probably has something to do with it also.

right. in interviews I've seen with suicide bombers who were caught by Israel, it seems that they were unemployed, poverty stricken, with no future in mind.

The financial rewards for the suicide bomber's family plus the prestige for the family are very attractive, I guess, for the Muslim terrorists.

It seems that for many in Arab society, the system is set up to encourage suicide bombing and terrorism, rather than hard work, success and achievement as in Western society.

[McSceptic]

I'd agree, and it's a pity to see some of the more Westernised nations like the Palestinans and the Egyptians slipping back into religous fundamentalism.

Israel has its own demographic danger from the ultra-orthodox. They reject the value of work, and while a small group might be an ornament to Jewish culture, their unchecked growth could not be supported.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by McSceptic
I'd agree, and it's a pity to see some of the more Westernised nations like the Palestinans and the Egyptians slipping back into religous fundamentalism.

Israel has its own demographic danger from the ultra-orthodox. They reject the value of work, and while a small group might be an ornament to Jewish culture, their unchecked growth could not be supported.

Not sure just how "Westernised" Egypt and the Palestinians really are, since they both are run by brutal dictatorships where there is no freedom of speech or the press, and secret police kicking down the doors of its citizens who allegedly oppose their government's policies.

Anyway, as for the ultra-orthodox in Israel, I don't believe that they necessarily reject the value of work.

Many of them, however, view their jobs as studying religious scriptures and maintaining an entire generation of Judaic scholars, which has tremendous value to the Jewish people. And, apparently, the Jewish community has decided so, because the scholars receive a good amount of compensation from donors around the world. They are essentially paid to study.

Now, I'm not really sure about the actual statistics, but this is what I know from observation.

[cerulean]

I have read that just about every (maybe every) Arab country in has managed to worsen considerably in just about every quality of life standard one might use, from personal liberty to economics, compared to 30 years ago. Progress is not inevitable, unfortunately.


Here's an article with a bit more background on the operators of Debka:

http://ojr.usc.edu/content/print.cfm?print=694