things are a changing.

"The presence of the army in the streets is for your sake and to ensure your safety and wellbeing. The armed forces will not resort to use of force against our great people," the army statement said.

This is obviously in reference to the Egyptian rallies and protests that are going on at the moment, they want Mubarak to step down - and they want him to do so now. It is great that there is now solidarity between the egyptian people and the army, and that it is going to remain peaceful - something which is so important.
Today is/was the 'march of millions' that people have been trying to get together from yesterday



this is the update that Al-Jazeera put up, just look at all of the people. At the start they are shouting Allah Akbar - Allah is great/Allah is the greatest. Something which is used a lot in the Arabic language (if you look at the language, a lot of it uses Allah as a reference or is actually religious in base if it is literally translated - I'm a bit of a language nerd - e.g. Insha'allah - it means 'If Allah wills it' and it is something which is added when talking about plans in the future.)

Anyway, I think it is amazing that the Egyptian people are so incredibly driven to get rid of a dictator which has ruled their lives for three decades. What's more, it is said that the Israeli government has pleaded with other world leaders to ensure that his regime stays in place... the ISRAELI government want a dictator in an ARABIC country to stay in place - it's not something which is making Mubarak particularly popular with his own people, let along those in the nations around him. Least of all with the Palestinians who live in Egypt, and in refugee camps in the surrounding areas... which is understandable, I think.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is something which has interested me for a long time - ever since we started studying it in history in year 10. It's so incredibly complicated but fantastically interesting; but most importantly it is something which is very important to understand. People today only know the very basics of the conflict and make up their mind based mainly on preconceptions, stereotypes and how the media portrays it all. But we don't hear a lot about the conflict because it has been going on on a daily basis and has done since the second world war. However, what we do hear (though this is currently decreasing) is generally tipped in such a way that the Israeli's are the ones that sound like the victim. Generally reports have been about how many Israeli's have died and how unfair it is yet what doesn't get reported half of the time is the fact that the Israeli's retaliate and that they kill many more Palestinians than the other way round. Moreover, if Palestinian refugees aren't killed by bullets, missiles or hand grenades they will die from poor sanitation, lack of nutrition and awful living conditions because they are living in buildings that are falling to pieces (because bombs have been dropped on them) and are cramped into small spaces. It's horrible. Once upon a time Gaza city was a wonderfully rich place, and even when it was first turned into an occupied territory it wasn't too bad as Palestinians were allowed over the border to work. Now? Not a chance... Another thing which I do not like about the Israelis is the fact that the presidents are generally incredibly hypocritical.
For instance in the 80s and 90s they refused to sit down with Yasser Arafat at first because he was a terrorist (feel free to google him if you don't know who he was or what he did - and feel ashamed for not knowing...)
One of Arafat's most famous quote is from when he stood in the UN meeting and said 'I am standing here with a gun in one hand and an olive branch in the other - don't make me drop the olive branch' (It might be slightly paraphrased, I'm afraid)
Anyways, terrorist. If you look at the history of the Israeli presidents... almost every single one of them has been a part of some form of terrorist organisation.
Another thing which really got me about this particular conflict is the happenings at Deir Yassin. (Linked for your convenience, I am nice really)
So please, do your research on it - it's incredibly complicated, intricate and very interesting.

Personally I don't buy any produce which comes from Israel, it sounds like a silly thing but there are a number of things I don't like about it. Firstly I don't really like the way Israel treats the Palestinians (you might've been able to tell that from this post... maybe).
But I also don't like the amount of air miles it collects up. (there you go a bit of random info for you)

But that's all I wanted to mention actually, now it's time for you to do some reading around and dig into it. Trust me, it's worth it and it is incredibly interesting.