Page 5 The Lion’s Eye September 28, 2011 World &L o Will There be Peace Between Israel and Palestine? By Matt Rodgers - Lion § Eye staff writer- mmr187@psu.edu The United State may have been backed into a corner this past week with Palestine seeking statehood. The never ending “peace” talks that have been going on since before the turn of the century are still running status quo; there will never be peace. The United States has been a staunch supporter of Israel since they were granted their “homeland,” a part of Palestine in1948. Since day one, problems have plagued the “state- hood” of Israel. Palestinians, who were granted the same land by: the British through the British Mandate for Palestine in 1923, have fought to protect the area of their homeland partitioned by the United Nations for Israel. The United States has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars, military training, expertise and armament to Israel. In return, the United States gets oranges; yep, oranges (Israel’s #1 export to the US). Palestine or Israel, Israel or Palestine, back and forth they go. Anti-American forces help to prop up Palestine in the same way that America props up Israel. Homeland is the word that is thrown around as if it were just that, a word. It is more than just an area of land split between two societies who seem to never want to get along. Both also have legitimate claims to the land under dispute. It is hard to be an American and understand the strife that lies at the bottom of the issue. We separate church and state, which is a different kind of governing than a religious based government that both Israel and Palestine are. With the Arab Spring’s rampant revolutions over the past ten months, Palestine has now joined the group. As of now, Palestine’s effort toward new government has not culmi- nated into armed resistance, or the violence that most other Middle Eastern countries have experienced this year. But, by saying that we would not acknowledge the violence that has plagued Israel and Palestine for the last sixty years or so. The death toll of this conflict could only be guessed. The length and severity of the dis- pute has fluctuated over time. With scores left dead on both sides, and the need for military intervention at its borders, the Palestine-Israel conflict is a lot more complex than a mutiny, or revolution. Those agree on land, but disagree on governmental direction. Palestine is seeking official statehood recognized by all Nations belonging to the United Nations. Unfortunately for American government, this action is outside our ideas for the area, and the growth of states around it. The United States has never had anti-Palestine views toward statehood. They have tried to get the sides to build the peace necessary to be neigh- boring countries in the future. As of Wednes- day September 21st, Palestine is submitting an application to the United Nations for official statehood. The United States may be forced to use their Veto power to squash such an attempt. According to CNN.com, back channel discussions are being used to try to set up another attempt at “peace” talks. These talks would commence on Thursday or Friday in the United States, and then move back to their respective coun- tries for completion. Friday is the United Nations meeting where Palestine hopes to apply for statehood. photo courtesy of google.com cal News Dept. of Justice Cracks Down on Gambling By Matt Rodgers - Lion's Eye staff writer- mmr187@psu.edu It used to be that when you wanted to gamble you went to Las Vegas. Then it was Atlantic City and then any Indian Reservation that wanted to open a casino. Slowly over the past ten years, gambling became legal in more and more states. Cruise ships would wait until the moment the ship made it to International Waters to open their casino (almost every cruise ship has some kind of casino). Next, online casinos became all the rage. You can place a sports bet, play black jack and/or play poker from the comfort of your home. It should be noted that online gambling is illegal in itself. You could sort of say that the government looked the other way for a little bit of time. As an online gambler, you have little recourse to press charg- es, or file complaints. Online gambling is illegal, so the government would be the last place you could go. In the past two years, gambling has become legal in Delaware and Pennsyl- vania. Aside from hurting Atlantic City (which has taken a huge hit economi- cally over the past three years), this has cut into what was thought to be legiti- mate online poker sites and casinos. In April, the proverbial “boot” came down in the form of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). On April 20, 2011 the DOJ shut down the three biggest poker sites in America. Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and Poker Stars were all shut down by the DOJ. Absolute Poker and Poker Stars were allowed to re-open their website for a two day stint for the single purpose of paying all of their customers what they were owed. But, Full Tilt Poker, who was named as a defendant, seemed to linger on later than the others, at least for a little while. On September 20th the DOJ pressed charges against two owners and the board of directors of Full Tilt Poker for what they called an enormous scheme. Even the sponsored players, two of the biggest names in poker, were named as defendants. The government charges that the owners siphoned over $400 million from the accounts of its patrons and used it to pay exorbitant sums of money that were not dully earned, let alone accounted for. That does not include them paying Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson, professional poker players sponsored by Full Tilt Poker, over $60 million in dues, which means half a billion dollars! The government purports that as of June, Full Tilt Poker had a corpo- rate balance around $6 million. As of June, the estimated balance of total money owed to members was well over $250 million. There is a little account- ing error there, don’t you think? The defendants are charged with Capital Fraud and a list of other offenses such as tax evasion and purposely mislead- ing its customers (telling them that their money was safe online). They even continued their falsehood for weeks after the initial filing in April. It was not until June that Full Tilt Poker folded. Another prominent poker player, Phil Ivey, believed to be the best ever by some, had millions of dollars frozen in his account. In protest, he sat out of the World Series of Poker wanting the company to pay back what they owed not to him, but all the customers whose money was frozen online, just like his. Friends of his, who had the majority of their life savings frozen online could not afford to buy-in the most presti- gious tournament there is, the World Series of Poker at the Rio in Las Vegas. What punishment they deserve is up to the courts, but with an economy as weak as the world economy is, fraud is the last thing we needed. Nutter’'s Curfew Plan Hopes For A Safer Philadelphia Mayor Nutter issuing his plan. (photo courtesy of wave- news- papers. com) As far as the damages that flash mobs can do, it appears to vary greatly. On occa- sion some mobs do nothing but meet in one place and loiter around; in more extreme By Troy Ballard - Lion's Eye staff writer- Twb5261@psu.edu cases they loot and break civilian and city property. But the most serious being injury to civilians who happen to be in the area when the flash mob goes through. In early August, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter made a bold move—enacting a youth curfew to cut down on the recent increase in flash mobs. The curfew was put _ into place following a flash mob that broke a man’s jaw, an broke another woman’s leg as a group of teenagers was going through Old City in Philadelphia. The curfew sparked immediate attention from media all across the world, as many other major cities were experiencing the same issue with flash mobs. It was soon dubbed the “Curfew Experiment” and most city leaders were waiting to hear news if it might work. The flash mobs in Philadelphia had been narrowed down to a group of teenagers, ranging in age from 13-18, and were communicating through social networks on when and how to meet. But the Philadelphia police were generally too late to stop them by the time they responded to the area. = = trem RPA Li In the wake of two serious injuries, Philadelphia police were told to arrest and fine any minor under the age of 18 who was out on the streets past 10:30 p.m. There were . to be no excuses and no tolerance as Nutter promised a safer and more secure Phila- delphia. In the opening week of August, once Nutter had deployed the police, there was a staggering 159 arrests and fines. For first time offenders spent one hour in jail and received a $300 fine. For second time offenders, the teenager’s parents were required to pick them up, and also pay a much more substantial $500 fine. The curfew was originally only supposed to last through the Labor Day weekend holiday, but Nutter has extended it indefinitely. The curfew has no clear end in sight as Philadelphia continues to battle a serious flash mob problem.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers