As many of you already know, today was the Middle East Peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, hosted by President Bush. While many other Middle Eastern dignitaries showed up, the main attractions were Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who were there to, at least in theory, try to discuss peace between their waring peoples. If anything, the greatest accomplishment for Bush from the event was the following photograph (which is most graciously stolen from The New York Times).
Nice, isn’t it? But doesn’t it remind you of another, similar photograph from, say, 1993?
Yeah, that picture depicts then-Isralei Prime minister Yitzchak Rabin, PLO leader Yassir Arafat, and President Clinton at the signing of the Oslo Accords. Now, let’s see what they’re up to now:
Yeah, not so good. And as for the Oslo Accords, they kind of, well, failed. The Israeli and Palestinian death toll from suicide bombings and attacks over the past fourteen years should tell you that. But that was then, what about now? Here’s how our current peace-makers are doing in the polls:
OK fine, “Hamas wants to kill me” isn’t a percentage, but I couldn’t find any Abbas poll statistics in a quick Google search. And as for Olmert’s numbers, they’re the same as the margin of error, or lower! Theoretically, less than zero people in Israel support Olmert! That’s not even possible!!! But the point is that all of these guys need something good on their record if they want to go down in history as anything better than “total screw-up.”
Sure, maybe I’m taking a cynical view on the conference, which I am. But truthfully, Israel-Palestine talks haven’t worked well in the past. Rabin was assasinated for even participating in them! But I still believe that peace is possible, just not in Annapolis with a President who needs something to distract the public from Iraq. But on the plus side, Abbas and Olmert have both vowed to come up with a peace treaty by the end of the year. For their sake, and ours too, hopefully they will.
The year is 2015. Every day, millions of Americans wake up, get dressed, and go to work. Each day they also carry in hand a newspaper, whether from a subscription or a newsstand. The paper is digital, with automatic, real-time updates from the Internet, complete with streaming text, video, and images. The newspapers experience newfound prosperity that hasn’t existed since the 1940s. Advertisers and readers flock to them, paying for subscriptions and reading in print and online, in perfect harmony. But the newspapers also are no longer what they were like even just ten years ago. Everything that’s published goes through careful screening. All articles considered to be too far left of the industry’s conservative agenda are edited or all together cut. While not always very obvious, everything in the paper is at least subtly leaning towards the political right. The newspaper content has been reduced to that of tabloid quality, with mostly celebrity gossip and very little actual news. While there are no official ties, the government and the newspapers have an agreement — keep information filtered, and everyone’s happy. Well, everyone except the rebels…
Aaron Freedman is a 16 year old who's very passionate and knowledgeable about technology and journalism. He enjoys working on his two main projects, 
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