Israeli Knesset Approves Biometric Database Law 303
Lord Duran writes "The Israeli Knesset approved a bill that will require every Israeli citizen to submit a visual scan of their face and a biometric scan of their fingerprints to a national database. I, for one, fail to see how this is anything but evil. TFA mentions the Israeli census was breached — I'd like to point out, for comparison, that it's still freely available on your peer-to-peer file sharing network of choice."
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:5, Interesting)
Old news (Score:0, Interesting)
Biometric passports are established throughout Europe since years back. Biometric passports are absurd if there is no central database where your biometric facial information is stored.
Although the fingerprints is a new one.
When I was born (Score:4, Interesting)
When I was born, my foot prints were put on the birth certificate, which is on file, for identification (my social security card validates against it). When I got my state ID, that had my picture. When I got my SBU clearance, my fingerprints and photo went on record.
It seems to me that the line in question is fictitious. The only question is the efficiency of the ID method, and the security of the database.
Re:How do you change your password? (Score:3, Interesting)
...looked from politician to terrorist, and from terrorist to politician, and from politician to terrorist again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Re:Old news (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:It's Israel (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:It's Israel (Score:2, Interesting)
Just look at a map from 1948 and a map from today. If you have time, check the map every decade between, you'll see Israel increasing steadily in area.
I'm not Pro-Israel by any means and I don't particularly like the way it was founded (modern day Israel) but you should look at the history as well.
Israel was invaded multiple times - almost destroyed. They took land like Gaza and the West Bank as a buffer from REAL threats.
Let's see your country get invaded by ALL your neighbors (though Jordan's participation was half-hearted). I'd be surprised if it responds in a warm fuzzy fashion.
Re:It's Israel (Score:1, Interesting)
I agree "How civilized can you say a people really are when they elect terrorists to lead them?"
David Ben Gurion - member of Haganah - Israeli Prime Minister
Moshe Sharett - member of Haganah - Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin - member of Haganah - Israeli Prime Minister
Shimon Peres - member of Haganah - Israeli Prime Minister
Menachim Begin - leader of Irgun - Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir - leader of Lehi - Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon - member of Haganah - Israeli Prime Minister
Moshe Dayan - member of Haganah - Israeli Foreign Minister
Re:Every ID card? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is what decades of living in fear will do to a population. The more the citizens are afraid, the more power they give to the government.
Hi, I'm an Israeli. I'm not sure about that last bit about "Why would a government make peace under such circumstances?", since that's a separate and extremely involved issue, but you got it right with the above quote. Most of the people I've talked to didn't even twitch at the mention of the new biometric database. News sources who are pointing to this as a very big exception compared other countries are met with feedback comprising of, mostly, "so what?" (when I say feedback I mean on online news sites, talkbacks and the like).
We're used to armed guards at every publicly accessible building, which includes malls, theaters, larger apartment complexes, and of course any government-run institutions. A big part of the police's job here is patrolling in search of signs of terrorism, not crime. We've sat in too many shelters, heard too many missile alarms go off, and seen too many scorched remains of explosions to give a damn about a photo and a fingerprint.
And yes, the Israeli census has been hacked -- not once, but several times. You can search and find several versions according to the date of retrieval.
Personally, I agree with most of the opinions I've head voiced around me -- who cares? Anyone can find my address, phone number, and family tree through the leaked census. Now they'll have my picture, which they could easily find elsewhere, and my fingerprint, which is something that they'll have of every citizen. If they do use the fingerprint to try to access something, they'll likely need additional information, because it will be *known* that this has become publicly available information.
There's a proverb in some european languages which translates roughly as: "you don't worry about a thief in the backyard when your house in on fire".
Re:Revelations isn't a chapter in the Torah (Score:1, Interesting)
$pseudorant on
A worldwide scattering/regathering was predicted in in the Torah proper (Ki-Tavo/Netzavim).
This is a rather interesting title which deserves an answer. It may be true that the specific document usually called "Revelation" (not plural) is not part of the Jewish canon, but the contents are actually within the sphere of Jewish thought. One must consider that the source is the same as the prophetic books of the Tanakh (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hoshea, Zecharia, etc.) Although Daniel is not organized under the Prophets but under the Writings, that too has perhaps the most important details of prophecy so much that there is a rabbinic injunction against using the text in chapter nine to know when the Messiah would come ("may his bones burn/explode"). Apocalypticism is not restricted to the Tanakh proper; please indulge in the following [wikipedia.org].
The key figure that links all Abrahamic eschatology is the antihero. That means that Jews, Christians and Muslims have a common enemy and perhaps to the dismay of some (even here), it is not each other. Whether he be called Antichrist, Armilus or Al-Dajjal, to paraphrase a popular T-shirt statement, this is the guy that our sages have warned us about. Him we must resist.
Always remember: The Bad Guy comes first to do his thing (including but not limited to the technology that is available), then the Good Guy follows to kick his backside.
Now having given an answer for the title, back to the topic with a bit of the above understanding. Information technology gives man pseudo-omniscience, pseudo-omnipresence, and pseudo-omnipotence. It is the power to rule as G-d over other people H"V. Remember what the sages had to say about Nimrod.
Behold the tag: "Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced". Now that is dangerous.
$pseudorant off
From what I have read some years ago, religious identity was removed from the Todat-zechut (ID cards). Religious identity may make a comeback in a hidden data field, which may automate discrimination. There are those in the Interior Ministry who are pissed at the Bagatz (Supreme Court of Israel) for the Steckbeck Decision permitting Jesus Believers to receive citizenship based on the descendancy clause in the Law of Return.
Re:It's Israel (Score:2, Interesting)
You are reversing the order of events.
1. Build border settlements
The towns near Gaza are not settlements, they are and always were within Israeli international borders. Ashdod is 43 Km (20 miles), it is not a "border settlement", most of Israel (Including Tel-Aviv) is below 43 Km from its borders.
2. Whine about rocket attacks
The US president would not act nicely towards Mexico if it launches rocket attacks on San Diego either.
they are the mechanism by which Israel is stealing the entire area that was the Palestinian state.
There was no Palestinian state, ever. The U.N decided to divide the British controlled area between the Jews and the Arabs. When the British left at 1948, the Arab states conquered the parts that we now call Palestine. This land was an integral part of Jordan and Egypt up until the war of 1969.
Just look at a map from 1948 and a map from today. If you have time, check the map every decade between, you'll see Israel increasing steadily in area.
You are trolling, this is simply false, it has been reversed lately. Since the peace talks began, parts of the occupied territories were given to the Palestinian authority (1994-5), and some of the newer maps mark these areas correctly. Unfortunately, due to later unrest Palestinian control was massively eroded (call it retaliation or a security necessity). Despite that, these lands are still marked as Palestinian in many maps.
Gaza and the West Bank are becoming more and more overpopulated as the Palestinian lands shrink, effectively making them concentration camps.
This is only a half truth. The West Bank is shrinking due to actions of Israel, and people there do suffer from it, but this is not so with Gaza (where the rockets come from). Gaza is within its 1948 borders, when it was part of Egypt, and Gaza is the most overpopulated part of Palestine. Israel has nothing to do with it. So do you say that Israeli actions deprive Gazans of land they could use in the west bank? Wrong, Gaza does not border with the West bank. People could never move freely between these two places, not even during their Arab rule. Geographically they are two different nations. They were linked together only due to political/strategic moves by all sides (Israeli, Palestinian, American, European, Egyptian and Jordanian).
The people of Gaza have only two possible expansion directions: towards Israel (beyond 1948 borders) or towards Egypt. This is what many of them want. This is one of the reasons why the peace talks stalled - Israel did not want to let a big percent of Palestinians immigrate to Israel, and the Palestinians did not want to give this thought up.
Say what you want about Hamas. They were elected fairly, in elections overseen by Jimmy Carter. Whatever you, the UN or your government may think of them, they are the democratically elected party
So was Slobodan Milosevic, it did not give him the right to do what he did. Hamas does not promote peace, they promote violence, or at most a temporary cease fire. They do not promote equality, but segregation by gender and religion instead. If anyone wants peace she should hope that Hamas will get out of the equation.