Lately this question seems to repeatedly whisper itself in my head. Perhaps this is due to the constant deterioration of the political situation in Israel, the country over which I, amongst many others, am supposed to have some power.

My frustration partly derives from what seems to me a constant failure of a prevalent liberal myth, namely the natural inclination of democratic nation states towards peace. Why, I ask myself time and time again, is my country killing any chance of future peace, building more and more settlements, tearing the land designated for a Palestinian state apart, devastating any hope of a cohesive Palestinian territory, severing the yet to be born body of the already dead dream of a state?

What do the people opposing a settlement freeze think will happen when a Palestinian state is no longer possible, when it is officially incorporated to Israel? How will Israel continue calling itself a "Jewish democracy" when there will no longer be a Jewish majority?

This question is called by the centre-right Israelis the "Demographic threat". It is the main reason for which during the past ten years many right-wing leaders (for instance Sharon and Ulmert) have come to understand Israel cannot afford to hold on to the Territories (sadly, a re-evaluation of ethics wasn't the reason for this change in views).

These questions might seem trivial to anyone who has either spent some time in Palestine or Israel or met a left-wing Israeli or Palestinian, but I bring them only as a pretext of the greater question which hangs above them, when does one stop calling ones state a democracy? Why is this question so crucial?

Perhaps because the fact that Israel is constantly referred to as the only democracy in the Middle-East seems to me to be a depoliticising statement, one which renders the very real inequality upon which Israel is based, into a distant, almost spectral problem to be dealt with using the state apparatus, namely by voting every four years.

This is to say the dangerous word "democracy" hides behind it a situation in which a great amount of people who are subjected to Israeli law (or the lack of it) have no say and no power. Using the core of the democratic system as a decoy, any real political-revolutionary tension is dismantled. By way of a simple simulation of equality such as the act of voting, any direct, desperate, action is taken out of consideration.

This essay may not have produced a definition of democracy, but hopefully it has raised some of the problems inherent in its meanings, and its ability to restrain any chance for direct political action when it is used as a tool through which to dictate from above.

Boaz Levin

Boaz Levin lives in Jerusalem and studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.

The United States House of Representatives passed a $1.1 trillion healthcare plan on 7th November 2009, but the debate on healthcare reform continues to rage in the Senate and around the nation.

"Healthcare reform is needed, but this is a bit hasty. Rushing into things has rarely worked out for America in the past, and this is a potential trillion dollar mistake," writes Ellen Poulose, a pre-medical student from Kansas City, Missouri. According to a recent Associated Press poll, 43% of Americans oppose the healthcare plans being discussed in Congress, while 41% support the plans. 15% remain undecided.

The main hurdle to public support seems to be the predicted cost of the plan. Although most of the nation agrees that changes to the system are necessary, Americans are reluctant to bear the costs. Kate Kuhn, of Acworth, Georgia, was quoted by the AP as saying: "Well, for one, I know nobody wants to pay taxes for anybody else to go to the doctor ? I don't. I don't want to pay for somebody to use my money that I could be using for myself."

The legislation passed by the House of Representatives on the 7th runs to 2,000 pages. It includes a mandate that would require most American citizens to obtain healthcare or face tax penalties. To prevent such penalties, the bill would expand Medicaid, a government program that currently provides healthcare for the most disadvantaged Americans, and would also offer subsidies to help middle-income Americans purchase private insurance.

Most Americans who are insured are covered by private companies through their employers. Under the House legislation, most employers would be required to provide health coverage for their employees or pay a tax penalty on their payroll.

The House legislation also included a controversial amendment that would effectively tighten the restrictions on abortion, the inclusion of which was insisted upon by pro-life Democrats. This amendment would deny coverage for abortion in government funded plans except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the mother's life.

Pro-choice groups such as the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) have unequivocally condemned this addition to the healthcare bill. On their website the group referred to the amendment as "an unacceptable addition to the healthcare reform bill that, if enacted, would result in women losing the health benefits they have today."

Though the Senate has been urged by President Obama to act quickly on healthcare, the proposal there is only slowly inching towards a vote. Only the broad outlines of the Senate bill have been made public, but there are already some substantial differences in relation to the House bill. While the House bill made provisions for a public option, the Senate bill allows individual states to opt out of this option. The bill is currently mired in debates about cost, though there is speculation by pundits that a test vote on the bill could occur within the next week.

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of 10 September 2009 there were 46.3 million uninsured Americans. Many more Americans could be called underinsured. That is, they have private insurance plans, but those plans do not meet all of their needs. Their plight is a difficult one.

DeLisa Dixon, a customer service representative from Liberty, Missouri, writes that "I honestly didn't realize how big a problem it was until I was taken off my mom's insurance and had to get my own. Many people like me have bills for services they need because their insurance is terrible."

Even the largest private insurers often fail to provide adequate coverage, especially in cases of major illnesses. Pennsylvanian community organizer Christina Bernardo claims: "I went to a few healthcare rallies sponsored by Health Care for America Now, which exposed some of the horror stories of big private insurance companies.

"Those companies cut people's healthcare when they needed it most without covering pre-existing conditions.

"One woman had brain cancer and CIGNA (one of the seven largest insurers in the United States) was her healthcare provider. When she needed treatment for cancer they raised her deductible from $100 to $1000." In both the House and the Senate legislation, provisions are included to prevent this.

Though the cost of the health care bills is a major issue, many Americans feel that there should be reform. Anna Sambursky, a digital animator based in Chicago, says that:

"Quality healthcare should not be something that only the wealthy can enjoy. Everyone has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and healthcare is life. We cannot deny this fact."

Stephanie Hull - TCS Reporter

First, let us deal with semantics: what exactly is meant by communism today?  I freely admit that the era of communism that started in 1917 and came to a miserable and embarrassing end in the 1990s deserved exactly what it got; it was a horrific failure and there is no question that it had to end. 

However, global democratic capitalism has duly had its own defects and shortcomings revealed, indeed I am even tempted to claim that we are at the beginning of the end of our current prevailing ideology. 

In other words, if the falling of the Berlin Wall was a pivotal symbol of victory in 1989, then the subsequent raising of walls, literally and metaphorically throughout the West since then, is a sure sign that the victory was short-lived.

This proves that global democratic capitalism is not the ultimate answer either - despite what the Francis Fukuyamas of this world will try to tell you.  What this ultimately means is that we must once again start to question the very fundamentals of our system of government. 

Prominent Slovenian philosopher and social critic, Slavoj Zizek, states that the left's dream of the 1960-70s was that proposed by Dubcek: "socialism with a human face".

However, since the 1980s the ideological dream of the left has slowly capitulated to the notion of "capitalism with a human face", a concept that is rightly mocked, but is paradoxically accepted.  To put it another way, most people are now happy with the idea of continuing with our existing system of government on the condition that, through some vague notions of ideological tweaking in which various principals are made to be a little more tolerant or open-minded, we can eventually formulate a "perfect balance."

This simplistic approach will no longer suffice; we must accept that elementary concepts of politics, economics and society need to be completely re-examined.

The evidence for the necessity of this re-examination can be found in the fact that there are certain antagonisms that cannot be solved from within the capitalist framework.

Antagonisms such as ecology, the new and ever increasing apartheid of the excluded poor and the emergence of bio-genetics - however, the most concerning problem of them all is arguably the surfacing of what is being termed as "authoritarian capitalism." 

Until recently there has seemingly been one empirical truth to capitalism: most politically aware individuals will acknowledge that although some governments who employ capitalist ideologies might initially require a decade or two of military rule, nevertheless the demand for democracy within that society will eventually grow to such a level that a refusal to yield to the requests of the people would be political suicide.

The liberals who assert that the West must simply give the relatively new capitalist countries who have not yet acknowledged the necessity for democracy, another ten years before ultimately witnessing a new and even stronger push for a democratic system, are demonstrably wrong.  We have waited long enough - the push never came.

We simply need to look at China, Singapore, Russia and even Berlusconi's Italy to realise that we are witnessing the emergence of a new capitalism, a capitalism that is even more dynamic, efficient and productive than our Western version, but no longer requires democracy.

This does not mean there will be, nor that I wish there to be, a new Leninist party on the horizon.

The problem is not that we live in a relatively free world and as an out of touch and delusional Marxist I wish to ruin it and instigate some anachronistic return to traditional values or a dictatorship of the proletariat.

On the contrary, the assertion is that a re-examination of the rudiments is the key; the horror is that there is precisely no answer.

We must therefore allow ourselves to refrain from the all too easy approach of taking direct action. We must do the counter-intuitive and give up the "glory of the animal" and consider instead the benefits of spending our time formulating new ideas.

It is through this theoretical approach that I claim communism, in one form or another, will resurface and prevail. 

Perhaps this will manifest itself as explicitly communist, perhaps simply as socialist, or perhaps neither; the name hardly matters. What matters is that the seed of thought will grow from core communist ideologies due to necessity rather than desire.

Nicholas Tufnell

On October 22nd students from the University of Vienna occupied several of their biggest lecture halls. Although the immediate triggers were budget cuts and the change to the Bologna-system at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, the protests soon spread to other Austrian universities, as well as to twenty German universities. The University of Basel in Switzerland has also been occupied.

The Audimax (auditorium maximum) and C1 lecture halls, both of which fit around 800 people, have been occupied by self-organised student groups for nearly a month. The Oesterreichische Hochschuelerschaft (students' representatives) support the occupations and demonstrations, both in their official statements and with a fund of Euro 100,000.

Nicole, a second-year law student, observes that "There seems to be a core of protesting students who are closely affiliated with liberal and 'green-alternative' political movements. Due to mass mobilization over the Internet many others have joined. However, many only want to be at this 'event' and are not interested in the actual demands. They impair the image of the students."

Austrian media have criticized the "grass-roots democratic chaos" in the lecture halls. Many students from the University of Vienna report that there are internal conflicts among the protesters, but that nevertheless the feeling of solidarity is great.

"I've been to flash mobs, freeze-actions, demonstrations; I've listened to many assemblies, given interviews and slept at the University," says Georg, a second-year politics student. "The occupation of the Audimax is one of our few means of exerting pressure. Such a protest movement also needs a common space to meet, discuss and plan."

Have the students so far been able to successfully exert pressure? It costs the university Euro 20,000 a day to move the lectures to other locations. A demonstration in Vienna on November 5th also managed to mobilize around 20,000 pupils, students and trade unionists.

On November 12th, an extraordinary meeting took place in the national assembly. Although all parties agreed that there was not enough money for education, the Social Democrats Party of Austria (SPOE) and the conservative Austrian People's Party (OEVP), who are currently in a coalition government, disagreed over the reintroduction of university fees.

On the same day the protesters in Vienna agreed to attend a 'higher education dialogue meeting', between the Austrian Minister of Knowledge and Research, Johannes Hahn, the official students' representatives and the university management. The meeting is scheduled for November 26th.

Johannes Hahn also announced that he would distribute an "emergency reserve" of Euro 34 million to those Austrian universities which have recently had the greatest increase of students. This measure also faced opposing voices, as the money would be taken from a budget already allocated for universities.

Austrian universities desperately need more money. "There must be changes soon! I don't know anyone who is happy with the system," says Charlotte, who studies communications in her second year. With a few exceptions, such as Medicine, Psychology and Art-related subjects, where students have to pass entrance exams, every person who has achieved a 'Matura' (an A-level equivalent certification) is admitted to Austrian universities. As a consequence, first years in particular suffer from packed lecture halls, waiting lists for seminars, and lack of personal contact with tutors.

In an attempt to improve conditions, university fees of Euro 364 per term were introduced in 2001 under a conservative right-wing government. However, they were abolished once again in 2008 by the SPOE. These fees were very unpopular because they increased social segregation; in Austria, a high percentage of students are children of academics. That problem of segregation, however, starts much earlier, with a school system which separates children into different branches at the age of ten.

The protesters thus have a wide range of demands: from democratization of university management to greater gender-equality and finally to the abolition of any restrictions on admission. The Oesterreichische Hochschuelerschaft wants 2% of the GNP, or about  Euro 500 million per year, allocated to universities.

To date, however, the protests on International Students' Day, November 17th, seem to have been relatively weak in Austria. Only about 800 student demonstrators were counted in Vienna. Is the Austrian movement already out of energy? Whatever happens in Austria, though, the protests are spreading all over Europe. On Wednesday morning, 40 universities were said to be occupied. In 50 Italian cities students protested against budget cuts, while in Germany, some 50,000 participated in demonstrations. Their slogan: "Education is not for sale".

Anna Goldenberg - TCS Reporter

Clare Rivers Mohan is there when the lights go out...

The play opened with the stage in almost total darkness, making me wonder if there was a technical error going on somewhere. All was swiftly revealed: as the lights cut out in Brindsley Miller's flat, the lights went up on stage, which was the cue for much stumbling about and pretending to be blind. This was mainly convincing, although sometimes it seemed that the actors had forgotten that they were supposed to be in the dark, as they navigated their way easily round the stage without seeming to mind the blackout.

Apart from those occasional lapses, the play was usually extremely funny: Will Seaward was brilliant in his role as the bombastic, volatile Colonel Melkett, and there were some hilarious moments of interplay between him and Will Karani as Brindsley Miller. However, Karani's Brindsley disappointed me a little; he seemed at times more of an overgrown schoolboy than a philandering sculptor. In contrast, Isla Fisher as Carol was far more convincing in her role as the snobbish, childish debutante, and the contrast between her and the quietly controlled Clea couldn't have been greater.

Máirin O'Hagan had also mastered her role to perfection. Her performance as the prim Miss Furnival was wonderfully done; and for me the highlight of the play was her steady decline into drunkenness, which was so realistic I began to wonder what was in those bottles.... Lewis Owen and Brid Arnstein were both similarly good, although occasionally Brid's man-eater Clea seemed to be rather more bored than seductive.

 The two German characters in the play were excellent. James Swanton's manic electrician was a joy to behold as he cavorted about the stage, limbs flying in every direction. George Potts (playing the millionaire Bamberger) was wonderful; it was just a shame he didn't get more time on stage. Hopefully next time we see him, he'll be on for longer.

If I had one particular criticism to make it was that once the play got going there was little variation. It reached a certain level of comic hysteria and stayed at the same pitch, which allowed no room for a build up to the climax. If the cast could tone down some of the earlier madness onstage, I think the hilarity of the final moments would really come out, rather than seeming like just more of the same.

Clare Mohan

How many other countries in the Middle East would welcome an English Christian choir to celebrate Christmas in their midst with song and joy?

Nowhere else in the region is there the religious and cultural diversity that the choir will experience in Israel. Their visit takes in Bethlehem in the West Bank, and Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Karmiel in Israel, including a Christmas Eve performance in the Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, followed by Midnight Mass in St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem. The fact that Clare College is repeating its trip of 2000 indicates its success and illustrates how much there is to see, experience and learn in Israel.

I remember visiting Jerusalem a couple of years ago, and filling with emotion at the picture-perfect view of the Western Wall, Judaism's most sacred site, and the Golden Dome of the Rock Mosque, which stand side by side.

It's an inspirational sight, the tensions they cause both omnipresent and yet seemingly removed as you watch people pray at or admire them. The seaport Haifa is a multicultural model with a mixed population of Jews and Christian Arabs, as well as it being home to the Baha'i faith.

In contrast, Tel-Aviv, Israel's young person's capital is an extremely secular, cosmopolitan city. It has more shops, restaurants, beach bars and clubs than even the wildest Cambridge student could dream of.

Why should Clare choir not make the most of all this? Apparently travel is a political act. Wrong. Apparently this visit is an indication of the "acceptability of the Israeli rogue state" and the protests against it are part of a campaign that asks us to cease working with Israeli organisations.

Wrong again. Israel is a flourishing and diverse democracy with strong human rights' movement and independent legal system. To call it a "rogue state" unfairly equates it with the totalitarian dictatorships of Iran and North Korea.

I wonder if those who oppose the choir tour realise that a boycott of Israel would also cause detrimental effects on an international scale. The EU, Israel's largest trading partner, has been strengthened by ongoing economic, academic and scientific links. Israel has given many Asian countries free Tsunami detectors.

With the largest percent in the world of PhDs for the population, it has given us numerous Nobel Prize winners. Students can benefit from participation in the international Erasmus exchange scheme, and Israel facilitates contact between youths from diverse cultural and religious backgrounds.

Microsoft Israel has contributed to the development of Windows NT software as well as other globally recognised IT security and telecommunications technologies. The list goes on.

I'm British and proud of it. This doesn't mean that I support 100% of Government policy and I challenge you to find even the most enthusiastic Gordon Brown supporter who does.

The beauty of democracy is that we are entitled to different opinions. You may not approve of our involvement in Europe, the system of university tuition fees, the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, but we'd be rightly horrified if anyone challenged the right of Britain to exist as a result of these differences or demanded a boycott of everything British. Why is Israel different?

Israel's democratically elected Parliament, the Knesset, ranges from the very left to the very right of the political spectrum and truly represents the country's cultural and religious diversity. One quarter of Israeli citizens are not Jewish, including a vibrant mixture of Muslims, Christians, Druze, Circassians, Bahá'í and others, who all enjoy the vote and equal rights.

Those who complain about Clare choir's trip may dispute the Knesset's decisions on foreign policy, but it is ludicrous and irrational to challenge the existence of a democratic country and to desire to boycott it.

Severing ties will not lead to peace. Non-political relations with other countries help us gain through friendship what we lose through feuding, and can contribute to political reconciliation.

On both a personal and national level, Israel has plenty to offer us and we'd be fools not to take advantage.

Clare choir will have an enjoyable, exciting and enriching experience. I hope they sing their hearts out and do Cambridge proud! If only my singing voice was more like Beyonce than Shrek, I'd definitely be joining them.

Sophie Allweis

Australian Rules Football: Cambridge 7 Oxford 51

Oxford defeated Cambridge 6.15. 51 to 1.1. 7 in torrid conditions in the annual Australian Rules football varsity match at Oxford on Saturday.

Expecting a walkover, Oxford encountered willing opposition in the first quarter. A six-goal breeze yielded the home side only three majors, owing largely to very solid inside work from James Perry in the midfield and outstanding defensive efforts from Eoin Macgabhan in his second varsity match and debutantes Ali Macwhirter and Sandy Shanklin. Floating down from a quiet forward line to assist in defence, Gus Kennedy chipped in to good effect and the home side finished the quarter doubting their ascendancy. Leaving a spirited huddle at quarter time, Cambridge could sense an upset.

An early goal to Oxford in the second term took the wind out of the Light Blues' sails, and finding avenues to goal proved difficult for the inexperienced Cambridge side. Less capable than their opponents of penetrating a congested half-forward line, Cambridge were held scoreless in the first half, carried too often into the dead pocket by an unforgiving breeze and repelled repeatedly by Oxford captain Sam Stranks, who was outstanding across the half-back line and rightly judged best afield by Oxford's match committee. Despite tireless running from Tom Elton on the ball and Coel Kirkby on a wing, and great endeavour shown by newcomer Ross Maggs on the full back line, Cambridge returned to the changing rooms at half-time knowing that the match was now Oxford's to lose.

To their great credit, the Light Blues stuck to their guns in the third quarter to hold Oxford to one major for the term. Seemingly frustrated by Cambridge's perseverance, Oxford lapsed into indiscipline. A late tackle on Joel Turner sparked a minor altercation. Both protagonists were sent off, but there was little doubt among spectators that the culprit came off second best. Gus

Kennedy's right boot proved a thorn in Oxford's side, continually clearing the ball from a busy Cambridge defensive half, but Cambridge could not link up through mid-field and went into the last quarter without a major.

Though it failed to register on the scoreboard, the Light Blue rally continued, and Oxford tempers ran high. Kennedy kicked a hard-earned goal from point-blank range after Oxford took exception to a straightforward out-on-the-full decision, and the home side were down to seventeen men when John Fedderson was sent off for abusing the umpire.

Hard work across half-forward from Joe McIntyre and Jim Forsaith went largely unrewarded. A strong game from JP Testaferrata-Olivier finished with a set shot on goal going narrowly wide. James Perry sent the ball into attack time and time again, but the young side could not find space enough to convert. A narrow win on the quarterly scoreboard belied a wider gap between the two sides in the final term; the visitors outplaying Oxford to finish with plenty of encouragement despite a dismal full-time score line.

Tim Rogan - Sports Reporter

Football: Cambridge 3 Bedfordshire 0

Same team, this time a completely different result. The Blues produced an impressive performance to soundly beat a Bedfordshire (Luton) 1st team who were visiting the Fenners ground for the second time in as many weeks. In a testing game, due to the near hurricane conditions, the Blues staked their intent for this year's cup competition and will look forward to the next round.

The game opened up slowly as, partly due to their growing familiarity, both teams looked to cancel each other out. They were also not helped by the high winds which meant the teams needed time to adjust to the tricky conditions. However, as the half the developed, the Blues found their customary passing football.

Chances had already been missed when Burrows and Cook combined skilfully only for Cook not to find the net. Cook showed a great work rate throughout the game that would have pleased Johnson who had wanted to give him a first-team chance. Indeed Burrows, too, had a good game in central midfield, marshalling the middle of the park and occasionally sending the probing ball forward. The Blues are spoilt for choice in that department with a number of impressive players to choose from.

He was helped by a team who all knew their positions in a solid 4-4-2 formation. It contrasted sharply to a Bedford side that used a more fluid formation during the game. It had worked well last week, leaving the Blues struggling, but this week it meant they found it difficult to get into the game, especially as they were missing a key player. They were limited to only a few half chances and their frustration could later be seen at half-time.

Still, though, the Blues could not take advantage of the opportunities. Stand-in captain James Day missed from a few yards and then chances were missed in a goal mouth scramble where the wind clearly had an effect. Neither the wind, nor the opposition could stop the Blues though and Day soon rectified his earlier miss by heading in from close range before the half time break.

As the teams the teams started the second half, the Blues clearly had the impetus and, unlike previous performances, they kept it up, not allowing the opposition a way back into a game. This would have pleased team captain Johnson, himself out, as the Blues had a solid period at the start of the second half,  waiting patiently for chances to come their way.

Midway through the second half they did as Stock continued his impressive scoring form by latching onto a defensive mistake to send the ball home. Keen to keep his advantage, the Blues reverted to a 4-5-1 formation, Hylands coming on for Stock. Hylands, though, nearly had an immediate impact at the other end, heading against his own post.

Nonetheless, Spencer soon made it three with a bizarre debut goal which rolled into the back of the net as the he and the keeper both tried to make contact. It continued a run of players scoring on their debuts. Bedfordshire continued to produce little and a fracas at the end was evidence of their continuing frustration.

Johnson speaking to team after the game described it "as an almost perfect performance" but the captain's hunger this season was visible as he still found things to work on in training.

Michael Alhadeff - Sports Reporter

Recent graduates will offer advice, help and tutoring as part of the Higher Education Access Programme.

Students will get to sit in on lectures, debates and visit the museums.

The programme aims to get teenagers thinking about university choices prior to starting their A Levels as well as to raise their aspirations and solve any problems or anxieties they may have.

Eaton, of Willow Walk, Cambridge, admitted to being a persistent beggar and was issued with a fine.  Eaton told the court: "I have no recollection whatsoever of the event. Whatever he said must be right."