UN confronts anti-Semitism
Thank you, Mark in Mexico, for pointing me towards Anne Bayefsky’s powerful speech in the UN at a conference on Confronting Anti-Semitism yesterday (That’s a good one. Maybe they mean confronting anti-Semitism with cheers and standing ovations). I can only hope someone was listening (Dream on, Imshin).

On Norm’s profile I suggested that the best thing to do with the UN was to continue ignoring it. But reading Bayefsky I wonder of it shouldn’t be subjected to a bit of the treatment our old friend in the green cap would have for us.

Oh Imshin, don’t be so mean. People coming from Israellycool are going to think he got it all wrong. And then they’ll complain and then I’ll lose my lofty cabinet position and then… Hmmm, I wonder if there’s pension in it for those that get the chop.

Summer
I’ve been a bit sleepy for the last few days. The humidity is just getting revved up for summer. Eldest has finished school. She’s been gleefully celebrating summer for a few weeks now, and she deserves to, because she worked hard this year and did very well. So now she’s on an orgy of movies, swimming pool, beach, potentially - I had to veto the beach this morning.

Her little group of friends plans to go during the very hot hours and I fear she will burn to a frizzle. Furthermore it’s still not clear where there will be lifeguards. They’re on strike, of course. It’s summer. Summer means lifeguards go on strike.

This time though it’s not for higher pay (they’re apparently paid very high salaries, but then they don’t get paid in the winter). This time it’s because they’re cutting down the lifeguards to two at a station, instead of three. The lifeguards say this will undermine their ability to do their job safely, but we know the truth, don’t we? Two lifeguards instead of three will seriously hamper their ability to cruise the beaches and hit on babes during their workday. Definitely not to be tolerated!

I see they’ve been forced to go back to work by court order, seeing school’s out and a few people have drowned, but they’re not manning all of the stations, probably only the ones on deserted beaches!

Imshin the big mouth
It’s the twentieth of June again tomorrow. I wrote my first post two years ago tomorrow. And I’m still at it. It’s hard to believe. I find it incredible how beneficial blogging has been for me, how much it has helped me grow as a person.

This is what I wrote on my first blogiversary, last year. Still holds.

Last week I had my periodic interview with my boss. For the first time ever, I told him what I thought, what I really thought. I offended him. I guess that was inevitable, but I think I did it in the nicest way possible, considering the things I said. We talked for about two hours, about a variety of subjects, most of them unrelated to me personally. Usually these interviews last ten minutes.

Bish couldn’t believe. He said, “You’re turning into me.” I couldn’t believe either. I’m famous for being timid.

And the next day, amazingly, he didn’t cold-shoulder me (boss not Bish). At the end of the day I actually asked him if I were now the public enemy and he said not at all. Let’s hope he meant it, and that it stays that way.

It’s the blogging. Okay, living with Bish for seventeen and a half years has obviously done its bit, but mainly it’s the blogging. I find it increasingly difficult to shut up. When I have something to say, I tend to say it. Even if it’s better not to.

Will it make any difference to my boss, to his behavior, to our relationship? I doubt it, but I feel so relieved to have finally got things off my chest. And, mainly, I feel so incredibly empowered.

Yippee! It is a green cap, after all! (Another follow-up)
Combustible Boy informs me that “Some commenters in that Michael Totten thread said this guy with his ersatz Mao cap is a regular presence at San Francisco rallies. Here's a pic of him that was snapped at a rally on April 10:”

“Same hat, same sunglasses, same clips on the sign.” Adds Combustible boy, “Somebody in S.F. needs to figure out who he is and what he's all about.”

Ersatz. That’s a nice word.

Reader Michael Lonie had some comments on my post The Sting (of course, it's taken me ages to post them, lazy me):

I have often marvelled at the restraint of Israel in the face of the horrible things the Palestinian Arabs are doing in the present Oslo War (as I think of it). I think if they had tried this stuff on an Arab government starting at the end of September 2000, by the end of that October half the PA territory would be a smoking ruin and tens of thousands of Palestinians dead, just like at Hama in Syria in 1982. The Palestinians are lucky they are fighting Israel, infused as its people are with Jewish ethical and moral beliefs, and not some brutal Arab dictatorship. Think of Saddam Hussein gassing Jenin.

I never forget the reason there is an Israel occupation in the first place: the concerted Arab effort in 1967 to destroy Israel. I was a teenager at the time, but I well remember the period of tension leading up to the fighting, when it seemed the whole world had abandoned Israel to its fate and the Arabs were ready to pounce. Then Zahal struck and produced what seemed to be a miracle of deliverance. "He blew and they were scattered" sums up the amazed relief Israel's friends felt at the close of the sixth day.

As far as I'm concerned, as long as the Palestinians maintain their goal of the destruction of Israel they can rot in the mess they have made for themselves.

I’m no lawyer but
I am horrified by Attorney General Meni Mazuz’s decision to close the corruption case against Arik and Gilad Sharon for lack of sufficient evidence.

But it’s not the actual decision itself I’m horrified by.

It seems quite logical to me that if there is no sufficient evidence (and the highly self-publicized video/audio-toting turncoat star witness for the prosecution is absurdly unreliable), this is the right decision. Why is it better to haul all concerned through the courts for years, at considerable cost to the taxpayer (me), ruining political careers, blackening names, maybe even having an adverse affect on such minor subjects as war and peace, only for the accused to inevitably be acquitted at the end?

No, I am horrified at what the decision seems to reveal about the state prosecution. About the press too, but that’s nothing new.

I haven’t read the whole decision, only about ten or eleven pages of the seventy six, but these few pages spell out a story so completely different to what we have been fed by the press, according to information supplied by the prosecution, that I am horrified at the apparently blatant impartiality of both these parties.

One of the targets of the corruption investigation in question was Arik Sharon’s son, Gilad. Gilad Sharon was accused by the prosecution and by the press of receiving very high payment for counseling work he didn’t do, on a Greek island construction project that eventually didn’t materialize.

The recording of a phone conversation was made public in which he is heard clearly saying that all he’s doing (in return for the money) is taking some things from the Internet. The conversation makes it sound like he did absolutely nothing to earn the large amounts of money he received, paid straight into the family estate. It sounds very much like he was a vessel for bribing his father, Arik Sharon.

Mazuz’s decision reveals that this conversation was taken completely out of context. There are apparently police recordings of dozens of telephone conversations showing that Gilad Sharon worked hard and long on the marketing side of the Greek Island project. There is a police recording of a conversation in which Gilad’s former boss in the project, alleged briber, David Appel, talks about how satisfied he is with Gilad's work. There are testimonies given by people in the advertising company they were working with, among others, telling of Gilad’s remarkable marketing skills and about the valuable work they did together.

The conversation in question is from a period when it was becoming clear that the project was losing momentum. There was no need for marketing at that point. The reason Gilad was being paid at that particular point, when he obviously wasn’t doing very much, was because he hadn’t been paid before, when he was doing a lot, and because it had become apparent that he wasn’t going to get any of the bonuses he had been expecting, on account of the problems the project had run into.

Out of dozens of conversations, why was this the only one leaked with regard to this issue?

There’s more. It’s just that this particular discrepancy shocked me. I had no intention of writing about this matter before I read this and understood what Mazuz was inferring the prosecution had done.

I’m not completely naive. I realize that Sharon and his sons are not squeaky clean. Even Mazuz doesn’t say he’s closing the case for lack of blame, only for lack of evidence. The Sharon’s are, most likely, at least as corrupt as the next powerful politician (on both sides of the political fence here) if not more so, far more so. But to prove corruption, it stands to reason that you need evidence, and not just circumstantial evidence. Attorney General Mazuz says there clearly isn’t enough of that in this case in order to prosecute. The police didn’t think so either. That doesn’t seem to have bothered the prosecution.

From where I’m sitting this looks like a disgusting attempt by public servants to intervene in national politics, supported by a left leaning press eager to discredit the prime minister they detest. Mazuz has created a media storm by openly questioning the motives of the prosecutors and specifically, of high handed State Prosecutor Edna Arbel, who has recently been appointed judge in the Supreme Court (oops).

New Attorney General Mazuz wrote a seventy-six page decision (Hebrew rtf link) and signed it simply Meni Mazuz, not Menahem (his full name), not Attorney General, just plain Meni Mazuz (his interesting life story is worth reading). In his decision he kicked ass. He stood up to the state prosecution and told them there’s a new boss in town and a new way of doing things. I like this guy. What like? I love this guy.

I hope Charles Johnson, Michael Totten, and 'zombie' don’t mind my borrowing this photo. I printed it out yesterday and stuck it on the wall in my office this morning, where only I could see it. Today I sat with the man holding the sign, occasionally glancing at him while I worked, trying to understand.

‘SMASH THE JEWISH STATE’, he says. Smash the Jewish State. I’ve been rolling those words on my tongue and looking at the man’s image looking back at me.

He’s wearing a nice green golf shirt with a pocket. My dad likes a pocket in his shirts too, so he can have his sunglasses and other things handy. This person also has things in his pocket, just like my dad.

He’s also wearing a nice, good quality cap. It looks green, but it could be gray. I’d like to think it’s green and that he’s matched the colors. The cap looks like it has a little red five-pointed star pinned on it. Someone on Michael Totten’s comments said that he doesn’t look like a lefty, whatever that means, but doesn’t that star mean he’s a communist? I thought communists wanted to make the world a better place.

It looks like he’s made the sign himself, and attached it to the placard with clips. I wonder if he goes to a lot of demonstrations and changes the signs according to the subject on hand? That’s a very tidy, organized thing to do.

You know, physically, he reminds me of someone else. Someone I was just thinking about this year on Remembrance Day for the fallen of Israel’s wars. Guy called Yossi. He used to be in my class. I can’t remember how he was killed, but I remember not being surprised. He was the type of guy who was always ready to help, who carried the girls’ backpacks when they were tired on school trips. He was an innocent who really believed in things. And he was the type of guy who would think nothing of volunteering for the really dangerous stuff.

The appearance of the man in the photo is probably similar to how Yossi, my old classmate, would have looked had he been fortunate enough to reach fifty. He didn’t make it to twenty-six. But maybe our green-clad friend here could have learnt something from him about kindness, about industriousness, and about trying to make the world a better place. Oh, and about smiling at the camera. Yossi would have smiled at the camera, no doubt about it.

And he would never have been holding a sign saying anything like that.

Everything about the harmless-looking gentleman in the photo, in his green or gray cap, even his serious, committed expression, is in such sharp contrast with the viciously violent, hateful sentiment expressed on his little sign.

Smash the Jewish State. Smash the Jews in it. Smash my nine-year-old daughter. Smash her little collection of Bratz dolls, lovingly collected one by one. Smash our three-month-old kitten. Smash my great grandmother’s Shabbat candlesticks. Smash Ronit’s new baby with her dark skin and bright eyes, suckling milk from her mother’s breast in the shade of the tree. Smash Doctor Assuline, who helped bring her into this world. Smash Luda, who washed the room after mother and daughter had been wheeled away, and Hameed, who built the crib her parents bought for her when they brought her home from the hospital.

Smash the memory of my dead classmate, look-alike of one hate-filled American protester.

What did we do to this tidy, organized, serious man to make him hate us so much that he wants to smash us?

I suppose he will tell you he isn’t an anti-Semite.

Update: Thank you Mark in Mexico for such warm words of support. And thank you Yael in Boulder, for the excerpt of Oriana Fallaci.

Shooshinka
Carnival of the Cats #13 is up at Laurence’s blog that is…erm…full of crap (Dad’s away so I don’t have to apologize for writing that word. Still I feel guilty).

Shoosha isn’t in the Carnival this week. She’s got a post all to herself. She appreciates this greatly, as you can imagine. Well she will, as soon as I can find her to tell her. These days she’s forever emerging from new and interesting hiding places. Then Eldest appears carrying more garments with little holes in them, for me to sew…

Found her! In bed with Youngest.

Staying Alive: The Abu Mazen Version
In a Newsweek interview with Dan Ephron, former Palestinian Prime Minister, Abu Mazen, reveals the real reason he resigned, besides blaming Bush and Sharon for not helping him, or giving him any cause to gain popular support, which we’ve heard before.

Someone was going to kill, he says carefully, but then confesses that he was the target and goes on to offer a pretty thinly veiled hint to who was going to do the killing.

I wouldn't want to mention anyone by name. But I'll give you something to understand: I don't have any relationship with the chairman from the resignation to this day.

When you're in Ramallah, you don't meet with him?
I live in Ramallah and he's 100 meters away. I don't go to him, I don't meet with him, I don't have any relations with him.

I’d say that was quite clear, wouldn’t you?

What can I say? I’m a masochist.
Someone at work is a Spinning instructor. She’s started a special class for us lazy lumps. Twice a week we pedal away for an hour, have a nice shower (it doesn’t matter how high the air conditioning is set, we’re completely soaked at the end of it), and then get to work. The first two lessons were sheer hell, but now I’ve started to enjoy myself.

With all this running and spinning I am now as fit as a fiddle. I need to be fit as a fiddle to handle my baby. She’s a little devil. We’re all covered in scratches most of the time, the result of ferocious battles, and usually, by the time I get to read the newspaper, it’s full of tiny little bite marks. Seeing as the newspaper in question is Yediot Aharonot, this is probably an improvement. On second thoughts, I can’t think of a newspaper that wouldn’t benefit from a little impromptu feline editing.









A belated Happy Birthday to Dad. I didn’t actually forget about it (although I pretended to, for in-joke reasons), but I did forget to post congrats on the blog. He wouldn’t have seen it anyway. He’s far too busy sailing away for a year and a day, lucky him.

The Sting
The worst thing about being taken for a ride isn’t the material loss, even if that loss is very great. It’s the humiliation, the stinging insult that is so unbearable, so painful. The victim presents the swindler with his most precious, closely guarded treasure, his trust, only to have it abused, trampled on, ridiculed. It’s a strong person that doesn’t turn bitter as a result.

Arafat’s masterful scam comes to mind.

And I realize, in amazement, that I am impressed at my country’s ability to swallow the insult, to a great extent, and react in a relatively careful and measured fashion. It may not look that way from where you’re sitting, in front of your computer screen, but it certainly does from here. You see I am the victim and I feel the sting. You don’t, so you can’t understand, just as Europe cannot understand the sting of 9/11. Not yet anyway.

We have the power to crush the Palestinians like so many ants. Angry people can’t think straight. They don’t consider the results; they don’t take the implications into account. In their anger and hatred, they take revenge, even if the end is ‘Let me die with the Philistines’. [Samson’s exclamation as he pulled down the Philistines temple, with what was left of his strength, killing himself along with his enemies - Judges, 16, 30]

And sadly, this is what the Palestinians have been doing. It’s pathetic. I’m sorry for them. But in their humiliation, their anger and aggression are being directed at the wrong target. They should be turned towards the real cause of their terrible malady, towards the main reason that they are not busy right now with the exciting endeavor of building their brave new sovereign state. I’m talking about Arafat. The Master Swindler. He didn’t just take us for a ride.

We have the power to crush the Palestinians and yet we don’t. You’re right, their lives are awful; they exist on a continuum of poverty, degradation and danger; they can be killed by a stray bullet, theirs or ours; making a decent living is nearly impossible; their freedom of movement is severely constricted; many of our young soldiers behave very badly towards them. And there’s more.

But it’s nothing to what we could do, and probably would, if we were in the business of revenge, not self-defense. And it’s nothing to what anyone else would do, especially the Palestinians themselves, if they were in our shoes.

You may say that that is no excuse. No it isn’t. The only acceptable explanation is self-defense. And that is exactly what it is. We are effectively fighting vicious, hate-filled, unrelenting, bloodthirsty terrorism as humanely as we possibly can. It may not be humane enough for you. But if it were in your back yard, you would very likely feel very differently. Maybe if it were, you would also be impressed with our ability, and willingness, to swallow the sting.

Most Comfortably Ugly

Random associative chatter
Bish said he was bowled over by my answer on Norm’s profile to “What personal fault do you most dislike?” I said “Blaming others for one's own shortcomings and failures.” “You do that.” He said with a little twinkle in his eye. Well, duh! I know that!

He was talking of what I do on a personal level. But I also realize that much of what I write here on my blog, in my attempts to explain why Israel does what it does, is blaming others. My inner work is to be aware of this.

I do try to see our part, our mistakes, and our part of the blame. If I don't write about it very much, it is because it is being done already, particularly viciously and unfairly, by others, others who refuse to see any other point of view and refuse to put any of the blame on the Palestinians, even as they commit crimes against humanity. It is also because I believe that, especially at a time of war and bloody conflict, this is mainly a subject for inner debate, inside Israeli society, in Hebrew.

A large segment of Israeli society has been deeply immersed in the self-blame game for years. I had counted myself as part of this segment for most of my adult life. Then one day I discovered that this can be dangerous, even suicidal, when it is one sided.

Yes, we do share part of the blame for what has happened in our conflict with the Palestinians. I saw the Oslo Accords and Barak’s offer for a final settlement as sincere attempts to accept this, correct it, and make amends.

However, the Palestinians, as a people, seem completely and utterly unwilling to openly look at themselves critically. Until we see such a serious, pervasive inner dialogue among Palestinians as we see in Israeli society, until we see a real Palestinian peace camp, until they are widely able to accept that there are two sides here, and that they must compromise, there will never be peace.

Despite this, and despite Palestinians’ often-sickening war strategy and the open proclamation of certain Palestinian parties that the destruction of Israel is their ultimate goal, the self-blame game of many Israelis continues, unfettered.

Ruined parts of Jenin refugee camp are being rebuilt and renovated - wider roads, better, newer homes. Some residents are being relocated to a shiny, new neighborhood. See how Gideon Levy follows Palestinian lead, perversely twisting this into something monstrous.

Wider roads, not so that cars can drive through the former narrow alleyways, but so tanks can get through! (Apparently building roads wide enough for tanks to pass without having to go through the houses is a very wicked thing to do). He makes building nice new homes for people sound like something awful. How could this possibly be? Is it because they may lose the urge to want to destroy Israel and kill Israeli civilians? Is it because if they’re not desperate, what excuse will they have to be angry, indignant, and murderous? As Bish put it, it’s taking all the fun out of the Right of Return!

Yahoo! reports that the construction and renovation works in Jenin have been halted, because some Palestinians are so angry they’ve been threatening workers and even shooting off rifles in the local UN offices! Is this Israel’s fault as well? Surely there must be limits on blaming oneself.

Actually this ungrateful, violent behavior sounds like no more than a typical Middle Eastern ploy by private Palestinians in order to get a better housing deal. The best way to get what you want in this part of the world is to make sure to be the one to shout and complain the loudest. The Palestinians, as a people, are the masters of the art. Westerners, unfamiliar with the practice, are completely taken in.

I am reminded of Efraim Kishon’s classic depiction of an Eastern ma’abara dweller, Sallah Shabbati. A ma’abara was a transition camp – the Israeli version of a refugee camp - where they housed the hundreds of thousands of immigrants in the early years. They were awful places. People lived for years in soggy, muddy tents or, if they were lucky, in ramshackle huts.

In one of the most famous and well-loved scenes of the film, which I recommend watching if you get the chance, Sallah Shabbati is fed up of being continuously passed over for permanent housing. Typical Kishon, Shabbati stages a noisy demonstration with his sizable family in front of the local Housing Ministry office, chanting, “We don’t want housing! We want the ma’abara!” The housing bureaucrats are, of course, horrified, and the members of the Shabbati family soon find themselves in their brand new apartment in the housing project.

What’s all this then? Palestinians want it like in Israel?
Amazingly, Palestinians seem to prefer the Israeli way of doing things, according to the latest Khalil Shkaki opinion poll.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip view Israeli democracy as the preferred model for a regime that they would like to see applied in a future Palestinian state, according to a survey released at a conference in Jerusalem last week.

Not the American model, not the French model. The Israeli model (with all its crazy chaos). Things are not always as they seem.

And between the lines we learn the most important message of all: They want democracy, real democracy, not the farce Arafat gave them under the auspices of Oslo, the EU, and Clinton.

Just my luck that I'm in this morose mood when Norman Geras is kind enough to post a profile of me (I find it intensely embarrassing to write that. Who do I think I am? Profile, indeed!).

So if you've come from Normblog, welcome! Feel free to click through to the stuff on the left sidebar. And please don't hold the anti-model bias against me, I'll be feeling more postive about life soon, I hope.

Lately I haven’t had anything good to say about anything. I have disliked everything I have managed to put into writing. In such a state it is better to keep quiet.

Here’s a little contribution to the Comfortably Ugly collection



And here are some unconnected snaps I took at the beginning of a little tour I took with work to the shiny new Terminal 2000 of Ben Gurion Airport. Not very interesting, but I like them.







All taken before the sinking feeling started setting in. I was initially immensely enjoying the interior design of the place. Gradually I began to realize that the concept was all wrong. A week later I am still slightly in shock.

I had been under the impression that the idea was to build something that would eventually serve as a travel center for a peaceful Middle East. Apparently not. They seem to be building a shopping mall with an airport.

My sad verdict: A very expensive white elephant. I can’t see how it is any improvement on the old place, besides being more modern and more flashily designed, and besides being bigger, not in a clever way, but in an opulent, ostentatious way. I dearly hope I prove to have been very mistaken.

Monday is the grand opening celebration. Don’t ask me why. They say they’re not starting to use it before November. I’d be surprised if they even made that deadline.

[See what I mean about not having anything nice to say?]

I hate pigeons.
I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. Horrible, dirty, flea-infested creatures. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them. Did I mention that it's my wedding anniversary today? Yup, Bish and I tied the knot exactly fifteen years ago, give or take an hour or two. And how do we spend the day? Fighting horrible, filthy pigeons and their crawly, nasty, itchy fleas. I hate them. I hate them. I hate them.

Poor Shoosha. We thought it was her, and we schlepped her to that lovely vet for treatment. But it wasn't her at all, poor little thing. It was those horrible, revolting pigeons. I hate them.

I don't think I'll ever feel clean again. And I can't believe I once thought pigeons were sweet.

I hate them.

About Sharon's firing cabinet ministers
Go read Allison. Hilarious. The comments too.

Thank goodness some of us are still finding the energy to write about what is actually happening here right now.

Hahaha
And what's wrong with muesli and sandals, exactly? (You forgot to point out that they have to be Birkenstock, preferably the green plastic ones).

Update: I’ve been admonished as unpatriotic by Allison, for writing about Birkenstock without mentioning the far-superior Israeli equivalent – Naot.

Somehow I don't think Guardian readers would dare wear Israeli sandals, for fear of their hard-earned subscriptions being automatically revoked.

The funny thing is that, in Israel, the most fervent among the Settlers are also muesli and sandals people. Things are often not quite as they seem.

And talking about humility...
I agree SO much, Alisa (no longer in Wonderland?)! Every word in the rock, as we weird Israelis say.

So who isn’t a bloody misfit? (revisited)
Last week a friend at work was telling us at great length about the hard-luck story of an apparently well-known Israeli model and former beauty queen, as it had appeared in an interview in the paper. (Don’t you just hate it when people do that? If I’d really wanted to know the story of that TV movie on Hallmark last night, I would have watched it myself. You really don’t have to tell it all to me! Nu, but I have to be polite).

Anyway, this poor gorgeous model (I forget the name) had had an awful life. Grown up in a well-to do family, beauty queen, followed by successful modeling career, got married to a handsome Italian millionaire who had fallen in love with her image in a magazine and flown straight to Israel to woo her… Now I’m just being mean. The sad truth was that the Italian millionaire treated her like a piece of jewelry to put on his arm and they eventually divorced leaving her with three kids, I think.

Now she’s a bright girl, even though she’s a model, so she studies medicine, not because she has a burning need to heal the world’s sick, but to prove that she’s not just some dumb model. Then she starts writing, and quite well, according to her. But no one will publish her, because she’s just this dumb model, see? Even when she sends her stuff in incognito, and the publishers show an interest, they back off when they hear that it was a dumb model celeb person who wrote it. Okay, so this is how my friend told it, okay?

I’m getting there; I’m getting there…

Now, I’m a pretty self-absorbed person myself, but I try to keep quiet about it, because I know I’ve been very lucky in life. I have absolutely no call to feel sorry for myself, even if I do every once in a while (Don’t worry, Bish refuses to allow me to wallow in self-pity for more than two seconds in a row).

This model person is rich (I suppose she did get something from the Italian millionaire), beautiful, and she has three lovely kids. What else? Oh yes, she’s clever and accomplished. But that’s not enough! No, she wants the whole world to bow down before her in recognition and say ‘We know you’re not only beautiful, we admire you also because you are clever and accomplished’. A bit of humility is in place. Some people are hungry, you know. Count your blessings before whining.

But then again, if everyone were happy and satisfied with their lot in life, who would write the books?

Sayed Kashua’s first book made a strong impression on me. I haven’t read his second one (Hebrew link) yet. Maybe I’ll buy it during the upcoming Book Week.

You can’t help liking Kashua. He’s so painfully truthful, about everything, but he’s never vicious.

By the way, my friend from Tiberias, the one I mentioned yesterday, besides being brilliant, was also an incredibly well-adjusted person. She wasn't at all one of the gifted-but-confused I also discussed in the same post.

Update: Oh dear, I hope I haven't awoken the dormant Feminist beast(-ess) in my female readers with this, who sympathise with our long-suffering beauty-queen/model/doctor/writer in her quest to be taken seriously. Confess! Aren't you secretly delighted to hear that a model's life can be horrible and that beauty is a terrible crutch to have to live with?

Shabbat Shalom.

So who isn’t a misfit?
Jonathan Edelstein has just read Sayed Kashua’s book “Dancing Arabs”. I read it when it came out in Hebrew in 2002, before I began blogging.

I can’t remember the book well enough to comment on it. I mainly remember falling in love with the hero’s grandmother, as she is described in the book. Kashua portrays a powerful image of her that has stayed with me.

Jonathan writes:

But Dancing Arabs isn't fundamentally about harmony; it's a story of conflict. The narrator is an Arab Israeli from Kashua's home village of Tira - he is never named, and we are left to guess how many of the details are autobiographical - and Dancing Arabs is the story of how he was caught between two worlds. The narrator's father and grandfather were Palestinian militants, and he is raised on stories of the 1948 war which he retells in the first person. When he is accepted to a predominantly Jewish boarding school for gifted children, he responds by trying to "pass" - to become as Jewish as possible, to blend in to the Israeli society around him.

The conflict comes from the fact that, from the narrator's standpoint, it is impossible to be both Arab and Israeli at the same time. This is due at least in part to his village background; much of his difficulty fitting in at the boarding school comes from his accented Hebrew and unfamiliarity with middle-class norms rather than his Arab ethnicity as such. He is no middle-class urban Arab who can comfortably consider himself Israeli; to him, Israeli society is Jewish society, and to become an Israeli it is necessary to become a Jew.

But even when he passes for Jewish, he learns another truth - that acceptance is always conditional, that efforts at coexistence are often gratingly artificial, and that the rift between Arabs and Jews will come back to bite him when he least expects it. He ends up a man without a country, too Israelized to return to village life but barred by accident of birth from blending fully into middle Israel. This loss of identity follows him through depression, failure in career and marriage, and finally resignation.

I am reminded of a friend, with whom I lost touch long ago, who was originally from Tiberias. We were in the army together and later we met again in university. She was the most brilliant person I knew (besides Bish, of course :-)). She must have tried to explain to me what her thesis was about at least three or four times. I just couldn’t understand. And it wasn’t in Higher Mathematics, it was in Psychology and I was also studying Psychology. Still it was far too clever for me.

When she was fourteen, my friend had left her family in Tiberias and had gone to a special school in Kfar Saba, a boarding school for especially gifted children.

The idea of this boarding school (which has since closed, I believe, for lack of funds) was to give very talented children a chance to develop their special abilities. These were children from development towns in remote areas, where the schools couldn’t give them suitable intellectual stimulation.

I remember my friend telling me that there were two such boarding schools in Israel. The other one was in Jerusalem. It was to this other one, it seems, that the narrator in Kashua’s book was sent, as was the author himself, in real life, I believe.

I can well understand and sympathize with Kashua’s hero not feeling that he belongs to either Arab or Jewish society. I too am a child of two very different universes. You are probably thinking that my worlds couldn’t possibly conflict as severely as Kashua’s. Maybe not, but conflict they do nevertheless, and my life has always revolved around my inner struggle to find my place.

Something else sounds familiar in Kashua’s story, from my limited experience observing gifted people, and that is the difficulties that these people can encounter, in adjusting to life. They are brilliantly shining stars in a dull, mediocre world. Their everyday social experiences can often be disappointing. Even without such an inner (and outer) cultural conflict, as Kashua’s hero experiences, just dealing with the world can be extremely frustrating for them. Learning to successfully cope with these dilemmas along with such a cultural conflict is certainly no small feat.

Israel has so many serious social challenges to meet, but it can’t address them properly until it is at peace. But how can it be possible for Israel to achieve peace while all these social challenges are pulling it in all directions from the inside?

Comfortably ugly 2

Haaretz again
Jonathan tells me that the three missing paragraphs I translated myself were added to Haaretz English version later. He pointed out that "Ha'aretz English articles are updated frequently, and the version you read might have been put on the web before those three paragraphs were translated."

Fair enough. I still think they could have translated those three paragraphs before the bit about Yossi Sarid calling Mofaz names.

Mazal Tov to Ly-LY of Lights in the Distance. She's had her baby and all's well (tfu tfu tfu).

No one is immune

There is a story about a Zen master whose monastery was overrun by marauding soldiers. When the Zen master did not appear frightened, the soldier’s captain said, “Don’t you know who I am? I could run my sword through you and not think twice about it.” The Zen master replied, “Don’t you know who I am? You could run your sword through me and I wouldn’t think twice about it.”

Written on the inside flap of the cover of No Death, No Fear, Comforting Wisdom For Life, by Thich Nhat Hanh.

This is what immediately came to mind when I heard of the beheading of a Buddhist by Islamic separatists in Thailand on Saturday. Maybe not so appropriate. This was no Zen master. And he was killed because he wasn’t a Muslim.

Cheam, 63, a Buddhist who lived with his wife in a remote Muslim village, on Saturday became the latest victim in the litany of killings blamed on Islamic separatists in Thailand's deep south.

To drive home the message, the killers had flung Cheam's head in the village street while the body was left in the rubber plantation he managed several kilometers away.

Look at this great Map of Israel. Click on the different areas to get a closer look. Then you can get even closer and even see photos. Bish found it for us. Thank you Bish.

A letter
Sent to me yesterday by reader Randy Daitch:

I discovered this morning, on Memorial Day, a letter sent by my father to my mother, when he was serving in an army medical detachment in British Guiana, in April 1943. My father's Yahrzeit is next Sunday. His words would surely resonate with our soldiers overseas today:

LETTER DATED APRIL 1943, FROM MAURICE DAITCH, IN BRITISH GUIANA, TO SELMA ROSENBERG, IN WINDSOR ONTARIO, SEVEN MONTHS BEFORE THEIR MARRIAGE:

Our countries are fighting a war, and I am a soldier - a fighter for the common cause. At present my leaders have seen fit to place me in a position of comparatively little danger. I'll not complain, but accept the verdict of my commanders as to the best place in the scheme of things for me.

I've heard men say that they would rather be a live coward than a dead hero. I would rather be neither. I believe that while it is great to die for one's country, it is even greater to live for it. But if it ever comes to the choice of losing, to the Nazi hordes, our way of life, or dying in the attempt to maintain that way of life, I'll choose the latter.

Sweetheart, I miss you much, but whether I see you soon or later does not really matter. The important thing is that there is a job to be done, and if there is to be any of peace, freedom and security in the future - do it, and do it well, we must.

Until I return then, my love, keep me close to your heart, and I will remain happy in the knowledge that some day, soon I hope, I'll return and there will be no more waiting, wondering, worrying, for either of us, and we will be eternally happy in one another's arms.

With all my love,
Maury

Randy found this letter while organizing his worldly possessions for shipment to Israel. He's making Aliya in September, lucky us.

What side is Haaretz on?
‘Did you hear’, Bish asked me, ‘that Defense minister Mofaz told Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting today that in May alone 18 suicide (homocide) bombings had been thwarted in Israel’. ‘Where did you read this?’ I asked. ‘In Haaretz (Hebrew link)’, was his answer. So, as usual, I looked up the English version, thinking of sharing this interesting and important piece of information with you.

But what’s this? Nothing about thwarting terrorist attacks in the English translation. More than half of the report in English is given over to scathing criticism of Mofaz’s appearance by various Knesset members (In Hebrew this criticism is far less prominent), but not a word about suicide attacks being prevented.

A quick count revealed that the English language editors had completely ommitted a whole three paragraphs of the first part of the original Hebrew article*. Makes you wonder.

Well that’s what bloggers are for. The annoying-but-gripping thriller I’m reading will have to wait, I thought, and got right down to work.

Here’s what Haaretz thought wouldn’t interest their English language readers (you’ll forgive my hurried translation, it’s nearly bedtime for me):

Mofaz further said to the Committee that “Terrorist organizations wish to take revenge for the elimination of their top people and they also wish to harm Israel in view of the upcoming disengagement.” He said that there have been successes in the war against terror: There have been no suicide bombings inside Israel since 13th March. He said that in May alone 18 suicide bombings in Israel have been thwarted.

The Head of Research in Army Intelligence, Brigadier General Yossi Koppervasser, said during the meeting that the first signs could be seen of efforts by terrorist organizations, to move smuggling of weapons from Egypt into Israel away from the Philadelphi route to other areas. He said that the smuggling layout in Rafiah is made up of about 10-20 people, some of them Palestinian Security Personnel.

Brigadier General Koppervasser added that the Palestinian leadership, headed by Arafat, was following the disengagement plan with concern and was worried that after Israel cut itself off from Gaza, the (Gaza) Strip would remain a big prison of Palestinians. Answering a question by KM Haim Ramon (Avoda), Brigadier General Koppervasser said that terrorism coming out of the (Gaza) Strip would lessen as a result of the disengagement.

So, what do you think of Haaretz’s editing out one of the most interesting and informative parts of the article, while still managing to fit in Yossi Sarid saying that Mofaz was an insult to intelligence? Do you know what I think? I think Haaretz is an insult to intelligence.

By the way, the stuff they didn't edit out of the article is interesting enough. Apparently, Egypt has been smuggling large amounts of Egyptian-made RPG launchers into the Gaza Strip through the tunnels. Good thing we're at peace with Egypt. Can you imagine if we weren't?

______________________
* In all fairness, I must point out that Haaretz also changed the last few paragraphs of the article, cutting out petty details that really would not be of interest to the foreign reader.

Good post by anglosaxy about driving in Israel. I've rarely driven anywhere else, so I thought all the things he described were quite normal (what? You're meant to indicate on a roundabout?).

Actually, I do remember driving in the center of Paris once and feeling quite at home. Couldn't find anywhere to park though. I just kept going round and round the Arc De Triumphe...

'We only want to hurt the Westerners. Where can we find them?'
Headline in the UK Independent, referred to me by John. He also sent me the Guardian article about it:

According to another survivor, Abu Hashem, an Iraqi with a US passport, they demanded: "Are you Muslim or Christian? We don't want to kill Muslims. Show us where Americans and westerners live."

He said there were four gunmen aged between 18 and 25 wearing military fatigues. "Don't be afraid. We won't kill Muslims, even if you are an American," he said they told him.

The four gunmen had been polite and calm, he said.

"They gave me a lecture on Islam and said they were defending their country and ridding it of infidels.

Two nice lefty newspapers.

Do you think they get it yet? Naaah.

(BUT IT’S THE ISRAELIS WHO ARE THE RACISTS)

I tell you, I’m having such fun with this little camera


This road is completely straight in real life, honest (click photo for larger image). Please don't e-mail me to explain why this happened. I don't want to know. I'd rather continue believing it was magic.


More inner city nature (click photo for larger image).

Yes!
She's back at last, and interesting as ever, writing about the use of children in war.

Okay, so I have to vent sometimes. Makes me feel much better. The nice thing about blogging is that even if I write the occasional drivel, you don't like me any less.

Erm, you don't, do you?

The (used to be) White City


I don't live here either.

More ambulances
Apparently the army has caught two fake Palestinian ones that were being used for no good.

Shabbat Shalom.

Losing the Big One
Maybe this is God’s way of saying, “Life sucks. Get over it. Who the @$%! do you think you are?”

And why should we win? Where is it written that people deserve to be happy, and fulfilled, and safe, and well fed, and dry? And alive? Where is it written that life on Earth just has to get better and better for all of mankind?

If people are too dense to grasp that there can be alternative ways of thinking, and that not everyone is interested in Compromise, and in Diversity, and in Openness, and in Peace In Our Time, and in Equality, and in Human Rights, and in the Personal Freedom to kill ourselves with overeating and overconsuming and overthinking and overbeing, and that mankind is perhaps not yet ripe to be just one happy family, then maybe they should be conquered by people with less benevolent and less idyllic ways of thinking, and be forced to forfeit their values and happiness and security and satiety, if not their lives. (Phew! I think that was the longest sentence I’ve ever written!)

Of course it’s not a matter of good and bad. Life and death aren’t good and bad. They just are. The same goes for lightness and darkness; wisdom and ignorance; love and hate. So if Western Civilization is destroyed by Islamic fundamentalism, and by the West’s smug and pompous refusal to see this destruction in the making, it wouldn’t be a bad thing. It would just be a thing. Where is it written that life on Earth just has to get better and better for all of mankind?

Yes, it would be extremely unpleasant for tens of millions of people, at least, should Western Civilization be destroyed by Islamic fundamentalism, but so what? Where is it written that people deserve to be happy, and safe, and well fed, and dry? And alive?

Why oh why didn't Arafat accept Barak's offer at Camp David? Or at least say he'd think about it? Or even try to haggle for a bit more? Why did he say NO? I have this crazy gut feeling that it would have changed everything, and not just for Israelis and Palestinians.

Perhaps this feeling is just something akin to nostalgia, a naive yearning for something that never was, and maybe never will be.

Because I've got this horrible feeling that we're going to lose. Not enough people get it, and we're going to lose, all of us.

what's that called? A premonition?

Update: Bish said it’s not called a premonition. He said it’s called anxiety. He also said that this post is very badly written and I should rewrite it (Meanie). I said it’s good for my ego to have a badly written piece glaring at me from my blog. Anyway, it’ll soon disappear forever into the darkness of my archives.

Bish said it’s like the ten plagues. Pharaoh and the Egyptians didn’t get it after the first one, and even after the tenth most horrible one they raced after the Israelites into the desert on their chariots, to bring them back. Let’s hope it doesn’t take that many for the West to wake up.

John said "Get a grip kid, when the appeasers wake up they'll really go to town on the terrorists bastards. There's no rage quite like that of a suitor waking up to fact that he/she is being two timed." Teehee. I'm feeling better already.

To my query “Where is it written…”, a nice reader pointed out that it is written in Isaiah 2, 4:

Thus He will judge among the nations
And arbitrate for the many peoples,
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares
And their spears into pruning hooks:
Nation shall not take up
Sword against nation;
They shall never again know war.

(From the new translation of the Holy Scriptures according to the traditional Hebrew text).

Well, it’s a long time coming, that’s all I can say.

They use children to build the tunnels? Update:
I asked Elliot Chodoff from Mideast: On Target how he knew that the Palestinians were using children to build the tunnels in Rafiah, round the clock and in very dangerous conditions. This was his answer:

“I understand your discomfort about a source. In this case the source is myself. I spent some six weeks in Gaza during "Homat Magen" in April-May 2002 as a reserve officer in Ugdat Azza (Gaza Division - IJ). Without going into details, I was a consultant to the CO of the ugda. I had the opportunity to deal directly with the issue of the tunnels then and my experiences are firsthand.”

I have also noticed that Amira Hass, whom we can’t suspect of being a propagandist for Israel, also says, quoting “a Rafah merchant who ran smuggling tunnels to bring in merchandise from Egypt”, that “Only thin youths… can dig the tunnels and move through them”.

This is extremely disturbing. Can nothing be done to save these children from this cruel exploitation and abuse?

Palestinian combatants with big guns in UN ambulances? Never!
We all saw it on TV. Good quality footage. Very clear. You could even see the UN driver at one point. He didn’t look at all like he was being forced into anything at gunpoint.

Oh well, so what’s new?

Update: More information about UN ambulance drivers helping out terrorists here (Via Naomi Ragen's mailing list).

Tel Aviv is not pretty. Tel Aviv is comfortably ugly. I love Tel Aviv.


It’s going to take a while to get the hang of this little camera, and work out how to focus (try not shaking the camera) and how not to cut off the ends of buildings and the tops of peoples heads. But it sure is fun.



Update: BTW, I don't live in the building above.

‘Happy Birthday To Me’ Post
Here in Israel, we are all living in a dream world. No one seems to realize the scale of animosity towards Israel in the world. Maybe its because the generally left-leaning media here would rather portray it all just as hostility towards Arik Sharon and his policies, for political reasons, and not that Israel’s actual legitimacy to exist is being increasingly questioned.

And maybe it’s because few ordinary Israelis read English well enough for them to be able to experience this animosity firsthand on the Internet. Most people I know stick to Israeli sites.

Melanie Phillips calls it

Israel’s astounding and unbelievable inability or refusal to grasp that the bigger war it is fighting — and losing hands down — is the battle for public opinion.

Gene at Harry's Place said something I hadn’t thought about that is very relevant to the “Are anti-Zionists anti-Semites?” question: Israel is “home to almost half of the world's Jews”.

Sever Plotzker in Yediot Aharonot’s news supplement for Shavuot: “…let’s assume that a person suggested to liquidate the present day Polish state and establish in its stead a non-national German-Polish state, because 59 years ago Poland annexed areas in the west and deported the German population there. Wouldn’t we call that person anti-Polish?”

* * * *

For my birthday, Bish and the girls bought me one of those easy-to-use teeny digital cameras that I can carry in my pocket. This was very sensitive of Bish. I really wanted one but didn’t say anything. Bish noticed my eyes light up when we were discussing something related. Isn’t he sweet?

So you can expect more photos in future, and not just of the cat.

Hag Log: Oh dear! How embarrassing.
I have been approached by a few people, among them R.T., who have gently pointed out my mistake in explaining the meaning of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. And no, it’s not about the ancient tradition of bringing the first fruits to the temple in Jerusalem, either, nor the festival of the harvest. Well it is, but everyone knows that they are just excuses.

Shavuot is, of course, a celebration of the invention of the CHEESE CAKE! Silly me.

And thank you again, Our Sis, for your excellent one last night.

Good analysis of the Gaza situation from an Israeli perspective: The Gaza Paradox, by Michael Oren.

Such is the situation in Gaza today where a commanding majority of the population is no longer willing to risk their--or their children's--lives defending 7,500 settlers from the million Palestinians surrounding them. They do not regard Gaza as part of their spiritual and historical homeland, nor see how Israel can remain within the densely populated strip and retain its Jewish and democratic character. By insisting on perpetuating the status quo in Gaza, then, the right threatens to undermine the implicit pact that binds Israeli society--which enables the state to survive.

The left, on the other hand, holds that the recent deaths of 13 Israeli soldiers in Gaza were a direct result of the government's settlement policy and its refusal to seek Palestinian partners for peace. The 13, however, died not defending settlements but destroying tunnels used to smuggle explosives into Gaza, and the factories that produce Qassam rockets. Those explosives killed 10 Israelis in a suicide-bomber attack on the coastal city of Ashdod, and the rockets have struck Jewish towns and villages outside of the strip. Israel's withdrawal from Gaza will do nothing to lessen these threats--on the contrary, it will almost certainly enhance them, enabling the Palestinians to acquire even deadlier missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv.

To a Jewish non-Zionist friend
Tonight is the beginning of Shavuot, the Jewish celebration that commemorates the children of Israel receiving the Torah from God at Mount Sinai. This is the defining moment that turned the Israelites from a large extended family into a people.

I was surprised to discover how fearful you were of anti-Semitism, ‘real’ anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism based on religious belief or on racism. Living here in the cocoon that is Israel, I couldn’t quite understand it. Then it dawned on me. Should anti-Semitism, ‘real’ anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism based on religious belief or on racism, rear its ugly face again in a big way, then you will find yourself to have been horribly wrong all along. But this is not the reason you are fearful. Like all fears, your fear is a personal, practical, everyday fear. How will this affect me and mine?

Human society has always been a coming together of individuals because they discovered that together they could achieve things that they couldn’t achieve on their own. As I see it, the main lesson of the destruction of European Jewry, besides the lesson that mankind stinks, was that such a coming together of Jews was necessary, in order for Jews to achieve self-preservation as a people. If you don’t see Jews as a people, but solely as a religion or as some sort of mutual ancestry or as a bit of both or whatever, then this is irrelevant.

As you see it, Israel, being an unnatural aberration, needlessly creates immense hatred, while anti-Semitism, ‘real’ anti-Semitism, anti-Semitism based on religious belief or on racism, doesn’t really exist any more, not in a way that is any sort of danger. Israel has created a new problem instead of solving the old one.

Naturally, you are fierce in your denunciation of any attempt to suggest that anti-Zionism could possibly have any connection with anti-Semitism. And you haven’t said it, but I am led to understand that you believe that should Israel cease to exist, the problem would also cease to exist. This may be true. This is definitely something to think about.

But for the problem to disappear, wouldn’t the Jews who live in Israel also have to disappear? Well that’s okay, because a lot of them will. Should Israel cease to exist, in whatever way, even if it happens gradually and democratically, a large proportion of Israeli Jews will very likely end up being slaughtered by their neighbors. So okay, it has happened before, and not only to Jews. The world will profess its horror and shock, maybe erect a few monuments, build a few museums, and move on.

But what about the ones who manage to get out? A situation will probably arise, whereby a couple of million homeless, desperate, illegal Jews will be wandering round the world with all their meager worldly possessions on their backs, dirty, penniless, hungry; some bobbing up and down in boats in the Mediterranean, turned away at every port; many turning to crime to survive. Europe of 1945 revisited.

I don’t think this situation will make Jews very popular, do you? People love an underdog, an underdog presses all their compassionate buttons, but not when he’s in their neighborhood.

All this is just speculation. My fear, like yours is a personal, practical, everyday fear. How will this affect me and mine?

Berkeley again
My friend Julie made a good point about students in university. She said that when she was studying, her fellow students and herself were all so busy trying to pass calculus and statistics, they didn't have time to hate anybody. This is my recollection of university too. And besides trying to pass their courses, most people I studied with here were busy trying to make a living at the same time.

I guess I should assume that the very political students at Berkeley are both filthy rich and brilliant, because they don’t have to waste too much time on either working or studying, but in spite of these considerable advantages, they are not very sophisticated thinkers, not enough to understand that there are usually at least two legitimate sides to every argument, and that the whole world is not clearly divided into good guys and bad guys, right and wrong.

What I’m trying to say is that I realize that the great majority of ordinary, sensible students there obviously do not engage in such activities.

I am also aware that the United States is a truly safe haven for Jews and that the great majority of Jews there do not have to worry about, say, being beaten up on the way home from the synagogue if they are dressed in an overtly Jewish fashion, just because they are Jews. I believe that, on the whole, this is the case in Europe too.

What Bish meant in his comments yesterday, I think, was that Zionism is a way for Jews to deal with anti-Semitism together on a national basis, and not as individuals dependant on local security forces that, although perhaps well-meaning, may not really understand the sensitivities and dangers.

Allison also links to the article about Berkeley. In her comment section, Jonathan Edelstein refers to what one Berkeley blogger has to say. It’s the comments to his post that are interesting.

One of the commenters called himself Kussemek, which cracked me up, and made the whole thread highly amusing. Kussemek is a common Israeli distortion of an Arabic swear word. Oops, maybe I shouldn’t have said.

Anti-Zionism explaining Zionism

As campus police assembled at the entrance to the hall and prepared to open its doors, a kaffiyeh-clad protester hoisted a placard that read: "What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct." The quote was attributed to Mahatma "Ghandi" in 1938, albeit a decade before there was an Israel. A silver-haired man, older than most in the crowd, burst out of the line to confront him.

"Do you know what it's like to be on a bus, and to see that bus blow up and see heads roll down the street?" the older man shouted, arms wild at his sides. "I've seen it -- in Israel."

The sign-bearer stood firm. "Well, they should have been killed," he yelled, his voice rising. "They should have been killed! They should have been killed because it wasn't their land! They should have been killed and it should have been more."

A choice excerpt from “Berkeley Intifada” by Anneli Rufus, East Bay Express. Via Michael Totten, via Roger Simon’s comments.

And there's plenty more.

Later that year, 23-year-old Aaron Schwartz was walking toward the Hillel building as part of an obviously Jewish group celebrating the annual holiday Simchas Torah. According to accounts in The Daily Californian and the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California, one onlooker mocked the procession by goose-stepping in place, chanting "Heil Hitler," and performing the Nazi salute. After punching Schwartz in the face and knocking him to the ground, the man and his two companions strolled away.

As I read this, feeling increasingly nauseous, Bish came in and I told him what I was reading. “And you worry about our not having a future here,” He said. “Here we can protect ourselves. It’s called Zionism.”

Carnival of the Cats #10
And representing Israel... Shoosha! (surprise surprise)

[A reader's comment on foolsblog - "You cat people scare me."]

They use children to build the tunnels? Surely this can’t be true.

In the aftermath of Operation Defensive Wall in April 2002, a series of incursions into Rafiah located a number of tunnels. Their destruction marked a limited success for the IDF, but the victory was short lived. Given the fact that an operating tunnel can net some $50,000 a day for the family head who commissions and owns it, the incentive to dig more and deeper tunnels far overshadowed the cost of losing them. Tunnels were dug deeper, some reaching depths of 10 meters and more (over 30 feet), children were employed to dig around the clock, and when poor conditions led to tunnel collapse and the death of a child, there were plenty more to take his place.

From Mideast: On Target’s newsletter. An article by Elliot Chodoff.

Read the whole thing.

I don't know, I feel uncomfortable about this. Where does he get this information from?

Good Lord! This heretic here seems to have managed to translate my emotional babbling into something sensible and coherent. Didn't know it was possible.

But wait, do I read correctly? He actually thinks there is a chance of our caving? No way, Jose!

Shades of gray
MEMRI summarizes a Palestinian Human Rights Group Report on Internal Violence in the Palestinian Authority Areas.

The report states that simplifying the Middle East conflict into a purely Israeli-Palestinian conflict disregards any shades of gray, and that the Palestinian tragedy of an internal cycle of violence cannot be attributed solely to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Only an examination of the interactions within Palestinian society and an understanding of the disagreements and clashes among the various political streams, clans, and factions can give a fuller picture of this society. This is because during the Al-Aqsa Intifada these divisions have led to the development and escalation of what the author of the report terms an "Intra'fada." Thus, for example, the report notes that from 1993 to 2003, 16% of Palestinian civilian deaths were caused by Palestinian groups or individuals.

Here is the full report. Haven’t read it yet.

Popularity Contest
[File under: The bi-weekly whine]

This intense anger, even hatred, that is directed towards us by the majority of people in the West, where will it lead us? It is not possible to change people’s minds. We are the villains, the Nazis who murder millions of people in gas chambers and make soap and lampshades out of their dead bodies. Oh, we haven’t done that, have we? Nor anything even remotely similar. Never mind. We’re still just as bad as the Nazis, if not worse.

How long before they make us get out of the territories? How long before they force us into accepting the exact same peace agreement, or very nearly the same, that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat four years ago and he turned down, preferring violence?

And when they do force us to accept our very own suggestions, will this bring peace? Will this stop the violence, the targeting of civilians? Will the Palestinians, all of them, give up their aspirations to be rid of us, completely? And if all of them don’t, will the ones who do be prepared to tackle the ones who don’t?

Can any of you angry Westerners give me any guarantees? Can you promise me that when we are out of the territories, and the Palestinian state is nicely established, led by whoever, that there will be peace? If you can, please tell me. Please e-mail me right away to imshin at bigfoot dot com. I need to know.

And tell me, can I sue you if it doesn’t work out? Who do I send the proverbial bill to, should it blow up in our faces, yet again? What will your promises be worth then? Will you put us all up, on your front lawn?

Why do I write this blog and worry myself about these things? Is it some sort of mental illness, do you think? I should just live my life, enjoy my family, play with the cat, read a book, do the laundry (this last one for the long-suffering Bish). What will be will be. So the world hates us. So what? It could be worse.

Mental note to myself: Don’t worry, be happy.

I miss Gil.
He always knows how to put everything into the right perspective. I would have appreciated his input, these last few days.