Israel's History in a Nutshell
Courtesy of my sister. Ta, our sis.
posted by Imshin 22:22

I am Not a Fish
Cute.
posted by Imshin 21:49

Arafat’s New Finance Minister States his Conditions and Rajoub's not a Clerk to be Fired by Letter.
According to Ehud Ya’ari, Israel’s top media expert* on Arab affairs, the new Palestinian Finance Minister, Salla Fayed, demands full control over the Palestinian Authority’s budget. Ya’ari was speaking on Israeli T.V. last night, channel 2 news. I didn’t see it so we’ll have to take Bish’s word for it. Ya’ari says Fayed intends to give Arafat “pocket money” (this is Bish’s term, I don’t know how Ya’ari described it) to run the Presidential Bureau. If Arafat doesn’t agree to this, Fayed will resign.

Ya'ari also said that the appointment of former Jenin governor Zuhair Manasreh as head of the Preventative Security in the West Bank instead of Jibril Rajoub was not a serious appointment. According to Haaretz, Rajoub and his men say they won't give up the Preventive Security apparatus. Haaretz explains that, "In recent months, there have been sharp differences of opinion between the two, with Rajoub furious that the PA allowed the military wings of Hamas and Fatah to operate independently of the PA. He vehemently objected to terror attacks, which he refers to as "military actions," inside the Green Line and demanded that all Palestinian military actions be limited to inside the territories, if at all."

They all seem to be smelling blood.

*Hebrew link.
posted by Imshin 21:23

Jews in Yemen
Nasser Arrabyee writes in Gulf News, which comes out in Dubai, about the Yemenite Jews who chose not to leave Yemen, about their loyalty to Yemen and their support for the Palestinians. He also tells of Jews who left Yemen and later returned:

“Amran Bin Yahya migrated to the U.S. with his seven-member family eight years ago. Two years later, he decided to return to his hometown of Raydah, leaving his wife and children behind.

He didn't like the traditions and habits which he said are completely different from what he is used to, especially the exaggerated liberation of women.

Yahya said he couldn't control his wife when she suddenly renounced the traditions, customs and morals she had learnt since childhood.

[…] "The social life in Yemen is better. What you have is yours, your wife is yours and so are your children. But there if your wife gets out of your control, you cannot do anything to keep her," Yahya stated.” (Emphasis is mine).

It seems Amran’s wife is fortunate to be rid of him.

posted by Imshin 15:55

More Haaretz
Fred Lapides suggested I read one of the alternatives to Haaretz and J.Post that he has heard are better. My answer to that is: you have to see the printed version of Haaretz to understand - most people can't even read it - too much small print. But it has ... how can I describe it? ...well, a kind of snobby charm. Yediot Aharonot and Maariv are good, I suppose, except you read the daily versions in ten minutes (five if you don't read the op-eds), not enough for news nutters like Bish and me. And most of the news is of the “dog bites man” type.


Air France pilot thinks Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv is in Palestine
"The pilot of an Air France flight to Tel Aviv told the passengers, yesterday, that the plane would be landing in Israel-Palestine in an hour," Galei Zahal (I.D.F. radio) reported yesterday (my translation, Hebrew link). "Arguments and fights broke out between Israeli passengers and the flight crew. When the plane landed at 14:30, the passengers complained to airport authorities and to the Border Police. The Police said the complaint would be passed on to the Foreign Ministry. Air France representatives in Israel apologized and said that the French pilot’s announcement reflected his personal views, and not those of the company."
Maybe he should have dropped the Israeli passengers off in the sea, where he obviously thinks they belong, before the plane reached the Israel coastline.


posted by Imshin 14:30

Bombs kill 35 Algerians while they celebrate Algerian Independence Day.
No evidence that these were terrorist attacks.
posted by Imshin 09:10

"He should have decapitated the original".
The Guardian's John O'Farrell amuses readers by admonishing Paul Kelleher for not assassinating Lady Thatcher and just making do with decapitating her statue.
posted by Imshin 09:00

I don’t understand the U.S. definition of a terrorist attack.
Here in Israel we’ve been having these “isolated” attacks by lone attackers, for ever. Mainly stabbings. People being stabbed in the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem in the small hours of the night, for instance. There were quite a few of those at one time. There were isolated incidents of stabbings and shootings in other parts of the country, too, not just in Jerusalem. In many cases this was part of being accepted into a terrorist cell – you had to go out and kill a Jew to prove you had it in you. But a lot were just individual initiatives, sometimes by people who were accused of being collaborators and needed to clear their name. They were all terrorist attacks. Even if the perpetrators were working alone with no apparent connections.

I don’t see why you need an organization behind you for it to be terrorism. If you do it to terrorize, which Mr. Hedayat was obviously doing, then its terrorism. The Unabomber was out to terrorize and he was on his own. And his attacks were pretty spread out, meaning that each one of them was actually an “isolated incident”. So he wasn’t a terrorist?

Maybe 9/11 has made the F.B.I. think that if it’s not an attack on a colossal scale, then it’s not worthy of our notice. That’s a rather scary thought, isn’t it?

posted by Imshin 08:02

Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram calls Corporate America “As corrupt as they come”
Anayat Durrani says it is "fraught with fraud, corruption and financial misdemeanors".
Just thought you might like to know.

posted by Imshin 22:06

“Cherie Blair has offered to host a charity event at Downing Street for Israeli victims of terrorism”. Hah!
posted by Imshin 21:50

What's Next?
Ze’ev Schiff from Haaretz is worried about the dangers of a political vacuum in the P.A.

He says that, “If the government of Israel, or any of its cabinet ministers, has a political vision and a far-reaching strategic conception, now would be the appropriate moment to make it known - and not in the form of a virtual show to get some headlines, but as an appeal to the Arab world and to the Palestinian public by means of generous proposals for an immediate interim agreement and negotiations on a permanent settlement.

[…] experience shows that if these opportunities are not seized, a bigger wave of terror always follows, bringing in its wake a more vigorous and more extensive Israeli military operation. This could happen again, if Operation Determined Path ends without a political initiative.”

He describes the gradual escalation of hostilities that “began with mass demonstrations and assaults on IDF outposts” and reached the point of “massive suicide bombing, the IDF's incursions into the refugee camps and the temporary seizure of Palestinian cities which could last for months.”

He warns of being “encouraged by the demonstrations mounted by hungry Palestinians in the Gaza Strip this week” because “even if they were aimed at the Palestinian Authority, what they show is the existence of a highly-volatile situation which, when it explodes, will affect Israel as well as Arafat.”

posted by Imshin 21:34

God is Not a Fish Inspector
And don't you forget it.
posted by Imshin 19:42

Shabbat Shalom!
posted by Imshin 18:59

Corsair the Pirate says my name means “Pregnant” in Korean.
Well, well, well! Bish used to say he just had to look at me for me to get pregnant. (Of course, that was before I fooled nature by getting an I.U.D.).
posted by Imshin 18:59

Why is this on the front page of the N.Y. Times?
Looks like the U.S. is going to be counting heavily on the element of surprise.
posted by Imshin 17:57

Stefan Sharkansky offers top ten explanations for the LAX El Al shooting, other than terrorism.
posted by Imshin 15:30

Mohammed Dahlan distorting the facts, for the record
Mohammed Dahlan, member of the Fatah leadership and until last month head of the Palestinian Authority's security organization in Gaza, explains to readers of the British Guardian, why he’ll stand by Arafat as long as Israel’s against him.

“President Bush's plan for the Middle East,” he says, “points … to an American decision to give up on the peace process.” Hah! That’s a laugh! What peace process? Maybe the process of peacefully walking into a pizza parlor and pushing the button.

It gets better: “…there was no serious offer made at Camp David, no solution floated that we would have regretted passing up.” Huh? Oh, sorry, it’s a misprint. Now read that again but exchange an “i” for the “a” in “passing”. F**k off, Dahlan! (Go wash your mouth out, Imshin! Now!)

“If we had been offered at Camp David the kind of outline package we reached at Taba, we could have had a deal. But Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister, blocked the attempts to reach agreement because Israeli elections were two weeks down the line.” You liar! You know very well that an agreement in Taba was Barak’s only chance of maybe winning the elections and even that was slim – it was too late. We Israelis were already in a state of shock and horror because of your violent “uprising”, following your turning down an offer so radical, so extremely generous it probably would have plunged Israel into a civil war.

“There was a strategic mistake built into the 1993 Oslo agreement: to go for an interim, transitional deal, when the two peoples were ready for a comprehensive peace. The interim period allowed the Israelis to carry on as they had before, pressing ahead with settlements, closures and land expropriation, behaving like a classic occupier.” Yeah, right. We carried on just as before, except the teeny weeny, little, unimportant, hardly noticeable fact that we let Arafat and his horrid little terrorist pals come and live a few minutes away from us, and gradually let them take over 40% of the West Bank and Gaza. Classic occupiers?

“There were also constant changes of leadership on the Israeli side,” Well, excuse us for being democratic! “…which led to the cancellation of agreements and understandings.” You asshole, even Netanyahu got out of Hebron, despite the intense pressure he was under from the Right-wingers that surrounded him.

“Throughout the Oslo period, we took serious measures to prevent attacks by the opposition (Islamists).” Too little, too late. By the time you got round to it, too many Israeli ”victims of peace” had been blown up. No “confidence-building steps” would convince Israeli skeptics, and your main partner had been murdered.

“But the Islamists grew in the shadow of the failure of the peace process”. Quite the opposite -the Islamists caused the failure of the peace process by blowing up innocent Israelis, unhindered by the Palestinian “Authority”.

“People's frustrations with the continuing occupation, closures, new settlements, postponements and economic squeeze were reaching boiling point.” I remember most of the Palestinians’ frustration at that time being directed at Arafat, who skillfully managed to redirect it against Israel. As always - the master-survivor.

“Even then, if Israel had not resorted to large-scale killings of demonstrators” …AND the armed fighters who were standing in their midst and shooting at the soldiers…

“…as long as the Israelis are against Arafat, I'm with him.” Of course you are. You’re already regarded by some as a collaborator, just because Israel didn’t go into Gaza.

“While the chairman is under siege, it would be wrong to criticise him - that would only serve Israel and America. There is no question of changing the leadership in these circumstances.” Fair enough. Like we shouldn’t evacuate settlements under fire. That’s why we still might have to get rid of Arafat ourselves. Ah, but Dahlan’s thought of that hasn’t he? “If they try to expel or kill (Arafat) … they will come to regret it bitterly.” I think Arafat will be regretting it more. But will you, Dahlan?

And yet, “we need to push ahead with far-reaching reform, not to please the Americans … but from the point of view of Palestinian interests…” Not because it’s a good idea or because the people deserve it. ” We need to change the faces of those in power, hold people to account, cut the number of ministers, reduce wasteful spending and cut back the number of security agencies.” Hey Dahlan! How about we start accountability with your Swiss bank account?

“The biggest obstacle to peace has been the Israeli mindset. They have understood peace solely in terms of their own domestic politics and disputes.” He’s confusing the Israeli public with Israeli politicians, the twerp. (He’s obviously been reading too much Haaretz and not understanding a word. See what you’ve done Mr. Marmari?)

And that’s it, more or less. Except for a very hopeful summing up paragraph (I was moved almost to tears).

You can read the whole article, without my nasty remarks, here.

O.K. Imshin, you’ve had your fun
What is Dahlan actually saying here? In simultaneous translation from Palestinian double-talk, he’s saying: I’m against Arafat and in favor of reform (oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention that Gaza has been sort of, relatively, quiet-ish).
I’m your man.

posted by Imshin 06:41

Fred Lapides wrote
"Hi, Mom! I don't read or speak Hebrew but have been told that there are alternatives to Harretz and J.Post that are better. When in doubt, read both, right? But then there is this to be said: left of center folks have shifted I believe since Intifad II has grown a wave of killer maniacs, and the human reaction (approved by Darwinists) is to kick back. Or flight. I am an old Lefty but see (like Benny Morris) that giving to Palestiniansonly encourages further attacks.
Old game: tit for tat--you try to be nice. If this is not returned, then you play the game your enemy plays. (or: fool me once shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me).
I run a site way off here in Amrierca that no nice Jewish mother would like. But I do what I do to attract readeers...and I daily slip in one or more pro-Israel things. Today, an exception cause we have 4th celebration etc."
Forgive me for not linking to you... this is a family site. But keep up the good work (I think).
posted by Imshin 06:23

So if he shouted "he took my job"
then why didn't he just shoot the guy in question? I know it's happened in the U.S.that a disgruntled sackee went in to work and opened fire on former co-employees (Turtle Boy comments on Little Green Footballs that that could have been a hoax too), but it's never happened in Israel. Sounds too much of a coincidence, doesn't it?
posted by Imshin 06:19

Happy 4th of July to All Americans.
I wish you all a peaceful day.
posted by Imshin 16:33

Interesting Piece about Haaretz Newspaper and International Media Coverage of MidEast conflict.
The June 30th posting of Facts of Israel brings the text of a lecture delivered by Hanoch Marmari, the Ha'aretz editor-in-chief on May 27 as part of the 9th World Editors' Forum in Bruges, Belgium. “Mr. Marmari explains why Ha'aretz journalists show the Palestinian side of the story, and why sometimes they regret it.”

This is a very interesting piece. I am particularly interested in what Mr. Maramari has to say, because I’ve been a subscriber to Haaretz for many years and in the months leading up to the “Defensive Shield” operation in Passover I had been getting gradually more and more fed up with it. Although the news part of the paper generally gives good coverage to events, the opinion columns, editorials and in-depth stories are extremely one-sided. They do have a few token Right-wing columnists, such as Moshe Arens and Yisrael Harel, but there is no voice for the views held by the great majority of Israelis today, including, I believe, a large percentage of Haaretz readers, who have always tended to be Left-wing.

He has some very interesting things to say about foreign coverage of the Israel-Palestinian situation, “the intensive media coverage of the conflict is often so self-absorbed and so harmful to the region. Sometimes it is a disgrace to our profession.

[…] The media in this cruel Israeli-Palestinian conflict are like a very rich junkie, who parks his Mercedes on the high street of a slum. You can be sure that in no time at all, everyone will be out there, pushing a whole variety of merchandise.

[…] it is no simple task to assess to what extent that information reflects reality. On the day-to-day level, it is hard to argue with what the eyes see, though it is preferable to put the visual images into context. What the ears hear, particularly in the Middle East, can be seriously misleading, if it isn't backed up with additional information - or carefully attributed to its source. […] Exaggeration, disinformation and provocation are the region's stock-in-trade.”

Regarding the dissatisfaction of many Haaretz readers in recent months, he says, “As the current Palestinian intifada goes on, Ha'aretz finds itself in a crisis of confidence with some of its readers who want to regard the newspaper as a source of solidarity and consolation, and not only as a mirror, reflecting and exposing reality.” I disagree. He obviously believes that his newspaper is completely impartial, but this is not, in fact, the case. I often find that the actually choice of subjects covered in the daily in-depth stories and in the weekend magazine, not to mention the contents, are obsessive in showing the far-Left point of view. Often coverage of Right-wing or mainstream views is patronizing and condescending. Occasional articles that are supportive of government policy are not too much to ask for in normal times, all the more so, in times of war.

“As attacks proliferated and more and more innocent Israelis fell, antipathy has grown toward those reporters who continue to describe the suffering on the other side, and they are now the main target of criticism leveled against the newspaper, and are cited as the main reason for canceled subscriptions.” I personally accept the importance of the reporting of Amira Hess and Gideon Levi, who write about the ordinary Palestinian’s suffering, even if I find it repetitive and rather boring. After all, I don’t have to actually read it. But there's so much of it, every day. Enough, already! I would also appreciate to have a serious alternative mainstream view, incorporated in the newspaper.

“The newspaper has a strong network of readers and advertisers,” Marmari continues, “and can absorb the shocks, but the ongoing public storm about our coverage is worrying, forcing us to constantly and thoroughly re-examine our approach.” This is not what I’ve heard. I know of people canceling their subscriptions and getting phone calls from Marmari himself (editor-in-chief, no less) trying to persuade them not to cancel. The cancellations seem to be a serious threat to the paper.

For a while I put a lot of pressure on Bish to cancel our subscription, but he argued that although he agrees in principal, he couldn’t stomach any of the other papers (that have a tendency towards being tabloid) with his morning coffee. I’m actually glad we didn’t cancel. What can I do? I’ve been reading this paper for about 15 years now. Old habits die hard.

posted by Imshin 10:01

"Israeli Guy" Discusses Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's T.V. Interview
I really enjoyed your input on Barak's interview, Gil. I agree with most of it. I also enjoyed listening to Barak speak. I voted for him twice and have admired his sagacity ever since he was head of military intelligence. I can envision a time in the future that I would vote for him again. But quite a few things would have to change for that to be possible.

You wrote, "I quite certain that the withdrawal from Lebanon was a smart move. Israel was bleeding there for 20 years and Barak put an end to it. A lot of people in Israel don't agree with me on that point: Imshin J for example is calling the Lebanon withdrawal a "fiasco". "We all sighed with relief when we got our boys out of that hellhole, but the hurried, even hysterical withdrawal whetted the Palestinians appetites and gave us this war". I don't agree with her. I think that the Palestinians would have eventually started this war anyway. If we were still in Lebanon today and had to deal with two fronts it would have been almost impossible to cope with that situation."

Well, maybe "fiasco" was a bit strong. I tend to get carried away.

A friend of mine, who grew up in the streets of a very tough neighborhood, has been trying to persuade me for years, that the rules that held true for him as a child trying to survive in the “shchuna” (neighborhood) are also relevant with regard to how Israel should be behaving with its neighbors in the Middle East. Since Camp David and the following eruption of Palestinian violence, I have gradually began to understand what he’s been talking about, all this time. Among criminals, your perceived strength of character determines what your life is going to be like - if you’re going to be the guy who tells everyone what to do, gets the best women and so on or the one who eats shit (excuse my language) from everyone else, and who’s life is a living hell. It’s the same with animals, in business, wherever. But it’s very clear-cut with criminals. That’s why it’s a good example.

Did you see that movie with Sean Connery as a criminal who does a robbery with his son and grandson? I’ve forgotten the name of the movie. Anyway, at the end of the movie, he’s in the vehicle being transported back to prison with the other convicts. What is the first thing he does? He picks a fight with some guy and beats up on him, right there in the vehicle. Why does he do this? He’s giving out the message that although he’s old, he’s still a force to be reckoned with, and not to be messed about. He knows that, especially at his age, he won’t survive otherwise.

So here we are in the Jessy Cohen (blue-collar neighborhood in the town of Holon south of Tel Aviv) of the world, and we’re behaving like we’re in Herzliya HaYeruka (middle class area in the town of Herzliya north of Tel Aviv). O.K. so we're a democracy and we have certain moral standards. But our neighbors aren't and don't and we mustn't let them take advantage of that.

For years we’ve been acting weak. Remember the Gulf war? We just sat there and did nothing. Maybe it was the right thing to do at the time, but it didn’t look good.

Lebanon was a quagmire. I’m grateful we’re out. I suppose we’ll never know what would have happened if we had got out of there in a different manner. What’s done is done. But we have to try and learn from it, to see how we can better handle similar future challenges, such as evacuating settlements.

posted by Imshin 01:21

Kids Listen Up!
Here's a really persuasive argument for the "can I have a dog?" family discussion:
Dogs can diagnose cancer!

posted by Imshin 18:05

Bish is Ehud Barak's Last Remaining Fan
Last night, Barak gave his first Hebrew interview on Israel television, since he lost the elections.
posted by Imshin 16:41

If you want to understand Israelis
read this. This is the best description I've read of the collective Israeli state of mind right now. Thank you, Tim Blair.
posted by Imshin 16:35

I'm a bit panicky today
Everyone's waiting for a suicide bombing.
This probably would be a good day for the house arrest I was talking about.

How to describe this dread of impending disaster?
Well, the symptoms are more or less the following: My throat feels constricted, my breathing is slightly labored and my heart beats way faster and harder than usual. Oh, and I feel nauseous. (No, I'm not pregnant). And I must have done about 50% of the work I usually do everyday (No wonder the economy's in such dire straits!).

O.K., calm down, Imshin. These hysterics are not helpful. They'll be sending in the guys in the white coats next.

Talk about post-traumatic stress disorder. Looks like I've got pre-traumatic stress disorder!
posted by Imshin 12:42

We've got your name
Grasshoppa linked to this weird thing.
posted by Imshin 00:31

The solution to the Middle East conflict
"A question for world leaders: In a crisis should you 1) send in the Marines? 2) Send in Kofi Annan? 3) Send in the Muppets?" asks Barry James in IHT. The answer? No. 3, of course. Was there really any doubt?

The Israeli version of big bird, by the way, is an enormous hedgehog.
posted by Imshin 00:23

Inner city Zionism
I’m an ideological city dweller. I don’t think this country is big enough for suburban sprawl. So I live in a high-rise on a busy Tel Aviv corner (thankfully, not high enough to be of interest to any passing planes). I’m not actually suffering for a high ideal here. I love Tel Aviv and I love city life.

But there are many difficulties connected to living in the city with a family.

Summer vacation is an extra challenge for city dwellers with kids. Especially nowadays. If perverts and crazy drivers aren’t enough, now I have to worry if it’s safe for my eldest daughter to have an ice cream at the ice cream parlor with her pals, or go to her favorite haunt – the local toyshop. Among some of the other mothers I’m regarded as very liberal, because I allow my daughter to ride the mini-bus to the swimming pool.

What am I to do? Put her under house arrest all summer? (This actually happens when there are warnings of suicide bombers on the loose in my area).


But then again…
I do have some misgivings about not having a little house with a garden. I have this little fantasy about having a “boustan”, which is a traditional fruit garden with figs, vines, carobs, olive trees and other indigenous fruit trees. (Although killjoys tell me these plants attract several types of annoying flying insects). Maybe someday it will happen. Who knows?


Asking forgiveness
Tsila Levi, Bank Leumi clerk from Hadera, was arrested for embezzling six million shekels of her clients’ money. I heard her on Israeli radio today, crying and asking for forgiveness. “I love you all,” she wept, “I didn’t mean to do it.”

I hope no one ever loves me that much.



Palestinian brainwashing
I ventured into Indymedia Israel today and was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of pro-Israel stuff, which probably means they’re blasted with this stuff faster than they can censor it.

I found this piece about incitement on Palestinian T.V. rather disturbing (we do actually hope to live in peace with these people one day).

An Israeli woman is telling about her changing relationship with her longtime Palestinian friend and her family, because of the fabricated horrors her friend watches on Palestinian T.V.

“Fatima's kids have always watched what seems to me to be a lot of television […] but for the past few months, it was all "news." I put it in quotation marks because it's not really news. It's propaganda. To my college-educated, Western eyes, it's the most blatant, offensive, obvious kind of junk -- bad actors, bad commentators reading from gory scripts of the most inflammatory kind, plainly seeking to inflame the senses of anyone watching.

[…] Fatima called me in a panic one night, saying that they had just heard that Jewish residents of our neighborhood near Jerusalem were marching on their villages and shooting everyone. I looked out the window, saw nothing, then sent my husband up the street to check things out. It was perfectly quiet and peaceful, not a soul in sight, not a sound to be heard. I told her then that she should not believe everything on the TV and radio, that they lied in order to get people upset and angry.

Even as I told her, I could sense her skepticism: "Oh, sure, Shira. You don't know anything more than I do, and of course you don't want to believe that your neighbors would shoot us!"

[…] If anyone could be immune to political propaganda and hate-mongering, I would have thought it was Shiruk. She has spent a lot of time with Jews. After all, she has eaten in our home, been to our parties and synagogue, held our babies. She has a good head on her shoulders, knows English, reads books. But it seems that even the brightest mind is susceptible to hate-mongering, given enough exposure to it.

Kept out of school, Shiruk spends many, many hours watching television. She has seen dramatized, studio-fabricated decapitations, gang rapes, and children being maimed and murdered -- all at the hands of "Israeli soldiers." Her younger siblings watch, too, and I imagine that this is the norm in most homes in hundreds of villages throughout the West Bank.”

posted by Imshin 21:26

A give-away
My Mum's been noticing the times I've been posting. And she's worried I'm not sleeping enough!
posted by Imshin 05:59

Pita on sticks
Thousands of unemployed Palestinians marched in Gaza yesterday to protest “Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's government of corruption and failing to provide them with jobs.”

They showed this demonstration on Israeli T.V. and you could see hundreds of people in the crowd waving pita (round flat Arab bread) on long wooden sticks, obviously symbolic of their hunger.

Maybe the desparate, hopeless Palestinian masses are getting hopeful again…of getting rid of Arafat and his gang.


Irrelevant
Bish says the Israeli Labor Party is irrelevant. That’s what they were saying about Arafat a few months ago. Hmmm.

posted by Imshin 05:51

Magen David Adom
A friend’s brother had a heart attack around the same time as a suicide bomber blew up in the same town. There were no free ambulances for him and by the time an ambulance arrived it was too late. My friend’s brother was dead. I think he was a sort of indirect victim of terrorism.

Laurence Simon is participating in Blogathon 2002 raising money for Magen David Adom. The money he makes will hopefully go towards more ambulances, salaries for more ambulance crews or more equipment.

posted by Imshin 22:00

Names
Even when the names of the dead victims of a terrorist attack mean nothing to me, there’s always someone I know who does know some of the names.

Every day someone else tells me of a close friend or relative who has been killed. Someone’s lunch buddy from work lost her baby; someone else’s brother-in-law was killed, leaving a widow and children; someone’s friend lost his daughter and grandchildren.

posted by Imshin 21:19

To the Labor Party
Here’s one ex-party member who’s not planning to vote for you next time. And not because she’s voting “Meretz”!

I have a suggestion for your Party Convention. How about discussing why you’re so unpopular? You won’t, of course, because you’ll be too busy bickering and scrambling for power. No wonder you’re so clueless (Really clueless, not like Stephen Den Beste who’s only pretending).

Ben-Dror Yemini discussed this in Maariv a few weeks ago (my translation):
“Many (Israelis) that support concessions (to the Palestinians) vote for Right-wing (Parties), just because of their abhorrence of the Israeli Left.

[…] How is it possible to explain this paradox? How is it possible to explain the strong inclination to the Right, as far as voting is concerned, in contrast to the sharp and consistent inclination to the Left, as far as solutions are concerned?

Well, the majority of the (Israeli) public detests the Left more than it supports painful concessions. The feeling, prevalent for many years, that the Left is looking after the Palestinians has not altered. The Left is making every effort to justify its bad reputation. […] A Left that organizes conferences at which patriotism sounds like leprosy is a disconnected Left. A Left that is unable of saying that Arafat is a man of terror and not a leader of peace, is an unreliable Left. A Left that is not capable of declaring that the Palestinian incitement is the cause of the terrorism, and not the occupation, is a Left of deception. A Left that cannot explain to the Palestinians that there will never be a right of return will always be suspected of sleepwalking.”
posted by Imshin 21:03

Guess what?
A whale is not a fish...
posted by Imshin 17:15

What is it with Ronaldo's hair?


More baby bomber stuff
Cute cartoon in Haaretz
posted by Imshin 17:10

Desperate Israeli Mother Makes Impassioned Appeal to J.K. Rowlings:
GET A MOVE ON WITH #5, ALREADY!
posted by Imshin 06:21

More Evacuation Rumination
Bish suggests evacuating settlements as a token of good will to the new Palestinian Leaders that are elected after (if) the Palestinians oust Arafat and his gang. The idea being to evacuate without it being construed as a reward for terrorism.

My Bish is what my great-Grandma Zelda (may she rest in peace) would probably have called "a gutt-hartziker".
posted by Imshin 00:06

Oh! Look what happened
while I was watching the Gilmore Girls. It was a dead boring episode, too.
posted by Imshin 22:21

What's the British definition of an anti-semite?
Someone who hates Jews more than necessary.

(Sorry Uncle Trev. No offense intended.)
posted by Imshin 22:06

According to Our Lady Peace,
"happiness...is not a fish that you can catch".

What?


posted by Imshin 22:04

Evacuation under fire
Speaking on Israeli radio (“Reshet Bet”) this morning, Knesset Member, Haim Ramon, who is currently challenging Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer as chairman of the Labor party, called for an evacuation of all Jewish settlements in Gaza and the smaller isolated settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) unilaterally, without waiting for a renewal of negotiations with the Palestinians.

Ramon is talking about more than Ben Eliezer’s evacuation today of three tiny uninhabited illegal outpost settlements. The more radical Jewish settlers have a policy of putting up these tiny outposts, which usually consist of two to three defenseless and sparsely populated caravans that are a headache for the army that has to protect them, and a drain on military personnel. The settlers take into account that the army will probably eventually evacuate many of them, as they did when Barak was Prime Minister, and the more there are, the better their bargaining position is.

Unilateral evacuation of settlements, at this time, will be seen as a victory by the Palestinians and will encourage them to continue their terror attacks on civilians.

We’re going to evacuate settlements, in the end, and certainly all the settlements in Gaza, but we mustn’t do it under fire. That would be a rerun of the Lebanon withdrawal fiasco, only worse. We all sighed with relief when we got our boys out of that hellhole, but the hurried, even hysterical withdrawal whetted the Palestinians appetites and gave us this war. Evacuation will prove that they’re on the right road and will give them incentive to continue full speed ahead.

We can evacuate settlements before a renewal of negotiations, but only when the Palestinians are bleeding so hard they won’t even notice we’re gone.

This is probably what we should have done in Lebanon.

What can we do? We’re living in a tough neighborhood here. If we don’t beat up the local bullies, we’ve had it.

By the way, I don’t think evacuation of settlements has anything to do with building the security fence. The sooner the fence is built, the better.



They're closing the zoo
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel is closing it’s little zoological garden in Abu Kabir, between Yaffo and Tel Aviv. This was never a major tourist attraction. In fact, it was always rather shabby and run down. But when the girls were very young we went there every now and then and they loved it there.

I hate zoos. I can’t stand to see animals in cages. But this place wasn’t about making money, it was more about looking after the animals.

I had hoped they’d find some money somewhere to keep it going. I’m sorry to see it go.



Blowing up history
Apparently, the Palestinian government building, the “Immara” in Hebron that the IDF blew up at the weekend, was a Tiegart fortress. These British-built fortresses are an interesting part of Israel’s history (Hebrew link – I couldn’t find anything in English about this). I’m a big fan of these buildings. The British began building them to be used as police stations during the “Great Arab Revolt” of 1936-1939 and they were designed by Charles Tiegart, who was a British terrorist expert of the day. These fortresses are all over the country and most of them are still being used today as police stations. They are famous for being strategically positioned and difficult to conquer and many of the fiercest battles in the 1948 war of Independence were fought over them.

posted by Imshin 19:14

Fred Lapides wrote me
"Stumbled upon your newish site whilst avoiding my family--all sleeping, still. Two things that seem never get fully flushed out:

1. Arab-Israelis can leave if unhappy with citizenship in Israel. If they want to stay and make things better, then they ought to try that course of action rather than destroying the place they seem unwilling to abandon.

2. All those who we seem to label pro-Palestinians forget a basic fact of history: no country in recorded history ever gives back land taken in war unless there is (1) strategic reason for unloading that land, (2) a peace accord that returns the taken land because differences have been settled. Look at the history of,say,America: Germany and Japan were made to surrender, unconditionally, occupied by troops, and had a constitution etc imposed upon them.
Mexico lost much lad to the SouthWest of the U.S. in that war and America compensated them at the price dtermined not in negotiations but at the price they were told to accept. Why would any nation lose its young men in warfare and then simply walk away with the enemy still demanding the destruction of the prevailing army? America did this in the war with Iraq and now regrets and will once again go to war with that country till they get what they want--a chance for peaceful regime in Iraq. Merely longivity in occupation seems insufficient motivation for an "occupying" army to walk away.

3. And a bonus: the Hamas and other groups constantly refer to getting Israel out of Palestinian land. Few interviewers or writers ever pin down what they men by Palestinian land--does that mean the territories? All of Israel? There is, after all, a big difference that the Left of Center folks ought to consider when they state that leaving the territories will bring about peace.

buckle up for safety"

posted by Imshin 16:00

Bish says I’m having a creativity spurt. (I’m not, I’m not! I’m always creative!)
I’m not sure how long I can keep this up. I now deeply admire bloggers for their amazing perseverance.

Until recently, I used to write analysis reports for a living. I used to work a few days or weeks on a piece, because most of the work was research. But this gave me plenty of time for thinking about phrasing before I even started writing. I had a very limited readership and I suspect most of them just skimmed through because they usually did the exact opposite to what I recommended.

This is much more fun. I get to say whatever stupid idea pops into my head. And I don’t have to submit everything I write to censorship by my boss, just because his name is also on it. (So what? What about creative liberty? Civil servant report writers of the world unite!)

posted by Imshin 05:51

Last day at school
for my two girls, today.
posted by Imshin 05:21

More about Azmi Bishara by Gil Shterzer
Gil Shterzer adds to my comments on Azmi Bishara from yesterday:
"Imshin J is not saying that but I will: Azmi Bshara is a dangerous man to Israel. He uses Israeli democracy against the state of Israel. He is walking on a thin line, Incites Israeli Arabs, Palestinians and Arabs in the surrounding states against Israel but keeps it blurry enough to get away. He is now facing charges in Israeli court after when visiting Syria he called to fight against Israel. But I'm sure he'll get away from punishment, the man is a wizard in using democratic measures such as the media and Israeli Justice to get what he wants.

An equivalent to Bshara visiting Syria (an enemy state) and calling there to fight Israel will be an American Senator visiting Iraq and calling to fight the US."
posted by Imshin 05:05

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