And I really wanted to tell you my good news, but I’ve got this big lump in my throat that won’t go away. We had to turn the TV off, because Bish has to work and he couldn’t concentrate. This is fortunate because I’ve been crying all the time. How silly can you get? I don’t think anyone noticed. I read somewhere the other day that we don’t have any heroes any more, here in Israel. Whoever wrote this didn’t think about Ilan Ramon. Neither did I when I read it. We’re not very into heroes. Much too sophisticated and cynical for that sort of stuff, us.

As if to spite us, and our snobby disdain of things like heroes, here we found ourselves with our very own real live hero. We were so proud. He took a bit of all of us up with him, when he went.

Now that he’s not coming back down, what happens to that bit of all of us he took?

Maybe that’s why we’re not into heroes. They always die and leave us hurting.

* * * *

My good news is that I’ve started a Hebrew blog.

Update: Steve of the Hoosier Review says about what happens to that bit of all of us he took with him: "It lives on forever, a testimony to a man and a people who were not afraid to reach up and grab the stars".

Thank you, Steve.

My condolences to all my American friends. We're in this together.

posted by Imshin 21:39

I don’t know what to say.
We had such a lovely day, out in a forest near Jerusalem looking at cyclamens and anemones. On the way home we saw lots of blossoming almond trees. I was just writing a post telling you all about it. I’d actually forgotten they were coming back down today, although they were talking about it on the radio yesterday.

Remind me again, what was the point of this exercise, exactly? To check if bits of dust were moving around from where to where?

Excuse me. I’m not feeling too good right now.

I'm sorry.

posted by Imshin 19:21

Shabbat Shalom.

While I’m enjoying the Shabbat, you can read this very good Israeli Election Post-Mortem, by Stefan Sharkansky’s father, Hebrew University political scientist Ira Sharkansky.

So blogspot has been blocked in Iraq. It looks like Salam will be moving. I did notice this but had forgotten by the time I’d finished washing the dishes. This is obviously the memory span of your average dishwashing mother and wife. Thank you, Diane for reminding me. Never mind, Salam, soon you’ll be able to have all the blogspot you want. All you have to do is live that long.

Who am I talking to? He can't read this.

And that is the last thing I'm saying this Shabbat. Honest.

posted by Imshin 17:38

“The time has come to talk of many things:
Of shoes and ships and sealing wax
Of cabbages and kings
And why the sea is boiling hot
And whether pigs have wings”. Lewis Caroll

So in the mail we got a booklet from the Home Front Command, explaining WHAT TO DO. So far only my rather precocious seven and a half year old has read it. From flipping through I know it has all sorts of lists, such as what sorts of food to have in, exactly how much of each type; lists of things to have in the “protected area”; how the kids could be expected to react (my daughter found this bit especially interesting) and so on. This morning, as I was coming out of the supermarket, I noticed they were selling plastic sheeting. For a split second I couldn’t understand what it was doing there.

A lot of people are much more fatalistic this time. R.T. says that anything that happens after his bedtime will not get him out of bed. I know Dad isn’t making any plans to change anything in his life. If I didn’t have kids I’d feel the same way, but I have to be responsible for them so I’ll have to go through the motions. I’d love to be able to hear an air-raid siren and just turn over to the other side and go back to sleep. But I won’t. I know I won’t. I read once about someone telling that, as a child in London during WWII, her mother refused to wake her up and take her down into the tube like everyone else when there was an air raid. Rather silly considering the amount of civilians who were killed during the Blitz of London, but understandable.

I hope the US is worried enough about our threats of retaliation to make sure we don’t get gassed. Not a pleasant way to die.

Here's Ehud Yaari on the dangers of going about the Iraq offensive in the wrong way. And here's an interesting David Warren commentary about Iraq, Israel and, of course, France and Germany. Moe saw it first.

posted by Imshin 17:32

Alisa In Wonderland explains why a secular agenda such as that of Tommy Lapid’s Shinui Party has such popular appeal for many Israelis.
posted by Imshin 17:31

Oh, look what happened while Dad was beaming applications to me from his new Palm Pilot. They finished counting the soldiers’ votes. Likud got another seat. They’ve now got 38. National Religious party also got another seat, giving them a total of 6. Who lost? Hadash (Commies, mainly Arabs) and One Nation - Am Ehad (party of Amir Peretz, head of the Histadrut, trade union). The right is bigger by two. Excellent.

I’m not going to get into coalition speculations right now. I’ve started really enjoying the Ben Gurion biography. It’s started reading like a really exciting suspense-filled novel. Haim Arlozorov just got murdered (1933) and things are heating up between the Workers and Zeev Jabotinsky’s Revisionists.

This is good:

“Nothing is more ridiculous and more criminal than to fight with constitutional means against an absolutely anti-constitutional force.” David Ben Gurion, 1934.

He said it about the Revisionists, but it has wisdom beyond the context.

By the way, did I ever tell you that, according to my grandfather’s memoirs, my great-grandfather came back from the Great War raving about his impressive Russian officer? This was Jabotinsky, of course. I’m excited to think that I am descended from someone who was in the first Jewish Legion. I hadn’t really thought about it before.

posted by Imshin 23:22

How could this happen?
Left wing politicians and pundits talked and talked all morning on Israel radio. Some of them admitted to being in shock about the results of the elections. And I really wanted to ask them: Which planet have you been on exactly???? If you had just spent a little time during the last couple of years listening, really listening, to the voices around you, instead of blaming and deriding; if you had only spent some time trying to stretch your brains to let in some other opinions, for a change; if you had made a little effort to control your urge to run to the psychiatrists for explanations for the collective lunacy of Israelis that do not belong to your own circles - maybe you wouldn’t be so surprised today. No one else is.

Oh and reading too much Haaretz doesn’t help much, either.

All things considered, the left actually did quite well...

[Sorry, couldn't help it. You wouldn't begrudge me my fun, would you? I reckon I earned it]

More: This is how…
Posted by my very own Bish on an Israeli forum:

Strategically, most Israelis are prepared for concessions like those suggested by the Israeli left, but agree with the Israeli right that there is currently no one with whom to negotiate.

The right will continue to rule Israel, as long as the left continues insisting on negotiating with Arafat, and goes on and on about our “not being able to determine who will lead the Palestinians” while people are being blown up in the streets.

Even born pro-concessions-lefties, like myself, will not vote for a blind Israeli left, locked in views that are not compatible with reality.

But Ehud Barak is right when he says that, one day, reality will change again, and the viewpoint of the Israeli left will once again be relevant.

And then the stupid and blind politicians will jump up and cry: “We told you so” and “At last the nation understands that we always had it right” …

Fools. Even the hands of a clock that isn’t working show the correct time twice a day.

posted by Imshin 19:43

Notice how Haaretz couldn't bear to place National Union above Meretz. Sore losers. Teehee.
posted by Imshin 05:52

More international recognition.
I see I am consolidating my position as Important Israeli and Psychic.

Gedoudahere, you lot!

posted by Imshin 20:46

I love Election Day!
For the last fourteen years I’ve lived across the road from two different polling stations. On Election Day I love watching the continuous stream of people going in to have their say.

I’m told that in Israel the percentage of voters is always high in comparison with other Western-style democracies. This time, a particularly low turnout is expected, but it’s already looking like it’s going to be a bit higher than the low turnout in the 2001 special vote for Prime Minister (when the Arabs boycotted the election).

I’m always excited when I’m actually in the polling booth with the envelope. First of all, I can never find the piece of paper with the letters I’m looking for, representing the party of my choice. And then, when I’ve found it at last and put it in the envelope, I always have to check myself. I open the envelope again just to be sure, forever afraid that I’ve got it wrong. My fingers always shake a little when I put the envelope into the ballot.

And this time was no exception. I’m not feeling too well and I wasn’t looking forward to standing in line, but once again I queued up outside my daughters’ English classroom in their little school, which is our polling station. I could see I wasn’t the only one excited. I noticed the guy before me held his breath and smiled before putting his envelope in the ballot, as if for good luck. It doesn’t matter to me that he could have been voting for a party I disagree with. This is very mushy, I know, but I feel an affinity with all the people in the polling station. These are my fellow citizens who have come to do their duty and realize their right to take part in the democratic process. By coming, they are showing that they trust and believe in the Israeli democracy.

Bish still votes at the polling station of our old address. He hasn’t changed his address with the Ministry of Interior. He told of an amusing thing that happened while he was voting. A lady of over seventy went behind the booth with her envelope and then came back out again and asked the Polling Committee people what was the difference between the “Green” Party (the environmental party) and the “Green Leaf” Party (the legalize-marijuana party). They told her to look at the poster explaining the different parties and the letters representing them. But she said no, she didn’t need the letters, she just didn’t understand the difference between them. The Committee members explained to her patiently that they are not allowed to tell her such a thing and again suggested she read the poster. Bish said it took a while for them to convince her that she wasn’t going to get any explanations about content from them. I wonder what she voted for in the end. And why.

There’s been a lot of talk about Israeli democracy being in danger lately, mainly from the left side of the political map and the more left slanted parts of the media. Their reasons for saying this may be well based, but I ask myself why I should take them seriously, considering that for the first thirty years of this state’s existence there was one major party that always won national elections and ruled the country with a high hand. In those days, to be any sort of part of the establishment you had to first prove your loyalty by being in possession of a membership booklet of the Histadrut, the Workers’ Union (among other things).

I’m sure you’re wondering for whom I voted. Well, I’m not telling. I don’t have to tell and I’m not going to. So there.

posted by Imshin 15:11

Oh, dear.
Looks like war some time soon.

Doesn't it?

posted by Imshin 19:56

A comprehensive explanation about the Israeli elections can be read on Shark Blog, written by Stefan’s father, Hebrew University political scientist Ira Sharkansky.
posted by Imshin 16:41

Still under the weather.
I’m getting bored. That’s a good sign. I dread the mounds of backlog that’ll be waiting for me when I get back to work. That is, if I don’t arrive back to find my things in a box outside the door, in which case, someone else will have to do it all ;-)

Ah, Tom Paine has been to Mitzpe Ramon. That’s nice. He gives a good description: ”…it's kinda like looking down onto the surface of Mars. There's this HUGE crater, and the town is built right on the lip. There's a Crater Observatory right on the edge with enormous floor-to-ceiling windows. Just put some red cellophane over them, and it looks like Mars Colonisation Authority HQ, Olympus Mons, circa 2057”. Yeah, that’s what we like about being there. Puts you into perspective.

Don’t worry. I’ll be getting to the polling station tomorrow, on my knees if needs be, to vote for the guy on the left. (Via Charles Johnson, Silent Running and Meryl Yourish).

Or should I vote Shinui?

Watching Mitzna's speech on the party propaganda broadcasts last night, I commented to Bish that I might just vote for Mitzna out of pity. Bish said I should be careful or people will start to believe I am actually capable of that emotion. Since he's been a politician he's become so mean. I asked him if we’re going to end up like that elderly couple they’ve been showing on TV. The husband wants to divorce his wife of many years on the grounds of her not voting for the “correct” party. They have hardly been speaking to each other since the last election, when she did the unthinkable (voted for Barak). The Rabbis have suggested that she doesn’t vote, in order to save their marriage. See what I mean? Why didn’t they suggest he doesn’t vote?

Anyway, Bish says that could be a good idea, but he just has to make up his mind whom to vote for first.

Update: At last, international recognition! Wind Rider thinks I’m an important Israeli!
Oops! Although, it could be said that Sharon is further left than some of his party counterparts. Ever since I was map-reader during a European holiday in 1987, while Bish drove, he has known the shameful truth about me. I can’t tell my RIGHT from my LEFT (“Turn right, here. Right, I said, right! Why are you turning left?”). He married me anyway.

posted by Imshin 14:32

Sunday special
In "Two fingers from Sidon ", a 1986 Israeli movie about the last days of Israel's occupation of Southern Lebanon, before the retreat to the "Security Zone", a young officer, fresh out of officers' course, arrives to take up his command. Someone gives him a crash course on local Lebanese politics, giving him the run down of all the many factions and parties, and their alliances and rivalries. Very confusing. In summing up, the impromptu guide explains that no matter how much the different groups may hate each other, they all hate the Israeli soldiers more.

An e-mail I received this morning from a reader (I feel very uncomfortable saying that. Who do I think I am exactly? A reader, noch!) that helped me get a feel of just how confusing Israeli politics must be to the uninitiated. So I will attempt to answer the questions she asks, within a wider framework.

First the basics, as found in the Knesset website:
“Israel has an electoral system based on nation-wide proportional representation, and the number of seats which every list receives in the Knesset is proportional to the number of voters who voted for it. The only limitation is the 1.5% qualifying threshold. In other words, a party must receive at least 1.5% of the votes in order to be elected. According to this system, the voters vote for a party list, and not for a particular person on the list”.

Now what that means is that, unlike the American and British winner-takes-all systems, in Israel the more votes you get, the more seats you get. This allows for representation in the Knesset of the full spectrum of the diverse Israeli society. In Israel there is a lot of confusion about the left-right continuum. Although there is, of course, some measure of compatibility, in Israel, when you talk about right and left, you are mainly talking about hawk and dove. There is very little difference in the outlook on economic matters between the two largest parties, the right of center Likud Party or the left of center Labor Party. The difference is mainly in their perception of the conflict with the Arabs and the solutions they offer (these have changed considerably over the years for both parties).

The current success the previously marginal party, Shinui, is having is due to its being perceived as a central party in matters of security and peace, although in matters of economy it is decidedly right wing. The Likud and the Labor parties did start off as real right and left. The Likud is the descendant of a fusion between Menahem Begin's Herut and the historical General Zionists, and the Labor Party is the descendant of Ben Gurion's Mapai, which translates literally as the Party of the Workers of the Land of Israel. This was a socialist party and this is why you can still see Labor Party elder, Shimon Peres, regularly proudly singing "The Internationale" at the Socialist International conferences in various delightful locations in Europe (much to the glee of his TV imitators and their audiences, who love to ridicule his frequent trips to different corners of what Rumsfeld has recently called "Old Europe").

The problems new Labor Party chairman, Amram Mitzna, is having in the polls, besides his lack of personal charisma, is that he has taken a sharp move to the dove side of the hawk-dove continuum. At this point in time, a lot of traditional Labor Party voters (Myself among them, I was even a party member at one point) do not feel it is wise to renew negotiations with the Palestinians right now, especially not while they are still being led by Yasser Arafat, or to retreat unilaterally under fire, as Mitzna suggests.

Now because of the proportional representation, a lot of small parties get voted into the Knesset, making a coalition necessary in order to create a government with a majority of Knesset members backing it. The party that gets the most seats, or has the best chance of creating a coalition gets to form the government.

Because of the proportional representation, we also get all sorts of weirdo parties running for Knesset each elections, from Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Natural Law Party (I think they're sitting this one out, actually, or should I say, floating this one out?), through Men's Rights in the Family (These guys are fighting for men’s rights in divorce. Now I know fathers often get a raw deal in divorce, but considering Jewish divorces in Israel are finalized by the patriarchal and inherently sexist Rabbinate, I doubt this is the worst place in the world for men to get divorced) to a very hopeful group called "A Different Israel" who seriously thought that they would take Israel by storm by offering the novel idea of politics without politicians (Don't ask). These groups rarely get enough votes to pass the qualifying threshold.

"Green Leaf” who are advocating the legalization of the use of marijuana, is one of the more popular of these quaint marginal parties, for obvious reasons. Last elections, I think they mainly got the votes of drug dealers and people who were too stoned to notice or care what they were putting in the ballot. This time, confusion is such, that they are being perceived as a hip protest vote and have a good chance of getting in. Thus my attempt to put things in context about the actual political views of their chairman and number one of their list. It's one thing to vote a protest party into Knesset. It's quite another to discover, after the fact, that you've voted for someone who holds radical left-wing views and will use his vote accordingly in his capacity as Knesset member.

"Green Leaf" is not to be confused with Women in Green (the ones with the green hats), which is a group of right wing settlers, headed by the radical Nadia Matar, that demonstrate in favor of the settlements and against any land concessions. Women in Green was created as a reaction to the veteran Women in Black, an equally radical group of women, who have spent each Friday afternoon for many years now, demonstrating in the center of Jerusalem against the occupation, aggravating the rather right wing Jerusalemites and often being attacked verbally and physically by passers-by who don’t see eye to eye with them.

Confused yet? But wait, I haven't even started on the small parties that do get in, the different types of religious parties, the various Arab parties... Maybe we'll leave that for another time.

Moving right along, a few words about Israeli newspapers: It is a pity that foreign readers don't get to read any of Israel's mainstream (if slightly yellow) newspapers, Yediot Aharonot (center-left) and Maariv (center-rightish), because they are not available in English (Although look what I’ve just found: Maariv in English. But you have to pay). What you do get, sadly, is the more political margins. Israel National News, which doesn’t have a print version, as far as I know, is run by Arutz Sheva, a far right wing radio station representing the settlers, which is still not allowed to broadcast in Israel and operates from a small ship outside Israel's territorial waters. Attempts are constantly being made to pressure the state into giving it a license. Arutz Sheva is said to have broadcast incitement against Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the months running up to his murder. Lately it has been blamed of broadcasting illegal election propaganda.

The Jerusalem Post is also right wing, although less than the Israel National News (On Friday, the Post endorsed former prisoner of Zion, Natan Sharansky and his party, Yisrael Ba’Aliyah, who has made a special effort to target the English-speaking community in these elections). Haaretz, on the other hand, is very much left wing (This morning’s editorial in Haaretz endorsed the Labor Party). Neither newspaper has a large readership within Israel, although Haaretz, is naturally more widely read than the Jerusalem Post, because it comes out in Hebrew. Most Israelis dislike its rather gray and dull looking layout. The Jerusalem Post is read by the small English-speaking community, while Haaretz is favored by the intellectual and business elite, and my dearest husband, Bish. Haaretz comes out in Israel in English along with the local edition of the International Herald Tribune, thus targeting the English speakers who dislike the right-wing slant of the Post.

I think that’s about it.

I'm still not very well, so if none of that makes any sense, please forgive me.

A clarification: Women in Green and Women in Black are not political parties and do not run for Knesset. They are activist groups. Women in Black are not to be confused with the ultra-religious men who wear black hats.

posted by Imshin 21:27

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