Hang the D.J.
On Friday, Israeli paper Maariv's online edition had a little item about Jihad Jaara, one of the two Palestinian terrorists the Republic of Ireland kindly took in last year. Jaara and his friend Rami Kamel were two of the thirteen armed and dangerous wanted terrorists who forcibly took over the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem during operation Defensive Shield last year. You'll remember that, in order to end the siege, they struck a deal which allowed them to seek refuge overseas (disregarding the frustration and horror of the families of their victims who wanted them brought to justice). Jaara and Kamel got to go to Dublin, Ireland, where they were awarded with a nice apartment for their efforts. Like in the corniest of romantic novels, love blossomed between Rami Kamel and his English teacher and they soon tied the knot. Such a romantic story, but not for our pal, Jihad Jaara. Being a devout Muslim, living in the apartment together with his pal's wife was a big no-no so out he went, onto the streets. His Irish hosts promised to find him somewhere to live but seem to have had more worthy causes to spend their money on. So he's been wandering the streets of Dublin for the last five months.

I know what you're thinking, and you're probably right - Jaara, a Palestinian policeman and active member of Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which answers to PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's Fatah, wanted for perpetrating terrorist attacks against Israelis, is only dangerous where Israelis are concerned; he's a little meek pussycat unless confronted by dangerous Israeli women and children after all. But still, if I were a mother in Dublin, I'd be feeling a bit uneasy sending my kids to school with such a feline roaming the streets of my city, wet, cold, and desperate.

What can I say? Better them than me.

This story apparently appeared first in the Irish Independent on Thursday. I couldn't find a direct link in that publication, but Haaretz seems to have noticed it too.

I'm not sure what the D.J. has to do with it, either.

posted by Imshin 22:00

Yesterday we drove through a fierce sandstorm to get to our little hideaway in Mitzpe Ramon.

At times we thought we would be swept clean of the road along with the sea of sand that raced across the asphalt. We stopped for refuge from the storm at a little cafe by Sdeh Boker, the kibbutz that used to be Ben Gurion's desert home. We weren't the only ones. It was one of those little places that usually get about three customers an hour. The kibbutzniks operating the place were rather overwhelmed, if not from the masses then from the mountains of sand that blew in with every person that fought his or her way in. Bish, the girls and I finished off the last of the Burekas. There was one group of depressed looking men. They'd come down to the Negev for a bicycle-riding holiday, but in this wind they couldn't keep a bicycle up for two meters to save their lives, not to mention the difficulty actually breathing when there was more sand than breathable air swirling furiously round. They sat in a circle with their coffees and discussed what they should do. We left before they reached a decision. Not that I was eavesdropping or anything.

Miraculously, we reached Mitzpe Ramon in one piece. This was no easy feat considering the wind, the sand, the non-existent visibility and the cars coming the other way that somehow kept appearing on our side of the road, racing straight at us (some without their headlights, despite the low visibility).

And suddenly it was over, with no sign it had ever happened, besides the plastic bags strewn everywhere. Today was a beautiful, sunny and windy day in Mitzpe Ramon, which we spent strolling along the cliff of the crater. We found a nice statue, in the Statue Garden and plonked ourselves down. I think I even dropped off in the cool sun. Don't let the name Statue Garden mislead you. This is a desert and these are desert statues. No lawn. No dinky little trees. The Statue Garden spreads along the rocky ground at the cliff edge of the crater. Eldest pointed out that it was peaceful in a wild way.

We thought this would be our last visit to our funny little place in Mitzpe Ramon. The lease is up and we weren't planning to renew it, but we are loath to part with our hideaway, simple and basic as it may be. For us it's pure heaven.

posted by Imshin 20:06

Shabbat Shalom.
posted by Imshin 10:20

I used to despise the flag thing.
My mother-in-law loves Independence Day. She used to tell me how truly happy thay had been back when they established the state in 1948. She's second generation native Tel Avivi, which is quite unusual for a seventy year-old. Unlike me, she really lived through the birth of this state and knows what life was like before. She used to tell me, but I just couldn't grasp it. The flag thing was a bit of an embarrassment.

Now that I no longer take the existence of my home for granted, I do understand what she was talking about and I appreciate it far more. The flag is not some nationalistic nuttiness. It's my way of telling the Palestinians that I'm here to stay and they'll have to accept that and learn to live with me in ways other than blowing me up. I realize that goes both ways and I'm prepared to pay the price of sharing. More than prepared. But I won't committ suicide for someone else's gratification.

posted by Imshin 07:14

Oh, no! Say it isn't so!


French Guard
I'm French! Why do think I have this outrageous
accent, you silly king-a?!


What Monty Python Character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

I really should be getting back to my book. Via The World Wide Rant, who is The Rabbit. But I wanted to be The Rabbit! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Oh, the humiliation.
posted by Imshin 21:29

Dawson is packing up his blog. I'm sorry about that. He really cheered me up when I really needed it, back when I thought everyone hated us.
posted by Imshin 21:23

Last week I went shopping for nice white T-shirts for the girls. It's that white T-shirt time of the year. I will spend the next two weeks continually washing these T-shirts so they'll be clean and ready for the next white T-shirt event. It begins next week with the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Day) ceremonies. It continues the week after that with Yom HaZikaron (memorial day for fallen soldiers) - two ceremonies - evening and morning, then the next day Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day). Two weeks later there's Lag Ba'omer (we've already started collecting the wood), but they won't really need white T-shirts for the bonfires will they? Then a fortnight after that is Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, but also the harvest (you know, dancing around haystacks with flowers in hair blah blah), definitely white T-shirt stuff.

I'm quite proud of myself that I thought to plan ahead about the white T-shirts this year. Usually we find ourselves on the morning of Yom HaShoah, scrambling around the closets for white T-shirts that still fit and don't have too many very noticeable stains on them. Well Eldest has reached an age that that just isn't good enough (even a white T-shirt becomes a fashion statement?), and neither are the rather shapeless T-shirts I used to purchase for ten shekels at the corner shop. Children's clothes shops know to stock up on white T-shirts round this time of the year. It only took me about nine years of motherhood to discover this fact. It's apparently all part of springtime.

It's also flag time. Flags are already being peddled by vendors who endanger their lives illegally offering their wares to car drivers on busy junctions. As a result of their efforts, flags are starting to appear on balconies and on cars, in time for Yom HaAtzmaut. Last year there were more flags than I'd ever seen before. Things were bad, people were blowing up all over the place and our soldiers were fighting door to door to combat terrorism. I doubt if we'll be seeing as many flags this year. People have got used to the army, the police and the Shabak thwarting the attacks (well it certainly isn't the Palestinians who are doing anything about them). Well, most of the attacks anyway. The feeling of crisis is not as severe anymore. As for me, the cynicism that left me when this War of Terror began has not yet returned. I'll definitely be flying the flag again this year (actually I didn't take it down from last Yom HaAtzmaut until about three months ago, and only then because it was so dirty. It's still waiting to be washed. You know me and laundry - not the best of friends).

posted by Imshin 20:48

Go check what belief you are. Don't ask me what I am. They might throw me out saying I can't live here any more. Don't be upset if the result has nothing to do with anything. Mine wasn't either. I really don't understand how they managed to reach the conclusion they did about me. My guess is it's something like those computerized translation thingies. A bit wacky. This is courtesy of Joe from Northern Ireland. I'm dead chuffed someone from Northern Ireland reads this.
posted by Imshin 20:47

Another dead hero. Poor guy. This scares the hell out of me. The thought that some day I may find myself in a similar situation. Or someone I know. It could happen to anyone. Being in the situation of identifying a suicide bomber and making the split second decision to get him to kill me to prevent him killing others. Would I be up to it? How could I do such a thing to my girls? How could I live with myself if I didn't? This is what happened in Netanya as well, in the last attack. That time it was a soldier who happened to be there.

Escape to bed with a bad mystery onvle, I mean novel (How did that happen? More than the usual dysfunctional typing). This one is driving me mad. I've known who did it for the last twenty pages. And why. These fictional detectives are such twerps.
posted by Imshin 20:42

So what else is new?
Diane pointed me to this rather pessimistic article in the Washington Post.

The despair is likely to stiffen the objections of many Arabs to any new Middle East peace deal seen as selling short Palestinian interests and promoting Israel's further integration into the region, analysts said. So too, having been humbled at the hands of America, Arabs could be less receptive to Bush administration efforts at preaching democracy in the region.

The article misses a central point and fails to learn the lessons of the Iraq experience. Just as the USA was planning to stage a military operation in Iraq and not in Jordan or in Egypt, Israel is hoping to make peace with the Palestinians and not with the Jordanians or the Egyptians (We already did that. Sort of.). Just as the rest of the Arab world had absolutely no idea how Iraqis felt about being invaded by the USA, and were completely taken by surprised by their refusal to put up any real fight, once they understood that Saddam really was finished, so Jordanians, even Jordanian analysts (especially Jordanian analysts) can't be expected to talk for Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza. They haven't been experiencing what the Palestinians have been experiencing for the last two and a half years so they can't speak for them, can they (just as they weren't experiencing what the Iraqis were experiencing)? So let them say what they like. It doesn't mean they know what they're talking about.

As if to prove my point, while my mother-in-law was serving us a delicious Hag lunch, Arafat and Abu Mazen managed to reach an agreement about the new Palestinian government, it seems, with a little help from their friends (knowing Mubarak and his great love for Arafat, the heavy pressure reportedly placed on Arafat by Mubarak's emissary, the head of Egyptian Intelligence, Omar Suleiman, would have had Suleiman sitting on Arafat, pummelling him and shouting, "Ya kalb, ibn kalb*, let Abu Mazen have his way!" Excuse me while I fantasize a little).
__________________________
* Dog, son of dog. Rumor has it that Mubarak has used this manner of addressing the honorable Palestinian Ra'is** once or twice in the past.
** President.

posted by Imshin 17:25

Did I die and go to heaven?
This is has made my day. Make that - my week.
You see, the thing is, when we all saw him go over to see Saddam, all kissey kissey and starry-eyed, it wasn't really Saddam he was in love with. IT WAS THE MONEY. And now we all know.

Ah, the joy, the satisfaction, the utter bliss of seeing a spade being called a spade for all to see.

I really really really hope this story turns out to be bona fide.

posted by Imshin 13:17

I'm still alive. Nothing to say.
posted by Imshin 18:06

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