Not a Fish - A CAT.
Just move your mouse so the cursor moves around the cat's body, and it will play with you (the cat not the cursor).

A gift from Our Sis for all you Cat Bloggers.
posted by Imshin 19:14

When you read that someone was lightly wounded in an attack, what does this mean, exactly?
This weekend, Yediot Aharonot’s local supplement “Tel Aviv” has the story of a local stand-up comedian called Yaron Breld. Or is it Berld, or Barald or Bralad or Barlad? You can never tell because there are no vowels, so you have to work it out for yourself. (One of the first things I did when I met Bish was to correct his pronunciation of some of the names in Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22”, whole passages of which he knew by heart. I recently read somewhere that Israeli kids are comparatively slow readers because of the vowel thing). Anyway, Yaron Whatever-His-Name-Is is described as the craziest stand-up comedian who does the most outrageous things on stage, which I am far too embarrassed to repeat here. Thing is, he apparently used to be this thin, athletic, good-looking, tight-assed jerk, who ran a model agency, went out with beautiful women, wore designer clothes and thought he was God’s gift (you know the type), and now he’s fat, dirty, smelly, never changes his clothes, and couldn’t give a damn what anyone thinks about him (as long as he can make them laugh). So what happened?

What happened was that he and his father were lynched, driving home through the neighboring (Israeli) Arab town, one night in October 2000.

An excerpt of the article (My translation):

…It was 9:30pm, completely dark, and Breld (?) and his father were driving along road 444, which connects between (the Israeli cities of) Kfar Saba and Petah Tikva. Breld: “On that day Sharon the hero decided to go up onto the Temple Mount, and that signalled the beginning of the Al-Aqza Intifada. All along the route we could see police cars and barriers, because there were riots. At one of the barriers we asked the police if it was safe to continue. The policemen said there was no problem, because most of the riots had calmed down, and we could feel secure to drive on. In our stupidity, we listened to the policemen and continued.

We suddenly saw cars stopping at the side of the road and turning round. I asked my father to go back, but he wouldn’t listen to me. I begged him, “Dad, go back”, but nothing would work. He listened to the policemen. While driving we started to see burning tires and bricks on the road, really scary. My father slowed down, and we suddenly saw 400 people, I’m not exaggerating, 400 people, running towards us. Molotov bottles, burning tires, crowbars. I am shouting at my father “Turn round! Turn round!”, but just as he was starting to turn round - boom! A brick came through the windscreen at his head. Dad lost consciousness and his ear was nearly pulled off, but for the 400 people surrounding us it was just the beginning.

I managed to escape from the car, but the mob was on my father, rocking the car and throwing bricks. I’m standing helplessly, watching them try to murder my father, not knowing what to do. I grabbed a rock and ran over to try and help him, shouting: “Leave my dad alone! Leave my dad alone!” And suddenly – boom! A brick hit my face. My jaw was shattered. All my teeth flew out. I even swallowed some of them. And then Arabs came from the direction of Moshav Sdei Hemed. One of them was carrying a hunting rifle, and he shot at them to drive them away. Our attackers thought we were dead anyway, so they left us.”

And then?
“The Arabs that came from the direction of Moshav Sdei Hemed dragged us to the moshav. My father was nearly dead anyway, he’d had about a hundred rocks thrown at him. I thought they were going to kill us. But they called ambulances and actually saved our lives.”

It’s strange. On the one hand, Arabs from Jaljuliya want to murder you, and on the other, two Arabs save you.
“You are right, it’s strange. But don’t misunderstand it, it’s not that the Arabs that saved us liked us, they just hated those from Jaljuliya and that’s why they were on our side. I promise you that if it was those who saved us who were doing the lynching, the Arabs from Jaljuliya would have saved us.”

Yaron and his father were hospitalized with wounds all over their bodies. “You can’t understand what excruciating pain I endured,” Breld says. “On the news they always say that there are wounded - badly, medium and light. They said that it was a miracle that I was only lightly wounded. I want people to understand what lightly wounded means: No lips, no teeth, shattered jaw, excruciating pain, and I’m just lightly wounded.”

Breld was in hospital for weeks. His jaw was restored, his lips sown up, and his teeth were replaced with implants in a long and painful process. His father took longer to heal, months.

When did you realize what had happened to you?
”Only when I reached the hospital. I still hadn’t really grasped what I’d been through. I thought I was in a nightmare, that it wasn’t reality. Slowly, I began to understand that my life had been saved. I’d looked death in the eye, and not just any death – death by stoning.”

What did you feel in those moments?
”When I was being attacked by those 400 people with covered faces, I began feeling a deep chill. I was afraid that my father was dead all the time. You can’t explain the feeling – it’s a nightmare, it’s a film you can’t change. And what did we want, after all? To get home. The funniest thing was that the doctor that took care of me was an Arab, and the hospital was full of Arabs that were wounded in the October riots by security forces. Israeli Arabs tried to murder me, an Israeli Arab is treating me, and in the beds beside me lie Arabs wounded in the riots.”

And besides the physical damage?
”There is also the psychological damage. I have nightmares about Arabs. I can see the picture of the 400 people with covered faces in front of me all the time, I’ve got shakes and twitches, but I thank God that my father and I survived, that’s most important.”

Is there anger?
”Yes, and I hate them. Before the event I was center, now I’m far right. You have to understand, the people who did the lynch were my acquaintances from Jaljuliya. Before it happened I was in Jaljuliya a lot - I sold my car there, I took my car there to be fixed, I went there to fill in Lotto and Toto (state-organized gambling on results of soccer games – I.J.), I even had a credit account at the store there, really chummy. And suddenly they’ve got their faces covered and madness in their eyes, rocking our car “hey hop, hey hop.” Do you get it? I can’t grasp it. A week ago I’m buying at the store there in credit, sending Lotto and Toto with them, and today they’re trying to kill me. I can’t grasp it.”

And since then, more than three years onwards, have you passed through Jaljuliya? It’s an Israeli Arab village, after all.
”No way. Since the event, I haven’t been near, and I don’t want any contact. I haven’t even paid my debt to the store.”

[…]

Here are some "before and after" photos:

Before


Not long after


This week


posted by Imshin 13:49

So familiar
It does get better. I find that now that the first year is behind me, along with the first Yahrzeit, I am more reconciled, more at peace. Time is helping me heal after all.

posted by Imshin 22:33

You may have noticed that the Israeli IndyMedia has been offline for a while, for a much-needed renovation. Of course, I strongly suspect the real reason they disappeared in such a hurry was the complaint lodged against them for publishing inciting material. They actually sort of own up to this in a way, because what you see when you reach them these days is their official reaction to the Police investigation.
posted by Imshin 20:04

Important to read: Ari Shavit interviews Benny Morris in Haaretz. Read it all, right to the end. Prepare to be shocked. Read with an open mind.

* * * *

Talking about Haaretz, have you heard that Editor-in-Chief Hanoch Marmari has resigned over a dispute with owner Amos Schocken about moving the Economics Department? The resignation is not about national politics, but it is well known that Marmari advocates a more balanced approach than his further left leaning boss. They were discussing possible replacements for Marmari on the Reshet Bet radio station and one of the names that was mentioned, albeit not very seriously, was Orit Shohat, well-known for her extreme left-wing views.

Someone joked that if she's editor, she and Schocken and her refusenik husband will be the only ones left reading the paper.

* * * *

Later: Mind you, in previous publications, Morris claimed to have failed to find quite well documented information regarding public utterances of Arab leaders in 1948, calling for Arabs living in the Land of Israel to leave temporarily, while they got rid of the Jews for them (and this is his main claim to fame). So I'm not sure if we should trust his fact finding this time around. Or anything else he says, for that matter, whatever side he's now on.
posted by Imshin 17:32

Gut Shabbus

posted by Imshin 17:03

On second thoughts, regarding the dangers we face, let’s not forget what Avi Dichter, head of the Shabak (General Security Service, often referred to, outside of Israel, as the Shin Bet), had to say about some of those small groups of Jews and the threat they pose us all:

Dichter also took the opportunity to make a clear statement on the potential danger from Jewish terrorists. Likely to intensify should Israel start uprooting settlements, Dichter said their dream to remove the "abomination" – the mosques – from the Temple Mount should trouble us greatly.

"For the State of Israel and the Jewish people in the Diaspora, Jewish terrorism is liable to create a substantial strategic threat and to turn the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a confrontation between 13 million Jews and 1 billion Muslims across the world," he said.

Brrrrr.

In Yediot Aharonot’s news weekend supplement today, Ariella Ringel Hoffman says that Dichter and the Shabak are very worried that these people will try to commit a mega-terrorist attack such as destroying the mosques on the Temple Mount (or murdering another Israeli PM). Ringel Hoffman quotes an unnamed Shabak operative who calls these people real anarchists (unlike the left wing activists, who called themselves anarchists, that tried to dismantle the security fence two weeks ago and then complained that the army had not dealt with them according to IDF regulations pertaining to arresting suspects), in that these people do not accept authority at all and feel they have nothing to lose, because perpetrating a world changing event (such as blowing up the Temple Mount, God forbid) will serve to bring the redemption nearer.

Brrrrr.

Okay, so now explain to me why these people are not in prison. If administrative imprisonment without trial (according to emergency regulations) is deemed necessary in order to deal with Palestinian terrorists, it should be okay for these dangerous individuals.

This fills me with fear too.

Belated explanation: I’m not talking about the guys that just got fifteen year sentences for trying to blow up a Palestinian girls’ school. I’m talking about the rest of them who are currently lying low.
posted by Imshin 13:39

Ah, a really interesting blog by yet another crazy goyishke (I assume?) British Expat living in Israel (What the hell is wrong with these people?). Don’t miss his riveting explanation of why he’s here. Makes me sorry I don’t need an English teacher. I wonder what he’s like with opinionated, unruly eight year olds? Ow! Eight and three quarters, sorry.
posted by Imshin 09:23

After a week or so of silence, during which I didn’t even open my computer, Bish told me I lacked discipline.

Of course I lack discipline. That goes without saying. But I don’t think that’s why I haven’t been writing, or watching the news, or reading the newspaper.

Sometimes an inner conflict causes one to shut down.

The good thing about blogging is that you really can’t ignore things, even if you can’t be bothered with them. They pop up and you have to deal with them. Sometimes dealing with them means you have to take a breather and not think about them for a while. There is always the danger you might not come back.

Part of the reason I write this blog is a healthy survival instinct. Lacking a more active modus operandi for Fight or Flight, I blog to conquer my fear. I am told that my country, my home, has no right to exist, and that fills me with fear. I am told that its chances of surviving are slim, and that fills me with fear. I read a book about the hold religious fanatics, whose main wish is to destroy everything I hold dear, have on Palestinian society, and that fills me with fear.

But what do I write that will help? And what do I not write? What do I do with my criticism for things that are being done by my leaders that are wrong, when the reasons for them are right? These are things that should be written in Hebrew. Saying them in English just serves to make things worse, because, read out of context, they could be used by our enemies, exaggerated, inflated, and twisted.

It’s not that I am overestimating my ability to effect or influence anything, mind you. A few hundred mainly friendly readers don’t change anything besides helping to lull my feelings of guilt at my inactivity. If I have nothing hopeful or positive to say, surely I should just shut up. What is the point of telling people overseas that I think the army, the Prime Minister and so on, should be doing certain things differently? And about my growing unease in the face of the behavior of said PM’s sons and said PM’s political party? And about my displeasure at the State’s continuing ineptitude in dealing with small groups of Jews trying to force their agenda on us in the disputed territories? These are still issues that, while frustrating me intensely, are dwarfed by the dangers posed to us by those who will stop at nothing to make us go away, however long it takes them.

But enough of all that heavy stuff. I'm back from my eight days of detoxing now. I've even dared to open my mail box. It wasn't too bad, considering. Last night I was at a Bat Mitzva, busy mingling with a half finished glass of wine in my hand, when I suddenly remembered that I was on antibiotics, the type that don't mix with alcohol. Result: I had the worst time, most of it spent in the toilet, had to leave early, and now I’ve got the hangover from hell.

posted by Imshin 08:58

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