I am very upset, no, I am extremely angry, about the gleeful coverage of the Russian hostage situation, by the cable news channels. Again and again, they are showing unedited footage of naked children coming out of that school. This is pornography.

It’s not as if they care two figs about those poor kids. If they cared they wouldn’t show it, like they stopped showing the people jumping out of the WTC.

I will not supply a link. No news service deserves it.

I’ll write about last night when I’ve cooled down. I’m too agitated right now.

Update: ‘Hostage situations going very wrong have happened in the West too’, says the expert on Sky News, citing Waco, among others.

I try to think of any hostage situation that did not go very wrong, besides Entebbe, that is. Terrorist hostage situation I mean, not your random, fruitcake seeking attention hostage situation.

I am sickened by this awful story, sickened and saddened beyond words.

Blog Meet tonight. Oh dear, all those people. And Bish has a meeting so I can't take him to hide behind.

Benjamin was there. Here is what he saw.

Brrrrrrr.
I know.

Via Eric the Unread (I read you, dear)

Every Israeli mother’s nightmare. Probably not just Israeli mothers. This makes me feel weak in the knees.

What about the democratic right to hold different views?
I accept that American elections are really none of my business, even though their outcome will probably have more impact on my life than on many American lives, moreover, I really understand very little about American politics, but I just don’t get certain aspects of these demonstrations in New York.

The impression I am receiving is that the people demonstrating, some violently, don’t want a political party and its supporters to hold a convention in New York… erm… because they see things differently?

Whatever happened to “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”?

I’m sorry I don’t have anything moving to write about today’s murders. I just don’t. I used to take writing about these events on this blog very seriously, because I knew a lot of people would pop in to see if I were still alive. But writing about a pigua means feeling it, living it, in a much deeper way than otherwise, and I don’t really want to do that.

You get this heavy feeling after a pigua and I don’t want that feeling to linger. There are those whose lives were taken; I hear there were children among them. There were those who survived but whose lives will never be the same. There are the families of both kinds. Life for them now becomes a desperate struggle to cope.

I don’t want to wallow. What I really want to do is go out on my bike. Today I bought a little light for riding at night, in the bike shop on the corner by work. I already have a flickering red light that goes at the back. Today I got a yellow light for the front.

It’s late. The girls are starting school tomorrow. What do I do with all this energy? I don’t want to wallow. And they’re in bed, bags ready, favorite clothes neatly folded, waiting for tomorrow morning.

It’s decided. I’ll go.

Update: Hey R.T., I mended my first flat! You'd have been proud. Your words of wisdom, 'It's just a bike', were a great source of comfort!

16 Murdered in Beer Sheva; at least 91 wounded (figures updated)
Two buses drove out of the central bus station in Be’er Sheva this afternoon, and blew up at nearly the same time, as they entered the center of town. 16 people were murdered; over ninety were wounded, many severely.

If you’ve been reading some of the other bloggers on a regular basis, Meryl for instance, you will know that this is no surprise. Security forces have been preventing such attacks all the time, every day. It is inevitable that sometimes they should slip through. Nothing has changed besides Israel putting up a fight to put an end to it all. The Palestinian Authority is quite happy for the bloodshed to continue.

This is the first time buses have blown up in the southern town of Be’er Sheva, though not the first terrorist attack in that town.

Why Be’er Sheva you may ask? Easy, NO APARTHEID WALL there! They haven’t got around to building the Peace Fence in that part of the country yet, so it is relatively easy to infiltrate from the Mount Hebron area.

Olympics – one last word.
There was something about the way those American track athletes were built that left all of us ladies breathless.

I hear the Americans weren’t all that popular in Athens.

They were eating their hearts out, those Greeks, that’s why. Iraq-shmiraq – forget it. They couldn’t help but see their lady folks drooling.

That old green-eyed monster is very bad for ones mental health.

Afterthought: Some lady bloggers don't like beach volley ball. I am led to understand that this is because they suspect men's motives for watching the women's games. What? They sincerely think women who watch the Olympics are watching the men just to see who wins? Hah.

The girls and I said our goodbyes to the summer vacation on a little overnight excursion to Jerusalem. What vacation? I ask. I worked all summer! But the girls start school again on Wednesday.

We stayed here, a friendly little B & B hotel. The girls loved it, because they said it felt ‘beitee’ (homelike). I liked it too. It had this lovely smell, for one thing, and I suppose because it really was beitee. I know the guy there, which is always nice. I’ve been meaning to go and stay there for a long time, but never seemed to get round to it.

The location proved very convenient for us, and there was no problem with parking. Next time we’ll take Bish, but that means Shabbat, which is less fun in Jerusalem, I think, when you’re secular.

One thing that struck me was that, because all the restaurants are kosher in Jerusalem, there are plenty of dairy places, which meant lots of choice for me, being a vegetarian. The restaurants all seemed to be full, by the way, and people sitting next to the windows. Nice.

Actually, talking about location, I managed to get lost with every turn. I do have a good sense of smell in Jerusalem, as I was there during my army service. What this meant was that every time I took a wrong turning I knew it immediately, but it was too late. We began the holiday with an unplanned tour (okay okay, we were lost) of Mea She’arim, no less.

To say we were not suitably dressed would be the understatement of the year, so it’s lucky we were in the car. I'm told that the residents can get rather unpleasant, when presented with the challenge of a bare female shoulder, or thigh. In our case it was mainly Eldest's unabashed Tel Aviv-style display of her midriff that worried me.

It was worth it though. The girls were fascinated. We do have quite a lot of religious people living in our area, even ultra-religious - it is possible to see bearded men sporting fur hats, shiny kaftans and knickerbockers passing our building on their way to shul on a Shabbat... er... Shabbus - but the girls had never seen anything like Mea She'arim.

Afterthought explanation: Our visit to Mea She’arim was not just a quick whip-through. We were actually stuck in a traffic jam in a narrow winding alley for about twenty minutes, long enough to read most of the pashkevils (ultra-Orthodox-style street posters) along the way. The interesting ones were dire warnings to women about the wig thing.

After twenty minutes stuck behind that nasty truck, I was convinced. No Indian wigs for me!

Mental note: Be careful who you say hello to in restaurants.
So the real story seems to be this: It’s the US that has been spying on Israel:

Newsweek magazine reported on Sunday that the FBI began investigating suspected Pentagon mole Larry Franklin after tailing the Minister of Political Affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Naor Gilon, who met an AIPAC representative for lunch. Franklin reportedly approached their table and engaged in a warm conversation with them.

(my emphasis)

Hmmm, maybe I shouldn’t go to the Israeli-Anglophile BlogMeet on Thursday (in my Zoro mask), after all. I could very well finish the evening in the torture dungeons of the US Embassy on Hayarkon Street!

Well, that may be so, but my Shoosha is proving invaluable in the War Against Pigeons which is raging on my kitchen window ledge.

She’s not six months old yet. Imagine what she’ll be capable of when she’s fully grown.

Via Meryl.

Our Alex
The reason I haven’t said much about the Olympics is that Israel wasn’t participating in my favorites. I like the athletics, the running, of course.

And now there’s Averbuch. I’m very excited about Averbuch and I’m waiting to see it, all tense.

He’s gorgeous, for a start. And …er… well, he’s gorgeous, that more or less sums it up for me.

And it’s happening now. I wonder how long it will take, because we’ve still got to go running ourselves.

Update: Oh well. At least he's gorgeous.

Allison has been profiled this Friday on normblog. Nice.

You may notice something a bit different here. A few people had been complaining about my blog giving them problems, so Bish had a look at my template. He was up till 3:30 last night cleaning up the errors in my html, poor Bish. I hope things have improved a bit now. He also tidied up the fonts and some other things.

GOLD!

Some of us had to work :-(

I was so busy I didn't even have time to listen to it on the radio. Only heard when I got home :-((

But I did get to see him get the medal and hear HaTikva. F#@k the 'Guardian', it felt nice :-)))))

Here is a fence, built to keep apart two peoples of two different religions, two peoples who are not able to live together. What is it called, this fence? Is it called an Apartheid Wall? No it isn’t. It is called a PEACELINE.

John pointed it my direction. Thank you, John.

From now on, maybe I won’t call our fence a security fence, anymore; maybe I’ll call it a PEACE FENCE.

Laurence Simon is Full of Crap, but I’ll forgive him, because he has lots of advice on getting hugs out of cats.

This morning Shoosha ran passed me in the dark as I made my way to the bathroom and nearly knocked me over. I actually smashed into the corridor wall. Then when I got back to the bedroom, she was sitting in the doorway and I didn’t see her (she’s black, the lights were off). I trod on her, she squealed and scratched me, and then skulked away hissing, poor thing.

I’ll try the crawling-towards-her-and-smothering-her-with-my-favorite-sweater ploy when I get back from work. I’ll have to get the sweater down from winter storage.

;-)

More Yoav Biran (Foreign Office guy
Jonathan has been kind enough to let me know that Yoav Biran, director general of the Israeli Foreign Office, was interviewed by Haaretz as well. He doesn’t say exactly the same things, but some are similar. Any way, the point is that you can read for yourselves.

He fully accepts the assessment that Israel currently has no partner on the Palestinian side to negotiate with and is satisfied with growing realization around the world that is the reason for the freeze. "Recently, I haven't heard from any serious source, in quiet diplomatic conversations, any genuine thinking that Yasser Arafat is good and beneficial. Without much exaggeration, the whole world agrees he is an obstacle and if there is any argument, it is only on how to minimize the damage he causes." Biran thinks that the war in Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein were positive developments in the region.

Biran does not despair over the chances of improving Israel's standing. Despite the harsh criticism directed at Israel, he feels the country's position is still strong. It is valued as an important diplomatic player and its close ties with the United States are respected. He supports the initiative of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to strengthen ties with Europe and also feels that in the Arab world all is not lost. In his many conversations with Arab figures, Biran says, he has learned that since the 1991 Gulf War, most moderate countries do not see Israel as an enemy or a threat.

Took day off. Got up early with Youngest (yawn)and headed for Yaffo port. Despite early hour, were still about three hours too late to catch the fishermen coming in. Oh well.

We did get to see one fishing boat, but all the fish coming out of it were in coolers (I want my money back).

Youngest was only really interested in the stray cats hanging around, apparently still licking their lips after the morning feast.

Came home. Now waiting around till Eldest awakes (this could take a while), before continuing the planned activities of the day.

Important news: Israellycool has moved.

The Shoosha Blues
I ache to give Shoosha a hug, but she won’t have any of it. She’s just not a huggy cat. I have to accept this.

She has this gorgeous sleek black coat. I really need to hold it and stroke it, but I have to remind myself to hold back. This is not what this cat wants. I must not force myself on her. Sometimes I can’t help myself and I am bitten, or scratched.

Ho hum.

Eldest adores her, with or without hugs, and gushes over her endlessly, coming up with about twelve cutesy names for her a day.

Me? I ache for a hug.

Afterthought: Before you say anything, I once had a huggy cat. I know they're out there.

I suppose I'll have to make do with humans for hugs. Luckily I have three very huggy humans living with me.

Isn’t the women’s marathon something? They’re amazing these women. How can they keep up such a pace for such a long time? Two hours into the race and they’re far faster than Bish and me even dream of, in our little thirty minute jog in the park of an evening. And it's even hotter there than along the Yarkon River.

I’ve been enjoying the route as well. The scenery looks familiar, somehow. And what about that Japanese runner? Small, short legs, and she’s leading - inspirational.

Update: She won! Wasn't it suspenseful? And they're saying that number three, the American, is Jewish, but you can never believe these commentators on channel one. An Israeli runner participated. She finished forty-something. I'm dead proud of her too.

Update update: Is too Jewish, according to Dr. Funk, who was even kind enough to point me to the evidence.

Pan-Arabism 2004
Yoav Biran, Director General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, is retiring soon. He was interviewed by Yediot Aharonot this weekend and had a few surprising things to say. He pointed out that many in the international community, including Arab countries, expect Israel to do the dirty work with regard to the Iranian nuclear threat.

He also told of his many meetings with Arab leaders over the years, leaders of countries not necessarily openly friendly to Israel. Itamar Eichner elaborates (my translation):

In his meetings with Arab leaders Biran heard interesting things, different and opposite to what the same dignitaries say about Israel in the media. “There are Arab leaders who attack us in the media, but in closed conversations confess that they admire Israel. If you want to be a Zionist, all you have to do is visit an Arab country and hear what its leaders think about us: about the Israeli capability, about the technological development, financial and military, about our standing in the world and especially about our special relationship with the United States. Israel is known in the Arab world as a country that, when faced with a real problem, finds a real solution. Again and again, they bring up the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor”.

Biran reveals that in conversations he held with Arab leaders he heard hair-raising attacks on Arafat: ”The Israeli public expressions of animosity towards Arafat do not come near to the level of animosity and hatred you hear in private from Arab figures. You hear names like liar, swindler, and even expressions of street-profanity and curses. It even embarrassed me as an Israeli. An Arab leader of a country with which Israel does not have relations, told me that if he was in one room with the prime minister of Israel and with Arafat, and he had a pistol with one bullet in it, the Israeli prime minister would have nothing to be worried about…”

Update: More and a link here.

Affaire du lycee Montaigne

anti-Semitism in France : the courts say YES
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 2004 9:07 AM

Dear friends,
You may have heard this year of the ugly anti-Semitic incident in which an 11 years old Jewish boy was molested by two older Arab boys in his school, the Lycee Montaigne, located in the center of Paris. This lasted for about 6 months before the affair was understood by the parents who then complained to the principal of the school. The two Arab boys beat the Jewish boy and bullied him, shouting "dirty Jew" at him and other anti-Semitic jeers. They stole from him, and there was no reaction neither from other pupils who saw what was happening, nor from any teacher.

After the complaint of the parents, the principal called for a disciplinary council, one of the bullies recognized the anti-Semitic insults, the other, who did the actual beatings, did not. The medical evidence which the parents brought to the school was sufficient and the two Arab boys were expelled. They are sons of diplomats working in an Arabic embassy in Paris.

Then, started an outcry by some of the teachers who considered this much too harsh a sanction. They called an organization fighting against racism, the League for Human Rights (Ligue des Droits de l'Homme, LDH), made a big issue of the matter in newspapers. The newspapers and the media in general spoke a lot about the "injustice" done to the expelled boys, while, for a long period, they had ignored the actual anti-Semitic incidents, as they are prone to do when the culprits are Arabs, and when they mentioned them, they called these either "usual school turbulence" or "conflict between communities".

The parents of the expelled boys then, with the support of the group of teachers and the LDH, complained and sued the school board and the ministry of education for an unjust measure. Such a complaint is treated by an administrative tribunal in France.

The administrative tribunal convened, and heard the lawyers for the parents and the teachers supporting them. They never heard the molested child, nor his parents, nor his lawyer. Based on the complaint it decided that the two expelled boys should return to the school, after the end of the present school year, and condemned the ministry of education to pay them damages of $1200 to each boy.

An administrative tribunal in France is entitled to judge procedures only, not to judge the actual matter. In this case it judged on the actual matter.

The ministry of education and the parents opposed this decision in an appeal court. Imagine what will happen to the Jewish boy if he sees his tormentors back in school. The execution of this judgment means in fact expelling the victim from the school. The judgment will be rendered in August, when all France is on vacation, and the lawyer of the parents is very pessimistic, based on many recent cases in France where complaints about anti-Semitism were minimized and usually dismissed by the French courts. In this case, the administrative court judged that, based on the accused boys declarations, the anti-Semitic acts, even though recognized by the authors, were not numerous enough to justify expelling the authors form school. So, for this French court, a certain level of anti-Semitism, even though illegal (it is against the law in France to proffer anti-Semitic or racist remarks in public), is acceptable.

The parents of the molested Jewish boy have asked me to publicize this as widely as possible in the media, in America and elsewhere, because it is only through publicity outside of France that we have a chance of avoiding the return of the bullies in this school. If the judgment of the administrative court is maintained it is a clear signal to all anti-Semitic children in all French schools that they have nothing to fear for attacking Jewish children in schools or in the streets. The lesson has been quickly learned: since the judgment, at least 5 Jewish youths have been attacked with knifes in France. In the latest incident children, coming out of a Jewish school in Paris, were attacked by an Arab young man throwing bottles onto them from his window, in front of the police. He was brought to the police precinct, and the mother of one boy who protected the children in her car came to lodge a complaint. The police officer receiving the complaint let the man go free, saying that he had been called "dirty Arab" by the children (primary school). Nobody was witness of any insult; the insult was most improbable as the man was at his window on the fourth floor of his building when he started throwing bottles on the kids. The police officer had learned the lesson. She preferred to let the man go rather than start a legal procedure which she knew the court would dismiss, thus losing her time.

If the present judgment is upheld, no street nor school will be safe for Jewish children in France next year.

I beg you to disseminate this information as widely as possible. If journalists want to know more, I'll put them in contact with the parents of the molested boy. This has to be published in America, French representatives have to be confronted by this, only such pressure can change the present tragic course of events.
Thank you in advance
Norbert Lipszyc

Read this excellent article by Mark Steyn, as posted by DFME, about Europe with regard to the welfare supplied by the USA.

I was astounded when, after the targeted killing of Sheikh Yassin in Gaza, someone wrote to me that Israel had no right to do such a thing, because it endangered American troops in Iraq. I think that was more or less the wording, I can’t check because I deleted the e-mail long ago.

Now I can think of plenty of reasons for not killing Sheikh Yassin, although I wholeheartedly support that action and others like it, this is war and he was one of the main enemies, but I really fail to see the connection to American soldiers stationed in Iraq.

Some Americans get very annoyed with Israel when it doesn’t function solely with the USA’s interests in mind, as they see them, before its own, even if this endangers Israel’s very existence. They think that, if such a dilemma should arise, Israel should always choose to act against its own interest, because the USA is footing the bill.

That is a hard one to argue, moreover I don’t like to argue it, because I don’t want to be seen as ungrateful, when I’m not.

I believe Israel and all its citizens are very aware, on a very daily basis, of how much it owes the USA. The need to balance our security needs with USA interests is something that I am sure our leaders take very seriously. This claim by some Americans is therefore certainly worthy of our attention, even though on occasion it may seem to us a bit loopy.

I am continually amazed therefore, that these very same Americans seem to make no such accusations where Europe is concerned. In fact they utterly support Europe when it repeatedly damages the interests of the USA, that most generous of benefactors.

But how can this be? Defending Europe costs them a far greater percentage of their tax money than the defense of Israel. But these Americans seem to have no problem with the Europeans, who, unlike Israel and the Israelis, are quite convinced that they live their lives of quiet affluence and peace because they are better people, definitely far better than the Americans, and that their happy, relatively carefree existence has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that they are enjoying the military protection of the USA, paid for by the very American taxpayers they so despise.

Could it be that these particular Americans actually buy into the Europeans’ pompous and ridiculous belief of their inherent superiority over the Americans? Could it be that they too have forgotten that twice during the last century Europe plunged itself, and the whole world with it, into a nightmare of death and destruction, which only came to an end when the USA intervened?

Naaaah, these are educated people, they couldn’t be that idiotic.

I first read about this John the Baptist Cave thing in Yediot Aharonot. I said to myself, ‘Well, if it’s in Yediot Aharonot it must be a hoax’. Another reason it seems dubious to me, even though I know little about archeology and even less about John the Baptist, is that I would imagine that if there was anything in it, the Israeli archeologists would have elbowed their way in, and muscled the foreign archeologists out long ago. Stands to reason, doesn’t it? But I could be wrong.

Afterthought: On the other hand, it could be the policy of Israel, and its Jewish archeologists, to butt out of Christian archeological digs so as to avoid religious tension.

Hmmm (2)
Now I wonder why Our Sis sent me this...

Rules of English

1. Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. And don't start a sentence with a conjunction.
4. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
5. Avoid cliches like the plague. (They're old hat).
6. Always avoid annoying alliteration.
7. Be more or less specific.
8. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are (usually) unnecessary.
9. Also, too, never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
10. No sentence fragments. No comma splices, run-ons are bad too.
11. Contractions aren't helpful and shouldn't be used.
12. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
13. Do not be redundant; do not use more words than necessary; it's
highly superfluous.
14. One should never generalize.
15. Comparisons are as bad as cliches.
16. Don't use no double negatives.
17. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be ignored.
21. Eliminate commas, that are, not necessary. Parenthetical words
however should be enclosed in commas.
22. Never use a big word when a diminutive one would suffice.
23. Kill all exclamation points!!!!
24. Use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
25. Understatement is probably not the best way to propose earth
shattering ideas.
26. Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
27. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
28. If you've heard it once, you've heard it a thousand times: resist hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it correctly.
29. Puns are for children, not groan readers.
30. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
31. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
32. Who needs rhetorical questions?
33. Exaggeration is a million times worse than understatement.
34. Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Actually, I know exactly why Our Sis sent me this :-p

Oh well, at least I have a good excuse - I'm a bloody foreigner.

Update: John writes

On the subject of ending sentences with prepositions, people often recount a story involving Winston Churchill. When an editor dared to change a sentence of Churchill's that appeared to end inappropriately with a preposition, Churchill responded by writing to the editor, "This is the kind of impertinence up with which I shall not put." His purpose, of course, was to illustrate the awkwardness that can result from rigid adherence to the notion that prepositions at the end of sentences are always incorrect.

Rear guard. Childbirth at fourteen.

This is what blogs are for, so people can read things like this.

Via Truegrit.

Done it!
At long last we’ve done the shopping for the new school year. Every year I get the school books ready at the beginning of July, but somehow this year I didn’t get round to it, and suddenly it was August.

It’s not really so bad. I fax the list to the book store and the next day they call to tell me it’s ready. This morning I was there at seven o’clock sharp, so as not to have to queue. Then we went to Office Depot to get supplies.

We used to go to Dyonon, the university store, at the end of August, which was always awful. I get very uptight in small crowded places and Dyonon is certainly that at this time of year. Office Depot on Yigal Alon Road was very pleasant. There is a multi-story car park there, very civilized, and the choice of exercise books was much to my daughters’ approval. Youngest got everything with something called Pucca, whatever that is.

I am intrigued, as I believe a lot of Israelis are, by Tali Fahima, a young Israeli woman who was arrested last week on suspicion of aiding Palestinian terrorists. She had apparently been getting a bit too pally with Jenin’s most wanted Palestinian, Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades commander Zakariya Zubeidi, for the Shabak’s (General Security Service) liking.

She seems to have taken the move from the periphery to the center (from Kiryat Gat to Tel Aviv), and the consequential value and belief switch it can often instigate, way too far. But I really don’t want to get into dime psychology here, or discuss the ‘It must be love, love, love’ angle. This is a hard one to avoid because, based on Fahima’s severe, dry image, hair pulled back, schoolmarm-ish specs, sharp business-like dress code, it is amusing to see the attraction to a man with a definitely thuggish charm. You get the strong impression that Fahima would definitely steer well clear of any man who looked like Zubeidi if he were a Jew, if he were a native of her home Kiryat Gat, a southern-ish development town (she cites his hard-luck story as what differentiates him from the gangster she originally took him for, but I have yet to meet the gangster who doesn’t have a heartbreaking hard-luck story, all true mind you, to help him gain entry into the beds of well-meaning, gullible young ladies).

I am also a bit perplexed by her paradoxical complaint that the unfriendly reaction she has received from the Israeli ‘street’ is proof of the lack of freedom of speech in Israel. I ask myself why she thinks she is the only one who deserves freedom of speech. What about the freedom of speech of people who wish to tell her that they think she is a traitor? (Although they really should have the sense to leave her mother alone. Sadly a lot of people have little or no sense).

Friends point out, on her behalf, that if she had grown up among lefties she would have a strong emotional support system protecting her. This is probably true, but I really do fail to see the relevance.

You see the thing that differentiates Tali Fahima from all the other lefties, going out on a limb for their views, is her background. She comes from a very poor family, even by Kiryat Gat standards. Her mother brought her and her two sisters up on her own, scraping a living as a cleaner, but mainly unemployed. She says she grew up in a very right wing environment and friends from home say she took great pride in her army service. Then two years ago a change came about her.

In Yediot Aharonot this weekend, one of her former bosses explained that they had no choice but to fire her because she was surfing to hostile Palestinian websites from the office computer, and posting comments on them, and refused to cease when asked to (and very rudely, if the account is accurate). Since then she hasn’t been able to get a job. This is unfortunate, she looks like an intelligent girl, if a bit of nutcase, but under the circumstances, I can understand potential bosses seeing her as a liability.

Update: Wise words on this subject, as usual, by Shai, here too.

A rare treat!
I’m all out of chocolate, so here’s a photo of me ascending a rather steep path in Rosh Pina.

Photo taken by Youngest.

Pride and Prejudice (Updated)
Today, on an Israeli satellite channel, I saw ‘Fictitious Marriage’, an Israeli film that was made in the eighties. We’re a racist society, here in Israel, that’s why we regularly get to see Israeli-made movies on TV telling the story of Palestinian suffering, actually mainly on the state funded channels. The film took me back to a period in which it was clear to me, at least, that we really were in the wrong; when the Palestinians were an integral part of our daily lives and we mistreated them.

This situation, as described in this film, and the bad feelings of many Jewish Israelis, including myself, brought us out into the streets, en masse, demanding a change. The public pressure, coupled with the second Intifada (the first Intifada, in my view, was between 1936 and 1939, against the British, while the current conflict is no intifada, it’s a war) resulted in the Oslo Accords, and the conceding of power over a sizable portion of the territories, and a large part of the Palestinian population in the territories, to self-rule under Arafat, on the way to independence and statehood (racist society, remember?).

Watching the film I could well remember the sentiment and identify with the message. I also could understand how completely different the situation of the Palestinians is today. They had a wonderful opportunity to build themselves a better life and they squandered it. What a terrible waste. And they took most of our goodwill and threw it back in our faces, ‘You suckers’.

Today they are no longer a part of our lives like they were before. Murderous terrorism, the likes of which we had never seen, never imagined possible, the horrible, distorted child of those very Oslo Accords that were meant to solve the problem, forced us to shut many of the Palestinians out. Other people are doing the work that once was theirs. They can no longer get into their Peugeot 404’s (the last car made to last for ever) and drive from Han Younis to Rishon Letzion. The sons of the real live versions of the laborers from Gaza in ‘Fictitious Marriage’, have probably never seen the new skyscrapers in Tel Aviv, besides on TV, and they certainly weren’t the ones to build them.

Even the affluence the Palestinians enjoyed during the Oslo years, when Israelis flocked to the West Bank to buy everything from furniture to dental treatments, is long gone and forgotten. It disappeared overnight, when they decided to go back on their promise to give up the road of violence, and attacked Israel in the autumn of 2000, hoping to extort a more favorable deal that way.

But they have something their parents never had, these children of Oslo and the Terror War. They are no longer invisible. They may be seen as the enemy, but that in itself is a sign of some respect, is it not? Love is best, of course, admiration - even better. But where that is lacking, for obvious reasons, hatred is far better than derision, or worse, indifference.

And thinking about this, I can understand why Palestinians should prefer the Israeli Right to the Israeli Left, whatever they may say to the cameras or to the idiotic, pasty-faced Europeans in Birkenstock sandals who frequent Jenin and Ramallah. Because the Israeli Right sees them as adversaries, while the Israeli Left sees them as miskenim (I’m not sure how to translate that, maybe ‘unfortunate wretches’).

The Israeli Left is motivated by pity and guilt, and there is nothing more degrading than being pitied. I’d rather be hated and feared any day, than be pitied.

Update: For 'misken' - one suggestion is 'pitiful wretch'.

And a reader comments: "more and more I see articles exclaiming "Why can't the Israelis see that the occupation is destroying their country and just end it!" - completely oblivious to the fact that millions of Israelis (and Jews in the Diaspora) DID reach this conclusion at the end of the 1980's, the result being Oslo, and the elections of Rabin and Barak with mandates to seek peace through an end to occupation.

Today it is as if Oslo never happened, Camp David never happened, Taba never happened.

I have gotten to the point where I don't even read articles that might be critical of Israel unless I can see that they at least mention Camp David in 2000."

And maybe this is a good time to say that the new policy is NOT to give reader's names. I always worry about this, so I've decided to just not put people's names and finished, unless they specify that I can.

Update update: Yael has the links.

And the reason I hate nightshifts is that I am a zombie for the rest of the week. So I am now a zombie. Hulllllllo there. Zombie is a bit like drunk. I slept a few hours this morning. Now I have to stay awake till evening if I want to recover by tomorrow.

Now you know why I don’t like flying through time zones (and why you are unlikely to see me face to face unless you schlep yourselves over here, ‘cos I won’t be going over there). It’s the zombieness.

Actually the night was quite good. I got a lot done.

Why I haven’t been blogging
What happened was that one day I discovered that I could invest very little of myself in my job and get exactly the same salary. Civil servants, nu. There was, is, I believe, in my department, an atmosphere of nonchalance, of irreverence, of things-will-work-out-by-themselves-even-if-we-don’t-work-very-hard-or-worry-ourselves-or-stay-late-or-take-things-very-seriously. Easy street. This was the preferred attitude of a young boss who came. And everyone loved it (Even though things didn’t work out by themselves. Things went rapidly down hill and stayed there).

I hate to admit it, but for a long time this situation suited me down to the ground. I was burnt out from the pressure of the former, more dedicated, more work-yourself-to-death-and-get-shouted-at-for-you-efforts attitude to the work that was strictly enforced by the tough previous boss.

And then Mum was ill and that demanded much mental energy, even before the period that she was lying on her deathbed. And I had started blogging, also a time consuming occupation, and much more rewarding than work. My job, my livelihood, could not have interested me less. So after my initial shock and disapproval of the new situation, I just settled into it, too timid to do anything about it, on one hand, and too distracted to really care, on the other.

Then one day I woke up and was horrified by what I saw. My department was a shambles, an unrecognizable shell of the fearsome, efficient, person and time consuming machine that it was before, the famous machine that had got the job done better than any other, that had held the admiration of the whole organization.

And then I spent a long, long time being angry and disappointed at the powers that be that had let it reach this point, while denying it was their fault and pointing the finger everywhere else. I was angry and disappointed and offended.

This led me nowhere good.

And now I have had a change of heart. I have looked at myself and seen that I have contributed to this situation, to this negligence. I enjoyed the situation and took advantage of it to my own ends.

Just because I could get away with not doing my best, not doing even near to my best, just because I could, just because that was what everyone else was doing, was inexcusable.

Maybe they were doing their best after all, it was just that their best was less than what I thought it should have been, or what I knew I could do.

It feels uncomfortable to be even thinking such thoughts, never mind writing them down (pompous twit). But I fear that modesty (coupled with unrealistic perfectionism) created the problem in the first place. I have been too modest, too shy, too insecure, and, yes, too lazy, to formulate my ideas clearly and convey them forcefully.

And now I have decided that this must change. It’s time to stop grumbling about what’s wrong and to start trying to do something about it, quietly, starting with my own little corner.

So instead of my head being full of ideas for the blog, my head is full of ideas for work. And this is as it should be, as Mary Poppins says.

I don’t want to stop blogging. John Williams suggests I should “declare that you are only going to write when you feel it is absolutely necessary to speak out against something?” That sounds about right. I do so declare. Although I will still be writing about the silly, little things as well. This said, I will probably start writing with a vengeance, now. Isn't that always the way? (I see Allison is thinking the same thing). So don't give up on me just yet.

There. Now I feel so much better, to have got that out.

To start I have volunteered for an irregular night shift tonight (Friday night, missing the opening ceremony) and have made a mental note that I will not grumble, complain or think any bad thoughts about it, even though I hate night shifts.

If you can bear or Rich people’s problems

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

Rudyard Kipling, summing up my feelings about my situation at work.

Note: This post has been severely edited. I'm sorry to have edited it, but I said a few harsh things about my workplace and decided that it was better to edit it. So I did. Edit it.

That's meant to be a dancing bear up there but it doesn't always work.

Back from Rosh Pina.

Lovely cool weather, nice B&B, good food, pleasant company, lots of rest.

Can’t tell any more about it just now because I’ve got to recuperate. Motion sickness. I get very bad motion sickness, especially when I sit in the back of the car.

Besides, my hair is in a terrible state. Motion sickness or no motion sickness, got to go have those shocking silver roots seen to.

Going away for the weekend. Back sunday evening.

I’m reading The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, first lovely book in a series about a lady detective in Botswana. It is so very African, naive, yet down to earth, and it is full of surprising little gems like this one:

Mma Ramotswe read the remainder of the letter, which as far as she could make out was meaningless jargon which the attorney had been taught at law school. They were impossible, these people; they had a few years of lectures at the University of Botswana and they set themselves up as experts on everything. What did they know of life? All they knew was how to parrot the stock phrases of their profession and to continue to be obstinate until somebody, somewhere, paid up. They won by attrition in most cases, but they themselves concluded it was skill. Few of them would survive in her profession, which required tact and perspicacity.

Tee hee.

Needless to say, the author, Alexander McCall Smith, besides being extremely skillful in his portrayal of his most captivating heroine, is also a law professor.

What a sweet idea! My girls will love this. Thank you Jennifer.

A funny thing
The first of August 2004 was the thirtieth anniversary of my family coming to live in Israel. I had been planning a grand celebratory post, full of depth and meaning (ugh).

But on the day I forgot all about it.

Last night we were in Netanya.
‘Look what the fence has done for Netanya,’ Bish commented as we drove past Independence Square in the center of town.

Remember Netanya? Netanya of the Park Hotel Passover Massacre, when thirty people, many of them elderly, were slaughtered as they sat down for the ritual Passover Seder meal in the dining room of a hotel; Netanya of numerous other terrorist attacks in recent years; Netanya that had become a ghost town because people were too scared to leave their homes, not to mention stay at the beachfront hotels.

Last night the center of Netanya was alive and buzzing with activity. People everywhere, hundreds of them, happy, carefree. Just a mid-week summer night in a vibrant holiday resort. Municipal banners promised Tu b’Av festivities (the Jewish festival of love) somewhere, but we could see no sign of them, just people having a good time out on the town. We could hardly get past with the car.

Netanya is not an affluent place, it never has been, even though the meaning of the name is ‘God gave’. It is laughable to talk about those wealthy Israelis eating off the carcasses of the poor Palestinians when discussing Netanya.

The fence has allowed the ordinary people living there to once again go about their lives in safety; it has brought back the tourists, enabling the locals to make a living. I am sure people in Netanya are extremely grateful for the fence. The fence has been a blessing for Netanya.

* * * *

While we’re on the subject of blessings, Mazal Tov to the young couple whose marriage (the night before on Tu b’Av, how romantic) and the subsequent Sheva Brachot celebration in one of those beachfront hotels, gave us the opportunity to witness Netanya’s amazing transformation for ourselves.

And I haven’t forgotten the wedding anniversary of Our Sis and Mr. Our Sis today. Mazal Tov to you too!

Allison’s Tamar is gorgeous (duh!). Oy, to eat her up. I forgot they were so small.

I was offered to hold her, by Allison’s mom, but I didn’t want to spoil her day (Tamar’s, not Allison’s mom’s). I’m one of those people who babies take one look at and scream their heads off. You would never believe I had somehow managed two of my own.

I suppose one reason that I haven't been able to write very much this week has been that the ministry clerks who are opposed to Bish's bill, managed to have it turned down by the government, and they apparently did it in a very nasty way (Gideon Levy style - half truths, taking things out of context, and unfair manipulations of the text). Bish isn't giving up though. He's great.

Anyway, please note the time. I am going out on my bike. The planned route includes the promenade along the beachfront. Can't go any later because it will be too hot. Also Shabbat morning early - not much traffic, besides people walking to shul (and sinners like me on bikes).

I'm getting better at riding. I find that while riding on the sidewalk may reduce the chances of my being killed in the heavy Tel Aviv traffic, it requires better biking skills, which I don't necessarily possess.

Oh oh, I've just put on sunscreen and Shoosha is licking it! LOL

Update: I’m back! I rode nearly all the way to Yaffo, then back again and home along the Yarkon River. It took me an hour and three quarters. Interesting discoveries: Seven o’clock on Shabbat morning is maybe not the best time for biking along the tayelet (promenade). Hundreds and hundreds of walkers! You’ve never seen so many people. In places, the pedestrian presence was so dense I could hardly get passed. On the other hand, the rest of the city was empty so I could just ride on the road.

I rode past the clubs in the old Tel Aviv port. Funny to see the youngsters staggering out after a night of dancing, drinking, and... er... other stuff (judging by the stories in the papers lately).

Main conclusion of the morning: I need to lower my handlebar.



From the morning’s pickings on my teeny camera: This is the Yarkon River. On the far bank you can see the gorgeous new boating center (I think that’s what it is, anyway). It’s shaped like an upside down boat. It looks really good at night, when it’s lit up.

In the foreground what you can see is two teenagers and their instructor just getting ready to go out for a row. I was pleased to notice that the kids were speaking Arabic. Behind them you can see a group of guys on their first rowing lesson (judging by the rather basic instructions the guy in blue at the back was yelling at them). Out of the frame, just behind me, sit the wife of one of the men and his two small children, watching excitedly as Dad rows away.

Gaza Gideon (updated)
Gideon Levy is not an example of a responsible, balanced journalist, Mick. He’s very good at what he does. This article is a compilation of distortions and half facts. It’s cleverly done, so it’s difficult to argue with.

But Gideon Levy never gives any other angle, as a responsible, balanced journalist would. He never bothers to point out why something happened. He never takes the time to mention the terrorist son or brother, for instance, hiding out in the building, or the weapons factory in the back room, or the sniper that forcibly took over the building, or that the building was booby-trapped, or the soldiers that called out their intentions on loud speakers a day in advance, giving ample time for the inhabitants of the building to evacuate. And why should he? No one demands journalistic integrity of him (if the words still hold any meaning, to rephrase you, Mick).

Gideon Levy will never bother to point out, just to balance things a bit, for instance, that the field of vision of the driver of an armored bulldozer (and they have to be armored bulldozers otherwise the drivers will be shot) is very narrow and that he can hear very little, probably not even the shrill, high pitched shrieks of a diminutive Palestinian elderly lady, besides the squeaky screeches of his heavy machinery.

He never gives any background for the sad stories he tells. They are always out of context, always. He always give a narrative of a situation that is so narrow, so very, very narrow, that it offers the reader a field of vision that even the driver of an armored bulldozer, used to being able to see very little, would complain about, and find unreasonable. He distorts and twists things so that all you can see is that very narrow field of vision he is offering you. And like that bulldozer driver, you can’t hear yourself think over the roar of his hate-filled accusations and his warped, clear-cut assertions. He turns that into the only reality, although that is never the case in real life, is it, Mick?

And sometimes the things he writes are just outright lies, but he lies so damn well that you can’t even see it.

I’m tired of Gideon Levy and his twisted and manipulative use of selective half-truths. I find it easier to see where and how he is b#$%&&*#ing me, because I can see the big picture, because I know the context out of which he is sneaking these ‘facts’. But you can’t, Mick. You are an innocent, a perfect target for Gideon Levy. Me, on the other hand, I’m immune by now. I wasn’t always, but I’ve been hearing his rhetoric for years and years. I’ve read about a hundred Gideon Levy articles too many, maybe more.

Gideon Levy lost his ability to affect public opinion in Israel, long ago. The result of his persistently creative use of the facts is that he has very little credibility and is widely seen, at best, as a Palestinian propaganda tool. He is overbearing, pompous, and self-righteous.

In this article, Gideon Levy relates a number of unrelated events, giving a very selective and partial account of each, and cites them as proof of Israeli society’s inherent racism and hypocrisy.

But what stares out at me quite clearly from this article is not Israeli racism. Every example he gives is disgracefully out of context and a complete, unabashed distortion of the facts. Not that there is no racism in Israeli society, quite the contrary, we are no better than anywhere else in this respect, although I do believe we actually are better than quite a few places, and not only our neighbors in this region, whose racism is so prominent and unapologetic that the blindness of the west to it (even as they call Israelis Nazis) is quite incredible. No, I think the real message of his article is the moral corruption of the Israeli media.

It is true - Yediot Aharonot plays down Palestinian suffering. But this is not out of political bias or hypocrisy. Yediot Aharonot is in the business of selling papers. Yediot Aharonot thinks Palestinian suffering doesn’t sell papers, and it’s probably right. Scantily clad starlets sell papers; dubious ‘Man Bites Dog’ stories sell papers; questionable, titillating revelations about the private lives of celebrities sell papers. THE NEWS, sadly, does not sell papers, or, at least, that is how Yediot Aharonot appears to see it. Journalistic integrity doesn’t come into it. Even when they do run the news, they do it in a yellow, sensationalist manner, with little respect for the facts.

The rub is that Haaretz is no better, maybe even worse, morally speaking. While Yediot Aharonot makes no secret of putting its profits first, Haaretz vehemently and shamelessly pushes its political bias, while at the same time denying this and claiming to offer fair and honest reportage.

We were longtime readers of Haaretz, and bought into this claim of theirs for many years. It wasn’t Gideon Levy’s articles that eventually pushed us to cancel our subscription, or Amira Hass’s articles for that matter, it was the semi-disguised political slant in the news pages and in the so-called serious in-depth investigative stories that gradually disgusted us more and more, until we couldn’t and wouldn’t read it any more.

Gideon Levy, in this article, offers us a pile of hateful manipulative half-truths, at best, and one or two outright lies, all cleverly disguised. You asked for my reaction to this article, Mick, and I have been agonizing over it all week. It upsets me considerably to read all his twisted, devious manipulations. I should fisk it, I should go sentence by sentence and pull it to pieces. It is probably the most fiskable article ever written. Every out-of-context piece of poison in it is a complete distortion of the facts. I should fisk it, and I feel bad that I can’t. But I can’t, because that would make me just as petty and spiteful and hateful as he is. I cannot find the energy in me to stoop to his level, even if it is the right thing to do.

What can I say? We are at war with the Palestinians, I’m sorry that this is the situation. A personal aim of mine is to make an effort to continue seeing the humanity in the other side, to be aware of their considerable hardships and understand them, although they make no such effort to do the same with regard to me.

The nature of war is that people get hurt, innocent people. Unlike the Palestinians, we do not purposefully target non-combatants, but still it happens. Part of their war strategy is to bring the war zone into densely populated areas. This strategy, and its awful results, serves the Palestinian cause well. It gives people like Gideon Levy ample ammunition. For we are at war with the Palestinians, Mick, and Gideon Levy is not on our side.

Update: I've been writing and writing and deleting and starting over and getting anxious and gtting upset all week. And after all that John just says it so much better:

Gideon Levy doesn't make any analogies about suicide bombers...

'Imagine a scene where a Palestinian suicide bomber stands at the entrance of a restaurant crowded with children eating 'happy meals'...then imagine a situation where an Israeli suicide bomber stands at the entrance to a Palestinian cafe filled with children...ooops, one can't really imagine that can one?'

I'M BLOCKED.

(But I got to see Allison's baby and mother today)

Someone has asked me to comment on a particularly insidious Gideon Levy article and I've freaked out. Bish to the rescue. Watch this spot.

Just got this through my mail box:

Dear sir or madam,

Petition to President Richard Brodhead to deny use of the Duke University Campus to Supporters of Terrorism.

I would be extremely grateful if you could make your readers aware of the following petition. Palestine Solidarity Movement--the American student wing of the International Solidarity Movement--is attempting to hold its National Conference at Duke University on October 15-17, 2004. We do not want this group, which supports destruction of Israel "by any means necessary," to be given the privilege of using our campus. We are therefore sending a petition to our new president, Richard Brodhead, asking him to keep ISM out.

Sincerely,
Andrew Gerst
Duke University junior
Newton, MA

I don't know if the ISM supports the destruction of the State of Israel, as this person says, but I feel that they are actively contributing towards this end in their actions. I feel very strongly that if they were truly interested in peace in this land, they would be doing something about stopping terrorism and promoting dialogue. Instead they are aggressively supporting one side of the conflict, and by doing so, they are encouraging that one side to continue pursuing violence, a large portion of which is aimed at non-combatants, some of them from their own side.

I would like to point out that I have not signed this petition. I am not an American and I feel that what happens in American campuses is really none of my business, even if it can cause harm to my people, my family, and myself. I thought it was important to bring the petition to your attention, that's all.

So here we have it:
I’m extremely busy doing fun things. I’m creating strange pieces of – ahum - art (Bish says that things that look like they’ve been dragged from the garbage can are not exactly, erm, his, erm ... oh never mind); I’m running; I’m spinning; I’m taking Youngest to swimming (I’m also a very bad poet it seems); I’m riding the wonderful, shiny new bike that R.T. helped me buy; I’m obsessing about things that are happening at work; and I’m trying to keep up with Bish’s new career as an interviewee on Israeli media (four interviews on radio, five on TV (one in Russian -not Israeli Russian, real Russian from Russia, would you believe it?), and quite a few mentions in newspapers, all in the last three weeks, but we reckon it’ll taper off now) – it’s not about the bill, it’s about an aspect of his profession (although not him personally) being connected to one of the big affairs happening in Israel lately, and the media people have discovered that Bish is intelligent, eloquent, and that he looks and sounds quite good (that's my Bish), so he’s being interviewed as a representative of his profession and as an expert, blah blah.

If all that isn’t enough, it is also hot and humid, and even with the air-conditioning it’s difficult to do anything that requires any sort of mental activity.

I have some great photos of Shoosha, but I can’t post them yet for technical reasons (Bish’s laptop died, it’s a long, sad story, I’ll spare you).

By the way, I was reading up about biking and came across this lady. Not only is she sporty, she is also a very witty and amusing writer, and I like her name.

You talking to me?!
Dave from Israellycool gives us some excellent examples of polite French diplomacy.

Swastika carved on Jewish girl / French urban legends
Yael has found the story I was talking about. She remembers it too. I’d begun to think I was hallucinating. This is from April 2004:

Also in Paris, a 12-year-old girl coming out of a Jewish school was attacked by two men. They beat her, held her down and slashed her face with a box cutter. They carved a swastika into her face and walked away. Her parents have filed a police report.

Yael says she tried to interest bloggers in this at the time, to no avail.

Four more years!
No not Bush - Arafat. That's what he got out of this Terror War.

I'm no expert, but I can distinctly remember a lot of rumbling and grumbling among Palestinians about Arafat's corrupt regime, just before hostilities "broke out" in the autumn of 2000, and I mean a lot. And there was talk of his days as despot nearing their end. But he showed them. Typical to local dictators, Arafat skillfully manuevered things so that growing disatisfaction and opposition to his regime was soon directed towards the nearest and most convenient common enemy - us - with disastrous consequences for his people.

Well, the rumbling and grumbling are getting louder again, much louder.

As the Arabs say: 'cool calb biji youmo'. Every dog's day comes. Only this dog’s day is a long time coming.

According to the UN: Israel is the best place to live in this part of the world, while the Palestinian territories are not the worst! Un-effing believable.

Very well put by Yael.

What does this mean?

Leaders of the Presbyterian Church in the US approved a divestment campaign against Israel in a series of annual resolutions that included a condemnation of Israel's security fence, a decision to continue funding churches aimed at converting Jews to Christianity and a disavowal of Christian Zionism as a legitimate theological stance.

In a vote of 431 to 62, the 216th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA compared Israel's policies to those of South Africa and approved gathering data to support a selective divestment of holdings in multinational corporations doing business in Israel/ Palestine, a July 2 church release noted. The church's liaison to the Middle East, Rev. Victor Makari, noted after the vote that if nothing else seems to have changed the policy of Israel toward Palestinians, we need to send a clear and strong message.

That doesn't sound very nice at all. Shouldn't a Christian church be suggesting, clearly and strongly, that Palestinians change their policy of blowing up innocent Israelis?

Swastikas and hoaxes again
Thank you Mary and Mrs. Treppenwitz, for both taking the time to tell me about the Tawana Brawley hoax. Very kind of you, but this is not what I was thinking of.

I do remember reading somewhere quite recently about a Jewish girl in France who had had swastikas carved onto her.

But anyway, this latest hoax in France is particularly intriguing in light of the Tawana Brawley story, isn’t it?

Relevant party
Yes, I had noticed that Kiwi Bob had not supplied an e-mail address for the International Court of Injustice, but didn’t have the energy to deal with such a difficulty in seventy percent humidity. Anyway, now Adrian has sent it to me and I am nicely rested from my weekend in a less humid atmosphere, so I haven’t got any excuses.

Maybe we should all send the letter again, to the relevant party this time. mail@icj-cij.org - International Court of (In)Justice.

Adrian has a very nice new blog design, by the way. I’m dead jealous, although if my blog ever looks any less silly, I’ll have to start taking myself seriously and we can’t have that now, can we?

Lots of news.
Political stuff in Israel. On a personal note, this could turn out bad for Bish’s bill. We’ll have to see. The government still hasn’t voted on it.

Violence and chaos in the Palestinian Authority. They’re talking about the end of Arafat. We’ve heard that one before!

But I don’t want to talk about the yucky stuff, when we have such good news. Welcome, Tamar, our very own blog baby, and a big, big Mazal Tov to Allison.

A few years ago, I was staying with friends in Kiryat Tivon near Haifa. In the late afternoon a group of us walked down a path in the woods. After some time descending the hill we came to a clearing. It was twilight, the sun had just set and it wasn't dark yet.

There before us, already lit up for the evening, were three archways, carved into the rock at the foot of the hill. It was the tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi, head of the Sanhedrin of old, and compiler and sealer of the Mishna, an important part of the Oral Torah.

I was overwhelmed. I hadn't been to the ancient Necropolis of Beit She’arim since childhood, and had completely forgotten that we used to drive through Kiryat Tivon on our way. My parents used to love Beit She’arim and would to take all our visitors there. I sometimes tagged along.

* * * *

We spent this last weekend in a lovely little place called Beit Lehem Haglilit, Galilean Bethlehem, in a quaint reverted barn, built by German Templars at the beginning of the Twentieth century (These people were all chucked out by the British at the beginning of World War Two, because of their open Nazi sympathies). Our rooms were on the second floor of what used to be the hen house. Our friends slept downstairs in the former stables. Dad made all sorts of cracks about the rooster and the chickens and watching out for the fox, when he rang to see how we were doing. I actually saw a fox, but not in the hen house. I saw him when I went for a little walk. He was at the end of the field, and when he saw me he scurried towards the safety of the trees.

And on Friday morning we went to nearby Beit She’arim . It must be cool in the burial caves, I told everyone, in my attempt to persuade them that it was preferable to the ancient ruins of Tzipori, which I have never seen. I wasn't sure about the coolness, I made a wild guess because I really wanted to see Beit She’arim properly again. But I was right - natural air-conditioning in the dark, damp caves.

And even the kids enjoyed themselves, and found it interesting, more than the usual ‘old stones site’. I think they appreciated the spookiness of being in caves full of graves and coffins, even if they no longer hold any skeletons (all stolen long ago by grave robbers). Us so-called grown-ups enjoyed the Hebrew inscriptions on the sarcophagi and on the walls, and the uncharacteristic use of ‘Goyishke’ symbolism in the carvings (we saw a couple of Roman goddesses, and even a mask of a face), seen as a sign tolerance and openness of the Judaism of the time.

We did something I never did with my parents, we took a guided tour, and our reward was to get in to see the tomb of Rabbi Yehuda Hanassi himself (and his wife and the rest of the clan, apparently). I'd only ever seen it from the outside, because it’s kept locked.

The other tombs were mainly the burial places of rich Jews of the era (Roman period – about 1800 years ago) who wished to be buried near to him and were transported from all over the Jewish Diaspora of the day.

I’m so glad I had the opportunity to revisit Beit She’arim as an adult. I can now better understand why my parents were so drawn to it when they were relatively new to this country, and preferred bringing foreign visitors there than to the more obvious choices in the vicinity of their Haifa home, such as the rather kitschy Bahai Temple.

Tallrite: Palestinians deserve regime change. A positive commentary.

It’s amazing to see how flexible Yediot Aharonot is about reporting the facts, even when they later turn out not to have been the facts. According to Yediot, the most popular and widely read newspaper in the country (Haaretz’s readership is tiny, the Jerusalem Post’s - microscopic), the fate we had thought had befallen that most imaginative of girls on the train in Paris was far more horrible than any of you read in your national papers – the swastikas weren’t just written on her body, they were carved there; her hair wasn’t just cut, it was shaved off; and her baby’s stroller wasn’t pushed over, the baby was kicked.

That was a whole two days ago. Yediot apparently assumes that the entire body of their readership possesses the collective IQ of an ant and the memory of a rabbit. In this morning’s paper they write about it all being a hoax. Forgotten are the blaring headlines screaming of swastikas scraped on female flesh. ‘I drew them on my stomach myself’ they now quote her as saying. Do they think we can’t remember the accusations they bandied around at the beginning of the week?

What worries me is that they obviously really don’t care, and this is only one example among many.

--

I have noticed that habitual liars appear to feel no embarrassment on being caught. Everyone around can be visibly cringing, as if it were they who had just been exposed, while the person in question is quite untouched, oblivious of the ridicule or disgust felt by all present.

* * * *

The story of swastikas carved on the bare flesh of a young lady sounds familiar. I distinctively remember reading a similar story somewhere a while back (was it on a blog?) and remember thinking that if this was true it should have been front-page news. Could this messed up young lady have been living out a popular French urban legend? Creepy.

You can do something: You can tell them how you feel.
Kiwi Bob has kindly supplied the relevant e-mails and even a letter to cut and paste. Send away!

==========================

ecu@un.org - United Nations

civis@europarl.eu.int - EU Parliament

info@curia.eu.int - EU Court of Justice

Subject: The building of the Israeli security fence

To Whom It May Concern:

When Israel builds a fence to keep out terrorists, the UN and EU are
up in arms because it makes it difficult for terrorists to kill more Jews.

When terrorists shoot (point blank!) an 8-month-pregnant Jewish woman and her 4 little girls, there is absolute silence from your organizations.

The security fence is a temporary and nonviolent way to reduce terrorism. The fence is a proportional response to the ongoing Palestinian Campaign of terror. When the terrorism stops, the fence can be taken down.

The route of the fence was designed to save the lives of innocent people. Israel has the right and the duty to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks.

Since the erection of the security fence there has been a 90% decrease in the number of attacks against Israelis-from an average of 26 attacks per year before the fence to three attacks after the fence was built.

The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled that areas of the fence must be
adjusted in order to relieve Palestinian hardship. Unlike any other country in the region, Israel has an independent judiciary. Israel, a democracy committed to the rule of law, will comply with the Israeli Supreme Court's decision.

The security fence is not a wall, as the court states. The majority of the fence is constructed of barb wire-8.5 kilometers of the fence consists of concrete slabs, in order to prevent sniper fire.

There are many disputed security fences around the world-India has
constructed a fence in the contested area of Kashmir, and Saudi Arabia has constructed a barrier in an undefined area along the Saudi Arabia-Yemen border-yet only Israel's security fence has prompted an International Court of Justice ruling. See this website:
(www.washingtoninstitute.org/
distribution/PCE465.doc)

Israel is willing to make painful sacrifices for peace. Israel has
made peace with Jordan and Egypt, and gave up the entire Sinai-land
larger than the current state of Israel.

If you think your indifference goes unnoticed, count the number of messages you will receive world-wide in the next 48 to 72 hours on this subject.

Respectfully,

Oh goody!
Guess who got contractions and went off to the maternity ward this morning?

How exciting.

Update: I didn't read the comments. IT'S A GIRL! (I have this urge to go lululululululu, but I don't know how to)

This is 19 year-old Ma'ayan Na'im. She was murdered today by Palestinian terrorists.

I should be making all sorts of informative and opinionated comments about the International Court of Injustice, about the security fence. Mind's a blank. Has been for a while, you'll have noticed, no doubt.

It’s such a joke, that decision of theirs, or opinion, or whatever they're calling it. A sick joke. And an especially sad joke for people like Avi Ohayoun, whose two small sons were shot in their beds in Kibbutz Metzer by a heartless savage desperate freedom fighter, while their mother was reading them a goodnight story.

They would still be alive if there had been a fence at the time their murderer decided to steal into their home. Their bedroom was so close to the fence's much-discussed and disputed route. How painful for their father that their deaths should be brushed nonchalantly aside as inconsequential, irrelevant, by those great and wise judges in The Hague.

A sad, sick, cruel joke, but a joke nevertheless. One of the wounded in today’s attack was a young Arab man from Yaffo (Jaffa). He called for the Arab Knesset members to resign, because of their vocal opposition to the security fence. It seems his experience has brought him to the realization that the fence protects him just as much as it does his Jewish neighbors.

I never run for a bus. Matter of pride.

Slightly nervous this morning, laden with the fresh news of a ‘pigua’ in Tel Aviv, I made a run for the bus. It was just that I could clearly see the security guy on board, through the window, with his neat khaki safari jacket. ‘This is the bus for me this morning,’ I thought and kicked up my heels. They don’t have security guys on all the buses.

Just before leaving home, I had whispered to Bish that maybe Eldest shouldn’t get the bus to her art class this morning. Maybe she should walk. We thought about it for about a tenth of a second and both agreed that there was no reason to mention anything to her.

You see we’re not particularly scared or worried. I’m more concerned about accidents or perverts, if anything, with regard to Eldest roaming around on her own.

But for a few minutes after you start to realize that there are more ambulances than usual racing past the busy street corner on which you live, you get a little tiny bit jittery. Only for a minute and then life goes on. Two minutes into my spinning lesson I had forgotten all about the Pigua, and only discovered about the lovely young woman that had been murdered and the numbers of the injured, when I got to my office later on.

We hear ambulances. We put on the radio. A bomb, a bus or a bus stop in South Tel Aviv. But I have to go to work. By bus :-p

I’m so glad Karen Alkalay-Gut is back.

‘This International Court of Injustice will self-destruct in five seconds.’ Kerfoom. The International Court of Injustice is dead! Long live the right of nations to defend their civilians!

I’ve been trying to work out if there is a polite way of saying f--- off. There isn’t.

Update: Leif.

Still no news about the vote on Sunday. Bish reckons they didn't vote on it yet.

Note: If you haven’t seen the third film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and haven’t read the book, and you mean to see or read one or tother, you might like giving this next post a pass.



The difficulty of letting go
We saw ‘The Return of the King’, the last chapter of the ‘The Lord of the Rings’ trilogy, on Friday evening. I am left with the image of Frodo Baggins standing in the heart of the volcano, over the furnace of lava, unable to let go of the ring, even though he has traveled for many months and endured terrible hardship in order to do just this, even though he knows the very future of his world depends on it. Everyone watching is silently shouting, ‘Let go of the ring! Let go of the ring already! What’s wrong with you?’ But the ring is so strong. It has such a hold on its possessor.

‘It’s only a film,’ Bish reminded Eldest when things got too scary for her, ‘It’s not real.’ But how many times have each and every one of us stood over the abyss and been unable to let go of the ring, just like Frodo? Our rings may not be golden and magical. They don’t even have to be ‘things’. In fact they’re usually not. They can be a person, a situation, an idea, a belief, or even a figment of our imagination. But their hold on us is just as firm, just as unrelenting. And we find it just as hard to release our grip, even when we know for sure that letting go will free us.

Sometimes we stand there on that spot over the abyss for months, sometimes for years; some rings we continue to clutch for eternity, pathetically murmuring over and over and over ‘my precioussss’, till the end of time, never to be free.

Even though Frodo’s ring had evil, magical powers that had a strong hold on him, our task is still far harder than his. He had to let a material object fall into a furnace that would destroy it forever, and at the same time destroy its hold on him. Our rings are imprinted in our minds; their hold is not really dependant on anything outside of us, even though we are certain it is.

Letting go of our rings means that we must not only accept change, it also means we must actually change ourselves, and no one can do that for us.

I have so many rings I don’t know where to start. That’s a good excuse now, isn’t it?

Happy Fourth of July to all Americans.

Bish goes to the Knesset and learns about how democracy works
On Sunday, the Ministerial Committee for Legislation will vote on Bish’s bill draft. No kidding. He has a bill draft, a suggestion for legislation he wrote and has been promoting.

I’m so proud of him. He saw something that was wrong, something that in his view needed changing and, unlike the rest of us who just whine and whine about injustice and do nothing, he set about making a difference.

He’s no politician, my Bish. He’s not even a lawyer. He had no previous connections to politicians, no funding, and no backing, besides the small non profit organization he was recently elected to chair, which represents a few hundred of his professional peers.

He sat up nights at the computer, working out the details, then he sat with the NPO’s legal advisor and they worked on the draft. The legal advisor thought it would never work. He’s a nice guy, even if he did write our marriage agreement and later, much later, confessed to Bish that he hadn't thought we’d stay married for more than a year (he very perceptively thought the bride was a nutcase). It's just that he doesn’t seem to have much fighting spirit in him.

Then Bish started meeting with Knesset members and government ministers to try and get them interested in the bill (‘I’m going up to the Knesset again today, dear’). A few members of the NPO helped him get appointments with politicians they knew or knew people who knew.

Bish’s initial idea was to suggest that the relevant ministry use his bill draft, or their own draft based on its ideas, as a government bill. But the ministry clerks in question proved extremely hostile and refused to even read it. Their minister, on the other hand, did read it and liked it, and suggested Bish found Knesset members who would promote it as a private member’s bill.

Imagine our amazement and excitement when Knesset members from the coalition recognized the bill’s potential and took it up. It is going to be brought before the Knesset as a private bill, hopefully with government backing.

On Sunday, the government will vote if to give it such backing, the government that is in the form of the Ministerial Committee for Legislation. That means, among others, Finance Minister Bibi Netanyahu (Bish couldn’t get a meeting); Justice Minister Tommy Lapid (‘He was very nice, very impressive, but he looked so tired’); Minister for the Diaspora Natan Sharansky (‘What a lovely man, smiling eyes’ – smiling eyes is a big compliment in Bish’s book, maybe the biggest).

For years you feel like you are hitting your head against the wall every time you come in contact with government bureaucracy. It is so amazing to think that a private citizen like Bish can try to make a difference like this, if he sets his mind to do so, and can get this far. This has been an uplifting experience, an experience of what democracy means.

Even if the government decides not to back the bill, it will still be put before the Knesset, but it has a far better chance with government backing. I’ll keep you posted.

By the way, the bill still has a long way to go even if the government decides to back it. The bill that will eventually become law, God willing, will probably be much changed from Bish’s draft, maybe unrecognizable. You can read about the legislation process for a private member’s bill in Israel in the Knesset site.

The good news
I really don’t see how I could possibly leave the girls and Bish for more than a week at a time. Sigh.

One of my friends in my Tuesday evening art class is going to India in August. Her daughter is there, you know the ritual Israeli after-the-army trip, and she’s going over to visit her (To make sure she’s not overdoing the mushrooms and so on and so forth). In our last lesson, she was telling us about her plans. I suddenly realized I wanted to go too. I hadn’t been aware of this before.

And then yesterday there was an article in Yediot Aharonot about these two girls who organize spiritual trips for women to India. It sounds a bit too fluffy for me, but maybe I’ll give them a ring, get more details. Don’t hold your breath though.

Back to real life, the good news is that they’re not canceling Youngest’s special bus to school, next school year, after all, but we’ll have to participate in paying for it. Phew! Youngest was very nervous about this, because if the bus had been canceled she would have had to start taking the public transport. This in itself is no tragedy, I was getting the bus to school when I was her age, but then I didn’t live in the busy, hectic center of Tel Aviv. My bus line served a quiet neighborhood.

I can’t complain about having to pay, we can afford it. But it does seem unfair for those who are less fortunate than us. One of the mothers suggested that the canceling-the-bus exercise was a “Door in Face” manipulation, so we wouldn’t kick up a fuss about having to pay. If so it worked beautifully, but someone else reckons the real reason was that the parents managed to get an article about it in a local newspaper, so the powers that be backed down to avoid more fuss.

For those of you who have just switched on, Youngest doesn’t go to our neighborhood school, but to a school a bit further away with a class for what I call ‘Budding Matildas’. Youngest wasn’t very happy in her previous class and she’s really having a good time now. She has far more friends, and the teachers seem better equipped to deal with her temperament (which tends to be on the stormy side, bless her).

From today she joins Eldest on vacation. A whole two months to go. Summer vacation tends to be a strain on working mothers, although far less for me now that they are both quite big (Eldest is nearly 13 and Youngest is 9). (Aren’t I the cool collected one? Don’t believe it for a minute, it’s an act. By the end of August I promise you I’ll be a nervous wreck, even more than usual).