Reshet Bet radio station:
"Two-year-old Hodaya Kedem Pimstein, whose body was discovered in a forest in western Jerusalem on Tuesday, was buried Wednesday afternoon at the Har Hamenuhaut cemetery in Givat Shaul, as details of her slaying were released for publication.
The father, Eli Pimstein, has admitted to drowning the baby in her bath and afterwards burying her in a pit that he had prepared a month ago. He has reenacted the crime to the police".
In Hebrew it says the court sent him for psychological observation. The police are opposed to this because they say his actions were planned and calculated. They also say he initially dug the pit a month ago and went back on Wednesday to deepen it further.
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
Tuesday, December 10, 2002
Thich Nhat Hanh, No Death, No Fear:
“The day my mother died, I wrote in my journal, "A serious misfortune of my life has arrived." I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.
I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tenderly, very sweet... wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine alone but a living continuation of my mother and father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. These feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually "our" feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.
From that moment on the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time”. (Pg. 5)
“The day my mother died, I wrote in my journal, "A serious misfortune of my life has arrived." I suffered for more than one year after the passing away of my mother. But one night, in the highlands of Vietnam, I was sleeping in the hut in my hermitage. I dreamed of my mother. I saw myself sitting with her, and we were having a wonderful talk. She looked young and beautiful, her hair flowing down. It was so pleasant to sit there and talk to her as if she had never died. When I woke up it was about two in the morning, and I felt very strongly that I had never lost my mother. The impression that my mother was still with me was very clear. I understood then that the idea of having lost my mother was just an idea. It was obvious in that moment that my mother is always alive in me.
I opened the door and went outside. The entire hillside was bathed in moonlight. It was a hill covered with tea plants, and my hut was set behind the temple halfway up. Walking slowly in the moonlight through the rows of tea plants, I noticed my mother was still with me. She was the moonlight caressing me as she had done so often, very tenderly, very sweet... wonderful! Each time my feet touched the earth I knew my mother was there with me. I knew this body was not mine alone but a living continuation of my mother and father and my grandparents and great-grandparents. Of all my ancestors. These feet that I saw as "my" feet were actually "our" feet. Together my mother and I were leaving footprints in the damp soil.
From that moment on the idea that I had lost my mother no longer existed. All I had to do was look at the palm of my hand, feel the breeze on my face or the earth under my feet to remember that my mother is always with me, available at any time”. (Pg. 5)
Providential that Zionism should be on hand
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer:
“The communal compactness of the Jews, both in Palestine and the Diaspora, was probably one of the reasons that Christianity made so little headway among them. The destruction of the temple caused, if anything, a tightening of the communal bonds. The synagogue and the congregation received now much of the devotion which formerly flowed towards the temple and Jerusalem. Later, when the Christian church had the power to segregate the Jews in ghettos, it gave their communal compactness an additional reinforcement, and thus, unintentionally, ensured the survival of Judaism intact through the ages. The coming of "enlightenment" undermined both orthodoxy and ghetto walls. Suddenly, and perhaps for the first time since the days of Job and Ecclesiastes, the Jew found himself an individual, terribly alone in a hostile world. There was no collective body he could blend with and lose himself in. The synagogue and the congregation had become shriveled lifeless things, while the traditions and the prejudices of two thousand years prevented his complete integration with the Gentile corporate bodies. Thus the modern Jew became the most autonomous of individuals, and inevitably, too, the most frustrated. It is not surprising, therefore, that the mass movements of modern times often found in him a ready convert. The Jew also crowded the roads leading to palliatives of frustration, such as hustling and migration. He also threw himself into a passionate effort to prove his individual worth by material achievements and creative work. There was, it is true, one speck of corporateness he could create around himself by his own efforts, namely, the family - and he made the most of it. But in the case of the European Jew, Hitler chewed and scorched this only refuge in concentration camps and gas chambers. Thus now, more than ever before, the Jew, particularly in Europe, is the ideal potential convert. And it almost seems providential that Zionism should be on hand in the Jew's darkest hour to enfold him in its corporate embrace and cure him of his individual isolation. Israel is indeed a rare refuge: it is home and family, synagogue and congregation, nation and revolutionary party all in one”. (Pg. 43)
This was written in 1951, when Israel was three. A lot of Israelis feel nostalgic for that feeling of togetherness and the perception of a collective goal of those early years. On the other hand, a lot of people felt excluded from that feeling and still bear a grudge towards that young, secular, idealistic, Ashkenazi Israel.
I’m not sure if I like the way he claims that one of the main reasons Judaism survived down the centuries was exterior Christian pressure. Although Jews were never treated as equals, there were never such harsh pressures in the Moslem world as in Christian Europe, and still the Jewish communities flourished.
Eric Hoffer, The True Believer:
“The communal compactness of the Jews, both in Palestine and the Diaspora, was probably one of the reasons that Christianity made so little headway among them. The destruction of the temple caused, if anything, a tightening of the communal bonds. The synagogue and the congregation received now much of the devotion which formerly flowed towards the temple and Jerusalem. Later, when the Christian church had the power to segregate the Jews in ghettos, it gave their communal compactness an additional reinforcement, and thus, unintentionally, ensured the survival of Judaism intact through the ages. The coming of "enlightenment" undermined both orthodoxy and ghetto walls. Suddenly, and perhaps for the first time since the days of Job and Ecclesiastes, the Jew found himself an individual, terribly alone in a hostile world. There was no collective body he could blend with and lose himself in. The synagogue and the congregation had become shriveled lifeless things, while the traditions and the prejudices of two thousand years prevented his complete integration with the Gentile corporate bodies. Thus the modern Jew became the most autonomous of individuals, and inevitably, too, the most frustrated. It is not surprising, therefore, that the mass movements of modern times often found in him a ready convert. The Jew also crowded the roads leading to palliatives of frustration, such as hustling and migration. He also threw himself into a passionate effort to prove his individual worth by material achievements and creative work. There was, it is true, one speck of corporateness he could create around himself by his own efforts, namely, the family - and he made the most of it. But in the case of the European Jew, Hitler chewed and scorched this only refuge in concentration camps and gas chambers. Thus now, more than ever before, the Jew, particularly in Europe, is the ideal potential convert. And it almost seems providential that Zionism should be on hand in the Jew's darkest hour to enfold him in its corporate embrace and cure him of his individual isolation. Israel is indeed a rare refuge: it is home and family, synagogue and congregation, nation and revolutionary party all in one”. (Pg. 43)
This was written in 1951, when Israel was three. A lot of Israelis feel nostalgic for that feeling of togetherness and the perception of a collective goal of those early years. On the other hand, a lot of people felt excluded from that feeling and still bear a grudge towards that young, secular, idealistic, Ashkenazi Israel.
I’m not sure if I like the way he claims that one of the main reasons Judaism survived down the centuries was exterior Christian pressure. Although Jews were never treated as equals, there were never such harsh pressures in the Moslem world as in Christian Europe, and still the Jewish communities flourished.
This is fascinating
William Dalrymple writes in the Guardian about Anglo-Indian mixed marriages in the 18th century and early 19th century. Don't you just love anything about British India?
Dalrymple sees these mixed marriages as a sign of multiculturalism, but I notice he only talks about British men marrying Indian women. Nothing about British women marrying Indian men. I'd say more a sign of dominance by the conquerer than true multiculturalism, even if some of the guys who took native wives also took on pseudo-Indian mannerisms. Maybe the practice stopped not only because of the Indian mutiny and the large scale British destruction of Indian upper echelons, which is Dalrymple's explanation (interesting in itself). Couldn't it also have something to do with indignant British women disliking being usurped? They probably had the full backing of Queen Victoria in their feelings! I can imagine her not being very amused by her officers’ un-British behavior, er, behaviour.
Well, anyway, Dalrymple has written a whole book about this phenomenon. I don't find it that fascinating, though. Actually, the editorial review in Amazon.com is quite enticing.
William Dalrymple writes in the Guardian about Anglo-Indian mixed marriages in the 18th century and early 19th century. Don't you just love anything about British India?
Dalrymple sees these mixed marriages as a sign of multiculturalism, but I notice he only talks about British men marrying Indian women. Nothing about British women marrying Indian men. I'd say more a sign of dominance by the conquerer than true multiculturalism, even if some of the guys who took native wives also took on pseudo-Indian mannerisms. Maybe the practice stopped not only because of the Indian mutiny and the large scale British destruction of Indian upper echelons, which is Dalrymple's explanation (interesting in itself). Couldn't it also have something to do with indignant British women disliking being usurped? They probably had the full backing of Queen Victoria in their feelings! I can imagine her not being very amused by her officers’ un-British behavior, er, behaviour.
Well, anyway, Dalrymple has written a whole book about this phenomenon. I don't find it that fascinating, though. Actually, the editorial review in Amazon.com is quite enticing.
I'm sorry to say I'm the bearer of bad news, today
They've found the body of little Hodaya and arrested the father for the murder. It looks like they suspected him from the start. They said on the radio that they found her with the help of specific information. I heard him crying on the radio this morning. I really didn't want to believe he had anything to do with it, although everyone says he seemed very weird on TV (I didn’t see him). I think I’d look a bit weird on TV too, if my daughter had gone missing. Yesterday on the radio they broadcast the message she left on her mother's answering machine on the morning of her disappearance. A tiny, chirpy voice saying "Boker Tov!" (Good morning)
Can you imagine what the mother is going through?
They're still searching for Nur. They have been investigating family members about the suspicion she was kidnapped as part of a family feud. One family member has even been in police custody for two days, but refuses to cooperate.
They've found the body of little Hodaya and arrested the father for the murder. It looks like they suspected him from the start. They said on the radio that they found her with the help of specific information. I heard him crying on the radio this morning. I really didn't want to believe he had anything to do with it, although everyone says he seemed very weird on TV (I didn’t see him). I think I’d look a bit weird on TV too, if my daughter had gone missing. Yesterday on the radio they broadcast the message she left on her mother's answering machine on the morning of her disappearance. A tiny, chirpy voice saying "Boker Tov!" (Good morning)
Can you imagine what the mother is going through?
They're still searching for Nur. They have been investigating family members about the suspicion she was kidnapped as part of a family feud. One family member has even been in police custody for two days, but refuses to cooperate.
Monday, December 09, 2002
Wounded soldiers up north
Yesterday, two soldiers were badly wounded when patrolling the northern border with Lebanon. A roadside bomb planted on the Lebanese side of the border detonated just when the patrol was passing.
One of them has serious head wounds; the other one lost both legs.
Yesterday, two soldiers were badly wounded when patrolling the northern border with Lebanon. A roadside bomb planted on the Lebanese side of the border detonated just when the patrol was passing.
One of them has serious head wounds; the other one lost both legs.
The search continues for the two little girls in Jerusalem.
Police have been checking a letter Hodaya's father had on his computer, but it seems there's nothing in that. Nur's family seems to be in a feud with relations and the police are looking into that, too. In the meantime, no girls.
Police have been checking a letter Hodaya's father had on his computer, but it seems there's nothing in that. Nur's family seems to be in a feud with relations and the police are looking into that, too. In the meantime, no girls.
Lest we forget that I am an ex-party member
Today, when I went to get some money out of the bank, I saw a crowd of people outside a building. It looked like there were stalls and things. When I got nearer I saw that it was a Labor Party polling station. The people outside were campaigning for various candidates in today’s party primaries, which were to determine the list for the elections. Likud’s was yesterday, but only party center members got to vote. In Labor all members voted. The festive atmosphere outside the labor polling station reminded me of my five minutes as Labor Party member. Bish and I joined up after Yitzhak Rabin’s murder. We were the guys who gave the world Ehud Barak. Well, I admit having been in awe of Barak for many years, ever since, as head of Military Intelligence, he went on TV to let all Israel hear a tape connecting the Achille Lauro attack to the PLO or the PLF or something. Well, he was very impressive, whatever. Imagine my surprise when years later I discovered Bish was also a fan (Bish is his last remaining fan, besides his wife, maybe.). So we became party members for the sole purpose of making him head of the party.
The whole being-a-party-member was very strange for us. The main thing I remember about going to vote were all these old timers hanging about there, Ben Gurion look-alikes.
I soon stopped paying party fees. Bish hung on a bit longer.
Today, when I went to get some money out of the bank, I saw a crowd of people outside a building. It looked like there were stalls and things. When I got nearer I saw that it was a Labor Party polling station. The people outside were campaigning for various candidates in today’s party primaries, which were to determine the list for the elections. Likud’s was yesterday, but only party center members got to vote. In Labor all members voted. The festive atmosphere outside the labor polling station reminded me of my five minutes as Labor Party member. Bish and I joined up after Yitzhak Rabin’s murder. We were the guys who gave the world Ehud Barak. Well, I admit having been in awe of Barak for many years, ever since, as head of Military Intelligence, he went on TV to let all Israel hear a tape connecting the Achille Lauro attack to the PLO or the PLF or something. Well, he was very impressive, whatever. Imagine my surprise when years later I discovered Bish was also a fan (Bish is his last remaining fan, besides his wife, maybe.). So we became party members for the sole purpose of making him head of the party.
The whole being-a-party-member was very strange for us. The main thing I remember about going to vote were all these old timers hanging about there, Ben Gurion look-alikes.
I soon stopped paying party fees. Bish hung on a bit longer.
Oh, enough with the felafel, already! Who cares where felafel came from? Any Israelis reading this, who had felafel this week, stand up. Last week? This month? Last month?
See? All still seated.
Guess what? I don’t invite R.T. (and from now on Dad too) every Friday lunchtime for FELAFEL, I invite them for SPAGHETTI (good stuff too). This I stole from the Italians who in turn stole it from the Chinese (wait a minute, didn’t I read recently that Marco Polo never really got past Turkey and it’s all a big lie?).
What is Israeli? Are those three-cornered “tembel” hats, they used to make us wear in summer camp when I was a kid, Israeli? For the last twenty years, no Israeli kid would dream being seen dead in one of those hats. Are felafel and tembel hats and Hava Nagila (Ugh!) more Israeli than computer engineers with Jericho handguns stuck down the back of their jeans? Or a group of settler kids, the boys with their knitted kippot (yarmulkas) hanging off the side of their heads, the girls with black skirts down to their ankles? Or a convoy of cars full of families on a trip, all with bits of blue ribbon tied on their antennas for identification? Or someone meeting someone else in the street and starting to yell at him: “You s$%t! You maniac! You lunatic! Why haven’t you called me?” and then both of them embracing, obviously delighted to see each other? Or happy toddlers coming out of a Hannuka show, hand in hand with mum or dad, on a sun-drenched Hannuka morning, squinting at the light, faces still covered with sugar powder from the doughnut they ate during the interval?
When I was a child we used to go down UN Blvd. in Haifa, which became Zionism Blvd. when the UN became unpopular, by equating Zionism with racism, to eat felafel at the King of Felafel stall. It was owned and run by Arabs. Was I busy thinking about how Israeli the felafel was while I was eating it? No. I was just eating felafel.
So some Israelis left Israel and went to live in the US. So they opened a felafel stall. They could just as easily have opened a “steakiya” which is just as much an Israeli phenomenon, which like felafel stalls, peaked during the nineteen seventies. Were they trying to make a patriotic statement by opening an Israeli felafel stall? No, if they wanted to make a patriotic statement they wouldn’t have left Israel. They would have continued doing a month’s army reserve duty a year and continued scraping a living here. They opened a felafel stall in the US because they wanted to make a better living. So do please excuse them for not putting up a big notice saying: “Yes, we are Israelis selling Palestinian felafel, this is very remiss of us, but we really need to make a living.”
I heard felafel was Egyptian. Or was it Lebanese? Maybe the Palestinians should be apologizing, too. Cultural theft? The French claim they invented cricket. How very degrading for the Brits.
See? All still seated.
Guess what? I don’t invite R.T. (and from now on Dad too) every Friday lunchtime for FELAFEL, I invite them for SPAGHETTI (good stuff too). This I stole from the Italians who in turn stole it from the Chinese (wait a minute, didn’t I read recently that Marco Polo never really got past Turkey and it’s all a big lie?).
What is Israeli? Are those three-cornered “tembel” hats, they used to make us wear in summer camp when I was a kid, Israeli? For the last twenty years, no Israeli kid would dream being seen dead in one of those hats. Are felafel and tembel hats and Hava Nagila (Ugh!) more Israeli than computer engineers with Jericho handguns stuck down the back of their jeans? Or a group of settler kids, the boys with their knitted kippot (yarmulkas) hanging off the side of their heads, the girls with black skirts down to their ankles? Or a convoy of cars full of families on a trip, all with bits of blue ribbon tied on their antennas for identification? Or someone meeting someone else in the street and starting to yell at him: “You s$%t! You maniac! You lunatic! Why haven’t you called me?” and then both of them embracing, obviously delighted to see each other? Or happy toddlers coming out of a Hannuka show, hand in hand with mum or dad, on a sun-drenched Hannuka morning, squinting at the light, faces still covered with sugar powder from the doughnut they ate during the interval?
When I was a child we used to go down UN Blvd. in Haifa, which became Zionism Blvd. when the UN became unpopular, by equating Zionism with racism, to eat felafel at the King of Felafel stall. It was owned and run by Arabs. Was I busy thinking about how Israeli the felafel was while I was eating it? No. I was just eating felafel.
So some Israelis left Israel and went to live in the US. So they opened a felafel stall. They could just as easily have opened a “steakiya” which is just as much an Israeli phenomenon, which like felafel stalls, peaked during the nineteen seventies. Were they trying to make a patriotic statement by opening an Israeli felafel stall? No, if they wanted to make a patriotic statement they wouldn’t have left Israel. They would have continued doing a month’s army reserve duty a year and continued scraping a living here. They opened a felafel stall in the US because they wanted to make a better living. So do please excuse them for not putting up a big notice saying: “Yes, we are Israelis selling Palestinian felafel, this is very remiss of us, but we really need to make a living.”
I heard felafel was Egyptian. Or was it Lebanese? Maybe the Palestinians should be apologizing, too. Cultural theft? The French claim they invented cricket. How very degrading for the Brits.
Administration stuff
A. Comments in which anyone calls anyone else a Nazi will be deleted, as of now. Behave yourself, QS!
B. I'm rather sorry I posted about that French book. I've been getting a scary amount of hits from people searching for it on Google.
C. I enjoyed the nutty hate comment immensely. I find it hilarious that someone actually spent time writing such pathetic drivel. Fear not, any more like it will be deleted.
A. Comments in which anyone calls anyone else a Nazi will be deleted, as of now. Behave yourself, QS!
B. I'm rather sorry I posted about that French book. I've been getting a scary amount of hits from people searching for it on Google.
C. I enjoyed the nutty hate comment immensely. I find it hilarious that someone actually spent time writing such pathetic drivel. Fear not, any more like it will be deleted.
Sunday, December 08, 2002
Goodness me!
An article by Tanya Reinhart that is not spewing hatred and venom! Maybe this is because it appeared in Yediot Aharonot and they probably wouldn’t have accepted her usual offensive material. The content of the article is rather hallucinatory: “If Mitzna sticks to this plan, which offers a real alternative and hope, there is a good chance that he will be the next Israeli prime minister”. Who has she been discussing this with if she thinks this is the case? Obviously only fellow LINGUISTS!
An article by Tanya Reinhart that is not spewing hatred and venom! Maybe this is because it appeared in Yediot Aharonot and they probably wouldn’t have accepted her usual offensive material. The content of the article is rather hallucinatory: “If Mitzna sticks to this plan, which offers a real alternative and hope, there is a good chance that he will be the next Israeli prime minister”. Who has she been discussing this with if she thinks this is the case? Obviously only fellow LINGUISTS!
The whole country seems to be holding its breath. Two little girls from Jerusalem went missing, yesterday. The first is Hodaya, a 22-month-old toddler, who disappeared from the yard of her father’s home in the Jewish neighborhood of Kiryat Yovel at 11:30. The other is Nur, a 5-year-old girl from the Arab village of Umm Toubas in Southern Jerusalem, she was also playing in the yard of her home, and went missing at 19:30. The police say the cases are unrelated. I’ll tell you if there are any developments.
Update: Someone commented here (in Hebrew) that the nights in Jerusalem are very cold right now. I hadn't thought of that. Poor little things.
Update: Someone commented here (in Hebrew) that the nights in Jerusalem are very cold right now. I hadn't thought of that. Poor little things.
Why should we feel apologetic about our accomplishments? Israel is a country poor in natural resources to draw from. It’s not as if we plundered Arab oil or anything, God forbid. We even found some for the Egyptians and gave it back to them on a platter, when we signed a peace treaty with them. Before the Jews got here, this country was a swamp-ridden, malaria-infested hellhole. The Jews dried the swamps the local Arabs had been living next to for hundreds of years, and built roads. Had those local Arabs (now known as Palestinians) accepted the partition plan in 1947 and two states had been created in 1948, it's very likely that Israel would have reached the same, or similar, economic and technological accomplishments.
Our accomplishments are down to human resources (well, maybe not mine personally... although, in my role as a minor bureaucrat, I may, in some small way, be helping maintain the rule of law over the rule of the jungle, that usually prevails in the Middle East). For years we’ve been hearing that we owe our affluence to Palestinian labor, but now they're gone and we’re doing just fine without them. (Imported Thai workers may eat a few domestic dogs here and there, but they haven’t been known to blow themselves up on buses).
I love driving along the Ayalon freeway, which cuts right through the center of the greater Tel Aviv area, connecting Tel Aviv’s northern satellite towns to the southern ones. Along the way, you pass the tallest buildings in the Middle East, which house a vibrant business center (yes, even in these dark depressed days). When I came to live in Tel Aviv, about seventeen years ago, most of the tall buildings did not yet exist, but the vibrant business center did. It just grew taller, flashier and more inspiring.
The Palestinians could have been a part of this exciting venture, and not just as laborers. This is what we were offering them, in effect. The vision of a New Middle East may have been naive, but it was a wonderful one. The Palestinians chose to pass. The whole region could have profited from Israel's impressive creative ability. The whole region chose to pass.
So why should we feel apologetic? As I see it, if we end up building that fence Martin Van Creveld talks about (remember? So high even birds can’t fly over? Can’t find a link to this, offhand, that isn’t pro-Palestinian), we'll be fine. The Palestinians will starve. But even that doesn't give them a jolt. Or maybe it does, but the deeper significance of it for them is so unpleasant they'd rather starve. Seven years of unsuccessful self-rule, with billions in foreign aid and a great deal of international good will (which is a lot more than what Israel got in the early years), have shown just how much Israel isn't beholden to the Palestinians for anything. There is no reason why the Palestinians couldn’t have used those years to flourish. No reason but their own pathetic ineptitude. For two years and more, they have been trying to stick their failure on us, and quite successfully, I must say (At last, something they do well. Oh, I forgot blowing themselves up among unarmed civilians. They’re excellent at that). They've got most of the world convinced, including Haaretz’s Danny Rubinstein (yawn). Haaretz hasn’t translated that particular article, for some reason. Just as well. We don’t need any more “Made in Israel” food for anti-Israel propaganda, than Haaretz already supplies.
Haaretz was derogative of the current trend in Israel to wear Magen Davids, the bigger the better, in this weekend’s magazine. Of course, if you think this terrorism war is all down to “the occupation, stupid”, then you are going to see any outward sign of affection for your country and people, especially using any sort of abstract symbol, as Nazi style nationalism, aren’t you? By the way, the article claims that the Magen David only became a Jewish symbol par excellence in 1897. Anyone care to challenge that, armed with data, if such data exists?
I don’t remember my mother without her Magen David. At one point, she lost the Magen David she had worn for many years and swiftly replaced it. Was she, as Prof. Moshe Zimmerman puts it in the article, clinging to a symbol? Was it “a substitute for any real achievement” caused by her “enfeeblement”? Or was it her way of expressing her Jewish identity, which was a very important part of who she was?
Our accomplishments are down to human resources (well, maybe not mine personally... although, in my role as a minor bureaucrat, I may, in some small way, be helping maintain the rule of law over the rule of the jungle, that usually prevails in the Middle East). For years we’ve been hearing that we owe our affluence to Palestinian labor, but now they're gone and we’re doing just fine without them. (Imported Thai workers may eat a few domestic dogs here and there, but they haven’t been known to blow themselves up on buses).
I love driving along the Ayalon freeway, which cuts right through the center of the greater Tel Aviv area, connecting Tel Aviv’s northern satellite towns to the southern ones. Along the way, you pass the tallest buildings in the Middle East, which house a vibrant business center (yes, even in these dark depressed days). When I came to live in Tel Aviv, about seventeen years ago, most of the tall buildings did not yet exist, but the vibrant business center did. It just grew taller, flashier and more inspiring.
The Palestinians could have been a part of this exciting venture, and not just as laborers. This is what we were offering them, in effect. The vision of a New Middle East may have been naive, but it was a wonderful one. The Palestinians chose to pass. The whole region could have profited from Israel's impressive creative ability. The whole region chose to pass.
So why should we feel apologetic? As I see it, if we end up building that fence Martin Van Creveld talks about (remember? So high even birds can’t fly over? Can’t find a link to this, offhand, that isn’t pro-Palestinian), we'll be fine. The Palestinians will starve. But even that doesn't give them a jolt. Or maybe it does, but the deeper significance of it for them is so unpleasant they'd rather starve. Seven years of unsuccessful self-rule, with billions in foreign aid and a great deal of international good will (which is a lot more than what Israel got in the early years), have shown just how much Israel isn't beholden to the Palestinians for anything. There is no reason why the Palestinians couldn’t have used those years to flourish. No reason but their own pathetic ineptitude. For two years and more, they have been trying to stick their failure on us, and quite successfully, I must say (At last, something they do well. Oh, I forgot blowing themselves up among unarmed civilians. They’re excellent at that). They've got most of the world convinced, including Haaretz’s Danny Rubinstein (yawn). Haaretz hasn’t translated that particular article, for some reason. Just as well. We don’t need any more “Made in Israel” food for anti-Israel propaganda, than Haaretz already supplies.
Haaretz was derogative of the current trend in Israel to wear Magen Davids, the bigger the better, in this weekend’s magazine. Of course, if you think this terrorism war is all down to “the occupation, stupid”, then you are going to see any outward sign of affection for your country and people, especially using any sort of abstract symbol, as Nazi style nationalism, aren’t you? By the way, the article claims that the Magen David only became a Jewish symbol par excellence in 1897. Anyone care to challenge that, armed with data, if such data exists?
I don’t remember my mother without her Magen David. At one point, she lost the Magen David she had worn for many years and swiftly replaced it. Was she, as Prof. Moshe Zimmerman puts it in the article, clinging to a symbol? Was it “a substitute for any real achievement” caused by her “enfeeblement”? Or was it her way of expressing her Jewish identity, which was a very important part of who she was?
Saturday, December 07, 2002
Simon Weisenthal Center: SUICIDE BOMBER: HEROIC ROLE MODEL FOR YOUNG READERS IN NEW BOOK
"A newly released best-selling novel for teens, Rever la Palestine (Dream of Palestine), sympathetically portrays a young Palestinian who becomes a suicide bomber. The fifteen-year-old Egyptian author, Randa Ghazi, who lives with her family in Italy, writes about Palestinian teenagers who fight 'bloodthirsty Jews, who assassinate children and old people, profane mosques, and rape Arab women.'
Dream of Palestine is being touted as 'surprisingly mature' and 'a great text of suffering and hope.' One of the novel's heroes calls for Jihad against the Jews who are 'a doomed people' and to 'kill all Israelis.' The main character is encouraged 'to kill hundreds in his suicide bombing' and later does blow himself up along with five Israelis.
Released to coincide with the Christmas season, and inexpensively priced, Dream of Palestine has quickly sold out in major bookstores in Paris. It has been released by Flammarion, the third largest publishing house in France, a subsidiary of the Italian media giant, Rizzoli Corriere della Sera, which includes among its holdings one of the largest Italian daily newspapers and Rizzoli bookstores in the United States.
The Wiesenthal Center is urging Amazon France and other French online websites to stop selling the book which is full of libelous accusations and which clearly incites racist violence and validates terrorism. The themes in this book could serve as the basis for litigation.
WE MUST ACT NOW to raise our voices in protest of this horrific book. The Jewish community of France has launched a protest, but more, much more needs to be done..."
I've looked it up on Amazon France but I can't read the review, not knowing French. Could someone please do it for me and put a translation or a summary on my comments?
"A newly released best-selling novel for teens, Rever la Palestine (Dream of Palestine), sympathetically portrays a young Palestinian who becomes a suicide bomber. The fifteen-year-old Egyptian author, Randa Ghazi, who lives with her family in Italy, writes about Palestinian teenagers who fight 'bloodthirsty Jews, who assassinate children and old people, profane mosques, and rape Arab women.'
Dream of Palestine is being touted as 'surprisingly mature' and 'a great text of suffering and hope.' One of the novel's heroes calls for Jihad against the Jews who are 'a doomed people' and to 'kill all Israelis.' The main character is encouraged 'to kill hundreds in his suicide bombing' and later does blow himself up along with five Israelis.
Released to coincide with the Christmas season, and inexpensively priced, Dream of Palestine has quickly sold out in major bookstores in Paris. It has been released by Flammarion, the third largest publishing house in France, a subsidiary of the Italian media giant, Rizzoli Corriere della Sera, which includes among its holdings one of the largest Italian daily newspapers and Rizzoli bookstores in the United States.
The Wiesenthal Center is urging Amazon France and other French online websites to stop selling the book which is full of libelous accusations and which clearly incites racist violence and validates terrorism. The themes in this book could serve as the basis for litigation.
WE MUST ACT NOW to raise our voices in protest of this horrific book. The Jewish community of France has launched a protest, but more, much more needs to be done..."
I've looked it up on Amazon France but I can't read the review, not knowing French. Could someone please do it for me and put a translation or a summary on my comments?
Friday, December 06, 2002
Where is Arab anti-Semitism leading?
Ehud Yaari, top Israeli expert on Arab affairs, says some scary things in the Jerusalem Report. He starts off by describing just how trendy anti-Semitism has become on Arab TV. His conclusions are alarming:
”…The essence of the message is that there is no possibility of making peace with the Jews -- not because of any political argument or clash over territory, but because that nation is a priori unfit to be counted among the human race. The Jewish religion is one big, ongoing lie, and Jewish history is the fruit of a consistent distortion of the past. Furthermore, the Jewish people present a future threat to the rest of the world.
For some time now I, along with a few colleagues who lend their ears day by day to the voices coming from the other side, have been asking ourselves: Where is this campaign leading? After all, this is not about withdrawing from the territories or granting Palestinian refugees the "right of return." Rather, it is a far-reaching, dangerous rationale laying the ground for the justification of a mass exile of Jews from Israel -- "ethnic cleansing" in contemporary terms -- and even beyond that, it is gradually building a case for justifying genocide!"
Ehud Yaari, top Israeli expert on Arab affairs, says some scary things in the Jerusalem Report. He starts off by describing just how trendy anti-Semitism has become on Arab TV. His conclusions are alarming:
”…The essence of the message is that there is no possibility of making peace with the Jews -- not because of any political argument or clash over territory, but because that nation is a priori unfit to be counted among the human race. The Jewish religion is one big, ongoing lie, and Jewish history is the fruit of a consistent distortion of the past. Furthermore, the Jewish people present a future threat to the rest of the world.
For some time now I, along with a few colleagues who lend their ears day by day to the voices coming from the other side, have been asking ourselves: Where is this campaign leading? After all, this is not about withdrawing from the territories or granting Palestinian refugees the "right of return." Rather, it is a far-reaching, dangerous rationale laying the ground for the justification of a mass exile of Jews from Israel -- "ethnic cleansing" in contemporary terms -- and even beyond that, it is gradually building a case for justifying genocide!"
More about Suzanne Goldenberg
Just before Mum died I discussed an article in Haaretz about Suzanne Goldenberg, former correspondent for the UK Guardian in Israel. On 2nd December, Haaretz published a reaction to the article in the letters to the editor. I think it’s worth translating:
”As someone who has read the articles of Suzanne Goldenberg, former Guardian correspondent in Israel, I can determine that, during all the time she was here, she represented Israel in a negative light with unfair, one-sided and venomous reporting.
She never wrote one positive word about Israel. On the other hand – not one word of criticism about the Palestinians. Arafat, according to her reports, is the Mother Teresa. She never wrote about cruel murder, without trial, of suspects of collaboration with Israel and the public abuse of the bodies of those murdered. The most terrible of Palestinian terrorist actions were Israel’s fault, according to her.
She didn’t write about Israel and its accomplishments in science, in technology, in hi-tech, about Israeli democracy. She tells us now about freedom of the press in Israel, these words of praise she utters only now, from afar.
She was a willing accomplice in the Arab propaganda effort to butt Israel and undermine the legitimacy of its people. When I saw she had left, I said “Good riddance”.
The only thing that can be said in her defense is that the Guardian newspaper is a newspaper with a decidedly anti-Israel editorial line, and that its editor for foreign affairs, Brian Whittaker, competed with her in writing anti-Israeli articles.
Eli Tavori
Jerusalem”
Just before Mum died I discussed an article in Haaretz about Suzanne Goldenberg, former correspondent for the UK Guardian in Israel. On 2nd December, Haaretz published a reaction to the article in the letters to the editor. I think it’s worth translating:
”As someone who has read the articles of Suzanne Goldenberg, former Guardian correspondent in Israel, I can determine that, during all the time she was here, she represented Israel in a negative light with unfair, one-sided and venomous reporting.
She never wrote one positive word about Israel. On the other hand – not one word of criticism about the Palestinians. Arafat, according to her reports, is the Mother Teresa. She never wrote about cruel murder, without trial, of suspects of collaboration with Israel and the public abuse of the bodies of those murdered. The most terrible of Palestinian terrorist actions were Israel’s fault, according to her.
She didn’t write about Israel and its accomplishments in science, in technology, in hi-tech, about Israeli democracy. She tells us now about freedom of the press in Israel, these words of praise she utters only now, from afar.
She was a willing accomplice in the Arab propaganda effort to butt Israel and undermine the legitimacy of its people. When I saw she had left, I said “Good riddance”.
The only thing that can be said in her defense is that the Guardian newspaper is a newspaper with a decidedly anti-Israel editorial line, and that its editor for foreign affairs, Brian Whittaker, competed with her in writing anti-Israeli articles.
Eli Tavori
Jerusalem”
Hannuka is not a time for dieting.
Gil has posted a recipe for levivot (latkes). I use my mum’s recipe, which is written on a little piece of paper, which used to be pink but is now brownish and full of stains. When I left home Mum and Our Sis gave me this recipe along with Mum’s recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese (which I no longer use because it has meat in it). Thus armed, I went out to find my fortune. I found Bish instead. He has turned out to be a real treasure, but you wouldn’t have thought it at the time.
So here goes: Grate 4 big potatoes. Let drain. (I often add things at this point. Usually onion, sometimes zucchini (courgette), also grated and drained, sometimes chopped parsley. I tried tofu once, but it wasn't a success); mix 2 eggs; 4 tbs self-raising flour or 4 tbs plain flour and 1 tsp baking powder; add salt and pepper. (I once tried whole-wheat flour but it wasn’t as nice). Heat oil and fry till golden brown.
Actually, our recipes are very similar. Gil’s has more flour; Mum’s has more potato. Probably affected by what was available in days of old. I’ve tried making levivot using fancy recipes I’ve seen in books and they’re never as nice as the simple “heimischer” ones.
By the way, levivot are much tastier when the kids have taken an active part in making them.
Next year I’ll give you my mother-in-law’s recipe for sufganiot (Hannuka doughnuts). I’ll have to learn how to make them myself, first.
Gil has posted a recipe for levivot (latkes). I use my mum’s recipe, which is written on a little piece of paper, which used to be pink but is now brownish and full of stains. When I left home Mum and Our Sis gave me this recipe along with Mum’s recipe for Spaghetti Bolognese (which I no longer use because it has meat in it). Thus armed, I went out to find my fortune. I found Bish instead. He has turned out to be a real treasure, but you wouldn’t have thought it at the time.
So here goes: Grate 4 big potatoes. Let drain. (I often add things at this point. Usually onion, sometimes zucchini (courgette), also grated and drained, sometimes chopped parsley. I tried tofu once, but it wasn't a success); mix 2 eggs; 4 tbs self-raising flour or 4 tbs plain flour and 1 tsp baking powder; add salt and pepper. (I once tried whole-wheat flour but it wasn’t as nice). Heat oil and fry till golden brown.
Actually, our recipes are very similar. Gil’s has more flour; Mum’s has more potato. Probably affected by what was available in days of old. I’ve tried making levivot using fancy recipes I’ve seen in books and they’re never as nice as the simple “heimischer” ones.
By the way, levivot are much tastier when the kids have taken an active part in making them.
Next year I’ll give you my mother-in-law’s recipe for sufganiot (Hannuka doughnuts). I’ll have to learn how to make them myself, first.