Cruel and stupid ...

That seems to me the only way of describing the actions and reactions of the female Israeli soldier who posted photos to Facebook of herself posing in front of bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees. Her comments to Israeli media seem to indicate that she really doesn't understand the significance of her actions.

"I still don't understand what's wrong," Abergil told Army Radio on Thursday, saying that the "pictures were taken in good will, there was no statement in them."

The former IDF soldier said the pictures, which she said were of Gazans who had been arrested while attempting to crossover into Israel, were meant to depict a "military experience," and were not intended to injure the detainees.

During the Army Radio interview, Abergil repeatedly said that it had never occurred to her that "the picture would be problematic," asking interviewer Ilana Dayan whether the media asked for detainees permission when they film them.

It's interesting to note that she doesn't see any statement in the photos she posted, or in the comments she later wrote on Facebook. This speaks to something that I have observed among some Israelis; a kind of ignorance and profound immaturity amongst a certain segment of the population.

Some have argued that this behavior is a result of Israel's control of the territories and the Palestinians. I'm not so sure. I have seen some Israelis behaving in equally crass ways to each other. Israelis are notoriously blunt, and will often speak their mind without considering the impact of their words or actions on other people.

Many Israelis simply believe it is more important to be straightforward than to be sensitive. The merits of this line of thinking are highly debatable.

The IDF has an important role to serve and valid reasons to be in the West Bank and Gaza. Detaining Palestinian's who attempt to cross into Israel, as apparently these individuals were doing, should be rightly prevented.

However, Israeli society must ensure that the task is carried out with appropriate sensitivity to the Palestinian population. In this case, it is clear that we failed.

Israel keeps on growing ...

The good news out of Israel today is the announcment that the Israeli economy grew by 4.7% in the second quarter, and by 4.1% in the first half of this year.

Considering the awful economic situation in many parts of the world, and the bad news about the unemployment situation that I hear from my friends and family back in California, I think everyone here should be awful greatful that things are as good as they are.

I've been saying for a long time that Israelis don't know how good they've got it here. It's true that the economic picture isn't perfect, but it's actually ... pretty good. The situation looks even better when compared to the  complete havoc that has been unleashed on the U.S. and Europe because of the economic crisis and so-called "Great Recession."

This news is also critically important because wealth is one of the key advantages that Israel has vis-a-vis the Palestinians. Israel needs to continue to develop it's economic power to serve as a buffer from the eventual shocks to the country as the peace process moves forward, or collapses into another round of fighting.

Snobbery ...

I stumbled upon an interesting article in Haaretz the other day. It was a heavily sarcastic piece, deriding the recently renovated old Jaffa train station as a tourist trap. The writer could barely contain her displeasure at the quaint, but somewhat schmaltzy setting for a whole new set of typically Tel Aviv cafes, bars, restaurants, and stores.

Like every self-respecting tourist trap, Hatahana is also purporting to be the real thing. While the complex is marketed as a historic site "that preserved its original character," after not functioning as a train station for some time, what remains are prehistoric background props. This gives off an effect resembling the television series "The Flintstones," which created a kind of taste of the schizophrenia of modern life during the Stone Age.

No trains or vehicles travel along the train tracks, preserving their original character, while the station's surrounding facilities have been turned into cafes, boutiques, a souvenir shop and one store with nothing - which no self-respecting tourist trap would be without. The complex was mistakenly crowned "the next hot thing in Tel Aviv." But a tourist trap is a tourist trap; the cooler revelers will see through the forgery and stay away. Tourists from Paris or Rishon Letzion, however, will innocently wander through the refurbished area, scan through clothes selling for the price of a mortgage, search in vain for something else of interest and agree "Wow, look how nice they made this place."

When I first went there I did indeed remark that it had been renovated in quite a lovely way. I still like the place, and I'll hopefully get the chance to spend some more time over there in the near future. I don't pretend to understand the Haaretz writer's disdain for the new complex. Perhaps I'm just not sophisticated or "cool" enough to see what's wrong with the place.

Perhaps, I'm not the one with the problem. I recall a while back reading an article in Haaretz bewailing the fact that a prized architectural gem was going to be demolished in favor of a new apartment tower or some other modern development. The building in question was a classic example of the "Hideous" school of Tel Aviv architecture; a grey drab concrete building with no sense of decoration or style that was easily perceptible.

It seems that this Haaretz piece speaks more to that population that resists any and all attempts to develop Tel Aviv into something slightly more attractive than what it is today. The "old" Tel Aviv snobs claim that the city's ugliness is part of it's charm.

I love Tel Aviv and I love living in this city. But I don't feel threatened by the thought of adding a few coats of plaster or paint to some of the more disgusting and run down buildings here. If that means that a few more yuppies might move in than so be it.

Go. Read. Goldberg ...

Well it seems like everybody, and I do mean everybody, is talking about Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic article on whether Israel will attack Iran.

Go read it. It's a brilliant piece of journalism that stands out in a generally crap field that has become inundated with ignorant, ideological bloggers. And I'm a blogger!

It does what journalism should; inform in an objective way, ask serious questions, and make you reconsider your perspective on the situation.

The anti-Israel crowd is pooh poohing it as "Zionist cheer leading"  for a strike on Iran. But you'd have to be a complete irrational idiot to take that away from the article considering the way Goldberg lays out the possible and horrifying repercussions of a strike.

What I take away from it is that this is a serious issue, and that it is rapidly coming to a head. Anyone who has a strong opinion on this subject should let their voice be heard now, because time is rapidly running out.

More flotilla madness

This video was just released by Israel Army Radio. It shows Israeli Arab Knesset Member Haneen Zoabi talking in Hebrew with Israeli commandos about evacuating the wounded to Israeli hospitals. She makes it clear, as does another flotilla activist that the wounded "don't want to be taken to Israeli hospitals."



Many in Israel will take note of this video because it shows MK Zoabi's participation in the flotilla. I find it fascinating for another reason.

One of the claims made by the flotilla activists is that the IDF didn't allow them to care for the wouned, or that the IDF delayed treatment of the wounded. Yet this video provides additional evidence of the way the flotilla activists have lied about what happened.

The hatred these people have for Israel is so great, that they would rather sit and bleed rather than be treated by Israelis. I wonder, but seriously doubt, whether anyone will pay attention to this video and call the flotilla activists on their lies and hatred of Israel.

More houskeeping ...

Back when I decided to revive this blog I thought about laying out some general guidelines for this site - a mission statement of sorts. Well I'm happy to announce that I still haven't started it yet.

But I thought that with my post today I would flesh out some of the ideas I have on the subject.

It's important to reiterate that my desire to start blogging again came from my re-realization that there are many people in the world who are committed to Israel's destruction. I've known this for some time but it's one of those things that I find almost impossible to ignore. Every so often it comes back from that place in my mind where I tried to hide it away with all the other horrible things in the world and kicks me in the chest.

An additional motivating factor came from my understanding that Israel is the future of the Jewish people. I think that if you look at the world objectively, at the demographic trends, and at the other trends of Jewish identity, that there is no other conclusion that can be made. There are no alternate Jewish futures where Israel doesn't exist. The end of Israel equals the end of the Jewish people as we know it.

Faced with these two realities I concluded that anyone who cares about the Jewish people, and who wants to see it continue to exist, must therefore care about the continued existence of Israel. You may not like Israel, or its policies, but you must want to see it survive otherwise you don't want the Jewish people to survive.

I realize those are some bold claims and they really need a whole series of posts to explain, but that's my basic thinking. I hope to get my ideas organized and written soon, and then I'll start putting them up here.

Required reading ...

I don't know who Benjamin Kerstein is but I'd sure like to get to know him. I imagine we'd have a lot in common, what being American Olim in Israel and all. That, and in a recent interview he more or less summarized my politcal view on the situation here to a "T".

You can find the interview over at Michael Totten's blog, which really is required reading for anyone interested in the middle east. I read him pretty regularly a little while back before my two years of silence.

He's here in Israel right now and I'm looking forward to some more interesting posts from him in the coming days and weeks. He is one of the most in depth and thorough journalists around, and he is a true exception to the normally ignorant coverage of Israel that has been the standard from most media outlets.

You're right, we are afraid ...

From that charming center of anti-Israel invective, Mondoweiss, comes this post on a recent fundraiser for another flotilla aimed at breaking Israel's blockade of Gaza. The post offers some interesting insights into the mindset of the Israel hating community. I found the following parts of a speech by Chris Hedges (as cited by site owner Philip Weiss) to be the most stimulating.

"I would like to remind them that it is they who hide in the darkness, we are in the light." And now their moment is coming to an end. "The arc of the moral universe is long... You may have commandos who descend on ropes... we have only our hands, our hearts, our voices... But note this, note this well: it is you who are afraid of us, not us who are afraid of you... When there is freedom in Gaza, we will forgive you..."

Regardless of the fact that Israel left Gaza completely, I have to admit that I agree with Hedges on one point. We, being Jews and Israelis, ARE afraid of you. What do you expect?

You seek our destruction, either physically in the case of Hamas, or politically in the case of the BDS and flotilla movements.

You openly and plainly announce that you seek the end of our state, couching your message in the rhetoric of peace and justice.

You slander us and state that we have inherited the mantle of the Nazis, of those who murdered us and burned us, who tried to destroy an entire people.

You treat Israel in a way that you would treat no other people on Earth, and announce in plain language that we are afraid of you. How can we not be when it is our very existence at stake?

While Hedges is seemingly proud of our fear of his movement, I believe that he neglected to highlight the matching emotion amongst the anti-Israel crowd. That emotion is of course hate. It is the overriding theme of the rhetoric used against Israel. Indeed it seems that the level of hate at the fundraiser was so high that even Weiss hinted at it in his post.

I felt that these people were excited to be recognized in an American venue, without judgment, and that this long-withheld recognition had allowed them to let out deep griefs and angers that, say, professors Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi were required to restrain when they addressed the same matters. There was talk of the dispossession that began 63 years ago; and I am sure that several of these Palestinians do not accept the existence of Israel. Myself, I am conflicted about these questions (and indeed a friend said later that the anger at times made her uncomfortable), but I find my own intellectual/political struggle less interesting/important than the presence of young Palestinian-Americans. (emphasis mine)

The Arabs have always been angry at Israel, and they have largely rejected any compromise with Israel or the presence of a sizable and thriving Jewish community in the heart of the Arab world. The extremists at Mondoweiss often discuss an invented ideology of Jewish superiority that they claim lies at the heart of Zionism.

Zionism at its heart, of course, is a rejection of Jewish exceptionalism. It is rather a call for equality for the Jewish people, by creating a nation-state that mirrors the nation-states of other peoples.

The solution to this conflict lies in the acceptance of the Jewish people, as a people, in their homeland. Until the Arabs and their supporters accept this equality, we will all have something to fear.

Now that's just silly

Andrew Sullivan in his blog just went off the rails. I know that he has been receiveing a lot of critiscm from pro-Israel circles lately and that he has taken a more critical tone on Israel, but this last comment was just stupid.

I'm not one of the those people who goes around throwing out the anti-Semitism card whenever someone says something bad about Israel. There are certainly people who do it though, so I can understand why Sullivan is sensitive about it.

But in a recent post Sullivan says that supporters of the two state solution are now being labeled as anti-Semites.

I'm against a one-state solution because I'm a Zionist. I want the Jewish state to endure, as a coherent, decent democracy. But this position - which includes the urgent necessity of ending the settlements and returning to something close to the 1967 borders - is now, apparently, anti-Semitic, or, at least, worth sabotaging to prevent Obama from having any foreign policy success.

I can't believe that a blogger as popular as Sullivan is so simple minded to think that any legitimate or rational observer of the Israel/Arab conflict would label support of the two state solution as anti-Semitic.

I guess Sullivan thinks that the pro-Israel crowd is labeling the overwhelming majority of both the international community and the Israeli public as anti-Semitic. That's just a ridiculous statement from someone who is apparently desperate for attention.

The other half of his idiotic statement somehow implies that Israelis or their supporters are willing to postpone their pursuit of the two state solution just to deny Obama a foreign policy success.

Yeah that's it ... Obama. Our lives, our future here as a people, our economic prosperity, the future of territory that is historically significant to us, the future of our spiritual capital and longing of 2000 years; yeah none of that is influencing our decisions. We just want "to prevent Obama from having any foreign policy success."

Andrew Sullivan, there is a real world out there, you are welcome to join it.

We can only guess ...

Many commentators on this region seem to be certain of the motivations behind the Lebanese Army's unprovoked attack against an IDF engineering unit yesterday. Many have said that it was a push by Hezbollah to divert attention away from the looming announcement that it was involved in the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.

Others surmise that is was simply a Lebanese commander that lost his cool and decided to take a shot at the Israelis. Perhaps it was all just a mistake, and Lebanese soldiers merely misidentified the location of the border.

I don't know what caused it, but I do know that there is no shortage of people ready to take a shot at a Jew.

But I'm trying not to jump to any conclusions. This region is too confusing and to dynamic to say much with certainty. But, I am certain that those that despise Israel will see whatever they want in this incident, and will use it as another excuse for their irrational and unabashed hatred.

The summer just got a little hotter ...

The news from the northern Israeli border is a little bit distressing. There was an exchange of fire a few hours ago between the IDF and the Lebanese army. At this point it's not exactly clear how it all got started, or what the end result will be, but it's pretty much the last thing anyone in Israel wanted this summer.

And on a completely separate note ... I've met Bradley Burston and I respect him. He was a really nice guy when I interned at Haaretz and his columns are always well thought out and realistic. He's a pretty far to the left of me, but I usually find something interesting and truthful in what he writes.

However, this last article he wrote, I just don't get. He goes back and forth about how he respects people who want to boycott Israel, but he doesn't believe in boycotts. Then he brings in the recent stupidity with the ADL ... I'm just not sure what to take away from the whole thing. Examine the passage below:

The boycott was the decision by the Olympia, Washington Food Co-op, to remove Israeli products from the shelves of its two stores.

In a move as courageous as it was overdue, the co-op also featured and published online a pamphlet strongly opposing manifestations of anti-Semitism in leftist movements.

So I guess he's saying that the part about the boycott that he likes is that they denounce anti-Semitism. He then goes on to explain why doesn't support boycotts.

Something else angered me as well - not the fact that some of the people who advocated boycotting Israel were actually against the idea of having a state of Israel, but the fact that for tactical reasons, they refused to come out and say so.

I remain opposed to boycotts, Olympia's included, first because I oppose collective punishment of all kinds, whether practiced by Israel against Gazans, or by progressives against Israelis as a whole. I also believe that boycotts against Israel tend to be self-defeating and play into the hands of the right.

So boycotts are still bad, but being honest about them is important. It's even more important to denounce anti-Semitism, especially when many of your supporters engage in it.

Bradley, I like you, I really do, but I just don't get you on this one.

Housekeeping and a few links ...

So I went ahead and changed the template of this site. I figure after two years I need to make a few changes to things. I also need to clean up the links in my side-bar as I don't read many of those sites anymore, and some of them just don't exist or are irrelevant.

I wanted to post to a few things I found online. The first is an interesting read on Yaacov Lozowick's site. He talks about the Mondoweiss post that I mentioned yesterday, and, as is his style, gives it an intelligent and dispassionate reading.


Also check out this funny post on Gawker about the congressional campaign that got called out for sending a list of "Jewish Money" to a newspaper in an attempt to smear their opponent. If you can wade through all the snark that accompanies anything on a Gawker site you'll find it quite amusing.

To blog, or not to blog ...

So well, yeah, there was that.

What was "that?" It was about two years of nothing on this blog. In my real life it was very fascinating, a lot of changes. Maybe sometime I'll tell you about it.

But recent events have motivated me to try this again. A lot has happened in the last two years, both with me and with Israel. So let's give this a shot.

You might be asking what motivated me to come back and try and be a blogger again. Well, of course I love writing, I love sharing my opinions, and well on some level it's just plain fun.

But mostly, I need somewhere to vent. Israel has been dragged through the mud the last two years. A series of events (Cast Lead, the Dubai assassination, the Flotilla,) have seriously damaged Israel's image and standing in the world.

But those events on their own weren't enough to get me writing again. It wasn't until I stumbled upon a charming blog called Mondoweiss that I was inspired to pick up the keyboard again.

Like too many of the most popular anti-Israel sites, this one is run by a Jew. That in itself makes me depressed. But it was one specific post on the so-called Palestinian "Right of Return" that really got my Hamster wheel spinning.

It reminded me, yet again, that there are many people out there who are devoting all of their life's energies to destroying Israel. Realizing that, over and over again, is a unique experience, and one that has inexorably pushed me in one direction.

I remember reading a book about "Israeli Apartheid." That motivated me to become a pro-Israel activist. I remember hearing the rantings of Israel hater Amir Abdul Malik Ali, and that motivated me (partly) to move to Israel. Then there was this, and here I am, opening my mouth again, doing something, however small and insignificant, because I can't stand still and watch people working to destroy Israel and the Jewish people along with it.

So yeah, there was that, and here I am, again, wondering, is anybody listening?

Good news...

I have been ambivalent, at best, about Barack Obama. I have not been inspired by him in the way millions of Americans have. He appeared, to me, to be to far to the left to produce truly effective leadership.

However, the recent news about Obama's choice for chief of staff has done a lot to quell my fears. Rahm Emanuel appears to be much more of a centrist, which leads me to believe that an Obama presidency will not be as left as advertised. Also, having an Orthodox Jew serving as the right hand to the President has also somewhat assuaged my fears about Obama's plans for Israel.

I was in fact very happen to read this morning a headline expressing concern about the choice.

Is Obama Screwing His Base with Rahm Emanuel Selection?
By Stephen Zunes, AlterNet. Posted November 7, 2008.
Obama has asked conservative Clinton vet Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff -- it's not a good sign for progressives.

That's music to my ears.

Israeli Media Exageration

If there is one thing the Israeli media is good at, it's making the situation in Israel seem a lot worse than it actually is. The love to make dire conclusions about life here and about the government. Take a look at these recent headlines about a recent report comparing the Israeli education system to the OECD countries.

Israeli teachers earn less than half the global average

OECD report paints bleak picture of Israeli education

OECD: Israelis in last place for science, math

Well it certainly looks as if the sky is falling. Does this mean Israel has somehow lost the Jewish commitment to education. Is the government not spending enough money on education. The answers are of course no and no.

Israel spends plenty on education. In fact all of these articles missed the most interesting piece of information to come from this report. As a percentage of its GDP Israel spends more than any other OECD country. What this means is that Israel is in fact on the right course.

Yes, these articles do make important points about areas in which Israel is trailing and I'm not arguing that the system is perfect. But these stories fail to point out the huge amount of money Israel is spending to educate its children. By failing to accurately describe the reality of the situation the media is preventing the public from drawing the right conclusions about how to move forward and actually make things better.

What Israel really needs to do is grow its economy. Israel could then spend the same percentage on education but have the total equal a lot more. The Israeli economy has performed wonderfully over the last several years and has grown a lot faster than the OECD average.

Why hasn't the media talked about this? Those headlines should have instead said something like this, "Israel makes progress in Education over last several years."

Israeli Perspective ...

I've seen this commercial on a number of occasions now and just had to post it. This commercial is funny because of the way the Americans pronounce the Israeli names but it also offers a unique window into Israeli perspectives on America.  Remember this is an Israeli commercial for an Israeli audience and yet there is almost no Hebrew.

For any one wondering why I moved to Tel Aviv, this article is a must read. It's not that the New York Times can explain the wonder of Tel Aviv better than I can (well maybe), it's more that people are more likely to pay attention to them.

Two Posts for the Price of One

The Neighbors Don't Care For Us Very Much ...

I stumbled on this article in the New York Times from some random corner of the internet. It is disturbing to say the least. The article details the results of a new poll about the Palestinians views' on violence towards Israel. I thought I would share just a few of the highlights.

According to the poll, conducted last week with 1,270 Palestinians in face-to-face interviews, 84 percent supported the March 6 attack on the Mercaz Harav yeshiva, one of Israel’s most prominent centers of religious Zionism and ideological wellspring of the settler movement in the West Bank. Mr. Shikaki said that this is the single highest support for an act of violence in his 15 years of polling here. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Here's another gem:

The pollster, Khalil Shikaki, said he was shocked because the survey showed greater support for violence than any other he had conducted over the past 15 years in the Palestinian areas. Never before, he said, had a majority favored an end to negotiations or the shooting of rockets at Israel.

“There is real reason to be concerned,” Mr. Shikaki said in an interview at his West Bank office.

You don't say?


The Best Blog Post Ever ...

No description, just go read now! Blue and White homegrown Israeli Grindhouse flick

Shouldn't the choice be obvious ...

The sad news from Sderot today is that the Qassams coming from Gaza have claimed another victim.  A man was killed while waiting in his car near Sapir college in Sderot.  He is just the last in a line of people who have been killed or injured by the so called "harmless" rockets from Gaza.

This news comes on top of a recent revealing article in Haaretz that talks about the anti-missile defense system being developed by Israel to counter the Qassam threat.  Israel has chosen to develop a system called "Iron Dome" which targets the incoming missiles with another missile, much like the Patriot or Arrow system.  The article points out that due to economics and a host of other factors, the "Iron Dome" system will be completely ineffective against the Qassams.

This has always seemed obvious to me.  Why counter a $750 dollar Qassam with a $100,000 dollar missile?  Why build a new missile when there are already better options available?

In my mind I always imagined that Israel would employ the Skyguard anti-missile laser.  After all, it had helped develop the Nautilus prototype.  To see just how effective the system can be check out this video.

David at Treppenwitz has also talked about this issue a couple of times.  He suggested a currently operational system called the "Vulcan Phalanx," which is right now protecting American troops in Iraq.

Whatever system is chosen, it seems obvious that there are options, and options that are available now.  I simply can't understand what the Israeli government was thinking, or how they thought no one would notice.  I mean doesn't it seem obvious?

Because My Dad Can Use It ...

I was reading this story over on Engadget about the popularity of different cellphone makers. Coming in way ahead of the pack is Apple with their iPhone followed closely by Blackberry maker RIM. Check out the story and the cool graph.

I was trying to figure out how Apple, who has just released their very first cell phone, was able to storm to first place in customer satisfaction. Of course as an avid Mac user I'm not surprised, but nevertheless it is still quite remarkable that Apple could hit such a big home run with their first phone.

After pondering the question for a bit, I remembered a conversation I had with my dad recently. He was kvelling about his new iPhone and all the fun things he's doing with it. Now my dad is a smart guy, and he's fairly technologically savvy for someone of his generation, but the iPhone has a lot of features that I thought he simply wouldn't use or wouldn't bother with. However, my dad rattled of all the things he was doing with his phone as if they were no big deal.

And that is the reason for Apple's iPhone success. They built a very capable phone, but designed it such a way so that people can actually use it. They built a phone that my dad can use.

On the other hand my job has given me a very fancy Nokia smart phone that probably has a lot of features that the iPhone doesn't. But the thing is so wonky* and difficult to use that I don't use any of the special features and to be honest I can barely make phone calls with it.

Back in July when I was in the states, I went to the Apple store to play with the iPhone. From the moment I picked it up I was able to understand it and make it work. It really is the classic example of the Apple slogan - it just works.

*Not the proper use of the word wonky.