tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-75399552024-03-09T02:23:48.099+02:00Mad in IsraelArmin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-60893710513909140142010-06-03T21:50:00.005+03:002010-06-03T22:19:50.651+03:00The Solution For The Gaza Blockade<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Here is my solution for Gaza. Since we, the Israelis, are in the eyes of the world the evil prison wardens, hoping to starve the population into submission, I suggest to hand the administration of Gaza's external borders over to the world. Not the whole world of course, because that would mean the UN, and the UN has yet to prove effective in administrating any border in this region (ask me about this one, if you wonder what I mean...). Not Egypt, of course, as they already share one border with Gaza and have supported the blockade nicely for the last couple of years. </span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">No, the real expert for how to deal with Gaza, the humanitarian crisis and the Hamas is the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, who has publicly cursed Israel for the "massacres" during the Gaza War of 2008 and the "humanitarian flotilla attack". So, here we have an expert on dealing with radical Palestinians, who also knows how to keep his own problem in form of the PKK in check, in cooperation with the Iranians and without the oh-so-busy-with-Israel world opinion even noticing.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">Therefore I suggest to open the Gaza strip, both the harbour and the airport, under the condition that Turkish customs officers police the border crossings. I am sure they will know better how to bring everything in, except for missiles, mortars, TNT and other goodies that really don't help that much with the humanitarian crisis.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;">If you promise to keep me and my family alive, Mr. Erdogan, I am willing to give you the Gaza strip. How's that for a deal?</span></span></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-26702341107553314302010-01-18T08:23:00.005+02:002010-01-18T22:21:25.571+02:00Israeli Army Saving Lifes in Haiti<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" white-space: pre; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:10px;"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oSsCBuBVzQw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oSsCBuBVzQw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /><br />Israeli Jews saving Christians out of the ruins of Port-au-Prince. The army has dispatched over 200 soldiers from a medical home front unit, who have set up a field hospital with 50 beds in a socker stadium. The BBC (not exactly pro Israeli any other day) called the hospital the "Rolce-Royce" under the field hospitals and praised the Israeli search and rescue team as "the only team that knows what it is doing". Fresh wind from London?</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Where are the search and rescue teams from Hezbollah, Hamas, The Muslim Brotherhood, The Islamic Jihad? Not fair? Okay, then let's think about Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Sudan (and North Korea)?<br /><br />The obvious answer is: Islamic fundamentalists couldn't care less about 100,000 dead Christians. Actually, they are probably celebrating ("God is punishing the infidels"). The really crazy thing is that even many fundamentalist Christians are using God as an explanation for the Earth Quake ("They used condoms, that place is full of homosexuals, ...."). And the Jews that died over there were punished for driving on Shabbat. Yeah, sure. What a world - FUBAR (remember that one?).</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">I wondered how Turkey would respond to the desaster. To my relief and satsifaction there are Turkish <a href="http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=turkey-widens-aid-efforts-for-haiti-2010-01-17">search and rescue teams in Haiti</a>. Maybe there is a reason deeper than cold strategic interests for Turkey being the only muslim ally of Israel?<br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Read </span></span><a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2241877/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Christopher Hitchens in Slate</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"> about the religious abuse of natural desaster over centuries. Nothing has changed, people.<br /><br />And in any case, you can make a humanistic donation void of a missionary agenda here: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "><a href="http://givingaid.richarddawkins.net/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Non-Believers Giving Aid: a religion-free way to help disaster victims</span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" font-weight: bold; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;">Atheists donated $50,000 in the first 24h after the quake via Richard Dawkins' initiative. That is the power of the web, paired with human compassion. No religious dillusion necessary to help your fellow humans, it seems.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:large;"><br /></span></span></div></div></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-61398213647206503302009-12-16T23:21:00.007+02:002009-12-17T01:07:50.702+02:00Time for peace now, is it? Or why Abbas will make me rich and dead.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Well, it is always a good time for peace out here, but is this a realistic time for peace? The peace talk these days is very much like the talk about the imminent release of </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gilad</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Shalit</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> from captivity in Gaza. Every other week we read that this time it is only a question of days, maybe weeks, and just five disputed names on the </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hamas</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> list of prisoners to be exchanged for </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Gilad</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. And stupid us, every time we again believe it and get excited. Every time a little bit less, to be sure, but still, one must not loose hope, right? Poor </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Shalit</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> family.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So today we read in the </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Haaretz</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> that Abbas can make peace, finally, if we just stop building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem for six months. Independent of the fact that in my opinion we should stop to build in the West Bank for six years, or better yet, for ever, this new line is really pissing me off. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">What is it with these people? Once more the Palestinians are blundering a chance for peace, and by all accounts maybe the last one for a long time to come. </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Netanyahu</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> has been </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">resized</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> to human proportions by the American pressure (thank you, Mr. President, but still, you should not have accepted that Nobel Prize, at least not the one for Peace. Economy, maybe. Okay, that was just a joke for my follower(s) over at the Fox news), with some European assistance, and maybe, just maybe, a bad conscience for that freak show of a government he has assembled. Actually, his only way to fame is either a) a war with Iran, or b) peace with the Palestinians. I hope for the latter, but I have my money on the first.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So here we have </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Netanyahu</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, a solid right winger by any standard, sending the feared and fearless Border Police into the most extreme settlements to enforce a building freeze all over the West Bank, and what has Abbas to say? Not good enough, Jonathan, try harder.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">While the building freeze is popular with the secular (still) majority, few members of which have voted for the </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Likud</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, it is hugely unpopular among the religious of all sorts - a central pillar in the coalition. In other words, this policy is not sustainable unless it brings a tangible benefit very soon. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Now, the hard core religious elements in the coalition will not consider serious negotiations with the Palestinians about a two state solution a tangible benefit, and may actually try to topple the government if there was a chance of those negotiations succeeding. However, in that case the Labor rebels, </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Kadima</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> and </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Meretz</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> would either join the government or support it from the benches, and once again a right wing prime minister was the one to make a peace agreement with an arch enemy. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I don't know what </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Abbas's</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> reason for not picking up the ball is, but I have a suspicion. It seems to me that a short term tactical achievement is more important than the strategic goal of achieving statehood. This was the case in the final collapse of every serious peace initiative so far. If the Palestinians were a person one would say this guy has some nasty self-destructive tendencies and needs to see a shrink, soon. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">So here is what is going to happen. Before Abbas wakes up </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Netanyahu's</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> attempt will collapse under the pressure from his right wing religious coalition partners. The government will find a good reason why the negotiations are off the agenda - a few more </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Quassams</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> fired from Gaza and we will be there. Abbas goes into retirement and a third intifada breaks out, terror attacks, suicide bombers, you know the drill. Now </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Netanyahu</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> is really back to where he left off during his last tenure as prime minister, which is not generally considered a great success, to put it mildly. And this is when I get rich - remember the Iran option. Rich and dead, possibly.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">But it doesn't have to end this way. Among the Palestinians there are reasonable voices, like Ray </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Hanania</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">, the founder of </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Yalla</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> Peace (http://yallapeace.blogspot.com/). Ray has announced his candidacy for the office of the Palestinian President. Yes, he has. Whatever I'll have made from the Iran option, I won't bet on Ray for President. A) He is actually an American Palestinian, married to a Jew. So much for popular support on the streets of </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Ramallah</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">. And B) he is just way too reasonable and balanced. His proposal for a two state solution is more or less what will be the outcome of serious final status negotiations, should there ever be any. We know it, they know it, but we can't just agree on the reasonable thing now, can we. As Abbas put the negotiations with </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Olmert</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> (from the article linked to the headline): </span></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">"The next day, we started talking about maps. </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Olmert</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> showed me one map and I brought back one of ours. He showed me a new map and I brought back a map of ours. And so it went. We agreed that 1.9 percent would be with you and </span></span><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Olmert</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'courier new';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> demanded 6.5 percent. It was a negotiation, we didn't complete it. As a shopper enters a store, that's how we held the talks." </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, serif;font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:13px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">It is the Middle East here, after all. I have a proposal for Ray: Since you are married to a Jew, you can get the Israeli citizenship if you both immigrate to Israel. And then you can run for office in Israel. I'd say your chances here are somewhat better than over there and you can keep the platform as it is. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">If we are still here after that war with Iran we may need every creative mind we can get...</span></span></div><div><br /></div></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-35703204599039867552009-11-14T21:16:00.003+02:002009-11-14T21:33:39.265+02:00A Swedish Joke....<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Here is one that describes the kind of objective journalism covering events in Israel, especially but not only in Sweden...</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">An Israeli on vacation in Stockholm sees a crazy dog attacking a small, freightened girl. He orders his cab driver to stop, jumps out of the cab, struggles with the dog and kills it in the end. Bystanders call the local newspaper and a journalist arrives within minutes at the scene, where the bloodied Israeli is still holding the shivering girl. After inquiring what exactly happened the journalist tells the Israeli: "Wow, what a story! You are a hero! The headline will be "Swede saves girl from attack dog." Replies the Israeli: "But I am not Swede!" "Of course, what was I thinking, why would you speak English, and with that funny accent. Okay, so we'll write "European saves little girl from attack dog - how's that?"" Whispers the Israeli: "Well, better, but I am also not a European." "So what are you?" "Israeli." The journalist makes an astonished face, looks at the little girl, turns around and walks away without a word.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The headline the next day reads "Crazy Israeli kills loved pet of little Swedish girl".</span></span></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-15330337142637498372009-01-26T14:23:00.003+02:002009-01-26T14:45:34.532+02:00The Taliban in the IDFWithout anybody noticing, the Taliban have arrived at the Israeli Defense Forces (click on the title to read the Haaretz article). They masquerade as Rabbis and abuse the public trust into the IDF's rabbinate in order to educate Israeli soldiers to behave like Taliban, Hamas or Hezbollah warriors. "Show no mercy to the cruel" sounds a lot like "show no mercy to the infidels" to me, in my humble opinion.<br /><br />The only thing that separates us and them now is that common Israeli soldiers subjected to that kind of teachings came forward and reported the intellectual garbage to the press, for all of us to read and get goose bumps. Free minds and a free press are the only thing standing between us and the final abyss.<br /><br />Still there are islands of reason and common sense left, but where is all of that leading us? If Rabbi Ronzki will still be the Chief Rabbi of the IDF in a couple of months from now, it is time to pack up and move to Afghanistan, I'd say. At least the property prices there are a lot more reasonable.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-40780021531265920052009-01-16T21:50:00.004+02:002009-01-17T16:34:22.583+02:00Israeli Humanity - Does it Exist?These days a lot is being said and written about the Israeli war machine killing innocent children with Israelis showing no remorse. Israelis have been called the "New Nazis" and the war in Gaza has been marked as the new Holocaust. <div><br /></div><div>Holocaust? You must be out of your mind to write such bullshit. 6 Million Jews perished in an industrial killing machine. We would need to fight the war in Gaza 6,000 times over in order to reach that kind of magnitude, and even then there is a difference between victims of war and exterminated people because of what they were.</div><div><br /></div><div>But that is not what I wanted to tell you today. I want to give the human perspective of the war, which is not being reported in the media at all, and I wonder why that is.</div><div><br /></div><div>A relative of mine came to visit from the US the other day and developed symptoms of a heart attack a day after the flight. She was admitted to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Ichilov</span> hospital in Tel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Aviv</span> and remained under observation for a couple of days. She shared her room with one other Israeli woman and a woman from Gaza, as quite many patients do these days. We have heard about children being transferred to Israeli hospitals, but this story is different. The woman from Gaza suffers from a head and neck cancer, which had been treated in Gaza for years and finally had reached a stage where the doctors there gave up and send her home to die. That was shortly before the start of the war. A few days later Israeli troops reached her neighbourhood and her husband was brave enough to go out and ask the Israeli medic of the unit operating near his house for help. The medic called the units surgeon, who checked the woman and told the family that without treatment she would die very soon, but that he knows that surgery could be performed at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Ichilov</span> hospital. If they agreed he would try to arrange for a transfer. They agreed and the woman was evacuated in an Israeli army ambulance under <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Hamas</span> fire to the Gaza border, where she was picked up by a civilian ambulance. She was operated on shortly after and was recovering from the surgery when my relative was admitted. </div><div><br /></div><div>You see, that is the real face of Israeli humanity. Yes, there is war, and yes, innocent people die in wars, but Israelis don't fight the war in order to exterminate the Palestinians. They fight to defend their country and their way of life from maniac terrorist who have managed to take 1 million <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Gazans</span> hostage.</div><div><br /></div><div>As for the Nazis, the only surgery they performed on Jews was either experimental or aimed to sterilize young women, so they would have a longer productive phase in slave labor before going to the gas chamber. </div><div><br /></div><div>If you still need to compare modern Jews to Nazis your are either totally ignorant or plain stupid.</div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-22281546177106805912009-01-12T00:39:00.006+02:002009-01-26T14:48:34.970+02:00A Response to Mr. Bishara (Al Jazeera)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Helvetica;font-size:12;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="COLOR: rgb(51,51,51); LINE-HEIGHT: 18px">Marwan Bishara is a senior political analyst for the Al Jazeera English network and has published an opinion piece about Israel's motivation to go to war in Gaza in the International Herald Tribune of December 30, 2008. I sent the following reponse, which this time did not get published, so I do it here.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:13;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial;">Experiencing democracy and observing it are not the same. Mr. Bishara's writing about Israeli motivation to go to war against the Hamas proves him to be an observer only, like the overwhelming majority of his Middle Eastern compatriots. When Israel's political leaders bow to overwhelming public pressure and come to the help of the Israeli citizens in the south, they finally do what they are supposed to do: Listen to their people first and the international community second, and there is nothing cynical about it. Being a democratic country at the very core, Israel also did not punish the Gazans for electing Hamas, as Mr. Bishra believes. Many Israelis even hoped that the new strongmen would fulfill agreements, once negotiated, more reliably than the chronically defaulting Palestinian Authority. Gazans started to suffer the siege once Israel tried economic sanctions against the continued rocket fire, before finally resorting to an all-out war against the terrorists-turned-rulers-remained-terrorists.</span><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="218424415-04012009" style="font-size:130%;">The most serious misunderstanding however is the question why Israel choose to go to war in the end. Just like the second Lebanon war did not start because of two abducted soldiers, the Gaza war did not start because one Israeli prisoner and a few rockets fired since the end of the cease fire, as Arab and most European media consistently claim in order to condemn the disproportionate use of force. Both wars started because the Israeli population living near the borders having been subjected to random rocket fire for years, which turned hundreds of thousands of lives into nightmares and the entire city of Sderot into a ghost town. One week of targeted strikes seem a very proportionate response for years and years of indiscriminate terror when you live in Sderot or Kiriat Shmona. </span></span><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="218424415-04012009"></span></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Arial;"><span class="218424415-04012009" style="font-size:130%;">If Hamas' agenda was to create a state in Gaza and the West Bank, all they had to do was nothing. When Hamas took power in Gaza Israel was already set to withdraw from most of the West Bank as well. But pre-state sponsored terrorism proved the true agenda - the destruction of Israel, never hidden from those who wanted to know. Terror turned Israeli public opinion against concessions and delayed the creation of a Palestinian state once again for indefinite time, like several times before. The truly cynical outcome of the Palestinian's first experiment with democracy is to be left with two governments, one irrational and one incompetent, both being incapable of fulfilling their national dreams alongside Israel.</span></span></div></span>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-42497601501631365742008-12-30T23:32:00.013+02:002009-01-02T01:45:07.262+02:00Why Israel needs to fight Hamas.Long time, no hear. Have been too busy - yes, really - and maybe a bit lazy, but most of all too depressed about Israeli politics in the last two years to find the muse, sit down and write something beyond the obvious.<div><br /></div><div>However, the war in Gaza does need some explaining, I believe, although in general I find the official reporting a lot better than during the Second Lebanon War - this how our unfortunate encounter with Hezbollah is meanwhile officially being called. Nevertheless, fundamental analysis is rare, and so I'll try to explain what is actually going on around here.</div><div><br /></div><div>The very basic question underlying the whole mess in Gaza is the following. After the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 and the subsequent Hamas election victory, why did Hamas not concentrate on building a better life for the Gazans and show the world that they can be responsible rulers (if inconvenient at times)? The PA was in so bad shape at the time that any reasonable administration would have made a better impression on the world than the corrupt and incompetent competition in the West Bank. Any Hamas member would answer on CNN "Because our brothers in the West Bank are still living under the Zionist occupation, and we need to resist that occupation overall, even if we in Gaza have managed to beat the Zionists out of our territory." We have heard this line a thousand times, and some people actually believe it. Well, I don't, and you'll soon know why.</div><div><br /></div><div>If that line was the true, then the solution would be very clear cut. Withdraw from the West Bank unilaterally, just like we did it in Gaza, risk a civil war with those demented settler fanatics, and everything will be just fine. In the short period of quiet right after we left Gaza there was a clear consensus that this is the way to go, and Olmert won his election with a promise to do just that - the Israelis suspected Olmert to be a corrupt crook (they knew him well from his years as mayor of Jerusalem), but the majority of them wanted to do the final step and get out of the West Bank as well, most of it anyway, and the faster the better. So they swallowed the frog and voted Olmert back into office, which he had entered initially only by Ariel Sharon falling into coma (see the joke a few posts down). </div><div><br /></div><div>And then Hamas did two things. A) They started to get the chaotic Gaza life under control, instilled some law and order, and all-in-all proved to be indeed a better alternative to the Palestinian Authority. Quite good. Okay, they used some unconventional methods along the way, like throwing Fatah members of the highest roofs they could find, leaving their bodies for the families to scrap off the pavement. But then again, this is Gaza, not Tuscany, so let's not be too picky. B) They used every opportunity to attack Israel, with terror attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel, and countless missiles fired at the Israeli communities around Gaza. Not so good.</div><div><br /></div><div>For Olmert and all peace loving Israelis this was a very nasty surprise, which eventually forced Olmert to change course and postpone the withdrawal from the West Bank due to rapidly evaporating public support. "Why are those Morons in Gaza not getting it? All they have to do is to behave reasonably for a year or two and it will all be over, they have their state and we can live peacefully ever after." This was the most commonly asked question in the public debate.</div><div><br /></div><div>The answer to that question is what our Hamas member forgot to mention on CNN. Hamas' national aspiration goes far beyond Gaza and the West Bank. There is no place for Israel alongside Hamas' vision of Palestine. Hamas has consistently refused to recognize Israel - on the contrary, Hamas declares the destruction of the Zionist entity as their primary political goal at every opportunity, in Arabic and even in Hebrew (believe it or not, Hamas spokespeople love to give interviews for Israeli TV, no idea why they even bother). Everything in this world has to serve this one purpose, the life of every Hamas member and his family, the quality of life in Gaza in general, and yes, also the very life of regular Gaza residents. So indeed, when this is your worldview it doesn't make sense to put too much effort into developing Gaza, other than to make it a launching pad for the next stage on the path to the final solution (pun intended). </div><div><br /></div><div>Everything happening around us makes perfect sense when you look at it from that perspective. Of course it is okay to kill Israeli civilians, and really, why not? Hamas is willing to blow up their own people in suicide missions (they are even <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: italic;">dying</span> to do so), and to destroy the lives of over a million regular Gazans along the way, to keep them dirt poor, to use them as human shields and to murder them in the most barbaric ways imaginable if they object, so why should Israeli civilians enjoy any special consideration? Muslims go to heaven and the infidels go to hell, so everybody ends up where they belong (I don't really know if there is the concept of hell in Islam, but for sure the infidels are not headed for a 5 star hotel). If that is not a final solution, then what is? Every missile fired from Gaza into Israeli cities is aimed at civilian targets and loaded with a war head designed for maximum damage to soft targets - translated from military lingo that means hundreds of small pieces of shrapnel to kill every unprotected human being in a radius of 30 meters from the point of impact. </div><div><br /></div><div>Now, even the most fundamentalist Muslims understand that since the Renaissance the Western World has developed different values, and they use those values daily for their propaganda machine. So while their indifferent targeting is justified by the Divine purpose, Israel's surgical strikes are genocide, even a Holocaust, what have you. And the absolutely shocking truth is that 95% of all Europeans and maybe 80% of Americans actually believe this bullshit. Israel has dropped so far about 200 tons of explosives on well selected targets, with some 400 causalities, among which they are some 100 unfortunate civilians, which by any military standard is a very impressive ratio. (Civilized Britain, today the biggest critic of Israel in Europe, bombed German cities in WWII for maximum impact on the population, killing 20,000 civilians and basically no military personnel in a single bombing raid on Dresden, just to name one example.) But the Hamas propaganda machine declares a Holocaust, and the world is demanding an immediate cease fire. Even the Israeli left wing had enough and is joining the calls to end the war now, while Hamas is firing 80 missiles a day into Israeli cities. </div><div><br /></div><div>If Hamas had the possibility to deliver that amount of explosives into Israel, where they want it and how they want it, 90% of the Israeli population would be where they belong by now - in hell, remember? And let there be no doubt, not a single Hamas member would even think for a second that maybe this was disproportional use of force. There would be endless thank you prayers, gigantic feasts and fireworks all over the Middle East. Allah is great! Oh right, I forgot to mention Iran. One more thought experiment before we get there. </div><div><br /></div><div>What would happen to the 10% surviving Israelis? Would they get medical care in Hamas hospitals, allowed visits from the Red Cross and communication with their relatives abroad? You bet... Civilian casualties from Gaza are treated in Israeli hospitals, international help organizations are allowed to ship some 100 truck loads of medical supplies and food to Gaza almost every day. If you want to compare Hamas attitude just watch what is happening to Gilad Shalit - but that is another topic for another time.</div><div><br /></div><div>Having said all this, Hamas is really our smallest problem. That is as long as they don't have the means to deliver something like 200 tons of explosives. Unfortunately Iran will have those means very soon, and as Ahmadinejad has declared over and over again, it is God's promise that Israel will be wiped off the pages of history (not off the map apparently, this translation is disputed), but who in the West cares, other than the otherwise strangely incompetent Bush administration? The holy warriors of Islam need to fulfill that promise, and therefore, given the means, they will deliver the nuclear strikes on Israel. And kill the Muslims living in Israel in the process, you might ask? Of course! They will go to heaven as martyrs, and what could be better than that? Remember the bus loads of Iranian children that were sent into the Iraqi mine fields to clear those mines by triggering them with their bodies? That was islamist humanity then, and nothing has changed. (Not that modern ideologies like communism or fascism were much better in that aspect, but they did reserve their most most terrible abuses for their enemies, and in any case, they just didn't last that long.)</div><div><br /></div><div>It does not take a lot of fancy interpretation to predict the future behaviour of a nuclear Iran from Hamas' current behaviour, or Hezbollah's behaviour. Essentially these are all entities driven by the same value system. I suggest you have a look at the link in the headline and hear about Hezbollah and PA in Lebanon first hand from a Lebanese journalist. If you don't take it from me, take it from her!</div><div><br /></div><div>How will it all end? Well, the only possible scenario I can see is that eventually Israel will make Hamas understand that they can not achieve their ultimate goal by terror, and that a prosperous, well-developed state is necessary to develop the military might to get rid of those Zionists after all. This insight can only be generated by military defeat, again and again, but once Hamas reaches that point, they will agree to a long term cease fire (hudna) and stick to it. Developing that powerful state will take a couple of decades, and we can only hope that they forget along the way what they set out to do from the start. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is why Israel has no choice but to fight Hamas back into reality, and isolate them from Iran's military resources, so they can not continue that proxy war for Iran any longer. It doesn't look good on TV, but it has to be done.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1167934623774424782007-01-04T19:58:00.000+02:002007-01-04T20:17:03.793+02:00Shall we laugh or cry?..is the title of a sort of funny EMail I got today, which I have to share with you. We have gotten used to the continuous stream of scandals in the political and administrative leadership, but when I read this mail my heart stopped to beat for a few seconds. Is it really that bad? Judge for yourself:<br /><br /> It is a rainy night and we are at <st1:place st="on"><st1:placename st="on">the </st1:placename><st1:placetype st="on">hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place>.<br /> Only one assistant is around, named Shmiel. He is on night duty<br /> tonight in the room of "sleeping" former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.<br /><br /> Everybody, but Sharon himself, knows he is no longer the<br /> Prime Minister of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region>. Shmiel is sitting peeling an apple and G the<br /> Israeli Secret Service ( Shabak) agent is nodding off.<br /><br /> Suddenly, all the machines start to beep. The PM is waking<br /> up!<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> says, "I haven't slept like that for a long time! Get<br /> me my strategist, Reuven Adler, I have some ideas for a new<br /> direction."<br /><br /> Shmiel says, "Good morning, sir. How do you feel?"<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> answers, "I am dying of hunger. Where am I?"<br /><br /> The Shabak agent continues to sleep while Shmiel explains to<br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> what had happened to him.<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> does not take him seriously and says, "So tonight you<br /> fooled the PM, eh Shmiel?"<br /><br /> Shmiel says, "Sorry sir but you are really no longer the<br /> PM."<br /><br /> After a few minutes <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> asks, "So who replaced me?"<br /><br /> Shmiel answers, "Ehud Olmert."<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> reacts, "Olmert? That Jerusalemite potz? What will<br /> happen if war breaks out, he does not know how to run the army! At least<br /> Shaul [Mofaz] is still there!"<br /><br /> Shmiel answers, "Mofaz is the Minister of Transportation."<br /><br /> "So who is the Defense Minister?" Shmiel says, "Peretz."<br /><br /> "That old man is still alive?!" asks <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> in wonderment.<br /><br /> Shmiel whispers trembling, "Not Peres, Peretz. Amir Peretz."<br /> "What? Are you crazy? I close my eyes for a minute and you<br /> guys let a Labor leader take over the defense of the country?! Not all<br /> the factories in Dimona are the same. Does he know that? Listen,<br /> get Omri here right away. He will fix everything."<br /><br /> "Sorry sir, Omri is on his way to jail."<br /><br /> "Jail?? For that nonsense? I do not believe it. So get me my<br /> lawyer quickly. Get Klagsbald."<br /><br /> Shmiel responds "Klagsbald is on his way to jail."<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> calms down and says, "I knew I could count on<br /> Klagsbald. He will get Omri out of it."<br /><br /> Shmiel corrects him "No, sir. Klagsbald is also on<br /> his way to jail. He was driving and not paying attention and caused an<br /> accident unintentionally killing a young woman and her son."<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> said, "So bring me [Avigdor] Yitzchaki. He always<br /> knows how to fix these situations."<br /><br /> "Sorry, sir. Yitzchaki is under his own investigation for<br /> tax fraud. He's fixed a few things too many this time."<br /><br /> "Can't be. I know Yitzchaki. They must be framing him. So<br /> get me the Head of Police."<br /><br /> "Sorry, sir, but Karadi is in an investigation for<br /> corruption."<br /><br /> "Of course he is. He is the head of police. I am sure he is<br /> in the middle of a number of investigations!"<br /><br /> "No, sir. This is an investigation against him!"<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> takes a deep breath. "It can't be. The whole justice<br /> system has been ruined! We must get them out of this. Get me the<br /> minister of Internal Security, Tzachi [Hanegbi]."<br /><br /> "Sir, Hanegbi has been indicted for fraud, bribery and job<br /> fixing. He is not a minister anymore."<br /><br /> "So get me the Justice Minister. Who did Olmert appoint?"<br /><br /> "Haim Ramon."<br /><br /> "So get him here!"<br /><br /> "Sorry sir. I can't. He has been indicted and is on trial<br /> for sexual harassment."<br /><br /> "What? So get me the president. That is still Katzav,<br /> right?"<br /><br /> "Yes, sir, for now. But Katzav is under investigation as well, for<br /> sexual harassment AND wiretapping."<br /><br /> "So get me the Chief of Staff, Boogie [Moshe Ayalon]. Ah, wait,<br /> that is Halutz, right?"<br /><br /> "Sir, he got into some trouble in the Lebanon War. Nothing<br /> criminal, really. But he sold some stocks with very odd timing.<br /> He will soon be giving testimony to an investigative committee."<br /><br /> "Halutz?? He was a young Piper pilot during the <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Lebanon</st1:place></st1:country-region><br /> War!"<br /><br /> "Sir, that would be the second Lebanon War, it happened<br /> while you were sleeping. We... how should I say, kind of lost<br />the war but the Prime Minister said we should be patient, victory is coming."<br /><br /> <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Sharon</st1:place></st1:city> looked around his room. "What is your name and what<br /> is your position?"<br /><br /> "Shmiel, sir. I am a hospital attendant."<br /><br /> "Ok, Shmiel. Do not tell anyone about this conversation."<br /><br /> "You can count on me, sir."<br /><br /> "I'm going back to sleep."<br /><br />Yes, I guess he would not like what has happened since he fell into coma.... I apologize for not mentioning the author, I just don't know who wrote this cruel summary.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1156025680164576062006-08-20T00:05:00.000+03:002006-08-20T19:20:47.186+03:00Thank you, Hezbollah!Why for haven's sake would we have to thank Hezbollah? For almost 200 Israelis killed? For 23 billion NIS damages to the Israeli economy? Well, obviously that is not what I had in mind... We have to thank Hezbollah for a wake-up call, which may have been delivered at the very last moment.<br /><br />I really don't want to join here the tired old criticism of every decision any government has ever taken. Israelis love to criticize, and they always know everything best. Every cab driver had a better plan for this war, every journalist knew from day one that we are not going to win, bla, bla, bla. Sickening.<br /><br />Side track: All this bitching in the media reminds me of a totally unrelated story. A few years ago, at the height of the second Intifada, the quality control people of the public water company "Mekorot" discovered a milky pollution in water pipeline connecting the center of Israel with the Sea of Galilee, Israel's only fresh water reservoir. Not being able to identify the chemical fast enough, and not knowing exactly how far the stuff had traveled in the system already, they decided to close the valves near the end of the pipeline and flush the whole line with clean water. This meant thousands and thousands of cubic meters of scarce water literally went down the tube. Shortly afterwards it was discovered that the chemical was a relatively harmless fertilizer, which was sucked into the water system by a defect reflow protection valve on somebody's agricultural watering system. The Mekorot managers were almost lynched for wasting so much water and creating a public panic. Of course, at that time more than ever, there were very good reasons to assume that terrorist could poison the water. Therefore, in the absence of any solid data on the pollutant, the Mekorot managers took the gutsy decision to dump all that water and alert the public. Had it been a terrorist act, they'd come out the saviors of maybe thousands of people. Since it was not, everybody and their grandmother knew better and criticized them for their decision. This is Israel, you can never do anything without somebody claiming in public he or she could have done better. I have to admit, it is tiring at times.<br /><br />Back to the Hezbollah. Having talked to reserve soldiers returning from Lebanon, I come to the following picture. No, we did not loose this war, Hezbollah has been hit hard and it will take them some time to lick their wounds and recover from the blow. Iran will have to spend a lot of money to replenish Hezbollah's stock piles, money they would need to buy equipment for their dangerous nuclear program, maybe. Na, I guess they'd rather save a little on education....<br /><br />But we also didn't win this war. Although the threat was known and the IDF trained ever since we left Lebanon for this possibility, when the war broke out nothing worked as planned. Olmert, Halutz and Peretz ignored all the existing planning and reinvented the war as it unfolded. Instead of an immediate massive call-up of well trained and prepared reserves, and an overwhelming blow with boots on the ground and vastly superior fire power all over the South within a couple of days, Halutz went about it with the motto "let the airforce win this war", while Olmert, Peretz and Livni were worried more about European public opinion than our soldiers lifes. We were able to watch on TV bloody battles being fought about a single house in some Lebanese village, when a single artillery shell could have finished the job in a second and with zero casualties on our side. There were quite a few attempts to win a war like this with surgical strikes delivered from the air in the last 20 years or so, and none of them have been engraved as great success stories in military history - it just doesn't work. Only when this approach failed also here in front of a horrified Israeli public, did the leadership finally allow the "green" generals to operate according to established principles of ground war. They got two days to make up for the blunders of one wasted month. And so Hezbollah got away, limping and bleeding, but alive and encouraged, <span style="font-style: italic;">Israel can be beaten! </span>being their message to all our enemies.<br /><br />A gigantic opportunity to deliver a devastating blow to Hezbollah and friends has been missed. With a rare consensus among the Israelis regarding the justification for this war and it's goals, with extremely high motivation all through the IDF, only a mediocre result has been achieved. No, it is not a devastating loss, there are gains on the ground as well as in the political arena, but altogether everybody understands that one day we will have to go back and do it all over again. Already now the UN resolution regarding the demilitarization south of the Litani as well as the weapons embargo are being broken every single day, with nobody in the UN giving a damn, as usual. So at some point the whole mess will flare up again, no doubt about it.<br /><br />Nevertheless, imagine the extend of the disaster if all of this had happened a few years later, with Hezbollah having added hundreds of Iranian long range missiles to its arsenal, further improved the fortified infrastructure in the South and maybe even added non-conventional war heads to their missiles. Not only would we have seen many more Israeli casualties, also the chance of this leading to a direct war with Syria and maybe even Iran would have been much higher.<br /><br />Now, that we narrowly avoided a bigger disaster, we will surely be prepared much better next time, right? Well, maybe. If the self cleaning mechanism of the Israeli democracy finally starts to kick in, if incompetent military and political leaders are finally forced ONCE to take responsibility for their failures and if a minimum level of ethics and professionalism is restored to the ranks of Israeli leadership, in that case we will be prepared.<br /><br />Israelis, wake up! Incompetence, corruption and other unethical conduct of our leadership must not be tolerated any longer. Has there ever been a country where the prime minister, the president and several ministers are under police investigation for misconduct at the same time? Ever? One?<br /><br />Hezbollah is our crystal ball to see the future. If things don't change around here, the next time around we won't get away with just a bloody nose.<br /><br />So, thank you Hezbollah!Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1155054158633154932006-08-08T19:09:00.000+03:002006-08-08T19:24:07.950+03:00What it all boils down to....<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5266/444/1600/WhoIsWho.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 347px; height: 184px;" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5266/444/320/WhoIsWho.1.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Found this one on Flickr. It is too good and too true to be missed, so here is the pic instead of my usual links. Don't know who is the author, so I apologize for the copyright violation right away.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1154873109956723502006-08-06T16:59:00.000+03:002006-08-07T17:18:29.636+03:00"The War with Israel Is Over" - A Letter to the Palestinians from an Australian ArabYoussef Ibrahim's letter was all over the internet. If you have seen it, forgive me, I needed to include this here for the sake of completeness. There are some sane voices in the Arab camp. Not many, but they do exist. This one is a must read if you haven't done so already (click the title).Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1154871780001977462006-08-06T16:11:00.000+03:002006-08-06T16:43:00.026+03:00Secular/Rational Lebanese, where are you?One of these days I suddenly remembered one of my many plane trips to Europe, some ten years ago, that time from Tel Aviv via Athens to Frankfurt. During the last leg I was sitting in the middle section of the coach, trying to work. In the back a party was going on. People were changing seats all the time, loud discussions from row to row, distribution of home made food, blocked aisles, annoyed flight attendants, a picture not uncommon in flights in this corner of the world...<br /><br />I was too far away to understand anything, but there was no doubt in my mind that those were fellow Israelis on their way to some organized vacation in Europe, also taking advantage of the cheap connection via Athens. Since it was just impossible to work I got up after a while to check out the home made food (try that one on an United Airlines flight...). Once I came closer I realized that the people were speaking Arabic, not Hebrew. I was puzzled, because they were not looking like Israeli Arabs, actually they were not looking like Arabs at all, at least not to me being a newcomer to the region at the time. I sat down in the vicinity and observed the happy crowd. It became clear after a while that this was a couple going to honeymoon, and some of their friends or relatives (ever thought of taking your buddies along with you on your honeymoon...?). I closed in and asked one of the happy people where they are from and what is going on. It turned out that the wedding party was from Beirut. A Lebanese group behaving exactly the same way Israelis would behave in a similar setting.<br /><br />I also recall stories from Israeli soldiers who had been to Beirut in the first war, making friends despite their status as enemies, and feeling pretty much at home. Most of them are just like us, they said.<br /><br />Well, I guess that is true for the secular Lebanese, for the Christians and some of the moderate Moslems. It is certainly not true for those fanatics which sacrifice their children in order to give shelter and international legitimacy to the Hezbollah terrorists bombarding Israeli cities.<br /><br />Still, with all that is going on now, I wonder where are the voices of those Lebanese people, with whom we could make peace so easily. I would love to travel one day to Beirut, which was once called the Paris of the Middle East, sit in a cafe and have a croissant with some Lebanese friends. Is this so far fetched?<br /><br />It didn't seem to be back then.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1154528948978126642006-08-02T17:22:00.000+03:002006-08-02T17:30:39.820+03:00What an American-Arab Intellectual Thinks About IslamWafe Sultan, an Arab-American (or American Arab, which way would she prefer?) psychologist gave a short but very exciting interview on Al Jazeera. This is a must see for everybody trying to figure out what the heck is going on in the Middle East (click on the title).<br /><br />I would like to thank Mrs. Sultan for her frank words, and I wish her that she will stay alive long enough to hopefully witness some changes for the better. Her reaching pension age would be one of those changes in the today's Islamic culture the future of all of us depends on.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1154525826631692522006-08-02T16:29:00.000+03:002006-08-02T17:20:47.116+03:00Open letter to S. Faramarzi / Associated Press<div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><br />Dear Mrs. Faramarzi,</span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span><br /></div><div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">I'd like to express first that although a certain anti-Israeli bias is visible in your work, to my opinion it is still within the limits of what one can expect from a professional journalist. This gives me a glimmer of hope that you may find some value in my following comment.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">You keep repeating the statement that Israel started the current fighting as a response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, which is indeed the common opinion outside of Israel. This is a superficial and extremely misleading interpretation of the events.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">If the public opinion outside Israel is shaped by such a totally wrong understanding, a peaceful solution to the current crisis, and indeed to the Middle East problem overall, will only move further out of reach. I believe that we both share the wish to avoid such a bleak future.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">What is usually omitted from interpretations of Israel's motivation for the current fighting are the events since the withdrawal from Lebanon, and even more so since the withdrawal from Gaza.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">In both cases the withdrawal to an internationally recognized border has not increased the security of Israel's citizens. In the North Hezbollah has pledged to "liberate" the so-called Sheba Farms, a meaningless shred of dirt, the future of which could easily have been settled in a wider regional peace agreement with Lebanon and Syria. However this provided the justification for a massive military build-up right at Israel's border fence, regular cross-border raids, and worst of all, occasional bombardment of Israeli townships and villages with Katjusha rockets, bluntly targeting the civilian population.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">The same picture emerged after the withdrawal from Gaza. Instead of providing the critics in Israel with proof that the formula "Land for Peace" works, Hamas and other organizations proved to the Israeli public that loss of control means loss of security. In the months from the withdrawal and widely applauded razing of the Israeli settlements to the day the hostilities in the North broke out, Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip absorbed over 600 Qassam rocket attacks.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"><span style="font-family:Tahoma;">Hezbollah crossed the border to ambush an Israeli patrol, initially killing 3 soldiers and abducting 2 more. At the same time a barrage of mortars and Katjushas was fired into Israel, wounding several civilians. Those Katjushas, being numbers 601-751 of missiles fired at Israeli civilians recently, triggered the Israeli response.<br /><br /></span></span></div> <div><span class="045151713-02082006"></span> </div> <div><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="045151713-02082006">What we are now witnessing is the final collapse of the ailing "Land for Peace" doctrine and the forced return to a doctrine of "Deterrence First". Misrepresenting the Israeli response as a maniac's head rush over two miserable soldiers could well be the last nail in the coffin of hope for peace.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Formalities omitted from the original letter sent directly to AP)</span><br /></span></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:Tahoma;"><span class="045151713-02082006"></span></span><br /></div>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1154368856441907642006-07-31T19:44:00.000+03:002006-08-20T00:58:08.876+03:00Qana - A Nightmare RepeatedFor the second time Israel has lost a war in the Lebanese village of Qana. As in 1996, some kind of mistake lead to the bombing of a place filled with civilians. The public outcry lead to a halt of the military operations then, and it seems it is the beginning of the end also this time.<br /><br />But why is that? Sure, it is terrible when civilians get killed, and even more so when it is children. I am a father of three, and seeing the pictures of those little bodies dragged from the ruins made me sick to my stomach. It is very easy to imagine that this could happen to my kids, too. After all, we are not living in Switzerland. And, unlike the Swiss, we are surrounded by neighbors who want nothing more than exactly that: Kill my kids, and celebrate it. Celebrate it to the silence of the UN and a probably not very deeply distressed Annan, as we have seen when 400 Israeli civilians were blown up by Palestinian suicide bombers in 2002 and 2003.<br /><br />And that is the difference between Israel and Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the other medieval warrior societies around us. We kill because we are fighting for our survival, and because the Hezbollah tactics leave us no choice. Hezbollah kill - for what? For the Sheba Farms, a small piece of dirt not even viewed as occupied by the UN? Bullshit.<br /><br />Nobody other than the idiotic Al-Jazera (et al) propaganda can believe that Israel wanted to kill those Lebanese kids. (By the way, were there ever images of Israeli kids killed on a bus by a suicide bomber on Al-Jazera? Ever? Well, I didn't think so. Although, on second thought, there actually might have been - with victory music and a heroic poem about the martyr who just slaughtered them...)<br /><br />I don't believe in the intentional killing because I live here, I know the people, the same people that make up the army, and they are not like that. My kids are drawing peace doves in the kindergarten, they learn that people come in different colors and with different cultures. At the same time kids in Palestinian kindergarten learn to hate Israel and the desire to become martyrs. A thin strip of land separates two cultures who are actually 500 years apart from one another. No wonder that some Arabs still talk about the crusaders when they refer to the West. They haven't yet realized that crusaders are an extinct species, and they themselves have turned into modern day crusaders. I just hope they will last a lot less than their medieval ancestors.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1153992975677086332006-07-27T12:09:00.000+03:002006-07-27T12:39:23.323+03:00Where is the Diaper Truck?I start to hate reading the Israeli newspapers. Apart from a few stories about heroism of individual soldiers, it is all just one big whining. Daily pictures of wounded soldiers being evacuated, soldiers crying over fallen comrades, articles about soldiers afraid to go into combat, mothers worried for their sons. The purpose of a heroic battle always seems to be rescue of casualties, not whacking Hezbollah's behind. This may all be very touching and human, but the IDF is not a congregation of social workers, it is a war machine that should make the enemy tremble from fear.<br /><br />The only thing missing (so far) is a diaper truck bringing urgently needed supplies to the front line!<br /><br />Israelis always know better than anybody else what has to be done. This is in particular the case with journalists. Now every commentator is a better general than those who serve in the IDF, so nothing the army does is right, they should have done this or that. Worst are the "we won't achieve the goal" articles. This kind of bullshit could very easily turn into self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecies.<br /><br />I can see the Hezbollah shmocks sitting in their bunker, or hidden among Lebanese civilians in some village, and browsing the internet for Israeli publications, having a big, fat smile on their faces.<br /><br />It is time military censorship kicks in. The news media cause a serious damage to the war effort. They can and even should show what is happening on the home front, but please, no more images of crying soldiers - or I will send the diaper truck!Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1153841440866648522006-07-25T18:05:00.000+03:002006-07-26T10:49:08.250+03:00Finally the Truth: From an UN Official!The western press is slowly picking up the following statement made by the UN Humanitarian Chief Egeland, published after his visit to Beirut:<br /><br />"<span class="mainarttxt">Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."<br /><br />Apart from explaining to the world why there are so many civilians victims in Lebanon, the statement is also most noteworthy from an Israeli point-of-view, as it is the first time ever any UN official is (at least indirectly) blaming anything happening here on Israel's enemies, not on Israel. There is hope!<br /><br />I am dying to know if there is even a single publication in the Arabic or Muslim world citing this statement. Just one, maybe????<br /><br /></span>Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1153755101113474442006-07-24T17:39:00.000+03:002006-08-04T04:06:15.326+03:00And all this because of two soldiers?This is the most stupid sentence I have heard in a long time, and one can hear it a lot on TV these days. Very few of the journalists flown in to cover the new Lebanon conflict apparently take the time on the plane to read up a little before they go live with nonsense of that sort.<br /><br />Of course it is not because of the two kidnapped soldiers, just like the army's return to Gaza was not because of one kidnapped other soldier. Those were just triggers. The current war on two fronts means that we have finally been forced to realized that "Land for Peace" is a formula which does not work. It has been the guideline of most governments in the last 15 years, but it has failed. Every time we have ceded territory we got punished for it, rather than rewarded.<br /><br />Example Lebanon. The UN-verified Israeli withdrawal to the international border has created a certain lull in the daily small intensity fighting that was the routine ever since the creation of the buffer zone in South Lebanon, but in fact it did only produce an illusion of security. And, the final result was written on the walls for a long time, we just didn't want to know it. Israeli intelligence knew that Hezbollah was amassing missiles, hiding them among the civilians in South Lebanon. We knew they are building bunkers and observation points right on the border. We may not have know the full extent of those efforts. But that those efforts are not meant as confidence building measures was also clear from the frequent violations of the border by Hezbollah raids and occasional Katjusha fire into the towns and villages of Northern Israel. On the day of the kidnapping the North was hit by 150 Katjushas. At some point it had to boil over.<br /><br />The same thing in Gaza. Instead of getting busy with building the first part of their anticipated State after the total withdrawal including the destruction of the Israeli settlements, the Gazans were busy producing Quassam rockets, and digging tunnels to smuggle more weapons in from Egypt. From the day we left Gaza for good (or so we thought) to the decision to reenter Gaza with ground forces, the Israeli towns and villages near the border were hit by 600 Quassam rockets. At some point it had to boil over.<br /><br />I have heard this argument from the Israeli right many times and never believed it: "The Arabs will interpret such a withdrawal as weakness and result of their terror tactic. They will use the new freedom to intensify the terror rather than to lessen it." Well, I have to admit, they were right on.<br /><br />Hamas and Hezbollah have convinced one more Israeli dove. There can not be peace without the total destruction of their capability to terrorize the Israeli population. Only once those organizations have been totally destroyed, by all means and whatever the cost in terms of Israeli and Arab casualties, only then the remaining forces among the Palestinians and all other current enemies will have learned the lesson: Israel can not be defeated by violence. Only then they will be ready for peace.<br /><br />This also means that Olmert's plan of further unilateral withdrawals has no future - unless it is backed up by the credible threat of total destruction of any entity daring to attack Israel from any territory returned, whatever the cost may be. I hope Olmert has the stomach to build that lost credibility now, once and for all.<br /><br />May the force be with you, Ehud!Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1153411706458953442006-07-20T18:34:00.000+03:002006-07-20T19:10:25.786+03:00Home, sweet Home!Made it back home, not just in time, well in time. Very well in time, actually. This war in the North is quickly becoming part of the status quo. I start to suspect that I will be going and returning a couple of more times, before there will be a dramatic change in the news.<br /><br />Oh yes, the news. While in Germany I was starving for news. The hotel deep in the forests of the "Schwaebische Alp" had neither cables nor satellite TV, so I could get only the local and two national German stations. The good souls have news in the morning and twice or three times during the evening program, that's it. Well, there is not much to talk about, is there. How many times can you look at a traffic jam caused by vacationers going south? Or see the dropping water levels in Lake Konstanz?<br /><br />News in Israel are something else. For starters, there usually is something new to see, every day, every hour, somewhere somebody is trying to kill somebody else. Or gets killed. Or could have been killed. Whatever. So whenever you turn on the national channels, it will be only a few minutes before you get some news update thrown at you. Soap - commercial - news - commercial - news - promo - commercial - news - soap. That is roughly the typical programming sequence. This is how Israeli TV manages to spread a single episode of "24 Hours" over 24 hours actual viewing time.<br /><br />Well, the thing is that even when it occasionally happens that there simply are no news whatsoever, how much news can 6 Million people generate after all, the pattern continues unchanged. When poor Ariel Sharon had his stroke all we could watch on TV for a full week were commercials and news bulletins. By the end of the week TV news crews had managed to interview every person Sharon ever talked to in his entirely life, and many more he hadn't, including hospital cleaning staff and random patients in other wards. Waiting for the next 30 seconds of "24 Hours" I had to watch Moshe from Moshav Galia, telling live about his abdominal pain, which is not entirely unlike the feeling Ariel Sharon must have had at the beginning of his stroke, being finally relieved by the same capable doctors, even with somewhat similar probing instruments. When Sara from Kfar Saba started to talk about the traffic jams on the way to the hospital, I changed channels for the 67th time that evening, only to return to the recorded version of Moshe's abdominal thriller.<br /><br />It won't take long and the current news will decay to the same level. That will be the moment to finally go on summer vacation without the fear of missing another historic moment.<br /><br />A peaceful weekened to our soldiers in the North, to frightened families in damp shelters, and to the poor Lebanese civilians who have nothing to do with the Hezbolla shmocks and get into the way of the IAF by bad luck only. May God watch out for all of you.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1152884398637146412006-07-14T16:36:00.000+03:002006-07-14T16:39:58.653+03:00At War!This is my ultimate nightmare. I don't mean the mini war going on in Israel at this very moment. I mean that I am not there! My family is preparing the shelter and I am traveling in Europe, green and summary, one big, peaceful Disneyland. Filled with people utterly clueless about what is going on in the Middle East, now more than ever. Besides being a bit worried for my folks, but not too much really, I have this tendency of missing the historic moments. The fall of the Berlin wall I experienced glued to the TV in an Israeli student dorm, instead of climbing over the wall myself. By the time the Iraqi SCUDs fell on Israel in the first Gulf War I was back in Germany and talked to people in Israel who were wearing gas masks during the conversation. When Rabin was shot I was in Hong Kong, stunned and sad about not being able to be with all the mourners on what is now called Rabin square in Tel Aviv. I did experience the return of the British colony Hong Kong to China, better than nothing, I guess.<br /><br />And now this. Israel is finally getting tough with the maniacs, who have fired over 600 missiles into Israel since we have withdrawn entirely from the Gaza strip, and I am having croissant for breakfast - but good ones, I have to admit. The rightists in Israel were proven right - instead of getting less terror we got more. And now the Katjushas raining down on the North, with Syria and Iran getting a good show for their money.<br /><br />However, I don't think we are doing the right thing with bombarding bridges and air strips in Lebanon. Of course Hezbollah has to be turned into dust, whatever it takes, but at the end of the day Hezbollah is just a group of demented Mafiosi, who live off the Lebanese people like blood sucking insects. They could do nothing without the support from Teheran and Damascus. And this is exactly where we have to go to stop the madness. If Assad has to witness the whole military and administrative apparatus of his governing clique turned into trash by the IAF, he will probably be smart enough to understand that a few Katjushas on Israel are not worth this price, as much as he may enjoy them. The same is true for Iran. The mullahs think they are out of reach and therefore they can support terror and call for Israel's destruction without any risk. This is the time to show them that Israel's arm extends all the way to Teheran. And, by the way, it is an excellent opportunity to finish their crazy nuclear ambitions. But whom am I telling this - Olmert and Peretz, do you read me?<br /><br />I just hope I'll make it home before it is all over, once again.<br /><br />You people out there, have a nice and peaceful weekend.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1143734077521482662006-03-30T15:30:00.000+02:002006-03-30T17:54:37.570+02:00Italy, finally!Not exactly a happy day in Israel's history is behind us. The election results are in and we are starting to realize that nothing is as we expected.<br /><br />The front runner Kadima disappointed with 28 seats instead of the 35 expected, and will have to yield important ministries to the needed coalition partners, probably Labor, two religious parties (Shas and UTJ) and the Pensioners - who appeared out of nowhere to claim 7 seats. This coalition will control 74 of 120 seats in the Knesset, enough to push through Olmert's plan of further unilateral withdrawals from the West Bank. But this is where to good news end.<br /><br />34 seats of that coalition have the reversal of the current economic policies as their main goal ( policies that have saved Israel from bankruptcy after the burst of the hitech bubble), and they will extort Olmert at every and each opportunity. For every settler leaving the West Bank they will demand a million Shekels to stuff the pockets of their clientele, the weak segments of society as they are called, and the Ultra-Orthodox. Millions and millions, which the so-called <span style="font-style: italic;">rich </span>middle class will have to earn, and what can not be earned will increase the budget deficit and simply be left for our children to deal with. The money will not be invested into infrastructure, education, R&D or other drivers of economic growth, it will be distributed in form of unproductive hand-outs, unconnected to personal commitment, effort or performance. The necessary result will be higher taxes, slower growth, higher unemployment, inflation - it is all soooo predictable and yet Israel is falling into the old trap once again. How depressing. And on top of all that, we'll be back at the polling stations in 2 years max. That kind of coalition will disintegrate over the first real crisis. We may not have managed to copy Italy's quality of life, but we sure have mad great progress in achieving Italian sort of government survival times. (Thinking about Italy - we are also nowhere near Italian style in fashion. Too bad.)<br /><br />By the way, you can think about Netanyahu what you want, and I am by no means a fan of his political maneuvers, but his leadership as Finance Minister and iron guard of the budget will soon be missed - note my words.<br /><br />However, in my opinion the biggest damage to the country will be caused by the failure of the secular parties to keep the religious out of the government. The return of the inherently anti-democratic ("who votes for us goes to heaven") and chronically corrupt Shas party is going to cost us more than all the security measures against the Hamas terror together. As Sam Harris ("The End of Faith" - a must read!) says: If iron age philosophers hold power over modern society, things can only change for the worse.<br /><br />Shinui (="change"), my personal pick, was the secular watch dog in the last government (at least for the first two years or so), keeping religious sticky hands out of the public coffers. This time they didn't even make the minimum number of votes to send a representative into the Knesset. Their demand to audit the reports from religious schools with the subsequent discovery of tens of thousands of bogus students saved the public 500 million Shekels every year! With Shas running the show those reports won't even be reviewed - note my words. You have 80 students called Moshe Levy in a school of 100? What a strange coincident. Shas already now demands control of the Ministry of Communications, so they can ban access to porn via mobile phones and the internet, and have sermons of their "spiritual leader", Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, distributed via public TV stations. Worse yet, their anticipated control of the Ministry of the Interior will allow them to meddle also in the future with the secular public's wish to marry or divorce in a civil act without the consent of the rabbinical court. Reminds you of Iran? It should!<br /><br />An interesting news bit is the low voter turn-out, only 67%, the lowest in Israel's history. Everybody has offered a different explanation, I believe many Israelis concluded correctly that this election will return mostly corrupt, self-centered and incompetent politicians to power and do nothing good for the country.<br /><br />So why even bother to vote? It was such a nice day to BBQ on the beach...Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1140554773222622642006-02-21T22:36:00.000+02:002006-02-21T22:47:46.683+02:00A Winter DayBrowsing through my last posts one could get the totally wrong impression that I don't like Israel all that much. Well, here is a short one from a totally different perspective.<br /><br />This afternoon I had a meeting in Herzelia Pituach, a trendy HiTech center on the Mediterranean coast, a bit north of Tel Aviv. Before the meeting I had lunch in the Herzelia Marina, sitting in the sun - 23 deg C in the middle of February, people! - and watching the yachts. After the meeting I went down to the beach, bought a beer, dropped into the sand and watched the sun set. Two hours like that and a lot of the daily hassle just dissolves into background noise.<br /><br />Could have been a worse day.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1140092937844930452006-02-16T13:48:00.000+02:002006-02-16T14:33:31.513+02:00Ever feel really, really sick?Omri Sharon was sentenced yesterday to 9 months in prison and fined 300,000 Shekel for his central role in raising and hiding illegal campaign contributions in the 99 Likud primaries. Nobody expected a serious sentence, and the shockwave went through all layers of society. Serious is relative here though, since the maximum sentence is 5 years, but hey - it's a beginning.<br /><br />Anyway, all afternoon I had to listen on the radio to Omri's fellow politicians whining about the severe sentence, about the judge overstepping her mandate, about the heartless legal system not taking into account the tragedy surrounding the Sharon family, bla, bla, bla. What a load of bullshit. Not one had the guts and/or the character to say "he got what he deserves for doing what he did". Not one.<br /><br />Not that Omri's crimes were in any way unusual for the political establishment. To take just the latest examples, Naomi Blumenthal (Likud) was convicted of bribery during the 2002 Likud primaries (remember the political joke?) and Tzachi Hanegbi (now Kadima) is under investigation for having filled up the ranks of the Ministry of the Environment with all kind of cronies during his term as (Likud) minister. And every year the State Comptroller's report is full with stories like these, conveniently ignored by most.<br /><br />The real scandal is however that not a single soul in the Likud or Kadima is even suggesting that those dubious characters should not run for the Knesset, be expelled from the party, or whatever self-cleaning measures one might think of.<br /><br />That is the message: No matter how much shit you have on your hands, as long as you are buddies with Bibi Netanyahu (Likud), Ehud Olmert (ex-Likud, now Kadima) or the Shas Torah Sages (kind of the Shas central committee), you are going to be okay.<br /><br />I had enough. I think I will vote for Meretz. They are hopeless dreamers, but at least nobody there can be seriously corrupt, as they never had the power to do anything for anybody. No power, no corruption. And dreams are a rare resource these days.<br /><br />Reminds me of a lawyer joke, which I will modify a little bit:<br />Q: "How do you call a hundred Likud central committee members chained together on the bottom of the ocean?"<br />A: "A good beginning."Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7539955.post-1139479904561568362006-02-09T10:42:00.000+02:002006-02-16T13:48:42.270+02:00The Banana Republic, Part IICouple of days ago I picked up the "flag joke", and then I saw the Haaretz article (http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/679578.html) - see for yourself. Reality can get pretty wierd our here.<br /><br />Well, we have a nice little winter storm outside, electricity in parts of the country is down and it will take several hours to get fixed. Ample of time off work to get a few words out on the state of the affairs.<br /><br />The election is approaching and with it the same old question: Shall I vote for the party that can maybe fix the trouble with the Palestinians (Kadima), or shall I punish my only possible choice for selecting Ehud Olmert as replacement of Ariel Sharon? Olmert is <span style="font-style: italic;">politically correct</span> (literal meaning) in the sense that he will continue the path of unilateral separation from the Palestinians, which is the only way forward (hence <span style="font-style: italic;">"Kadima</span>") feasible at this time, and with the emergence of a Hamas-controlled PA <span style="font-style: italic;">this time</span> will last at least another 5-10 years. But Olmert also continues in the path of shameless mingling with criminals and is suspected to be even more corrupt than his precessor. Having much less of a track record to lean back on, Olmert can not afford to be arrogant about this. He was criticized twice by the attorney general for connections with and intervening on behalf of the Gavrieli clan, a known organized crime family, a fact which he bluntly denied two days ago in a TV interview - lying into the public's face about an established fact, how stupid can one get? This blunter cost Kadima 2 seats in the polls and it is going to get worse as more and more dirt is uncovered about Ehud Olmert, a man without a Teflon layer, unlike Ariel Sharon. Arik will be remembered as the man who founded a new centrist main stream to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and Olmert as the man who sank it.<br /><br />A few more words about the Gavrieli clan. Long suspected to be in the illegal gambling business, a number of family members were finally arrested this week (see link in the head line). The really disgusting thing about this is that the family is very well connected to the Likud leadership (see "A Political Joke" in http://madinisrael.blogspot.com/2005_07_01_madinisrael_archive.html) and thus even managed to send their daughter into the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament). Of course Inbal had no problem to use her immunity in order to protect her parents' home from a police search related to the gambling investigation. Abusing their immunity to cover up dirty business has become a common theme among political thugs and low lives in the current Knesset. The really disturbing thing about all of this is that not a single Israeli public servant has resigned from his or her job for being associated with corruption scandals, connections to organized crime or other severe misconduct. I can not think of a single western democracy with so low standards of responsibility and honor among the political elite. Israel, the Banana Republic. Sad, very, very sad.Armin in Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09227499755199369098noreply@blogger.com0