Stop the Academic Boycott of Israel

Here's a message I got from one of my most leftist bleeding-heart peacenik friends. I mention his political leanings just to demonstate how counterproductive and simple-minded this boycott is:

On the 30th May 2007, a resolution to boycott all Israeli academic institutions was passed by Britain's University and College Union (UCU).

If you agree with the following please sign the petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/stopucu/petition.html

THIS ACADEMIC BOYCOTT HAS TO BE STOPPED IMMEDIATELY BECAUSE:

- It is counter to the universal principle of academic freedom

- It is a form of prejudice & discrimination; it unfairly singles out Israel

- It is counter-productive to peace & reconciliation

- It stifles scientific advancement, which depends on international interaction

An academic boycott is counter to the universal principle of Academic Freedom. Academic life is about building bridges, not destroying them; opening minds, not
closing them; hearing both sides of an argument, not one alone. Boycotts are a betrayal of these values. This principle has been formally recognized by UNESCO, he International Council for Science, the Middle East Studies Association, the journals Nature and Science, the American Association of University Professors, and other learned societies around the world. Only in an atmosphere of academic freedom, unfettered by partisan political manipulations, can scientific advances of benefit to all mankind be made.

Not only does a boycott of Israeli academia violate the principle of academic freedom, it would do so in a discriminatory matter. Any institution representing academics, including trade unions, must adhere to universal, objective criteria for
determining its policy towards academic boycotts. This has not been the case. Only Israel has been singled out for such treatment. Whatever the rights and wrongs of Israeli government actions, Israel is very far from being the worst abuser of Human Rights in the world, yet no other country has been targeted for boycotts.

Prof. Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds University, bravely opposes the boycott and issued the following statement:

"An international academic boycott of Israel, on pro-Palestinian grounds, is self-defeating: It would only succeed in weakening that strategically important bridge through which the state of war between Israelis and Palestinians could be ended and Palestinian rights could therefore be restored. Instead of burning that bridge, the
international academy should do everything within its power to strengthen it."

And indeed, there are a number of joint projects between researchers at Al-Quds University and Israeli universities, a choice that is far more likely to contribute to peace than would the blacklisting of researchers of one nationality.

The passed boycott is a dangerous precedent, opening the door to the spread of political boycotts to other organizations and other countries, and to other political issues as well. Clearly, a trend of this kind would destroy the system of peer review which assesses academic research on merit, not nationality or political opinion.

With very few exceptions, those leading the boycott call are not the leaders of British academia, but, rather, political extremists seeking to use the boycott as part of their broader campaign to delegitimise the State of Israel. These boycott proponents seek to hijack the union and use it as a weapon for propagating their marginal political
agenda.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

- Sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/stopucu/petition.html

- Contact Sally Hunt General Secretary of the UCU at shunt@ucu.org.uk and ask for a National referendum

- If you are studying at a British University, contact your local branch of the UCU. Details can be found on: http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2229

The Labor Leadership Contest

Though I would rather see Ofir Pines win the chairmanship of the Israeli Labor Party, I voted for Ami Ayalon in today's primaries. Why? Pines has no chance of winning. Barak was a terrible leader. Peretz is so bad he shouldn't even be in government, and Danny Yetom is a mini-Barak.

I'm not too crazy about Ayalon either, but of the top 3 candidates, his views are the closest to my own, he has Avishai Braverman as his unofficial running mate, and it seems he has been good at the previous posts he held in the military and the Shin Bet.

Weirdest Search Term: Sperm Donation to Amish

Once in a while, I take a look at my blog's stats. I see how many people visited, which pages they read, where they are from and how they found my blog. One of the things I can check is the search terms used to find it. A few days ago someone googled the term "how to donate sperm to amish" and somehow reached my site, the blessed result of mixing terms from unrelated posts.

Why the hell would the Amish want sperm donations from outsiders? I doubt that any procedure that brings about the birth of a child whose biological mother is not married to his biological father would be consistent with their religious doctrine.

A Reminder That Qassam Rockets Are Deadly

A 32 year old woman was killed in Sderot tonight when a Qassam rocket hit the car she was in. This is a reminder to all those who consider the Qassams to be no more than flying pieces of metal that these are real weapons. They are deadly, and they are being aimed at civilians, and Israel must defend itself against these weapons.

Collective punishment is not going to solve the Qassam problem. Targeting Qassam-launchers on their way to an attack is the answer, albeit the partial, short-term answer. When possible, the Air Force should wait for the launchers to exit crowded areas before blowing them up, but that isn't always an option. Civilian casualties should be avoided at all costs, except for the cost of Israeli lives. If a car is on its way to a launch site full of rockets that have the potential to kill Israelis, our military has to shoot it down.

The Palestinians are in disarray. Not only are Hamas and Fatah fighting each other, each one of them is split into different factions. Even the Hamas, which used to be united, is no longer centralized. This is very bad for Israel, because now not only will they be fighting each other, they'll all also try to outdo each other in their fight against Israel. This is definitely bad news for everybody.

Six Feet Under and Brothers and Sisters

Last week I watched the entire final season of Six Feet Under, and days later I started watching the first 20 episodes of Brothers & Sisters. Maybe because of the proximity, I found a lot of similarities between these two shows, other than the obvious fact that both star the excellent Rachel Griffiths. Take a look below. Did I miss anything?

There's one major difference between the shows. Six Feet Under was a great show - real quality television. Brothers & Sisters is a fun show to watch, but quality TV it ain't.

Beware of SPOILERS!!!

Brothers & Sisters	Six Feet Under
William has heart attack and falls into pool	Nathaniel Sr. dies in accident	Father dies in pilot episode, leaving grieving widow
William and Holly	Ruth and Hiram	Parent's infidelity revealed after death
Kitty returns from NY	Nate returns from Seattle	A child returns home to LA
Ojai Foods	Fisher & Sons Mortuary	Family business
Kevin Walker	David Fisher	Gay repressed brother
Tommy asks Kevin for his sperm. Kevin refuses at first, but then both he and Justin donate sperm.	David asks Claire for her egg, so he and Keith can have a child. She refuses.	Asking a sibling for help conceiving (gay brother either asker or donor)
Julia Walker goes into labor 29 weeks into pregnancy	Brenda goes into labor two months early	Premature birth
Joe kisses Sarah's half sister Rebecca.	Nate cheats on Brenda with his step sister Maggie.	Rachel Griffiths' character has marital problems. Sisterly infidelity involved.
Husband Joe Whedon	Boyfriend Joe (Season 4)	Rachel Griffiths' character has significant other named Joe
Sarah is Joe's son Gabriel's step mother	Brenda is Nate's daughter Maya's step mother.	Her character is also a step-mother

Isn't it fun to waste time on totally unimportant things once in a while?

Students Strike, Higher Education Suffers

Israel's university and college students have been striking since April 10. The student organisations are opposed to a new government-appointed committee, led by former minister of the treasury, Avraham Shochat, which is examining reforms in Israel's higher education system.

The committee is expected to recommend higher tuition fees as an additional source for the university's depleted coffers, along with setting up a large scale student loan system and scholarships for those who cannot afford the tuition. I think this is a good solution, but the student organisations are only worried about students' pockets, not about what is best for our institutes of higher education.

The students demand that the government lower the tuition (in other words, raise tuition subsidies), and in addition, they demand that it should raise the universities' budgets. Both of these things cannot be done at the same time. Where will all the money come from? We, the students, should stop this strike. Lowering tuition fees in the current state of affairs is the wrong cause.

Even though I do not support this strike, I'm angered by the university presidents' attempt to force the students to end their strike. On Friday they announced that the semester would be extended by two weeks and students who return to class on Monday will be assisted with any missed study materials. However, they warned that students who do not return may lose this semester and will have to repeat it next year. Instead of negotiating with the students, they are bullying them.

Let's go back to school, not because we are forced into it, but because we understand that we are wrong. Let's accept the government's compromise proposal, which is too generous in my opinion. The proposal promises not to raise the tuition for those who are already studying, and raise it only for new students who will start studying in the future.

A Winograd Commissioner's Reading List

Some people may be interested in this message sent to the Israeli Political Science Association's mailing list by Prof. Yehezkel Dror, a member of the Winograd Commission that is investigating the Second Lebanon War:

Dear Political Science Colleagues,

Obviously I cannot and will not comment in any way on the Winograd Partial Report and on reactions to it, certainly not before the Final Report is out and the Committee is disbanded.

But, "without prejudice" and on a purely academic basis, let me share with you all the details of three recent books, out of a larger list, which I found very relevant in my methodological studies on evaluating war results:

Dominic D. P. Johnson and Dominic Tierney, Failing to Win: Perceptions of Victory and Defeat in International Politics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

Robert Mandel, The Meaning of Military Victory. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006.

William C. Martel, Victory in War: Foundations of Modern Military Policy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Shabat Shalom

Yehezkel Dror

I'm not familiar with these books, but taking a look at them may help us understand how the Winograd Commission reached its conclusions.

Over 100,000 Protesters Demand Olmert's Resignation

Organisers of the protest rally in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square say that as much as 200,000 people are in attendance. Police estimates are more modest, saying there are more than 100,000 protesters. Is this enough? No. There have to be a lot of demonstrations over time to get Olmert to do the right thing and resign. Are Israelis angry enough to make sure the prime minister gets the message that, as author Meir Shalev put it at today's rally, Olmert is fired? I'm not sure.

Since yesterday, somehow, Tzipi Livni seems to be under fire more than Olmert. Critics say she should have been bold enough to resign. As I've said previously, why the hell should one of our best, most intelligent ministers leave the government to the fools that the Winograd Commission criticized?!? Olmert and Peretz should resign, not Livni.

Olmert, Don't You Dare Fire Livni!

Rumor has it that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants to fire Foreign Minister and Deputy PM Tzipi Livni. This, as a response to the fact that she called for his resignation. A possible replacement would be the current minister of transportation and former Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz. This would be a grave mistake for many reasons.

First of all, Tzipi Livni was the only cabinet minister to be praised by the Winograd Commission. If the rebuked prime minister and defense minister stay, and only Livni goes, replaced by Mofaz, who may still be criticized by the final Winograd Report regarding his days as IDF chief of staff and defense minister, then this horrible government would become even worse. Mofaz hasn't been a great leader, and if Olmert eventually resigns while Mofaz is his deputy, the chances of this mediocre (at best) politician becoming prime minister will be greater.

Also, the Israeli cabinet is different from the US cabinet in the fact that its members do not serve at the pleasure of the chief executive. Personal loyalty to the prime minister is never a requirement. So, Livni calling for Olmert's resignation is not reason enough for him to fire her. Certainly not under the current circumstances.

Firing Livni may be the straw that breaks Israelis' backs. Livni is much more popular that Olmert, Peretz and all other cabinet ministers, maybe except for Peres. I know I'd certainly have much more motivation to go to a demonstration calling for Olmert's resignation if he had the Chutzpah to get rid of the one person who performed well during the Second Lebanon War. And I don't mean Chutzpah in a good way.

Tzipi Livni or Meir Sheetrit for Prime Minister

Ehud Olmert has been a colossal failure as prime minister of Israel. The Winograd Commission's partial report, released Monday, supplied an abundance of evidence demonstrating he is unfit for leadership. The Second Lebanon War is far from being his only failure. He must step down.

I do not want new elections now. If that happens, we will have Benjamin Netanyahu as our prime minister. Last time he was our chief executive, 1996-1999, he was a terrible leader. His election would be disastrous to any peace efforts, among other things.

For fear of Netanyahu's election, the only good solution I can see is for the government to choose a new prime minister from among Kadima's current cabinet ministers. The best choice would be Tzipi Livni, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, but the ultra-orthodox Shas party and the ultra-right wing Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) may leave the coalition if she is selected. I'd be happy to see these two parties out of the government, but without them the government wouldn't have a parliamentary majority and there would be new elections.

The second best choice is Minister of Housing and Construction Meir Sheetrit. He has been calling for negotiations with the Arab League (and says we should talk to them in Arabic, not English) and has done well in his various cabinet posts. Israel Beytenu would probably leave the government, which is very good, but Shas would stick by him. After all, for the Sephardic Shas not to support Israel's first Moroccan prime minister would be unthinkable.

I hope Shimon Peres won't be Olmert's replacement as prime minister. His testimony before the Winograd Commission showed that loyalty to the prime minister is more important to him than loyalty to what is best for the country. He told the commission he thought the government was making the wrong decisions but said nothing at the cabinet meetings. That is also why he should not be president after Moshe Katzav.

Autism: Hollywood's Cause De Jour

From the New York Times:

Autism has become to disorders what Africa is to social issues, the celebrity cause du jour. “Oprah,” “Larry King,” “The View” and MTV all devoted full hours to the subject in recent weeks, sometimes with appearances by the singer Toni Braxton (the mother of a boy with autism); the disorder is the focus of documentaries now making the festival circuit, like “Autism: The Musical.” Most intriguingly, it has turned up in a spate of dramas that take autism beyond “Rain Man.”
Read the entire article.

The Democrats' First Debate

The first debate among Democratic presidential hopefuls started at 2 am Israel time last night. Despite the late hour, I watched the whole thing. I didn't see anything revolutionary. Most of what was said there could have been anticipated in advance, on issues such as Iraq, Iran and the war on terror. Nevertheless, the debate gave me some new perspective on some of the candidates.

I've been leaning towards Hillary Clinton, but I don't know if she is electable. Even though she did a good job last night, now I'm not as sure that I will vote for her, not so much because of her performance, but rather the performance of her rivals. Barack Obama was very impressive. John Edwards, who in 2004 and until now seemed to be an inexperienced pretty boy, also seemed intelligent and knowledgeable and has interesting ideas.

Christopher Dodd is a new face to me. I've heard of him before, but this is the first time I've heard him speak. He made a good impression as well.

Even Dennis Kucinich did a good job. I don't support his views (other than the impeachment of Vice President Cheney, which would be a blessing to the world), but he had some good arguments last night.

Former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska was last night's entertainment. He's a grumpy old man who should join the cast of the Daily Show, filling in for Lewis Black when Black is not available.

The two people who I thought didn't do so well were Sen. Joe Biden and Gov. Bill Richardson. I never considered Biden as someone I'd vote for, but I did think of Richardson as a serious possibility. I am now much less likely to vote for Richardson. I didn't like the fact that it took Richardson time to call for the attorney general's resignation just because he is Hispanic. Most of his policy answers weren't very convincing, either.

I think I'll stay up next week to watch the Republican debate, even though I won't be voting in the Republican primaries. I like this kind of stuff.

Judeophobe Watch

Take a look at this new blog from Beacon Eating Atheist Jew, which "gives normal human beings a chance to debunk, refute, chastise, and debate anti-semitic postings from various Judeophobic web sites".

Great idea, BEAJ!

Happy Independence Day!

Happy 59th birthday Israel!

I attended a party last night, where I barely knew anyone, though I met a few people I haven't seen since high school, so it was fun. Today my family had a bbq and that was fun too.

This country may be far from perfect, but I sure am happy it exists.

Autism Among the Amish

Kevin Leitch has an interesting post about the claim that there are no cases of autism among the Amish because they don't vaccinate their kids. Turns out that they do vaccinate their kids (only 4% don't, according to a survey), and though there may be no autism diagnoses among the Amish, it doesn't mean there's no autism, because they don't go to modern doctors to get diagnosed.

Read Kevin's post for more details.

The Israeli Government and Liviu Librescu's Funeral

The Israeli media has been critical of the lack of official government representation at the funeral of slain Virginia Tech Prof. Liviu Librescu. I really don't understand why the media expected the prime minister or his ministers to attend. Though Prof. Librescu died heroically while saving his students, he didn't do it as an Israeli or on behalf of the State of Israel. He hasn't even lived in Israel for more than 20 years. The massacre in Virginia is an American tragedy, and though Israelis sympathize with America's loss, it is not an Israeli tragedy.

So no, there was no reason for Israeli cabinet ministers to attend Librescu's funeral. In fact, had any of them done so, it would have been a cynical exploitation of the Librescu family's personal tragedy.

Autistic Children's Siblings More Likely to Have Developmental Disorders

There's an interesting article in today's Haaretz (sorry, couldn't find an English version) about the results of a new study conducted by researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and UCLA. According to the study, siblings of autistic children are more likely to have delays in their motor, cognitive and verbal development than children who do not have autistic siblings. These delays usually start at around 4 months of age, but most children catch up by the time they are four and a half years old. Some children may have learning disabilities at an older age.

The explanation for this is that these children share some genes that cause autism, and thus share some traits that autistics have, though fewer and less severe.

The study was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Haaretz Editorial: Israeli Help For Darfur

I totally agree with today's Haaretz editorial (click here for the Hebrew version):

More than 250,000 people have been killed in Darfur since 2004 and nearly 2.5 million Sudanese have fled their homes; the situation in the region could now spiral completely out of control.

The widening of the conflict to include Chad and the Central African Republic has already caused more suffering and killing in the region. International efforts are focusing on pressuring Sudan to agree to the deployment of a large multi-national force in Darfur. One can see almost everything in the approximately 12 camps that are strung along the border with Sudan, under deteriorating humanitarian conditions: children who have lost their parents, refugees who have lost all their possessions, murder and other forms of violence. The acts of violence that have spread to Chad in recent months have caused hundreds of thousands of local people to flee their homes, undermining living conditions and what little security there still was in the region. It is not rare for babies to die from hunger and disease, for women to be raped and for people to be murdered. International assistance to about a quarter of a million displaced persons is declining.

Under such conditions, Israel should not be missing from the list of countries providing life-saving help to the region's inhabitants. Nearly 20 non-governmental agencies are operating in eastern Chad - Italians, French, British, Dutch, Spanish, American and international groups that have made assistance to the victims of violence in Darfur the focus of their work.

The Jewish-American Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), which provides psychological and welfare assistance to the victims, is alone in representing Jewish values, which consider assistance to refugees paramount. Some of its funding comes from contributions by IsraAID, an umbrella organization for humanitarian assistance, which also sent a few Israeli volunteers. This is not enough of a presence.

Israel should extend immediate assistance, whether funded by non-governmental agencies or directly, to refugees and displaced persons who have found shelter in Chad. The absence of diplomatic ties between the two countries should not be an obstacle. Israeli assistance to the victims of the tsunami in Indonesia, with which Israel also does not yet have full diplomatic ties, is an important example in this regard - despite the differences in the nature of relations between the countries.

In the past Israel has shown that it can provide much-needed aid to disaster areas throughout the world, demonstrating the Jewish values on which its establishment was based. Assistance to Muslim victims can illustrate much better than any international public relations campaign that the principles by which Israel was established are universal and do not discriminate between humans based on religion or race.

Israel, which came into being after the Holocaust cannot stand idly by in the face of the suffering of Darfur's refugees.

New York Magazine's Party Town of Choice

Here's some good news ahead of Independence Day. New York Magazine recommends Tel-Aviv as a 4-day trip for partying (it also recommends Tokyo, Japan for the food, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada and Annapolis, Md. for families). Tel-Aviv is definitely a great city for party-goers and clubbers (which I am not). Other than that, I don't really like the city. I prefer other cities and towns in Israel over it, cities that are much more beautiful (most of Tel Aviv is butt ugly) and where the residents are much nicer (many people from Tel Aviv tend to think their city is the center of the world and act accordingly).

I hope I'm not discouraging anyone from listening to New York Magazine. Come see Tel Aviv. Just be sure to visit the rest of Israel too.

Palestinians Giving Up Right of Return?

According to a post on Eye On The World, many Palestinian refugees are disavowing the right of return, while their leaders keep using the issue for political gain and as leverage in negotiations with Israel. The Palestinians interviewed are those who live in Lebanon or outside the Arab world. I wish I could believe the majority of Palestinians aren't really interested in the right of return, but unfortunately, that isn't the case.

While most Palestinians living in western countries may be happy where they are, most Palestinians who are unable to emigrate to Europe and North America and still live in Arab countries that grant them no rights, as well as Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, still demand a right of return. This would not just be a return to a future Palestinian state (something to which I don't object), but a return to the State of Israel itself, to Haifa, Jaffa, Beersheba and elsewhere. This kind of return is unacceptable to Israelis, regardless of who is responsible for the creation of the refugee problem.

Refugees should be compensated or given the right to return to the future State of Palestine, in accordance with the country's capacity to absorb new immigrants, so as to not cause a collapse of the new state. Return to Israel itself is never going to happen. The million dollar question is whether the Palestinians and Arab states will ever accept this.

The Holocaust and a Rat

I've had a crappy few days. For one thing, Holocaust Remembrance Day was depressing. I attended two alternative memorial events on two consecutive nights. These were discussions rather than ceremonies. We discussed what we can learn from the Holocaust (that we need a strong Israel so a Jewish holocaust will never again occur, that we should know that every person is capable of horrible things, or that maybe we have a responsibility to protect other victims of genocide, etc.) and what the Holocaust means to us.

Then yesterday my sister complained that she and I are not independent enough, and she thinks it is because of the Holocaust. My mother is very overprotective of us, as her parents were very overprotective of her. They fled Poland after the Germans entered it and lost almost all their family members. So as my mother grew up, they followed her around all the time, even here in Israel. Somehow, she managed to become independent, though. Then she became an overprotective mother, but we aren't independent enough. Don't get me wrong, she's an excellent mother, though imperfect. So, anyway, realizing even my own life has been shaped by the Holocaust is pretty depressing.

To top that off, there was a rat in our kitchen. We caught it and drowned it (not very humane, but releasing it into the wild would just mean it would return to another house). That was disgusting and surprisingly depressing.

At least one good thing came out of this. My father told my nephew about the rat and my nephew was upset. He didn't like the idea of killing the rat at all. He thought we should have released it far away. Just a few years ago he wouldn't care about an animal's death. On the other hand, he wants to get rid of the family of street cats that has settled in our garden. But then again, so do I (neither of us wants to kill them, just to relocate Momma Cat and her kittens somewhere else).

By the way, the whole Virginia Tech massacre didn't help my mood either.

A Taxing Puzzle

I usually don't solve the New York Times' daily crossword puzzles, but I love their "Editorial Puzzles", those special puzzles they publish once in a while. Today, in honor of Tax Day in the USA, they have a set of puzzles that will give you the answer to this question: What’s the best way to show a tax auditor how concerned you are?

A Loony Paranormal Explanation For Autism

Here's something all sides of the mercury/neurodiversity debate can agree on - that the following theory about autism is absolutely crazy:

"The Crystal Children began to appear on the planet from about 2000, although some date them slightly earlier. These are extremely powerful children, whose main purpose is to take us to the next level in our evolution, and reveal to us our inner power and divinity. They function as a group consciousness rather than as individuals, and they live by the" Law of One" or Unity Consciousness. They are a powerful force for love and peace on the planet.

[...]

[The Crystal Children] are incredibly telepathic. Many of the Crystal Children have delayed speech patterns, and its not uncommon for them to wait until they're 3 or 4 years old to begin speaking. But parents tell me they have no trouble communicating with their silent children. Far from it! The parents engage in mind-to-mind communication with their Crystal Children. And the Crystals use a combination of telepathy, self-fashioned sign language, and sounds (including song) to get their point across.

The trouble comes about when the Crystals are judged by medical and educational personnel as having "abnormal" speaking patterns. It's no coincidence that as the number of Crystals are born, that the number of diagnoses for autism is at a record high."

That's a quote from this website, which I learned about through a post about Jenny McCarthy's autistic son Evan. She thinks Evan is a Crystal Child and she herself is an Indigo, one evolutionary step before the Crystals.

The odd thing is that she talks about "healing autism" and calls it a serious health issue. Doesn't that contradict the view that it is just a misdiagnosis of humanity's next evolutionary step? Oh, well, maybe I'm expecting too much logical thinking from a woman whose claim to fame is being a Playboy Playmate and host of stupid MTV shows.

Daily Show Reveals: The Jews Run Israel

Here's a funny clip from the Daily Show: Senior Diplomatic/British/Middle East/Anything Correspondent John Oliver interviews Danny Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations.

Two Peoples, Two Narratives

The Wise Bard: A different model of coexistence

This is interesting: a project where one textbook contains the historical narratives of Israelis and Palestinians side by side. The narratives often conflict with each other. This is a positive project. Both sides should know the other side's version of events, and think critically about both versions. Knowing what the other is saying and not taking your own side's story as is does not mean necessarily that you stop believing in your people's general narrative.

Kudos to Prof. Dan Bar-On of Ben-Gurion University is Israel and Prof. Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University in the Palestinian Authority for coming up with this idea at PRIME (Peace Research Institute of the Middle East). Now let's hope the Israeli and Palestinian education departments will start using this book soon. I wouldn't hold my breath.

My Own Evolution

I recently went through all my previous posts in preparation for an upcoming project (the nature of which I cannot disclose at this time). It is interesting to see how my blog evolved. At first, it was a very personal blog, writing about girl trouble and frequently writing about my nephew. As time went by, I stopped writing about girl trouble, somewhat reduced the number of posts about my nephew, and political commentary became the dominant feature of this blog.

As I look at my earlier posts about my nephew and autism, I see the evolution of my own vocabulary and terminology regarding this condition. Other than the fact that I wrote "high-performance" instead of "high-functioning" in my very first post about him in June 2003, I also used various loaded terms about autism which I would not use now. I no longer see autism as a disease or an illness, for example.

My thoughts about treating or curing autism were inconsistent. Sometimes I thought my nephew can be cured, sometimes I thought he'll always be autistic (as I do now, and I doubt that I'll ever think otherwise again). I was always fairly consistent in my views regarding the causes of autism. I never thought thimerosal can be the sole cause, but I've never ruled out that some kids may be effected by it.

Regarding politics, I must point out that I was right all along about at least two things: the disengagement being a bad move, and that the Second Lebanon War was a justified war that was carried out badly (I didn't even remember that I questioned the wisdom of our leaders as early as July 14, the 3rd day of the war).

Politically Incorrect Passover Joke

The following joke amused me, even though it is a hawkish right-wingers' kind of joke:

A few days before Passover, the Israeli Ambassador got up to
speak at the U.N. "Ladies, and gentlemen," he said. "I have
much to say. But before I begin, let me tell you an old
Passover story, as the holiday is almost upon us".

"When Moses was leading the Jews out of Egypt, he had to
cross the near endless Sinai desert. The Israelites were so
thirsty they could hardly go on. So Moses struck the side of
a mountain with his staff and a pond appeared with crystal
clean water. Now the people rejoiced and drank to their
hearts content.

"But Moses wished to cleanse his entire body. So he went
over the other side of the pond, took off his clothes and
dove in. Only when he came out did he discover his clothes
had been stolen. And I have good reason to believe that
the Palestinians stole Moses' clothes."

At this point, the Palestinian delegate jumped out of his
chair and screamed, "You lying fool! Everyone knows
there were no Palestinians at that time"!

"Exactly," said the Israeli Ambassador. "And with that,
let me begin my speech".

Push the (Ban) Button?

Israel's Eurovision entry is causing a stir. "Push the Button", a song about the nuclear bomb, may be banned by the song contest's organizers, the European Broadcasting Union. They say it is a militaristic song that calls for the use of nuclear weapons.

Is it, really? After reading the lyrics, which are in English, Hebrew and French (of which I understand only the first two), I must say it sounds more like a song about the lack of good leadership. There are three kinds of leaders: those who use violence, those who threaten to use it and those who don't prevent it. The song complains about the non-existence of a fourth category, which consists of smart peaceful leaders.

The EBU's main problem is probably with the song's ending where the singer goes bananas and says he's gonna push the button, though only as a last resort if the situation stays the same (besides, at this point, I'm not sure the button is a nuclear device anymore). On the other hand, maybe it also pisses them off that this song disses the very contest in which it is participating, saying "maybe I should sing songs about the desert without flags" and "this is a song without salam (peace in Arabic)".

What do you think of my analysis? Here are the lyrics from eurovil.iba.org.il (with my translation of the Hebrew lyrics), so you can judge for yourselves:


כפתור אדום / Push the Button
מילים, לחן והפקה מוסיקלית: קובי אוז lyrics and music: Kobi Oz

The world is full of terror
If someone makes an error
He’s gonna blow us up to biddy biddy kingdom come
There are some crazy rulers they hide and try to fool us
With demonic, technologic willingness to harm

They’re gonna push the button
push the button push the bu push the bu push the button

Il ya plein de souffrance
Dans les rues il y a trop de violence
Et on a beaucoup de chance d’être vivant même pas blessés
Avancement tactique de régime fanatique
Situation tragique qui me met les larmes aux yeux

And I don’t want to die
I want to see the flowers bloom
Don’t want a go capoot ka boom
And I don’t want to cry
I wanna have a lot of fun
Just sitting in the sun

But nevertheless

He’s gonna push the button
push the button push the bu push the bu push the button

מסרים מתפוצצים עלי
טילים מתעופפים וגם נופלים עלי
שוטרים וגנבים מתרוצצים עלי
והם קופצים עלי מתקרצצים עלי
אללי אללי תענה לי אלוהי הי
הסיוט הזה ארוך מדי
כשאני בקושי חי וכולם מכוונים אלי זה מוקדם לשיר אולי
שנתתי לך חיי
ווי ווי - המשטרה
וויאוו וויאוו - צוות הצלה
הנה זה בקדם שיר ללא סלאם
אדום זה לא רק צבע זה יותר כמו דם
שוב עוצר בלב את הנשימה
שלא תפרח עכשיו הנשמה
הנה מלחמה הנה הנשמה
בום בום זה מה שקורה עכשיו
בין רקטה למצ'טה בין צופה לכתב
בין מחטף לנחטף בין גשום לשרב
הסלמה במדרגות עולה ותופסת קו
כלום כלום זה מה שכולם עושים
קיצונים מקצינים וקצינים מרצינים
התמימים מתמתנים ממתינים לנתונים
ועונים: שכולם חסרי אונים

עולם כולו דמונים שאנחנו סתם פיונים
ושמפיונים עם ז'יטונים מחליטים מה שיהיה
ניהול בעצלתיים, אוניה מלאה במים
וכולם שותים לחיים וטובעים זה לצד זה

אולי זה חד מדי צריך לשיר שירי דקלים שירי מדבר ללא דגלים
אני עוד חי חי חי ואם ימשיך להיות מפחיד
רק אז אני אגיד

[Translation of the Hebrew:]

Messages are blowing up on me,
Missiles are flying and falling on me,
Cops and robbers running around on me,
And they're jumping on me, bothering me.
My god, my god, answer me god,
This nightmare is too long,
When I am barely alive and everybody is aiming at me it might be too soon to sing,
That I gave you my life.
Wee Wee - the police,
Weeoo Weeoo - rescue team,
Here it is in the Kdam (the pre-Eurovision contest) a song without Salam (peace in Arabic).
Red is not just a color, it's more like blood,
Stopping my breath again,
So my soul won't pop out,
Here is war, here is the soul [or: here is war, here is a resuscitation]
Boom boom this is what is happening now,
Between rocket and machete, between viewer and reporter,
Between underhanded opportunism and kidnapping,
Escalation rises up the stairs and takes a (front) line.
Nothing is what everybody does.
Extremists getting more extreme and officers acting serious,
The naive turn to moderation and wait for information
And answer that everyone is helpless.

A world full of demons, and we are only pawns,
And champions with poker chips decide what will be.
Things are run slowly, a ship full of water,
And everybody is drinking l'chaim, drowning next to each other.

Maybe this is too blunt, maybe we should sing about palm trees,
Sing about a desert without flags.
I'm still alive alive alive, and if it continues to be frightening,
Only then will I say:

[End of translation, the rest is in English originally]

I’m gonna push the button
push the button push the bu push the bu push the button

Low-Functioning and High-Functioning

"The difference between high-functioning and low-functioning is that high-functioning means that your deficits are ignored and low-functioning means your assets are ignored... Either way, you get ignored."

This sentence, said by a high-functioning autistic woman named Laura interviewed by a low-functioning autistic woman named Amanda Baggs, rings absolutely true. The less autistic my nephew seems the less help the social services and education departments want to give him. Luckily, my sister knows how to get the most out of them, but it isn't easy.

Here's the post in Amanda's blog that introduced me to these video interviews (titled Interview with Laura about Autism Recovery), and here are the videos: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

The interview is a response to two interviews with "recovered" autistic kids, which is an odd way to describe them. There's a six year-old with what I call "autistic eyes", that don't seem to be focused. He's a cute kid who underwent chelation therapy, but he reminds me of my nephew who is like that with just ABA. The 14-year old is even more clearly still autistic. He speaks in monotone and still has trouble with abstractions. So why call them recovered? Call them what they are - high-functioning autistics.

Autistic Brother's Keeper

The New York Time Magazine has an interesting article about a 14 year-old girl with two 16-year old autistic twin brothers. Although my nephew seems to be in much better shape than the boys in this article, I can't help but think about my niece's future. It's hard to think of a toddler who can barely speak as being responsible for another person - and she isn't, not yet. As long as she's a child and her parents are still alive she's not responsible for him, but one day she will be.

But even thinking of the nearer future, I wonder what problems having an autistic brother may produce. I'd like to think that since he's very high-functioning, most of the problems mentioned in the Times article won't come up. For one thing, she probably won't even know he's autistic for most of her childhood, and she won't have to cope with what being autistic means for her brother. Neither is he ever violent towards her or anyone else. Right now she adores him and he treats her well. But something will probably pop up that we can't predict.

Thinking of their adulthood, it seems my niece will be my nephew's only sibling, since my sister isn't planning any more children. The responsibility will be hers alone. Sure, I'd like to think my children, her cousins, would help her, but cousins are not as close as brothers and sisters, nor do they feel the same kind of responsibility. Besides, they don't even exist yet and who knows where they'll live (not to mention the fact that they'll be much younger than my nephew and niece). Hopefully, my nephew will be an independent adult in need of minimal assistance. Only time will tell.

New Layout

I've made a few changes to the blog, thanks to upgrades in Blogger's blogging tools. The background is still the same but the sidebar has changed. I like the new expandable and collapsible archive menu and the post labels.

How do you like the new look?

Stop! Police!

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter has made a very odd decision. After the findings of a special investigative commission regarding police misconduct and possible corruption led to the resignation of Israel's chief of police, Dicther announced the nomination of Yaakov Ganot, the current head of the prison service and a former defendant in a corruption trial. 13 years ago Ganot, then the head of the northern police district, was acquitted of criminal charges such as bribery, but the supreme court found he acted unethically, in a way unbecoming of a senior police officer. He was suspended for 3 years and later returned to the police.

This is a bad appointment. The public committee in charge of evaluating such nominations (which is not a parliamentary committee, but rather one headed by former supreme court justice Yaakov Tirkel) should reject Ganot. If it doesn't, the government should reject him. After Police Chief Karadi resigned for much less than what Ganot did, and when the police is in need of deep reforms, including ethical ones, a clean figure needs to be appointed.

Sure, Ganot is said to be excellent at getting things done. But if he's so good why was he Dichter's fifth or sixth choice? Isn't there anyone who is both highly qualified and corruption-free?

The Supreme Court has been asked to bar this nomination. I hope it does not do so. Since he was acquitted, his disqualification is moral and ethical, not legal. For that reason, it is the Tirkel Commission and the government which should not allow Ganot's appointment, not the court.

Berlinale's Crystal Bear

The Israeli film "Sweet Mud" (originally, "Adama Meshugaat", meaning "Crazy Earth") by director Dror Shaul has been awarded the Crystal Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. This is the top prize in the contest for films aimed at children and teenagers. I'd say that's an odd, even amusing, category for this film. I haven't seen it yet, but I heard it starts with a dairy farmer at a kibbutz getting a blow-job from a calf (apparently this is an in-joke for kibbutzniks: there's a legend in these collective communities that the farmers get gratified by the udder suckling calves).

Sweet Mud tells the tale of a boy in a Kibbutz whose mother is mentally ill. The supposedly supportive community shuns her.

Two other Israeli films screened at the festival were "Beaufort", about the last days of an Israeli military outpost in Southern Lebanon before the 2000 pullout, and "The Bubble", about a homosexual affair between a Palestinian and an Israeli in Tel-Aviv. Later today we'll know if one of these got another prize.

All Wrong in Jerusalem

The whole fiasco over the construction of a bridge near the Mughrabim gate in the Old City of Jerusalem is one of those rare cases where everybody is wrong and nobody is right. The government should have never started the project, because it should have predicted it would be used by extremist Muslims as an excuse for anti-Israel protests. They could have put a different kind of bridge, which can be constructed quickly and without need for any digging in sensitive places.

The extremist Muslims, and others who have played along, are now saying Israel is digging beneath Al-Aqsa with the intention to topple it and construct the third Jewish temple. That's bullshit and they probably know it. Now Sheikh Raad Salakh, an Israeli citizen who is the head of the Northern wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel, has called for an Intifada against Israel. The man should be put in jail for the rest of his life for treason and incitement of violence against the state.

Now Jewish religious leaders, including the ultra-Orthodox mayor of Jerusalem, are trying to stop the construction of the bridge. Their main concern isn't safety or Muslim sensitivities. Their problem with the bridge is the fact that it will be used by Jews to enter the Temple Mount, an area where Jews are not allowed to enter according to Halacha (Jewish religious law).

I think the construction should never have started, but now it is too late. We should not give in to religious extremists. The only acceptable way out would be to declare that we accept the requests of Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, and therefore have decided to stop all construction at the Mughrabim Gate. But I don't see Olmert doing that any time soon.

A Religion of the Non-Religious?

From Haaretz:

On Sunday, Haaretz reported on Meretz Chairman Yossi Beilin's initiative for the establishment of a secular Judaism lobby, to be comprised of MKs and representatives of secular Jewish organizations. Among the objectives Beilin set forth were civil marriage, secular conversion, separation of religion and state, funding for secular Jewish education and, in the long run, the establishment of a secular Judaism movement alongside the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Movements.

Beilin told Tuesday's conference that the secular should also be able to determine who is a Jew  for instance, deciding that someone with a Jewish father should be considered Jewish. But he admitted that the chances of passing such legislation are minimal.

Therefore, perhaps "what is needed is an institution, a building with pillars in which someone will sit and say that the candidate has learned enough Judaism and give him a [conversion] certificate."

But others said that the lobby should focus on secular Jewish education.

Read the complete article.

I think a secular lobby is a good idea, but it should focus on separation of church (or synagogue) and state and protecting the rights of the secular majority in Israel. But the idea of turning secularism into another Jewish religious movement is absurd. If you want liberal conversion, accept reform and reconstructionist conversions, and not just the Orthodox type. If you want to teach Jewish texts in a non-religious context you don't need to call it a movement.

The greatest thing about secular Judaism is that it isn't institutionalized. There's no hierarchy. We don't need ordained "secular rabbis". We choose who we listen to and respect by their personal merit, not because someone declared them to be luminaries.

So Beilin, lead a political lobby to protect our rights, but don't anoint yourself the Chief Rabbi of the Religion of the Non-Religious.

Predicting Tomorrow's Results

I hope Democrats win big in tomorrow's congressional elections, but I don't expect them to win the Senate. Here are some of my predictions, just for the heck of it. Only the next few days will tell how far off I am.

The Senate: 52 Republicans, 48 Democrats (including the Democratic-leaning independent from Vermont).

The following Republicans will hold on to their seats: Conrad Burns of Montana, Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island and George Allan of Virginia. The "democratically Independent" Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Democrat Robert Menendez of New Jersey will be re-elected as well. Republican Bob Corker will also win in Tennessee.

Senator James Talent will lose to Democrat Claire McCaskill in Missouri. Mike DeWine of Ohio and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania will also lose to Democrats.

The House: 226 Democrats, 209 Republicans.

Democrat Tammy Duckworth will take over Henry Hyde's old district in Illinois. Mark Foley's Florida district will also go to the Democrats. Christopher Shays of Connecticut will lose his seat.

Governors: 29 Democrats, 21 Republicans.

PS: I know nobody cares what my predictions are, this is mainly for my own use.

Tags: Politics, Congress, Elections, Senate, 2006, Democrats, Republicans

Presidential Rape

It is a disgrace that Moshe Katsav is the president of Israel. Who would have ever thought that the head of our state would be a suspected rapist?!? Back in 2000, I was very sorry he was elected president, defeating Shimon Peres - I just thought he was nothing more than a petty politicians without the stature needed to serve as president.

It's hard to believe, but now even former Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin, a horrible choice, would be an improvement. I hope that someone who isn't a member of the Knesset is elected president next: someone like writers Eli Amir or Amos Oz, or former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar.

Tags: Israel, Israeli Politics, Moshe Katsav, Moshe Katzav

Autism Politics

I've only seen clips of Comedy Central's "Night of Too Many Stars: An Overbooked Benefit for Autism Education", hosted live by Jon Stewart. They didn't talk much about autism in the footage I've watched, and I wonder how they represented it in the whole show. Anyone care to opine on it?

A charity event for autism sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it's more complicated than that. I doubt that any of the stars in Sunday's show even know about this complexity.

Other than the whole debate about whether or not vaccines are to blame for this condition, there's a debate between those who want to find a cure and those who advocate the acceptance of autistics as they are. This debate is about almost every aspect of autism:

• Should autism be cured? Or if autism is just an alternative form of neurological wiring, maybe there should only be intervention and treatment to make autistics' lives easier, like speech therapy and teaching certain social skills.
• What do you call autism? Many would find "disease" to be offensive. Even the term "developmental disorder", which I think is the most accurate, is unacceptable to some of those who see autism as part of humanity's "neurodiversity". According to this view, autism is different, but there is nothing wrong with it. "Condition" is probably the least controversial description.
• People with autism or autistics? Both terms seem the same to me, but there are certain groups who have a preference. By the way, on this issue, the divide is not always along the neurodiversity/cure line.
• Who should speak for autism? Parents of autistics or the autistics themselves? Yes, indeed, some autistics can speak for themselves, whether verbally or through writing. Autism Speaks, one of the organizations receiving money from the show, claims to speak for autism despite the fact that they aren't autistics themselves. Autism Speaks has distributed a video that pretty much shows autism as hell. I'm not sure people with autism would appreciate that.

Tags: Autism, Neurodiversity, Charity, Vaccines, Entertainment, Jon Stewart

Say No to Lieberman (Avigdor, Not Joe)

The Labor Party must block the entrance of Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Beytenu (Israel Our Home) into Ehud Olmert's coalition government. Lieberman, who has different ideas with the underlying intent of taking away Israeli Arabs' citizenship, is the Israeli equivalent of Austria's Jurg Heider and France's Jean-Marie Le Pen. If Labor sits in the same government with him, it means the party only cares about its seats and not its principles.

Lieberman also wants to change Israel's parliamentary system into a presidential system. That would be a bad idea. We certainly need reforms in our government, but we should strengthen our parliamentary democracy. This can be done by doubling or tripling the size of the Knesset, raising the electoral threshold for entering Parliament, as well as possibly creating a second legislative house, among other things.

Tags: Israel, Labor Party, Avigdor Lieberman, Israeli Politics, Politics

Investigating What Went Wrong

Now that the war is over, all the Israeli media is talking about is the need for an investigation into what went wrong. The two main options are a commission led by a supreme court justice or a parliamentary commission. Both have their flaws. The former focuses on legal matters and the latter would just become a stage for politicians to make themselves heard.

Journalist and historian Tom Segev of Haaretz says there should be a committee of historians who will investigate the matter. He says it is first and foremost a social and cultural issue more than a military issue. I agree with him, but I don't think historians are enough. This commission needs to have political scientists, sociologists, psychologists and experts from other relevant social sciences, as well as military experts.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

Conflict Resolution

Israel needs its leaders to have conflict resolution advisors, not just military advisors. They need someone who can relate to the other side and who will understand the consequences of actions not militarily, but on the human level. This way, not only will leaders enter less battles, but also when there is a war, our leaders will speak and act in ways that will open up opportunities for negotiations. We should not insult Arab leaders, not even the ones we are trying to kill, and must minimize the amount of hatred our actions instill in Arab populations.

Here's an article from today's Haaretz on this subject. I agree with the central premise but not with all parts of the op-ed.

Thinking in terms of the other side By Yitzhak Laor The Israel Defense Forces is not only the biggest local player in the economy and the economy of images, but it also has learned over the years how to become the Israeli "ego ideal." Thus, the army is not only "just like us," like the neighbor across the way, whose intentions are good and who takes his dog out once a day; it is also our best, what we would like to be if we were really good. Not only is it ready to sacrifice its life; it thinks rationally, intellectually, logically, efficiently, and most of all, it has the rare ability to predict the future. In fact, if not for the army, we wouldn't be what we are. It cannot be that it is waging war for no reason and bombing villages in which people and babies are hiding in basements, and destroying the economy of the north and perhaps the whole economy, just because its honor has been tarnished. After all, it is our very self, flesh of our flesh. And we would not endanger our lives for the sake of extraneous interests. When this image goes awry, we move on, as if there is no difference, to the "ordinary soldier." He too is part of the "ego ideal." Injured, sweating, rescuing his comrade from the battlefield, the eternal David fighting the Shiite Goliath. Thus the army takes upon itself - with the assistance of the media (the behavior of most of whom raises the suspicion that they could also serve a totalitarian regime) - the roles of both hero and victim. Anyone listening closely to the broadcasts can discern the grammar immediately: only "we, "us" and "ours." The enemy has no faces or names, except of course for Nasrallah. Thus, we are the victims and we are the heroes. That is the meaning of unilateralism, Israel's battlefield password for many years. Never mind what's happening around us, we have the power: we will fence; we will close; we will block; we will bomb. Otherwise we have no chance. During wartime this national egotism, beyond its moral implications, becomes part of the process of the spectacular suicide of the State of Israel. That is the great trap of military thinking, the Israelis' only way of thought regarding the conflict: not only belief in the need to be superior, right or wrong, able or not able, but especially the inability to think in terms of the other side, not as an object translated and interpreted by the Intelligence Corps, but as human beings. In the army the other side is understood in terms of "war games" (in the day-to-day racist jargon, it sounds like this: "This is the Middle East, here they understand only force"). But what, in the end, does the military logic say? We are an army, they are the enemy. They want to kill us; meaning, we must kill them. An army cannot think otherwise. It exists to think of the enemy as to be killed. Therefore, given the chance, it will fulfill its own prophecy. Casualties on the home front or the battlefield only "affirm the expectations," the intelligence predictions. The rain of Katyushas on the north following the bombing of Lebanon, after the kidnapping? We told you so, the military thinking says. They are dangerous. Good thing we went to this war; better late than never. From this perspective, military thinking is Israel's real trap. Everything moves within it in a circle. There is no way out, except in a fantasy of total destruction and killing all around. "After all, they want to annihilate us." The tragedy of Israeli society is that it has no other organized way of thinking. The impotence comes to the fore in the lack of ability to answer the question posed to opponents of the war: "So what do you propose?" That question implies another: "What do you propose now that the war has started?" There is of course only one answer: Stop immediately. Any other answer allows the army to continue using its blank check. Any other answer means "right now there is an enemy and a response must be dictated to him from a position of superiority. Later on, we'll see." Later on never comes, because when everything is all right, everything is, after all, all right. While our lives - and not only the lives of the Lebanese - are being destroyed, we must not speak because there are funerals, or bombings, and worst of all, heaven forbid, Nasrallah will have a propaganda achievement. And that would really be suicide. And as for power of deterrence: What kind of deterrent power will Israel have left after this war, even if it wipes Lebanon out? As long as the army is not suspected of being an interested party, one of many in the region and the country, as long as it is not suspected of preferring the military option because that is its purpose, as long as the peace movement is ad hoc and not an opposition to the Israeli way of life and thinking, we have no chance of extricating ourselves from the vicious cycle of bloodshed into which we bring forth our children.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Conflict Resolution

Kidnapper Nabbed

Hooray!

The Israeli army has arrested one of the Hizbullah operatives who was involved in the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers on July 12. If it doesn't help in finding the soldiers, it at least will help Israeli morale.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

Autism Speaks Petition

I signed this a while back: Autism Speaks: Don't Speak For Me

Tags: Autism

Unpatriotic Thoughts

This war has made me reconsider my future here in Israel. I always thought I would spend most of my life in Israel. I'd perhaps live a few years in the States, and later return to my place of birth. But now I'm pissed at my government. It does not seem to be able to protect its citizens. Soon enough the Hizbullah missiles will reach my area too, and I am not willing to live in fear.

I am still an avid Zionist, but I am also avid in my belief that a country exists for its citizens and not the citizens for their country. If Israel will not be able to protect my family and myself, I will not stay here. Do I want to live in a shelter for unending days? Do I want to live in a country where at some point, I will have to send my children off to the army?

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not packing my bags yet. I still believe we can win this war (or at least not lose it) and achieve some kind of peace with our neighbors. But in a way, the State of Israel is on probation.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Zionism

Don't Give Shabaa to Hizbullah

The Shabaa Farms are of no value to Israel. No strategic value. No sentimental value. Nothing. Despite this, we must not hand this territory over to Lebanon. Not yet, anyway. Doing so would allow Hizbullah to claim victory - their fifth defeat of Israel (the other four being kicking Israel out of Southern Lebanon, the kidnapping of 3 soldiers in October 2000, the deal to return their dead bodies and an Israeli criminal to Israel, and the kidnapping on July 12).

After a period of calm, we should start direct negotiations with Lebanon to hand over the Farms. I don't care that Syria claims they are their own. We should get rid of Hizbullah's last excuse for existing, and let Syria and Lebanon argue about the area amongst themselves.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

The Draft Resolution

The new American-French draft ceasefire resolution is full of holes, but it's still worth taking into consideration. I doubt Hizbullah will accept it. UNIFIL, which will stick around till a new international force arrives in the probably very distant future, isn't going to be any more effective or useful than it has been. Eventually hostilities will re-ignite.

The biggest question is whether an international force will be able to disarm Hizbullah, or at least prevent it from receiving new arms from Syria and Iran. If the ceasefire will only allow the re-arming of this terrorist organization then it will be a grave mistake for both Israel and Lebanon.

UNITED NATIONS - Following is the text of a draft UN resolution on the Middle East conflict negotiated by the United States and France and presented to the full 15-nation Security Council Saturday. The Security Council PP1. Recalling all its previous resolutions on Lebanon, in particular resolutions 425 (1978), 426 (1978), 520 (1982), 1559 (2004), 1655 (2006) and 1680 (2006), as well as the statements of its President on the situation in Lebanon, in particular the statements of 18 June 2000(S/PRST/2000/21), of 19 October 2004 (S/PRST/2004/36), of 4 May 2005 (S/PRST/2005/17) of 23 January 2006 (S/PRST/2006/3) and of 30 July 2006(S/PRST/2006/35), Advertisement PP2. Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hezbollah's attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, PP3. Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers, PP4: Mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel, OP1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hezbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations; OP2. Reiterates its strong support for full respect for the Blue Line OP3. Also reiterates its strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, as contemplated by the Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement of 23 March 1949; OP4. Calls on the international community to take immediate steps to extend its financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people, including through facilitating the safe return of displaced persons and, under the authority of the Government of Lebanon, reopening airports and harbours for verifiably and purely civilian purposes, and calls on it also to consider further assistance in the future to contribute to the reconstruction and development of Lebanon; OP5. Emphasizes the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty and authority; OP6. Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:- strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon;- full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;- delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area;- security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed and security forces and of UN mandated international forces deployed in this area;- full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state;- deployment of an international force in Lebanon, consistent with paragraph 10 below;- establishment of an international embargo on the sale or supply of arms and related material to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;- elimination of foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;- provision to the United Nations of remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession; OP7: Invites the Secretary General to support efforts to secure agreements in principle from the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above; OP8: Requests the Secretary General to develop, in liaison with key international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), including disarmament, and for delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including by dealing with the Shebaa farms, and to present those proposals to the Security Council within thirty days; OP9. Calls on all parties to cooperate during this period with the Security Council and to refrain from any action contrary to paragraph 1 above that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, humanitarian access to civilian populations, or the safe return of displaced persons, and requests the Secretary General to keep the Council informed in this regard; OP10. Expresses its intention, upon confirmation to the Security Council that the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel have agreed in principle to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above, and subject to their approval, to authorize in a further resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter the deployment of a UN mandated international force to support the Lebanese armed forces and government in providing a secure environment and contribute to the implementation of a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution; OP11. Requests UNIFIL, upon cessation of hostilities, to monitor its implementation and to extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the safe return of displaced persons; OP12. Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to ensure arms or related materiel are not imported into Lebanon without its consent and requests UNIFIL, conditions permitting, to assist the Government of Lebanon at its request; OP13. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council within one week on the implementation of this resolution and to provide any relevant information in light of the Council's intention to adopt, consistent with paragraph 10 above, a further resolution; OP14. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, United Nations

Where is Lebanon's Government?

The Israeli government has repeatedly said that our war is not with Lebanon, only with Hizbullah. At first, I thought this was correct and that it was important to emphasize that. But maybe I was wrong.

This is a weird war we are fighting. We are inside Lebanon, but its government is just a bystander. It makes all kinds of statements, but takes no real action. In that respect, it is exactly the same as the UN, France, Italy or any other outside party. As retired Major General Giora Island, former head of Israel's National Security Council, said today: the world should make Lebanon take responsibility for what's going on. It must decide: who is the sovereign - the Lebanese government or Hizbullah? If the government decides that it is the sovereign, it must take immediate action against Hizbullah - and if it can't, it must ask for assistance. If it recognizes its own lack of power and the sovereignty of Hizbullah, than the war is an all-out war between the two countries.

The question of sovereignty must be made clear so it will be known who is accountable on each side.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

The Civilian Death Toll

Six Israeli civilians have died today as a result of Hizbullah rocket attacks aimed to kill innocent civilians.. This follows the death yesterday of a man who was just riding his bicycle with his dog in a Kibbutz. So far, 25 Israeli civilians have died. Hizbullah is very sorry about that - 25 isn't enough for them.

The Lebanese government has said that so far 900 civilians have died in Lebanon. That is a startling, tragic number. While I'm sure we aren't targeting civilians, there is something horribly wrong with the way we are conducting the war. Some of the Lebanese civilians have been killed because Hizbullah operates from residential areas, but that cannot be the only explanation for the high toll. Our military must be much more careful than it is.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

Renew the Saudi Initiative

After the Hizbullah is pushed away from the border and an international force with actual power comes to Southern Lebanon, it will be time for a new strategy. Ehud Olmert seems to have locked on to unilateralism, since he doesn't see any Palestinian partner for peace. That would be a horrible mistake. In that respect, he'll indeed be following Ariel Sharon's legacy.

Sharon turned down peace talks with Syria and declined to talk about the Saudi Initiative, which called for peace between Israel and all Arab countries in return for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza with Jerusalem at its capital, returning the Golan heights to Syria and recognizing the Palestinian right of return. Though we cannot accept the right of return and have qualms regarding other elements of the proposal, it is a good starting point. After all, negotiations don't begin at a place of agreement, but if they succeed, that's where they lead.

Negotiating peace with the Arab world will be long and hard, but it's necessary. Yes, there will always be those who claim that not all grievances have been settled, as Hizbullah is doing now over the Shaba Farms, but that's no excuse for perpetual stalemate (or worse, perpetual war).

Tags: Israel, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, Middle East, Peace, Hezbollah

Mel Gibson's Penance

An old Jew walks by another old Jew and is shocked to see he is reading the anti-Semitic newspaper Der Sturmer. "Moishe, why are your reading this filth?!", he asks with disgust. "Oh, in the Jewish papers there's poverty, illness, war and suffering. But in Der Sturmer we control the world!"

I was reminded of this joke by the recent arrest of Mel Gibson, during which he accused the Jews of causing all the wars in the world. Now he has given Jews the role of Roman Catholic priest. He has come into our confession booth (the media, you know, we control it, just like we control wars worldwide and the weather) and asked for us to give him penance and absolve him of his sin. Maureen Dowd asked Leon Wieseltier for his favored punishment and here is his amusing answer:

"He has been a very bad goy," Leon said. "It is really rich to behold Gibson asking Jews to behave like Christians. Has he forgotten how bellicose and wrathful and unforgiving we are? Why would a people who start all the wars make a peace? Perhaps he's feeling a little like Jesus, hoping that the Jews don't do their worst and preparing himself for more evidence of their disappointing behavior. "I have always wondered why people who believe that we control the world do not have more respect for us. Take that cop who arrested Gibson. Do you think it was a coincidence that he was a Jew? We have been following Gibson's every move since he released that movie. The other night, when our uniformed brother spotted him bobbing and weaving in his star car, we saw an opportunity and we took it. Don't blame us. It's what Yahweh would do. "When Officer Mee busted him, we all busted him. "Moreover, it is the elders' considered view that whereas alcoholism may require a process of recovery, anti-Semitism is a more intractable and less chic failing. This was not a moment of insanity, even if Gibson is insane. His hatred of Jews was plain in his movie and in his twisted defense of it, which was made when he was sober under the influence of his primitive world view. Perhaps he thinks that all he needs to do is spend a few months in AA - Anti-Semites Anonymous - and find some celebrity sponsor and run for absolution to Larry Zeiger, I mean Larry King, where he can say with perfect sincerity that the Holocaust was a terrible thing and gut yontif. "But the elders have instructed Larry to be strict with the uncircumcised offender. He is to appear only opposite "American Idol" and in the company of David Gest. "We understand that Gibson cannot do it alone. But why do we have to do it with him? We would find it hard to be in a room with him unless, of course, he wants to count some money with us. Why doesn't he turn to the vast number of his Christian brothers and sisters who show no trace of anything resembling his disgusting prejudice? "Mad Max is making Max mad, and Murray, and Irving, and Mort, and Marty, and Abe. But weÂ’re not completely heartless. If he wants to do Shylock at dinner theater, fine. If he agrees to fill his swimming pool with Kabbalah water, fine." Then Leon was just too aggravated to speak. He mumbled something in Aramaic and hung up.

Tags: Leon Wieseltier, Maureen Dowd, anti-semitism, Mel Gibson

The Anti-Semitic Memo

I do not equate being anti-Israel and/or anti-Zionist with anti-semitism. In fact, I think that accusing non-racists who disagree with Israel of being anti-Semites is morally wrong. It also backfires in the form of the "boy who cried wolf" syndrome. Now when there really is someone antisemitic if we point to him, people will not listen. But I'll try anyway.

Victorino de la Vega's Middle East Memo is full of antisemitic references. He has a big picture of a beast eating a child, calls the deaths in Qana Israel's "massacre feast" (Matza from children's blood, anyone?), calls a Saudi cleric who opposes Hezbollah Pontius Pilate (read: he won't stop the Jews from killing the Lebanese just like Pilate didn't stop the Jews from killing Jesus). He keeps calling Israel's leaders Yahweh's sicaries, as if this is some religious war, where the Jews (or Jewsies, as someone said on the Memo's comment section) are the bloodthirsty villains.

Criticism is fine, even necessary. Phrases like Bushmert and Tex-Aviv are fine. I may not like them or agree with them, but it's legitimate. The anti-Semitic overtones are not acceptable.

Tags: Antisemitism, Blogging, Israel, Middle East

Four Mothers

In 1997, following a helicopter crash which killed 74 soldiers on their way to Lebanon, a new organization was formed to pressure the Israeli government to leave Lebanon as quickly as possible. It was called Arba Imahot, Four Mothers in Hebrew, the term used for the four matriarchs of Judaism: Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah. Their pressure worked. In 1999, Prime Minister Ehud Barak promised to leave Lebanon within a year of the formation of his new government. He delivered on May 25, 2000.

Six years later, as Israel is once again at war in Lebanon, Haaretz Magazine asks four of the former leaders of Four Mothers what they think about the current situation and whether they were right to demand a unilateral withdrawal from Southern Lebanon:

This war is different by Ari Shavit

The absent mother by Esti Ahronovitz

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Ehud Barak

What would count as success

From Haaretz:

By Avner Cohen Both from a moral perspective and from the perspective of the decision-making process, this campaign is far from being the model for a just and moral war, or for a no-choice war. The massive use of air power that nightly churns up the Shi'ite slums of south Beirut seems a lot more like venting feelings of fury and vengeance against Hezbollah's supporters than real fighting against the organization's military infrastructure. The use of air power against the civilian quarters in which Hezbollah leaders were living blatantly violates the requirements for proportion and discerning use of military might that a just war poses. Nor do such bombings contribute much to the military or even political eradication of Hezbollah. The organization's leaders hide and survive, whereas the hard-working residents of the Shi'ite quarters lose what little they had. Anyone with the slightest human sensitivity cannot but feel uncomfortable at the sight of the tremendous destruction this war is wreaking in Lebanon. It is also clear the initial decision by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - with the backing of the defense minister and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff - to respond immediately and belligerently to Hezbollah's provocation was made impulsively, without a rigorous consideration of alternatives, military and diplomatic. That decision certainly did not reflect a situation of lack of choice. It is not clear to what extent Olmert was even aware of the limitations of air power and the military difficulty of defeating Hezbollah, or to what degree the government understood that its immediate decisions would lead Israel into a war in every sense, whose political and military results are far from being certain. Olmert could have maintained the path of restraint taken by Ehud Barak and Ariel Sharon and deal with Hezbollah in a manner that would not require going to war. But these shadows cannot alter the realization that Olmert's instinctively belligerent decision to strike Hezbollah was correct, and first and foremost for reasons having to do with Iran's place in this battle. I do not mean only the significance of its tremendous involvement in Hezbollah's actions that led to the outbreak of war, but rather, and especially, what could have occured in the not-distant future had Iran continued to operate Hezbollah according to its own needs. In all Western capitals there is consensus that the timing of the abduction of IDF soldiers was intended to serve Iranian strategic goals. The kidnapping took place exactly on the eve of the summit of industrialized nations in St. Petersburg, and right before the debate on the Iranian nuclear issue was supposed to be refered back to the Security Council. The abduction of the soldiers was meant to hijack the world order, which was inconvenient for Iran, create another focus for world attention and thereby give the Iranian nuclear program more time. Still more troubling is the thought of what might have happened in the future were Hezbollah's military strength to remain as it was. As far as Iran and Hezbollah's leaders are concerned, the organization's missile power is an integral part of the Iranian deterrence system, one of whose main goals is to protect Iran's nuclear program. Hezbollah's missile arsenal, designed to cover all of Israel, was supposed to lend credibility to the Iranian message of deterrence, according to which any military strike on its nuclear program, no matter by whom, will automatically elicit a painful response against Israel. Hezbollah's massive missile presence expressed the fact that Iran poses a tangible and direct strategic threat to Israel, that it can deal a substantial blow to Israel and perhaps even cause it lengthy economic paralysis - without even having to launch missiles from its own soil. Under certain conditions it might even be possible to equip Hezbollah's long-range missiles with unconventional warheads. If at the end of the war Hezbollah can no longer serve as a switch that Iranians can flip as they please, it will be possible to view it as an Israeli strategic success. This is a minimal realistic goal and it must be achieved at any cost. The writer is the author of the books "Israel and the Bomb" and "Israel's Last Taboo."

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, Iran

A Smarter War

The war against Hizbullah is an important one. The organization's capability to attack Israel must be diminished significantly, if not completely. On the other hand, the killing of hundreds of Lebanese civilians is unacceptable, unless it is proven that the vast majority of them were helping Hizbullah or living in buildings that housed weapons. It seems to me the IDF is more concentrated on showing that it is acting than actually bringing in real results.

I'm not calling for an immediate ceasefire. One that comes too soon and without the proper arrangements to protect Israel can be disastrous. I'm just saying the army needs to pick its targets more wisely.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

Murderous Children? Hardly...

The blogosphere is going crazy over pictures taken by AP photographer Sebastian Scheiner, which show little Israeli girls writing on missiles about to be launched across the border. Bloggers have been quick to say these pictures show that Israeli children are being taught to hate Arabs and compare the pictures to photos of the Hitler Youth in 1930's Germany.

It turns out the bloggers were too quick to draw conclusions, ignorant of, or ignoring, the context. Lisa Goldman puts things in perspective: those are girls from Kiryat Shmona, an Israeli border town, who came out of their shelters for the first time in days. Their parents are the ones who wrote messages on the missiles, none addressed to the Lebanese people but rather to Sheikh Hassan Nassrallah and the Hizbullah. The girls later added drawings of things like Israeli flags.

I think letting kids write on rockets is wrong for a lot of reasons. For one thing, I expect parents to keep their children as far away from live ammo as possible. But besides the safety issue, we shouldn't glorify weaponry in the eyes of little children.

Having said that, it is still a far cry from the hysterical "Zionist killing machine" reaction from bloggers. If any WWII analogy is appropriate here, it isn't the Hitler Youth one, but a hypothetical picture of British children signing bombs meant for Nazi air bases during the Blitzkrieg.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East

Cool Off the World War Rhetoric

A lot of people are saying the war against Hezbollah is the beginning of World War III. Newt Gingrich is one of them. It isn't. Though it is a part of the general worldwide battle against Islamo-Fascist fundamentalism, this struggle is far from being anything like a world war. Every terrorist hotspot has a different kind of solution, though there are similarities between the different solutions. The current crisis can be resolved fairly quickly.

In other words: don't be so hysterical!

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, World War

No Shit

George W. Bush has been caught using an expletive, though I wouldn't regard "shit" as really being a curse word. "See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over," the president said to Tony Blair.

Focusing on the four letter word is silly. What is important is what he actually said: he says Syria should order Hezbollah to stop the rockets. Enough pressure on Assad can achieve that, but that isn't what Israel will accept. We need Hezbollah not only to stop now and stay in a position to start firing again when they want, but to leave the south, as Condoleezza Rice has said. We need Syria to tell them to go north, but that will never happen. Disarming them would be best, but that may be beyond our current abilities.

Tony Blair and Kofi Annan have suggested sending an international peacekeeping force to Southern Lebanon. For this idea to work, this force needs to have the authority to fight Hizbollah. Otherwise it will be as useless as the current UN force is Lebanon, UNIFIL.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East, George Bush, Tony Blair, Kofi Annan, United Nations

Yes to Ceasefire

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has offered to deploy the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon in exchange for a ceasefire. According to Israeli news sites, Ehud Olmert is rejecting the offer, claiming two other objectives must be achieved: the disarmament of Hezbollah and the return of the two kidnapped soldiers. Saying no is just plain stupid. If Lebanon's army takes over, Hezbollah's power will diminish at least in part. Instead of trying to disarm them we should use a new, more focused tactic. Whenever a Hezbollah post is detected near the border, or even a certain distance, it should be destroyed.

We shouldn't continue the current military campaign just for the sake of releasing the soldiers either. Two soldiers aren't worth making millions of people's lives miserable in Israel and Lebanon.

So Olmert, say yes to Siniora's offer. But if the Lebanese army doesn't come down to the border within a few days, forget about the ceasefire.

Tags: Israel, Hezbollah, Lebanon, Middle East