Me on the New York Times
Nothing special. It has happened before (and it didn’t even bring me many hits).
But this hasn’t happened before -
Me on top of Michael Moore. LOL
Update: Okay all of you with the dirty minds. That’s not what I meant! Ugh
An interesting film on Time.com:
When rockets from Gaza land in Sha’ar HaNegev in southern Israel, the man known as the Qassam Hunter hurries to the scene
This was posted on Twitter by Israluv. She says the guy who made it is a friend of hers.
I know someone from Sha’ar Hanegev, sort of. I once had a long and very pleasant telephone conversation with a lady from there, a lady who happened to have the same family name as my maiden name, which is uncommon. We tried very hard to find a family connection, but besides our ancestors being from different Shtetls in Galicia, currently in Poland, we couldn’t find one. Apparently there’s a whole tribe of them, and very accomplished, hailing from Sha’ar Hanegev. No connection though.
There is a notable difference in atmosphere in this war, compared to the previous one.
First of all, it is obvious to everyone (well, besides people whose understanding of the situation is naïve and unrealistic) that this operation is completely justified and necessary. One may disagree about how to go about this militarily (I’ve noticed that disagreement is mainly voiced by those who have no military knowledge or understanding whatsoever), but there is little argument that the situation in the South can’t continue.
Those poor people in Sderot and in the villages in the area have been sitting ducks for years. I know the foreign press likes to minimize these rocket and missile attacks, but they’re no joke - they kill and they maim and they terrorize, and they make anything resembling a normal life impossible.
The lack of serious Israeli military reaction didn’t make things better (nor did the disengagement, in which Israel completely withdrew all presence from Gaza, both military and civilian). It made things far worse, by emboldening the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad and teaching them that Israel is weak and incapable.
The frequence and the range of the missiles grew and grew all the time, with the latest ceasefire being used to prepare and smuggle more and better weapons. Now Ashkelon was also being targeted, a much larger town, home to the electricity plant that supplies most of Gaza’s electricity.
As if it wasn’t unbearable before, now things were getting out of hand. There was a real feeling that these civilians had been abandoned to their fate, and an increasing frustration and anger among people all over the country and not just in the Sderot area, at what appeared to be the indifference and impotence of the government.
Things have changed. Even though Ashdod is now a target and also Beer Sheva and Yavne, we’re going somewhere. It appears there is a “Baal Bayit” (literally “Owner of the House” a colloquialism meaning someone in charge) after all. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi are heroes of the day.
Secondly, it is quite clear that the IDF has learnt many important lessons from the Lebanon War of the summer of 2006. This time around, things are obviously much better planned, organized and coordinated, and the forces are better trained and ready for their missions. Being aware of this fact is proving incredibly important for the morale of us people at home, although everyone is so worried about the soldiers and praying for their welfare.
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They’ve got retired generals on TV all the time giving commentary. This is just as well, because some of the field reporters are spouting such a lot of nonsense just to fill the time, it can drive you crazy. They obviously know very little about what’s happening inside, but they have to talk so talk they do, ad nauseum.
The highlight of last night’s viewing though, without a doubt, was the footage of one of the wounded soldiers, being wheeled on a stretcher into one of the hospitals. “Don’t worry,” He shouted out to the reporters as he went passed, in the rough tough growl of a real soldier, obviously dying to hop off the stretcher and run right back into the thick of things, “We are going to ****** their ******!” (I’m far too embarrassed to repeat exactly what it was he said, but it was pretty obscene). This was broadcast uncensored, quite a few times, to everyone’s utter delight. Now that was good for morale! I’m sure the PC Peacies were horrified at his coarseness. Tee hee.
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A conversation loud argument in the dining room at work yesterday. Y, born and bred in Syria, representing the hardline pulverize-the-bastards point of view vs. R, Israeli-born, just come back from maternity leave, representing the we’re-sorry-about-the-Palestinians’-suffering-but-if-it-has-to-be-either-us-or-them-suffering-then-it-should-be-them point of view. (Representing the we-are-wicked-and-evil-and-must-stop-these-atrocities-immediately point of view was… er… nobody. )
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Our Sis was just telling me about her mother-in-law, who lives right on the southern edge of Ashkelon. She said she rang her before and was a bit worried when she didn’t answer. “I must have been on one of my little walks”, she explained to Our Sis afterwards. ‘Little walks?” Our Sis wondered, worrying that her elderly, widowed mother-in-law might be doing something foolish and irresponsible like taking a stroll around the neighborhood. “Oh yes, down to the shelter. That’s my little walk.”
She refuses to leave her home and come and stay with Our Sis, even for a weekend. She says they are being very sensible. They don’t dwell on it, and only watch half an hour of news in the evening, even though these missile and rocket attacks go on all day and all night, and they can hear the blasts from the operation in Gaza quite clearly, as well. The rest of the time they do other things. She has her other grandchildren with her, so she has to keep things normal for them.
At some point along the way I got tired of worrying about what they think about us. So I stopped. Maybe that’s why I don’t blog very much any more. I still read some of the stuff ocassionally, but it’s so unpleasant. Why bother?
Some guy on TV said to write blogs and do things on Facebook and on Twitter. As part of the war effort, etc. I’ve been trying, but I don’t really have much to say. I have the ability to explain things, I suppose, but I really can’t be bothered. I’d rather curl up on the couch with a blanket and a book. I’m reading a little book that compares Biblical Hebrew with contemporary Hebrew and some Josephus Flavius and a strange book about the ten lost tribes - I’m not sure what to make of it - and something else about the Bible. And that’s just my weekday selection. I read other things on Shabbat. I find the day more restful that way. Anyway, as you can see, I’m not very focused lately, but I’m enjoying myself. I usually start a few books together and then stick with the one I like best and then go back to one of the other ones. I’m trying to stick to Hebrew books right now. I’m a slower reader in Hebrew so it’s good for me.
I think I’ll just go off and do that now. The war will manage just fine without me, as it has been all week.
… not a peep out of Hizballah.
Could it be that the failed war of the Summer of 2006 wasn’t such a failure after all? Could it be that they’re afraid?
SAKHNIN, Israel (AFP) – Tens of thousands of Israeli Arabs demonstrated on Saturday in the northern town of Sakhnin over Israel’s week-old offensive against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.Organisers estimated that nearly 100,000 people attended the protest rally, which stretched through the city streets.
A hundred thousand, that’s a big rally. Big even in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square terms. I live relatively near to Rabin Square. When there is rally of that size, the whole area feels it. There are people everywhere, you can’t find parking to save your life, the roads are all closed, and there are terrible traffic jams.
Considering Sakhnin is a small town, with a population of only about 25,000, can you imagine the horrendous traffic problems there must have been in the surrounding area, not to mention in the small roads and alleyways of this mountainous Galilee town. Funny there was nothing about that on the news.
But, guess what? The organizers’ estimate has the Israeli police completely flabbergasted. The police estimate suggests a slightly smaller affair - between 4000 - 6000!
I’ll repeat that, in case you missed it: 4000 - 6000.
Not 100,000; not 50,000; not even 10,000. Now, even if that is a low estimate, although I trust the police have a lot of experience in these things, you have to admit that’s a hell of a difference.
I’d say someone is exaggerating, slightly. Or not so slightly.
Think about it - there are about 1.2 million Arab Israeli citizens living in Israel. This means that organizers of this event are claiming that nearly eight percent of their entire population attended this rally. This surely must be a record in global terms!
Go here to see how.
is if Hizballah will join the war effort.
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Channel 10 is interviewing Muhamad Harazin from Gaza. He speaks beautiful Hebrew and talks quietly. He tells us that he is hiding with his children in the staircase and his children are very much afraid. He said he hopes the IDF will take the innocent into consideration. I know our soldiers will do their best. We are not like the Hamas who specifically target the innocent. Still I feel so much for Muhamad and his family.
For a few years now, the Gazans have been persuading themselves that Israel is weak and incapable and that victory is near. One must remember that Palestinian society is very young. Half the Palestinians are under 15. They don’t know Israel. They believe the propaganda, having no reason not to.
They’re getting a horrible awakening to reality now. Regardless of the outcome - this is a lesson they’re not going to forget in a hurry.
Who knows, they might even finally realize that peace is the better option for them (Don’t laugh, it won’t be the first time in history).
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A friend popped out to see the demonstrations in Rabin Square. Apparently the Lefty demonstration was very small and quiet. She didn’t see any Palestinian flags. On the other hand, the pro-Israel demonstration was large and loud and colorful. She said they all sang Hatiqva, the national anthem, at the top of their lungs and had a lovely time.
IDF took over Al-Aqza TV channel last night, a Hamas propaganda TV channel. This is what it looked like. Pretty scary, huh?
Via “Blue Eye”
“In Egypt, about 400 people gathered near the Al Fatah Mosque in Cairo to protest the ongoing Israeli attacks in Gaza and to get the Egyptian government to open the border between Gaza and Egypt.”
I read on Israeli political commentary site Omedia recently someone who said that Begin’s big mistake was that he didn’t demand Egypt take the Gaza Strip along with Sinai, in the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. Not a new thought but one tends to remember it wistfully every now and again. Of course, the Egyptians would never have agreed. The last thing they wanted was to renew control over the continuing headache which is the Gaza Strip.
Egyptian resonsibility over Gaza would be excellent for us though. All the nonsense would stop double quick and you’d not hear a peep out of the international community, re mass arrests. etc. Ask the Sinai Bedouin why they hate the Egyptians.
They’ve got a silent radio channel for people in the south. We remember the silent channel from the Gulf War in 1991. What it is, essentially, is a radio channel that broadcasts silence until there is a missile attack alert. Back in 1991 it was important because by the time the sirens started it was a bit late to head for the safe places, so they had the early alert break into all radio broadcasts. This way you got the alert at the same time as the people who activated the sirens. You needed the silent channel so you could get some sleep at night. Listening to music or chattering all night was enought to drive anyone bonkers. The silent channel was a real life saver, although I still shudder when I remember that awful beeping followed by the metalic, dreaded “Nahash Tzefa” alert. We know what they’re going through, only some of them have been living this situation for many years. We only had it for a month and it was bad enough.
These days in the south, some people can’t hear the sirens for various reasons, and the silent channel is also important for religious people, who don’t put on the radio or television on Shabbat. They can just leave it on all Shabbat and it just comes on when they need to be alerted to head for a safe place.
For more information, you can visit the Home Front Command website.
Yesterday afternoon I went to visit Dad. On the way I listened to the radio. During an Arik Einstein song (it’s his seventieth birthday so they’ve got his songs on all the time), there was a color red in Sderot. I don’t listen to the radio very much and this gave me a real jolt. On the way home I heard there had been in Ashkelon as well.
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This evening, Dov Khenin, former Tel Aviv mayor wannabe (he lost thankfully), and his cronies are staging an anti-Israel demonstration in Tel Aviv. They will be marching with Palestinian flags, to show their allegiance, from Rabin Square to the Cinamatheque. The Commies like to march. A march is effective even if not a lot of people come. If they march and disrupt the traffic more people notice. It’s a Hadash demonstration. They’ll probably be busing in a lot of Arabs.
It will be upsetting to have Tel Aviv occupied by anti-Israel forces, filling the city with Palestinian flags, when we all (well, nearly all) want so much to support and strengthen the people of the south and the army that is working so hard to protect them, and us. But that’s democracy for you.
Pro-Israel Zionist demonstrations are planned for the same time. Come at 6pm with Israeli flags to Rabin Square. the meeting place is apparently Cafe Landwer, near the Square.
…that I’m not hoping for that situation to change, dependant on a transformation of the Palestinian mindset. We’re just not there yet.
Eldest is currently going through her pre-army screenings and checkups. She’s just got the list of things she can apply for. Without going into detail, some of the things have me gasping with admiration. I had know idea they had people doing some of those things, and not necessarily particularly interesting or challenging or hush hush or anything, but just things that show what a really clever innovative army this is. (And I say this as someone who knows all too well how sluggish, stupid and inefficient the IDF can be at the same time - or maybe specifically because I know this).
Take this war in Gaza for instance. Do you know what they do before they bomb a residential building? They call up the people living there on the phone, tell them that it is the IDF calling, inform them that there is a weapons factory (or a Hamas terrorist or a weapon storeroom or whatever) on the first floor (or second or third or whatever) and tell them that the IAF is now about to drop a bomb on them, and that they should please vacate the building right now!
Since this thing started, the IDF has apparently already called up over one hundred thousand Palestinian homes to warn them (as of yesterday) - or so I heard on Kol Yisrael’s Reshet Bet radio station five o’clock news last night! Incredible.
Maybe I got that number wrong. It doesn’t make sense. There haven’t been nearly that many attacks or bombs dropped, surely. Even if you take into account that a lot of the buildings will be highrises, so they’ll be making more phone calls than dropping bombs. Still even if it’s only a tenth of that, four hundred casualties is an incredibly low figure.
Some of the idiotic Palestinians, of course, think to be very clever and go up on the rooftop with all their families in response to such a phone call (as in human shields blah blah). Then the IDF shoots a specially developed warning missile to the corner of the roof to show they mean business. Then they vacate.
So much for Israel being inhumane baby killers. In much of the world you don’t get much more humane than that in peacetime, nevermind in the middle of a war.
How about the bastards who’ve been launching missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians (with no weapons factories on the first floor) for the last eight years doing us such a courtesy? As if.
Yossi Klein Halevi in The New Republic:
The future of the West Bank may well be resolved in Gaza. If the international community forces the IDF to end the operation before the missile threat against southern Israel is resolved, Israelis will inevitably conclude that, even when we withdraw to the 1967 borders, as we did on the Gaza front in 2005, the international community will not allow us to protect ourselves. And the likelihood then of convincing a majority of Israelis to withdraw from the West Bank–within easy rocket distance from our major population centers–will be close to non-existent. Ultimately, then, the creation of an independent Palestine depends on neutralizing Hamas.
It might be too late already. The main lesson of the Gaza disengagement for most Israelis, I believe - and probably why it was an important excerise after all, even with its dismal consequences - is the understanding that we can’t afford to have the same thing happen in the West Bank. Fearing it wasn’t enough. Believing the warnings of the Israeli right wasn’t enough. We had to see it happen for ourselves. The Gaza disengagement may very well have saved us from being destroyed by our misjudged, naive good intentions.
Last night after work, I boarded a number ten bus on Jerusalem Boulevard in Jaffa, heading north. The window behind the back door of the bus was shattered. More than shattered really, most of the glass was gone. All that was left were ragged splinters round the edges. A stone had been hurled at the bus on Yeffet Street further south, in the heart of Arab Jaffa, a few minutes earlier, or so I was told by the driver and one of the passengers. There was a demonstration back there. Luckily the stone had just broken the window and hadn’t injured anyone. The bus was full of people.
Today the Muazzin from the mosques was particularly loud (or should that be Mawazzin or something, in the plural?) . I’ve noticed they’ve been getting louder in recent weeks.
Don’t go to Jaffa, I told the girls when I got home. Why should we got to Jaffa? They replied. (Then I shouted at them for not washing the dishes.)
All the time, at the back of my mind, I have the question who to vote for in the elections.
note: Actually Jaffa is pretty quiet. Not a lot of people came to that demonstration yesterday. Just some of the ones who came misbehaved.
Mind you, that’s exactly the tragedy of the Israeli Arabs, isn’t it? That great silent mass of people who just want to get along and be part of Israeli society (and who daily thank their lucky stars that they’re not living in refugee camps in Beirut) is continually being pulled down into the muck, by a small bunch of Arab and Jewish radicals.
A specialist in International law explains the legal situation on Al-Jazeera
I don’t think they’ll be inviting him again.
Matisyahu. Something else.
Last night on channel 2 news we saw two families.
One family - mother, father and a son and a daughter - has just left its home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza. They couldn’t take it any more.
The second family, from the town of Sderot - mother, father and two young sons, kindergarten age, and two teenage daughters - say they have no intention of leaving. This is their home. But they show the strain. The two little ones both have slight speech impediments and one of them stutters. A discussion about psychologists develops among the older family members. the teenage girls are having none of it. Their father suggests that it could be helpful. Apparently the girls have not been impressed so far with their experience of psychologists and what they have to give to alleviate their difficulties.
One of the little boys immitates an attack. “Color Red… Color Red!” he shouts. Then he tells us about the last attack, which caught his mother and himself just at the corner of their block and how they hid in the entrance, behind the pillars.
A few days ago, a friend of a friend took his small children to see their grandparents in Ashkelon during the Hannuka holiday. As they drove along in the town, suddenly loud speakers were screeching all around. They stopped the car and people all around yelled at them to get out and lie down on the ground. As they did so, a missile flew over their heads and blew up nearby.
The Gazan Palestinians have been perpetrating daily war crimes against the civilian inhabitants of Israeli towns and villages in the South of Israel for years. Their weapons have been gradually becoming more powerful and the radius of their hits has been widening all the time. Instead of ceasing when Israel left the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, these war crimes have been increasing.
These daily attacks on Israeli civilians, that began again about a month or two ago, long before the official end of the ceasefire (mainly used by the Palestinians to improve their weapons), don’t make the international headlines even though they are increasingly deadly and are already targeting bigger and bigger population centers and rapidly creeping towards the center of the country.
The Israeli government is finally taking responsibility and acting against the perpetrator of these war crimes - the Palestinan Hamas government ruling the Gaza Strip.
