False Dichotomies

A little bit of light relief from The Most Moral Army in The World: a story from the base I served on – IDF Home Front Command in Ramle…Enjoy my loose translation – for readers from right to left the original can be found here:

10s of soldiers were stuck on the Home Front base after a soldier hung the key to the gate on the neck of a cat, who subsequently escaped and vanished

The Home Front was briefly praised for how it functioned during Operation Cast Lead, but after the end of the operation it experienced an event which nobody expected. A soldier that was guarding the gates of the base, close to Ramle, decided on Friday to abscond and hang the keys to the gate on the neck of a nearby cat. He didn’t imagine that the cat wouldn’t protect the key, and that the soldiers on the base would be stuck without a way to get home for Shabbat. Read more

Jazzy saxaphones are the principal target of this iconoclastic post from Meal Deal. Entitled, “The top five overrated rap albums of all time”, it’s a careful dismantlement of some of hip-hop’s most cherished idols, one which had me quickly reaching for the delete button on my iTunes.

Before launching into his list, Meal Deal begins by removing UK rap albums from contention, declaring them a priori to be shit. He has a point – parochialism does no favours for cultural criticism (I should know; I’m forced to listen to Israeli hip-hop) – but he shouldn’t overlook a few UK classics. Tinny Skinnyman is indeed dross, but Brand New Second Hand by Roots Manuva is a claustrophobic classic (particularly when listened to travelling on a train across Eastern Europe), as is Klashnekoff’s first LP (which sounds like it could have been made in NY in 1995) and Jehst’s Return of the Drifter. Some of Lewis Parker’s output isn’t bad either. Read more

I hope that those who were so interested regarding the timing of Operation Cast Lead will be asking equally critical questions about today’s absurd attack by Hamas (or its subsidiaries). A bomb attack was launched on an Israeli patrol along the Israeli/Gaza border; one soldier was killed and three others wounded. Clashes ensued, during which at least one Palestinian (probably a civilian) was killed. In retaliation, the Israel has launched an air strike on Southern Gaza. At the time of writing, IDF tanks are back in Gaza (free hummus still on offer to anyone who can tell me of a single example in history of a group – other than Hizbollah in 2006 - succeeding in liberating territory and then attempting to goad the occupier back in). Read more

People are right to be itchy about how outsiders portray them. Rebuke will always go down better if it’s delivered by someone who cares about the recipient. If we’re not convinced that the outsider cares about us, we’re unlikely to listen to them, no matter how reasonable their feedback. As an Israeli, I know this all too well. We take criticism like water off a duck’s back; insecure in our standing in the world, we are dismissive of those who question our behaviour, whether friend or foe.

What about India? The world has only begun to give her the attention she deserves since the economic liberalization of the 1990s. Increased interest inevitably leads to increased sensitivity, of which the reaction to Slumdog Millionaire is a case in point. Directed by Danny Boyle, this magnificent homage to the ethos (if not the substance) of Bollywood is obviously an “outsider’s” production. As a result, it has come under attack. Read more

This is an opportunity to thank readers for their intelligent comments; we’ve got a nice group of regulars now, all taking part in an interesting dialogue, which is refreshing. In a similar vein, I’d be interested to see where you all stand on the major issues in Israeli politics. Take the survey here, and report back. For the record I’m in the bottom-left hand quadrant, with a “substantive agreement” of 75% with Labor, 73% with Meretz and Kadima, and – oddly – 72% with Raam Taal. On security I’m 80% with Meretz; 77% socioeconomic with Kadima; and 85% religion with Meretz, Raam Taal and Hadash. I most disagree with Habayit-Hayehudi-Mafdal. Report your results below the line!

I had been kind of interested in men since my childhood. I grew up with this question and confusion and remained silent. There were no resources to refer to or to find the answer to who I was; even school advisors weren’t the right people to go to. As for speaking about these kind of things to your parents, never! Read more

A reader on the Abu Muqawama blog gets it: “If Israel doesn’t perform up to expectations, talk is about how poorly Israel performed. When Israel routs an opponent, then Israel is the bully, and everyone talks about that.” Israel can’t win. Citizens of the world call for Israel, but not Hamas, to cease its fire. Israel does so, and the rockets predictably continue, now with an added justification, namely the continued presence of Israeli soldiers on Gazan territory. If Israel does nothing, Hamas and its cheerleaders will claim that the resistance has won. In a conflict which is often dominated by perception, this is crucial. Who’d be an Israeli policymaker? Read more

1. A reader asks: “Does the current offensive weaken Hamas beyond the short-term goal of reducing what rudimentary [a bit of an understatement this - Hamas have used every opportunity to smuggle in ore effective weapons; without being challenged it was only a matter of time before they got some of the really deadly stuff, presumably via Iran.] abilities they have? Does it make it any less popular? Does it promote any chance of peaceful coexistence? Does it help Israel’s image in the world? Will it stop the Qassams?” My answer is no, no, no, no, and a little bit. In the sense that Hamas will be more popular as a result of the attacks, and that the cause of peaceful coexistence will receive another blow, the only hope is that Hamas – like Hizbollah – will think twice before launching unprovoked attacks on the State of Israel. As Tzipi Livni said, “This is not a conflict that will end with an agreement. We embarked on the campaign with the intent of achieving military goals and in order to clarify that we will not put up with the situation any longer. We set out to change the equation.” This is the most we can hope for. Those who would have Israel unilaterally open the crossings should be asked why Israel should hand Hamas a major political victory, at the expense of our Fatah allies, and without receiving any guarantee of recognition. If Hamas want Rafah opened, they can accept the November 2005 agreement on the subject. If they prefer the path of martyrdom, we should be willing to offer it to them. Either way, there seem to be no good options on the table. Read more

From the soft brown fields surrounding Moshav Moledet, Operation Cast Lead seems far away. A nearby Bedouin village sits quietly in the mild winter haze; a hot air balloon drifts past, submerged behind the trees like the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle. The silence is broken only by three boys racing past on their Quad bikes. This is the far-east of Israel, less than fifteen miles from the Jordanian border, the encapsulation of all that Zionist talk about quiet.

 
I am staying with an elderly relative. She came to Moledet in 1936 from Germany, and has stayed ever since. Every year, she sends out a round-robin letter to friends and relatives around the world. This is what she is writing about the current situation: “Since I kept some of my formal letters I am able to compare them with the distressing conclusion that in real substantial matters nothing has changed for the better. I mainly refer to our political situation that remains critical and without satisfying both people in our conflict…In any case, we are always in a great dilemma concerning our reaction to the continued firing of the Qassam rockets to our settlements and towns in the south. In spite of our retreat from the Gaza Strip and the late agrement for a mutual ceasefire, the bombardment goes on. As usual, our military response is colossal, with catastrophic results for the attackers, including innocent civilians…But what can be done? Both possibilities are bad and futile. To restrain from reaction as we did for a long time, and leave our population in an unbearable state of danger from casualties and death. Or to move over to a more aggressive action in Gaza, as we did before, like in Lebanon, where we got stuck in the mud of two useless wars.”

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Do not believe what you read about an Israeli ground operation. A ceasefire has been called, based on the interventions of Annie Lennox. Falsedi correspondent The Hoth has managed to break the stupid Israeli ban on journalists. He reports live…

In a carefully worded statement released on the eighth day of Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s security cabinet confirmed that it would be “running down” the offensive, in a move widely-expected after high-level diplomatic calls for a ceasefire on Friday. Addressing a news conference in Tel Aviv, a shaken-looking Ehud Barak – Israel’s defence minister – later explained the decision, singling out Annie Lennox’s call for a hiatus in the bombing as “the final nail in the coffin”. Read more