Yom Kippur Thoughts

Yom Kippur Tradition

Today it is Yom Kippur, The Day of Atonement, the holiest day in Jewish tradition. The day is devoted to repentance and fasting, and all work is highly sinful, and yes that would include blog writing too… The way I see it, Yom Kippur is a prime example of the evolution of the Jews and the state of Israel.

 Phase one: from human sacrifices to a dialog with an abstract god.

 I assume Yom Kippur started like all other self-punishing traditions, as a way to satisfy the omnipotent and powerful gods. In the beginning it was necessary to sacrifice a child from the tribe in order to escape the leopard and hunt the Mammoth. Then we humans learned a little more about nature, we learned how to farm lands and domesticate animals, and build weapons with tips of steel. So god went down one rung in the ladder of all-powerfulness, and we replaced human sacrifices with animal ones. Time moved on and we seemed able to explain more and more aspects of our existence using our observational capabilities and accumulated knowledge. We moved man to the center, and god became an abstraction. We started believing that god was not in the skies, but everywhere, and especially in our souls, and that we are a projection, reflection or even the essence of god. We started conversing with God, who was a form of us. We asked him to guide us and forgive our sins. We then realized that we pray to god both as individuals, and as members of a society, which shares a belief, and a moral code.

 This was the process, I presume (without much evidence), that resulted in the emergence of Yom Kippur. After the holiday was established though, it regained some of its original pagan origins, if only because it is a highly organized and mandatory practice of Jewish society, which has been marked for hundreds of year.

 Phase two: Yom Kippur becomes a self-administered Judaism loyalty test.

 In the 19^th and 20^th century, against a backdrop of accelerated assimilation, Yom Kippur was many times seen as the last defense line of the traditional Jewish identity. Many secular Jews mark Yom Kippur not because they feel they have to abide by the contract of repentance, but because they know they have to choose at least ONE tradition to keep, so that they consider themselves not completely alien to the Judaism of their ancestors. They mark the day as a way of affirming their identity using a convincing manifestation (full day of fasting—not easy!) of loyalty to old traditions.

Egyptians Crossing

 Phase three: into the secular military state, and out again.

 On Yom Kippur in 1973, which happened to be on October 6^th that year, Syria and Egypt launched a surprise attack against Israel, which resulted in a three-week war, a bloody one for Israel and the last one that majorly pitted Arab armies against the Israeli one. The war was a blow to Israeli confidence and sent shock waves throughout the society. But it also provided an endless source of battle stories, and their heroes. In a country that revolves around the army, the Yom Kippur day turned into the Yom Kippur War day. Thus, if you were to turn on the TV just before Yom Kippur, you will not see religious sermons or philosophical debates about sin, repentance and free will in Jewish thinking, you will most likely see a documentary about that war.

This was a welcome development for Israel, since another war-and-struggle holiday (in addition to the national memorial, holocaust and independence days and the traditional war-and-struggle holidays of Passover, Hannukah and Lag  b’Omer) is of much greater relevance and interest to Israel compared with the “whiny” Yom Kippur. How can the Israelis mark Yom Kippur, when this requires some reflection and admitting that there are some things which are wrong, which require fixing, while at the same time, Israelis know that they are always moral and just? The old Yom Kippur just felt out of place. Out with the old, in with the new.

However, the Yom Kippur war has crested its importance in the Israeli psyche. Thirty six years have passed since the Yom Kippur war and its grip over Israeli society starts to wane. There are several reasons for that.

First, the Yom Kippur war has become the property of the left, and that’s why it needs to be moved into the shadows now that the right rules supreme. The close-call experience of the Yom Kippur war caused the genesis of the modern peace movement in Israel. The politicians, army officers, the man on the street, realized that Israelis WERE NOT invincible nine feet tall Vikings, as some Arabs had claim after the defeats of 48 and 67. They were just humans who could be defeated in the battlefield like all other nations have experienced in their histories. The conclusion was clear—Israel must secure peace treaties with its neighbors. However, given the repeated failure to secure peace with the Palestinians, and the Syrians and Lebanese too, and given the unilateralism that has taken hold over Israeli policy due to these failures, there exists a great desire to unlearn the lessons of the Yom Kippur war. There is thus a desire to explain why the lessons of that war are no longer applicable. The arguments are known and are quite powerful:

• We have made peace with whomever it was possible to, the rest of the conflicts are intractable.
• We live in a uni-polar world today, and our enemies don’t have a serious sponsor.

Second, and this is quite obvious, the military leaders of Yom Kippur are now out of the picture, replaced by officers who bring “their” wars into the focus—e.g., the first Lebanon war. Out with the old, in with the new.

Third, the population has changed too, it has become more fragmented, and each of the fragments has declining interest in the war, each for its own reasons: the Russian and American immigrants of the last twenty years do not have any attachment to the Yom Kippur War mourning or heroism. The growing Orthodox sector is indeed growing fast, so the traditional meaning of the day is getting renewed emphasis, and the significance of the Yom Kippur War, with its perceived secular hubris, wanes. The seculars, what’s left of us, are becoming more cosmopolitan, and neither the traditional nor the militaristic facets of Yom Kippur interests us.

Phase four: fragmentation

As I alluded in the last paragraph, the Yom Kippur experience is now quite different for different segments of the Israeli society. Let’s talk about two of them.

 

Akko 2008 Yom Kippur Riots

Yom Kippur as a nationalistic event

 

 

For the masses of poor who live in mixed Jewish-Arab cities such as Akko and Jaffa, Yom Kippur has become a benchmark for the relative power of each of the warring communities. The Jews, incited by reckless politicians such as Akko’s mayor Shimon Lankry used the day as a “loyalty test” for the Arabs: will they dare disrespect the holiest day for Jews by driving around? Listen to music? Last year the Akko riots started when an Arab resident was not mindful of how hurtful his actions could be construed. He was shuttling food and passengers in preparation of a wedding party, and almost got lynched. Arab rioting which ensued wasn’t any better. Could he have been more mindful? Of course. Was it possible to just “let it slide”? Of course. In a place where the communities know and respect each other, such small transgressions do not result in a huge conflagration. However, when hatred is cultivated by the mayor (!) the whole city is a tinderbox.

It seems that some Arabs also use this day specifically to demonstrate that they will never be subservient to the Jews, or Jewish sensibilities. A member of the Shibli clan is accused of recklessly killing 10 year old Tal Zino, by driving his ATV wildly in Kfar Tabor two year ago, during Yom Kippur. Clearly, the Shiblis were looking to make a statement when they rode their ATV’s recklessly in the Jewish village of Tabor, which is adjacent to the Shibli village. If it’s any consolation, the Shiblis are involved in crime to their necks, and it could be that it’s mostly just their criminality that motivates their behavior. (A personal note: one of these guys broke into my friend’s car and stole the car’s radio when we were visiting the area. It seems nobody is able to stand-up to them, not the least the impotent police.)

This year, touch wood, so far so good.

 

A secular Yom Kippur experience

Secular experiences

 

 

What does a secular person do on Yom Kippur? Well, there’s no radio or TV. There’s the internet, so you can blog or chat. Nobody rides their cars, so all the kids go out and ride their bikes through the night, without fear of getting hit by a car. Some seculars go to the desert the day before and camp. Some go abroad. Some would listen to music with headphones or quietly, or read that book they have been trying to finish for decades. In our crazy world—a day of unpluggedness is welcome by all, but it has nothing to do with the original tradition. Some fast to “feel Jewish”, some fast because they want to prove they can or to “clean their bodies”.

Thus for seculars Yom Kippur is becoming this eclectic new-age type of experience. The old rallying slogans of both tradition or nationalism are looked at in bemusement, while each person puts his own personal and individualistic spin on the day.

We recognize we were born Jewish and Israeli by a chance of nature, we can tolerate all the dogma, to keep the neighbors and the elderly happy, as long as we can live our personal lives in intense freedom in our personal quarters. Come to think about it, it reminds me of what one hears of Tehran.

One last thought: the Internet is helping break the effective ban of travel. We can meet on the Web. The ultimate secular pastime in Yom Kippur 2020 will be a virtual reality mass orgy in a virtual Rabin Square.

 

No bounds to hypocrisy: settlers whining about not being able to become citizens of Palestine

This is written in response to a comment made on Syria Comment, here.

Co-existence, Settler Style

 

Akbar Palace,

 

You are either dishonest or very forgetful, as we’ve had the exact conversation a few months ago. Here is the interview with Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala)

 

Q: Do you believe Israel would agree to evacuate Ma’aleh Adumim’s 35,000 residents?

Qureia: “[Former U.S. secretary of state] Condoleezza Rice told me she understood our position about Ariel but that Ma’aleh Adumim was a different matter. I told her, and Livni, that those residents of Ma’aleh Adumim or Ariel who would rather stay in their homes could live under Palestinian rule and law, just like the Israeli Arabs who live among you. They could hold Palestinian and Israeli nationalities. If they want it – welcome. Israeli settlements in the heart of the territories would be a recipe for problems. Israel evacuated all the settlements in Yamit and in the Gaza Strip. All the prime ministers who negotiated with Syria, including Netanyahu, agreed to evacuate all the settlements from [the Golan] Heights. So why is it so difficult for you to evacuate the settlements in the West Bank?

———————————————————————

So if I had to boil down your comment to any real argument you’re basically saying this: your settler buddies would absolutely love to be Palestinian citizens, as long as that state is not anti-Semitic like the Hamas charter is, and it is a good democracy etc. This is obviously a big fat lie. If that’s the case, why aren’t they saying that? Why aren’t we hearing about settlers’ leaders meeting with the PA, negotiating their possible future role in the Palestinian state?

My report on Efrat is coming soon, but here’s just a little indication of how well it is set up to be integrated into the Palestinian state. On the municipality’s Web site there is a picture gallery, in which you can see how Jews and Palestinians work together in Efrat, go together to market and play sports together.

Oh, I’m sorry, this was Efrat OF YOUR DREAMS. The real Efrat doesn’t have a single picture of even a shadow of a Palestinian in its gallery, they simply don’t exist. Nor does that wall that snakes right East of Efrat, or the lands that were confiscated in order to make way for Efrat’s new sewer pipe… Yes that’s right, Palestinian fields were uprooted to make room for your crap. Literally.

Hard to watch, but probably not for you.

Back to the gallery. What DO we see in the Gallery?

 

• “Readiness class drill” - ready for what? Based on Efrat’s site Arabs don’t even exist!
  

  Compensating

• A shooting range for youth -  a great source for Jewish pride!
• A course for “dealing” for residents (that’s what the site says) -  dealing with what? With the Palestinians you want to be a citizen of their state? Huh!
• A ceremony for the change of guards in the supervising army division -  In the picture, you see the armed forces of the PA visiting Efrat and discussing security arrangements for the settlement, after it moves into Palestine.
• Efrat’s 25^th anniversary celebration – you can see the throngs of neighboring Palestinians who come to wish well on this occasion to their lovely new neighbors.

There is not a single mention of the word “Arab” or “Palestinian” in the gallery. They are simply ignored, except as the all-too-understood subject of the various drills and security centers and visits of military functions in the settlement.

 Here is a presentation called “Our Efrat 2006”. Palestinians mentioned? Nope. Separation barrier? Nope. Status of land it sits on (“disputed” AKA “stolen private Palestinian land”)? Nope.

And what does the Efrat magazine has to tell us about co-existence with the Palestinians? Well, I see lots of Arabic poetry classes, joint music events, a real wealth of activities… Nah, just joking! Like everywhere else, the existence of Arabs is almost completely denied in the magazine. With a few exceptions…

 The August 7^th issue (#63), has no mention of Arabs or Palestinians at all,  unless you count the prolific activities of the security and “preparedness” bodies that are given ample coverage in this issue…

 The July 17^th issue (#62), mentions that the “settler” Italian MP Fiamma Nirenstein visited the settlements and she is “…a supporter of the cultural war against Islam…” (!!) and that she was hosted by the Mayor as part of a general recruitment of political forces for “the consolidation of our hold”…

 The June 26^th issue (#61), reminded that residents that “workers” (i.e., Palestinian hired help) are now only permitted through a special gate (like dogs, that is), where they can undergo more rigorous security checks, and it apologizes—to the residents to whom this causes any inconvenience!

 So Akbar by all means your question about Palestinian citizenship to the settlers has great relevance, your buddies in Efrat will provide exactly the extra sauce that the Palestinian state needs after 40 years of occupation and 60 years after the Nabka. It would be as adequate as a KKK settlement in an impoverished Indian reservation.

 And to think that these are the “moderate” settlers from the “big blocs”! This is the tame (or rather PR-conscious) face of antipathy. You and your settlers buddies are the scourge of Israel, you have weakened the country, guzzled all resources and have made a difficult conflict into an insoluble one. You are responsible for the corruption of young soldiers, who have to go to army to abuse Palestinians so that your buddies can live in their Anglo-Saxon fantasy land.

 Rid us of your punishment. Just tell your buddies to go back to Brooklyn, as they are positively bound to do if this settlement ever becomes  a part of Palestine. Tell your buddies to move to Utah instead. Neither Israel nor Palestine can sustain your rude colonization. Go back home and leave us in peace.

 Thank you. Do some soul searching this Yom Kipur.

 

Racism Watch Page Updated

Unfortunately, the rate of racism news from Israel doesn’t show much signs of slowing down. All of us who have hoped for more responsibility and maturity from the right, once it seized power, are bewildered by the divisiveness that it promotes between Jews and Arabs in Israel. It really reminds of darker times in history. Please check the Racism Watch Page for the items that were added since the last update (in August 21st).

Things that I would like to write about, but didn’t have time to…

1. Writeup on the Efrat (or Efrata) settlement. There is a commenter in Syria Comment who goes by the alias Akbar Palace, who has the audacity to claim that this settlement, where his relatives live, hasn’t affected adversely the lives of Palestinians in its vicinity. A few hours of research dug up so much dirt that I need to organize and post to shut him up and his hasbara for good.

2. What do Jewish kids learn in American/Canadian Jewish schools about the Palestinians? I got some teaching materials, funded in part by the Quebec government, that will make you wonder who is really inciting their innocent kids?

3. Any readers’ requests? Let us know…

 

The Activist’s Execution Nightmare

The following is an important article by Gilad Atzmon, a pro-Palestinian activist and a former Israeli. Atzmon talks about the Westerner Activist nightmare, in which he/she falls into the hands of Amal, or Fatah or another Middle Eastern revolutionary cause celebre du jour and tries to explain to them, “I’m on your side… I have a blog.. I signed petitions… I participated in rallies and sent money… I WAS OSTRACISED BY MY OWN PEOPLE FOR SUPPORTING YOU! PLEASE spare me…” but to no avail. The activist’s pleas are dismissed, he is not genuine, and at any rate, the problem is bigger than his individual case. He is unceremoniously (or ceremoniously) executed.

Atzmon takes some comfort in the fact that the nightmare is his own making. It doesn’t really happen, it’s only a dream of his mind. These feelings of disingenuousness are really a sort of self-criticism projected by the unconscious. Atzmon in his sophistication recalls Zeno’s parable of Achilles and the Tortoise. Achilles realized that however close he’d get to the tortoise, he will never catch up to him. Similarly the activist will never really be a Palestinian and however hard he’ll try to be genuine, he’ll never be one with the Palestinian, he will always misrepresent, and will always stay a part of the criminal West and therefore will ultimately “deserve” to be sacrificed. In fact his Palestinian object of political desire may be loathsome to the way the activist has betrayed his own people. Mercy is given only to enemies with dignity, not to confused traitors.

 Atzmon’s choice of an analogy is interesting, because in real life, Achilles would have caught up with the tortoise. Achilles is only defeated in his own imagination, by misinterpreting a mathematical equation to imply something in the real world, which it does not. Even the mathematical formula predicts that in the limit of some finite amount of time (say 20 seconds), Achilles and the tortoise will be together, and that should be sufficient for the activist and his object of political desire. Achilles doesn’t need to pass the tortoise in the race, just to catch up to it.

It is befitting that Atzmon’s analogy contains two analogous levels of fictitious threats (first the execution dream, then the fiction of not being able to catch up with the tortoise). That’s because he is leery about recognizing the real underpinnings of his worries. Would he, or wouldn’t he, place himself in the hands on the Hamas, in an unscripted visit to Gaza? My analogy on the other hand will be drawn from the realm of kids’ cartoons, which is much more fitting to my level of intellect, and in a way more concrete. My analogy is drawn from the episode of SpongeBob when he decided to leave the comfortable suburban underwater life of Bikini Bottom and join the cryptic, violent, radical and free jellyfish colony. After getting rid of all his material possessions he entered their “hive” and greeted his new comrades. The instinctive jellyfish response was to electrocute him Texas style. They had no patience for his prepared texts. He wasn’t of their kind, and that was all there was to it.

So in my analogy, unlike Atzmon’s, the inability to connect with the object of your political desire, is real, not imaginary. Spongebob doesn’t realize by his sheer thought power that he will be rejected by the Jellyfish. No, he doesn’t realize this, until it’s painfully demonstrated to him. And I have some evidence that this analogy is appropriate. As most readers (that would be about two or three people) of this blog know, I have been communicating with Syrians and other Arab folks on Syria Comment. And let me tell you this, the only way I get tolerated there is if I tow the Arab line to the letter. It suffices to remind my Arab interlocutors ever so slightly of their own misdeeds and responsibilities, and I’m rolled in virtual tar and feathers and taken to the pit to be torched to death. For them, there is something irresistibly satisfying in exposing the “Israeli liberal” for the sham he is. It makes life much easier again—all Israelis are evil—none needs to be spared, except out of exceeding generosity.

These thoughts remind me of a book I read about (which I haven’t read) called Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee which talks about post-Apartheid South Africa. It shows how the misery of Apartheid has been replaced by the misery of anarchy and crime. It also shows that the destiny of whites in South Africa is to wither away in disgrace, regardless of whether they have supported or objected Apartheid. The gangs who take over homes and rape the women (as happened to relatives of a friend of mine), really don’t care. They are as sophisticated as SpongeBob’s objects of political desire—the electrocuting jellyfish. Any Israeli who talks about the one-state solution has this nightmare in the back of his mind: gangs roam the streets, lawlessness, rape and murder. We do not know whether the one-state Utopia that we imagine will bring endless suffering and pain to our friends and kin. It’s a deblitating uncertainty, the price of “blind” justice.

Still, Coetzee did not suggest that whites should have continued Apartheid. They just had to leave, or live in disgrace. They had a choice, maybe not the one they hoped for though.

Please read:

The Hostage Dream

Loving Oneself at the Expense of Another

By GILAD ATZMON

http://www.counterpunch.org/atzmon08212009.html

To wrap up, I’d like to ask my Arab and/or Muslim readers to kindly tell me whether they experience any nightmares as a result of their “collaboration with Zionists”? Or is their night sleep pure and uneventful? In your dreams, do you end up in the dungeons of the SHABAK, or maybe of the Mukhabarat? Do you get co-opted by the Zionist regime to collaborate against your brethren and then are stoned to death for treason? Tell me, let’s share our nightmares. This way I’ll know if I’m the only sucker.

 

The Little Dutch Boys

I’d like to believe that I have received my sensitivity to issues of equality and the desire for civil and equal society from my parents’ home. No, they were not members of Hadash, or Meretz, not even Labor. On the contrary, Labor was always the target of much scorn for its nepotism and double-standards. No, my parents’ home was aligned with none but the infamous Likud. To be more exact, with the liberal party, which has merged with Herut to form Likud in the seventies. The Likud used to have, and still has, a few members who are truly committed to creating a civil society and a deep partnership with the Arab citizens of Israel, and with Israel’s neighbors. These few remaining characters trace their ideology back to Jabotinski, who, as only few know, had a vision of full partnership between Jews and Arabs on an equal basis.

Jabotinski envisioned the government being comprised of a Jewish president, followed by an Arab prime-minister, etc., not dissimilar to the confessional system of Lebanon. Alas, in order to get to this Utopian future Jabotinski believed that first the country must undergo a “breakthrough” phase during which the Jews will become the majority in the land. The breakthrough were to happen under the protection of Britain and the Jewish armed forces, which were to constitute an “iron wall” against the inevitable resistance from the Arab aboriginals. Jabotinski claimed that this resistance is inevitable and therefore the iron wall is inevitable too, but once the Arabs recognized that the Jews have established themselves in the land in an irreversible manner, then the road will be opened to creating his egalitarian partnership with the Arabs. Like so many other revolutionary movements of the 20^th century (Soviet communism, Maoism, Nazism), Jabotinski’s vision involved a bloody-yet-necessary first phase, followed by a Utopia in the second phase.

Jabotinski failed in multiple ways. First, he failed to save European Jewry, despite his efforts to alert the Jewish communities of their precarious situation in the 30’s. Second, he failed to create a strong Jewish majority in all of original mandatory Palestine, the area that today includes Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Such a majority had only been established in the area which Israel managed to seize in 1948, and now we come to the third failing: the method using which this majority was established—the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians—is another failing to Jabotinski’s enlightened colonialism philosophy. Jabotinski recognized all along that his vision of Zionism was unjust towards the Arabs. He maintained that the survival of the Jews in Europe warranted the intrusion and inconvenience that the Arabs will incur. He believed that the damage to the Arabs will not be greater than inconvenience and that over time they will stand to gain from the Jewish colonization. This was in line with British colonial philosophy, of which he was a great admirer.

To be accurate, more than being a great thinker, Jabotinski was a warrior, a military organizer, and a politician. We may never know whether his Utopian dream was something he really believed in or whether it was just a bunch of peacock feathers in his tail, to complement his militaristic outlook on everything he had to deal with in his contemporary times.

However flawed Jabotinski’s vision was in its essence, it still brought about a few precious qualities that trickled through to current Likud politicians. First, his followers espoused telling things as they are, not as you’d like them to be or how you’d like them to be perceived. Second, they espoused deep appreciation, rather than patronization, to the Arab enemy. Third, they demonstrated a basic decency towards human beings of all stripes and the implied disposition to live in a heterogeneous society.

 It is still very common for Likudniks to say that Meretz supporters are really the great Arab haters, since they can’t fathom living in the same state with them, and that’s what motivates their desire for separation into two countries. This accusation is not baseless. That is not to say that Jabotinski’s way had a chance of resulting in an egalitarian society—no egalitarian society could ever ensue from Zionism, Jabotinski’s or Ben-Gurion’s. But it did encourage thinking of Arabs as equals, if still enemies, and it was ready to build a society together with the Arabs, when they stopped being enemies.

The current right in Israel has for the most part nothing to do with Jabotinski’s vision, outlined above. It is fairly obvious that the new ideal of the right is a pure-Jewish country, the expulsion of the Arabs, and in the meanwhile, treating them as badly as possible. But there are four exceptions to the rule: Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin, deputy prime minister and minister of intelligence and atomic energy Dan Meridor, minister of improvement of government services Michael Eitan and MK Benny Begin.

Although the four span quite a range in political thinking, from the moderate Eitan and Meridor to the far-right Begin they share a commitment to equality, the rule of law and high-quality governance. Here are three pertinent examples from the recent past.

 Eitan, Begin and Meridor have vehemently opposed the Nakba law that was proposed by MK Miller from Lieberman’s party:

…”The proposed law does not correspond with the freedom of expression practiced in Israel – a Jewish and democratic state,” Ministers Benny Begin, Michael Eitan and Dan Meridor wrote in their petition.

Minister Eitan added that he hoped “the government reaches the same conclusion I did during the committee meeting – that this law will prove ineffective and will do nothing but smear freedom of speech in Israel.”

“Legislation is a serious thing and it should not be used for declarative purposes,” said Minister Begin. “The legislator has to think about the ways to enforce a law in advance. I cannot see a way to enforce this kind of law.

“Freedom of speech is tested in the ability to see and hear aggravating things, a point which the courts have debated repeatedly,” he added.

Reuven Rivlin has recently attacked Netanyahu for degrading the Knesset to serve as a tool for his tactical political considerations. Netanyahu wanted to pass “Mofaz law” (and succeeded, actually) that would allow for MK’s to more easily defect from their current parties and move to a different one. This was done in anticipation of Mofaz leaving Kadima and joining Likud. Rivlin presented a disciplined opposition to his party’s leader, as he has done many times before.

Today, Rivlin is going to talk about the future of Jews and Arabs in Israel in a conference about democracy and he had these, very helpful, preliminary remarks:

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin (Likud) is calling for a fundamental change in relations between Jews and Arabs in Israel, urging the founding of a “true partnership” between the two sectors, based on mutual respect, absolute equality and the addressing of “the special needs and unique character of each of the sides.”

…”the establishment of Israel was accompanied by much pain and suffering and a real trauma for the Palestinians (in large part due to the shortsightedness of the Palestinian leadership). Many of Israel’s Arabs, which see themselves as part of the Palestinian population, feel the pain of their brothers across the green line, a pain they feel the state of Israel is responsible for.”

“Many of them, encounter racism and arrogance from Israel’s Jews; the inequality in the allocation of state funds also does not contribute to any extra love.”

“[Israel's Arab population] is an inseparable part of this country. It is a group with a highly defined shared national identity, and which will forever be, as a collective, an important and integral part of Israeli society.”

Rivlin remarks that most of Israel’s Arab residents refuse to accept the idea that the state of Israel is the home of the Jewish people, and adds that some of the Arab leaders within Israel align themselves with Israel’s worst enemies, and incite against it.

“The Arab population is an inseparable part of our homeland,” he adds, however, saying that “we, the Jews, must send out a clear message that is apparent to us that our homeland is their homeland, and that we intend to live together with them, and that we reject all the calls for forced immigration or even expulsion.”

“The somewhat European goal that most of us have — to live alongside a Zionist minority which sings the anthem with sparkling eyes — will not become a reality in our Middle East,” Rivlin planned to say. “We can’t pretend, or hope that our neighbors will go away, even if we close the window. Furthermore, we mustn’t do it! We must see them as they are and tell them that we accept them as they are and that we seek a true partnership with them.”

At a time when committed racists are Netanyahu’s bedfellows, Rivlin, Eitan, Meridor and maybe even Begin are the only brakes that stir his government from the abyss. If it wasn’t for them, the Nakba law might have been a reality by now.

 

Mid-Summer Racism News Batch

2009-07-28

You can build in East Jerusalem, but only if you’re Jewish.

In West Jerusalem, on the other hand, you can only live if you’re… Jewish.

The government to approve additional building permits for the extreme right wing (and extremely racist) Elad association in the village of Silwan. This announcement comes on heels of the withdrawal of the Jerusalem master plan that allowed for *some* Palestinian construction (see below).

Two days earlier, the police and government issued a demolition order for the Palestinians in Silwan when they tried to establish an information center to counter that of Elad. Watch the video (thanks for Gabe Maldoff and Hagit Ofran from Peace Now for bringing this to my attention)

http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DoQflSHgSUcY

Also on the topic of fake equality in the “united” city of Jerusalem, Hagit Ofran writes: Palestinians Can’t Really Live In West Jerusalem.

Akiva Eldar writes about the double-standard that results in de-facto ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. Arab Jerusalemite’s plight is proof of two-faced policy.

Last but not least, if you’re a Jewish Bingo Mogool from Florida, then, too, you can legally build in East Jerusalem, Eileen Read writes.

2009-07-23

Hemming the Negeb Bedouins in using JNF trees

Zafrir Rinat reported in the Hebrew site of Haaretz on the controvertial plans of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) to turn large areas of the Northern Negev, as part of a plan that seemed aimed at stunding the growth or legitimization of Bedouin villages. Here is the Hebrew report. It appears that Rinat has written about the topic in Enlish last year, but I couldn’t find a translation for the new update.

Maintaining the racist status-qou in Jerusalem

Jerusalem’s mayor Nir Barkat withdraw the previously approved developmenet plan for Jerusalem since it was too much pro-Palestinian. Namely, it allowed for *some* legally approved construction in non-Jewish area, God forbid.

Court: Pool must compensate Beduins

The Beersheba Magistrate’s Court on Monday ruled that a swimming pool manager in Ofakim must pay NIS 10,000 in compensation to a Beduin couple after he prevented them from entering the pool together with their three children on racial grounds.

2009-07-21

Minister Landau refuses to meet MK El-Sana

Yisrael Beiteinu member sends Arab MK letter saying he will not grant his request to discuss Bedouin sector because he ‘refuses to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ terror activity’; El-Sana: I guess an Arab lawmaker has to convert in order to meet with Landau

Minister Landau refuses to meet MK El-Sana

Yisrael Beiteinu member sends Arab MK letter saying he will not grant his request to discuss Bedouin sector because he ‘refuses to unequivocally condemn Hamas’ terror activity’; El-Sana: I guess an Arab lawmaker has to convert in order to meet with Landau

 

Australians, Indians & Incentives

Australians, Indians & Incentives

By Netsp

 

Everybody knows that big business interests are behind 58% of west bank checkpoints. While these interests are allowed to corrupt the political process, peace doesn’t stand a chance. Campaigns are funded by real estate industrialist tycoons. Bombs are hard at work putting money in to the pockets of the rich. The military industrial complex makes these wars inevitable. You don’t need to be Dov Khenin to see that. Everybody knows that interests are important. Everyone knows that incentives make things happen. We’re just not always sure exactly how. We know they’re up to no good, most of the time.

 

Over the last few months the Australian and Indian media have been reporting violence towards young Indian men. These seemed like random attacks. Late at night. On their own. Train Stations. That kind of thing. At first there was no narrative, just a presence in the rapid fire news headlines.

 

biker-shoots-girlfriend-parents-blame-metanphatimines-health-minister-comments-shadow-minister-blames-health-minister-home-in-brisbane-burned-young-indian-man-attacked–at-train-station-four-dead-in-gaza-city

 

At some point some journalist noticed a narrative could be pulled out of this. A lot of Random violence seemed to be directed at Indians. On closer inspection, it turns out that these weren’t just any Indians, these were Indian students. What would Israeli media do if they caught wind of something like this? That’s what Indian media did. Indian students took to the streets. For a few days this was the main news item.

 

At this point I think we need some background. We all know the economies of China, India, Thailand and many other smaller countries of Asia have grown recently. They have left the country with an inflated upper-middle class and a subsequent shortage of (among other things) University seats. Australia is an attractive place to study. English is the spoken language. Anglo education rates highly among many employers at home. Tuition is relatively low and quality is high.

 

Australia has quietly developed an education export market. Each student pays around $15 (US) per year and the same again in living expenses. It’s hard to quantify it, but education is Australia’s second or third largest export market. Australia is a commodity (minerals,grains, beef..) exporting country, so that means a $5b – $10b industry if you count generously. This fits right in to the politically irresistible mission of making “Micro Chips not Potato Chips.”

 

If this violence had been aimed at the community of recent immigrants from Africa… Well, that’s a different story. People feel threatened. They feel overwhelmed. They feel they’re culture is in danger. Of course we condemn these attacks, but what can you do? Anyway, immigration needs to slow down a bit just to keep some of these emotions at bay.

 

Luckily, these are not mere ‘immigrants’ who can deal with xenophobic violence or go back to wherever the hell they came from. These are paying customers. If they are abused, they will go elsewhere. New Zealand sounds nice.

 

What happened next was the wonderful work of incentives. Police came under pressure. Plans were made straight away. Politicians went into high gear to prove that Australia is not a racist place. Reconciliation cricket matches creating trust between foreign students and police were played. Cricket is taken very seriously by Indians. University Deans will be keeping an eye on things. So will politicians.

 

When dealing with a force of nature, its better to have it on your side.

 

 

Help your self to some fresh racism

When I started the Racism Watch effort two days ago I wondered how often I wil lhave to update the Racism Watch page. It seems like about once a day is the minimum, and that’s without going out of my way to check anything but the main news sources.

Today’s crop:

2009-07-05

1. Israeli councilor faces probe for saying all Arabs must ‘disappear’

2. Interior Ministry dismisses use of biblical quote

….The Interior Ministry yesterday dismissed criticism of members of the new Oz migrant task force for circulating an e-mail with an “offensive” biblical passage. Officials said a message with the quote, “So shalt thou put away the evil from the midst of thee” sent by Acre’s Oz unit to other branches was a way for “ministry employees to wish each other good luck.” A spokesman for the Interior Ministry said the quote referred to the “idea” of purging evil from the “sole country of the Jewish people.”…

My comment: Oz in Hebrew means “might”. It is interesting to note how a law enforcement agency that is supposed to deal, at the end of the day, with miserable people, is adopting a militaristic name like an army unit that needs to vanquish a ferocious enemy. I guess the e-mail illustrates that there was no innocense behind the name selection.

 

 

Announcing Racism Watch featuring Ariel Atias (the racist)

Ariel Atias. Interior minister and one of the ugly faces of Israel.

 

The short version of this post: I’m starting to track incidents of racism in Israel here. You can get to the “Racism Watch” from the main page (next to “About” in the top ribbon).

The long version… Each day that passes brings with it news of heightened racism, intolerance and sprouting Fascism from Israel. Each day I look at the news in amazement, as the overt belligerence of politicians and newspaper columnists towards Arabs and other groups breaks new records. Here are just a few recent examples I can recall from memory:

 

1. The Nakba law proposal, from MK Rotem from the Yisrael Beytenu Russo-Fascist party, according to which anybody who would commemorate the Nakba would be sentenced to up to three years of imprisonment.

2. The loyalty law that the same Fascist party championed in its election platform, according to which loyalty tests would be administered to citizens, failing of which will result in withdrawal of citizenship.

3. The “must be Jewish and democratic” law proposal from MK Orlev from the religio-Fascist “The Jewish Home” party, which suggested that debate over whether Israel is or should be “Jewish and Democratic” will beget up to one year imprisonment.

4. The sly attempt of the trains authority to get rid of its temp Arab workers, by requiring, retroactively, that all its temp workers be army veterans.

5. The crackdown on the New Profile group, on the eve of independence day, in order to stifle all debate on the morality of compulsory army service.

6. The destruction of Bedouin “illegal” settlements in order to make room for expansion of Jewish only suburbs such as Omer.

7. The planned destruction of hundreds of homes in Jerusalem in order to allow the recreation of “David’s Orchards”, the famous gardens where our mythical/imaginary king relaxed between conquest campaigns.

8. The internal security minister calling an undercover detective an “Arabush”, meaning “little Arab”.

9. “Small stuff” from private entities such as disallowing Arabs in pools and cancelling college classes because most registrants were Arab (Carmel College, accounting class).

 

After each of these incidents, somebody in Haaretz would follow the due diligence to denounce the event, and so would the Arab MK’s. The Jewish political regime would typically stay mum. The talkbackers are split, many of them supporting the new candidness that is taking root in the treatment of Arabs and rooting for “transfer”, i.e., expulsion of the Arabs.

 

Today the event du jour is served to you by the Mizrahi-Theocratic party of Shas, specifically the up-and-coming interior minister Mr. Ariel Atias. Atias said today that “Arab expansion” in Wadi Ara and the Galilee must be stopped and in order to do that he proposed to settle Orthodox Jews in those areas. I guess it was totally lost on him that similar segregationist arguments were used along the centuries against the Jews, and the irony in trying to stifle Arab population growth while Israel is whining about the poor settlers not having a place to grow their kids is also not immediately apparent to the genius zealot. As usual, the Arab MKs responded forcefully and the Jewish parties said nada. It was interesting to see that the talkbacks in the Haaretz piece that reported on Atias’ largely denounced him as an Arian-like racist. However the talkbakers in the same paper responding to a piece reporting on the Arab MKs position weren’t as kind. The morale of the story: enlightened Israelis don’t like overt racism, but the Arabs better shut up anyway. Oh, and beyond racism, there is probably also bribe money involved in this campaign, from contractors who are waiting impatiently to get their hands on the pieces of land in question and make a quick buck building for the subsidized Orthodox sector. But isn’t it nice that in Israel a politician would rather appear racist, than corrupt?

 

So, I’ve been thinking, how do I keep track of this stream of filth? How do I know if it’s getter better or worse? Am I getting more sensitive or is the trend downwards real? Is there/was there a watershed moment? An Israeli 1933? 1939? (BTW, talk about “the Judaization of the Galilee” is nothing new, it goes back at least to the 70’s).

 

I have decided that the best way is to methodically, if tersely, document all of these events in a dedicated page on this blog. I wasn’t sure what to call it. Fascism Log? The Theocracy Diary? What is the collective word that encompasses all of these belligerent manifestations towards minorities and political opponents? As hard as it is to swallow, maybe the page should most aptly be called “The Fruits of Zionism”? Zionism is a very broad term, there were always Zionists who would have denounced all of the above, but to most Israelis Zionism today means exactly those policies. However… in respect to the Zionism of Martin Buber, I will refrain from that name.

 

I give you…. Drum roll…

Racism Watch

 

Individual incidents will be posted as short blog posts, and all will be linked through the Racism Watch page. While I’m doing this mostly for my own bookkeeping, I hope you’ll find it useful too, and I hope I’ll have the power to persist in the task. Any volunteers who’d like to help would be welcome and highly appreciated. A few ground rules:

 

1. This is not about the occupation of the West bank and Gaza or foreign relationships, this is about how Israel treats its citizens within 48 borders.

2. Events that could be construed in a number of ways are OK to document, but need some commentary.

3. A good action item to follow after such an event is to change the Wikipedia page of the offender (as I did in the case of security minister Yitzhak Aharonovich and somebody under the Wiki alias Al Andalus was quick to do tonight to Atias. Good job! We need to make sure these people do not get deniability for their deeds).

 

Following are the news reports regarding Atias’ remarks.

Housing Minister: Spread of Arab population must be stopped

 

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1097411.html

 

By Guy Lieberman, Haaretz Correspondent

 

Housing Minister Ariel Atias on Thursday warned against the spread of Arab population into various parts of Israel, saying that preventing this phenomenon was no less than a national responsibility.

 

“I see [it] as a national duty to prevent the spread of a population that, to say the least, does not love the state of Israel,” Atias told a conference of the Israel Bar Association, which focused on a reforming Israel’s Land Administration.

 

The Shas minister referred to Harish, a housing project built for the Haredi community in northern Israel, saying that the Arab population from the nearby Wadi Ara was spreading into the Harish area.

               

Atias went on to address the issue of the Galilee, saying that “if we go on like we have until now, we will lose the Galilee. Populations that should not mix are spreading there. I don’t think that it is appropriate [for them] to live together.”

 

“Look at what happened in Acre,” Atias continued, referring to violent protests that broke out on the Eve of Yom Kippur last year over Jewish-Arab tensions in the mixed town.

 

“The mayor of Acre visited me yesterday for three hours and asked me how his town could be saved,” Atias said. “He told me ‘bring a bunch of Haredis and we’ll save the city, even if I lose my political standing.’ He told me that Arabs are living in Jewish buildings and running them out.”

 

Atias argued that lands should be marketed to each sector separately, in order to create segregation, not just between Jews and Arabs but also between other sectors, such as ultra-Orthodox and secular Jews. “There is a severe housing crisis among the young ultra-Orthodox couples, and in the general population. I, as an ultra-Orthodox Jew, don’t think that religious Jews should have to live in the same neighborhood as secular couples, so as to avoid unnecessary friction. And since some 5,000 to 6,000 religious couples get married every year, a problem arises because they require a certain kind of community life that goes along with their lifestyle.”

 

The housing minister went on to say that the problem stemmed from faulty handling of land within the Land Administration and the Housing Ministry, among other reasons. “Today there is a serious housing crisis facing all the young couples in Israel, in part because of the limited appropriation of land in recent years in the Lands Administration and the Housing Ministry, and also due to faulty decision making which resulted from the high turnover of ministers over the last decade ? 8 ministers have held the office of Housing minister in the last decade and the Land Administration wasn?t under the ministry’s authority for part of the time.”

 

According to Atias, the solution he is spearheading is to flood the market with available land for housing construction. Atias explained that a team of planners has already begun working on the project. “I plan to market large amounts of land to the Arab population in the Galilee in order to solve their problems, as well as land for secular and religious Jews,” he said.   

 

 

Minister Atias: Stop Arab takeover in north

 

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3740637,00.html

 

Housing and construction minister expresses concern over expansion of Arab communities in northern Israel, says bringing haredim to area should be national mission

Ronen Medzini

Published: 07.02.09, 20:29 / Israel News

 

The State of Israel is “losing the Galilee” because of current government policies, Housing and Construction Minister Ariel Atias (Shas) said Thursday.

 

Atias, speaking at an Israeli Bar Association conference in Tel Aviv, was reiterating the sentiments expressed by Jewish community heads in northern Israel and added that he sees “bringing the haredi community to the Wadi Ara areas as a national mission,” noting the expansion of Arab communities in the north must be stopped.

 

“The Arabs have nowhere to live, so they buy homes in Jewish places, which results in unwanted friction… Some sectors have special needs and they need to live somewhat apart. The haredim, for instance, need synagogues and do not want any traffic on Shabbat. Seculars demand cultural facilities and other things.

 

“We are one people and we need to find a way to live together. We have enough enemies on the outside,” Atias said. 

 

According to the housing minister, “Mayors don’t want mixed cities. We all saw the riots in Akko, we saw how dangerous it was. We can’t toy with that. The reality is that different sectors do not necessarily get along. The many Arabs in Wadi Ara make it an undesirable place to live.”

 

Atias brought the example of the northern community of Harish, built near Wadi Ara: “(Former Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon started to bring Jews up there 15 year ago, but the project failed… what I want to do is to bring over the haredim as a way to continue that.”

 

MK Afu Aghbaria (Hadash) slammed Atias’ statements, saying he may threaten the delicate fabric of relation between Jews and Arabs in the area.

 

“I suggest he go see a doctor as soon as possible, to see if he has been infected with the (Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor) Lieberman strand racists’ flu,” he said.

 

Hadash Chairman Mohammad Barakeh added: “Racism is spreading throughout the government and Minister Atias is the latest to express it. The government and everyone in it must realize that that Arabs are living in their homeland and they have no other. If there is any foreign element in the Galilee, it is not the Arabs.”

 

Balad Chairman Jamal Zahalka reiterated the sentiment, and urged the haredi community not to be exploited: “Minister Atias’ insane plan to suffocate the Arab communities must be stopped. Calling for the Judaization of the Galilee is racism. Atias must understand that the Arabs did not rob anyone of land – on the contrary, most of their lands have been sacked. We will fight for our right to our homes.”

 

Syrian-Israeli Peace for Dummies

Helena Cobban has a good post summarizing the history of Syrian-Israeli peace negotiations. She doesn’t mention the indirect negotiations mediated with Abe Suliman and Alon Liel, but otherwise it looks pretty complete.

This summary requires a bit of discussion. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been almost two decades now since we have sat down at the table and started talking about peace. And guess what, there was almost never anything unbridgeable in the positions, certainty not after Oslo in 93, when the Syrians started viewing themselves as free to sign their own bi-lateral agreement with Israel, separate from the Palestinians.

So… why don’t we have peace with Syria? That’s because I and the rest of the citizens of Israel are a bunch of certified DUMMIES. A herd of catatonic meat-eating sheep. In almost all the negotiations with Syria, negotiations broke down due to political expediency calculations from our joker-of-a-leader de-jour. The only one who wasn’t a joker, and was dead serious—was also seriously dead, literally, because of that. I’m talking about Yitzhak Rabin of course.

How does it happen that in our famed “Western Democracy” the people don’t DEMAND a peace that is beyond any doubt achievable and moreover how come this society doesn’t hold its leaders accountable for squandering a chance after chance, to put another stake in the heart of this monster called enmity-and-war? What are the chances that we would have been spared the Second Lebanon War if such a peace deal was obtained before? In my opinion, a 100% sure case no such war would have happened, but try to tell an Israeli about it, and you’ll get a blank stare… hey, this is all programming on his TV, what say does he have about it? Peace with Syria is… you know… a matter for the experts, the Uzi Arads and the Amos Yadlins, there are all sorts of considerations for and against, and who knows whether the Muslim Brotherhood will not take over tomorrow? Better leave this thing to the Mossad and army intelligence to figure out. Peace with Syria is not something for the populace to have an opinion about, it’s a military thing, so let go with the tough questions. Besides, who said the war with Lebanon was all bad? We got to rebuild the army as a result of that, change some doctrines and test new weapons, and to be totally honest, the lengthy process of obliterating Lebanon over 30 days, had its sweet unforgettable moments. OK, so we had to sit in shelters and soldiers and civilians died. Yeah it’s not nice, but that’s the way it is here, and don’t fool yourself it can ever be different!

Thus, nearly a generation has passed, and nothing has changed. The Israeli and Syrian armies are still sitting across the border in the Golan, each in their rusting tanks, as a relic from the cold war, in a world that has moved on.

Israel is always happy to appoint investigative committees to check the performance of the state and its violence inflicting branches before and during wars. But what about an investigation into missing an opportunity for peace? Whom would it find guilty, and who would be considered a good servant of the people? The table below provides some clues.

Year/venue	Israeli PM	Syrian President	Why did it fail?
1991, Madrid Peace Conf	Shamir	Assad Senior	Syria was committed to comprehensive peace. Israel was stalling.
1994, US	Rabin	Assad Senior	Rabin has committed to withdrawing to 67 lines. Was assassinated following this and Oslo.
1996, US (Wye)	Peres	Assad Senior	Peres terminated negotiations after Hamas attacks and in order to fight Hizballah, to get popularity for elections against Bibi.
1996, Damascus	Bibi	Assad Senior	Bibi sent Ron Lauder to Assad and offered him something unknown. This then gets squashed when Sharon wings Bibi from the right and threatens his position as a PM.
1999, US (Wye)	Barak	Assad Senior	This is the only case where there is some uncertainty of where the blame goes. The proceedings were never made public. It is claimed that the reason for failure was Syrian demand for access to the sea of Galilee
2006-2008, Turkey	Olmert	Assad Junior	Progress was made on and off on back channels and then through indirect negotiations with Turkish mediation. Ultimately the sides got very close to agreement, and then Olmert lunched the Gaza war.

 

Examining the table above, we see that in all cases, except when Barak was negotiating (he gets the benefit of a doubt), in all those cases, Israel fumbled it, either cynically and deliberately as in the Peres and Olmert cases, or due to the volatility of the country, as in Rabin’s assassination case.

We Israelis like to pride ourselves on our democracy. Democracy is a system of governance where the people decide about their destiny. When exactly in the last two decades have the people been able to control their destiny with respect to peace with Syria? It could be argued that the passivity in this policy matter is reminiscent of American-Cuban relationship, which could have been reformed already if it was a priority for America. However, it would be foolish to compare the balance of powers between Israel and Syria to that of America and Cuba. Staying in a state of war with Syria has its consequences and, again, the war in 2006 was a reminder for the costs of a status-quo.

Now compare for a second the ability of Israel to articulate, gain support for, and execute policy to that of Syria—a dictatorship. The Syrians have been saying the exact same things since 1994. Whenever we drop the ball and go get it again, they stay where they are, like a rock. Their policy towards Israel is popular with the people (Assad got the highest support rating in a recent poll comparing the popularity of Arab leaders).

I am of course not in support of dictatorship for Israel, not even if the dictator is a benevolent one with an attractive spouse and an iPod, but one can only say: damn! What would it take to get some accountability and continuity in our governance?!

I’m looking forward to Bibi’s turn at extending the list of failures. Maybe a surprise? I dare not be optimistic.