Soul Searching in the Snow

Beneath the scorching, relentless summer sun it's hard to believe it can ever snow in Jerusalem, but when the city is covered in white and the texture of the powder reminds me of my childhood backyard in New York I can't help but think of the ancients. Did Abraham and David know the same tricks for keeping warm as the Hopi and the Blackfoot? Could structures akin to teepees perhaps once have dotted the hills overlooking Mount Moriah? The scene doesn't sound all that incongruous as I size up the height of the fluff accumulated on the rough boulders of Jerusalem stone in my garden. Lions and Syrian bears roamed the hills then; maybe the biblical poets simply forgot to mention the wild turkeys and the squirrels?

But not even a noreaster could prevent the long-awaited presentation of the Winograd report yesterday evening at six pm sharp (the Haaretz cartoon showed Olmert and the committee members being transported to the meeting comfortably nestled in the palm of the snow plow). This 610-page tome bears the exhaustive conclusions of the committee set up to evaluate the roles of the government and the army in the Lebanon War of Summer, 2006. Prime Minister Olmert was reprimanded for some faulty decisions but the failure of the war was not laid primarily at his feet. The Israel Defense Forces bore the brunt of the criticism; the panel was unequivocal in concluding that the army had failed in almost every way to evaluate the war situation and utilize its forces effectively. The panel also found fault with every Israeli government and every army chief of staff since the withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, who were guilty of not reading the situation correctly and not preparing for it.

Perhaps the most interesting criticism of the report was leveled at Israeli society at large via the army. The committee pointed out that many of the problematic military decisions were based on avoiding casualties for our forces and that advances were halted in order to evacuate the wounded. In other words, the army assigned so much importance to protecting the soldiers that it tied its own hands for the battle mission. It's important to note that after Hizbollah kidnapped the two soldiers from sovereign Israeli territory the whole country was in favor of going to war to restore our deterrent capabilities. If we let this one slide, what was next? However, at the end of the day no one was unequivocally prepared to sacrifice untold numbers of living Israeli soldiers to achieve this goal. On the contrary - the army was expected to produce a swift, bloodless victory with all the casualties on the Hizbollah side. The army in fact cooperated with this delusion by claiming, at the beginning of the conflict, that the whole war could be fought and won by the air force alone.

The committee felt compelled to remind the public that Israel's deterrence lies in its "fitting military leadership, military ability and public fortitude." In other words, if you guys aren't willing to put down your cappucinos, lay your lives on the line and bear the sacrifices stoically then we can't beat anyone. An army cannot win a war without casualites and sacrifices. The problem is that life is so rich and good here, that at times we altogether forget we're actually at war. What a bummer -you mean they still want to fight?

Despite the partial positive outcome of the war, the Winograd Committee stated repeatedly that Israel had lost, Israel had failed, Israel had erred. Hassan Nasrallah and his minions are no doubt celebrating their victory tonight, enabled by the Israeli insistence on airing our dirty laundry in public. However, although our enemies gloat the process of self-evaluation and the honest and difficult search for the causes of failure lie at the roots of our strength. Our state, our society and the building of our future are one big work in progress which will only succeed if we continuously re-evaluate the formula and those who lead us in our aspiration to build the optimum Jewish society. The Winograd Report isn't about punishing those responsible for the failures. It is an attempt to identify mistakes and make the necessary corrections to achieve better, more effective results in the next round against our enemies. And there will most certainly be a next round...

Our Parallel Universe

Strolling through Tel Aviv yesterday, I couldn't help marvelling over how, on the surface, Israel seems like a perfectly normal western country going about its business on a Thursday morning. Men in snappy clothes hurried to work, chicks in tights and big sunglasses walked dogs and looked beautiful, shopkeepers hawked their wares and pedestrians daydreamed at crosswalks.

In the paralled universe of the Gaza Strip Palestinians were gingerly making their way over the rubble of the old barrier separating them from Egypt as, in a great rush of relief so loud you could almost hear it, they gleefully liberated themselves from the ongoing siege that has virtually suffocated them.

Watching them on tv, it was hard not to sympathize with those poor souls who ultimately pay the price for the decisions of their leadership, which in this case is the continuing rocketfire from Gaza on to civilian settlements in sovereign Israel. The Palestinians are skillful at manipulating the media to their advantage but no matter how the picture is painted the bottom line is still the same: Israel's responsiblity is to the security of its citizens first, and to the welfare of the civilian population from whence the rockets come only second. We're in a game of trial and error here, where the ultimate goal is to find the most effective way to pressure Hamas to stop the rockets without actually reoccupying the Gaza Strip.

Many Israelis are cursing Ariel Sharon and his Disengagment for having created this situation and I think everyone would agree today that it was a fatal mistake to ignore the Palestinian leadership and execute the job unilaterally - under no circumstances can territory be evacuated in a vacuum. Fundamentally, however, the Gaza Strip has no place within the future final borders of the state of Israel. We must continue to think creatively until we find the carrot/stick that will put an end to the rocket fire.

A tourist couple wrote me a thank you note this week at the end of their tour. Amongst other things they said, "We think you guys (Israel) are too nice and accomodating - and we think they will never be satisfied no matter how much you give them back - so I'm for you keeping it all. I have been amazed at how kind you have been towards the Arabs and Muslims."

I wish I could have conveyed to them a story I heard the following day from a friend, who went to a seminar on Israel's War of Independence this week. She said that the thing that stayed with her the most was related by the Israeli writer Yoram Kaniuk when describing his experiences as a soldier during the war: "We had conquered an Arab village and rounded up the villagers to expell them. As they were leaving, several buses pulled up carrying Holocaust survivors who were to occupy the abandoned homes. And I have struggled to live in that gap ever since."

It is a complex reality in which we live. Despite our extraordinary achievements and despite the Tel Aviv bubble, Israel is still a nation fighting for its survival and forced to justify its existence every day. As long as the Palestinians choose to pursue the armed struggle we will do whatever is necessary to protect ourselves, even if it makes us look bad.

We will continue to soul search in cafes over double lattes before during and after, and hope that we won't always have to live by the sword. It's still hard to be optimistic, but then again, this is the Middle East - anything can happen...

Dubya in the Holy Land

"Israeli politics is like karate. You never know where the next chop will come from."
Thus spake the world's ostensibly most powerful man, eloquently encapsulating the complex reality at the root of the world's problems. Observing George Bush in the land of the Jews this week was a fascinating exercise in wishful thinking: is this really the guy who's going to bring peace to the Middle East?

From the moment he appeared at the open door of Airforce One, waving and smiling like a cowboy about to mount the meanest bronco in the rodeo, Bush was relaxed, easygoing, jovial. The warm, confident grin never left his face - not in the mile-long receiving line of Israeli politicians waiting to shake his hand, not in the midst of Israeli children singing and dancing for him at the president's residence and not at the dinner of who's who in Israeli politics as Olmert steered him from one empty conversation to another.

The entire country was on the edge of its seat as the president of the United States made his rounds. Needless to say, the traffic arrangements in Jerusalem were so daunting that people stayed home from work. My daughter's classes were cancelled one day because the teachers were convinced they couldn't get to school. That's the best excuse invented since "the dog ate my homework"!

There probably isn't a single other country that would have received Bush with as much love and admiration as he got here in Israel. Olmert the prime minister positively gushed with praise and kind words for him. The excitement at the airport was so palpable it radiated right though the tv screen; every single one of those salty, manipulative, horse-trading Israeli politicians couldn't wait to run home and tell all their friends they shook hands with the president of the United States of America. It's interesting to note that there was a similar, albeit less intensive ado over Jerry Seinfeld a few weeks ago when he was here to promote his new movie. Both the prime minister and the president rushed to have their photos taken with the Jewish comedian. Despite the attention lavished on little Israel by these great men, we're still stuck in our ghetto inferiority complex. Beneath our achievements in armaments, technology and slow drip irrigation we still can't believe that we deserve to be treated as equal among the nations of the world. "What, the president of the United States is coming to Israel? Give him a visit to remember, because who knows when we'll get this much attention again."

And be sure and send him home with copious gifts. What does one give to a man who owns many oil wells and a ranch in Texas? Olmert's aides were given a mission: find out what Dubya likes. "Bicycling," they reported back. The prime minister presented his guest with a uniform of the Israeli national cycling team (who knew we even had one?)and a GPS system outfitted for a bicycle, complete with information on the road near the ranch. So the next time Bush is lost in the wilderness of the Middle East all he has to do is phone home to Israel. We'll be happy to steer him right back to the road map we've drawn up specially for him.

What's New in Hebron

Thank you for continuing to check in with me. It's been several weeks since I last wrote and I apologize for disappearing. Sometimes I'm too busy to write, sometimes I'm away, sometimes I'm too tired and sometimes there's just nothing to write about. I am, however, committed to blogging so please don't give up on me, even if I'm on a short hiatus.

The period between Thanksgiving and Christmas is always a quiet time for Israeli tourism and it's a good opportunity for us to recharge our batteries, rest and do things we normally don't have time to do. This week I went to the theater and took a field trip. Coincidentally, the subject of both activities was the city of Hebron, home of the Tomb of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs and a veteran hotbed of Jewish-Arab tension. Forty families representing the most extreme kernel of right-wing religious Jewish settlers have made their homes in the heart of downtown Palestinian Hebron, instigating an extremely volatile situation rife with violence.

The Cave of the Machpela became the first Jewish real estate acquisition in the land of Israel when Abraham purchased it for the burial of his wife Sarah; thus, the Jewish connection to Hebron runs deep. In fact, the city retained a notable Jewish presence until 1929, when members of the community were massacred by Arab rioters and the remaining survivors fled for their lives. The current configuration pits a small group of blatantly racist Jewish religious fanatics against an entire municipal population of conservative, traditional Palestinians. Although the Jewish community of Hebron, including yeshiva students, numbers around four hundred souls, hundreds more Israeli soldiers are stationed in Hebron to protect the settlers, creating constant friction with the Palestinians.

The play, called "Hebron," attempted to depict the vicious cycle of violence between Arabs and Jews perpetuated by the nationalist struggles of both sides to stake their claim on the city. Beneath the story line ran a thread of irony suggesting that most of the people mired in the conflict are good, peace-loving souls. Without summarizing the plot I would describe this heavy production as theatre of the absurd, whereby the absurd they protrayed is actually the reality. It was the darkest, most depressing play I have ever seen.

Admittedly, the next day I was a bit apprehensive about visiting a place that crackles with so much danger, but very soon after arriving I understood that the separation between Jews and Palestinians there is so complete, including a physical concrete barrier running through the city and a massive military presence, that the city is eerily quiet.

Essentially, Hebron is the only Palestinian city in the West Bank with a Jewish settlement in its center and it is completely segregated. The Arabs are confined to the area of the city known as H1 and the Jews to H2, even though H2 was originally a Palestinian residential and commercial area. As a matter of fact, the main market street, Rehov HaShuahada, runs right through the Jewish section. Almost all the Palestinian families originally living and working there have been forced to abandon their homes and shops due to the relentless harassment from their Jewish neighbors. We saw the house of one of the two Arab families that has stubbornly insisted on remaining. Its entire exterior is covered with reinforced metal fencing to protect them from the stones their Jewish neighbors throw at them, effectively transforming their house into a giant cage.

Palestinians who need to access this area are forbidden to drive cars here and may only walk through. Since we arrived during a Moslem holiday when people typically spend the day visiting with family, we encountered hundreds of Palestinians making their way through the area on foot. Even more disturbing was the street where Palestinians are forbidden to walk at all - ostensibly to prevent friction, but an ugly mirror of Jewish humiliation in the not-so-distant past.

The facts are that Hebron is an important Jewish historic and religious site, and today a Palestinian city. Although most Israelis never visit Hebron it would be historically irresponsible to sever our connections to it. However, the Jewish ties to the city are currently defended by a gang of racist hooligans with dangerous messianic tendencies - the antithesis of the salt of the earth. They have destroyed any possiblity of compromise with the local Palestinian population and only fanned the flames of hatred. They are the worst possible emissaries and it is criminal to enable them to represent the state of Israel in Hebron. If we are truly interested in one day creating a teneble compromise in the city then every last member of the settler community must be forcibly removed from this absurd reality.

Then we drove home, and back in Israel Hebron slipped back into a forgotten reality.

Meanwhile, Back in the Middle East

Annapolis, Annapolis, that's all we've been hearing about for the past ten days. The media is obsessed: will they issue a joint statement, will the Arabs show, will they shake hands with us - endless conjecture that fills reams of newspapers and hours of airtime, day after day. The pundits' din is so loud that it's impossible to know what's really going to transpire there, although yesterday's cartoon in Haaretz said it all: Ehud Olmert and Abu Mazen stand before the gate in an imposing wall around the Naval Academy, where the conference will take place. The balloon reads, "Let's ring the bell and run away!" Amos Biderman is a genius.



Amidst all the hype, here are a few things that happened here this week, most of which were not reported by the press:



-'Avodah Aravit,' (Arab Labor), a new tv show, premiered on prime time last Saturday night. Written by the Arab journalist Sayed Kashua (whose weekly column in Haaretz I have enjoyed for a long time and whose book I loved), it protrays an Israeli Arab who works as a reporter for Jewish newspaper and who is continually conflicted about his dual identity. Politically incorrect stereotypes abound on both sides and their portrayal seems to ironically serve the noble cause of political correctness. For example, the journalist's father berates him for being seen wearing a seatbelt in the village but when he is interviewed for a radio program on the subject of the unusually high rate of Arabs in traffic accidents he blames the state for neglecting the road infrastructure in Arab villages. It's clever and thought-provoking and just might have a chance at bringing us closer together by forcing us to laugh at ourselves.



-M., A close friend of mine from Jerusalem, flew out to Brazil recently to be with her sister, who was diagnosed with cancer. By the time she was able to book a flight her nerves were completely frazzled, so when she missed her connecting flight in Madrid by moments, she fell apart in the aiport. Weeping miserably in a chair at the locked gate, she was approached by a man who offered to help her. Despite her refusal of his assistance he accompanied her to the ticket counter, took care of her bags, arranged for a flight the next day and drove with her to the hotel. "He was like an angel who was sent to take care of me," M. explained breathlessly. When she finally calmed down enough to have a friendly conversation with him she asked where he was from.
"The West Bank," he said.
Tell that to the guys in Annapolis...



-A., a Palestinian Moslem, regaled me with the following story: at work he happened to walk by the secretary's desk when she was out and the phone was ringing. He answered it and attempted to help the young woman on the line. After discovering that the person she was seeking wasn't in, they kept talking.

"You have such a nice voice," she said to him. "Why don't you come and visit me at work?"

Never one to turn down an opportunity for a romantic adventure, A took directions and promised to come the next day.

"But don't be intimidated by my headcovering. I wear it, but I'm not committed to being a religious Moslem."

"That's okay," A. assured her. "I have a beard but I'm not committed either."

"Is it scratchy?" she inquired.

"No," said A. "I use conditioner."

For all those of you that thought the Hamas takeover was complete: Don't lose hope!

What's New in Gaza?

Yesterday the media reported undeniable signs of the breakdown of Hamas rule in Gaza. Deep fissures have appeared in the organization's hierarchy, with extremist elements shoving aside Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas International to dictate a hard line. This military wing of the organization is planning a Hamas takeover of the West Bank as well, while the 'moderates' evidently have concluded that the coup in Gaza was a huge mistake. Amidst all this intrigue Hamas fired directly into a crowd of 200,000 Fatah supporters who came out to commemorate the three-year anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, killing at least seven people and wounding fifty-five.

Not a few in Israel are rubbing their hands maliciously over the disintigrating violence amongst the Palestinian factions, victorious in yet more resounding proof of the barbarity of our enemies. When Lebanese Christian Phalangists murdered Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila Menahem Begin famously quipped, "Goyim kill goyim and the Jews get blamed." Although violent infighting is a deeply ingrained aspect of Palestinian political culture, in this case we can conclude that "goyim kill goyim and the Jews pay the price." The chaos and violence in the Palestinian camp is not beneficial to Israel - on the contrary. The Palestinian leadership vacuum and the apparent inablity of our neighbors to put aside tribal, sectarian interests for far-reaching nationalist aspirations means we are further from an agreement than ever.

Some pundits in Israel are still awaiting the White Knight of Palestinian national redemption, a charismatic, powerful and pragmatic leader who will claw his way to the top of the Palestinian political heap and create order from the chaos and a political horizon from the bickering. Some say that if Israel would just release Marwan Barghouti from prison, he could do the job. When I read these desperate pleas I'm reminded of a conversation I had not long ago with a Palestinian associate of mine from work.
"Tell me," I entreated him, "Which Palestinian political figure do you most identify with?"
"Not a single one of them," he snarled. "They're all corrupt. The really honest ones are either forced out or killed."
When I asked him what the future held he just shrugged. If Palestinians cannot be idealistic about their own leadership then Israel is downright foolish to search for a light at the end of the tunnel. Leading the Palestinians is as simple as herding a collection of street-wise tomcats.

But what can the Israeli politicians say to the people who want a peace process, who are tired of living at war and willing to make considerable concessions? That there's no one to talk to? It makes us look bad, so we'll fly to Annapolis and and go through the motions of the political process, knowing all the while that what we pretend to accomplish there might end up causing more damage than the controlled inertia we have managed until now.

It's hard not to be cynical but I still retain a glimmer of optimism. Olmert's political butt is in a sling and he needs a significant achievement to erase the damage of the second Lebanon War. In addition, the American political window is narrowing. The Bush administration has been the warmest and most understanding of Israel in the history of the two countries' relations. Our prime minister views the waning days of this presidency as the last chance to achieve significant progress with American backing. Perhaps we will yet be surprised...

Sometimes the Light Flickers

It was hard to be a light unto the nations this week. Almost every day a new dilemma arises requiring difficult decisions to be made. A kassam rocket hit a main power line in Sderot and knocked out the town's electricity for several hours. How ironic that this accidental direct hit came in the midst of an ongoing discussion about retaliatory measures for the constant rocket fire coming from the Gaza Strip. The long-suffering residents of Sderot have advocated erasing the town of Bet Hanun from the map: if they're going to torture us, we'll make them even more miserable than we are. Base human instinct demands eye-for-an-eye justice but the rational, moral voice always takes the upper hand. It is at once laughable and commendable that while Hamas bombards us from schoolyards day after day our generals are knocking their heads against the wall trying to come up with another creative suggestion for punishing the Gazans because the lawyers have concluded that flipping the switch on Palestinian electricity doesn't comply with international law. Our uncompromising moral standards are a small comfort to a family whose house has absorbed a direct hit by a kassam rocket, but do we have a choice?

It's also the enemies from within that force us to agonize. Recently a court ruled that Yigal Amir, the man who assassinated Yitzhak Rabin twelve years ago, is entitled, like any other prisoner serving a life sentence, to hold the circumcision ceremony of his newborn son in jail. Appallingly, the ceremony took place on November 4th, the exact day that Amir murdered Rabin. On the news we saw the family arrive at the prison , the assassin's brother brandishing an arrogant smile and the 'v' for victory sign for the cameras. When Amir held that child in his arms, it was as if his deed had gone unpunished. The hunger for vengeance demands that the child should suffer, so his father will suffer in turn. The ultimate desire for true justice will never allow this to happen.

Everyone with an opinion is screaming at the top of his lungs to make his voice heard. The media are all over everything and the pundits always play the devil's advocate. What should we do? Which decision is the right one? What are the long-term implications?

Who in his right mind would ever choose to be prime minister of this country?