Israel's tri-dimensional strategy

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu did a good job confusing his audience last Wednesday night by talking almost exclusively about archeology and tourism during his "Herzliya Speech." Not that anyone was expecting to be told the exact date and time of Israel's speculated military operation against Iran. But the trick was well done, and I can picture Uzi Arad enjoying the frustration of his successor.

My conclusion from this year's Herzliya Conference is that Israel must adopt a tri-dimensional strategy with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still a matter of ideological debate. The debate is no longer about territorial integrity versus peace (both sides to that debate have long been defeated by reality), but about 1967 versus 1948. In other words, can the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular be trusted to leave Israel alone if and when the results of the 1967 war are settled, or will they always insist on settling the results of the 1948 war?

Water under the bridge

In 1817, Benjamin Franklin famously uttered the phrase, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." Had Franklin lived in Israel today, he might have added two certainties: water shortages and Syrian belligerency. Indeed, recent reports about both affirm this including the most recent saber rattling from Damascus.

Israel's water crisis is well known and something that weighs on the mind of Israelis across the spectrum.  Water is about politics, religion, the environment, economy, agriculture, and impacts all sectors of Israeli society. It's interesting to live in a place where Biblical traditions play out on a day to day basis with fervent prayers for rain in its season to fill our aquifers and provide abundance, and the reliance on the rain to sustain our lives. In an arid and largely desert land, while agriculture continues to be relevant, the simple fact of Israel's population nearly doubling in the past two decades, coupled by many years of less than average rain leading Israel to one of its most severe droughts, water use and conservation play a role in every facet of our lives, from the price of produce to the length of our showers.

The iFascists

Efforts to rehabilitate Fascism via technology have already made great strides in 2010. On Holocaust Memorial day, the second most downloaded application for the Apple iPhone in Italy is a collection of speeches by Benito Mussolini, the Fascist dictator of Italy.

The application, known as "iMussolini", was launched on January 21 and is being downloaded at a rate of over 1000 installations per day. It includes more than 120 of Mussolini's speeches in video, audio and text formats. While the application included a warning against leaving feedback "making inopportune comments praising fascism," Apple closed all comments on the application after a flood of pro-Fascist postings. In today's Italy promoting Fascist ideology is illegal.

Mussolini rose to power in 1922, and in 1938 was responsible for introducing anti-Semìtic laws in Italy after he allied his country with Nazi Germany in the Second World War. These laws took away the jobs of many Italian Jews, confiscated their assets and deprived them of citizenship. Ultimately, many were deprived of their very lives, with around 8,000 Italian Jews being murdered during the Holocaust.

Professor Christopher Duggan from Reading University (UK), a biographer of Mussolini, told The Daily Mail that the popularity of this application was "further proof of the fact that during the last 20 years or so there has been a soft rehabilitation of Fascism in Italy and that it is acceptable, and really the Italian authorities should do something about it."

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (5)

Israel - America's 'shaheed'?

Ever since 2007, when Bush abandoned his oft-repeated threat to end Iran's nuclear weapons program by force, Israel has, apparently with little thought to consequences, stepped in to fill the gap. Where does this enthusiasm come from?

Who does Israel think will stand by her when the attack on Iran produces consequence such as White House Middle East expert Dennis Ross threatened China with, but on a global scale? Bush invading Iraq resulted in the price of oil skyrocketing from the mid-$20s to more than $100 per barrel. Oil price inflation set the stage for the resulting global recession. But Iran is not Iraq, and Israel is definitely not the United States. If the US has backed away from the consequences of such an attack, is Israel prepared to blindly accept them? When the Iranians mine the Straits of Hormuz, or just threatens to do so, and causes a new round of oil speculation, will the United States, the country most responsible for permitting the Iranian problem to get this far, still support tiny Israel? Or will the US distance herself while the world blames Israel for the new round of global misery?  

According to The Jerusalem Post, the Jewish Agency recently released a report concluding that, "Anti-Semitism has reached a global peak since the end of Israel's Operation Cast Lead... levels of Jew-hatred have not been so high since the Second World War." If a far lesser Israeli military action with no direct impact on Israel's critics can cause such hatred, how much more dangerous would the reaction be to an attack whose consequences directly impact those predisposed by history to blame the Jews?

Iran is a made-in-America problem that Israel is being handed the bill for. But this bill in itself represents an existential threat to Israel at least as serious as the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran. At best the outcome of an Israeli attack on Iran would, according to Israeli intelligence, not end the threat but merely delay it by "a few years." But Israel alone would be held responsible by the world for the economic crisis certain to follow. Already surrounded by an Arab world hostile to her very existence, Israel can ill afford to be shunned by the rest of the world as well.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (41)

The Holy See needs to open its eyes

If it were not so sad, it would be funny: the Vatican has released a document blaming Israel's "occupation" of land as the driving force behind the Christians exodus from the Middle East. The Vatican is planning a Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops, to take place from 10 to 24 October 2010, and this document represents the outline for these discussions.

The document lists the many challenges faced by Christians in the region. In Israel, it says, "The ... occupation of the Palestinian Territories makes daily life difficult with regard to freedom of movement, the economy and religious life." In Iraq, "The war has unleashed evil forces ... making all Iraqis victims. However, because Christians represent the smallest and weakest part of Iraqi communities, they are among the principal victims...." In Lebanon, "Christians are deeply divided at a political and confessional level, without a commonly acceptable plan of action," and in Egypt "the rise of political Islam, on the one hand, and the disengagement of Christians from civil society on the other, lead to intolerance, inequality and injustice in their lives."

However, here's an excerpt from the document's "Emigration" section:  

The emigration of Christians and non-Christians from the Middle East, a phenomenon which began at the end of the 19th Century, chiefly arose for political and economic reasons. At the time, religious relations were not ideal. However, the 'millet' system (of ethnic-religious communities) guaranteed a certain protection to Christians within their communities, though not always preventing conflict which was both tribal and religious in nature. Today, emigration is particularly prevalent, because of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the resulting instability throughout the region and culminating with the war in Iraq and the political instability of Lebanon."

In other words, according to the Vatican, the ultimate responsibility for Christian procesution in Iraq and Lebanon lies with Israel.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (8)

Daily blog of a ZAKA volunteer in Haiti

Thursday, 14 January 2010

Ten in the morning. A phone call from ZAKA Operations Commander Haim Weingarten: "You've been selected as a member of ZAKA's delegation to the earthquake disaster in Haiti, we're talking about a very difficult incident on the scale of the tsunami. Volunteers should be physically fit, mentally prepared and with experience. Please give your permission and ask for your wife's approval."

As a ZAKA volunteer of long standing, I gave a positive answer there and then, on the condition that my wife agreed. I went home, told my wife about the mission and asked for her approval. My wife's answer:  my head says no, my heart says yes. And with that I received her blessing.

Noon: All members of the delegation arrive at the Home Front Command base for briefings, vaccinations and various medications against all kinds of diseases that may break out in the disaster area. Only then did I begin to understand what I was about to do and worry started to creep into my thoughts - a fear of the unknown. ZAKA chairman Yehuda Meshi-Zahav spoke to the delegation members, giving us strength and encouragement - it was important.

Overnight Thursday/Friday: 14-hour flight from Israel to Haiti - a good opportunity to meet new friends from the Israeli delegation, the Home Front Command, rescue specialists, medical professionals, members of the Israel Police Forensic Unit and others. A lot of good people with the volunteering spirit who want to help, assist and rescue.

Friday, 15 January 2101

Friday before Shabbat: Landed at the destroyed Port-au-Prince airport. Immediately, I began to understand what this is about; planes carrying aid from around the world were landing one after the other. I begin to absorb my surroundings, the collapsed buildings, the acrid smell of death in the air, the smell so familiar to ZAKA volunteers. But never have I known it to be so overwhelming.

Kabbalat Shabbat: I find myself, together with the members of the Israeli delegation, on a football field, the delegation's makeshift base. Amid the turmoil and commotion, a minyan for Shabbat prayers forms. Head of the IDF delegation Brig.-Gen. Shalom Ben-Aryeh joins Rabbi Shaul Ofen and others in prayer. The words of the prayers, "O King who causes death and restores life," take on an even deeper significance and meaning. 

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (10)

De la Démagogie en Amérique

In Alexis de Tocqueville's days, traveling to America was such a big deal that you had you write a book about it - especially if you were an aristocrat with political ambitions in post-revolutionary France. Hence the masterly and classic De la Démocratie en Amérique.

Today, even writing a blog upon returning from the new world would seem preposterous; yet I venture to claim that my recent journey there makes a worthwhile story.

I happened to be in Washington DC right after the "deadline" set by the Obama administration on Iran had been missed. With a few exceptions, most people on Capitol Hill barely took notice that America's credibility and deterrence were being tested. Congress' attention was primarily focused on healthcare reform and some explosive underwear made in Nigeria.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (5)

Where to find Jews, Canaanites, Romans, Ummayads & Crusaders?

Museum-goers today are a sophisticated and demanding lot - most of the leading museums around the world today boast the latest interactive, high-tech shtick to keep visitors entertained.

That's not what you'll find at Jerusalem's Rockefeller Archaeological Museum. Visitors are warned to dress warmly in winter since the building is not heated. There's no parking, so most people find their way there either on foot through the commercial center of Arab eastern Jerusalem, or by way of a shuttle bus from the Israel Museum not far from the Knesset on the western side of town.

The larger artifacts are displayed in a somewhat disorderly fashion throughout the halls of the museum's early 20th century building, while two vast galleries hold hundreds of fascinating smaller items in simple glass cases. You won't find the lights on in the halls either - the building was designed with large high windows that let in enough natural light to illuminate the Byzantine glass and the Canaanite pottery.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (1)

Is the US constitution worth dying for?

A few weeks ago, a reader posted the following comment on my blog:

I perceive that young liberal US Jews (i.e., the vast majority) are uncomfortable with the idea of a Jewish 'nation' - just as they challenge the ethnic identification of nations generally. This is only natural for an American whose allegiance is to a legal document (the Constitution) and a flag, not a people. How do you make the argument to young Jews who are two generations removed from violent anti-Semitism, attracted to the 'tikkun olam' worldview, and skeptical of nationalism generally, that Jews need a separate nation of their own that is worth killing and dying for? I think this is a serious issue that is already manifesting itself in the ever weakening support of Israel among under 40, non-orthodox US Jews."

Most nations today define themselves ethnically. This is true of the Japanese, the Germans, the Russians, or the Swedes. Indeed, it is because of ethnic differences that a civil war broke out in Yugoslavia in the late 1980s and Czechoslovakia broke apart twenty years ago. And it is because of ethnic differences that the Québécois keep trying to break away from Canada. Nationalism and national identity are a fact a life, whether you like it or not. Many academics have tried to de-construct and to de-legitimize nationalism and national identity, but it is a fact that most people identify with a nation, and that most nations define themselves ethnically.

I can understand that some people feel uncomfortable with this fact, but nations are entitled to define themselves however they want. You cannot on the one hand define yourself as a "liberal" and on the other hand denigrate the way other people wish to define their identity. Why is there such tolerance for gender and ethnic differences within American society, but at the same time such intolerance for ethnic differences within the international community?

It is true that American national identity is not ethnic, but the way America defines its national identity is the exception rather than the rule. And Israel happens to be part of that exception.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (21)

A sense of purpose

To start 2010 on an upbeat note, I would recommend reading two recently published books: One State, Two States by Benny Morris, and Start-Up Nation by Dan Senor and Saul Singer - provided you read them in that order.

Morris has gone a long way since his self-appointment as a "new historian" poised to question Israel's historical narrative and "myths." In January 2004, he surprised - and shocked - many by declaring to Ari Shavit that "when the choice is between destroying or being destroyed, it's better to destroy"; that "there are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing"; that it was necessary to uproot the Palestinians in 1948; that if Ben-Gurion "had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations"; that "the non-completion of the transfer was a mistake"; that in circumstances which "are liable to be realized in five or ten years ... acts of expulsion will be entirely reasonable. They may even be essential"; that "there is not going to be peace in the present generation"; that "we are doomed to live by the sword"; that "something like a cage has to be built" for the Palestinians; that all Israelis can do at this point is "to be vigilant, to defend the country"; and that "the Arab world as it is today is barbarian." ("Survival of the Fittest", Haaretz, 9 January 2004).

In One State, Two States, Morris shows that the Zionist movement accepted the principle of partition out of political realism from the time it was first proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937. The Palestinians, on the other hand, have systematically rejected the idea, and Arafat only deceived Israel with the Oslo Agreements to implement the "phased strategy." With the steady radicalization and Islamization of Palestinian society today, Morris argues, chances of implementing the two-state solution are nil.

Read the rest of this post   |  Comments (7)