Blogging in The Washington Post, and Skpye-ing Algeria

Someone slap me awake.

An editor at the The Washington Post “PostGlobal” page emailed me yesterday, asking me to take part in a blog-versation on a question of the day:

“Does a leader have a right to bypass democratic institutions to ensure his people are fed and secure?”

asked panelist Daoud Kuttab, referring to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's recent statement that bread is more important than democracy, and the possibility of dissolving the Hamas-led PA government.

I replied:

Long before, and certainly during the elections that brought Hamas to power, many Jerusalem Palestinians told me on numerous occasions that they were fed up with the stale corruption they felt characterized the entrenched, Fatah-led “old guard” Palestinian leadership. They wanted bread and a radical transformation. But I don't think that “democratic institutions,” at least as the term is understood in the West, were ever really a viable option for them.

Among those I spoke with were cab drivers, pedestrians in voxpop interviews, and – especially - one elderly Old City gift store merchant near the Jaffa Gate, soon after President Bush announced the roadmap peace plan.

Fingering prayer beads in a overflowing trinket shop on an alleyway empty of tourists fearing terror attacks, he spoke in despair of how the Arab leadership had pocketed their futures and disappointed them, in his words, for over 50 years – essentially, by not thwarting Israel's establishment.

When I asked him what he thought about Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, his sole answer was bitter: “Who is he?” he said with a dismissive shrug.

Read the rest here.
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Well, an entity “bigger than Phil,” in this case, Skype, has a great sense of humor. At the same time I was preparing my comment, since I have a Skype widget on this page that says "I'm Online" (look for it), several guys in - wait for it - Algeria called, wanting to chat with an Israeli.

So, making sure my webcam was unplugged, I quickly slicked back my horns, and we chatted a bit, more excited over the connection than the content. Unfortunately, we soon broke off, owing to their poor English, and my even poorer Arabic.

Later on, a few very bored Israelis - let's be kind and call them "yutes" - with a webcam, microphone and a "sharmuta" (their term. Just guess what it means...) of an "a-ti-tude,” called just to say "f**k you..." now that's certainly food for thought on Israeli - Arab talking points. Takes all kinds, I s'pose...

Then again, my comments are in the WaPo, and their's aren't.

Who really won the Lebanon War: a lucid analysis

Novelist and polemicist (and one of my favorite writers), Mark Helprin, writing for the Claremont Institute, says in a lucid, cogent and cleverly-posited analysis of the fighting between Israel, Hizbullah, and Iran in Lebanon War:

Imagine an Israeli guerrilla organization based in the Galilee, a power unto itself, with seats in the cabinet, a generous welfare apparatus, and the oft-stated goal of Lebanon's destruction and replacement with a Jewish state governed by Jewish religious law. Upon instructions from its foreign patron and supplier of arms, it crosses the border to capture and kill some Lebanese soldiers. Lebanon, however, is in no mood to tolerate such a provocation, especially in light of the guerrillas' arsenal of 10,000 or so short-range missiles targeted at Lebanese civilians.

For a month, the Lebanese air force ranges freely over all of Israel, and, without losing a single plane, cuts every major bridge and road link in the country, destroys its power plants, bombs ports, airports, military facilities associated with the guerrillas, and the guerrillas themselves, obliterating all but their buried infrastructure. Significant portions of Tel Aviv and Haifa, and many of the small towns of Israel's north, are reduced to rubble.

Who won?

Helprin's answers cut to the quick and may surprise you.

Front of home in Israeli town of Ma'alot, destroyed in
Katyusha rocket strike. Sign (pre-existing): "For Sale."
(Photo: Dave Bender)

More video, audio, photos and articles of my coverage of the war are here.

Tel Aviv at Night (Photo)

Tel Aviv at night: The Ayalon Freeway adjacent to the
Azrieli Towers (Photo: Dave Bender)

'Home Game:' When Israeli hoop dreams lost to Gaza pullout (Podcast, video)

I just posted the audio podcast of this report:

While media coverage of Israel’s evacuation of 9,000 Jewish residents from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005 focused on the political and physical struggle between the government and its citizens, filmmakers Yaron Shane and producer Avi Abelow chose to focus on the human aspect.

The massive police operation which garnered the world's attention and brought emotions to a fevered pitch within the country, played out on very same day as the final game of the annual high-school basketball championship between the 22 Jewish communities in Gaza.

That's the backdrop for Home Game, their recently-released film.

A movingly edited amalgam of hundreds of amateur film clips, recorded by the residents themselves, along with one-on-one interviews with residents Home Game chronicles daily life before and during the evacuation of the 30-year-old farming community of Netzer Hazani, in the southern Gush Katif settlement bloc. Shane and Abelow carefully pieced together the myriad personal and public dramas taking place both within, and beyond the echoing walls of the sports hall into a dramatic whole.

"My ultimate goal is for people to put aside their political orientations, and religious affiliations and whatever baggage they have that stops them from feeling empathy for their fellow Jews who go through tragedies; and in this case, with the movie dealing with the people and the families and the youth of Gush Katif, who went through an unbelievable tragedy,” Abelow told www.ISRAEL21c.com at a screening of the film in Tel Aviv.

Here's a bit of background:



Gaza Pullout: Settlers & Supporters Protest on Vimeo

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

A full version of this article, and the podcast is cross-posted at Israel21c.

Charlie Brown: A Jihad Christmas (Video)

O-kaaaaaay. This is clever. Wicked, but clever. And I am so waiting for the Hanukkah version, so Jews, Israelis and supporters can have a hoot during a darkening winter.

To the new visitor here: There are other, much, much nastier versions of this sort of parody out there, but this one is slamming Jihad and suicide bombers (and Tom Cruise) - not Islam, Get it?



And - just to show the uberPC dweeb visitor here that we're fair, here's how we like our satire about Jews and holidays.

JerusalemOnline news update: Oct. 22nd (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• Health Ministry probes flu injection deaths
• Coalition passes bill for presidential system
• Israel Beiteinu Party set to join coalition
• IDF planning Gaza foray
  

Click here or on image for latest Israel
Channel 2 TV news update.

Why did God create atheists?

And, in an effort to balance out the previous posting, Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks writes in The London Sunday Times:

“DO YOU believe,” the disciple asked the rabbi, “that God created everything for a purpose?”

“I do,” replied the rabbi.

“Well,” asked the disciple, “why did God create atheists?”

The rabbi paused before giving an answer, and when he spoke his voice was soft and intense. “Sometimes we who believe, believe too much. We see the cruelty, the suffering, the injustice in the world and we say: ‘This is the will of God.’ We accept what we should not accept. That is when God sends us atheists to remind us that what passes for religion is not always religion. Sometimes what we accept in the name of God is what we should be fighting against in the name of God.”

Read the rest.

Tales of 'Near-Death Experiences' in Israel

Erica Chernofsky at The Jerusalem Post takes an interesting look - and takes the time to write a long-format article (not sure if it's also as long in the print version) - on the subject of "Near Death-Experiences."

From Wikipedia:

A 'core' near-death experience reflects — as intensity increases according to the Rasch scale — peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences (Lange, Greyson & Houran, 2004). The most intense NDEs involve an awareness of things occurring in a different place or time. Among the clinical circumstances that are thought to lead to an NDE we find such factors as: cardiac arrest, shock in postpartum loss of blood or in perioperative complications, septic or anaphylactic shock, electrocution, coma, intracerebral haemorrhage or cerebral infarction, attempted suicide, near-drowning or asphyxia, apnoea, serious depression (van Lommel et al., 2001).

Worth a read.

Here's a compelling YouTube entry about the subject:

HezBow-Flex! For a Firmer, Tighter Katyusha

Flat Fatima is Back!

From The Jerusalem Post:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has responded positively to Lebanese Amal head Nabih Berri's peace-talk overtures, calling the Lebanese Shi'ite leaders words "interesting."

"Anytime an Arab leader says he wants to talk peace, we have to listen," Olmert told reporters.

From Ynet News:

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Lebanese authorities on Thursday to take a lesson from the recent war between Israel and Hizbullah and quickly agree on a plan for disarming Hizbullah.

Refrigerator magnets of the gods: Now available on this site

Mideast mayhem got you down?

Bored stiff waiting for that special email to arrive? Did'ya get stood up when your IM chat partner wrote "brb" (be right back) - but wasn't?

Hey, no worries, we got you covered, bunky!

Look over there at the top, left side of this page - just beneath the "profile." That's right, go ahead and scroll - I'll wait...

Right. They're refrigerator magnets. Moveable by you, along with hundreds (...ok, five or six) of others in real-time.

Just click the mouse cursor on a letter, hold it, and drag it around. Until somone else does... Make nice.

Go. You know you want to...