This what the Old City looked like, just days after the war ended.
(Click on image to view larger).

Israeli citizens began flooding to the Western Wall…

Soldiers and civilians alike (you can count my parents among them) took a close look at enemy weaponry…

A makeshift memorial of flowers and a small plaque was set up in memory of five paratroopers from Division 80 Reconnaissance Unit 75 who were killed in the battle for Jerusalem…

This was eventually replaced with a larger memorial, by sculptress Yona Palombo, for Paratrooper Division 80′s fallen. Today, it includes the names of 47 more soldiers killed in Israel’s wars and stands on the outskirts of the Old City.

This photo courtesy of the Paratrooper Brigade website. All other photos graciously provided by Moshe Lavi.

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Hila Betzaleli poses at the Mount Herzl parade grounds, two hours before the tragedy in which she lost her life. (photo credit: Channel 2 News)

Two soldiers died tragically yesterday in what would seem to have been preventable accidents. The incident that grabbed the top headlines was at Mount Herzl where a lighting rig fell during practice for the next week’s Independence Day ceremony, crushing to death 20-year-old Hila Betzaleli from Mevesseret Zion.

The other death was 19-year-old Yehoshua Hefetz who collapsed during an exercise at the Combat Engineering Corps. in the Negev desert where he was training for the group’s elite Sayeret Yahalom special operations unit. First reports were that he was severely dehydrated on an unusually hot day with high winds and lots of dust. The army says it was cardiac arrest, although a post-mortem electrocardiogram performed at Eilat’s Yoseftal Medical Center showed no evidence of any congenital heart defect.

The second death hit closer to home: our daughter knew the young man, a Jerusalemite, through a mutual friend and went to high school with Hefetz’s sister. She texted me yesterday quite upset, understandably.

The two incidents – the second one in particular – always raise the question of “how could they have let this happen?” We send our children off to the army and entrust that the IDF will take care of them. War is one thing, but training accidents are particularly tragic.

And there have been others: earlier this year, Private Dvir Moor died after contracting an infection during basic training. And two years ago, another training incident claimed the life of Omri Shoshan was accidentally shot in the back.

I know that sh*t happens. As a parent, I have sometimes imagined locking my children in the house so that they’d be free from any harm out in the big scary world. I can’t imagine our children would agree.

Our daughter said that Hefetz’s father had died just two months ago. He is survived by his mother and two sisters. Our hearts go out to him and Hila Betzaleli. May their families know no more sorrow.

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Anne wrote about the tree three times in her diary, the last time on May 13, 1944, noting, “Our chestnut tree is in full bloom. It´s covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year.”

The Yad Vashem sapling was planted near the Children´s Memorial and International School for Holocaust Studies, in the presence of Hanna Pick (pictured), Holocaust survivor and childhood friend of Anne Frank.

How ironic that such a fitting memorial should be followed, only a few days later, by the outrageous news that the Berlin branch of Madam Tussaud’s had inaugurated an Anne Frank tableau, meant to inspire “optimism”.

If the Berlin waxwork is a fitting memorial, it is not to Anne Frank’s memory, but to Madame Marie Tussaud herself, who gained notoriety during the French Revolution as a maker of death masks. Put that in your nostalgia pipe and smoke it.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is not nostalgic, “nostalgia” being a sentimental or happy recollection of times or things past. It is a day for recalling the most unpleasant aspects of human nature, for honoring the memory of people we may or may not have actually known and hopefully, a day of self-examination and learning about a terrible chapter in Jewish history.

For over half a century, Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, has been committed to what it terms the four pillars of remembrance: Commemoration, Documentation, Research and Education.

Of those four, it is the last one that has become most critical as older generations pass away. In fact, its fair to say that the first four provide the foundations upon which education can stand; the Yad Vashem website provides a wealth of downloadable materials, educational programs and lesson plans for educators, as well as an online photo and document archive and YouTube channel of documentary films, survivor testimonies and historical lectures.

Visit the Yad Vashem website this week – there is always something to learn there.

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On their Facebook page, people are sharing music links — Stevie Wonder’s We Can Work It Out — messages about their appreciation for the campaign, wishes for a happy Iranian new year and Iranian versions of the Israeli poster. If you were just reading this site, you’d think there’s no chance for a nuclear war.

Read this comment:

Just in from Iran:

miscommunication is a funny thing . when i saw the original blog and first comment was why so cocky why u say u dont bomb us like u want to but u dont and few hours later i saw one israeli said why they dont said it back that we dont bomb u either. u see? something its good thing in Your country and its bad thing in mine . because we dont know each other. they never let us to know each other. they afraid we became united and realize we got played and they cant control us any more (they are : government of both countries ) . i dont know about u guys but here they keep saying israel is bad . israel its evil and all that crap and its going into your subconscious and u start believe a lie that deep down u know thats not true at least not all of them but u know what, when i see pictures specially family ones its like i know u guys and i never met any of u .any one with a little bit knowledge knows innocent people gonna get kill in wars .people who dont deserve it and people who do deserve it they going to sit in their office and write a apology note . love and respect to every irani or israeli or american or what ever countries that say no to war . some people said this is start of a friendship between two countries but i say (base on two countries history ) this is reunion of brothers and sisters who lost each other over time and finally find each other .

B. Tehran – IRAN

It helps to have a ‘place’ to go where you can regain a sense of sanity about people and war and the general desire to vote for peace rather than warfare. The question is whether pink and green posters can make any kind of difference in this global disaster.

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A policeman protects a young girl as warning sirens go off in Ashkelon during the current barrage of rockets from Gaza. (Yediot Aharonot)

It’s certainly an absurd, surreal existence we have here – living a modern life in one of the most progressive, advanced societies in the world, and at the same time engaging in life-threatening battle with an elusive enemy.

On Saturday night, when most of the South was hunkered down in their homes or in shelters, I was out and about in Jerusalem – attending the opening of my son’s senior year art exhibition, replete with wine and cheese and student jazz band accompanying the magnificent art work and proud parents.

Right after that, my soldier daughter – home from the Egyptian border – and I drove around the corner to the Zappa Jerusalem nightspot for an all-acoustic show by Assaf Avidan, likely Israel’s most talented singer/songwriter. The spacious and beautifully designed club was packed with mostly young Jerusalemites out for a good time – and Avidan provided it in spades.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The situation in the South wasn’t mentioned by either the performer or the members of the audience – as if by ignoring what was happening only a couple hours away and insisting on whooping it up, he and they were sending a big FU to the Palestinian heavies wreaking the havoc.

My daughter and joined in the celebration, but we were also slightly cautious. That’s because the next morning at 7 am, she was headed back down to the also hot-as-fire Egyptian border. In Israel, every party has its price.

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The video is actually several years old, but the experience is the same now as it was then: The siren comes, people scatter, trying to get into bomb shelters or shelter of some kind in the few minutes they have between hearing the sirens and the fall of the rocket. And there they remain, waiting until the calm to emerge into their lives again for a few hours until the next round.

I was upset to hear about the renewal of rockets landing in the south over the weekend, and immediately spent some time reading up on what had happened over the weekend and what it all meant. I thought about it all, and then I turned to something else, since I can, living in Jerusalem where we’re not disturbed by those kind of incidents at the moment. But as a friend of mine pointed out in a Ynet article he read, our apathy is our enemy. The article was written by a 24-year-old Ashdod resident, Nir Tal, who writes:

“What’s most bothersome is our apathy, the apathy of us all. It allows us to play the tragic new game of the southern cities, where we try to guess where a rocket landed after hearing the siren. It allows us to get used to the new situation over the past few years. The apathy is our new enemy, without a doubt. But what are we guilty of? It’s natural.”

I guess so. I know that when I think about what I can do, the only thing I come up with is opening my home to residents of the south, but no one I know down south wants to come here. They want to stay home, even if home may mean a bomb shelter for several nights running. And when I think about going down south for a story later this week, a story that has nothing to do with the current volley of rockets, I consider not going, as it doesn’t make sense to go down south for something that doesn’t have to be written right now, as it isn’t about the current situation, but is more concerned with the non life-threatening matters of culture and life.

When this kind of situation is taking place, you don’t want to be apathetic. But you also wonder what you can actually do to help.

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The British-born Halevy is an unassuming, mild-mannered gentleman, evoking the cultured tones of Abba Eban and the appearance of an uncle you look forward to visiting with.

I was honored to introduce Halevy when he spoke to a rapt audience in Jerusalem this week as part of a lecture series at Kehilat Moreshet Avraham, a Conservative synagogue. Halevy spoke on the subject of “Are We The Victims of our own Biases?” – a title I didn’t really understand until he explained it.

According to Halevy – and he’s been involved with events in the region whose details will likely go to the grave with him – the Palestinians and the Arab world aren’t the only ones who’ve intentionally or not, prevented the normalization of relations between Israel and everyone else in the neighborhood. We’re also to blame.

Halevy, who led the Mossad from 1998 to 2002, doesn’t think Israel needs to insist on the Palestinians or anyone else for that matter recognizing Israel as a Jewish state or approving its right to exist. According to a report in The Jerusalem Post, he said that Israel is a Jewish state and that any treaty or agreement signed with Israel by any other state or entity is tantamount to recognition, and it’s one of our biases based on insecurity that we insist on that extra step.

After reaching a peace agreement with Egypt, which had been Israel’s “most formidable enemy,” Israel should have surely gained an enormous injection of self-confidence, because in this achievement, Israel had broken the Arab anti-Israel alliance of solidarity, said Halevy.

Although Israel has many near miraculous achievements to its credit, Halevy believes that Israelis have not overcome an inherent Jewish perception of being the victim. After 2,000 years of suffering, being despised among the nations and victims of anti-Semitic actions that resulted in massive loss of life, Israelis still have difficulty in being self-confident when it comes to personal and national security. Israelis always labor under threat despite the fact that “we have the most efficient, most capable and most brutal defense capability in the region.”

Halevy also ruffled some feathers in the crowd when he said that Israel is wrong to always focus on and end to the conflict.

. “There will never be an end to the conflict. We need to translate conflict into something you live with in different terms, he said, citing several conflicts in which the adversaries have found a way to live together without peace treaties or final borders. “So why should we demand a final border?” he asked. “Why should we always want the ultimate?”

It was food for thought from someone who’s been in the trenches of diplomacy and espionage for decades. And thankfully, at the end of the evening, he hadn’t disclosed any secrets that would have necessitated disposing of the entire audience.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s the case anyway with the current TV ad campaign by cable provider HOT, which is promoting its ‘on-demand’ epidsodes of the popular spy-comedy show ‘Asfur’ by offering a free Samsung Galaxy tablet as enticement for prospective customers to sign up for the on-demand package.

In the ad, a bored Mossad agent stationed in Iran, apparently to monitor Iran’s nuclear development, meets up with three characters from the show who are also clandestinely in the country dressed as women. Sitting in a café, the agent shows off the Samsung Galaxy, explaining that he used his downtime to use the on-demand option to watch episodes of ‘Asfur.’

At the end of the clip, one of the three Asfur accidentally pushes an application on the tablet over the frantic efforts of the agent, and a nuclear reactor is detonated in the background.

Typical Israeli sophomoric, whistling in the dark, hilarious humor. But evidently neither Iran nor Samsung are seeing the levity in it. According to a report in The Jerusalem Post sourcing Iran’s Press TV, Arsalan Fat’hipour, who heads the Iranian parliament’s energy committee, said over the weekend that Tehran was considering imposing a complete ban on buying all Samsung products. And, of course, they’ll probably aim their first operational nuke at the HOT corporate offices.

Meanwhile Samsung issued a statement saying, “Samsung Electronics is aware of a recent news report in Iranian media regarding an advertisement aired by HOT cable network of Israel. This advertisement was produced by HOT cable network without Samsung’s knowledge or participation… As a member of the global community, Samsung is committed to demonstrating respect for all people and cultures around the globe.”

The question is, how did Iran know that HOT was even airing the ads? Do they have spy here who subscribes to the company’s ‘Three-in-one” cable/Internet/phone service? If so, I hope they’re just as frustrated as the rest of us at having ‘You, Me & Dupree’ screening a million times a month on its movie channels. But I also hope he doesn’t have an itchy trigger finger.

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An international panel of distinguished judges, comprising experts in both design and in Holocaust Education, selected the 16 best posters from more than 300 submitted by design students from France, Israel and the Czech Republic. They were asked to present works on the theme of Holocaust commemoration, with an emphasis on the nature of memory and the plight of children.

The three finalists designed posters that stood out for their originality, beauty, and meaning.

The work by Veronica Novakova, a designer from the Czech Republic, portrays a well-known childhood punishment. “Traditionally, to correct a child’s errant behavior, an adult will force the ‘naughty’ child to write his misdeed over and over again, until he ‘learns his lesson.’ In this case, the misdeed is written by a child who is forced to denounce his friendship with a Jewish friend.

Designer Martina Cejpova also explores the effect the Nazi anti-Jewish policy had on children. “In her poster, she depicts a universally-recognized image from childhood: a hopscotch board, chalked onto the pavement. This particular game, however, is marred by a hateful symbol of discrimination drawn onto its cross-arms – the yellow star. Its inclusion here indicates that the insidious and pervasive hatred perpetrated by the adult world has also filtered down to the world of children, destroying their innocence.”

French designer Boris Grzeszcak deals with another theme in his work – the nature of memory. “His black-and-white poster presents a striking image of a scarred tree cut to expose the rings. A deep gash cuts to the very core of the trunk, where the word “emet” (truth) is written in tiny letters… [The artist says,] ‘The truth resides in the act of remembering and above all, never forgetting these dramatic events.’”

Peter Chmela of the Czech Republic says, “This poster wants to show the impotence of Jewish children against the Nazi soldiers. I tried to illustrate this theme with a big contrast between soldier and child.”

Yael Boverman, Israel: “The object that a survivor carries throughout a lifetime enables him or her to keep their memory alive. The closet symbolizes a collective closet, reflecting the repressed memories of the Jewish people as a whole. For every survivor, the memory is forever present under the thin veil of everyday functioning, represented by the new shirts, but at the bottom of the stack, there always lies the shirt kept from a different time – the persisting memory of a past that refuses to be abandoned.”

The project is funded by the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF), together with Yad Vashem, Israel; Mémorial de la Shoah, France; and the European Shoah Legacy Institute, Czech Republic; in cooperation with the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.

In addition to the posters, there is also a lesson plan that provides tools to aid students and teachers in discussing the more universal aspects of memory — as well as the challenges facing those who use the visual arts to commemorate the Holocaust today.

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Not that anyone other than those that participated actually saw anything, but overnight earlier this week, about 1,000 paratroopers in the IDF conducted a brigade-level parachute jump exercise.

According to The Jerusalem Post, the last time such a drill was held was over 15 years ago, even though soldiers in the Paratroopers Brigade, as well as some other IDF units, continue to undergo parachuting training on a regular basis.

The jump was kept hush-hush, but of course the families and friends of the families knew all about it, which means that most of the country was aware it was taking place. And when the army publicly disclosed the exercise 24 hours later and published photos and video of the jump, proud fathers and mothers scrutinized them for a glimpse of their sons.

According to military assessments, those sons are going to play an important role in any potential future conflict in the region.

“We cannot know what will happen in the changing Middle East and every western military which respects itself needs to know how to parachute large forces, bring them back together and then launch an attack,” Paratroopers Brigade commander Col. Amir Baram told reporters ahead of the jump which was done from Israel Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft over the Negev Desert

The jump went off as planned, and while the commanders were concerned that some paratroopers might be injured during the landing due to the heavy loads they were carrying, the IDF announced that only four soldiers required medical treatment for injuries to their legs.

Take a look at the jump here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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