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The week that was

The pace of news events developing and exploding into headlines is always seemingly propelled by steroids here in Israel. There’s never a minute to rest, and the news addiction that most of the public suffers from isn’t helped any by half hour radio bulletins, that annoying beep beep beep of the hourly news reports and nightly hour-long TV newscasts that are holy in some households.

But even veteran observers are hard pressed to remember a week of news events – aside from wars and intifadas – that rolled in like a tsunami, pushing the previous one off the front page with an ease that is creepy and disconcerting.

First up at the beginning of the week was the disclosure that police had arrested an American immigrant – Yaakov Teitel – a resident of a West Bank outpost on suspicion of murdering two Palestinians in 1997 and carrying out a string of previously unsolved hate attacks against other targets, including planting a pipe bomb outside the home of prominent left-wing Israeli professor Zeev Sternhall which injured him, and sending a bomb package to a family of messianic Jews from Ariel, seriously wounding their 15-year-old son.

This was huge news and the media covered it from every angle, from settlements spawning extremism to questioning whether the Law of Return which enables all Jews to immigrate to Israel should be reconsidered, or at least more stringent.

But no sooner had we started to digest this horrific news, Israelis were presented with something even more uncomprehensible the next day. The police announced they had caught the suspect in the brutal murder of six members of a Russian immigrant family in Rishon Lezion last month. It was considered the worst murder case in Israel’s history, with many pundits speculating that it involved the Russian mafia and a hired killer.

However, police said that the suspect, Damian Karlik, 38, who was arrested with his wife, parents and two other female relatives, killed the Oshrenko family because he had been fired as a waiter a couple months earlier from the family’s restaurant.

Dmitry Oshrenko fired Karlik, who was headwaiter at the Oshrenkos’ high-end restaurant Premier, after accusing him of stealing a bottle of vodka. Karlik said he felt humiliated and began to nurture his hatred for his former boss. Expressing no remorse at the murders, which included two young children, Krilik allegedly bragged to the police that he was a “bad motherfu**er.”

Disoriented at the front pages of our newspapers being turned into True Crimes magazine, we felt things returning to ‘normal’ yesterday with the disclosure of a dramatic high seas capture by Israeli naval commandos off the coast of Cyprus of the “Francop”, an Antigua-flagged freighter packed with 3,000 Iranian rockets and shells headed for Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Related

If it had achieved reaching its destination, the shipment would have provided Hizbullah with almost the entire rocket arsenal they unleashed against Israel in the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

Israeli sources say the shipment violates not only the UN Security Council resolutions from the 2006 war, but also those that forbid Iran from engaging in any arms exports. More importantly, it shows how Iran is attempting to incite the region, coming a day after Hamas in Gaza tested an Iranian-supplied rocket that has a range to reach Tel Aviv.

But hey, these are headlines that we’re familiar with -Iran, rockets, terror. However, by this morning, I found myself yearning for one of those days when the worst thing that could happen was The York Yankees winning the World Series, or narrow-minded citizens from my home state of Maine repealing same sex marriages. Both of those items are indeed reflections of a sorry state of affairs, but I’ll take them over the world gone crazy pace of news events we’ve had to put up with this week here in Israel.

A video of Gilad

The news that Hamas is going to hand over a one-minute video tape of captive IDF soldier Gilad Schalit has been dominating the news today.

According to the Egyptian and German teams that helped broker the deal that will see 20 Palestinian female prisoners released from Israeli jails in exchange for the tape, it will provide enequivocal evidence that Schalit, who has been in captivity for more than three years, is alive and reasonably well.

It will be the first time that Schalit’s family will be seeing images of Gilad since he was captured in Gaza by Palestinian gunmen.

While it’s a far cry from seeing him released, I’m sure the family will be spending sleepless nights until they receive the tape on Friday. They issued a statement Wednesday night saying, “We wish to stress that although this is a first step in the right direction, the family will not rest until Gilad is freed after almost 1,200 days in which he has been held in a Hamas prison. Both sides must continue the determined process that has recently begun until the final result is quickly achieved.”

It’s bound to be quite a shock when they do finally see the video, as it’s certain that the Gilad Schalit who’s been held prisoner for so long will bear little resemblance to the 18-year-old boy that the country has come to know as their own in the ensuing three years.

The intensity with which the story was covered on Wednesday reflected the emotional baggage the entire country carries with it having lived with the burden of one of its soldiers held prisoner. In times like this, it’s almost safe to say that the cliche that we’re all one country is really true.

Let’s hope the release of the Gilad Schalit video is beginning of movement that will quickly see the release of Gilad Schalit, the human being.

Overdue kudos for winged communicators

After reports surfaced that Hezbollah had succeeded in eavesdropping on IDF soldiers talking on their cell phones during the Second Lebanon War, the army began investing heavily in creating its own proprietary, super-secure cellular network, dubbed Afik Rahav (”Wide Channel”).

But even in the “resounding success” of the latest round of military action against our enemies, this past winter’s Gaza operation against Hamas, was marked by some cellular communication backfirings, as both the IDF and Hamas attempted to rile up the general public on the opposite side by placing calls to random numbers.

But back in the day, communications among and with forces in the field were even trickier. Pre-state Zionist military forces used the low-tech method of carrier pigeons to get messages around the land, and recent Ha’aretz coverage of the aviary units has succeeded in prompting the IDF to honor its communications-minded predecessors.

In December, the newspaper reported that the Haganah’s dovecote at Kibbutz Givat Brenner was in danger of being destroyed and petitioned to preserve it, following Shaul Sapir, 81, who delivered the Haganah’s pigeons, and Aharon Landsman, 73, who trained them, as they visited the dovecote. This would have been a shame, since the Tzrifin base’s “monument to the unknown pigeon” (for real) was retired long ago, with few testaments remaining to remind us of the once-crucial section, which was incorporated into the IDF in the Fifties.

Then, a few weeks ago, the paper reported with glee that amid great fanfare and top-brass attendance,

Pigeon trainers who dispatched carrier pigeons for the Palmach and Haganah, the Yishuv’s military forces, were invited to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Israel Defense Forces Teleprocessing Branch at Tel Aviv University….

Senior Field Commander Major General Ami Shafran spoke glowingly of the pigeon corps, giving respect where it was finally due:

“The pigeon trainers from kibbutzim Ramat Rachel, Beit Hashita, Mishmar Hashiva and Negba, and from the dovecote at Givat Brenner, are some of those who laid down the [nation's] infrastructure, and they are a part of the strong foundation on which our present capabilities were built.”

Image courtesy Copper Kettle from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

A Hybrid of Environmentalism and Politics in Online Honda Ad

We recently came across this alleged Honda commercial online, which fuses environmental activism with political opinion. It speaks for itself, so take a quick look:

It is unclear and very unlikely that Honda actually sponsored this ad. It’s more probable that somebody cut and pasted a news clip together with the taglines of another Honda commercial. Whomever that person is will probably remain anonymous. It is still an interesting phenomenon, though and we’ll leave it up to you to decide whether the makers of the clip are dangerous carborexic types or legitimate activists of the first degree.

The clip has caused quite some interest in the blogosphere. Here are some excerpts of the online dialogue that the clip has generated:

Darryl Wolk blogged that he is “not sure if this commercial is real, but it is why I take the global warming agenda seriously. America and the West must break our dependency on foreign oil. Green technology, public transportation, tough auto standards and a cap and trade system are the way to go.”

According to another blog, Current, there were originally two of these clips – one focused on the Hezbollah in Lebanon (as shown above) and one focused on Iran. (To read the rest of this entry, written by Karen Chernick, click over to Green Prophet)

UPDATE: the video, if you haven’t noticed yet, has been taken down. Guess some exec from Honda got whiff of it…

Victims donating to victims

Throughout the recent Gaza war and its ongoing aftermath, Israelis and Palestinians have been trying to paint themselves as “the real victims” and the other side as “the real perpetrators.” But if we’re all victims, then how can we possibly take responsibility for war spearheaded by our leaders? And if we’re all perpetrators, then why would we care?

The fact is, Operation Cast Lead has meant horrible levels of destruction for the infrastructure and people of the Gaza Strip, destruction which could have been avoided if Hamas hadn’t hidden behind the human shield of one of the most densely populated areas in the world. And as we’ve seen on ISRAELITY before, just because Israelis support our government’s recent war against a terrorist regime that’s been shooting rockets at us for years doesn’t mean that we’re numb to the damage done.

Two grassroots activists are trying to organize Israeli sympathy into material support for Gazan families whose lives and homes were recently under severe fire by the region’s military superpower. 27-year-old peacenik Lee Ziv and Sapir Academic College 25-year-old student Hadas Balas (pictured, doubling as a not-so-shabby singer-songwriter) decided to collect clothing, bedding, nourishment and other essentials from donors to bring them in to Gaza.

Ziv spoke with the Jerusalem Post this week:

“There is no connection to politics,” said Ziv. “We don’t represent a side, we just see an immediate need for blankets for people who have nothing to cover them at night and milk for infants who have nothing to eat.”

Since a short radio interview on Sunday morning, Ziv said her phone had been ringing off the hook. “Within two minutes of the interview, I had 40 voice messages. The response has been overwhelming. Schools have called asking how they can help. A father called who had three sons serving in the IDF in Gaza. A woman called who had a mortar fall on her house.”

The duo thought they’d be bringing one or two truckloads of supplies in today, but thanks to the viral snowball of their email campaign, media interest like the radio interview last week, and the bandwagoning on their efforts by some key human rights organizations, the donations have been so numerous that they’re spearheading a fleet of 10 full trucks.

According to coverage in Haaretz, the duo has accomplished this feat thanks to key help from organizations like Hashomer Hatzair in Jerusalem, Beit Hachesed in Haifa and Kibbutz Kfar Aza, the Qassam-battered community which has offered up its warehouses as a depot for the donations.

More information on donating to the operation can be found here.

Cease-fire pick up lines

One thing you can say about Jews, is that we can find the dark humor in anything.

Hot on the heels of the unilateral cease-fire announced by Israel, one email making the rounds on Sunday parodied the ‘Top Ten’ list of American talk show host David Letterman, but with a local twist. Even though it may have originated from a New York Jewish site, it proves that the old adage that war is a great aphrodisiac.

Top Ten Cease-Fire Pickup Lines

10. Let’s do the opposite of disengagement

9. There maybe a cease-fire, but my heart is still burning for you

8. If you kiss me, I’d be glad to respond disproportionately

7. I declare unilaterally that “I’m ready to father your children”

6. Hamas will inevitably break the cease-fire, so let’s use these 10 minutes to make a little peace of our own

5. Care to take these diplomatic negotiations back to my place?

4. A bomb-alarm just went off in my heart, no wait, that’s just Hamas actually firing rockets again

3. So, come to this bomb shelter often?

2. My heart is on Tzeva Adom (Red Alert)

1. U.N. I belong together

For a more sophisticated brand of humor, check out the homegrown Israeli spoof video clip created by the master satirists from the hugely popular TV show Eretz Nehederet.

Thinking of the boys in the IDF

As we finish the third week of Operation Cast Lead, there’s a growing sense that the diplomatic process is taking over. And before we finish the fourth week, some mechanism will be in place that both Israel and Hamas can accept.

While it remains to be seen whether we will have achieved our goal of bringing quiet to the South, one thing is clear – we have every right to be proud of our soldiers. Mostly kids and mostly untested, they’ve proved their mettle in performing their mission.

And despite the calls of ‘war crimes’ over the civilians who have tragically been killed in the fighting, they’ve conducted a moral war. AP reported about Capt. Orr, 25, a pilot who’s been conducting sorays into Gaza and targeting Hamas fighters. He told the AP reporter that he felt that aborting some of his targets for fear of harming civilians were among his proudest achievements.

“The ones I remember are when I have locked in on a target and I fire and then at the last second I see a child in my cross hairs and I divert the missile,” he said. “That leaves a mark.”

Of course, even one civilian casualty is too much, and we won’t get into the whole Hamas human shield /value of life issue that resulted in so much innocent life lost. But with all the talk about Palestinian casualties, let’s not forget that there have been soldiers killed during this operation and many wounded.

Observant Jews read off the names of loved ones during Shabbat morning services in a prayer for healing. But you don’t need to be religious to scan down this list of soldiers wounded in Operation Cast Lead as of Friday morning and wish them a speedy recovery. Shabbat Shalom.

Aharon Yehoshua ben Chaya Shoshana

Avi ben Shoshana

Ben ben Batya

Binyamin Ben Ben Netiva

Chaim Moshe Naftali ben Ruth Reizel

Daniel ben “Sara”

Dov Baer ben Devorah Blumah

Dvir Ben Laya Â

Eitan ben Sarah Â

Elishama Shalom ben Rivka Leah;

Eran ben Batsheva

Gal ben Hedva

Gal Or ben Aliza

Geva ben Avital

Hoshea ben Miriam

Idan ben Liora

Idan ben Nadi

Itai ben Rinat

Liel Hoshea ben Miriam

Lior ben Mazal

Maxim ben Olga

Mor Mordechai ben Orna

Moshe ben Chana Malka

Moshe ben Dina

Moshe ben Eidi

Moshe ben Pnina Rose

Nadav ben Miriam

Read more

Fred Teng Gets It

Given the avalanche of hate against Israel on the internet, at anti-Israel protests around the world, and in the media (of course!), it’s easy to believe that “nobody” likes us. By “nobody,” I mean, of course, folks from the wide world. And even if they are willing to overlook our “crimes” in Gaza (no, of course I don’t mean that), they still don’t “get it” – they just can’t understand what we’re up against.

So I wanted to share with you a message I got from a friend who’s in New York right now. There was a big pro-Israel rally this past Sunday, featuring speakers from the Jewish and general community. According to the message I got,

“The most powerful speaker at Sunday’s massive rally for Israel was Fred Teng, president of the Chinese Community Relations Council of NY. His words would have been exceptional even coming from an Israeli — and how much more striking for having come from the heart of a New Yorker and a member of the Chinese community.”

Suffice to say Mr. Teng “gets it.” He’s got Hamas’ number – comparing them to the gangs of big American cities who get their jollies running drive by shootings against innocent people. In the words of Mr. Teng,

“Enough is enough”

“These Qassam Rockets and the people behind them are like Drive-by Shootings. We have to put every gang member away for good, not just the ones that did the shooting. These Qassam Rockets and the people behind them are like a Fire in the Forest, You can’t STOP only half of the fire in the forest, and thinking you will be safe. If your house is next to the fire, you won’t think so. It is not the Qassam Rockets; it is the people behind the Qassam Rockets that we need to go after. This is an epidemic threat to the entire world.

“In the last 60 years, every gesture of peace by Israel only met with escalated violence. Every peace proposal, whether it is multi-lateral, bi-lateral, or uni-lateral was never honored by the terrorists. However, in this time of extreme difficulties, we shall not lose hope. We shall say yes to Peace. We shall say yes to Life. And we shall forever say yes to an eternal Israel Am Yisrael Chai.

Maybe someone should tell this guy we have an election coming up? Sounds like he’d make a good prime minister!

ISRAEL21C Behind the Filming: Science has no Borders

I recently filmed a news story about the Weizmann Institute and the Davidson Institute opening their doors to children of the south. Since the war with Gaza started schools have been closed forcing children to stay home while rockets rain down on their towns. These kids are not being properly educated about the fundamentals, but rather learning the hard lessons of life under fire. The children who experience the daily barrage of rockets are suffering from emotional trauma and will most likely be scarred for life as they remember their childhood days hiding at home when the sirens went off.

The institutes are currently providing educational refuge on their campuses and will continue to do so until the war is over. Kids of all ages can play outside in their amazing science park (I didn’t get the chance to play but it looked like a lot of fun) or experiment in their science labs. (Note: the science experiment the children are doing in the video is how to make ice cream with dry ice…crazy!)

I interviewed Zvi Paltiel, the Director of Young at Science at the Davidson Institute who spoke with me about the current program geared towards children from the south. For the video I chose a sound bite where he is expressing the importance of having the children learning on campus during this stressful period. However, what I wasn’t able to include was his openness to having the program and the science mobiles (watch the video to learn what those are) available to the children of Gaza as well. I think he put it best when he said that “science has no borders.”

RepORTs from the teens

A network of high schools across Israel that emphasizes high-tech vocational training, ORT is an educational powerhouse, its 100,000-strong student body representing about one tenth of all Israeli high school students.

With six branches within rocket range in southern Israel, ORT estimates that 7000 of its pupils are currently under high risk of Hamas attacks.

ORT’s Ronson School in Ashkelon, which educates some 1800 students, has temporarily closed its doors due to this situation, necessitating special tutoring and commuting arrangements so that the 12th graders don’t fall too far behind.

In the meantime, the school’s Eye 2 Israel / Yama and student blogging (informational site in Hebrew only) projects have encouraged students to use their tech bent to help foment a positive image of Israelis in the blogosphere – a motivation close to Israelity’s heart.

One of their bloggers, 14-year-old Rebeca Mayer, is an immigrant from Cuba. Although her English isn’t the most polished, Mayer’s accounts of her day-to-day life are a poignant reminder that there are real people behind every headline. As she puts it in her blog, “I decided to open this blog so all of you out there will understand what we’re going threw here in Ashkelon.”

Writing from inside a bomb shelter, where she and her family have been spending lots of time lately, Mayer wrote on December 28:

I’m really board here cause there’s nothing to do, my little bro is playing with my grandma with a train.

….I wanted to go out today and buy some shoes, but I guess this plan would have to wait, it really sucks to live in this kind of reality I just hope everything will be ok.

More recently, this past Tuesday, she wrote about her feelings of personal connection to the IDF soldiers who had recently been killed in combat in Gaza:

I feel so responsible for there death, cause I know they died to defend me.

They were supposed to come home as heroes but they come back in a coffin.

Now nothing could change, I just hope they will be happy up there in heaven.

As of yesterday, Mayer was planning on going to Eilat for the weekend for some escape and fun. We hope she finds what she’s looking for.

Image Ashkelon courtesy Jason Turner from Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

 

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  Israel is often seen as a place of conflict and strife. In reality there is much more: there's business and research; art and culture; community and family. At ISRAELITY, Israelis blog their daily thoughts, experiences and insights. It's the real Israel, not the media's Israel. It's people living ordinary lives in an extraordinary place.

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