Brothers in arms against the fire

December 5, 2010 - 11:54 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics 

Members of the Bulgarian fire fighting delegation arrive in the Carmel. (Photo: Ben Hartman)

There’s not much room for optimism this Hanukka, as it’s been doused by the huge blaze that has claimed so much land in the Carmel region and taken over 40 lives.

But maybe there is a silver lining in the national disaster that has befallen us – the result, it seems of the carelessness of two teens who didn’t smother their bonfire.

I’m talking about the willingness of our global neighbors – near like Jordan, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority; regional like Greece, Cyprus and Turkey; and those as far as Russia, Bulgaria, France, Italy, England and the US – to send supplies and forces to help our country in its hour of need is a heartwarming eye-opener.

On the one hand, there shouldn’t be any surprise at the offers of aid – it’s a natural reaction that should be taken for granted. Human life is in danger, so you help, regardless of your geopolitical differences.

On the other hand, we’ve been conditioned over the years to be paranoid, whether it’s justified or not. The world is against us, and if a government utters a pro-Palestinian statement, it means they’re either at best anti-Semitic or at worst seeking Israel’s destruction.

An example of our national obsession with connecting everything to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the unfounded rumors that spread almost as fast as the flames that the fire was the result of arson perpetrated by everyone from al-Qaida to Hamas.

Those suspicious pro-Israel advocates who see an enemy around every corner must have been shocked that such “cold peace” friends like Egypt and Turkey have done the right thing and mobilized for a neighbor. Even the Palestinian Authority, our closest neighbors and those whom we are most at odds with, sent fire trucks to Taibe and Barta’a, two Arab villages in the Galilee. It’s almost as satisfying as them recognizing Israel as the Jewish homeland.

Of course, it’s reasonable to assume that this show of solidarity will have no bearing on future relations with Turkey or our ability to negotiate with the Palestinians. But who knows? Maybe it will.

Listening to reports of firefighters from Bulgaria and Greece standing shoulder to shoulder with our exhausted men, barely unable to communicate beyond a shared goal of containing the killer blaze, was indeed an example of the spirit of the global community in practice, not just in theory.

It’s a clear illustration – far beyond Israel’s participation in the Olympics or in the Eurovision song contest – that, despite the bitter divide over the future of the land we are destined to share with the Palestinians, we are an accepted member of the family of nations. It’s too bad it took such a monumental tragedy for that to be revealed.

Tags: , , , , ,

A wine glass half full or half empty?

September 5, 2010 - 8:10 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Business, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics 

The launching of peace talks between Israel in the Palestinians last week in Washington are just the beginning of a long haul, which if proved successful, will undoubtedly mean that many Israelis living in certain settlements in the West Bank will have to be uprooted.

The AFP news agency has found one settler, Yoram Cohen, of Ofra which is near the Palestinian city of Ramallah – and a likely settlement to be marked for dismantlement – who is ready to make that painful concession if it means real peace. And Cohen has a lot more to lose than his home, he’s also producing world-class kosher wine on seven acres of nearby land.

“Dialogue is always better than bloodshed. If a peace deal is reached, I will inevitably be one of its victims. It will be painful, but I won’t have any choice. I will just have to turn the page and leave my land with a heavy heart,” Cohen told AFP.

Ofra, around 20 miles away from Jerusalem, was established in 1983 and has around 3,000 inhabitants. My second cousins, Na’aman and Rochelle, moved there near the very beginning, and have raised their six children, most of whom are now married and having children of their own now.

I haven’t spoken to them about their feelings about the talks taking place. But like the majority of Israelis, there’s sceptism over whether this round will end any differenly than the numerous attempts before it to achieve some kind of agreement that will enable Israel and the Palestinians to live peacefully side by side in states of their own.

For wine maker Cohen, though, giving up his home will be doubly difficult as it also means giving up his Tanya Wineries. According to AFP, this summer’s heatwave made him harvest his grapes earlier than usual. But he was delighted with the results, gathering 800 kilograms per dunam on average, a quantity that he expects will yield around 40,000 bottles of wine.

“The 2010 vintage will be exceptional,” he said with satisfaction, after tasting the juice from his latest crop.

Cohen is fiercely proud of his vineyard, boasting some 15 international awards and even naming his eight children after the different grape varieties — cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir.

The strictly kosher wine he produces is mostly sold to Jewish clients in the United States, France, Italy and Belgium.

Multiply Cohen’s story by the over 50,000 Israeli settlers (assuming the main settlement blocks like Gush Etzion and Ma’aleh Adumim are kept in Israeli hands) who would likely be affected by a peace agreement requiring them to relocate, and you’ll begin to understand the complexities involved that don’t only affect land and borders, but also people.

Tags: , , , , ,

A picture tells 1,000 words

August 17, 2010 - 8:31 AM by · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, War 

Eden Abergil is seen in this picture, posted on her Facebook page, smiling next to the prisoners.

The storm that erupted yesterday when am ex-IDF soldier posted photographs of herself from the army posing with blindfolded and bound Palestinian prisoners under the title “The Army … The Most Beautiful Time of My Life,” reminded me of an incident during my own military service a few years back.

Serving in a series of military prisons, I also dealt with Palestinian detainees in similar situations as the ex-soldier, Eden Abergil. As their ‘jailer,’ I would sit for hours outside a huge, soccer-field sized fenced in area, where the prisoners lived, ate, studied, played volleyball, studied and slept in tents. I was their outside contact to enable their food to get in, to announce their trice-daily roll calls, to bring prisoners to see their lawyers, or the IDF doctors and dentists that were also in reserve duty to serve them.

I had always tried to explain to family and friends what life was like in the prison, for us the soldiers, as well as the prisoners. But it was really something you needed to see. So, I brought my camera back one time from leave, and one day, in the middle of their daily activities, unobtrusively took a couple of wide-lens shots of the prisoners through the fence.

Unobtrusively, I thought. Because, just as we were ordered to keep an eye on them, the prisoners also had their guards whose job it was to keep their eyes on us. Within a minute, the ‘shawish’ – the Arab name for the prisoner chosen to speak for the detainees – was at the gate demanding to speak to my commander.

I reluctanctly called him, and it became clear during their discussion that they were talking about me and my camera. Afterwards, the commander came to me and said, “next time you want to take a photograph, take one of me.”

I left my camera home in subsequent stints of reserve duty.

Tags: , , ,

Contemplating Costello’s cancellation

May 20, 2010 - 9:49 AM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Music, Pop Culture 

Elvis Costello’s cancellation of his two shows in Israel in June and July due to Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has caused unbridled emotion to surface in blogs, talkbacks and columns.

The dumbest comments claim that Costello is a has been, an anti-semite and a talentless hack – or all three. Obviously we are hurt, dismayed, betrayed, confused and angered at Costello’s decision to renege on his two shows scheduled for June 30 and July 1 at the Caesearea Amphitheater.

It’s especially disheartening because it wasn’t a rash decision and Costello isn’t a vapid pop star – he’s thoughtful, well-read and intelligent. He told me when I talked to him last night on the phone that his dilemma over whether to appear in Israel had been part of a 30-year conundrum from him, and that the issue had come up many times.

What I take away from the affair is not the desire to burn Elvis’s CDs as so many talkbackers threatened to do just like Christians burned Beatles records in 1966, but the desire to try to understand how Israel’s enemies have managed to present such a convincing argument consisting of half-truths, distortions and lies, that a wordly – albeit liberal – artist like Costello could be convinced to boycott us.

That Costello is letting himself be used by those that would want to see Israel harmed is alarming, indeed. But, that Israel has not successfully been able to sway world opinion that her cause is just is no less alarming.

Tags: , , ,

Sheikh Jarrah in your face (book)

January 28, 2010 - 11:27 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, Blogging, coexistence, General, Life, Politics 

YouTube Preview Image
For a few Fridays now, there have been demonstrations in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in east Jerusalem against the move by Jewish settlers to remove Palestinian residents from homes they claim are Jewish-owned.

Over 20 protestors on the Israeli Left were arrested at last week’s demonstration, which drew over 300 people. And tomorrow, sparks are expected to fly when a counter-demonstration by members of the extreme Right like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Baruch Marzel takes place opposite the Left demo.

While the media in Israel has been covering the protests, most of the information coming out – both in terms of mobilization for these events -as well as the play by play of what’s going on there – have been disseminated through social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with a slew of blogs.

Rather than waiting until the nightly news to watch footage of arrests of protests, viewers can go straight to YouTube and watch the unedited action.

According to a story in The Jerusalem Post, activists and journalists both described a situation in which protesters were relying on the Internet to try and affect change on the ground and raise awareness of the arrests made during demonstrations in the neighborhood.

“It’s all Facebook, e-mails and Twitter,” said Didi Remez, a human rights activist, who has become noticeably involved in the Sheikh Jarrah protests as of late. Remez was arrested during a protest there last Friday.

Remez also said that distant audiences, like American Jews, who might be deprived of Sheikh Jarrah coverage due to the mainstream media’s lack of interest, were instead staying abreast of the situation via social networking sites.

“The American media is for some reason refusing to cover this,” he said. “Even though it’s becoming a major issue in Israel. And still, despite that, there’s a lot of awareness [of this issue] among Jewish Americans, the reason being that they are increasingly connected through Facebook, Twitter, blogs and so on.”

Sure enough, this morning, my Facebook page was full of posts calling on people to mobilize against the Right demo tomorrow.

Hagai El-Ad, the director of the Association for Human Rights in Israel and one of the protesters arrested two weeks ago, said that the use of new media was a driving force behind the success of the Sheikh Jarrah protest organizers. But, he added, that’s only part of the battle.

“Yes, the mobilization happens online,” El-Ad added, “but the end result is the most classic form of civil protest.”

Tags: , , , , ,

Page 1 of 3123

 

© 2012 ISRAELITY | Site by illuminea | Sitemap