Lessons from The Rabin Murder

November 4, 2008 - 12:35 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

Israel can surprise you – in the most surprising ways. One thing I’ve learned in some 15 years of living here – nothing, but nothing, is what it seems on the surface. There is little, if any, black and white in Israeli life – it’s a rainbow, with lots of shades of different colors in the mix. Take my Rabin experience, for example.

I was at home with my wife and some friends, watching a movie, when I heard the news – “Four Weddings and a Funeral.” Not focusing too closely on the video (men will understand why), I overheard a couple of neighbors talking outside in the courtyard. Rather rare for a Saturday night, I thought, and especially those two, who didn’t generally fraternize, going on at length. Sauntering out of the room (I think it was around the time of the second wedding), I went out to the porch to find out what was going on.

Needless to say, we turned the movie off and watched the proceedings.

At the time, I worked for a publication owned by a major Israeli newspaper in Tel Aviv. You could count on one hand the number of observant people in this organization (to their credit, the very avant garde, very politically left people at this publication were extremely respectful to my religious principles – for example, they always made sure kosher food was served at staff meetings, etc.).

But not only was I religious – I was a “settler,” too, living in a community east of the green line. This, too, had never been an issue with these people, and my views on politics and Jewish life in Judea and Samaria were well-known. But now, with Rabin killed by a Jew wearing a kippah, and his alleged connections to residents of Judea and Samaria – this was different. With all the talk of how “the right and religious” were behind Rabin’s killing, I walked into the office that Sunday morning with great trepidation, ready for anything – dirty looks, insults, verbal confrontations, or worse.

But either the folks working at this publication were exceptions to the rule, or the very yellow character of the Israeli media had reared its ugly head again, with the tiny minority of loudmouths dedicated to ruining the fabric of Israeli society trumpeting ideas about putting right-wingers in internment camps in the Negev being given a solitary platform. Even the “star” of this publication, who today is famous for his American talk-show shock-jock style radio call-in program where he argues with everybody, and who has extremely left-wing views, didn’t speak to me any differently than usual (gruffly, like he talked to everybody). Astounded, I asked one of the editors of the publication what was going. Where was all the blame, the anger, the “we will not forgive and we will not forget” I was expecting? After all, I was a pretty convenient target!

He just looked at me like I was crazy – and asked: “Why would we want to do that to you? You may be a settler, but you’re ‘our’ settler!”

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13 years and counting

November 3, 2008 - 8:51 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Life, Politics 

It’s hard to imagine it was 13 years ago that Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated at a peace rally in Tel Aviv.
No-one can forget where they were or what they were doing when the news came.

I was actually at the rally itself, standing on a building looking out over what is now Rabin Square. We left before the end, bouyed by the incredible mood of hope and optimism at the demonstration. There were so many people there – 300,000 out of a population which was then only five million or so – we thought that this time peace really had a chance.

We drove to a friend’s house just a short distance away and as we walked in the door, they told us he’d been shot.
Minutes later, as we watched the TV, we heard in disbelief that he was dead.

Here, for the 13th anniversary, is a video celebrating Rabin’s life.

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Engineering Politics

October 29, 2008 - 12:21 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

ZIV-AV_small.jpgIt’s election time in Israel, so naturally, the thoughts turn to politics – or rather, politicians. Israelis have opinions on politics that run the gamut, from far left to far right. And that’s cool – it’s part of our “great mosaic,” to take a line from former New York Mayor Dinkins.

But politics and politicians are two different things. And no matter what differences Israelis have on how the country should be run, most of them agree in their opinions on the people who would like to run the country – specifically, been there, done that. I don’t think I would be expressing a specific political opinion if I said that all three of the major candidates for prime minister have had their turn at senior posts, including but not limited to Prime, Defense, Foreign, and Finance Ministers – and despite some small successes here and there, none can be said to have had a particularly stellar record at those jobs. Maybe it’s time for some new blood.

And I think I’ve found that blood – in the form of Dr. Amir Ziv-av, an engineer whose firm, Ziv-Av Engineering, has been in the forefront of inventing better ways of doing things in Israel for nearly 20 years. The company has designed everything from giant earth-movers to miniature electronics, and all sorts of projects in between.

But it’s Dr. Ziv-av – and his ideas on how engineering concepts can help save the country – that are the news here. According to Dr. Ziv-av, there’s a common denominator in the design of something as simple as a plastic chair and the design of something as sophisticated as components for jet engines (both of which his company has helped design) – “does it work? What are the specific things we expect this product to do, or not do?” For example, you expect a plastic chair to be somewhat comfortable, and not fall apart when you sit on it. “You simply design your product to fulfill those needs – usually there are ten or eleven basic ones – and you’ve got a product you can confidently offer to the public,” Dr. Ziv-av says. And what goes for plastic chairs goes for jet engines, education, and even politics; the principles are portable, and can be applied to almost anything.

Now how simple is that? Not to mention logical! But it seems that whatever government puts its imprimatur on becomes overly complicated and goes out of control; in so many areas, it seems as if those implementing the ill-fated policies just didn’t think things through. How could they not have seen disaster coming? It’s not just “hindsight” – like engineers, politicians have to be aware that policy creates change, and a good engineer – or politician – anticipates those changes, and learns from mistakes. And while the engineers Dr. Ziv-av trains do that very well, our politicians don’t.

There are reasons for that, says Dr. Ziv-av – too numerous and complicated to go into here (watch for the full article elsewhere on 21C!). Suffice to say that Dr. Ziv-av is a breath of fresh air – a successful scientist and businessman who has come up with a “whole life” theory, applying scientific and engineering principles to spheres where few have thought they could apply. That, to me, is the mark of an exceptional mind, a social philosopher who has something important to say to the rest of us. I’ve already begun my personal campaign to convince him to run for something (he hasn’t agreed as of yet).

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