النكبة - Nakba

President Bush is in Israel today, here with other heads of state and foreign diplomats to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday. As the celebrations roll on into their second week, I would like to take a moment to pause and ruminate on tomorrow's "Nakba Day." The word Nakba (spelled out for you in Arabic, and intentionally capitalized in English) means "catastrophe." Not surprisingly, it refers to the creation of Israel, the flight of Palestinian refugees that fled or were forced from their homes because of the fighting, and the destruction of over 100 Palestinian villages in what would become Israel.

Israel is dear to me, as it should be. Having lived here, I no longer see it through rose colored glasses, but rather with a skeptical eye and a heavy dose of reality. I believe this is healthier. I love this country but I feel it is my responsibility to recognize that the culmination of our collective hope and drive to regain our Holy Land did not come without significant bloodshed and hardship. Israel was not born by immaculate conception. Nor was it only Israel that was born in 1948. There were two nations born as a result of that war, Israelis and Palestinians.

60 years later, Israel is thriving. It's far from perfect, but Zionism has been a fantastic success. We Jews have realized self determination. It would be immoral and unjust to deny it to the Palestinians, whose fate we are bound to. It is time to realize that making concessions is not a sign of weakness. We have our Jewish state, our Israeli society, our Promised Land, and it is beautiful. For our sake, as well as for theirs, we must help the Palestinians to build their state alongside ours.

The Mossad "Allegedly" Gets Their Man

Imad Mughniyeh, arch terrorist and a zealot who helped to found Hizballah in the early 80's was blown straight to hell Monday night in a car bombing in Damascus. My condolences to his loved ones. Predictably enough, the Mossad has refused to accept credit for the assassination, but they are still high fiving each other up front and behind the back. Knesset member and former head of Mossad Danny Yatom had this to say about the assassination: ""Mughniyah was one of the most dangerous and cruel terrorists of all time. There are numerous intelligence agencies and countries that have been pursuing him, and the one that was successful in reaching him [has proven itself] - to have a high intelligence and operational capability." I can almost picture him snickering as he said this, patting himself and his coworkers on the back for a job well done.

In a response just as predictable as Israel's, Hezballah, Hamas, Syria and Iran have pointed the finger squarely at Israel and issued their tired, stereotyped responses to the "Zionist crimes" and swore bloody revenge. Maintaining their strict policy of tight lipped plausible deniability, the office of the Prime Minister released this statement: “Israel rejects the attempt by terrorist elements to ascribe to it any involvement whatsoever in this incident.” I'm not entirely certain, but I believe that this statement, when translated into Farsi reads "fuck ya'll!!!!!!"

Beg, Borrow Or Steal

Two longstanding budget problems were resolved today that impact my life, and as usual I'll weigh in on each. First of all, the senior university faculty here in Israel ended their 90 day strike, reaching an agreement with the government that will provide 16.8% compensation for salary erosion due to inflation over the past decade. The compromise was drafted by the head of Israel's uber powerful Histadrut labor union. Needless to say, I am relieved that the academic year will not be canceled, as that would have had catastrophic effects on the country in the following years. As it stands, the beginning of next fall's semester will likely need to be pushed back to accommodate the start of the semester at a time when it was supposed to be ending. Nor will there be a break between the semesters to come. However, a greater disaster has been averted.

Meanwhile back home in Chicago, the RTA will receive the money necessary to avoid the so called "doomsday scenario", which would have involved huge fare increases, service cuts and layoffs. That would have meant job loss all over the city, and it would have been a death knell for public transportation in Chicago. I am something of an advocate for public transit, and I don't really think the bill goes far enough in addressing the problems. It doesn't provide any money for capital projects, so maintenance and development will continue to sit on the back burner. Even so, service cuts will not go into effect, which was crucial for the health of the city.

Record Lows

We are in the teeth of a cold snap in Israel that has many of my Israeli friends remarking that they "can't remember a time when it was this cold here." Surprise! I guess the joke is on me - I was under the impression that I wouldn't have to put up with a real winter this year. The temperature has routinely dropped into the thirties at night up at the university. Tonight will be no different. Thank God I'm in Haifa too, as it is colder elsewhere. Safed had a frost last night, while it fell to around 16 degrees fahrenheit at the Hermon mountain in the very northern part of the Golan Heights last night.

Of course the weather won't keep me indoors. I went out to a pub last night with Omri to watch the Maccabi Haifa - Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer match, which Haifa won handily, 3-1. This morning I got up and went to the market to buy some produce. I must say, the shuk is a different place on Monday than it is on Friday. It was so much less crowded than I'm used to, so things went quicker and the service was better. Plus, with no one pressing up against you in a crowd, you don't worry about being pick pocketed the whole time.

Because it's been a while, I'd like to give a quick update regarding two important political processes ongoing in Israel right now. First, the faculty strike at the universities continued through its 85th day today, after an attempt by the university Presidents to garner a court injunction against the professors forcing them to break the strike failed. This leaves few options to prevent the cancellation of the semester. In fact, the Presidents had promised to cancel the semester, and possibly the whole academic year today if the courts did not force the faculty back to work. They have since backtracked from that, but I'm betting it's only a few days before they reach the inescapable conclusion that this semester is irreparably damaged and needs to be canceled. The exams for these classes would have been held next week, had the semester begun on time.

Also in the news, Israel and the Palestinian Authority began "Final Status" negotiations this morning at a Jerusalem hotel. For those unfamiliar with the concept, I will give a brief explanation: Final Status negotiations are intended to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, create a Palestinian state on land currently occupied by Israel, and guarantee Israel's security. Personally, I think this is a terrible decision that will eventually lead to more violence. There are a host of reasons why the time is not ripe for these negotiations, but perhaps most important is that the Palestinian Authority has no control over what happens in the Gaza Strip, which is envisioned as an inseperable part of a future Palestine. Israel cannot and will not negotiate with Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the territory, so Gaza would not truly be included even if a peace treaty was signed by the two parties. I hope I'm wrong, but I am certain that these discussions are doomed to fail.

Trying To Catch My Breath

The weekend has come and gone and I'm just struggling to keep up. The work is really starting to pile up as we draw close to the end of the semester. My Arabic workload is a solid 2 hours per night, night in and night out, and I have lots of other classes on top of it. I will be giving a presentation in "Rabbinic Literature" a week from today on the legality of smoking tobacco according to modern interpretations of Jewish law. Tomorrow morning I have a Hebrew exam. Things are getting plenty dicey and I spent a solid part of the weekend pouring over my notes. This is all with an eye to the future. I need to get my work done now because my family arrives in Israel tomorrow afternoon and will be spending the two upcoming weekends here in Haifa with me. I would really rather go touring with them than sit with books open studying.

I did have some fun over the weekend in spite of myself. Thursday night I went out with a group of friends to a pool hall in Mercaz HaCarmel. Dominique and I lightened the mood considerably by cracking open a bottle of vodka for the group before hitting the strip. I probably had a little too much, and the lowlight of my night was lining up to shoot at a ball that I didn't realize wasn't mine, and then making the perfect shot to sink it.

I went over to the Mor's home for a wonderful Shabbat lunch with the whole family. Amir came, and Carmit and Shani brought the kids. Devorah made a lot of cholent, just the way I like it. I got my standard playtime with Shachar and I tried feeding Shai. She wasn't having any of it, and most of the apple sauce-ish stuff I was trying to give her ended up on her bib. Now I'll shamelessly post pics of the kids, with many thanks to Carmit:

To me, this is what Shabbat is all about.

One of the few moments where Shachar wasn't running around.

I think this photo was taken before the high tide of apple sauce.

And one of me and Devorah, since this is my space anyway.

As for the situation on campus, the student strike has come to an end beginning today, without accomplishing a single one of the goals they set out to accomplish. Totally pathetic. The only thing they managed to achieve was the cancellation of university classes for a week. The government is still not meeting with the professors who remain on strike. It's the status quo, ladies and gentleman! I mentioned in an earlier post how disappointed I was with the efforts of the student union to affect policy change. Now I'm just disgusted. The semester is all but assured to be canceled at this point. If the students hoped to make a point that the Israeli government would respond to, they failed.

The Annapolis Conference

Annapolis has come and gone. I wanted to jot down a few of my thoughts and impressions regarding the conference. To begin, the fact that the Arab League was nearly entirely represented on the ministerial level already makes this a success for Israel, as it demonstrates that the Arab leaders have not bought into the fanatical rejectionism of Hamas, Hezbollah or their pimp Iran.

Next comes the hard part. Israel and the PA have agreed on a joint document and will immediately begin bilateral negotiations intended to create a Palestinian state and end the Israel - Palestinian conflict. This would in theory lead to negotiated treaties and a normalization of relations with all countries represented by the Arab League, as propsed in the Arab Peace Initiative.

It all sounds nice and pretty, but its totally contingent on the Israeli government and the PA reaching an agreeable compromise, something that has failed on several occasions in the past. There are a number of factors working against this potential outcome. The first is that both Ehud Olmert and Abu Mazen are weak, unpopular leaders who may lack the political clout to make such an agreement. Olmert is under indictment for fraud and lost the support of most of his constituency by failing to militarily defeat Hezbollah last summer during the Second Lebanon War. Abu Mazen's Fatah party was routed and thrown out of Gaza by Hamas, and there are questions about his legitimacy in regard to his decision to dissolve the Hamas parlimant after the civil war in Gaza.

Additionally, Olmert will face challenges to his government by members of his coalition in the knesset. (For those who don't understand the inner workings of a parliamentary democracy can read about them here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliamentary_system) Essentially, Olmert's party "Kadima" cannot rule on their own because they lack a majority of the seats in Knesset, but are considered the dominant party because they have a plurality. In order to rule, they must form pacts with other less represented parties so that together they will form a majority. This is called a coalition. Olmert has several right wing parties in his coalition who are opposed to any land compromise, and may attempt to bring down the government by leaving the coalition. This would force new elections, and generally throw Israel's entire political reality into turmoil, thus postponing any peace agreement.

Finally both societies must deal with the extremists in their midsts, those who would choose violence and bloodshed over compromise. I can only hope that these people are neutralized to the greatest extent possible. We would do well not to forget that leaders on both sides have been murdered for pursuing a peace settlement. Anwar Sadat of Egypt was assassinated in 1979 by Islamic extremists, while Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in 1995 by a fascist Jewish settler.

With all that said, I am hopefull that an accord can be struck. Making peace with the Arabs is key to isolating Iran and limiting Iran's influence in the Levant. It could have a domino effect: Israel makes peace with the Palestinians, allowing her to then make peace with Syria. This would deprive Iran of it's steadiest Arab ally, while simultaneously choking off Iranian money and weapons from Hamas and Hezbollah.

Castles Made Of Sand

This is how the Hamas establishment in the Gaza Strip is beginning to appear. I read an article this morning about the upcoming Annapolis peace conference. Mostly good news: Saudi Arabia is sending its foreign minister and Syria is close to sending theirs. This is a political coup for Israel and the United States, and could signal the beginning of peace negotiations between Israel and each of these countries. Hamas' response was classic: Their Damascus based leadership is predicting a "new wave of Palestinian violence" in response to the peace conference. This is akin to the mafia predicting a structure fire in your store if you don't pay them protection money. I only have two things to say about such a brazen, vile position. The first is that Hamas has clearly lost any influence they once held in the eyes of foreign Arab governments. They have been bitching and moaning about this conference since the moment it was conceived, and to no effect whatsoever. Clearly, their power is waning. This brings me to my second point: Hamas can't strong arm their genocidal position politically anymore, so they are falling back on their favored tactic. Murder is what they know best, and murder is how they intend to proceed. One final note about Hamas. Since the PLC elections last year, Hamas has killed more Palestinians than Israelis. These are theocratic terrorist thugs and cowards who have already demonstrated they will do anything to maintain the power they have gained. Time is now on Israel's side. Don't be surprised when Hamas is finally washed away.

Ecstasy From A Toaster Oven

I have a new roommate. Haven't met him, don't know his name or even his face, and yet he is my new favorite roommate. He brought us a new toaster oven! It's brand new and it works beautifully and it is sitting in our kitchen opposite the counter! Honestly, this is definitely another one of those instances where you are forced to get used to being without. I haven't had an oven or a microwave all semester, and I had basically stopped pining for either. What a sucker I was. I used it for the first time this afternoon. Nothing really complicated, I just broiled some chicken sausages I had in the freezer. Even so, it was magic!

Today may be my most significant day of the semester to date. I have two presentations scheduled for today, in Hebrew and in Terrorism and Responses. I already delivered my Hebrew presentation this morning, while Terrorism and Responses isn't for another few hours. I can only hope that project goes as well as the one this morning did. As you may recall, my topic is the relationships between Hebrew and Arabic (היחסים בין עברית לערבהית.) I chose this topic under the assumption that linguistics would bore my classmates and they would ignore my presentation, thus undermining their ability to ask additional questions at the end. I was dead wrong, and I'm glad I was. They were paying rapt attention the entire time, asking questions throughout. With the formal Q & A section after the presentation, I spoke for about 40 minutes. I definitely aced the project, and I had fun while doing it too.

I would prefer to keep this page relatively apolitical, for everyone's sake. However, I am compelled to say something political today. I read in the newspaper this morning that the continuing faculty strike in the University sector is about to complete its fifth week. The Universities are about to cancel the break between semesters and may need to dip into the summer break as well in order to make up for the lost time. The students are already in an awkward position because their professors are on strike, but adjunct instructors are still teaching, meaning that University students have those classes taught by a TA, but do not have those classes taught by a senior faculty member. This has led to serious crowding issus in the classes that do exist, and because adjunct instructors need permission from a professor to give an exam, some classes may not even have their midterms.

Meanwhile the secondary school strike reached its 36th day this morning, with no real progress to speak of. There was a massive protest at Kikar Rabin in Tel Aviv over the weekend in favor of the teachers, but it looks to have accomplished nothing. What does this all mean? Education in this country is not a priority. The government is sitting on its hands with both the high school teachers and the university professors, and that is indefensible. The government keeps trotting out the same line about money and working conditions (including class size and teaching hours) but is totally unwilling to come to the table and compromise. Education should be a priority always, especially here in Israel. If the government can't pony up the cash to pay their instructors a fair wage, then perhaps it is time to reexamine where their money is going.

100,000 protesters couldn't convince this shitty government to act.

On a lighter note.... We had a thunderstorm that raged all night last night, and we've had intermittent rain all day. It's cold, wet and generally unpleasant outside today. What this means of course is that everyone back home who is praying for rain in the holy land is doing a bang up job! I wish I could thank you all personally for this miserable day. I bought an umbrella from the university store so as not to melt on my walk to class. Enough for now, I've got to go practice for my presentation this afternoon. I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving breaks.