tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80169303499380079622024-03-12T06:52:00.387+02:00Telaviv1Jewish and Israeli history blog
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.comBlogger99125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-77041856600924941162023-11-12T18:10:00.051+02:002023-11-20T14:44:31.200+02:00Remembering the Yom Kippur war (October 1973)<p> In October 1973 I was 9 (nearly 10) and living in a small house my parents had bought in what was then an immigrant neighborhood at the West end of Ra'anana, a small Israeli town of 30,000 or so (its larger now). </p><p>Yom Kippur in Israel is a remarkable day, there are no cars on the roads, no TV, no radio broadcasts. The airports and ports and border crossings are all closed. In those days there was no internet and Israel had only a single, black and white TV station. I have quite a vivid memory of the day. I was reading the Lord of the Rings. I was so deep in the book that it took a while for me to notice that the air-raid siren was going off (I evidently knew what it was). Eventually, I put down my book and went outside to see what was happening.</p><p>My parents and other neighbors were wandering around wondering what was happening. Nobody was aware of any tension. Eventually my father went in and turned on the radio: There was music. </p><p>"Something must have happened" he said, "There shouldn't be radio on Yom Kippur". The TV was the same. Eventually a radio news broadcast said that Israel had been attacked by Syria and Egypt. The announcer gave astonishing figures: hundreds of tanks destroyed on the fronts (Egyptian, Syrian and Israeli), I don't remember precise numbers but I remember that they were huge: Many hundreds. At the time, these were the largest tank battles since the Second World War.</p><p>Our house was next to a bomb shelter, which served all the houses in our alley. The shelter entrance was a door with a slope behind it, the slope covered stairs going underground, leading to a sizeable underground chamber with an emergency exit. The door and the emergency exit were the only visible features. The emergency exit was a concrete bulge with a window from which one could escape.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlzZWrs9uFjwjwaq-4yq6Uetvdt8oQbB01_3ojZw_oO5NUBNpNSF1d0PGAur093xp8VGxjSzfGUGbbqg0xpEtnIKLyYjVKRi2Wsv4c5OeDae9fD_0uVMPZzsIAGTB-fAEHT6NQ7ivjMWxh6fw7PNGYBzySD4W9ZOTYr6s4v6IExptWTaFjRUK3QS4" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1241" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjJlzZWrs9uFjwjwaq-4yq6Uetvdt8oQbB01_3ojZw_oO5NUBNpNSF1d0PGAur093xp8VGxjSzfGUGbbqg0xpEtnIKLyYjVKRi2Wsv4c5OeDae9fD_0uVMPZzsIAGTB-fAEHT6NQ7ivjMWxh6fw7PNGYBzySD4W9ZOTYr6s4v6IExptWTaFjRUK3QS4=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The shelter in 2023, the emergency exit is red, the door is on the other side of the far structure.</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"> In 1973, the area round the shelter was all sand.</div><p></p><p>The bomb shelter was locked and nobody had the key. My father got a hack saw and started sawing at the padlock. After 10 minutes a large Russian man appeared with a hammer, waved him away and with one blow smashed the padlock.</p><p>Me and my friends used to play on the bomb shelter. The slope was a bit like a slide, it had an element of danger, but was not high enough to cause major issues. The younger brother of my friend David Wiseman, once peed on him from the top. David's family were immigrants from South Africa and they lived in the expensive neighborhood near ours. His father was on the Israel cricket team and had opened the first Burger restaurant in Israel: The Burger Ranch (it still exists under different ownership). Another friend was Eli, whose family were religious. Eli's family lived close by; His parents were Moroccan immigrants and he had about 7 siblings. Their house had only 2 or 3 bed rooms: They had double beds everywhere and he shared his bed with one or two brothers.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWbvCgYXRAtTeRcDkkg3j75YYoRAxZIxejVUIrppN6aPRpjUn0fEdRaQZvHtFdJfzIvhG9VbE0xIAR9sTMG1pWTYUbqlm6TFGpsIADleetpV3hm9fLBjQIde_9Vx8YXujLXt9mNXOiig4xmMNOXYp4gGKTed8c-2JUicMRHJhAmrzM2b7j2PgmdWTX" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1241" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgWbvCgYXRAtTeRcDkkg3j75YYoRAxZIxejVUIrppN6aPRpjUn0fEdRaQZvHtFdJfzIvhG9VbE0xIAR9sTMG1pWTYUbqlm6TFGpsIADleetpV3hm9fLBjQIde_9Vx8YXujLXt9mNXOiig4xmMNOXYp4gGKTed8c-2JUicMRHJhAmrzM2b7j2PgmdWTX=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The slope of the bomb shelter in 2023</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Before the war, when we were playing, Eli had suddenly needed to shit, he didn't ask to use our toilet (we were only 8) and I didn't think to offer, so he simply climbed into the shelter's emergency exit and shat there. We never told anybody. The emergency exit had a latch at the bottom so you couldn't get into the shelter from outside, but you could climb into the shaft.<p></p><p>So, when the adults went into the shelter, one of the first things they found (and had to clean) was Eli's shit. </p><p>I went over to Eli's house in the first couple of days, two of his brothers were in uniform listening to the radio which was broadcasting codes: Instructions for soldiers of where to go. There was a lot of hissing and my parents later told me this was "jamming" attempts to disrupt radio signals.</p><p>The first night of the war, we watched Golda Meir on the TV and my parents blacked out our windows (against bombers) and put tape on them (against flying glass). They were very cheerful about this: They said it reminded them of the Blitz. They also set up a little bag of stuff to take to the bomb shelter, should we need it.</p><p>They must have been worried, because the next day they left me with a family they knew from the British Consulate who had a child my age. He had a huge house, with a massive garden and lots of toys and for a while I went there regularly. The boy (I think his name was Daniel) had a hearing problem and at some point I teased him about it, after which I was no longer invited.</p><p>We had some rather odd neighbors, who were from the American mid-West. A family of blonde haired, blue eyed Americans who in the excitement of the post-Six Day war era had converted to Judaism and moved to Israel. My parents said that in the first days of the war, the family had listened to the BBC World Service which religiously relayed Arab announcements as facts. The Syrian government announced that "Haifa was burning" and they freaked. It was nonsense. The BBC still relays such announcements as fact, usually disregarding Israeli news. I think they have a lot of Arabic speakers and no Hebrew speakers.</p><p>Nobody had a phone - The waiting time for a phone was about a decade, unless you were a doctor or high ranking military. There was a single payphone by the little shopping center which served the whole neighborhood. My mother told a story about how it malfunctioned once, giving free phone calls and generating a long queue of people who phoned all over the world.</p><p>My friend Yossi Abu-Salem (whose parents were immigrants from Morocco) told me that a jeep drew up outside his father's Synagogue on the morning of Yom Kippur and soldiers took him away. I think Yossi's father must have been in a commando unit, because he also told me that at some point his father came home on leave and when he took off his shoes, a massive knife fell out. Abu-Salem is Arabic for "father of peace".</p><p>My best friend at this time was Gur, who lived in the fancy neighborhood that bordered on ours - The houses were detached with nice gardens and terracotta roofs. Gur's parents were born in Israel: Generally the kids in my school whose parents were born in Israel lived in that neighborhood. Gur's great-grandfather Norman Bentwich was a British lawyer who moved to Palestine in the 1920s and designed the British Mandate's legal system: Its the British system but without juries (Ottoman rules remain valid unless new laws replaced them). It evolved into the Israeli legal system.</p><p>Gur's mother would stick the map of the front on their fridge and we used to study it, to see how things were going. By the end of the war, the Israeli army had crossed Suez and was visibly heading for Cairo, about 80 kilometers I think. In the North it was heading for Damascus and was less than 50 kilometers from Damascus. </p><p>We had no school for a couple of months. Most of the fathers were in the Army, but mine was too old. Because my father was an actor, he had no work for months: All the theatres and movies etc. were closed. </p><p>During the war, Israeli troops crossed the Suez canal into mainland Egypt and it became common to see military trucks with "Africa" written in large letters, proudly advertising their destination. The Suez canal is a long drive from central Israel. </p><p>Gur's father was a Maths professor with complete disrespect for authority. He came home from the army with a bag of "toys": Bullets and a broken pistol. We played with the bullets. Bullets have two parts - A copper jacket containing gunpower and a smaller lead shot (the actual bullet) which is wedged into the jacket. When a hammer hits the back of the metal jacket, a spark ignites the gunpowder causing a massive gas expansion which forces the bullet out at speeds which can pass the speed of sound. Me and Gur used pliers to pull out the bullets and then poured the gunpowder out of the jackets. If you did this to a few bullets and lit the gun powder they create a firework like flame and a satisfying bang. We did it on wasteland between our neighborhoods where no grown-ups could see us. </p><p>After the war, Gur's mother handed the bag of tricks into the local Police station. Many homes had momentos of the war, mostly military sleeping bags and rain coats. Tank and artillery shells are basically very large bullets and people would use the empty artillery jackets as umbrella stands or flower pots. Ammunition boxes became flower pots or storage boxes and I once saw a clock that had been welded onto a dead hand grenade. Occasionally the Army would declare an amnesty so people could hand back all the military hardware they had acquired over the years.</p><p>Over 2,000 Israeli soldiers died in the war and the government published a book with a list of the names that I remember viewing. As school slowly got back to normal, I remember large groups of children "enacting" battles and throwing clods of earth at each other. </p><p>Every night we watched the news in Hebrew on the one and only (black and white) TV channel. I remember lots of articles about the Suez canal and about friendly interactions between Israeli and Egyptian soldiers. That and Henry Kissinger meeting Gold Meir, I remember them joking in English together and the impression of genuine affection between the two. </p><p>Almost everybody in our neighborhood was an immigrant. I knew the kids in the local school better than any kids in any school I ever attended. I have never felt I belonged anywhere as much as I did in that neighborhood, maybe it was my age, maybe it was the school or the effect of the war which brought us together.</p><p>Most of the kids were children of Russian or North African immigrants. Both groups tended to arrive in Israel with nothing. Russians were allowed to take two suitcases when they emigrated and asking to leave was dangerous for them: People lost their jobs and were treated as potential enemies. Some of the Russians had highly educated parents, while others were clearly working class. I remember Arye Pukan, who told me that he read the Encyclopedia for fun and that he hadn't been circumcised in Russia because it was banned. I think he had it done after they immigrated. I also remember watching Stella's mother separate grits from rice. Stella's family home was simple and had no books.</p><p>Moroccans usually emigrated illegally, leaving their homes behind and bringing very little. Among them, there were those who were educated in religious seminaries, those with a secular French (Jewish school) education and those from the mountains who had little education. My friend Yossi had a French speaking father who worked as a welder. He had a single sister but most North African families were 7 or 8 kids. There were many girls in my class who had religious parents, their brothers went to the religious school and then the girls came to ours. Perhaps the parents felt that the religious schools didn't educate the girls properly, or perhaps there just wasn't a school for religious girls. </p><p>After the war Yossi's family emigrated to Montreal. The all-American blonde family from the mid-West left Israel and returned to the USA but their eldest daughter Debbie stayed. Debbie was my baby-sitter. She was gorgeous and I adored her. She had fallen in love with a dark-skinned Orthodox boy of Moroccan origin. They got married in a huge wedding which we attended, I don't think her family were there (but then flights were very expensive in those days). They moved to Kfar Habad, a Haredi Lubavitch community, we also attended their first child's circumcision. </p><p>I was the only British born child in my year. There were other kids who were the only ones from their country: I was the only Briton, there was an Australian, a Persian, an Argentinian, a Turkish girl and a girl whose parents were from Syria.</p><p>In general the only kids one identified by their origin, were the ones born abroad. Kids like me, often had a slight accent and spoke a different language at home. There were also native Israelis - kids with parents who were born in Israel and they all lived in the wealthy neighborhood, where houses were detached and had tiled roofs: Except for most of the Yemenites. </p><p>The first people to live in our part of Ra'anana were Yemenite immigrants, I think that they had arrived before Israeli independence. They owned land and worked as farmers. Shmuel's family had a stand selling watermelons by the main road, and in the watermelon season he would sometimes sleep in the watermelon stand. The Yemenites, all lived in one street at the start of our neighborhood, which was the first street of the area. They had the nicest houses, big detached houses with flat roofs and large gardens. Many of them became very wealthy: Land in Ra'anana is very valuable. In those days Ra'anana was mostly farmland and orange groves, but now it is a small city 20 minutes from Tel Aviv. One of the Yemenite men was an alcoholic, who used to hang out in the little shopping center.</p><p>One North African family near our house bought a sheep, which grazed round the bomb shelter, then the son had a bar-mitzva and the sheep was slaughtered. Next to them was an unmarried Dutch woman who had lots of dogs. Her house is now a 24 hour veterinary surgery. I think she must have died and left it as a free site for vets. Our most immediate neighbor was Kadosh, an 80 year old Orthodox Russian who came with his son, a talented 50 year old artist (he left his wife in the USSR). The Jewish Agency built a massive art studio for the son, just next to the house. The son built a huge sculpture that decorated the main Herzliyya post office for many years. He eventually emigrated to the USA and my parents told me he did very well there. The older Kadosh taught me to ride roller-skates. My parents had bought me a pair but neither of them knew how to use them, so 80 year old Kadosh showed me how to slide my feet at angles. I remember him inviting me into his house; I was fascinated by the massive samovar that stood on his dining table and he was delighted. He showed me how it worked and poured me some tea.</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8OtTlgmB-5kY1DRylXon2-ktp8mBkiCN1vj3FEXPOP9tz03o8Am7pu-BRkMRyyNLYdiBmzFwmiZ5XcEqbTZmg7H_T2mXueLhLmkcfvAiaF2ySHV2qNJPV3XiwRzDy9rt0aUz83iGuQ_Tg5uafyD5z-IxcfQMFNOJHsD3g1Xce0uDmeMNrF-o1BPZ9" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1241" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8OtTlgmB-5kY1DRylXon2-ktp8mBkiCN1vj3FEXPOP9tz03o8Am7pu-BRkMRyyNLYdiBmzFwmiZ5XcEqbTZmg7H_T2mXueLhLmkcfvAiaF2ySHV2qNJPV3XiwRzDy9rt0aUz83iGuQ_Tg5uafyD5z-IxcfQMFNOJHsD3g1Xce0uDmeMNrF-o1BPZ9=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The studio in 2023 - It is now a local authority center for the elderly</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Further down were Tommy and Tanya from Czechoslovakia (as it was then called), he was doing a Phd in Physics and she was studying medicine: They had left (Soviet-controlled) Czechoslovakia in the middle of their studies and continued them in Israel - in Hebrew. An unimaginable challenge. Many years later they migrated to the UK and settled in Cambridge. They remained close friends of my parents.<div>The experience of living in the neighborhood inspired my mother to write a TV series for Israeli educational TV which taught English. Some scenes were shot in the neighborhood. My father acted in that series and it made him famous in Israel, but that is another story.<br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p></div>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-47581368846785082832023-06-01T18:57:00.015+03:002023-06-04T15:42:18.309+03:00How I met a notorious anti-Semite and found myself alone with a hundred neo-Nazis.<p> In the early 1980's I attended the University of Sussex, near Brighton on the South coast of England. On my first week at Sussex I attended something called "The Freshers Week", which was a sort of fair in the main hall of the Student Union, where various student societies presented what they stood for and touted for new recruits. Each society was given a table and you made your way through an aisle of tables. </p><p>Some Englishman with a perverse sense of humour had placed two tables, on either side of the entrance: The Iranian Students Society and the Iraqi Students Society. The two countries were then at war, as Saddam Hussein had <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_War">invaded Iran</a>. The occupants of the two tables sat and glowered at each other, while presumably feeling relieved that they were not in their respective countries.</p><p>I recall chatting to the Bahais who told me that the Iranian government was <a href="https://iranpresswatch.org/post/21978/iranian-government-orders-teachers-identify-children-persecuted-bahai-minority/">seizing their children</a> and then reaching the Palestine Solidarity Campaign where two very English looking fellows sat along with a pamphlet they were selling, the cover of which you can see below:</p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNjUX6bPUiE3IP40CN9yVEcS1o_Mc3hAzfLr9hj2D0-OxqLklqLYQT-D8Ab_YizEufX4MrQ7IYj9ozgm5lWg9dGwhPbwdm2uzBUbOgfQa_rHuR_vsBVqkPYHVJWPdI64PRIYFOucXlbKBOB4BB0EM0P5QkOthc8k9gXITKVH1Xa-As1p1ogHAAyw" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="781" data-original-width="573" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhNjUX6bPUiE3IP40CN9yVEcS1o_Mc3hAzfLr9hj2D0-OxqLklqLYQT-D8Ab_YizEufX4MrQ7IYj9ozgm5lWg9dGwhPbwdm2uzBUbOgfQa_rHuR_vsBVqkPYHVJWPdI64PRIYFOucXlbKBOB4BB0EM0P5QkOthc8k9gXITKVH1Xa-As1p1ogHAAyw=w293-h400" width="293" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>As I looked at their magazine, one offered to infiltrate the Jewish Society. The other guy shushed him and I asked if he was the author of the pamphlet: Tony Greenstein. He was. I bought a copy and still have it. </p><p>The very last table (as far as possible from the Iranians and Iraqis?) was the Jewish Society. I joined, partially inspired by the conversation I had heard. I occasionally attended Jewish Society events but coming from a very anti-Religious Socialist-Zionist family, did not feel comfortable there. </p><p>According to his Wikipedia page, Tony Greenstein is a co-founder of the PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign), which I understand to be active all over the UK and when I was at Sussex, he was a regular at student events (he lived nearby in Brighton) although he did not study at Sussex and so far as I know never did more than a BA in Chemistry. </p><p>In the Summer of my first year at Sussex, I sub-rented a room in a beautiful house in Brighton from some architecture students who were away for the summer. The student who rented me her room holidayed in Peru where she was shot in the shoulder by the Maoist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shining_Path" target="_blank">Shining Path</a> terrorist group. The house had a working juke box in the huge kitchen - It was a lovely house and I have a vivid memory of watching snails copulate on the glass door to the garden (they moved surprisingly fast when sex was involved). My room had an ensuite bathroom with a sunken bath (something I had never previously seen). It was great.</p><p>I shared the house with Tony Greenstein's girlfriend. I think she was called Kathy. I don't think he ever came to the house. Kathy had spent some time in Israel and had stayed with Palestinians on the West Bank. We got friendly and I showed her a book of pre-1948 Israeli newspaper cartoons that I had.</p><p>At some point Kathy told me that the "National Front", a British Neo-Nazi organization was holding a demonstration in Brighton that weekend and that an "anti-Fascist" counter demonstration was planned.</p><p>So, a few days later I went into the center of Brighton. It emerged that the National Front had rented Brighton library under a false name and were holding their AGM there. They had provided a false location for the demonstration and all the anti-Fascists had gone there A few tough skin heads were sent out to cause a rumpus while they sneaked into the library. Brighton was a center of Neo Nazi activity in those days and rather curiously, they were funded by Colonel Gaddhafi and advertised his "Green Book" (see <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/8016930349938007962/4758136884678508283#" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/2010/04/27/political-soldiers-and-the-new-man-part-two" target="_blank">here</a>). I arrived late and found that the police had cordoned off the library and although there was a lot of noise, there was nothing happening. So I went back to the railway station to go home.</p><p>Near the station I went down a side road back towards the library and found myself facing about a hundred mostly young Neo-Nazis, including many skinheads in steel-toed Doc Martin shoes, silently marching behind a policeman who was leading them to the railway station. He laughed when he saw my expression and told me to move aside if I didn't want to be trampled. </p><p>Most wore white. Since the mid-1930s it is illegal for British political parties to wear uniforms (this contributed to the failure of Fascism in Britain), so they got round it by wearing white clothes.</p><p>I made my way into the railway station after them and watched them mulling around. They seemed lower middle or working class and a bit sleazy. They seemed subdued. </p><p>Tony Greenstein was part of a group of British Jews who made a career out of an extreme anti-Zionism that seemed to emanate from some kind of far-left ideology. The others that I encountered were Moshe Machover and Leni Brenner. They seemed to devote their life to going round British universities giving lectures on the evils of Zionism (and sometimes Judaism). I sometimes wondered how they made a living. </p><p>I saw Machover's lecture at the University of Sussex where he memorably advocated for the (re) creation of an Arab Empire stretching form Turkey to Morocco (humility was not part of the group's forte). </p><p>In 2018 Goldstein was expelled from the British Labour party because of his anti-Semitism. In 2019 the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism described him on their website as a "notorious anti-Semite". He sued, going all the way to the High Court, and lost (<a href="https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/11/06/notorious-anti-semite-loses-libel-case/" target="_blank">https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/11/06/notorious-anti-semite-loses-libel-case/</a>). <br />There was no doubt, the court said, that he engaged in anti-Semitic activities and the description was legitimate. Greenstein is now bankrupt, as he cannot pay his legal expenses.</p><p>I don't think Greenstein set out to be an anti-Semite (unlike the Neo-Nazis) but his obsessive hatred of Israel led to an intolerance and belief in conspiracy theories. His extraordinary energy in pursuing his goal of destroying Israel and his lies and distortions in promotion of anti-Zionism was a major force in creating the widespread anti-Semitism on the British left. He and a small group of fellow extremists wrote frequent letters to the Guardian claiming that allegations of anti-Semitism were untrue and that they represented a significant body of Jewish opinion. Of course if the allegations were true then Greenstein himself would be an anti-Semite. The letters were always published despite the obviously problematic nature of their opinions and their lack of a meaningful connection to Jewish communal life. </p><p>By the way, a long time after I moved out of the house I shared with Kathy, I noticed that I had lost the book of Israeli political cartoons (by <a href="Kariel Gardosh">Dosh</a>) from 1945-1950. She really liked it and I sometimes wonder if it is now in Tony Greenstein's house. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-42355607209424459642021-11-01T00:10:00.009+02:002023-03-12T16:06:45.038+02:00Israeli Elections - Seen from Bnei Brak<p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">A few days before Israel's last election, I was sent a link by an NGO
dedicated to maintaining “pure elections”. The NGO, Mishmar Habhirot<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ha’ezrahi (“the civilian election guardians”)
stations observers at polling stations and was looking for volunteers. I could
choose from three observation shifts: 6:30 am to 12:30 pm, 12:30 pm to 18:30 pm
and 18:30 to the end, including the count. I registered for the evening shift
which was less disruptive for my family, and would allow me to watch the vote
count. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The NGO’s website invited me to choose a polling station to observe. Since I
live in a part of Tel Aviv close to Israel's main Haredi city, Bnei Brak, I
volunteered to go there. I felt that Bnei Brak is somewhere where an observer
might make a difference - and that it would be interesting. My partner
suggested that I wear gloves and a mask at all times - Last year Bnei Brak had
the worst Corona infection rates in Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I was sent 20 pages of instructions, telling me how a polling station is
organized and defining my job - Basically my mere presence was thought to
prevent any abuse, but I was asked to keep a careful eye on things while
avoiding "verbal or physical violence". As an observer, I had
to be attached to a party and officially I would be a Labor party
representative (selected from a random list of parties who had agreed to
participate). Since I am a "natural" Labor voter, I had no problem
with this. Observers have a legal status and the polling station committee was
required to admit me and record my presence and personal details in the
protocol. I was provided with an official observer ID, emergency numbers
to call and a link to a website where I could make reports. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">At 6pm on election day, I got on my bicycle and rode over to Bnei
Brak. Bnei Brak is the most densely populated city in Israel with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bnei_Brak#Demographics" target="_blank">26,000 people per square kilometer</a> (Gaza has about 5,000 and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_City#Demographics" target="_blank">Gaza city 10,000</a>, see also the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population_density">8th densest city in the world</a>). It is
also consistently in the ten poorest cities in Israel (<a href="https://www.jdn.co.il/news/israel/1075624/">source is in Hebrew</a>) . According to the Israel statistics office, monthly income per family is <a href="https://hamodia.com/2018/12/31/cbs-bnei-brak-households-lowest-income-expenditure/">less than 3,000 shekels</a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">As you ride into Bnei Brak, large shopping chains vanish and are replaced by
small, privately owned stores with simple storefronts. Hairdressers sell yarmulkes.
The roads are full of pedestrians, lots of men in black trousers, black jackets
and white shirts, many women pushing prams and there are children everywhere.
Apparently, it is the third happiest city in Israel with 96% of the over 20's
satisfied with their lives (Bet Shemesh, another Haredi city was first - <a href="https://www.bhol.co.il/news/1078092" target="_blank">source is in Hebrew</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The polling station I had chosen was in a primary school, deep in a local
neighborhood. Most Israeli polling stations are in schools or community centers
and usually, each location hosts 4 or 5 stations with each station having a
list of about 500 to 750 local voters. There are about six million voters in
Israel and roughly 10,000 polling stations in about 2,500 locations (Hebrew: <a href="https://votes24.bechirot.gov.il/nationalresults" target="_blank">list of polling stations</a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Getting to the school required navigation through narrow winding streets.
The houses and cars looked neglected and the street lighting was poor. Nobody
was wearing a mask. I could hear a vehicle with loudspeakers driving around:
"Get out and vote!" (it said) "Secular Jews are pouring into the
polling booths!". "Lieberman is campaigning against us!"
(Lieberman leads a party with heavy support by Russian immigrants and promised
to restrict religious power). A few elections ago (after 4 elections in 2
years, I have lost track of which election was when), Netanyahu claimed that
"Arabs are pouring into the polling stations" and the Haredis were
clearly imitating this. An overweight man in the regulation white shirt and
black trousers invited me to come and join evening prayers (Haredi men pray
three times a day). He looked disappointed when I refused. I got a little
lost in the side streets and arrived a few minutes late.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The school was a small "Torah School". Haredi schools are
independent of the state system and this school did not look good, although
nothing ever looks good in the Haredi world as they are impervious to appearances.<br />
The courtyard had prefabricated (possibly temporary) classrooms, two of which
were being used for voting.<br />
There was almost no play area, only a narrow courtyard around the school with
much of the space taken by the prefabricated classrooms. I did not take
photos because it is illegal to photograph a polling station.<br />
The small street approaching the school is pedestrian only, which is a nice
feature. The street was overflowing with children, many mothers and a few
men. Two parties were on constant display: Agudat Yisrael (the Ashkenazi
Haredi party) and Shas (the Sephardi Haredi party). Many children asked
me if I supported Shas. Nobody asked if I supported Aguda. In most cases, I
could not tell who was Sephardi and who was Ashkenazi.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Inside the school, I saw no children's art. There were some old murals on
the wall, one depicting a coastline and the others showing Orthodox men. My
polling station was in the "gym", a very long classroom with many
damaged floor tiles and damaged ceiling tiles. The room was split by dividers
and the other side was another polling station. I saw about five large
mattresses of the kind used for floor exercises and a vaulting box lying to one
side.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Israeli polling stations are manned by 3 to 6 people: There is a secretary who
cannot be a member of any of the 38 parties competing in the election and two
to four committee members who represent the parties running in the election
(they must all be from different parties). Two of the committee members are a
chairperson and deputy chairperson (from different parties). There is also a
non-party official observer - Somebody who sits there with a camera around his
neck and does nothing. In addition, any of the competing parties can send an
observer. No party may have more than two representatives in the polling
station. All these people are for a polling station where only 500 to 700
people may vote: The school contained 4 or 5 polling stations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were also two young women (non-Haredi
French immigrants) who were employed to periodically clean up the various
polling stations at the school, at least one policeman, a desk with two people
who directed voters to the correct polling station and a maintenance person.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The people staffing the polling station are paid about 1500 shekels (450
USD) for a day's work. In Bnei-Brak 1500 shekels is a big deal. Since Israeli
elections are also a public holiday, there is no shortage of people able and
wanting to work on election day. All buses and trains in Israel are free for
the day and I was eligible for a free taxi (I preferred to cycle). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I suppose having only two competing parties makes life simpler when it comes
to representation, but when it comes to monitoring fairness, there is something
to be said for having a wide range of competition. Coalitions may be awkward,
but they do guard against dictatorship (no Israeli party ever won a full
majority in the Knesset).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">When I went in and presented my credentials to the secretary, there were
four Haredi women "manning" the voting station. Three wore wigs and
the fourth was a very young woman who I assumed was unmarried. There were also
two Haredi men sitting to one side at a separate table: One was the official
observer with the camera around his neck (earning 1,500 shekels for the day)
and the other a voluntary observer like me, representing the Aguda party. I sat near the
two men. In several cases, people came into the room, ignored the women, and
headed straight for us men, assuming we were managing the voting station. This
despite the fact that the ladies were sitting behind perspex dividers
(protecting them from disease), had a ballot box in front of them and the
Knesset logo displayed (a seven branch candelabra).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The NGO that sent me, provided a link to a website where I could log in and
report. The website told me that the committee chairman represented Ta'al and
the deputy represented Likud. I wasn't sure what Ta'al was, so I googled it. It
is one of Israel's major Arab parties, headed by <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/MK/APPS/mk/mk-personal-details/208">Ahmed Tibi</a>. Since all
the ladies were Haredi, it was clear they weren't Arab and after a while, I
went over and asked what was going on. The Secretary grinned under her wig
"the chairman is wandering around, I can tell you though that he isn't
what you would expect".<br />
She pointed to one of the other Haredi ladies and said "She's the Likud
representative". <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">After about 45 minutes, a young Haredi man with untied shoelaces came up to
me, and in an apologetic voice told me he was the representative for (Arab)
Ta'al. Apparently, his uncle is some kind of political activist and got
him the job. They did a deal with Ta'al and instead of Haredis going to polling
stations in Arab towns and the Arabs going to polling stations in Haredi towns,
they all stayed close to home. So all the officials at the polling station were
Haredi. This is a deviation from the intended diversity of the staff and is not
an ideal situation for preventing ballot-stuffing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">In Israel, each voter hands a representative of the polling station their ID
and in return gets given an envelope which they take behind a partition which
hides them from view. Behind the partition, there are slips of paper for each
of the many competing parties. You are supposed to choose the slip of paper
related to your party (identifiable by 1 - 3 large letters) and put it in the
envelope. <span style="font-size: 11pt;">Blank
slips of paper are provided in case any are missing (you can
write the letters on them).</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span> You
then come out from behind the partition and publicly insert the envelope (which
hides your selection) into a sealed cardboard box, in front of the polling
station committee. After inserting the envelope, your ID is returned to
you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The rules require the polling station committee to cross off the names of
voters. This is done on two different lists, by two different people. They
could cheat and cross off additional names, but would also have to insert the
envelopes with the voting selection and a careful tally of the envelopes is
maintained. Basically cheating would be complicated and would require a number
of participants, including the committee members, to cooperate and insert slips
of paper into envelopes and then into the ballot box. Given the large number of
ballot stations, a huge number of people would be required to change the
results by more than a small number of votes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">The committee seemed serious about some aspects of their job and I saw no
evidence of any cheating except for the high turnout, which at around 80% was
extremely high but within the boundaries of possibility. There was much minor
rule-breaking: Children wandered in and out of the voting station and
occasionally went behind the partitions and took ballot slips. The
children were sill wandering around quite late in the evening. The committee
chairwoman had brought her daughter to work and she too wanted to take voting
slips from the polling booth. Many voters turned up with small children in
prams. I had voted in Tel Aviv that morning and there the boundaries between
the polling station and the public were tightly observed, although in Tel Aviv
many voters were accompanied by their dogs, which is not something that happens
in Bnei Brak.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">One man tried to go behind the partition with his wife. He was called out by
the committee and she then entered alone, spending a very long time choosing
her slip of paper. I suspect she was illiterate. Very old or handicapped voters
are allowed one assistant but this does not apply to illiterates. The use of 1
-3 letters to identify the lists, is designed to make it easier for
illiterates. An assistant may accompany up to two different voters (handicapped
or elderly) but no more and they may not be an employee of an old people's
home. I assume that my presence made the committee more careful with the rules,
but any failure to fully implement rules would have only impacted a handful of
votes.<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKtPUNTY46gMJLTzXmXqX1UR-vsajLAT2wmtHJ3LXFoaISW4ExL-vt8XMClE8VNBPsQU1SKXZ6NsD1oH0ReBsV3RVqRgzWo3swlv9oGa0RYMM8bgABmzX5OnkZ_ZE-l-t4COqnwKj5g/s4032/20210413_102958.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPKtPUNTY46gMJLTzXmXqX1UR-vsajLAT2wmtHJ3LXFoaISW4ExL-vt8XMClE8VNBPsQU1SKXZ6NsD1oH0ReBsV3RVqRgzWo3swlv9oGa0RYMM8bgABmzX5OnkZ_ZE-l-t4COqnwKj5g/w480-h640/20210413_102958.jpg" title="Official list of parties 3/2021 election" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Official poster listing the participating parties (one withdrew at the last minute)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">At precisely 10pm, the doors of the polling station were shut and we
gathered around the table to watch the counting. Only the committee members
could count. No one is allowed to leave or enter the room while the counting
goes on and only the committee members are allowed to count. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">In the early 1980s, I lived in Brighton (UK) and studied Political Science, one
of my lecturers stood as a candidate for the local elections and a friend
accompanied him as he signed up elderly voters to do postal voting. My friend
said that on one occasion he saw the lecturer, forcibly push an elderly voter's
hand to cross the box he wanted. My friend was disturbed by this and it left me
with an enduring suspicion of postal voting. So I understand the US Republican
party's distrust of massive postal votes. Postal voting is not allowed in
Israel. In some Israeli polling stations, anybody can vote regardless of where
they live. In those cases, the envelope containing your vote is inserted into
another sealed envelope with your details and sent to the central
administration office for counting. There were about 10 of these votes at the
polling station. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">To be clear, while I sympathize with the suspicion of postal voting, I
believe there should be equality in voting conditions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Almost all the voters I saw were Haredi. The main exception I remember, was
one woman with blue hair and yoga pants (I thought: "What is she doing
here?"). Of the 570 eligible voters at my polling station, 470 had voted.
<br />
About 300 voted for the Ashkenazi Haredi party and 100 for the Sephardi Haredi
party. 42 voted for an ultra-right religious party (a national surprise
showing) and 14 for the Likud. One person voted for the Labor party. There was
one blank piece of paper cast (regarded as a canceled vote).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial;">As I took my bicycle and left the school, I heard someone say, "Look!,
men and women are mixing at the polling station!". Inside one of the
temporary classrooms that had served as a polling station, I could see attractive,
smiling young Haredi men and women talking around a table, while a couple of
people peeked through the corner of the windows.<o:p></o:p></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">At the next election, I will volunteer to observe in an Arab town.</span><p></p>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-40305314165433262622019-03-18T08:18:00.004+02:002019-03-18T08:49:41.726+02:00Jewish Kingdoms Outside IsraelOver the centuries there have been quite a few "Jewish" kingdoms outside of the Land of Israel/Palestine, however these have not achieved the fame or influence of Judea/Israel and have never undermined the Jewish religion's territorial focus on the "Promised Land".<br />
I find these minor Jewish states fascinating and thought it would be a good idea to list them. What is suprising about these kingdoms is that they lasted no less time then the Jewish kingdoms in Israel and that in some cases they covered a lot more territory. Another interesting feature is that they almost entirely date to the post-exile period and that all came into being after the Romans adopted Chrinstianity.<br />
These kingdoms were located outside the centers of recorded history (such as Italy or Turkey) and the documentation attesting to their existence is sparse. Why there is so little record is one question that arises and I suggest several reasons:<br />
1. Jewish kingdoms were not "empire builders" and empires have written human history.<br />
2. Unlike Israel, Jewish kingdoms were not in strategic locations and not on major trade routes.<br />
3. History, West of China and India, has been written by Christians and Moslems, who attach less importance to Jews.<br />
<br />
<b>Major Kingdoms</b><br />
<br />
1. <b>380 - 520 (about 140 years) The Himyarite Kingdom</b> (West Yemen). <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom</a>. See also<a href="https://www.hs.ias.edu/files/Bowersock_RiseAndFall.pdf"> https://www.hs.ias.edu/files/Bowersock_RiseAndFall.pdf</a><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnYUi8YG0p0xphhyphenhyphenxoEO_NDDWmSKyBv3QzAimTdqsnoZ6vFzOHJ8ubFk5XPaWHQHQLlqmaxapt3HRLH11YS3ukHZqiOt_4sT7EKtVVLtpimNic8PBx2ayafmHFGBS5sSwE5Dkug_LJw/s1600/Yemen_Himyarite_330_AD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1061" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnYUi8YG0p0xphhyphenhyphenxoEO_NDDWmSKyBv3QzAimTdqsnoZ6vFzOHJ8ubFk5XPaWHQHQLlqmaxapt3HRLH11YS3ukHZqiOt_4sT7EKtVVLtpimNic8PBx2ayafmHFGBS5sSwE5Dkug_LJw/s320/Yemen_Himyarite_330_AD.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from Wikipedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Wikipedia - <br />
Like all the other Jewish kingdoms outside Israel, sources are sketchy, however unlike many of the others, there is archaeological evidence for the existence of a Jewish kingdom in the Yemen which used Hebrew as a medium for public inscriptions. The kingdom was involved in wars which were documented by Christian sources outside the Yemen, fighting Christian kingdoms in Ethiopia and fighting Christian tribes in Arabia. In his book, "<a href="https://www.hs.ias.edu/files/Bowersock_RiseAndFall.pdf">The Throne of Adulis</a>", Glen Bowersock suggests that these conflicts may have contributed to the emergence of a third way - Islam in the 6th Century. The Koran also mentions Jewish tribes in Arabia, which may be connected to the Himyarite Kingdom.<br />
<br />
2. <b>695 - 700 Berber Jrawa tribe</b>, ruled by queen Dihya (North East Algeria).<br />
Wikipedia - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihya">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dihya</a> see also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_Jews">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_Jews</a>.<br />
The Berbers are native North African tribes who are not Arab and are known to predate the Arab presence. There are a number of sources suggesting that some tribes adopted Judaism in Roman times. Queen Dihya achieved fame when the 13th Century Tunisian-Arab historian Ibn Khaldun wrote about her (500 years after her possible existence), saying that she had held up Arab Imperial progress in North Africa. It is likely that the tribe she governed had been Jewish for much longer and controlled a significant area, but there is little source material outside of Ibn Khaldun and North African oral traditions. Because the Berbers were largely nomadic and illiterate there is little scope for archeological evidence backing up the oral traditions.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
3. <b>740 - 920 (about 150 years) Kingdom of the Khazars</b> (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) .<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khazars</a>.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2UQf9OwGmBZ0kuZmVPtXE6DLSKHl5CxdfkBR6urKVkkR77QuJcv3uIzoz0ckeiRqAuJALLEHA03AHRti8whS0Xcc4yLHAjf3j4aZ7QkhAtT4G7pW7e5cfLXRgGiOGccptECqne3fFQ/s1600/Chasaren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1133" data-original-width="1394" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEig2UQf9OwGmBZ0kuZmVPtXE6DLSKHl5CxdfkBR6urKVkkR77QuJcv3uIzoz0ckeiRqAuJALLEHA03AHRti8whS0Xcc4yLHAjf3j4aZ7QkhAtT4G7pW7e5cfLXRgGiOGccptECqne3fFQ/s320/Chasaren.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image from Wikipedia</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The Khazar kingdom was a buffer state between the Moslem Mongol kingdoms and the Christian Rus. The largest Jewish state ever (in territory), but the documentary evidence, while persuasive and contemporary with the time is a little sparse. The writer Arthur Koestler famously wrote about this kingdom suggesting that many Ashkenazis may carry Khazar blood (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Tribe">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thirteenth_Tribe</a>). Not much remains of Khazar Judaism, leading some to suggest that only the aristocracy and government really practised Judaism. There are a group in this area known as the "Mountain Jews" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Jews">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Jews</a>), who do sound like they might be related to the Khazars. It is also said that there are no "Cohens" (descendants of the temple priesthood) among the Georgian Jews which could also be explained by Khazar origins.<br />
<br />
4.<b> 900 - 1620 (700+ years) The Kingdom of Semien</b> (North-West Ethiopia).<br />
Wikipedia - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Semien">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Semien</a>. See also <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel#Ancient_history">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_Israel#Ancient_history</a>.<br />
If this oral tradition among Ethiopian Jews is even partly true, then the Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia may be the longest lasting Jewish kingdom that has ever existed. There was a Jewish traveler in Europe called "Eldad HaDani" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldad_ha-Dani">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldad_ha-Dani</a>) who said he originated from East Africa. The Cambridge History of Africa (<a href="https://books.google.co.il/books?id=GWjxR61xAe0C&pg=PA102&lpg=PA102&dq=Ibn+Hawqal+hadani&source=bl&ots=j6oA_XokCl&sig=ACfU3U0ck8RDl-LEkEte3RZk1vfdZECDQw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjU7KLpiYvhAhXHsqQKHSFKBGYQ6AEwBnoECB0QAQ#v=onepage&q=Ibn%20Hawqal%20hadani&f=false">volume III page 102</a>, 2001 edition), quotes a 10th Century Arab historian called "Ibn Hawqal" as saying that a Queen of "Hadani" defeated the Christians on the edges of the land of "Habasha". The original text gives no statement as to her religion.<br />
Glen Bowersock, who writes about the Jewish kingdom in the Yemen, also appears to have evidence for a Jewish kingdom in Ethiopia, but there is little details of its location and size.<br />
Unfortunately the evidence is sparse, because written histories were rare and little if any archeology gets done in Ethiopia. Even so, it would seem to make the Ethiopian Jews a very significant feature of our collective Jewish past. .<br />
<br />
In addition to the list above, there have been a number of cities which were briefly independent and ruled by Jews, the most notable I have seen was in Fifth Century <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasanian_Empire">Sasanid Persia</a>, on the site of modern Iraq: The "Exhilarch" <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mar-Zutra_II">Mar Zutra II</a>, who claimed to be a direct descendant of King David, proclaimed independence and governed "Mahoza" for seven years. Mahoza is now known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Mada%27in">Al-Mada'in</a>.<br />
Mar Zutra's son escaped after the rebellion was put down, and moved to Tiberias where he headed a religious seminary.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-17256782038890386642018-12-11T17:36:00.008+02:002023-12-05T08:46:48.093+02:00Finding my Grandmother: Hope and Horror in the Holocaust<h2>
Hope</h2>
I grew up knowing very little about my birth grandmother - not even her name - although I knew that she had been killed in the Holocaust. I call her my birth-grandmother, because my father was adopted.<br />
In the last few years I have learnt that her name was Henny Jenny. She was 33 when my father, Heinz, was born in December 1923. They lived in Nuremburg, Germany.<br />
Four years later, when she was about 39, her husband Hermann Messinger died of TB (Tubercolosis), leaving her with four young children: Heinz aged 4, Ruth aged 7, Esther aged 9 and Yehuda aged 14. I don't know the precise date of Hermann's death, it could be a year later or a couple of years earlier.<br />
<br />
Henny's next door neighbours were Max and Betty Lowenstein. The Lowensteins were wealthy and childless and liked looking after Heinz for his mother. Betty suggested to Henny that she let her adopt Heinz. Perhaps she offered a payment which would help Henny cope, while promising to give the child all the benefits of a wealthy family. In those days, before easily available birth control and fertility treatment, such arrangements were not that unusual.<br />
Both families were Jewish and members of the Nuremburg Orthodox Synagogue. Germany had recently been defeated in the First World War and there was growing anti-Semitism and growing economic chaos.<br />
Henny accepted the offer and moved to Frankfurt with her 3 remaining children (she was born in Frankfurt), leaving Heinz, by then aged 4 or 5, behind.<br />
<br />
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Bernard" target="_blank">Heinz Bernard Lowenstein</a> (as my father was now known), grew up without knowing that he was adopted. In 1931, when Heinz was 8 his (new) father, Max Lowenstein, committed suicide.<br />
In 1939, 3 days before the invasion of Poland, Betty managed to send the 15 year old Heinz to Britain but failed to get out of Germany herself (you can read about her <a href="http://www.telaviv1.org.il/2010/04/journey-of-lifetime-my-grandmother.html" target="_blank">eventual escape here</a>).<br />
<br />
Heinz didn't find out that he was adopted until after the war, when he was in his 20's. He was contacted by two siblings living in Israel, who told him that his birth-mother and younger sister had been killed in the Holocaust. No one knew exactly how the two dead family members had been killed.<br />
<br />
In the 1980's, my father was sent a box of belongings his adoptive mother had left to a friend when she died. The friend had also died and her family now sent Betty Lowenstein's few remaining papers to my father. The box included his adoptive mother's Nazi-issued passport, the text of the speech she gave at her US citizenship ceremony and also two telegrams sent from the birth-mother (Henny Messinger) to the adopting-mother (Betty Lowenstein) after Betty reached the United States.<br />
<br />
In 2004, while unemployed and going through a divorce, I took an MA in History at Royal Holloway (part of the University of London). The supervisor on my dissertation was Professor David Ceserani, one of the witnesses at the famous trial of Holocaust-denier David Irving (documented in the movie "<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4645330/?ref_ext_NYT">Denial</a>" starring Rachel Weisz). I took a course on the Holocaust and would occasionally look for materials on my family history.<br />
<br />
It took me about ten years to reach my birth-grandmother. Her name, I discovered, was Henny Jenny Messinger. In 1955 my father's Israeli brother had filled out a lost relative form in Israel and supplied this photo (the report is <a href="https://yvng.yadvashem.org/nameDetails.html?language=en&itemId=1493006&ind=5" target="_blank">available online</a>).<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiYxR9nVo4Mxk0eedmyomOlFhhJhxGbcUIOMIKvUFe1aN8W27Z4O58JUjK9UuOpnfeNFN0YPF38qdJyct6im2iOPwnyKmTG9DFGfIci2WKtVNTUG1_JojJpOoli-EC7LgsLYpgdVU-A/s1600/1493006_1.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="946" data-original-width="685" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgiYxR9nVo4Mxk0eedmyomOlFhhJhxGbcUIOMIKvUFe1aN8W27Z4O58JUjK9UuOpnfeNFN0YPF38qdJyct6im2iOPwnyKmTG9DFGfIci2WKtVNTUG1_JojJpOoli-EC7LgsLYpgdVU-A/s320/1493006_1.JPG" width="231" /></a></div>
<br />
A German <a href="http://www.bundesarchiv.de/gedenkbuch/en859270" target="_blank">government website</a> told me her fate:<br />
<h3 class="rowTypeB" style="background-color: #e8f1f8; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px 0px 5px; padding: 4px 4px 4px 15px;">
Messinger, Henny Jenny</h3>
<div class="leftIndent" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.333; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 15px; padding: 0px;">
née Westheimer<br />
born on 03<sup style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">rd</sup> November 1890 in Frankfurt a. Main / - / Hessen-Nassau<br />
resident of Frankfurt a. Main</div>
<div class="leftIndent" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.333; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 15px; padding: 0px;">
Deportation:<br />
from Frankfurt am Main-Berlin<br />
24<sup style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">th</sup>/26<sup style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">th</sup> September 1942, Raasiku (b. Reval), killing field</div>
<div class="leftIndent" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 0.75em; line-height: 1.333; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 15px; padding: 0px;">
<br style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" />
Destiny: officially declared dead<span style="font-size: 0.75em;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 0.75em;"> </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">From this small entry, I started</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> to piece together what had happened. I learned that "Raasiku" is a train station in Estonia. Wikipedia <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevi-Liiva" target="_blank">told me</a> that a trainload of 1,000 German Jews was sent to Raasiku at this date and all except a small group were then taken to a nearby seaside spot called Kalevi-Liiva, where they were shot. There was also a picture of the site:</span><img height="240" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Kalevi-Liiva_memorial.jpg" width="320" /><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The deportation date on the German website </span>(24th/26th September 1942)<span style="font-family: inherit;"> happened to match the birthday of my daughter Shanny (25th September), and the name Henny Jenny, which I had not known when naming my daughter, was oddly similar. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">In recent years my partner and I have taken holidays in Poland, where my partner's father was born, and I was surprised to find that I liked the country. I feel safer traveling in Poland with my Hebrew-speaking family, than I do in France or Britain. My daughter turns out to look very Polish. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">After my last visit to Poland, I started to consider visiting Estonia to pay my respects at the mass grave. </span>Two weeks later, a news item caught my eye: <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/holocaust-memorials-in-estonia-defaced-with-anti-semitic-graffiti-1.6412601" target="_blank">Holocaust memorials defaced in Estonia</a>. It was accompanied by a picture of the memorials at Kalevi-Liiva, but this time defaced with a swastika:</div>
<div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZr9hau8cDxpe31y9YtZvl4eKNYs2lThWthcAUlfJTJ8m6n11BAzzVRSVbkGp0quY1mV71G-5pS-oHh9x-risrcAMTesOXnqMHeabyl13i0GkhszsWw0F-8G6MRxBfDhJ19zdJ_XyFzA/s1600/screenshot.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="318" data-original-width="631" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZr9hau8cDxpe31y9YtZvl4eKNYs2lThWthcAUlfJTJ8m6n11BAzzVRSVbkGp0quY1mV71G-5pS-oHh9x-risrcAMTesOXnqMHeabyl13i0GkhszsWw0F-8G6MRxBfDhJ19zdJ_XyFzA/s400/screenshot.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have seen images of defaced Jewish memorials over the years, but never imagined it would be related to my family. It motivated me to have </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">another go at searching for my grandmother.</span></div>
<span id="goog_632986864"></span><span id="goog_632986865"></span><br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnub2EMVK3byld80EsHNOYk4CTlRkFHKdAy0au9LzGhl49LYJ8VtTbZ_xr5EqFAC3Uayqsg-fxQmBMbwwujjbQTfIw5RvReDDvZKLVzvHOd1KoRBZwPgFoUsjjwsBSJk5hywjMF57JLA/s1600/telegram+1942-05-29.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="516" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnub2EMVK3byld80EsHNOYk4CTlRkFHKdAy0au9LzGhl49LYJ8VtTbZ_xr5EqFAC3Uayqsg-fxQmBMbwwujjbQTfIw5RvReDDvZKLVzvHOd1KoRBZwPgFoUsjjwsBSJk5hywjMF57JLA/s320/telegram+1942-05-29.jpg" width="201" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This time I realized that only one transport had gone from Germany to Estonia, which enabled me to trace it. I found more German records and a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Without-Hatred-Estonians-Holocaust/dp/0815632282">book</a> with a two page description of the specific transport, based on eye-witness accounts given at a 1960's trial of Estonians who participated in the </span>shooting.<br />
<br />
This time I used the two telegrams my birth-grandmother sent to my adoptive grand-mother. The telegram on the right was sent by my birth-grandmother in May 1942.<br />
<br />
Translation:<br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Hope you are well. What about Heinz? </span><i>[my father]</i><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"> Ruth </span>[<i>the sister who was 3 years older than my father and whose fate is unknown</i>] <span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">left address unknown. I am engaged with dentist Rosengarten 49 years. Marriage permit not granted, because I am stateless. Intimately.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">Henny</span><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
The Nazi state provided no services to Jews, so marriages could not be registered. The name is "Sara Henny" because the Nazis made all Jewish women add "Sara" to their name: Men added "Israel". <br />
A second telegram was sent four months later, on the 22nd of September 1942:<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNmycViflT05NqS1rAUjzRkUJH_F3EM-PUci7SYYt3FuyE6DvckK4w8Fy-IZ_2fUZAQtp8Td3yTjpCUwC4SZugzEilIFZkfr5j8epEwoPmXXHlwY8ctOEzeE9Oqf3iNtVrJDi0iKDgQ/s1600/telegram+1942-09-22.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="825" data-original-width="527" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJNmycViflT05NqS1rAUjzRkUJH_F3EM-PUci7SYYt3FuyE6DvckK4w8Fy-IZ_2fUZAQtp8Td3yTjpCUwC4SZugzEilIFZkfr5j8epEwoPmXXHlwY8ctOEzeE9Oqf3iNtVrJDi0iKDgQ/s320/telegram+1942-09-22.jpg" width="204" /></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;">One last goodbye before leaving. Thanks for all dear. God bless you and Heinz. Marriage on target probably. Seek also Rosengarten. Everything is very happy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "courier new" , "courier" , monospace;"></span></span>
These telegrams are life-affirming: Henny was happy and in love, but she was also concerned enough to send the telegram. She was about to take a transport and people on the earlier transports had vanished into thin air. Her daughter Ruth "address unknown", never sent anything back to her. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zodTJkqMLAXDFGtcW428mVeOOfT54RC_nIejNvujmQGmY3x71Rgu1VaxFIgig1zWRxY4Pc2sQ9gcmvQINrp_auAGM4KEZ-V3RElfyCYONoGm5NRgM825WDso6ud3GUwvldT4wX5ctw5M3l9fpidI8txz9n8XaEAoXR-Fk76SZ3QQoHAm04y-UYjp/s3507/sister-ruth-and-mother-henny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3507" data-original-width="2480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_zodTJkqMLAXDFGtcW428mVeOOfT54RC_nIejNvujmQGmY3x71Rgu1VaxFIgig1zWRxY4Pc2sQ9gcmvQINrp_auAGM4KEZ-V3RElfyCYONoGm5NRgM825WDso6ud3GUwvldT4wX5ctw5M3l9fpidI8txz9n8XaEAoXR-Fk76SZ3QQoHAm04y-UYjp/w283-h400/sister-ruth-and-mother-henny.jpg" title="Ruth with her mother, Henny" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth Messinger with her mother, Henny</td></tr></tbody></table><div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="320" src="https://namesfs.yadvashem.org/YADVASHEM/Hall%20Of%20Names/2201/458408_1.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="229" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth Messinger</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
The adoptive-grandmother (Betty), sent a reply six months after each telegram. I assume they took six months to reach her in the US, which means that by the time the first telegram arrived, Henny was dead.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Two days after she sent the last telegram, Henny got on R</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">SHA (Reich Main Security Office ) t</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">ransport DA 406 from Frankfurt's Ostbanhof station. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The train departed on the 24th of September 1942 with 237 people guarded by Frankfurt police.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Survivors testified at the 1960's trial, that the passengers were allowed a suitcase and brought food with them. The train was not a cattle truck but some kind of troop train. Historian Anton-Weiss Wendt believes that t</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">his was the last transport of Jews to leave Frankfurt, implying that Henny was one of the last Jews remaining in Frankfurt. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br />The following relies on material from <i><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Without-Hatred-Estonians-Holocaust/dp/0815632282" target="_blank">Murder Without Hatred by Anton Weiss-Wendt (Syracuse 2009)</a>.</i><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The train pulled into Berlin's Moabit station on the 26th of September 1942. In Berlin, more carriages were attached with an additional 812 people. This was also the only time the passengers were given water. Members of the Berlin Jewish community handed out soup after which the train was sealed shut. It was now guarded by transport police. Some of the passengers wore several layers of clothing so they could carry more clothes. Clothes were expensive in those days and the passengers were only allowed a single suitcase. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">There were 108 children aged under 10, 354 men (average age 41) and 895 women. <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL08SahpYcO9A6mtQU2_mtVcQQoY19WoKP21KdPzMFzIVGvkWdRIKDVzEc5Hr89UdVEwVb1mCCAX5atSqayYmASx9LSGMffil94WA-TVP5iEE1LbM2VpSDXbU1QiodcQVcVZk5wPvKFg/s1600/screenshot1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="737" data-original-width="774" height="304" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL08SahpYcO9A6mtQU2_mtVcQQoY19WoKP21KdPzMFzIVGvkWdRIKDVzEc5Hr89UdVEwVb1mCCAX5atSqayYmASx9LSGMffil94WA-TVP5iEE1LbM2VpSDXbU1QiodcQVcVZk5wPvKFg/s320/screenshot1.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Source document </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Some of the passengers suspected they would be killed, but many were optimistic that the destination was resettlement.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<h2>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Horror</span></span></h2>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The train arrived at Raasiku on the 31st of September (a </span><a href="https://rail.cc/en/train/frankfurt-am-main-to-raasiku" style="background-color: white; font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">1,500 kilometer journey</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">. Nine days after she sent the telegram and a week after leaving Berlin and receiving that last supply of fresh water.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">A couple of hundred able-bodied people (mainly men) were "selected" to be slave laborers at a nearby camp called </span></span>Jägala<b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">and the rest were taken in several buses to a ditch that had been dug in preparation. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The victims were made to undress and then taken in groups of five to be shot. The train</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> was the second of a group of trains sent to Raasiku over a period of a couple of months for the purpose of mass killing. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">After the executions, the killers looted the passenger's belongings. I find it astonishing that the killers were willing to wear the clothes of people they had murdered.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Of the 1049 Jews who were sent in the transport, 26 survived the war, 7 of them from Frankfurt</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">. In 1944 a (Jewish) <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonderkommando">Sondercommando</a> was sent to dig up the bodies and burn them. By that time it was common knowledge that the Nazis were losing the war, so they were hiding the evidence.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">According to the testimony at the trial, most of the killing was done by the Estonian commander Karl Laak. Three other men were named: Jaan Viik, Friedrich Anijalg and Ralf Gerrets. The Soviets put these men on trial because they were the worst of this batch of murderers. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The Germans (including Otto Bovensien, Kurt Venter, Kurt Krause, Heinrich Bergmann and Karl Gehse) "only" gave orders, set up infrastructure and coordinated transportation: They let others do the dirty work. This was a pattern which repeated itself across Europe. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">My grandmother had a small piece of luck: She was not on the first transport. On that one, which came from Theresiensdadt, the inexperienced Estonian killers made a number of mistakes: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The ditches were too small for the number of people murdered, so the bodies piled up above the sides before dirt was thrown on them. Not everyone was completely dead, so there was writhing and moaning in the mass of naked bodies. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Local people came by later to loot the site and testified (at the 1960's trial) that they found crude homemade whips lying around with bits of skin attached to them. Apparently, the killers took people with gold teeth to one side and extracted their teeth before they killed them; This led to screaming that could be hard in the local villages and was apparently stopped by the Germans who feared that Jews awaiting their "turn" would figure out what was going on.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">Of the four Estonian killers who were tried in the 1960's, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksander_Laak">Karl Laak</a> is said to have done most of the killings, and is most likely to be the man who shot my grandmother. Laak hung himself in Canada soon after the Soviet Union requested his extradition. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">It is astonishing how many of the (non-German) men who shot about 2,000,000 Jews for the Nazi "Einsatzgruppen" ended up in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In 2001, the Guardian reported that </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/02/warcrimes.germany" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">400 Nazi war criminals settled in the UK</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">. Each one of those 400 men may have killed hundreds if not thousands of people, personally, using rifles. One man, who lived in Scotland, </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/apr/20/warcrimes.world" style="font-family: "times new roman", serif; font-size: 16px;">killed as many as 32,000 people</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">It is estimated that 40 migrated to <a href="https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/embarrassing-lack-response-nazis-nz">New Zealand</a>, 1,000 to <a href="https://www.jta.org/1984/01/19/archive/wiesenthal-identified-two-nazi-war-criminals-living-in-canada">Canada</a> and 850 to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/nazi-war-criminals-enjoying-retirement-in-australia-1.5163890">Australia</a>.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">At some point, I tried googling images of Kalevi-Liiva. This was when I got a shock: The killers had taken photographs and they were available online, on the website of the Ghetto Fighter's Kibbutz (Lochamei HaGetaot). These are not all the photos, which can be viewed at <a href="https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/list.asp">https://infocenters.co.il/gfh/list.asp</a> (search for Kalevii-Liva).</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px;">The remaining passengers on the train were all made to undress before they were shot and the killers had taken snapshots.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">I quite literally looked into the mass grave that contained my naked grandmother and from the view point of the killers.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Most of those shot were women and it is probably no coincidence that pretty naked women (both dead and alive) are at the center of the few pictures available from this massacre. The killers may have got a sexual thrill out of what they did and may well have had particular reason to focus on these women: Laak , who led the shootings, was known to keep prisoners for the purpose of rape.</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBazzUvyPaZI5e261Ga0b0BG8aEV2rpraw6wdXEkzeI1pXpbMG_KJb_1JS2PJ9kFkpuGGVpKbzIo4JjHMgt91vsWpCiBVGFWt9tHNF-zlNDImh_gqx7OHLZVCLgg4anTbWiLzpidcvJw/s1600/0000001482_1_web.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBazzUvyPaZI5e261Ga0b0BG8aEV2rpraw6wdXEkzeI1pXpbMG_KJb_1JS2PJ9kFkpuGGVpKbzIo4JjHMgt91vsWpCiBVGFWt9tHNF-zlNDImh_gqx7OHLZVCLgg4anTbWiLzpidcvJw/s320/0000001482_1_web.jpg" width="211" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgceZ5tdPfWxQ2Xw9grn2WhX-Cb5-S4UAWzRPD42ZuH3_MZhvr0_zfsQ3i2WLNw2Wk9cnSYUw0QpmGsVGw67ANGRJ43sKyexW9UsXb0wOtWAcKOOCETzk26Q4Fk8zLE4j3xM1kZYql2Ew/s1600/0000001478_1_web.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="383" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgceZ5tdPfWxQ2Xw9grn2WhX-Cb5-S4UAWzRPD42ZuH3_MZhvr0_zfsQ3i2WLNw2Wk9cnSYUw0QpmGsVGw67ANGRJ43sKyexW9UsXb0wOtWAcKOOCETzk26Q4Fk8zLE4j3xM1kZYql2Ew/s320/0000001478_1_web.jpg" width="204" /></a> </span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">These photos are pornographic. </span></span>There are a lot of this type of image online and it seems plausible that ISIS supporters would have been inspired by this material. Searching online turned up a lot of these photos, from a huge variety of different websites and usually giving exact details of the location where the photo was taken. Mass produced cameras were a relatively recent phenomena in 1942 and this was the first genocide ever properly documented. Perhaps because of that, it is also the best documented genocide ever.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><div>This part was written later: I asked myself, where the photos came from, who took them? </div><div>In 2020 I sent a mail to the Kibbutz archive asking for information. I was told that most were donated in 1964 (perhaps following the trial?) and that the source of the donation was not recorded. </div><div>One photo (taken long after the massacre) was given in 1998 by Benjamin Anolik of Vilna, a survivor of the nearby Klooga concentration camp, who may have donated the other photos and was a former member of the Ghetto Fighter's Kibbutz. He had represented the Kibbutz at various East European Holocaust memorializations. </div><div>Three transports were murdered at Kalevii-Liva, two came from concentration camps, but my grandmother's transport contained mostly of women and came from Germany, so they were probably healthier than those on the other transports. The images suggest a predominance of women, and they don't look like they have been starved over a long period. Laak is said to have murdered at least one sex-slave at the site, so she could be the woman in the photograph.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sources for the trial of the killers can be found here: <a href="https://worddisk.com/wiki/Jaan_Viik/">https://worddisk.com/wiki/Jaan_Viik/</a></div><div>In Estonian: <a href="https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn505508#?rsc=192339&cv=0&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-1838%2C-293%2C7499%2C585">https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn505508#?rsc=192339&cv=0&c=0&m=0&s=0&xywh=-1838%2C-293%2C7499%2C585</a>3</div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Without-Hatred-Estonians-Holocaust/dp/0815632282">https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Without-Hatred-Estonians-Holocaust/dp/0815632282</a></div><div><br /></div><div><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;">Short footage of the Soviet war crimes trial: <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/estonian-policemen-stand-trial-for-war-crimes">https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/film/estonian-policemen-stand-trial-for-war-crimes</a></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: inherit;"><span style="vertical-align: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-1027916043188505392017-11-27T22:18:00.006+02:002017-11-27T22:19:50.515+02:00Minorities in the Middle EastI recently heard an Israeli-Palestinian law-maker being interviewed on the Voice of Israel radio station. He had just returned from an academic conference in France where it seemed that Israel's treatment of its Arab minority was compared to minority treatment in Western Europe. This can easily be misleading, annd I thought it would be a good idea to also compare Israel with other Middle Eastern countries. My findings from a brief investigation:<br />
I rounded figures as they are very rough. Mostly they come from <a href="http://minorityrights.org/">http://minorityrights.org</a>.<br />
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; table-layout: fixed; width: 0px;" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><colgroup><col width="64"></col><col width="62"></col><col width="120"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="79"></col><col width="73"></col><col width="92"></col><col width="84"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Country"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Country</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kurdish"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Kurdish</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Large religous minorities"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Large religous minorities</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Large national minorities"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Large national minorities</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Total population"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Total population</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Per capita income"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Per capita income</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Human development index"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Human development index</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Life expectancy"}" style="background-color: #c9daf8; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Life expectancy</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Syria"}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
Syria</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"10-15%"}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
10-15%</div>
</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Alawite 11%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Alawite 11%</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kurds 10 - 15%"}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
Kurds 10 - 15%</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"20m"}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
20m</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1400}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
1,400</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":107}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
107</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":74}" rowspan="2" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
74</div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Christian 10%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Christian 10%</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Iraq"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Iraq</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"15-20%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">15-20%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Sunni 30%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Sunni 30%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kurds 15-20%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Kurds 15-20%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"35m"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">35m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":14000}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">14,000</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":120}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">120</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":69}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">69</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Iran"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Iran</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":3,"2":"0%","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":0.07}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">7%</td><td style="background-color: #ffe599; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Azeris 24%\nKurds 7%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Azeris 24%<br />
Kurds 7%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"70m"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">70m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2800}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">2,800</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":96}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">96</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":71}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">71</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Turkey"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Turkey</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":3,"2":"0%","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":0.18}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">18%</td><td style="background-color: #ffe599; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Kurds 18%"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Kurds 18%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"75m"}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">75m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":4700}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">4,700</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":92}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">92</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":73}" style="background-color: #ffe599; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">73</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Egypt"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Egypt</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Coptic-christian 7%"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Coptic-christian 7%</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"85m"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">85m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":1250}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">1,250</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":111}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">111</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":70}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">70</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Yemen"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Yemen</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Shia 33%"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Shia 33%</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"20m"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">20m</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":600}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">600</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":150}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">150</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":62}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">62</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Saudi"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Saudi</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Shia 15%"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Shia 15%</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"25m"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">25m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":11200}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">11,200</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":76}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">76</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":72}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">72</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Jordan"}" rowspan="2" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
Jordan</div>
</td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle;"></td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"10% Iraqi"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">10% Iraqi</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"6m"}" rowspan="2" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
6m</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":2500}" rowspan="2" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
2,500</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":86}" rowspan="2" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
86</div>
</td><td colspan="1" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":72}" rowspan="2" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;"><br />
<div style="max-height: 42px;">
72</div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle;"></td><td style="overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"50% Palestinian"}" style="font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: middle; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">50% Palestinian</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Israel"}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: bold; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Israel</td><td style="background-color: #f4cccc; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Moslem 18%"}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">Moslem 18%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"(or) Arab 20%"}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">(or) Arab 20%</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"9m"}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">9m</td><td data-sheets-numberformat="{"1":2,"2":"#,##0","3":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":37500}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">37,500</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":19}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">19</td><td data-sheets-value="{"1":3,"3":82}" style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: arial; font-weight: normal; overflow: hidden; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom; white-space: normal; word-wrap: break-word; wrap-strategy: 4;">82</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<style type="text/css"><!--td {border: 1px solid #ccc;}br {mso-data-placement:same-cell;}--></style><br />
As you can see the main minority in the Middle East are Kurds. The famous Sykes-Picot agreement, and the subsequent League of Nation's Mandates ignored the Kurds, giving control of their lands to "Arab" states. Defining a state solely by the language spoken by a large group of its populace is problematic: Ireland is not an "English" state and Austria is not a "German" state.<br />
<br />
How minorities are defined varies between countries. In some countries minorities are "indigenous", in some they are "racial" and they can also be "religous".<br />
The British do not regard indigenous people as minorities, for example the British don't consider "Scottish" or "Irish" as a minority status. European immigrants, such as Poles may be regarded as minorities but in most tables minority status is "racial" so only non-Europeans are tabulated.<br />
<br />
In Spain, indegenous peoples such as Catalans (16%) or Galicians (5%) are generaly seen as minorities. Although Israelis refer to "Arabs", these days, religion is the primary mode of distinction. Discrimination in Israel tends to be Ethno-Religious which I suppose reflects the primarily Ethno-Religous nature of the Jewish majority and does not comfortably fit into "racial" based groupings.<br />
<br />
Saudi Arabia and Israel are the only states (outside tiny Gulf states) with significant migration from outside the Middle East: In Israel,unusually, migrants and their descendants form the majority of the population, with most coming from other Middle Eastern countries.<br />
<br />
Regarding the Kurds, I found this:<br />
<ul>
<li><b>Syria</b> - There was, prior to the civil war, forced "Arabization" leading to a ban on the Kurdish language and a ban on the use of Kurdish names. 300,000 native Syrian-Kurds were not recognized as Syrian citizens. </li>
<li><b>Iraq </b>- 200,000 Kurdish civillians were killed 1986-1989 (genocide) and 1.5 million fled their homes in 1991. Arabization forced many Kurds out of Kurdish-majority cities.</li>
<li><b>Turkey</b> - There have been Kurdish language bans (not sure of the current status on this) and forced removal of villages (don't know how many).</li>
</ul>
<br />
I left Lebanon out of the table. There is no majority in Lebanon.<br />
<br />
Israel does not easily compare with other countries, it has charecteristics of a Middle Eastern country, of a West European and of an East European country. A valid comparison needs to use a wider base. Binary comparisons are likely ot be misleading ro fail to see the wider picture.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-32962712799708658192017-07-28T13:41:00.003+03:002017-07-28T13:41:49.900+03:00Is Israel a colonial state?This is taken from an answer I wrote on Quora to the question Is Israel a colony or the Jewish homeland?<br />
<br />
<ol style="color: #333333; font-family: q_serif, Georgia, Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 15px; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 2em 0px 0px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>Israel is partially the product of internal Arab migration.</b><br />Roughly half of Israeli Jews are from Arab countries, and as such, by migrating to Israel they have migrated within the Arab world. My great grand-parents migrated from Romania and Lithuania to England as internal European migrants I don’t think they were colonizers anymore then my co-worker’s Algerian grand father who migrated from Algeria to Israel is a colonizer.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>Jews are descended from aboriginal inhabitants.</b><br />Jews regard migrating to Israel as a return to a homeland that their ancestors left for a variety of reasons. That means that they do not self-identify as colonizers. In this context it is worth noting that much of the population (both Jewish and non-Jewish) are descended from various types of colonizers including the Crusaders, Romans, Greeks and Arabs. It is generally accepted that Jews originated in this area and before the Second World War both European and American academia regarded Jews as Middle Eastern immigrants (of inferior stock). Now academia has shifted ground but the Jews are still seen as being on the “other” side.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>The Jewish God, language, sacred texts and religious holidays all originated in Israel.</b>The Old Testament was written in Hebrew a Semitic language which originated in Israel. Religious holidays are timed to coincide with the weather in the Middle East and include harvest festivals, pilgrimages (to Jerusalem) and a lunar calendar which is useless in Europe where clouds cover the moon.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>No other independent entity has existed on this territory.</b>Most of the independent countries to have existed on the site of modern Israel within the last 2,500 years are Jewish states. There has been one Crusader state created by the Normans which was independent. All Arab or Moslem rulers had their seat of government outside the country, as part of a wider Empire.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>The first European Jews who arrived in the 19th century identified as colonizers but arrived during Islamic rule .</b><br />The first European Jews to arrive during the 19th Century (about 30,000) often called their settlements “colonies”. However the main ruler was the Ottoman Empire and most rejected their European origins, preferring to speak a local language (Hebrew rather than Yiddish). Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion and second president (Ben Tzvi) both served in the Ottoman Army during the first world war and attempted to recruit American Jews to fight on Turkey’s behalf. In that sense they were asylum seekers and not colonizers.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>Zionism used colonialism as a tool.</b>Those first European Jewish migrants were Zionists and the Zionist movement up until 1917 sought to settle the country under Ottoman rule (hence Ben Gurion’s support for Turkey). Early Zionists tried to setup universities that would serve the Turks while aiding migration. However when the chance arose the Zionists had no compunction about riding the British coat tails and using British rule to get their cause recognized. That I think is the base for the claim that Zionists were colonizers, but to some extent they were using the British and the relationship, which was always tense, eventually broke down (from 1938).</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px 0px 0.7em; position: relative;"><b>The Arab population are also colonizers.</b>Although colonialism is associated with modern Europe there is a case to be made that much of the Arab population arrived in Israel as Imperial colonizers. There are communities brought here by the Turks, by the Egyptians (under Muhamed Ali) as well as Bedouin Arabs who probably came with the conquest.</li>
<li style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 2em; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><b>The question is academic and not relevant.</b><br />The Jews are here, they are blending in. In a few generations all Jews will be descended from Arab-Jewish migrants and European refugees from the Holocaust. Colonialism no longer exists and is not relevant to the modern world.</li>
</ol>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-40313152125567411502017-02-10T15:50:00.001+02:002017-02-10T15:50:51.237+02:00Juggling opera singer 20170210 140938<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="344" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R4dbYFvZNCc" width="459"></iframe>Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-2929857226225543562017-01-18T07:01:00.000+02:002017-01-24T16:49:10.751+02:00From Gaza to Belfast: My four weeks as an Israeli soldier in GazaIn 1996, I did 4 weeks reserve duty with the Israeli army in Gaza. It was the only time I ever served in the occupied territories. I was posted as a medic attached to a field hospital, near the Palestinian town of Rafiah at the South end of Gaza. The field hospital was manned by fellow reservists who knew each other and a doctor who commanded them. I was not normally part of this field hospital, so the doctor who commanded it, placed me "in the field", supporting the soldiers.<br />
Our unit was an artillery unit which had been sent to guard "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphi_Route" target="_blank">the Philadelphi road</a>". At the time it was probably the most dangerous place under Israeli control, outside of South Lebanon which was also occupied.<br />
The Philadelphi road was a narrow strip of land running along the border between Gaza and Egypt.<br />
Between 1967 and 1977 the Israelis governed Sinai and Rafiah spread into what had once been Egypt. After the Israeli withdrawal from Sinai, the city was spread across both sides of the border and a narrow road went through it, which was the new border. The width of the road varied at different points but it was mostly about 10 meters wide. There were Palestinian houses on either side and the road was lined with concrete barriers, placed there to protect the soldiers. A fence ran along the Egyptian side of the road, marking the boundary between the two countries and preventing infiltration (this was before the tunnels). There were also watch towers along both sides: Small Egyptian watch towers (about one or two floors high) and massive Israeli watch towers. I no longer remember their height but they towered over the surrounding area and I would guess they were about 4 floors up. There was a ladder to climb up and the watch tower was like a boat made of inch thick steel floating above Rafiah. When the wind blew, you could feel it swaying. As you climbed the watch tower you could see all of Rafiah and it amazed me that nobody took shots at us.<br />
I was the medic for the Philadelphi road. I sat in the back of a jeep and we drove up and down the border, patrolling it. The seats in the back of the jeep were benches running along the side walls (not car seats), designed to allow us to rapidly jump out the back and to carry more men. I was taught to sit with my rifle poking out the back of the jeep - so if I accidently opened fire, the resulting bullet would not bounce around the jeep and so I was already in place to attack anybody trying to assault the jeep. When guards in the watch towers needed to go for a shower, I climbed the ladder and sat in the tower, replacing them until they returned, so I saw all the watch towers. They were horrible.<br />
We didn't only patrol the border, we also drove around the surrounding areas. I remember sitting in the jeep on the first day and there were four of us: The driver was an Ethiopian immigrant, the jeep commander, who sat next to him at the front, was born in Israel and in the back was me - born in the UK, and next to me a Russian immigrant. Both I and the Russian sat with our rifles poking out the back. On our first day we were looking for the army petrol station and I looked up from a vague day dream to realize we were about to drive up a back road into Rafiah. "We are going into Rafiah! We are going into Rafiah!" I screamed several times. The driver stopped and the commander paused, we hastily backed up. It was probably the most dangerous moment in the 3 weeks. Had we gone into Rafiah we would have faced being lynched or shooting our way out.<br />
I didn't see many Palestinians. We lived in a small fort right near the Philadelphi road, but on occasional visits to the field hospital, which was in a large secure military base, we went through a checkpoint used by Palestinian civilians. I remember an old lady loudly gasping in horror as she saw my rifle poking out the back of the jeep. Later I was in another jeep whose commander liked to drive down to the beach and gaze at the bathing Palestinians. It looked wonderful, I wryly reflected that had it been safe for Israelis we would have been down there in the thousands eating cheap Humous and enjoying the beach. Eventually I told the commander that we had to stop doing it because we were spoiling their relaxation time. He listened and we stopped going.<br />
On one occasion we were sent to protect a technician who was repairing the border fence with Egypt. We stopped the jeep and I got out and stood next to him like a bodyguard. Most artillery men are small and unfit, that is why they are in artillery. I was the opposite, as a new immigrant the fact that I was tallish and fit got me into artillery even though I had little military training. Most people were fooled, I looked very war like, especially with all my medical equipment (I routinely carried 2 or 3 litres of intravenous drip fluid, not to mention a selection of bandages). Eventually the commanders realized that I had little military training and moved me to a less exposed position, but it took a while. While I guarded the man fixing the fence, a Palestinian woman wearing nothing but a bath robe came out onto a balcony next to the road. She started motioning for me to come to her. An Egyptian border guard scowled at her and she scowled back. I hadn't seen a woman for 10 days and it was all I could do not to start running over. Fear of a trap stopped me.<br />
There was another fort right up against the Egyptian border which we visited. It had a table with a bullet stuck in the wood, and they said that the backyard was an Egyptian tourist spot. Busloads of Egyptians would climb onto a little platform to ogle the Israeli soldiers. When I head this, I said that I has to see it. I went out and walked to the backyard, as I walked I heard loud gasps from the assembled tourists.<br />
The unit that replaced us were full time soldiers (doing national service), not reservists. They had a massive tank-like armoured personnel carrier, We were the last reservists on the Philadelphi road.<br />
<br />
A few weeks later, I got a new job working for an Israeli phone company. They sent me to Ireland to learn about their new billing system. On my first day at work, I was given 2000 dollars in cash and plane tickets. I flew to Galway in Ireland. After a few weeks in Galway, Southern Ireland, I decided to go see Belfast.<br />
I hired a car and told the car hire man where I was going. "Is it a problem?" I asked. "No" he said and then "I have just the car for you". He rented me a metallic green Audi. As it happened I was wearing a green fleece. I didn't realized the significance of it. In those days there were no motorways in Ireland, but there was outside Belfast and I drove into Belfast at 100 miles per hour. Children waved at me. I didn't understand why.<br />
In Belfast I went to the notorious Falls Road area, there I saw British troops creeping between the houses, trailed by small children carrying stones. It was like Gaza except that it was Europe and the houses looked lovely - though there was a noticeable lack of cars.<br />
When it was time to eat, I found it very hard to find a restaurant (Belfast had little night life) but someone told me to try near the university. I found a massive 3 floor pizza place next to the university and had a good meal. There was a stag night party there and as I left the restaurant I saw what was clearly a stripagram - a woman wearing little but a fur coat - going into the restaurant. I cursed my back luck at leaving the restaurant too early. At that second a British army jeep went by. A rifle was poking out the back in my direction.<br />
<br />
Three months later, Netanyahu opened a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Wall_Tunnel" target="_blank">tunnel that ran along the Western Wall</a> in Jerusalem. There were massive riots and all hell broke out along the Philadelphi road. 17 soldiers died (shots came from both Egypt and Gaza) and an Israeli Colonel was killed in the fort on the border (the one with the bullet in the table). My reaction was massive relief: I was glad it didn't happen when I was there.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-7231649466320880722015-10-14T22:17:00.000+03:002015-10-16T14:03:11.017+03:00Do Israeli withdrawals lead to peace?Since 1949, Israel has occupied and withdrawn from territories that are much larger than its internationally accepted area (which is about 21,000 square kilometers). Below I have drawn up a table of occupations.<br />
<br />
Only two withdrawals have resulted in, or from, peace agreements: The 1979 withdrawal from Sinai was the result of a treaty with Egypt and the 2005 treaty with Jordan was the result of a partial withdrawal from the West Bank (in reality it was more of a ceding of control) resulting from the Oslo agreement.<br />
<br />
Only once did Israel withdraw for very clear reasons of international pressure; In 1956 when it occupied both Sinai and Gaza. Most other withdrawals are the result of internal Israeli dynamics and/or military conflict, though international pressure may have play some role.<br />
<br />
The key finding is that only if withdrawals were <b><u>preceded</u></b> by a peace treaty did they lead to (some kind of) peace. The imposed 1956 withdrawal actually made the situation more volatile: Nasser misinterpreted it as proof of his power leading him to overplay his hand in 1967.<br />
<br />
If the objective of "BDS" (supporters of sanctions against Israel) is a forced Israeli withdrawal than that will mostly likely not lead to "peace". Of course what BDS mean by peace is ambiguous: The extermination of Israel could be said to be a form of peace.<br />
<br />
The Israeli withdrawal from Gaza has, arguably, not improved conditions there and it seems safe to assume that unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank would lead to exacerbated conflict.<br />
<br />
Can you force Israel to talk to the Palestinians and then force the talks to lead to an agreement?<br />
Pressure only on Israel would give the Palestinians an incentive to stiffen their conditions and could make agreement harder. BDS have never pressured the Palestinians (or condemned their anti-Semitism), which is one of the many reasons that BDS lacks credibility.<br />
<br />
In 1938 the British forced Palestinian Arabs and Jews to negotiate in London. The Arabs refused even to use the same door as the Jews and would not sit in the same room. No agreement was reached, so the British imposed one of their own: The 1938 White Paper. It's hard to say how much the White Paper changed the future, except that it did make the Holocaust much worse.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Territory<br />
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Total Area in square kilometers</b><br />
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Date of Occupation</b><br />
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Date of Withdrawal</b><br />
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Cause of withdrawal</b><br />
<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b>Did it lead to a peace treaty?</b><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Sinai<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
60,000 <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1956<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1956<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
US & USSR demands<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
No<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Gaza<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
360<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1956<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1956<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
US & USSR demands<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
No<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Sinai<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
60,000<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1967<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1979<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Peace treaty with Egypt<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Yes <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Gaza<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
360<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1967<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
2005<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Israeli internal pressures / Hamas attacks<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
No<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Golan Heights<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1,800 <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1967</div>
</td><td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120">N-A</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
West Bank<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
5,640 <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1967<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1993 Ceded control of 20%<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Shared control of another 20%<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Treaty with PLO<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Yes (but with Jordan) <o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
South Lebanon<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
2,000 (estimate)<span dir="RTL" lang="HE" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span dir="LTR"></span>1978<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1978<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
UN Security Council demand<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
No<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 82.65pt;" valign="top" width="110"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
South Lebanon<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 78.1pt;" valign="top" width="104"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
2,000 (estimate)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.05pt;" valign="top" width="119"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
1982 (included brief occupation of Beirut)<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 89.65pt;" valign="top" width="120"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
2000<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
Israeli internal pressures / Hezbollah attacks<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 61.95pt;" valign="top" width="83"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
No<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-58652815422907116172015-07-02T11:52:00.000+03:002015-07-02T13:03:38.829+03:00Disproportionate responses: The UN Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict It is ironic that UN reports on conflicts which involve Israel always accuse Israel of a "disproportionate response", ironic because that is a precise definition of how the UN handles Israel: For example, according to UN Watch, the UN General Assembly passed 25 resolutions in 2013, <a href="http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2013/11/25/this-years-22-unga-resolutions-against-israel-4-on-rest-of-world/" target="_blank">21 of them condemning Israel</a>.<br />
<br />
The <a href="http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIGazaConflict/Pages/ReportCoIGaza.aspx" target="_blank">UN report on the 2014 conflict</a> was commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, a body which from 2006 - 2015 issued over 100 resolutions of condemnation, over half addressed to Israel.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CIVhe52W8AAfQG4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CIVhe52W8AAfQG4.png" width="336" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
The latest report records Palestinian suffering and searches (with a magnifying glass) for possible evidence of Israeli war crimes. I think it is fair to say that no other conflict is subject to such tight inspection. Such inquiries have forced the Israelis to take increasing care during wars and conflicts and as a result, the Israelis probably take more care to avoid war crime accusations than any other army. So if you hate the Israelis you have more reason to hate them and if you love them, you have more reason to love them.<br />
<br />
We can't really quantify how relatively bad - or good - we Israelis are, because other conflicts are not subject to the same scrutiny. We also can't tell if we are getting worse or improving because the report does not compare out behaviour with previous conflicts.<br />
<br />
The report argues that war crimes are judged by the proportionality of the response and then assesses proportionality in terms of numbers killed, where there is a clear imbalance. However, that is only one way of assessing war crimes. Intent to kill civilians would be another and persistence of behaviour needs to be taken into account (is it isolated or systematic abuse).<br />
The Palestinians launched 5,000 missiles at Israel (paragraph 66) and the Israelis bombed them 6,000 times (paragraph 111), so there are other ways of measuring proportionality, and the death toll disparity is partially the result of extensive Israeli investment in protection, while Hamas frequently encouraged Palestinians not to seek protection and did not invest in the issue.<br />
<br />
The lead up to the conflict, when the Israelis often did not respond to missiles and the Palestinians persistently fired missiles for no reason, is not discussed. The Israelis tend to accumulate anger and then vent. The objective of the venting is to discourage further attacks by causing a lot of damage. The war is thus a defensive-offensive war: offensive in terms of destruction, defensive in terms of objectives and the report is focusing on a narrow section of a longer conflict.<br />
<br />
How you understand offensive vs. defensive hinges on what you think of the Israeli blockade and that is a serious problem with this report. The report relies on a "Gaza is still occupied" formula, this is addressed in paragraphs 26 and 27 of the report. Gaza is still occupied because:<br />
<br />
"...the law of occupation also applies in areas where a state possesses the “capacity to send troops within a reasonable time to make its power felt"."<br />
<br />
Egypt has a border with Gaza which vilifiers of Israel find convenient to ignore. There is no reason why flotillas to Gaza should not go to Egypt and then cross into Gaza from there. The reason why the Palestinians had so many weapons was that the Moslem Brotherhood had been in power in Egypt and allowed a flow of weapons into Gaza. Precisely for that reason Israel does not have the capacity to easily re-occupy Gaza, as the report claims. At the moment, it would be easier to conquer Damascus then to re-occupy Gaza.<br />
<br />
The UN Security Council, which is the only UN body whose decisions are considered binding on all UN members, seems to accept that there was a full Israeli withdrawal in <a href="http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Gaza%20SRES1860.pdf" target="_blank">resolution 1860</a> but says that Israel retains some responsibility towards the population of Gaza and must continue to allow free flow of goods, water and electricity. Through-out the conflict Israel kept up these services and goods continued to flow in and out of Gaza. The Israelis can interfere with the flow of goods, but their ability to use these elements for control is restricted by the Security Council. It is not an occupation but some other form of relationship.<br />
<br />
It is probably a good idea to report on conflicts, but then all conflicts must be reported on, not just those involving Israel.<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-46176723148481321412015-05-02T10:09:00.001+03:002015-10-03T17:48:59.448+03:00The Arabs are almost strong enough to conquer Western EuropeThe Roman Empire existed for some 1000 years before it fell. Modern Europe has dominated the world for far less time, perhaps since the reconquest of Spain and discovery of America in 1492: about 500 years. Since 1945, Europe has been weaker, but it has continued to exercise massive influence over the world.<br />
The fall of Rome was not something one could have easily predicted. Standards of living in Rome far exceeded anything that could be found in its neighbours. Roman army barracks on the borders had piped running water, fountains, baths with underfloor heating. Slavery had been ended. All Romans were citizens. And yet the Romans were no longer able to repulse invasions and their armies had become reliant on non-Roman troops and ineffective.<br />
<br />
The Ancient Egyptian pharaonic kingdoms were undefeated for even longer than the Romans: some 2,000 years. However it would appear that sometime in around 1600 BCE a group of tribes, possibly from Canaan successfully and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos" target="_blank">unexpectedly conquered Egypt</a>.<br />
<br />
Western Europe is far more vulnerable than would appear from pure economic data. While it dominates the global economy and exercises massive influence everywhere, Western Europe has systematically neglected its military and simply relies on the USA to protect it from the outside.<br />
<br />
To make this point, I have taken the four largest military powers in Western Europe and compared them to four large Arab states (all Sunni except Syria which has a Sunni majority), using data from the <a href="http://www.globalfirepower.com/countries-listing.asp" target="_blank">globalfirepower website</a>.<br />
I have not included Iran which is not Arab but has massive military power. Were Syria and Iraq to be combined they would be a formidable power and there are no European countries (except Russia) which can rival these countries in military terms. Turkey is arguably more powerful than any of the countries listed below but is Islamic and in NATO, so in a sense it keeps the balance of power.<br />
<br />
For comparison purposes I have added Israel, which is almost as strong as Turkey (not in active military forces).<br />
<br />
What you can see is that on land the balance is clearly shifting in favour of the Arabs.<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" dir="ltr" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: 1px solid #ccc; font-family: arial,sans,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; table-layout: fixed;"><colgroup><col width="357"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col><col width="100"></col></colgroup><tbody>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;"></td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Germany"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Germany</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"France"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">France</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Britain"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Britain</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Italy"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Italy</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Europe 4"]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Europe 4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Israel"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Israel</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Arab 4"]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Arab 4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Algeria"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Algeria</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Egypt"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Egypt</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Syria"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Syria</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Saudi Arabia"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Saudi Arabia</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Soldiers (active) in thousands"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Soldiers (active) in thousands</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,180]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">180</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,202]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">202</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,146]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">146</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,320]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">320</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,848]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">848</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,160]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">160</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1391]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1391</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,512]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">512</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,468]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">468</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,178]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">178</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,233]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">233</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Soldiers (reserve) in thousands"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Soldiers (reserve) in thousands</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,180]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">180</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,195]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">195</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,82]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">82</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">42</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,499]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">499</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,630]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">630</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1795]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1795</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,400]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">400</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,800]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">800</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,570]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">570</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,25]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">25</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Tanks"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Tanks</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,408]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">408</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,423]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">423</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,407]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">407</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,586]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">586</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1824]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1824</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4170]" style="font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4170</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,11275]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">11275</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,975]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">975</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4600]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4600</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4500]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4500</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1200]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1200</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Artillery"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Artillery</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,150]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">150</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,550]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">550</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,227]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">227</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,256]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">256</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1183]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1183</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,950]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">950</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,6360]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">6360</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,600]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">600</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,2200]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2200</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,2580]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2580</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,980]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">980</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Missile systems"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Missile systems</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,50]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">50</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,44]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">44</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,42]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">42</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,21]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">21</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,157]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">157</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,48]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">48</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,2601]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2601</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,148]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">148</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1481]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1481</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,650]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">650</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,322]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">322</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Combat Planes"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Combat Planes</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,297]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">297</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,540]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">540</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,249]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">249</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,270]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">270</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1356]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1356</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,484]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">484</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1730]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1730</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,188]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">188</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,811]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">811</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,340]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">340</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,391]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">391</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Combat Helicopters"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Combat Helicopters</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,34]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">34</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,46]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">46</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,65]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">65</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,59]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">59</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,204]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">204</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,48]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">48</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,117]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">117</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,35]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">35</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,36]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">36</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,28]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">28</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,18]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">18</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Ships"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Ships</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,77]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">77</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,103]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">103</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,55]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">55</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,168]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">168</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,403]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">403</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,61]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">61</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,408]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">408</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,56]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">56</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,241]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">241</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,56]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">56</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,55]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">55</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"Submarines"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">Submarines</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,10]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">10</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,10]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">10</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,6]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">6</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,30]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">30</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,5]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">5</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,8]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">8</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,4]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">4</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 21px;"><td data-sheets-value="[null,2,"aircraft carriers"]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; vertical-align: bottom;">aircraft carriers</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,1]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">1</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,2]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">2</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[-4]:R[0]C[-1])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,3]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; font-weight: bold; padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">3</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-formula="=SUM(R[0]C[1]:R[0]C[4])" data-sheets-numberformat="[null,0]" data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="background-color: #a2c4c9; padding: 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td><td data-sheets-value="[null,3,null,0]" style="padding: 2px 3px 2px 3px; text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;">0</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
What is missing in this chart is nuclear power which is a potential game breaker and economic power, with its implied military potential where Europe is more powerful than anyone.<br />
Even so, it does show just how limited European military power is and that, if this trend continues, Europe could become vulnerable particularly if it loses its USA backing and its (possibly quite small) nuclear option is neutralized in some way.<br />
<br />
If you think Europe can easily power-up then bear in mind that it takes a lot of time to train military personnel - especially commanders - and that the skills and know-how associated with warfare are gradually being lost.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-48104902959873945372015-02-28T08:55:00.001+02:002015-02-28T20:12:07.648+02:00Ten paradoxes of the Israeli - Palestinian Arab conflict<br />
<div>
I have long been struck by the many paradoxes of the Arab-Israeli conflict. I tried to make a list of them and have provided explanations below. If you can suggest any others I would like to hear.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<ol>
<li>The minority are a majority and the majority are a minority.</li>
<li>Israel is more Arab than some Arab states.</li>
<li>The Arabs will not be able to defeat the Israelis until they stop trying.</li>
<li>Anti-imperialist Arabs are usually Arab imperialists.</li>
<li>Palestinian cities are often built on the ruins of Jewish cities, while many Jewish cities are built on the ruins of Palestinian cities. </li>
<li>The more Israelis and Palestinians won't compromise the more they will lose.</li>
<li>The conflict used to be between Socialist Jews and Social Arabs, now it's between Religious Jews and Religious Arabs.</li>
<li>The "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_Peace">City of Peace</a>" is the greatest cause of conflict.</li>
<li>As many Arabs have migrated to Europe as Jews have migrated to the Middle East.</li>
<li>European anti-racists are frequently both racist and anti-Semitic.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
</div>
<br />
<ol>
<li>The minority are a majority and the majority are a minority.<br />In Israel Jews are a majority, but within the Middle East Jews are a small minority, perhaps 2% of the general population - the same as in the USA. Arab complaints about Israel are often related to an unwillingness to accept minority status while Jewish fears reflect a sense of being a minority. </li>
<li>Israel is more Arab than some Arab states.<br />About 40% of Israeli Jews were either born in Arab countries or have two parents who were born in Arab countries. In either case, their ancestors have lived in the Arab world as long - or longer - than the Arab population. A further 20% of Israeli Jews have one parent who belongs in that category. In addition 20% of Israelis are "native" Arabs. In other words 80% of Israelis are either fully or half-Arab. In Iraq, at least 30% are Kurds and many other Iraqis may be considered non-Arab, so Iraq is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_Arab_League#Ethnicities">less Arab than Israel</a>.</li>
<li>The Arabs will not be able to defeat the Israel until they stop trying.<br />To defeat Israel the Arabs will need to develop societies that are open to Western Civilization and tolerant. Once they do that, they will have they strength to defeat Israel but may well lose the desire. Saladin was famously tolerant of other religions and the enemy of Moslem fundamentalists, he only fought the Crusaders after they attacked him.</li>
<li>Anti-imperialist Arabs are often imperialists.<br />Many Arab leaders who fought Colonialism and European imperialism strove to re-create an Arab Empire in the Middle East. It's still true. In contrast, the Jewish religion could be said to prohibit empire-building: Jews are allocated a specific territory and no more.</li>
<li>Many Palestinian cities are built on the ruins of Jewish cities, including Bethlehem, Hebron, Arabeh, Jaffa and more. Many Israeli towns are built on the ruins of Palestinian towns or villages including Ashdod, Yehud and Be'er Sheva. In some cases there are multiple layers: Tiberias, Tzfat and Ramleh are predominantly Jewish cities that were built on Palestinian ruins which were built on Jewish ruins.</li>
<li>The more Israelis and Palestinians won't compromise the more they will lose.<br />The Palestinian refusal to compromise famously resulted in the Jews having a state while they had none. The Arab refusal to accept Israel led, in 1967, to Israel gaining possession of the entire land. Israeli lack of flexibility contributed to the 1973 war which was arguably very damaging to Israel. Today the settlers' unwillingness to compromise may be strengthening the Palestinian claim to the land internationally while making Israel weaker.</li>
<li>The conflict which was once between Socialist Jews and Socialist Arabs is now between Religious Jews and Religious Arabs.<br />Nasser described himself as an "Arab Socialist" and the Ba'ath parties that ruled Syria and Iraq defined themselves as Socialist, while the Labor Party which dominated Israeli politics until the mid-Seventies was Socialist and most senior Israeli officers were Kibbutzniks: Moshe Dayan was the second child to be born on a Kibbutz. (his mother was a former "Narodnik"). Now the conflict is led by Hamas, Hizbullah and Orthodox Jewish settlers. Although Orthodox Jews don't yet dominate the upper echelons of the Army they are increasingly dominant in the officer corp and it may be just a question of time.</li>
<li>The "City of Peace" is the greatest cause of conflict.<br />Jerusalem's name in Hebrew is said to also mean the City of Peace, but it is anything but. In the Middle-Ages it was the main focus of international conflict between Christians and Moslems and today it arguably remains the most intractable part of the Arab-Israeli conflict.</li>
<li>As many Arabs have migrated to Europe as European Jews have migrated to the Arab world<br />About 3 or 4 million Arabs have migrated to Europe in the last 100 years, This is roughly the same as the number of Europeans who have migrated to Israel. See <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/population/migration/turin/Symposium_Turin_files/P11_Dumont%28OECD%29.pdf">http://www.un.org/esa/population/migration/turin/Symposium_Turin_files/P11_Dumont%28OECD%29.pdf</a>.</li>
<li>European anti-racists are often both racist and anti-Semitic.<br />Many Europeans who describe themselves as "anti-racist" believe that race theory is a valid way of seeing the world, that is that Jews and Arabs are separate "races". In fact, very few Jews or Arabs see themselves in terms of "Race", and most see themselves in terms of religion which is the principle method by which Middle-Easterners define themselves and practise discrimination. This is as true of the Jews as it is among the Arabs. Because Europeans see the world in terms of race they tend to assume that others do so as well, and because they are prone to demonise Jews, they easily assume that Israel is racist. Having decided that Israel is racist, often for anti-Semitic reasons, they feel free to be anti-Semitic because they are "anti-racists" and because Israel (and with it most Jews) are racists.</li>
</ol>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-61017914945412155662015-02-01T22:06:00.003+02:002015-02-28T21:17:24.741+02:00Graven images of God and the prophetsAfter the initial outrage at the killing of the cartoonists in France, I started re-assessing my attitude to Charlie Hebdo and found myself thinking that it is a very offensive publication. Obviously I don't condone the use of murder to silence the magazine, but it is true that here in Israel many of its cartoons would be deemed racist and banned from publication.<br />
<br />
There are plenty of depictions of Mohammed around if you choose to actually look for them. Take this compilation of Renaissance depictions of Mohammed: <a href="http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/euro_medi_ren/">http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/euro_medi_ren/</a>. Apparently Moslems also depicted Mohammed: <a href="http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/islamic_mo_full/">http://www.zombietime.com/mohammed_image_archive/islamic_mo_full/</a>.<br />
The murder of the cartoonists raises another issue: the status of Mohammed in Islam. Basically, Christians think that Jesus is part God, while Moslems assign a semi-divine status to Mohammed in which he remains human but apparently is so sacred that we mustn't even imagine what he looked like. And Jews? We barely mention Moses. The Passover Haggadah, which is all about the Exodus completely ignores him. You might say that we are quite happy to insult his memory. On that grounds at least Jews must count as better monotheists then Moslems and Christians: No one over-shadows God. Though, of course, each religion has its own oddities. Jews ascribe magical sacred status to a building (the Temple).<br />
<br />
If you object to depictions of Mohammed, its a bit odd to ignore depictions of God. Christians <a href="https://www.google.co.il/search?q=pictures+of+god&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=jjvKVPCKBovhaMT_gNAG&ved=0CCAQsAQ&biw=1366&bih=681">depict God all the time.</a> The attitude would seem to suggest that Mohammed was more important than God, though it may be related to different ideas of the nature of God - Moslems are less likely to "humanize" God.<br />
As for creating images of Mohammed, both orthodox Jews and Moslems make a big fuss about having no images while printing plenty of images of rabbis and imams. It seems to me that there is an element of idolatry in hanging up giant pictures of Khomeini or Rabbi Ovadiah, though perhaps it's better that religious zealots allow pictures if the alternative is that they allow none.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-2225695822535192882015-01-11T20:40:00.000+02:002015-05-09T12:19:27.986+03:00How I cycled in a sudden blizzard without gloves.This is a story about my most extreme cycling experience in terms of weather.<br />
It was about 2004. I was volunteering once a week at a <a href="http://www.crisis.org.uk/">charity for the homeless</a> funded by David Gilmour of the Pink Floyd, located in <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/viewer?msa=0&mid=zBPeWMNoLDPg.k9Fble2zV_KU">Aldgate in East London</a>. My ride home was 15 kilometers and there was a sudden drop in temperature to sub-zero cold accompanied by snow and strong winds. I didn't have any gloves.<br />
The snow was so heavy that I couldn't see where I was going, and the lack of gloves meant that my hands were agonizingly painful, so I decided to head to Kings Cross and travel by train.<br />
Somewhere on the way to Kings Cross I had a puncture. I remember swearing heavily at my bad luck and trying to remove the tyre with my frozen hands which was very painful. I broke a tyre lever - Possibly the fiberglass couldn't handle the sub-zero temperatures.<br />
At Kings Cross I managed to get onto a train going to Finsbury Park. My destination was Alexandra Palace which is a several stops further down the line. Finsbury Park was packed with people trying to find a train, and no trains were going any further than Finsbury Park "due to snow on the tracks".<br />
There were crowds of people milling around waiting for a train and it was clear I couldn't get a bicycle on a train and there was no point in waiting. I decided to risk cycling in the cold.<br />
Cycling with no gloves in sub-zero weather is so painful that normally you have to stop within a couple of minutes but on this occasion the sudden weather change had resulted in a 5 mile traffic jam which went all the way from Finsbury Park to Muswell Hill and beyond. My entire route was lined with cars which weren't moving but had their engines on keeping the drivers warm. The heat generated was enough to keep my hands warm and get me home. Although my experience was hard it turned out to be better then commuters and drivers who spent hours getting home.<br />
<br />
In Israel, I have cycled in Middle-Eastern heat waves, but one of the hardest times to cycle is during Mediterranean rainstorms. We get at least one of these rains storms a year. Typically 10-20% of our annual rainfall will drop within a 48 hour period. It quite literally comes down in buckets. Tel Aviv's drain system tends to get blocked up during the summer and it can't handle the sudden deluge so you find yourself cycling through flooded roads, large puddles while being beaten by heavy rain.<br />
I have a very attractive British raincoat, which was great in England but can't handle the Israeli rain.<br />
We had one fo these storms this week and I donned two rain jackets, heavy hiking boots and storm pants and rode through the park. It was wonderful: I was the only human in the Eastern end of Park HaYarkon and passed right next to the <a href="https://www.google.co.il/search?q=jackals+in+park+hayarkon&es_sm=91&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ob-yVPPXEcnwao3YgPgK&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1440&bih=702">Jackals which have now moved into the park</a>, further down I saw two huge herons and a tree with Cormorants. Rothschild Boulevard (my destination) was littered iwth dead umbrellas.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwX5CEnOGgoPUlRvzk7oh7iWWQSPIFTesArzZaFpdg04ws1a0kPmL1fJJJNBSwHlfqvTYaqwuxqWXr34V6s2D_vp_iPns3zsuvy4GiWJ0BS74fj1HuTVvJviJnDx6GlBaJYQu5M2l5NQ/s1600/20150107_102213.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwX5CEnOGgoPUlRvzk7oh7iWWQSPIFTesArzZaFpdg04ws1a0kPmL1fJJJNBSwHlfqvTYaqwuxqWXr34V6s2D_vp_iPns3zsuvy4GiWJ0BS74fj1HuTVvJviJnDx6GlBaJYQu5M2l5NQ/s640/20150107_102213.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tree with Cormorants<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4Vvg4be-7CFW20ywPhKBLGGdslET2qd287JFi__boGjSYVaVOOgO-GS2xPLcZnqJTEVhaZx7VO9ITVLfdcyu1YYQC6hTjwPKgtS2Ms8nZXkW4lCN4b8om4C3N6H6OCsDJaxFg8_znw/s1600/20150107_104207.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE4Vvg4be-7CFW20ywPhKBLGGdslET2qd287JFi__boGjSYVaVOOgO-GS2xPLcZnqJTEVhaZx7VO9ITVLfdcyu1YYQC6hTjwPKgtS2Ms8nZXkW4lCN4b8om4C3N6H6OCsDJaxFg8_znw/s640/20150107_104207.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rothschild Boulevard in the rain</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivapBM9T9s0pqpwh6AWrS6GlrPMVM4EoyYaED-B4Y8DCOaQwBKgu5dfrkay9yMJ1PCFUdgoPXupN1qoRPvUqHKvJFGhygtNHqhaxEeOjjuaN6zRZFV__nhos18MLnPxYMKIGW-JyC3uA/s1600/20150107_103020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivapBM9T9s0pqpwh6AWrS6GlrPMVM4EoyYaED-B4Y8DCOaQwBKgu5dfrkay9yMJ1PCFUdgoPXupN1qoRPvUqHKvJFGhygtNHqhaxEeOjjuaN6zRZFV__nhos18MLnPxYMKIGW-JyC3uA/s640/20150107_103020.jpg" width="360" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Palm trees shed their dead leaves</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-46243242022551760142014-12-29T14:25:00.001+02:002014-12-29T14:31:12.976+02:00The Darfur Computer Service Center: Tel Aviv<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur">Darfur</a> is a region of Sudan. It is estimated that since 2003, about 40,000 civilians have been murdered there every year, about half a million people to date. For every murdered civilian, about five flee their home. The genocide and ethnic cleansing are organized by the Sudanese government, which didn't stop it getting <a href="http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1316871&ct=12008107">nominated for a seat</a> on the UN Human Rights Council, and the <a href="http://www.unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/genocide-in-sudan.htm">UN report on it</a> was only compiled following <a href="http://www.indiagazette.com/index.php/sid/228496661">extensive criticism</a>. The only thing the UN Human Rights Council wants to discuss is Israel, and in contrast to Sudan which is mostly ignored, there are constant UN reports on Palestine.<br />
Israel is the only non-African country to have a land border with an African country and in recent years many people fleeing Sudan and Eritrea have chosen to come to Israel. At its peak in about 2010, some 3,000 people were crossing the border every month. The flow of refugees and Al-Qaeda attacks from Sinai, eventually led the Israeli government to put up a serious border fence and place better quality troops along the border, but in the meantime the population of Tel Aviv's poorest neighborhoods has become increasingly African.<br />
I took a friend round the area a couple of days ago, and he pointed out the Darfour Computer Services center.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxSs16w3Ny7LLPBKyLAfKymUB_MAVUGvfsjI-uVAPP6LOrtij0ztA9XeAJrSnFWELc_kSPg-B8VAmj3WqJ5CIuYZoei3Poq2FK44kocAWNz4GI4Ss2Wv7t3Pv5WMW-oWHDE2IK8LjLw/s1600/20141226_131216.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJxSs16w3Ny7LLPBKyLAfKymUB_MAVUGvfsjI-uVAPP6LOrtij0ztA9XeAJrSnFWELc_kSPg-B8VAmj3WqJ5CIuYZoei3Poq2FK44kocAWNz4GI4Ss2Wv7t3Pv5WMW-oWHDE2IK8LjLw/s1600/20141226_131216.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Darfur computer services</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
My home desktop PC has had a problem lately: one of the RAM modules had stopped working and I wanted to upgrade my motherboard to use the latest RAM. Unfortunately it seems that no one in North Tel Aviv uses desktops anymore. The shop where I bought it (Ivory) weren't interested in upgrades and offered me a new PC at the same price as an upgrade, their sole rivals (KSP), who are cheaper, won't upgrade any desktop which they didn't sell. I tried them both yesterday with no luck, and then I remembered the Darfour Computer Services Center, I hopped in my car and drove down to what is now known as the "old central bus station" and carried the computer in.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A serious looking man called Ahmed examined my PC. While he did so, a Chinese man was busy fixing mobile phones in the corner. Ahmed explained that he didn't accept credit cards. He said he used to but so few of his customers used them, that he stopped bothering with the equipment. Ahmed needed some time to name me a price, so I left the PC there and went for brunch in a vegan restaurant just off Allenby. Needless to say he had no visiting card, so he wrote down his phone number for me, and I went off.</div>
I came back about 90 minutes later, and unfortunately the price he quoted for a new motherboard and CPU were about the same as Ivory which was more than I wanted to pay.<br />
While I waited, he disassembled the CPU, carefully cleaning everything and then put it back together again. This had the effect of rejuvenating the dead RAM module which came back to life. I paid him 70 shekels for this service which at least keeps my desktop working for a while longer.<br />
Ahmed told me he has been in Israel for 9 years. I asked what he did in the Sudan and he told me that he hadn't really done anything there, he was 18 when he arrived in Israel.<br />
<br />
I Googled Darfur Computer services, and the only response was the store in Tel Aviv. This is its Facebook page; <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darfur-Computer-Service-Center/536370756425356">https://www.facebook.com/pages/Darfur-Computer-Service-Center/536370756425356</a>.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd5gwqyefkQDNp9CVw_fq6wKg0DP82l5WGZ76awtSVRrLaM1uoywjpsEqY_VhAgnitWOcH3uX2qOm_it_078bO2e6m2AQ8XavO05FFI98fmNbdMRtLz4AYxcudGmg_XPqT5beP8coDtA/s1600/20141226_131212.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd5gwqyefkQDNp9CVw_fq6wKg0DP82l5WGZ76awtSVRrLaM1uoywjpsEqY_VhAgnitWOcH3uX2qOm_it_078bO2e6m2AQ8XavO05FFI98fmNbdMRtLz4AYxcudGmg_XPqT5beP8coDtA/s1600/20141226_131212.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHez_TqtJbdByPXUVTyJUwQ_kMoNx9DDAQk4UyPGURV6U0kWoEK3mQiDgEXkgCXmt_xIBHH4ZWaqzrKTIGv1lxbQqffVexbylx7GyosK8VeseV8cTjvjX0C6ElewOMBYqAYYUAe2UxtQ/s1600/20141228_125826.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHez_TqtJbdByPXUVTyJUwQ_kMoNx9DDAQk4UyPGURV6U0kWoEK3mQiDgEXkgCXmt_xIBHH4ZWaqzrKTIGv1lxbQqffVexbylx7GyosK8VeseV8cTjvjX0C6ElewOMBYqAYYUAe2UxtQ/s1600/20141228_125826.jpg" height="360" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edge of the old bus station, looking toward Allenby</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
See also the Africa Refugee Development Center, Tel Aviv: <a href="http://www.ardc-israel.org/en">http://www.ardc-israel.org/en</a><br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-59413158611085838522014-11-23T13:15:00.004+02:002014-11-24T10:11:08.750+02:00How to repair the Israel Labor Party This is my four point program for restoring the Israeli Labor party to a position of influence in Israeli politics. At present the party which used to dominate Israeli politics holds 19 of the 120 seats in the Knesset. I haven't discussed the issues which I regard as important as I don't think the problem is purely one of issues, though of course selecting the right issues would help.<br />
<br />
1. Make Your Presence Felt (outside the Knesset)<br />
Labor needs to maintain constant contact with its voters - not just its activists - so that its leaders can develop a feel for what people want and can be seen to be out there connecting to people, not just turning up at election time. Activists are key here in that they are the people who provide the interface between the party and voters. The great advantage of religious groups in this respect is that places of worship provide an excellent base for recruiting activists and disseminating ideas. The internet can be an excellent substitute for places of worship but it needs to be about more then just issuing Facebook status updates and it needs to be one of a number of tactics.<br />
<br />
2. Indirect Leadership Elections.<br />
This may sound odd, but imitating the USA practise of direct election of party leaders is bad for Israeli democracy. The principle reason is that running as a candidate is very expensive and not subject to meaningful financial controls so it provides a way for Israel's super-rich to "run" candidates and ensure that the people they want win elections. It would be better to have activists vote for regional boards which then elect a national executive that chooses the leadership annd candidates. Basically a two phase tiered system giving the grass roots some control over the election process but reducing the need for huge funds to get elected while rewarding dedication and hard work and also ensuring that the best - not the most popular - people win. <br />
<br />
3. Russian Voters.<br />
The Israeli left has abandoned Russian immigrants to Lieberman. Winning Russian votes is not just about winning hearts and minds its, about connecting to "progressive" Russian figureheads and giving them prominent and influential roles in the Party hierarchy so that Russian voters can see they are represented and so that the issues that affect them, such as converisons, weddings, drug abuse programs etc. are properly discussed.<br />
<br />
4. Ehud Barak.<br />
I know no one likes him, that he puts his own interests before the party and that he doesn't care about economics or social justice but the truth is that he is probably the only Labor leader who can unseat Netanyahu. So the party needs to structure itself so that if Barak can be leader but can't control economic policy and can't determine party structure.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-56258530288025841522014-11-04T21:11:00.003+02:002014-11-16T13:10:57.073+02:00Watching football in Tel Aviv: I was at the unfinished derby match.At the end of last week a friend of mine informed me he had got us tickets to see the Tel Aviv derby on Sunday. This is the second time he's invited me to a match and I had mixed feelings: he buys tickets behind the goals where the fans don't sit in their seats: they stand throughout the game so if you want to see anything you have to stand for over an hour and a half. The Israeli fans also like to eat unshelled sunflower seeds and spit out the shells. This means that a lot of seats end up covered in disgusting sunflower shells. Althoguh the tickets have marked seats you have to arrive 45 minutes early and simply pick a good place to stand because nobody take any notice of the seating. In the previous match we went to, Maccabi Tel Aviv against HaPoel BeerSheva, most of the chants involved references to various people's mothers which I found distasteful.<br />
My friend is a supporter (die hard?) of Maccabi Tel Aviv. I have no problem with this in basketball: as a teenager I watched Maccabi dismantle a CSKA Moscow team that refused to play in Israel, before going on to win the European cup.<br />
In football I feel less keen. In 2002, I watched HaPoel Tel Aviv knock (pre-Abramovitch) Chelsea out of the UEFA cup at Stamford Bridge and I like their hammer and sickle logo. HaPoel means "the labourer" and the team was originally sponsored by the trade union movement. The Chelsea match was the last time I saw a game in England and you had to sit in your marked seat, stewards stood there, watching us like hawks and shouting at anyone who dared to stand up (we did dance around when HaPoel scored). On the pitch, policemen ignored the game and peered intently at the crowd watching for trouble makers.<br />
As we left the pitch, I heard a Chelsea steward commenting to his friend, how disciplined the HaPoel supporters were. A Chelsea fan making Nazi salutes was simply ignored.<br />
<br />
Yesterday was different.<br />
<br />
There were masses of stewards, but they just ignored us and stood around. As I said, the seat numbers on the tickets were purely advisory: you do have to go into designated gates, so we were behind the goals and arrived 45 minutes early so as to find a good place to stand. Actually I used to watch Arsenal in the 'Eighties and then the places behind the goal were standing only, so in that respect it was the same. The season ticket holders arrived late: they sit in the best seats and I suppose their seat's locations must be honoured.<br />
<br />
Maccabi and HaPoel share the same stadium: Bloomfield, which is actually a rather nice stadium. It seats 20 or 30,000 and there are good views from all over. I used to live nearby and my son Noam studies the bassoon at a music centre next door.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Because this was a HaPoel home game, most of the seats were allocated to HaPoel. However, there was a clearly pre-arranged effort by Maccabi fans to break the allocation. Large numbers had bought tickets for the seating areas adjacent to the area allocated to Maccabi fans. I know it was pre-arranged because most of them wore white: there was no indication that they were Maccabi fans until a little before the game when they suddenly surged over to the side next to the Maccabi fans, forcing the police to separate them from the HaPoel fans and resulting in at least one HaPoel fan trying (unsuccessfully) to pick a fight. On the other side from where we stood, someone was arrested but I didn't see what for.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyf7zCUG-d-DaFyuzGA1RACpZwfgCZNqA7adpjqphhCE52nxt50OOoJG6f-0mfo4Du17qiwEptziMRIdZdIl_XzDFVxHi7kBrNhzQYQd8_bOqTYKmrE_lnM6FbnZbIvxJ_WGKCVhX-XA/s1600/20141103_204447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyf7zCUG-d-DaFyuzGA1RACpZwfgCZNqA7adpjqphhCE52nxt50OOoJG6f-0mfo4Du17qiwEptziMRIdZdIl_XzDFVxHi7kBrNhzQYQd8_bOqTYKmrE_lnM6FbnZbIvxJ_WGKCVhX-XA/s1600/20141103_204447.jpg" height="130" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Maccabi fans behind the blue fence are actually in an area meant to separate the rival fans. It was supposed to be empty.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
A couple of minutes before the game started, the Maccabi fans let off massive yellow smoke bombs (Maccabi's colours are Yellow and Blue). The Turkish team Galatasaray was recently fined by UEFA because fans let off smoke bombs at Arsenal and I knew that this is a transgression.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbIEN6vkqmO2yce2s8IOtWAJY6g35Dwr2nli-o_ThHO9e4ILuTJ6Ra_cKvJhD4WBu9_P3yioFy4tQ1BI1Fupxi9AasSshXMpL7_WX-rqIkSX80dNcfrtZx_z2c5eB3I8yxkPTdccWEg/s1600/20141103_205747.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsbIEN6vkqmO2yce2s8IOtWAJY6g35Dwr2nli-o_ThHO9e4ILuTJ6Ra_cKvJhD4WBu9_P3yioFy4tQ1BI1Fupxi9AasSshXMpL7_WX-rqIkSX80dNcfrtZx_z2c5eB3I8yxkPTdccWEg/s1600/20141103_205747.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smoke bomb at the Tel Aviv derby</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
My friend is a physician and he was worried about the affect the smoke would have on the fan's lungs; we were far away and unaffected by the smoke.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsH7uToVMZIr2rFfpzOWknEAC54Z7Y6KP40nIdQQbYg90wVpDXJ1FWIBOeWbzUgvkaEhXtojZhG5z5yv2sMSECsQTEzuWqoUy8-RFVc6f2jxwcPVv0GInDHai5hy9o20XDMTAFIV4p_w/s1600/20141103_205830.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsH7uToVMZIr2rFfpzOWknEAC54Z7Y6KP40nIdQQbYg90wVpDXJ1FWIBOeWbzUgvkaEhXtojZhG5z5yv2sMSECsQTEzuWqoUy8-RFVc6f2jxwcPVv0GInDHai5hy9o20XDMTAFIV4p_w/s1600/20141103_205830.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Smoke bomb dissipating</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After that things were fairly normal. The chanting was better then when I saw HaPoel Beer Sheva and the game was good. Maccabi were attacking the other end of the pitch from where we stood, and dominated the game, except that HaPoel made one good counter attack and scored against the run of play. A few minutes later there was an incident in the HaPoel penalty box and a Maccabi player fell over. I was too far away to see what happened and, annoyingly, live football doesn't feature action replays. There was a penalty and Eran Zahavi scored.<br />
I didn't see what happened next but around me I head people muttering that Zahavi had been warned about his goal celebrations, while others imitated him - which enabled me to figure out what happened. It seems that Zahavi's "trade mark" goal celebration is to hold his hands as if they were pistols making shots: just like a child might. Around me people made pretend guns with their hands and went "piu piu",which is the sound Israeli children make as a gun noise.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
Apparently Zahavi aimed his pretend pistols at the HaPoel fans. A few minutes later, as he went to take a penalty a HaPoel fan ran into the pitch and attacked him. It looked like Zahavi defended himself (it was all very fast and far away) but after the fan was arrested, Zahavi was shown a red card for hitting the fan.<br />
<br />
The Maccabi fans were incensed: their star was attacked and then the attacker was rewarded by seeing him sent off! Zahavi didn't just walk off, he angrily ran at the referee and a crowd of Maccabi players pushed round the referee. The referee walked away but if he had stood his ground I think he could have gotten knocked over.<br />
The exit from the pitch was at the other end: where all the HaPoel fans were standing. Police took Zahavi off, and bottles were thrown at him (about 5). I think there was an attempt to renew the game, but within seconds more balding men, this time I think they were angry Macabbi fans, ran onto the pitch. Mostly they weren't attacking anyone, though some seemed to want to run at the HaPoel fans, basically they mostly they were furious about Zahavi being sent off.<br />
Well that was it. The fans were tackled by police and taken away. The game halted and the players left the pitch, We stood around wondering what to do: would it get violent? It didn't look like it. Would the game resume? Would we get our money back if it didn't? <br />
The Guardian says there was fighting "<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/04/hapoel-tel-aviv-maccabi-derby-brawl-fan-player-abandoned">near the city courthouse</a>". There is a court a kilometer away on Shoken street and maybe the arrested fans were taken there, but there was no trouble outside the stadium. I nearly stepped in police horseshit on the way out (I saw two policemen on horseback). They should make them pick up the shit like dog owners do.<br />
By the way all the invading fans seemed to have shaven heads. Israel has a high percentage of balding men and the fashion is for them to shave all their hair off. This seems to apply to the tema's management as well. Maccabi's manager is Jordi Cruyff, son of the Dutch legend.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/29894003">BBC coverage</a><br />
The Jerusalem Post has the full incident: <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Disgrace-for-Israeli-soccer-as-hooligan-storms-pitch-attacks-Maccabi-Tel-Aviv-player-380693">http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Sports/Disgrace-for-Israeli-soccer-as-hooligan-storms-pitch-attacks-Maccabi-Tel-Aviv-player-380693</a><br />
<br />
<div>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel32.0517465 34.76161500000000632.050055 34.759083000000004 32.053438 34.764147000000008tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-77176846029374611242014-11-01T08:49:00.003+02:002015-02-28T21:21:36.816+02:00Trapped in East Berlin: My close shave with totalitarianismIn 1988 I travelled to visit a cousin who worked at the US Embassy in what was then East Berlin. My cousin lived in West Berlin, which was then a Western enclave in Communist Eastern Europe and surrounded by a huge wall with armed guards, ferocious dogs and other lethal devices which prevented anyone from trying to enter the enclave.<br />
The West was allowed to send in troop trains through designated corridors. The trains were banned from stopping on the way. Because my cousin was an employee of the US, I entered on a US military train.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsyFMae9w8HYokeIHHyOdN3InX99vV37AmOZM6Ixsw9JXMbg9rJHi3CDjVcVZU9xuq2btpJ4FtWjE0Et5pWdvk0kIWRtxPk_iTBcSX6jb-dAbb95VTdaH9a1MysAH_bw-K8opj-Zpog/s1600/ticket+for+troop+train+to+West+Berlin+1+of+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggsyFMae9w8HYokeIHHyOdN3InX99vV37AmOZM6Ixsw9JXMbg9rJHi3CDjVcVZU9xuq2btpJ4FtWjE0Et5pWdvk0kIWRtxPk_iTBcSX6jb-dAbb95VTdaH9a1MysAH_bw-K8opj-Zpog/s1600/ticket+for+troop+train+to+West+Berlin+1+of+2.jpg" height="400" width="306" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ticket for US troop train to West Berlin (front side)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I spent a week in West Berlin. Everywhere you went, you sooner or later came up against the vast wall. It was strange that the wall was to prevent those outside from getting in, logically one would have expected it to be the other way round. The Western side of the wall was covered in superb graffiti and there were little platforms with steps, like airplane steps where you could mount and look out across the wall.<br />
At some point my cousin suggested I come with him and spend a day in East Berlin. He commuted to work through a border post known as "Checkpoint Charlie" in a car with diplomatic number plates. Checkpoint Charlie was notorious as the most tense border post in the "Iron Curtain". He told me that without the Berlin Wall his 40 minute commute would take 10 minutes.<br />
<br />
There was a delay as the East German border guards checked my credentials, but eventually they waved us through. My cousin gave me a roll of East German money and told me to meet him at "the Grand Hotel's restaurant" at five.<br />
For the rest of the day I wandered around East Berlin. The pubs sold one type of beer, one type of sandwich and nothing else. There was no advertising - anywhere. In a dingy coffee-shop I entered, people sat in clouds of cigarette smoke and pressed their head together to prevent eavesdropping. A food shop sold nothing but potatoes, cabbages and apples. It was very grey. In the main square a miserable looking man sold hot dogs from a small stand, it was clearly not his stand but the product of a bureaucratic decision to sell sausages from a stand. There was very little to spend the money on and it was a drab unpleasant place. The best looking office building I saw had closed circuit cameras on it and little hearts on its railings. "The Ministry of Love!" I thought to myself; in Orwell's 1984 it is the name of the secret service's offices and the cameras (unusual at the time) suggested this must be it.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlm82Uyhmx4mlyQeTe5s5KkLIytqTjEC92QPJtTP2UCubzExfDaWaDSn-8GceM33sJS5VH00XMAJF4yOmAOKbfgIUS4bGxa-7THd03zBuuWyqQVkBkJvVLuzd6la99w3C1N67fzwhVzw/s1600/Ticket+for+troop+train+to+West+Berlin+2+of+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlm82Uyhmx4mlyQeTe5s5KkLIytqTjEC92QPJtTP2UCubzExfDaWaDSn-8GceM33sJS5VH00XMAJF4yOmAOKbfgIUS4bGxa-7THd03zBuuWyqQVkBkJvVLuzd6la99w3C1N67fzwhVzw/s1600/Ticket+for+troop+train+to+West+Berlin+2+of+2.jpg" height="640" width="488" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Back side of the US troop train ticket</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
At four I wandered over to the Grand Hotel and found the restaurant, but my cousin wasn't there. I went to the US Embassy which was closed. A voice in an intercom told me my cousin had left. I went back to the hotel but he wasn't there. At this point it dawned on me that I was stuck in a totalitarian country with no visa and a large role of bank notes (tourists were limited to small amounts of expensively priced currency). It didn't look good. I returned to the US Embassy where I was now told curtly to leave and the East German Police guards looked at me suspiciously. By the way, East German policemen were awfully small and unhealthy looking.<br />
I started walking back to Check Point Charlie feeling very fearful as it seemed certain I would be arrested for having no visa and illegal currency. East Germany was a notorious dictatorship and I felt scared. I shared my predicament with an American tourist who advised me to go back and "spend my money", which was not sound advice as the shops were completely empty and there was nothing to buy. I decided to make a last try at the hotel but this time I went round to the main entrance which was surprisingly fancy. It had rotating brushes on the floor which cleaned your shoes as you went in.<br />
A uniformed clerk rushed up to me ( I looked very scruffy) and asked what I was doing there. I told him sadly that I had arranged to meet my cousin in the hotel but he hadn't arrived. "But we have eight restaurants!" he exclaimed. I felt massive relief and started carefully exploring the hotel. I found my cousin in the fourth restaurant. I suppose it was the only place in East Berlin to eat an expensive meal. He told me that they had fully expected to have to release me from prison.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-73593683599399284192014-09-15T13:52:00.003+03:002015-07-15T12:20:47.786+03:00Recreating ancient kingdoms: Arab Nationalism vs Zionism.Although Zionism and Arab Nationalism are at loggerheads over Palestine (or perhaps Southern Syria), the two have a certain amount in common. Both movements won international recognition during the First World War. Both arose out of the ashes of the Ottoman Empire and both came into existence at around the same time, roughly 1900.<br />
In attaining their aims both movements disregarded a variety of existing peoples: In the case of the Arabs the Kurds, the Nubians, the Copts, the Druze and the Berbers are among the potential nations who were prevented from self-definition by Arab Nationalism. The Jews' success came at the expense of the local Arab population.<br />
Both Arab Nationalism and Zionism seek to recreate ancient peoples. The ancient people that the Zionists sought to recreate, had not existed as a political entity for almost 2,000 years. In antiquity religion and nationality were generally combined so the combination of religion and nationalism proposed by the Zionists made sense in terms of the ancient people they were emulating, the problem being the exclusion of non-Jews, and that the people were divorced from the geography they claimed. In their favor however, the Zionists had a clear vision of the relevant piece of geography, the language it would use and a highly mobile people, used to emigration.<br />
The ancient people that the Arabs sought to recreate, had not existed as a political entity for at least 600 years. The Arabs, unlike the Jews inhabited the geographic entity they aspired to control, but their definition of its location was <a href="http://ccas.georgetown.edu/document/1242771122913/Who_Are_the_Arabs.pdf">linguistic</a>. The Arabs also combined religion and nation in their identity, but because many of the initial nationalists were Christian, they chose to ignore the religious element and focus on the language as the defining aspect. Basically the Arabs were not trying to recreate an ancient people, but an ancient Empire: It was as if the English suddenly attempted to force a nation out of the world's English speakers, claiming that the USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland, India and Jamaica were really part of the same nation.<br />
This notion of nationality is also reminiscent of attempts to unite all German speakers in a single national group. It is problematic in its implications for the large groups of non-Arab speakers and also due to the fact that if Jews from the Arab world are Arabs then Israel might be more Arab then Iraq.<br />
The huge geographic disadvantage of Zionism has in some respect been a strength, Zionists have always felt they must educate their followers in what "Being an Israeli" meant and also self-consciously sought to forge a new nation. The unusual willingness of Jews to relocate, learn a new language and acquire a new identity has enabled Zionists to pretty much define the nation as they saw fit. In the 'thirties, British immigration restrictions meant that candidates for "aliya" had to prove fluency in Hebrew and devotion to ideals before they could receive the few life-giving visas the British were prepared to allocate.<br />
In contrast the Arab states were emulating a highly successful but no longer relevant empire, while their new nation-states' educational systems spent their budgets advancing conflicting supra-national identities which undermine the population's loyalty and undermine the whole point of "being Iraqi" or "being Syrian".<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-82399725210692205382014-07-28T21:33:00.002+03:002014-07-28T21:33:41.159+03:00How to replace Hamas: Demand free elections in Gaza.One of the calls we hear from the Israeli right is that Israel should reoccupy Gaza and force the Hamas out of power. Its not a very realistic demand. Thousands of Palestinians would die as would many tens, perhaps hundreds of Israeli soldiers, the political cost would be huge internationally wth massive pressure placed on Israel to withdraw. Holding Gaza would cost far more lives then just bombing it occasionally, be very expensive and keep the army occupied as a police force instead of training for war. It would also be deeply unpopular in Israel. Its not even certain the Hamas would emerge any weaker.<br />
<br />
It is however, true that Hamas are a problem for us in Israel. They are basically a religio-nationalist death-cult whose main reason for existing is to destroy Israel and who show little long-term interest in trying to improve the lot of their people. Peace is clearly not on the cards with such an organization.<br />
<br />
The only way to have Hamas removed is for the Palestinians to do it themselves, the problem being that Hamas has an iron grip on Gaza and is still sufficently popular to maintain power.<br />
<br />
Hamas gained power in a two stage process, first there were the only ever free elections in the territories, which they won and then they removed Fatah from Gaza. Since then there have been no new electionss, but it would seem that if elections were held and Hamas lost, it would be hard for them to prevent Fatah taking over Gaza.<br />
<br />
Of course I don't know that Hamas would lose: they might just get stronger, or someone else like Islamic Jihad might win but there seems a resonable chance that Hamas would lose. In addition it would be a major propaganda coup for Israel if it forced democratic elections on the Palestinians.<br />
<br />
And if Hamas lost, what then? After all they could easily return in a future election wheither or not Israel makes peace with the Palestinians. The doctrine of Israeli illegitimacy will not go away, and will always attract the Palestinians. My view is that a peace treaty would strengthen Israel by giving it legitimate borders, and while I doubt that any treaty can bring permanent peace, surprises never cease to happen round here.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-41863884355909804262014-07-28T21:15:00.004+03:002014-07-28T21:15:45.089+03:00"Administrative Detention": Hamas prisoners and the Israeli version of Guantanamo Bay <br />
The Hebrew word Megiddo, name of a Biblical
town, somehow re-emerged in English as Armageddon. Today it is the site
of a small archaeological site and nearby, of the prison <i>Keleh Megiddo: </i>"Armageddon Prison". <br />
<br />
In the Nineties' I served as a Combat Medic in the Israeli Army
reserves and in about 1996 I was called up for several weeks to serve as
a medic in Megiddo Prison. I was sick for the first couple of days of
the reserve duty and so arrived a few days after the others. I was given
my military kit which included a large amount of first aid gear and a
rifle and then directed to the prison. At the prison I was told I could find my
unit (actually an artillery unit) through a small door in the wall. I opened the door
and found myself walking a narrow path between two large enclosures,
both with high fences topped by barbed wire containing a couple of
hundred of Hamas members. I was shocked and I remember them laughing at my
horror. I felt like a rabbit walking a narrow path between two wolf
enclosures. Though I was armed and they were in prison.<br />
<br />
Our Artillery unit was there to provide perimeter security, basically everyone slept in tents for three weeks and spent hours sitting in watch towers and doing the odd patrol. There were three combat medics and we were required to take the blood pressure and temperature of Hamas prisoners as they left or arrived, to deliver medication to prisoners to accompany the security guards when they went for shooting practice, to provide first aid to our unit and to do a couple of patrols at night. Because we were dealing with Hamas prisoners face to face, we had deluxe conditions: We slept in a caravan (not a tent), we ate with the prison staff (our unit ate in a makeshift tent) who had quite nice food and we weren't required to sit in the horrible watch towers. We also had huge amounts of free time which we spent playing backgammon. One of my fellow medics was a member of the board of a major Israeli corporation and kept bringing us goodies in his huge American car. <br />
<br />
Most of the prisoners we handled were in "administrative detention", that means they were held without trial because they were deemed a threat but no evidence could be shown thatthey had actually done anything illegal. A similar system is used at Guantanamo bay to hold themen there: they aren't POWs, they've broken no laws and yet they are regarded as a serious enough threat to warrant being held.<br />
<br />
To be honest it was quite pleasant as reserve duty goes, but I did notice a couple of things:<br />
1. The men in Administrative Detention had a lot of ulcer problems.<br />
2. People arriving at, or leaving the prison all had high blood pressure.<br />
<br />
The Hamas men lived in tents in the open air. There were two enclosures and they used to throw bits of paper with messages between them which the guards jokingly called "faxes". They had table-tennis tables and I remember books. I don't recall any large/decent exercise spaces, but the enclosures struck me as better then indoor prisons: Israeli weather is usually good, though it might be cold in winter and I think each enclosure was about the size of a basketball court, maybe a bit smaller. There were TVs and I recall that watching the evening news was a big social event for the inmates. There were convicted killers held in the prison too but they were held in its interior and I had no contact with them.<br />
<br />
About ten years ago I did an MA in History in London and studied Jewish immigrants who were held without trial in British camps in Cyprus. One of the things they noted was that not knowing when you will be released is very stressful. Long term detainees need to know when they will be released. Reading that I recalled all the guys with ulcer problems (I gave them their medication in person), I remember they were quite friendly, maybe a little bit desperate. It was an odd situation where I would have a couple of young guys with guns behind me as I went to the entrance of the enclosures and dealt with the people getting the medicine. <br />
<br />
Until a couple of weeks ago, the Hamas "Adminstrative Detainees" <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/26/world/middleeast/palestinian-detainees-suspend-hunger-strike-in-israel.html">were on hunger strike</a> demanding their release. There were calls to force feed them (Solzhenitsyn said it was like being raped - See <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/98969.The_First_Circle">The First Circle</a>). A deal was eventually reached giving them improved conditions in return for an end to the hunger strike. (see also "<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/16/guantanamo-nurse-refuses-force-feed-prisoners">Navy nurse refuses to force feed Guantanamo prisoners</a>").<br />
<br />
After the recent murder of Israeli teens a lot of Hamas members who were released under the deal to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held by Hamas were re-arrested. Since they were already pardoned for their offences I assume they were taken into adminsitrative detention. The current conflict is related to their re-arrest - I have seen a report that Hamas are demanding their release as a condition forr a cease fire. Meanwhile any Hamas fighters the IDF captures are put into Administrative Detention.<br />
<br />
Administrative Detention is a fancy word invented by the British for holding people indefinitely without trial. They used it in the British Mandate of Palestine and, presumably in other parts of the British Empire. Both Arabs and Jews were arrested using this legal device and, in many cases held in other parts of the Empire: A couple of Palestinian-Arab leaders were held in South Africa and several hundred <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irgun_and_Lehi_internment_in_Africa">Jews were held in Eritrea</a>. It was mainly used during the Second World War and the few years of British rule after the war.<br />
<br />
Administrative Detention is not legal for Israeli citizens, just as it was probably illegal to hold British Citizens during the Mandate. If you recall the story of St Paul, he had to be tried in Rome because he was a Roman citizen. Israeli citizens must be brought before a judge within three days, and <i>Habeas Corpus </i>applies to them, however, in the occupied territories, under military rule, the Israelis use Administrative Detention.Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-12738698310186419692014-07-18T16:47:00.004+03:002014-07-18T17:36:44.555+03:00Watching the rockets go by: Hamas missiles over Tel Aviv.Missiles are currently being fired at Tel Aviv almost every morning, around 8:30 am. I assume that Hamas leaders go to morning prayers, pray to God and then press the firing button on their automated rocket launchers, before heading home to sleep off the exertions of Ramadan.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The other day they caught me on my bicycle. There was a siren and people around me began running for cover. I considered the option of crouching next to a wall and decided to ignore the whole situation: in Tel Aviv being hit by a rocket is a bit like winning the lottery: Extremely unlikely but just as that never stops people buying tickets, so it doesn't stop Hamas firing or people running for cover. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
On the highway near me, the cars had stopped and some drivers were crouching behind their cars while others were simply standing there looking up into the sky. There was a bus full of black hatted Haredi men who just got out and watched upwards, making no effort to take cover.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I also stopped and craned upwards, trying to see the missile heading towards me, when I saw four smoke trails rising up from the East - not from Gaza - they were heading up at incredible speed and I realized they must be Iron Dome missiles. Then I saw a bright light high in the sky heading South to North. Coming from the direction of Gaza, it was clearly the Palestinian missile: the light must have been its engine. One of the missiles fired by Iron Dome went straight for it and the light went out. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The explosion came about five seconds later: sound travels at 350 meters per second and this must have been a few kilometers away. It was followed by several more explosions. If there were more missiles I didn't see them but some of the action was in the clouds so it seems reasonable to assume there were more.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The siren lasted a couple of minutes, but the missile drama was over in seconds, too fast to photograph. I got back on my bicycle and headed to work, as I rode through the park, every one I saw seemed to be smiling: perhaps from relief. Perhaps happy to know that Iron Dome is out there protecting us. I spent my ride thinking about how I would write this blog. Its taken me a couple of days to get round to it because of work pressure. </div>
<div>
Yesterday evening we finally went out to see a movie - a wonderful Israeli film called <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3576084/">Zero Motivation</a> about teenage girl soldiers. We took a baby sitter and figured that the Hamas rocket men would, as usual, leave their rockets for the morning prayers. Well they didn't. The siren went off at the exact moment that the cinema advertising ended and the movie started: so it didn't interrupt our viewing and we had the strange experience of the entire movie audience going down into the exit tunnels to wait for "the booms" which indicate that its all over and then wandering back to their seats. "Where were we?" shouted the bloke who was manning the device that runs the movie (can't think what he's called). "Just start from the beginning!" we all shouted.<br />
<br />
This shows something like what I saw: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPO_IFrs6WA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPO_IFrs6WA</a><br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-28146255651856476622014-06-17T09:23:00.001+03:002014-06-17T14:21:27.275+03:00My stint as an agricultural advisor to Sinai Bedouin.<br />
Some time in the mid 1990's I took my aging VW Beetle down to Sinai. A friend advised us to go off road at a spot on the road from Dahab to Mount Sinai and visit an oasis deep in a valley. It sounds crazy now, but somewhere in the Sinai desert we took our twenty year old Beatle off the asphalt and slowly bounced along a dirt path through the desert. The only air-conditioning was the open windows. After about twenty minutes of this we were overtaken by two Bedouin men in an almost new Toyota pick-up. They motioned for us to stop and suggested that we park our car and ride with them. They were wearing beautiful traditional Bedouin clothing. Given that the Beetle was taking quite a beating on the track I was quite happy to leave it, and they then "hid" the VW behind a boulder. Although it was the only car on the "road", it was completely invisible and I would never have been able to find it again.<br />
<br />
We got into the Toyota with the Bedouin and drove down to their oasis. These were young Bedouin men who had grown up under Israeli occupation and spoke good Hebrew. They told me that the Toyota pick-up was the best pick-up in the world. I had no reason to disagree. We still bounced but now we bounced along the track at high speed, coming to a stop in a wide open valley where a number of dry-river beds met. The valley contained a large village of mud-huts with no electricity or running water and it was where these young men with the truck lived. <br />
<br />
My ex-wife who was with me, had once worked for the Israeli social services checking on primary school enrollment of Bedouin girls and she switched into professional mode checking up on the Bedouin girls. I think we may have brought pens with us to hand out to Bedouin children: these trivial items of schooling can be<a href="http://www.penstopeople.org/"> quite valuable in mud-hut villages</a> with no running water.<br />
<br />
Anyway at some point the finely clothed Bedouin gentleman who had carried us in his Toyota, approached me and asked if I could help him with an agricultural problem: he had a small garden with a beautiful fruit tree in it (peaches I think) and it was infested with greenfly. For the record the Sinai Bedouin often have immaculate tiny farms (more of a garden really) in the desert, some (possibly most) of which are residues of Byzantine terraced farming.<br />
<br />
I understood that I was being asked as an Israeli. I suppose a lot of Kibbutzniks with some farming training used to turn up at Bedouin villages and he figured I might know something. Well I did.<br />
<br />
In the early 90's an old primary school friend of mine, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0072996/?ref_=tt_ov_dr">Gur Bentwich</a>
finished film school at Tel Aviv University (see <a href="http://www.edb.co.il/name/n0009648/">this in Hebrew</a>). His final film was an
amusing tale about a couple seeking a cure for greenfly/aphids on their
home grown cannabis plant. They go from one weird dope-head to another
seeking a solution until a prison inmate comes up with a viable solution
- yelled from the walls - which involves boiling
cheap cigarettes in water and then spraying the water on the plants. I remembered Gur's movie and told him to boil up some cigarettes and spray it on the tree and warned him not to let anybody drink the mixture as it was poisonous.<br />
<br />
Soon after that, The Bedouin, indicated it was time to go and loaded us back into his pick up truck, drove along the bumpy dirt track until he came to a large rock, behind which we found our VW. I later lent Gur my VW Beetle while he was working on his next movie, Planet Blue.<br />
<br />
I subsequently learnt that Native Americans used <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_water">tobacco plants as a pesticide</a>.<br />
<br />
See also my post: <br />
<div class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://www.telaviv1.org.il/2012/08/opium-farming-in-sinai-my-night-with.html"><span style="font-weight: normal;">Sleeping amid sacks of Cannabis: My night with Bedouin opium farmers in Sinai </span></a></div>
Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8016930349938007962.post-23145361441379301662014-04-30T21:56:00.003+03:002014-05-01T16:54:00.783+03:00Are territories Israel conquered in 1948 occupied? Why Israel needs boundary recognition.Look up the "occupied territories" and across the internet you will hear the same story: The areas occupied by Israel in 1967 are not its territory and it is not allowed to house its citizens on those territories. But there is a problem in that statement: It assumes that the territories held by Israel before 1967 were not occupied. In 1948-1949, Israel conquered a large swathe of territory that the UN designated as a "Palestinian state" or in the case of Jerusalem, as an international zone. Until 1967, the Arab demands were for an Israeli withdrawal to the 1947 partition lines, after 1967 to the 1949 cease fire lines (the pre-1967 borders).<br />
While the 1949 cease fire lines appear to be universally accepted, there is no guarantee that those boundaries are recognized and it is quite possible to argue that Jaffa or upper Nazareth are "illegal settlements".<br />
My son was born in Jerusalem and has an American passport which states that he was born in Jerusalem but not in which country. The USA, like most other countries has taken care never to recognize Israeli rule in Jerusalem, although half of the city was Israeli before 1967. Effectively the USA is not only not recognizing the 1967 occupation: It is not recognizing the 1948 occupation either. Ironically Jerusalem is the one place in Israel which had a Jewish majority before the British occupation/mandate in 1917.<br />
The main difference between 1949 and 1967 is that in 1967 the UN Security Council explicitly stated that Israel could not annex the territories, and Israel hasto some extent accepted that decision. In 1949 the Security Council admitted Israel as a member of the UN and said nothing about territorial borders, so the status of territories occupied in 1948 is hazy. The 1947 partition decision, that preceded the 1948-1949 war, was never executed: The Arabs refused to accept it and the UN never took steps to implement it, so it might be argued that it was a dead decision of no subsequent significance.<br />
In 1948 Jordan and Egypt occupied the West Bank and Gaza while Syria occupied a small swathe of territory designated as Israeli. Perhaps because in 1967 Israel was the sole "occupier" there was no difficulty in passing a resolution whereas in 1948 it was more complex.<br />
There is also an ambiguity: While Israel's occupation of the Golan and Sinai was an occupation of sovereign state territory, in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem it was replacing a previous occupier. <br />
The reason I raise this issue is that I believe Israel has a lot to gain from internationally recognized boundaries. Recent events have shown that peace treaties with Arab states are hardly precursors to a new international order, but at least the borders with Egypt and Jordan are stable and governed by peace treaties and while the "peace" is at times utterly minimalist, there is a lot to be said for having indisputable boundaries. The Palestinians clearly cannot guarantee the Israelis much in the way of peace but internationally recognized borders might be of value. Few modern states, if any, are so lacking in internationally recognized borders and there is a potential future threat should Israel withdraw from the West-Bank without a treaty. <br />
<br />Jonathanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09983135472234631643noreply@blogger.com0