Shai Tsur, who nearly made me cry when he decided to stop blogging, has written a post for the Guardian Newsblog in which he explains why Israelis have reacted so strongly to the kidnappings of Gilad Shalit and Eliyahu Asheri, whose body was found last night.

Kidnappings affect us much more strongly than rocket attacks or even suicide bombings. Over the years, we have developed coping mechanisms for bombings that allow us to pick up and move on. But when an Israeli is taken prisoner the whole country gets wrapped up in the drama.

Read the rest here. And please, intelligent commenters of the world - unite! The Guardian Newsblog attracts some serious nutters, including a quite a few who are rabid haters of the Zionist entity and/or Jews in general. It'd be great to have some sensible voices out there as a counterweight.

The other Shai blogs about Utopia at Israel2046. In his most recent post he takes us on a trip from Tel Aviv to Beirut, forty years from now. There's the rapid rail option (the Pilgrim Express from Jerusalem),  the Israrail option and the scenic route. Check out the links - as usual, they are all real. Utopia need not be fantasy.

Update: Ooh, and lookee here: Keith Porter has written a lovely plug for Israel2046 on about.com.

There are two Israeli blogospheres - one is in Hebrew, the other in English. And they are two parallel - er, spheres, if you will. They are concerned about different subjects, have different worldviews and are really barely aware of one another. The only Hebrew blogger who has tried to bridge the two is Hanan Cohen (my shining star), who once wrote an article for the Maariv news portal NRG about Anglo-Israeli bloggers and recently created the bilingual aggregate; and the only English blogger who has made the effort is Allison (my other shining star), with this translation of a touching post by a popular Hebrew blogger.

When a reporter in London asked me if I could define the difference between the two Israeli blogospheres, I told him that Anglo bloggers are mostly concerned with "explaining" Israel to the outside world, whereas Hebrew bloggers rarely write about politics - preferring to concentrate on personal issues and tech issues. The reporter found that hard to believe: Isn't Israel a highly politicized society? he asked. Yes, I answered. In a way, it is. But it is also a society that is exhausted by politics. In fact, I almost never discuss the subject with my native-born Israeli friends. We talk about everything but - and that is not a conscience decision.

Right now, the biggest issue in the English-Israeli blogosphere is Gaza. In the Hebrew blogosphere, however,  it is the suicide of a famous blogger - Rapunzel. The story was covered in the Hebrew mainstream press last week, and today there's a summary on Haaretz's English site, here.

Amongst the Hebrew bloggers who have written about Gaza, some are against the IDF invasion, others are in favour and still others are indifferent. I haven't found anybody who is concerned about what the rest of the world thinks - whether they be mainstream media, Arab bloggers or other. Below are some translated excerpts of posts about Gaza that I read today. Disclaimer: These are not necessarily my views. I'm reporting, not making a statement - political or otherwise.

From a blogger who calls himself The Consumer ("consumerism, quality of life and all that falls between") there's this post:

The IDF is going to try to pressure the local population into pleading with the terror organizations to cool down. It's never worked in the past and it won't work this time.

The situation in Gaza resembles Somalia. The territory is controlled by warlords who have no desire to stop the conflict against us. They make a living from it. They make their money in several different ways: budgets from states that support terror; criminal control of their territory; and smuggling from Egypt. The last thing they need is an organized state. By getting involved in a military operation we will end up increasing the power of those gangs. A lack of order is their daily bread.
...
I just hope they [the soldiers] get home safely.

From Benny Ziffer, who blogs for Haaretz (Hebrew edition) there's a long post about why he's indifferent to the news of the invasion. Excerpts below:

I'm observing the mourning period for my father-in-law and I'm not watching television, so when Ran told me this morning that the IDF had "entered Gaza," I received the news with the indifference it deserves. And I say "deserves" because my father-in-law, who survived the second world war, was one of the most sober, realistic people I knew, regarding everything connected with manipulation and government brainwashing. And he did not believe in slogans.
...
I seriously believe that, beyond all the considerations upon which the decision to invade Gaza was based, there is one, much more basic and much less rational factor that no-one is talking about. And that is our wounded pride. So we take revenge on them for wounding our masculine pride and they take revenge on us for wounding their masculine pride and this cockfight just continues without end.
...
I have decided that I am not going to get all worked up about the invasion of Gaza and I'm not going to express a strong opinion. Let them do whatever they want. I have my own life and I refuse to live it according to the pace of events set by the army or the state.

From a blog called Anecdotes ("a geek blog"), this post was written a few days after the Israeli Air Force bombed a van carrying missiles that was being driven by Islamic Jihad militants through a crowded area of Gaza. The van was on its way to the site from which the missiles were to be launched at Israeli civilian population centres across the border. After the first IAF bomb hit the van, a crowd of civilians gathered around; the second IAF bomb had already been launched and could not be stopped (duh). When it landed, it killed 11 people - including children - and wounded another 20:

This is not a political post. The following statement is not political.

I cannot, as a human being and as a Jew, continue to stand by silently while the state of Israel and the IDF pursue a military policy that results in the continued killing of innocent civilians. There is no point in my demanding that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad stop launching missiles at Israel. Those are terrorist acts which are directed at innocent civilians in Sderot and the rest of the communities in the western Negev. They also put the civilian Palestinian population of Gaza in danger from an Israeli military response. The demand to stop the launching of missiles from Gaza must come from the Palestinian public. When it comes from me it has no meaning. But I can and must demand of the Israeli government and the IDF: No more! Enough "targeted killings" with missiles or shells into civilian populated areas. As the father of two children, I cannot live with the thought that the only crime that [Gazan] girl committed was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, precisely because that is my greatest fear: that my children will be hurt by pure chance, by a terror attack, by a car accident, or for any other reason. Just because they were in a certain place at a certain time.

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Anyway, that's what some Hebrew bloggers are saying. I'll leave the comments and analysis to you.