On the Face

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:06:27 +0200

This blog has movd to a new location

Lisa Goldman — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 10:56:11 +0200

The new address is:

This blog will soon disappear from cyberspace, so be sure to update your RSS feeds and links with the new URL.

See you over there...

Lisa

Lebanon postscript

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:30:27 +0300

Over the past month I have received dozens of beautiful, heartfelt, supportive emails from Lebanese readers. Amongst the writers were people who described themselves as ex-Hezbollah supporters, secular Shi'a, Syrian, Sunni and Christian. Most of them used their real names, and I was very touched by their willingness to trust me. Interestingly, the only person who sent me a couple of unpleasant emails was a non-Lebanese NGO worker who described Beirut as his adopted home. Given the length of his emails, I don't think his NGO is keeping him very busy.

Only a couple of the people who wrote me asked me to refrain from publishing their letters, but they did not need to ask: I would not publish a letter unless the writer granted permission up front. But yesterday, I received the following letter from a Lebanese-Canadian who did just that. I've made one small edit, at his request. I cannot think of a better way to complete my series of blog posts about Lebanon, one year after the war. Thank you, Alain - and thank you, Alice Elfassy, for creating the connection.

****

Hello Lisa (can I call you Lisa?),

My name is Alain Chammas, I am the husband of one of Alice Elfassy's two colleagues ;-). I read the article as well, thought it was excellent, and forwarded it to a few Lebanese and Israeli friends.

I really enjoyed the article. Kudos for going there, kudos for writing your report, kudos for showing ordinary Israelis another, truer picture of what Beirut really is.

I have looked up and read a lot of the comments on your article, as well as the Daily Star reaction and your response to that. A little comment:

The human interest aspect: This is what it is all about. It is a tremendous opportunity to have Israelis get a picture of Beirut and the Lebanese differing from what they usually hear in the media, it is essential for them to see and understand that the average Joe in Lebanon isn't that different from the average Joe in Israel.

Unfortunately, the reverse isn't happening. You correctly point out in your reaction to the Daily Star that that newspaper often carries articles authored by Israelis, and that many Lebanese news outlets (LBC, Al-Manar, etc.) even have correspondents who broadcast live from Israel. But what is it they broadcast? Mainly pieces showing the political events or Palestinian sorrow. Not once have I seen or heard of a piece in any Lebanese or Arabic medium that would portray or interview ordinary Israelis, not once have the Lebanese and Arabs heard of a bon vivant Israeli population, with whom it can be fun to associate and enjoy oneself.

How can a country be demonized if its denizens are similar to us in many ways? We eat the same, sleep the same, bleed the same, laugh the same... this is not something the powers to be want to be known, lest the sense of the state of war with Israel be challenged.

You have met many Lebanese who think different, that is where the strength of our country lies. Many Lebanese would love to see the relationship with Israel normalized eventually. Of course, last year's war didn't help us move in that direction, it actually was the most counterproductive blunder of recent memory and it threw hopes for normalization back by decades. Most Lebanese will not state what I am saying in public, especially if they are living in Lebanon, but agree privately. This is (with the economy, which ties into the political situation) the main reason for the current wave of emigration, of which Lebanon has seen many in the last 35 years.

So, the path to normalisation should be helped along tremendously by work such as yours, and I hope to see more such reports from both sides of the border. It may be wishful thinking, but what else do we have than hope ;-)

About myself: I was born in Beirut in 1962 in a well-to-do family of Lebanese immigrants (ancestry is Assyrian, Armenian, Turkish, Greek, Albanian and Russian - in other words, a typical lebanese ;-)). In 1967, I was 5 years old, we had to paint our lightbulbs blue and put dark blue craft paper on all window to throw off Israeli bombers. When I asked my mom who the Israeli were, I don't remember her exact words, but it was scary, in my mind, they were some sort of alien monsters.

In 1978, we moved to France, where friends introduced me to the writings of Ephraim Kishon, an Israeli journalist and writer. What a discovery! All of a sudden, the "alien monsters" had a human face, a sense of humor. My favorite pieces were those where he would write about his family, his sons Rafi and Amir and his daughter Renana, if I remember their names well. It was hilarious, they seemed to go through the same growing pains my sisters and me experienced, it was so close to the way I remembered life in Beirut.

In later years, I developed many good contacts with Jewish and Israeli friends. One of my favorite encounters was with one guy, a journalist in Ottawa (he may be elsewhere by now, I lost sight of him). He is my age, was born in Beirut like me, moved to Israel in 1967, and came back as a soldier in 1982. After leaving the IDF, he moved to Canada, where I got to know him through an online forum and eventually met him in Ottawa in 1995.

I am now living in Montreal (since 1989, actually), married (Micheline is also Lebanese, I met her in Montreal), two children, Jean and Rebecca Sarah Sadie Rachel (yes she has 4 names ;-)). Many people ask me about her Jewish heritage, I tell them that I just like the names... and the people ;-). (Actually, the last 3 names are from Micheline's and my ancestry, and we really liked Rebecca (or Raf'a, Rivka, and any variations ;-))

So, I've rambled on enough, I guess. I hear from Alice that you will be in Montreal soon. If you can spare the time, I would be delighted to meet you and introduce you to the family.

Take care,

Alain Chammas

PS: Feel free to use any of the stuff above, including my name, in any way you find useful.

Beirut, one year later: The English version.

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 19:57:20 +0300

The technical hitch has been fixed, the article is now back on line and comments are re-enabled. The following article is an expanded version of the piece I wrote for Time Out Tel Aviv; some details that were too Tel Aviv-specific have been edited out, and some information that would be of more interest to non-Israelis has been added. And there's a special message at the very end - when you get there. Read on...

Beirut, one year after the war: my article for Time Out Tel Aviv

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 18:55:06 +0300

The Second Lebanon War ended one year ago this week. In the capital of Lebanon they have started to lick their wounds and to restore their wounded and bombarded city for the umpteenth time. During and after the war, Tel Aviv blogger Lisa Goldman connected online with Lebanese friends. This summer she decided to take a risk and visit them, in order to see for herself the truth behind the rumors of the striking similarities between Tel Aviv and Beirut.

The above is the lead-in to my article for this week's Time Out Tel Aviv. I have an English version ready for publication - it will be online by the end of today or tomorrow morning. The cover of the current TOTA refers to the cover of the issue that was published at the beginning of the fourth week of the war:

Time Out Tel Aviv, August 10-17, 2006.

The words mean, "Perhaps it's enough?" It's a common Hebrew phrase that expresses irritation and / or frustration. The idiomatic equivalent in English is "enough already!" The tone of the featured articles, by TOTA editor Amir Ben-David, columnist/film producer Gal Uchovsky, former Haaretz editor Hanoch Marmari and several other contributors, is one of frustration and sadness at the unending, destructive and pointless conflicts in our region. Amir describes his symbolic wartime visit to Haifa and its suburbs, where he grew up; Marmari points out that both Beirut and Tel Aviv have branches of McDonald's, so there goes Thomas Friedman's famous Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention. Gal Skulnik, a 29 year-old translator and editor, responds to an article by Ramsay Short, the former editor of Time Out Beirut, with an open letter that she addresses to her "brothers and sisters in Beirut." In it she describes her horror, frustration and sense of impotence in the face of the war, and she wonders rhetorically how the individual can influence government decisions.

Re-reading those articles, one year after the war, I can feel once again all those strong emotions that bubbled away inside me last year at this time. One year is not very long, after all.

The article can be downloaded from the Time Out Tel Aviv site. It is also reproduced in .jpg format below (click the photos to enlarge). Check back a bit later for the English version.

And now, Lisa with English subtitles

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 13:34:07 +0300

As promised, I finally added English subtitles to the Channel 10 report from Beirut, plus the follow-up interview with Yaron London and Moti Kirshenbaum that took place the following day. The guy with the curly dark hair sitting next to me is Zvi (Zvika) Yehezkeli, head of the Arab desk for Channel 10.

Channel 10 report from Beirut
Uploaded by Lisang

London and Kirshenbaum
Uploaded by Lisang

The media brouhaha has not settled down yet, by the way - which is why I'm having a lot of trouble focusing on what I really want to do: write about my experiences in Beirut, and the people I met (all names will be changed, obviously).

Anyway, below is a summary of Lisa in the media. Rinat has decided that she's not responding, and I don't blame her. I, however, cannot shut up.

By the way, the guys at the Al Jazeera desk in Doha sat on my blog for a couple of hours the day I published my challenge; however, no invitation to be interviewed was forthcoming. Doha, it seems, does not answer. At least now we know for certain what their agenda is. ;) In case there was ever any doubt.

Arabic coverage:
BBC Arabic
Elaph

Arabic-speaking friends in Tel Aviv gave me a general idea about what the articles say, but no-one (weep weep) was willing to sit down and do a full translation. If I have any Arabic speaking readers who feel like giving me a very belated birthday present, now would be the time. ;)

English coverage:
A hatchet job in the Daily Star of Lebanon, followed by my response, published on PJM.
Oh, and the Daily Star continues to follow the Al Manar line with this ridiculous article.
Gal Beckerman covers the story for the Columbia Journalism Review

Also, I will be on CNN's International Correspondents tomorrow (Saturday), with Fionnuala Sweeney. The schedule is here.
Broadcast time for the Middle East is 15.00 GMT, which I guess is 5 p.m. in Tel Aviv and Beirut.
North America: 11.00 a.m. ET and 8.00 a.m. PT.

For those on the West Coast, I promise I won't take it personally if you decide that you don't feel like getting up so early on a Saturday morning. Besides, there are re-runs. ;)

And now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to filter out the media noise and go do something positive: like writing about Beirut.

Check back tomorrow for stories...

Setting the record straight: a challenge to Al Jazeera

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 02:22:18 +0300

Over the past few days my report from Lebanon has elicited some very interesting responses.

On the one hand, I have received so many warm and supportive emails from Lebanese readers that I simply have not had time to respond to them all. Those emails came from people who identified themselves as Sunni, Shi'a and Christian. I am more touched and grateful for those emails than I can say. I have also received a lot of feedback from Israelis who saw the report and my follow-up interview on London and Kirshenbaum, and again the responses have been overwhelmingly positive. Quite a few Israelis told me that they never knew Beirut was so beautiful, lively and cosmopolitan, and that they were both intrigued and pleasantly surprised. As far as I am concerned, those responses mean mission accomplished for me.

On the other hand, Al Manar and Al Jazeera have both broadcast reports that are full of misinformation, half-truths and agenda pushing. I do not like being used to score political points or further editorial agendas. I have very low expectations of Al Manar, although I did ask a friend in Ramallah to ask the local correspondent if he would like to interview me. So far, no response. But hey, if you guys at Al Manar do decide that you want to broadcast the truth - just let me know. Your correspondent is most welcome to interview me at home: ahalan w sahalan.

Both Al Manar and Al Jazeera made the following claims in their reports:
1) that I broadcast live from Beirut;
2) that I had help from Lebanese citizens in entering the country;
3) that I used false documents in order to enter Lebanon.

None of these claims is true. What's more, Al Manar and Al Jazeera know that the first claim is false. The Lebanese Minister of Communications, Ghazi Aridi, stated on the record (I saw him make the statement on television) that I departed Lebanon for the second time on 10 July. That is accurate, as the exit stamp in my Canadian passport shows. However, my report was broadcast by Channel 10 on 11 July. How, therefore, can it possibly be claimed that I broadcast live from Beirut?

So here is my challenge to all you guys at the Al Jazeera desk in Doha who check my blog several times per day: interview me, and let your millions of viewers hear the truth. Let them hear that my report about Beirut was very positive - that I described it as a dynamic, open, cosmopolitan and beautiful city. Let them hear that I entered the country with no help from anyone, and that I traveled around the city on my own, on foot and by taxi. Let's tell the truth. The bureau chief in Ramallah has my mobile number. Call him and ask him to set up an interview, and send one of your stringers to my home. I'll even make him a nice cup of coffee, using the delicious Cafe Najjar (with or without cardamon - I'll let you choose) that I bought at duty free before I boarded my flight to Amman.

Yalla, guys. Are you the mouthpiece for Al Manar, or are you really independent journalists who reflect the mood on the Arab street? This inquiring Israeli mind really wants to know. Call me.

A Zionist spy in Beirut?

Lisa Goldman — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 16:43:19 +0300

Me reporting from Beirut in Hebrew, for Channel 10 news. This photo is taken from the Al Manar (Hezbollah) website.

**Scroll down for update.

I waited to write about my trip to Beirut because I found out a few days after returning to Tel Aviv that Channel 10 news wanted to send me back to do a report for them. Figuring I should try to keep a low profile until after it was broadcast, I left a few loyal readers hanging, without explanation, as I maintained radio silence - so to speak.

And so I went back to Beirut for a whirlwind 36 hours (Monday and Tuesday of this week), recorded a couple of interviews and some footage of various street scenes, flew back to Amman, spent the night at the airport before boarding the 6 a.m. flight, drove straight from the airport to the Channel 10 studio to drop off the raw footage, went home, showered, and returned to the studio to help edit the piece. And then voila, it was broadcast - two minutes after we finished editing.
\
To view, copy and paste the following URL into your browser: http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1015892 (Thank you, Andrey!)

For non-Hebrew speakers, I will try to put in English subtitles and upload to YouTube in the next few days.

Anyway, one hour after my report was broadcast on Channel 10, Al Manar, the Hezbollah television station in Lebanon, broadcast its own interpretation of my trip to Beirut on its 9 p.m. news broadcast. And man, were they angry. Apparently, a Zionist agent penetrated security at Rafic Hariri Airport! God knows what I really did in Beirut, because there's no way I just went to do an innocent human-interest story about the mood on the streets of Beirut, one year after the war. Imagine! A possible Mossad agent walked around Beirut with a camera in her hands and no-one stopped her! (for heaven's sake).

I wrote a rather rushed report about my second trip for Pajamas Media, called Beirut, a year later. I'm going to write a series of more in-depth pieces that will be published over the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Sandmonkey summarized for Pajamas Media the outraged reactions amongst readers of Al Manar website and Tayyar, another news site that is allied with the Hezbollah against the current government.

For more anti-Lisa reactions (with a few tempering voices of reason) on a Lebanese message board in English, click here.

And just to counter all that paranoia and hate, I'd like to add the following:
a) Today I received several supportive and encouraging emails from Lebanese who read about or watched my report and liked it.
b) One of those emails came from a guy who thought I was still in Lebanon, and offered to help me leave the country.
c) Never forget that the extremists always have the loudest voice.

Oh, and for readers in Israel: I will be interviewed on London and Kirshenbaum tonight, at 7 o'clock on Channel 10.

More - much more - very soon (as soon as I catch my breath).

Update: To view my interview on London and Kirshenbaum, copy and paste the following URL into your browser: http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=1020775&ak=null&st=00:33:01.289&dr=01:55:58.553
There's a 60-second report on Qaddafi before I come in.

Again, I will upload a version with English subtitles next week.

A video from Beirut: while I keep writing...

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 19:59:56 +0300

I know that a lot of people are waiting for my first post about Beirut, but I'm still writing... To keep you amused in the meantime, below is another video I filmed during my visit. It was taken at La Plage, a rather chic bar / restaurant on the Corniche, on my second day in Beirut. The guy who's speaking is Hans Jaap Melissen, a reporter for Dutch Radio who clearly has a fabulous sense of humour. He's the one who took us to La Plage; as we entered and I took it all in - the waterfront location, the beautiful people, the sunset and the luxurious setting, I said jokingly, "Wow, Hans, the life of a war reporter is really tough, huh?" You'll see his tongue-in-cheek response in the video.

La Plage
Uploaded by Lisang

To Beirut and back

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 01:53:19 +0300

The secret can finally be told: I was in Beirut for the past week. I'll need a day or two to start posting about that amazing trip, but I'll leave you with two images (one photo and one video), below. Flickr photos are here.

They do yoga in Beirut, too. Preamble (with pre-preamble).

Beirut - Nasrallah for the road
Uploaded by Lisang

Golda had a lover? Who knew?

Lisa Goldman — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:15:07 +0300

I am on a brief hiatus, with blogging to resume early next week. Meanwhile, check out the book I photographed at an Amman bookshop. ;)

Don't freak out - it's a novel. Review is here.

Death of a beautiful young dreamer

Lisa Goldman — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:52:53 +0300

About a year ago, I wrote about a blog called Israel 2046 . "Shai," the 28 year-old Israeli who created incredibly imaginative posts about a border-less, peaceful Middle East forty years hence, was someone I met via the Internet. After reading some of his wise and perceptive comments on a now defunct blog, called Palestinian Princess, I left a comment in Hebrew (sorry Lucy, that was a bit rude;) in which I asked him to send me an email.

We exchanged notes, then phone calls, and finally we met at a cafe near Rothschild Boulevard and talked for hours, as if we had known one another for years.

He died today, after a long struggle with cancer.

When I met him for the first time, in the spring of 2006, he was already very sick - bald and jaundiced from chemotherapy. But he lived a life that was fuller than that of most healthy people. He had traveled around the world, he was always surrounded by friends, he somehow managed to read the entire Internet every day, he studied at university and he never, ever refused a favour - especially if it was geek-related, because he was the ultimate geek who could find a creative solution for any computer or Internet-related issue you could think of. He was also a pragmatic idealist with a huge heart, amazing powers of observation and a dry sense of humour.

He never, ever complained about being sick. When he was in bed recovering from chemotherapy, he sent me emails several times a week. He was always curious and engaged, always planning his next project. Once he told me that his oncologist wanted him to have his vocal chords removed, but he had refused because he was too young. "I want to get married and have kids first," he said, even though he didn't have a girlfriend at the time. He was so strong, so utterly lacking in self-pity, and so completely convinced that he was going to recover, that I simply believed he would. It did not seem possible that someone so determined to live, could die.

In one of his last emails, sent just a few days ago, he asked if I had heard of Hometown Baghdad, a web documentary made by middle class university students living in Baghdad. He wanted to know if I thought it was feasible to do a similar project with Israeli and Palestinian university students. Below is his response to my last email:

I thought it might catch your interest, wow, doing it for real is
something that I'd be very interested in, but it might be a long time
until i am able.

The operation i ended up having was better as i didn't lose my vocal
chords, but by some rotten luck they stopped working about a week
before, so right now i can't talk, but since i still have them, I'll
work on it and find a way...(I can't eat right now either, so don't
bring chocolate :), flowers and hugs are always welcome)

I'm still tired most of the time and i don't really like having
visitors at my parents house, but as soon as I'm up for it, i promise
to come visit you in Tel Aviv.

Hmmm, yeah the more the idea settles the more i think i actually would
love to be involved with some sort of documentary similar to the Iraqi
one, i don't know what skills i have that would lend to it, but it
could be great. (If you think there is a chance pushing on with this
now, don't wait for me and miss it though).

I don't think editing would be much of a problem, I don't know about
the cameras... maybe you'd like to email the producers of Hometown
Baghdad for tips?

I wasn't quite prepared to feel as bad as I do at this moment. I wish he had let me visit him last week. The world is a much, much poorer place without him. And I am going to miss him so much.

"Shai" means "gift" in Hebrew. It wasn't his real name, but it was an appropriate one.

Ivri goes English

Lisa Goldman — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 03:07:30 +0300

Ivri Lider. Credit: Ronen Ackerman

Ivri Lider, one of Israel's biggest rock stars, has just released his first single in the United States. It's called Jesse - clip below.

As you've no doubt guessed after viewing the clip, Ivri Lider is gay. He came out of the closet several years after he became famous, in a groundbreaking interview with Gal Uchovsky that was published in Maariv newspaper about five years ago. Somehow, the women of Israel managed to swallow their shock and disappointment and continue to love Ivri for his music, whilst maintaining a detached admiration for his biceps and sweet smile.

Interestingly, declaring that he was gay did not have any negative effect on Lider's career at all. In fact, he just became more popular. This is one of the weird anomalies about Israeli society, which proudly sneers at American style political correctness (often confused with, uh, basic civility). On the one hand it's still common to hear the word "homo" used as an insult (okay, not so much in Tel Aviv), but on the other hand the army drafts openly gay soldiers into uber-macho combat units, and Tel Aviv is often included on lists of the most gay friendly cities in the world.

Ivri Lider has composed and sung soundtrack songs for all of the Gal Uchovsky-Eytan Fox Films:
Yossi and Jaeger, about a love affair between two soldiers stationed in southern Lebanon
Walk on Water, about a Mossad agent who is assigned to track down and kill a Nazi war criminal by becoming friendly with his gay grandson
The Bubble, about a Romeo and Juliet-type love affair that develops between an Israeli guy and a Palestinian guy after the two meet at a checkpoint in the West Bank.

Seven years ago, I traveled around India listening to Lider's hit debut album on a loop. It's called Melatef uMeshaker (Caress and Lie)and the clip for the title song is below. Hebrew lyrics here; my rough translation is beneath the clip.

Caress and lie

And sometimes when I smile
I see his face in my mind
And I convince myself in my heart
That I don’t resemble him, I’m someone else
Because in a few months
I’m changing my life to a new and improved version
And instead of people I’ll have tools
That will do what I tell them and not what others tell them to do

Because I also love
I caress and I lie
When they talk about it a lot
I go quiet and withdraw
And you’ve known my other face for years
They look similar, but not exactly the same
Like everyone else

And sometimes love closes old accounts
From another performance
The people that were here and depart
Leave me alone in my room, a kiss and we part
They only leave a kiss and unresolved issues remain
And at the most beautiful moments darkness is my friend
They drink and they play their instruments and they love one another
Because that’s the way people are when it’s time to go
I run out of words

More links for Ivri Lider:
Ivri Lider's website
Ivri Lider on Myspace
Article on Ivri Lider that was published in Haaretz.

Make love, not terror

Lisa Goldman — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 03:05:09 +0300

Further to my previous post, a spoof on suicide bombing can be funny. The clip below was filmed on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv back in 2002 (ignore the opening credit that says 2005 - they be lyin' ;) ). The team behind the clip is called Keta Keta, and they got tons of publicity for the creativity and humour.

The year 2002 was a strange, strange time: there were several suicide bombings per week in Tel Aviv over a period of months (it was a major relief when the number declined to "only" a couple per month), but somehow normal life continued - even though sitting in a cafe, traveling on a bus or entering a shopping mall was a high-risk proposition. I think the clip really captures the zeitgeist of fighting fear with irreverent humour that almost - but not quite - crosses the line into the realm of tastelessness.

It's da bomb: new government anti-drug campaign

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 12:22:09 +0300

See below for update.

Gen X Americans might remember a certain anti-drug commercial from the late 1980's, called "this is your brain on drugs." It showed a man who held up an egg and said, "This is your brain," before picking up a frying pan and adding, "This is drugs." He then cracks open the egg, fries the contents, and says, "This is your brain on drugs." Finally he looks up at the camera and asks, "Any questions?" As I recall, that campaign was the butt of a lot of jokes, but didn't garner the kind of publicity the Partnership for a Drug-Free America had in mind.

The Israeli anti-drug authority decided that it would be a great idea to reach out to young people with a spoof of a shaheed poster - the type one sees in the West Bank, extolling young men who have blown themselves up for "the cause." The anti-drug authority placed the following advertisement in Maariv and Yedioth yesterday. At the top it says, "The hero Omer Kendel, 16 years old, mixed vodka and ecstasy and went to blow himself up at a party in Tel Aviv." At the bottom: "Drugs and alcohol taken together is suicide," followed by the phone number for the anti-drug authority. The font resembles Arabic calligraphy.

For comparison, below is a photo I took of a shaheed poster in a West Bank town.

I can't decide what I think about the Israeli anti-drug campaign advert. It's certainly eye-catching, but it is also racist and sensationalistic. And, of course, it's totally ineffective.

Update: Wow, just when you thought the campaign couldn't get any more tasteless - it does! According to this article on Ynet, the anti-drug authority's campaign includes a video clip styled after the taped testaments of suicide bombers, featuring a teenager bidding goodbye to his family telling them he is on his way to heaven. Click on the link to watch the video with English subtitles.

An Israeli in Ramallah

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:30:01 +0300

Your roving reporter in Ramallah's Manar Square, 13 June 2007

Israeli citizens are not allowed to enter Gaza, even if they have a foreign passport, so they have to content themselves with reports from the West Bank instead. Here is a report on what I saw and heard in Ramallah last Friday, the day after Hamas took power in Gaza.

They do yoga in Ramallah, too

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 19:33:28 +0300

Preamble.

Live blogging from Gaza: excellent reporting

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 06:37:27 +0300

Brian Ulrich pointed me to Conflict Blotter, the excellent blog of Sunday Telegraph reporter Charles Levinson, who is one of the very few Western journalists currently reporting from inside Gaza. Charles has a lot of guts, and he's a great writer too. He's updating several times a day, so check him out.

Shady oligarchs and the politics of pork

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:43:55 +0300

Arcadi Gaydamak at a Tel Aviv press conference.

Arcadi Gaydamak, the shady Russian-Jewish oligarch who allegedly made his billions by funneling billions of dollars in arms and oil-backed loans to Angola's government in return for lucrative oil contracts with Western oil companies, is now busily trying to buy the State of Israel, Inc. Mainstream Israel has been watching, bemused and cynical but mostly passive, as he bought the Beitar Jerusalem football (soccer) team, purchased a radio station, donated millions to charity, was investigated for money laundering, created tent camps for residents of the north who were displaced during the war last summer, started his own political party (Social Justice), made back-room deals with uber-icky politicians like Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu and even announced that he aspired to be the next mayor of Jerusalem. But now, with his latest move, he has gone Too Far.

Gaydamak has purchased a controlling interest in Tiv Tam, the chain of supermarkets that specializes in non-kosher products and stays open on Saturdays and holidays. According to newspaper reports, he paid $100 million for his shares - 80 percent above their value. In other words, he made the owners an offer they couldn't refuse.

What's so terrible about that? Glad you asked. Almost as soon as the news hit the Internet on Friday, the man who last year threw a huge bash to celebrate the very un-Jewish holiday called Sylvester (a.k.a. New Year's Eve) and most probably couldn't list the Ten Commandments if you put a gun to his head, announced that he intends to make Tiv Tam kosher. No more milano salami or imported non-kosher cheese! No more shopping for pork chops and frozen shrimp on Saturdays! Thus pronounced the Arcadi the pious: "In my view, as a Jew and as a public figure in Jewish society, the promotion, distribution and sale of pork products in Israel offends the Jewish tradition. Therefore, my first order of business will be to ban the distribution and sale of pork products."

The Tiv Tam branch in my neighbourhood.

This story was on the front page of all three major Israeli daily newspapers on Monday. Both Yedioth and Maariv put it on the front page of their magazine (opinion and human interest) sections, and Haaretz put it on the front page of the news section. Several Israeli bloggers have weighed in on the matter in both Hebrew and English. This, it appears, is what it takes to rouse mainstream Israel from its glorious apathy - take away Saturday shopping and non-kosher food. Who knew?

Yes, I am being cynical. Also, a bit of a hypocrite. Because the truth is that I love Tiv Tam - and not because I'm a big pork fan. There is a branch in my neighbourhood that opened a few months ago, and it has rapidly become my primary destination for groceries. First of all, it's wonderfully convenient: I no longer have to cut short my Friday afternoon cafe socializing in order to get to the shops before they close for the weekend. I can also buy all sorts of imported products that are not under rabbinical supervision, even though they don't contain any non-kosher ingredients - like Rajah brand chutneys and pickles, chili sauce from Vietnam, or real English cheddar cheese. I can purchase all these items at any number of small groceries around Tel Aviv, and there are dozens of shops that specialize in pork and non-kosher meat if that's what I'm looking for, but it's great to have a one-stop shopping destination - especially during the sweltering summer months, when schlepping from shop to shop for various items is distinctly unappealing. If Tiv Tam stops carrying these items, and is closed from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning, I won't have any reason to shop there anymore. I can get my staples from the makolet - the traditional corner grocery - with the added benefits of purchasing on credit and free delivery; as for the specialty items, I guess I'll go back to schlepping.

Frozen seafood at Tiv Tam

The other white meat

Rajah chutneys and Vietnamese chili sauce

I suspect that most Tiv Tam customers feel the same, which makes me wonder how long the chain will last if Gaydamak makes good on his ~~threat~~ promise. There is a wide selection of small shops that specialize in non-kosher products in pretty much every Israeli city and large town, so it's not as if there are no options. Of course, a billionaire can afford to experiment. One hundred million dollars is mere lunch money for him, and it could pay off big time in political dividends if this move wins him support from the religious parties and traditionalist Jews who live in the peripheral towns like Sderot and Kiryat Shmona. And, of course, with the religious voters in Jerusalem.

Tiv Tam also owns 75 percent of Maadaney Mizra, a meat processing factory that has been specializing in high quality pork products for over 50 years. The factory was originally established by Kibbutz Mizra, a veteran kibbutz that was founded more than 80 years ago - largely by German-Jewish pioneers. Gaydamak has promised that he won't fire any of the Mizra employees, but the kibbutz members are pissed off. They're proud of their factory's success, and of their secularism. They are suspicious of oligarchs and of religion, too.

Maadaney Mizra bacon and pork charcuterie at Tiv Tam

Ultimately, I think, the overheated reaction to the news about Gaydamak taking over Tiv Tam and making it kosher is not really about food. This is the first time the shady oligarch's power plays have affected the lives of mainstream Israelis. It was worrying to watch him buy his way into politics, but most Israelis are so disgusted by politics and politicians that they're beyond reacting. They shook their heads at the news and laughed at the political satire shows, but that's about it. But now he is depriving them of their freedom to shop at their leisure at a one-stop shopping destination in a convenient location. They are feeling the creeping effect of religious extremists trying to impose their values on them, via a megalomaniac who is pandering to the religious minority in order to gain access to political power. A kosher Tiv Tam symbolizes an erosion of freedom for the largely secular Israeli public. It'll be interesting to see how this story unfolds. Me, I think some aspiring entrepreneur will just establish another non-kosher chain that will fill the gap.

My friend Ana Schulick (photo here), a reporter who works for Channel 9 (Channel 2's Russian TV channel), did a fascinating Day in the Life of Gaydamak report a few weeks ago. The abridged version, with English dubbing and Hebrew subtitles, is here. The Hebrew version, which is much more cutting, is here (doesn't work in Firefox). She starts the Hebrew version by showing Gaydamak doing his morning exercises with a personal trainer, as she narrates, "This is the only time of the day when Gaydamak listens to a voice other than his own." At another point, he rapidly concludes a $100 million deal on the phone, then turns to her and says, "You work all day for, what, $300? I just made several hundred million with a single phone call."

Ana is a tough, seasoned reporter who has covered many, many episodes of As the Middle East Turns, but she told me she never felt as emotionally exhausted as she did after a day in the company of Arcadi Gaydamak.

Update: Ah ha! It appears that the shady oligarch may have changed his mind. That was fast. Apparently he is so ignorant of Jewish religious law that he actually thought he could make Tiv Tam kosher just by removing the pork products - thereby winning the support of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis. The article is full of eyebrow-raising quotes, like the one about the rabbi who supposedly said that not eating pork was more important than observing the sabbath. Wow, that's news to me.

While Shimon slept

Lisa Goldman — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 10:44:48 +0300

In two days the Knesset will choose a new president. The candidates are Ruby Rivlin (a.k.a. The Clown) of Likud, Colette Avital of Labour (my favourite, although, sadly, she has no chance) and Shimon Peres (Kadima), the 84 year-old deputy prime minister. Peres is currently the front-runner for the ceremonial role, although there's a rather recent precedent for a surprise result: Peres was a candidate in 2000, but lost to Moshe (yuck) Katsav because the Shas MKs decided, apparently at the, um, "suggestion" of their spiritual leader, to vote for the now disgraced former president.

Despite his age, Peres is impressively active and seems to be very physically fit. According to an item published last summer in one of the mass-circulation dailies, he climbed 12 flights of stairs to reach his apartment when the elevator stopped working during an electricity cut. Although he has played a prominent role in public life pretty much since the founding of the state, the consummate politician, diplomat and Nobel laureate receives a lot more respect abroad than he does in Israel. Abroad he is the cultured Wise Old Man, but in Israel he is often seen as a too-professional politician who lacks the populist touch, and / or a "loser" who has never actually won an election for any position. Since the president's job is primarily to represent Israel abroad, and given that Katsav embarrassed the country in the international arena, Peres is widely considered a good choice for the presidency, for the very fact that he is held in such esteem outside of Israel.

Last month Channel 10 broadcast a clip that shows Peres falling asleep during an interview. The interview was for an unnamed "foreign television station," but it is pretty clear that it is for one of the Arab television stations. The interviewer speaks to Peres in Arabic-accented Hebrew, and translates Peres's first response into Arabic. All the foreign Arab media outlets employ 1948 Palestinians (a.k.a. Arab-Israelis) or Israeli Druze as their correspondents in Israel, because they are bilingual and can provide insider-outsider perspective to Arab viewers.

In the clip, which you can view by clicking on the photo of Sleepy Shimon below, Channel 10 anchor Yaakov Elon introduces the piece in his classic cynical style: "We've seen politicians showing signs of fatigue in public before, but not falling asleep during an interview. That's new!" The actual piece is narrated by correspondent Chico Menashe. He opens by showing footage of Ehud Olmert falling asleep during an official ceremony the day after the Winograd Report was published, then moves on to the Sleepy Shimon interview - which took place several months ago.

The interviewer for the Arab television station begins by asking Peres, who is already nodding off, "Do you think that Iran's nuclear program represents an existential threat to Israel?" Peres lifts his head and gives a coherent answer, even though he is more than half asleep: "It's an existential threat to Iran. Why to Israel? What will they do to Israel? I don't think they will do anything to Israel. Let them spend all their billions on building shelters and developing nuclear weapons. They will discover in 10 years that they made a mistake."

The interviewer quickly translates his response into Arabic. Turning back to Peres, who has meanwhile fallen asleep again, the interviewer clears his throat nervously and says, hesitantly, "The president of Iran says frequently that he wants to wipe Israel off the map..."

At that point a female voice, off camera, is heard saying, "Shimon, I'm going to bring you a cup of coffee." Peres looks up at his assistant with relief and says, "Yes, yes."

Chico Menashe then reminds the viewers that Peres is far more active than most younger men. He shows footage of Peres, whom he describes as "the man and the legend," descending from a helicopter, shaking hands with the pope, receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, etc. etc. But still, says Menashe, this appearance of obvious fatigue won't do anything to help Peres win the presidency - especially given that no-one forgets how old he is.

The official response from Peres's spokesman regarding the interview is quite civilized. He explains that Peres had just returned from a long overnight flight from the United States and gone straight to work instead of first sleeping off the jetlag. He admits that the clip is rather embarrassing, but says he doesn't blame Channel 10 for broadcasting it - because it was newsworthy and obtained legally. The spokesman did, however, blame the "unnamed foreign television station" for leaking the interview (cue ominous background music). I bet I know who is never going to obtain an interview with Peres again (mwahaha).

If you're experiencing difficulty viewing the clip via Nana's streaming video, try pasting the following code into your browser window: http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ClipMediaID=837510&ak=null&st=00:04:05.634&dr=00:03:25.103

Hands off my mouse!

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 01:14:53 +0300

Here's an issue that prominent Hebrew bloggers and Internet activists like Hanan Cohen, Jonathan Klinger (English version here) and Gadi Shimshon are taking very seriously: A bill that proposes to introduce Internet censorship to Israel has passed a first reading in the Knesset without opposition. A full list of Hebrew bloggers' posts about the bill is here. Gal Mor wrote about the issue for Ynet last March, but I noticed the article only after Julien Pain, Internet Freedom Editor for Reporters Without Borders, sent me the link and an inquiry: how likely is it that the bill will pass all the readings and become law?

Hebrew speakers can read the original bill here; my translation is below.

Proposed law to limit Internet access for adults

Definitions:
1. For the purposes of this law -

"Sites for adults" are those that deal with sex, violence or gambling
"Physical recognition" - by physical means, electronic or biometric, which will confirm the identity of the computer user, in addition to a password

2. Blocking Internet sites

The ISP will block access to the Internet sites, and will not permit access except by means of physical recognition

3. Punishment
(a) The ISP that violates the law, as outlined in section 2, will be jailed for one year and pay a fine of NIS 20,000 (about $5,000)
(b) An ISP that has been convicted of breaking the law and then repeats the offense, will have its license revoked, in addition to any other punishments, for a period of not less than 6 months.
4. Commencement
The law will take effect 30 days after it is passed
Comments - Explanations
Today the Internet is so common that it has exposed minors to sites that may damage their education and provide them with a twisted and damaging view of reality.
This bill is proposed in order to minimize this damage, whereby access to the sites will be blocked and made possible only by means of physical recognition. Thus access for minors will be minimized.
This bill has been laid on the table of the sixteenth Knesset by MK Yechiel Hazan and MK Yitzhak Vaknin.

My feeling is that this bill is unlikely to become law. I think it has failed thus far to attract wider attention because the Israeli public has become massively apathetic over the past few years. But if the day does come when people discover they have to apply to their ISP's for permission to surf "sex sites" at home, for example, I'm sure there will be a rather loud reaction. However, just the fact that this bill has been introduced to the legislature of a democratic state is pretty embarrassing. If parents are worried about their children accessing unsuitable sites, they can purchase filtering software or find some other way to monitor their kids' Internet use. It is not the government's job to decide for adults what sites are suitable for them to access. And besides, as Gal Mor and everyone else has pointed out, the wording of this bill is outrageously vague: by what criteria is a site deemed "violent"? The news is pretty damned violent - does that mean the Ministry of Communications can force Israeli ISP's to block access to Ynet and Haaretz? Will Youtube be blocked because it has hip hop videos?

Jonathan Klinger writes:

The Statute itself is quite brief and [inconclusive]. It does not explain how such Biometric data be taken, and who will manage the database. The Statute does not determine who is considered an Adult (the Israeli Law includes quite a few ages of consent) and will all traffic be blocked on a “White-List” basis or a “Black-List” basis. The Draft also does not explain what is considered an “Adult Website”, i.e: Is a website whose main business is sexual instruction considered adult or is a website with Gay content considered one?
I need not to explain what is wrong with allowing (or mandating) ISPs in holding Biometric Identification Databases, These databases are currently being held only by the Israeli Police and contain only information regarding Suspects, Convicted Felons and Evidence found in crime scenes. Data regarding suspects is deleted after suspects’ acquittal. These databases can only be accessed by Israel’s Security Authorities and may only be used for solving crimes or preventing them. What are the uses of the Biometric Identification held at the ISPs?

The bill was introduced to the Knesset by two members of Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party. One of its supporters is Shas MK Ariel Attias, who is currently Minister of Communications. The vast majority of the Israeli mainstream media is secular, as is the majority of the Israeli public, but the religious parties do have power that is disproportionate to their number of constituents. This has been a source of tension in Israel for decades, for reasons that are beyond the scope of this piece. I mention it only because much of the commentary in opposition to this bill has included anti-Orthodox mudslinging. It's easy to understand why: as Eran Gabay points out in this article for Haaretz, MK Attias does not use the Internet at home for religious reasons, and he could have suggested that ISP's supply their customers with screening software instead of taking the radical step of trying to censor the Internet. But I think it is a huge mistake, for both moral and pragmatic reasons, to let anti-religious prejudice distract from the real issue: censorship is wrong, full stop. The Internet is democracy in its purest and most glorious form: It allows free access to information, and unfiltered communication. Internet censorship has no business in a democratic society - or any society, for that matter - and ordinary citizens need to make their government aware that they oppose this bill.

Update: Amos, who contributes to the group blog Kishkushim, makes an important point in the comments:
...I am afraid that you are not really going to convince the other side that "censorship is wrong, full stop" either. The haredi elite and large parts of the public see censorship and surveillance as absolutely crucial to the maintenance of their ways of life. There is no real private sphere for unmarried individuals in that world - or at least, there aren't too many people who would invest energy in defending it. Not that it gets much better for married people.

I am not saying this to denigrate that way of life; but I think those who care about this encroachment on their freedom should make it very clear that this is about a fundamentalist minority trying to impose its norms on the rest of society.

Number 57, how do you say McDonald's in English?

Lisa Goldman — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 00:42:48 +0300

So an American couple gets hungry during a long day of shopping and darbuka drumming in Jerusalem's Old City. Instead of making the obligatory stop at Abu Shukri for hummus-chips-salad-pita-falafel-who-cares-about-the-calories-we're-on-vacation meal, they run over to a taxi driver and ask him where they can get a real "local" salad.

That is the silly-but-kinda-funny premise for the most recent McDonald's advertisement on Israeli television. Brought to you courtesy of Youtube. The punchline will make you smile, as long as you know your Middle Eastern foods.

Poetry for the Road

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 04:02:59 +0300

This post is dedicated to Nominally Challenged, as promised, for providing inspiration.

Poetry banners on Rothschild Boulevard

For the third year in a row, the municipality of Tel Aviv has mounted Poetry for the Road (Hebrew link; doesn't work in Firefox). Excerpts from poems in Hebrew, Arabic and French have been emblazoned on colourful banners and suspended from the trees lining the city's boulevards; there are also miniature take-home versions in the form of postcards that have been distributed amongst the cafes. It's a creative, inexpensive and charming way to add a bit of culture to every day life, and I find myself stopping frequently to read, and remember the courses in Hebrew and Arabic literature (the latter in translation) I took at university. This year the members of the committee that chose the poems decided to expand the canon a bit by holding a contest for local poets; five winners received their moment of fame in banner and postcard form.

The Hebrew poets range from Yehuda Halevy, the Medieval Spanish-Jewish philosopher and physician whose influences included Arabic, Castillian and the Bible; to Chaim Nahman Bialik, the father of modern Hebrew poetry; to contemporaries like Nathan Zach, whose stunning autobiographical novella, Death of My Mother, was the first Hebrew book I read, many years ago, because I wanted to - and not because I was required to do so. I won't bore you by listing all the poets deemed canon-worthy by the committee, except to note that it was interesting to see they included Alexander Penn - handsome bad boy, heavy drinker, notorious womanizer and ardent Communist party member (Hebrew article about Penn, illustrated with an appropriately brooding photo, is here), who is a bit marginalized these days.

The Arab poets are a mixed bunch, with some obvious choices - like Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish, who is probably the most famous contemporary Arab poet. There is an interesting article about Darwish here. Apparently he supports a two-state solution, but resigned from the PLO Executive Council in 1993 because he thought the Oslo Accords were fatally flawed and would lead to an escalation of the conflict (hmmm. Poet and prophet, I guess). A few years ago, when he was Minister of Education, Yossi Sarid suggested that Darwish's poetry should be part of the Israeli high school curriculum. The esteemed members of the Knesset disagreed rather vehemently with Sarid, but it appears that the members of the Poetry for the Road committee took a higher road (sorry, sorry). I thought it was kind of funny that the banner with an excerpt from Darwish's poem Ana min hunak (I come from there) was hung on Sderot Ben Zion, or Children of Zion Boulevard. Irony intended? I wonder...

Excerpt from I am from there, by Mahmoud Darwish. Full text here.

I come from there and remember,
I was born like everyone is borne, I have a mother
and a house with many windows,
I have brothers, friends and a prison.
I have a wave that seagulls snatched away.
I have a view of my own and an extra blade of grass.
I have a moon past the peak of words.
I have the godsent food of birds and olive tree beyond the ken of time.

The Poetry for the Road committee also chose Arab poet Adunis (Ali Ahmad Said) a renowned Syrian-Lebanese poet who has been short-listed for the Nobel Prize in literature. Like Darwish, Adunis has had to deal with his share of political controversy: according to this Ynet article (Hebrew) he was heavily criticized, and banned by his literary peers in the Arab world, for speaking out publicly in favour of normalization between Israel and the Arab states after the signing of the Oslo Accords. The Nation published this article about Adunis in 2004.

Adonis poetry banner, Rothschild Boulevard

I couldn't find a translation of this poem online, and don't dare translate it myself. If anyone has a link in English, the comments section awaits your feedback.

Update: Egyptian blogger Zoss has translated the Adunis poem. He is braver than I, and he is talented too.

The child I used to be,
once
appeared to me,
a stranger.
He didn’t utter a word. We walked,
glancing at one another in silence. Our strides
a river running astray.

Oh, and there's a lighthearted video report about Poetry for the Road on Nana, her e. It's in Hebrew only, but it should be fun to watch even if you don't understand what the reporter is saying (she takes the piss out of unsuspecting passersby by shoving a microphone in their faces and asking questions about poetry that they can't answer, but she also interviews poets and asks them questions like, "can you make a living from this?" Answer: No.).

Motorcycle Diaries: the Middle Eastern version

Lisa Goldman — Sun, 13 May 2007 17:30:40 +0300

Zvi ("Zvika"') Yehezkeli

Zvi Yehezkeli, the head of Channel 10's Arab Desk, did an interesting piece for the Friday night news magazine show: A few months after he had a serious motorcycle accident that had him homebound for a fair chunk of time, he joined a group of Israeli alpha males on a motorcycle trip in the Jordanian desert.

The trip required special permission from H.M. King Abdullah, not only because the Israeli guys were allowed to cross the Sheikh Hussein border without changing their license plates, but also because only policemen and the royal family are allowed to ride motorcycles in Jordan. Click on the picture below in order to be taken to the clip, courtesy of Nana. There are no English subtitles, but the visuals are great and there are some interesting interactions with the Bedouin. Arabic speakers might have fun listening to Zvi speak their language with a Hebrew accent.

Just as the end credits are rolling, Zvi says something like, "Peace starts with the heart, and these Jordanians who hosted a group of Israeli tourists have plenty of heart." Awww.....

After viewing the video, la Noorster sent me the following Instant Message: "I think I'm about to faint from the testosterone residue." She has such a way with words.

Kleek on ze photo and be taken to the video.

One flew over the Middle Eastern Cuckoo's Nest

Lisa Goldman — Thu, 10 May 2007 17:21:45 +0300

I found the hilarious video below on Jeha's blog. I apologize to all those who are not familiar with the major players in the Middle Eastern Mental Asylum, 'cause you'll probably feel left out of the joke. For residents and followers of events in the asylum, though, do remove all beverages from the vicinity of your keyboard before watching.

At the Knesset

Lisa Goldman — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:58:01 +0300

On Monday Ehud Olmert easily survived three no-confidence motions, following the release of the Interim Winograd Report. While there was no doubt the motions would be defeated, it was interesting to see the tension on his haggard face as he watched while the votes were tallied. I missed the shot of him leaning back in his chair and grinning triumphantly up at the photojournalists in the gallery, but managed to catch him and Peretz smiling with a combination of relief and satisfaction immediately afterward.

Watching as the votes are tallied.

Smiling after the motions were defeated.

Flickr set from the Knesset is here.

As the Zeitgeist turns: War, Winograd and What next

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 04 May 2007 05:20:10 +0300

Toward the middle of the Second Lebanon War, I walked into my local greengrocer and found the proprietor in the middle of a shouting match with one of the guys in the neighbourhood. My greengrocer is a bit of an anomaly - he's a Mizrachi (Jews with ethnic roots in the Middle East) who is a committed Meretz voter. His eyes light up when he talks about "Yossi" (Sarid, the retired former leader of Meretz, a left-wing party with a mostly Ashkenazi constituency), and they darken when he talks about social injustice, poverty and the occupation. He always adds a couple of apples to my bag after he weighs it, he usually knocks a few shekels off the total price when I purchase a lot of things, and he never fails to smile and call me "sweety" when I enter his little shop. That day, he and the neighbourhood guy were arguing about whether or not the army should have attacked Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's 12 July cross-border attack. "You don't bomb a whole country because some terrorists captured two soldiers!" he roared. "That's collective punishment and it's not right!" "But they're bombing us! It's not the first time they kidnapped soldiers and we have to protect our country!" the other guy yelled back. The greengrocer appealed to me: "Am I right or not?!" he asked rhetorically. "Oh no," I said. "I'm not getting involved in this one. I just came in for some lettuce and cucumbers."

My greengrocer was an anomaly in more than his deviation from ethnic voting patterns. During the first week of last summer's war, polls showed that 80 to 90 percent of the Israeli public supported the military response to Hezbollah's cross-border attack of 12 July. That was the week I interviewed several prominent figures from the moderate left - people who write and demonstrate against the occupation, social critics, and a woman who during the 1990's spearheaded the grassroots movement to withdraw the Israeli army from southern Lebanon - and all of them said they supported the decision to go to war. One or two criticized the nature of the response (the civilian casualties in Lebanon), but none opposed the invasion of ground troops. Pretty much the only people who expressed loud opposition to the war from the beginning were the usual suspects - the Arab citizens of Israel, the extreme Left and the anarchists. With the exception of a couple of columnists for Haaretz newspaper and Hebrew portals like Nana and Walla, the media's reporting was pretty gung ho on the war, too. Along with reports about battles in Lebanon and rocket attacks in the north, Yedioth and Maariv were full of sentimental articles about mothers of soldiers who cooked huge pots of couscous and went up to the front to feed the hungry boys, or about wealthy ex-pat Israeli businessmen who abandoned their lucrative businesses in Hong Kong or Singapore and flew back to Israel to join their reserve units and fight Hezbollah.

I did know a few Israeli reporters who thought going to war was a mistake - not because they were pacifists or leftists, but because they were pragmatists who knew well the complex reality behind the received narrative of Bad Guys v. Good Guys. But they were the kind of reporters who are paid to report just the facts, ma'am, and to keep their opinions to themselves. I don't know Ofer Shelach (a political and military commentator for Channel 10) or Yoav Limor (military correspondent for Channel 1), but after reading their book Prisoners in Lebanon: The truth behind the Second Lebanon War (Hebrew only) I suspect they were less-than-optimistic from the beginning about the IDF's chances of routing Hezbollah.

The cover of Prisoners of Lebanon.

According to this review the book explains in horrifying detail the many reasons the war was a disaster. I was particularly interested in Chapter 15, which explains factually that the army was severely weakened as a result of the occupation. Instead of training to fight wars it was, particularly since the second Intifada began in 2000, engaged primarily in asymmetric battles against poorly armed militants, or in controlling the civilian population of Gaza and the West Bank. As a result, proper training for a real war was neglected. Of course the war was badly bungled on a tactical level, and this too is detailed in the book. As are the mistakes that were made due to hubris.

Of course, few people knew these things last summer. All they knew was that the Hezbollah raid was an unprovoked act of aggression - certainly not the first since the IDF withdrew in 2000 - and that the northern border must be protected once and for all. But the war did not accomplish any of the goals set out by Olmert: the captive soldiers were not recovered, and the Hezbollah was not routed. In other words, failure.

On Monday afternoon, when the Interim Winograd Report was finally released, I was sitting in a cafe with a veteran Israeli reporter who has known Ehud Olmert for more than 20 years. After describing the prime minister as a "scumbag," he told me with absolute certainty that, as someone who has been covering Olmert since he was mayor of Jerusalem, he knew he would never resign. Never.

The Hebrew version of the report is 150 pages, but there's a summary in English of the main points here.

Excerpt from the report (my emphasis added):

"12. Let us start with the Prime Minister.

a. The Prime Minister bears supreme and comprehensive responsibility for the decisions of 'his' government and the operations of the army. His responsibility for the failures in the initial decisions concerning the war stem from both his position and from his behavior, as he initiated and led the decisions which were taken.

b. The Prime Minister made up his mind hastily, despite the fact that no detailed military plan was submitted to him and without asking for one. Also, his decision was made without close study of the complex features of the Lebanon front or of the military, political and diplomatic options available to Israel. He made his decision without systematic consultation with others, especially outside the IDF, despite not having experience in external-political and military affairs. In addition, he did not adequately consider political and professional reservations presented to him before the fateful decisions of July 12th.

* * *

Four hours after the report was released, Olmert, whose popularity rating was already hovering around a brutal 3 percent for several weeks, addressed the nation on a live television broadcast. He declared that he had no intention of resigning. The people objected most strongly to this statement.

On Thursday night, between 100,000 (police estimate) and 200,000 (organizers' estimate) Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to call for Olmert's resignation. Rinat observed that she hadn't seen so many foreign reporters covering an event since Sharon's stroke in January 2006. Neither had I. But most of the demonstrators - and most of the speakers - seemed to think that if we had had a different prime minister during the war, we could have "won." I'm not so sure that's accurate. I'm sure that few people read the whole report, but the bits that were excerpted in the media focused more on the committee's conclusion that Olmert didn't have a good plan to win the war, and much less on the part about him not having explored diplomatic options - in other words, that it might have been possible to avoid war altogether.

Also, most people seem to be ignoring the rather plentiful evidence pointing to the fact that the ground was laid for the failure of that war long before Olmert took office. For example, Aharon Ze'evi Farkash, who headed military intelligence until January 2006, told Yedioth on Monday that he warned former PM Ariel Sharon of a high risk of kidnappings on the northern border six months before the war, and that Sharon - who certainly had plenty of military experience - brushed his concerns aside. When I tagged along with Michael Totten on his April 2006 trip to the northern border, a young IDF captain told us very soberly that we really shouldn't be there, because "everything could explode at any moment." It's worth going back to read Michael's report to see that there's no way the army could have been unaware that Hezbollah was preparing to attack. And it's simply not credible to contend that the army didn't report what it saw in front of its eyes - a massive buildup of Hezbollah military force on the border - to the prime minister.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Olmert fan. I just don't see any point in his resigning, because he's no more of a liar and a pathological narcissist than pretty much every other prominent Israeli politician (there are few less prominent politicians that I like and respect, but they're too principled and uncharismatic to go far in the shark-infested waters of high-profile politics). And besides, who would replace Olmert? The leader of the opposition, Bibi Netanyahu? Surely not!

A lot of people called Thursday's demonstration a great example of democracy in action. I saw it as a populist event without much purpose beyond the immediate goal of getting rid of the government. Finally, an issue that Left and Right could agree on! Everyone wanted Olmert out, everyone loved their country, let's forget that we usually disagree vehemently on the most fundamental issues affecting the state and go for a big group hug. I would be much more impressed if 200,000 people showed up to protest the fact that one-third of Israeli children live in poverty, or to support the striking university students who are expected to pay higher tuition whilst working for a living, after serving three years in the army, even as academic institutions are starved of funds.

I don't know what the solutions are to Israel's problems. There are lots of people who know much more about these matters than I, and they get paid to look for creative solutions. I do know that I get nervous when analysis and thought invested in long term consequences are suspended in favour of outpourings of uncritical emotion. I felt the same way during the war, when the few people who dared to say that maybe we should think before acting, or that maybe war was not the right course of action, were condemned as stupid at best or traitors (Hebrew link) at worst. I just don't think that the best evidence of democracy is found in mass demonstrations. After all, Hezbollah staged some pretty impressive demonstrations in Beirut a few months ago, and they're not exactly rah-rah on democracy. I think a well-functioning democracy is best evidenced in intelligent voting and tolerance for diverse opinions - even when those opinions deviate from mainstream views.

P.S. Daniel Levy wrote an excellent piece on the Winograd Report, here.

Mr. Diab goes to Jerusalem

Lisa Goldman — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:29:05 +0300

Khaled Diab, an Egyptian who lives in Belgium, and Anat, a.k.a. "Israeli Mom," became online acquaintances during the Second Lebanon War, via the ME Forum message board that Anat initiated. More than half-a-year later, Khaled has come to visit Israel.

He is blogging extensively about his visit, and Anat is writing about her observations on her blog, too.

This visit is not about group hugs, olive branches and another chorus of Kumbaya. Khaled and Anat are way too smart and clear-eyed for that kind of stuff. They don't always agree, but they are not afraid to listen to one another, and to face their own prejudices.

Khaled stayed at Anat's home for the first couple of days of his visit. Here's an excerpt from the post he called At home with the Zionists:

"...in the early days of the conflict, it was a simpler age, and Zionists were invariably portrayed as comic book villains – and how many of those have time to fit in a family, do the cooking, shopping and cleaning, in between all that villainy and political manoeuvring? Today, many more species of Zionists have been discovered by Arab political zoologists, but they are still, in the Arab psyche, essentially a dangerous and possibly deadly political animal which roams the Palestinian territories and occasionally neighbouring countries.

Given this backdrop, you can imagine how bizarre and surreal it felt to find myself coming down to breakfast in an authentic Israeli Zionist household! This weirdness was accentuated by the fact that it wasn’t so weird – that once you move beyond the conflict, you notice how they are just folk like us, as the Americans would say.

In Israel, they like to say that whenever you bring two Jews together, they will have three opinions. Well, after some empirical observation, I have come to the conclusion that if you throw an Arab or two into this mix, you're guaranteed hours of political debate for the whole family."

Dieting is a political issue

Lisa Goldman — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 16:57:17 +0300

In the ongoing - and often ham fisted - attempts to humanize the faces behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, documentary director Yael Luttwak has come up with a rather unique idea: take a cross-section of Israeli and Palestinian women, put them on a diet program together, and watch what happens. The film is called A Slim Peace.

You can watch the trailer here - and see how even the simplest questions or ideas are political. When the Bedouin (Israeli) woman is told that the group of dieters will include Jewish settlers and Palestinians, but the film is not political, she immediately points out that it IS political - just by virtue of the participants' identities. When the American-born religious West Bank settler is asked to explain whether she lives in Israel or..?, she answers that the question is too political. When a young woman who is doing her graduate degree in biology in Tel Aviv is asked whether she prefers to be called Arab-Israeli or Palestinian, she shrugs and says she really doesn't care; then she explains how difficult it is for her to find a man, and again she is frustrated by the political reality in which she lives. A Palestinian journalist from Ramallah explains that she often overeats out of frustration when she has to wait for two hours to get through a checkpoint on her way to work - then confesses that the last time she felt good about herself was when she was in love, a long time ago.

This is how the director describes her film:

"In A Slim Peace, 14 women--Israelis, Palestinians, Bedouin Arabs, and American settlers in the West Bank--are brought together with the shared goal of losing weight and find out they have far more in common than they ever would have imagined. A Slim Peace takes a revealing look at the universal struggle for acceptance, understanding and personal transformation in a land of intractable conflict. This is a video diary made by the film's director."

In memory: two minutes of silence

Lisa Goldman — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 14:40:14 +0300

Tel Aviv: 11.00 a.m., Rothschild Boulevard, corner of Mazeh Street. Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers.

Yom hazikaron
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