Logic of our time

- This Bibi is not to be trifled with! Look how he confronted the whole world and won. Obama demanded that he go on freezing the settlement construction. And he did not.

- Who is this Obama, anyway? Who cares a fig about him? He talks and talks, we build on the ground.

- By the way, did you hear about the report of UN commission of inquiry about our operation to stop the Gaza Flotilla? Very annoying, we knew it, a very one-sided report. It's anti-Semitism, pure and simple.

- Yes, it's really annoying. But we'll manage. We just have to talk to the Americans and ask for their help. They'll see to it that this report is not approved.



Peace Tabernacle

Thousands, tens of thousands of tabernacles (Sukkot) are erected this week, to mark an ancient holiday.

The Religious Culture Department at the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel made sure to post this week quotes from different Jewish thinkers about the meaning and significance of this holiday. Among others were published the words of Hermann Cohen, a Jewish philosopher of the 19th century:

"There can be no hatred where peace has spread its tabernacle in a person's heart. That is why the prayer for this holiday uses the term "A Peace tabernacle". Sukkot is the holiday of peace, the holiday when we erect a tabernacle to mark our wanderings in the desert of mundane life. Peace makes life into a holiday."

The Ministry which published these words is not far from Sheikh Jarrah. This is where Israeli peace activists set up a Sukka, jointly with the Palestinians who have been expelled from their homes. But the municipal building inspectors did not read the words of the philosopher and came to destroy it, three times they destroyed it so that the message would be loud and clear: "Enough with this Peace Tabernacle - enough with peace, enough!"

The events around the Sheikh Jarah tabernacle can be seen at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teDol_n6t3c

The Locked Sea

Gaza is closed and locked. By land, and by sea, and by air. Gaza residents may not go out, and those who live elsewhere may not enter.

Those who attempt to defy the ban may come to a bad end. A few months ago, nine Turks returned home in coffins. The reasons why and how it happened this way are now investigated by no less than four commissions of inquiry in different locations around the world. Three days ago the 20 year old Gazan fisherman Mohammed Baker tried to sail into the Mediterranean, away from the shores of Gaza, and got slightly beyond the limits set for him and his fellows by the Navy of the enlightened State of Israel. The gun boats opened fire, and Baker will never again sail anywhere.

Nevertheless, this night a small boat is sailing on the Mediterranean waves, en route to Gaza. A Jewish Peace Boat. Its passengers and crew are all Jews who don’t endorse the policies of a state which insists upon being recognized as a Jewish state, the Jewish State. Jews from Britain and Germany and the United States, as well as Jewish citizens of Israel.

Yonatan Shapira, a former helicopter pilot in the Israel Defense Forces – and whose former colleagues had carried the naval commandos who raided the previous Gaza Flotilla - called from the boat on them to refuse this time.

What will happen when the boat gets near the coast of Gaza? In a few hours we will probably know.

The clock is ticking

The clock is ticking. The decision will fall in 72 hours.

Naftali Bennett, General Manager of the settler Judea and Samaria Council, addressed the Prime Minister via large ads in the Israeli press. He demands that Mr. Netanyahu end the freeze and allow the resumption of full-scale construction in the settlements. If the Prime Minister does not respond to his demand, Mr. Bennett threatens to mobilize Knesset Members and government ministers to topple the government.

Barack Obama, President of the United States addressed the Prime Minister directly and urgently, via a televised speech from the podium of the UN General Assembly. He demands that Mr. Netanyahu continue the freeze and facilitate continuation of negotiations with the Palestinians. The President did not elaborate on what he would do if the prime minister does not respond to his demand.

What will Netanyahu decide? Samer Sirhan of Silwan will never know. He was killed yesterday - by a settler.

An explicit promise

With the opening of what is billed as direct negotiations with the Palestinians, Binyamin Netanyahu's aides expressed themselves through Ben Kaspit, senior political correspondent of Maariv. They certainly had some interesting things to say, whatever credibility one would give it.

"The root of the problem, under the Israeli perception, is an unprecedented explicit promise which Obama made to Abu–Mazen: A Palestinian state – a viable one, with territorial contiguity etc. – would come into being within a one year deadline. The Israelis have learned about this promise only indirectly, via intelligence reports, and were appalled. Since then, tremendous energy has been expended in an attempt to show the Americans how wrong they were. Equally tremendous energy was directed to trying to prove to the Americans how the stupid construction freeze damaged the prospects of the negotiations. Every time when it seems that the Americans understand the message and adopt the Israeli approach (last week was the latest such occasion), Obama suddenly comes up and upsets everything (suddenly stating again that the freeze should continue). It is difficult to stomach this pattern of behavior, but there is no choice, since it is the Americans' behavior." (Ma'ariv, September 16, 2010)

Quite explicit things, indeed: a viable Palestinian state, with territorial contiguity etc is to come into being within a deadline of one year. In September 2011 it will be possible to read this article again. It would be then possible to find out, in a clear and authoritative way, what worth and what value should be placed on an explicit and unprecedented promise by the President of the United States of America.

The eve of Yom Kippur

A few hours before the start of Yom Kippur. soldiers of the Israeli Defense Forces arrived at Nur a-Shams Village east of Tulkarm, where they shot and killed Iyad Shelbaya, who had been wanted as a senior Hamas member.

According to soldiers, Shelbaya had been running towards them in a suspicious and threatening manner, and they had fired in self-defense - though it later turned out that he was unarmed. Shelbaya's brother said that he had gotten no chance to do any running, because the soldiers broke into the bedroom and shot him in bed.

This will evidently be one more of the cases when the killing of a Palestinian by the army would never be investigated. No one is likely to try to examine seriously what happened or get at the truth. As B'tselem recently disclosed, in the past ten years the army ceased investigating the circumstances of killings committed by its soldiers.

According to Jewish tradition, Yom Kippur is a day of self-searching, when all should give a serious thought to their deeds in the past year...

A Jewish State

"There can be no agreement without the Palestinians recognizing Israel as a Jewish state." So the ministers and government speakers keep on saying day by day, and even several times on the same day.

It only remains to be seen whether the Jewishness of the state would have to be like the Jewishness of the army which has accelerated the conversion process for soldiers who are not considered Jewish, or to the Jewishness of the rabbis who still don't recognize these soldiers as Jews - thereby depriving them of the possibility of getting married.