The Flotilla Fiasco

Alright already. Now that the flurry (no, blizzard? Sandstorm? World-ending hurricane?) of rumors has ended I can finally report on the Flotilla Fiasco without reporting the same likely untrue information that everyone else was.

But seriously though. As soon as this thing happened, every news outlet and blog in the world was foaming at the mouth to get some information, any information about it. People were reprinting the most ridiculous things, subjects were branching off into whole other emotionally-motivated subjects. Like the whole Helen Thomas thing. Just wait 'til I get to that.

The Build-Up

So, first of all, we knew the ships were coming weeks in advance. The activists had made it clear they were coming, despite Israel's warnings. Both sides fueled the media hype by upping the ante, throughout the voyage. Israel was accused of trying to sabotage the ships (Israel is accused of trying to sabotage the ships every time an aid group sails to Gaza), and Israeli spokespeople (including Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman) went on about how the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedom and Humanitarian Relief (henceforth, IHH), who had provided much of the support for the operation, was secretly a terrorist organization and a front for Al-Qaeda. When asked for proof of this by savvy bloggers, Israel backpeddled a bit (as they will be forced to do throughout this debacle), saying that IHH supports Hamas and is "sympathetic to al-Qaeda" (source).

From the very beginning, the flotilla group made much better use of media, especially new media, tweeting and blogging and facebooking and youtubing away. Israel has attempted to match this threat in the media war by posting videos on the official IDF youtube page, but it was too little, too late. In my opinion, any formal entity, no matter how media-savvy its members are, cannot possibly match the pitch and intensity of an informal entity, whose members are not bound by any hierarchy, security concerns, or accountability. There has been in more recent days talk about an international enquiry into where the fault lies for this whole thing (the details I will get to, keep your pants on) but even if such an enquiry were to determine that Israel's use of force was justified and that the activists were at fault, who would shoulder the blame? It would be dispersed, symbolically, among everyone present. The Turkish government would have a little egg on its face (nothing compared to what Israel is currently wearing) but it would be a bit like when a mob starts a stampede on Black Friday because everyone's kid wants that toy and the store won't open its doors yet and it's 5am and everyone is tired and annoyed. Somebody started shoving first, all right, but we'll never know who it was.

So basically, before the confrontation even happened, everyone in the world knew Israel was going to end up looking bad, not least of all, Israel itself. FM Lieberman said on May 28, days before the action, that the whole thing was, "an attempt at violent propaganda against Israel."



In the Morning

On Monday, May 31, I woke to headlines about the "Flotilla Massacre." 10 people "at least" were dead, many more injured. Perusal of stories showed that Israeli "commandos" had slid down ropes from helicopters and opened fire on the unarmed activists. I simply put my head in my hands and sighed. I knew that, no matter what further information came to light on this issue, Israel had shot itself in the foot with this idiotic maneuver. In fact, it might not just have been the foot. Israel may have shot itself in the liver and will slowly and painfully bleed to death. We'll see. Threats have been made, but have proved to be most likely empty. But I have yet to get to that.

The headlines that day were mostly speculative. How many were dead? Who were they? Of what nationality? Who started the fighting? What would the international reaction be? And of course, where are all the images? In today's world, when everyone has at least a cellphone camera, and the people on the boat had already demonstrated their prowess for media technology, the curious question was why haven't we seen anything?

We found out later Israel was making serious attempts to control what information got to the press. It had cut communications on the Mavi Marmara just as Al-Jazeera correspondent Jamal Elshayyal was finishing a broadcast. He reported that two people had been killed and there were still sounds of live fire.



All cameras (or, we found out later, almost all) were confiscated from the activists as part of their intake at the Ashdod holding facility, and no media was allowed to speak to them. Prior to the Mavi Marmara's arrival, Israel had invited several journalists to observe the operation (codenamed Operation Sea Breeze) from Israeli vessels. However, these journalists were not allowed to share their observations due to a gag order.

The press was dying for information, as was I. I called my contacts, who provided me with almost no additional information. I called an activist friend of mine in Ramallah and when he picked up the phone, still sounding groggy, I said right away, "Do you know anything?"
"About what?" he responded.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Well I just woke up. Why? Did something happen?"
"Jesus look at the news."
He turned on his tv and flipped through the channels.
"There's nothing...nope...I don't see anything."
I apprised him of the situation and he promised to get back to me if he had more information. The next day, there was a "demonstration" in Ramallah, wherein a dozen or less activists held signs like "Pirates of the Mediterranean" and spoke to reporters about freeing Gaza. The reporters were tenfold more numerous than the demonstrators, which shows how desperate the press was to get anything, anything at all, to show.

The Light Shines On

Over the next fews days, videos galore came to light, along with commentaries about their validity. There was edited video, audio, and still photographs. Journalists on various sides of the issue cricitized anyone on the other side who had obviously edited the information, claiming it was a coverup.

A video emerged of Israeli soldiers on the deck of the Mavi Marmara, with rifles in hand. It looked like the sun had just come up. This contradicted the army's earlier claim that they had not had rifles at all, but also contradicted the activits' claim that they had begun shooting from the air, which was they became violent in return. So why are these Israeli soldiers standing calmly on the ship with rifles in hand, and nobody is fighting them?

There was audio clip of an Israeli seaman requesting by radio that the Mavi Marmara reroute to Ashdod, the nearest Israeli port, instead of attempting to reach Gaza. Someone from the other side responded, "Shut up, go back to Aushwitz." But then blogger Max Blumenthal pointed out that this clip was clearly edited and in fact included a photo from another video clip where nothing of the kind was said. Both clips were published on youtube by the IDF press office. When the IDF was pressed about the discrepancy, they responded that they did in fact edit the clip, but only for clarity. They also admitted that as it was recorded from an open line, anybody, on any ship, could have said it.

Reuters even got heat for publishing edited photos taken by the activists aboard the ship. In the original photos, you can see an activist holding a knife and standing over two injured soldiers, pool of blood and everything. Reuters edited the photo so that it included only one injured soldier (the least bloody of the two), no knife, and no blood pool.

The IDF also uploaded several videos of the activists attacking the soldiers. The activists' responses were usually that they had the right to defend the ship. The issue that the raid happened in international waters also featured prominently.

The Videos









The Interviews

After people began to be released (ie deported) from the temporary holding facility in Ashdod, interviews trickled out to the rest of the world.







Here is a clip with several interviews of different passengers, but unfortunately I am unable to embed it.

There were of course a gazillion more interviews, but all the ones I'm currently finding are either with people who were on other ships (where the violence was minimal and nobody was killed) or are total nutjobs and not worth listening to.

What I Think

Basically, what I can piece together from what I've seen and read, is that the Israeli navy first attempted to board the Mavi Marmara from the sea, but was rebuked by the passengers throwing things and spraying water. The soldiers then boarded the ship from the air, sliding down ropes from helicopters. Eyewitnesses and video footage agree that the activists attacked the soldiers immediately when they reached the deck of the ship. At least three were taken inside the ship ("taken hostage" say Israel's supporters, "taken into protective custody" say the activists). The next round of soldiers who came down from the helicopters was larger and they came down shooting live ammunition.

What is amazing here is that all of the 9 people reported dead were Turkish nationals, one with dual U.S. citizenship. Let's say for fun that the soldiers were told before the operation that they were to put the hurt on the Turks aboard the ship. Even in such a case, how would they have known which people were Turkish, especially in such a melee? What seems more likely to me is that, in an effort to save themselves and their fellow soldiers, they shot at whoever was being the most violent. While its true that Israel's claims that the IHH are a secret terrorist organization lack evidence, I can think of few reasons that only Turks were killed in the raid. There were a dozen nationalities on that ship. In this interview, a witness aboard the ship said, when asked how the Israelis boarded the ship, "The main boarding of the ship was by the helicopters and by sea, but the first attempt of the helicopter attack, or descent- the Turkish Resistance, I can say, grabbed four Israeli army and took them down."

Now, as to my opinion on where the fault lies. Firstly, there was no need for Israel to board the ship in the first place. Whether or not I think the siege on Gaza is right or the flotilla is right is not the issue. If Israel wanted to divert the ship to Ashdod using peaceful means, it could have. The propellor could have been disabled and the ship towed to Ashdod, without the soldiers ever boarding the Mavi Marmara, and thus avoiding the whole disgraceful nightmare. There was some jibber-jabber from the government press office that this type of ship is too big for such a maneuver, but my government contacts (who remain anonymous for obvious reasons) tell me that is completely untrue. Furthermore, the general consensus regarding why such a poor decision was made is that military minds only know how to design military solutions- a nod to Israel's current Minister of Defense- Ehud Barak- former general and Army Chief of Staff.

On the other side of the coin, let's take into account the actions of the Mavi Marmara's activists. They do not deny that they attacked the soldiers, saying it was their right to defend the ship. But what if they had just sat down? The same result would have been reached- that their ship would have been rerouted to Ashdod, their cargo unloaded for inspection, and themselves deported to their countries of origin- only nobody would have died. But maybe that wasn't preferable to them. Several media reports remarked that some of the Muslim activists were preparing for martyrdom.

One woman in this clip says, "We are now waiting for one of two good things- either to achieve martyrdom, or to reach Gaza." Another interviewee in this clip said, when asked if he had been subject to torture during his detainment, "No, unfortunately not." The one Turkish-American national who was killed kept a diary aboard the ship, the last words of which were reportedly, "Only a short time left before martydrom."

The Rachel Corrie

On Saturday, June 5, the Rachel Corrie (named after slain Gaza activist) was boarded by the Israeli navy. This time the activists did sit down, the soldiers met with the captain, and the activists agree to comply.



The passengers disembarked at Ashdod without incident.



This group was led by Mairead McGuire, a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. The Israeli coverage of this event included a full-page photo on the front page of Yediot Ahronot of an Israeli soldier offering McGuire his hand to help her disembark, which she took graciously. The caption was, "This is what a real peace activist looks like."

Fallout

In line with the amount of attention paid to the "Go back to Aushwitz" comment was a similar yet, really if you think about it, completely irrelevant incident. Helen Thomas had been a White House correspondent for Hearst news for 57 years, I do believe the longest term ever for this job. On May 27, as the flotilla was very publicly on its way to Gaza, someone asked Thomas to comment on Israel. She said, "Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine." And to the question, "Where should they go?" she answered, "Go home...to Poland, Germany."



Much, unfortunately, was made of this statement. Clearly it was in bad taste, but because of the timing, it was somehow used to confirm that exhausted line of Israel's reasoning that says everyone is against them. Ten days later Thomas hastily retired.

Naturally there was also a huge media mess regarding Israel's ties with Turkey. They had, before this incident, had a very good relationship, although it had declined slightly in the last few year as PM Erdogan began re-Islamizing the state and distancing himself from Israel. Turkey recalled its ambassador to Israel after the flotilla raid and proceeded to make vague threats that it then retracted. Ergodan reportedly threatened to personally accompany a new aid flotilla that would be escorted by the Turkish Navy. Turkey's foreign minister later retracted that statement.

Iran's Ahmedinejad also threatened to send an aid convey with a military escort but denied Israel the conundrum of whether to kill him by stating he would not personally be aboard the ship. No more has been heard about this threat.

Numerous concerts have been cancelled, for example the Klaxons, Gorillaz, and the Pixies.

Finally, I leave you with this:



(For the record, I find it distasteful and unhelpful, but it provides a comment on the issue.)

Nothing to See Here Folks, Don't Mind Us

Well this is not at all like the holocaust. Nope, not at all. Gaza is a ghetto There have been no ghettos created for any special class of citizens, dissidents are arrested and tortured everyone is free to protest, and at least Israel hasn't yet resorted to mass deportations of the undesirable portion of the population. Oh no wait. Yes they have.

From Haaretz today:

A new military order aimed at preventing infiltration will come into force this week, enabling the deportation of tens of thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank, or their indictment on charges carrying prison terms of up to seven years.

What this means is that, first and foremost, Palestinians whose ID cards show addresses in the Gaza strip will be deported. Even if they were born in the West Bank. Even if their spouses and children were born in the West Bank. Secondly, foreign-born spouses of West Bank residents will be subject to deportation. To where, I don't know. Palestinians with Gaza addresses on their ID cards may face deportation to the strip, but many Palestinians who were born and raised in the West Bank still do not have Palestinian residency cards, and are citizens of no country.

Amira Hass of Haaretz writes, "The new order defines anyone who enters the West Bank illegally as an infiltrator, as well as "a person who is present in the area and does not lawfully hold a permit." What that means is that, even if you enter Israel legally and decide you want to spend some time hanging with your second cousin, or your former coworker, or whomever in the West Bank, you have to obtain a permit from the local Israeli military commander. Even if the area you want to stay in is completely under Palestinian control. And what do you suppose are the chances of actually being granted a permit to chill with your people?

Furthermore, the order is so vague as to allow the local military commander to interpret as he sees fit:

The order's language is both general and ambiguous, stipulating that the term infiltrator will also be applied to Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, citizens of countries with which Israel has friendly ties (such as the United States) and Israeli citizens, whether Arab or Jewish. All this depends on the judgment of Israel Defense Forces commanders in the field.

Obama Gives up on Peace Process

My Dear Reader,
I haven't written in many months, much to the chagrin of my biggest supporters (mom, et al). So if you're reading this, it means you either know me personally and have been warned I would begin writing again, or you have just stumbled upon this blog for the first time. Welcome, I say, to the latter. Welcome back, to the former. And I also must issue a warning: this blog may be hazardous to your political correctness. Side effects of reading this blog include uttering tasteless jokes, racist jokes, and offending friends and acquaintances in general. I am not a humanitarian, I am not a peacemaker, I can only barely be called a journalist. But along with a lack of human compassion comes a lack of emotional involvement in the affairs of the Israeli and Palestinian governments. I mock them both equally, where mocking is called for.

I also sometimes mock fellow bloggers and journalists.

Now, I will begin my update with a summation of the situation as of the last time I wrote, which was in August, and any developments since then.

1. Obama had been in office half a year and everyone was eager to see what his big plan was to solve Middle Eastern Conflict. Obama appointed George Mitchell as his special envoy to this end and after conferring with the region's leaders for five minutes or so came up with this totally original and incredibly detailed plan:

   President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy called Wednesday for an end to Hamas weapons smuggling and a reopening of Gaza's borders, seeking to strengthen the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants thrown into turmoil by new violence.

   This reads like Mitchell thinks he's the magic peace fairy and he can just ask what each side wants and then POOF there it is. [The link to that article has since died, super sorry about that, but the quote is accurate.]
   
   And then yesterday, this gem appeared in Ha'aretz, "Obama: U.S. expectations for Middle East peace too high." Obama is quoted as saying:

   I think it is absolutely true that what we did this year didn't produce the kind of breakthrough that we wanted and if we had anticipated some of these political problems on both sides earlier, we might not have raised expectations as high.

   Reading this article, I was shocked not only by the way Obama is willing to level with journalists, but also with his seemingly clear and realistic grasp on the situation. He summed up the key current issues as such:

   Both sides ... have found that the political environment, the nature of their coalitions, or the divisions within their societies were such that it was very hard for them to start engaging in a meaningful conversation.
   
   And I think that we overestimated our ability to persuade them to do so when their politics ran contrary to that. From Abbas' perspective, he's got Hamas looking over his shoulder and I think an environment generally within the Arab world that feels impatient with any process.
   
   And on the Israeli front, although the Israelis I think after a lot of time showed a willingness to make some modifications in their policies, still found it very hard to move with any bold gestures.

2. Gilad Shalit is still held in captivity somewhere in Gaza. The Israeli soldier was taken in a cross border raid over three years ago and his imprisonment has played a key role in negotiations since that time. On August 12 of last year, this article revealed that Hamas was confident Israel would finally yield to its demands.

   Mohammed al-Ghoul, the Hamas minister for prisoners' affairs, said "the Israeli occupation will soon surrender to the conditions that we have outlined for the release of Gilad Shalit."
   
   According to al-Ghoul, Israel will release the Palestinian prisoners whose names appear on a list Hamas has passed to Egyptian officials. The list includes a number of prisoners serving life sentences, as well as women, children, and some elderly inmates.

   First of all, al-Ghoul? Is that really someone you want to designate as any kind of representative to the western world? And secondly, that list has passed back and forth between Israel's and Hamas' hands so many times it probably carries swine flu, AIDS, and mad cow. The numbers of prisoners on the list has reportedly fluctuated wildly between 150 and 1,000 names. First Israel wouldn't release prisoners serving terms for murder, and then they would, but only certain ones, but Hamas wasn't happy with those certain ones, and so on. There are so many cooks in the kitchen on both sides that no matter the disposition of The List, it will never pass final muster. Sure enough, just one day later, a different Hamas rep was saying something else.

   Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal said there is no real progress in talks for the release of captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, despite recent reports to the contrary.
   
   In an interview to Qatari newspaper al-Watan, that will be published in full on Sunday, with parts of it published on the Hamas website Thursday, Mashaal said mediation efforts in the matter were ongoing, but that no real progress has been made. He said this was due to "the manner in which the Zionist enemy's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is handling the matter.'

   And most recently, any mention of progress in the swap has halted except for this item from January 19:

   Mohammed Nazal told the Lebanese daily A-Sapir that the deal has been delayed thus far due to Israel's refusal to heed Hamas' demand to see top militants Marwan Bargouthi and Ahmed Sadat freed.

   So basically at this point, Hamas is mainly concerned with these final two guys, but they're biggies. This is the first I've heard of this Ahmed Sadat dude, but Bargouthi is a Palestinian "freedom fighter" who is so popular it's basically assumed that if he's released, he'll win the Hamas presidency. He's considered to be the leader of both the first and second intifadas but strongly supported the peace process, including the Oslo accords. He's basically the Nelson Mandela of Palestine. Further research (meaning I can use google) has revealed that this Sadat guy is pretty popular too but he doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist and was in opposition to the Oslo process. He was Secretary-General of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) beginning in 2001 after the previous secretary was assassinated. The PFLP is basically Fatah's armed wing that they keep all hush-hush like when you have a retarded child that you keep in the basement just to feed annoying salesmen and Jehovah's Witnesses. Anyway, Sadat was accused of planning the assassination of Israel's tourism minister, who was the founder of right wing party Moledet and advocated the forced transfer of Israel's Arabs to neighboring countries.
   
   So...what was my point? Oh yeah, transferring prisoners between Israel and Palestine is complicated.
   
   Good god this update is exhausting. One more item.
   
   
3. Operation Price Tag is still in full swing. It was way back in October of 2008 that I first wrote about this lovely little grassroots movement wherein Israeli settlers damage Palestinian cemeteries, farms, and livestock, injure Palestinian children on their walks to school, and injure and sometimes kill Palestinians and/or Israeli soldiers who try to stop them in an attempt to curb opposition to the Israeli expansion project. How it works is, every time the Israeli governments clamps down and actually follows its own laws regarding the disposition of West Bank land, settlers in the area do some sort of damage that is designed to remind Palestinians and Israelis alike that there is a price tag to their opposition. I found the latest incarnation of this movement on Ha'aretz yesterday and here is the gist:

   Recent violence by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, has been linked by some activists to the Israeli government's decision to impose a temporary, partial freeze on building in the enclaves.
   
   Through a strategy known as the "price tag", the settlers have targeted Palestinians and their property whenever the Israeli government is seen moving, or thinking of moving against the settlements, which are deemed illegal by world powers.
   
   Israeli police this month arrested four settlers on suspicion of involvement in an arson attack last month on a mosque near Nablus. Carpets and holy books were burnt in that attack.

   These backlashes typically follow the evacuation of an illegal West Bank settlement by Israeli officials. Meanwhile, the freeze continues in name only as concrete foundations continue to be poured throughout areas planned for West Bank settlement.
   

And that's all kids. My snarky mockery will continue unabated as I'm in-country for a stay now.

Gush Katif Residents Clueless, Ironic

Former residents of the Gush Katif settlement in Gaza, which was evacuated in The Disengagement of 2005, ask to go back to their homes, which actually don't exist anymore. Ynet says they protested yesterday at the Kissufim border crossing. Former Gaza settler Ophir Briner says:

the government acted "cruelly" in the aftermath of what he referred to as the "expulsion." Briner said he tells his young children, "We lived in Gush Katif, which is a part of the Land of Israel. We were forced to leave, and now we are waiting to return."

Sucks, doesn't it?

This Week's Dose of Moral Turpitude

I have been ignoring this story since it started circulating around the blogosphere, and then onto local news sites, and then political commentators who are in the know. Now that it has finally reached the AP, I feel I would be remiss in my duty to you if I did not take note of it.

The long and short of it is that Israeli soldiers have been printing tshirts with slogans like "1 shot, 2 kills" paired with the image of a pregnant Muslim woman. An army spokesperson says the soldiers involved in printing the shirts and handing them out to graduates of basic training have been penalized.

The shirts "are not in accordance with IDF values and are simply tasteless," the military said in a statement. "This type of humor is unbecoming and should be condemned." The army said it would not tolerate such behavior and would take disciplinary action against the soldiers involved.

A small number of the shirts (probably several dozen) were printed for specific army training units.

Another story making the same laps is the one about misconduct during Operation Cast Lead. Ha'aretz has printed several stories about IDF soldiers saying they were ordered to shoot unarmed women and children, and that they followed those orders. Some within the blogosphere have called into question the validity of such statements, saying that the stories are only heresay and that even if they are true, each case resulted in tragedy because of Palestinian error, not Israeli malice.

Relevant to both stories, the AP has the following to say:

On Monday, the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, defended his troops.

"I tell you that this is a moral and ideological army. I have no doubt that exceptional events will be dealt with," Ashkenazi told new recruits. Gaza "is a complex atmosphere that includes civilians, and we took every measure possible to reduce harm to the innocent."

Palestinians too have glorified attacks on Israelis in the past. In the Gaza Strip, Hamas-controlled media consistently send messages that Jews cannot be trusted and that Israel is a bloodthirsty, militaristic state eager to seize Palestinian land and slaughter Palestinian children.

Ayn Rand Institute Champions Israel

I went to the Objectivist Club of Berkeley on Tuesday to a lecture called, "What is America's stake in the Arab-Israeli conflict?" The lecture was given by Elan Journo, a writer at the Ayn Rand Institute. As a preface to Journo's lecture, I must first explain Objectivism, Rand's philosophy. The main premise is that human beings are without instincts to serve our self-interests, therefore we must be guided by a set of moral principles. Journo's argument, constructed using Rand's philosophy, is a moral one. In fact, the subtitle of the event was, "a talk on the moral defense of Israel."

Personally, I think moral arguments are weak. But I also think nobody is objective, so maybe Journo's argument was weaker than a logical one, but also more honest.

The first thing I noticed coming into the room was that there were campus police officers present. I don't know if this is standard practice for lectures at Berkeley, or if the officers were present because this pro-Israel lecture occurred smack in the middle of Israeli Apartheid Week on campus (during which protesters urged passerby to take BDS actions against Israel).

Journo's lecture opened with a description of the high hopes held by all after Rabin, Clinton, and Arafat finished the Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority, in 1993 (Rabin and Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize for these actions). This portion of the lecture was brought to a close with a sad story about an Israeli boy who was emotionally traumatized when a qassam rocket landed near his house. Then he said pointedly, "A lot of people have died." I wondered why he didn't mention how many Palestinians have died in the conflict (four times as many as Israelis). I began to suspect that he would not bring up any counter arguments, and that he could not answer them if he did.

Next, he discussed Hamas coming to power in 2006, and launching war against Israel, together with Hezbollah. He painted Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, and virtually all Arab leaders with the same brush, describing these leaders as corrupt, dangerous, violent, and against freedom. In fact, he even referred to the UN as "a corrupt organization." He especially emphasized these groups' violence toward their own citizens and said that there is no civil control, "with people killing each other in the streets."

I wondered if he had ever been to any of these places and thought to myself that this seemed antithetical to everything I know about Arab culture.

Then he painted a very different picture of life for Israelis. He characterized Israel as a land of freedom, democracy, choice, and equality. He emphasized the freedom of press and speech that Israelis enjoy, while the residents of the West Bank and Gaza do not enjoy any such freedom. His argument was that Israel has the moral high ground, and therefore should be the victor in this conflict. But again, he left counter arguments completely off the table, which left gaping holes in his argument.

Of Israelis' freedom of speech, he said, "They don't have to fear the knock at the door at midnight." Because he was not taking questions, I was not able to raise my hand and ask, "What about the Palestinians? Should they fear the knock at the door?" The question would have been rhetorical anyway because I know that Palestinians often do find Israeli soldiers knocking on their door in the middle of the night. Sometimes the aim is simply to discombobulate the resident, sometimes they come to arrest someone. In fact, from what I know, arrests are rarely made during the day, unless they are made during a protest.

He then cited the court decisions regarding the separation wall as proof that Israel's judicial system is morally sound, uncorrupted.

Residents of the West Bank have been complaining for years that the wall separates them from their own lands, families, and workplaces, and have been trying to get the route of the wall moved to accommodate these realities. Journo was right when he said the Israeli high court ordered the wall moved. But he did not mention that this decision has still not been implemented and that other measures designed to reappropriate Palestinian land are still under way in full force (settlement expansion, home demolition, crop burning).

He mentioned the financial success of Israel's start-up companies as proof that the Israeli government helps its citizens, that the free market is thriving, and that Israelis are more motivated to succeed. He did not mention that companies in the Palestinian territories are not allowed this opportunity- by Israel. The territories' borders are controlled by Israel and exports to other countries are severely limited. The free market is not alive and well in Palestine, but that is certainly not a result of laziness.

Journo ended his litany of Israel's moral superiority with the story of The Disengagement. In 2005, Israel evacuated all its settlements in Gaza and relocated those citizens. Because there were no longer any Israeli civilians in Gaza, the world believed Israel had truly left Gaza to its own devices- to succeed or fail on its own merits. Journo argued that because the disengagement only led to the firing of more and more qassams, that pulling out had, in and of itself, only encouraged Hamas to be more violent.

I hear this argument against "land for peace" often- the disengagement didn't bring peace so giving up West Bank settlements won't do any good either. This faulty logic ignores two factors:

1. Gaza was basically made into a bantustan with no autonomy or access to the outside world. Israel controls who gets in and out, and which supplies are allowed in. Gaza is a welfare state.
   
2. Gaza and the West Bank are one country, even though they are not contiguous. They are the same people. As long as one is occupied, some people in the other will be militant.
   

Of the basic moral difference between Israel and Palestine, Journo said, "One side seeks war and destruction and tyranny and one side does not." His argument is that the state with the moral high ground should have power. He cites Israel's free speech and democracy as that high ground, but ignores the double standard- equal rights are not afforded to Israel's Arabs.

As the lecture ended and the Q&A period began, I thought I might amuse myself by asking why he chose to make a moral argument- since these are the hardest to settle. I didn't stay to ask, though. The first question was from an earnest boy in the second row who asked how Israel could have the moral high ground when so many people believe it was established by taking away the homes of the Palestinian residents. Journo responded by assuring the boy that no Palestinians were forced to leave at all. Rabble went up in the back of the room by the keffiyeh crowd and someone yelled, "Never happened!"

Even though I know that there are people who don't believe in the expulsions- nakba deniers who are characters in my eyes on par with holocaust deniers- I am still surprised to hear their fervent denials each time. When the world has instant access to the exact words of the Israeli leaders who ordered these expulsions, how can they continue to deny? At 1:30pm on July 12, 1948, Rabin himself (then a lieutenant colonel) gave the following order, "The inhabitants of Lydda (now a city in Israel called Lod) must be expelled quickly without attention to age." The residents of this city and nearby al-Ramla were forced to walk to Ramallah with nothing but what they could carry.

I didn't stay to hear any more.

Let Mama Kiss It Make It Better

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, hosted a conference this week where various world dignitaries patted themselves on the back for their generosity. The purpose of the conference was to discuss the rebuilding of Gaza (Israel's Operation Cast Lead caused about $5 billion of damage) and to decide who would be paying for what. While the U.S., France, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Japan were among those present, Hamas was not. Hamas, the democratically elected government of Gaza, was not invited.

But no matter. I'm sure the reconstruction of Gaza will be successful without the cooperation of the quasi-state's government.

The pledges are in, and the most noticeable results are as follows:

• Saudi Arabia: $1 billion
  
• The U.S.: $900 million
  
• Lebanon: $1 million (a token gesture of solidarity)
  

The caveat is that the majority of the donations will go to the PA, an administrative body that has almost no power in Gaza. Some countries have opted to oversee their own pet reconstruction projects in Gaza, thereby circumventing Hamas' infrastructure alltogether. As usual with the region, their world seems bent on ignoring the facts on the ground.

Let's assume that the reconstruction of Gaza can actually be completed without Hamas' coordination- what then? Israel's attack, which caused all the damage, was in response to the continuous barrage of rocket fire from Gaza. These rockets are still flying, almost every day. Almost like the operation never happened. Almost like Hamas was not deterred at all. In fact, Ha'aretz reports that Gaza militants have fired 110 rockets at Israel since the ceasefire began on January 18th.

Israel bides its time. After one rocket hit the semi-large city of Ashquelon, Israel filed a complaint with the UN. After seven qassam rockets hit Southern Israel in one day, Olmert made vague threats. How long can this go on?

Making no judgments about the moral rightness or wrongness of firing the rockets or of Israel's response to it, the facts on the ground are that Israel will not continue to accept this kind of life for its citizens. They will strike again. And again. Until the rockets stop and/or Hamas has been eradicated and replaced with Fatah loyalists. Why bother rebuilding Gaza without first securing a just and lasting peace for both sides?

The reconstruction is irrelevant and unrealistic. Like putting a band-aid on a broken leg. It makes us all feel like we're doing something, though. And when dealing with two groups as hard-headed as Israelis and Palestinians, sometimes a band-aid is a necessary symbol.

Hamas Advertises for PR Guru

How do these guys manage to make themselves look so bad? It's just like that anniversary parade fiasco. Every time I start feeling those predictable stirrings of underdog pity, they do something like this. They need to hire a New York publicist. Just, a full time spin doctor with a blackberry full of names.

Ha'aretz reports:

Amnesty International two weeks ago accused Hamas of carrying out a "deadly campaign" against its Palestinian opponents and critics in the Gaza Strip, particularly those they accuse of "collaborating" with Israel.

The newspaper reports that 17 men have already been executed since Israel's offensive ended. They were convicted of collaborating with Israel.

So. Dumb.

Lola Goes Professional

I made this movie about San Francisco's protests against Israel's Operation Cast Lead for video journalism hub SanFranciscoIAM. You can watch the video directly on the site here.

Gov't Report Reveals Corruption at Highest Levels

With Israeli elections just around the corner, we can safely assume that all major political developments are at least in part one group or another's attempt to win favor with the electorate. Operation Cast Lead was one example of political maneuvering, and quite possibly the most significant one of this election. It has seemed to achieve its goals of creating a sense of national unity, feelings of patriotism, and a strong distrust of outsiders and their criticisms. In short, the country has been put in a war mood.

This is good for Prime Minister candidate Bibi Netanyahu, who has already held the office from 1996 to 1999, as leader of the conservative Likud party. Support for the latest Gaza war and Israelis' tendency to go insular when they are threatened has made his success much more likely.

This could be the reason a secret government report revealing settlement construction to be illegal and corrupted has recently been released, even though it was completed over two years ago. What's more is that the research was done by the Israeli government and at the behest of former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, another right-wing candidate for Prime Minister in this election.

Ha'aretz writes:

An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent - construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued.

Now, let's deconstruct this in order to fully realize the significance. Building without permits is a pretty piddly violation. If building without permits was the only accusation we could make against the Israeli government, I wouldn't have anything to write about. What makes this significant is that Palestinian homes built without permits are demolished, oftentimes without warning, meaning the residents not only lose their home, but many of their possessions as well. Before the appearance of this report, government spokesmen could make all the excuses they want about these demolitions, but now, they can no longer claim Palestinians receive equal treatment in this regard.

Moving on:

The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents.

The government admits that it knowingly builds on the property of the West Bank's Palestinian residents.

The Ha'aretz article, besides a summary of the report, includes interviews with settler leaders and Housing Ministry officials. Not surprisingly, they all pass the buck higher and higher, until it becomes clear that decisions regarding the illegal building come from the very heights from which the order to compile the report was given. Nevermind why Shaul Mofaz would order a report written that could very well cost him the election, the question is: who released the report to the public, two years after its completion?

The answer, if I may speculate, comes from the left. If Operation Cast Lead hurt Tzipi Livni's chances in the election, this report does the same to her right-wing competitors. If the electorate knows their government is out looking for trouble, support of the Gaza war could wane, thus giving Livni the boost she needs at the polls.

Obama's Envoy Cracks the Case

Obama sent his brand new Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, to the region yesterday to see what he could figure out about this whole Gaza situation, and he came up with a brilliant plan!

President Barack Obama's new Mideast envoy called Wednesday for an end to Hamas weapons smuggling and a reopening of Gaza's borders, seeking to strengthen the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants thrown into turmoil by new violence.

This is a totally original idea, one nobody has ever thought of before. Stopping the missile fire?? Of course. I'm sure Prime Minister Olmert and his cabinet of bone-weary ministers are kicking themselves for not having thought of it themselves. And Hamas must be wondering why they never thought of trying to get the borders reopened.

"Oh, you want the borders opened? Why didn't you just ask!" Israel says to Hamas.

Cracker-Jack start, Mitchell!

Can't wait to see how he plans to make this happen.

[Source]

Damage Control

Three weeks and 1,285 lives later, both Israel and Gaza are cleaning up the mess. As I mentioned a few days ago, weakening Hamas was not the sole objective of the offensive. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted in the summer of 2006, is still behind enemy lines, although whether he is alive or dead remains to be seen. Public pressure to retrieve Shalit is tremendous. Protests are held demanding that the government facilitate his release, letter writing campaigns are run, and Ha'aretz newspaper has a perpetually-running PSA on its front page, reminding readers how long Shalit has been in captivity (942 days, 5 hours, 46 minutes, and 42 seconds, as I'm writing this). The fact that time ran out on this operation before Shalit could be rescued is a crushing blow to the current administration, especially Tzipi Livni, who may be blamed for the failure, hurting her chances in the upcoming election for Prime Minister.

So Israel is doing its media spin thing. The AP's Ben Hubbard writes today:

Israel indicated Thursday that it wants to swap Palestinians held in Israeli jails for an Israeli soldier captured in 2006 as part of a longer-term truce after three weeks of fighting in Gaza.

Israeli media said some Cabinet ministers have softened their positions on releasing dangerous Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, signaling the government is trying to work out a deal with Hamas ahead of Israeli elections next month.

What makes this story a big yawn-fest for those who have been paying attention is that Israel has been saying this for at least six months. The two governments were negotiating, through the ubiquitous moderator Egypt, back in July about how many prisoners Hamas would get in exchange for Shalit. Israeli leaders will have to balance the unpopularity of releasing convicted murderers against the popularity of bringing Shalit home.

In an effort to make it seem like everything is going according to plan, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said recently, "I believe the war created levers that could hasten Gilad Schalit's return home." Meaning Israel had applied sufficient pressure to make Hamas more docile.

Olmert could be referring to the destruction of hundreds of underground tunnels Hamas uses to smuggle weapons into Gaza. The recent offensive destroyed or damaged 60-90% of those tunnels (depending on which side you ask), which numbered upwards of a thousand. But, according to the AP's Alfred de Montesquiou, tunnel operators are already fixing the damage and could be back in business within days. As a result of the collective punishment methods Israel utilizes to try to weaken Hamas, goods, not just guns, are in short supply in Gaza. Tunnel operators describe the goods they smuggle as potato chips, cigarettes, baby formula, underwear, and even animals for the zoo.

About weapons smuggling, Montesquiou writes:

While both traffickers insisted they had never considered bringing weapons for Hamas, Abu Bilal, another colleague repairing his own tunnel, said he wouldn't mind doing so. "But frankly, the resistance never asks us to," he said. "I think they've got their own tunnels and don't want to pay us," he said.

What's materializing as the smoke clears is that neither side has achieved its goals- both are right back where they started, politically- but both are claiming victory. Meanwhile, 6,000 Gazans are dead or injured and southern Israel will continue to be bombarded with Hamas' qassam rockets until both Israel and whoever rules Gaza learns to use diplomacy instead of brute force.

Wait For It...

A couple of weeks before the IDF began bombing Gaza, I warned some of my Palestinian friends that a major Gaza operation would be coming. They asked me how I knew. I said a good friend of mine, an Israeli former Special Forces soldier, had been called for reserve duty and the only information he was given was that it had to do with Gaza.

My Palestinian friends shrugged this off, saying, "They do this shit all the time. It means nothing."

When the bombing began, my friends said it would last a few days and then stop. They said Israel was only making a statement, sending a warning to Hamas about the rocket fire. I told them there would be a ground invasion, and I said that weakening Hamas was not their prime objective.

Well, there's certainly no satisfaction in being right about this. I wish I had been wrong. But my predictions haven't stopped coming. Weakening Hamas is a pleasant side effect of the operation, but the IDF's primary objective is recovering Gilad Shalit, alive or dead. Dead, most likely, at this point.

Shalit was abducted by Hamas in the summer of 2006 during a cross border raid. He has been held all this time. As of July of 2008 he was alive, but this week Hamas has been hinting that he may or may not be alive anymore. Words were to the effect of, "It is no longer our concern." This leads me to believe he's dead, which isn't going to be good for anyone. Not for Hamas, not for the morale of the Israeli people, and not for the politicians running in the upcoming election.

That's right, Israelis will vote for their prime minister presently and whoever is responsible for bringing back the country's beloved Missing Soldier will win the prize. Gilad Shalit is no longer just a person. He is a symbol. If he is found alive, national pride in Israel will flourish. If he is found dead, Israelis' hatred of "the other" will be further cemented and the Gaza operation will likely end later and with more civilians dead. The possibility that Shalit is alive is quite possibly the only factor applying what little restraint there is in this campaign.

On a personal note, I am deeply saddened by the hatred I see coming out of both my Palestinian friends and my Israeli friends. Those who could enjoy each others' company before this operation began can no longer be in the same room together. They see each other as monsters, no longer human beings. Sometimes it is too complicated for the mind to grasp the complexities of humanity in others, or even in ourselves.

But I know the truth. Each soldier who bombs a house, shoots a man, arrests a child...these soldiers are also someone's son, husband, or father. The same as the Hamas operatives who shoot qassam rockets across the border into civilian areas are sons, husbands, and fathers. It is not easy to accept, but it is true. I believe that true progress can only be made with this in mind.

If you believe your own actions are justifiable, then you must believe someone else's actions are too.

UPDATE: An AP article from today says:

Israel said it was approaching the "endgame" of its three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers and scheduled a Security Cabinet vote Saturday on a truce proposed by Egypt. Under the cease-fire plan, fighting would stop immediately for 10 days, but Israeli forces would initially remain in Gaza and the border crossings into the territory would remain closed until security arrangements are made to ensure Hamas militants do not rearm.

According to my theory, Israel scheduling a vote on the ceasefire for Saturday means they think they have located Shalit and are probably planning a night rescue for...that would be tonight. If they were right and they were successful, tomorrow's news will reveal that. If they were wrong or unsuccessful, I doubt anyone will ever hear about it.

Protests Continue, Placards Get Angrier

As the Gaza operation drags on and violence once again becomes the norm, people around the world have been sounding off about their opinions and concerns. There isn't much difference presently between rumor and "respected" news (partially due to the fact that Israel has blocked all outside media people from entering Gaza). News we receive by word of mouth carries just as much power as if it were disseminated by a major outlet, maybe even more. In 1948, news of the Deir Yassin massacre had reached every ear in Palestine before it hit the papers. Media blackouts in Nazi Germany kept journalists from reporting what actually happened to the Jews in the camps, but word spread anyway.

This week, there has been word that Israel is purposefully bombing schools and hospitals, that Hamas has not allowed the sick and injured to flee into Egypt. There has been word from supporters of Israel that Hamas gunmen use crying children as human shields. And there has been word from supporters of Gaza that Israel drops leaflets to the Palestinians, telling them where it is safe to hide, and then bombing said safe place with an unmanned drone.

It is easier on the psyche to make your enemy into a monster. In fact, it is well-documented that human beings have a strong tendency to assume the worst about the out-group and assume the best about their own in-group. It is survival, and it is as old as our species.

I will let the video and pictures from this last protest speak for itself. The people will tell you what they think through the signs they carry.

[Note: The lack of signs supporting Israel is due to a lack of any counter-protesters at these events, not my disinterest in letting them be heard.]


























[Enough chit-chat in Gaza!]




[This one looks to be a leftover from this week's Oakland protests, wherein a police officer shot a subdued and unarmed young man in the back. Perhaps they thought their sign would be appropriate for this protest too.]




















[There is no god but God and Mohammad is his prophet.]

San Francisco Gets Told

Over a thousand people took to the streets of San Francisco on Friday, January 2nd, to protest the bombing and invasion of Gaza by the Israeli military. The protest was the third of the week and one of hundreds of protests happening worldwide.

San Francisco Protest Against Bombing of Gaza
by hrhlolita

[I've had some technical difficulty with embedding this video. If it doesn't work, go directly here.]

Condi pwned by Al Jazeera

Regarding the current week-long Israel Air Force bombing of Gaza, Al Jazeera writes:

Condoleezza Rice, having observed that more than 300 Gazans were dead, said: “We are deeply concerned about the escalating violence. We strongly condemn the attacks on Israel and hold Hamas responsible.”

Someone should ask her to comment on teenage knife-crime, to see if she’d say: “I strongly condemn the people who’ve been stabbed, and until they abandon their practice of wandering around clutching their sides and bleeding, there is no hope for peace.”

The Israeli government suffers terribly from this confusion. They probably have adverts on Israeli television in which a man falls off a ladder and screams, “Eeeeugh”, then a voice says, “Have you caused an accident at work in the last 12 months?” and the bloke who pushed him gets £3,000.

To date, over 400 Gazans have been killed by this operation, the vast majority civilians. Israeli government officials claim this latest "defensive" maneuver is in response to the continuous qassam rocket fire from Gaza, although the number of Israelis killed by qassams in the past five years hovers somewhere between 4 and 18.

In Case You Forgot

An update on the consequences of Israel's siege on Gaza:


The Gazan people are living without adequate supplies of food, clean water, medicine, and basic human rights and freedoms. What I have found most noteworthy, and most heartbreaking, is that the collective punishment Israel utilizes to prevent terrorist attacks only fosters a hatred of Israel that makes terrorist attacks more likely. An entire generation of children suffers right now because of Israel, and they are too young to understand the particulars. As adults, they will only remember that their childhoods were characterized by cold and hunger because of this mythical beast "Israel" and they will be all the more vulnerable to indoctrination by those who seek to use them as weapons.

From the video:

The people are generally frustrated here and they think that this policy of collective punishment is cold, it's wrongful, it's sad, and it's more harmful for the Israelis than beneficial, because it makes a kind of hatred growing with the new generation...we Palestinians, we need freedom. We fight only for freedom, we don't fight for any other thing.

File it Under Human Nature

File this one under "people will do what they gotta do."

Those tunnels I've mentioned numerous times are now conservatively estimated to number in the hundreds. And they are going legit.

AP announces that tunnel operators are registering their tunnels with Hamas, installing electrical equipment, and paying their smugglers workers' comp.

Hamas says:

"We are watching what is coming through and we prevent the entry of weapons and drugs," said spokesman Ehab Ghussen, spokesman for Gaza's Interior Ministry, adding that the tunnel trade would be halted if borders reopen.

Second Voyage for Siege Breakers

In a new development of the breaking of the Gaza siege the Free Gaza Movement announces another trip to Gaza that departed from Lanarca, Cyprus on Thursday at 10am local time.

A list of the passengers and crew has been released and it includes one Palestinian lawmaker and one Israeli lawmaker, an Italian opera singer, a writer from Al Jazeera, and several medical doctors, among others.

When the last boat full of humanitarians arrived in Gaza, they were criticized for not bringing in more material goods, but reminded the world that the first trip was largely symbolic and immediately announced that more trips would bring more goods. It looks like they are keeping their promise- this trip has brought six cubic meters of medical supplies and doctors to administer much needed treatment.

The arrival of humanitarian volunteers in Gaza has provided means of assistance other than material, the most important of which has been the aid workers' accompaniment of Gazan fishing boats. The Israeli military does not normally allow the boats far enough from shore to catch adequate numbers of fish, but with an international presence on the boats, the IDF is reluctant to fire. However, even with international volunteers present, force has been used to keep the boats closer to shore.

Economics as it Applies to Human Life

This AP article says five more people have been killed in "tunnel collapses" while smuggling "contraband" into Gaza.

First, those "tunnel collapses" were caused by explosions. Second, the "contraband" was, in this case, fuel.

AP writer Ibrahim Barzak writes:

The five were bringing contraband goods from Egypt into Gaza when an explosion collapsed the tunnel, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information had not been cleared for publication.

Two bodies were located shortly after the explosion Tuesday and the rest were removed early Wednesday. Three smugglers survived and emerged on the Egyptian side, where police arrested them, an Egyptian security official said. The three told police they were smuggling fuel.

Gazans blame the Egyptians for blowing up the tunnels but the Egyptians deny it. Everybody is under a lot of pressure here. The Egyptians are being pressured by Israel to stop the flow of weapons to Hamas through these tunnels and by the Arab world to stop doing what Israel says. The Israeli people are pressuring their government to prevent the resumption of daily missile attacks by Hamas. And Gazans are being pressured by their pesky children for a daily supply of food.

Daily I tell you.

Since the start of the year, 45 people have died in tunnel collapses and, in one of life's cruel ironies, a similar number of people have died as a result of the shortage of goods the tunnel operators were trying to solve. This loss of human life in the prevention of the loss of human life is a bit like our consumption of oil or mass produced food. The energy output exceeds the gain.