This AM I was in a coffee shop where a TV displayed UK Sky News with the sound turned down. An image from yesterday's bombing in Afula appeared with a red banner at the bottom of the screen that said "Road to Peace".

This would be more amusing if it weren't so on the mark (via Gil who explains it all)

Islamikaze killed 6 people about an hr ago on a bus in French Hilll (report). A second one killed only himself

Plate Irani is blogging from Iran in English.

This is supposedly the text of an internal memo calling for a post-Jayson-Blair "open forum" meeting at the NY Times.

Evelyn Gordon fisks Reporters sans Frontieres here.

Security services are discussing the outlawing the northern branch of the Islamic movement following indications that they have provided funds and tactical hitchhikes to Hamas (article).

Reading this transcript makes it apparent that the Channel 2 interview with Colin Powell would have been painful to watch. Powell sticks to diplomacy-speak and avoids addressing what Israelis really want to know: eg. why does the US think (rather than just hope) that the PA's conduct will be meaningfully different with Abu Mazen at the helm?

Mitzna has quit as Labor party leader (Jpost, Haaretz). The party will probably continue to flounder aimlessly.

There's a few reasons for the light blogging of late: one is my endeavours to find employment. The woman who I check in with once a week to get my unemployment benefits has been acting quite grumpy ever since the gov't worker strikes have begun - possibly because she fears losing her job. Bituah Leumi keeps finding excuses to reduce my benefits.

Another reason is that the local papers seem to be have been running fewer notable articles since the beginning of the Iraq war. Haaretz is increasingly useless: the feature article on Abu Mazen was a sympathetic suck-up that whitewashed his Holocaust denial; their recent pieces on the post-Corrie ISM incidents and IDF Gaza operations just repeat the ISM or Palestinian "eyewitnesses" and don't attempt to get to the bottom of anything.

A third reason is that, unlike Charles Johnson, I'm not interested in reiterating points that I've made before. By this I mean that by now I think most sane people should be skeptical of any claims made by "human shield" organizations, and I'm not inclined to debunk them each time they come up.

Finallly, despite the economic mess, life in this country is actually more sane than it was when I started this blog 13 months ago. Where would we be if Barak or Peres had been in power?

Yediot Ahronot had a couple of interesting articles this weekend: an interview with Condoleeza Rice, and some background on the Bush's upcoming June 24 Mideast speech. I'll try to get to these later.

This article says that members of the "human shield" group ISM are refusing to talk about the two British Musliims who apparently spent some time with them in Gaza before bombing a pub in Tel Aviv.

The "Mike's Place" website has a memorial to the victims of the bombing.

Suicide bombing in Tel Aviv -at Mike's Place a live music pub that has a Jerusalem branch in the Russian Compound area (report). Currently they're saying 3 dead.

Israel will probably do the "restraint" thing this time. But how will Abu Mazen respond?

Someone got here by searching for "Israeli girls in Jerusalem for dates".

Today's Yediot Ahronot reports that the Shin-Bet Internal security service believes that Iran is behind the Kfar Sava train station bombing earlier this week. According to the article, the gov't of Iran has ties with the Nablus branch of the Tanzim militia group and initiated the attack as a move to preempt any "moderate" moves by Abu Mazen.

Two good articles from Barry Rubin: this one argues that the Shiites now pose the first "real" crisis for the US in Iraq: following "the worst Middle Eastern tradition", the Iran-tilting Shiite leadership sees no reason to make compromises and is not hewing to previous understandings with the US. This one surveys the career of arrested Palestinian terrorist leader Mahmoud Abbas.

A somewhat sympathetic Israeli tagged along with a group from the International Solidarity Movement to act as a "human shield". He was eventually instructed to leave for his own safety when rumors began to float around Nablus that an Israeli was present. His description of the experience includes some interesting details about the ISM mentality (basically they sound like shrill Bay Area types who have adopted the Palestinian "martyrdom" jargon) and how they train their volunteers to lie to Israeli border guards, stay on message with the media, and avoid getting hurt. The account confirms reports that the ISM sheltered a Hamas fugitive, but says that the IDF now agrees that he was not armed.

Jpost publisher Bret Stephens apparently reads blogs - this piece on responses to the Iraq victory in the liberal media quotes mostly from articles that have already been discussed around the blogosphere.

Happy Passover!

Apparently there are lots of Persian language weblogs (like this one - by Rasa who likes Celine Dion and opines that "Jewish = people who are against God"). It's a shame that the language barrier seems to prevent the rest of the internet from a first-hand view of what's happening in Iran. And it prevents curious Iranian bloggers from getting a wider view of the world than they probably get from their official media.

Instapundit discusses pro-war pop songs.

About 6 wks ago I was on an airplane in the US where they screened a rock video by some Pearl Jam-like group performing for the troops on a US Navy ship. It struck me that Islamists around the world would be much less likely to mess with the US if they perceived a unified, strong, and youthful American will (in addition to American military and economic strength). Though obviously diversity of will goes together with the diversity of opinion and pursuit of individual interest that characterizes a democracy.

Welcome to visitors coming in from Iran. Please leave a message to let me know if you find my blog interesting.

Also, what do people in Iran think about the war against Iraq?

Here are some messages that I received from Iran one year ago.

The Christian Science Monitor has run a begrudging correction about the caption on its Rachel Corrie photo - which incorrectly indicated that the photo was taken moments before she was run over. But the CSM didn't bother correcting the caption on the web version of the article. (another good summary on Corrie here).

Tommy Lapid of the very secular Shinui party refused to meet with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer because the latter wouldn't agree to meet at the Lapid's ministry in eastern Jerusalem (report).

From a glance at the phone book it appears that the building at issue is the Justice Ministry facility on Salah el Din street - which is a bit north of the the walled city's Damascus gate. I don't make it much to that part of town, but it's two intersections away from "Road one" that leads from downtown towards Jerusalem's northern neighborhoods and the University.

This map (from an anonymous site which offers the standard Jerusalem street atlas with Israeli buildings removed and some streets renamed to Arabic conventions) shows the adjacent Mutran stadium, but omits the Justice building.

Now that the Iraq war is pretty much over, two things will probably happen:

- the gov't will finally tell us that we can dismantle our sealed rooms.
- the Quartet "roadmap" will rise to the top of the global agenda as Britain tries to show "evenhandedness"; and we'll get to see what the new Palestinian leader Abu Mazen is really about

Welcome to visitors from Spanish CNN and Stuttgarter Zeitung.

A year ago yesteday my blog was #5 on Blogdex. Daily life in Israel have changed a lot since then (thanks to the IDF), though the general situation is depressingly similar.

Barry Rubin notes the obvious parallels between the criticisms aimed at the American forces in Iraq and those levelled at the IDF. He thinks that this means the difficulty in getting Israeli viewpoints across are endemic to the situation and shouldn't be blamed Raanan Gissin et al.

Some perversely amusing things at the site of the University of Birmingham Palestinian Society...

They list Robert Fisk as one of "four pillars of wisdom" and chose a photo of him in his post-Afghan-mob-beating bandages. They have photos of a meeting they held with British Hasidim from the theologically anti-Israel Neturei Karta movement (more on Neturei Karta here). They apparently refused to play a soccer match with a student team identifying itself with Israel (and defend the decision with a link to this bizarre article from the Jordanian Star about how the brutal "revenge of Israel" extends even to Palestinian athletes - eg. cyclist Mohamed Abu Jamous who was killed after infiltrating a military base where he killed 4 soldiers).

They make the unlikely claim that the Union of Jewish Students has provided them with "profound moral support", and they say that the University Executive "hacked their site" - meaning that they were forced to remove some material.

This article describes the antics at the meeting of the UN Commission on Human Rights now taking place in Geneva . And of course the Palestinian spokesman used the occasion to call for the elimination of Israel (report).

Starbucks is closing its Israeli operations (article). It didn't seem to catch on even in yuppified Herzliya Pituah. There's plenty of overpriced coffee in this country, so maybe the problem is that our jumpy pace of life doesn't lend itself to the lolling-around atmosphere that Starbucks has in the US (which I happen to like a lot in airports).

Of the 40 wounded in today's Islamikaze attack in Netanya, 2 are in critical condition - including the soldier who prevented the Islamic Jihad bomber from entering the cafe (report).

Zeev Schiff offers an evaluation of the situation on the ground near Baghdad. There's lots of that floating around, but Schiff sounds knowledgable and circumspect.

A jilbab is not a burka.

Welcome to people who have come here looking for the Command Post blog. You can find it here.

Somehow I've become the top result for the Google search on that phrase.

John Zorn was supposed to be appearing at the Israel Festival this summer, but the word now is that there will only be local performers (report).

This Fatah suicide bomber was planning on blowing up a boarding school for children from abusive homes.

The Onion was lame this week.

Haaretz news flashes says that the Israeli defence establishment believes that Iraq has mobile scud launchers concealed under bridges where they can't be seen from above.

Ynet is saying that the Shiite Basra rebellion has been put down by Iraqi forces.

Via the Command Post, an article on Iraq's use of their own people as human shields. Funny how there's rarely a similar complaint about the Palestinians - given that they've have been doing the exact same thing for 2 years.

It would be interesting to hear a military perspective on how Israeli and American forces respectively deal with this tactic.

Barry Rubin describes his experience discussing the Iraq campaign as part of a television panel on an Arab network - and what he calls the "wall of lies" (here).

I really hope Salam is for real, but this could be the CIA:

today my father and brother went out to see what happening in the city, they say that it does look that the hits were very precise but when the missiles and bombs explode they wreck havoc in the neighborhood where they fall. Houses near al-salam palace(where the minister Sahaf took journalist) have had all their windows broke, doors blown in and in one case a roof has caved in. I guess that is what is called “collateral damage” and that makes it OK?

Or is it only Israelis who would think that describing minimal collateral damage constitutes propaganda?

From following the events of the Iraq war (and the house-to-house fighting in Nasiriya) at the Command Post blog, it appears that the coalition forces are putting their own troops at risk in order to minimize Iraqi civilian casualties. And it's clear that Iraq is not concerned about following the Geneva conventions with any POWs it obtains.

If this is a new paradigm for warfare, it was probably first seen with the Israeli assault on the "militants" in Jenin last year.

Some Israeli commentators think that the Ansar al-Islam organization - an Islamic group operating in northern Iraq and consisting of non-Iraqis - will cause problems for the US forces. (article).

Prof. Amatzia Baram says that if Iraq attacks Israel it will be within the next couple of days (article).

An ISM-er who was among "dozens" of stone-throwing youths was wounded by rubber bullets in Nablus (report).

In Jpost print edition Barry Rubin notes that the fact that the US is targeting a foreign leader now provokes nary a peep from anyone. Jpost print also has a photo of a 5-year-old showing his gleeful siblings how to drink through a straw while wearing a gas mask.

Visit RibbityFrog for lots of info on what the Arabic media is saying about the Iraq situation..

"Israel warns Web sites on war coverage" This is one of those stories that's only interesting to the foreign media: the IDF censor is said to have contacted two Israeli BBS sites and warned them not to publish classified information about the war. The writer then insinuates this is sinister and invokes a Reporters Without Frontiers report.

The IDF censor should obviously be paying more attention to us blogs than those sites mentioned in the article, which are about as informative as the average Usenet group.

Those blogspot banner ads are now Google-esquely selecting ads to match blog content.

Anyone know a good place for (blog) image storage?

This afternoon on Emek Refaim (which is in some respects the "new downtown" ), only about 1 in 10 non-schoolkids was carrying a gasmask.

Rachel Corrie's ISM group has confirmed what I argued earlier: that the photo of Corrie near the bulldozer (captioned by Reuters, Christian Science Monitor, and others as being "before" or "moments before" she was run over) - was in fact taken hours before. So there's no photo of what happened before the accident - only the eyewitness account of ISM member Joe Smith who says she jumped in front of the bulldozer which then plowed her over with dirt.

Jurgen Hogrefe of Der Spiegel magazine recently appeared on a German radio program called "Meet the Press" and claimed that the Mossad asked German intelligence to ensure Germany doesn't protest if Israel starts expelling Palestinians from the territories when the war in Iraq begins (report).

That's more evidence that a lot of "important" Europeans (and journalists) have zero understanding of what's going on here and get all their information from Palestinian propagandists.

Zeev Schiff assesses what's likely to happen to Israel during the war with Iraq (report) He's essentially calm about the prospect of being attacked, and he mentions that Israel's own spy satellite is of great assistance now.

Schiff also presents the recollections of a source who was present in the US cabinet at the end of the first Gulf War. Reportedly, Norman Schwarzkopf favored a continued assault on the Iraqi Republican Guard and the ousting of Saddam, but Colin Powell's contrary view prevailed (article)

I'm still busy taping everything (hope this stuff is actually polyproplylene and 30 microns thick). T. tried on her gas mask but wasn't sure whether to attach the filter: too bad we didn't just check Gil's and Ribbity's blogs.

The Israeli version of Google exhibits Tel Aviv-o-centrism by removing the "Happy Purim" banner while it's still Purim in Jerusalem (BTW Google renders the "I'm feeling lucky" button into Hebrew as "More luck than wits").

Gil notes that Israblog, the Israeli blogging site, is dressed up for the holiday as Blogger.

This article quotes Joe Smith of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity movement who describes how Rachel Corrie and her fellow "activists" would confront IDF bulldozers:

Smith, originally of Kansas City, Missouri, .... said the fact that the IDF had previously taken pains not to hurt the group made him feel safe. It is precisely because the group has so much experience playing a game of chicken with the bulldozers that it understands this was not an accident.

Many members have stood in front of a bulldozer as Corrie did and then climbed up the mound of dirt, precisely so that the driver could see them. "You look into their eyes and they stop," Smith said.

So the ISM itself admits that Corrie deliberately jumped in front of the bulldozer, confident that it would stop because IDF bulldozers have always stopped in the past.

But in fact it's obvious that the driver must be considered guiltless until there's serious evidence to the contrary - just as any driver would if someone jumped in front of his vehicle.

People who arrived at this site from the Christian Science Monitor might want to take a look here (scroll down) or (a bit too thoroughly) here for some info that the CSM left out about Rachel Corrie and the blindly pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement.

Someone needs to write a concise summary of the quality part of the blogger writing on this. One thing that's clear is that the bulldozer did not run over her directly as some articles have said. Haaretz quotes a doctor in Gaza hospital to the effect that bulldozer covered her with dirt first, which would explain how she lived long enough to make it to the hospital. That would mean that the photo which the CSM says is "moments before" could not in fact have been moments before.

Haaretz (and some other accounts) said she stepped in front of the 'dozer expecting it to stop - though one ISM account says she fell.

RibbityFrog alludes to an interesting irony: in '91 Saddam surrendered on the Jewish holiday of Purim in what was seen as an appropriate parallel to the story of the Book of Esther. And 12 years later the war is beginning on Purim.

Homefront defense and anti-aircraft reservists are being called up (report).

The gas mask distribution center at Malha mall is predictably swamped. A friend who was there says that a large percentage of the people now updating their gas mask kits were Arab.

Bush's speech is at 3 AM Israel time. We'll do the sealed room (mostly) before then even though the official instructions won't come down until after the speech.

According to this article, the IDF's assessment is still that there are "probably" no scud laaunchers in western Iraq, but that the population should be prepared anyway.

Ynet, quoting "security sources", puts it a little differently: there is very little chance that Israel will be attacked in the first days of the war. This is because Saddam does not/did not want to reveal his long-range missile capability, which could have been used as justification for attacking him.

The British gov't is advising its subjects to leave "Israel and Jerusalem" (report). Do they just mean "Israel, including Jerusalem"?

Sgt Stryker describes a "peace activist" infiltrating an American airforce base.

It's unfortunate that there aren't AFAIK any Israeli bloggers who have serious combat unit experience. I asked my friend S., who was just moved from tanks into a Bio/Chem defense unit to write something about his recent reserve duty, but he said he wouldn't be allowed to (his new job involves decontaminating victims of a bio/chem attack, and for preparation they wear their protective suits for long periods and play basketball in them etc.).

Much of the work in the reserves is guard duty - sometimes in dangerous places. Someone was recently telling me about guard duty at an army base in the West Bank that was always being approached by "shepherds" or other figures that he was certain were looking for weak spots in the base's security.

An American woman was killed after she ran in front of an IDF bulldozer to try to stop it from destroying the house of a terrorist in Gaza (report). It won't be long till the International Solidarity Movement starts claiming that the IDF ran over her deliberately.

More: LGF has a photo from the site of the Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace which seems to be Corrie burning a flag with some Palestinian kids.

More on the ISM from Jpost:

In December 2001, 70 activists used their bodies to protect Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah headquarters from IDF tanks. During last year's stand-off at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, ISM members broke into the church to act as human shields for some 200 Palestinian terrorists hiding inside.

Ynet says that senior doctors have been quietly requested not to leave the country in case they are needed when war with Iraq begins.

Haaretz can't seem to regard Purim as a nice innocent holiday. This photo looks like Marilyn Manson, though at least the caption reads "A young girl in fancy dress, ahead of the Purim holiday, which starts Monday night". I'm also grateful that they replaced the photo they had this morning of some grown men wearing diapers.

In the latest violence in Jenin, all 11 of the Palestinian victims were "militants", though you have to read the news carefully to figure that out. And there was a "nationalistic" shooting here in W. Jerusalem that injured 2 (report).

Mustafa Barghouti is another Palestinian spokesman who lies baldfacedly to the Western media and is never challenged. In this article on a Palestinian ambulance driver who tried to smuggle a suicide bomber's belt, Barghouti claims IDF fire has killed 21 doctors and nurses in ambulances. I'm certain this is BS (more later).

I saw Barghouti on the BBC after the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Aug 2001. Then-PM Barak responded to the bombing by destroying some empty PA buildings (no casualties), and Barghouti went on and on about it was an unprecedented attack on a civilian area and it was only by a miracle that weren't large numbers of civilian casualties.

This is nice. DSP Group of Herzliya pays bonuses to employees on extended reserve duty (report)

Idiots Gush Shalom and Uri Avnery again demonstrate their insanity by taking out ads in weekend newspapers "warning" soldiers and civilians (like tent suppliers etc.) not to participate in mass transfers of Palestinians during the Iraq war. I think these people spend so much time in the imaginary world of Palestinian propaganda that they lose all sense of what's happening down their street.

Meanwhile Saddam is said to have moved scuds into Western Iraq. That probably means I should seal up my sealed room again.

Nick Denton has an image of a memo from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Information that threatens prosecution to journalists who "feed" the Israeli media (here).

Always the "fly-on-the-wall", Shimon Shiffer writes in today's Yediot Ahronot that the US has determined that it will not give Israel advance notice of the attack on Iraq. This is because Israeli officials keep leaking hints about when the war will begin eg. the head of military intelligence Aron Zeevi Farkash said it will be March 18.

Correction: Reading the actual article rather than the sensational headline, it seems that the US was merely "considering" reducing the advance notice that would be supplied to Israel so as to prepare Patriots etc. The Foreign Ministry has instructed all its officials (aside from the Prime, Foreign, and Defence Ministers and the National Spokesman) to refrain from commenting on the Iraq situation.

1924.org is a British Islamic site. Interesting thing is that it's more anti-Western than it is anti-Israel. The writers (apparently many of them Pakistani) blame everything on capitalism and colonialism rather than Zionism.

The death toll from today's bus bombing in Haifa is currently 15 (report). Note that 40 attacks were foiled in February. The bombing was in Imshin's old neighborhood. Photos here.

Saeb Erekat condemned "any attack that is targeting civilians, whether Palestinian or Israeli." and the international media apparently didn't ask him when Israelis have ever targeted civilians. And the PA sandwiches its condemnation with incitement: "The leadership announces its condemnation to this operation in which civilians, who are not part of the war of annihilation waged by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, were killed"

At Tel Aviv's Dizengoff square, the bombing that killed 13 people was commemorated yesterday (on the 7th anniversary). I remember the outrage everyone felt back then - "this was supposed to be peace". Nowadays people barely talk about the attacks.

Jpost's Bret Stephens describes a symposium of foreign correspondents that happened here two weeks back.

I was there myself and took a lot of notes that I should try to write up later. Eric Silver of the Independent was a subdued and reasonable moderator, though the questions that he tossed to Nabil Khatib of Saudi MBC television were softballs, and Silver kept making annoying transitions that seemed to equate Israeli settlers with the Hamas, Yigal Amir with Osama Bin Laden etc. Stephens and Khatib were mostly cautious and defensive, so it was France 2's Charles Enderlin and Amira Hass of Haaretz who did most of the talking.

I was quite fascinated by what Hass had to say: she is very sincere and sees her role as giving a voice to the oppressed rather than the pursuit of an ideal of objectivity. Enderlin, in contrast, was pompous and is certain that "the real story" these days is the Palestinian humanitarian crisis, and that if the Israeli media's evaluation is different it's "censorship". Enderlin let it slip that he considers Palestinian threats to murder Israeli journalists a mere tactical error. Enderlin also mentioned that he advised Italian photographer Raffaele Ciriello that it was dangerous to enter the square in Ramallah where he was shot by the IDF a short time later.

If Israel had it's own 24-hr news channel, the population would go raving bonkers. That's probably why we don't have one.

I set up my home 802.11b network with equipment that I picked up in the US. 802.11 gear is not available in shops here. Does using WEP impact performance?

Out-of-work Israelis are modifying their CVs to appear less experienced (report). That this makes sense is confirmed by my own experience: a headhunter that I worked with changed the summary section at the top of my CV and removed the company names. This got me a bunch of interviews.

Here's a blog maintained by a Jihadi-type Muslim college student in the UK.

I'm in the US once again. At a luncheon yesterday I neglected my "business networking" to have an extended conversation with 2 officials from the local Israeli consulate. I told them about weblogs (hello to you guys if you are reading this), and that there seems to be wide consensus that the Israeli PR effort is pathetic (particularly in Europe).

To begin working with the Israeli foreign service, you typically get a degree in International Relations or Economics. Then you enroll in a "cadet's course" where you learn a smattering of different practical topics. It sounds like how to hold a wine glass or go to the Opera gets about the same amount of treatment as how to address a large audience or speak on camera.

The consulate fellows who I spoke to are nice and dedicated, but I have to say that the heavily-accented marketing fellow who was pitching his company to some potential American partners had an infinitely better perception of how his audience was receiving his message.

I appreciate the email from American bloggers and hope that on a future trip I'll have a chance to get together with some of you.

Zeev Schiff writes that the US is going to seek another Security Council resolution to authorize war on Iraq, and will advance severe economic measures to bully France not to veto. Powell shared secret intelligence info with France and Germany, but France refuses to be impressed. Schiff also says that there is implicit US-Iran cooperation against Iraq, and notes that Jordan is supporting the US this time around.

Jpost print edition continues the Belgium backlash: a long article describes King Leopold II's exploitation of the Congo around the (previous) turn of the century - including the massive use of slave labor, cruelties like amputations and a "human zoo" of Congolese at the 1897 World Exhibition in Brussels. In 1961 Belgians kidnapped Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumemba and two others, killed them, and dissolved their remains with acid.

Belgians were largely unaware of their colonial record, according to the article by Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, until the publication of a book by American Adam Hochschild in 1997. But ...

While Hochschild's book, and the Lumumba parliamentary commission, undoubtedly led to an unprecedented amount of soul-searching, there are no signs of self-flagellation. The strongest language Gryseels will use is this: "There is absolutely no question that, seen with the moral standards of today, the period of the Congo Free state saw practices that are completely unacceptable."

Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman is quoted from Le Monde Diplomatique as saying that the "ethical impetus" of the Belgian court trial against Ariel Sharon "undoubtedly has its source in the heavy colonial past which confronts Belgium". It's more likely an extension of the domineering colonial impulse.

Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch writes that the virtuous Belgians are "increasingly aware of their own abusive history in Africa" and consequently "embraced the opportunity to play a role in the fight against the worst crimes" by invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute Ariel Sharon for not preventing the Sabra and Shatila massacres 21 years ago.

It's nice that Brody thinks that the Belgian legislature/judiciary are angels and idealists - but in 1990, citing a 20-year statute of limitations, they declined to prosecute accused Nazi war criminals (living in Belgium) (report).

Brody notes that many countries, including Israel, have made use of universal jurisdiction. Disingenously, Brody ignors that Belgium's move is unique in that they are now trying cases that do not directly involve Belgian plaintiffs (more from Haaretz).

What's worse is Brody's characterization of Sharon's role in the massacres and the subsequent Israeli inquiry. Brody quotes only from the recommendations of the Kahan commission which says that Sharon "bears direct responsibility"; Brody then accuses Israel of not launching a prosecution of what a gov't commission seems to imply is a criminal offense (thus leaving the prosecution to the selfless Belgians). In actual fact, the commission terms Sharon's responsibility was "indirect", and recommends that he dismissed from his position of Defence Minister. What Brody calls "three-day rampage of killing and mutilation while Israeli forces failed to intervene" is more accurately described as 36 hrs. of progressively less murky reports of atrocities and repeated rounds of buck passing.

In a letter to Jpost (scroll down), someone personally familiar with the court proceedings in Belgium says that the prosecutors' motivations are political, but that the Belgian court system is not (but see here)

Here's an entry that I wrote a while back about Elie Hobeika (who personally directed the massacres and then spent many years as a Lebanese cabinet minister) and how Sharon has managed to rehabilitate his reputation in Israel since 1982.

Zeev Schiff offers an analysis of the IDF operations in Nablus and Gaza.

ABC News says "Israel to split Christ's birthplace with barrier". Actually, the security wall will project into Bethlehem around 500 meters (map here).

The reports on this in Jpost/Haaretz have already disappeared - which is an indication of how in Israel this was not regarded as a major event..

I'm fairly certain that I was once in the area that will be on the Israeli side of the fence. Two friends and I were on our way driving to the Herodian palace. One moment we were in Jerusalem; the next moment we were clearly in an Arab village. After driving about 100 meters or so we reached the IDF checkpoint at the edge of then-autonomous Bethlehem, where a soldier asked us if we were on our way to Rachel's tomb.

The rest of that (Oslo-era) day was also fairly unique: after we u-turned and eventually visited the Herodian palace, we began speaking to a couple who invited the 3 of us to come with them to the Haritun cave adjacent to Tekoa (and later on the site of a terrorist murder). Our new friends had maps as well as a handgun with them and spoke Arabic. The maps were outdated, so we soon were walking into the edge of Arab Tekoa. In a scene reminiscent of intifada footage, a group of 6-7 young men began to approach us. But our friend asked them (in Arabic) for directions to the cave and on we went down a hill. Then we passed a tent made from flour bags at the edge of the village, where an old woman insisted that we come in for tea. So we did.

Together with the flashlights and plastic sheeting, Home Center in Talpiot is selling chemical warfare suits for about $100 each.

Expat Egghead surveys the list of UN resolutions against Israel here.

Meanwhile, the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle and others still think that Resolution 242 requires unconditional Israeli withdrawal from West Bank/Gaza.

Evelyn Gordon notes that after the initial Belgian court ruling that PM Sharon could not be prosecuted, the upper parliament (with the backing of PM Verhofstadt) passed an amendment that would have explicitly permitted the prosecution. Thus the higher court ruling merely promoted the view of the political echelon, and that view is specifically directed at Israelis: the suits against Arafat, Castro etc. have been delayed because they have not enjoyed similiar enthusiasm from Belgian prosecutors.

The Israeli media (print and radio) has made it sound like Bush has put the Iraq war on hold. The outrage that I expected from the blogosphere is not to be found, so I wonder if the media elsewhere has a different spin (though Google news leads with this). Or maybe it's that only here that the move was so unexpected.

A few points on the Belgian Sharon decision: the Belgian press glowingly approves of the decision, claims it is non-political, and is outraged at Israeli outrage; Likud MK Avraham Hirshson claims that the Belgian courts are dragging their feet on charges against Arafat but rushed through the proceedings against Sharon and other Israelis. (report). Also a hotel in Eilat has said it is refusing Belgian visitors (report).

There was an anti-Iraq war demonstration in Tel Aviv. From this report it sounds like here (as elsewhere) the protesters were a motley group of idiots.

Israeli support for the Iraq war derives foremost, I think, from the belief that preemptive attacks against mad Arab dictators are periodically necessary and usually justified.

Support for the war seems to be shared by a couple of the better writers in Haaretz who offer some muted criticism of the US: Zeev Schiff (not so convincingly) suggests that the Americans have not considered many important aspects of the war; and Yossi Melman, who writes well-informed pieces about intelligence issues, says that Saddam's connection to terrorist groups are less direct than the American portrayal.

This AM IDF radio interviewed international law professor Robi Sabel, who said that many states, including Israel, grant themselves the right to prosecute people outside their borders. But nations other than Belgium pursue such prosecutions only when the accusations are less political in nature and have direct bearing on themselves or their citizens.

Still waiting for a convincing explanation of what's actually been going on with these renewed "ceasefire" talks and redeployment plans.

Some indications of the economic mess here are that Expat Egghead had his salary cut, Imshin's job might be in jeopardy, and yours truly is working hard at zero salary. Worse off are people who I know that have been unemployed for months. A few people blame the government's budget priorities and monetary policy, but the simple explanation is that the tourism and high-tech industries are in the tank - and that it doesn't make much sense to try to refocus the economy elsewhere.

I'm inclined to agree with people who think that the "new new economy" will be about decentralization, but money folk are still thinking in tune with the "old new economy". In one respect the technology industry currently resembles the early 90s: companies - even competing companies - are required to cooperate with each other rather than attempt to force customers into proprietary solutions.

Nick Denton hears that Israelis are buying fancy pajamas for the communal bomb shelter. That's cute, but I don't think it's true (haven't heard about his hotel thing either).

This article says that the IDF now foils about 15 suicide bombings for each one that succeeds (whereas last March there were 8 foiled attacks and 17 successful ones), and that attacks will be foiled more easily once the northern segment of the security fence is completed in July. The PA is taking some action against the firing of Kassam rockets from Gaza into Israel because they fear reoccupation and anyway the rockets don't cause enough damage to boost Palestinian morale. There is now said to be both an operational plan and broad consensus in Israeli political echelons for expelling Arafat.

It's kind of scary that the US embassy is evacuating non-essential personnel (article).

The View From Here says that a (foreign?) TV crew contrived a scene of people lining up to buy sealing materials at a hardware store.

The brochure below actually has an illustration showing how to cover up an AC unit. Eventually I'll go about sealing the window and AC unit in the room where my PC is located. If the room actually needs to be sealed I'll need to disconnect the ethernet cable that runs thru the doorway.

I returned from the US about a week ago (stops in Colorado and the Northeast), and have been busy with a potential business venture since returning. I need to make another trip at the end of February, but my wife T. is concerned that the war with Iraq may begin while I'm away.

We received a color brochure in the mail about how to prepare a "sealed room". Our flat is on the top floor of our building, and each room has an air conditioner that's connected to the roof. Sometimes water drips from the AC in heavy rain, so I'm not sure if surrounding the whole unit with heavy plastic is sufficient. And the booklet doesn't say anything about this. But I tend to think that if there really is a chemical attack, an improvised sealed room won't help too much. Newer apartments have sealed rooms built in - these are called a "mamad" and resemble a room-sized bank safe.

Ace Hardware in Talpiot has bottled water, thick plastic sheeting, and wide tape stacked up by the checkout.

People who I talk to seem fairly complacent. Jerusalemites went through the war in '91 without being fired at, so there's a bit of a "been there, done that" type attitude.

At a ceremony honoring Palestinian propaganda woman Hanan Ashrawi, Sweden's Anna Lindh says that Israel is "losing its moral values" (article). She also slams the "security fence" idea, which the sane portion of the Israeli left views as the alternative to IDF military action against terrorists.

There are actually people who write this kind of stuff (from Islamic Association for Palestine news). And there are apparently even people who believe it.

Saeb Erekat's remark that the IDF action in Gaza is part of Sharon's election campaign (report) is probably best ignored. Unfortunately it's not obvious to a lot of people around the world how much it's a bunch of crock. For most Israelis, the IDF's strike in Gaza, as well as the rocket attacks on Sderot (in Israel proper) that provoked it, are all too familiar to even get noticed much. And the far right's criticism of Sharon is that he is flirting with the notion of a Palestinian state - they're not accusing him of soaking up attacks without responding. And anyway Likud is probably more concerned about Shinui than about the far right.

Powell's remark that Israel must offer Palestinians more than a "phony state diced into a thousand different pieces" is frustrating because it suggests that he agrees with those who are trying to rewrite the history of Camp David.

Two days left before the election. Walking around J-lem today, it seemed to be the maverick parties that had people out on the streets: Shinui, Herut, and Green Leaf...

Friday's Haaretz English edition included an ad from the leftist Meretz party. It listed the party's positions on a variety of social issues. On the Palestinian issue, all they could muster was:

We can feel safe again - by the immediate construction of an effective security fence and by exhausting every possibility for a political accord.

"exhausting every possibility" ?!? Hmmm .... so not even Meretz is willing to come out and say that they think peace with the Palestinians (or even a peace agreement) is a possibility.

I'm not going to be voting this time. I'm forced to make a business trip of sorts to the US (though I'm still unemployed).

Zeev Schiff says that Israel needs a real statesman to lead us out of the current mess. And he thinks that Sharon is not the man, though Schiff does acknowledge the ways in which Sharon has changed over the years.

But who would be a model for a real statesman? Ben-Gurion? Begin? Churchill? .... all around the world statesmen seem to be in short supply these days...

"Jenin, Jenin" is a film made by Israeli-Arab actor Mohammed Bakri which contains personal accounts (and I also heard "reenactments") of "events" from the mythical Jenin massacre. The Israeli film censor deemed the movie inflammatory and banned it from being screening in theaters, but it is being shown nonetheless.

This article describes a screening of the film to skeptical and critical viewers at a college in Tel Aviv. Bakri excised parts of the film before showing it to Israeli audiences. David Zangen, an endocrinologist who did reserve duty together with the IDF unit that fought in Jenin appeared at the screening to debunk the film (in an earlier article translated here Zangen showed that the most dramatic personal accounts from the film can be easily shown false, such as an allegation about a destroyed wing of a hospital)..

A women's leftist group called "Bat-shalom" put on a showed the film Jerusalem and accompanied it a panel of representatives from four different political parties (Collette Avital from Labor, Meretz, Hadash, Green Leaf). Apparently they did something similar in Tel Aviv.

I'm curious as to what extent the film is being shown and abroad and in Arab communities here. It was screened at film festivals in Rome and in Amsterdam where it apparently won a prize. This German-Jewish site takes a positive view of the film. Here's a report on a screening being cancelled (I think), in Padua, Italy. And this Italian site discusses the film in pretentious critical jargon.

Update: Another article on the film.

Masters of the Obvious II Bret Stephens on why it's so wrongheaded to think that suicide bombing is an act of desperation.

Sam Rivers (!) is playing four concerts with the Israeli Camerata at the end of the month.

Masters of the Obvious This essay critiques Mitzna's plan for unilateral withdrawal, and criticizes Mitzna as an ideologue in a post-ideological era.

Author Yossi Klein-Halevi thinks that Sharon is a flexible pragmatist, and not the settlement-boosting former general that Thomas Friedman portrays..

I'm skeptical about this, though it sounds well-sourced. Seen nothing remotely related in the Israeli press.

Here's a translation of a message that a friend in Tel Aviv received from her employer:

1. Currently we are involved with emergency planning for our office. Among other things we intend to verify that it will be possible to continue to provide service to our clients even in the event that (some or all) employees are unable to travel to work, or in the case that the office itself is damaged. In such an instance, there will be activated a central computer database with our business data.

Since our supply of laptops is limited, we are asking that you investigate the possibility of using your private computers to connect to the office.

Please fill out the attached form and return it to xxxxx.

2. At this time, we present a special offer from Kavei Zahav to our employees for installation of ADSL at a special price.
....

This past weekend was great weather for hiking up north, and for sitting out on the balcony at the kibbutz guest house. T. and I hiked in the Carmel forest, at Nahal Tavor next to Kibbutz Gazit (above), and walked up the said-to-be-volcanic Karnei-Hittin (of which a photo appears in Mark Twain's Innocents Abroad).

Next to the highway just north of Netanya there's an open field where some people propped up row after row of placards saying "Mitzna is virtuous" (or something like that) with a picture of Mitzna looking virtuous. At Kibbutz Gazit there were signs for Meretz. At the adjacent Arab village (Kafr Mizr?), the popular party was the one with a 2 letter logo that included the Arabic letter that resembles an epsilon.

The kibbutz where we stayed caters to a religious clientele. So instead of regular cable TV, there were Saudi cable channels (eg, Showtime Arabia), that showed airplane versions of Hollywood movies.

When I travel up north I try to stay clear of the Wadi Ara highway, especially at night. There hasn't been much trouble on the road recently, but the area is prone to infiltrations like the one tonight where 3 terrorists entered Moshav Gadish and killed a father of four (report).

Marchamont Needham asks some questions:

What happens if Shinui ends up holding the balance of power? What's the chance they'd join a left-wing coalition with Labor? If they join with Likud, what limits does that place on Palestinian policy? Can you make a right wing coalition based on Shinui and Likud that doesn't include the religious parties? Can Shinui co-exist in coalition with any of the religious parties?

If the religious keep their draft exemptions, etc., but are cut off from special funding by the state, will that blunt the resentment of most secular Israelis? That is, do they mind forking over tax dollars more, or do they mind the (informal) special status accorded the religious?

Shinui could join a "centrist" coalition together with Labor and Likud, if Labor were willing to go that direction. The arithmetic wouldn't countenance them joining a left-wing gov't, and I think their leadership wouldn't be interested either. In their campaign, Shinui is trying to "triangulate" on the security/Palestinian issue saying: we're not overaggressive like Likud or pushovers like Labor. Shinui can NOT coexist with religious parties, which will make coalition-building hard for Sharon.

It's difficult to imagine signifcant change regarding Orthodox draft exemptions and funding. Maybe funding would be reduced somewhat, but the Arab parties also support the Large Families law, and the IDF is not in any hurry to draft thousands of Hasidim etc.

More: RibbityFrog mentions that some people think that a Likud-Labor-Shinui coalition would undermine core support of the Likud. Gil says that the leader of Shinui has said he would be willing to be in a coalition with the National Religious Party, as their supporters serve in the Army and are not reliant on gov't assistance; but the NRP might be more hesitant.

I'm going up north for 3 days. No time to respond to some good questions and talk about why there's not much alternative to voting Likud despite the scandals. See you Sunday.

What happens if you hold a symposium in Jerusalem and ask foreign journalists how they view the upcoming Israeli elections? Their initial reaction will be to tell you what their editors are interested in hearing about.

At the symposium earlier tonight, CNN's Mike Hanna wouldn't discuss the "internals of the election", saying that he wanted to hear the perceptions of the audience. CNN initially decided that it wasn't much interested in the election, but ultimately is placing a lot of resources here in anticipation of the war with Iraq and is now paying somewhat more attention.

Peter Herman of the Baltimore Sun, who was until recently on the Baltimore police beat, said that "politics is not [his] thing". After describing what his editors are after, he said that the contrasts between Israeli and American politics are more interesting than the scandals affecting the Likud. Specifically notable was the ease with which politicians modified their stances - as exemplified by Mitzna's recent statement (which I had missed hearing about) that he would now insist on retaining 2 settlements in Gaza.

The editors at the UK Daily Telegraph are interested in a story about a political "clash of the titans" that will determine Israel's future, says reporter Alan Philips, but that story will happen after the election when the governing coalition is being formed. To Philips it's clear, as it is to most Israelis, that Likud will form the next government.

Gisele Dachs of Die Zeit says that her editors are interested foremost in the Iraq situation and issues affecting the Middle East economy. Rather than report on the goings-on among the various Israeli political factions, she proposed a piece that would deal with the current mood of Israeli society, which, in her view, parallels a phenomenon in Germany 10 yrs. ago that translates as "fed up with politics". People don't believe in the slogans anymore, she says, and they expect that there will be another election within a year. Dachs hopes for a Likud-Labor-Shinui coalition, but can imagine being pleasantly surprised by a "leftist blocking coalition" that could prevent Sharon from forming a government.

Chris McGreal of the UK Guardian didn't make it in the end.

In the course of the discussion it was clear that wisecracking Philips was the one who had a real grasp on Israeli society and politics, which he discusses like a game in which he doesn't take sides. Hanna thinks that politicians seek to mislead the public, but aside from a statement about the banning of Azmi Bishara by the election committee he said hardly anything that would indicate that he even reads the local daily papers. Dachs has a familiarity with the country and apparently understands some Hebrew, but her interpretations sound like some kind of "grand synthesis" and are often wrong-headed; also it's strange to me that someone who has been here for so long would put much stock in some report about momentary moderation in the Fatah leadership.

The only dramatic part of the discussion came when an Arab audience member launched into a tirade about the IDF "killing hundreds of people" in Jenin and Nablus "without anyone [in the governing coalition] saying anything". He finally asked the panel what they thought of the ban on Azmi Bishara. All were piously aghast (though I wonder
what they would think of this simple solution), which prompted an elderly British man to jump in and describe in detail Britain's outlawing of Oswald Mosely's BUF (in 1936?). Philips responded with something to the effect that "Well, that was different because Mosely was backing the Nazis who were planning to invade Britain". But much of the audience didn't see any difference.

What I'm left asking is: if the Western media invests so much effort in understanding "why do they [the Muslim world] hate us?", why are foreign reporters here so quick to announce perplexity at the reason Israelis stick with Sharon.

It's really disturbing how accustomed we have become to these attacks ("Twenty killed in double bombing at Tel Aviv bus station" - Jpost, Haaretz).

Walking downtown at around 7 PM, I knew that there had been an attack when I heard a few seconds of radio from a passing car. Didn't hear what they said, but you can tell when they have a reporter or bystander calling in and sounding unsure of what's going on. The reporting that I heard (about an hour after the fact) just sounded too calm. An announcer began an interview with Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai by saying "shalom rav" before asking if this was the most severe attack to hit Tel Aviv in the intifada (that's sort of like saying "good evening").

As it happens, T. and I had just had a quick dinner earlier in the evening at the Sbarro that had been bombed in Aug 2001.

Islamic Jihad is saying that the Tel Aviv attack is "in revenge" for something or other. But it should be obvious that they launch these attacks whenever they can, and that the relative quiet recently is due to the operations of the IDF in the West Bank and now Gaza, rather than any change of heart or goodwill from the Palestinians.

More: Imshin heard the explosion from her apartment. Gil's blog has photographs of the attack.

There's a lot of controversy about the Central Elections Commission having excluded Arab party leaders Azmi Bishara and Ahmed Tibi from the upcoming elections. I am fairly certain that whatever public statements they have made in support of violence against Israeli civilians and overturning the notion of a Jewish state are extremely mild compared to what they say in private. But it's not clear to me that their presence in the Knesset has damaged the state in any way. If there were a "moderate" Arab party which focused on improving government services and opportunities in the Arab sector while pushing a conciliatory line towards the Palestinians, it could be a natural partner for Labor. Having Bishara and Tibi allows Israeli Arabs to demonstrate that many of them still prefer the confrontational and less democratic approach.

This is an interesting article which discusses whether the Arab-Israeli conflict should be viewed as a clash of interests or a clash of civilizations. Avishai Margalit, the liberal professor who writes about Isaiah Berlin and other subjects for the New York Review of Books, thinks that the Palestinian sense of humiliation contributes to an emphasis of the "civilizational" aspect of the conflict - regardless of whether the particular "humiliating" practices like checkpoints and thorough searches are justified. It's not clear whether he recommends sacrificing Israeli lives to preserve Palestinian dignity. That's a proposition that not many other countries (or airlines for that matter) would actually consider.

This article about Israeli-Arab lawyer Mohammed Dahla, who founded the civil rights organization Adalah, indicates that he sees the Arab-Israeli conflict as a conflict of civilizations. For him, what the Jews did to the Arabs in 1948 (or what he thinks they did) was a kind of metaphysical, irreparable evil.

Welcome to those who arrived from this Belgian portal. Please leave me a message or email me to let me know what you think of my weblog.

I haven't been writing as much as I used to, so you might want to look at some archive postings.

This article follows an IDF unit as it destroys the Tul Karm apartment belonging to the family of Sirhan Sirhan. Sirhan entered Kibbutz Metzer on Nov 10 and went on a killing spree; he murdered 5 civilians, including two toddlers who were killed in their beds.

IDF demolitions are currently conducted with a kind of bureaucratic coldness (soldiers are now prohibited from vengeful or emotional flourishes).

In the print edition there are photos of Sirhan's father and mother, who look like they are just then being told of the operation; and of the apartment - which looks modern and roomy. Sirhan's father says that he opposes all terrorism, but hung pictures of "martyrs" in his living room.

The uncertain threat of missiles from Iraq during an American offensive is less serious to Israel than the almost certain threat of attacks by Hezbullah from across the Lebanese border. The IDF is likely to respond or launch a pre-emptive operation against Hezbullah, and is also likely to move against the largely untouched Hamas infrastructure in Gaza. This is according to Amir Oren, who also records that an Arrow missile interceptor (successor to Patriot) is launched by pressing the F2 key on a PC keyboard.