Thursday, August 30, 2007

Twisting and Spinning

A fifteen-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber was caught carrying two explosive devices that the Israel Army says he planned to detonate in an attack on an Israeli army position near Gaza. The arrest took place at night, between August 28th and August 29th, when soldiers spotted a Palestinian youth approaching them. Reportedly the IDF had intelligence information about an impending attack. The teenager was taken for questioning by security forces. In a statement to the press the IDF said it “regrets that terrorist organizations make frequent use of children and youth, in order to execute attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers.”
This arrest comes after three Palestinian children were killed on Wednesday by IDF tank fire in a field just outside of Gaza. The three children, aged between twelve and ten, were near a rocket launcher that had just been used to fire at Israelis in the Western Negev. It is unclear if the children were merely playing in the field, or sent to recover the rocket launchers.
An IDF announcement stated that the army had targeted several Qassam launchers in the Beit Hanun industrial area, which the army claims is a favored spot for rocket attacks against Israeli targets. The IDF statement said that so far nearly 300 Qassam rockets and mortar shells have been fired at Israel from the Gaza strip in the last month.
According to informed sources Hamas and Islamic Jihad have begun to use children to retrieve the launchers knowing the Israeli sensitivities concerning the death of civilians. Some analysts believe that Hamas and other terrorist groups use these children as bait, hoping for a public relations coup when the children are injured or killed. Last week two other children were killed by IDF fire in similar circumstances.
An article in the Israeli Maariv newspaper stated on Thursday that Russia was behind the recent fears of an Israeli attack against Syria. The newspaper said that Russia had been feeding Syria with information that Israel was on the verge of an invasion in order to stir up tension in the region.
However, Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's political-security division, told the Yideot Achranot newspaper’s on-line Ynet on Thursday that “The Russians were not the main source in inciting and relaying information according to which Israel was planning to attack Syria in the summer,” Gilad said the reports of Russian interference were “only partly true.”
Gilad said that Israel had reassured both Syria and Russia that no attack was being planned. According to the report Israel also expressed concern over Russia’s growing involvement in the region, including the sale of sophisticated weapons systems to Syria, some of which reportedly reach Hezbollah.
A new twist was added to the Israeli complaints over the Wakf’s digging of a utility trench on the Temple Mount. As if to spin the controversy in a different direction Islamic firebrand Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic Movement’s northern branch, said Thursday that Israel is planning to build a new temple near the Al-Aqsa mosque. Salah called on Arab and Muslim nations to "prevent the division of the Al-Aqsa by Israel."
Salah has often incited Arab followers to radical actions by his words. Historians point out that what Israel calls the Temple Mount is not only revered by the Jews as the heart of the Jewish homeland, but by the Moslems. Approximately 800 years after the destruction of the second Jewish Temple by the Romans, the Dome of the Rock was built on the Temple Mount by a sheik trying to get attention from the rulers in Mecca. The shrine was built over the legendary rock Abraham nearly sacrificed Issac, and where approximately 2,800 years later Mohammend was said to have launched himself to Heaven on his winged steed, The Al Aqsa mosque was built hundreds of after the Dome of the Rock.

Scholars point out that until the 19th century Jerusalem was an ignored dusty backwater in the Arab world, and the Temple Mount a third-rate Moslem Holy site. Only the return of Jewish settlement to the region brought Jerusalem back to prominence. Both the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa mosque now sit above the remains of the first and second Temples, which is, according to Israeli archeologists the greatest Jewish archeological site in the world.

However the Wakf refuses to allow Israel to excavate. The Wakf was put in charge of the Temple Mount after Israel seized the old city of Jerusalem in 1967. Since then Israel has slowly lost any control over the area. Any Israeli move towards the site now illicit calls for a Holy War.

According to analysts, Salah is reportedly using the claim of Israel’s intention to build a new temple to cover up the press flap over the latest Israeli complaints against Wakf’s digging above the ruins of the Jewish holy sites. Political analysts now say that Israel made a huge blunder allowing the Wakf control over the Temple Mount after the ’67 Six-Day War.
Finance Minister Roni Bar On today announced he was not extending the contract of accountant-general Yaron Zelekha, who is set to complete a four year stint in October, even though Zelekha's contract allows him to continue for a fifth year if he wants to.
Zelekha testified against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Bank Leumi scandal investigation. Zelekha also recently published a comprehensive plan to fight corruption. Zelekha released the plan without informing his superiors at the Finance Ministry.
Finance Minister Roni Bar On is an old political pal of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Bar On was appointed to replace another political pal, Avraham Hershson, who resigned under a cloud of improper behavior, embezzlement and illegal smuggling of foreign currency. Pundits believe that PM Olmert wants to excise Zelekha from the Finance Ministry before he can do any more harm.
Zelekah reportedly said in response that, "The attempt to discontinue my tenure is illegal. It was carried out without authority and does not bind me. I will not allow a group of people suspected of criminal offenses to deter me from my mission to guard the public's treasury." State Comptroller Lindenstrauss is expected to oppose Zelekah’s ouster. Lindenstrauss has said that that anyone who exposed corruption in the State of Israel would receive full protection under the law. The Movement for a Better Government has said it would fight to keep Zelekah in office.
Russian-Israeli Billionaire Arkady Gadyamack appeared at a guest before a Knesset committee yesterday, and continued his fusillade against the Olmert government. He was seen on Israel Television telling the committee that the government was run by self-interested politicians only interested in perpetuating their own power, and accumulating money for themselves.
The Justice Minister Daniel Friedman reportedly caved into ultra-Orthodox demands when he agreed to redraft the inheritance laws to exclude gay couples as legal entities. Retired Supreme Court Justice Jacob Turkel headed a public commission appointed in 1999 to reform the 1965 inheritance law. In the spring of 2006 Turkel’s committee proposed changing the definition of a couple from "husband and wife" in order that it apply to both gay and heterosexual couples.

Justice Minister Friedman decided to limit the proposed inheritance law to "a man and a woman who lead a family life in a joint household." According to gay rights groups Friedman bowed to pressure from the Sephardi Shas party.
Meanwhile Shas has made noises about leaving the coalition if PM Olmert signs any agreements on dual statehood with Palestinian President Abu Mazen. If Shas follows through with the threat new elections would be a foregone conclusion. However according to press reports Israel Beitainu’s Avigdor Leiberman doesn’t believe any agreement will be reached.
An editorial in the Maariv daily newspaper, however, says that a peace agreement with Abu Mazen would be Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's last opportunity to look good in the history books. Maariv’s editors encourage PM Olmert to exploit the “historic opportunity being offered him.” The paper contends that while peace would save Olmert politically, time is running out to implement any agreement. Most analysts however consistently stress that neither PA’s Mohammad Abbas (Abu Mazen) nor Israel’s PM Ehud Olmert have the public support to carry out any far-reaching agreements.
Former Defense Minister during the War in Lebanon II, Amir Peretz closed political accounts on Thursday when he commented on his one-time colleagues and friends. On Ehud Barak, now Labor party leader and Minister of Defense, “He humiliates people.” On PM Olmert: “His emptiness worries me.” On former Chief of Staff and former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz: “He did not act to prepare IDF for war.” On Labor party big-shot “Faud” Ben-Eliezer: |”He betrayed me.” On himself: “I erred when I accepted Defense Ministry.” Pundits add that Peretz reached his conclusions too late to do either himself or the country any good.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

The Sounds of the Shofar

More rockets fell on Sderot on Tuesday, this time hitting a home and lightly injuring the residents. Over the last few days the IDF has continued its strategic raids in the West Bank and Gaza. Six Arab men were arrested attempting to infiltrate from Gaza by scaling the eighteen-foot high concrete wall with a rope ladder. The men were caught. According to the IDF spokesman, the men were apparently attempting to infiltrate into Israel in order to find work.

Reportedly the concrete wall separating Israel from Gaza has no electronic sensors, as does the electrified separation fence, making the wall relatively easy to breach. Members of the nearby Moshavim who were interviewed on Israel Television complained about the poor security. One farmer pointed to the wall looming over the edge of his hothouse. “ I carry a gun,” he said, displaying his M-16 automatic rifle. “This is my protection.”

The solution to the problem in Gaza seems no closer, according to informed sources. IDF soldier Gilad Shalit is still imprisoned in some secret dungeon in Gaza where he celebrated his birthday two years after his kidnapping.

The Israeli press reported that Israel is concerned with major arms shipments into Gaza. According to Maj. General Moshe Kaplinsky, Iran has shipped Russian-made weapons to Syria that made their way through tunnels in the Egyptian desert and into Gaza. Among the weapons are sophisticated anti-tank rockets.

On Tuesday an IDF Major luckily escaped with his life when he took a wrong turn in his army jeep and wound up in the West Bank town of Jenin. He was rescued by the Palestinian Authority’s police force. The Israel government is making much of this cooperation between the IDF and the PA security services. The major is reportedly going to stand before a disciplinary committee. Apparently he took a road forbidden to the IDF, drove through an army checkpoint, and then took a wrong turn, winding up in the Arab city.

This major was lucky. Nearly a decade ago two Israeli soldiers took a wrong turn and wound up in Ramallah. In that instance the two men were set upon by angry crowds, brought into the Ramallah police headquarters, then lynched. Their bodies were dragged through the streets of Ramallah behind a car.

The northern border with Lebanon and Syria is quiet, but Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said that Hezbollah has as many as 20,000 rockets, more than Hezbollah had prior to the outbreak of the War in Lebanon II. Barak said that the tension with Syria had eased, and a war is not imminent.

A flap rose over a comment by Shas party mentor Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. Rabbi Yosef, a well-respected Torah sage, has made impolite remarks in the past that caused his supporters no end of misery. This gaff blamed lack of belief in God for the death of those soldiers who fell in Lebanon. Rabbi Yosef ignored the scores of religious soldiers who died in those fierce battles. A cartoon in the Haaretz Newspaper showed Shas leader Eli Ishai hiding behind his desk while an aide calls from the doorway that more reporters are on the line wanting an explanation of the Rabbi’s remarks.

Gad Yaacobi, 72, former cabinet minister and one-time high ranking Labor party leader died on Monday in Canada during a complicated heart surgery. Yaacobi had flown to Canada for the specialized surgery. According to political analyst Hannan Crystal, speaking on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, Yaacobi was Shimon Peres’ main counsel starting back in the 1960’s. By the early 90’s, however, the young guard of the Labor party came to power and excluded Yaacobi from the Knesset list. According to Crystal this was a tragic loss for Israel and the Labor party. Crystal said that Yaacobi was intelligent, urbane, a humanist, and an idealist. He was replaced by men, according to Crystal, who were interested in their own rise to power, not the good of the country, or the party. Crystal said that the country could use men like Yaacobi now, rather than those in power, or in the wings.

Changes are taking place on the face of Jerusalem. A new tower is rising at the entrance to the city which spans the new bridge that is to carry the new light-rail into the train’s new terminal. Once completed the new tower will hold an illuminated arch meant to welcome visitors to Jerusalem. The light-rail, when completed, will run from Mt. Herzl through the city to the far northeastern suburb of Pisgat Zeev.

Another rail project kicks off Saturday night when the new extension to the town of Modiin is hooked up to the line that now stops at Ben Gurion airport. The ride from Modiin to Tel Aviv, with a compulsory stop at Ben Gurion Airport, is scheduled to take twenty-minutes. A fast rail system is on the drawing boards for Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The ride is scheduled to take less than an hour. At present a train runs the old route and takes nearly three hours, although passengers say the scenery is worth the extra time.

Temperatures in Israel are in the high nineties. Schools are out until September 2. The annual teacher’s strike negotiations have begun. Without the teacher’s strike looming, and salaries up for renegotiations, the start of the school year wouldn’t be recognizable.

Israel’s economy is expanding. This caused Bank of Israel head Stanley Fisher to raise interest rates in an attempt to dampen the economy.

A two-page ad in both Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post caused a stir on Tuesday. Russian-Israeli billionaire Arcadi Gaydamack took out the ad and accused Prime Minister Olmert and his government of malfeasance in office, spite, and jealousy. Gadaymack became a Robin Hood figure in Israel during the War in Lebanon II when he set up “refugee camps” for residents fleeing the rocket attacks. The government was shamed into admitting that the Home Front Command wasn’t as competent as Gadaymack.

The Russian billionaire said he was also approached to help build bomb shelters in Sderot, but the government stopped him after he’d built about forty, saying he was not authorized to carry out the construction. Gadaymack claims PM Olmert is preventing the performance of good deeds out of embarrassment that the government cannot carry out their own safety measures for the citizenry of Israel.

Right-wing politician Avigdor Leiberman, of the Yisrael Beitainu party, told the press on Tuesday that he was in favor of economic sanctions against Iran not military strikes. Leiberman was speaking on an Iranian language Parsi broadcast. He said that Iranian leaders all had their secret bank accounts stashed in Switzerland and other places, and were well taken care of in the event of a military strike. But it was the common man who would suffer in a war, not the Iranian leaders. Leiberman offered no details of which Iranians had bank accounts outside of Iran nor which banks and countries such accounts were in.

The Wakf, the Muslim authority in control of the Temple Mount, where the Mosque of Omar and the Al Aksa Mosque sit, have begun more excavations without proper archeological supervision. The Wakf has lately begun to ignore Israeli authority over the site. Israeli archeologist complain that the site is the most holy place in the Jewish lexicon, and should be respected. The Wakf has so far ignored all pleas. However, when Israel erected a temporary bridge leading to the Temple Mount the Wakf made a worldwide plea to stop the work. Israel has yet to take the same action.

The Jewish High Holidays approach rapidly. Each morning the sounds of the shofar can be heard echoing off the walls inside the synagogues and drifting out the open windows floating through the neighborhoods. Synagogue seating arrangements are being made, families are deciding who will attend whose dinners, without upsetting one family of in-laws or another. The Holidays bring a reminder of the Yom Kippur War, and then other wars in Israel. Lately information has been published claiming that the former Soviet Union was behind precipitating the 1967 Six-Day war, including detailed plans to destroy Israel’s nuclear reactor in Dimona. However, Israel defeated the Egyptian Army before they could launch their first air sortie, and then made short shrift of the remainder of the Egyptian and Syrian armies. Had the Jordanians not joined the battle, they would still possess the West Bank and the Arab towns and villages along with them.

With the approach of the High Holidays, one wonders if any of Israel's vocal enemies will decide to launch a sneak attack, as the Egyptians did on Yom Kippur in 1973. Defence Minister Ehud Barak has announced the pullback of some troops from the Golan Heights for the holidays. If this is true, then by all indications the holiday season will be relatively peaceful.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Huey Long and the Iron Dome

More Kassam rockets fell in the Western Negev on Tuesday. One struck a kindergarten in Sderot however no injuries were reported. Kassam rockets have been falling in the Negev nearly every day.
The IDF has been actively reacting to these Kassam attacks. On Monday the IDF fired a missile from an Israeli aircraft that killed six Hamas terrorists traveling in a car in central Gaza. The military said they had been targeted because they’d been involved in terror activities. Palestinian sources said the vehicle was leaving a Hamas military installation when Israeli aircraft attacked it. According to the IDF spokesperson's office, the men in the car were members of a rocket-launching cell that earlier on Monday had fired a Kassam and a number of mortar shells towards Israeli towns.
On Tuesday three Hamas activists were killed in an IDF aircraft strike as they approached the security fence 600 yards from the Kissufim crossing. The Army spokesman’s office said that the gunmen killed were all part of a cell that targeted IDF combat engineers operating near the security fence separating Israel from Gaza. According to press reports the three men were in possession of sniper’s rifles.
The ongoing battles continue well away from the newspaper headlines. In the West Bank the Associate Press reported that IDF troops killed a PFLP member in Nablus. The Army said that IDF soldiers operating in al-Ein refugee camp saw a Palestinian gunman who fired at them before they returned fire and hit him. Observers say that the activities of the IDF have stepped up since Ehud Barak took over as Defense Minister.
There has been much discussion in the press about the “Iron Dome,” a sophisticated defensive shield to protect Israel from rocket and missile attack. Last week the IDF announced that it did not have the budget to implement the “Iron Dome” defensive anti-rocket and anti-missile system. The Iron Dome was touted as one of the solutions to the airborne attacks on Israel from Hamas in Gaza to Hezbollah in Lebanon, and even Syria and Iran. Some pundits speculated that this announcement could be a ploy by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to get more money for the military.
But the beleaguered head of Israel’s Home Front Command, Major General Yitzhak Gershon said that it was demagoguery to plant in the public’s mind that an anti-missile system would protect Israel from a direct Kassam rocket.
Major General Gershon was testifying before the Knesset State Control Committee, answering accusations made in the State Comptroller's Report about failures in the conduct of the Home Front Command during the War in Lebanon II.
Gershon claimed that all the issues raised in the report have been corrected. However he said that there was still much to do. According to a report in the Haaretz newspaper, Gershon blamed the local authorities for not doing enough to provide adequate bomb shelters for civilians. But in contrast to his statements, the Home Front Command announced yesterday that it wasn’t going to demand bomb shelters in newly renovated Kibbutz structures.
As if to underline the need for more vigilance, and money, Defence Minister Ehud Barak told the media on Monday, in his first press conference since taking over two months ago, that the IDF needs to be bigger and much better equipped in order to deal properly with future threats.

Barak told told military correspondents that without a multiyear force-building plan, it will not be possible for the army to implement Israel's basic defense doctrine, which is based on deterrence, early warning and victory in battle.
Barak said that the shortcomings he found in the defense establishment stemmed from the budget cuts of the past few years. Pundits point out that ironically it was Barak who as Prime Minister and even Defence Minister in a previous administration was one of the men responsible for those cutbacks.

Barak's new defense doctrine relies on the Iron Dome active missile defense system that can intercept all types of missiles. Barak also wants to increase the number of ground troops and reactivate two reservist divisions that had been disbanded.
According to Haaretz, “The defense minister emphasized that tanks must be equipped with technologically advanced, active protective systems capable of dealing with the threats that emerged during the Second Lebanon War. During that war, IDF tanks fell prey to advanced antitank missiles fired by Hezbollah fighters.”

Barak stressed that live-fire training must continue at the brigade and division levels, just as in the past. "There cannot be a recurrence of the situation in which a division commander first witnesses his division in action during wartime. Live-fire training is the closest approximation of wartime conditions, even if the psychological element is missing," Barak said.

Barak also wants to develop a "long reach" that would allow the army to operate "far from its borders, with the ability to strike accurately and painfully."

As if to underline Barak’s new plan, tank carriers competed with summer vacationing Israelis for space on roads in the Golan Heights during the last weeks. Live fire training exercises could be seen by travelers going from one tourist site to another. According to some reserve soldiers this was the first time they’d touched a tank’s cannon shell in five years. A debate is now raging within the army to decide if the air force should be scaled back at the expense of increasing the size of the ground troops.

Corruption is still in the news in Israel. According to press reports the Israeli police now plan to interrogate bank executives who were involved in questionable loans to the Heftsiba building company. The police suspect that bank officials colluded with Heftsiba to provide unorthodox financing that contributed to the company's collapse. Heftsiba’s CEO Boaz Yona has fled the country and his wherabouts are unknown. His company has left hundreds of buyers who paid for their homes without a place to live, since the apartments were either not completed,or not even built. The police have discovered that monies paid to purchase apartments were purloined by Yona and placed in his own bank account. The result was that the buyers were left without any guarantees on their investments. According to the Haaretz newspaper, the police suspect that bank officials received bribes to approve the schemes. Heftsiba owes the four leading Israeli banks nearly $200 million, and another $200 million to other sources. Police suspect that Boaz Yona recently diverted about $30 million to his own account before fleeing the country.

Not long ago the head of the Ministry of Finance, Avraham Hirchson was forced to resign amid accusations that he’d embezzled money. The long-time secretary to Ehud Olmert also resigned in a scandal over income and purchasing tax breaks to businessmen; the police investigation reached as high as the heads of the income and property tax department. According to press reports this culture of dishonesty has come under criticism lately, since many analysts now think that the country as a whole has lost its moral compass.

Yideot Achranot’s highly respected columnist Nachum Barnea made this point when discussing payments to Holocaust survivors. He wrote about a TV report that showed how Holocaust survivors in Berlin lived in large homes, whereas those in Israel barely had bread on the table. Barnea thought that the message was clear: “Survivors who settled in Germany did well, survivors who moved to Israel ended up as suckers.”
It reminded one analyst of the actor Richard Dryfus’ comment that had he worked on more films he’d have a bigger house, as if the size of the house marked the level of success in life. The TV program prompted Barnea to ask, “Are there no Holocaust survivors who built a villa in Israel? Is it really that bad here? Does living in a Jewish state no longer have any meaning? Is it only the size of one's villa that's important?”
According to Barnea, the answer depends on the individual. Then he touched the raw nerve: “But the genre of mistreatment, in both political and media circles, acts differently. It develops, each day, every night, the concept that the State of Israel only exists to deprive, steal and corrupt.” Barnea is cynical about the government’s big noise about the pensioners since the issue is, “just a ploy by the Treasury. Within five years, they will no longer be around. It's much cheaper to deal with them than to concentrate on the real problem.”
In Israel today it is cheaper to worry about the size of a Holocaust Survivor’s home in Berlin, than about the missiles that can come crashing down from Iran, or the serious social problems inherent in Israel today. Observers all agree that a change is necessary if Israel is to weather the storms brewing around her. But as long as opinion leaders, even TV reporters, are more concerned with the size of their homes and bank accounts than the long term financial, physical and military health of the country, the odds of Israel enduring are growing as thin as plastic wrap. What good will a nice house be when, God forbid, an Iranian, Syrian or Hezbollah missile punch through the iron dome that has turned to brittle rusty metal due to cheap materials or worse, incomplete implementation? What if someone gives a company like Heftsiba the contract for the “Iron Dome?” Huey Long allowed cronies to build government structures that collapsed on the unsuspecting public. Israel can’t afford a Huey Long. But that doesn’t mean Israel won’t get one.

Monday, August 13, 2007

The Land of Constant Pressure

According to recent intelligence reports, the Syrians have purchased the most advanced ground-to-air missiles from the Russians, considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology. This is reportedly an attempt by the Syrians to neutralize Israel’s air supremacy. Experts say that the Syrians made these purchases after studying Israel’s actions, and discovering weaknesses, during the last war in Lebanon.
A report in Yideot Achranot, a popular Israeli daily newspaper, quotes a recently issued memo from The Institute for National Security Studies on the strengthening of the Syrian army. INSS researcher Yiftah Shapir writes that the antiaircraft deals between Syria and Russia include the purchase of SA-24 missile systems that are an armored vehicles each carrying four Igla-S missiles. These systems are considered to be among of the most advanced on the market.
Syrian has also reportedly bought approximately 50 Pantsir S-1 (SA-22) combined shell and missile systems. The Pantsir S-1 is brand new. The system has a launcher of twelve 143 pound missiles with a 35 pound warhead, all mounted on an all-terrain vehicle..
The Syrians are also looking to purchase the S-300 long-range missile defense system, which can reportedly intercept aircraft as much as forty kilometers away.
These purchases come shortly after the Russians announced the planned reopening of a naval base in Syria, along the Mediterranean. Reportedly the Syrians owe the Russians over $11 Billion. The Russians are going to erase part of the debt in exchange for permission to reopen the naval base, closed since the disintegration of the Former Soviet Union.

Syria is said to be worried about an imminent Israeli attack. But some analysts believe this is simply Syria taking advantage of Russia’s bear hug to become a regional superpower.. Others say that Syria is using Russia to offset the pressure Iran is exerting to take over control of the region, with Syria as a proxy fighting against Israel. Experts have speculated that Syria may be embracing Russia to extricate itself from the Iranian grasp.

Analysts fear that the Russian rearming of Syria, the first time since the cold war ended, will increase the arms race in the Middle East and bring the region closer to a conflict. Russia is already exerting serious influence in the region, selling nuclear power plant technology and weapons to the Iranians. Some pundits believe this is due to the Russian fear of a U.S. attack in the future; others that the reemerging nationalism in Russia is a serious bid to once again become a world-wide superpower.

On another front an Israeli Arab group claimed responsibility for yesterday’s shooting in the Old City of Jerusalem. The shooter Ahmad Khatib was from the Israeli Galilee village of Manda. According to some reports in the Israeli media, Manda is a bases of radical Islam. According to a report in Yideot Achranot, Khatib was a member of the al-Aqsa organization in Manda, closely associated with the Islamic Movement in Israel.. Press reports claim that last Friday the al-Aksa group arranged transportation for Khatib to Jerusalem for the big weekly prayer service at the Temple Mount mosques.
Khatib stayed longer. On Sunday he trailed two Israeli security guards through the old city, finally snatching the gun of one of the men, who was wounded in the ensuing gun battle. Khatib was killed by the second guard.

Then there is the case of Professor Hillel Weiss, a history professor at Bar Ilan University, who was videotaped cursing Israeli soldiers when they were in the process of evacuating Jewish settlers from Hebron’s old city Arab vegetable market. Professor Weiss express regrets today for his actions. In an interview on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, professor Weiss was apologetic, but even the radio interviewer Yigal Ravid wasn’t convinced of the professor’s sincerity. Later the professor told reporters he had been coerced into apologizing.
Weiss explained in a radio interview that he apologized due to "terrorist Mapainic pressure exerted on the university." Mapai was a left-wing party long controlled by David Ben-Gurion before the establishment of the Labor party.
According to reports, Weiss claimed that Bar-Ilan University President Prof Moshe Kaveh was pressured to ask Weiss to apologize. Bar Ilan University was where Yigal Amir, the assassin of the murdered Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin studied. Reportedly Bar Ilan has been sensitive to it’s public image ever since.
Some of the staff at Bar Ilan write off Professor Weiss’ actions as incidental. “He’s nuts,” one staff member told Jerusalem-Magazine. Still, nuts or not, he does have influence over students, and as Israel has seen, sometimes a student picks up a gun and shoots the Prime Minister.
Lastly there is the run up to the Likud primaries. Party leader Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is being bothered by the right-wing of his party represented by Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin is hoping to beat Bibi in the primary, or at least show that the right- wing of the party has to be considered when a platform is drawn up for the next general election.
Syria on the borders, Khatib and Islamic fundamentalists within the country, the likes of Weiss and Feiglin inside the borders, makes one wonder if Israel is united enough to fight an existential battle. Prime Minister Olmert and his Kadima party seem to be imploding, although Olmert claims he will still win an election. He also thought he’d win a war against Hezbollah, so his powers of prophecy are under a thick cloud of doubt.
Then there is a new study that asserts that over thirty-percent of the country is now ultra-orthodox, and twenty percent more orthodox. The latter serve in the army and pay taxes, but the former do not. By 2050 the experts estimate that the country will be eighty percent ultra-orthodox. Who then will pay the tax bill, provide for the budget, buy shells for the tanks? The ultra-orthodox do not espouse a Jewish state, but a Torah state, run by the Messiah.. The Likud’s Moshe Feiglin agrees Israel should be a Torah state, and wants to rebuild the destroyed Temple, making it the Third Temple.
One is tempted to ask the black-hats, the men in long black coats and black suits, white shirts and black skull-caps, who they think will defend Israel against the enemies outside and inside the borders? Who they think will pay taxes, provide for the budgets that run schools and hospitals and armies?
One wonders what the future holds when on top of the constant threats from Israel’s neighbors, there are the niggling struggles within the country to control the Jewish radicals, and the Islamic fundamentalists.
The pressure is always on, no matter who sits in the Prime Minister’s office because there are always people who want to run the country their way. The papers are filled with analysts who say that democracy is a nice idea once a society has developed far enough to understand how it works. Israel, they write, is surrounded by countries who don’t. Countries that harbor a fundamental objection to Israel’s existence, not from a territorial perspective, but from an ideological one.
The ultra-orthodox and the settlers in Hebron are living in a bubble of their own construction, as if the army doesn’t keep them alive by providing 24/7 protection against the hostile Arab population. It’s as if the Cavalry would have abandoned the fort leaving the settlers in the Wild West to shift for themselves against the hostile Indian tribes. But in the Wild West the settlers were appreciative of the Cavalry’s presence. In Hebron the settlers resent the army. They see their struggle as the vanguard of a fight that will result from Olmert’s talk of pulling back from the West Bank. Pundits surmise that is what Professor Weiss is cursing. Not what happened last week, but what might happen next month. The pressure from U.S. Sec of State Rice is to impose democracy on the West Bank, is folly, say many, including former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. He and others say that to accept PA Chairman Abbas as a legitimate leader, when in fact anarchy not democracy rules in the West Bank and Gaza,is self-deception. Further these experts say that Chairman Abbas is incapable of establishing, defending or leading an independent state called Palestine.
There are those who dream of peace, find partners where there are none simply because that’s all that’s available. But bringing a tired, old, battered quarterback onto the field, giving him a line of lazy, overweight, self-indulgent guys to protect him, and calling it a team that can win a championship is foolishness. Some analysts say it is no more than just finding some ringer to play just so the coaches can stay in the game.
From Professor Weiss and his commitment to settlement and settlers, to Secretary Rice and her commitment to Democracy and a Palestinian State, to Achmed Khatib and his commitment to driving the Jews out of the Middle East, and perhaps the world, to Syria looking to become a regional strongman, and Russia looking to become a world superpower, Israel is caught in a multi-sided vice with the pressure constantly applied.
In the roadrunner cartoons, Wiley Coyote would watch as his evil plans against the Roadrunner exploded in his face. We can only hope that somehow Israel pulls together to face Wiley Coyote, or the next time the dynamite goes off, it might just take out both sides.

Constant Pressure

According to recent intelligence reports, the Syrians have purchased the most advanced ground-to-air missiles from the Russians, considered the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology. This is reportedly an attempt by the Syrians to neutralize Israel’s air supremacy. Experts say that the Syrians made these purchases after studying Israel’s actions, and discovering weaknesses, during the last war in Lebanon.
A report in Yideot Achranot, a popular Israeli daily newspaper, quotes a recently issued memo from The Institute for National Security Studies on the strengthening of the Syrian army. INSS researcher Yiftah Shapir writes that the antiaircraft deals between Syria and Russia include the purchase of SA-24 missile systems that are an armored vehicles each carrying four Igla-S missiles. These systems are considered to be among of the most advanced on the market.
Syrian has also reportedly bought approximately 50 Pantsir S-1 (SA-22) combined shell and missile systems. The Pantsir S-1 is brand new. The system has a launcher of twelve 143 pound missiles with a 35 pound warhead, all mounted on an all-terrain vehicle..
The Syrians are also looking to purchase the S-300 long-range missile defense system, which can reportedly intercept aircraft as much as forty kilometers away.
These purchases come shortly after the Russians announced the planned reopening of a naval base in Syria, along the Mediterranean. Reportedly the Syrians owe the Russians over $11 Billion. The Russians are going to erase part of the debt in exchange for permission to reopen the naval base, closed since the disintegration of the Former Soviet Union.

Syria is said to be worried about an imminent Israeli attack. But some analysts believe this is simply Syria taking advantage of Russia’s bear hug to become a regional superpower.. Others say that Syria is using Russia to offset the pressure Iran is exerting to take over control of the region, with Syria as a proxy fighting against Israel. Experts have speculated that Syria may be embracing Russia to extricate itself from the Iranian grasp.

Analysts fear that the Russian rearming of Syria, the first time since the cold war ended, will increase the arms race in the Middle East and bring the region closer to a conflict. Russia is already exerting serious influence in the region, selling nuclear power plant technology and weapons to the Iranians. Some pundits believe this is due to the Russian fear of a U.S. attack in the future; others that the reemerging nationalism in Russia is a serious bid to once again become a world-wide superpower.

On another front an Israeli Arab group claimed responsibility for yesterday’s shooting in the Old City of Jerusalem. The shooter Ahmad Khatib was from the Israeli Galilee village of Manda. According to some reports in the Israeli media, Manda is a bases of radical Islam. According to a report in Yideot Achranot, Khatib was a member of the al-Aqsa organization in Manda, closely associated with the Islamic Movement in Israel.. Press reports claim that last Friday the al-Aksa group arranged transportation for Khatib to Jerusalem for the big weekly prayer service at the Temple Mount mosques.
Khatib stayed longer. On Sunday he trailed two Israeli security guards through the old city, finally snatching the gun of one of the men, who was wounded in the ensuing gun battle. Khatib was killed by the second guard.

Then there is the case of Professor Hillel Weiss, a history professor at Bar Ilan University, who was videotaped cursing Israeli soldiers when they were in the process of evacuating Jewish settlers from Hebron’s old city Arab vegetable market. Professor Weiss express regrets today for his actions. In an interview on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, professor Weiss was apologetic, but even the radio interviewer Yigal Ravid wasn’t convinced of the professor’s sincerity. Later the professor told reporters he had been coerced into apologizing.
Weiss explained in a radio interview that he apologized due to "terrorist Mapainic pressure exerted on the university." Mapai was a left-wing party long controlled by David Ben-Gurion before the establishment of the Labor party.
According to reports, Weiss claimed that Bar-Ilan University President Prof Moshe Kaveh was pressured to ask Weiss to apologize. Bar Ilan University was where Yigal Amir, the assassin of the murdered Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin studied. Reportedly Bar Ilan has been sensitive to it’s public image ever since.
Some of the staff at Bar Ilan write off Professor Weiss’ actions as incidental. “He’s nuts,” one staff member told Jerusalem-Magazine. Still, nuts or not, he does have influence over students, and as Israel has seen, sometimes a student picks up a gun and shoots the Prime Minister.
Lastly there is the run up to the Likud primaries. Party leader Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu is being bothered by the right-wing of his party represented by Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin is hoping to beat Bibi in the primary, or at least show that the right- wing of the party has to be considered when a platform is drawn up for the next general election.
Syria on the borders, Khatib and Islamic fundamentalists within the country, the likes of Weiss and Feiglin inside the borders, makes one wonder if Israel is united enough to fight an existential battle. Prime Minister Olmert and his Kadima party seem to be imploding, although Olmert claims he will still win an election. He also thought he’d win a war against Hezbollah, so his powers of prophecy are under a thick cloud of doubt.
Then there is a new study that asserts that over thirty-percent of the country is now ultra-orthodox, and twenty percent more orthodox. The latter serve in the army and pay taxes, but the former do not. By 2050 the experts estimate that the country will be eighty percent ultra-orthodox. Who then will pay the tax bill, provide for the budget, buy shells for the tanks? The ultra-orthodox do not espouse a Jewish state, but a Torah state, run by the Messiah.. The Likud’s Moshe Feiglin agrees Israel should be a Torah state, and wants to rebuild the destroyed Temple, making it the Third Temple.
One is tempted to ask the black-hats, the men in long black coats and black suits, white shirts and black skull-caps, who they think will defend Israel against the enemies outside and inside the borders? Who they think will pay taxes, provide for the budgets that run schools and hospitals and armies?
One wonders what the future holds when on top of the constant threats from Israel’s neighbors, there are the niggling struggles within the country to control the Jewish radicals, and the Islamic fundamentalists.
The pressure is always on, no matter who sits in the Prime Minister’s office because there are always people who want to run the country their way. The papers are filled with analysts who say that democracy is a nice idea once a society has developed far enough to understand how it works. Israel, they write, is surrounded by countries who don’t. Countries that harbor a fundamental objection to Israel’s existence, not from a territorial perspective, but from an ideological one.
The ultra-orthodox and the settlers in Hebron are living in a bubble of their own construction, as if the army doesn’t keep them alive by providing 24/7 protection against the hostile Arab population. It’s as if the Cavalry would have abandoned the fort leaving the settlers in the Wild West to shift for themselves against the hostile Indian tribes. But in the Wild West the settlers were appreciative of the Cavalry’s presence. In Hebron the settlers resent the army. They see their struggle as the vanguard of a fight that will result from Olmert’s talk of pulling back from the West Bank. Pundits surmise that is what Professor Weiss is cursing. Not what happened last week, but what might happen next month. The pressure from U.S. Sec of State Rice is to impose democracy on the West Bank, is folly, say many, including former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk. He and others say that to accept PA Chairman Abbas as a legitimate leader, when in fact anarchy not democracy rules in the West Bank and Gaza,is self-deception. Further these experts say that Chairman Abbas is incapable of establishing, defending or leading an independent state called Palestine.
There are those who dream of peace, find partners where there are none simply because that’s all that’s available. But bringing a tired, old, battered quarterback onto the field, giving him a line of lazy, overweight, self-indulgent guys to protect him, and calling it a team that can win a championship is foolishness. Some analysts say it is no more than just finding some ringer to play just so the coaches can stay in the game.
From Professor Weiss and his commitment to settlement and settlers, to Secretary Rice and her commitment to Democracy and a Palestinian State, to Achmed Khatib and his commitment to driving the Jews out of the Middle East, and perhaps the world, to Syria looking to become a regional strongman, and Russia looking to become a world superpower, Israel is caught in a multi-sided vice with the pressure constantly applied.
In the roadrunner cartoons, Wiley Coyote would watch as his evil plans against the Roadrunner exploded in his face. We can only hope that somehow Israel pulls together to face Wiley Coyote, or the next time the dynamite goes off, it might just take out both sides.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Pollution in the Air and Army

A professor at Bar Ilan University may be indicted for inciting a riot during the evacuation of two families from the Hebron wholesale market on Tuesday. Reportedly, Prof. Hillel Weiss was filmed cursing Colonel Yehuda Fuchs during the evacuation, saying, "I hope his mother will be bereaved, his wife will be a widow and his children orphans." Weiss also yelled out that the soldiers were “"worse than the Germans."
orphans."

Politicians from Shas and Labor, including Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, have called on Israel’s Attorney General Manny Mazuz to indict Weiss. Weiss says his yelling out epithets was no worse than curses hurled at opposing sides during a soccer match.

A dozen religious soldiers refused to take part in the evacuation for ideological reasons. The soldiers were following orders from their rabbis. A father of one of the soldiers said he supported his son’s actions, blaming the army for removing Jews from their homes. Minister of Defense Ehud Barak has demanded charges be leveled against the soldiers for refusing to obey orders.

According to a Haaretz poll, one-third of the public believes the soldiers were justified in following their rabbis' orders to refuse to take part in the eviction. The poll showed that 54 percent of people who voted Likud in 2006 support insubordination, as did 75 percent of Shas voters.

The IDF sending religious soldiers serving in the territories, sometimes helping evict friends and neighbors has been criticized frequently. The IDF responds that soldiers are given orders and must carry them out, no mater what the order or where the action is to take place.

The soldiers, almost all from the “Hesder” Yeshiva program, serve a year and a half in the army, spread out over a three-year period in which they commit to a mixture of Yeshiva studies and army duty. Few of the religious soldiers come from ultra-orthodox backgrounds. Most are of the knit kepaw variety associated with the religious Zionist movement. However many of the soldiers come from families who live in west bank settlements, or sympathize with such settlements.

The news commentaries are filled with discussions of the soldiers refusing the order to evacuate the settlers in Hebron’s abandoned vegetable market. The stores which were occupied are in a closed off section of the market heavily guarded by Israeli troops. One of the reasons for the evacuation of the two settler families from the market was the thousands of troops it took to protect the few settlers.

A few hundred settlers, who are described as “extremist die-hard settlers” by liberals, live in the old nearby old city of Hebron, in a heavily fortified neighborhood amid nearly 100,000 Arab residents. Strife has been common between the settlers and the Arabs since the Israelis first moved in twenty odd years ago.

Israel’s new Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, is taking a forceful position against the settlers, something his predecessor Amir Peretz never did. Pundits see Barak’s move as part of his strategy to make a strong impression on the Israeli public as he prepares to make a bid for Prime Minister the next time general elections are called.

Barak has also made moves to mini-manage the IDF’s training exercises, as if he is a “ober Chief of Staff” as the Haaretz newspaper called him. Barak has increased live-fire exercises among the troops, something that hasn’t happened in years. One reserve soldier in a tank unit said this was the first time in five years he’d touched a shell for the tank’s canon.

The media is especially sensitive to the comments of men like Professor Wolf, and some of the Rabbi’s who run the Hesder Yeshiva programs, since talk like that of Wolf was what ultimately lead the religious Zionist settlers into thinking that the murder of former Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was justified.

A few Knesset members have suggested dismantling the Hesder Yeshiva soldiers units, and dispersing the religious soldiers among the regular army. As of now the Hesder Yeshiva students are allowed to stay together as groups of thirty to a squad. Regular army squads consist of forty soldiers. Hesder Yeshiva students are also allowed to join up as a group, with an entire class of a certain Yeshiva all going into the army together, and staying together in the same squads, from basic training through regular army service. Analysts say that this unity encourages a squad, or a majority of it, to refuse orders knowing they have the backing of their fellow soldiers. Critics say that dispersing the soldiers throughout regular units, without this concentration of friends in a specific unit, would decrease the incidence of soldiers refusing to carry out orders.

Religious Zionist soldiers have served with distinction since the beginning of the state. Many have lost their lives in the service of the country. Most of these religious Zionist soldiers do not serve in the Hesder program, but go into the regular army and do a three-year stint. Some critics believe that by changing the rules of the Hesder Yeshiva students service they would discourage these same students from joining the army. Others say that religious Zionist youth are anxious to serve in the army, and would do so with or without the Hesder Yeshiva structure. Some analysts believe that the Hesder program itself has a deleterious effect on other soldiers, since most Israeli youngsters are obligated to serve for three years in the regular army, while the “benishim” (literally the benei yeshiva or sons of the Yeshiva) only serve half that time.

The issue is to be reviewed by the IDF. As of now Chief of Staff Ashkenazi has called on all civilians of draft age to serve in the army. The Chief of Staff has said that draft dodging had become a common and socially accepted behavior. The burden of defending the state has fallen more and more on fewer and fewer people. Ashkenazi wants to make the public aware of the draft dodgers and bring shame to those avoiding army service.
The move to demand that ultra-orthodox non-Zionist Yeshiva students also serve in the army or at least do some form of community service is also under discussion. This issue comes up every so often but is beaten down due to the realities of coalition politics. Political analysts point out that Labor, Likud and Kadima need ultra-orthodox religious partners in a coalition; either to help form a government, or pass important legislation. Coalition politics is also responsible for true for budget allocations to Yeshiva students. Like the issue of army service, few ultra-orthodox men are active in the work force; mainly they exist on stipends handed out to support their studies. Not only don’t they pay taxes, critics point out, and don’t serve in the army, but they live off of public monies. While this issue upsets most Israelis, as long as coalition politics exists there is little to be done about these complaints.

Proponets of the Hesder Yeshiva program point out that these are religious boys who are not avoiding the draft, but serve in the army and then join the work force, pay taxes, and become responsible citizens.

The ironies of Israeli politics and finance are not lost on Hamas. According to a story in the Israeli press, Hamas has received monies from the Palestinian Authority to pay salaries of Hamas fighters. The Haaretz newspaper reports that these PA monies were actually given to the PA by Israel. The monies were tax rebates Israel had been holding back from the Palestinian Authority.

The Israeli media has been running a series of stories about the environment and pollution. The Haaretz paper ran a piece about an Arab man from the north of Israel who stepped on a fish while bathing in the Sea of Galilee. The fish had a serious bacterium that was transferred to the man through the wound in his foot. After the man collapsed from the infection caused by the fish, he was hospitalized and treated with massive amounts of anti-biotics. Stories of the pollution rampant in the Sea of Galilee have caused many not to swim there.

In another case, dangerously high levels of polluted air were discovered in the Haifa port area. Wednesday night residents of the area complained about burning in their eyes and throats. An investigation was launched and it was discovered that a Haifa company was reposnbile. The Environmental Protection Ministry called Frutarom Industries to an emergency hearing after discovering that an unusual emission of odors from its factory was the cause for the air pollution detected in the Haifa bay area. The ministry also found that Kryat Ata scrap metal dealers illegally burning tires and metal, were also responsible. Strong winds blew the poisonous fumes from Kryiat Ata to Haifa. According to the Yideot Achranot newspaper, “Robert Reuven, director of the Environmental Protection Ministry Haifa's bureau, said it was the chemical reaction between the two, fueled by strong winds coming from the west, that caused the problem to spread over a wide area.”

Other critics, interviewed on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet said that as long as companies find it profitable to pollute they will continue to do so. Only hefty fines making pollution unprofitable will stop them.

Given all of Israel’s existential problems, neither pollution in the air, or in the army, is good for the long-term health of the Israeli society.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Russia on the Border

Russia has signed a deal to reopen the Tartus and Latakia naval bases in Syrian ports along the Mediterranean. This will be the first time since the Iron Curtain fell that Russia will have a naval presence in the Middle East. The deal comes as a way for Syria to absolve herself of an $11 billion debt to Russia. According to the Yideot Achranot Newspaper, Russia will write-off 70%t of the Syrian debt. “The remaining debt will be returned by Syria partly in cash and partly through permanent port services to the Russian Navy ships in Latkia and Tartus.”
Another part of the arms deal includes advanced land-to-sea missile systems for protecting the coasts and the refurbished ports. The Russians claim that the move comes as a result of the U.S. insistence on establishing a defensive missile system in Europe, which Russia thinks is a direct threat.
The Arab Al-Jazeera TV News service quoted a senior Russian Defense Ministry official over the weekend as saying that Russia must be permanently present in the Mediterranean again.

Some observers see this as just another move by Russian President Putin to exert Russian influence in the region, and to announce that any conflict or move must now consider Russian reactions.

Israeli analysts think that the Israeli navy will be affected, and would have a problem striking at Syrian land-based facilities during wartime. The bases would also be a port for Russian spy ships in the Mediterranean, closely observing not only U.S. warships, but also studying Israeli air and sea weapons, and monitoring civilian and military communications activity. Israeli analysts also believe Russia would take sides in any future conflict in the region.
But the pundits point out that Russia may actually be able to restrain the outbreak of hostilities. So far Russia has reportedly not agreed to sell Syria the latest generation of Scud missiles, or a Russian anti-missile system. Nor will Russia sell the Syrians the latest MIG aircraft, but will upgrade the older MIG 29s.
Some experts point out that Russia could also help prevent a wave of fundamentalist Islam sweeping the region. Russian companies are currently constructing a $1 billion nuclear power plant in Bushehr, Iran, which is slow to reach completion. Some see this as a way for Russia to exercise control on the Iranian nuclear weapons ambitions.
In view of the Russian moves, some observers believe Israelis may sleep better knowing that the Minister of Defense is Ehud Barak and not Amir Peretz. Barak, testifying at the Winograd Commission investigating the War in Lebanon II, thought Israel should have “struck hard and said that unless these two boys are returned within six weeks, Israel will act at its own discretion.”
Barak said that the object of war is to win. Barak also defended the decision he made while Prime Minister to pull out of Lebanon in 2000.
"The situation in Lebanon was leading nowhere. In the year before my premiership there must have been more than 100 Israelis killed, and that includes the accident in which more than 70 boys were killed (the 1997 helicopter disaster)," said Barak in his testimony, which was released to the public on Monday.
"To me, the internal contradiction of the security zone was that its purpose was to provide defense for the residents of the north – but by prolonging our stay there, it became the problem rather than the solution," he said.
He said that the kidnapping of Goldwasser and Regev was “a shameful operational failure on our part. It wasn't something that had to happen, certainly not with the alerts we had and the level of preparedness that should have been realized, all the way to the ground troops.”
Barak said he would have first struck Hezbollah hard and then demanded that the two soldiers were returned within six weeks. "Unless these two boys are returned within six weeks,” Barak said in his testimony, of how he would have acted, “Israel will act at its own discretion. And now you take those six weeks and you use them to prepare the orchestra to play the piece you want it to perform with… that's something you need to prepare for."

Given the new circumstances with a Russian presence in Syria, perhaps Barak will get a chance to put his strategies into practice.

Sunday saw traffic snarled in Jerusalem as a result of a protest by the handicapped, who blocked roads in and out of Jerusalem, as well as within the city proper. The protest was for better facilities and more funds. But while that protest brought traffic in Jerusalem to a halt on Sunday, it was the protest Sunday afternoon by a few thousand people in support of increasing grants to Holocaust Survivors which grabbed the headlines.
The Holocaust Survivor’s march was attended by the children and grandchildren of the survivors, who consider the state’s behavior towards the survivors an insult, and elderly survivors, some of whom wore prison garb resembling that from the concentration camps. The protest was closely watched and widely covered by the world’s press, who reportedly thought that Holocaust Survivors living in Israel protesting for welfare benefits deserved broad coverage.

250,000 Israelis are currently defined as Holocaust survivors: including 150,000 Jews who escaped the Nazis to the former Soviet Union. Currently 50,000 Israelis are officially designated Holocaust survivors. They receive a total of one billion, seven hundred million shekels, (about $40 Million) or about 3,400 shekels (@$800) per person per year or about $67 a month.

But some critics think that tagging the Holocaust Survivor issue onto the plight of the elderly is cynical. An article which appeared last Friday in Yediot Achronot thought elderly citizens in Israel should be treated according to their social condition, not according to the hardships endured 60 years ago. “This is the obligation of the State; it’s the State's responsibility. All the rest is a cynical attempt to turn the most sensitive grief into cash.”

Political observers thought that many politicians were jumping on the popular Holocaust Survivor bandwagon, even if previously they’d worked against the very grants now under discussion. Likud’s Benjamin Netanyahu, called on the government to comply with the demands made by Holocaust survivors. Previously Netanyahu had supported sweeping cuts in the social welfare budgets, including those to the survivors. Israel’s current President Shimon Peres was Prime Minister in the 1980s. Critics point out that when he was Prime Minister he considered his greatest achievement large-scale cuts in the social welfare budgets.

Cynics point out that lawyers and public relations companies were behind the Holocaust Survivors march and stand to reap significant rewards in fees should new legislation be passed to give the survivors more money. An inter-ministerial committee has been set up to reexamine the stipends. One reporter, commenting on how the professionals ‘revved up’ the survivors, described the event as turning the Holocaust into pornography. Some Russian politicians are on the bandwagon trying to get votes. The TV, says one critic, is in it for ratings: numbers tattooed on an arm is good television, he wrote.

Another analyst said that 80,000 of the war refugees who came from the USSR are defined as needy. And they need to receive care, not because of what happened sixty-years ago, but because of their dire conditions today.

Meanwhile, the Likud party is in the throes of its own mini-revolution. Firebrand Moshe Feiglan is running for Likud Party leadership, and some say he may get as much as 30 percent of the vote in the Likud primaries. Feiglan was the founder of the right-wing Zu Artzenu party, which used demonstrations like that of the handicapped, but didn’t limit them to Jerusalem. Zu Artzenu closed down roads across the country. Feiglan also believes Israel should be ruled under a Torah law, not a secular law. Likud party member Limor Livnat said on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet that Feiglan does not represent the Likud and is trying to co-opt the party to enforce his own agenda.

Some analysts believe Feiglan may be a spoiler in the next primary, and wind up with a promise of a cabinet position if he supports Netanyahu rather than run against him.
Others see Feiglan as a dangerous fanatic out to take down democracy and the rule of law.

One thing is certain, in Israel, between the Russians, Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, and Israeli politics, no one can say it’s a boring place to live.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Skyguard Now, Peace Later

According to Haaretz, Israel’s leading newspaper, the government has revised its decision and may now start developing the advanced laser-based Skyguard missile protection system, which can be operational within 18 months.

The Skyguard project began in 1996 as a partnership between Israel and the U.S. It was originally meant to counter Hezbollah's 122mm Katyusha rockets. The current model is an improved version of the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL/Nautilus) project.

The laser-based project has passed performance tests in the U.S. with ease, racking up a nearly 100 percent successful interception rate. Northrop Grumman Space Technology's is in partnership with Israel in the project.

Despite successful tests, and the continuous rocket attacks from Gaza, and even Lebanon, the project was dropped about a year and a half ago. According to Haaretz, a strong lobby group, including many former defense ministry officials, have now asked Public Security Minister Avi Dichter to get the project going.

But the moribund, perhaps corrupt, Ministry of Defense had decided on another system, titled Iron Dome, (“Kipat Barzel" in Hebrew), which was to be developed by Rafael, the national authority for the development of weapons and military technology. The Iron Dome was based on intercepting rockets rather then using laser beams to destroy them, and was expected to take at least three years to build. An unnamed foreign country has reportedly agreed to allocate considerable funds toward developing the system.

Skyguard proponents stress that Skyguard was nearly completed, requiring minimal further investment to make it operational. The experts believe the best solution is to develop both systems. The Skyguard project was killed by former Minister of Defense and current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Some analysts believe it was the emergence of Ehud Barak as Defense Minister that brought Skyguard back from oblivion. Barak has also tightened his fist in striking against Hamas. Reportedly, Hamas has learned that sending rockets into Israel is now countered with Israeli commando raids into Gaza, as well as targeted attacks against Hamas leaders.

Another move by Barak is apparently in the Golan Heights. Analysts say that Bashir Assad was intent on striking what he perceived as a weak Israel in order to obfuscate a UN investigation into allegations that he was responsible for the assassination of Lebanon’s late and extremely popular anti-Syrian Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. According to Dr. Guy Bechor, writing in the Yideot Achronot newspaper, Assad was astounded by the success of Hezbollah against Israel and thought Israel was weak enough to attack, and defeat. However, the analysts point out that once Assad saw that the Israeli troops were massing on the Golan Heights and on the Syrian Border, ready to strike, or counter-strike, he decided against an attack. According to Bachor, Assad realized that an attack on Israel might well mean a Syrian defeat, and the end of his Alawite clan’s rule. According to Dr. Bachor, “Syria realized that the IDF is an army positioned at the gates of Damascus, and not the other way around.”

This move of the army may well be attributed to Barak’s decisions as Defense Minister. Writing in Yideot Dr. Bachor said, “There is also no doubt that the arrival of a serious defense minister who is closely familiar with the Syrians and their ways has also contributed to the force of the message.”

It is more the shame, then, that a new expose by the Yideot Achranot newspaper alleges serious election fraud during the last election for Labor Party head, which Barak won in a close race. According to the expose, Yedioth Aharonoth has obtained a tape of an observer’s testimony alleging threats and bribery in Arab town’s polling stations, and ballot-box stuffing in Ehud Barak favor. According to Barak's office: These are old accusations that were dismissed.

Moti Zaguri, an observer of the polls in the Arab town of Shaab during the Labor primaries run-off between Ehud Barak – now party chairman and Defense Minister - and Ami Ayalon on June 12, said, that "People were threatened… Vote counters tallied the votes… young children arrived and started to vote. They said, if you are with us, we'll beat you and kill you… Zidan Ganaim, chairman of the polling station, began to cooperate. He received NIS 5,000 (about $1190) from the vote counters… I have no party affiliation, but when I saw what was going on… I couldn't believe that such a thing exists in this country," Zaguri was recorded as saying.

The descriptions of what happened in the polling place smack of old stories heard around the infamous Tammany Hall, or prohibition-era Chicago. The expose alleges blatant fraud in a number of polling stations in Arab and Druze towns, with illegal people voting, including children voting, flyers advising people not to seal their envelopes with their ballots in them, and ballots counted over and over again.

Ehud Barak won the election by a narrow margin but before the Arab votes were counted his competitor Ayalon was ahead 25,918 to Barak's 25,247. Some of the voting stations in the report showed an unbelievable advantage for Barak, even though Ayalon was a clear favorite among the Arab voters. In Shaab Barak reportedly received 228 of 231 votes (98.8%), in Yefia Zaka, he received 91.3%, in Shfaram 97% and in Julis, nearly 80 percent.

It is not clear if Bark knew about these alleged irregularities or if they were carried out by over-zealous party members. In either case, he won the election. However, the expose further revealed that the chairman of the elections committee, retired judge Amnon Strashnov, did not sign off on the elections protocol officially.

Barak’s office dismissed this report as old news that was already disproved. Others consider it a good sign. Barak, they say, knows how to get things done in this country. In that he and Ehud Olmert are made from the same cloth, they say. Given Israel’s enemies and the critical decisions that must be made, perhaps playing by the rules is not a way to win, and that those who do play by the rules are weak.

Others point out that the current diplomatic efforts by U.S. Sec. of State Condeleeza Rice to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table is an example of high-minded weakness. Pundits writing in Israel’s media make it clear that the Palestinian President Abbas has no power and less authority. Any deal made with him would be a hollow diplomatic victory. They point out that even the deal he signed with Israel that guaranteed the Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades would lay down their weapons fell apart. Only 60% of the Fatah men turned in their weapons in exchange for an Israeli amnesty, even though the other 40% had also signed the forms.

Dr. Rice wants to hold a summit in Washington in November, and include the Saudis. But it is also not clear how important a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal is to the Saudis. What is clear is the importance of the $20 billion in weapons that the US is holding as a carrot on a stick in front of the Saudis, enticing them to attend the summit. Analysts are skeptical this summit provide any meaningful results. U.S. Sec. of State Rice wants a diplomatic success to cap her tenure in office. Analysts say that both she and U.S. President Bush believe that if they can help give birth to a Palestinian State they will have made their contribution to peace in the middle east, and perhaps even receive recognition from the Nobel Peace Prize committee.

But others have received that prize, the critics say, like Yassir Arafat, who never had any intention of making peace. The prize was just a means to distract the world while he waged war on Israel, they say. In that case, this new summit, some of the critics point out, might serve Hezbollah, Iran and Hamas in the same way. While the world thinks peace is on the table, they will be planning their next stage of the war to drive the Israelis from the Holy Land.

Since PA Chairman Abbas has no power to implement a Peace, and the Americans have no power to enforce a Peace, the summit may be like academics attending a conference where they read their papers then return to their ivory towers with no practical implementation as a result. Except that the Saudis will get their weapons, the US will feel that they’ve kept the Saudi pipelines open, and the Israelis and Palestinians will go on with their cold war. Even if a Palestinian State is declared, the odds of it standing on its own two feet for long are slim.

What Dr. Rice has misunderstood, pundits say, is that the Israeli Palestinian problem is not the key to peace in the middle east. The problem is one of Israel and the Arab world, a western democracy against a nascent Moslem theocracy. The emergence of a Palestinian State will not change that equation.

Meanwhile, the experts say the best course is to stick to reality, not academic discussions. Reality means the Skyguard, and the Iron Dome. Reality means prepare for the worst and hope for the best. Reality is that Israel is not better off with a hollow peace accord than an effective missile defense system: a system which will render the rocket and missile threats of Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas irrelevant.