Players and Poverty

On Players and Poverty

The Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson is in serious trouble. He has been grilled for 8-hours by the Israeli police on suspicion of embezzlement. According to a report in today’s Haaretz daily newspaper, during his tenure with another organization, Minister Hirchson allegedly embezzled about $500,000 from the Nili non-profit association, about $125,000 in cash, the rest in checks and money transfers. All were deposited into the Finance Minister’s bank account. Haaretz quotes then state comptroller Eliezer Goldberg as saying he shelved a report on the mater in deference to “the right to privacy.”

Two other items tie into this latest scandal of how Israel’s powerful men view society.
One is the sentencing of former Justice Minister Haim Ramon to 120 days of community service for his ‘sexual misconduct’ conviction. However the sentence said there was no ‘moral turpitude’ to the charge, which allows Ramon to remain a member of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament. Whould he have gone to jail had he been an office worker? You guess.

The other issue is another charge by yet another woman against Israel’s beleaguered president Moshe Katzav, who has been indicted for rape. A new witness has come forward saying that whenever she sees Katzav, she sees a monster.

These are the leading stories in Israel. This is not to mention the case of Zev Rosenstein, Israel’s “master criminal,” recently sentenced to 40 years in jail by an American court for trafficking in 800,000 Ecstasy pills. Rosentstein is considered one of Israel’s leading crime lords. His sentence was to be carried out in the USA away from his Israeli cronies, but was suddenly cut from 40 years to 12, to be served in Israel. Rather than finding himself cut off in some hard-core US prison, surrounded by White Supremacists and Moslem-Americans, or just plain bad-ass criminals, he will serve out his term in relative seclusion in Israel, benefiting from visits from his family, and one assumes access to a mobile phone. It is commonly assumed he will run his criminal activities from jail.

How do these issues tie into a meeting with a credit manager at a bank, former Finance Minister Benjamin ‘Bibi’ Netanyahu, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fisher?
Or former Justice Minister Amnon Rubinstein? Simply, money and connections.

Hirschson was a big-shot Likud activist who reportedly embezzled money not only for himself, but for the Likud party, from the Nili non-for-profit association. The Likud connection may have been how the matter was covered up until now. However, someone leaked the matter to the State Prosecutor and the Press. Now the hounds are at the bottom of the tree howling up at Hirschson.

This matter wouldn’t be so disturbing if it was an isolated instance. Couple it with Ramon and Katzav’s sexual amorality, and Rosenstein’s sudden appearance back in Israel, and the dots start to get connected. The powerful think they can get away with whatever they want, as was made clear in the charges against both Ramon and Katzav. Rosenstein is a wild card. Did he bribe someone? Did he offer to turn state’s evidence in a secret deal to relocate to Israel? Who knows. But people who have leverage get what they want, or try to take it if denied, as was he case with Ramon and Katzav. With Rosenstein, he and his enemies were conducting running street battles that killed innocent civilians.

Amnon Rubeinstein, former minister in many Israeli cabinets, wrote today in the Jerusalem Post that Israel had misused its position to provide succor for the rich at the expense of the poor. He claimed that Bibi Netanyahu’s fiscal policy was successful, but a failure. Israel is again on the economic rise, but still, Israel was shrinking from its obligation to the poor.

Pesach time one sees bread lines in abundance as families turn up at food warehouses to receive enough to feed their families over Passover. Sure, hands out, shopping basket filling with free goodies, is a cause for resentment among the hard-working middle-classes. But Israel has over 200,000 children living under the poverty line; approximately 20 per cent of the population is estimated to be below the poverty line. Rubenstein wants to know what this great burgeoning economy is doing for the lesser among us? Even for what he calls the “working poor.”

Israel is undergoing a process of “Americanization.” Today that looks more like Ronald Regan’s financial policy, which left the homeless to wander the streets, sleep in public parks, and starve to death. America’s soul was replaced with the ‘bottom line.’ With the need to get richer.

Israel now has the same need. Companies must show a positive growth, or like in the USA, the CEO is bounced out on his ear. Stockholders want more money, not social welfare. The economy runs on financial growth, not handouts. Streamlining, redundancy, outsourcing, all catchwords to mean more profits.

Credit Suisse just announced a 16 million Swiss Franc bonus to its CEO for bringing in record profits. Okay, that’s a bank. Question: do the Credit Suisse’s bank’s customers benefit, or just the CEO, and the stockholders?

In Israel it was announced today that the five major banks all released record profits for the year. Question: at whose expense? The government is already investigating the high bank fees for the simplest of tasks, and there is even talks of further regulation.

Unlike US banks, Israeli banks keep very skimpy hours of service to the public. And you have to be a math whiz to not only figure out your statement, but just when the bank is open. Some day’s the banks are open only in the morning, from 8:30 to 12:30, or is it one o’clock? Some days the banks are also open in the afternoon, but is it Sunday, or Monday, or Thursday? All in all the banks are open maybe 28 hours a week.

‘Use the internet,’ the customer is told, when complaining the service has slipped by approximately 60 percent over the last three decades. ‘That’s what it’s for.’ Of course for a while the Israeli banks had a telephone service, but you needed a code, and the code kept changing. Turns out so does the internet code. You don’t use your code for a month, it changes, and you have to go back into the bank to get another. Small stuff, but a nuisance.

Do the big shots who run the country have the same rules? Finance Minister Hirschson had a line of credit that far exceeded the Bank of Israel’s limits. Once banks had people calling the customers to remind them they’d exceeded their limit, or the check was going to bounce. Now the banks cry a shortage of manpower to do this. When it is suggested kindly to them that more and better service might help the customers, even though cutting into the enormous profits of the banks, the customer is told, “This is Israel. That’s the way things work.”

One points out the inconsistencies: that Mr. Hirschson doesn’t have to worry about his overdraft, since the banks think of him as a valued customer. Or take Eliezer Fishman, an Israeli financier who ran up a $60 million bank debt, and then defaulted. “Oh, don’t bring that up,” the bank’s assistant manager said. “That’s different.”

Sure it is. Fishman, and Hirschson are in with the ‘boys.’ Little hard working people get trampled, trapped, trashed by the system which has been “Americanized.’ Except it hasn’t. The great-unwashed masses are Americanized. The people on top still carry on as they always did, the ‘old boy network.’ The forgotten but not yet gone former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a prime example, a politician who mastered the game of old boyism, bringing his sons into the club with him. This corruption from the top set a standard which filtered down to the very bottom of the rung, to the bank clerk who looks at clients differently, depending on their ‘clout.’

The pity is that the system doesn’t work. This old boyism, this cronyism, this corruption, has stultified the over calcified Israeli bureaucracy to the point that nothing can get done without ‘clout.’ In Arabic the word is ‘bakshish,’ a payoff. Either in money, goods, or services. So the well-connected get richer, get things done, get the contracts and the customers, and the money; the poor stand in lines waiting for hand-outs,from charitable organizations run by well-meaning people who are more interested in Soul than Clout, or from other do-good institutions. The government has cut back severely on welfare payments.

One year the public will stage a protest against this ‘system.’ The well-connected, like the office manger in Ehud Olmert’s office now under indictment with her brother and others for helping businessmen cut their tax obligations, will be frowned upon as crooks, not looked up to as masters of the system.

The poor will have some backing from the state.
Not everyone can make a good living.
Not everyone can be at the top of their class. Not everyone can feed their family.
Tzedeka is one of the principals guiding Judaism. Without some sort of welfare system, a society is like a machine, without a soul, a conscience, or a real purpose beyond basic survival.

Couple this coldness with a layer of corruption so thick even Superman would have trouble blasting through it, and one sees a situation ripe for exploitation by the enemy.
The foibles and faults brought out by the last war in Lebanon are still there. The culture of corruption and cronyism still exists.
The poor are still poor, but equal in one way to the rich: when the missiles start again, they’re both only flesh and blood.
Israel better clean up the system before it is too late to fix it. Israel better get priorities that include compassion and humanity, not just personal aggrandizement and profits. If not, who knows, maybe the Big Guy up there will decide He’s seen enough and wipe out this little experiment called Israel again.

Sit Down, Turn Around, Pick A Box Of Oranges

One of the nice aspects of Passover is that the holiday brings out the charitable nature of the Israelis. Offical statistics say that a full twenty-percent of Israelis live below the poverty line.

Friday is the end of the work week in Israel. Almost all the open air markets around the country shut down for Shabat. Leftover produce is tossed in the garbage, if it can’t be refrigerated. Friday afternoons see the poor scrounging through the garbage bins near the open air markets, filling their plastic bags with fruits and vegetables.

Come Passover help comes in more official forms. Charitable organizations usually run by ultra-Orthodox men. Warehouses are stocked with dry goods, matzot and grape juice. A few days before the holiday frozen chickens, fresh fruit and vegetables are added. When those in need come for their packages, everything is included for an entire family to enjoy a festive seder.

This spirit of giving may come from collective guilt, or simply from a generous spirit. Tzedeka is a time-honored tradition in Judaism. A family is encouraged to give up to 10 per cent of their income. Some give more, some less. The pleas for donations that everyone receives in the mail are annoying. Still one guy I know makes out a donation for “Chai” and mails it back to each organization that asked for a donation.

Giving isn’t restricted to Passover, of course. Because poverty isn’t only something that surfaces on the holidays. It is endemic to the culture. Some blame this on the “Americanization” of Israel.

As Israel becomes more a market driven economy, traditional values like Tzedeka go out the window. The bottom line isn’t helped by giving away money. Money becomes the one mark of distinction, as evidenced by the car one drives, the clothes one wears, the jewelry the female of the species can put on display as a means to intimidate those lower down on the scale of material comfort.

Israel’s economy is no longer in the “start-up” mode, where everyone is helped out no matter what their needs or contribution to society. Now the standard is ‘pay as you go.’ Health care now carries a charge. Subsidies have been dropped from many food items. There hasn’t been an active Minister for Welfare in who knows how long.

Just as the volunteer organizations took up the slack left by the government during the second War in Lebanon, many of the same organizations provide a hot meal for the needy on a daily basis. Come the holidays a greater effort is required.

A couple of days ago this reporter was in an orange grove in Kibbutz Kvutzot Shiller, on the outskirts of Rehovot. An organization called Sulchan L’Shulchan is in charge of providing produce to those soup kitchens and support groups around the country. One of the sources of food for Sulchan L’Shulchan is this kibbutz orchard.

The orchard, we were told it is about 600 dunam (about 150 acres), is owned by a wealthy man from Rehovot who donates his crops every year to the poor. Shulchan L’Shulchan is in charge of the fields. Groups of schoolchildren of all ages, factory workers, hi-tech engineers, volunteer a morning, arriving in suitable clothing to help pick the fruit from the trees. Some months its oranges, others avocados, others tangerines.

The day we were there a group of grade school children from Ashdod piled off of two buses and headed into the orchards. The children were part of the “Tali” network of schools which inserts some Jewish traditions and learning into a secular school. In this case the children had learned about “Tzdeka” charity, and the sources for it in the ancient texts, then put the learning into practice by coming out to the fields to pick fruit meant for the Passover tables of needy Israelis.

The fruit was gathered in plastic boxes, and hauled away by a tractor to a packinghouse, where it was picked up by trucks and driven to distribution centers around the country.
Yaniv was the student’s guide. He wore a sort of Greek fisherman’s cap, but his was made in Russia, but he wasn’t Russian, rather a purebred Israeli. Yaniv was religious. About thirty, he had a beard, and his peyote (side curls) were concealed by his cap. He wore jeans and a work shirt and boots.

“I’m surprised at his ability to communicate with these secular school kids,” said Miriam, a visitor to the field as part of the Tali support staff. “I never see ultra-Orthodox outside of their black garb. And they always put me off, but he’s a good guy.”
Miriam was encouraged by what she saw. “All this volunteering, I mean, it gives me hope that Israelis are all that selfish after all. That they really do have a heart and soul. I thought they’d lost it.”

In fact three different groups were in the fields at the same time as the Tali Ashdod kids. One group was from the Cleveland Hebrew School, on tour in Israel. Yaniv said “we get groups from all over the country. Depending on the season, we get groups nearly every day. And the food gets picked up by the various organizations.”

“I feel like I’m helping someone,” said Tomer, a fourth grade Tali Ashdod student. “People who don’t have as much as I do.”

Parents of these schoolchildren also showed up to pick. Ricki Cohen wore a tight powder blue training outfit and pink running shoes. A pretty woman with a Charlie’s Angels blondish hairdo and designer sunglasses, Ricki said, “I was raised to believe we are supposed to help out where we can. I’m always volunteering. If I can help someone else have a good Pesach by spending a few hours picking oranges with my kids, I’m happy to do it.”

When it was over the little group of kids picked nearly five tons of oranges. All for charity.

As Miriam said, maybe there is hope for the country after all.

Whose Leader Is This Anyway?

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted it: he is unpopular. This is about as surprising as finding out that lions roar. Anyone who reads a newspaper in Israel, watches TV or listens to the radio is told several times a week that Olmert is unpopular.

Sometimes the reporters quote facts and figures, showing Olmert behind his Kadima protégé Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in the polls. Other times the reporters quote Olmert’s rivals, like Likud head Bibi Netanyahu, or Labor hopeful Ehud Barak.
Each of these people has a vested interest in blaring the news that Olmert is unpopular.
Each has their own agenda.

Even Israel Security Agency chief Avi Dichter wants to be Prime Minister. Turns out that’s partly behind why he is always making headlines with new proclamations of impending disaster. Nothing gets headlines like impending disaster.

Manipulating public opinion is an art. Done well careers are built and fortunes are made. Done poorly, or inappropriately, careers are ruined. Who recalls Alexander Haig’s gaff after U.S. President Ronald Regan was shot by John Hinkley, Jr.? “I’m in control,” Haig told the TV cameras. He meant well, that the country was in good hands. But the message was sinister: he was in control. Fine, but who asked for him to be in control? He sort of skipped the entire electoral process, as well as the chain of who assumes control of the US government in case of an assassination. Haig’s career was flushed down the toilet with that mistake.

Or take Howard Dean’s misstatement while running for the Democratic presidential nomination. Who even remembers what he said? But it was enough to make him look stupid, frazzled, and all too human. Flush that nomination down the toilet, too.

Going back farther we have Richard Nixon sweating on camera when debating the debonair John Kennedy. Flush that election down the toilet as well.

Which leads to the question: what makes a leader, and why do people follow?

In Israel today the population is worried. Iran is threatening Israel with nuclear annihilation; Hezbollah is threatening more rockets, with larger warheads and greater range. Hamas in Gaza is copying Hezbollah, digging underground bunkers, stocking up on more powerful missiles, getting ready to attack.

Now, just when the kettle is starting to boil, PM Olmert told the AIPAC convention that if the US pulls out of Iraq, Jordan might fall to Islamic fundamentalism.
Olmert, who we’ve already determined is about as popular as a wolf in a hen house, didn’t make any friends at AIPAC with that comment. He may have pleased George W. Bush, but most of the AIPAC folks didn’t vote for Bush, either.

So, is Olmert just playing nice guy, supporting Bush and his policies, as a way to stay friendly with the White House? After all, Olmert is still the Prime Minister, Israel is still a country, and Bush is still the President of the USA. All sorts of things come out of that relationship. Military stipends, US government orders for Israeli products, planes, tanks, guns, training, you name it. Olmert may have been politically correct to make nice to Bush, even if it pissed off the Democratic supporters in AIPAC.

Then there’s the economy. Olmert says he’s a good manager. Unpopular, sure, but a good manager. The economy is thriving. He is responsible for that. He was the Finance Minister, and now the Prime Minister. Who else, if not him, can take credit?
And Israelis like their economic security. Rockets may fall on Kryiat Shmona, but as long as the shekels keep flowing, it’s not that important. After all, who ever goes to Kyriat Shmona anyway?

The issue of war is sometimes used to great effect to take the blame away from politicians for mishandling the economy. That wasn’t the case in the War in Lebanon II. The Israeli economy was flourishing, and still is. Talk of war doesn’t do the economy any good, but it didn’t hurt either, it seemed. Except the country spent a bundle fighting Hezbollah to a draw, losing over 100 soldiers in battle, maiming hundreds more. Too bad.
But what does it mean, tachlis (in reality) as the Israelis say? Not much, unless you’re a bereaved friend or family member, or wounded soldier. Like Kyriat Shmona, not many people got killed, did they, and that was six-months ago.

So we’re back in the race for political leadership in Israel. Olmert may well be accused of mishandling the War in Lebanon by the Winograd commission investigating the war. Recommendations may be made that he resign. So far he’s not budging from his seat of power. He likes it. Who blames him?

It is more than possible that the IDF may soon “invade” Gaza to attempt to neutralize the growing Hamas missile threat. The Israeli press mentions the possiblity more every day. Rumors of an impending invasion are circulating in towns and cities, talked about by soldiers who are undergoing special training. But is this invasion necessary, or a sideshow to turn public attention away from the issues at hand: poor government management in the face of existential threats?

When one steps back, one wonders why a man, or woman, decides to assume the mantle of leadership: and how they get to power? If all men are equal, why do people follow one person over another? Why does Clinton win favor, and Nixon get threatened with jail? Why did Nixon get to power? Did J. Edgar Hoover stay in his throne because of his files on powerful people, because he was smart and did a good job, or because he had Charisma?

Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Hussein, Achmanejad, Idi Amin, cannibalistic African tribal leaders, all have one thing in common: they gain public support, then surround themselves with bodyguards to protect themselves. Hitler brought amphitheaters to their feet with cheers. But he was a homicidal maniac. How can we judge leadership? Who even wants to be a leader? What are the motivations? Ego? Power? Wealth? Status? Prestige?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt reportedly said that as a member of the educated privileged classes it was his duty to serve the common good. Wonderful thought. Was it true? Let’s assume it was. But today, whom do we have with those ideals? Moses was a modest man, shy, who used his brother as his spokesman. He was a reluctant leader, chosen by God himself, so the story goes. But today, who stands up to be chosen? Those who want to do good, or those who want something good for themselves, or their buddies, or both?

Olmert isn’t a homicidal maniac. Neither is he popular. Maybe the two go together? In some ways he is doing a good job. In other ways he is at the helm until someone else steps up to the bridge. Should another storm blow in, he may wind up aground on a sharp coral reef. Or the storm may just pass over, like the last one.

But sooner or later someone is going to have to take the helm because the weather forecast is for more storms, some even converging. In that case, we just may need divine intervention to make it to calm waters.

Let’s just hope that a popular, charismatic leader doesn’t show up, one that turns out to be so enamored with power that no one notices until its too late they’re as crazy as a loon. Given those alternatives, maybe a milktoast manager with a weak smile is a better choice. Probably why no one is in a hurry to dump Olmert.

Intel Is Swell, or not?

According to the Hatzofeh newspaper, which caters to Israel’s religious community, Yuval Diskin's , the head of Israel’s Security Agency, recently testified in the Knesset testimony regarding the strengthening of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Diskin warned that, "If the IDF does not take the initiative and deal with it soon, in a broad ground action to 'clean' the Gaza Strip of its great arsenal of war materiel, it will find it difficult to carry out the mission when compelled to at Hamas's initiative."

A report in the daily Haaretz newspaper reported that Diskin claims that perhaps as many as two hundred Hamas military men are currently being trained in Iran. But the one that could give the Intel crowd pause deals with the new Hamas missiles reportedly capable of flying out of Gaza and landing in Kyriat Gat, home of Intel’s mutli-Billion dollar Fab plant.

Intel has had a Fab (Fabrication Plant) in Israel for over twenty years. The plant in Kryiat Gat opened about a decade ago and augmented Fab 8, located in Jerusalem.. A recent government decision to grant more tax credits to Intel resulted in the massive chip maker’s expansion of the Kyriat Gat plant, but at the expense of the old Jerusalem Fab, which is to be closed down soon.

Intel has used the Israeli plants to great effect. Not only are wafers of chips manufactured in Israel, but Intel’s Israeli R&D center has succeeded in producing some of the most significant advances in chip design for the American mother company. The Pentium 4 was designed at the Haifa R&D center, as well as work on the duo chip.

Intel might now be worried about their productivity and investment in Israel, though.
Should Hamas send a missile at Kyriat Gat, it will upset the beleaguered chip manufacturers processing ability. Hamas, in one blow, could damage both Israeli and American interests.

Skittish foreign investors have shied away from Israel. One client of an Israeli hi-tech firm based near Tel Aviv refused to come to Israel to visit the corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility of an Israeli company, worried about a missile attack. And this was six-years ago. Then the company commissioned us to prepare a filmed tour of the plant to be sent to the customer. Today even that wouldn’t assuage the customer’s reticence at placing a hefty order with the Israeli company.

Israel’s economy has been robust over the last few years, and even grew during the recent War in Lebanon II. However, those missiles struck the north of the country, mostly farm land and sparsely occupied towns and cities. A missile that hits Kryiat Gat would send Intel scurrying for cover, and many other investors snuggling up beside them.

The issue isn’t only people like Warren Buffet buying Iscar for $4 Billion, the issue is people placing orders with Israeli manufacturers fearing that the orders will never be filled due to security concerns.
Perhaps Intel might be best served by doing it’s own R&D, looking into some hi-tech way to protect it’s plant from missiles. Perhaps designing and implanting their own security, since Israel has yet to come up with a system that defends against missiles.

One smack of a missile in Kyriat Gat may be the sound heard round the world.

The generals are still at it as well, casting around for blame, some well-meaning others with an agenda. Gen. (Res.) Amnon Lipkin Shakat, formally Israel’s Chief of Staff, blamed the IDF for the foibles of the last war in Lebanon.

The Winograd Commission investigating the war, said its initial findings would be made public in April. Reportedly the commission blames PM Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, and ex-Chief of Staff Halutz for much of the problems.

PM Olmert has already said that he had a plan in place prior to the outbreak of the war. Sources inside the IDF dispute this, saying there was no plan nor were any discussion held with the PM or Minister of Defense.

Both Peretz and Olmert are getting slammed in the polls. Neither man has a double digit rating, with Peretz near the bottom of his Labor Party list for possible leaders.
Inertia seems to have set in, though. No one is rushing to call for new elections. Many of the Knesset members are comfortable with the coalition the way it is. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz recently appointed a Kadima crony to a high ranking job, and was taken to task in the press. It is unlikely the appointment won’t go through.

A few people in the streets are also complacent about the Prime Minister and the government. The economy is good, one hears, why shake things up. The problems raised by the last war will be solved. Israel will survive. Wait until the elections.

This may well be the case. But the media is still full of reports of impending disaster, of missile build-ups in Lebanon, Hamas terrorists training in Iran, Syrian weapons shipped to Hezbollah. Nor has anything positive been said about the preparations for a missile defense system to protect the Israelis against Hezbollah, Hamas, or Iranian rockets. Lastly, the bomb shelters are still in disarray.

When and if the government is tested again, one hopes there are solutions the government isn’t making public. One hopes.

Otherwise, it may be up to Intel’s Andy Grove, a Czech Holocaust Survivor himself, to come up with a missile defense program aimed at saving Intel’s investment in Israel, with the added benefit it may just also save Israel.

One hopes.

A Visit to Kiryat Shmona

Kiryat Shmona, just three miles from the Lebanese border, officially has 24,000 thousand residents. Some say the real number is closer to 18,000. Kiryat Shmona, was founded in 1953, mostly by immigrants from Morocco. Today nearly 5,000 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union also live in the city.

During the last war 1,000 katyusha rockets fell on Kiryat Shmona, out of the 4,000 fired at Israel by Hezbollah. While sixty percent of Kiryat Shmona’s residents left during the war for safer cities, 6,000 residents, among them 2.000 children, stayed.

According to Prof. Mooli Lahat, of the Stress Prevention Center, nearly 30 percent of the population suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome caused by the recent War in Lebanon II.

Professor Lahat, a world expert in stress and trauma therapy, had only two therapists, treating about ten clients a week. at the Kiryat Shmona center when the war broke out. Today the center has twenty-four therapists treating nearly three hundred people.

Dr. Lahat, who is also a stress and trauma advisor to the Israel Ministry of Defense, said that new treatments have helped over 80 per cent of those who came for treatment return to normal. According to Dr. Lahat, who has been running a stress center in the north for over 25-years, the recent war was so traumatic to the population that many people were suffering from problems that arose because old emotional wounds were reopened,

Nira Kapansky, a second generation Holocaust survivor, originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is one of the therapists at the center. She relates the story of one woman, also a second generation Holocaust survivor, who came for treatment because running to the bomb shelters brought about a hallucination that she was her mother fleeing the Nazis.

Children still suffering from the after effects of the war also come for treatment. Some experience nocturnal incontinence; others can’t be alone, or in a dark room. Nava Kaplan sees this reaching out for help a symbol of the reliency of the Kiryat Shmona residents. “The fact they sought help proves they want to get better.”

Three of the rockets that rained down on Kiryat Shmona landed in the Dancinger High School. Luckily the school was closed for summer break. Still some of the students suffered during the war. 12th grader Timor Biran told of sleepless nights caused by the constant bombardment not only from the Katuysha rockets, but also the ceaseless firing of Israeli canon at Hezbollah.

Both the Kiryat Shmona municipality and the Israeli government were criticized for not rising to the challenges presented by the war. There were accusations that the leadership broke down.. Many of those that sought safety in the bomb shelters,found themselves out of food and water, stuck in the shelters with nothing to do while the rockets landed over their heads.

Those that had the means or places to go, left Kiryat Shmona. Frequently it was only the poor who stayed. The poor and the brave. Young people who stepped up to fill the leadership void.

Ariah Eldad, 17, stayed during the war and helped in the situation room, answering phones, carrying packages. He said he learned this from his father, who runs a Kiryat Shmona community center. Ariah said that it was incumbent on the youth to lend a hand. “We are the future of the city. It is our responsibility.”

Russian born Alexi Baransky, 18, spent the war shuffling between the situation room to the bomb shelters. “We risked our lilves. Once a Katyusha fell just thirty feet away from me. I was lucky, I hid behind a low wall, and it saved me.”

Alexi told of taking packages to people. “They were in the shelters for thirty days. Everything was closed. No food. Nothing to buy. I felt that I saved lives bringing them these packages.”

Alexi thought that volunteering was important. “It is a way of life. If we can help, not change the world, but just the city, that is good.”

Gili Pardes, 18, was born and raised in Kiryat Shmona. During the she also volunteered. “We are the future, if we don’t help, who will.”

Worse still were the conditions in the 150 bomb shelters. Some hadn’t been used in years except as playground for mischievous children who had bonfires in them, used them as garbage dumps, or toilets. Suddenly the population had to go into the shelters, the first time in years.

Some of the shelters were unusable. No electricity, no running water, no mattresses. A heavy-set barefoot woman stood near one of the bomb shelters and explained how she and her husband hand to hide under their beds, since they had no where else to go during the Katyusha attacks. Another middle-aged religious woman, the mother of triplets, said she could only go as far as the garbage-ridden stairs of her local shelter, because of the filth and smell.

Some members of the Kiryat Shmona municipality are currently under investigation for misappropriation of funds raised, or provided by the government, for the upkeep of the bomb shelters. During and after the war it was the Jewish philanthropic organizations that stepped in to fill the void left by the government. Jewish groups from around the world donated money to renovate the shelters, provide food and water, send boxes of games for children to play with during the long days and nights in the shelters.

Some organizations even donated money to support a group of volunteers and professionals who were providing free business plans and consulting to local small and medium-sized businesses. The idea was to send MBAs into the community to help businesses not only get back on their feet but also launch a more appropriate business model which would energize the economy of the north of Israel.

Kiryat Shmona is no stranger to violence. According to the Kiryat Shmona municipality, nearly 3,000 rockets have fallen on the town since it was founded. The first terrorist attacks came in 1970 when a band of PLO terrorists infiltrated from Lebanon and killed and wounded residents of a Kiryat Shmona apartment building. In 1978 after katyusha rockets fell on Kiryat Shmona, the Israeli Government launched operation Litani, to drive the PLO back 25 kilometers beyond the Lebanese border. In 1981 100 Katyushas again fell on Kiyriat Shmona, precipitating the first Lebanon War, which took place in 1981.That war took the Israeli army to Beirut, and saw the expulsion of the PLO from Lebanon.

The common feeling among residents of Kiryat Shmona is that the bomb shelters must be livable, because another war is just around the corner. But in Kiryat Shmona another war always seems to be just around the corner.

Thinking of entire families living in a dormitory setting, thirty, fifty, a hundred to a shelter, is difficult to imagine. People sleeping on metal shelves covered by a thin foam mattress, two toilets for an entire building, no cooking facilities, fans instead of air-conditioners, one cramped space used as living room, dining room, kitchen and play room for dozens of people. This is something that is nearly impossible to imagine for those who live a comfortable suburban existence with ample living space and extra bedrooms.

Touring Kiryat Shmona one is reminded of wealthy Jewish businessmen who lived in German mansions, owned a department stores that occupied several square blocks of Berlin, and had homes in the country, only to wind up in a train stations, holding suitcases, boarding trains for Auschwitz.

Take a wealthy person and stuff them in a bomb shelter for a month with dozens of people all sharing one room and one gets the idea how difficult it would be to adjust to tragedy. The fact that many of the residents of Kiryat Shmona stuck in the shelters were poor doesn’t make their hardship any easier, it only makes the transition from a cramped apartment to a cramped shelter less a leap of imagination.

Today Kiryat Shmona is getting help to fix what was busted by the last war, but the problems that have existed for decades, unemployment,, poor education, not even one movie theater, haven’t been touched. The world looked at Kiryat Shomna on the evening news, got excited, started programs, sent in help, but then forgot about the town. That has been the plight of Kiryat Shmona for years. Perhaps the next generation of kids will really step up and lead places like Kiryat Shmona out of the wilderness.

The Rudderless Ship

The exchange of fire between Israeli and Lebanese troops lasted all Wednesday night and well into Thursday morning, a resident of Moshav Avivim, on the Lebanese border, told on Israel’s Army radio.

But according to him, this is nothing new. The resident said that as far as he’s concerned the Second War in Lebanon never ended. “There is firing every night. And we still have tanks here. The lights knocked down during the war are still out, six months later. And the fence around the kibbutz knocked down by tanks in six or seven places during the war is still down.”

The resident, Avivim’s head of security, told the Army Radio that he hadn’t slept all night, but neither had his five children. “I’m not sending them to school today,” he said.

During the flare-up on Wednesday night the resident said that he wasn’t told by the Army to go into the shelters, or to stay out. “We weren’t told anything. At first we thought that the war had started again. All night we heard the firing. We didn’t know what was going on.”

A news cameraman for AP said he was in Avivim a week ago and the place still looked like an armed camp. “The roads are torn up. The fences are down. And there’s firing all the time.” He agreed that for Avivim the war has still not ended. This fact has not filtered down to the rest of Israel, nor out to the world, except in brief bursts of obvious activity like the one Wednesday night.

According to media reports an Israeli Army bulldozer crossed the border fence into disputed Lebanese territory to clear mines. The Army was careful to stay within the “Blue Line”, which marks the official Israeli border decided upon by the UN, but which Hezbollah claims is a mistake. According to the UN Israel was still within Israeli territory clearing the mines.

Lebanese forces opened fire on the Israeli troops. Israel returned fire. Tanks began shelling. Many Avivim residents took to the bomb shelters The fighting finally died down toward dawn.

Earlier in the week Israeli troops discovered a Hezbollah arms cache in the same zone. An exchange of fire was also reported during that incident, but not as long or involved.

Israel has reportedly decided upon a new tactic, which is to counter any Hezbollah or Lebanese infraction of the cease-fire with a rapid response. This comes as Iran has admitted it supplied Hezbollah with rockets sent through Syria. And with Syria saying they support both Hezbollah and Hamas.

However, Defense Minister Amir Peretz has said that Israel is not trying to escalate tensions on the border but will respond when Israeli soldiers are fired upon.

In the south of Israel more Kassam rockets fell on the negev, striking homes and fields near Sderot. Israel has responded with aerial attacks. The cycle of violence continues with no end in site.

The current talks in Saudi Arabia between Hamas leader Mashal and Palestinian Authority leader Abbas has resulted in an agreement on the formation of a new government. Israel’s Prime Minister Olmert has said that if the PA leader Abbas bends too far in Hamas’ direction Israel will stop supporting Abbas.

Israel has a new Minister of Justice. Prof. Daniel Friedman, 71, long a critic of the Israeli court system, was appointed to replace Haim Ramon, recently convicted of sexual misconduct. Prof. Friedman came out against the Ramon conviction.

Friedman reportedly believes that the Israeli court system has seized too much power, going beyond judicial matters and making government policy. Friedman is against this type of behavior by the courts. He reportedly also believes that both the courts and the press have been too aggressive in prosecuting politicians.

Friedman is reportedly a close friend of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, but the media believes that his academic credentials put him above any suspicion that he would look the other way in prosecuting Olmert. The Prime Minister is currently under investigation for cronyism, misuse of public office, and other matters.

A recent poll states that 75 per cent of the Israeli population has no faith in the current government. The elected politicians commitment to the betterment of the state is also in question.According to political analysts no one wants to take the unpopular Ministry of Social Welfare cabinet post, and the Ministry of Tourism is also one to be avoided. Neither of these portfolios have a budget, prestige, nor enough jobs to pass out to gain loyalty.

The fact that the poor are still poor, and still in need of help, goes ignored. Poor people don’t have political clout. The political question most people ask is will Defense Minister Amir Peretz step down from his job, which pundits feel he is unsuited for, in favor of another position. Peretz is fighting for his political life, trying to keep the prestigious cabinet post as leverage to keeping his job as head of the labor party.

Most pundits believe Peretz’ shelf life is short for both of these roles.
Many analysts also question PM Olmert’s long-term efficacy as head of the country. His ratings in the polls slip lower each day. His Kadima party would barely make up nine seats in the Knesset if elections were held today. Change is needed, but the inertia seems to be ruling these days.

Jimmy Carter slid into the Presidency back in the 70’s as an outsider who wasn’t tainted by corrupt Washington politics, and Nixon's dirty tricks. The risk in Israel is that a Jimmy Carter type may appeal to the population as an alternative to the immorality seemingly rampant in the corridors of power in Israel.

The problem is can a replacement for Olmert do any better, or will he simply be a well-meaning, upstanding, morally incorrupt individual without a clue how to run a country. Carter may have brokered a cold peace between Egypt and Israel, but he allowed Ayatollah Khoumani to rise to power, the Iranians to take over the US Embassy, and botched up nearly everything else he touched.

If anyone can step up and take over the helm of Israel’s rudderless ship and bring it safely to port, he, or she, hasn’t appeared yet on the horizon.

When is a kiss more than a kiss?

In the biblical Song of Songs, written by King Solomon, the second sentence goes: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine.”

Not for Chaim Ramon, it isn’t. Israel’s Justice Minister now faces up to three years in prison for forcing a kiss on a young female soldier after she’d asked him to pose with her in a photograph.

The soldier, identified in the trial only as “H,” is shown with her face blurred beyond recognition. According to “H,” a young soldier finishing her army service in the office of the then Justice Minister, she'd wanted a picture hugging the 56-year old Ramon. After the picture, according to “H,” Ramon put his hand to her cheek and pressed his lips to her, forcing his tongue in her mouth.

According to Ramon, the photographer left the room, and so did he and “H.” They returned a few minutes later and Ramon kissed the willing young woman. This is different in substance from “H’s” version.

“His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.” (Chapter 5, line 16)

Clearly, this was written neither by “H,” nor the three-judge panel sitting in the Jerusalem coutrroom, that decided Ramon’s guilt. The judges decided that “H” had a different and more believable tale to tell. Namely, that Ramon had crossed the line forcing his intentions on the young woman.

The judges also said essentially that Ramon had tried to ‘spin’ his way out of the charges, blaming the girl and changing the events to suit himself. This attempt at worming out of the charges really angered the judges, two of whom were women.

The implications of the conviction are that this type of behavior, long accepted in the Israeli corridors of power, will no longer be tolerated. Ramon must now give up his cabinet position as a minister in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government. A shake-up of the cabinet will result in a sort of ministerial musical chairs.

Ramon is the second Kadima Party member to be ousted from the Justice Ministry. Ramon took over the post from Knesset Member Tzachi HaNegbi, who had to excuse himself from that position as a result of an inquiry into influence peddling while on the job.

Then there is the case of Israel’s First Citizen President Moshe Katzav, who was forced to leave his office at least until his "rape" trial is over, which may take years. Katzav packed up his belongings on Tuesday Jan 30 and left the President’s Residence in Jerusalem for his native Kyriat Malachi.

The charges against Katzav are much more grave than those against Ramon. Katzav is about to be indicted on three counts of rape. So far his spin-meisters have defended him in the press with charges that “A” had been a stripper, a call girl, and a close confidant of Likud Party Central Committee members, out to get Katzav because he refused to grant pardons to convicted criminals tied to the Central Committee.

Maybe. But even if the woman was a stripper, and even a hooker, if he raped her, he committed a serious felony and will probably be convicted.

It is unlikely that either Ramon or Katzav will go to jail. Ramon is planning an appeal, and in all likelihood will get off with a light sentence, probably involving community service.

Katzav apparently had been offered a deal early on in the investigation: 'Resign from the Presidency, and the charges will be dropped.' This in an effort to save the country the embarrassment of having their “First Citizen” accused, and perhaps convicted, of rape.

Katzav reportedly turned the offer down. He held stubbornly to the idea that the storm would abate and he would remain in office. But he guessed wrong.

Lastly, on the agenda of corruption, we have the tax scandal. The investigation into the head of the tax authority and his cronies goes far beyond the few who have made the news so far. The ramifications of this investigation, coupled with the conviction of Justice Minister Ramon and the indictment of President Moshe Katzav may well spell a new morality in Israel. Maybe.

Meanwhile, rumors still abound concerning Prime Minister Olmert’s lack of honesty. One source quoted another source, who said he’d seen Olmert come into Israel with suitcases filled with money. Is this true? Nothing has even been hinted of such a thing in the press, but the source claims his source ‘knows what he’s talking about.’

Anyone entering Israel through the red or green lines knows that the customs officials aren’t exactly hawk-eyed. They’re good at catching people with extra bottles of whiskey visible in red and white duty free boxes atop their suitcases, and are happy to charge 250 per cent fine on each bottle and another 250 per cent tax.

But one finds it hard to believe they’d stop Ehud Olmert and open up his suitcases. So perhaps he has been smuggling in money. Who knows? Given that the tax authorities are suspected of high-level corruption, one could imagine a scenario where a few phone calls are made, on a regular basis, to ease the passage through customs of ‘friends’ of the right people. Perhaps even PM Olmert. Such is the way of the world, at least in the Middle East.

Then we have the issue of the Winograd Commission investigating the Second War in Lebanon. Chief of Staff Dan Halutz resigned, and his position was taken by the popular general Gabi Ashkenazi. Halutz then went before the Winograd Commission and blamed his bosses, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, for the failures of the military in the war.

According to Halutz the order to call up the reserves wasn’t given immediately upon the outbreak of the war, nor was a massive troop invasion devised until the third week of the war. Others giving testimony claimed that Halutz himself was not interested in a ground offensive, believing the Air Force could destroy Hezbollah. It took weeks for him to admit his mistake, according to testimony of other generals. Halutz now blames Olmert and Peretz for that indecision.

A petition was recently circulated in the Israeli media showing the signatures of fifty Israeli Army generals calling for the resignation of Amir Peretz as Defense Minister. One former head of military intelligence said that Peretz, Olmert and Halutz did more in one month to damage Israel’s image as a fierce military power than anyone else had done in the last thirty years.

Lebanese Hezbollah leader Sheik Nasrallah has been mocking Israel’s military strength in public. He claims to have badly defeated the greatest superpower in the Middle East with a few hundred men and a lot of rockets.

Waiting in the wings is former Prime Minister, Defense Minister, and Chief of Staff, Ehud Barak. Polls show that Barak is now the number one choice for Defense Minister. Most Israelis want someone with proven experience in the position.

When a radio interviewer asked the former military intelligence chief why a civilian Minister of Defense, like those in Britain and the USA, wasn’t preferable, the ex-chief answered, “They don’t have to fight wars for their survival. We do.”

He also cited the lack of success US civilian heads of the military have had going back to Viet Nam and up to Iraq.

Taking all of the above in perspective, it seems that Israel is in the midst of a maelstrom of change. The winds of winter blustering around the streets of Jerusalem may well bring with them not only spring flowers, but a new approach to how Israel is governed.

When is a President not a President?

Israel’s beleaguered President Moshe Katzav, who is reportedly about to be indicted for rape, held a long press conference today laying out why he was not prepared to resign from the Presidency and complaining that up until now he has been tried and convicted in the media before any charges were ever filed against him.

President Katzav spoke from the Israel President’s official residence. He detailed his long career in public service, enumerating his positive contributions, and underlining his complete cooperation with the police since the investigations began.

President Katzav claimed in his speech that the three women who have testified against him all had ulterior motives. One was fired from his offices years ago, and another continued to call him asking for his blessing on her birthday.

President Katzav’s Attorney Amram Shomron, issued a claim today that the primary complainant against President Katzav, the mysterious Miss “A”, was a blackmailer, and had a history of prostitution. The lawyer, interviewed on Israel Radio’s Army channel, said that he wondered why it had taken the woman years to come forward wth a complaint.

President Katzav claimed that as early as last September Israel’s Attorney General Moshe Mazuz had already issued press reports that Katzav was guilty and should resign from his position. Katzav complained to the audience at the press conference that Mr. Mazuz was out of line in this accusation, since the investigation had not yet been completed, nor any charges filed against the President.

The president earlier asked the Knesset to agree to a leave of absence. He pledged not to succumb to calls for his resignation, which he said would be the easy option. So far nearly 30 Knesset members have signed a petition asking for Katzav’s resignation.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, himself under investigation for influence peddling, called on President Katzav to resign. Olmert was speaking at the at the annual Herzliya Conference, where Israel and some international leaders gather to discuss the most pressing issues of the period.

Olmert earlier called on the world to confront the Iranian nuclear threat.

In his speech President Katzav singled out the media, saying he has survived the past six months and a "media lynch" because he believes in his own innocence, despite a "media court" that has not sought the truth. "I have survived because truth is on my side," he said.

He accused members of the Israeli media ignoring their work ethic by not investigating if perhaps the charges against him were false.

Katzav’s speech was emotional. He looked tired, and drawn with black raccoon rings around his eyes. He has reportedly been under enormous pressure, even suffering chest pains, and undergoing a brief hospitalization.

Attorney General Mazuz decided in principle on Tuesday that Katsav would face charges for rape, sexual harassment, obstruction of justice, fraud and breach of trust, pending a hearing on the issue.

The four women whom Katsav is accused of sexually assaulting include three past and present employees of the President's Residence and one who worked under Katsav during his tenure as tourism minister, in 1998-1999.

Attorney General Mazuz also plans to charge the president with giving away items that belonged to the President's Residence at private events, as well as with obstruction of justice and harassing a witness, for trying to pressure one of the President's Residence employees to retract her complaint against him.

The news media circus that has surrounded Katzav’s difficulties includes journalists calling anyone they could to add any credence possible to the claims against Katzav. One radio journalist on Wednesday phoned an employee in the Ministry of Tourism to try to get something on Katzav.

The woman said she had never seen Katzav do anything to any women, and he had not done anything to her. When pressured, she did admit that she’d heard rumors about Katzav, and other Ministers, making sexual advances on women in the Ministry of Tourism. The journalist pressured her to go into these rumors. She was vague, saying that many women were afraid to go public against a minister or a President.

Other reporters visited Katazav’s hometown of Kyriat Malachi, where he had once been mayor. Different people interviewed claimed that Katzav had a long history of using his position for sexual favors. They claimed that it was common knowledge in Kyriat Malachi, that if a woman wanted a job, she had to ‘come across.’

However, these rumors have no substance in court. According to many people interviewed, this type of behavior was common in Israel for many years, in the government, and in the army.

President Katzav, however still claims that he was set up. One of the outbursts Katzav made during his press conference was against Israel Television’s Channel 2, and their news moderator Gadi Sukenik. President Katzav claimed that Channel 2 went overboard in attacking him, belittling him, trying him in the press, even to the point of spilling his blood in public. President Katzav claimed that Channel 2 once called to cancel a scheduled interview with him to interview Mohamed Dahalan, the PA security chief. “They chose Dahalan over the President of Israel.”

Channel 2 News chief Shalom Katan, said that his department had acted according to the highest standards, and wouldn’t hold President Katzav guilty for his anger during these difficult times.

In truth, however, the President has a point. Until he is charged in court, he shouldn’t be convicted in the press. This type of media lynch has ruined many lives well before the verdict has been given in a court of law. It is possible that the women accusing Katzav of sexual assault have their own agenda, as he claims. It is also possible that political interests are at work that wants to embarrass or unseat him.
What is clear is that this trial has been conducted in public long before it has reached the courts. If nothing else the issue puts into harsh relief the power the media is currently wielding in the political arena, a media, which one must remember, is essentially interested in high ratings to help them raise the fees they can charge for advertising. They have no legal right to try a man in public.

The replacements for Moshe Katzav have already lined up. Dalia Itzik, the current Speaker of the Knesset, is slated to take over the position temporarily. Veteran Israeli politician Shimon Peres has also said he would run for the presidency.

Katzav, a long time Likud member, was perhaps the last example of the Likud legacy. Once the underworld and other undesirables entered the political arena, and the quality politicians left for private practice, the current rash of accusations, indictments and convictions was inevitable.

The Way of the World

Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the veteran politician, has thanked Iranian President Achmadinejad for uniting the world against the Iranian goals of possessing nuclear arms.

According to one analyst, agreeing with Peres, if Achmadinejad didn’t exist, someone would have had to invent him. Only a monomaniacal leader like Achmadinejad can unite the western world in a common cause.

The powers that be are now bartering for the future of Israel’s top Army job, with Israel’s beleagured Minister of Defense Amir Peretz throwing his support behind Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi. It is known that Peretz favors Ashkenazi, who has been his liason to the Army for months.

However, the jury is out as to the wisdom of that choice. Others have recommended Gen..Moshe Kaplinksy, who is the assistant Chief of Staff, as the replacement for Gen. Dan Halutz, who recently resigned his position.

According to informed sources, Kaplinsky may be a better choice, however Peretz is flexing his muscles, showing that as Minister of Defense the ultimate decision on the Chief of Staff is his.

To complicate matters Peretz’s competitors are split as to the importance of a quick appointment to the Chief of Staff post. Some, like Knesset Member former Admiral Ami Ayalon, a hopeful in the leadership race for the labor party, has said it is imperative to appoint a Chief of Staff as quickly as possible.

Others, however, like former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, also making a bid for leadership of the Labor Party, says that there is no rush to appoint a new Chief of Staff.
It is clear that the issue has taken on more steam as potential candidates link their fortunes to the issue of the Chief of Staff’s appointment.

Meanwhile, the debates go on. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said that he would veto any candidate he deemed unfit for the post. Reportedly he has agreed to the Ashkenazi appointment.

Olmert is embroiled in other problems, like the Bank Leumi affair. Olmert is under investigation for improper use of public office in securing a favorable bid for one of his cronies. Both the crony and Olmert deny the charge.

The prestigious Herzliya Conference began on Monday. One of the speakers was Dr. Dan Schueftan, deputy director of the National Security Studies Center at the University of Haifa, who told the gathering that a document recently released by Israeli- Arab leaders called for "nothing short of the destruction of Jewish national state."

The Arab Israeli document espoused a bi-national state, which most Israelis find unacceptable. Dr. Schueftan also said that the Israeli Arab population was not as hostile to Israel’s neighbors as the Jewish population.

Schueftan said: "The signal is that even if inequality is bridged, it won't solve the problem. The lack of legitimacy of the national Jewish state is the source of the problem."
According to Schueftan the only solution the Arabs will ultimately accept is the destruction of the Jewish state.

The tragedies continue to unfold between the Arabs and the Jews. A ten-year old Arab girl was buried yesterday. Her family claimed she was killed by an Army bullet. An autopsy discovered she was killed by a rock. The girl was a bystander to a violent clash between Palestinians and the Israeli Army. Still, she did lose her life.
One analyst wonder what it will take for both sides to realize that living together is better than dying together?

But then, that is a hope that has long been on the poker table, but never seems to be the winning hand.

In Gaza the tension is still palpable as both Hamas and the PA vie for the hearts and minds of the population. PA president Mohamed Abas has gone to Damascus to meet with Hamas political leader Mashal.

Hamas leader Khaled Meshal agreed yesterday to focus on ending internecine fighting among Palestinian factions and to continue talks on forming a unity government. However pundits believe this is simply a move by Meshal to get the flow of European money flowing again into Hamas coffers.

Israeli Army sources report that the Hamas sponsored flow of arms from Egypt into Gaza is continuing unimpeded. Rockets still continue to fall on Israel’s Southern towns and kibbutziem, despite a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas. Recently Hamas announced it had a new rocket which could reach to Ashkelon, Israel’s Southern port town, and beyond.

The debate over Israel’s withdrawl from the Gaza Strip settlements has attracted the attention of Hollywood.

The announcement of the Oscar nominees tomorrow will tell whether the Israeli "Storm of Emotions" is to be included among the five finalists contending for the best full-length documentary award.

The movie, directed by Yael Klopmann, is among 15 short-listed candidates, chosen from an initial pool of 81 documentary films. It documents preparations for the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the withdrawal itself, in August, 2005, through the eyes of four Israeli policemen.

This film was noticeable for another reason: the filmmakers didn’t receive any money from any of the various film funds that ostensibly support filmmakers in Israel. The “sour-grapes” comments of filmmakers who are passed over for grants by the Israeli film foundations may have some substance. Cries of ‘old-boy networks,’ and ‘it’s not what you know in Israel but who you know,’ are often heard in filmmaking circles.

A report published within the last few weeks criticized the film funds for taking public monies and investing it in stocks and bonds and other vehicles until the filmmakers are ready to make their production. In Israel the filmmakers receive their money in stages. Sometimes the productions take much longer than anticipated. The film funds find themselves with money in their hands, and invest it, not always wisely, according to the report.

But as one sage commented, if those complaining would receive some money then you wouldn’t hear a peep out of them.

The way of the world. Or is it the way of Israel?

A Retired Plumber Speaks Out

A retired plumber thought he had the cause of the present security and political boondoggle in Israel. This home-spun philosopher and street-wise political analyst claimed that the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was ultimately to blame.

“Its all that Greek Island thing,” he said. “Sharon tried to cover it up, brought in Olmert, who was involved in it, to keep him quiet, even started that nonsense in the Gaza strip to distract the public’s attention from any indictment. For him and his sons. And it worked. So then what happened? Yaalon (Gen. “Bugi”Yaalon, former Chief of Staff) quit over the Gaza withdrawl.

“And Haalutz was brought in. Then Sharon gets sick, and Olmert steps in. He has to keep the coalition intact, so he gives Peretz the Ministry of Defense, which he deserves about as much as Achmanejad deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. These morons go to war. Now we’ve got this corruption coming out. Like Sharon didn’t know about it? He brought in Olmert, you understand. Now we’re stuck with this mess. It’s all Sharon’s fault.”

Not exactly Eric Hoffer, but folksy none-the-less, and a fairly accurate assessment of the public’s mood. And not everything can be blamed on former Prime Minister Sharon. Much of the corruption and old-boy network way of doing things has been going on in Israel for decades.

Back in the 1970’s, when the Labor party held nearly unrivaled power in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, the scandals were in the headlines. The problems are not indigenous to any one party, but are spread across the political spectrum.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is currently under investigation for yet another scandal, one that has been discussed in the past. Olmert is suspected of manipulating bids for the purchase of Bank Leumi so that one of his cronies won the tender.

Last week Olmert’s secretary was arrested for helping cronies get breaks on their tax bills. The level of corruption seems to have reached a level unprecedented in Israel. Most Israelis think that this corruption has affected the way Israel conducts wars.

Ze’ev Shiff, Haaretz’s veteran military correspondent, has laid the blame for the last war on the door step of former Chief of Staff Dan Haltuz, who resigned two days ago, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Shiff suggests that all three of them resign.

The new Chief of Staff is usually selected by the Defense Minister, in this case Amir Peretz. However Prime Minister Olmert has stepped in and said he wants to approve the appointment.

Ze’ev Shiff has pointed out that none of the “troika” have military experience. Former Prime Minister Sharon did, and could off-set Halutz’s relative inexperience. Ehud Olmert can’t, according to Shiff.

So the question is now, who else will go in Dan Halutz’s wake? The Israeli media speculate that Amir Peretz is on his way out. Some people in the Israeli street, like the retired plumber, believe Peretz would have better served his country and himself by taking the Social Welfare portfolio, for which he was better suited, since he had been the Chairman of the Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation.

The questions one hears these days is what are the leaders thinking? Do they care at all about the country, or simply about staying in power? Apparently the latter. The Haaretz newspaper reported on Thursday that no motions have been brought in the Knesset by any party to dissolve the government and call for early elections. Prime Minister Olmert has apparently managed to weather this storm, so far.

The other Ehud, however, is fast on his heels. Ehud Barak is making a strong bid for the Labor Party leadership, running on his military record. He was also deeply involved in peace negotiations with both the Palestinians, and the Syrians. He knows the turf.

Lastly, there is the issue of Syria. The latest reports to come out of Israeli media are denials by both Israel and Syria that peace talks had taken place at any level. However, it seems as if Syria’s leader Basher Assad is indeed earnest in wanting peace. Assad reportedly fears his country being overrun by Hezbollah, swallowed whole by Iran. Assad sees Israel and the United States as his natural allies in this struggle to keep Syria from turning into an Islamic state.

Robert D. Kaplan, a respected editor at the Atlantic Monthly, and former colleague of this reporter, seems to agree. In a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, Kaplan, who spent a few years living in Israel after making Aliya, did say that the Syrian Alawite sect was Shiite, while the Israeli papers say that it is Sunni. What is the difference? The Iranian Mullah’s and Imams and revolutionary leaders are Shiite. The Saudi’s, Jordanians, and other ‘moderate’ Arab states are Sunni. These two groups are bitter enemies, as can be seen by the endless conflicts in Iraq.

The following weeks should prove very interesting, as the State unravels its case against Prime Minister Olmert, his secretary, the President of the country Moshe Katzav, and others. It may even happen that the Attorney General Manny Mazuz will lose his job. Mazuz has already said he can’t take on the case against Olmert as it will be a conflict of interests. One wonders if upon closer scrutiny it won’t come out that Mazuz should have also excused himself from other cases, like that against former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

“These old boys, they just keep scratching each other’s backs,” said the retired plumber. “But this time they may have gotten past the fur and drawn blood.”

Israel at the Abyss?

Israel's Army Radio reported Friday morning that the two soldiers captured in
Lebanon, Ehud Goldvasser and Eldad Regev are alive and well. According to
reports from Lebanese officials the two will be released within a couple of
months. .Miki Goldvasser, the mother of Ehud, was informed that her son was
alive and well by the Army Radio moderator during a live broadcast. She was
happy to hear the news, and hoped that the Israeli public pressure would
continue for the soldiers' release.

In retrospect it is strange the Army didn't contact her before she heard the news on live radio. Perhaps she did. She certainly didn't seem overwhelmed by the news, sort of took it in stride. But it made me happy. Best news in a long time. Most Israelis assumed they were dead.

The newspapers also carried the latest polls, detailing the slide of the ruling Kadima party from 29 seats garnered in the last election to an estimated 12 if elections were held today. Labor would pick up 19. According to the poll the Likud would take Kadima’s place with 29 seats, up from 12 in the last election. According to the poll only 20% of those who voted for Kadima in the last election would do so today.

One of the reasons, according to analysts, is the public’s lack of faith in Kadima leader Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and his ability to lead. His public approval rating has shrunk to 14%. Another reason is that four members of Kadima are currently under investigation for various illegal activities. The recent tax scandal implicated Finance Minister Hirschson. The papers report that the Attorney General is considering an indictment against Prime Minister Olmert for his involvement in influence peddling over the sale of Bank Leumi. Kadima former Justice Minister Chaim Ramon is in the last stages of a sex harassment trial.

Likud’s former Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu would lead the Likud ticket with a 50% rating, over his rival Silvan Shalom who comes in at about 18%. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, favored by 40% of Laborites, is now the favorite to take over the Labor party, with former Admiral of the Navy Ami Ayalon a distant second. Current Labor party leader Defense Minister Amir Peretz is far down the list of favorites to lead the party.

Ami Ayalon is a fresh face in the Labor party, and he is running on a peace platform. He has formed an association with a well-known Palestinian intellectual Professor Sari Nusseibah, President of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah. The two of them have a petition signed by 170,000 Palestinians who want peace.

According to a recent interview in the Jerusalem Post, Ayalon says that peace with the Palestinians is possible. That the vote for Hamas was a protest vote against Palestinian Authority corruption. That most Palestinians, 70% by his polls, want a two-state solution with Israel. He firmly believes a dialogue and solution are both possible. He says his polls show that most Israelis would accept a two-state solution with the Palestinians.


Ayalon also says that Israel can militarily withstand Arab military assaults for 400 years, but that some peaceful solution to the Palestinian conflict is a necessity for Israel’s quality of life. He is also, of course, highly critical of Israel’s leadership, and their behavior during the last war. According to Ayalon, before the first war in Lebanon the army spent 18-months preparing and discussing. This war was launched with 2-hours of discussion, and the results show it. As a fresh face with military leadership experience, Ayalon will give Barak a run for who will lead the Labor party.


One Kadima party official, Yaacov Edri, defended Kadima, saying that the polls reflect today’s opinions, but the elections are not for another four years. He suggested that the public wait until the various indictments and trials are over before drawing conclusions. The implication was if those accused are found innocent the public’s support for Kadima might return.

Then there is the on-going public debate if there is or isn’t going to be a war this summer with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Thursday night Gen. (ret.) Amos Yaron, director-general of the Defense Ministry, appeared on Israel Television detailing how the Hezbollah was taking its time rebuilding its arsenal. He said that many advisors to various heads of different military intelligence branches give their own opinions about what is going on, but no one has a definitive answer if there will be a war or not.

He also said that there may be talk of peace with Syria but so far it is only talk about talk about peace. He said that Syrian leader Bashar Assad has said he may be willing to talk about the terms for a discussion, but that is a long way from agreeing that he would talk about peace, or about a peace treaty.

According to Israel’s Army Radio Hezbollah fighters have doffed their uniforms and are meandering in Southern Lebanon in street clothes, so as not to attract the attention of the UNIFIL troops. The radio said that intelligence reports state that new weaponry supplied by Syria and Iran are being placed into new bunkers all around Lebanon.

At this juncture, with a far off but still real threat of nuclear attack by Iran, and a closer threat of a conventional war with Hezbollah and perhaps Syria, Israelis are living once again closer to the edge of the abyss. Israel is a strong vibrant country, compared to its Arab neighbors Israel is a model of efficiency, honesty, and economic success.

These attributes must be measured against the danger Israel faces. Wars are like jurys; no final verdict is a slam-dunk. Anything can happen in a jury room just as anything can happen during a war. Expectations can be dashed, as they were in the War in Lebanon II.

Israel’s enemies have not gone away, nor will they, until their lust for vengeance and justice, at slights real or imagined, is appeased. Each war has seen them grow in military sophistication. Hard as Israel tries to stay ahead of the technological curve, something vital when facing vastly superior numbers, there is no assurance that technology can replace leadership, determination and good planning.

The last war was a draw. Israel succeeded in neutralizing Hezbollah’s long-range missiles within the first 30-minutes of fighting. But underestimated the effect of the 4,000 short-range that wrecked terror and destruction on the million people in the north.

Had these long-range missiles fallen on Tel Aviv as well as Haifa, the entire face of the war would have been different. The military is now reporting that Hamas in the South of Israel is developing missiles that can go past Ashkelon, and are working with Iran on missiles that can hit Tel Aviv. In the next war Israel may be bombarded from both sides.

A technological breakthrough in missile defense could well neutralize these threats, defeating Israel’s enemies in their ambitions to wipe Israel off the map, something espoused by Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. They’d go back to the drawing board if they could see missiles wouldn’t help them. Israel should be putting all its resources into finding an anti-missile defense. This would also work to neutralize the Iranian threat.

Perhaps, with a real modern defense, and practical leadership, Israel would be given another decade of relative quiet, until Israel’s enemies discovered some new weapon, or strategy. With a change from governments of self-interest, power mongering, and the old-boy payoff network to one of self-sacrifice, idealism, and even patriotism, Israel can withstand the latest existential threats.

Meanwhile, Israel is sort of like Harrison Ford in one of the Indiana Jones films; over there a few miles in, still on the flat part of the land, faced with a horde of killers out for blood coming at them, with a five hundred foot gorge behind him.

Israel is not yet at the edge of that gorge. Israel is still in the flatland. If a way can be found to keep the enemy back, Israel might continue to grow, and prosper.

If not, nothing is certain.

To Believe or not to Believe, that is the Question.

A recent article in the London Sunday Times claimed that Israel was preparing a limited nuclear strike on Iranian targets. The report went on to claim that Israeli air force squadrons were training to attack the different sites in Iran attempting to produce materials for an Iranian atom bomb.

A Sunday morning interview with an expert on Israeli weaponry on Israel Galei Tzhal radio channel dissed this report as just more sensational hype by the Sunday Times.

The expert said that the Sunday Times has frequently made claims over the years which captured the imagination of the reader but had little if any substance in fact.

This expert went on to say that the real attack at this point may well be psychological, launched by the Israeli military intelligence in an effort to rattle the cage and courage of the Iranians.

Another report on Israel TV recently explored the difficulties Israel would have striking Iran. The report focused on the Iraqi strike in 1981 in which a squadron of Israeli jets flew to Iraq and destroyed the nascent nuclear reactor. In that instance there was only one reactor, and it was above ground.

The comparison to the Iranian scenario is vastly different. Iran has reportedly over 300 locations scattered around the country developing different aspects of the process needed to make a bomb. Many of these locations are deep underground beneath steel or cement protection. It is also widely assumed that Iran has many locations that are as yet unknown.

Former Prime Minister, now Deputy Prime Minister, Shimon Peres, has said that Israel will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East. It must also be remembered that Tehran is close enough to Israel that nuclear fallout might be blown into Israel. Also, since no other nation has exploded a nuclear weapon since the US used the bomb to force the Japanese to surrender in WWII, it is highly unlikely that image conscious Israel would be the only the second country in history to use the 'bomb.'

Then there is the retribution. Iran has a large army, including an airforce, navy and ground forces. Coupled with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border, and supported by Syria, Iran could begin a conventional war against Israel, invading from both Syria and Lebanon. Syrian missiles in both Iranian and Hezbollah hands would rain down on Israel, this time the longer range N. Korean missiles, probably tipped with chemical and/or biological warheads. And as the Sunday Times reports, there would be the other moves by Iran, including strikes against US and Jewish targets inside and outside the Middle East.

In short, no one is rushing to attack Iran, neither the Israelis nor the Americans.

A recent article in the Jerusalem Post pointed out that over the last two years accidents have befallen the Iranian military leadership. A little over a year ago a small business jet carrying a number of the highest ranking Islamic Revolutionary Guard officers crashed, killing all aboard. The head of the Iranian missile program was one of those killed. The second crash took out many high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officers. Some speculate that the accidents weren't accidents. However both crashes did gouge a hole in Iranian military efficiency.

One Israeli military analyst has strongly suggested that Tehran's nuclear program will not be operational for a few years. As usual, the Israeli intelligence community is split on this, with the Mossad saying one thing and Military intelligence saying something else. This traditional rivalry between the two branches does nothing to calm the unease in the country. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War the Military Intelligence branch of the Army repeatedly ignored reports and then urgent warnings of an imminent Egyptian attack. Some speculate that the legendary Israeli arrogance might again be overlooking obvious facts in place of preconceived notions.

Reportedly two separate and distinct armies exist in Iran, the formal army and a shadow army answerable to the Islamic leaders. The latter is called the Revolutionary Guard. The latter supports President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The supreme ruler of Iran however is Sheik Kamani, who reportedly is not as gung-ho about destroying Israel and the Jews, nor fighting with the American devil, as the fiery president. It must be remembered that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of the radicals who captured the US Embassy staff in 1979 in Tehran.

Israelis are worried by the threats made by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Israel's former PM Netanyahu has said repeatedly he takes the Iranian President at his word when he says he wants to destroy Israel. Given Iran's clear support of Hezbollah in last summer's war, this seems like an obvious conclusion.

The introduction of nuclear arms into the Middle East will set off a race. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have already made it clear they'd seek nuclear weapons if Iran develops them. Should Israel go public with their nuclear arsenal, this too would be a spur to a Middle Eastern nuclear arms race. In view of these issues, it is unlikely Israel will use nuclear weapons if and when an attack is launched against Iran.

How much of what is now in the Israeli and international press is disinformation, and how much fact, is open to speculation and interpretation. A faint glimmer of hope appears now and then when some 'resistance' group appears in Iran supposedly in opposition to the hard-line Islamic regime.

The legendary Israeli ability to strike hard and fast has clearly been blunted over the last several decades, as witnessed by Israel's performance in the last War in Lebanon. It is unclear if Israel can still pull off those same stunts that captured the world's imagination, like the bombing of the Iraqi reactor, the hijacking of the missile boats at Cherbourg, or the pre-emptive strike against the Egyptian Airforce in 67.

If they do manage to resuscitate the old mix of Israeli bravado and intelligent planning and somehow neutralize Iran's nuclear capability, the Western world will certainly thank them.

Hamlet in Israel

You didn’t have to be Hamlet to realize something was rotten in Denmark
Theoretically, everyone living there knew it. If not they didn’t read the newspapers.

Wednesday morning’s Israeli papers were filled with the latest scandal. Shula Zaken, the office manager of the Prime Minister’s office was under house arrest for bribery and fraud. Tax Authority director Jackie Matza and his predecessor, Eitan Rub, were also arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of widespread bribery and fraud at the authority, as well as Yoram Karashi and Kobi Ben-Gur, two high-powered businessmen, among others.

Yoram Karashi, a Judaica dealer and former Jerusalem councilman, is the brother of Shula Zaken. She reportedly pushed for Matza’s appointment at the behest of her brother Karashi. According to police reports these businessmen have been influencing their tax assessments for years, as well as having a say who was hired and fired in the Tax Authority’s offices.

Shula Zakin started out as a secretary in Ehud Olmert’s law office, and moved up the ladder with him. She was his office manager when he was Mayor, Finance Minister and now Prime Minister. Reportedly, she used these offices to finagle tax deals for favored personages, arranged through Jackie Matza, who was appointed by Olmert as Director of the Tax Authority.

The rot may go much deeper. The current Finance Minister Hirschson is now under investigation for knowing these deals went on and looking the other way at some shady practices dealing the the Nili charity. Reportedly Hirschson received a new Volvo S80 from “Nili” non-for-profit charity. Hirschson had been the Director of the charity, but was no longer employed when he received the Volvo. He is suspected of not reporting misdeeds he knew about to the police. Does he have an excuse? Probably. Time will tell how good it is.

There’s a lot of looking the other way going on. Reportedly the Attorney General Mazuz knew about the wrongdoings in Nili as well, and didn’t press charges. Mazuz was a Sharon appointee. Is he involved?

So far no one has included PM Olmert in the investigation, at least not that the media has discovered. This story broke when Israel Television’s Channel 10 found out about the investigation into Shula Zaken, and broke the story. According to Channel 10 the story did not impede the investigation. The police haven’t commented.

The way it seems, the police got onto Zakin’s influence peddling, and tax reduction deals. No one has yet reported exactly how, but it’s likely that someone in one of the various departments blew the whistle. Reportedly Zakin, her brother, and his predecessor made certain that only those willing to go along with the tax break scheme were hired or promoted within the tax authority.

The rot is so deep in the government that untangling the various threads that lead from one government ministry to another might well cause the whole fabric to disintegrate.

Serious stuff.

The implications are widespread. Did this old boy look the other way syndrome spread into the Defense Ministry? Has the greed and corruption so eroded the idealism that cronies are appointed to the highest government jobs despite their lack of ability. Pundits are now wondering if perhaps this cronyism might have been responsible for Israel’s failure in the last war.

A recent Israel TV report seems to be a prime example. Jerusalem-Magazine has cited it before. Five years ago an American-made trenching tool that could dig 15 meters down, and a couple of meters across was suggested to the Ministry of Defense as a perfect tool to stop the plethora of tunnels dug from Egypt into Gaza, and/or Gaza into Israel. The tool expose the tunnels, allowing the army to seal them off.

The tool was presented to then Israeli Chief of Staff ‘Boogie’ Yaalon, who thought it was perfect for preventing infiltration and weapons smuggling from Gaza. He suggested its purchase. The tool was brought to the attention of then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who also suggested its purchase. Then the Ministry of Defense got a hold of the issue. They dithered, dallied, put the tool out for competitive bids, ultimately a good ol’ boy who was a frequent MOS (Ministry of Defense) supplier.

A few years later the guy who brought the tool to the MOS was told they’d purchased from the other supplier and that the tool didn’t work. He went to see the one that didn’t work. It was a cheaper 7-meter trenching tool, not 15 meters. Most tunnels were dug at a depth of 10 meters. Shortly after this discovery, Palestinian militants snuck under the border planted explosives at an Israeli army outpost near the border, and killed and injured soldiers. Not long after that another tunnel was dug, emerging behind the tank unit of Gilad Shalit, killing more people, and resulting in the kidnapping of Shalit.

Was the rot responsible for this malfeasance, or was it simply stupidity?

The culture of corruption in Israel seems to be replacing the culture of nation building and accomplishment. The petty bureaucrats not only rule with narrow-minds, it appears, but eyes towards a payoff. In a banana republic, despotic African regimes, or on some isolated atoll in the South Pacific this kind of behavior is standard fare, but for a country faced with nearly constant existential hostility, either in word or deed, it is intolerable.

Analysts are now wondering if the rot hasn’t become so pervasive that it has spread deep into the military. In a country where defense isn’t a joke, the feeling of unease among Israelis is growing. The latest revelations will do nothing to make Israelis sleep any easier.

The real question, though, is what can be done about this culture that has shifted so drastically from idealism to materialism, from self-sacrifice to self-aggrandizement, that the good, perhaps even the very survival of the country and its citizens has apparently become an afterthought?

Compared to Israel, it is starting to look as if Hamlet’s Denmark was a model of government.

Hitler Was A Jew

Hitler was a Jew. That’s it. Now we’ve heard everything. According to the Israel’s daily Yideot Achranot Newspapers this outrageous statement was made by a top advisor to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The advisor, Mohammad-Ali Ramin, a chief aide to Ahmadinejad, told the Iranian webzine Baztab that Hitler's paternal grandmother was a Jewish prostitute and his father even kept his Jewish name until finally changing it to Hitler when he was 40. Ramin also claimed in that Nazi leader Adolph Hitler's parents were both Jewish and that Hitler himself was one of the founders of the State of Israel.

Can you believe this stuff? Where do these people come up with these outlandish statements? Answer: from old Holocaust deniers. Reportedly, according to Ynet, the Yideot webzine, “Ramin cites a 1974 book by Hennecke Kardel titled 'Adolph Hitler: Founder of Israel', which alleges that Hitler strived to create a Jewish state as a result of being influenced by his Jewish relatives and his cooperation with Britain – which also wanted to drive the Jews out of Europe.”

Once years ago a Palestinian worker explained that the Shin Bet, Israel’s FBI, was so all pervasive that anyone anywhere could be working for them. Paranoia rules the Arab world. Just trying to get one’s mind around this ridiculous statement requires tremendous effort. Worse than anything, though, is that apparently guys like Ramin believe it, and probably so does his boss Ahmadinejad. One wonders if they really believe if Elvis is dead? Maybe he’s hiding out somewhere in Tehran after all.

But legendary former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek did die, of a “difficult illness,’ which in Israeli newspeak means Cancer. Kollek was 95 years old, overweight his entire life, had a penchant for good food and fine cigars, and eschewed exercise; the most he got was commandeering a cab from people about to get in the vehicle when he thought he needed it at that moment.

Kollek was a secretary to Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, was an active member of the Haganah, whose assignment was as head of procurements, and establishing ties with the US intelligence services. Repotedly, among his other duties Kollek served as a bag man between the American gangsters like Bugsy Seigel and Meyer Lansky, and the pre-State government.

Kollek reportedly raised the funds for the purchase of the first ships Israel bought for the illegal immigration of refugees into pre-state Israel, (then called Palestine, a name thought up by the British a few decades earlier. Actually the word first appears when the Romans briefly named the Holy Land Palestina, but the name disappeared until some British scholar dug it up and remodeled it in the 20th Century.)

Ralph Goldman, another legendary figure in modern Jewish history, former head of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, told an interviewer that he was involved in carrying money for the ships purchase; meeting Teddy when he was sitting with the gangsters in a New York City nightclub, and transporting the cash in a suitcase to the hands that would pay for the boats.

Teddy was asked by Ben Gurion to take the Jerusalem Portfolio in 1965, which he did. Kollek was elected Mayor and served for 28-years. Following the 67-Six Day War Kollek convinced David Ben Gurion not to tear down the old city’s walls. Ben Gurion didn’t want the city divided after 67, even by those 500 year old walls. Teddy found other ways to unify the city.

A life-long dove, Kolleck never-the-less went along with right-wing Premier Menachem Begin in the late 1970’s and helped implement the government’s decision to build a ring of new neighborhoods around Jerusalem; including Pisgat Zev, Ramot, French Hill, East Talpiot,and Gilo, even though Kollek reportedly objected on political grounds to those neighborhoods being built.

A life-long Zionist, Kollek was born in Vienna, Austria in 1911, served as an usher to the Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1923, immigrated to Israel in 1934, where he was one of the founders of Kibbutz Ein Gev. He served as Director-General of Ben-Gurion’s office from 1952 until 1964.

Kollek made Jerusalem his cause, helped reopen the Hebrew University on Mt. Scopus, helped build the Hebrew University’s Givat Ram Campus, the Israel Museum, Hadassah Hospital, and the Teddy Stadium, used by Jerusalem’s soccer teams.

Teddy was charismatic, charming, brash, energetic, famous for falling asleep even at the feet of sultry movie star Marlena Dietrich. Once as Mayor he fell asleep during a TV interview, and the crew was asked to wait until he woke up to continue to interview. His press spokesman explained that Teddy had just over-indulged in a big lunch.

Teddy kept the various ethnic groups in a semblance of harmony. He was proud of the fact that more Yeshivot, rabbincal seminars, existed in Jerusalem than even in the history of the Jewish people, including the golden age of Eastern European Jewry.

The religious, however, frequently found themselves at odds with Teddy; they grew angry when he refused to close a road on the Sabbath, or some other infraction of ultra-Orthodox law. Once Teddy was set upon and beaten by ultra-Orthodox men while touring the open-air market in the ultra-Orthodox Bucharin quarter. He spent several days in the hospital.

Teddy was finally defeated in his bid for mayor at the age of 83. He spent the rest of his life continuing to raise money for Jerusalem. There is no way to detail all of the contributions he arranged for Jerusalem. He managed to entice money through his Jerusalem Foundation from the stars of Hollywood, like Frank Sinatra, Barbara Streisand and Gregory Peck. Hollywood star Kirk Douglas personally dedicated parks and other buildings in Jerusalem. The Hollywood elite helped build the Jerusalem Cinematheque. There is hardly a modern structure in Jerusalem’s civic or social life that wasn’t one of Teddy’s projects.

In many ways he was the modern King of Jerusalem. After him, every other mayor seemed only to be a manager.

Teddy Kollek is survived by his wife of over 70 years Tamar, and his son Amos, a well-known film maker.

If Teddy was around to hear the Iranians say that Hitler was a Jew, one can only suspect he’d growl like a big bear, and utter a one-word epithet that would sum up the situation with wisdom and wit.

Happy New Year 2007

Unease in the world. Uncertainty in the USA, confusion in Israel.

2007 began quietly, for some, bloody for others.

A bomb went off in Bangkok killed two and wounded more than thirty people.

More bombs went off in Iraq. The 3,000th American died in Iraq just as 2007 rang in.

Saddam Hussein was hanged on Saturday morning at six A.M., and buried on Monday beside his two sons in Tikrit, their hometown.

Sunday was the fast of the Tenth of Tevet, commemorating the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzer some 2,500 years ago. What’s the connection?

On the 10th of Tevet of the year 3336 from Creation (425 BCE), the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem. Thirty months later -- on Tammuz 9, 3338 -- the city walls were breached, and on Av 9th of that year, the Holy Temple was destroyed. The Jewish people were exiled to Babylonia for 70 years.

Reportedly Saddam considered himself a modern version of Nebuchadnezzar, with his sons part of the new Babylonian dynasty. The long dreamed of Hussein dynasty went with him into the graves in Takrit. Had he succeeded in his vision, Saddam may well have accomplished what the Babylonian emperor did 2,500 years earlier, destroy Jerusalem, take the Jews captive. But he was stopped.

Others will try to take his place. Some Islamists think that the Iranian leader Achmanejad is the Messiah. He is trying his best to live up to that rumor. According to Jewish legend the Messiah, son of Joseph, whom the Christians consider the anti-Christ, will precede the Messiah the son of David, whom the Christians consider Jesus. Don’t ask how the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe fits into this scheme.

No one knows which of these legendary figures applies to Achmanejad, if any. However, Jewish legend states that the war between Gog and Magog will precede the coming of the Messiah. Scholars say that both Gog and Magog were in the north of Israel. Is Iran one of those modernized forces? Who knows? Has the vast and rich history of the region dizzied the imagination of Achmanejad? Or the Lebanese leader Nasrallah? Was the War in Lebanon II the Gog and Magog? Who knows?

In the Middle East, anything is possible, but as Chaim Weizman, Israel’s first President said, not everything is probable.

Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Hamas, is not yet free, although the press is ablaze with reports of his imminent release in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. These reports of his imminent release have been circulating for months. It must drive his poor parents crazy.

The negotiations over his release are stalled, or not stalled, depending on which report you read. The Israelis will release prisoners with blood on their hands, or only those who committed misdemeanors, depending on with report you read. Israel is holding nearly 10,000 Palestinians prisoner. Each has to be housed, fed, and guarded. Maybe more than 1,000 should be released. Think of all the money Israel would save.

No one is talking about the other two soldiers, Regev and Goldwasser, captured by Hezbollah at the outbreak of the War in Lebanon II. Its not even clear if they’re still alive. Last reports were that one of them was wounded when captured. Ron Arad, the Israeli co-pilot who was captured over twenty years ago in Lebanon’s first war, has never been heard from since then, but people still talk about finding him.

The Taliban attacked an Afgani office and captured the police chief. Is the Taliban back on the rise in Afghanistan? Does anyone remember the rage at the Taliban after 9/11, and the swift success toppling the Taliban regime? Is that success now about to be reversed? Is the Taliban going to insinuate itself back into power in Afghanistan, topple the weak leadership in Kabul, overpower the warlords who in reality rule the country, and instill yet another Islamic state in Afghanistan? And who will stop them if they want to do this?

Syrian’s President Basher Assad has sent out feelers that he wants peace talks with Israel. Is he serious? Media reports state that Assad is also ready to wage a guerilla war against Israel, much as Hezbollah did. When a play works, say the coaches, keep running it until the defense figures out a way to stop it. Hezbollah mounted an effective campaign against Israel. Syria and other states will now try to copy it. Can they be stopped? Is it war or peace? Who knows?

Qassam rockets continue to fall every day in Sderot and other areas of the Western Negev in Israel, in spite of the cease-fire with Hamas. Can Israel stop these rockets? Did the then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon expect these rockets to fall on Israel once he pulled out of Gaza, and did he care? A new report in the Haaretz Newspaper states that Sharon’s son Gilad was the one who brought the disengagement plan to his father. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reportedly presented the idea to Sharon’s then advisor Dov Weisglass, who presented it to the younger Sharon, part of his father’s innermost circle.

At the time Prime Minister Sharon was getting it from all side; an investigation into his doling out land to some cronies at a kibbutz in the north, illegal fund-raising for which his older son Omri was convicted, and an investigation into Gilad’s land deal with a high-powered Israeli building contractor. Sharon, known for bold initiatives, saw the plan as an opportunity to take the pressure off, and get out of troublesome Gaza settlements at the same time. He pulled out of more settlements than he’d planned, but the country supported him, and the ploy, if it was a ploy, worked. He was nearly home free, until his series of debilitating strokes.

But surely Sharon, the great strategist, knew of the Qassams. They were already starting to fall on the Gaza settlements before the pullout. Seemingly, he expected what is happening today, and considered it just another part of life in Israel. Reportedly Sharon never expected to make Peace with the Arabs, nor trust a peace that was made. On two separate occasions Sharon reportedly said that the greatest accomplishments the Arabs have made was their ability to urinate standing up. For all his faults, Sharon inspired confidence as a leader. Would he have ever really honored the road map espoused by the US government, or merely elegantly sidestepped it using his unique style of creating a diviersion.

David Horowitz, the editor of the English language daily Jerusalem Post, wrote a column that essentially put his finger on the way Israelis feel today. They don’t trust their leaders, he claimed, not to make the right decisions, not to protect them, not to guide the country in the future.

The recent Shomron commission investigating the army’s role in the War in Lebanon found none of the army’s officers to blame for the loss of battles and lives. The commission even recommended that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz stay on for another year until his term runs out since if there is another war he has now the experience from the last war to win on the battlefield. As my late Aunt would say, “Go figure!”

The families of those soldiers killed in the War in Lebanon II wanted to know that if Israel won that last war, which is one of the findings of the commission, how come they lost their sons. No one has the answer.

At a small New Year’s Eve dinner in Jerusalem the host, a well-respected manager of a large American Jewish Charity, asked the guests what was going on with Syria? Are the anti-government demonstrators still in the streets against the Siniora government in Lebanon? And then said he thought that Iran was ‘scary.’

Then he looked at the table, and said, ‘We’re in deep sh.. aren’t we?” He went on: “Peretz can’t be Defense Minister. I don’t understand Halutz at all. And Olmert is out only to save his own reputation. So who cares about us?” We drank a toast to the New Year anyway, a nice Yarden red, and got up to leave. 10:00 pm. It was Israel, after all.
He stopped us at the door. “We’ve been here too long to celebrate New Years,” he said, and wished us Happy New Year anyway.
At home the New Orleans’s Saints lost to the Carolina Panthers, and Larry Johnson rushed for a record number of carries against Jacksonville.
At seven A.M. Israel time the ball fell from it’s height in Time’s Square, and the neon sign read 2007.
A million people gathered in the center of Manhattan, and no bombs went off. All that happened was they left a mess..
At least that was something. That mess can be cleaned up.

Happy New Year.