Dreams Into Lightning 2

Israel Diary 2011

Reflections on my visit to Israel last November.

Rubik Rosenthal: Israel's Identity is European

Rubik Rosenthal at Ma'ariv, translated by Al-Monitor:

America is engrained in new Israel’s culture, in technology and economy, and in some of the new world’s art forms, like cinema, television and music. Europe, on the other hand, is in new Israel’s DNA. Zionism is a European movement, and the terms we use in our cultural and political discourse are European. Our distant and recent history are European. The waves of migrants to Israel from countries in the east were supposed to change this alignment, but this did not happen. The Arab states are considered political and military enemies, and there is no way to visit them. They did not create a real alternative to Europe’s cultural hegemony and this remains true to this day. ...

Remarks: I'm wondering how many Israelis would agree with Rosenthal's assessment, and how many would dispute it. I'll follow up if I find any reactions or responses to the article.

Morning Report: 2012-05-24

African unrest in Tel Aviv. Demonstrations Reuters: 'Fleeing poverty, fighting and authoritarian rule, some 60,000 Africans have crossed illegally into Israel through the relatively porous desert border with Egypt in recent years. That has jarred the Jewish state, with its already ethnically fraught citizen population of 7.8 million. Some Israelis warn of a gathering demographic and economic crisis while others say a country born after the Holocaust has a special responsibility to offer foreigners sanctuary. Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said some 15 percent of city residents were "illegal foreign workers" and the number was growing. Interior Ministry data show 82 percent of the African migrants are men, 15 percent women and the rest children. ...' Arutz Sheva:

Over 1,000 people took part Wednesday evening in a protest against Israel's growing illegal immigrant population. The protesters called on the government to send the infiltrators back to their countries of origin.

MK Danny Danon (Likud), who heads the Knesset Lobby to Prevent Infiltration, addressed the protesters and said: "The terrible situation that has formed here has only one solution and we need to talk about it and we must not be ashamed: expel them now!"

"The state of Israel is at war with an enemy state that has formed within Israel and has its capital in southern Tel Aviv," he stated.

Protesters who live in the working class neighborhoods that are flooded by the illegal immigrants spoke of harassment and physical attacks that have become a daily occurrence. Several cases of sexual assaults against Jewish women have been reported in recent months. ...

The protest in Tel Aviv against migrants led to 12 arrests; the suspects were released on bail. The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court has extended the remand of a man suspected of recruiting teens and giving them weapons to target Africans during the recent demonstrations. Two protesters were arrested for an attempted attack on a foreign worker. Yitzhak Halevi, mayor of the border city of Eilat, called for immigration enforcement:

He called on the government to implement the decisions it has already made to deal with the matter.

Halevi said the security fence on the Egyptian border needs to be completed within a short time, and that the government needed to expedite the construction of a detention center for illegal aliens. He also called on the government to fine those who employe illegal aliens. ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu condemned the violence, adding: 'The migrant problem must be solved and we will solve it. We will complete the construction of the fence within a few months and soon we will begin sending the migrants back to their countries of origin.'

Mladic trial to resume. Reuters: 'The genocide trial of Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic is set to resume at the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal on June 25 four weeks later than initially planned, The Hague-based court said on Thursday. Mladic, who was arrested in Serbia in May 2011 after 16 years on the run, is accused of genocide for his role in the siege of the Bosnian capital Sarajevo and for orchestrating the killing of 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in 1995; Europe's worst massacre since World War Two. ...'

ICC clears way to try four Kenyans for violence. Reuters: 'The International Criminal Court on Thursday cleared the way for the trial of four Kenyans accused of being behind the violence which erupted after the country's elections in December 2007. The four men, who include Uhuru Kenyatta, a former presidential hopeful and the son of Kenya's founding president, have denied the charges and claimed the court did not have the right to try them. More than 1,220 people died in the post-election violence. ...'

More on south Tel Aviv. For my pictures of Allenby Street in southern Tel Aviv, see here, here, and here.

Ben-Zion Netanyahu

Benzion Netanyahu, father of Prime Minister Binyamin Netnayahu, was laid to rest at 5:00 p.m. on Monday, at a plot for bereaved parents at the Har Hamenuhot cemetery in Jerusalem. The late Netanyahu died early Monday morning at the age of 102. ...

Post-Post-Zionism

Caroline Glick:

To understand the distance Israel has traveled since [the 1990s], consider Tuesday night's Memorial Day ceremony at Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. None of the performers attacked their fellow Israelis. And the best-received artist and song was Mosh Ben-Ari and his rendition of Psalm 121 - A Song of Ascent.

The psalm, which praises God as the eternal guardian of Israel, became the unofficial anthem of Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008-2009. And Ben-Ari's rendition of the song propelled the dreadlock bedecked, hoop earring wearing world music artist into super-stardom in Israel. ...

Go read it all. This contrast between the Israel of the 1990s and the world of today's Israel was also remarked on by Jonathan Spyer in The Transforming Fire, which I highly recommend.

UPDATE: Meanwhile, via Arutz Sheva:

Anger is mounting against singer Achinoam Nini – whose stage name abroad is Noa – for taking part in an "alternative" Remembrance Day ceremony that honored Arabs who were killed by Israelis, as well as Jews who were killed by Arabs. One of the Arabs honored in the ceremony was Ziad Jilani – an Arab who was shot dead after he rammed into a group of Border Policemen with his car, wounding several of them. His widow was one of the speakers. ...

Barry Rubin Interviewed

He's interviewed by the Daily Caller. For me, the most exciting part is this announcement near the end:

Any plans to write another book? If so, about what?

My next book is already completed and I think it is going to have a big impact. It is entitled, Nazis, Islamists and the Making of the Modern Middle East, written with Dr. Wolfgang Schwanitz, and based on newly released CIA and never before translated German documents. Basically, it shows how the alliance was stronger and more important than previously understood and also how individuals, ideologies, and groups that collaborated with the Axis have ruled the Arabic-speaking world for the last sixty years and will continue to do so in the current Islamist wave.

I've posted before about Arab Nazis and I've quoted Barry Rubin on the subject of safe antisemitism. As Barry observes, "nobody is going to complain about Naziphobia" because the Nazis are a politically safe target; their ideological descendents are not. So his forthcoming book on the Nazi-Islamist axis is very timely and much needed.

No Passover Furloughs for IDF

"For first time in many years, all IDF units to be on full alert during Passover holiday; army officials insist decision not related to any planned military operations."

Tank Girl

Esther Petrack: From American model to Israeli tank instructor.

Esther was born in Jerusalem to a religious family and at sixteen, moved with her family to the United States. She made history when she became the first religious Jewish girl to compete in the “America’s Next Top Model“. She was on the fast lane to becoming a supermodel when things changed last year, during a visit to Israel for the first time in four years. Following her trip Esther decided to make Aliyah and join the army. ...

US - Israel Joint Exercise Cancelled

Israel and the US canceled a missile defense drill previously scheduled for April. The reasons aren't clear; officials made vague statements about "technical and logistical" problems.

It's also unclear whose idea it was to scratch the exercise; the Post says that

Talks about postponing the drill took the Americans, as well as the Israeli Air Defense division, responsible for missile defense, by surprise.

But according to Ynet,

Israeli officials said the Americans asked to delay the drill so as not to heighten tensions with Iran over its nuclear program and avoid drawing any additional attention from the Arab countries during such a turbulent period.

Meanwhile, Reuters, via Ha'Aretz, reports that Netanyahu is "disappointed" with the Obama administration's reluctance to approve tough sanctions on Iran. But Iran confirms receipt of a message by the United States regarding the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf.

UPDATE: Israeli officials say "Washington wants to avoid causing further tensions in region after various foreign reports of U.S. and Israeli preparations for strike on Iran".

CNN has more. It's notable that some of these reports cite the desire to avoid "unwanted headlines" as the reason for the delay, rather than a rift between US and Israel.

Goldstone: The Report that Won't Die

UN Watch:

Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the notorious UN Human Rights Council session that created the Goldstone Report, a 500-page document that excoriated Israel—for defending itself from deadly rockets—while exonerating Hamas.

The core charges of the report—that Israel's leadership intentionally plotted to murder Palestinian civilians, and did so from racist motives—were famously retracted by Judge Goldstone in op-eds published last year in the Washington Post and the New York Times. ...

Now the International Criminal Court is considering a Palestinian request to prosecute Israelis. Full story at the UN Watch link.