Israel Under Fire (From More Than Rockets)

So, while under rocket attack from Hamas, Israel negotiated a cease fire. But, honestly, let’s call this what it really is… giving in to the mounting international pressure (especially from the anti-Israel UN) so that you can have a few days of silence before Hamas launches more rockets, you retaliate, and Israel is deemed the aggressor. Basically, a giant Middle Eastern circle jerk.

What happened to the hard line that Bibi seemed so proud to be walking? What happened to the putting an end to this conflict once and for all? Where did the common sense go?

Honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised. This is basically what has happened every time ever since Israeli politicians began giving up land fought for and earned by the blood of their fellow Israelis. This is a dangerous trend that seems to have no end and that, at best, Israel comes out of the conflict a little worse off in the eyes of the media and the gullible public. Of course, this brings up another interesting story that was making the media rounds today.

A former AP correspondent, Motti Friedman, published a story in Tablet magazine about the failings of the main stream media in reporting the war in Israel and reporting on Israel in general. This is a tremendous read and one that should be noted as one of the few, if not the only, honest account of the world media and their treatment of the Jewish state. Unfortunately, this kind of reporting is not new as Freidman writes:

“The lasting importance of this summer’s war, I believe, doesn’t lie in the war itself. It lies instead in the way the war has been described and responded to abroad, and the way this has laid bare the resurgence of an old, twisted pattern of thought and its migration from the margins to the mainstream of Western discourse—namely, a hostile obsession with Jews. The key to understanding this resurgence is not to be found among jihadi webmasters, basement conspiracy theorists, or radical activists. It is instead to be found first among the educated and respectable people who populate the international news industry; decent people, many of them, and some of them my former colleagues.”

While reporters face tremendous danger, death threats, and, as we have seen recently, death, there is still little criticism surrounding those who are making these threats, posing these dangers, and taking innocent lives. Not only has it prevented reporting of the facts from actually occurring, it has prevented the truth from being told on more than one occasion. This is best explained when Freidman writes:

“There has been much discussion recently of Hamas attempts to intimidate reporters. Any veteran of the press corps here knows the intimidation is real, and I saw it in action myself as an editor on the AP news desk. During the 2008-2009 Gaza fighting I personally erased a key detail—that Hamas fighters were dressed as civilians and being counted as civilians in the death toll—because of a threat to our reporter in Gaza. (The policy was then, and remains, not to inform readers that the story is censored unless the censorship is Israeli. Earlier this month, the AP’s Jerusalem news editor reported and submitted a story on Hamas intimidation; the story was shunted into deep freeze by his superiors and has not been published.)”

This is particularly startling when taken into account the means by which Hamas is reported. Actually, it’s more about how much is not written and how focused the media wolves are on every aspect of Israeli politics, culture, etc. It is not about wanting to better understand, it is all about finding the minute failings (this is a term applied by the outsider) in individuals and groups and applying them to Israel as a whole. This is not reporting, this is find a way to paint a picture, frame a story, box a topic that fits the views of the reporter and the media outlet. As Freidman explains:

“Israeli actions are analyzed and criticized, and every flaw in Israeli society is aggressively reported. In one seven-week period, from Nov. 8 to Dec. 16, 2011, I decided to count the stories coming out of our bureau on the various moral failings of Israeli society—proposed legislation meant to suppress the media, the rising influence of Orthodox Jews, unauthorized settlement outposts, gender segregation, and so forth. I counted 27 separate articles, an average of a story every two days. In a very conservative estimate, this seven-week tally was higher than the total number of significantly critical stories about Palestinian government and society, including the totalitarian Islamists of Hamas, that our bureau had published in the preceding three years.”

For those of us who have been paying attention to the media, listening to what is actually being said, and talking to those living in Israel we have been aware of this massacre of the truth perpetuated by the media. I am grateful for the honesty that has been so succinctly reported in this piece and I hold out hope that, one day, actual reporting will return to the Middle East and Israel in particular. Maybe we can have a few honest voices on the ground when this current ceasefire is shattered by the sound of rocket fire.

Someone Get Me A Time Turner Or A Delorean

Look, a random Harry Potter reference!

While I have kept my calendar pretty full this past year somehow I have always able to find room for one more event, one more project, one more meeting (the only exception has been my regular Rotary lunch meeting but that was more of an inevitability rather than a possibility). Even my plans for next week were not impacted by the sudden addition of another item for next week. This week that streak came to an end when a conflict arose when I glanced at my schedule for this Saturday.

I wish that there was more time in the day so that I could do everything but that isn’t the reality of life. If anything it is only going to get harder as the days pass and I become more and more efficient in my daily routine(s). Even now, I find myself looking up at the time and wondering where the past two, three, or four hours have gone. It is astounding and a little disturbing to realize how quickly time has passed. It is also a pleasant surprise to find myself engrossed in my work without counting the minutes of the morning.

It makes me think about how many days, how much time, we spend counting the minutes of our lives just waiting for time to pass rather than focusing on the task(s) at hand. The past few years have had too many days and nights like that and I will do everything in my power to prevent a return to those kinds of moments. I am certain that there will be situations where that is inevitable but no one should have that feeling as a regular part of life.

Since May, this blog has provided those moments of respite when I could focus and write whatever came to mind without over-thinking an opinion or topic. However, sometimes over-thinking is exactly what I needed to do to keep my mind occupied and my fingers moving across the keys. It has been a means to keep busy and, even though there are many nights when I don’t know what I am going to write about until I am two paragraphs in (like you couldn’t tell), this is still a means of creative solace.

This blog will remain a part of that schedule that seems so much in flex at the moment but there are certainly things that are going to have to be removed. At this point I don’t know what is going to be cast into the pile of conflicting passions but I know that cuts are going to have to be made especially with the increasing responsibilities to my job, my lodge, and Rotary. I am going to try and avoid changes whenever possible but I know they are going to happen.

While my schedule may seem unmanageable to some, I enjoy it. I like having somewhere I have to be and something I have to get done. I need goals and objectives. This is what has kept me going in recent years and what continues to drive me today.

The only difference is that I enjoy every part of my day rather than just a few moments scattered throughout the week. In fact, while there are some conflicts that have arisen, there are still some gaps in the calendar that need to be filled. I guess it is time to get some things done and complete some projects that  I have been putting off lately (of course I will share them with you as they are in process or completed). In the end, a candle has two ends for a reason so why not burn both of them.

This is not the first Back to the Future reference. Not by a long shot.

International SNAFU: Syria Edition

Map taken from Sondra Oster Baras' blog (discovered when looking for images online). I recommend reading her post about the current situation in Israel regarding Syria.

Unless you have been under a rock for the past month or so you know what is happening in the Middle East right now, specifically with regard to Syria. You should also be aware of the fact that President Obama is asking Congress to support military action against an admittedly horrible regime that is currently in power. There have been numerous questions and debates over the last several weeks as to whether or not the United States should get involved and, frankly, I am uncertain as to what can be done to quell the violence happening in Syria right now.

I can say that there has been a common thread in the discussions I have had with countless people, mostly those directly involved in politics, which has boiled down to a very simple yet complex question: “If we attack Syria, what happens to Israel?” ("How will Iran react?" was a close second). No one, myself included, really has a definitive answer to that question but it is one that needs to be considered when determining what kind of action, if any, we should take. Obviously, there are countless other factors that come into play such as financial commitment, putting more troops in harm’s way, and the scale of such an offensive.

The bombing and use of chemical weapons on its own citizens is an abhorrent act that has been committed by those in power in Syria and one that needs to stop. However, we have to take into consideration that these heinous acts are currently kept within its borders. Introducing an external force, such as the US military, drastically changes the rules of the game… it would no longer be a civil war. This has the potential of giving the Syrian government a reason to expand the conflict into neighboring countries, specifically attacking Israel.

While military action has the potential to save lives, our ‘intervention’ would cost the lives of thousands more. Like it or not, this is a numbers game… that is the cold hard fact of the matter. If this action is going to cost more innocent lives than it saves then why should we take action in the first place?

Consider the wisdom found in both the Babylonian Talmud and the Jerusalem Talmud. Many of you have heard or read variations of these passages but let us consider them in their entirety. 

 

"Whoever destroys a soul from Israel, the Scripture considers it as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life from Israel, the Scripture considers it as if he saved an entire world." - Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a

"Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world." - Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a)

I am by no means a Talmudic scholar, but it seems as though we are in a grey area at the moment. Being that there has been no direct threat revealed against the United States, at least at this point in time, we can’t claim to be acting in self defense. Therefore, I think we are on the wrong end of this holy equation.

Now I can hear many people saying that we must defend the innocent and I whole heartedly agree with that statement but the taking of human lives should not be the first course of action it should be the last course of action after all other options have failed. We have not yet attempted to find an alternative solution. Besides, our primary priorities should be to protect our own interests first and those of our allies second (Israel) before we even consider the people in hostile countries. So instead of fighting alongside Al-Qaeda to fight a lesser evil, why don’t we make sure we contain the conflict and protect our allies, namely Israel. That seems like the most logical course of action at this time with the information we have.

If the conflict expands beyond the Syrian border then I am open to considering taking more aggressive action (especially before the United Nations sanctions Israel for defending itself). At that point I could see justification in taking military action in a supportive role to protect the interests of our allies and therefore our own interests. And if you don’t think defending Israel is in the best interests of the United States please stop using any technology developed in the last 20 years (including your phone).