Joshua - counting Qassams is morbid. Everyone has justifications. Side interested in creating long lasting peace for all people involvedCount: Still 0
I had forgotten what an arse this whole blog-keeping business is. I mean putting aside the flagrant egotism of it all just for now, As I think back about my blog just since the return it is a hotch-potch of entries on disperate mso iusings with no particular common theme and style, bound together solely by the fact that they happened to me and I feel the need to reflect on them.
Its not just that keeping a blog...which makes it sound like a dog, cat or someother domesticated animal...is so self-absorbed it also like a pet requires your time and concentration. Mine, already then is displaying the hall-marks of not just my laziness in not maintaining it but also that I have not had the mental engine to commit my thoughts to cyber-paper in recent days....so if ever i imagined that anyone was actually reading this other than me, my penchant for procrastination as encapsaluted by the lack of a post for days has probably sent them away in boredom. In my defense the blog is called 'faffing'- so it should do what it says on the tin shouldnt it...someone one even suggested that I should have a 'faff yomi' section in my blog ;) a joke that definately belongs to that list of gags entitled 'You'ved studied at Pardes too long when....'
Ah a tangent, before i even started...a part of me wishes me that was even still surprising....So as you might imagine from its title that I am finally boing to acknowledge the violence thats going on in Gaza and Southern Israel in more than just passing. Its not that I have been ignoring it and, as u might imagine, its been at the top of my thoughts for most of the last week and a half. I actually owe this post to the writer of its title - which i cut and pasted from his facebook status...let me explain....In order to do so I need to go back to last friday.
So what with the parentals being here n'all last friday was spent with them in IKEA, which to our credit we managed to survive without the strong urge to commit harrie-carrie. F***K! I hate that place, perhaps Ill return to that hobby-horse one of these days, and breathe...so anyway on our way to perform the last arrand before shabbat the 3 o'clock news came on the car-radio with news of a protest planned for last saturday night in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square against Israel's military and aerial campaign in Gaza. My immediate response was a desperate twing of depression that i felt at this perceived betrayal and lack of unity at this critical moment. Soon I was hit not only by the sad irony of this initial reaction but also but how quickly this feeling turned to pride, not only for the fact that this is a sign of the kind of robust democracy (as the international community seems to like to call it these days) that Israel is and that I want it to be, but also for the realisation that my inital reaction was so misplaced. Here's why...
As I recently wrote in an email to a friend I came here to live in Israel, atleast in part, in order to make the problems of the Jewish People my problems in a meaningful, powerful, immediate and personal way. Ofcourse, acknowledging these problems and facing them, let alone dealing with them, is to say the least difficult and undoubtedly accounts for why it is has taken me untill now to write about the angst I feel in response to the situation in the South/Gaza. Ofcourse, I ideologically I have always felt that being here is best precisely because it means you can have a more direct impact and indeed be critical of government policy without having to face claims of disloyalty that invariable come with that territory in chutz l'aretz. Im not sure I can account for my inital pang of betrayal, guilt and disappointment in my fellow israelis and indeed, on reflection I am far more concerned that was my reaction than with the prospect of israelis protesting against there own government...for goodness sake thats the whole point of being here! I mean If I am willing to commit here that have my doubts about this campaign, then I need to support those that wish to protest their opposition. Not that I am also opposed, but in the Voltarian sense that I support and indeed welcome their right to protest and indeed the use of that right.
So as I said its not that I am against Israel's operations in Gaza. It seems to me we have been left with little option . To emphasise the point I was in the bus on the way to work the week before last. They were reading letters from listeners. One such letter came from a woman in Sderot complaining that given that the residents of her town and those close to it were under near constant attack and had been for several months, it seemed to her that the country had simply forgotten about its southern citizens.
So, yes on the one hand a response is well over due and has been brewing for many months and atleast, unlike the last war in Lebanon 2 years ago and more this one has clearly defined objectives and was completed with no none of them achieved....Israelis collective confidence in our army is still shaking from the ramifications of that shambolic episode.
On the other I can't help I cant help but wonder whether this is doing us any good. Is anybody amongst the Israeli decision makers thinking about the long term, the chances for a lasting a sustainable solution, peace for everybody, PG, would be lovely. Using Facebook as a propaganda tool to count Quassam's and to post graphic videos of the aftermath of suicide bombing is understandble, but it gets us no closer to a situation where we wont have to, at best, re-enter Gaza every few months to kick the relevant amount of shit to allow for temporary tranquility. Maybe with Hamas in control of Gaza that is the best solution we can hope for - G-d, I hope not! Hamas after all is an ideological movement, so, whilst killing many of their most senior figures and dealing them a heavy blow might bring short-term relief and relieve our own understandable need for retribution, it does not stop Hamas from being able to carry on successful recruiting new members and potential suicide bombers now and in the future. I feel sure that with anger in Gaza against Israel whipped up by our operations there, Hamas will have little problem filling the holes created in their heirachy by Israel's military action. To assume, and honestly I dont know if any senior officials on the Israeli side do assume this, that the Palestinian populus in Gaza will ultimately rebel against the disgraceful and manipulative leadership of Hamas seems to me would be the height of ignorance and arrogance.
Not that for all my self-righteous venting I have a solution...but hey, i'm not the first...
Its not just that keeping a blog...which makes it sound like a dog, cat or someother domesticated animal...is so self-absorbed it also like a pet requires your time and concentration. Mine, already then is displaying the hall-marks of not just my laziness in not maintaining it but also that I have not had the mental engine to commit my thoughts to cyber-paper in recent days....so if ever i imagined that anyone was actually reading this other than me, my penchant for procrastination as encapsaluted by the lack of a post for days has probably sent them away in boredom. In my defense the blog is called 'faffing'- so it should do what it says on the tin shouldnt it...someone one even suggested that I should have a 'faff yomi' section in my blog ;) a joke that definately belongs to that list of gags entitled 'You'ved studied at Pardes too long when....'
Ah a tangent, before i even started...a part of me wishes me that was even still surprising....So as you might imagine from its title that I am finally boing to acknowledge the violence thats going on in Gaza and Southern Israel in more than just passing. Its not that I have been ignoring it and, as u might imagine, its been at the top of my thoughts for most of the last week and a half. I actually owe this post to the writer of its title - which i cut and pasted from his facebook status...let me explain....In order to do so I need to go back to last friday.
So what with the parentals being here n'all last friday was spent with them in IKEA, which to our credit we managed to survive without the strong urge to commit harrie-carrie. F***K! I hate that place, perhaps Ill return to that hobby-horse one of these days, and breathe...so anyway on our way to perform the last arrand before shabbat the 3 o'clock news came on the car-radio with news of a protest planned for last saturday night in Tel Aviv's Rabin Square against Israel's military and aerial campaign in Gaza. My immediate response was a desperate twing of depression that i felt at this perceived betrayal and lack of unity at this critical moment. Soon I was hit not only by the sad irony of this initial reaction but also but how quickly this feeling turned to pride, not only for the fact that this is a sign of the kind of robust democracy (as the international community seems to like to call it these days) that Israel is and that I want it to be, but also for the realisation that my inital reaction was so misplaced. Here's why...
As I recently wrote in an email to a friend I came here to live in Israel, atleast in part, in order to make the problems of the Jewish People my problems in a meaningful, powerful, immediate and personal way. Ofcourse, acknowledging these problems and facing them, let alone dealing with them, is to say the least difficult and undoubtedly accounts for why it is has taken me untill now to write about the angst I feel in response to the situation in the South/Gaza. Ofcourse, I ideologically I have always felt that being here is best precisely because it means you can have a more direct impact and indeed be critical of government policy without having to face claims of disloyalty that invariable come with that territory in chutz l'aretz. Im not sure I can account for my inital pang of betrayal, guilt and disappointment in my fellow israelis and indeed, on reflection I am far more concerned that was my reaction than with the prospect of israelis protesting against there own government...for goodness sake thats the whole point of being here! I mean If I am willing to commit here that have my doubts about this campaign, then I need to support those that wish to protest their opposition. Not that I am also opposed, but in the Voltarian sense that I support and indeed welcome their right to protest and indeed the use of that right.
So as I said its not that I am against Israel's operations in Gaza. It seems to me we have been left with little option . To emphasise the point I was in the bus on the way to work the week before last. They were reading letters from listeners. One such letter came from a woman in Sderot complaining that given that the residents of her town and those close to it were under near constant attack and had been for several months, it seemed to her that the country had simply forgotten about its southern citizens.
So, yes on the one hand a response is well over due and has been brewing for many months and atleast, unlike the last war in Lebanon 2 years ago and more this one has clearly defined objectives and was completed with no none of them achieved....Israelis collective confidence in our army is still shaking from the ramifications of that shambolic episode.
On the other I can't help I cant help but wonder whether this is doing us any good. Is anybody amongst the Israeli decision makers thinking about the long term, the chances for a lasting a sustainable solution, peace for everybody, PG, would be lovely. Using Facebook as a propaganda tool to count Quassam's and to post graphic videos of the aftermath of suicide bombing is understandble, but it gets us no closer to a situation where we wont have to, at best, re-enter Gaza every few months to kick the relevant amount of shit to allow for temporary tranquility. Maybe with Hamas in control of Gaza that is the best solution we can hope for - G-d, I hope not! Hamas after all is an ideological movement, so, whilst killing many of their most senior figures and dealing them a heavy blow might bring short-term relief and relieve our own understandable need for retribution, it does not stop Hamas from being able to carry on successful recruiting new members and potential suicide bombers now and in the future. I feel sure that with anger in Gaza against Israel whipped up by our operations there, Hamas will have little problem filling the holes created in their heirachy by Israel's military action. To assume, and honestly I dont know if any senior officials on the Israeli side do assume this, that the Palestinian populus in Gaza will ultimately rebel against the disgraceful and manipulative leadership of Hamas seems to me would be the height of ignorance and arrogance.
Not that for all my self-righteous venting I have a solution...but hey, i'm not the first...
posted by Ben at 9:53 pm
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