A Video to Share, and a Call for Persistence!

I performed this on 13 December, at the Ulpan Gordon Hanukkah Show.  I wanted to share it here, (apart from my ego demanding it!) because the song speaks to me so clearly.  

If you remember, the original Louis Armstrong version became especially well known after its use in the movie Good Morning, Vietnam; Adrian Cronauer, the main character (and the real-life person upon whose memories and experiences of Vietnam the film is loosely based), plays the song on his morning radio show on (US) Armed Forces Radio, and the sounds of the song are juxtaposed on screen with the image of a column of troops marching somewhere, looking battle-weary.  The song in its English form has become a sort of anthem to the notion that, whatever misery any one of us might be buried in at any given time, the world is still wonderful.  And Armstrong gives examples of phenomena in the world that should remind us of that fact.

This is, of course an important message for each one of us.  But I thought that it would particularly resonate with my fellow students in ulpan, most of whom are going through all kinds of difficulties stemming from their moving to the State of Israel.  Yes, living in Israel is the Zionist Dream, but that doesn't mean it's easy!  Not everyone in class has a nice US military pension and considerable savings from which to live; they are younger, and must prepare themselves for a career in Israel, to raise children there, and in some cases to serve in the army.  And yet...it's a wonderful world, and I hope that my gift to them, to remind them of this fact, added to their resolve to work through all the difficulties and find their happiness in the Jewish State. 

Shabbat (The Sabbath) in Israel

Ask any Jewish immigrant to Israel what he likes best about life here, and unless he is a determined secularist, he's mostly to answer "Shabbat and holidays."

Friday evening in Jerusalem - no need for caution when
walking on tram tracks!

(By the way, the idea of a determined secularist 'making Aliyah' is not so outlandish as you might think.  Many Jews who move here specifically to escape persecution or insecurities in their countries of origin - for example, those arriving from Russia, Ukraine, France, South Africa - might not be religiously inclined at all.  My ulpan class is a good example; many of my classmates have little to no religious reference for moving, and living here.)

There is just something magical about the way that the country starts slowing down around mid-afternoon Friday, as Shabbat approaches.  As I write this, it is about 2.30PM Friday and I feel it.  No, things are not completely quiet.  Friday afternoon is a popular time for teenage boys to scream around the neighborhood on anything propelled by an internal combustion engine; right now, quad ATV's seem to be all the rage, and the more ineffective the muffler, the better.  So, it's not as if the air becomes more still.  In fact there's a bustle about Fridays as people who are Sabbath-observant rush around to make preparations.  Friday mornings are not a good time to have to do any shopping, because everybody seems to be in a rush and a crush to get things done.  But once the noon hour passes, you can feel the change.  Traffic on the streets, heavy on Friday mornings, starts to thin out.  The smells of cooking are everywhere.  Coming home from the bakery to buy my loaves of challah and a cake for Shabbat, I joyously breathed in the savory aromas of cooking that seemed to emanate from every apartment as I walked home. (My own included, as Clara was cooking up a storm.)  Any other time of the week, when concluding a transaction in a shop you might get a yom tov (good day) from the clerk or salesperson.  But on Fridays (really, it starts Thursdays, because the assumption is that they won't see you again before the Sabbath) you get a Shabbat shalom.  

Even in decidedly-secular Tel Aviv, one feels the
change as Shabbat falls.

As the afternoon starts fading into the twilight, you see the religious people starting to come out of their homes and walking to the many synagogues.  Israel is a casual country, and nobody will get any flack from the guy in the next row if they come into the synagogue in everyday clothes (although a woman might get stares if she comes in with bare shoulders and arms), but you see many people walking to prayers in their best clothes.  In certain circles, it is customary for both men and women to dress completely in white in Friday evening, but others wear more formal jackets and even ties.  Hariedi men mostly wear black, and those of certain hasidic sects wear silk robes and shtreml fur hats. 

Even among the non-religious, it is common for a family to gather for a big dinner on Friday evening.  The kids in the army are often home on leave, and the kids beyond army age who have gone off to start lives of their own often still come home to their parents' homes to share the Friday evening meal.

On Saturday morning, the religious are of course back at synagogue for the morning prayers and Torah reading.  The non-religious, if they aren't relaxing at home, are outside, walking, running, going to the beach, gathering in a park.  Because the weather is good almost any day of the year here (right now in Ashqelon it is 26 Celsius, down from today's high of 28...and it's the 22nd of December), people tend to go outside a lot.  But the main thing is that, on Shabbat, few people are going to work or rushing around.  It's as if the entire country 'takes a chill pill.'

To me, that's a big draw to life in Israel; the sense of shared slowing-down that happens once a week and on other occasions when holidays occur.  Whether one observes these days in a religious or secular fashion, they still happen - and they influence how the entire country behaves.
     

International Day of Persons with Disabilities...

Wheelchair Obstacle Course at International Day of
Persons with Disabilities, in Ashqelon 

...was Friday last week.  I have a friend whom I usually meet for a walk and coffee on Friday mornings when we're both available, who it happens is legally blind.  As I had received a text message from the Ashqelon Municipal Department of Retiree Activities the day before, that there would be a special observance down at the marina on Friday morning, I suggested to my friend that we walk down to the marina to see what's on.

It was timely, because I had just read in the newspaper earlier in the week, that a recent poll of Israelis showed a startling lack of understanding of disabilities.  According to the survey, 60 percent of all Israelis think the disabled to be mentally incompetent.  The survey question did not differentiate between the specific types of disabilities; in other words, 60 percent of Israelis seem to think that any disabled person (blind, deaf, mobility impaired,,,) is also mentally incompetent.

One thing that I like about living in Israel is that, when a legitimate societal issue is raised, it is then usually addressed by various governmental bodies in a way that is hoped to be helpful.  In that regard, I thought the activities set up in Ashqelon friday were  brilliant.

The theme was to teach young people - before they develop attitudes that are difficult to change - what the disabled face in their everyday lives.  The marina was full of high school students, who were offered the morning off if they attended the event.

Deafness Station

A number of stations were set up, to enable the kids to sample what it is like to be disabled.  There was a wheelchair obstacle course, to show the obstacles that wheelchair users face everyday just in trying to get around.  And there was also a wheelchair basketball station, to show athletic young people (and basketball is probably the most popular sport here) just how hard it is for the mobility-impaired to realize their athletic dreams.

Blindness Station

There was a blindness station, where the kids wore eye shades and were introduced the reality of having to visualize things through descriptions.  And there was a deafness station, where kids wearing ear protectors had to try to communicate with one another.


In addition to all these exhibits to help the non-disability community better appreciate the challenges facing the disabled, there were also stations where a number of governmental and non-government organizations could pass out helpful information and address the concerns of the disabled in making sure they get all the benefits, to which they're entitled.

All this comes after a period - during the last three months - when the disabled have been holding public protests, including blocking traffic on major arteries, to raise awareness of their plight.  For what it's worth, it appears that someone has been listening.

So How's That Workin' Out For Ya?

Palestinian Protest near Bethlehem, Thursday, 7 December 2017

In my post last week, I praised President Trump for taking the momentous step of declaring the United States' recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and signing the order for the State Department to begin the groundwork for moving our embassy there.  And of course, if you're following the issue, you know that our Palestinian neighbors have spent the past few days showing their displeasure in their favorite manner - with violent demonstrations and attacks on Jews.  And you also likely know that there have been violent attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions in various places in the world:  in particular, against the main synagogue in Stockholm, Sweden and a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  So, you could be forgiven if you'd like to ask me the question that is the title of this post.  And I'm happy to answer that question.

But first, let me give you some personal background - state my bonafides, I guess.  I have a son serving in the Israeli army, in the Tank Corps.  He's not in 'the Territories' - Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank if you prefer - right now.  He has under his belt two deployments there:  one in the Tulkarem area, and one in Gush Etzion.  Right now, he's on early warning watch in a bunker complex facing Kuneitra, Syria - in the Golan Heights.  Because he's a combat medic, this deployment has a large humanitarian element - providing medical aid to refugees and anti-government fighters fleeing oppression by Syrian President Assad's troops.  His next deployment is slated for the Gaza border.  I'm really proud of him for his service.  Although he's not in the Territories this week, he saw plenty of action when he was.  So, as the concerned parent of an IDF soldier - not to mention as someone living in Southern Israel within easy range of Hamas' vast inventory of inexpensive rockets - I'm not being cavalier about the violence.  (It happens that there have been several rocket warnings here in Ashqelon since last Wednesday.  It's just part of life here.) 

I would have been happy to tell President Trump, had I had the means, to not bother with the recognition and moving the embassy if it would have kept him, and other Israelis, safe from thuggery and terror.  But - and you can see where this is going - Trump's yielding to concerns about renewed violence and not taking the step he did last week, would not have made Israel, or Jews around the world, one iota safer over the long run.  The thuggery and terror of the Palestinians and elements in the the greater Arab/Islamic world have been close to continuous over the 69 years of the life of the Israeli state, and for many decades beforehand.  In other words, the violence isn't because of Jerusalem, or the lack of a Palestinian state, or the Jewish 'settlements' in the West Bank, or anything President Trump has said or done.  If Abu Mazen's threat, of a new Intifada because of this most recent event, come true, then last week's event would be nothing more than the ostensible trigger.  Trump or not, it was going to come - more likely sooner than later.  Every time the Palestinians don't get their way on something, they threaten a new round of violence.  And they almost always follow through on those threats.  They truly mean what they say, at least as regards violence against Israel.

And Hamas?  Supposedly, Al Fatah (the faction of Abu Mazen anf the late Yassir Arafat) and Hamas have come to some kind of accommodation in the Gaza Strip.  Ismail Haniyeh - the leader of Hamas - hasn't been sounding too different from Abu Mazen.  And Hamas isn't engaging in empty words either; just today, the IDF destroyed yet another Hamas-built terror tunnel stretching under the Gaza Strip border into Southern Israel.  That tunnel, whose purpose would have been to insert guerrilla squads into Israel to kidnap IDF soldiers and force them into Gaza to use as bargaining chips for Hamas prisoners in Israeli jails, was not built after Trump's press conference on Wednesday last week.  Sooo...

Even after a few days of very unfortunate violence in Israel and the Jewish world, 'triggered' by President Trump's brave recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital and reiteration of his promise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv, I'm still a fan.


       

He Did It!

Was your response to the subject, Who did what?  If so, then I will answer with a question:  What rock have you been hiding under for the last week or so?

The Knesset, seat of Israel's parliamentary democracy, in Jerusalem

Of course, the who is President Trump.  And the what is, he officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital city, and is directing the State Department to begin the background work to move the US embassy in Israel to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, since an embassy's rightful place is in its host nation's capital city.

The announcement was not unexpected; the Washington and Middle East Leak Machine has been hard at work ensuring that we would know the essence of the announcement long before it was made.  Still, since President Trump likes to keep people and other nations guessing, one can never be entirely certain until he announces in an official manner,  And announce in an official manner he did:  not a Tweet, but a forceful speech from the State Department's Foggy Bottom headquarters.

The speech was in Trump's  typical, somewhat-inarticulate yet from-the-heart style.  He made two main points:

1.  The recognition of, and moving the embassy to, Jerusalem is US law, passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton in 1995, yet not acted upon by Clinton nor by his successors George W Bush and Barack Obama who used a loophole in the law which enables the sitting president to apply for successive waivers of six months to delay its implementation.  The three presidents kept claiming the waiver, on the basis that its implementation would inflame tensions and make it more difficult for Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement.  Yet that peace agreement has not been forthcoming, and Trump does not believe - and I think he's correct - that its implementation now will prejudice the chances of an agreement.  I think he believes - although he did not state as much in his speech today - that his order to implement the agreement might actually spur the Palestinians to return to the table since they're no longer going to get this 'free ride' from Washington.

2.  Every state on earth has the right to decide which city is its capital. (The Israelis decided this question in 1980, when the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law.)  And in no case - other than Israel - does the United States de-legitimize that state's decision.  Since Jerusalem has been Israel's capital in every way that that distinction matters, for almost 70 years, it is time for the US to recognize that fact and locate its embassy where it has best access to the various functions of the host nation government.

If there is opposition to this move among not only Arab and Islamic states but also several Western nations, that's okay.  It is not unanimously supported in Israel itself, where most of the opposition is pragmatic.  And if several senior officials of the Palestinian Authority - including Chairman Abu Mazen as well as Saed Erekat and Hanan Ashrawi - have threatened a new round of violent uprisings, that's regrettably okay - since the next round has always been a foregone conclusion, only its timing and the ostensible trigger being unknown.

Since Trump has waited the better part of a year after taking office to make this announcement, and does so only after considerable attempts to renew peace talks, it is clear that he has been making no progress with the Palestinians and therefore felt he had no choice but to fulfill this campaign promise he'd made.

It's interesting that a number of voices who cannot by a stretch be characterized as pro-Israel hawks - among them Tom Friedman of the New York Times and Judith Miller late of the Times and now a correspondent for Fox News - have long counselled that one cannot draw the Palestinians into negotiations by handing them un-earned concessions.  And yet, successive US presidents - not to mention Israeli leaders - have held to the principle that such unilateral concessions will result in a movement toward an agreement by the Palestinians.  Deep disagreement on this point made relations between President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu problematic almost from the day Obama took office.  Clearly, with Netanyahu still in office and a new administration in Washington, this disagreement no longer exists.  Seeing the bold move made by Trump today is heartening.  Will it help the Peace Process?  We cannot know, but since the latter has been in a virtual deep freeze for years, there is probably little risk of exacerbating it.