Eli's Lookout

You won't find "Eli's Lookout" on any ordinance map. Just the same if you are looking for a vantage point with a wonderful view of our part of the Jezreel Valley, often referred to as the Harod Valley, Eli's Lookout is the place to go to. By sheer dint of dogged determination and do-it-yourself aptitude Eli turned a rocky outcrop at the top of the hill above the kibbutz into a garden escape ideally suited for a family breakfast, a picnic, for celebrating a birthday party and of course as an observation point.

The lookout consists of pergolas with picnic tables, benches and facilities set among lawns and flower beds. Eli, by the way, is alive, well and enjoying his own memorial.

The gravel road that leads up to the observation point passes close to a wine vat dating from the seventh century. It was a dual purpose vat used also as an olive press and is one of a number found on the hilly rise between Ein Harod and our neighbour Tel Yosef. Although only a superficial archeological survey was conducted at the site, it appears that throughout the Roman-Byzantine era and perhaps earlier a number of communities occupied this hilltop. Over twenty water cisterns, several wine vats and the ruins of a structure which was probably a synagogue were discovered here. It seems that at some time a Jewish community existed here. On the northern and southern slopes of the hill cactus (sabra) hedges are give-away signs that at a later date another community lived here.

On some ordinance maps the hill is named Kumi, an oblique reference to an Arab village that existed here till March 1948.

The Arab/Jewish Women’s Peace Coalition in Edmonton, Canada better known by the acronym AJWPC, was formed in 1991. A delegation from this small group of women dedicated to furthering the cause of peace between Arabs and Jews, visited Israel last week. Two months ago a member of the group wrote to me asking if I would agree to meet them, show them the kibbutz and discuss reciprocal relations between Arabs and Jews living in the Gilboa region. The visit to Ein Harod was added to the group's tour itinerary which according to the flyer they printed would include, "Visiting refugee camps, the Holocaust museum - Yad Vashem, towns in the occupied territories, Jewish/Israeli settlements, sites of suicide bombings, and meet with Palestinians and Israelis working together. There are many local organizations working for social justice, peace and reconciliation, and the reaction to our speaking engagements over the last 18 years have clearly indicated that the public is hungry for this knowledge. We plan to meet with Bereaved Parents Circle, Be’t Selem, Palestine Red Crescent Society and Women 4 Peace." AJWPC is certainly a noble cause with good intentions.

Last Thursday the group was due to come here. Eli's Lookout was the ideal venue for our meeting. Weather permitting I thought we would view the region from this vantage point and continue our discussion over coffee and cake in the kibbutz club house. I had planned a brief stop by the wine vat in order to add some historical background and show the transitory nature of settlement here. If appropriate I thought I would mention the cactus hedges.

On Thursday morning Karen, the group's coordinator called to cancel the scheduled visit to Ein Harod. It seems they had to jettison something from their overloaded itinerary. I'm sure it was my loss; I missed entertaining ten charming Canadian ladies and maybe an opportunity to counterbalance their tour programme with a touch of realism.

Over the years I have described the Jezreel Valley and other vistas from a number of vantage points to groups of kibbutz volunteers, Ulpan students, U.N soldiers from Ghana, Fiji, Sweden, Denmark and many other countries.

I have shared the view from Eli's Lookout with church groups, ramblers, cyclists, regular tourists and even an Indian chief.

It occurred to me that my standard presentation might not be suitable for the AJWPC. They wanted to hear about coexistence between Arabs and Jews in our provincial enclave, peace activism and allied topics.

So I planned to tell them how Israelis, Arabs and Jews in the Gilboa region generally manage to live in harmonious symbiosis. This would be prefixed by the following preamble:

By no stretch of the imagination could the first Jewish settlers in this valley have conjured up this view, the patchwork of cultivated fields, fish ponds, orchards and citrus groves that covers the valley floor framed by the wooded slopes of mount Gilboa and the orderly settlement clusters that dot the landscape.

Mark Twain visited the Jezreel Valley in 1867. He saw desolation and a swamp, not the biblical land flowing with milk and honey. His impressions are recorded in “Innocents Abroad.” - “Of all the lands for dismal scenery, I think Palestine must be the prince. The hills are barren, the valleys unsightly deserts….it is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land…” A year before the first Jewish pioneers arrived here a British government surveyor reiterated Mark Twain's impressions in a description of the valley included in his report to the British High Commissioner, “When first I saw it in 1920 it was desolation. Four or five small squalid Arab villages, long distances apart from each other, could be seen on the summits of low hills here and there. For the rest, not a tree…….the country was infested with malaria…”

Ein Harod was founded in 1921. A few months later the pioneers of Tel Yosef,Geva, Hefziba, Beit Alpha and Kfar Yehezkel pitched their tents in the valley, all new communities.

In 1929 Ein Harod moved to the north side of the valley where it is situated today. About the same time members of Kibbutz Beit Alpha discovered the ruins of an ancient synagogue when they were digging irrigation channels for their fields.

The synagogue is located close to the ruins of Khirbet Beit Ilfa an Arab village whose name is a corrupted form of the name of the original Jewish community that existed here in the late Byzantine period.

The ancient communities at Beit Alpha, on our hill and in other places in the valley were incorporated in both regional Roman and Byzantine municipalities ruled from Scythopolis ( Beit Shean). Although high quality linen fabrics were Scythopolis' main export product, wine and olive oil produced in nearby villages were also marketed through the town. Today this provincial centre is known by its original name Beit Shean. It is thought that earthquakes, maybe a landslide and changes in trade routes following the Muslim conquest 634-638 brought about the demise of these communities. Today kibbutz and moshav communities farm the land and manufacture industrial products where the ancient Greek and Aramaic speaking communities once thrived.

There are thirty three communities in the Gilboa region. Eight of them are kibbutzim, twenty are moshavim and rural community centres and the remaining five communities are Arab villages. Forty percent of the region's 26,000 residents are Arabs. The Gilboa region is primarily an agricultural district, however industrial enterprises, some of them hi-tech and very profitable exist alongside established modern agricultural branches. Service branches and tourism complete the occupational spectrum.

Scanning the landscape from Eli's Lookout the cactus hedges are not-to-be ignored features, unless you choose to overlook them. They are the only physical reminder that an Arab village called Kumi or Qumya existed here.

According to the geographer Zeev Vilnai the Arab settlement in this region, mostly the Zouabi clan, migrated from the area near Irbid in Jordan. They came here in 1873 at the invitation of the Ottoman government. However, Knesset member Hanin Zouabi relies more on family sources when she claims that her ancestors came from Iraq 500 years ago.

As far as I know the people who lived in Kumi/Qumya came here about the same time as the Zouabi clan but weren't related to them. However there were some Zouabi families in the village and a few Bedouins who lived on its outskirts.

Conflicting narratives make it difficult to arrive at the truth.Professor Vilnai relied on the Ottoman land registration records whereas Zouabi prefers the family oral tradition. Deciding what happened to Kumi/Qumya depends on the narrative you choose.

Our local narrative claims that a few weeks before Ben Gurion declared Israel's independence the British mandatory authority concerned for the welfare of isolated Arab villages advised the Sheikh of Kumi/Qumya to evacuate the village. According to eye witnesses the villagers were evacuated by British army trucks late in March 1948. Some were moved over the river into Jordan others were taken to Nazareth and the Zouabi families joined relatives in a nearby Arab village - Naoura.

A conflicting Arab account claims “the village was assaulted by the forces of the Golani Brigade on March 26, 1948 during Operation Gideon. Its inhabitants fled in fear of being caught in the fighting.” However, it's known and documented that Operation Gideon took place at the beginning of May 1948, by that date Kumi/Qumya was deserted so there was no reason to attack it.

Members of Ein Harod who remember the village well describe it as a motley group of wattle and daub houses. The camel stable and the sheik’s house were the only two stone buildings in the village The Arab narrative describes Qumya in much grander terms.

A few months ago an NGO called The Arab Centre for Applied Social Research Jadal published a paper by Areej Sabbagh-Khoury entitled "The Internally Displaced Palestinians in Israel." The author claims a displaced persons rights group called ADRID “keeps the memory of the destroyed villages alive by organizing marches to these villages as part of the annual commemoration of the Nakba, and specifically on Israel’s Independence Day.

Sabbagh-Khoury intimates that the time has come for internally displaced Palestinians in Israel to claim the “right of return.” This is wishful thinking and will never happen.

The “right of return” is still on the Palestinian agenda and only a few realistic Palestinian intellectuals admit it is a dream that will never be realised.

Our local council claims Jews and Arabs coexist well in the Gilboa region and I’m sure it’s true. We work together, buy, sell and cooperate in many fields because this is the best way we can live together.

“This is as good as it gets.”

Have a good weekend.

Beni 29^th of October, 2009.

Turkish Delight

We surveyed the jars of coloured candy, trays of marzipan and assorted sweetmeats while the stall keeper deftly wrapped the block of lokum we had just bought. The occasion was our first visit to Turkey and aided with a rudimentary tourist map we were trying to navigate a path through Istanbul's maze-like Grand Bazaar.
We stopped by the stall to ask for directions and decided to buy some "Turkish Delight" to take home with us.
I recalled the tacky lokum when I read Michael Reynolds' article - "Turkey’s foreign policy flip" which appeared this week in MESH (Middle East Strategy at Harvard).Referring to Turkey's foreign policy volte-face Reynolds quoted a popular Ottoman adage to illustrate the hitherto Turkish contempt for Arabs:

"There is a certain poetic irony to the Turkish dream of exporting food throughout the Middle East via Syria. Damascus’ Ottoman-era fame for its sweets gave rise to a Turkish saying that aptly summarized official Turkish attitudes from the 1920s through the end of the century toward all things Arab: Ne Şam’ın şekeri, ne Arabın yüzü, literally “Neither sweets from Damascus nor an Arab’s face,” which can be roughly translated as, I don’t want to have anything to do with the Arabs, even if they do have tasty sweets."
Now it seems the Turks think the Arabs aren't so bad after all. Turkey's Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu at the time of his recent visit to Aleppo uttered an entirely different phrase to describe Turkish-Syrian relations: “A common fate, a common history, a common future.”
Davutoglu is in fact the architect of Turkey's new foreign policy. Reynolds quotes from Davutoglu's book "Strategic Depth" to highlight the main points of the change. "Whereas in the past the Turkish Republic followed a policy of quasi-isolation and self-imposed quarantine from its neighbours, today it should instead seek to take advantage of the cultural and historical links it shares with other countries in its region."
Reynolds notes that for most of its existence, the Turkish Republic has enjoyed at best cool relations with Syria. During the 1980s and 1990s, Turkish-Syrian ties were outright confrontational as the two states sparred over such issues as Turkish control of the waters of the Euphrates and Syrian support for the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) operating inside Turkey. Relations reached a crisis in 1999 when Turkey threatened to invade Syria if it continued to provide asylum for the head of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan. This period of heightened Turkish-Syrian tension overlapped with the establishment of a security partnership with Israel that became one of the constituent elements of the regional balance of power.
Relations between Syria and Turkey began to improve slowly after 1999, while ties to Israel became noticeably more strained three years ago in the wake of the Second Lebanon War. Lately the Turkish government has protested Israel's actions during Operation Cast Lead. More recently, following the disturbances on the Temple Mount it has demanded that “respect be shown to the al-Aqsa mosque, the Noble Sanctuary, and East Jerusalem, which are sacred to Muslims.”
Among the plans Ahmet Davutoglu outlined during his visit to Syria was a programme to transform Aleppo into a major logistical hub for expanded Turkish trade with the Arab Middle East. The Turks hope to use Aleppo to meet the Arab demand for Turkish foodstuffs. I wonder if this new export route for sending Turkish Delight to Damascus won’t be like sending coals to Newcastle.
Obviously there is a link between the cold shoulder Turkey is showing us and all the hue and cry over the Goldstone Report.
Patrick Seale is not one of Israel's staunch admirers. Nevertheless, I thought the opinion he expressed under the heading "Israel’s Dangerously Battered Image" printed in the English language daily Dar al Hayat (Istanbul) worth considering.
"In international politics, image counts. A country’s reputation, the aura it projects, the esteem in which its leaders are held – these are as important as its armed services in providing protection for its citizens. Most politicians know that ‘soft power’, skillfully used, can be at least as effective as blood-drenched ‘hard power’.
I'm afraid that despite a genuine attempt to be fair I was short on patience when I read on, "This is a lesson Israel appears to have forgotten. Its pitiless treatment of the Palestinians, whether under occupation on the West Bank or under siege in Gaza – not to mention its repeated assaults on Lebanon, its 2007 raid on Syria and its relentless sabre-rattling against Iran -- have done terrible damage to its image.
The admiration which its early state-building once aroused in many parts of the world has turned into angry impatience, outrage, even contempt. "
Admittedly the West Bank occupation is not beyond criticism and maybe it's possible to question the wisdom of the siege of the Gaza Strip. However conditions in the West Bank are directly correlated to the rate of terrorist activity. In recent months a waning of terrorist activity has resulted in tangible relaxation of the security measures employed there, notably the dismantling of road blocks. Gaza is under siege in response to its "pitiless" mortar and rocket bombardment of nearby Israeli towns and communities, weapons smuggling and because a kidnapped Israeli soldier is being held there.
Likewise the "repeated assaults" on Lebanon have been in response to attacks from Lebanon and the raid on Syria was made to destroy a Syrian nuclear facility.
Maybe Seale is right when he complains about Israeli "sabre-rattling" against Iran. Considering Ahmadinejad's repeated threats to wipe Israel off the map and his determination to attain "nuclear capability", we have cause to issue an occasional warning. In the end we might have to take the advice given in that epic Spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly " When you have to shoot, shoot don't talk."
What appears to be Iranian acquiescence (the recent IAEA agreement) may only delay an inevitable showdown.
Seale continues his tirade, “From the moment Israel started hammering Gaza last December it was clear that its insane war was a grotesque mistake, which would end up fuelling nothing but hate, and might even delegitimize Israel in the eyes of much of the world. The Goldstone report has now driven a giant nail into the coffin of Israel’s reputation by finding that, in Gaza, there was evidence that Israel ‘committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity.’
Few outside Israel itself – and outside the shrinking ranks of its diehard supporters in the United States and Europe – would today be prepared to defend its arrogant militarists, its fanatical land-grabbing settlers and its racist politicians.”
Patrick Seale, probably Hafez al-Assad’s best known biographer visited Israel on two occasions in recent years as the guest of Israeli Middle East research institutes. At one time he described his attitude to Israel as something close to understanding. Well with friends like Seale who needs enemies.
While Patrick Seale praised the Goldstone Report, Robert L. Bernstein, chairman of Human Rights Watch from 1978 to 1998 was scathingly critical of the report and the UNHRC. In a blistering critique entitled “Rights Watchdog, Lost in the Mideast” which appeared in the New York Times this week Bernstein states,
“Human Rights Watch has lost critical perspective on a conflict in which Israel has been repeatedly attacked by Hamas and Hezbollah, organizations that go after Israeli citizens and use their own people as human shields. These groups are supported by the government of Iran, which has openly declared its intention not just to destroy Israel but to murder Jews everywhere. This incitement to genocide is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Leaders of Human Rights Watch know that Hamas and Hezbollah chose to wage war from densely populated areas, deliberately transforming neighborhoods into battlefields. They know that more and better arms are flowing into both Gaza and Lebanon and are poised to strike again. And they know that this militancy continues to deprive Palestinians of any chance for the peaceful and productive life they deserve. Yet Israel, the repeated victim of aggression, faces the brunt of Human Rights Watch’s criticism.”
Robert Bernstein commenting on “fact finding” said, “In Gaza and elsewhere where there is no access to the battlefield or to the military and political leaders who make strategic decisions, it is extremely difficult to make definitive judgments about war crimes. Reporting often relies on witnesses whose stories cannot be verified and who may testify for political advantage or because they fear retaliation from their own rulers. Significantly, Col. Richard Kemp, the former commander of British forces in Afghanistan and an expert on warfare, has said that the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza ‘did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.’”
See Kemp’s testimony on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX6vyT8RzMo

Obviously the IDF shouldn’t enjoy anything akin to “diplomatic immunity” .
Israel’s Attorney General and a number of political figures including Kadima Knesset member and former IDF spokesman Nachman Shai have suggested that some kind of investigation into Operation Cast Lead should be held.
Some military analysts advocate the establishment of a permanent IDF or independent investigating body to safeguard against possible abuses and obviate attacks by organisations like the UN Human Rights Council, termed by The Economist “an anti-Israeli outfit.”

As I recall our children refused to taste the Turkish delight we brought back from Istanbul, so we gave it to our neighbours. Later they complained that their daughter lost a filling when she ate it.


Beni 21st of October, 2009

Rondo a la Turk

We want to thank everyone for the condolences we received.

Beni and Roni Kaye

Nine years ago when Ariel Sharon and a 1,000 strong police escort visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem he declared that the complex would remain under perpetual Israeli control. This tactless show of force did in fact provoke a violent Palestinian reaction which in turn provided Arafat with a convenient reason for calling off the ongoing peace talks. The disturbances spread to the West Bank, with Palestinians citing the visit to justify an unprecedented wave of violence that quickly became known as the second intifada.

In 2007, the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Antiquities Authority began rebuilding the Mughrabi Gate, one of the main entrances to the Temple Mount, adjacent to the Western Wall. Although the work on the gate evoked only mild Palestinian protests and was suspended immediately it drew international condemnation and caused a Muslim outcry.

Recently there has been more violence on the Temple Mount. The difference in this case is that there was no purported Israeli "instigation" - no Sharon visit or renovations at the Mughrabi Gate. Instead, this time the demonstrations are a politically motivated campaign launched by Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Israeli Islamic Movement's northern branch. The Sheikh was arrested and served with a court order denying him entry to the Temple Mount compound. Further restrictive measures have limited access to the mosques on the mount to older worshippers, the people less likely to cause trouble.

In June 1967 Colonel Motta Gur's historic announcement "The Temple Mount is in our hands," ended close to eight hundred years of continuous control of the site.

However once the battle smoke had cleared and the initial exuberance had deflated, the Israeli government decided it didn't really want full control of this proverbial "hot potato." Israel agreed to leave administration of the site in the hands of the Muslim guardians, namely the Waqf. So the Waqf's guardianship which has been enforced since Saladin recaptured the Kingdom of Jerusalem in 1187 was renewed almost without pause or interruption.

Although freedom of access was guaranteed by law, as a security measure to prevent demonstrations and violent outbreaks, the Israeli government enforces a ban on non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount.

Since the Six-Day War Haredi rabbinical scholars have decreed that religious law bans Jews from entering any part of the Temple Mount for fear of desecrating the Holy of Holies, whose exact location is unknown but is believed to be situated somewhere in the Temple courtyard

Last week ninety nine year old Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv, a renowned sage and arbiter of Jewish law reiterated the injunction forbidding visits to the Temple Mount.

A dissenting opinion held mainly by a few rabbis with a political axe to grind argues that a visit to this holiest of Jewish sites can be accomplished if you tread carefully. It appears that even an inconspicuous visit was too much for Sheikh Raed Salah and other Islamic leaders. They firmly deny any Jewish affinity to the site and regard archeological excavations as attempts to undermine the mosques there and use these claims to incite riots. The fact that the largest excavations conducted on the Temple Mount were carried out by the Palestinians themselves when they built an underground mosque is conveniently overlooked..

Large earth-moving equipment was employed in the excavation work destroying structures and artifacts dating back to the Second Temple period.

Nevertheless, some fragments from the excavated material have been recovered from waste tip where it was dumped.

The whole Temple Mount episode is part of the ongoing “Battle of the Narrative” being waged between Israel and the Palestinians, which is also the struggle of the conflicting accounts presented by Muslims and Jews.

Despite the conflicting narrative Turkey has long been considered one of Israel’s main strategic assets.

During a visit to Anatolia a few years ago I met a local English teacher who told me why Turks like Israelis. I failed to understand why he liked Israelis.

“We are brash, ill-mannered, we trash and vandalise your hotels and tourist sites, why should you like us?” I asked him obviously exaggerating our negative attributes. “Well you spend a lot of money in Turkey and we have a common enemy – Syria.”

Well this week it appears that the Anatolian English teacher was partly right.

Israelis are still spending money in Turkey. This week Turkey and Syria opened their common border facilitating free movement between the two countries.

Almost simultaneously Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed a Swiss-mediated rapprochement in Zurich

The Turkish and Armenian parliaments must now approve the agreement in the face of opposition from nationalists on both sides and an Armenian diaspora which insists Turkey acknowledge the killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I.

About the same time, the government in Ankara decided to cancel Israel’s participation in NATO’s aerial drill in Turkey. The fact that both Italy and the US pulled out of the drill in protest is comforting. “However,” claims military and strategic analyst Ron Ben Yishai “this act must serve as a glowing warning sign in respect to the strategic and economic implications that may follow our growing diplomatic isolation.”

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and the Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan have given contradictory and slightly different reasons for this change of heart. Looking beyond the obvious Israeli tourist value , the help extended to Turkey by IDF rescue teams when it was tragically rocked by earthquakes in the 90s and an ever growing volume of trade in military hardware ( Turkey buying and Israel selling), we can nevertheless, see an unmistakable erosion.

“New deals worth tens and hundreds of millions of dollars offered by Israel’s defence industries to the Turkish army, as well as cooperation with Turkish colleagues, are being put on hold or are cancelled altogether. Only recently, officials in Ankara preferred to purchase a spy satellite from Italy, even though it is inferior in quality and more expensive than the Israeli product offered to Turkey. “Concludes Ron Ben Yishai. Furthermore the cancellation of Israel’s participation in NATO’s aerial drill clearly indicates a profound change has taken place in Turkey. “The Turkish government (which is interested in gaining acceptance to the European Union) would not have dared adopt such a move in defiance of Washington and its European allies had its government not reached the conclusion that the benefit it can expect among regional states by shunning Israel is greater than the potential damage it might incur.

Ankara, for the time being at least, is no longer a dependable strategic and security partner for Israel, it erodes our deterrent power vis-à-vis Iran and Syria. Israel has indeed embarked on a process of seeking substitutes.”

Yediot Ahranot correspondent Eldad Beck relates specifically to the accord between Turkey and Armenia “The historic reconciliation agreement signed Saturday between Turkey and Armenia constitutes further testament to the positive changes undergone by Turkey in the past year. A government with an Islamic orientation was able to impressively promote two highly sensitive issues for Turkish public opinion: Recognising the cultural rights of the Kurdish minority and normalising ties with Armenia. “

The strong sense of Turkish nationalism previously prevented any compromise with the Kurds, for fear this will open the door for boosting their national demands and in turn for a renewed territorial disintegration by Turkey.

Tayyip Erdogan’s administration realised that it is precisely openness towards the Kurdish minority that will prompt a greater sense of belonging among them and weaken their aspiration to join other Kurdish areas, mostly in Iraq.

Erdogan faced a similar choice vis-à-vis Armenia: Perpetuating the frozen status-quo in the ties with Turkey’s neighbour would have boosted the global Armenian campaign for recognition of the massacre committed by the Turks as an organised and methodical genocide. Turkey would have been faced with all the possible implications of such recognition, especially if it would have also been backed by the US Congress.

“So,” explains Beck “Erdogan decided to preempt this blow, and while taking advantage of the weak Armenian economy (which suffered gravely as result of the closure of its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan) managed to secure (with Swiss mediation) a reconciliation agreement that is difficult for both the Turks and for the Armenians – yet postpones to an unknown future date the question of addressing the Armenian holocaust and entrusts future research on its scope in the hands of historians. “

Fortunately we are blessed with a number of analysts who are very familiar with the internal political scene in Turkey. They claim that when Erdogan says his change in attitude to Israel came during and in the wake of Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip, we should accept this explanation as only part of the cause. It seems that the Turkish government has made a reassessment of its chances of being fully accepted by the European Union and decided to opt to end its disputes with old enemies by achieving a situation of zero conflict. It sees its future on the eastern side of the Bosporus.

It is appeasing Iran before it acquires nuclear capability, eliminating the Kurdish question peacefully by appeasing the PKK in Iraq and Syria and settling matters amicably with the Armenians.

Ron Ben Yishai expands his thesis regarding Israel’s growing isolation.

“What should concern us about the deterioration in our ties with Turkey is that the Turks are not alone. Until recently, Israel’s intelligence community estimated that the fears of Arab Sunni-majority states in the face of the Iranian-Shiite threat would prompt a process of rapprochement between them and Israel. This assessment appeared to materialise during the Second Lebanon War: The positions adopted by most Sunni states, ranging from Egypt to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, towards Hezbollah and its patrons in Tehran left little room for doubt as to where they stood.

Then came Operation Case Lead in Gaza and changed the picture. The sights of casualties and ruin in the Strip, reinforced by the inciting commentary offered by Arab satellite networks, provoked unrest on the Muslim street. This unrest jeopardized the moderate regimes, which were forced to issue scathing condemnations of Israel’s actions

Furthermore the chances of tightening regional cooperation declined after a Netanyahu-led rightist government was formed in Jerusalem, with Avigdor Lieberman becoming a major partner in it. The wave of hostility and media incitement grew in the face of Israel’s refusal to freeze construction in the settlements and the building in east Jerusalem, which were accompanied by provocative statements on the part of Netanyahu and his ministers.”

Whenever we reach an impasse we tend to blame our public relations campaign (or “Hasbara” as we refer to it). P.R is always good , but usually we end up convincing ourselves and our friends who will always accept us “warts and all”.

This time we need to engage in some really constructive thinking and try to stop the decline while we can.

Beni 15^th of October, 2009.

The girl with the flaxen hair

I’ve put the Middle East on hold!
On Sunday night my niece Rochelle Engel died.
I mourn her death, a death that defies reason and can't be explained by any rationale.
When we stood by her grave on Monday afternoon and someone read “El Malai Rahamim” (God Full of Mercy) I recalled Yehuda Amichai’s poem

God Full of Mercy

God-Full-of-Mercy, the prayer for the dead.
If God was not full of mercy,
Mercy would have been in the world,
Not just in Him.
I, who plucked flowers in the hills
And looked down into all the valleys,
I, who brought corpses down from the hills,
Can tell you that the world is empty of mercy.
I, who was King of Salt at the seashore,
Who stood without a decision at my window,
Who counted the steps of angels,
Whose heart lifted weights of anguish
In the horrible contests.

I, who use only a small part
Of the words in the dictionary.

I, who must decipher riddles
I don't want to decipher,
Know that if not for the God-full-of-mercy
There would be mercy in the world,
Not just in Him.

Translated from the Hebrew by Barbara and Benjamin Harshav

Rochelle, the first grandchild of our family is no more, and there should have been more, a lot more. Images of the past cascade through my mind: Rochelle the fair haired baby I knew in New Zealand, the little girl I met at the port in Haifa when she arrived in Israel with her sister and parents, a bewildered wide eyed child, the same fair haired girl in the family's new home at Kibbutz Nirim. I recall her first visits to Ein Harod, a beautiful blonde Israeli "Shirley Temple."
I thumb through my album of images to later on when the family moved to Sde Nitzan, the high school years and her army service. Then the trips overseas, her marriage to Amir, motherhood and her home in Tel Adashim. Rochelle remained almost unchanged. She never lost her special sense of humour, her wry intonated style of speech. I still hear her lilting greeting when we met, that inimitable "Uncle." . The blonde tresses should have bleached in the sun while she grazed their open range herd of cattle, but they didn’t. Instead they became a shade of golden flax. Later when her doctors diagnosed that she was ill with that dreadful disease we fear to mention by name she lost her flaxen hair. Like Samson in Gaza her hair grew back and those of us who hoped beyond hope that her strength was renewed and eventually a new treatment, some untried wonder drug or miracle working device would restore her health, we too succumbed to the awful reality that time was running out.
A few weeks ago Rochelle came to a family gathering at Ein Harod. We are quite a tribe! The northern branch at Ein Harod, Tel Adashim and Pardess Hana. A central offshoot in the greater Tel Aviv area and the southern branch at Sde Nitzan and Ein Habsor. Plus considerable extensions in Edmonton, Canada, London, UK, Australia and Auckland New Zealand.
Rochelle, her husband Amir and their five children were at the gathering, two of them are serving in the IDF. I noticed that Rochelle’s flaxen hair had grown a darker shade. For me she will remain the girl with the flaxen hair. Late Sunday afternoon we went to see her. I held her hand for the last time and looked into her eyes exchanging an unspoken goodbye. On the way home I thought of Claude Debussy’s prelude –"The girl with flaxen hair. “Critics claim that despite its technical and harmonic simplicity the work possesses emotional depth. While the images of my niece flashed through my mind’s eye the chords of Debussy’s haunting melody echoed an appropriate accompaniment. Rochelle the girl with the flaxen hair, we will never forget you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfQ5hOOLk1o

Beni 8th of October, 2009.

The Iranian menace

We are celebrating Succot or Sukkot also known as Sukkos or Succoth.
Urban based Israelis often invest in a prefabricated fold-away-after-use Succah sold in various home improvement stores. Here at Ein Harod planks and palm fronds are distributed to all Succah builders. I usually compromise by covering the sides of our patio with palm fronds and hanging a few decorations prepared by our grandchildren. I know it isn’t a bona fide kosher Succah, nevertheless it meets family approval. .
Many Israelis are unaware that the United Church of God is holding its own Succot festivities.
This annual Christian event starts on Friday night and is being promoted heavily as an international gathering bringing fervent supporters of Israel to Jerusalem.
The series of seminars, Christian worship, celebration and a march through Jerusalem is known as the Feast of Tabernacles. It has been sponsored by the International Christian Embassy of Jerusalem, self-described as the world's largest Christian Zionist organisation. The ICEJ calls its celebration, which is slated for October 2-8 this year, "the vanguard event within Israel for the worldwide Christian Zionist movement."
Regularly attended by tens of thousands of Christians from around the world, it is said to be "Israel's largest annual tourism event." Hundreds of similar events inspired by the ICEJ Feast of Tabernacles take place outside Israel as well during the week of celebrations.
It’s good to have ardent supporters at a time when spokespeople of the Islamic Republic of Iran repeat the Holocaust denials and threats to annihilate Israel.
The Iran dilemma is not only Israel’s problem; however Israel appears to be more immediately threatened than any other country.
At a time when our government is remarkably reticent about the military option a number of journalists have seen fit to mention it. For example Micah Zenko wrote in the Los Angeles Times last month that “Israel Has Iran in its Sights.”
He repeated a speculation voiced many times in the international news media.
“If Israel decides that Iranian nuclear weapons are an existential threat, it will be deaf to entreaties from U.S. officials to refrain from using military force. Soon after the operation, Washington will express concern to Tel Aviv publicly and privately. The long-standing U.S.-Israeli relationship will remain as strong as ever.”
By contrast a cautious and tempered editorial in Ha’aretz this week entitled “Facing Iran with Obama,” advised our government to give the US engagement with Iran a chance - “Israel should support Obama and give him the chance to exhaust the move combining dialogue with the threat of sanctions. This is not the time for Jerusalem to threaten and badger. The Iranian threat is not only Israel's problem, it's that of the entire international community. It's best for Israel if the issue is dealt with on an international level with continued close diplomatic, economic, intelligence and military cooperation.”

Why is Israel suddenly praising Iran sanctions? Asks Ha’aretz correspondent Amos Harel,
“Israel, from its point of view, now needs to show the Obama administration and the international community that it is a team player, one that supports exhausting all non-military options. At some point in the future, there will come a time when it would make sense once again to apply pressure by threatening to attack Iran, but now is still the time for negotiations.”

Former National Security Council staff members Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett doubt if sanctions will be effective . In an article they wrote for the New York Times they explain,
“Iran will have to agree to pre-emptive limitations on its nuclear program or face what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls ‘crippling’ sanctions.
However, we believe it is highly unlikely Iran will accept this ultimatum. It is also unlikely that Russia and China will support sanctions that come anywhere near crippling Iran. After this all-too-predictable scenario has played out, the Obama administration will be left, as a consequence of its own weakness and vacillation, with extremely poor choices for dealing with Iran.” Then instead of pummelling Iran the Leveretts suggest,
“The administration should seek a strategic realignment with Iran as thoroughgoing as that effected by Nixon with China. This would require Washington to take steps, up front, to assure Tehran that rapprochement would serve Iran’s strategic needs.” Neither realignment nor engagement is going to buy anything more than time for Iran.
New York Times columnist Roger Cohen also claims sanctions won’t work. Quoting Ray Takeyh, who worked on Iran with Dennis Ross at the State Department ,“Sanctions are the feel-good option.” He says
“Yes, it feels good to do something, but it doesn’t necessarily help. In this case, sanctions won’t for four reasons.
One: Iran is inured to sanctions after years of living with them and has in Dubai a sure-fire conduit for goods at a manageable surtax. Two: Russia and China will never pay more than lip-service to sanctions. Three: You don’t bring down a quasi-holy symbol — nuclear power — by cutting off gasoline sales. Four: sanctions feed the persecution complex on which the Iranian regime thrives.
Last week a senior German Foreign Ministry official told an American Council on Germany delegation : “The efficiency of sanctions is not really discussed because if you do, you are left with only two options — a military strike or living with a nuclear Iran — and nobody wants to go there. So the answer is: Let’s impose further sanctions! It’s a dishonest debate.”

“Iran's nuclear 'nightmare' is a few months away” warns - Kirsty Buchanan in
The Daily Express
“The ‘nightmare’ scenario of a ‘cascade of proliferation across the Middle East’ with up to 13 other countries battling to keep pace with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
“There’s a need for targeted sanctions. The ¬regime’s ‘Achilles heel’ is refined oil. Iran still ¬imports 40 per cent for domestic use.
The US, Britain and France could threaten oil and gas sanctions if Tehran does not suspend the enrichment of uranium, but those threats carry little weight without Russian backing.”
Benjamin Weinthal in an article published in the Wall Street Journal quotes from Emanuele Ottolenghi’s book "Under a Mushroom Cloud: Europe, Iran and the Bomb,"
“European trade with Iran is a topic one dares not broach in Rome or Berlin when discussing how to bring Iran to its knees.
Mr. Ottolenghi delves into this largely unexamined traffic, which has racked up roughly €40 billion in transactions since 2006. He identifies the E.U. as a recalcitrant force in addressing the Iranian threat, noting that its "flourishing trade relations with Iran... constitutes a potential conflict of interest in the context of the nuclear crisis."
Mr. Ottolenghi opts for "economic pressure—rigorous, intrusive, extensive and sustained. Deep enough to threaten the very survival of the Islamic Revolution and make continued nuclear activity unfeasible." He pushes for a European full-court press of sanctions against critical Iranian industries, and notably for an embargo targeting Iran's energy sector.”
Gal Luft is executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS) a Washington based think tank focused on energy security and co-founder of the Set America Free Coalition, an alliance of national security, environmental, labour and religious groups promoting ways to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. He reveals a lesser known insidious Iranian scheme.
Iran’s pipeline strategy could make it an indispensable energy supplier to hundreds of millions of people.
Luft describes how Iran signed an agreement to connect its economy with Pakistan via a 1,300-mile natural gas pipeline. “Both Iran and Pakistan hope to extend the pipeline into India and perhaps even into China. This would not only give Iran a foothold in the Asian gas market and ensure that millions of Pakistanis, Indians and perhaps Chinese are beholden to Iran’s gas, but it would also provide Iran with an economic lifeline and the diplomatic protection energy-dependent economies typically grant their suppliers.
In July, an Iranian spokesman announced that by the end of 2009 it will be connected with its northern neighbor, Turkmenistan, Central Asia’s largest gas producer, via a pipeline. Turkmenistan’s interest in pumping its gas to Iran stems from its desire to diversify its export market. Two-thirds of Turkmenistan’s gas flow to Russia, and the dependence on one major client allows Moscow to take advantage of its former republic. But why would energy-rich Iran want to import gas from its neighbor? The answer is the Nabucco pipeline.
For some years, a number of European governments and a consortium of energy companies have been lobbying for the construction of a pipeline from Central Asia via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria, aimed to ease Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. Last July an intergovernmental accord on Nabucco was signed in Ankara. Scheduled to be completed by 2014 at a cost of over $11 billion, the 2,000-mile pipeline is estimated to supply between 5-10 percent of the EU’s projected gas consumption in 2020.
The problem, though, is that it is far from certain where the gas for Nabucco would come from. To date, not a single gas-producing country has signed on to the project. The U.S. position toward Nabucco has been supportive, with the caveat that no Iranian gas should supply the pipeline. But this is an exercise in self-delusion. Even if the 10-15 billion cubic metres of gas per year projected to be tapped from Azeri fields were to become available, much gas would still be needed to meet the pipeline’s capacity of 31 billion cubic metres of gas a year. No doubt about it: Nabucco would have to access both Turkmen and Iranian reserves.
This inconvenient truth is well known to all those involved with the project. But in order to maintain U.S. support, European governments, Turkey—the main transit state—and the consortium of companies which have undertaken to build the pipeline have made sure to drop Iran’s name from any official document or statement related to Nabucco. Tehran, so it seems, does not believe in denial. Its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad knows well that making Europe beholden to his gas is the best insurance for his regime and that Iran is an appealing alternative to Russia for those for whom Vladimir Putin is a far bigger menace than he is. Once Nabucco is constructed, it will be only a matter of time before Iranian gas will be requested. Hence, the pipeline to Turkmenistan will also make Iran a conduit for Turkmen gas.
In Iran’s effort to bring its gas into the heart of Europe, it has another project: a 1,100-mile pipeline currently being constructed from Iran’s South Pars gas field through Turkey and onward to Greece, Italy and other European countries. This pipeline is expected to deliver 20.4 billion cubic metres a year.
Whether Iran’s natural gas ends up powering turbines in New Delhi, Karachi or Vienna, one thing is certain: Iran will be richer and more geopolitically indispensable. As in the case of U.S. dependence on Saudi Arabia, China’s on Sudan or Germany’s on Russia, energy dependency is a major driver of foreign policy. Once these new gas conduits are established, it will be far more difficult for the United States to gather international support for policies aimed to reign in Iran.
But all’s not lost. The Obama administration should actively promote alternative energy corridors which will prevent Iranian gas from reaching major markets while addressing Asia’s and Europe’s energy needs. One potential gas-pipeline project is the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline. The project can supply Pakistan and India as much gas at a lower construction cost, while providing the impoverished Afghan government with a steady revenue stream in the form of transit fees. Most important, TAPI would allow Turkmenistan to sell its gas to India, enriching two U.S. allies (Afghanistan and Pakistan) rather than selling the same gas to Europe, enriching a U.S. enemy (Iran).
Washington should therefore impress upon Islamabad, recipient of $1 billion-plus yearly of U.S. aid, to adopt TAPI rather than the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline.”
Gal Luft presents a convincing argument, however the Nabucco pipeline won’t be completed till 2014. Iran’s nuclear ambitions are of more immediate concern.

Chag Sameach

Beni 1st of October, 2009.