Mighty Oaks

The mighty oaks in the Hurshat Tal national park have all grown from tiny acorns. Not so, claims a local legend recounting how ten messengers sent by Mohammed camped there. Finding no trees to tether their horses to they drove ten staves into the ground and tied their Arabian steeds to them. The staves sent forth roots, sprouted branches and grew to be the mighty oaks that shade the grassy slopes of Hurshat Tal Park at the foot of Mount Hermon

Whether they came from staves or acorns the 240 Mount Tabor oaks in the park are the remnants of a large forest that existed here in ancient times.

The tale of the ten messengers or perhaps the proximity of a nearby Sheik's tomb have afforded the oaks a measure of sanctity sufficient to save them from the woodman's axe

If you are having trouble accommodating the multiplication, there is a precedent involving loaves and fish. Mohammed's messengers bring to mind the ten disciples, the ten righteous men that Abraham couldn't find in Sodom and of course the ten men required for a Jewish prayer quorum.

Lately we found half a quorum of major-generals too many to accommodate.

They were all contending to replace IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi due to retire early next year. It's reassuring to know that five good and very capable men covet Askenazi's job, but then the "Galant document." confused us all.

Debkafile described it as, "an exposé that started out as a shabby ruse trumped up, or forged, to sway defence minister Ehud Barak in his choice of the next chief of staff after Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi steps down

As it gained national overtones, the police were called in to investigate the document's provenance and put a stop to increasingly unsavoury media speculation. It has since ballooned into a major scandal sweeping up Israel's top generals, active and reserve, and hanging over the defence minister's head. The document is a letter concerning Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, OC Southern Command including the Gaza Strip sector, one of the five generals vying to become the next chief of staff."

The police swiftly assessed that the document was a forgery and managed to trace its origin. It appears that the contenders, Chief of Staff Ashkenazi and the defence ministry had nothing to do with the forgery. Minister of Defence Barak wasted no time in recommending Yoav Galant for the post of IDF chief of staff.

Our news media made much ado about the document, however the public, it seems, was less enthralled. By and large the foreign news media too took little interest in the story. The Hindustan Times had nothing better to write about and the Irish Times was probably looking for some foreign blarney. Both papers reported the item.

The changing of the guard in Turkey too is mainly of local concern. However The Economist likes exotic news, so the dramatic bloodless clash between the Turkish chief of general staff General Ilker Basbug and Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the appointment of Basbug's successor was reported by The Economist in detail earlier this month.

The political influence of the once all powerful Turkish army that managed to overthrow four governments in less than fifty years has waned considerably.

The army has always been the custodian of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's secular legacy. The European Union made Turkey's acceptance as a member of the Union conditional to the reduction of the army's political influence. The Turks met the condition but the Europeans, notably Germany and France have since opposed the idea of Turkish membership.

"It has been a rotten month for Turkey’s generals," claims the British paper. Their latest wrangle with the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party over who should be promoted during the army’s annual August review has ended in a stinging defeat for the army. General Ilker Basbug, who is poised to step down on August 30th after two years as chief of the general staff wanted to choose his successor. Erdogan refused to ratify the appointment and selected a meeker more compliant candidate.

If all the plans to send relief aid ships to Gaza materialise there will soon be a formidable armada of vessels plying the Mediterranean shipping lanes.

There appears to be little or no coordination between the many organisations determined to break the Gaza blockade. If the current aid fleet is anything like the last flotilla some of the vessels will never leave port, others will encounter logistic problems involving passengers, cargo, stopovers en route and mechanical problems

Nevertheless, we would do well not to underestimate the capabilities of the people on board the ships heading our way. I hope the conclusions reached by the IDF team, headed by Major-General (res.) Giora Eiland that investigated the boarding of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara will be taken into consideration by the appropriate IDF command. It will be important to know who is on board the ships and what they plan to do. If the first ships approaching the coast of Gaza are boarded quietly and uneventfully it will deter others planning to follow them.

“Where did all the BBC's anti-Zionists go?” asks Julian Kossoff in the Telegraph. He was reviewing a programme entitled “Death in the Med”, the BBC1’s flagship documentary series Panorama, which examined the Israeli interception of the Mavi Marmara.

Not so long ago the BBC was notorious for its very one-sided reporting of events in the Middle East often presenting Israel in a negative light.

British political commentator and analyst Robin Shepherd complained about this discriminating attitude earlier this year in an article entitled “Failing to Reflect Reality” .It was presented in the same Panorama series, but then BBC investigative journalist Jane Corbin reported on the situation in east Jerusalem . Shepherd wrote, “Well you get the picture. Obviously the issue of Jerusalem excites passions inside Israel and outside it. Reasonable people can disagree on it. There are many shades of opinion to be assessed. And there is no reason why a BBC documentary should not reflect that. The problem is that the documentary does not reflect that reality at all. “

Corbin’s documentary might have lacked balance but it did try to honestly survey the situation in a place full of contradictions.

So when Jane Corbin was chosen to research and present “Death in the Med” Israeli reviewers were understandably apprehensive. One of them wrote,

“When I saw that Panorama was being fronted by Jane Corbin, I was not sure that Israel would get a fair hearing. The last time I saw Ms Corbin in action on this programme was to report on evictions and demolitions in Jerusalem which ultimately failed to deliver a lot of context.

This time Corbin managed to tell the Israeli side for a change.”

Just Journalism Executive Director Michael Weiss gave top marks for the BBC documentary
“I can scarcely think of a better piece of journalism on the flotilla raid than Jane Corbin’s in-depth investigation, which drew from eyewitness testimony from both passengers and commandos aboard the Mavi Marmara. Notable in this report was an unwillingness to gloss over crucial video footage showing the upper deck of the ship laying siege to abseiling Israeli forces, or to take the word of IHH officials at face value. The only thing missing, really, was IHH’s well-publicised role as both a fundraiser and ideological helpmeet of Hamas.”

Not everyone was happy with Jane Corbin’s very thorough work.

Ken O’Keefe, one of the Free Gaza activists from the Mavi Marmara, who was interviewed in the documentary, and a group called the Muslim Defence League organised a demonstration outside BBC headquarters in west London.
“Enough is enough; we all know the truth of the terrorist attacks committed by Israel on unarmed peace activists! The BBC needs to know that it cannot continue airing lies as the truth,” the League’s anonymous spokesperson stated on its Facebook page.
Other protests were held at regional BBC offices in Manchester and Belfast.

If you haven’t seen “Death in the Med” I recommend you watch it on YouTube through the hyperlink:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yEi1B5xb_E

Ironically Israel is organising a reverse flotilla to Turkey. Not cruise ships with tourists but a few shipments of surplus animals from the Ramat Gan Safari to a zoo in south Turkey. The Safari’s 40 +herd of hippopotami, the largest in captivity, is periodically culled and sent to other zoos around the world. The current shipment to Turkey includes lemurs, a baby elephant and a number of hippopotami. I wonder if Prime Minister Erdogan knows about the Israeli imports.

Have a good weekend.

Beni 26^th of August, 2010.

Terra Sancta

We paused for a moment below the larger-than-large billboard to read its clear, emphatic message. The proclamation in Arabic and an awkwardly phrased English translation said :

“And whoever seeks a religion other than Islam, it will never be accepted of him, and in the Hereafter he will be one of the losers.” My guests (business associates from England) were transfixed by this unequivocal declaration of exclusivity placed less than a muezzin's call from the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Well I suppose all the monotheistic faiths lay claim to an exclusive right-of entrance to the next world. Many promise a heaven to come for their believers sometimes phrased on billboards too. However they usually respect a certain territorial etiquette, keeping the message by their own gate.

The billboard is also a form of protest expressing a deep rooted frustration.

In 1994, ahead of the millennium commemorations the Nazareth municipal council with the support of the Israeli government embarked on a programme to significantly upgrade the city's tourist infrastructure in anticipation of a hoped-for record number of tourists. One of the plans called for the demolition of an old Ottoman school adjacent to the Basilica of the Annunciation and turning the vacant plot into a Venetian-style plaza. However local Islamic Movement leaders claimed the school was built on waqf (Islamic trusteeship) land and that it should be handed over to the waqf. The local and state authorities rejected the claims and in December 1997 they went ahead with the demolition work. Almost simultaneously thousands of Muslims moved in and occupied the disputed plot of land. They erected a large makeshift tent mosque and put up a billboard showing an illustration of a mosque they planned to build on the site.

On the north side of the plaza-to-be there's a small tomb which tradition holds is the burial place of Shehab el-Din, nephew of the famous Muslim hero Saladin. Shehab completed his uncle's work and drove the last of Crusaders from the Holy Land (for the time being). The tomb lies a mere 100 metres from the Basilica of the Annunciation. For more than eight hundred years Shehab el-Din has rested peacefully, an almost anonymous figure. For almost four hundred years the children and their teachers in the Ottoman school let nephew Shehab rest undisturbed. Then suddenly with the approach of the millennium there was an urgent need to honour his memory by building a mosque.

One journalist described the proposed place of worship as follows: “The minaret of the mosque would be topped by a laser-lit crescent and would tower over the already imposing cone-shaped dome of the adjacent basilica."

The plan to build the mosque was clearly a case of Islamic one-upmanship.

The Israeli High Court of Justice dismissed the Muslim claim, but did grant permission for a smaller mosque to be built on the lot. The Solomonic decision to divide the land for use as a mosque and tourist plaza frustrated both sides and led to three days of rioting during Easter 1999, in which 28 people were injured and a number of shops were torched.

In October 1999 the Vatican's envoy to Israel criticised the compromise decision. He said that it jeopardised the pope's visit in the year 2000.His words have a particular relevance, bringing to mind the Ground Zero mosque imbroglio. “The plans to build a mosque are a provocative act. The Vatican has expressed its opposition. If a mosque is needed, very well, but not in that place." ….. "The Holy Father has a position of strong solidarity with the Christians of Nazareth and with the Christians of the Holy Land. He would like to see them duly protected in their rights and in their dignity."

In November 1999, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza, president of the U.S. National Conference of Catholic Bishops, protested the decision by the Israeli government to allow the mosque to be built. He wrote that the Christians in Nazareth are "fearful that the building of the mosque will only worsen their already insecure place in the community."

A few days later the leaders of the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Churches in the Holy Land and the Franciscan ''Custos of the Holy Land,'' released a declaration that stated (in part) that ''all Sanctuaries of the Holy Land will be closed on the 22^nd and 23^rd of November 1999." They felt that the Israeli decision was ''clear discrimination against the Christian community in Galilee.'' Suleiman Abu Ahmed, a local Muslim leader, commented: ''I can't believe what I am hearing. I thought that religious people were supposed to be more forgiving."

Although government permission for the construction of a small mosque was given no permit was issued. Notwithstanding this, the construction work was started.

With pressure mounting an about-face was inevitable and in January 2002 the Israeli government reversed its earlier decision and ordered a stop to the construction of the controversial mosque and then, at dawn in June 2003, the Ministry of the Interior sent in bulldozers, backed by 500 police, to destroy the foundations of the mosque.

Today, a limestone-paved plaza provides tourists with a place to gather before and after visiting the Church of the Annunciation.

The news media was quick to blame the government for mishandling the mosque dilemma. In retrospect it seems there was no amicable solution to that no-win problem which is still unresolved. Today a modest structure without a minaret serves as a makeshift mosque.

The fact that the mosque was to be built right next to and towering over the Basilica of the Annunciation, and was to be located within easy walking distance (less than 500 metres) of two additional mosques, seems to suggest that some Muslims in Nazareth did indeed want the mosque to overshadow one of Christendom’s most holy places and to put the one-time majority Christians of Nazareth in their new minority place.

At this juncture it’s pertinent to mention that throughout mediaeval Christendom, and even later still, no synagogue was permitted to “out-steeple” a church. While we are in the realm of spires and domes its worth recalling that the “Hurva” synagogue in Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter, which was destroyed by the Jordanian army in 1948 and was recently rebuilt, now towers higher than the Dome of the Rock mosque. Maybe St James Cathedral in the Armenian quarter is a tad higher than the synagogue and the mosque.

A little further south on Mt. Zion is the Church of the Dormitian. According to local tradition, it was here that the Virgin Mary passed into eternity.

Close by is a Crusader period building that strangely enough (also according to tradition) houses King David’s tomb, a Muslim prayer room and a room claimed to be the site of the Last Supper. Now when the Church of the Dormition was built in 1910 its bell tower was positioned purposely, out of regard for Muslim sensitivity, so that its shadow wouldn’t fall on the Muslim prayer room (Nebi Da’ud).

Back to Nazareth and the Basilica of the Annunciation For many years the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land wanted to replace the 17^th century church built over the ruins of earlier churches. The old church barely accommodated the needs of the local community and the growing volume of Christian tourists. Over the many centuries of Islamic rule in the Holy Land no new churches were built. Reconstruction and repairing of damaged and destroyed churches was often forbidden or postponed. The situation improved in the 19^th century when the much weakened Ottoman Empire had to accede to requests from European rulers to renovate old churches and build new ones. The situation improved further under the British Mandatory government. At the same time it was mindful of the sensitivity of the local Muslim population and tried to avoid conflicts.

Israeli governments have helped church construction and on occasions have acted as mediators whenever sectarian disputes erupted (in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem).

The rebuilding of the Basilica in Nazareth was fraught with indecision and delays. Finally, in 1951 the Custody put aside a preliminary design by the noted architect Antonio Barluzzi and commissioned Professor Giovanni Muzio to prepare fresh plans for a basilica. Barluzzi designed many churches and other Christian institutions in this country. The decision to discard his design and commission Muzio to build the Basilica instead was a veritable death blow. He died before the new church was consecrated.

The decision to choose Professor Muzio's design met with some opposition in Catholic circles. Muzio a modernist was closely associated with the Novecento Italiano group, an Italian artistic movement. At one time some of its members were supporters of Benito Mussolini. Il Duce took no great interest in art; however his mistress, the writer and art critic Margherita Sarfatti commanded a pivotal influence in the Novecento Italiano group. The group disbanded long before Giovanni Muzio was commissioned to design the Basilica in Nazareth. Incidentally Antonio Barluzzi was not without "original sin." He designed the Church of Beatitudes which stands on the hill thought to be the site of the Sermon on the Mount.The church was commissioned by Benito Mussolini.

Giovanni Muzio's design for the Basilica of the Annunciation incorporated the Grotto of the Annunciation and preserved the remains of both the Byzantine and Crusader churches built over it. The design is a major departure from traditional and contemporary church architecture in this country. The massive use of bare concrete creates a powerful but austere atmosphere with unmistakable symbolism. I recommend a visit.

There's an ironic twist in the final chapter of the saga of the Basilica.

The man whose design was rejected, Antonio Barluzzi had a prior association with Mussolini's Fascist government. The chosen architect Giovanni Muzio was also tainted with Fascist affinities via Novecento Italiano. However, the church was built by the Israeli construction company Solel Boneh.

No doubt you are wondering why I chose to write about matters sacred when I usually mention our profane politics and the bitter conflicts with our neighbours.

I had earmarked a number of topics for this week’s letter; the foreign workers problem and the dilemma of the status of their children, the scandal surrounding the appointment of a new IDF chief of staff to replace Gabi Ashkenazi, Gaza, Lebanon even Syria and of course the inevitable showdown with Iran.

In this hyperactive country there’s never a dearth of existential threats, political intrigues and human interest items.

However, this week I was in no mood to deal with the profane so instead I chose the sacred. Admittedly not all that is holy is wholesome.

Having said this I’ll add that some good things have happened: A summary of the second fiscal quarter of the year 2010 showed a 4.7% increase in economic growth. An interesting collaboration between Israel and Saudi Arabia has come to light. The IDB Group, chaired by Israeli businessman Nochi Dankner, is establishing a $1 billion investment fund together with Saudi partners in the Swiss bank - Credit Suisse to invest in emerging markets in Latin America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

In addition to the large reserves of natural gas in the Mediterranean near Haifa, a test drilling near Rosh HaAyin north of Tel Aviv seems to indicate that somewhere below the surface there’s a large workable oil field.

Maybe God is on our side after all.

Have a good weekend.

Beni 19^th of August, 2010.

The return of Tom Friedman

Tom Friedman is back in the Middle East, not in person but none-the-less he’s here. From time to time he takes time out from writing about globalization, climate change and closer to home topics in order to return to his old haunts. In the early 1980's Friedman reported for UP and the New York Times from Beirut and from 1984 till 1988 he lived in Jerusalem when he was a NYT correspondent. He has a strong affinity to this region, is familiar with its politics, struggles, hopes, delusions and has also hobnobbed with its kings, presidents and prime ministers.

I'm not sure what caused Friedman to leave oil spills, alternative energy sources and the US economy and turn his attention to our festering problems.

By his own admission he was motivated by a documentary directed by Israel’s Channel 10 news reporter Shlomi Eldar, a film titled "Precious Life."

Eldar is a sincere and professional journalist. His fluent Arabic and amicable manner have enabled him to maintain and use many working contacts in both the West Bank and Gaza. Tom Friedman recounts how Eldar heard about

Mohammed Abu Mustafa, a 4-month-old Palestinian baby suffering from a rare immune deficiency. I know we receive similar pleas in our ‘Inbox’ all the time. They ask for money or blood of a rare type. So why was Eldar moved by this particular case? Maybe it was a gut instinct that told him it had the makings of a good story. I want to believe that Eldar's proven integrity took precedence over all other considerations.

I'm sure he was truly moved by the baby’s plight. With the help of contacts and connections Eldar helped Mohammed and his mother get permission to go from Gaza to Tel Hashomer hospital in Israel for lifesaving bone-marrow treatment. The operation cost $55,000, a sum the baby's family couldn't possibly afford.

At that critical stage Shlomi Eldar put out an appeal on Israel TV and within hours an Israeli Jew whose own son was killed during military service donated all the money required for the treatment.

It seems that’s when Eldar decided to document the story of the medical procedure from the human interest/humanitarian aspect.

However the documentary took a dramatic turn, , when the baby's mother, Raida, who was being disparaged by people in Gaza for having her son treated in Israel, blurted out that she hoped Mohammed would grow up to be a suicide bomber to help recover Jerusalem.

I'll pick up the story as Friedman relays it in Raida's words: "From the smallest infant, even smaller than Mohammed, to the oldest person, we will all sacrifice ourselves for the sake of Jerusalem. We feel we have the right to it. You’re free to be angry, so be angry.”

“Then why are you fighting to save your son’s life, if you say that death is a usual thing for your people?” asks Eldar, in one of the most dramatic moments in the film.

“It’s a normal thing,” she says, smiling. “Life is not precious. Life is precious, but not for us. For us, life is nothing, not worth a thing. That is why we have so many suicide bombers. They are not afraid of death. None of us, not even the children, are afraid of death. It is natural for us. After Mohammed gets well, I will definitely want him to be a shahid [martyr]. If it’s for Jerusalem, then there’s no problem. For you it is hard, I know; with us, there are cries of rejoicing and happiness when someone falls as a shahid. For us a shahid is a tremendous thing.”

Eldar was devastated by her declaration, so much so that he stopped making the film.

At this juncture it's important to stress that Eldar was making a documentary not a propaganda film. The drama of the Palestinian boy’s recovery at an Israeli hospital is juxtaposed against Israeli retaliations for the barrages of Qassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza. Occasionally these retaliations incurred collateral damage,” namely, civilian casualties.

Friedman finely points the juxtaposition of the story. Dr. Raz Somech, the specialist who treated Mohammed as if he were his own child, was called up for reserve duty in Gaza in the middle of the film. “The race by Israelis and Palestinians to save one life is embedded in the larger routine of the two communities grinding each other up.”

“It’s clear to me that the war in Gaza was justified — no country can allow itself to be fired at with Qassam rockets — but I did not see many people pained by the loss of life on the Palestinian side,” Eldar told Haaretz. “Because we were so angry at Hamas, all the Israeli public wanted was to screw Gaza. ... It wasn’t until after the incident of Dr. Abu al-Aish — the Gaza physician I spoke with on live TV immediately after a shell struck his house and caused the death of his daughters and he was shouting with grief and fear — that I discovered the Israeli silent majority that has compassion for people, including Palestinians. I found that many Israeli viewers shared my feelings.” So Eldar finished the documentary about how Mohammed’s life was saved in Israel.

At this point Shlomi Eldar exits and Tom Friedman returns to explain why he is writing about us again. “I write about this now because there is something foul in the air. It is a trend, both deliberate and inadvertent, to delegitimize Israel — to turn it into a pariah state, particularly in the wake of the Gaza war. I’m not here to defend Israel’s bad behavior. Just the opposite, I’ve long argued that Israel’s colonial settlements in the West Bank are suicidal for Israel as a Jewish democracy. I don’t think Israel’s friends can make that point often enough or loud enough. “

Friedman knows that Israelis have had their fill of critics and admonishers. Instead he tries a constructive approach, “I know what world you are living in.” I know the Middle East is a place where Sunnis massacre Shiites in Iraq, Iran kills its own voters, Syria allegedly kills the prime minister next door, Turkey hammers the Kurds, and Hamas engages in indiscriminate shelling and refuses to recognize Israel. I know all of that. But Israel’s behavior, at times, only makes matters worse — for Palestinians and Israelis. If you convey to Israelis that you understand the world they’re living in, and then criticize, they’ll listen.” Some may but I fear the people who are firmly entrenched mentally and territorially won’t spare him the time of day.

Rightly so Friedman criticises some of the critics too.

“Destructive criticism closes Israeli ears. It says to Israelis: There is no context that could explain your behavior, and your wrongs are so uniquely wrong that they overshadow all others. Destructive critics dismiss Gaza as an Israeli prison, without ever mentioning that had Hamas decided — after Israel unilaterally left Gaza — to turn it into Dubai rather than Tehran, Israel would have behaved differently, too. Destructive criticism only empowers the most destructive elements in Israel to argue that nothing Israel does matters, so why change?”

Turning Israel into a pariah state is being accomplished in part by repeated attempts made by the United Nations to investigate Operation Cast Lead and the boarding of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara.

I have already referred to the Giora Eiland commission of inquiry that investigated the boarding of Mavi Marmara and its findings.

Now Turkey has announced that it too is setting up its own Gaza flotilla inquiry. The Turkish probe will work under the office of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and present its findings to the United Nations, apparently to the UN inquiry also investigating the boarding of Mavi Marmara.

Early this month, Israel agreed to participate in the UN probe, as well as setting up its own investigation, “The Turkel Committee” which this week heard testimony from the Israeli prime minister, defense minister and army chief of staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi.

The Turkel Committee is led by Israeli retired Supreme Court Judge Jacob Turkel. The two other members of the panel are professor of international law Shabtai Rosenne, and former President of the Technion and military expert Amos Horev . The probe will be overseen by two International observers: Northern Irish former First Minister William David Trimble and Canadian former military judge Ken Watkin.

Hayyim Weizmann, Israel’s first president once complained we are a nation of experts. By the same token he could have added that we are also a nation of critics.

Criticism of the Turkel Committee has been on one of three levels: 1) Why a committee at all 2) Why a committee with no teeth. 3) The advanced age of the three Israeli members (average age, 85)

According to the BBC and Der Spiegel, both observers sitting on the committee are seen as friends of Israel. The foreign observers will take part in hearings and discussions, but not vote on the proceedings or the final conclusions. Judge Jacob Turkel has informed the two foreign observers that they will be allowed to question witnesses freely during the hearings and examine any material they wish, but they may be denied access to documents or information if it was "almost certain to cause substantial harm to national security or to the state's foreign relations.

In the aftermath of the Gaza flotilla raid , Israel rejected calls from the United Nations and governments all around the world for an independent investigation of the events, instead it set up two of its own probes – the Eiland Commission that investigated the military aspects of the boarding of the Turkish ship and the Turkel Committee which convened this week.

Judge Turkel’s committee will look into the legality of the Israeli blockade and the legality of the Israeli navy's actions during the raid, and will determine whether investigations of claims of war crimes and breaches of international law conform to Western standards. It will also look into the Turkish position, and the actions taken by the flotilla's organisers, especially the IHH, and will examine the identities and intentions of the flotilla's participants.

As long as the many free Gaza flotillas are still floating I might as well mention another flotilla that won’t get wet. This one is prepared to come all the way from New Zealand in an effort to break the “Gaza siege.” Their six member team plans to take an overland route ( from London). I received the hyperlink to their website from a friend in New Zealand. Unfortunately the link doesn’t open.

www.kiaoragaza.net

Nevertheless if you persevere and cut and paste the URL you should be able to access the site. Skip the drivel at the beginning and scroll down to the article by Gwen Whitmore. I once knew Gwen. In fact she briefly mentions me in her piece.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah took a page from Joseph Goebbels

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

Last week he claimed,” We have evidence linking Israel to the Hariri assassination!”

Just ahead of reports that the UN tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri intends to indict members of the Hezbollah.

Lebanese member of parliament Nadim Gemayel said "Nasrallah's arguments are not reliable, they are simply political accusations based neither on legal bases nor conclusive evidence".

However, the Lebanese newspaper as-Safir reported that Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri had called for a serious investigation into Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah's claimsof Israeli responsibility for the assassination of his father. I don’t know if Hariri junior would sell his own mother but he has certainly sold his dad.

Have a good weekend

Beni 12^th of August, 2010.

The cypress tree

A troll and a friend

An old Jewish adage states, “It’s half a consolation when you know that your troubles are also other peoples’ troubles.” However, we derived small solace from the news that the heat wave that has been scorching Israel for the past ten days or more has also seared our neighbours, especially Lebanon.

The Israel Electric Corporation has been hard put to meet the increased demands for electric power during the heat wave. Its counterpart in Lebanon

Electricité du Liban, notorious for its inefficiency and bad management is able to supply demands on a very limited basis.

Beirut is best served by the company but the rest of the country suffers power cuts throughout the year. The southern suburbs of Beirut often go without electricity for days at a time.

The heat wave is the least of Lebanon’s problems these days. Last week I wrote about the Alfa espionage scandal and how it continues to shock the country.

Earlier this week another spy was arrested, this time a former general in the Lebanese security forces. Not surprisingly all of the suspects have confessed to spying for Israel. I also mentioned a report in the Financial Times regarding another crisis, “Lebanon is braced for another political crisis as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon appears to be heading towards indicting Hezbollah.
The alleged involvement of undisciplined Hezbollah members in ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination is a perilous outcome for the country: the movement is now part of the coalition government led by Saad Hariri, the prime minister and son of the dead leader,"

Hussein Shabokshi wrote in the English language Asharq alawsat ( Middle East), “The decision to accuse Hezbollah, if it comes, will not be a surprise, particularly following the leaked report in the prestigious German magazine Der Spiegel which indicated that strong evidence exists that directly incriminates Hezbollah of being involved in Hariri's assassination. Lebanon is anticipating Hezbollah being accused of this, however we cannot overlook the fact that the state of tension within Hezbollah goes beyond anticipating the international tribunal's expected accusation of its involvement in the Hariri assassination. Rather, this has more to do with Hezbollah trying to identify its future role in Lebanon, and its grand political project that clashes with Lebanon's own political identity and the nature of the country's [political] composition. “

A similar sentiment is expressed emphatically by Michael Young a Lebanese scholar and commentator in his book “The Ghosts of Martyrs Square” - “There is Lebanon, and there is Hezbollah’s Lebanon, one or the other will prevail, but together they cannot co-exist in a stable way.”

Hussein Shabokshi identifies a dangerous trend in Hezbollah’s aspirations, “Regionally, there is a belief amongst certain parties that Hezbollah has outgrown Lebanon's ability to absorb it, and that there is a need to develop a framework to deal with the movement's expansion, to ensure that it does not grow beyond the state's ability to control and subdue it.
On the Arab level, there is high level political movement to curb any reckless or impulsive reaction to capitalize on the sense of tension [in Lebanon] to achieve "specific goals" that would result in the situation further deteriorating.
The concern of Hezbollah's reaction [to the expected accusation of its involvement in the Hariri assassination] cannot be separated from the greater unrest that has been caused by Iran's policies in the region. Iran's regional policies could also see Hezbollah being used as a playing card in a more comprehensive deal, with the Lebanese movement being sacrificed to ensure more direct Iranian gains. “

The Economist favourably reviewed David Hirst’s book “Beware of Small States: Lebanon, Battleground of the Middle East.” Hirst a veteran foreign correspondent who has spent more than fifty years in Lebanon pins the larger part of the blame for the country’s recent sufferings squarely on what he calls “a vastly more arbitrary example of late-imperial arrogance, geopolitical caprice and perniciously misguided philanthropy”: Israel. He conveniently overlooks Syria or Lebanon’s almost perpetual internecine feuding.

Lebanon is a turbulent mixture of 18 ethno-religious groups and is ruled under a strict formula for political power-sharing among Sunni, Shiite and Christian factions. This fragile formula has brought some quiet but has also caused power struggles and political paralysis.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, has vehemently rejected the accusations regarding Hezbollah’s alleged role in Hariri’s assassination and has accused the tribunal of serving US and Israeli interests.

“We believe that there is a major plot to target Hezbollah, Lebanon and the whole region,” Nasrallah said in a televised speech.

At this juncture it’s appropriate to add another adage, albeit in the archaic language of the

St James translation of the Bible:

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth. “ Proverbs 24:17.

A later Jewish saying of undetermined origin with a definite Yiddish intonation advises, “Rejoice not when your enemy falls, but don’t rush to pick him up.”

Napoleon was more brutal-" Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake."

I wonder who made the mistake on the Lebanese border this week regarding the cypress tree incident. An editorial in Haaretz and an article written by its self-hating columnist Gideon Levy intimates that we could have avoided the incident.

The rest of the Israeli news media thought otherwise. UNIFIL the United Nations peace keeping force in Lebanon confirmed the Israeli version of the incident.The rest of the Israeli news media thought otherwise.

The border between Israel and Lebanon is clear and accurately marked. At the site where the incident took place the border fence runs inside Israeli territory for a short distance. For topographical considerations the fence was erected on higher ground. A recognised area on the other side of the fence at this particular place remains within Israel. Along the border fence a series of surveillance cameras monitor all movement on the Lebanese side of the border. In some places bushes and trees reach a height where they obscure the surveillance cameras’ line of vision. By a special arrangement with UNIFIL the IDF is permitted to prune bushes and if necessary uproot trees that obscure the cameras’ line of vision. Advance notice is given to UNIFIL of the planned pruning operation and the notice is relayed to the Lebanese army. The incident in question occurred two days ago when a cypress tree on the other side of the fence (inside Israeli territory) was being pruned. Lebanese army snipers opened fire on a small group of IDF offers positioned on higher ground 200 metres inside Israel. The officers were supervising the pruning operation when they were targeted. One Israeli officer was killed and another was severely wounded.

The IDF returned the fire and three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed in the exchange of fire.

Following the Second Lebanon War (2006) the United Nations has restricted the movement of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, especially the area close to the border. The border area is patrolled by both UNIFIL and the Lebanese army.

The Lebanese army is comprised of more than 60% Shiite soldier and officers, many of them Hezbollah sympathisers and activists. It’s not clear if the incident was planned by Hezbollah and carried out by its sympathisers or if an over zealous Lebanese army officer suffering from heat stress acted on his own initiative.

Two days later the atmosphere along the northern border region was described as quiet but strained.

Have a good weekend.

Beni 5^th of August, 2010.