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.