Borders

It was raining and hard to see the landmarks pointed out by our guide. Nevertheless we heard him out before taking shelter in the mosque.

The occasion was a tour we made with Dr. Shaul Arieli, widely considered to be one of Israel’s leading experts on the possible course of the future Israeli-Palestinian border and the route of the separation barrier. Arieli is a retired IDF colonel who was the head of the Peace Administration under the Barak government. He was an active participant in the Geneva Accords negotiations as well as other initiatives.

We were at Nebi Samuel a high point north of Jerusalem.

The mosque that sheltered us from the rain was built in the eighteenth century, partly with stones taken from a ruined Crusader fortress and church. During the Byzantine period a large monastery was built here. Today there is little left of the wayside Christian hospice that stood here.

The mosque was badly damaged in 1917 when Allenby’s forces attacked the Turkish troops defending the strategic high point. However after the war the British rebuilt it.

This is the traditional burial site of the prophet Samuel, revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike. Indeed there's a tomb in an underground chamber and an ongoing scholarly debate whether or not Samuel's bones are inside it.

Nebi Samuel was one of several stations on our circuit tour of the greater Jerusalem periphery. Here and there we trod gingerly on the “Green Line.” Not green at all but muddy brown, unmarked, a mere figment of the imagination. The security fence/wall however, was far more tangible and unmistakably present. In my neck of the woods the security fence is an effective separation barrier. It was planned to hug the Green Line enclosing the whole of the West Bank. The northern section and much of the Jerusalem corridor is fenced off, however there are gaps. The incomplete sections are along the Jerusalem envelope and in the south. The construction plans for much of the expensive southern length of the fence have been shelved for the time being. Routine security patrols conducted by the IDF, the Palestinian security force and our border police are for the most part able to stop terrorist activity and apprehend sundry villains before they cross the Green Line.

Lines on a map aren’t indelible. The United Nations partition of Palestine line is no longer relevant. It was replaced by the 1949 armistice agreement line, better known as the “Green Line.” When it was first proposed opposition to the security fence came mainly from people who feared it would turn the Green Line from a marking on a map to a fact on the ground. Today the “Greater Israel” philosophy no longer part of the Likud party weltanschauung has become more of a pipe dream than an operative plan. A territorial compromise that leaves the large settlement blocs inside Israel will probably be the shape of any future Israel-Palestinian border.

With a bit of foresight the points of friction where the fence cuts off Palestinian villagers from their fields could have been avoided. In some places the fence planning committee ignored concern for contiguity between villages and their fields. Fortunately appeals to the Israel High Court of Justice have resulted in rulings instructing the IDF to correct cases where land contiguity was ignored.

Defending our borders was put to the test this week following an unprecedented barrage of mortars and rockets fired from Gaza at the periphery communities, towns and further afield beyond Ashkelon and as far as Beer Sheva. Reluctant to embark on a major retaliatory campaign against Gaza, the Israel Air Force was directed to pre-deploy the ‘Iron Dome’ counter-rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) defence system, despite the military reluctance to install it before it is fully prepared. The current fielding is defined as an ‘operational evaluation’ prior to attaining full operational capability.

Despite successful tests Ha'aretz intelligence and military affairs correspondent Yossi Melman.is critical of the Iron Dome System- "It was born in sin. The IDF, and particularly the IAF, did not want it or any other missile protection system. Israel's security concept never believed in actively defending the home front." The vulnerability of Israel’s home front to rocket and missile attacks during the Second Lebanon War caused the government to commission the development of a comprehensive short-range anti-rocket defence system. The Iron Dome concept was completely new. Last week the first ‘Iron Dome’ unit, one of two batteries was deployed near Beer Sheva and a second battery has been installed near Ashkelon.

Iron Dome was designed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems as a defensive short-range rocket interceptor, operating with extremely short response time. The system has selective target engagement capability, enabling it to automatically engage targets posing significant risk while ignoring targets it predicts will hit empty areas. The system relies on threat warning systems providing early warning for the civil population in the area. It also accurately pinpoints the launch sites of all rockets and mortars fired at targets in the area, providing the IDF with accurate targeting data for counter-attacks.

Melman doesn’t believe the Iron Dome will be able to protect communities close to the Gaza Strip.

Fellow defence analyst Dr. Reuven Pedatzur, a senior lecturer at the Strategic Studies Programme, Tel Aviv University, is a fierce critic of the active defence concept. He exploits every opportunity to attack the Iron Dome System. He claims the system is self-defeating. Pedatzur says the prohibitive cost of the Iron Dome’s interceptors will bankrupt it. He places a price tab of $100,000 on each interceptor whereas the official cost is $30-40,000 a piece. Pedatzur exaggerates both ways. He inflates the cost of the interceptor and gives a bargain price for the enemy rockets. In his zeal to blast the Iron Dome he conveniently overlooks the fact that the system will be operating in tandem with the IAF and the IDF, so let’s wait and see.

The US administration is agonising over its role in the Libyan uprising. Libya is just one foreign military involvement too many. Not yet out of Iraq and heavily committed in Afghanistan, the cost of an additional involvement in terms of American lives lost and US dollars being spent away from home has political consequences.

Sharon Weinberger of the Center for Public Integrity complained about the cost of that opening volley of Tomahawk missiles fired in the assault against targets in Libya -

“At a time when Congress is fighting over every dollar, the cruise missile show of military might was an expenditure of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Each missile costs $1.41 million.”

Thomas L. Friedman said much the same thing in his article in the New York Times - Tribes with Flags- “We have got to get to work on our own country. If the president is ready to take some big, hard, urgent, decisions, shouldn’t they be first about nation-building in America, not in Libya?”

Friedman presented an interesting analysis of the nations that make up the Middle East.

“There are two kinds of states in the Middle East: ‘real countries’ with long histories in their territory and strong national identities (Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Iran); and those that might be called ‘tribes with flags, ’or more artificial states with boundaries drawn in sharp straight lines by pens of colonial powers that have trapped inside their borders myriad tribes and sects who not only never volunteered to live together but have never fully melded into a unified family of citizens. They are Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The tribes and sects that make up these more artificial states have long been held together by the iron fist of colonial powers, kings or military dictators. They have no real ‘citizens’ in the modern sense. Democratic rotations in power are impossible because each tribe lives by the motto ‘rule or die’ — either my tribe or sect is in power or we’re dead.”

Friedman left us out of his analysis. We have a long history as a people in our ancient land, but modern Israel is barely 63 years old. Some of our borders were drawn by colonial powers and one border has yet to be determined. The tribe definition doesn’t quite fit us. Despite differences of opinion the Jewish majority is an increasingly cohesive entity that proudly flies its national blue and white flag. Admittedly some of our minorities feel alienated to varying degrees and we should do more to integrate them; however they still prefer living in a democratic Jewish majority state.

The tribal motto accredited by Friedman ”rule or die” applies well to Syria.

The Alawis number no more than 12% of the population, yet are the ruling faction in Syria. A closer look at the demonstrations held throughout Syria recently and how they were ruthlessly repressed reveals that Bashar al- Assad like his father before him lives by the motto “rule or die.” So far he has managed quell the disturbances. Our own Syria analysts are reluctant to predict what will happen next.

While the US administration is busy trying to hand over the Libyan dilemma to NATO it doesn’t want to face another challenge, this time in Syria.

Michael Singh managing director of The Washington Institute and a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council pointed out inconsistencies in American foreign policy regarding Syria .”More so than the conflicts in Tunisia, Libya, and Bahrain, and perhaps even more than the fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, the recent violence in Syria has posed a challenge to the Obama administration's strategy in the Middle East.

The conflicting impulses within the administration can be seen in recent statements made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; days ago, she described Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as a ‘reformer’; in London on March 29, she issued a ‘strong condemnation of the Syrian government's brutal repression of demonstrators.’ Which view of Assad prevails, and how the United States responds to events in Syria, will go a long way toward determining how deeply U.S. policy in the Middle East is altered by the recent turmoil there.”

Nothing excites the imagination more than a good cloak and dagger story. If the plot involves the Mossad then it definitely is an attention grabber.

A few days ago Der Spiegel spun a tale called “The Long Arm of the Mossad” and told how a Palestinian disappeared in the Ukraine and ended up in an Israeli jail in Ashkelon. Of course all the official Israeli spokespersons denied the kidnapping of Dirar Abu Sisi an electrical engineer, a native of Gaza but changed their minds today when he was arraigned in the Petah Tikva magistrate's court for the purpose of extending his detention. Der Spiegel claims that Abu Sisi was abducted because he has information regarding the whereabouts of Gilad Shalit.

When pressed to answer questions about Abu Sisi Prime Minister Netanyahu said he was a member of Hamas.

Commentators here said it seems to be an extraordinary step for the Mossad to go all the way to the Ukraine to apprehend a rank and file member of Hamas.

Have a good weekend

Beni 31^st of March, .2011.

A Cohen by any other name.

Searching for a Cohen in a telephone directory is like looking for a needle in a very big haystack. With the passage of time and changing circumstances the name Cohen has mutated to Cohan, Cohn, Kahn, Kahana, Kagan, Kaplan and many other variants. Some of the changes resulted from transliterations, others were made intentionally to avoid being too identifiably Jewish.

There are of course Cohens with little or no affinity to the father of all Cohens, Aaron the brother of Moses of the tribe of Levi. The Cohens of old had privileges and responsibilities associated with their hereditary priestly status as well as a few restricting disadvantages. To this day, unemployed for almost 2,000 years after the destruction of the Second Temple, a Cohen (male of course) affiliated to Orthodox Judaism, can't marry a divorcee or a proselyte.

It occurred to me that since my mother was a Cohen I could try to claim some of the priestly privileges, however unlike being a Jew by right of a matrilineal link, the Cohen linkage is patrilineal

Belonging to the clan can now be determined genetically. Research conducted to identify a genetic link between people bearing the surname Cohen identified a specific DNA signature known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype . An interesting unexpected aspect discovered by the research workers was that some Jews who weren't Cohens as well as some non-Jews in certain places also possessed the Cohen DNA signature.

My sudden obsession with Cohens can be explained by my interest in journalists named Cohen.

I'm a frequent reader of Roger Cohen's column in the New York Times. He was born and educated in the UK. Later in life he lived for some time in the US . In autobiographic piece (“A Jew in England”) published two years ago Cohen mentions his father who came to Britain from South Africa,

“Dr. Sydney Cohen came to London and in time had the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (C.B.E.) bestowed upon him by the queen, and was named a fellow of the Royal Society, and, most important to him, became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews.

In all, it can hardly be said that he encountered barriers in the land of Benjamin Disraeli. He embraced his adopted country, my family was assimilated and Jewishness became the minor key of our identity.”

Not withstanding that, Roger Cohen was denied entry to Westminster College because, as he found out later in life, the college had a Jewish quota.

Roger Cohen is familiar with the Middle East. I think he has a good grasp of the complexity of the Israel – Palestinian Conflict, an understanding that has led him to adopt a very critical attitude to the Israeli government. A mindset shared by many people in Israel and abroad. Even when he calls for the ending of Israel settlements construction in the West Bank he is in good company. However when his demands package includes a call to end the blockade of the Gaza Strip many Israelis disagree with him.

Last week I mentioned the apprehending of the cargo vessel Victoria and its weapons shipment. This week Hamas bombarded the Gaza periphery communities in Israel with a particularly ferocious barrage of mortar and rocket fire.

I think the mainstream opinion in Israel is that the blockade is needed to stop weapons reaching Gaza. A weapons blockade is a legitimate action.

Cohen opposed Operation Cast Lead, labelling it "wretchedly named — and disastrous" He has accused Israelis of the "slaying of hundreds of Palestinian children" in the campaign In a column he wrote after the campaign, he stated that he had "never previously felt so shamed by Israel’s actions."

Fellow NYT columnist Thomas L. Friedman is a rank and file Jew quoted a lot in my letters. He too is critical of Netanyahu’s government. However, his criticism is constructive. A few months ago I told how some cabinet ministers and their spokespersons were quick to cast aspersions on Friedman, hinting that he is a self-hating Jew and the NYT has known left-wing sympathies.

Former Ariel Sharon aid Dov Weisglass rushed to Friedman’s defence,

"His words are doubly difficult because they were uttered by a lover; a person who does not hide his deep, unalterable sympathy for the State of Israel."

As much as Roger Cohen annoys me fellow countryman Nick Cohen possesses a fresh and original charm. He is an accomplished journalist, author, and political commentator. At one time he was a strong critic of American foreign policy, however about nine years ago he underwent an ideological metamorphosis His critics have argued that he was once aligned with the left flank of the British labour party and is now an unabashed neoconservative. Later on he admitted that he was "turning... into a Tory."

He is an advisory board member of Just Journalism, an independent organisation that argues the British media is too critical of Israel, and needs to be more balanced. He supported Operation Cast Lead, writing in The Jewish Chronicle that "it was clear to me that when Hamas fired thousands of rockets into Israel it had declared war and had to accept the consequences. I would not have thought that five years ago." He also argued: "British Jews are living through a very dangerous period. They are the only ethnic minority whose slaughter official society will excuse."

I’m glad I live in a safe place! I’m long removed from Britain and although I have a lot of family there I really don’t know how accurate Cohen’s observations are.

Two years ago he wrote in the Jewish Chronicle,

“Today the old certainties have gone because there are two far-right movements: the white neo-Nazi parties that the Left still opposes; and the clerical fascists of radical Islam which, extraordinarily, the modern Left succours and indulges. I am not only talking about Ken Livingstone, George Galloway and their gruesome accomplices in the intelligentsia. Wider liberal society is almost as complicit. It does not applaud the Islamic far Right, but it will not condemn it either. From the broadcasters, through the liberal press, the Civil Service, the Metropolitan Police, the bench of bishops and the judiciary, anti-Semitism is no longer an unthinkable mental deformation. As long as the conspiracy theories of the counter-enlightenment come from ideologues with dark rather than white skins, nominally liberal men and women will not speak out.

Fight back and you become a Jew, whether you are or not. Mark Lawson recently described an argument at the BBC over the corporation’s decision not to screen the charity appeal for Gaza. His furious colleague declared that the only reason Lawson supported the ban was because he was Jewish. Lawson had to tell him that he was, in fact, raised a Catholic.”

In the same article entitled “Jesus! I’m turning into a Jew!” Nick Cohen introduces himself, “Despite being called ‘Cohen’ I’ve never been Jewish before”…. “The Jewish side of my family is my father’s (which is not a help, I gather). My great grandparents fled from the Tsarist Empire at the time of the pogroms, but their son, my grandfather, revolted. He became a Communist and married outside the faith. My father was brought up with no connection to Judaism and, inevitably, so was I.”

Three weeks ago relating to the current turmoil in the Middle East he wrote in the Observer about the West’s absurd obsession with Israel. “The Arab revolution is consigning skip-loads of articles, books and speeches about the Middle East to the dustbin of history. In a few months, readers will go through libraries or newspaper archives and wonder how so many who claimed expert knowledge could have turned their eyes from tyranny and its consequences.

To a generation of politically active if not morally consistent campaigners, the Middle East has meant Israel and only Israel. In theory, they should have been able to stick by universal principles and support a just settlement for the Palestinians while opposing the dictators who kept Arabs subjugated. Few, however, have been able to oppose oppression in all its forms consistently. The right has been no better than the liberal-left in its Jew obsessions. The briefest reading of Conservative newspapers shows that at all times their first concern about political changes in the Middle East is how they affect Israel. For both sides, the lives of hundreds of millions of Arabs, Berbers and Kurds who were not involved in the conflict could be forgotten.”

Apart from the mortar and rocket volleys fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip, a social workers strike and a threatened doctors strike, it has been an uneventful week. The exception of course occurred on Tuesday when former President Moshe Katsav was sentenced to seven years in prison and two years of probation for rape, indecent acts, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice. The Tel Aviv District Court panel was lead by Judge George Karra assisted by Justices Miriam Sokolov and Judith Shevach. Katzav is expected to lodge an appeal in the High Court of Justice regarding the sentence. It is extremely unlikely that the high court will reverse or lessen the sentence handed down by the district court. Moshe Katsav continues to protest his innocence.

Some of Katsav’s supporters claim that he didn’t have a chance.

Being tried before a panel of judges led by a Christian Arab and two women was as bad as the news media’s Kangaroo court that tried him before and during his official trial.

The Cohens no longer able to perform their hereditary temple duties still retain a little prestige. Their precedence in reading from the Torah in the synagogue and the privilege of conducting the priestly blessing distinguish them from the rest of us. However the real “men of the cloth” are the rabbis. Many are influential opinion makers. They have a profound influence on our political system. In brief a force to be reckoned with. A Public opinion survey conducted immediately after Moshe Katsav’s sentencing revealed that while the majority of the public opposes a group of rabbis who support the former president, many among the ultra-Orthodox public agree with them.

Rabbi Elyakim Levanon, who serves as chief rabbi of the Elon Moreh settlement and is also the regional rabbi of Samaria, is not numbered among Moshe Katsav’s supporters. He says former President Moshe Katsav's conviction on two counts of rape is not directly related to his actions. According to the rabbi, Katsav is being punished for not acting against the disengagement from Gaza when he was president of Israel.

According to Rabbi Levanon the question whether the former president is innocent or did in fact commit an indecent assault is irrelevant. The entire legal system is working to execute God's desire to seek revenge against a person who had the power to protest and didn’t protest.

To end on a positive note I’ll switch to Purim which was celebrated this week with a lot of pomp and circumstance. Many of the kibbutz communities and other less than Orthodox groups will be celebrating the festival on Friday night. A convenient choice enabling them to “sleep it off" the following day.

I have attached my prejudiced choice of the best Purim photograph, my grand-niece Netta Kaye.

Have a good weekend

Beni 24^th of March, 2011.

Salah and Amin

Belvoir lies just five kilometres as the crow flies north of Ein Harod. It is one of a chain of fortresses built by the Crusaders more than eight hundred years ago. Our wheat fields almost border with its moat. The same moat that Saladin's sappers burrowed under to undermine the fortress' eastern tower. Their defences breached the besieged knights of the order of St John defending Belvoir surrendered to Saladin.

The Saracen general admired the defenders’ brave stand. Magnanimous in victory he decided to free the fortress' full complement of knights and foot soldiers on condition that they swore never to fight him again. The defeated force accepted the terms of surrender and left for Sidon (now a Hezbollah stronghold in Lebanon.) Two years later they renounced their oath and joined forces of the Third Crusade preparing to attack Saladin.

Initially the Crusaders regained some lost territory; however they were dependant on reinforcements from Europe. So when enthusiasm for the holy wars waned they were forced to leave their last stronghold at Acre withdrawing to Cyprus and Rhodes.

The knights of the order of St John, the last defenders on Rhodes were eventually ousted by the Turks and left the island in 1522. After a brief stopover on Crete they settled in Malta where I met them last week. Not the knights of course but their legacy. Thanks to meticulous restoration of their magnificent fortifications, churches and towns they appear almost untouched by the ravages of time.

We met Salah soon after we arrived in Malta. He sold bus tour tickets opposite our hotel. The red jacket he wore identified him with the bus company he worked for. His swarthy complexion and accent indicated that he hailed from somewhere in the Maghreb. Later we learnt that he had left Libya before the uprising. We struck up an amicable acquaintance unaffected by the fact that he is a Libyan Muslim and we are Israeli Jews. Of course we knew that Salah wanted to sell us bus tours regardless of whether we were Jews or Arabs.

On the last day of our stay we met his friend Amin, an exile from Tunisia. Both tour salesmen regard Malta as a stepping stone to a better life in Europe. Perhaps one day they will return home.

Salah (his name means merciful) brought to mind his namesake Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūbi (Saladin) known to be both merciful and implacable, according to mood and circumstances.

Amin means trustworthy; however the immediate association his name made was to Haj- Amin al-Husseini, the infamous Mufti of Jerusalem.

Salah and Amin went out of the way to help us with transportation on our last day in Malta. They had nothing to gain and maybe lost a few sales while they were helping us.

The moral of this Maltese anecdote is don’t trust mental associations and resist the temptation to stereotype people.

On Friday night five members of the Fogel family, three of them three children were brutally murdered in their home in Itamar near Nablus. Palestinian Entity chairman Mahmoud Abbas mulled over the murder for five days before condemning it to the Palestinian public. An earlier terse condemnation extracted from him when he was interviewed by an Israeli news media correspondent failed to impress anyone.

Reflecting back to Wikileaks and the revelations that the negotiations between Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas almost led to an agreement, have tempted some observers to speculate about missed opportunities.

More hard-nosed analysts familiar with Abbas and his predecessor used a variety of similes including the old English proverb “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,” to state that no Palestinian leader is capable of signing a peace accord with Israel. If so, they claim, why not put Abbas to the test? Thomas Friedman and others have repeatedly urged Prime Minister Netanyahu to stop making unnecessary demands of Abbas.

If at the end of the negotiations Abbas refuses to put pen to paper it will be difficult to blame Israel for the failure of the talks. If he signs he will receive a Nobel prize and maybe a bullet.

At present we appear to be the side raising obstacles, inveterately refusing to conclude a peace settlement. We have nothing to lose. I’m sure Netanyahu knows that, just the same he can't call Abbas' bluff. His right wing coalition partners and many in his own Likud party oppose the very concept of territorial compromise and the two-state solution. So he makes it difficult for Abbas to agree to sit at the negotiating table. The Obama administration's insistence on a building freeze in the occupied territories was counter productive.

Observers have shown that building has never really stopped. Admittedly too few homes are being built to satisfy the Jewish settlers and too many according to the Palestinians and the various "watch" organisations.

This week following the horrendous murder in Itamar the Israeli government announced it would build four hundred new homes in Judah and Samaria(The West Bank). At first an attempt was made to present the new construction as unrelated to the murder, but Netanyahu himself stated emphatically "They murder, we build."

Four hundred homes are too few to appease the right wing extremists and too many to quiet the Palestinians and our left-wing activists.

The timing of the announcement and the way it was done drew considerable criticism. The prime minister could have okayed the building quietly without a public announcement. It's quite likely that they would have been recorded as part of the ongoing "business as usual" construction project. The fact that the building units were earmarked for settlements that will probably remain a part of Israel in any future division of territory was played down. Apparently the political value of the four hundred units is the main consideration.

Last week the name Victoria brought to mind a long-dead queen and a town in Malta. This week the association is with a German cargo ship chartered by a French company flying a Liberian flag. The ship sailed from Lattakia in Syria to Mersin in Turkey, from where it set off bound for Alexandria. Some 200 miles from the Israeli coast at a point south-west of Cyprus the Victoria was waylaid by Israeli navy commandos. It was a quiet methodical boarding without resistance from the ship's crew. The Victoria and its cargo had been under surveillance by Israeli intelligence authorities. The boarding party was able to identify the specific containers loaded with six C-704 land-to-sea missiles, two launchers, computerized operating stations and two British-made coastal radars. The shipment also included 230 powerful 120mm mortar shells, which have a range of 10 kilometers; 2,260 smaller 60mm mortars, whose range is 2.5 kilometers; and 74,889 rounds of Kalashnikov rifle ammunition. Operating manuals printed in Farsi accompanied the munitions. Although the ship was heading for Alexandria it seems its real destination was El-Arish and the cargo was intended for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Some of the weapons cargo came from Iran but was loaded at Lattakia.

I doubt if we have ever been good at explaining ourselves and our actions to the world. Some people blame the world because it doesn’t want to hear what we have to say. Others point to our lack of expertise in the field of public relations. When the Victoria was brought to Ashdod port we had a golden opportunity to correct our bad PR record.

The problem was that too many ministers wanted to jump on the bandwagon.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and of course Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu set separate timetables for a press conference scheduled to be held on the wharf alongside the Victoria.

To their credit they managed to agree to open the show at noon. In addition to the press conference the cache of Iranian weapons was on display.

Like everyone else the large number of foreign news media reporters and photographers had to be checked by our GSS (General Security Service) personnel. The check was meticulous to the extreme on account of the presence of the prime minister and took a lot longer than anticipated. A large contingent of foreign reporters and photographers tired of waiting in the midday sun left without covering the event.

Military correspondent Yaakov Katz quoted one disgruntled journalist who said as he walked away “Israel shoots itself in the foot every time,”. “Now, at least, everyone will understand why the pictures of the weaponry aren’t going to be broadcast all over the world.” Another reporter remarked, “Next time keep Netanyahu away.”

Admittedly there is only one story this week – Japan. Everything else is relegated to small print on the inner pages.

Likewise the murder at Itamar barely raised a ripple of interest in the foreign press. Even when it was decided to release photographs of the slaughtered Fogel family to the foreign news media, little changed.

“For the pictures to really touch readers' hearts and shock them, we first need to share the whole story," explains Giulio Meotti a reporter with Italy's 'Il Foglio' newspaper. "But reports of the murder in Itamar were minimal. The Italian media emphasized the fact that this was a settler family with a hidden message that the murder was permissible."

"In order to publish tough images you really need to be a brave editor," says Meotti, who made it clear that no one in Italy would have the guts to disrupt an Italian family's dinner with those kinds of pictures. The Italian media, much like its international counterparts, suffers from prejudice against Israel. A good picture is a dusty teddy bear placed by Hezbollah at the scene of sites bombed by Israel. The photos from Itamar just interfere with the story the European media is trying to tell."

Another story is Purim, the Feast of Esther, celebrated this week.

We had a preview last week in Malta. Our stay there coincided with their local carnival. Apart from the main parade the secondary events were remarkably like our Purim. Children everywhere wore fancy dress costumes. I have included one scene here.

Every year someone questions the historical context of Purim. Neither . Esther, Mordechai nor anyone else (excepting Xerxes) mentioned in the Purim narrative has been found in the recorded history of the Persians and the Medes . There is a tomb in Iran claimed to be the resting place of Mordechai and Esther. Until recently the tomb was revered by Muslims too. Now there are reports that the Iranians want to demolish it.

With or without historical confirmation we will be celebrating Purim this year too.

Chag Sameach

Beni 17^th of March, 2011.

Ethereal light

The weather forecast promised intermittent rain with some bright periods for most of the day. I had planned to show an overseas guest some of the Christian holy sites in the north of Israel. Considering the fairly dismal outlook the success of our Saturday trip depended a lot on luck and perhaps some divine intervention. As we drove to Nazareth on the road that cuts across Mt. Precipice the valley below was obscured by white mantilla -like clouds so I could only describe the view we couldn't see.

Inside the Franciscan Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth a group from Uruguay had gathered at the lower level by the grotto to conduct mass.

At the upper level of the church we admired the magnificent cupola with its thirty two petals patterned like an inverted Madonna Lily. It was raining outside but light entering through the leggia above the dome diffused through the massive basilica creating an ethereal atmosphere.

Many churches and hospices built during the post-Ottoman period were designed by the renowned Italian architect Antonio Barluzzi. However the new Basilica of the Annunciation was the one church he wanted to build more than any other. The plans he submitted for a new basilica to replace the old church were repeatedly shelved and finally rejected by the Franciscan Custodians who favoured the design presented by another Italian architect, Professor Giovanni Muzio. Antonio Barluzzi broken in spirit and health by the rejection died a few years later.

Our last stop on the tour was the Basilica of the Miracle of the Transfiguration on the summit of Mount Tabor. The first and probably the most impressive church Antonio Barluzzi built in this country. Most of the materials used in the construction were imported from Italy. The innovative architect wanted to create an ethereal light effect reminiscent of the transfiguration by tiling the roof of the basilica with thin slabs of semi-translucent alabaster. The effect was achieved, but unfortunately at that time (1924) Barluzzi lacked a suitable sealing material to bond the alabaster. After a while the roof leaked and the alabaster had to be covered with terra cotta tiles.

This lengthy preamble about Italian architects’ quest for ethereal light was intended to provide a light shedding simile to clarify current events in this region, but it doesn't.

Instead it serves to share with you a few impressions from our Saturday tour.

A Talmudic axiom states -"Since the destruction of the Temple prophecy is the domain of fools." Notwithstanding this truism the news media is full of well argued predictions about the outcome of the present spate of uprisings in the Middle East.

These latter-day prophets can be divided into two categories. In the first category there are the observers and analysts, the people who know they shouldn't make predictions, nevertheless they can't resist the temptation to do so.

In the other category you will find the politicians who fear being called opinion-less nobodies. They know that predictions are like yesterday's horoscopes, nobody remembers them and if by chance they guess right they can always say "I told you so."

Former Director General of the Foreign Ministry Alon Liel weighs his words carefully. He is a career diplomat who was once our ambassador to Turkey. In an interview he gave to the Jerusalem Post this week he avoided saying anything that could be construed as a prediction. Our preoccupation with the uprising in Libya is understandable. However the viability of the 1979 Israel-Egyptian peace treaty is of far greater significance to Israel than the fate of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi. “The question of whether this agreement will survive and diplomatic relations remain intact critically affect Israel’s standing in the region,” he said.
Amr Moussa, secretary-general of the Arab League, announced that he will be a candidate in the forthcoming Egyptian presidential elections.

Liel has met Amr Moussa and is familiar with his views “He differs from Mubarak. Over the past two decades he has been very hostile to Israel” Liel said.” I don’t think he will revoke the peace agreement. Furthermore, I don’t think he will break diplomatic ties between Israel and Egypt.
I’m almost sure he will recall the Egyptian ambassador and he will be very, very critical in his statements.”
Alon Liel believes relations between Israel and Egypt will be relegated to a lower diplomatic level, similar to our relations with Turkey. “If Amr Moussa is the next president of Egypt, I think we’re headed toward a kind of Turkish-Israeli situation.”

There is good reason to worry about Jordan. The very correct and cordial relations with that country have deteriorated. Six months ago the Jordanian government recalled its ambassador and is content to maintain the present low level diplomatic representation.

It would be a mistake to overlook the US influence in the region. Without bullying or applying too much coercion the US will make sure the two extant peace treaties are not abrogated

The Economist pointed this out recently. “The cornerstone of America’s ‘mil-mil’ relationship with Egypt is the $1.3 billion in annual foreign military financing that it has handed over since 1979 as “untouchable compensation” for Egypt’s peace with Israel. Over 30 years the Egyptian armed forces have replaced Soviet-era weapons with top-notch American kit, such as F-16 fighters and M1 tanks. How much influence this buys the Americans is debatable: they tread a fine line between giving advice and appearing to dictate. But the example of Iran, which saw its advanced American weapons rapidly fall into disrepair after the fall of the Shah, is a warning of what could happen to Egypt if ties with America go irretrievably wrong.”

Tariq Alhomayed writing in the English edition of Asharq Alawasat wonders how far the present wave of disturbances will spread. While the Arab states share many things in common it’s a mistake to use the same yardstick when comparing them.

“It’s not possible to compare Libya to any other Arab country, especially with regards to the levels of insanity displayed by Gaddafi's rule, just as Tunisia is not Egypt; Egypt is not Bahrain, and so on. This is due to several factors, both internal and external, even at the level of government institutes. Thus, there is no single recipe for the whole region.
Yes, there are demands worthy of reform; both political and economic, but some states require such reforms faster than others, and the situations differ. Some states need to move towards democracy, but no two states are the same, and again there is no standard recipe.”

Rachel Bronson author of "Thicker Than Oil: America's Uneasy Partnership with Saudi Arabia. Says " Revolutions are contagious in the Middle East - and not just in the past few weeks. In the 1950s, when Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser swept into power, nationalist protests ignited across the region, challenging the leadership in Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, and eventually Libya and beyond.” Ms. Bronson finds common denominators but points out that Saudi Arabia differs in some respects.

“The upheaval in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain and elsewhere is driven by popular revulsion with sclerotic, corrupt leadership. These countries do not have clear succession plans in place. They do have organized opposition movements, both inside and outside their borders that are exploiting new means and technologies to challenge the governments. Their leaders are vulnerable to independent militaries. Their economies are weak, and educational opportunities are few.

These conditions seem to be present in Saudi Arabia, too, but the country is different in some important ways. First, its economic situation is far better. Egypt's per capita gross domestic product is slightly more than $6,000, and Tunisia's is closer to $9,000. For Saudi Arabia, it is roughly $24,000 and climbing (up from $9,000 a little more than a decade ago). The Saudi regime also has resources to spend on its people. Oil prices are high and rising. On Wednesday, the king announced massive social benefits packages totalling more than $35 billion and including unemployment relief, housing subsidies, funds to support study abroad and a raft of new job opportunities created by the state. Clearly the king is nervous, but he has goodies to spread around. “ Says Bronson.

The good news this week arrived a little late but was definitely worth waiting for. .

Pope Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ in a new book, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity.

Admittedly a declaration issued by the Vatican in 1965 stated that Christ's death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole at the time or today.

Rabbi David Rosen, head of interreligious affairs at the American Jewish Committee and a longtime leader in Vatican-Jewish dialogue believes Pope Benedict’s declaration is more significant.

There will be no letter next week I will be on holiday in Malta.

Have a good weekend

Beni 3^rd of March, 2011.