Doğru

The word Dugri, albeit widely used in everyday Hebrew conversation, has no deep roots in our ancient language. You wouldn't use it in official correspondence or formal conversation and many people don’t use it at all.

It crept into everyday usage from Palestinian Arabic which in turn "adopted" it from Turkish. It seems the original Turkish word doğru means direct and to the point. As we know the Turks were "evicted" in 1918, however they seem to have left doğru behind in Palestinian Arabic and colloquial Hebrew.

Historical roots aside, the doğru approach fits Israelis to a tee. This two-syllable word expresses our "straight and to the point," "tell it as it is" mentality. This brutal frankness devoid of the niceties and subtleties required by propriety, often typifies the way Israelis think and act.

I'm sure I'm exaggerating; nevertheless it serves the purpose of this week's narrative.

On Tuesday I participated in a tour of churches and monasteries belonging to the Carmelite order, the only Catholic order that originated in the Holy Land. The tour related to Carmelite institutions on Mount Carmel and Haifa. Our tour guide was Rada Boulos a Christian Israeli Arab. I mentioned her in a previous letter. She is fluent in Hebrew, possesses a unique sense of humour and in many respects is quite emancipated. Often she can't resist the temptation to add a quip or two directed at her own society, the Jewish majority, the government and anything else that comes in sight.

At the last station of our tour, the Convent of the Carmelite Sisters in Haifa, Rada told of the Carmelite Order's fluctuating fortunes in the Holy Land. In the same context she mentioned the transiency of the powers that ruled the Holy Land. Had her account ended with no corollary I wouldn't have written about Rada, the Carmelite tour and the doğru attitude. However, when Rada casually intimated that even the Jewish state might be a transient phenomenon her audience was quick to respond. "We’re here to stay!" I don’t think Rada’s faux pas was wishful thinking. She’s intelligent, perceptive and knows that she wouldn’t be better off living in a Moslem majority society. Israel can do a lot more to improve the lot of its minority communities. However nowhere in this region is there greater freedom of expression. Just the same a fine line divides between criticism and incitement. Shekh Raed Salah leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel has crossed that line many times and paid the price the law exacts.

Iran’s efforts to become a nuclear power, Syria’s unbridled support of Hezbollah, Hezbollah itself and Hamas in Gaza are not the only threats we face.

We have to contend with a large-scale insidious threat that has far-reaching effects.

Tel Aviv’s mayor Ron Huldai referred to this threat bluntly and honestly, with blithe disregard for the rules of political correctness when he addressed the “Educational Core” conference at the Seminar Hakibbutzim Teachers College, Tel Aviv on Sunday. “The State of Israel is funding and nurturing entire communities of separationists and ignoramuses,” complained Mayor Huldai in a typical doğru manner. “Private education is financed by the public, but there is no supervision over its content.”

Leaders of the Shas religious party were outraged by Huldai’s address and accused him of “unbridled incitement.”

Mayor Huldai was merely voicing the anguish of a sizable public that pays the bulk of our taxes, yet whose children, who study in state schools, have in recent years received less education and fewer classroom hours.

Currently, there are seven core subjects which the Ministry of Education requires to be taught: Hebrew, Mathematics, English, Bible, History, Literature and Geography. The majority of Israeli schools abide by the programme, except specific educational institutions exempted from complying with it. Schools that do not include all seven subjects in their curriculum receive less funding from the Ministry of Education.

A debate on whether to impose the core program on the ultra-Orthodox Haredi institutions has been going on for years. Various budget sanctions against "rebel" establishments have been considered.

Huldai complained about the lack of adherence to the core programme. "Everyone teaches whatever they want," he said.

"Radical Islamic sectors can educate against the State of Israel, and the state will fund them. The Haredim also teach whatever they want, and are unwilling to teach the core subjects, which should be included in their school curriculum. Without them they can’t instill democratic values, provide a broad based education and the means of obtaining gainful employment. Without them they will become a burden on the tax-payer." …. "Today the State of Israel is probably the only country in the world where private education is being funded by the public, without it having to adhere to a minimum of educational demands."

Ron Huldai also noted, "Due to political pressure, in the name of multiculturalism and other progressive slogans - the State of Israel is funding and cultivating entire segregated and ignorant sectors which are increasing at a frightening rate and are jeopardizing our political and financial strength."

Journalist Yair Lapid wrote something similar in his column in Yedeot Ahranot.

Addressing the Haredi public he said, “You want private education for your students? No problem whatsoever; pay for it. There is no other country in the world – not even one - where the government funds private education. There is no other country in the world where the Ministry of Education representatives are not allowed to enter a school whose bills they pay (and fully so – 100% of the bills.) There is no other country in the world where teachers refuse to present their curriculum to the body that pays their salary. “

In his concluding remarks Lapid writes “If more than 50% of the children who entered first grade this year are not part of the national school system, in 12 years more than 50% of our 18-year-olds won't join the army. In 15 years, more than 50% of them won't go to university or join the workforce. “

That worries me as much as Iranian nukes and almost as much Hezbollah’s rocket arsenal.

Hezbollah’s weaponry is linked to a series of articles in the May issue of bitterlemons, self-described as a Middle East Roundtable. The forum posed the question - Syrian missiles to Hezbollah? A panel of four experts commented on the claim made by Israel, the United States and a Kuwaiti newspaper that Syria had supplied Hezbollah with advanced missiles capable of striking targets anywhere in Israel with great accuracy.

David Schenker the director of the Programme on Arab Politics at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, presented some interesting arguments regarding the Scud debate.

“More likely, Damascus and Tehran engineered the Scud crisis to divert US-led efforts to build an international coalition to sanction Iran for its nuclear endeavors. Indeed, the timing of the reports is eerily reminiscent of Hizballah's cross-border operation on July 12, 2006, which occurred the same day the P-5+1 meeting in Paris was slated to refer the Iranian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council. The kidnapping/killing of Israeli soldiers sparked a war that effectively purchased Tehran nearly another year of unfettered enrichment activity. (While it's impossible to know with any certainty, the new diversion initiative might have been what was discussed at the February 2010 meeting in Damascus between Assad, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinezhad).
Today, though tensions remain high, both Israel and Hizballah do not appear interested in an escalation. And until the next war, it will likely not be known whether Hizballah in fact obtained the Scuds from Syria. Nevertheless, for Washington the crisis is a useful reminder that Damascus, whether innocent or guilty of this particular transfer, continues to provide the Shi'ite militia with increasingly advanced capabilities that will make the next war even costlier for Lebanon and Israel. But for Washington, the Scud issue should prompt more than just a temporary refocusing on the well-intentioned but poorly implemented United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for Syria to end weapons transfers to its Iranian-backed allies in Lebanon.
That the Assad regime is upping the ante with Israel via Hizballah at the very moment Washington is working to deepen its diplomatic engagement with Damascus should give the Obama administration pause. If this unhelpful Syrian behavior continues, the Obama administration will likely arrive at the same conclusion the Bush administration reached in 2004: that Damascus actually is--as it so vociferously claims to be--a regime dedicated to supporting "the resistance." One year into President Barack Obama's tenure, it may be too early to declare the Syria policy a failure. But the administration's decision earlier this month to renew sanctions against Damascus just might suggest a growing appreciation in the White House as to the nature of the Syrian regime and perhaps for the limits of diplomatic engagement with this self-defined resistance state.”

Military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai referring directly to the threat from the north asks- Why are they afraid? He proceeds to weigh up the things that concern the leaders in Teheran, Damascus and Beirut.

“Lebanon and Syria fear that Israel would not accept the presence of heavy ballistic missiles in Hezbollah’s hands and will take offensive military action in order to lift the additional threat these missiles present to Israel’s civilian and military home front”.

Ben Yishai clarifies the real nature of the threat and how Israel will react.

“We can say with much certainty that at this time Israel has no intention of attacking Lebanon or Syria. It is quite clear that the limited number of Scud missiles that were apparently handed over from Syria to Hezbollah do not fundamentally boost the threat faced by the Israeli home front as a result of the rocket and missile arsenal already possessed by Hezbollah.

In recent years, the Shiite group accumulated and prepared for action roughly 45,000 rockets and missiles of all types in fortified and camouflaged shelters. According to Hezbollah, this arsenal includes a few hundred heavy rockets and missiles with a range that enables them to hit every populated area in Israel – even south of Dimona – and a warhead weighing hundreds of kilograms that can cause as much damage as a Scud.”

Ben Yishai believes that in order to prevent the number of Scuds from growing into a major threat and the situation from getting out of hand, Israel enlisted the help of the US Administration. The specific purpose of the Israeli request is to warn Syria and Hezbollah against taking any belligerent action. “At the same time,” says Ben Yishai,” Israel is conveying reassuring messages to Syria and Lebanon in order to prevent a flare-up as result of a “miscalculation” – that is, a situation whereby Syria and Hezbollah spot movements in Israeli territory and interpret them as preparations for an imminent Israeli attack – thereby being tempted to strike first. “

Have a good weekend

Beni 6^th OF May, 2010.