A trip to Hura

Elijah and I hopped on our bikes, filled up our tires at a nearby gas station, and headed eastward on Route 60, towards Hebron.  It rained last night, the first of the season, and the blue sky was a patchwork of fluffy white clouds.  The air was crisp in our lungs as we set out to find an Arab village to visit.  The land lay flat us as we rolled past Tel Sheva and Omer, suburbs of our town.  Then the desert, peppered by occasional houses and stands of trees, spread before us.
With my brakes in desperate need of tuning (both front and back), we decided to turn into the village of Hura, at the junction of Routes 60 and 31 about halfway between Beer Sheba and Arad -- smack dab in the middle of nowhere, Israel.  It is situated on a series of hilltops above the Jewish moshav of Meitar and only a few kilometers from the Green Line.  By the minarets, flat roofs, and illogical layout of the village streets (not to mention noticeable fragrance of barnyard and burning dung from two clicks out), we both knew Hura was an Arab village long before we arrived.  What remained to be determined was whether its inhabitants were bedouin-- as Elijah hoped-- or Palestinian.
We stopped at a convenience store to ask for directions to the center of town.  I stood by as Elijah asked a man standing in the doorway in Arabic where that could be found.  His skin was far darker than most Arabs, nearing pitch black, and his facial structure and hair was more African than Arab.  Somewhat puzzled by Elijah's Egyptian Arabic, he muttered something incoherent and asked to switch to Hebrew.
"I'll be damned,"  I thought to myself.  "Linguistic economics in action."
In Hebrew, he explained he was not a local.  He was visiting from Rahat and was bedouin.
"The center of town?  There isn't one, really.  Try up by the mosque," pointing to the green domed mosque at the top of the hill, lording over the village like a castle.
Up we rode past children who shouted aleikum salaam in response to our greetings.  When we reached the top I needed to piss, so I dismounted and walked up the steps of the mosque.  I had never entered one before, so I took every step cautiously and tried to break no taboos.  I removed my shoes at the entrance and proceeded down some stairs to where the bathrooms were.  The first chamber was an ablution room of polished stone with seats placed before faucets.  A corridor at the back led to the bathrooms.  The stench, however, was overpowering.  Barefoot, I peered inside and found untoilets: holes in the ground from which emanated a horrific odor.  No offense to the mosque or its frequenters, but I felt no compunction for turn-tailing it out of there having lost all need to micturate.  At least the old man entering as I retied my shoes warmly clasped my hand as I gave him a sheepish salaam.
From he crest of the hill, high above the surrounding lowlands, we could see into the West Bank.  As we descended back into town we felt as though we had entered it.  Though we could see Beer Sheva in the opposite direction, Hura seemed another world.  The locals were curiously puzzled to see two cyclists cruising about a town off the beaten track and everyone we passed replied to our greetings.
A whiff of narghile brought us to a stop at a coffee shop where, over a hookah, oranges, chocolate, and coffee blacker than midnight, we rested.  The local teenage boys ogled our bikes and asked to take a ride.  Though I offered mine, it was not without hesitation.  Three took it out for a spin, and each time, I admit, I worried how I'd get home if it vanished.  (Juan Williams you're not alone?)  To my relief, it always came back, and none worse for wear.  They were mild mannered and kind.
I asked Tariq, who gave us oranges from the produce stand next door, whether many Israelis came to Hura.  He said he studies in school with local Israelis, and that they come in to the shops.  All together the situation did not seem grim.
Rides home always seem shorter.  Whenever you have a defined destination the road slips effortlessly beneath your pedal strokes.  Inclines seem less steep, and the burning in your calves is less painful.  When at last you reach your door, you have the strength and eagerness to go out once more.

חוק האברכים (chok ha'avrechim): The Schnorrer's Dole

A Knesset vote to approve the 2010-2011 budget has been frozen by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu.  For once Netanyahu's freezing something was for the better.  The proposed budget included a 111 million sheqel stipend for Yeshiva students (or read more here) -- the equivalent of 11,100,000 falafels from the stand in my neighborhood.  The already heavily subsidized, widely unemployed religious sector of the Israeli population will get yet another hand out.  Rather than encourage married Haredi men to join the workforce and be productive members of society, a cadre of theocrats feathers its constituents' nests.  The bill received stern condemnation from Kadima and Labor MKs, but public outcry is rumbling but has not yet erupted.
This is not the Middle Ages, this government will not be the Church, and the Haredim will not be our monks and priests, living off the fat of the people.  We, the citizens, shall not tolerate political trickery to pillage the public purse for the benefit of the religious.
A protest has been organized in Jerusalem for this coming Monday (November 1st) in Jerusalem at 7pm.  Join the group on facebook here. Come one come all!  Stand up and make yourself heard!  Let's not let schonorrers take our tax money.

Another Case for Constitutionalism

I grow weary of reading the inane claptrap that qualifies as news in Israeli newspapers nowadays: "Many overweight Israelis are in denial, poll shows", or "When Israel stars in U.S. campaigns – is it good for the Jews?" Tedious and bothersome, in my opinion. But what really got my goat in today's Haaretz was the unnecessary huffing by Professor Menachem Mautner of Tel Aviv University over why the Israeli Supreme Court is considered a left-wing institution.
He explains that both right- and left-wing parties file petitions to the court over political grievances and, because the left-wing parties typically construct an argument rather than claim personal harm, the court overwhelmingly rules in their favor. His solution to this perceived bias is that 

"The High Court should understand that these petitions inflict serious harm (how precisely, Mautner does not say). It should change its doctrine regarding the right to a hearing and turn away MKs seeking that it adjudicate political matters." 

No, Professor Mautner. You may be right that the Supreme Court should not be deliberating in political arguments, but you are wrong in suggesting they change their policy. 
What is absolutely necessary is a constitution that clearly delineates the Supreme Court's role in the political process. "If [an MK] claims that a personal right of his has been violated (by the Knesset speaker or the attorney general, for example ) he should be able to petition like anyone else. But when an MK wants the court to rule on a political matter, the court should reject the petition," Mautner argues. Professor Mautner, the problem lies not in the Court's policy, but in the excess of "should" in legal procedure. For this reason all other states (with the notable but explicable exception of the UK) have a constitutional document delineating the manner and methods of such matters. 
Thank you, Professor Mautner, for inadvertently making an yet another argument for Israeli constitutionalism.

Yet Another Misadventure in Self-Censorship

Western media are falling to radical Islamic pressures like dominos.  Comedy Central censored South Park’s Islamic censorship episode in April of this year, the Washington Post pulled a Wiley cartoon entitled “Where’s Muhammad?” last week, and now the BBC is adopting a “impartial” outlook on religion, science, culture, and ethics.  The BBC Trust stated that “when BBC content deals with controversy within these subjects, it must be treated with a level of impartiality adequate and appropriate to the content, taking account of the nature of the content and the likely audience expectation.”

Few reasons exist behind the BBC’s change of policy besides radical Islamist .  Hostility against Western media for publishing “Islamo-sensitive” material (or even suggesting such) has triggered violent responses across the Muslim world from Manchester to Malaysia.  The fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s harm after publishing The Satanic Verses 1989, Theo van Gogh’s murder in 2004, the worldwide riots after the Jyllands-Posten lampooning of Mohammed in 2005, and death threats sent to Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park earlier this year are all symptomatic of the free speech's assault by radical religion (Islam in particular).  What is increasingly disconcerting is the West’s submissive response to totalitarian intimidation.

For the proper functioning of democracy, citizens must engage in a bountiful marketplace of ideas; agents of the free press must brave opposition to market wares.  The trend in the West in recent years, however, has been towards treading on eggshells by self-censoring in order to avoid further infuriating those who already abhor our liberties. 

The BBC has cowardly submitted to radical demands rather than uphold the tenets of free conscience and expression.  Out of fear of breaking eggs, they forgo omelets.  They have fallen into lockstep with the Western media’s spineless avoidance of all things Islam, thus quashing all manner of discussion over a critical world issue.  This step towards self-censorship has changed the BBC’s motto of “Nation shall speak peace unto nation” into “Nations shall speak appeasement unto Islam”.

Having joined the invertebrate community and succumbed to the threat of violence, what’s next for the BBC?  Will they ban their comedians from poking fun at the French (a classic BBC pastime) for fear of cross-channel retribution? Will they pull David Attenborough because his espousal of evolution by natural selection does not sit well with creationists, Muslim, Christian, and Jew alike?  Will they omit reports on Vatican pedophilia charges so as to avoid insulting Catholics?  

The bottom line is: where does it end?  Major media outlets have demonstrated that violence or the threat thereof is sufficient to break the back of Western values.  At this rate of inch-giving we will soon run out of miles for them to take.   Once freedom of expression falls, what liberty we hold dear will be next?  (Freedom of religion comes to mind.)  John Stuart Mills wrote that "We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."  To address the growing impingement of liberty by radical religion, democratic citizens must discuss all opinions no matter how impartial.  

States' Rights at Risk

California is unique among the fifty states in holding popular referenda, arguably rendering it a purer form of direct democracy, truly res publicus, a thing of the people.  This coming election day, Californians head to the polls to vote on Proposition 19, a measure to legalize and regulate marijuana.  There are greater things at stake than the right to purchase and smoke pot on the west coast.

Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. announced yesterday, October 15th, that the Federal government would

"vigorously enforce the CSA against those individuals and organizations that possess, manufacture or distribute marijuana for recreational use, even if such activities are permitted under state law."

It wouldn't make a difference whether this was about the buddha or bourbon, abortion or official languages.  The Obama administration's, specifically the Department of Justice's, treatment of California's potential (or probable) ratification of Proposition 19 carries enormous significance for states' rights in the Union.  Blocking the implementation of a Californian plebiscite by Washington would constitute a gross violation of core American principles.
States' rights have been a bitterly disputed issue (need I recall the Civil War that broke out primarily over it).  Though our omniscient Founding Fathers omitted any clear definition of the relationship between the Federal government and its constituent states, Article 4 section 4 of the Constitution unambiguously states that "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government".  What, I ask, is more indicative of a republican government than the government being, in the words of Abe Lincoln (with a strong dose of irony), of the people, for the people, and by the people?  Quashing a Californian referendum favoring the legalization of marijuana would violate the governing principle of our Republic: the rights of the states but moreover their constituents to govern by consensus.  Defending the Controlled Substances Act against the will of the State of California and its citizens is nothing short of unconstitutional.

For more information about Proposition 19, visit www.yeson19.com or their Facebook page (address above).  

The Emergence of Syria as a major actor in the Middle East

The short- and long-term stability of the Middle East is governed by the struggle between two rival axes who compete over power and influence.  The moderate pro-western axis includes: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and some Gulf states with the patronage of the US and the western powers.  The radical pro-Islamic axis is led by Iran which tries to gather Iraq, Lebanon and Qatar and Turkey behind her.  In the midst of these axes stands Syria which holds a key role in the current developments in Lebanon, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

The most significant development for Syria is its reestablishment of relations and control in Lebanon.  Since the Hariri murder and the consequent international pressure, Syria extracted all of its forces from Lebanon in 2005 and significantly reduced its control in Lebanon.  The conclusions of the Hariri Murder Investigation Committee, which are meant to be published in the next few weeks, serve as the main factor which changed Syria's attitude towards Lebanon.  The rising possibility that figures in Hezbollah will be charged in Hariri's murder, is a cause for concern within the moderate axis in the Middle East.  Nasrallah asserted that if his organization will be found to have responsibility in the Hariri murder, Hezbollah will deny it and immobilize the Lebanese government.  This could lead into clashes between Sunnis and Shiite Hezbollah supporters, a renewal of the civil war, or maybe even another conflict with Israel if Hezbollah needs a common enemy to win domestic unity.  A preview of what might happen occurred on August 24th in Beirut: violent clashes between Sunni militia and Hezbollah left three dead including a Hezbollah leader.

The worst case scenario worries the moderate Middle Eastern axis.  A Saudi prince was flown to Damascus to meet with the Syrian President and Lebanese Prime Minister in an effort to block a possible attempt by Hezbollah to destabilize Lebanon.  The Saudi prince, who was the first Saudi official to visit Syria in four years, pressed Bashir al-Assad to mediate between Hezbollah and the Hariri government. Assad convinced the Lebanese Prime Minister to state that "the unity of Lebanon is more important than the blood of his father".  Prime Minister Hariri met Assad in Damascus for the first time in mid July and signed 18 different cooperation treaties and memos.  Assad has become the Lebanese peace broker and is also a key figure in maintaining stability in the new Iraq.

American combat troops leaving Iraq left a big vacuum for a failing democracy to handle sectarian violence and the interference of other states such as Iran on its own.  Syrian newspapers report that Assad held a meeting in Damascus with two potential Iraqi Prime Ministers in an effort to help create the new Iraqi government.  According to this report, Assad took the lead in these negotiations.
Moreover, Syria is the gateway of radical Islamists to and from Iraq.  According to Amir Kulik and Yoram Shwaitzer from the Israel National Security Studies, in the last few years Syria has provided a logistic platform to Al Qaeda activists by providing them with forged Syrian passports, safe houses, and training areas.  American sources claim that 85-90% of suicide bombers entering Iraq come through Syria and, in spite of American warnings, Syria has not acted to prevent them.  Following Syria's reluctance to interfere, American Delta forces killed a high ranked Al Qaeda logistician in the Syrian village Sukkariah in 2008.  Now that American combat troops have left Iraq, Syria is the only state that controls the passage of Jihadists into an almost lawless Iraq.

In addition to giving al-Qaeda a safe haven, Syria also hosts the headquarters of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas' political wing in Damascus.  These organizations hold a large stake in disrupting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.  Neither Hamas nor Islamic Jihad will accept a Israeli-Palestinian agreement that would leave them out of the picture.  Ha'aretz recently reported that Syria received cautionary warnings from the Obama administration not to interfere in the peace negotiations, and to restrain the Palestinian organizations acting under Syrian sovereignty.  The US and Israel are aware that failure of these negotiations could spark a renewal of armed conflict in the Middle East.

Geopolitics and historical circumstance place Syria in a key position to influence Middle Eastern stability in the short and long terms. The recent visits of American and French diplomats in Syria, and Assad's statements that he considers other mediators (aside from Turkey) for negotiating with Israel, indicate that all are aware of the new Syrian stance.  It is up to Assad to decide whether to further strengthen his ties with the more radical axis, or to cooperate with the moderate pro-western axis and halt Iran's growing influence in the Middle East.  Considering Syria's primary foreign policy goal-- survival of the regime-- it is likely that Assad will continue balancing between the two axes so long as it serves Syrian interests.
From the Israeli point of view, this could be both an opportunity and a risk.  Israel can push Syria towards the moderate axis by reinitiating peace negotiations and pushing a wedge between Syria and Iran.  The major risk is empowering Syria at the expense of Iran and Hezbollah  If they lose Syria as an ally, they will likely resort to violence on Israeli's northern border, leading to Israeli retaliation.  Israel should weigh its next move carefully and recognize Syria's emergent, critical position.

Avigdor Lieberman starring in: "Goonraker"

Foreign Sinister  Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Hugo Drax of "Moonraker"

Avigdor Lieberman (aka- Bond villain Hugo Drax lookalike) is at it again, this time trying to push through a law requiring all non-Jews to swear an loyalty oath to Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state in order to gain citizenship.  (For more details, check out the following articles, for example: VOA, Ha'aretz, Al Jazeera, JPost).  While this motion obviously targets Palestinian Arabs, there is another sector of the population, wholly overlooked in general but also in this particular instance, who will be aversely affected by this motion.  These are the refugees and children of migrant workers of Israel.
While the current citizens of Israel, Jew and Arab alike, will not be affected by the amended Citizenship Law, those seeking asylum in Israel shall be.  While, admittedly, all states have clauses whereby new citizens must swear loyalty to the state, none that I know of require loyalty to an ideology or to a foreign ethnicity, namely, the Jewish nature of the State of Israel.
Avigdor wishes to have his Jewish majority and impose its supremacy on the citizens of the state even (if and) when it no longer exists.  There is no avoiding the ever-increasing non-Jewish population in our borders and the growing concerns surrounding their rights and responsibilities to the Jewish state. A draconian oath of fealty reminiscent of medieval serfdom ("I will to my lord be true and faithful, and love all which he loves and shun all which he shuns.") will only yield more problems.  Creating an environment whereby the Jewish majority serves as a guiding light in a pluralistic society, through liberal democracy, education, and tolerance, will greatly improve Israel's lot in the coming decades.
Then again, perhaps Avigdor, like Hugo Drax, would prefer to engineer a racially pure Jewish state in space instead.  It sounds like an equally rational and well thought-out decision.


Addendum (11 October 2010):  As proof of the fact that this is not a proposition supported by the whole government, Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor commented along similar lines on Israel Radio (as quoted in Ha'aretz): 

"the moment there is a Jewish state, and it is an unprecedented historical success, we should show compassion toward the minorities among us – the way we have always yearned to be treated by others."

It is good to hear a voice of reason in the Israeli government.   

Beer in Beer Sheba

Sleepily nestled on the edge of the Negev Desert, the modern city of Beer Sheba rests day-round.  During the oppressive midday heat-- even now in October-- going outdoors is even more uncomfortable than sitting indoors, which isn't too comfortable either.  When waves of hot air aren't pouring in the window, the air is as still as death, making you dream of a cool wisp of breeze.  Even at night the streets are relatively bare of people compared to the (relative) metropolises of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.  Things move at a slower, more rustic pace.
This is Israel's back country.

"It's as hot as Vulcan's dick!" exclaimed my traveling companion earlier today, quite appropriately.
The town seems to be devoid of nightlife as well as less enterprising forms of diversion.  The center of town seems almost entirely deserted, even on a Saturday night.  The mall, one of the few comfortably air-conditioned places to sit, is similarly empty.

Elijah and the Miwi

We walked across town, a hardly strenuous twenty five minutes, to Shchunah Gimel, the neighborhood where the university and bars are.  Rusticly Negev, the soil was a dusty yellow in the light of streetlamps, and the houses the color of the surrounding desert sands.  Pines and palms hovered above, barely providing shade during the daytime hours, and in the barely cooler night air they stood still as statues.
Elijah found a cluster of bars huddled around an unpaved parking lot, set among a stand of pines.  Compared to Tel Aviv, these watering holes in the city of seven wells had a bucolic nonchalance.  One bartender poured us a free shot of mouth-burning rotgut whiskey apiece on hearing Elijah had made aliyah just this week.

MiWi game system

All in all, I feel like this dusty desert oasis town-- fully equipped with Chinese bootleg Nintendo Wiis called "MiWi"-- could be an interesting but welcome change of pace and scenery from the hustle and bustle of Tel Aviv. (Not to mention the fact that rent here is half that in Tel Aviv for a comparable apartment).  A slight Zionist pulse can still be felt walking around here on the frontier, something missing from the White City and the capital.

Too little, too late

Fifty protesters marched into the Ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim last Tuesday, an almost un-newsworthy incident in response to enforced gender segregation of a Jerusalem street this Sukkot holiday.  The division of the sidewalk into men and women's sides, mimicking the separation of sexes in Orthodox synagogues, was a temporary fix, reportedly done each year during the heavy pedestrian-trafficked holiday.  The fifty protesters-- only fifty were permitted by a High Court of Justice order-- were accompanied by a phalanx of armed policemen, a testament to the threat posed by some among whom they stood against.  

This by no means justifies what is undeniably a discriminatory act, but this tiny outrage has been replied to with an equally insignificant and ineffectual outcry. From their Greater Tel Aviv bubble, most secular Israelis are blissfully unaware, insulated from the creeping infiltration of religious dogma into public Israeli life.  Yet here in Jerusalem it is becoming simply unavoidable-- albeit in varying degrees-- no matter where in the city you are.  Segregated buses and now streets, as well as increasingly hostile demonstrations against "infringing" secular acts (e.g.- parking garage feud and gay pride parade) are just the tip of the iceberg. This precipitous shift to the religious right is evident in Israeli politics on the whole, to which the ongoing Battle of Daylight Savings, the Settler movement, and the frozen issue of Jewish conversion attest.   

Credit be given to those who marched-- albeit symbolically-- in protest of this minor action by religious radicals.  But their numbers were pathetically few, and only responding to the least of the great injustices perpetrated by those who wish theocracy and strive for its eventual triumph.  Before other civil liberties fall victim to radical religion in our state, more must rise against their injustice.