Thru Other Eyes

If They Only Had a Pair Between Them #Jan25

One pair between them, that would be enough. But NO! Our governments’ inability to make a difference in aiding the pro-democracy movement in Egypt is our collective shame. Their cowardice, their calculated ‘real politiek,’ their inability to say the truth while looking in the mirror has allowed Mubarak to take things to the limit. We could have and should have put our collective foot down. 

Here is what America should stand up and say. 

We are not going to tell the Egyptian political, business and military leadership that their President must go. That is a decision only they can take. As they think of their country's future, we do hope they will seriously and deeply consider the wishes of their people. And what is in the best interest of their people. We hope that they will elevate the interests of their people above their own, especially at this transformational moment in history. 

To do anything less, based on the Egypt we know, would not do justice to the great history and great potential of the Egyptian people. And your people have shown true greatness with their days of huge, peaceful and inclusive assemblies. And sadly they also showed greatness in the way they were forced to defend themselves yesterday and last night from violent and murderous thugs.

No, it is not for us to tell you that your President must go. But we will be very uncomfortable with the close relationship we have and seek to maintain with Egypt, if it is the kind of Egypt we are seeing this week since Wednesday. Treating your own people, peaceful protesters, this way. Treating journalists this way. If that is the kind of Egypt the political, business and military leadership of the country is seeking then we will have to sit down and discuss the future nature and depth of our long-standing friendship. A friendship we appreciate and want to maintain. A friendship which has in so many areas and at so many moments in time been good for our country, good for the region and good for the world. This is sadly not one of those moments.

And yes we have our differences and there are some difficult tensions in our relationship: we an imperfect democracy and you our friends, an autocracy. Odd and sometimes uncomfortable bedfellows. It's true. We are, for our part, convinced that on balance our friendship over the decades has created more good than harm. Others may have a different view on that one. But what we are witnessing now in the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, etc goes further, much further, than what we are comfortable with as your friend. And let me make it clear, witnessing what is happening in Egypt, and what happened in Tunesia, has convinced us that we now need to be totally honest with each other over this question.

We have been discussing for years with our friends in the Middle East how beneficial a path of reform could be for their countries. Economically. Politically. Socially. There's a lot of work to be done in the world and we need to tap as much of the human potential of this planet as we can. We are convinced that there is a huge amount of human potential in your countries. We see the quality of the young generation. And being Americans, we really believe that the key to maximum potential and happiness, for each of our citizens and hence for our countries, is on a path that begins with self-determination.

Your people's are starting to clamor for and claim their legitimate and what we believe to be universal right to self-determination. When that happens there is only one reaction possible: Just do it. It is what your people want. It will eventually help transform the lives of every Egyptian citizen. Plant the seed of self-determination and you won't believe what can grow.

We hope we can stay friends with the Egyptian people for decades to come. But, we can now only stay friends with an Egypt where all her people enjoy the freedom of self-determination.

To all those fighting and dying for freedom tonight in Egypt, I salute you! Good luck and (g)(G)odspeed.

 

That pesky barn door

Amazing! That pretty much sums up this breaking story about two terrorism suspects arrested this morning at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport at the request of American authorities. Although you may think the story could have been dreamt up in the writers' lounge for "24" it actually sounds more suited to the writers' suite of Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show."

Let me just get this straight. One of these fellows was stopped and searched in Birmingham, Alabama before boarding a flight to Chicago. TSA authorities diligently discovered $7,000 in cash and all these fake bomb 'toys' in his luggage.

Once in Chicago, one of the two parted company with his luggage. Unimpeded he boarded a flight

Do Coincidences Exist in the Middle East?

What do you think? Do coincidences exist or is the timing of certain events just too fortuitous to be random coincidences, especially when one is talking about events in the Middle East? In Dutch, the word for coincidence is 'toeval.' The word can be also read as 'val toe' which loosely translated means falling in(to) place.

Are certain events concerning Iran mere coincidences or are certain things just falling into place? Consider the following three things that all happened to appear in yesterday's news.

American green light for Israeli attack on Iran?
On Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden was asked by George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC's "This Week," about Iran and Israel. He was specifically asked what he thought about Prime Minister Netanyahu's statements that if Obama's engagement with Iran bears no fruit by the end of the year that Israel will take matters into its own hands. A follow-up question addressed the USA's position if Israel were to decide to attack Iran. Biden's answers clearly seemed to be a 'wink-wink' if not an out and out green light for an independent Israeli course of action, even if that included military action against Iran.

Here's the exchange:

Gorillas in the Mist

No, I am not talking about Dian Fossey or the film Gorillas in the Mist. I am referring to the painfully embarrassing low level that Israel's politics have reached. And indirectly but by clear proxy, the society that continuously insists on electing these politicians.

When can you begin to get the feeling that a society has regressed; experiencing some kind of reverse moral evolution, arriving at the national moral level of an empty clam shell? (Didn't want to insult the gorillas' level of relative moral development).

What does it say when Israel's previous Prime Minister Olmert was washed out by suspicions, investigations and impending indictments on "charges of fraud, breach of trust and fraudulent receipt of monies"?

What does it say

Victims No More?! - An Open Letter To My Jewish Brothers And Sisters

(This article is somewhat longer than usual; if you prefer, download a printable version here.)

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for the video you sent me called "An Open Letter To The World From Israel." Here's an open letter in return. Although we have sharply differing views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general and perhaps even more divergent perspectives on the most recent war in Gaza, my respect and love for you always lead me to listen to your views with an open mind.

The video, with its catalogue of many of the most heinous indignities we Jews have faced through the centuries, is frankly a not very subtle playing of the ‘anti-Semite card.’ Apparently in your opinion - and from what I have seen and heard over the last three weeks, in the opinion of Israel, most of her citizens and much of world Jewry - what we have witnessed in Gaza, the events that led up to it and the reaction of many people and media around the world can best be viewed in the context of age-old and still present global anti-Semitism.

The last few days I have spent a great deal of time thinking very deeply about the significance, value and validity of playing the “anti-Semite card” anno 2009.

Two Things I Wish I Had Heard and One I Wish I Hadn't

Yesterday I would have been a lot happier if I had heard two things coming out of the USA and a hell of a lot happier if I hadn't heard one thing coming out of Israel.

I See What You Don't See

All of a sudden we seem to be further from peace than at any time since the Oslo accords. The war in Gaza has recreated an impenetrable filter through which the two sides see two totally different realities. The light of mutual understanding and other-directed empathy, weak as it has often been, has now totally disappeared into a Bermuda triangle of violence, hate and fear.

I have long known that 'the usses and the thems' of the world will look at the same facts yet see totally different realities and create two totally different narratives. I have recently heard two things from Israel’s side and found two things in my email in-box that have made painfully clear that what Israel and many Jews see when looking outward is totally different from what many others see when looking towards Israel. Why are we caught up in this game of 'I see what you don't see?'

The Hundred Years' War

As those of you who know me know, at times like these my normal news junkie habit becomes an obsession. Perhaps not so healthy but, hey, that's me. Today I read this article in The Economist - "The hundred years' war" - which I can heartily recommend. In fact, I urge you to take a few minutes out of your busy schedule to read this very impartial view on the current war in Gaza in the context of the long-running conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. If you have an outspoken bias towards one side or the other, don't expect any knee-jerk confirmations of any singular point of view. Expect to see the conflict from a broader and more balanced perspective.

Feel free to come back and comment after reading the article.

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Mutual Prayers - Reaching Out To Each Other From Our Spiritual Core

I am tired. Sleepless nights. Tormented dreams. Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. These are the things I am experiencing in these dark days of suffering, violence and death in the Promised Land.

At the end of a discussion with someone recently, my discussion partner lamented, "This is all so terrible, but what can we do?" We may be at the mercy of our political leaders and we may be imprisoned by the more extreme elements on all sides but there is much that we can do.

We can keep our minds and our hearts open to each other's humanity. We can share our feelings, our thoughts and our opinions. And we can use the courage, the strength and light that emanates from our universal spiritual core to search for common ground.

Allow me to share with you two things I read this morning on the website of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: "A Jew's Prayer for the Children of Gaza" by columnist Bradley Burston and a reader's reply to his article entitled "A Palestinian's Prayer for Israel/ Beautiful Israel:"

"No Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza." Say What?

There is so much to say about the current war in Gaza, that I have been unable to put how things look thru my eyes into a coherent article. As I watched the ground invasion unfold through the night I followed several international TV news channels from Al Jazeera to CNN to the BBC and Sky as well as keeping up on what several bloggers with phone links to family and friends in the region were reporting.

What I saw and heard was extremely painful and disturbing. Besides the terrible human destruction, I am quite troubled by the absurd things that come out of the mouths of some of the spokespersons on both sides. To be honest, I don't have high expectations when Hamas spokespeople take to the airwaves but I do expect more of the Israelis and I therefore listen more critically to what they say.

Why? First of all, because they are 'my people' and my inclination is to look in the mirror before pointing fingers at others. Secondly, maybe I have more hunger for truth and transparency when an army marches off to take lives because I too have had a hand in this endless cycle of futile violence as an Israeli soldier. And thirdly, if Israel is to claim the moral high ground and present herself to the world as the true victim then the least it can do is to be open and transparent when it comes to her motives and actions. For these reasons I expect Israel to pass at least some minimum test of truth and logic in the press room.

It is one thing to try and win the international PR war with selective information, self-serving interpretation and the occasional mis-information. All sides do that. But it is another to so transparently cover callous feelings and inhumane actions in a deceitful cloak of moral and intellectual dishonesty. And on no point is that more painfully apparent than when Israel claims there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Living Blind In The Promised Land

The events of the past days in Gaza have once again shown us how far we are from peace and how faint the glow of our divine spirit. When will we start living the uplifting parts of our religions and our belief systems? When will this madness end? Who dares to say, "No more!" along with us? After decades of living 'An eye for an eye' have we all truly become blind?

The Patients Have Taken Over the Asylum. Again.

200 and counting! Madness, madness, madness!

      

       

Pictures from upper left: Olmert, Livni & Barak; Palestinian victim today; Israeli victim today; Palestinian fighter; Israeli helicopter gunship; Hamas supporters; Israeli F-16; spent Hamas rocket in Israel

Now That It's Over, Does Anyone Know Who Won?

 Two years and four days ago, on July 12, 2006, war began between Hezbollah and Israel. This afternoon I am watching live as the war comes to a close. Samir Kuntar, the most powerfully symbolic of the released prisoners, has just arrived at Beirut's airport for the second and most significant of many large-scale festive and quite clearly victorious receptions. He is working his way through the crowd, being welcomed by Lebanese politicians of every political hue and orientation, Hezbollah supporters and opponents alike. Earlier in the day, were the somber images of two black coffins, grieving families and a sad nation as the two captured Israeli soldiers were returned home.

The war in 2006 was initiated by two events. On July 12, Hezbollah conducted a cross-border raid with the goal of capturing Israeli soldiers that could then be used in forcing a prisoner exchange for four specific Lebanese prisoners being held by Israel. On July 13,

Sailing Blind

 Vincent van Gogh, the famous Duth painter, once stated a simple but profound truth: "Conscience is a man's compass." It is that inner voice of our conscience that like a compass guides us on our moral and ethical path through life. Sir Walter Scott, the Scottish novelist and poet, being quite the wordsmith, said it with more literary imagery: "A rusty nail, placed near a faithful compass, will sway it from the truth, and wreck the argosy."

Last week's bulldozer attack in Jerusalem is first and foremost a terrible personal tragedy for the families of those who were killed and wounded. Our thoughts, our prayers and when possible our aid, always need to go out to those who suffer senseless and inscrutable violence.

But the aftermath of this admittedly shocking act has shown in a very disturbing fashion what

West Bank Settler Fashionista Police Reprimand Faux Couture Palestinians

 

On June 8, four masked Israeli settlers attacked several members of the Nawaj’ah family from Khirbet Susiya as they were tending their sheep on Palestinian property near the West Bank settlement of Susiya. The land the Palestinian family was grazing on is owned by a Palestinian resident of nearbly Samu’ Village and has been closed by court order to Israelis since 2006.

Because the Nawaj'ah family has been the victim of repeated harassment by area settlers, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem had provided them with a video camera as part of B'Tselem's "Shooting Back" advocacy and information program. This allowed the entire attack to be filmed by the family and was used for the first time by Israeli police in their investigation.

With the aid of the footage police have arrested two alleged suspects. Police believe however that the Palestinians themselves may have provoked the attack due to their faux couture:

"... police say they are investigating whether the Palestinian shepherds may have provoked the attack by not wearing traditional Arab dress, thereby arousing the suspicion of neighboring Israeli settlers. "This is something that doesn't normally happen," Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. "The way they were dressed could also possibly have been something which was provocative and this might have been something which led to the actual incident itself.""

Life Outside The Tunnel - Part IV

In this closing article I would like to introduce one of the Middle East's great voices of change and take a look at how a billion Muslims think about some key issues that cause a great deal of friction in Western perceptions.

As I have tried to show in this mini-series, there are many positive and hopeful things happening in the Middle East and in relations between the West and the Muslim world. We can't judge what we don't know and we can't develop informed opinions based on insufficient, skewed or deliberately distorted information. Has it become a dangerous liability that the citizens of the world's most powerful nation, one which has such an outspoken desire and track record of imposing its vision on other parts of the world, primarily see the rest of their world through the narrow tunnel of the American mainstream media?

Life Outside The Tunnel - Part III

It's surprising and can even be transformational when we look outside the tunnel often imposed on how we see the world. Our over-reliance on mainstream media is not only limiting but it may sometimes create more distortion than clarity. Nowhere is this more apparent or important than when it comes to the Middle East and the misunderstandings between the West and the Muslim world. In this installment I would like to turn our attention to the conflict with Iran.



An alternative way forward with Iran

John Bryson Chane, the Episcopal Bishop for the diocese of Washington, D.C. wrote about his recent discussions in Iran with Iranian academic and religious leaders "who are very concerned about the possibility of a US military incursion against their homeland." Given the failure of traditional diplomacy, the Bishop makes a plea for a new creative parallel path of diplomacy:

"A new 21st century understanding of Track II diplomacy, initiated through theological diplomacy, must go hand-in-hand with the formal diplomatic search for the peace that has always been at the centre of the Holy Books of both Christianity and Islam."

He believes

Life Outside The Tunnel - Part II

In order to participate in the democratic process we need to be informed. Unfortunately limits of time and the tunnel vision that mainstream media creates rarely allow us to see the broader picture. This can lead to a lack of understanding and even worse to dangerous misconceptions. When it comes to the Middle East and relations with the Muslim world, our tunnel vision is a true recipe for bad policy and missed opportunities.



In the second part of Life Outside The Tunnel I'd like to share a few more hopeful points of view and developments that you may have missed or had no chance to see.

Life Outside The Tunnel

Our impressions of the conflicts in the Middle East and the tensions between the West and the Muslim world are naturally shaped and limited by what we know. And what we know of these weighty global issues is pretty much limited by the inescapable and inevitable tunnel vision created by our primary source of information – the mainstream media.

For example: The last weeks have been as usual a mixed bag in the Middle East. Bush’s visit was a resounding victory for Israel, an embarrassing defeat for the Palestinians and further confirmation of America’s self-righteousness for the rest of the Arab world. The resolution of the conflict in Lebanon was a welcome respite for the Lebanese but perhaps has sown the seeds for more serious problems in the future. The announcement of back-channel talks between Israel and Syria is hopeful but already the two sides are now fighting out their positions in the media which can only serve to significantly reduce any prospects for eventual success. Egypt’s mediation efforts over a possible Gaza truce between Israel and Hamas seemed to have died a silent death amongst all the real death that continues.

In other words, the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same. Or do they? In today’s post I want to present a small tour of some hopeful things that may have been missed because they received such little and fleeting attention, or no attention at all, in the mainstream media. I hope this overview

The Emperor's New Clothes

Sometimes a picture is really worth a thousand words.....

60 Years

We can celebrate many things on this 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern day State of Israel. There is much to be thankful for. There is much that we have achieved. Israel has been the source of many innovations in the areas of water management and agriculture, science, medicine and technology. The country enjoys its own form of democracy and for many of its citizens it has created economic prosperity with an open and dynamic economy.

(NOTE: This article is somewhat longer than what I usually present here. For those who find it more convenient to read hard copy, you can download and print a copy at the end of the article.)

The fact that the state of Israel even exists, after thousands of years of Jewish statelessness,

War Games

Yesterday I read about a new weapons system Israel is deploying on the border with Gaza. Although I find any weapons system repugnant, this one made me especially stop and think about what happens when war becomes like a game.

According to Ynetnews, an Israeli news website from Yedioth:

"IDF deploys new anti-terror system around Gaza

"Army upgrades its capabilities in the Gaza region: New system combines camera, machine gun and enables IDF troops stationed in operations room to identify and fire at terrorists without risking themselves...

"The systems, which are equipped with a camera and a machine gun, enable soldiers to watch any activity that takes place near the fence and if necessary to fire at the push of a button. The new system will soon be officially declared "operational."

"We will be able to distinguish between terrorists and innocent civilians," another military official said."

There's just something about this new weapons system

Five Years Iraq

For me today, the only appropriate way to pause on the fifth anniversary, this fifth memorial for the war in Iraq is to have my thoughts with all those who have lost and given their lives in this war. So many lives and so many futures lost; it is a heavy burden we bear.

As I look at all the events around us today: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, other trouble spots where war is waging, the elections in the USA, I think about our individual responsibility as citizens of democracies. Especially the responsibility we create when we send boys and girls, men and women, off to die and to kill.

Death of darkness, death of night,
Let me feel the warmth of your blinding light.
Heroes one, Heroes all.
They felt the haunting of Gabriel’s call.

You couldn't have died for sins unknown.
Perhaps for a sin I must call my own?
Why did we send you, did we do what’s right?
Whose war was this you left to fight?

Forgive me my brother, my mother, my father,
Forgive me my lover, my sister, my daughter and son,
Forgive me my silence, the love that I squandered,
I hold onto your pain, for I’ve let you down.

~ Thru Other Eyes

Our Brave Vets Speak Out - We Should Listen

Today marks the start of Iraq Veterans Against the War's 'Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan' event in Washington, D.C. You can follow the proceedings via the Web.

Inspired by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War's original Winter Soldier Investigation of 1971, Iraq Veterans Against the War are holding a similar event this weekend in Washington, D.C.

Regardless of how one feels about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is fundamentally important to respect those who have chosen in good conscious to serve their country in this way. Too many have paid the ultimate price with their lives and too many have come home as physically and psychologically shattered men and women.

The very least we can do is to listen to these courageous men and women who are bravely stepping forward to bear witness to the true horrors of the wars we have sent them to fight in.

From IVAW's website:

STOP THE INSANITY!

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

~ Albert Einstein

Take a look at life over the cuckoo's nest and you too will get the feeling that the patients are running the asylum.....

Listen… Listen Close Enough to Hear… His Words Resonate As Loud As Ever

Monday, January 21, is Martin Luther King Day in the United States. I dedicated some time over the weekend to read and watch some of his speeches and to see a wonderful CNN special appropriately entitled MLK: Words That Changed a Nation.

Dr. King did indeed change a nation and it was primarily through his words that he catalyzed and led that change. The purity and incontrovertible truth of what he wanted to share with us, the absolute passion and humility with which he spoke and the magic oratory style he was a master of brought his concepts to life in a way that could not be ignored. And as I read and watched this weekend, I realized that those of us who care deeply about or are in whatever way involved in the conflict between Israel and Palestine need to hear his words as if for the first time. We need to understand as never before what Dr. King lived and died for.

Most people know his “I Have a Dream” and “I’ve Been to the Mountain Top” speeches. Fewer people may be familiar with one of his lesser known sermons from 1957, a Sunday church sermon that enunciated so clearly and so beautifully

Shall we continue to dance or shall we sit down and eat?

There has of course been an incredible amount said and written about Annapolis and the upcoming peace process. But everyone makes it so complex. It is actually quite a simple equation. If both parties truly want to see a peace deal then the terms of the deal are known. Everyone knows it in their heart but no one is brave enough yet to give up the song and dance and just get on with it.

For peace to be achieved, for peace to be successful and lasting, for peace to lead to regional stability and development, these are pretty much the only terms possible on the core issues, give or take:

Israel's Fear of Commitment?

Israel’s objection to America’s proposed UN resolution supporting the efforts to strive towards concluding a peace agreement in 2008, and its subsequent quick withdrawal, provides an interesting window into Israel’s emotional angst regarding the peace process. This angst was further underlined today when Prime Minister’s Olmert played down the chances and expectations of achieving a peace deal in 2008.

Like many over-testosteroned youngsters, Israel has a fear of intimacy and therefore commitment, not to some college sweetheart but rather to the peace process itself. This fear of commitment tells us several interesting things about the nation's mindset at this crucial juncture in Middle East history.

The first thing it lays bare

Where alternatives lie? Look within

NOTE: The service that issues my email updates has apparently malfunctioned and issued an email as if this article was newly (re)published. My excuses for the inconvenience as I do not want you to feel that I am 'spamming' your email address with old articles. I have asked the supplier to look into this problem as it has occurred a few times in the past. Thank you for your understanding. Lennybruce

A few days ago in Haaretz's (Israeli newspaper) forum there was a lively discussion about Israel's consideration to make Gazans pay for Quassam rocket attacks on Israel by shutting off Gaza's water and electricity. I was one of a few readers who made some comments about the appropriateness and legality of collective punishment of civilians. I identified myself as an Israeli veteran living in Amsterdam. Several readers posted angry and insulting reactions to my comments claiming that I could be neither Jewish nor Israeli; that I was a fraud and liar if I could have such thoughts. I took the unusual step of posting my weblog's address where anyone could see that I indeed was Jewish and an Israeli veteran. Several people found their way here and one person left behind the following comment on one of my articles about my experiences in Lebanon:

Hi there,
Came a cross of your post on Haaretz Talkback where you invited people to check if you were an Israeli. I took it as invitation and read your piece on Lebanon war. So what in your opinion should have been done differently? Do you think there should have been no invasion? All the thoughts that visited you and that you described (very well I should say) are not new. About stupidity and irrationality of war there are hundreds of books written for at least one century. I am sure you have read “Farewell to Arms”. There is another one that I like “THE GOOD SOLDIER SVEJK AND HIS FORTUNES IN THE WORLD WAR.” by Jaroslav Hasek. They both show the concept of stupidity and immorality of the war very well but they do not show the alternative. By the way what in your opinion should have been done last summer?

Ilya

This comment challenged me to write the following:

Alice in Wonderland – Down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass with President George Bush leading the way

America is in trouble. American democracy is in trouble. The country is being led by two men who have proven themselves to be totally unfit for their positions of responsibility and leadership. To the extent that their policies have had any benefit, either by circumstance or design, only a very small group of mainly privileged Americans have any reason to be happy with 7 years of Bush-Cheney. These two men have disappointed and betrayed the public trust in so many varied and serious ways.

If you were to take a look at

Two, four, six, eight, let’s go obfuscate

Obfuscate: To make so confused or opaque as to be difficult to perceive or understand
Synonyms:  camouflage, disguise, cloud, obscure

(click image to view full size)

I have always been disgusted by the term collateral damage especially when it is applied to the destroyed lives of totally innocent men, women and children. It is how we sterilize and de-humanize the horror of war. It is how we insulate ourselves from the gruesome consequences of the actions we actively support or facilitate by our inaction. It’s a word that soothes our individual and collective conscience and allows us to sleep at night. It’s how we replace the guiltless yet bloodied and mangled face of innocent death with a false mask of acceptability. It’s the sugar that helps the disgusting medicine of war go down.

In both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars

This madness has got to stop

Dear cousin,

This madness has got to stop. I can’t take seeing so much suffering and hopelessness eat its way through a whole people. I would say ‘enough’ regardless of which people was in this situation. But in this case they are my neighbors and they are my cousins. And if I can’t take seeing it any more, I can only begin to imagine how awful and terrifying it must be for you to have to live this seemingly endless human catastrophe.

For that reason alone,

40 years of wandering. Time to enter the Promised Land.

Dear cousin,

When I look around me and see what the last 40 years has brought us, since our war in June, 1967, I must confess I am very sad. But why should I feel today anything less or more or different than after 39 or 41 years. What’s in a number? What’s in this number?

Many important, even defining, biblical moments in Judaism involved the number 40. And I have just read that the prophet Mohammad had his first vision and revelations from the angel Gabriel at age 40 after fasting and praying for 40 days. Maybe we should not treat this 40 year anniversary as every one before, or God forbid, every one to come. After all, 40 seems to be a number of some spiritual importance to both of us.

The biblical importance of 40 got me thinking about our shared biblical origins: two narratives with one starting point and constant overlap. What we share now is mostly friction and conflict. Why? How did it all really start between us? What can we learn on this anniversary of when the last 40 years began?

The Time 100 - Part 1

You have probably noticed that Time magazine published this week their list of the 100 most influential people on the planet – the Time 100. Since I don’t subscribe to Time, I became aware of the Time 100 Friday while watching FoxNews’ morning show ‘Fox and Friends’. One of the hosts, Brian Kilmeade, was mocking the list as liberal media fare pointing out how incredulous it is that Osama Bin Laden populates the list while President George Bush does not. Of course that sufficiently piqued my curiosity to see exactly who was on the Time 100.

In going thru the 100 my overall impression was that with few exceptions (Bin Laden, Ali Khamenei and Omar Hassan al-Bashir for example) the list is one of hope and optimism. Although many of these 100 are reasonably to very well known, there are plenty that for me were not household names.

I have chosen for myself 5 themes out of this list,

hy·poc·ri·sy

I hope as much as anyone that the 15 British service people being held in Iran will be released unharmed as soon as possible. And I am sure that even if they are treated respectfully that this is a traumatic and harrowing experience. What we now have is a chess game between Iran and Britain and her allies. And although the statements from all sides are exactly what one would expect, when I listen to Tony Blair’s comments and those of his foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, I can’t prevent one particular word from popping into my mind. And that word is ‘hypocrisy’.

Freedom Is In The Air

Next week Jews all over the world will celebrate the holiday of Passover or Pesah as we call it in Hebrew. The holiday is a celebration of freedom, both physical and spiritual, freedom from destitution and hunger, freedom from repression and freedom from hate - in other words the freedom to live with respect in dignity and peace. The events of the last few years, from the Middle East to Africa and Asia, to the Gulf Coast of America and sadly everywhere in between have made me realize one thing more then ever before: We can only truly be free when all peoples are free. Celebrate with me the hope for that glorious day when freedom in all its forms belongs to all people everywhere.

Freedom's In The Air

Will the Real Mr. Peanut Please Stand Up? Part II

As we have seen, both Bush and Ahmadinejad are devout religious fundamentalists who seem to be in some measure directed by their beliefs of what their respective Gods desire of them. But there are some interesting differences in how they exercise power.

Ahmadinejad does not have the absolute last word in his country. He is subject to the checks and balances inherent in the Iranian form of theocracy. In the first instance you have the Supreme Leader who does not hesitate to put Ahmadinejad in his place when necessary, for example just recently concerning the President’s shortcomings on economic policy. Ahmadinejad is also subject to the whims of the voters as recently demonstrated by the strong rebuke  his domestic policies received in his first mid-term. And it is no secret that large portions of the Iranian public are dissatisfied with Ahmadinejad’s unfulfilled promises to attack domestic problems. And in fact, several months ago a motion of impeachment was even introduced in the Iranian parliament.

Bush on the other hand

Will the Real Mr. Peanut Please Stand Up? Part I

When I think about Bush and Ahmadinejad I usually get two varying images in my head. Sometimes I see them as two nuts, two peanuts, two Mr. Peanuts if you will and sometimes I see Bush and Ahmadinejad as two peas in a pod. Since both the peanut and the pea are actually in the same family, I guess I could just think of them as two whacky and wild pea nuts.

But seriously, whatever image these two guys conjure up in your head, one reason why they have developed into such arch rivals, with an enmity that has become palpably personal, lies partially in the fact that they are actually quite similar. And maybe that’s why they just can’t seem to get along.

Both men are motivated by their deep religious convictions. As is well known,

The Narrative of Iraq

The most recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) from America’s sixteen intelligence agencies paints a bleak picture of the current situation in Iraq. The picture it sketches for the document’s future time horizon, 12 to 18 months, also provides little comfort. This current NIE contains almost every tragic narrative of today’s Iraq: the inability to establish any meaningful central governmental and security authority; the growing polarization, mistrust and antagonism between Iraq’s sectarian communities with its resulting violence, population shifts and middle and upper class emigration; the deepening and sharpening Shia – Sunni split in the broader Middle East.

Although each of these merits attention in its own right, these are stories that we are already too familiar with. There is one narrative in this NIE, that although not entirely new for many, has never been publicly recognized by the US administration. This narrative is a bleak one and is told in one sentence:

“Nevertheless, even if violence is diminished, given the current winner-take-all attitude and sectarian animosities infecting the political scene, Iraqi leaders will be hard pressed to achieve sustained political reconciliation in the time frame of this Estimate.”

When the President’s National Security Advisor,

Looking in Carter's Mirror

There has hardly been a book recently that has stirred up so much controversy as Jimmy Carter’s Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Although the book has been out since late November, it is still being reviewed by major papers, as recently as last Sunday in the New York Times, with an op-ed piece critiquing the book on Tuesday.  And of course it is still all the buzz in the blogosphere.

Many of the reviews take full swing at Carter’s pro-Palestinian perspective and the many “facts” that various reviewers claim are either not true or open to varying interpretations. Many reviewers bemoan the fact that Carter may have a hidden ‘Christian’ agenda. These areas of criticism all seem to be fair game in reviewing a clearly controversial and provocative book. And as we say in Dutch, “Tall trees catch a lot of wind.”

I have been intrigued by many comments and reviews that seem extremely emotional and in their emotionality approach or pass the limits of the logical and the nonsensical. Years ago, one of my mentors, or coaches or perhaps a psychologist taught me that if I have an exaggerated emotional reaction to something, that there is more to be learned by exploring my reaction than by exploring the thing that evoked the reaction.

The Decider decides... to wait

Yes the Decider has decided... to wait. The lack of urgency and the stalling is perhaps geared towards totally letting the ISG report fade from memory, or stems from a genuine blank regarding how to proceed or whom to listen to. Most likely it's a combination of those factors.

The ISG report shocked America with its candid and frightening assessment of the situation in Iraq. It created a sense of urgency that the President has worked hard to disarm. A full week after the report’s publication and polite reception by the President, he let us know he wouldn’t be rushed as he deliberates a new strategy. As the country anxiously waited for leadership, hope against hope,

A genuinely 'new way' forward in Iraq

Since the release of the Baker-Hamilton report, the discussions have gotten faster and more furious while moving no closer to any bipartisan or international consensus. In fact, the ISG report has pretty much come and gone, already overtaken by dynamics on the ground, both in Iraq and in Washington. The discussions in Washington are perhaps now overshadowing the ISG but still suffer from the flaws that made the ISG a still-born baby.

What have we seen since the release of the ISG? Bush still talks about not leaving before the job is done. Democratic representative John Murtha still wants to disengage as soon as possible while the Republican leader of the House, John Boehner says, “We will not accomplish victory by setting arbitrary deadlines or negotiating with hostile governments.” Senator McCain called the ISG a recipe that will bring us closer to defeat while Iraq’s President Talabani has called the report dangerous and insulting to Iraq’s sovereignty.  Massoud Barzani, the president of the northern Iraqi Kurdistan region, accused the commission of trying to impose the "wrong solutions" on the Iraqi people.

The general with day-to-day command of US troops in Iraq wants more time and money to create Iraqi jobs but sees no need for more troops.  Pentagon planners on the other hand appear ready to recommend a major infusion of additional troops to quell the insurgency in Baghdad while Iraq’s national security advisor wants US troops to leave Baghdad.

These fundamental disagreements have more to do with competing visions of the desired end game than how to best achieve an agreed-to objective. Without a clear destination any single road can be either good or bad depending on your perspective or agenda. Until all the players agree where they want to go with Iraq, we can never have a fruitful discussion about the best way to get there.

What’s desperately needed is

TOE's Take on the Baker-Hamilton Report

Iraq policy end of year clearance sale

Last week’s presentation of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group (ISG) report and the ensuing discussions remind me of the day after Thanksgiving in America. As you may know, that day marks the start of the holiday shopping season. With bated breath, hordes of shoppers swamp America’s malls and begin looking for gifts. And so the season continues up to and after the holidays, finally ending with the pandemonium of grand end of year clearance sales for all the leftovers in order to make room for the spring collections.

So too the ISG report. With pent up frustration and hopelessness over the war, America waited anxiously to see what wares Baker and Hamilton had to offer. The impact of this much anticipated report was made greater by the fact that it filled a long-standing policy vacuum making it basically the only shop in town with open doors. But instead of a high-quality upscale Iraq-policy shopper’s paradise, the ISG report is more like those tables with all the year end clearance items. And the effect is the same. The anticipation of the window display had us all lining up. But once inside,

Ghosts of Vietnam

Question: What's the difference between Iraq and Vietnam?
Answer: Bush had a plan to get out of Vietnam.

Bush’s trip to Vietnam provides a bizarre background to the troubles he faces, or rather created, in Iraq. For all the talk of the ‘thumping’ his administration got in the recent elections, the firing of Rumsfeld and talk of looking at Iraq with ‘fresh eyes,’ Bush and his administration still don’t get it.

Asked the inevitable questions regarding what lessons the experience in Vietnam offers for Iraq, Bush said, “We tend to want there to be instant success in the world, and the task in Iraq is going to take awhile… it's just going to take a long period of time for an ideology of freedom to overcome an ideology of hate. Yet, the world that we live in today is one where they want things to happen immediately.”

And then in perhaps the most puzzling comment possible in the context of Vietnam’s lessons for Iraq,

The White Man's Truth - follow-up

Yesterday’s post – ‘The White Man’s Truth’ – provided some good discussion and debate. Terms like colonialism, imperialism and post-colonialism were all introduced and as one commentator put it, “I am well aware of how influential post-colonialism is in Western (and Eastern, from the opposite direction) academic thought. But it's simply the wrong framework.”

I wasn’t attempting to create any framework for academic thought. Without going into a deep academic analysis, I was attempting to make the point that the Middle East has long been, and remains today, a power-playground for many outside powers and for many different reasons. The Crusades, the rule of the Ottoman Empire and the British and French Mandates are good examples. And out of the French and British mandates came the carving up of their respective mandate areas into the countries we have today in the Middle East, a carving up which was more geared to solidifying their respective spheres of influence than anything else.

Unfortunately perhaps for the residents of the Middle East, that area has long been and continues to be one of the most strategically vital areas of the world for other people.

The White Man's Truth

The events of the past week have been weighing heavy on my mind. The American elections, the ‘war on terror,’ events in Iraq and the horrible images from Beit Hanoun in Gaza all had me focused on the Middle East. The things I was reading and the comments I were exchanging this week on weblogs from Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Malaysia had me asking myself where does my anger and pain come from. And after some introspection I felt there was a bit of white man’s truth that needed to be said.

The way I was brought up by my parents and the values I absorbed from my Jewish cultural and religious education helped me develop a deep sensitivity to universal justice and fairness. About twenty years ago, I was attending my wonderful sister’s law school graduation. One of the last speakers, either the dean or the guest speaker, sent those fresh young lawyers from this socially progressive university off on their future paths with a powerful three-word admonition: “Agitate, agitate, agitate.”

That those words have so vividly stuck with me over twenty years is testimony to how deep they resonated with my own intense sense of justice and fairness. And when I look at events in the Middle East, especially those involving Israel and Palestine because of my own ties to that area, that sense of justice and fairness is inflamed and enraged.

What’s really going on the Middle East?

We Will Remember

We remember the nearly 3000 innocent souls who were killed on 9 11
We will not forget.

We remember the courage of the men and women of the emergency services.
We will not forget.

We remember the estimated 40,000 American people who are now sick and dying from the toxic wastes they were exposed to at ground zero, while their government insisted there was no danger and is slow to come to their aid.
We will not forget.

We remember the tens of thousands of men and women in uniform who have died or been injured since being sent to war by their governments.
We will not forget.

We remember the tens of thousands or more innocent souls who have been killed in Iraq and the untold numbers of those injured.
We will not forget.

We remember the political partisanship and manipulation, and the
half-truths and untruths that have been told by too many of our leaders.
We will not forget.

We remember the original world-wide solidarity with America after 9-11.
We will not forget.

We remember the heartbreaking loss of so many beautiful futures, the
loss of trust and faith and the loss of hope.
We will not forget.

WHEN TWO TRIBES GO TO WAR

You heard it here first! Bush's speech yesterday (see article below from 6 sept) apparently was inspired by one of King George's favorite music videos. In fact, rumors circulating on the Internet seem to indicate that he was taking notes while watching this video, 'Two Tribes' from 'Frankie Goes to Hollywood.' He is reported to have given the video to his speech writers with a handwritten note, "Yeah, this is what I'm fucking talking about!" Art imitating life imitating art? Take a look, its about 4 and a half minutes, and then you will have the essence of the whole speech in case you missed it yesterday.

"When two tribes go to war, one is all that you can score. When two tribes go to war, one is all that you can score"

Bush may not have struck fear into Bin Laden’s heart but he sure struck fear into mine

Todays speech was nothing less than Bush's Declaration of War of Survival versus Islam.

As I watched his speech to the Military Officers Association of America many cowboy images and cliches went through my mind: ‘Texas showdown,’ ‘Shootout at the OK Coral,’ ‘Alamo's Last Stand,’ ‘This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.’

But then I realized that the speech was so serious and alarming that I would just say it right out, "Declaration of War of Survival versus the Islam."  Although he will claim that he was talking about the terrorists only, his use of quotes, lack of balance or nuance and virulent tonality will leave the uninitiated viewer with the feeling that it is Islam we need to fear. And I believe that is Bush's intention.

My guess is, that Bin Laden may find the frenzy he has let loose in Bush quite satisfying, and actually playing right into his hands. Maybe he got Bush right where he wants him: painting Islam in the unnuanced, frightening, threatening, extreme and hysterical monochromatic hues of extreme terror.

Nothing was held back, no stone left unturned in his effort to awaken every possible sinew of deep fear for this unknown phenomenon called Islam. And let's be homest, most people know very very little about Islam.

This speech is going to be 'Introduction to Islam' for most of his audience: an extreme, one-sided, intentionally unnuanced 'Introduction to Islam'. An 'Introduction to Islam' which will instill holy Christian-Judaic fear into Bush’s followers. And that may be exactly what he is striving for, in the best case because of upcoming elections and in the worst case because of some upcoming war of grand and apocalyptic proportions.

Bush uses half of his 5500 word speech

Iran 2 - Say it ain't so Sam, say it ain't so

As the clouds of confrontation gather on the Iranian horizon, two odd coincidences come to mind. And they both have to do with the Bush - Cheney - Halliburton energy axis. Read and pass on to others...

Admittedly I may have grown a little cynical about the Bush-Cheney-neoconservative political-business axis and their grand plans to reshape the Middle East in their own image.

Coincidence #1, and perhaps only an incredible coincidence, but the Middle East is still one of the world’s most important energy baskets.

But can you blame me for some healthy cynicism? Remember the “slam-dunk” evidence of Iraq’s imminent danger, WMD programs and connections to international terrorism? Maybe that’s where my cynicism started. Maybe it comes from the fact that since the fall of Saddam, to put it mildly, things don’t yet seem to be going the way we were promised they would.

And the fact that the administration's current language and posturing on Iran are all too reminiscent of the run-up to the war in Iraq doesn’t help either. In fact, the similarities are quite scary. So I can’t help but ask myself, does the administration know what its doing? Perhaps they think they know exactly what they are doing but that’s just not quite the same as what they are telling us about what they are doing.

Could it all be about oil as the consipracy theorists and total cynics claim? Even I don’t believe that. I am sure its also about natural gas. No seriously, even though I don’t believe its all about the energy, one can’t hide from the fact that its got something to do with energy security, the business of energy and the business of business. The only question is how much.

Coincidence #2: Few people's lives, careers and networks are more connected and plugged into the energy business then those of Bush and Cheney. Perhaps that’s also just an incredible coincidence. In any case, that's two uncomfortable coincidences for me.

The popular singer Anastacia sings, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." And it was either Albert Einstein or the English novelist Doris Lessing who said, "Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous."

Both of those quotes, equally disturbing in this context, popped into my head today when I came across this bit of information in the recent Iran country report from the Energy Information Center, the official government office supplying energy statistics: