Training our boys to be bullies - Larry Derfner

Common Ground News Service - Middle East

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Training our boys to be bullies
by Larry Derfner
25 February 2010

JERUSALEM - The main thing that drew me to Israel was that here, you put your life on the line in a great political struggle, unlike in the West, where political struggle is something you talk about from a safe distance.

The political struggle for Israelis, as far as I’m concerned, is to find a way to live in a rough neighbourhood without acting like bullies on the one hand, or like pushovers on the other. To be strong enough to deter attack, but not to pick fights. To stand up for your rights, but to know where your rights end and the neighbour’s begins. It’s not easy, but that’s the challenge—to live with both a backbone and a conscience. In short, to be (if I may apply this term to both genders) a mensch.

For Israelis who aren’t pacifists, part of being a mensch is serving in the “citizen’s army”. I was glad for the chance to serve, and I want and expect my sons to do so as well. It’s part of this whole idea of not living a sheltered life, of not letting others fight your battles, of doing your part to protect your country.

But I’m afraid that today, the idea of going into the army is not about becoming a mensch, or about learning to stand up for yourself without pushing others around, but mainly about pushing others around.

In this ultra-nationalistic atmosphere, way too many teenagers see the army as an opportunity to take revenge on the country’s enemies, to show the Arabs and the whole hostile, hypocritical world how strong we are, how fearless, how much greater than any other nation we are.

In Friday’s Ha’aretz there was a story about “Footsteps of the Fighters”, a motivational camp in the Golan Heights for 12th graders being run by Avigdor Kahalani, a Yom Kippur War hero and former “Labor hawk” in the Knesset. Since he started the programme five years ago, some 180,000 12th graders have come to “tour battle sites, meet combat soldiers, watch a live-fire exercise” and listen to Kahalani’s stock motivational lecture.

“I was an MK, I met with Arafat, I hosted Abu Mazen in my home, I did a lot of things for peace. I tell you, the hatred for us cannot be bridged. Peace can be made if tomorrow we all move to New York. Nobody will take us in there anyhow. We can’t stop protecting ourselves. We have no other country,” Kahalani told the young crowd, according to someone there who quoted him back to Ha’aretz, which in turn confirmed the quotes with Kahalani.

He poured out his bile on Israeli draft-dodgers, saying gruffly how he could have “killed” one celebrity who got out of the army and how he would “deal personally” with others who tried.

“Those who don’t serve won’t pay taxes, they’ll bring crime, drugs—don’t accept them! Cast them out!” he said.

But that wasn’t all—he even ridiculed soldiers who ask to do their service close to home, calling them the equivalent of “mama’s boys”. For the big emotional climax, Kahalani held up a large Israeli flag and said, “I want to give you a gift. I want to give you this flag. The whole world has flags. But they’re ugly. Red, black, green. Who has a flag with a Star of David on it? Who has one that is blue and white?”

The note-taker reported that the 12th graders responded to Kahalani’s speech with “stormy applause”. Some 180,000 youngsters have been put through this indoctrination, just before they go into the army. In the last five years, that means a huge proportion of IDF recruits. And if they’re anything like those in the Ha’aretz story, they ate it up.

I don’t blame the 12th graders, of course; “Footsteps of the Fighters” just reflects the times they’re growing up in: There’s no chance for peace, the Arabs hate us, always have, always will. We have no other country because no other country wants us, and besides, they’re all ugly anyway; only our country is beautiful—blue and white. Listen up, everybody—it’s us against the world. Now go get ‘em.

I remember when there was an Israeli type called the “soldier for peace”, when it was believed entirely possible, when it was considered no contradiction at all, to be a dedicated IDF soldier and a dedicated opponent of war and conquest. Until this last rotten decade, Israel’s military class, as far as I know, was the world’s only military class that tended to the left side of its country’s political spectrum—that was a voice for peace.

No more. Now the voice of the military establishment comes from the retired generals showing up in the TV newsrooms urging us to war, congratulating the IDF, Shin Bet or Mossad for every reckless bombing and assassination they pull off.

There’s no balance anymore, no tempering of the soldier’s spirit with an urgency to prevent killing and dying. There’s no more attempt to see if we can simply stand up straight and survive—no, it’s either swagger or cringe, and we prefer swagger.

In 21st century Israel, this is what it means to be a man. But it’s nobody’s idea of what it means to be a mensch.

###

* Larry Derfner writes for The Jerusalem Post. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from The Jerusalem Post.

Source: The Jerusalem Post, 17 February 2010,
www.jpost.com
Copyright permission is granted for publication.

http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=27346&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew=1

Middle East Report Online: Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem by Joel Beinin

Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem
Joel Beinin

February 14, 2010

(Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History at Stanford University and a contributing editor of Middle East Report.)

The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, a 20-minute walk up the hill from the Damascus Gate to the Old City of Jerusalem, has become the focal point of the struggle over the expanding project of Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

In the first week of February a settler in Sheikh Jarrah attacked a young boy from an Arab family evicted so that Jewish activists could move in. The al-Ghawis were displaced in August 2009, and since then they have been living in front of their former home in a tent, refusing to move in protest of the eviction. Settlers have gone after them more than once. On this occasion, an older al-Ghawi, Nasir, was beaten and menaced with an M-16 by a settler when he attempted to protect the young boy. Police arrived on the scene and disarmed the settler. But they also served Nasir with a restraining order forbidding him to enter Sheikh Jarrah for 15 days. Then the police destroyed the al-Ghawis’ tent. The makeshift abode was rebuilt, but the next day police and municipal officials came to the site and threatened to dismantle it a second time.

[...]

LEER EL ARTÍCULO COMPLETO EN: Middle East Report Online: Confronting Settlement Expansion in East Jerusalem by Joel Beinin

ENTREVISTA: CENA CON... ABU MUSA Y DANNY ATAR - El País

ENTREVISTA: CENA CON... ABU MUSA Y DANNY ATAR
"¿Quieren ayudar a la paz de Israel y Palestina? Vengan"
JORGE MARIRRODRIGA 11/02/2010

Los dos hombres abrazados en la fotografía han sido enemigos mortales. Uno es Daniel Atar, quien llegó a coronel de la Brigada Golani, la más prestigiosa del Ejército israelí. En 1982, Atar iba en la avanzada de la invasión israelí de Líbano con una misión muy concreta: liquidar a militantes del movimiento palestino.

Los dos hombres abrazados en la fotografía han sido enemigos mortales. Uno es Daniel Atar, quien llegó a coronel de la Brigada Golani, la más prestigiosa del Ejército israelí. En 1982, Atar iba en la avanzada de la invasión israelí de Líbano con una misión muy concreta: liquidar a militantes del movimiento palestino. El otro es Qadura Musa. Periodista. Fue el máximo responsable de Al Fatah en la zona de Yenín y pasó 12 años en las cárceles de Israel. Viendo cómo, tras la cena, Musa se saca del bolsillo unos palillos y, en un gesto de familiaridad indudable, le pasa uno a Atar, la cuestión de cuál es la clave de la paz entre israelíes y palestinos obtiene una respuesta automática: la voluntad de personas dispuestas a arriesgarse.

"Lejaim [por la vida]", alza su copa de vino el israelí en el restaurante marroquí que ha elegido porque es un tipo de comida con el que se siente "como en casa". El palestino responde entrechocando su copa de agua. Ambos son muy diferentes. Atar come en mangas de camisa, mientras Musa no se quita la chaqueta ni la corbata. El primero es de respuestas cortas, mientras el segundo se alarga. Pero ambos se sientan juntos en el mismo lado de la mesa y se tocan mientras hablan. Atar se refiere siempre al palestino como Abu Musa, que refleja familiaridad y respeto. El palestino utiliza Danny para referirse al ex militar.

Hoy en día, Atar y Musa son los respectivos alcaldes de Gilboa y Yenín. Ciudades vecinas y hermanadas pero separadas, primero por años de violencia y luego por la barrera construida por Israel. Y son los impulsores de un proyecto que en poquísimo tiempo está consiguiendo unos resultados espectaculares y que ahora explican por todo el mundo. Atar, que milita en el Partido Laborista y es admirador del asesinado Isaac Rabin, ha logrado que el Gobierno israelí acceda a abrir la separación entre ambas ciudades y el resultado es un intercambio sin precedentes. Más de 10.000 israelíes cruzan cada semana al lado palestino. Ahora quieren que Yenín sea conocido en Europa no por los violentos combates de 2002, sino por ser un ejemplo de convivencia y seguridad. "Hace poco estuvo Tony Blair comiendo falafel en la calle. No llevábamos escolta y no se lo podía creer", explica Musa. "El mensaje es éste: hemos logrado cambiar las cosas en muy poco tiempo. Yenín es uno de los lugares más ordenados del mundo gracias al coraje y la visión de Abu Musa", dice Atar mientras ordena al periodista que tome menos notas y coma más. "Danny Atar está dando un ejemplo de convivencia excepcional entre judíos y árabes. Ha comprendido la necesidad de dos pueblos en dos Estados", replica Musa.

Las familias de ambos alcaldes se conocen y Atar hace encendidos elogios de la hospitalidad de su amigo. El israelí ha sido elegido por sus vecinos en cuatro ocasiones consecutivas. En 1995 conoció a Musa en un kibutz. El palestino había sido enviado allí por Yasir Arafat para estudiar ese modelo de productividad. "Hay mucha gente en Europa que dice que quiere ayudar a la paz. Yo les digo: vengan, pasen varias noches en Yenín, gasten allí su dinero y ayuden a su economía", subraya Atar.

Antes de irse, Abu Musa resume lo que piensa. "Danny conoce la guerra y no quiere que sus hijos la padezcan. Yo conozco la cárcel y no la quiero para mis hijos".

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/ultima/Quieren/ayudar/paz/Israel/Palestina/Vengan/elpepiult/20100211elpepiult_2/Tes

© EDICIONES EL PAÍS S.L. - Miguel Yuste 40 - 28037 Madrid [España] - Tel. 91 337 8200

Im Tirtzu hides behind respectable mask of 'Zionism' - Gideon Levy

Im Tirtzu hides behind respectable mask of 'Zionism' - Haaretz - Israel News

Cuando el Tiburón y el Pez se encontraron por primera vez - Gilad Shalit

De acuerdo a filtraciones a la prensa, las negociaciones entre Hamás y el gobierno de Israel están por lograr un nuevo acuerdo. Israel liberará a casi 980 prisioneros palestinos a cambio del soldado Gilad Shalit, capturado por militantes palestinos hace 3 años y medio al sur de Israel, en los linderos con la franja de Gaza.

De concretarse, sería un paso más sobre el intercambio de prisioneros. El 2 de octubre Hamás dio conocer un video que muestra a Shalit vivo y con buena salud. A cambio, el gobierno de Benjamín Netaniahu liberó a 20 presas palestinas.

Irónicamente, Israel y Hamás no se reconocen como interlocutores. El segundo llama a la destrucción del primero, y el primero considera al segundo como una organización terrorista. En el papel se niegan a negociar entre ellos. En la realidad, las negociaciones actuales dan indicios de que no son necesariamente la primera vez que lo hacen. Más aún, no es necesariamente la última vez que lo hagan.

En 1998, cuando tenía 11 años, Shalit escribió un cuento sobre la amistad “imposible” entre un pez y un tiburón. Sin importar quién es pez y quién tiburón (unos y otros se ven como el pez frente al tiburón), palestinos e israelíes están reflejados en ese cuento, prisioneros de sus propios prejuicios. ¿Escribiría Shalit otra vez este cuento? No lo sé. De lo que sí tengo certeza es que incluso la intransigencia tiene un límite.

Cuando el Tiburón y el Pez se encontraron por primera vez

Por Gilad Shalit

Un pequeño y hermoso pez nadaba en medio de un pacífico océano. De pronto, el pez vio a un tiburón que se lo quería comer.

Entonces, comenzó a nadar bien rápido, pero el tiburón también lo hizo.

De repente, el pez se paró y le dijo al tiburón:

“¿Por qué me quieres comer? ¡Podemos jugar juntos!”

El tiburón pensó y pensó finalmente dijo: De acuerdo, está bien. Vamos a jugar a las escondidillas.

El tiburón y el pez jugaron durante todo el día, hasta que el sol comenzó a bajar.

En la tarde, el tiburón regresó a su casa.

Su mamá le preguntó: “¿Cómo la pasaste, mi querido tiburón? ¿A cuántos animales te comiste el día de hoy?”

El tiburón le contestó: “Hoy no me comí a ningún animal, pero jugué con uno llamado PEZ”

“Ese pez es uno de los animales que nos comemos. ¡No juegues con él!”

En la casa del pez, sucedió lo mismo. “¿Cómo estás pececito? ¿Cómo te fue en el mar?” preguntó la mamá del pez.

El pez respondió: “Hoy jugué con un animal llamado TIBURÓN”

“El tiburón es el animal que se comió a tu papá y a tu hermano. No juegues con ese animal”, le dijo la mamá.

Al día siguiente, ni el tiburón ni el pez fueron a la mitad del océano.

No se reunieron durante muchos días, semanas y hasta meses.

Un día se encontraron de casualidad. De inmediato, cada uno nadó y se escondió atrás de su mamá y otra vez no se reunieron por días, semanas y meses.

Después de que pasó todo un año, el tiburón salió a dar un lindo paseo. También lo hizo el pez. Se encontraron por tercera vez en su vida. Y entonces el tiburón le dijo: “Tu eres mi enemigo, pero a lo mejor podemos hacer la paz”.

El pececito dijo: “Está bien”.

Jugaron en secreto durante días, semanas y meses, hasta que un día, los dos amigos fueron juntos a hablar con la mamá del pez. Después hicieron lo mismo con la mamá del tiburón. Y desde ese día, tiburones y peces viven en paz.

FIN

Traducción al español de la versión en inglés When the Shark and the Fish First Met de Gilad Shalit: José Hamra Sassón.

El espejo frente al espejo.

Construir una paz basada en la coexistencia entre israelíes y palestinos es un camino arduo. De eso somos testigos cotidianos. Los obstáculos no sólo se encuentran en las involuntades políticas o “las pre-condiciones para negociar las negociaciones” a las que nos tienen habituados los débiles liderazgos de Israel y Palestina. También en la dimensión social, donde se han logrado los mayores avances de acercamiento, encontramos muros de desconfianza que aportan poco o nada al proceso de construcción de paz. El periodista Gil Zohar documenta en Peace without dialogue? Impossible (Common Grounds News Service) su experiencia en ese sentido en el contexto del festival cultural palestino (Al-Quds Underground) en Jerusalén oriental.

Del otro lado de la moneda, un video de Peace it Together (proyecto documentado en marzo pasado en Frente al Espejo – ver aquí), nos muestra el detrás de cámara que llevó a 10 adolescentes israelíes y 10 palestinos a derribar el muro que se interpone entre ellos.

Peace without dialogue? Impossible Gil Zohar

JERUSALEM - There aren’t too many English-language journalists who have covered Arab Jerusalem as I have for In Jerusalem in recent years—reporting on everything from a home in Anata built and demolished four times and now facing a fifth demolition order, to the first shopping mall along east Jerusalem’s main street Salah a-Din Street which received a building permit after 42 years of bureaucracy; from the al-Mamal Foundation for Contemporary Art inside the New Gate, to a conference on Palestinian refugees at al-Quds University in Abu Dis. These are all stories I have reported in an objective manner. Thus it happened that last weekend I duly RSVP’d to a guests-only invitation to the Al-Quds Underground, touted as an unconventional festival with more than 150 small shows in private spaces in the Old City. Performances included music, storytelling, dancing, short acts and food. Locations were living rooms, a library, courtyards, gardens and more unique places. My expectation of a celebration of Jerusalem’s diversity was dashed, however, when I arrived late Saturday afternoon at the Damascus Gate meeting point. Politely asked in English by Jamal Goseh, the director of the a-Nuzha Hakawati Theater near the American Colony Hotel, “Where do you live?” I responded in Arabic that I live in Jerusalem. From my accent and appearance, he discerned that I am an Israeli. Al-Quds Underground’s artistic director Merlijn Twaalfhoven of Amsterdam then told me, along with some Israeli peace activists who had arrived, that we were not welcome. My reply that I had been invited was to no avail, nor was my guarded threat to pen an expose of their discrimination. And so here it is. For the sake of fairness, I met Twaalfhoven the next day to allow him an opportunity to explain… or dig himself a deeper hole. (Goseh declined my request for an interview.) “We want to bring art to the world,” he began. “I sometimes break through the boundaries between art and life. That is the core of my work.” A visionary creator of art happenings such as a dance performance at the Jalazoun refugee camp near Ramallah and the Long Distance Call concert on the rooftops of the Turkish half of the divided Cypriot city of Nicosia, Twaalfhoven said he had vaguely heard that the Arab League had chosen Jerusalem as Al-Quds 2009 Capital of Arab Culture and that the Israeli government had banned the festival as a political event forbidden under the Oslo Accords. “I don’t know the details. I thought it was a good idea to bring people together.” Twaalfhoven then added, “The local people told me months ago that Israelis cannot go. Our team [of 12 Dutch activists and eight artists] had to promise that we would not allow peaceful Israelis to come.” Apologetic over what had happened, he then spilled the beans. The €50,000 project was funded by the European Union through the Dutch charity Cordaid and the Alexandria-based Anna Lindh Euro-Mediterranean Foundation for the Dialogue between Cultures. To have said no to discrimination would have meant to scuttle the budget. Al-Quds Underground’s no-Israelis rule is part of a larger policy set by the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee. This BDS movement, founded in 2005, can take credit for the cancellation of Leonard Cohen’s September concert at the Ramallah Cultural Palace. Similarly in 2007, BDS activists succeeded in getting Canadian rock ‘n’ roll star Bryan Adams to pull the plug on back-to-back concerts in Jericho and Tel Aviv. Organised by the New York-based One Million Voices, the concerts were intended to promote a two-state solution to resolve the festering Palestinian-Israeli conflict. BDS activists in Europe and elsewhere aim to isolate and discomfit Israel just as South Africa’s apartheid regime was targeted in the 1980s. This rejection of normalisation of relations is a historic and strategic mistake based on the false analogy between apartheid and Zionism. Never mind the snub I received Saturday. On a broader level, the BDS movement is missing the point that peace is best promoted at a grassroots level, person to person, Jew to Arab, and Arab to Jew. Those who think Israel can be pressured into coexistence are mistaken. Two states for two peoples will be embraced when enough people demand it. BDS fosters the illusion that Palestinians can achieve their goal of statehood without ever accepting Israel and Israelis. Boycott, divest and sanction? I respond, Embrace, invest and encourage. Peace starts among people. Anyone unprepared for honest dialogue with the other is suffering from acute xenophobia. As Black Panther activist Eldridge Cleaver once remarked, “You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.” ### * Gil Zohar is a journalist in Jerusalem. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) with permission from The Jerusalem Post. Source: The Jerusalem Post, 08 November 2009, http://www.jpost.com Copyright permission is granted for publication

Jordanos-Israelíes-Palestinos comparten recursos naturales y problemas ambientales

Crédito: "5" y "0" (c) Itamar Grinberg 2009

Facebook EcoPeace Foeme: "350: International Day of Climate Action
By EcoPeace Foeme

On October 24, FoEME took part in 350.org’s International Day of Climate Action. The world’s best climate scientists advise that the international community must stabilize the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere at 350 parts per million in order to avert the worst consequences of global warming. To urge global leaders to remember this number at the next round of international climate talks in December, over 5,200 groups in 181 countries organized events around this number.

Here in Israel, Jordan, and Palestine, FoEME mobilized 300 concerned citizens from all three nations to create human chains of the digits “3,” “5,” and “0.” FoEME’s event took place at three different sites along the Dead Sea, symbolizing the importance of trans-boundary cooperation over shared natural resources and common environmental problems. Photos from the event, as well as from the other events all over the world, were projected in Times Square, New York all day on October 24, and were delivered to the United Nations on Monday, October 26.

Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, commented on FoEME's event, saying; 'If there's any image that illustrates the ability of people to come together across political boundaries, this should be it.'"

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