Is Raf OK? -- Installment #82
2024-02-26 -- Tel Aviv
Tags: 5 Min Read; A Few Good Videos
Correction: The video in “Crisis not to waste” was reported not to work outside Israel. This should now be fixed.
Tomorrow, Feb 27, is Municipal Elections day in Israel. It is a paid work holiday. There is no such thing as absentee or vote by mail in Israel. You vote in person. The only exception is for soldiers, who can vote on their bases (and, this year, in Gaza) and diplomats posted abroad.
These elections were originally scheduled for October 31, 2023, but were postponed due to the war. Here in Tel Aviv, we have left wing leadership. The mayor has been in office since 2018 and is widely respected. (He spoke at the New Year's Eve event I attended.)
On Hatred
At the workshop last week: A conversation about love and hate. A "very American" woman (and highly educated) said: "I don't experience hate, I don't know what that is." Raf's response:
I suggest that your attitude about hate may come from Political Correctness. Hatred is not Politically Correct. Consciously, you may not want to hate, and the academic circles you were in may look down on the idea. That doesn't mean it isn't there, rather that you avoid the experience, or expression, of hatred.
I am thinking about the Political Correctness of "valuing and respecting all opinions" and the virulent antisemitism that has erupted on some campuses and in left leaning cities like San Francisco and Seattle.
The subject of hate is not the cause of the hatred. Anyone half integrated, it seems to me, removes themselves from situations of hatred (or is killed by its sufferers). Freud speaks of hatred coming from the ego seeking to protect itself, the will to power (sometimes called our “natural aggression.”) The hatred inculcated in Hamas and in Palestinian culture is planted there deliberately. That Dearborn, Michigan is perhaps the largest community of Israel-haters (due to its relatively large Muslim population) is an odd (?) coda to the place where Henry Ford published his antisemitic newspaper, The Dearborn Independent.
Six minutes, in English.
And Then There’s Zoya Cherkassky …
Zoya Cherkassky, an Israeli artist of some renown, was harassed a few days ago while presenting her recent work at New York's Jewish Museum. To the protesters (who were hustled out quickly) she said: “Fuck You.” To Allison Kaplan Sommer of Haaretz, Zoya said, “…in this massive negative reaction from the art world, I see white people coming from privileged countries who think they know how to solve the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict." (PDF here.)
I start to see these protests as what they are: A call to massacre Jews. (Does mass dehumanization have another goal?)
What is Blood Libel & Why Accusing Israel of Genocide Is A New Example
10 Min, English
In The English Parliament
2 Min, in English
Mail From Readers...
Will Bibi's Government Fall?
I saw there were protests in Tel Aviv against Netanyahu...any chance he will get the boot?
I need to consult with some friends who are more in the know (about how the system here works). To my knowledge, these are the Bibi off ramps:
a) He is convicted in one of the criminal cases. (This is going slowly.... Nothing like the cases against Tr*mp which are relatively speedy.)
b) The Likud itself votes him out of his role as party leader. This seems unlikely, as the party already split over him, with the anti-Bibi people making a new party. Likud is basically a cult of personality, like the US Republicans have become.)
c) One or more members of the cabinet coalition leaves the coalition. Seems unlikely, because they would be giving up their own power.
d) Two or more members of Knesset who are part of coalition join a vote of no confidence.
e) The term ends (which I think is 2+ years away)
The prior government fell because of 'c' -- but that did not happen spontaneously. Bibi's crowd zeroed in on one or two of the most vulnerable and harassed them for months (loudly, personally, crudely and rudely) until they cracked.
Bibi
A Crisis Not To Waste…
A major schism in Israeli society, for several years already, is that the Ultra Orthodox do not serve in the army. Not only don’t they serve in the army, but they do no national service of any kind. This has been a huge political issue for years.
The outbreak of the war brought this into focus when the whole country (up to age 45 or so) goes and serves in the reserves, but not the Ultra Orthodox.
This came into even greater focus when the Ultra Orthodox minister (of Bibi’s cabinet) made the announcement of accelerating the draft of some eligible 18 and 19 year olds who had deferred army service. Hearing a man make such an announcement, when his own family and community do not serve themselves, was pretty… twisted.
It gets better.
In the past week or two, the government proposed a change to the army service law: To extend both the number of months of active duty and the number of years of reserve duty.
Thus, a crisis within the larger (war) crisis is born…
5 Minutes. Hebrew, you can turn on English subtitles under the Gear button (may also need to click the CC button to get them)
Tunnels
The IDF says it located 10-kilometer long tunnel connecting north and south Gaza
Relief Area
Alef: Talking to the brainwashed...
I am off to a yoga class.
Stay well,
Raf
(Thank you A.K.)