Is Raf OK? -- Installment #105
2024-04-26 -- Tel Aviv
Tags: 4 Min Read; Jumbo Relief
It's Passover week. School is out. Roads are parking lots of families taking day trips. The train from Jerusalem was packed with kids being taken to the Tel Aviv beaches. Sitting in my apartment a cacophony of distant horns indicates a traffic jam a few blocks away. Loads of museums are free for the week.
I just saw a film that is "made for Pesach" (without being made for Pesach). Serving suggestion: Watch during Passover week. Film: Magnolia. There was but a single showing. It was sold out. The audience applauded.
This is my second rewrite of this post. I was going to do a "Raf take" on Anshel Pfeffer's recent Israel's 10 Self-inflicted Plagues Since October 7 (PDF here). The intent was to expand on sins committed and “lessons not learned” by Israeli leadership and society. Instead this post will just talk about a single sin: The sin of "othering" that has taken over the Right (in Israel and elsewhere).
But first...
Reader Mail
About #104
Totally LOVE the photo!!!
Awwww. I was in Berlin, after several months in the USSR, with one of my very oldest friends, Joe Dupre. He took that pic.
The Iranian Woman's Rant & Netanyahu
“Why think [that]?” The mention here was sent to me. I don't know whether Bibi needs to hear it or not. In any event, Bibi isn't known as a listener....
A Scarf!
A reader gave me a scarf on the occasion of post #100. Thank you!
Reddit Thread: The misinformed nature of the Genocide accusations: The Gaza war in perspective
(Edited for style by Raf.)
"Genocide" is not about numbers. It’s about intent. And Israel is obviously not killing civilians on purpose ["knock on the roof" warnings to evacuate buildings doesn't happen when there is genocidal intent]. There is no intent so it’s not a genocide, it’s just a war, which is obvious to anyone who isn’t an idiot or an anti-Semite. But I don’t believe the numbers matter as much as the intent.
Segal's Law
My dear friend A.U. likes to say: "On a boat, you can have one clock or three clocks, but never two." (I've heard this appears in Brooks' classic work: Mythical Man-Month.) I recently discovered "Segal's Law" which states:
Someone with a watch knows what time it is. Someone with two watches is never sure.
This seems to be consistent with Alex's mantra. Yet Segal's Law has an additional layer:
... the underlying message is to question the apparent certainty of anyone who only has one source of information. The man with one watch has no way to identify error or uncertainty.
This is a message to the power hungry: Democracy doesn't exist to do "the right thing" or the "best" thing. It exists to do "the most legitimate" thing. Legitimacy flows from the democratic process. The means, not the ends, create legitimacy.
Othering
In Israel there has been a multi-decade elevation of the Right and long term smearing of the Left. The fact that the Left created the State and led it through decades of difficulty is shelved (I have even seen it criticized publicly). What is interesting to Raf is that the Right here masks what the American Right would do to Israel.
Aid to Ukraine
Let's start with a snippet my father, S.F.Z. just sent my way:
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine — In this small city north of Kyiv where Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) grew up, locals once lauded her as one of their own — proud of the studious girl with blonde pigtails who moved to America and became the first Ukrainian-born member of Congress.
But after Spartz voted against a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine last week, that pride for some turned to anger and a sense of betrayal — feelings made more raw because her “no” vote came days after Chernihiv was bombed during morning rush hour, killing 18 people. (Washington Post, April 25, 2024)
This Republican member of Congress voted Yes on the Israel aid package.
Don't tell me that makes sense. (Or perhaps it is because she accepted big bucks from AIPAC?)
Aid to Israel
In the past few days, the U.S. Congress, after six months of delay, finally passed a military aid bill for Israel. The way Bibi and his minions in the media pitch it, the delay is due to Democrats in Washington when it is precisely the opposite: Republicans in the Senate were the first to hold things up in November/December, then Tr*mp himself torpedoed months of Senate work, adding months of delay to the aid bill. For all of 2024 right wingers in the House held it up until this week (when Democrat votes in committee were the only thing that sent the measure to the floor for a vote).
Israelis are so steeped in the influence of the Israeli Right, that even Left-leaning publications, like Haaretz seem to have internalized it. Example:
Haaretz doesn't mention that in the House the aid bill for Israel had 21 Republican No votes (nor that aid to Ukraine passed with more Democratic votes than Republican ones).
But most of Israel doesn't see the picture, because Bibi's propaganda machine has spent thirty years painting stains on anyone left of center. Israelis don't see this:
When Haaretz itself, discussing the aid bill, first says:
On Tuesday night, the Senate passed $95 billion war aid legislation on an overwhelming 79-18 vote late Tuesday after the House had approved the package Saturday.
And then:
Opponents in the Senate, like the House, included some left-wing senators who are opposed to aiding Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has bombarded Gaza and killed thousands of civilians. Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., voted against the package.
Haaretz does not mention that of the 18 No votes in the Senate, 15 were cast by Republican senators and three Republican senators didn't vote at all. (The 18th vote against came from an Independent.)
Nor will Israelis see the deeply established, right-wing commentator George Will say of Republican members of Congress:
This distorted Israeli perspective is the product of Bibi's multi-decade effort to define "friends of Israel" as "friends of Bibi." Friends do not get to self define, rather they must meet Bibi's definition (which AIPAC seems to mirror). That this perspective has seeped into Haaretz (no friend of Bibi) is, to me, fascinating.
Postmark
West Bank Television
Israel's Entry to Eurovision
In English.
Relief Area
I'm grateful for feeds of Pesach humor. (I fear black humor about the war will dry up.)
Alef
Bet
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
Vav
Zayin
Chof
Yad
I am heading back to Jerusalem for the last few days of Pesach. It has been a nice week. It was funny seeing folks reach for a bottle of Whiskey and say "Wait, this is chometz!" Grocery stores have sections taped off. It is interesting to see how even half the stuff in the store is still over-much.
The film I mention above, Magnolia, I saw because at Cinematek the calendar was marked: "Don't miss this!" I am learning to take their recommendation seriously!
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,
Raf
(Thank you A.K., L.L., M.P., S.V., S.F.Z. N.B.)