Guy’s Puzzle

• June
• 26

Do you see the resemblance?  Or are these the eyes of a proud father?

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Obama, Paratroopers, Holocaust and Trains

• June
• 26

I live in Binyamina and work in Tel Aviv.  The two towns aren’t too far apart, in American terms forty miles each way is not considered to be a huge commute, but in Israel, forty miles (60 kilometers) is way above the average commute.  Driving to Tel Aviv from Binyamina in the morning makes you wonder.  A man already walked on the moon, transplanted hearts, built particle accelerators, and cloned sheep, yet he or she are sitting behind the wheel for hours going from one place to another, with a strange feeling of going absolutely nowhere.  Right.  And there’s the train of course.

So here’s the choice I have to make: The first one is to subject myself to ninety minutes or so, sitting in an air-conditioned car, listening to music, surrounded by other miserable human beings who must provide for their families.  The other is to subject myself to forty minutes of sharing a train car with hundreds of people, with or without air-conditioning, with or without sweat smelling or garlic eating people.  With a schedule approaching 10% on-time record…

Anyway, when making a choice between bad and worse, one tries to pick the bad.  I went with the train.  Twice a day, you can spot me elbowing my way to the occasional seat, mumbling curses on occasion, getting the precise level of anger and anxiety needed for me to do my job.

But, the ones thing the train does perfectly, is to give you lots of opportunities to observe.  People that is.  I love watching people, behaviors, listening inadvertently to cellular phone calls, watching videos, and even loud heavy metal coming out of headphones of this tattooed, skinhead, tank topped nice juvenile delinquent sitting next to me.

As I was riding the train the other day, I saw this guy.  He was wearing green uniform, green belt on top of the tunic, red army boots, and held a short M-16 semi automatic machine gun close to his chest.  He was wearing a green baseball cap with wings on it, and the word “Adder” inscribed on the front.  With the paranoid look in his eyes, I could tell right away, as I was one myself many years ago: Paratrooper in basic training.  How could I tell?  Simple: he was missing the Red Berret, and the parachute wings with the blue background.  He was also missing the confident posture, the determined look that belongs to the young soldiers who finished their training and are considered combat soldiers of the first degree.

Amazingly enough, that same day, I saw a bunch of other soldiers.  The complete opposite.  They were wearing khaki uniform, deep blue belts, walking shoes, black berrets, and handguns tucked neatly in their belts.  They had two sets of wings on their chests.  The parachute wings on the right side of the shirt to attest that they were trained in parachuting, usually meaning that they are very well trained paratroopers, and the famous bat wings on the left side, around the area of the heart.  The commando guys, the cream of the crop, the Israeli Navy SEALs.  Second to absolutely none.

And then it hit me.  Obama is wrong.

Indeed, he was smart enough to conclude that the Holocaust was a significant event in the life of this people, to have it drive many decisions it has made in recent history.  The fear of total annihilation, the impotence in relying on other peoples, other armies, even Gods.  The need for a homeland, for a military, for the capability to self preservation at all cost.  The will to sacrifice our best and  brightest for this sense of security.  Obama actually figured it out.  Only he didn’t figure out how much.

What drives kids at eighteen to take off their clothes, their hair, their lifestyle, families, girlfriends, drinks, music and throw it away for the right to be physically challenged and humiliated on a daily basis?  What makes these kids willing to get up before dawn every single day, run for hours, train and train and train.  Only so some moron corporal, months older than they are, will have complete control over their lives, for months, sometimes more?  And the answer, Obama, is that if don’t have the best soldiers, the best weapons, the best ideas and strategies, if we don’t think ahead, if we don’t take action and control over our own presents and futures, then we shall have none.

Will you protect us, Mr. President?  If we give up everything, Jerusalem, West Bank, the Golan Heights, will you be there if it turns out to have been an outstanding manipulation to strip us first and kill us later?  I think not.  You are playing to the hands of terrorists, encouraging terrorist countries (Iran, Syria, North Korea) and entities (Hamas).  Will you be there to help clean up the consequences?

Of course, there was another thought involved.  As I reflect on myself, I am reassured.  My father was a soldier in his time, I was in mine, and the new generation is now in charge.  I’m glad to state, they are much better than I or my father ever were.  And I trust them way more than I do Obama to ensure my own existence as well as my people’s.

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I Should Have Voted Differently

• June
• 21

Last year when people asked me who I was going to vote for president in the US, I said Clinton.  I voted for Clinton the first, and I was happy with my choice.  I thought that voting for Clinton the 2nd was a clear choice.  When she lost the primaries to Obama, they asked me who I was going to vote for, I said McCain.  When he chose Sarah Palin for his running mate, I said well, I think I will vote for Obama, after all he has Joe Biden.  So, I’m afraid to say, Obama wasn’t my first choice, or my second, he was the third, and I voted for him not by a positive selection, but by a negative one.  He remained, as I saw it at the time, the only viable choice.  I believe I made the wrong choice.

America always stated that “there will be no negotiation with terrorists”.  Obama’s America is not only negotiating with terrorists, it encourages them, and even when it has the opportunity to support a historic change, possibly a revolution, it continues to avoid doing so.  Actively.  Shame on us.  North Korea mocks American desire to negotiate.  In fact, since Obama came to the White House, he proved what Israeli police was able to prove years ago: the police is there only for people who do, or at least do their best to keep the law.  In other words, the police is really effective on people who are generally law abiding citizens.  Law abiding citizens pay attention to what the police is saying, they produce documentation when they are asked to, they will go any extent to “not get in trouble”.  They will sometimes even confess to crimes they never committed to avoid the trouble involved in lawyers, trials, etc.  By the same token, Obama is excellent in threatening, pushing, offending, pointing a finger at, twisting the arms of, the Israeli government.  He doesn’t even try to shape the Palestinians, the Iranian, the North Korean governments.  Not because he can’t, but because he knows he will fail.

Obama took (at least partial) credit for the election results in Lebanon.  Undoubtedly, he would have claimed some credit for overthrowing the corrupted, uncooperative, isolationist, about to become nuclear, Iranian government.  In fact, naturally, he should.  But the government, after apparently conceding defeat to the reformist candidate, chose to present a false elections results to the angry public.  What did Obama say in return?: “We will not interfere”, “Mussavi is practically identical to Ahmedinajad”, “if we side with one of the candidates, we will damage his reputation”, and worst of all: “we will continue our talks with the Ayatohlahs, no natter who gets elected at the end”.  Outstanding.

Dear Mr. Obama.  You have acknowledged the terrible genocide of the Jews less than a years ago.  You are well on your way to start a new one.  Not only for the Jews, but for all.  American included.  Identifying evil is a pre-requisite for becoming the leader of the free world.  You simply don’t have it.  Life in general, and in the Middle East in particularly ain’t as easy as “stop the settlements, divide Jerusalem, and there shall be peace”, or by the same token “stop your nuclear program and there shall be prosperity”.  It’s way more complicated.  I should have voted for McCain, he, at least, had a clear view of who the bad guys are.

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Guy’s Puzzle

• June
• 21

I’m a pretty level-headed person.  At least as the next guy is.  But when it comes to my children, I can’t say I’m completely objective.  Like many other (annoying) fathers and mothers, I’m also very proud of my children’s looks, accomplishments and creativity.  Sue me.  I do think that they are the best looking, smartest, most creative and outstanding.  A few weeks ago, my six years old son Guy, put together something out of building blocks.  Just a few blocks.  When he told us what it was, bit Dorit and I shook our heads and said to each other, “amazing!”.  And indeed, while some couldn’t tell it up front, all understood what it was immediately after they’ve been told.  So here is what Guy put together.  If you recognize what it is, you’re welcome to put it in a comment.  Otherwise, I’ll post it next week.

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Chapeau for Iranian Protetsers and Demonstrators

• June
• 17

Many people in the world are watching the drama as it unfolds in Iran following the general elections last Friday.  I don’t have a clue, obviously, what the real results of the elections are.  Furthermore, while I am very familiar with Ahmadinejad and his “interesting” anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli comments, I have no idea who is the opponent Mr. Musavi is at all.  I don’t know if Musavi is better or worse, for me or for my country, for the West or for the world.  From what I hear and read, the differences are not as significant as we would like them to be.  They are both, apparently, religious fanatics and isolationists.  They will both, probably, pursue the Iranian nuclear program.  Therefore, I really have no wishful thinking here.  Simply because I don’t know what to wish for.

However, watching the news, the weblogs, the twitters, I can honestly say that I admire the protesters.  In my country, and others I lived in and traveled to, protest is part of life.  Basically, we protest all the time.  We vote freely, we interview freely.  Nobody is stopping us from publishing our thoughts on the Web.  Nobody is stopping our emails (although there’s a good chance they are reading it).  We don’t have to support the government position on practically anything.  In fact, we can (and many do) badmouth the government every single chance we have.

Therefore, it’s very difficult for us to understand the risk and the danger taken by Iranian protesters, marching down the streets of Tehran, taking photos using their cellular phones, smuggling their messages through emails and websites, calling journalists outside of Iran.  The Iranian protesters have become the foreign journalists covering this unfolding drama, as the journalists themselves have been forced into their hotel rooms, their communication equipment taken, their lifeline to the world severed.  The Army of the Guardians of the Iranian Revolution will be (or already was) instructed to crack down on the demonstrators, use live ammunition, arrest, torture and kill the protesters.  There is no doubt in my mind, that demonstrating in Iran these days, assuming one is not an Ahmadinejad supporter, is a dangerous business.

So from Israel, I can only send you guys a big “chapeau”.  It’s one thing to stand up for your beliefs when you can do it freely, without risking your life.  It’s a totally different thing to stand up for what you believe in, when a sword is placed on your neck.

I was particularly amazed with the courage of the Iranian National Soccer team who played wearing green ribbons on their hands, announcing support for Musavi.  One must admire a protest which can get you to play soccer in the county jail, and this is the good scenario.

We’re hearing voices from Iranians who have no business destroying Israel, or fighting with the US or any other country.  We can only hope that whoever ends up heading Iran, will take a more accommodating tone with the rest of the world, will not use every opportunity to suggest that me and my people have no business here in Israel, and will stop funding terrorist attacks targeting Israelis and Jews everywhere.  Iran already was different.  There were times when Iran and Israel were working together in many areas.  Agriculture and medicine to name a couple.  It could happen again.

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