my cousin Avraham Yitzchak (far right) and his unit

The Trip

My second trip to Israel was nothing short of unbelievable. One thing that I will never get used to is being surrounded by fellow Jews in a country that we call 'home.' If not for Israel, this opportunity would never be available in reality, it would be held captive in the fantasy world that we all talk about every Passover; "Next year in Jerusalem!" Although Passover seders may be one of the few events that still unite fractured American Jewry, we talk about what is a living, breathing entity, with little children no taller than 3' tall speaking marvelous Hebrew and many times, enough English to help confused tourists find their way around the holy city.

Despite the many frustrations I had with the groups' leadership, this trip really blew Birthright out of the water. This time around, I was privileged to do many things I didn't or couldn't do on Birthright. I got to meet up with my family in Beit El twice. I also had my brother and friend with me. We stayed in Jerusalem for the duration of the trip, and living in Jerusalem; i.e. waking up, eating, and other mundane activities feel fundamentally different. For me, it didn't feel like I was under some kind of Sh'china (Holy Cloud) or anything like that, things just felt a little different than usual. There was a different energy inside me. After one of the many very tiring days we had touring the Old City, i was falling asleep on my feet. It had been such a long day, and I had been sweating buckets. But then, as we trekked underground to where the Western Walls' foundation were, I got a shot of energy that lasted me the rest of the night, and I simply cant explain it. I felt like I drank a pot of coffee, but no jitters!

As a group, we stayed at the Sephardic Center and learned at a nearby Aish Yeshiva. When going out to the balcony of the Aish Yeshiva, the Kotel (Western Wall) was in plain view. Later, when I did some research on Aish Ha Torah, I learned that the government of Israel awarded Aish Ha Torah 40% of the land facing the Western Wall. In between classes we would hang out on the balcony and just look at the wall and watch people passing by. The mundane activity of taking a break in between classes was filled with something special, something spiritual.

Going to see neighboring Syria from the Golan Heights was also amazing. Israelis have the unbelievable ability to live next door to people who've tried and tried again to completely destroy Israel through wars of aggression, and at the same time hold peace talks with a willingness to make painful concessions. I whispered to people in my group, this is like climbing the rocky mountains and being able to overlook Afghanistan, or Iraq. In America, our enemies are far away, they might as well be on another planet. With Israel, every decision in war and peace is made with enemies that can clearly be seen from the borders of the country. Our tour guide told us that Israel has technology that enables them to see what Bashar Assad (the dictator of Syria) has for breakfast each morning.

When going to the Dead Sea, we could see beautiful mountains beyond the sea, somewhat obscured by a horizon which made the mountains look surreal. The mountains that we saw behind were none other than Jordan. The Dead Sea was fun, but it was very humid outside and our tour guide only let us hang around for 50 minutes.

Meeting my family in Beit El was great once again. We don't have much family on my father's side, but in Beit El, we have a kind, flourishing, family that is marked by constant simchas such as new births and weddings. Part of one of our visits was spent with our little cousins showing us the many animals near our aunt's house and telling us their names in Hebrew. Our little cousins' English was better than my Hebrew. They showed us deer, goats, rams, ducks, peacocks, & much more.  They take English language classes, and their thirst for knowledge is unbelievable. Aunt Margalit's grandchildren helped tend the garden.

Aunt Margalit filled us in with pictures from the most recent weddings in the family, as well as photos of her family in Israel years ago. Many of the pictures we saw were snapped during various Purim celebrations, and we got to see some very cute pictures of little Gila and little Margalit all dressed up, Margalit as a cowboy with guns and holsters. Aunt Margalit told us how her father was named after my grandfather's father who died while my grandfather was a child. She explained to us all the familial connections of a family fractured by the Holocaust, only to be reunited by a chance visit and our aunts' vigilance. The unspeakable tragedy of the Holocaust could not keep the Jewish people down, and our family is no exception.  

Aunt Margalit's son, Avraham Yitzchak, also showed us computer presentations of pictures collected while serving in the IDF, in Lebanon and in Gaza. The tough conditions, tough training, tough terrain and murderous enemies couldn't do a thing to slow down our cousin and his unit. Avraham Yitzchak discussed the intense conditions he worked in as if he was discussing a grocery list. Many things were inspiring during my trip to Israel, and this was the absolute most.

 

CONTINUED....

Putting the screws on our allies: Change we can believe in?

Charles Krauthammer finds it especially disturbing that the administration is making a point of engaging several prominent antagonists in dialogue, but that it is dictating to Israel.

America will henceforth "start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating." An admirable sentiment. It applies to everyone -- Iran, Russia, Cuba, Syria, even Venezuela. Except Israel. Israel is ordered to freeze all settlement activity. As Secretary of State Clinton imperiously explained the diktat: "a stop to settlements -- not some settlements, not outposts, not natural-growth exceptions."

Back from the Promised Land!!

I just got back from Israel on a trip with not-such-amazing leadership where I got to meet amazing people, including my family in Beit El that I haven't seen since my last trip. I'm super tired, but I'll update this blog after I catch up on tons of sleep. In the meantime, an Eric Hoffer piece....

Eric Hoffer was an American non-Jewish social philosopher. He was born in 1902 anddied in 1983, after writing nine books and winning the Presidential Medal ofFreedom. His first book, The True Believers, published in 1951, was widely recognized as a classic. ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION By Eric Hoffer (LA Times 5/26/68)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.  Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem.

 Russian did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.  Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. 

 Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jewsto be the only real Christians in this world.  Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. 

 No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Blacks are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him.  The Swedes, who are ready to break of diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.  

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general. 

 I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the holocaust will be upon us.

Stanford University-

  

Death of a yid, Downfall of a nation?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC_ODpxMA10&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Eguardian%2Eco%2Euk%2Fworld%2F2009%2Fmay%2F17%2Fguatemala%2Drosenberg%2Dyoutube%2Dmurder%2Dde%2Dcolom&feature=player_embedded

(the Guardian, UK)

Rodrigo Rosenberg, a middle-aged Guatemalan lawyer, has become an unlikely YouTube star in macabre circumstances. In a video recorded last Friday at the offices of a friend, he sits behind a desk and talks at the camera for 15 minutes.

"If you are hearing this message," Rosenberg begins, "unfortunately, it is because I have been murdered by the president's private secretary, Gustavo Alejos, and his partner, Gregorio Valdez, with the approval of Álvaro Colom and Sandra de Colom [Guatemala's president and first lady]."

Two days later, on Sunday, Rosenberg was shot while riding his bicycle in Guatemala City. He died on the street.

"I do not want to be a hero," Rosenberg says at one point during the sensational video that was distributed at his funeral on Monday, but he has now become a martyr in a nation weary of drug running, money laundering and corruption, and with one of the highest murder rates in the world.

 

A difference in philosophy, not in goal.

"Vice President Joe Biden called Tuesday for Israel to work toward a two-state solution with the Palestinians and to consider taking steps like freezing settlement activity to improve the climate for negotiations. " (Politico)

Both Obama and Netanyahu have the distinct goal of preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, they just differ in their respective philosophies concerning how that goal should be reached. However, despite their differing philosophies, both have 'real world' roots to their philosophies; from President Obama's perspective, it is impractical and possibly dangerous (due to fears of retaliation against Israel or US troops in the Mid-east) for the US or its allies to attack Iran’s nuclear installations, and for Netanyahu, the existence of the Nation of Israel hangs in the balance against a rogue state whose race to obtain nuclear weapons while denying the Holocaust seem to be attempting to prepare the world for another Holocaust. Both of these philosophies seem to be fairly reasonable (to me).

In a very similar vein, Obama and Netanyahu also both want a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but both once again have very different philosophies concerning how this solution is to be brought about, and under what circumstances it should be brought about.

However, it appears as if Biden, Gates and company (‘realists’) are adamant about living in a fantasy-land where once territory is returned to the Arabs, the Arabs will subsequently drop their weapons, renounce terror and their support of terror.

Let's be 'realists'-

-In 2000, then Prime Minister Ehud Barak pulled the remaining IDF units out of a small part of Southern Lebanon, effectively ending an occupation that spanned nearly two decades, following a campaign promise by Barak to do so a year earlier. Six years later, an ambush that resulted in the killings of eight IDF soldiers and the kidnappings of two IDF reservists took place, along with a massive Katyusha rocket barrage on Israel's northern border cities. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for these attacks. These attacks led to the 33-day long Second Lebanon War (2006).

It is interesting to note that since that 33-day long bloody conflict in Lebanon in 2006, no rockets have been fired by Hezbollah into Israel's northern territory. In this instance, it seems as if a bloody war made more of a lasting impression on the terrorists' and the nations' collective psyche than the unilateral Israeli pullout from occupied Arab territory did.

 

-In 2005, Ariel Sharone and his political party, Kadima, pulled the remaining IDF units and Jewish settlers out of occupied Gaza. Many Jewish Gazans had to be removed by force by the IDF. Since then, thousands of crude rockets filled with ball bearings and broken glass have been fired from Gaza at the southern border cities of Sderot, Beersheva, and Ashkelon. Hamas and other, smaller, terror groups operating in Gaza such as Islamic Jihad claimed and continue to claim responsibility for these unprovoked attacks on Israel's border cities in the Negev. There is a 15 second warning alarm that alerts these towns of rocket fire, which means that everyone, from toddler to senior citizen, must be within 15 seconds of a bomb shelter at all times. Sometimes, the alarm fails to go off. Even after the ceasefire following the recent IDF operation in Gaza dubbed 'Cast Lead,' Israel's southern border cities have continued to come under rocket fire, although in a somewhat sporadic fashion compared to before.

 May the US and Israel work together in the realm of reality to find a comprehensive peace that will be everlasting, not a temporary ceasefire that buys the terror groups' time to reload.

Freak Flag Grey

THE ARTICLE: PUERTO RICANS HAVE MOVED ON. WHY NOT JEWS?

 

ONCE upon a time most American Jews were underprivileged, and most of them voted Democrat. Then their circumstances changed, but their political allegiances remained unaltered. Around 30 or 40 years ago there was a joke which said that American Jews live like Episcopalians (i.e. relatively rich, privileged people) but vote like Puerto Ricans.

The remark was a bit racist, perhaps, but it was essentially true. Everyone knew what it meant. Only it is not true anymore. Puerto Ricans, like other Hispanics, have moved on. They now vote in a pluralistic way in accordance with their developing economic interests, ethnic concerns and what they think is good for America. In 2000 the Hispanic vote for George W Bush was more than 50 percent greater than the Jewish vote.

WORST PLACES TO BE A BLOGGER (by the Committee to Protect Journalists)

 (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/05/04/world.bloggers/)

1. BURMA

2. IRAN

Lowlight: Blogger Omidreza Mirsayafi, jailed for insulting the country’s religious leaders, died in Evin Prison in March under circumstances that have not been fully explained.

3. SYRIA

Lowlight: Waed al-Mhana, an advocate for endangered archaeological sites, is on trial for a posting that criticized the demolition of a market in Old Damascus.

4. CUBA

5. SAUDI ARABIA

6. VIETNAM

7. TUNISIA

8. CHINA

9. TURKMENISTAN

10. EGYPT

 

Rabbi Stephen S Wise and President Roosevelt

QUESTION FROM INTERVIEW WITH CONSERVATIVE DAVID GOLINKIN:

 

Your grandfather, Rabbi Mordechai Golinkin, took part in the Bergson Group's march by 400 rabbis to the White House in October 1943 . How did you feel when you learned that Wise and other Jewish leaders opposed the march and urged president Roosevelt not to meet with the marchers?

It was painful to discover that Jewish leaders urged president Roosevelt to ignore the rabbis. In the play, Rabbi Wise and Samuel Rosenman, a senior adviser to Roosevelt who was very reluctant to pressure FDR on this issue, sit in the White House and complain about the fact that 400 rabbis are demonstrating outside. In real life, Rabbi Wise wrote an article condemning the march as a "stunt." If there had been more such "stunts," perhaps more European Jews would have been rescued.

Cruise ship fends off pirate attack with gunfire from Israeli Security

 

By NICOLE WINFIELD –  Assosciated Press

ROME (AP) — An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board fended off a pirate attack far off the coast of Somalia when its Israeli private security forces exchanged fire with the bandits.

Six men in a small, white Zodiac-type boat approached the Msc Melody at about 1730 GMT Saturday and opened fire with automatic weapons, Msc Cruises director Domenico Pellegrino said. They retreated after the security officers returned fire and sprayed them with water hoses. The ship continued its journey with its windows darkened.

"It felt like we were in war," the ships commander, Ciro Pinto, told Italian state radio.

Human Rights Watch has conducted a thorough investigation of civilian deaths … On the basis of this investigation, Human Rights Watch has found that there were ninety separateincidents involving civilian deaths ... Some 500 ... civilians are known to have died in theseincidents. ... nine incidents were a result of attacks on non-military targets that Human Rights Watch believes were illegitimate. ... Thirty-three incidents occurred as a result of attacks on targets in densely populated urban areas ... the use of cluster bombs was a decisive factor in civilian deaths in at least three incidents. ... In its investigation Human Rights Watch has found no evidence of war crimes."  (Source:http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/nato/Natbm200.htm#P37_987)

When some 500 civilians die, when non-military targets are attacked and cluster bombs are used and yet, the conclusion is that there is "no evidence of war crimes", you can be sure of one thing: Israel wasn't involved. Indeed, the quote here is from a report on NATO's bombing campaign in Yugoslavia ten years ago.

Hey Everyone

Thanks to everyone for checking out my blog! In staying with the theme of "grey," I try to post things that (hopefully) go against the grain of painting the conflict in black-and-white terms, as many virulent supporters of both sides try to do. Thanks again everybody

Arab Protectors of Israel

My admiration for the Druse and Beduin serving in the IDF, especially those that volunteer for combat units, knows no bounds. These are people that could easily get out of doing anything dangerous, and I suspect, could get out of serving at all. I've also read that not a few of them face discrimination or backlash from their communities for serving in these units, especially considering that "combat" means engaging Arab targets.

I sat quietly next to them, eating my mashed potatoes, and glanced at their faces and then the IDF symbol on their chests. Purple berets sat naturally on their shoulders. The new Tavor assault rifle rested on their laps. They are very much not Jews, but these young men are Israeli warriors, fighting for our shared vision of freedom and peace for all the residents of this country - Arab and Jew alike.

From Jpost Blog Central

Israel’s Non Jewish Protectors cont.

Israel’s Non Jewish Protectors

The Beduins have a similar story in that they are Arab, or essentially Arab, and many of them are found in the IDF among the regular Jewish makeup.

Because, after all, they don't have to fight for that peace! No one is attacking the Druze. They can sit back and just live in the land they've lived in for a thousand years. No one is going to push them out, or target their children, or blow up their villages. Why would they?

Israel’s Non Jewish Protectors

   Israel’s Non Jewish Protectors

The Givati unit is where most Druse and Beduins serving in infantry go. Druse is a religion that branched off from Islam a thousand years ago; Druse speak Arabic, and have an Arab culture. Their ethnic makeup is varied and complex, and I'm certainly no expert. 

That being said, there are over 100,000 Drusim [pronounced droo-zim] living in Israel. Furthermore, being that they are citizens, boys that reach 18 years of age are automatically conscripted into the IDF.

 

1st Post

This blog, "A touch of grey" is dedicated in loving memory to David Gordon White, my Uncle, who died of an enlarged aortic valve unexpectedly at the age of 43.

We've kept in contact since the last 'family reunion' and have gone back and forth on everything from Jimi Hendrix to Israel to the dumbest videos I found on Youtube. My heart still hurts every day he is gone. His death is forcing me to take a closer look at a health issue of my own: addiction to cigarettes.  Even after his death his life force keeps on giving.

Another aspect of "A touch of grey" blog will deal with the subtleties of life and in world affairs, that for the most part, things are not just in black and white. This blog will hopefully be illuminating and thought-provoking to the reader. More Soon.