The two alleged violent offenders that were arrested today.
Have been remanded to house arrest for three days.

A truce between Israel and Hamas is just two days away so I've been informed by Ha'aretz and Al-Jazeera.
These announcements were made just a few hours before six Palestinian militants were killed by IAF forces.
None the less, despite the ongoing carnage being pelted at Gaza and the Western Negev, a simultaneous and mutual truce is set to commence on Thursday at six of the AM.
Leaving another 36 hours in which each side can do as much damage as possible.

Oh, I'm optimistic.

What is that you say? I didn't hear you because my cynicism is laughing in the background.

Sometimes I just feel old.

The Israeli Jews living in Hebron are such charming fella's.
So charming that at one of them poured boiling water over a Meretz member on a "Break the Silence" tour through the city.
This of course comes after yesterday's News in which Hebron police department released to the medias that Leftist activities are deliberately provocative and that "Break the Silence" "Bnei Avraham", "B'Tselem" and other organizations go there for the express purpose of causing trouble.

It's nice to know which side the police takes in that area of Hell.

As for the claims of the activities being provocative; anything that goes into an intense area like Hebron with an agenda that wants to show that the Status Quo is really not of the good is going to be considered provocative.
The less legitimacy the Settlers have for what goes on there and what the IDF has to to in order to "protect" the Settlers from their Palestinian neighbors (though more often than not, the soldiers have to restrain the Settlers and protect the Palestinians), the better.

So Lebanon.

Talk about a big fucking mess.

No doubt that as soon as something stabilizes there, somebody will invade it... just to make sure that the "right" man is in power.

Am I right?

Mean time, I'm not sure the Lebanese knew what hit them. You can just hear a parody of SNL going "Good Morning, Beirut... I love the AK-47 you're sporting!"

Another day of memorial, this one is present and thus, to me, much less poignant than Yom Ha'Shoah was last week, for some reason.
Dead soldiers and dead civilian victims, killed in War and Terror.

My feelings are mixed.
Last year I was depressed and the whole thing washed over me and was dimmed into the background of my own personal self pity and pain, to do with the war I participated in.
Now everything feels sharp, not the pain, but the facade of the (necessary and important) ceremonies in which the names of the dead will be spoken and candles will be lit, is so much more clear to me.
The ceremonies seem like theatrics to me. But I'll go to my elementary school where every year, younger and younger (because every year I get older) children stand on the grass slope where they will sing the same songs as last year, recite the same poems and maybe the choreography of the dance will be different, though I doubt it.
I'll go because dead men and women need to be remembered and at this point this is what we have.

Tomorrow is Independence Day, always after Memorial Day, so that we know what those dead men and women fought, lived and died for.

Korin Alal (though Ehud Manor wrote it) puts into words the way I feel best on these days... even if they are mixed:

I have no other land
Even if the ground is burning
Only a word in Hebrew, penetrating
Into my veins, my soul
In an aching body,
In a hungering heart.
Here is my home

I will not be silent, for my land
Changed her face
I will not concede to her
I will sing in her ear
Until she opens her eyes

Despite (or maybe because of) yesterday's raid which resulted in the death of a mother and her four children in Beit Hanoun; it seems the infighting between the different Palestinian factions has been put on hold in order to secure a truce with Israel - even with conditions which I doubt Israel will accept.

Pity the reps didn't tell their people to lay off on the Qassam rockets which were being fired into the Negev at approximately the same time.
I doubt the Security Cabinet will accept any kind of agreement from the groups, because they will demand an end to the rockets before they lift the siege.

When I read the headlines I was really pleased, seriously, it seemed as though things are/were moving in the right direction, until I read the headline about the Qassams being fired during the meeting in Cairo and the continuous raids by the IAF.

Is it so hard to just Shut the Fuck Up! Put down your Guns! And listen to what The Other is saying!?

Sometimes when I read the News and manage to not be connected to what I'm reading I feel like I'm reading a running commentary between two Gangs of adolescent children where one comes from the Slums and the other comes from the High Rises that surround said Slums.
It's so frustrating I can even explain this.

This year marks 60 years of Independence for the State of Israel and 60 years to the Palestinian Expulsion from what is now Israel proper, commonly known as al-Nakba (the Catastrophe).

I won't be here to do anything about those dates, as I am leaving for SA in early May and will likely be missing the brouhaha that will no doubt commence.

I've spoken about this organisation before, but I'll mention them again.

Just before Pesach Breaking the Silence published, online, IDF soldiers testimonies of serving in Hebron in the years 2005-2007.

I'm really not sure what to say other than to urge you all to read them. All of them. Take your time, but read them.
These brave boys (and that really is what they are at this age) are doing something which, if I'm not mistaken, no other country even acknowledges and that is talking about the fact that what goes on in the Occupied Territories is... Well... there ain't no place like Hebron.

The Testimonies - in Hebrew.
The Testimonies - in English.

I had this really good entry all thought out, with lots of examples and points and arguments. But all that has seeped out of my brain due to end-of-Semester stress.

See yesterday Army (most of them Air Force) officers traveled around schools all over the country in a joint project with the ministry of education. This project is part of the 60 years to Israel commemorations, celebrations and what not.
At one of the school in which some of these officers came to speak, a demo by New Profile in which they constructed a huge papier mache brain and proceeded to squirt at with soapy water. I thought it was really smart and funny.

I told about it to my brother and mother and was really blown away by their negative responses.
My brother said they were being stupid and my mother asked if the demonstrators don't ask themselves what they can do for Israel.

Ahem.

See, the officers were there to talk about values and meaning of Israeli citizenship and what it means to be a Jewish nation in Israel - according to what I read about the project wasn't about convincing hight school kids that it's better to serve that to evade (which has been, according to the media which is trying to ensue a moral panic, imo, on the rise for the past two years).
I personally think it's wrong for the army to be a presence in schools other to give an overview of the positions available in the IDF and for that to be in after school hours so that it doesn't take over academic times - but that's really optimistic.

I don't believe for a minute that all they spoke about yesterday were "the values of Israeli citizenship" - Army service since the conception of this country has been a formative part of Jewish Israeli Identity (Druze and Bedouin can volunteer for the draft, but it is not mandatory). I'm pretty convinced that they spoke about the fact that to be good citizens they should serve their country through the IDF, that in the IDF they will learn what it means to be a moral, ethical and good Israeli citizen.

I think it's been a long time since the IDF has participated in a War that was solely for the protection of its citizens. All the operations across the borders have been offensive since the 80's and all withdrawals have been unilateral, meaning no agreement was discussed with those whose territory we were leaving. Almost all the operations done on the civilian population in the West Bank (and once Gaza) are defended by saying it's in the name of security are excuses to control said population by fear and humiliation. The soldiers (boys and some girls of 18 and 19, commanded by 20-somethings) are scared and they have guns and they've been taught to hate that little girl in a hijab, or that teenage boy with hate for them in return.
Do I even need to mention the immorality of the collective punishment on Gaza?

A small aside about Gaza: I can talk about the fact that Hamas fires Qassams at innocent people in the West Negev and Sderot, but seeing as the government that is funding this oh so educational project gives less than a shit about those people being fired upon, the less said the better.

I was asked why I don't have sympathy for those soldiers who have to do those horrible things in the name of security. I do. I have a lot of sympathy towards them and the fact that they are serving in an Army that requires them to do such unethical things and that they are educated to view those who are not like them as less-than-human.
Those soldiers traumatize and in turn are traumatized as well.
I wrote about this phenomena not too long ago.
Those soldiers, my soldiers, are ordered to invade other peoples homes in the name of security. They sometimes take food and other electrical supplies from those homes.
Some of them remain silent about what they once they are discharged.
Some of them break through this silence.

I don't believe that the Army does what it is supposed to do and it is because of this that I criticize it, that I feel a reform within its system and the way we, as Israelis, view the function of the military in our lives.
The gun is never a sacred instrument... in Hebrew it is equivalent to male genitalia.
Maybe I'll give a feminist reading of the role of the IDF, it's been done before, but now I've said what I felt had to be said about how I feel about the Army entering schools and talking about civic "values" and "duties".

Or not.
Depending if you find my little hell-hole interesting.

Racism you say? No, no! Can't be. A (Jewish) Member of Knesset threatening other (Arab) Members of Knesset with ethnic cleansing.
I'm shocked.
No, no I'm not
Though to be purely candid, this is part of Effie Eitam's regular rhetoric. And he is pretty upset about the fact that Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship (colloquially known as Israeli Arabs) are protesting the IDF's operations in Gaza - calling it War Time Treason.
*sigh* Because protesting military action is treason, but threatening with ethnic cleansing is just dandy.

Something slightly different: "Honour" Killings are more common than people would like to admit. Well, one of the more famous cases in Israel, involving the Abu-Ghanem family of Ramla (a Jewish-Arab mixed town in the Israeli Centre) have shown some progress: Today the murderer (who killed his sister for being "immodest") was sentenced for 16 years in prison.

Like the article says the major problem of this phenomena (in Israel, I wouldn't presume to know about other countries in which "honour" killings are prevalent) is that the Police don't take the problem seriously enough and show a whole lot of lenience towards the families in which this happens because it is considered an internal Hamula issue, that means it all stays in the Clan, in the family; more often than not, a girl who runs away to the police for protection because is sent back because, as I've said, the authorities send her back... let the Sheiks deal with her.

What makes the Abu-Ghanem case a special, and relatively famous, is the fact that the Mother (of the girl and her murderer, seeing as they were siblings) came forward last year.
I can only imagine the kind of will power it took to go to Israeli authorities and talk about the tragedy of nine dead woman, all killed by family members.
You gotta admire them for that and for trying to stop the cycle of women being disposed of like garbage.

And the Peace Talks will continue between Israel and the Palestinians, despite some shiftiness - sans Hamas of course who resumed their rocket firing (or at least didn't stop other groups from firing), no doubt Hamas will resume their own Qassam brigades in no time - their sense of self preservation leaves something to be desired... *sigh*.

I didn't write about this yesterday because I was all about ME, which is sometimes what this LJ is for.

This is "old News" by now, but Sderot and Kibbutzim of the Western Negev were bombarded yesterday with over 50 Qassam Rockets.
50 Qassam Rockets.
At least one person died and several other have been critically injured, maimed and traumatized.
The retaliation and in these cases it always a retaliation, was the usual IDF and IAF maneuvers.

What I find most interesting is that in the International News sites, the retaliation was written about first, giving the obvious impression that that the Qassam rockets were launched in retaliation to the military action done by Israel.

Such. Utter. Bullshit.

I'm a big talker and I'm all for talking with Hamas, but when the complete and utter disregard they show towards their own people by launching rockets that are designed to hurt my people, because my people have the Big Guns and on TeVi, Big Guns look much worse than little rockets despite the damage wrought by both.

The ones who suffer the most are the civilians on both sides of the border. It doesn't matter if they're Israeli, Palestinian, Jewish, Muslim, Bedouin or Christian.

Hamas' goal isn't to liberate Palestine, it never was, it is to recreate the Caliphate and bring the Umma together and then go out on a Holy War against the West.
And like most of these kinds of groups (al-Qaeda, the Taliban, etc.) they were created in order to fight the real enemies... the Communist or Marxist Identified groups - or in the case of the Taliban the Soviets themselves.

Old News? Ancient History?

Maybe, but it's certainly a way to see the interconnectedness of it all.
Until the USA decides that it no longer supports Nations that give money to Hamas and Hizbulla (and it's not just Iran, far from it) and that "spreading Democracy" is not the way to go, but co-operation and actual fucking communication; you can bet that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict will continue.

I don't.
( Ashkenazi: Public must also prepare for next war (for the link-phobic) )

War Mongers and Hawks are nothing new in Israel's Military/Political elite, most of them base their entire careers on the fact that yes, there will be blood shed.

But the kind of hype and type of ministry of defense (see "love") newspeaka as shown above, I find so disgusting, I don't even have the words to describe the kind of disrespect this sort of address is, especially as it was expressed by the current and former IDF Chief(s) of Staff at a memorial in honour dead soldiers, who died in what was a tragic accident.
To talk to the families and media and say that more soldiers are going to die in up coming wars, is enraging.

Not to mention that Gaydamak is using this as another opportunity to score browney points, look at the nice man, giving money for memorial monuments - Gaydamak also set up a tent city for the North Israel citizens who stayed in the Centre and South during Lebanon War II - he's definitely trying to do the whole "Private is Better" - yeah, let the Capitalists take over social security and services, that way the government won't need to be bothered with the citizens it supposedly serves... sorry went of tangent there.

I despise propaganda; especially fascist, military propaganda that uses dead soldiers to move and stir an agenda which most people would actually oppose!
Yes we must prepare for War, citizens and soldiers band together against the Enemy...
Bah!

I have a button that says "blame my parents" and I do, but in the way that button supposedly means.

Tonight my parents and I ate supper together, it was very nice, it doesn't always work out that we eat at a normal hour (around half-past seven) all together, our lives don't always mesh until around nine PM.
Anyway discussions, as ever, turned to politics.
There were disagreement, mainly between Mummy and I, seeing as Daddy was happy to just sit there, eat and watch the drama.
It wasn't really big argument, just a big clash of ideologies; I mean the differences between the way Mummy (and probably Daddy, but he didn't want to add much to the conversation) and I see things about the Israel/Palestinian conflict aren't big, not really, mostly I see Israel as purposefully keeping Gaza and the West Bank in Occupation/Poverty/etc. and Mummy says the Palestinians do it to themselves.

I learned my Humanism from Mummy, the whole People are People whoever they are; I mean the woman came olive picking with me in the Territories! I suppose that's why we have such heated arguments, our views aren't so far from each other, we both think the Palestinians deserve to be liberated from the brutality of their lives and that a Palestinian state is important - but the differences between whose to blame and who isn't is a sticky point.

I can't and won't say that everything Israel does is bad and that all the Palestinians are good, I mean, this is quite obviously not the case.
I'll also put a whole lot of blame on the other Arab and Muslim states and nations who use the Palestinians plight as an excuse to hate Israel and spread their Antisemitism, when they do nothing to actually help the Palestinians proper, like fund for housing, hospitals and education that doesn't incite hate and prejudice and not just give money to Hamas to buy more weapons or to Fatah in order to line their pockets.
Israel does, however, control everything that goes on in the West Bank and not allowing the PA to actually create a proper authority in the Territories - not to mention the Settlements, but that's just a whole other post - and lest we forget the continued siege on Gaza because no one is willing to talk to Hamas, not Abu-Mazen and Fayyed and not Olmert and Barak.

I've been told that everything that Israel does in Gaza is in retaliation to the Qassam rockets, which have been fired onto Sderot and the Kibbutzim of the West Negev for the past seven years (ever since the early stages of the Al-Aqsa Intifadah), and yesterday two rockets fell on siblings in Sderot, the older 19 year old had medium to minor injuries, the 8 year old had to have his leg amputated this morning.
It's a tragedy.
Missiles were fired into Gaza by the IDF and two bystanders in Rafah today were hurt, though no information was given about their condition.
This is also a tragedy.
Is one more tragic than the other?

So Mummy and I argued and we huffed at each other for about half and hour, and on TeVi there was movie in which a mother died and I began to cry, thinking about how terrible it would be for Mummy to die after we fought - my mother, who says (and I agree) I get my sentimentality from my father, said that just because we disagree doesn't mean we fought.
Awesome Woman.
I cried a little more and asked jokingly "You love me even though I care about suffering Palestinian babies?"
She laughed and said "Yes, but you don't need to care about all the suffering babies in the world... you're too sensitive"

Ain't that the truth - I still blame my parents for that though.

As per request: ( a translation of the conversation )

The Report has been published and it's long, very boring and not surprising.
Unlike the last time, this time there was a whole lot more criticism towards the IDF (no names are mentioned and the higher tiers aren't really touched).

There's a lot I could say and add, but it feels superfluous.

I'll just wait to see what the other bloggers are going to say.

Today the full Winograd Report (which was partially reported in May last year) is to be published in full to the Prime Minister and the the public.

There has been such a hype about this Report (not to mention the salary the committee members are being paid, I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that this report has cost nearly two million NIS) that I know it's going to be disappointing.
I mean former-Chief of Staff Dan Halutz (may the sun he thinks shines out of his ass consume him in a fiery death!) resigned last year and is basically untouchable - it's no wonder he and Olmert got along so well, bunch of slimy snakes... but I digress.
Former-never-should-have-been Defense Minister Amir Peretz also resigned not long after the war.

Current Defense Minister Ehud Barak is under attack by the reservists who are demanding his resignation - seeing as he said he'd resign if the Report was to be negative.
Because we're expecting a bed of roses with a report that's going to show such utter incompetence when it came to the military operations and defending Israeli citizens in the north.

One thing that has been shouted and echoed throughout most (though certainly not all) society is the call for Olmert to resign.
Now I have no love for the man, I don't anyone other than the close members of his family has, but for him to leave government and to throw Israel into early elections at this point in time would be bad. Seeing that at this point the others we have to chose from are a the Comeback Kids - Fascist Capitalist Pig (who is supported by Fascist but also Racist Capitalist Pig) and Neo-Liberal Capitalist Pig (who is being called to resign by a coalition of reservists who are using their status as Active Patriots to affect civilian politics).

Israeli politics; never boring, always utterly filthy and disgusting.

Seeing as I'll be in Uni when the actual Report is to be released to the press, I'll probably miss the initial influx of reactions, but I'll do my best to write about later today.

Where even in times of no (across the border warfare, only internal guerrilla fighting) actual war, we can be sure to find rockets fired in a Northern town.

Links: Hebrew, English.

Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Security forces have confirmed that the Katyuasha's were fired overnight.
What does this mean?
*shrug*
My own interpretation skills about what the IDF and the Ministry of Defense can and want to do with this little provocation is out of whack.
I expect the worst.
But then again, that could just be hyperbole.

Anybody who served (or followed the News) in Lebanon War II knows that Cluster bombs were employed by the IDF over Lebanon.
Those who know what Cluster bombs are all about (if you don't Google it, like everything else to do with weapons there's a lot of info online about it) should be aware that undetonated "bomblets" are either dudds or sleepers that act like land-mines, no need to explain what a land-mine is.

I thought the investigation about the use of Cluster bombs was redundant, because unlike the use of land-mines, which are illegal, Cluster bombs are not illegal under international law.
Just immoral.
And as we all know, morality touches very little on legality when it comes to International law, which is generally about whatever you do inside your own borders is fine, just don't bother us about it.
Seeing as the bombs were dropped outside Israel... well, you know the rest.

Ynet News is defensive about the use of Cluster bombs. And as usual BBC News has no problems with being morally "superior".

I remember when my officer first spoke to me during my service about the weapons in our arsenal and I studied Cluster Bombs I asked her "Isn't this like dropping land-mines on people" - in my 18 year old innocence.
And she said "That's exactly what it is".
"And this is allowed?"
"It's not illegal"
"That's horrible"
"Yes it is"
And we moved on.

Morals and Ethics have very little place in any army. They should.
But they don't.
But so long as no War Time Laws are broken, what difference does it make what the aftermath is.

13:31 - Edited to Add: This what Israel.Indymedia has to say about the Cluster Bomb findings.

13:41 - Edited to Add: Someone else with an opinion - it's in Hebrew over at Friends of George.

The army called me again.

This is what? The fifth time they've called me in six months since I got my exception back in April. Thankfully, like last I managed to control my reaction to merely annoyed and hopefully what sounded barely restrained anger to the 18 year old soldier given the task to phone reservists.

It's no longer an issue of Them phoning Me and creating whatever emotional reactions I get when talking on the phone to those people. It's now an issue of fucking competence.

I've dealt with the bureaucrats that had my issue, I spoke to the officer in charge of the relevant offices and was told, guaran-fucking-teed that I was off the lists.
I was told, in April, that I was no longer listed as a reservist and that should have been the end of it, not to mention that in the last week of October they phoned me again and I told them, again, that I was off the lists.

The phone-call went something like this:
Soldier girl: Hello Melody? This is [her name] from the [my old unit].
Annoyed Mel: Yeah?
Soldier girl: We're having an exercise on [says dates] and -
Annoyed Mel: *interrupting* Excuse me? Do you have personnel lists that you actually check? Because if you did, you'd know I have an exemption from reserve service.
Soldier Girl: *Pause* You do?
Annoyed Mel: Yes, since April.
Soldier Girl: Are you sure?
Annoyed Mel: Yes I'm sure, now you should go make sure as well.
Soldier Girl: I'll talk to the officers.
Annoyed Mel: You do that.

And I hung up.

I could have been more polite, maybe a little more sympathetic to the 18 year girl whose shocked that people have lives beyond the Army service, as I once was.

But why bother.

It would seem that since the IDF took over the control of the border the rate of Women trafficking over the Egyptian-Israel border has dropped sharply.

Excellent! One step forward.

But far more Sudanese (i.e. refugees from Darfur) have been seeking asylum in Israel.

Fuck. Two steps back.

Read it about it here and in English.