Closest I Can Get to Doing a Purim Angle on Terror

If you read this, from the NYTimes, you'' get an insight into our own Middle East problem with terror.

What these people, and I don't think they are more smart than any Pal. terrorist, they should pardon the comparison, took less than 15 years to figure out, the PLO, Hamas, Fatah and Islamic Jihad still are ignoring.

ON most nights of the week between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m. you'll find Carlos Robinson — all 6 feet 9 inches of him — looming over the velvet rope at Lotus or the Double Seven, two of the more prominent nightclubs in the glitter gulch of New York's meatpacking district. He's the guy with the bulging arms, shaved head and 5.2-carat diamond earring in his right ear. When platoons of status-hungry night crawlers bum rush the door, he fends them off. If, after a few hours, patrons have had a few too many shots of Grey Goose, it is Mr. Robinson who escorts them to the curb.

But don't call him a bouncer.

During the heyday of the no-holds-barred New York club world of the 70's and 80's, bouncers were guys who worked for cash and essentially made up the rules as they went along. When patrons acted up, the bouncers kept order with chokeholds and knockout punches. But as licensing laws for security guards took hold in the mid-90's, and as the clubs themselves began cleaning up and catering to moneyed professionals, bouncers underwent an image change.

Though most people still refer to the big guys lurking in and outside nightclubs as bouncers, Mr. Robinson, who got his start 20 years ago working at raucous megaclubs like the Limelight and the Tunnel, now goes by the title director of security. Italian-cut suits, dark shirts and ties have replaced muscle T-shirts, black leather vests and heavy construction boots. And according to Mr. Robinson and his colleagues the ethos of busting heads has been replaced by one of polite, if imposing diplomacy. "Nowadays it's more of an intelligent job," Mr. Robinson said.

This from here:-

Artist Turns Synagogue Into Gas Chamber

By David Crossland in Berlin

An artist invited Germans to come and be symbolically gased with car exhaust fumes in a former synagogue. Jewish leaders and media commentators say he is belittling the Holocaust and insulting its victims. But hundreds of people have lined up for the experience.

Santiago Sierra, a Spanish performance artist, pledged on Monday to hold talks with Jewish community leaders outraged by his project to give people a sense of the Holocaust by pumping lethal car exhaust fumes into a former synagogue and letting visitors enter one by one with a breathing apparatus.

Sierra, known internationally for his controversial work, led hoses from the exhaust pipes of six parked cars into the building in the town of Pulheim-Stommeln near Cologne to create lethal levels of carbon monoxide there.

- - -

The performance was to have taken place each Sunday until April 30, but next week's session has been cancelled in the wake of fierce criticism from Jewish leaders and media commentators.

"We are suspending the project for a couple of weeks. The artist wants to use the time to talk to the people who have criticized his project," said Dirk Springob, spokesman for the town of Pulheim. "He thinks he will be able to convince them in face-to-face talks and that the project can be continued."

Given the outrage his project has caused, Sierra has a tough task ahead of him.

- - -

Sierra said he was seeking to honor the memory of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. He called the work "245 Cubic Meters" in allusion to the empty space of the synagogue. "Above all, however, 245 cubic meters is meant to be a work about the industrialized and institutionalized death from which the European peoples of the world have lived and continue to live," his statement said.

There has been damning criticism from the German media. The Kölnische Rundschau newspaper said Sierra's "art horror light" led to just the kind of trivialization Sierra claimed to be fighting. "What Santiago Sierra is doing in the Stommeln synagogue indeed takes your breath away, unless you're a visitor, in which case you get plenty of oxygen, take zero risks and are even caringly accompanied by a fireman," it wrote.

"That's quite a contrast with the countless victims of the death camps. How pretentious to seek to evoke their horror and fear of death in such a cheap way! In a cynical game which yields no insight whatsoever."

Seems that Jews are still fair game for every nut and insensitive person around, whether ads for secular parties in Israeli elections or this "artist".

What is Going On with the National Union/Mafdal Campaign?

I've just seen, for the second time in two successive days, the same National Union/Mafdal election infomerical.

I have close friends in that party, some very close friends who are supposed to be able to have influence.

Most of them agreed with some of the criticisms I voiced months ago but I see they have failed to get a better message across now that elections are upon us.

The ad that was repeated (!) dealt with the disengagement. And, instead of explaining why any disengagement should never ever happen again in a way that affects all of Israel and all of its people, it repeated the same mistake, in my humble opinion, that was done then at the time.

The ad gave "thanks" to all the politicians who enabled it to take place as if cynicism is comprehensible here in Israel. I don't think it works.

But worse, the disengagement, according to to the ad, was bad not for Israel; not for its security nor or perhaps, its existence; not because it hasn't stopped terror; not because it convinced the Pals. to vote Hamas into power; not because our water resources are endangered; not because our agriculture may be affected; or for other easily understood and quickly grasped reasons.

No, in the Nat'l Union/Mafdal campaign the disengagement should not be repeated because of some very emotional pictures of people crying and feeling pain. Even the State Comptroller's report was ineffectually used in the ad.

I do not ignore that the people who lived in Gush Katif and Northern Samaria are the first to be considered as are the people who are next, according to Olmert's plan (and that includes me). But we are a minority and one that is disdained and misunderstood.

The media has succeeded in shunting us aside and making us a scapegoat.

So, instead of talking to the rest of Israel the way they need to be spoken to, the ad continues the line that "we suffered" and "we" shouldn't suffer again. But it is they who may be suffering in the near furture and they need to be told that.

What is going on there?

Like Children, Like Father?

Steve Plaut sent me this:

In case you missed this, the Jerusalem Post recently ran several pieces, mainly in a column by Sarah Honig, about Ehud Olmert's two sons and one daughter.

One son never served in the Israeli army and today lives permanently in Paris. The other is an active member in Yesh Gvul, the seditious organization that foments mutiny and insurrection among Israeli soldiers, demanding that they refuse to serve until Israel completely capitulates to all Arab fascist demands.

The daughter of Olmert is an activist in the communist-front organization Machsom Watch (Checkpoint Watch), which harasses Israeli soldiers and policemen checking Palestinian vehicles for explosives and weapons. In other words, she is trying to help Palestinians infiltrate Israel and murder Jewish children.

This is the guy who will be Israel's next Prime Minister. The above is his own personal family track record in education and Zionism. A man who himself believes in nothing has raised a brood who believe in Israel's destruction.

He will shortly be in charge of educating Israeli children.

And Here, We're Still Waiting for a Legal Arutz 7

Arutz 7 was taken off the air but in Bahai, Brazil freedom of the airwaves is another matter.

The Association of Prostitutes of Bahia state has won government
permission to start up their own radio station, enabling FM station Radio Zona in Salvador to begin broadcasting in the second half of the year, project coordinator Sandro Correia said on Thursday.

The aim was not to attract women to the business. The station will feature programmes about the trade but will also discuss issues such as human rights, social questions, and sexual abuse, Correia said.

Working girls and media professionals such as Correia will staff the station and will give prostitutes training in an alternative job. Funding will come from association funds, advertising and sponsorship.

And they say that Israel is not a third-world democracy?

Analyzing Disengagement from Within

Ha'aretz reports that in the latest issue of Beyn Hazirot (Between the Arenas), the Israel Defense Forces journal of behavioral science, Lt. Hadass Minke-Brand, a counselor in the Golani Division on behalf of the psychology department of the Ground Forces Command, writes about "motivating subordinates in the disengagement mission - the case of Golani."

This would seem to be an interesting insight into what pressures an army unit was under.

According to Minke-Brand, Golani's commander, Erez Zuckerman emphasised "preventing refusal", as distinct from dealing with it ipso facto. Soldiers who were on the brink of refusal were defined as "having difficulty," and if they did not behave with demonstrative provocation or incited mutiny, they were enveloped in a soft attitude. Golani's success was defined from the start as "an absence of refusal among officers and in units - squads, platoons, companies, brigades) and reducing the phenomenon to a negligible minority of individuals."

So, what happened? What pressures were the soldiers under from a socialization or psychological point?

At the demonstrations by evacuation opponents, especially at Kfar Maimon, "more than 50 percent of the officers had relatives or close friends on the inside of the fence around the settlement, as demonstrators. An absolute majority of commanders grew up as religious-Zionist. The mutual joy at their meetings could be recognized from afar in the embraces and shared experiences.

Among the demonstrations were spotted many demobilized soldiers from Golani, with recent demobilization dates and an emphasis on elite units like Egoz and the Golani Reconnaissance Brigade. On the ground, a dialogue emerged between the Golani commanders and settlement leaders, in the form of mediation through the sons. The protesting heads of the settlements who conducted the dialogue for their side Pinchas Wallerstein, Effi Eitam, Moti Yogev, Rafi Ben-Bassat - all had sons who were commanders of Golani companies and groups.

She indicates that at that time, most of the disengagement opponents did not support refusal to serve and worked hard on their relatives and friends, and through them, to other unit soldiers, and successfully defused the situation which could have turned into mutiny.

Golani, writes Minke-Brand, was saved from many months of dealing with a critical situation in which "the mission was enforcing order among Israelis with repeated clashes." Those doing the evacuation in uniform will be freed from conscript duty, go back to their settlements and beef up the opponents; it is not clear who will fall apart sooner, the settlements or the divisions. And even if the IDF, police and Shin Bet stand up to the task of getting out of the territories, the state comptroller is holding a report that expresses doubt about those in responsible positions inside Israel proper, the managers of the civilian temptation-compensation, being able to implement the declarations of the politicians.

Nevertheless, after Amona, the situation is different.

After Amona, and on the eve of an election whose results seem to guarantee a government of evacuation and escalation in the war against the evacuations, this calming conclusion is no longer valid.

The Taxi Driver and I

I haven't really gotten into the personal level of blogging that marks the "real" blogger but today, I had an experience that jolted me a bit.

I badly twisted my ankle on Friday and today, Sunday, came into Jerusalem to have the foot x-rayed. I walked out of Egged's Central Bus Station and right there was a line of waiting taxis.

I approached the first one and bent over to ask: "you free?".

He replied: "no".

A bit taken aback, (I'm only in this country 35+ years, not including my year on Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz, [Machzor 39] and here, too), I shot out: "so why are you standing here?".

He began to raise his voice and yelled out: "ma ichpat l'cha?" (translation: what do you care?).

Oh, well, why should I care that he's hogging the first spot and I then had to hobble on over to the second cab.

Israelis.

Demolishing the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Too bad Martin had to write this self-promoting letter and that his accomplishment was not afforeded proper recognition in the pages of the esteemed Times Literary Supplement.

Sir, –John Klier, in his review of two new books about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (February 24), concludes by suggesting that “more than censorship” is necessary to counter the “baleful influence” of the Protocols. While both Hadassa Ben-Itto’s and Will Eisner’s books are important contributions to the literature, my book, Dismantling the Big Lie: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (which was written with Steven L. Jacobs and published in 2003), takes another approach.

It is the first book that offers a full-length refutation, drawn from a wide range of Jewish sources, of each of the twenty-four Protocols. Although it will not sway the hard-core anti-Semite or the convinced conspiracy theorist, it does provide an answer to those who approach the Protocols ignorant of Jews and Judaism. In a world where the Protocols can be cited in article 32 of the charter of Hamas, the terrorist organization now seeking political legitimacy, or serve as the basis of statements made by the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, or be exhibited as a Jewish “holy book” in the UNESCO-funded refurbished library at Alexandria (an action which was condemned by UNESCO, which helped lead to the removal of the book from the exhibition) and to be present on the internet in up to twenty translations, calls for “legal controls” might be questionable not only on philosophical but also on practical grounds.

It is thus essential that people of goodwill now have the information and willingness to confront and repudiate the malicious claims of the Protocols, before they can once again become, as in the title of Norman Cohn’s classic treatment of the subject, “A Warrant for Genocide”.

MARK WEITZMAN
Simon Wiesenthal Center, 50 East 42nd Street, Suite 1600, New York 10017.

Ami Ayalon is a Shm*ck

Found this at the UK Sunday Times:

THE man likely (!!!?? ym) to become Israel’s next defence minister does not shy away from talking about his past.


“I killed many Arabs, probably more than Hamas fighters killed Jews, and more than anybody else, but all in order to secure Israeli lives,” said Admiral Ami Ayalon, the Labour party’s candidate for the most difficult portfolio in Israeli politics.

Now, besides Uzi Mahnaimi praising one his sources for the past few years for many of his outrageous claims about Israel's defense and security matters, I strongly doubt Ayalon killed that many and even if he did, he's a shm*ck for saying so.

There. Profanity disguised, barely.

Purim Literary Humor

I found this humor at the NYTimes Book Review Section.

One Small Question About 'Exodus'
By LEE SIEGEL

AMID all the justified, and long overdue, concern about truth in memoir — and in nonfiction books generally — a peculiar condition of American literary culture has been overlooked: a radical mistrust of generalization reigns. This is especially the case at magazines and newspapers, wheresweeping statements, speculation and intuitive leaps have long been suppressed. And now, in the wake of the James Frey affair, Oprah Winfrey and others are calling for publishers to verify the factual accuracy of their books. Let us, then, put the question of written accuracy in perspective. Let us imagine for a moment what Western intellectual history would be like if the awesome figure of The Fact-Checker had stood astride culture from (almost) the beginning. . . .

Dear Yahweh,

First, congratulations from all of us here at The Jerusalemite on Saul of Tarsus' selection of "Genesis" for his book club. This is huge. We just have a few queries about "Exodus" before it goes to press:

p. 12: "and the waters were divided." Could we say: "apparently the sea was at very low tide that day"? Also, would Y-u please just take a look at Y--r notes again and make sure this really happened?

p. 23: " 'I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people." Our lawyers suggest these changes: "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a highly sensitive, and at this particular moment, irritable people, which is understandable, what with the heat and all the walking." O.K. by Y-u?

Dear St. Luke,

Thank you so much for sending us this uplifting article. I hope you will forgive me — I mean, I know you will forgive me — if I question just one infinitesimal point.

In 12:15 you write: "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions." Are you aware of the recent University of Samaria study concluding that an abundance of possessions raises the serotonin level, extends the life span by 10 years, increases sexual potency and creates a sense of happiness and self-worth? We deeply respect your indifference to earthly life, but perhaps you would be compassionate enough to address these points? We're going to get a lot of epistles.

Dear Marcus Aurelius,

Mike from fact-checking here. Piece looks great, but we have a few questions.

p. 18: "No man can rob us of our free will." This is way too general. What if when I'm leaving work today someone smashes me over the head with a bottle, throws me in the trunk of his car, takes me home, ties me up and locks me in his closet? My will might be free, but what am I going to do with a free will if I'm stuck in somebody's closet? Are you really wedded to this one?

p. 19: "Think of the country mouse and of the town mouse, and of the alarm and trepidation of the town mouse." Everybody's pretty confused here, though I definitely get the idea. How about we lose the rodents and do something a little more straightforward. "Think of the country and of the town, and of the fact that with the money you pay for a tiny studio on the Upper West Side, you can buy a two-bedroom split-level in peaceful White Plains." Bingo?

Dear Authors of the Declaration of Independence,

Wow. I can't wait to see this one in print. Major question, though. Right at the beginning of the second paragraph, you write: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." Whoa. Is there a professor somewhere who can back that up? A respected English philosopher you can quote? Your statement is much too categorical. For example, let me play a skeptical reader. I'm handsome, rich and intelligent. My impecunious neighbor is an incontinent moron with rotten teeth. Which of us deserves the most slaves? So could we rework, maybe thus: "In our opinion, which not every person shares, we think, but can't say for sure, that all men are created equal, more or less." Please make this change. Piece is in our "Best New England Inns" issue, which everyone reads.

Dear Professor Marx,

Enclosed please find the page proofs for "The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte." Many thanks for allowing us to change the title to "Autumn Leaves." Page numbers and queries follow.

p. 1: first and second sentences: "Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second as farce." Not sure how a person can occur twice. And how can a fact be first "tragic" and then "farcical"? They assassinated Julius Caesar, which is tragic. Is it funny if they murder him again? Did Hegel really "forget" to add the thought about tragedy and farce? How do you know? How could he forget to add what seems to be your idea? If the thought had occurred to him, wouldn't he have "added" it? Or would he just have forgotten it? If the latter, doesn't it seem to you that he would have remembered it later? And what if a fact started off as farcical? Would it be farcical the second time around? Or would it be tragic, and then farcical again?

Dear Walter Pater,

May I say, on behalf of all of us here in the checking department, that the conclusion to your "Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry" surpasses even your thrilling previous contribution to these pages, "Great Marble Behinds." We have just one question:

p. 3: Speaking about the importance of experience and sensation to aesthetic receptivity, you write: "To burn always with this hard, gemlike flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life." First off, you're not endorsing smoking, are you? Legal department says that's a big no-no. And can a flame be "hard"? Or do you mean to imply something else? If so, isn't it somewhat implausible to imagine a person walking around with a "hard flame" for his entire life? Maybe take out "always" and change to: "burn, from time to time, with this friendly, gemlike flame"?

Dear Edmund Wilson,

Duncan the fact-checker here again. Following are a couple of quick queries about your introductory essay to "Patriotic Gore."

p. 2: Discussing nations' expansionist ambitions, you write: "In a recent Walt Disney film showing life at the bottom of the sea, a primitive organism called a sea slug is seen gobbling up smaller organisms. . . . Now, the wars fought by human beings are stimulated as a rule primarily by the same instincts as the voracity of the sea slug." Name of film? Do you mean the whale in "Pinocchio"? If not, name of slug? And who, exactly, gets "gobbled"? Unlucky Mr. Sea Horse, innocent Mr. Squid, etc.? N.b. we have no problem if it's a shellfish.

Lee Siegel is the author of "Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination," which will be published in the fall. A collection of his television criticism will appear next year.

Another Letter to the NYTimes

On March 11, Palestinian Authority minister, Mazen Sinokrot, bemoaned the financial straits of his Hamas-led government, claiming that "The world can't abandon us. It's in no one's interest, not for Israel or anyone" (NYTimes, "Palestinian Authority Faces Budget Crisis, Official Says").

While he acknowledges that of the 145,000 public sector employees half are in the "security forces" and that most of them have weapons, it would seem that Sinokrot cannot fathom why it would be in his own and everyone else's interest to reduce the number of gun-toting persons whose loyalty is to terror not peace.

Therein is the tragedy.

Some Secret

Gershom Gorenberg, in an op-ed published in the New York Times, intimates a scoop.

He notes that warnings about the legality of the new Jewish communities built across
the Green Line, "settlements", were kept secret. He "reveals" the contents of a
memorandum composed by then legal advisor Theodor Meron presented to the government
in September 1967.

However, Reuven Pedatzur, in his 1996 study, "Triumph of Embarassment", quotes from the memo. He provides the author's name, position and when it was presented to the then Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, who had initiated it. That took place on September 14, 1967. Four days later, it was presented to Levy Eshkol, the Prime Minister. The episode appears on pages 194-195 in his book.

Some secret.

Youth (Matisyahu's New Album)

Story on Matisyahu:-

This may be hard for some people to believe, but there was a time when MTV did not feature a Lubavitch Hasid in regular rotation.

In just three short years, Matisyahu, also known as the Hasidic reggae superstar, has become a veritable phenomenon of Jewish and American pop culture. In his wake he has left sold-out venues across the country, his decidedly biblical name emblazoned across music bible Rolling Stone magazine, and the word "Moshiach" coming out of radios nationwide with the kind of frequency once limited to the smallest enclaves of religious life. Discovered as part of a line-up of JDub Records, a nonprofit label featuring hip Jewish music, Matisyahu was soon picked up by Sony, one of the most important mainstream labels in the industry. Although Matisyahu never marketed himself as a mere novelty act, whether he has the ability to maintain his relationship with mainstream audiences remains an open question.

Beginning this week, there will be an answer.

On Tuesday, Sony released "Youth," Matisyahu's third album, setting up the coming weeks as a make-or-break period for the singer, as listeners decide whether there's more to him than the decidedly unexpected sight of a Hasid singing Rastafarian music.

Listen for yourselves:

Here
and here
(U.S. listening only)

P.S. try here, too.

Congrats to Katz; Finkelstein's a Fink

PROTESTS AT COLUMBIA LECTURE

A historian who argues that Jewish organizations exploit the Holocaust to deflect criticism from Israel drew dozens of student protesters last night during his lecture at Columbia University. Norman Finkelstein, a DePaul University professor who is the son of Holocaust survivors, gave a talk titled "Israel and Palestine: Misuse of Anti-Semitism, Abuse of History."

Some students in attendance quietly held up two-sided red signs that showed a picture of his face with a red heart, followed by the word "Hezbollah." They also handed out fliers outside. "We're angry because a lot of what Norman Finkelstein says is repugnant and is based in Jewish conspiracy theories that easily spin out of control into anti-Semitism," said Avery Katz, the vice president of LionPAC, a pro-Israel student group that helped coordinate the protest. The lecture was sponsored by 10 student groups.

"I feel very glad that students who oppose the event are voicing their opposition and engaging in the dialogue," said Sakib Khan, 21, a Muslim Students Organization member who helped arrange the lecture. He said he hoped the event would stimulate conversation that had been stifled by last year's disputes between pro-Israel students and pro-Palestinian professors.

Laxity; Laziness; Lack of Honor

You should read this entire article on kosher slaughtering problems but I'll just excerpt the parts I found relevant to my concerns:

March 10, 2006
Inquiry Finds Lax Federal Inspections at Kosher Meat Plant
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

An internal report from the Agriculture Department has found that one of the nation's leading kosher slaughterhouses violated animal cruelty laws and that government inspectors not only failed to stop the inhumane practices but also took improper gifts of meat from plant managers.

At issue was a "second cut" the plant formerly made.

Under Jewish law, an animal cannot be considered kosher if it is stunned before it is killed. The Humane Slaughter Act of 1978 requires stunning in all American slaughterhouses, but has an exception for religious slaughter, as long as the animal's neck is cut swiftly and no "carcass dressing" is done before the animal is insensible.

But at AgriProcessors, a second worker would step in after the first cut by the shochet, or ritual slaughterer. He would use a knife to open the animal's neck further and reach in with a hook to pull out the trachea and esophagus, with the carotid arteries attached. This was done to speed bleeding; kosher meat must contain as little blood as possible.

The report also describes multiple incidents in which plant employees gave inspectors packages of chicken wings, steaks, turkey, sausage or beef bacon. Although it was sometimes delivered with the words "Here's your sample, Doc," as if it were for laboratory tests, the inspectors sometimes cooked and ate it on the spot.

While the report describes accepting such gifts as "misconduct" and "very serious," investigators concluded that no bribery was involved, a department spokesman said.

The report also described an inspector sleeping as obviously infected chickens came down the line and doing inspections with his hands pocketed instead of checking meat for contamination as required. A supervisor was described as spending hours in the office playing hearts on the government computer.

The plant is at the center of a 2000 book, "Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America," by Stephen G. Bloom, which described the tensions in the tiny farming town between residents and Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn who took over its defunct slaughterhouse in 1987.

Who Says Israel Doesn't Attract the Best?

Sharon Stone making a point in Tel Aviv press conference yesterday.

Something is Happening (Stay Tuned)

Haaretz reported in this morning's paper that:-

Twenty days ahead of the general elections Kadima's recent drop in popularity has been halted, and the party garnered 37 seats in the latest Haaretz-Dialogue poll.

Now, Haaretz is telling us of an Israel Radio poll that reports:-

10:37 Israel Radio poll: Kadima 35, Labor 19, Likud 15, Yisrael Beitenu 10 (Israel Radio)

Hmmmm.

Ynet in English reports:

According to the Mina Tzemach/Dahaf poll, Kadima lost another Knesset seat and is down to 37 seats, marking a drop of six mandates in less than a month. On February 10, Kadima reached 43 seats in the poll and has been going down since that point.

and everyone is quoting Olmert from last night, saying:-

On Wednesday, Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared the party has in fact won the elections "and the question is only how many mandates it will win."

Hmmmm. Hmmmmmmmm.

It's the Little Things That'll Get Ya

While everyone is noting the report of the State Comptroller bashing Bassie and the Disengagement Authority, I found this item to be a wondrous comment on bureaucratic idiocy:

...[they] learned that not only did the caravilla builders in Nitzan "forget" to install Sabbath clocks - which religiously-observant families rely to turn on and off lights and heaters on the Sabbath - but there is not even a place on the existing electric panel to install one.

The people of Elkanah [a community in Samaria] therefore took this mission upon themselves. Electricians from the town volunteered their time to install the new panels and clocks, while the children of Elkanah continue to collect money to buy the materials. So far, some 30 caravillas have been fitted with the clocks; 270 remain. Each clock and panel costs 600 shekels.

P.S. The Report in Hebrew is here.

Words That Haunt You

I was quoted saying this in USA Today back in August:-

Sharon is "a political dead man," says Yisrael Medad, a West Bank settler leader. "He's without a heart and without a god."

A Footnote to History

Looking for some more of my published articles and op-eds for my other site, MEDAD'S WORDS, I came across this excerpt from an article Geula Cohen wrote and had published in Ma'ariv on January 23, 1999, entitled "Barak Profits From Pollard".

In 1988, when I founded the Knesset Lobby for Pollard, with my parliamentary aid, Yisrael Medad, I turned to Edna Soladar of the Labor Party and enlisted her participation. She enthusiastically agreed and the two of us co-chaired the Lobby. This joint effort was important, I believe, not only because Pollard was arrested under a National Unity Government, but also because it lent moral strength to the Lobby, which counted amongst its members some 80 MKs from Left and Right.

To reference the Pollard issue and my involvement, check here and here.

Here is an action item I tried pushing through Women in Green:-

Jerusalem, January 15, 2001

An Appeal for Jonathan Pollard
From: Yisrael Medad

I served as the coordinator of the Knesset Lobby on behalf of Jonathan Pollard
between 1987 and 1994. I continue to remain a member. I visited him in his prisons at Marion and Butner.

At the urging of Avi Farhan (more later), I wish to point out to you and through you to tens of thousands of others, Jews and non-Jews, that there are eight (8)days left for U.S. President Bill Clinton to use his constitutional authority to grant clemency to Jonathan Pollard. Article II, Section 2 (1) states "the President shall...have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses".

And here's my letter that appeared in the NYTimes:-

To the Editor:

Former President Bill Clinton's defense of his pardon of Marc Rich and others (Op-Ed, Feb. 18) is admirable. However, the reasons he provides were applicable, in part, to at least one other person whom the last four Israeli prime ministers requested Mr. Clinton to pardon. In addition, many American Jewish leaders, non-Jewish personalities and people from other countries pleaded with Mr. Clinton in his favor.

That person is Jonathan Pollard.

Mr. Clinton, regardless of the difficulties he faces over the Rich pardon, owes these people a rational explanation of why Mr. Pollard did not merit a reprieve from his sentence of life imprisonment.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh, Israel, Feb. 18, 2001