August 2008

Originally posted on http://www.israelatsixty.org.il/my_weblog/  and Written by Barry Leff

There have been a couple of blog posts in recent months suggesting that American Jews should consider making aliyah because it makes “good economic sense.”

See, for example, “Why American Aliyah? It’s the Economy, Stupid.”  The author quotes Abraham Waxman who points to the high cost of Jewish living – with day school tuition worth $15,000 a year, summer camp $4,000, synagogue dues, etc., the argument goes that it can be a financial benefit to make aliyah.

I’m all in favor of encouraging people to make aliyah. Israel needs more Jews from Western countries—I believe our background and attitudes on everything from customer service to the environment to participating in the democratic process contribute greatly to the development of Israel.

However, of all the many reasons for making aliyah – and there are many good reasons – for pretty much any professional in the US or Canada at least, financial gain will not be among them, unless you have a lot of kids and work in a field that commands a high salary in Israel, like high-tech, or in a field that allows you to tele-commute to the US.

My “day job” is working for an outsourcing company that is based in the US and has major operations in India, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka, and now a small operation in Israel.  When I look at the caliber of doctors and lawyers we have working for us – for wages that are decent by Israeli standards, but would be unheard of by American standards (unheard of in you’d never be able to hire someone straight out of school for what we get people with 20 years experience) – I am continually impressed with the dedication to building Israel these people have.

People like Abraham Waxman can say all they want about how much money olim can save on Jewish educations, etc., but considering that top professionals may be taking something on the order of a $200,000 / year pay cut to live in Israel, all I can say is you can buy a lot of day school tuition for that kind of money.

What makes aliyah from Western countries inspiring these days is that davka it’s NOT about financial improvement.

In last week’s Torah portion we read one of the more misunderstood lines in the Torah.  Everyone has heard the expression “for man does not live by bread alone.”  Gourmets use it as a justification for fancy meals.  Many people, including many Jews, think it sounds like some kind of New Testament quote.  The truth is the expression appears in the book of Deuteronomy, and what’s important is the rest of the sentence: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by what comes from the mouth of God.”  What’s important is following God, not having a lot of bread in your basket.  Immigrants from the West are putting the words of God above bread.  They are making the most powerful possible statement that there are other things that are more important than money, and they are putting their money where their mouths are. 

Shabbat Shalom to everyone,

I’ve written a piece for O’Reilly News, a technical/computing site, about the issue of anti-Israel bias on Google News.  While this story has been covered extensively in the Israeli press and the Jewish and pro-Israel blogosphere it has been virtually ignored elsewhere.  Please follow the link above, read the story, and post comments freely.

The key point I try to make in the article to an audience that isn’t necessarily sympathetic to Israel is summed up in these excerpts:

What makes Obeler’s report compelling is not the fact that users have altered history and geography to suit their political purpose. Rather, it is that Israel, unlike other nations, has had this information included into the default display.

[…]

The crux of the issue is Obeler’s charge that Google made a deliberate decision to place pro-Israeli content in one user layer which is not displayed by default and pro-Palestinian content in another user layer that is displayed by default overlaying the core layer. Obeler is charging that Google, the company, has made a deliberate and conscious decision to use Google Earth to promote a specific political agenda. This charge of explicit bias by Google can be substantiated today even after the Kiryat Yam correction.

[…]

For those of you who share Google’s political perspective I ask you to imagine if the shoe was on the other foot. What if the West Bank was shown on Google Earth only as Yehuda and Shomron (Hebrew for Judea and Samaria), as integral to Israel, and covered with orange dots which only refer to the Palestinian people as terrorists while describing the area as solely Jewish in history? Would the Palestinians and their supporters be up in arms? Of course they would and rightfully so. Google Earth should only show factual information with user commentary available on demand, not one sided commentary shown by default without fact checking.

There is a wider issue for all of Google’s hundreds of millions of users. Google has built a reputation and a successful business based on trust. Google users trust that when they do a search, look at Google Earth, or use any of Google’s other services that accurate data is being provided to them. I have no evidence that Google’s search engine, for example, is in any way tainted by politics Despite that I find myself double checking the results Google provides with new search engines like Cuil and Mooter and even the venerable Alta Vista. Google has already lost the trust of many Israeli, Jewish, and pro-Israel users. What happens to Google’s business if this lack of trust spreads to the wider user community as they become aware of the charges of political bias?

Google is best served by insuring the trust of their user community regardless of politics. Using Google Earth or Google News as a platform for political advocacy is destructive to their business.

Obeler and Klein made a reasonable suggestion which would restore trust while allowing Palestinian users and their supporters largely uncensored access. They propose that Google treat the Virtual Palestine user layer exactly the same way they treat other user layers. Don’t display the information by default overlaying the core layer. Make it available for download by request. Google also has a responsibility to investigate complaints about false and malicious content as they did in the Kiryat Yam case. Google’s actions last Friday are a model for what needs to be done. It just shouldn’t take a lawsuit for them to act.

I just wanted to write a short post, apologizing to one of the people who wrote a comment about my “1948 Let’s get it straight” blog.

I have not lived in Israel in over fifteen years, and in that time my opinions have been influenced by world media. It’s no secret that the arab world enjoys the benefit of complete cooperation by the international media, who neglect to put stories in perspective. That is why I wrote my more recent blog about how people, especially in the west cannot count on a quick news bite to get the full story. The Israeli Arab conflict has been taken so out of context it is unreal. I have not forgotten what my Jewish people did to create a wonderful country out of the wasteland it was before, and my support of Israel, and people like yourself will never waver. Shalom.

As the saying goes time waits for no man (or woman), I know this well turning 27 years old this past Monday. Things change rapidly and in the 21st century it’s done in breakneck speed. These changes go far and wide. Today’s focus is on History and its constant revision.

History text books shape children with their sheer amount of content, which is controlled by the government. Various countries around the globe provide nothing but propaganda into their textbooks like certain Muslim countries. Some decide to white wash their version of history such as Japan’s sterile history text books. In the United States, before the 1960’s, issues like slavery and the fate of the Native American population was obscured or pushed to the periphery in American history text books. In the last 30 years this has changed due to the advent of attitudes, social movements and the advent of the idea of political correctness. Now, we learn a prolific amount of history spanning most of the cultures influencing American life.

In Israel, History is diverse and very different from the American historical narrative. When I was in grade school in Tel Aviv we learned about Jewish history, the Holocaust, Israeli history and Zionism. Names like Ben-Gurion, Herzl and Jabotinsky were pounded into our heads so we could be conjured up in the middle of the night and be able to recite the Balfour Declaration verbatim. It was an advantage because it helped us mold ourselves into the Israelis we thought they (the pioneers or chalutzim) wanted us to be. The Arab or Palestinian side was nonexistent to us and their perspective was also missing from our education. Nowadays things are different, Zionist history is not only out of the students minds but also out of the school curriculum.

The Education Minister, Yuli Tamir, decided to revise the school system by removing the writings of Ze’ev Jabotinsky from the curriculum. I know most of our readers are well aware and educated, but humour me. Ze’ev Jabotinsky was the founder of the revisionist movement in Zionism before the establishment of the Jewish State, which advocated for a greater Israel (the inclusion of Judia, Samaria and Gaza) as part of the country. Jabotinsky was called a revisionist because he broke from the mainstream consensus at the time.

When we say revisionism it pertains to a change from the normative ideas. In history a revision or revisionist slant is a re-interpretation of a preconceived notion. In recent years Jabotinsky’s revisionist Zionism has come to be seen as an overly right-wing version of Zionism. So, you might be asking what is replacing Jabotinsky’s works? One word, Nakba.

The Nakba, which means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, is the term used by Palestinians, as well as western liberals, to describe the defeat Arab armies suffered at the hands of Jewish paramilitary organizations during Israel’s War of Independence. So instead of taking pride in the fact that there were and are so many streams of Zionist thinking we must take it out in order to empathize with the Palestinians? In a historically objective world this would seem fair, but Israelis must learn to balance the content being taught in schools all across the spectrum, as well as in Orthodox Yeshivas. Learning about the Middle East through the Arab narrative is fine and informative, but it’s not Israeli. Instead of learning of Arab mistakes Israeli kids should learn about Israeli mistakes and victories. 

Ze’ev (Vladimir Yevgenyevich) Jabotinsky’s legacy lives on through the Herut political party (which merged into the Likud party in 1973). Magshimey Herut (young adult activist movement) and Betar (youth movement). In the United States, his call for Jewish self defense has led to the formation of Americans for a Safe Israel and the Jewish Defense Organization. In Israel, there are more streets, parks and squares named after Jabotinsky than any other figure in Jewish or Israeli history. Lets keep him in the school books, so that the kids playing on Jabotinsky street in some town will look up in pride and not in query.

Here is an article about the change: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1219218596939&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

I have been writing articles for this blog for a few months now, and I noticed that every time I write anything that justifies the Israeli perspective on the issues of war and peace in the region, some pro-Arab writes a response, which is more like a tantrum of Arab Propaganda.

So, I’d like to clarify a few things regarding the conception of Israel and events that took place during that time period. Growing Jewish presence in the Middle East has always bothered the Muslim world, and when it became obvious that we were there to stay, we were met with hostility by all Arabs around us. It was the Arabs who declined the U.N.’s decision to partition the land, and so war was the only option left. As a result, both sides committed unsavory acts towards each other and the result has been a constant state of hostility between Jews and Muslims in the region. We share in our responsibility for what has transpired over the last six decades and since we have enjoyed a tactical advantage over our foes in that area, it makes sense that there would be plenty of complaints about our country. I have spoken to plenty of fellow Israelis, who acknowledged the fact that things there were never simple and that they can see how Arabs would have reason to complain.

However, to suggest that everything bad that has happened in and around Israel is because of a Jewish presence is ignorant, false and basically racist. There is no nation or any group of people who are all good or bad, and that is at the core of the lack of peaceful interaction between both sides. A successful peace process cannot be reached unless both sides are willing to admit to their own faults and both sides must show a willingness to wipe the slate clean in order to move forward. That being said, I cannot accept any argument about the Israel-Palestinian issue that begins with tales of atrocities from 1948. Get over it!

And one more thing, the definition of the word apartheid is:  

1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population.

2. any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.  

Israel does NOT carry out any of those methods as national policy. It is more so in the Muslim countries with regards to women and minorities. Jews in Muslim countries have been segregated, banished and killed in these countries due to their religion. So where is the true Apartheid taking place? You tell me.  

The Olympics started on Friday and of course leaning towards my religious side I did not get to see any events until Sunday night, Oy! Between Shabbat and the fast of Tisha B’Av I decided to break the fast by catching up on the events and grab a glimpse or two of the grandiose opening ceremonies. The openning ceremonies were quite amazing with the lights and pazzaz, with a choreographed fluidity that would have made Mao proud.

As we all know, during the openinning ceremonies each country marches its athletes with their designated leaders carrying their nation’s flag. I waited and waited until to my surprise I saw all the 42 athletes glwoing with pride, coming out with a thirst for triumph. They are a diverse bunch who are mostly experts in contact sports such as Judoku and Tai Kwon Do. We also have our marksmen who will compete in the skeet competition and our parasailors. One thing I found interesting is that out of the 42 athletes only one is religious, or to put it jokingly only one is Frum.

Bat-El Gaterer is the sole representative of the Israeli Taekwondo delegation. She is a native of a Ramallah adjacent town and she is the only member of the Israeli delegation to keep kosher and follow all the Halachic rules. She has been asked about sparring with the opposite gender and she said that it was fine, but she felt sorry for the boys. Keep an eye out for her and the many other talented Israelis.

Bat-El is just one of the many diverse athletes representing Israel. This team is the epitome of diversity and the world should take note before condeming us in regards to ethnic cleansing. How could Israel be charged with such a false and ludicrous accusation when our diversity is so prolific. The relationship between politics and sports has been covered a lot recently due to the Olympics being held in China. Sports and politics go hand in hand and the world should open its eyes to the truth of Israel’s diversity in its ethnic make up, what ever that means!  

Check out this article about Bat-El:  http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3577638,00.html

I want to wish a happy birthday to the man who runs this awesome blog site. Happy birthday Daniel, you’re a great brother and roommate. Hope you have lots of fun today and every other day. See you later!

Love your big bro Anton

The Italian commander of th UINFIL force stationed in southern Lebanon gave a report to the UN today condeming Israel for violating the peace agreement with Hizbullah that ended the war of 2006. According to his report, Israeli planes have been flying over areas that they agreed not to fly over in Lebanon. At the same time, he praised Hizbullah for their generous cooperation with the UN and said that his forces have not seen any armed militia south of the Litani river. But, in the same breath he said that no attempt has been made by his forces to stop weapons smuggling from Syria into Lebanon, and that the Lebanese government has not asked him to do so.

So, here we are again. A general from the UN has seen no militia with weapons walking around the streets of Beirut, so I guess that means they don’t exist, while Israel is still occupying an area of Lebanon by flying over certain areas known to be strongholds of Hizbullah.

I don’t know who this guy is fooling, other than himself and a few UN members who’s entire agenda seems to focus on bad mouthing Israel in relation to anything negative that happens is that region. Hizbullah is cooperating with the UNIFIL forces by putting on a smile for the cameras and claiming that they have no intention of initiating a conflict with Israel.

In the context of how the 2006 war was provoked, I find it quite annoying that the UN is so willing to validate Hizbullah and make Israel out to be the oppressor, considering that the war broke out after Hizbullah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in Israel, soldiers who were returned in body bags a few weeks ago. The fact that a group of cold blooded murderers who have no regard for human life are depicted as the more cooperative group, while Israel is depicted as a rogue that has no regard for international law, goes to show that we still cannot rely on the world in general for even-handed treatment.

But this is not just an anti-Israel problem. The deeper problem is that the media jumps from one story to the next and forget about yesterday’s news. The general public is the same way. We have, as a collective, become a short attention span/ short term memory loss breed of media consumers.

No one has time to review stories in their entirety and as a result a story coming out in today’s paper is not seen in its proper context, in other words as an ongoing addition to yesterday’s story. This is where propaganda used by groups like Hizbullah does well. If you don’t need to worry about people remembering what started an event a year ago, it’s an easy task to lead people to believe that you were the good guy all along.

There’s really only one solution for this problem, both the media and consumers of media stories have to take the time to learn about an entire story. Quick and short stories are the only thing we have time for in today’s option filled, time is money world we live in these days. But the price we pay could be much higher than a dollar amount.

On that note, if you made it to the end of this rant, you probably don’t have this problem, so good for you, keep seeking knowledge…

Shabbat Shalom

One of my favorite Hip-Hop tracks is from the group Leaders of the New School titled “What’s Next.” For those who don’t know, this is the group that sparked the career of a fire breathing rapper, still on the scene by the name of Busta Rhymes. My point is that this tune reminds me more and more of the case in Israeli politics. However, it seems more of the question of who is next to take the seat of Prime Minister?

The seat of Prime Minister of Israel has been held by many individuals in the last ten years alone. Also, like the early decades of the nation, the same players are vying for power, brokering agreements for coalitions and seeing them fall apart like a castle made of sand, blowing in the wind. We had Bibi the hawk, Barak the reformer, Sharon the tank and Olmert the (place epithet here). Prime Minister Olmert has recently announced under pressure that his party, Kadima, will hold elections for the leadership excluding himself and he will step down after the results are in. So, who will be the next in line?

Personally I think that we need someone who is strong and resolute in h/her actions. Over the past many months we have been bombarded by the media regarding the Presidential election. The sentiment has been going that the next U.S. election will be as vital as the 1968 elections. The idea of change and reform and upliftment from the “bleak” George W. Bush years is resonating throughout the country and the world. Israel needs that type of hype and sentiment, Israel needs leaders who are fresh and new. Even though John McCain is no freshman he still seems like a breath of fresh air compared with our current President. Israel needs to reorganize itself and start remodeling the Knesset so as to not be influenced by long term stalwarts. Why? Because fresh blood yields to fresh ideas and a new way of approaching certain issues.

Aaron Miller pointed the issue of the mainstay of both Arab and Israeli politicians when dealing with diplomacy. He asserted that State Department representatives only have a set time, spanning from four to eight years. Israeli politicians, and various Muslim rulers, stay in office or in the political landscape for a long time. David Ben-Gurion, for all his grandstanding, stayed or influenced politics virtually until his death. This can be an advantage, but also a great shortcoming. Having the same politician can work in your favor if h/she likes you, yet a misery if it is the opposite. They should purge the Knesset once in a while and terms of tenure should be limited. The mid-term elections that were held in the United States in 2006 was a turning point for the Bush White House. Israel needs checks and balanaces in order to keep its true democratic model alive.     

Israelis are blatantly candid about the political situation in Israel and the issues regarding the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. As a true democracy every Israeli has a right to voice h/her opinion without negatively tangible repercussions. The Zionist organization Ameinu has sent me the second part of a documentary they are supporting. In their words, “This video clip, dramatically portrays the meeting of Israeli solders and Palestinians at controversial West Bank security checkpoints. This trailer like the first on the tensions in the holy city of Hebron, is taken from Land of the Settlers, the acclaimed documentary developed by Chaim Yavin, Israel’s premier news anchor.”

You can view the second part here: www.ameinu.net/yavin, you will also be able to link from there to Yavin’s first video on Hebron.

   Shabbat Shalom

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