The Cost of War

Today was Memorial Day in Israel, Yom ha-Zikaron, which abuts Independence Day, which begins in a few minutes. I've participated before in Independence Day here, but today was the first time I visited a military cemetery on Memorial Day.

We came after the big crowds who participate in the formal morning ceremony, culminating in a 1-minute siren at 11 am. We came at 5 pm, and the Kiryat Shaul cemetery was still full of families, still dotted with mourners at hundreds of graves. The amount of flowers on display was truly overwhelming.

At one place I found the grave of a major general, in fact, a former Chief of Staff, the highest rank one can achieve. He was born in Jerusalem, served his country nobly for many decades, and died at the age of 65, not from war. Next to him was the grave of a private, born in the United States, the son of Nancy and Abraham, who died at the age of 18 in 1995 (probably somewhere in the West Bank or in Gaza? -- the marker did not say). At the foot of the grave, in rare English, carved into stone: "We love you, Oren -- Mom and Dad."

In an earlier blog this week I cursed out an anonymous Israeli soldier who cavalierly pointed his assault rifle at me at a checkpoint in the West Bank. I cursed the wrong thing. I really meant to curse this damn conflict. I meant to curse the fact that the naive and joyful act of visiting a microbrewery -- in the US nothing more than a leisure-time diversion -- is here an act of political adventure. I meant to curse the miserable & pathetic "leaders" who have not done enough to bring this misery to an end. I curse the fact that this conflict has produced very little other than row after row of beautifully manicured graves -- not just in Kiryat Shaul, but also in Jenin.

Gag on this!

This is psoitively hilarious. For 5 days, the Israeli media has been awash with a story concerning a new and serious scandal involving Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. At the request of the police, the Israeli district court issued a comprehensive gag order on anything having to do with the story, but even so last Friday Yediot Ahronot let it be known that the case involves illegal bribes (or at least money transfers) from an American businessman. The police & judges of Israel are pretending to live in a quaint time before the existence of that damn internets and the blogosphere. Yesterday, The New York Post broke the name of the American businessman, Mr. Morris Talansky of Woodmere (Woodburgh), NY, who is being questioned for passing large sums of money to Olmert when he was mayor of Jerusalem in the 1990s. (I should mention I had dinner with Olmert back in those days -- a "slim customer" if I ever saw one.) Anyhow, the word broke in Israel via the Internet yesterday afternoon, and here it is 24 hours later, and not a single one of the gutless major papers and news outlets (and their constantly updated web sites) has a word concerning Talansky, who has been here is Israel visiting his children (address has already been posted on the net) since Passover. On one Israeli radio station this morning, announcers told listeners to go The New York Post web site, without saying what will be found there, and Haaretz ran a clouded picture of the web page. Bloggers have been uncovering parts of the story: Talansky's ties to Olmert are proven through the New Jerusalem Fund web site, which lists the home address of Talansky in Woodsburgh, NY, as the business address for the Fund. All of this we know from the Internet and blogs, (even The New York Times has been able to advance the story) and yet the dinosaurs of the Israeli legal system still demand that the gag order be kept in place, and the gutless publishers of once brave independent Israeli newspapers are playing along. Ridiculous.

Olmert Over?

Back in January of 2006, when Ariel Sharon had his stroke and Barack Obama was visiting the Holy Land, I also happened to be here in Tel Aviv for an academic conference. Within days of the emergence of Ehud Olmert as the fill-in for Sharon, in my first blog entry on Olmert, I informed readers of this blog that "there is a hint of corruption" surrounding him and his family. Later, during the election campaign, I went into further details concerning allegations of Olmert's corruption. After Olmert was elected in his own right (though by a much smaller magin than the polls had predicted) he promised to turn Israel into a country -- let me quote the Hebrew -- she-keyf li-chyot bah -- "where it would be a joy to live in." Then on the morning of July 12, Olmert decided in something under 3 hours to launch a war into southern Lebanon against Hizbollah, with disastrous results for Israel and Lebanon (but not for Hizbollah). Two commission reports later, 3 criminal investigations later, and this "seasoned politician" has survived everything that has been thrown at him. He even survived watching his poll numbers tank to single digit approval (even George W. Bush is not that unpopular). He has since orchestrated a slow and steady comeback to nearly a 20% positive approval rating (still below Dubya's benchmark historic low). Predicted to be down for the count more than once these past two years (today marks the 2 year anniversay of Olmert's elected government), Olmert has proven to be the winner of Hisardut -- "Survivor."

And now it is the week of Israel's 60th anniversary, a week in which Olmert will play host to his buddy George Bush here on home court, and oversee an extravagant and opulent soiree (though sadly and without explanation, Barbara Streisand cancelled out from her scheduled visit, and her promised rendition of Avinu Malkeinu). A week of celebration and national clucking and long-winded speeches. This month of May was supposed to be a good month for Olmert. A time to kick back with a good cigar and enjoy the fireworks.

But then Friday the Israeli police suddenly descended upon Olmert's official residence with very little warning to interrogate him, for the fourth time in 2 years, about a new financial/political scandal. There are rumors flying as to what this new scandal might be -- the media is being gagged by the courts from publishing any details -- but it seems to be a financial bribe from a few years back, and this fourth rumor of financial irregularity may very well be the scandal to break the political culture's lethargy, and bring this pathetic caricature of a "seasoned politician" to his proper and early conclusion. The morning papers are all headlining the rumored corruption charge as "very serious," in fact the most serious and substantive of all the charges that have swirled around his head these past few years. There is open discussion of the possibility that these new charges or so corrosive that Olmert maight have to step down. Wishful thinking? Israeli media frenzy? (Let's not forget that "Israeli Newspapers" still appear on Steven Colbert's "On Notice" board.)

And May was supposed to have been a fun month...

Middle Eastern MicroBrew

For years, Hannah has been talking about Taybeh Beer. Thursday night I found a great bar in Tel Aviv that served it, and I had one. I liked it. So with time running out on my time here, and having put it off and put it off, I finally relented today and went off with her and Sophie to the Christian West Bank village of Taybeh, just north of Ramallah, to visit this amazing micro-brewery . It was the first time in 9 years I've ventured deep into Palestine, and I must say that my Israeli hosts seriously advised against it. For them, this is hostile enemy territory -- the last 9 years have been devoted to separating Israel from Palestine not only physically but also psychologically. In their minds, what I did today was insane, immature, and irresponsible -- but most importantly, dangerous. Indeed, today at an Israel checkpoint in the southern West Bank a 30 year-old Palestinian man brandishing a knife reportedly lunged at an Israeli soldier, and was shot to death. Something like that could conceivably have happened just as easily at one of the 5 checkpoints I had to traverse today (though no one left their car or truck). But I am convinced that I cannot possibly talk or teach about the Arab-Israeli conflict with any credibility or self-respect without crossing over to the other side. And the truth is, the way that Israel has cantonized the West Bank, I barely crossed to the other side. On the main highways of the West Bank, the Israeli yellow license plate rules the roads, many of which are laid out to allow Israelis to traverse the West Bank without traveling through or near Palestinian towns. For the first time in my 2 months here, I finally saw the formerly familiar green license plates of Palestine. At one entry checkpoint, we were separated by license plates....those of us with Israeli plates were sent right through on a separate lane. Those with green were sent aside to await inspection, if only identity papers.

We ended picking the long route to Taybeh, going out towards the West Bank on the 5 freeway. East of Rosh ha-Ayin, we hit our first road barrier, but were waved right through. On either side of the road were high fences topped with barbed-wire; the notorious security barrier at this point was nothing more than that, with constant patrols. Just a bit before Ariel, 5 quit being a highway and became a decent 2-lane inter-urban road, the 505. At Ariel, a West Bank Israeli settlement (?) of over 18,000 people that is easily 20 km beyond the former green line, we fueled up. At the Tapuach checkpoint we were divided by license plates, and then went south on the 60. Whenever we passed by an Israeli settlement, Israel flags were affixed to lightpoles as if we were in Jerusalem. Finally at Ofra, we turned onto what our map said was the northern entrance to Taybeh via the 449 road; we barely got a km when we came to a closed gate, and an Israeli soldier (wearing dental braces -- if he were 19 I'd be surprised) told us that we could not got to Taybeh this way. So we continued down 60 until we found the southern route into Taybeh. The Israeli road map told us not to traverse the entry road to Taybeh without Israeli Army escort -- and I have to admit that this gave me the creeps. Turns out that Israeli citizens are not permitted by Israeli law into what is called Area A, and while residents of Taybeh insist they are in Area C, the IDF treats it as A. At the intersection leading to the road to Taybeh, there was an IDF camp, but no soldiers could be seen. There were big signs in white letters on red background at the entrance to the road leading to Taybeh warning Israeli citizens to not go any further. We drove on.

It was easy finding the Taybeh Brewing Co. and we were greeted by brewmaster Nadim Khoury with an unusual kind of Middle Eastern hospitality -- instead of a cup of Turkish coffee, we were offered a taste of delicious Taybeh Amber. Nadim lived for years in the 70's and 80's in Brookline, MA, and as a college student in business administration he did what most college students do -- he home brewed. Eventually it became an obsession, and he went to study the process, and when the Oslo peace process promised a bright future, he was one of many ex-patriot sons and daughters of Palestine who decided to return and make a living and thereby produce a unique Palestinian product: alcoholic beer. The company's tagline? "Drink Palestinian: Taste the Revolution." Cute.

Others have told the story better than I. Articles have been written around the world about Nadim and his dream (see this NYT article from 1996). All I can say is that he was totally gracious and friendly towards us, and thoroughly professional in his approach to brewing. Having been to Scotland last year to visit whiskey distilleries, I was excited to see my first beer brewery, insofar as the first step in making malt whiskey is exactly the same as the malt beer process. Nadim Khoury follows the German 1516 purity law for beer, and his beer -- which these days (since the 2nd intifada) is hard to find in many Israeli establishments -- has no preservatives and like most micro-brews, is best drunk soon after bottling. He is excited about introducing a non-alcoholic beer to the local market, particularly now that famous Egyptian cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi has ruled that it is permitted to drink non-alcoholic beer. There is even a Facebook group devoted to the beer.

Taybeh is one of the only all-Christian villages in the West Bank. In fact, it might be the only one. Church spires, not minarets, dot its skyline. Israeli Jewish settlements are off in the distance on three of its sides. It seems to be an island of Christianity in a sea of crashing Muslim and Jewish waves. And yes, there is an Octoberfest celebration sponsored by Taybeh Brewing Co. every year since 2005 (though last year it was held in September so as not to conflict with Ramadan). Sadly, I won't be around this October.

We left Taybeh with a case of beer and other mementos, and when we got to the end of the 2 km entry road, where the 2 red signs stood, the IDF soldiers had come out of their camp to run a spot checkpoint. This time there was a very slowly moving queue of cars and trucks. When we inched up towards the barricades, a young Israeli soldier signalled I think for me to stop over 30 meters short of the forward water tanker whose driver was being inspected. Apparently, I failed to react fast enough for his 19 year-old tastes, and so he unshouldered his automatic weapon and aimed it straight at me. Is running a checkpoint outside a Christian village so dangerous that you have to level a gun at a rental car carrying 3 Jews and a case of beer? In my entire time on the occupied West Bank -- where I was warned by Israelis that a Palestinian kid might throw a rock at my car; a Palestinian sniper might shoot at my car; a Palestinian terrorist might slit my throat -- the only time I faced anything remotely threatening, if only with gestures, was by an Israeli soldier. What an irony: some bored punk stuck in a shit job (sitting on this intersection leading to an all-Christian village), possibly rattled because an incident had occurred somewhere else on the West Bank earlier in the day, didn't hesitate for a second and pointed an automatic assault rifle at me. Fuck him.

Yom ha-Shoah in Tel Aviv

Tonight is the beginning of Yom ha-Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day. So how are Tel Avivis marking the occasion? Well, tonight there is a soccer game between Chelsea and Liverpool for the Championshp League finals. Israel's national soccer hero, Yosi Benayoun, plays for Liverpool, and Israelis have been devoted Liverpool supporters since he came on board in 2005. But now Chelsea is coached by Avram Grant, Israel's greatest living coach. Israelis are beside themselves trying to figure out who they want to win. Of course, the Israeli TV stations are pumping out nothing but sad Holocaust-related shows tonight. So what to do? Tune in to a German cable channel, and watch the game either at the pub or more respectfully, at home. GOOOOOOAL!