Too Bad

Though predictable, it's too bad Emand Burnat didn't win the Oscar for 5 Broken Cameras. If nothing else, just to get an image like this one in front of millions of Americans, and to hear the speech he didn't give (see here.)

Oscar's Message to Israel

For your pre Oscars reading pleasure: this article appeared in the Forward.

“The Gatekeepers” and “5 Broken Cameras” have already succeeded in breaking one of Israel’s biggest taboos: airing out its dirty laundry on the big screen, for the whole world to see. Now the two films are both heading to the biggest stage of all: the Academy Awards. 

If either one of the films from Israel/Palestine wins in the Best Documentary category, it will be a symbolic achievement for all those who believe Israeli government policies and the occupation are untenable and want to see it held accountable for the violent cycle Israelis and Palestinians continue to be in. 

But there are salient and important differences between the films. ....

Read the a full article at the Forward .

I would only add that,

1) even if neither of these films win (and my prediction - though not hope - is that "The Invisible War" will win) the Oscars are still sending an important message to Israel: The Whole World Is Watching - this issue will not go away even if Israelis themselves prefer to discuss the price of cottage cheese, "sharing the burden", or the proper place for Talmud in Israeli society;

2) if you haven't seen these films yet, go see them!

Obama's Visit Is Not Reason To Be Optimistic

I came across this translation of an article by senior Israeli reporter Nachum Barnea. It originally appeared in Hebrew in the Israeli daily Yedioth Aharonot. It is an analysis of what to expect regarding Obama's upcoming visit to Israel.

Bottom line: don't expect much.

I asked [a U.S. official] what prompted the president to travel to Israel at the current date, immediately after the swearing-in of a new government in Jerusalem and before his new secretary of state, John Kerry, has coped with the problems of the region. [He] replied: The president’s visit isn't supposed to solve specific political issues. ... 

If Europe, as well as the Jewish-American Left and the Israeli Left, are expecting the president to present Netanyahu with a diktat on Iran, settlement construction and/or the negotiations—those expectations are not going to be met. If the Israeli right wing is preparing for an historic confrontation—that isn't going to happen either. Obama has chosen the current time precisely because it is less binding. ... 

... in the past two years various people have urged the president to visit Israel, if only to strike from the agenda the question of why he hasn’t gone—to mark it on his checklist and to move on. ...

[Obama's] attention is trained on Asia. The decisive proof is Obama’s conduct on Syria. His two most senior cabinet ministers, Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta, as well as the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the CIA director, all advised him to announce that the US has decided to arm the Syrian rebels. Obama rejected that advice, a course of action that could not have been easy given the seniority of the people giving that advice. ... 

Presidential visits to the Middle East stir expectations of a new initiative. That is not how this visit is being perceived by Washington. The general assumption is that Obama wants to disengage from the Middle Eastern headache, not to sink into it. This visit is going to be the fulfillment of an obligation, which will be followed by nothing. 

In short, don't count on the U.S to save the Palestinians from Israel, or the Israelis from themselves.

Read the entire article here.

Tzipi Livni is Either a Fool or Completely Inconsistent

Tzipi Livni is either a fool or just completely inconsistent. People say she is emotionally unstable. It might be true.

For four years she insisted that her party - then the largest in the Knesset - sit in the opposition rather than provide a fig leaf for Netanyahu's intransigence re the Palestinians  In the last election, she raised reaching an agreement with the P.A. as the most important item on her party's agenda; its raison d'etre, in fact.

Now she had decided to join Netanyahu's new coalition  on the promise that she will be allowed to lead negotiations with the P.A.: lead negotiations - but, pointedly, not reach a deal without cabinet approval, a cabinet whose agenda Netanyahu will control, and which will be packed with minsters even more intransigent than Netanyahu. She will barely be a fig leaf in the new coalition.

As Zehava Galon - leader of Meretz -  said:

"Livni's entrance into the Netanyahu government is a slap in the face of Center-Left voters, who gave their voices to Livni thinking that she would advance the peace process, and who today discover that their voices were stolen and handed off to the Right. Livni took the voice of the Left in 2009 and did not form the government, and in 2013 ruined the possibility of forming a Center-Left government. 

Talk of peace negotiations are empty election slogans... Livni is joining a Netanyahu government that might start a peace process, but won't make peace.

See full story in the Jerusalem Post.

Noam Shezeif,  at 972, covers the same story. Inter-alia he explains why this deal is good for Netanyahu, and reiterates why Livni is completely inconsistent.

From Netanyahu’s point of view, Livni’s support outweighs her relatively small party. In the last elections, the prime minister lost both Ehud Barak (retired from politics) and Dan Meridor (demoted in the Likud primaries), leaving him without an acceptable liaison to the international community, most notably, the United States. Livni is popular enough with the U.S. administration, not to mention other dovish institutions – she was one of the stars of the Saban forum – so she will perfectly fit the position of unofficial foreign minister. 

Interestingly enough, while at the Saban forum Livni privately warned Americans she met against the so-called centrists who would rush to serve as Natanyahu’s fig leaf after the elections; but politics, like pornography, is a question of geography, and things you understand as the leader of a 28-seat opposition party appear different when you have only five Knesset members behind you.

Read the full article at 972mag.

Thar Be Dragons!

Palestine is being erased before our very eyes.

See the image above, taken from Bing Maps. (To see this map in detail click on the image above, or go to http://binged.it/U6Ytr9 )

The area shown is the northern West Bank. It is shown as mostly empty. But of course it is not empty. It is full of Palestinian Arab villages, towns and cities - and the roads that connect them.

Among the many places that are not shown, is Palestinian city Nablus - population 130,000. It should be on the map, a bit to the south east of the Israeli settlement of Shave Shomron - population 604 - which is shown on the map. Also missing is the city of Jenin - population 40,000. Jenin is immediately to the southeast of the tiny Israeli outpost of Nahal Gannit - also shown on the map.

True, more detail is provided if you zoom in. If you zoom in far enough "Nablus" will appear  But is shown with its Biblical Hebrew name of Shechem. You can be assured that none of present day residence of Nablus would call their city Shechem.

Lest you think Google Maps is much better, it isn't. Below is a map of the West Bank generated by Google Maps. It is mostly Terra Incognita. The only thing missing is the warning, "Thar Be Dragons!"

More Israeli Construction in the West Bank Signals No to Peace

The Israeli government has given final approval to construction 90 new home in Bet El. (See here.) This should be a signal to all, that Netanyahu and his current coalition partners (including HaBayit HaYedudi and Shas who are likley to continue in his next coalition) have no intention of allowing a viable Palestinian state to arise in the occupied territories. Yair Lapid, and Tzipi Livni - be warned!

Bet El is outside any of the large "settlements blocks", and is in fact just to the north of the Palestinian Authority's capital, Ramallah. Israeli control of Bet El cuts off Ramallah from the north, while Israeli control of east Jerusalem, Maalleh Adumim and the E1 area (also slated for Jewish only development) cuts it off from the south.

One has to ask: "Why would Netanyahu and his coalition praters would be investing millions of dollars to expand Bet El if they had any intention of relinquishing it any time soon." The answer, unfortunately is  obvious.