Category: English

As I write these words, the masses are gathering for an anti government demonstration in the center of Beirut. Tanks are guarding PM Fuad Saniora’s offices fearing that the demonstration will get out of control. This is the new climax in the crisis between the Sunni – Christian government and the Hizbullah (+ other pro Syrian groups).

Except following the news on television, radio, papers and online news sites, there are lots of blogs written by well educated Lebanese in excellent English. They share personal experiences, feelings and also a deeper look into the very delicate political situation in Lebanon. I became aware of them during the war this summer, and I’m following them regularly. They don’t delete comments written by Israelis like myself. Readers from Israel usually identified themselves proudly and almost always received serious responses.

The current crisis isn’t related to Israel. But Lebanon is always fascinating…

The Lebanese Bloggers

Lebanese Political Journal

Of course, there are lots more. Lots of links can be followed from these blogs. I settle for these two.

America is going tomorrow to midterm elections. All of the seats in the Congress and a third of the seats in the Senate are to be voted upon. The commentary that I’ve heard suggests that the congress will be taken by the Democrats, while the Senate will see a close race between both parties.

I hope that the Democratic Party will win both houses. The reign of George W. Bush and his Republican party has been awful for America. I’m not involved in with internal American affairs, but I can definitely see that the US became more religious, the gaps between the rich and the poor have widened (Katrina) and it isn’t a place I want to live in anymore.

I do know much about their foreign policy, and it’s wrong.

The war in Iraq was the worst mistake. Saddam Hussein, just yesterday sentenced to death, was a cruel dictator. He was bad for his people. The result of the American invasion isn’t better. The United States blamed him of holding Weapons of Mass Destruction. Never found. The CIA accused his intelligence officers of collaboration with Al Queda. Bin Laden’s organization hardly had any presence there. Now they are all over Iraq, killing foreigners and recruiting people for more terror acts, also exported elsewhere. How did that help in the war against terror? Now, when a more real threat come from Iran, the US is weak. The military is won out, the very deep debt (caused largely by the Iraqi adventure) and the world won’t stand side by side with another campaign.

Policy in the Middle East? This administration is very supportive of Israel. Wow, Great!

It only does us a lot of damage. The US has lost it’s role as a fair broker between the Arabs and ourselves. The distrust that the Arabs have towards the Americans, and our snubbing of European efforts make peace look very distant. Another problem is the settlements.

Contrary to previous administrations, this one is the most permissive of them all. Legal and illegal settlement are flourishing in the West Bank. President Bush’s letter to Ariel Sharon in 2004 gave strengthened our right to build there. It puts a burden on peace negotiations, as well as on the Israeli budget. These funds could well help old age pensioners, the decadent education system, or the sick health system.

The latest effect of American policy on Israel, is it’s refusal to permit talks with Syria. After putting Syria in the bad guys section, the only possible policy seems isolation. They never thought of trying to pull Syria out of it’s pact with Iran, and bringing them back to the guys. For us, the start of talks with Syria could be a very positive step towards peace, and a very big problem for Hizballah. It’s an Israeli interest to give peace a chance when Assad makes a proposal. He could be cheating, but we’ll never know if we won’t try, if we keep obeying to our American allies.

I could go on for hours about why Bush is bad. A change in Congress and Senate could make a big difference in American policy. The situation inside the US will be better, and I do hope that also foreign policy will change.

This time I’m going to an event related with the name behind the square. It used to be “Israel’s Kings Square”, until exactly 11 years ago.

I think that every Israeli remembers where he’s been on November 4th, 1995. I’ve been there in the peace rally where PM Rabin was murdered. The rally took place after a long time of protests from right wing movements against Rabin and his policy. The Oslo accords brought lots of aggrevation with them. The rally’s slogan was “Peace – Yes, Violence – No”. I was so happy to see the peace camp finally in the streets, after all the hatred of the previous months.

It didn’t last too long. After the rally ended, I was walking towards a bus station. Policemen told me that I couldn’t get through. I took another direction, and the rumors began coming around. I finally took a taxi, and the rumors became a news report, Rabin was shot and he is badly wounded. It didn’t seem real to me. I arrived to the people I was staying at, and evryone was already watching television anxiously. A few minutes later, we heard the official statement that Rabin died. The people on TV looked shocked exactly like ourseleves. We didn’t speak to each other, but just stared at the television for another hour or two.

Tonight, November 4th is again on Saturday night. I’ll find myself again in the same square, lke every year. Last year, a decade after. we had Bill Clinton as a special guest. I don’t know what the program is for tonight.

Me and some of my friends have been complaining about the annual ceremony. It is always non political, consisits mostly of sad songs, and remembering how Rabin was a good grandfather. For this kind of ritual we have an official ceremony, with the heads of the state, beside his grave in Jerusalem. In Tel Aviv, in the place where the prime minister was murdered for political reasons, I would surely expect a political rally, reminding everybody that it was a political murder, from a man who opposed Rabin’s path for peace.

Anyway, I’ll be there, at around 19:30 – 20:00. If someone reads this by chance and wants to say hello, I’ll be by “Discount Bank” on the corner of Ibn Gvirol and David Hamelech.