treppenwitz

The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!

I feel like Steve Martin in that scene from 'The Jerk' where he runs around his house shouting "The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here!"

Nobody will admit it, but back when phone books were the way to find a phone number or address, one could experience a tiny thrill of seeing proof that 'I exist' just from seeing one's name and personal details published for all the world (or at least the surrounding county) to see.

If you don't agree, please take the following one question test:

1.  Have you ever 'Googled' your own name in order to see where / how many times you are mentioned on the Web?

'Nuff said.

Anyway, late last night I noticed that the program (excuse me, programme) of speakers for the Limmud Conference had just been published on line, and I naturally had to click straight to the 'B's to confirm my existence.

I'm such a child.

Getting a few things off my chest

I know it's not healthy to let things fester, yet I constantly find myself bottling up my feelings on a wide range of topics and keeping them to myself. 

Part of the problem is that I have nobody to whom I can consistently vent.  Those who understand/agree will get annoyed at my incessant preaching to the choir... and those who are not on-board likely feel abused by my repeating the same arguments.

So I end up storing the bile to the point where I find myself expanding the use of the prefix 'Irish' to things other than just coffee (e.g. Irish Cheerios... Irish Ice cream, etc.).  So I hope you'll forgive me if, in the interest of better nutrition, sobriety and sanity, I get a few things off my chest here today:

1.  Memo to the United States:  It's bad enough that you don't respect Israel's sovereignty or the right of our government to manage domestic affairs without outside interference.  But for kripes sake, obey your own freaking laws before you come trying to tell us what to do!  Back in 1995, the Jerusalem Embassy Act was voted on, approved and signed into U.S. law.  It unambiguously required the United States of America to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, and to take the obvious step of moving its Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by May of 1999.  The act even created funding for the move so there would be no excuse to tarry.  It is now almost 2010 and every President since 1998 has availed themselves of a loophole in the law that allows them to delay the move.  If even our closest ally projects open ambiguity about the status/sovereignty of Jerusalem, is it any wonder that others feel empowered to lay claim to the it?!

2.  Memo to the UN:  No matter how ill advised the Israeli leadership may have been to enter into a ceasefire under U.N. Resolution 1701, it is a binding international treaty.  So please explain why we are the only ones adhering to it?  You clowns even have observers on the ground all over southern Lebanon... so you can't reasonably claim that you haven't noticed that; a) Hezbollah hasn't been disarmed; and b) there are actually far more Hezbollah rockets pointed at Israel today than there were in the summer 2006.  When the fighting starts again (as it surely will in the not-too-distant future), the blood of the Lebanese villagers who now shield these rocket batteries with their bodies, will be on your hands as much as on Hezbollah's when Israel is forced to bomb them into the stone age.

3.  Memo to the the U.K.:  You've had soldiers fighting terrorists in both Afghanistan and Iraq, and have caused your own share of the inevitable civilian casualties (collateral damage) as a result of the way your enemies use human shields.  So you can't reasonably point an accusing finger at Israel, especially when the former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan has given testimony before the U.N. that "no army in the history of armed warfare has acted as morally, or taken such pains to protect civilian life, as the IDF did during Operation Cast Lead".  Yet you allow your legal system to be manipulated by Jihadists and their supporters so that Israeli politicians, officers and soldiers are forced to avoid travel to your country for fear of being arrested placed in the dock for war crimes.  This is not how allies treat one another, and it is certainly not the behavior of a country which wants to be recognized as an honest broker of peace in the region!

4.  Memo to Ehud Barak:  Stop using the Israel Defense Forces to carry out policing duties and political fiat.  The army of any country is a security instrument that exists to fight (or at least deter) enemies.  It must never be employed against its own people.  By doing so you are placing many of your most loyal and patriotic soldiers in an untenable position.  I suspect that, given your hard line secular / labor credentials, this has been your intention all along.  After all, there is no better way to make religious Zionist soldiers appear disloyal than to give them orders that they will almost certainly consider to be immoral, and even contrary to religious law.  But of course you know all this... just as you know that the construction freeze was only supposed to apply to buildings whose foundations had not yet been laid.  Yet this hasn't stopped you from sending in your troops to violently confront ongoing construction that is perfectly legal (having been started well before the freeze began). And another thing about refusal; You can''t have your cake and eat it too.  Refusing orders is disastrous to the fabric of the IDF whether it is done by left or right wing soldiers.  You and your party were strangely silent when left wing 'objectors' refused to serve in the territories, and left wing pilots refused to carry out targeted attacks on terrorist leaders in Gaza.  The politicization of soldiers began with the secular left, not the religious right... so spare me the hand-wringing about how religious zionists are the ones tearing the army apart.  The solution is to issue orders that are ethical, moral and above all legal, so all soldiers can go back to doing what they are trained to do; defend the country against its enemies.

Whew, I feel so much better now.  Thanks.

"I hate Illinois Connecticut Nazis"

I had a nifty rant all lined up for you today about the UK issuing an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni.  It was full of piss and vinegar and was terribly therapeutic for me to have written.  But that can wait for another day. 

You see, Zahava just emailed me a newspaper article about the town in Connecticut where we used to live.

The following picture (taken at a rainy public Hanukkah Menorah lighting near the center of Fairfield, CT) says it all:

 
    Photo © Connecticut Post

Looking at the title of today's post, I can honestly say that I never thought I'd have cause to paraphrase John Belushi's 'Blues Brothers' character in real life... yet as you can see, that day has arrived.

A small gathering of Jews and local politicians, including the town's First Selectman (that's what they call Mayors in much of New England), were gathered in the rain under a picturesque Gazebo on the Town Green for the Menorah lighting ceremony when three men in ski masks showed up and unfurled flags for a ceremony of their own.

This wasn't some spontaneous shout of "Kike" or "Dirty Jews" from a passing car (as we had occasionally heard when we lived in Connecticut).  This was a well planned show designed to let the Jews know that they have more to worry about than just Muslim extremism.

Nazis don't just fall out of a clear blue sky in the center of a New England town.  They are simply an extreme manifestation of a sentiment that is already widely held in the community to which they belong.

People, get the hell out of there.  This is the stage before they start burning stuff... and people.  It doesn't matter that it isn't the government coming after you.  Burned is burned and dead is dead... and it doesn't matter who does the burning or killing. 

What goes around, comes around (a little tip)

One of life's little annoyances is having to fish out my reading glasses every time I need to figure out which of my iPod ear-buds goes into which ear.

Yes, in case you hadn't noticed, there is very small offset of the ear-bud relative to the center-point of the stem, allowing it to fit more comfortably into either the right or left ear.  Therefore, to guide the user, there is a small gray letter  'L' or 'R' printed on the stem of each ear-bud. 

All fine and good... unless (like me) you need reading glasses to see that small gray letter.  Then it becomes a hassle and you find yourself simply settling for 50-50 odds of getting the right fit with the first try.

One evening last week I found myself standing in the check-out line of a supermarket near my office when a young woman came up behind me (and my full shopping cart) with three items in her hands; a baguette, a package of sliced yellow cheese and a tomato. 

For some reason this particular supermarket doesn't have an express line, so shoppers often have to deal with an annoying series of people with "just one or two items" who ask to cut the line. 

I knew that if I let her cut in front of me, anyone in the store with just a few items would gravitate to me like lions to the weakest member of the herd.  So to head off the inevitable question, I fished out my iPod shuffle and stuck the ear-buds into my ears. 

The wrong ears, of course.  So I switched the ear-bud placement and exerted a lot of mental effort into trying to ward off the tap on the shoulder and inevitable request to cut the line.  But to my surprise, the young woman waited patiently behind me, watching me fiddle with my ear-buds... and didn't say a word. 

After a few minutes I started to feel bad... my order would take some time to ring up, and hers would be bagged and gone in the time it would take me to take out my wallet.  So I took out the earphones and offered to let her cut in front of me.

She accepted gratefully... and as she went ahead in line I took out my reading glasses and went about trying to figure out how to correctly position the ear-buds. 

Noticing this, the woman started to laugh.  She explained that she had the same trouble seeing things up close, and almost always used to put her ear-buds in the wrong ear.  "But", she explained, "a friend showed me a neat trick".

Without asking, she reached over, took the headphones from my hands and in one quick movement she took the wire leading to the left ear-bud and wrapped it once around the right one at the point where the two wires diverge... inserting the ear-bud through the loop she'd created and then pulled the knot tight.

"There", she said, as she let the earphones drop back to my chest.  "Now you'll never have to guess which is is which again.  The right ear-bud will always hang slightly lower than the left". 

I looked down and noticed that she was correct... because of the small loop knot she'd made, there was about a quarter-inch difference in the relative length of the ear-bud wires.

Genius!

It was such a simple thing, this little tip of hers... but it has eliminated a big source of annoyance in my life.  And to think, she might never have shared it if I hadn't offered to let her go ahead of me in line. 

Just one more reason to be nice.

Oh yeah, one more thing:  Don't thank me... I'm a giver!

A real miracle or the doing of extraordinary people?

By Daniel Gordis

This piece appeared in the Jerusalem Post this past weekend, and it touched me deeply.  Because so many of this site's readers don't frequent JPost, I requested permission to share it here, and Dr. Gordis generously agreed.

Warning:  Kleenex Alert!

It's been almost a year since St.-Sgt. Dvir Emanuelof became the first casualty of Operation Cast Lead, losing his life to Hamas mortar fire just as he entered Gaza early in the offensive. But sitting with his mother, Dalia, in her living room last week, I was struck not by loss, but by life. And not by grief, but by fervent belief. And by a more recent story about Dvir that simply needs to be told, especially now at Hanukka, our season of miracles.

This past summer, Dalia and some friends planned to go to Hutzot Hayotzer, the artists' colony constructed each summer outside Jerusalem's Old City walls. But Dalia's young daughter objected; she wanted to go a week later, so she could hear Meir Banai in concert.

Dalia consented.  And so, a week later, she found herself in the bleachers, waiting with her daughter for the performance to begin. Suddenly, Dalia felt someone touch her shoulder. When she turned around, she saw a little boy, handsome, with blond hair and blue eyes. A kindergarten teacher by profession, Dalia was immediately drawn to the boy, and as they began to speak, she asked him if he'd like to sit next to her.

By now, though, the boy's father had seen what was unfolding, and called over to him, "Eshel, why don't you come back and sit next to me and Dvir?" Stunned, Dalia turned around and saw the father holding a baby. "What did you say his name is?" she asked the father.

"Dvir," responded Benny.

"How old is he?" Dalia asked.

"Six months," was the reply.

"Forgive my asking," she continued, "was he born after Cast Lead, or before?"

"After."

Whereupon Dalia continued, "Please forgive my pressing, but can I ask why you named him Dvir?"

"Because," Benny explained to her, "the first soldier killed in Cast Lead was named Dvir. His story touched us, and we decided to name our son after him."

Almost unable to speak, Dalia paused, and said, "I'm that Dvir's mother."

Shiri, the baby's mother, had overheard the conversation, and wasn't certain that she believed her ears.

"That can't be."

"It's true."

"What's your last name?"

"Emanuelof."

"Where do you live?"

"Givat Ze'ev."

"It is you," Shiri said. "We meant to invite you to the brit, but we couldn't."

"It doesn't matter," Dalia assured her - "You see, I came anyway."

And then, Dalia told me, Shiri said something to her that she'll never forget - "Dvir is sending you a hug, through us."

At that point in our conversation, Shiri told me her story. She'd been pregnant, she said, in her 33rd or 34th week, and during an ultrasound test, a potentially serious problem with the baby was discovered. After consultations with medical experts, she was told that there was nothing to do. The baby would have to be born, and then the doctors would see what they could do. A day or two later, she was at home, alone, anxious and worried. She lit Hanukka candles, and turned on the news. The story was about Dvir Emanuelof, the first soldier killed in the operation. She saw, she said, the extraordinarily handsome young man, with his now famous smile, and she felt as though she were looking at an angel.

A short while later, Benny came home, and Shiri said to him, "Come sit next to me." When he'd seated himself down next to her, Shiri said to Benny, "A soldier was killed today."

"I heard," he said. "What do you say we name our baby after him?" Shiri asked.

"Okay," was Benny's reply.

They told no one about the name, and had planned to call Dalia once the baby was born, to invite her to the brit. But when Dvir was born, Shiri and Benny were busy with medical appointments, and it wasn't even clear when they would be able to have the brit. By the time the doctor gave them the okay to have the brit, it was no longer respectful to invite Dalia on such short notice, Shiri told me. So they didn't call her. Not then, and not the day after. Life took its course and they told no one about the origin of Dvir's name, for they hadn't yet asked Dalia's permission.

So no one knew, until that moment when a little blond-haired, blue-eyed boy - whom Dalia now calls "the messenger" - decided to tap Dalia on the shoulder. "Someone's looking out for us up there," Shiri said quietly, wiping a tear from her eye, "and this no doubt brings Him joy."

It was now quiet in Dalia's living room, the three of us pondering this extraordinary sequence of events, wondering what to make of it. I was struck by the extraordinary bond between these two women, one religious and one traditional but not religious in the classic sense, one who's now lost a husband and a son and one who's busy raising two sons.

Unconnected in any way just a year ago, their lives are now inextricably interwoven. And I said to them both, almost whispering, "This is an Israeli story, par excellence."

As if they'd rehearsed the response, they responded in virtual unison, "No, it's a Jewish story."

They're right, of course. It is the quintessential Jewish story. It is a story of unspoken and inexplicable bonds. It is a story of shared destinies.

And as is true of this little country we call home, it's often impossible to know which part of the story is the real miracle, and which is the doing of extraordinary people. In the end, though, that doesn't really matter. When I light Hanukka candles this year, I'm going to be thinking of Dalia. Of Shiri. Of Dvir. And of Dvir.
I'm going to think of their sacrifice. Of their persistent belief. Of their extraordinary decency and goodness.

And as I move that shamash from one candle to the next, I will know that Shiri was right. These are not easy times. These are days when we really could use a miracle or two. So perhaps it really is no accident that now, when we need it most, Dvir is sending us all a hug from heaven above.

If you were as moved by this true story as I was, please go tell Dr. Gordis personally.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but...

... I agree with Peace Now.  There, I said it.

Peace Now, for all their delusional nuttiness, occasionally says something sensible. 

Today, the Labor Party and Peace Now both came out strongly against Netanyahu's new 'Priorities Map', a plan which indicates where special government funding for education, infrastructure, employment and direct tax breaks will be allocated. 

The reason given for their dissatisfaction (to say the least) with the plan is that it includes many settlements in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) where the average income is considerably higher - and where unemployment is slightly lower - than in many develoment towns inside the Green Line.

Personally, I was a little embarrassed to see my town listed among the communities that will benefit from this reallocation of government funds.  Sure it would be nice to see my kid's school get new computers, have the street signs and lamps updated, and to feel a little less of a tax bite on my paycheck.  But compared with many development towns on Israel's periphery (specifically in the south and north), my town is really doing quite well. 

So yeah... kol hakavod to Labor and Peace Now for calling Bibi out on a very poor prioritization of funds. 

However, what is missing from Labor's and Peace Now's outrage is the necessary acknowledgment that the sorry state of communities on Israel's periphery can be directly attributed to several generations of left wing Mappai / Labor governments' policies of systematically sending new immigrants from North Africa, Yemen, South America, 'Edot HaMizarach' and other less developed (meaning less refined) parts of the world, to the noisome, under-funded corners of the country, while more cosmopolitan immigrants from western Europe and North America were magically welcomed to Jerusalem and Gush Dan (Tel Aviv and its environs).

My point is that, yes, it is laudable that the Labor Party and Peace Now are suddenly interested in making sure that the state's limited 'priority' funds are directed towards those who most need them.  But it comes off as just a tad suspect when those very communities are in such dire straights specifically because of the callous (racist, even) immigration and social welfare polices of the left.

I suspect that this hand-wringing we're seeing from the political left has more to do with the fact that evil settlers stand to see a windfall from Bibi's new priority map, than about suddenly deciding to champion Israel's poorer sectors.

Just my 2 cents.

[soon to be] on the road again...

Back in June I mentioned in passing that I'd been invited to speak at the Limmud Conference, a week-long, multi-disciplinary, Jewish learning festival that takes place in the UK each year during the last week of December.

In June, December seemed as far away as the era of flying cars and unisex silver jump suits.  And yet, here we are in December... and Limmud is just a couple of weeks away!  Guess I'd better finish working on my sessions, huh?

This is just a quick post to encourage anyone who will be in the UK then, to register for Limmud... and to sign up for my session!.  Seriously, there are some really heavy hitters scheduled to be speaking, and I'm worried that people are going to be skimming down the session registration lists and be all like, "Rabbi, university president, novelist, scientist, publisher,Nobel Laureate, treppen-what?  Who the heck is that??!"

I'm scheduled to give the following sessions:

Sun Dec. 27th   1100-1210: "Everything you didn't know about Aliyah"
This session should be of interest to anyone with even a fleeting interest in moving to Israel.  Basically I'm giving you a chance to learn from my mistakes.  :-)

Tue Dec. 29th   1530-1640:  "So you want to be a Jewish Blogger"
The dos and don'ts of blogging (again, a chance to learn from my mistakes), as well as a discussion of how to use social media to advocate for Israel and Jewish causes.

Tue Dec. 29th   1830-1940:  "Settlers & Settlements 101"
This is the introductory session where the ground rules, vocabulary and historical facts will be laid out in preparation for the second session.  I'm expecting a somewhat hostile crowd, so a friendly face or two would be nice.  :-)

Wed Dec. 30th  0930-1040:  "Settlers & Settlements 202"
This is where (hopefully) an intelligent discussion of the topic will take place.  This one should be a doozy (in spite of the groundwork I hope to lay at the 101 session).  And to be clear, I expect to learn as much (or more) from these sessions as those who will attend.

I'm sure I'll be attending many of the other sessions given throughout the week as well, but I hope to do a little local touring / sight-seeing as well.  For instance, I've always wanted to visit Stratford upon Avon.  Limmud is being held this year at Warwick University, which is quite close (15 miles, or so I'm told).

I've only been to England a couple of times (short stop-overs on the way to and from the US)... and have never been outside of London.  So if any of my UK readers have suggestions of things to do and see while in the West Midlands/Coventry area and London, please feel free to share.

And here I thought it was me

Have you ever popped a DVD of one of your favorite movies into the idiot box and settled in to watch... only to find the familiar characters jabbering in a foreign language you can't identify, much less understand? We used to have a haunted DVD player that would occasionally lose its mind and randomly pick an overdub language (Serbian, Hungarian, Finnish, etc.) for movies that had previously played flawlessly in English.

The result of these occasional DVD malfunctions was an unsettling mix of familiar and unfamiliar.

When Zahava and I started raising kids, I felt that same mix of familiar and unfamiliar in just about everything we were hearing from experts, as well as other parents, about child-rearing.

My only frame of reference was my own childhood which, while not Theodor 'Beaver' Cleaver perfect, was certainly happy and normal enough to have produced a fairly well adjusted, functioning adult.  Yet everything I was hearing and reading about how to be a good parent made me feel inadequate, disorganized, uninvolved and even (at times) reckless.

This morning, my younger brother, who is a psychologist and heads up a unit of a large California county's Child Protective Services, sent me a link to an article.  As I read through the article it was as though someone had gotten up off the couch and changed the disc language back to English.  Suddenly everything made sense.  The problem wasn't me... it was the system which had gone and lost its mind.

If you do nothing else productive today, take 10 minutes and read this piece.  Trust me.

Note:  Ignore the intrusive advertising links between paragraphs.  They are unrelated to the article.

Say cheese

Years ago when I was a single man, I once decided to wreck my kitchen whipping up a batch of blintzes.  SIngle men can do that with impunity.  Married men require permission.

Anyhoo... It wasn't a rational decision, since you could get perfectly acceptable blintzes at local restaurants... or even in the freezer section of well stocked grocery stores.  But for some reason the idea of making blintzes from scratch really appealed to me, so...

As I recall, those long-ago blintzes came out fine, but the trauma to my small apartment kitchen was both extensive and extended.  I think I finally washed the final pan and mixing bowl about two weeks after the last blintze was consumed.  If you've never tried to scrup dried-on farmer cheese and sour cream off of dishes and mixing bowls, trust me... it's no picnic.

Well, the other day I was reading one of my favorite blogs and was delighted to see he had posted about making home-made blintzes... and had even shared pictures and a recipe.  I have no idea what ever came of the recipe I had used way back when... but here was an engraved invitation - a challenge, even - to give it another try.

So this past Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) we invited my parents over to celebrate both Yonah's and my father's birthdays (Yonah is 6 and my dad is, well... older than 6, keneynahorah, tfu tfu tfu), and I whipped up a metric buttload* of blintzes. 

The bletlach (crepes) came out just the tiniest bit thicker than I would have liked (which can probably be attributed to the 70% whole weat flour I used), but the filling was perfect... a little sweet, as befits a main course, but not so sweet as to be confused with a dessert.

I even made a big batch of eggnog (nicely seasoned with nutmeg and Bourbon) for the occasion!

Sadly no pictures were taken, but I assure you that Elisson's recipe is a traditional winner!

Don't thank me... I'm a giver.  But do go thank Elisson, since he did all the heavy lifting .  :-)

* Elisson is an engineer, so I rely on him for all my technical terminology.

My new hero (and I'm not even the designer in the family)

Hat tip Book of Joe

I'm confused (as usual)

Picture the following scenario:

A kidnapper has a hostage at gunpoint and is barricaded inside a house or place of business.

The crime scene is surrounded by police S.W.A.T teams. 

After several tense hours, the hostage negotiator manages to convince the kidnapper to release the hostage to an attorney (i.e. a 'neutral third party') pending the granting of the ransom request and safe passage for the kidnapper out of the country.

The kidnapper's attorney walks into the building, and after a few tense minutes, walks out again accompanied by the hostage.

What happens at this point? 

Here are a few questions to ponder:

1. Once the hostage is safe are the authorities obligated to follow through with the payment of ransom and the granting of safe passage to the kidnapper?
2. As an officer of the court, is the attorney obligated to turn over the hostage to the police immediately.
3. If the attorney doesn't turn over the hostage and insists on holding on to him until the authorities live up to their end of the bargain, does the attorney now become an accomplice to the kidnapping?

The reason I've asked you to engage in this little thought experiment is that this is precisely the scenario that is being played out with Gilad Shalit (or is about to be, depending on which reports you trust).

Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in a blatant terrorist attack.  The kidnapping was a crime by any standard and under any legal definition.  It was not part of a declared or undeclared military operation.  The kidnappers were not part of any recognized army, nor did they wear uniforms, rank or identifying insignia (as required by the Geneva Convention) to be considered soldiers in combat. 

The terrorist organization which ordered the kidnapping (Hamas) is not recognized as a government body by anyone and has no rights under international law to formulate foreign policy (i.e. enter into treaties and raise or maintain a military force).

That Israel has been negotiating with Hamas has no bearing on Hams' status any more than a kidnapper's status is elevated by the ongoing dialog with the police hostage negotiator.  When police negotiate with a 'garden variety' kidnapper , those negotiations do not elevate the kidnapper's status above that of common criminal, or grant him special legal status whereby unreasonable terms would have to be honored after the hostage has been freed. 

There are credible reports that Gilad Shalit has been (or will soon be) transfered to the custody of the Egyptian government pending the last stages of the exchange of nearly 1000 terrorist.

What I can't quite figure out is why Israel (or any country) should be obligated to follow through with deals struck (under duress) with extortionists and terrorists once the hostage has been safely released to a third party?

How is it that Egypt (roughly parallel to the attorney in the scenario above) is able to continue the hostage's imprisonment without being considered an accomplice to the crime?  Aren't they obligated under any international conventions to free the hostage as soon as he is in their hands?  Aren't they subject to enormous pressure from the U.S. based on the large amount of foreign aid they receive (second only to Israel) to live up to such conventions?

I'm honestly confused as to why this proposed exchange of terrorists for our soldier is being viewed by the world (and even by the Israeli government!) in the same light as, say, the exchange of POWs at the end of a war.  

As stated earlier, Hamas has no standing under international conventions of war.  They did not observe any of the requirements for the treatment of POWs (e.g. visits from representatives of the International Red Cross, inspection of living conditions and health audits. etc.) and certainly nobody has ever alleged that Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prions have POW status (even though Israel has granted access to its security prisoners and guaranteed living conditions consistent with international norms).

This kidnapping was a crime, plain and simple.  It was carried out by private individuals with no authority to enact treaties or claim diplomatic privilege.  Why has everyone forgotten this?

And most important, if/when Gilad is in Egyptian custody, how is it possible that that country will be allowed, under international law, to continue his imprisonment until Israel (the police in the scenario above) agrees to complete a devil's bargain struck during a hostage situation at the point of a gun?

I can't wait for someone to make sense of this for me!

I think I've been outed

A word of advice: If you are a blogger and you are tempted to blog at work... resist the temptation.  Except for occasionally responding to emails and comments during lunch or on breaks, I am pretty strict about leaving my blog alone during work hours.  They pay me to work, not blog... and there are too many stories with unhappy endings about people who learned that rule the hard way.

With that having been said, you probably noticed that I rarely talk about work... and I NEVER directly identify my company or anyone working for it.  I work for a big company here in Israel... perhaps one of the biggest.  So it's a near statistical certainly that at least a few people in my company read this blog.  Whether these theoretical readers know we work for the same company is something I try not to dwell on, because I worry about even the appearance that my work and blogging life overlap.

So it was a little jarring yesterday afternoon to get a call from someone rather high in the company (with whom I've never had any previous contact) that started out like this:

"Hi this is ****** ***** .  I have a trip coming up and I was looking for that wonderful list of travel tips you published a year or two ago.  Can you send me the link?"

It took me a couple of seconds to figure out what list he was talking about... and only then did my internal alarm start flashing with the warning "Danger, this is someone who shouldn't know you have a blog!"

I told him I would look for the post when I got home and send him the link.  He thanked me and we hung up.

Note to self:  Email the IT gang today and make sure all office Internet use is logged and archived so that if anyone ever decides to make the old 'mis-use of company assets' accusation, I'll be as pure as freshly fallen snow (or at least as pure as anyone whose non-work browsing is mostly confined to news sites).

BTW, I found the link to my travel tips post and sent it to him last night.  I told him not to thank me... I'm a giver.

I wonder...

... if the United Nations' denouncement today of Switzerland's ban on new minarets as "clearly discriminatory and deeply divisive" is an indication that all U.N. member nations are required to guarantee complete freedom of religious observance and expression to their visitors, residents and citizens?

Naaah... that's crazy talk!

Swiss Muslims get a small taste of Dhimmitude

In a completely unexpected turn of events, Switzerland has just voted to ban the construction of Minarets because these structures have come to represent militant Islam to many of that country's citizens.

What had started out as a pre-doomed right wing initiative has gained unexpected traction with more than half of Swiss voters in recent weeks.  The ban has many of Switzerland's political leaders and bankers deeply concerned about the financial implications of well-heeled Muslims closing their numbered Swiss bank accounts and moving their wealth elsewhere.

I'm actually surprised that Switzerland, where less than 6% of the population is Muslim, turned out to be Europe's test case for enacting legislation designed fight off what is seen as a hostile foreign cultural invasion.  After all, France, Holland and Belgium are much more deeply engaged in the struggle between maintaining an open, democratic society and preserving their unique cultural and religious heritage.

Personally, I find it satisfying to see Islam subjected to a very small taste of Dhimmi status after so many centuries of unapologetically imposing the full Sharia on non-Muslim minorities.

If you don't have a working knowledge of what Dhimmitude is, I strongly suggest as a start that you go here and read up.  But for the sake of this discussion let me provide a few examples of what a 'protected' (Dhimmi) class of people such as Christians and Jews, have been subjected to in Muslim societies:

First of all, Dhimmis have a lower legal status than Muslims.  This means that in legal proceedings, the testimony of a Dhimmi and a Muslim will be given different weight.  Simply put, if there is a dispute between a Muslim and Dhimmi... the word/case of the Muslim will always prevail.

Dhimmis have also traditionally had restrictions placed on their modes of transportation.  Dhimmis were only allowed to ride donkeys while camels or horses were reserved for Muslims.  Some scholars argue that this was to ensure a military advantage for Muslims since horses and camels were the tanks of the pre-industrial world.  But it is worth noting that, whether in peacetime or at war, someone on a donkey could not be on a higher level than someone riding a horse or camel.

Also, under Islamic law, a Dhimmi can't build structures more than one or two stores high. Again, this could easily be a matter of making sure the high ground would always remain in Muslim hands in case of war.  But this could also be seen as a simple matter of pride.   

Whatever the reason, this apparent emphasis on relative stature in Islamic law offers a logical justification to the Swiss legislation banning what many see as a militaristic or cultural grab at the 'high ground' of Europe's skyline.

In a New York Times article about the Swiss vote, I was floored to see the following:

"[As a result of the constitutionally binding vote], the [Swiss] government must now draft a supporting law on the ban, a process that could take at least a year and could put Switzerland in breach of international conventions on human rights."  [emphasis mine]

Why are only non-Muslim countries subject to 'international conventions on human rights'?  Why is it that due process, freedom of religion, a free press, etc., are only western responsibilities?  Why is it when Muslim countries butcher their citizens (or neighbors), harbor/fund terrorists and kidnappers, impose oppressive Sharia law on non-Muslim visitors, and in dozens of other ways refuse to adopt the most basic protections/freedoms they so vociferously demand in the west, that nobody feels the need to explain the finer points of reciprocity to them?

Several other quotes from the Times article are equally troubling such as the one from Farhad Afshar, who heads the Coordination of Islamic Organizations in Switzerland:

“Most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote. Muslims do not feel accepted as a religious community".

I wonder if he also feels the pain of Lebanese Christians, Yemenite Jews or Afghani Buddhists.  In fact, in many cases, Muslim countries do not allow the open practice of any religion other than Islam. 

Don't believe me?  Just try to enter Saudi Arabia or Iran wearing a Crucifix or with a set of Tefillin in your carry-on.  Muslims are unapologetic about their treatment of non-Muslim minorities, and the lesser status to which they relegate the cultural heritage, pride or sensibilities of such minorities.  So why should we automatically be so sensitive to their feelings?

In another quote, Manon Schick, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International offered the following eye-opening rationale to why the ban is unjustified:

"Close to 90 percent of Muslims in Switzerland are from Kosovo and Turkey, and most do not adhere to the codes of dress and conduct associated with conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia."

I call it eye-opening because it inadvertently reinforces the notion that only Islam-lite (e.g. a de-fanged form of Islam practiced in places like Kosovo and Turkey) is considered non-threatening and therefore unworthy of such protectionist legislation.

I'm sure that other European countries will be watching this development closely to see how the Muslim 'street' reacts.  After all, if a simple cartoon insulting Mohamed was enough to prompt weeks of rioting and mayhem, the placing of a 'Dhimmi-like' restriction on Swiss Muslims may force Islam to change tactics from a quiet, but relentless, metastasis in Europe's body, to open warfare in pursuit of the goal that is the cornerstone of their religious texts; the subjugation of the entire world to the sword of Islam.

An observation

Most of my Sunday morning hitchhikers/passengers tend to be soldiers heading back to their bases after having been given permission to go home for the weekend.

I never really spent much time thinking about it before today, but there is definitely a specific scent to the car based on the gender breakdown of the soldiers.

For instance, even after a weekend at home, a carload of male soldiers will usually smell like a combination of gun oil, B.O. and a pile of freshly laundered clothing that has been heavily doused in Axe body wash and deodorant. 

A mixed carload of male and female soldiers will smell of gun oil, B.O., fabric softener and Axe.

This morning was the first time in a very long time that I've had a car full of only female soldiers; a group of women heading down to officer's training at the 'Bahd Ehad' base in the Negev. 

In addition to the smell of freshly baked cookies (which one of the thoughtful young women brought me as a thank you for the ride), the car smelled like freshly laundered uniforms, soap, and a soft hint of shampoo.

Look, I don't shop around for passengers... they find me.  But I have to say I much prefer the smell of today's lot over the usual mixed or all male crowd.