Category: Essay

Phantom checkposts are easily set up and lethal to civilians and soldiers alike. With all the technology deployed to keep people safe, solving this problem is a no-brainer.

IFF (Identify Friend-Foe) is a forty-plus year technology geared to giving fighter pilots instant identification of planes in their area of battle. These radio transponders trigger a coded response whenever there is a coded query.

Checkposts could easily use this technology. Transponder codes would be changed daily, and checkposts would be issued a properly coded frequency. Vehicles approaching the checkpost could trigger an IFF request and, if they do not receive the proper response, know that they are driving into a trap.

If we wanted to get just a bit fancier, we could add a small satellite transmission package that would send the location and IFF codes up to US or Iraqi response teams every time an IFF mismatch occurred. That could get drones recording the scene, and air support on the way within seconds of a suspicious checkpoint being queried — maybe even before the shooting starts.

…headlines like “Vujcic vaults Mac TA over Joventut” don’t mean anything at all to you.

Maybe it’s just a sports thing.

It’s a tenet of Jewish law that Jews unjustly incarcerated must be released. Jewish communities throughout the ages have paid ransoms, sometimes when Jews were kidnapped by antisemitic despots specifically to milk money from the Jews.

There are Jews in prison in America for all kinds of reasons: murder, robbery, white collar crimes, passing bad checks, meth and drug use. Even espionage.

From all accounts, Pollard was a lousy, self-motivated spy who was an unprofessional bull in the intelligence china shop. His puppy-like eagerness to help Israel damaged Israel’s professional intelligence-gathering capabilities in the United States and burned the careers of Israeli intelligence handlers who might otherwise continue their critical job of keeping Israel one step ahead of its enemies.

The fact is that Pollard, a United States citizen, who was given the trust of the American intelligence establishment, violated that trust. Saying that his moral higher calling was to violate that trust and pass information on to the Israelis (whether or not the Israeli government sanctioned that action) does not remove his culpability for his crime.

Pollard’s spying is different from a lot of other intelligence gathering methods. The mole, when properly handled, provides great raw and processed intelligence data for the country on behalf of which he or she is spying. But moles, once discovered, have no cover. The country they work for might try to extract them, but they are clearly guilty of the crimes they committed. In America, where justice at least approximates fairness, he was found guilty. Do the crime, do the time. Pollard must serve out his sentence. And Israel, while it should continue to ask for his release, should also understand that it’s a pro-forma request: he should not be released for betraying the country to which he swore allegience.

I don’t agree with the American position, where Israel is not given all the information it needs to protect itself. But America is its own soverign nation, and I, as both an Israeli and American citizen, understand that. It’s jejune to think that Pollard could not understand that he was on his own if he was found out. And absurd to think that Israeli, and especially American Jews, cannot understand this basic fact of life in a civilized and law-abiding country.

When I was getting married, I’d asked a person I thought was a good friend to officiate at our wedding in the Galilee. We’d gone over all the texts, and, aside from a mutual trade of rings, was fairly straightforward. He looked it over, then met with us. “You don’t need two rings,” he told us in his gentle, unyielding voice. “You see,” he said, “to give a ring, is to receive one as well.” The (il)logic of this was somehow connected to the fact that if I purchased her from her father, I would receive a bride. I give, I receive.

We dumped him, had our wedding at the crack of dawn, officiated by the town rabbi in his competitor’s synagogue. That afternoon, in front of friends and family, we had a mutual exchange of love, of vows, and of rings.

Today (and this is quoted from the Jerusalem Post):

“Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski … called for a cancellation of the parade. “This is a time to prove real tolerance and maturity and to cancel the march in the heart of Jerusalem for the benefit of all of us,” said the mayor, adding that a cancellation would “renew the strength, recognition, understanding and togetherness which encompass the city.”

I’m slow. To which togetherness was he referring? The violence of the UltraOrthodox, their death threats, and their fascist behavior? The togetherness of joining with Moslem fanatics in an orgy of hatred of that which is other? Or the togetherness where people can celebrate their freedom to be different, and not inflict their will on others?

The funny thing is that Mayor Lupolanski, an UltraOrthodox Jew himself, was stoned by his fellow zealots as he left a simcha in Mea She’arim.

These guys are nuts! Nuttier, in my humble opinion, than the guys dressed in girls clothing with clothespins on their nipples (or angels, like the beefcake above). At least they aren’t out to hurt anyone with anything more than bad style!

In the 1950’s a rapist sowed fear and terror in the streets of Tel Aviv. Panicked citizens demanded government action, and a curfew on women after dark was seen as a reasonable action. Golda Meyer’s response: put a curfew on the men: they’re the ones doing the raping!

It’s clear the UltraOrthodox are not capable of restraining themselves and behaving like law-abiding citizens.

And the police? They’re talking about route changes for the parade. If the Palestinians were doing the rock throwing and garbage burning there’d be dozens of fatalities by now, and Mea She’arim would be under a curfew, with Border Police patroling every nook and cranny.

If a decision needs to be made as to which citizens should be able to exercise their rights to freedom of assembly and speech, the Gay Pride Parade wins hands-down. Start a curfew now on all UltraOrthodox Jews in Jerusalem, and keep it in place until after candle lighting on Friday night. They’re easy to spot. If they show up for the parade and are legitimate in their protests, great! If not, toss ’em in the clink; see if they like spending “shabbos” in jail, treated no better and no worse than the rest of the miscreants de joir.

I guess they prefer Pulsa De’Nura to Dina D’malchute Dina. Busha Ve’cherpa on them, creating Mar’at Ayin on the whole of the Jewish People, people from whom they work so hard to distance themselves.

The ultra-Orthodox won’t help Agunot with relief against husband’s that won’t divorce them, even if it involves insane government expenditures and actions. But they’re more than happy to order their blind faithful into the street to protest a gay rights parade. On one hand they tell them to protest peacefully, at the same time whipping up their fury while decrying their inability too keep said faithful from carrying out acts of violence. And then, just to make sure the pot is well stirred, they announce an official ‘death curse’ (Pulse De’Nura, or whips of fire) against the gay pride day organizers.

Yes, there are rational voices speaking in calm tones, even hopeful ones. But it’s the lunatic fringe, as always, that carries the day in Israeli politics and in how the world perceives us.

In a time where achdut and shalvah should be the tone, to bring together even segments of society that have little or nothing in common, for the good of the nation, our religious intolerants have little to add other than fuel to a fire already burning too brightly. The spider webs of hate have no Temple to which to attach; the strands wrap around each community, each philosophy, and will consume each and every one unless we learn to better clear our minds and our hearts.

Apparently Gallaudet’s incoming president wasn’t “deaf enough” to lead this once-prestigious school for the differently-hearing.

We complain about leadership: good, bad and indifferent. Leaders must be passionate about the cause, but not necessarily of the cause. Sure, it would be great to find a homeless refugee to run the Red Cross; they’d have the real life experience necessary to understand what such people need. MDA? Ditto. Should a blind person be the only qualified president for a school for the blind?

The very nature of the cantankerous debate at Gallaudet shows that, among the deaf, there are different views on the subject of deafness. My cousin wears a cochlear implant, signs and is “mainstream.” Where I work there are some deaf employees that don’t — won’t — speak, but sign instead.

If the students at Gallaudet want to stay in their cave, create a sub-species called “homo sapiens can’t hear the oncoming trafficus” that’s fine. But that institution belongs to all hearing-impaired individuals, not just to ASL bigots.

Adeed Dawisha spoke about partition on NPR. I don’t think he goes far enough; like most ‘faces,’ he’s thinking 1-3 years instead of the unfair, ugly realities of Iraq. Still and all, brave of him to talk about partition.