In south Israel, school’s out as adults bicker

Increasingly, it looks as if Palestinian terrorists in Gaza are aiming their rockets at Israeli schools.

For a week now, some 250,000 Israeli kids have stayed away from schools, a situation which has greatly disrupted normal life in the country’s south. The government and the IDF have given the all-clear for children to return to school, but rockets keep on being fired. The mayors of the major cities in the South, together with many parents and teachers, have ignored the state’s orders and have kept the schools closed. A stalemate, with Israeli children caught in the middle between quarreling adults. Continue reading

Talking points for the Israeli nuclear family

Since some of you have been speaking out of turn, shooting your mouths off, and making up your own minds about what you can and cannot say around here, the following Talking Points have been issued by the Ministry of Hysteria to all Israeli nuclear families. The talking points are for your use in travel or business abroad, around the water-coolers, dinner conversations, random talks with strangers at airports, train and bus stations, ferries, kiosks, hotel lobbies, or overseas tourist information desks. Please represent your country in the best possible manner, and stick to the message. Remember, if you’re not with us, you’re not with us. Continue reading

The Day After Israel Attacks Iran

Creative Commons. IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Creative Commons. IDF Spokesperson's Unit

Voice of Israel from Jerusalem,

Shalom, the time is now 6 am and here is the news,

in the studio, this is Rivki Dangot, Continue reading

Israel to Iran: Do you get the picture?

When it comes to sending signals, a picture is worth a thousand words. And lately, Israel has been sending a lot pictures to get its message across.

Just over the past week, the Israeli defense establishment has released the following pictures of its set pieces:

The Ministry of Defense has released pictures of an Arrow 3 anti-missile defense system test. [Message to Iran: We can hit your long-range missiles, your threats of massive rocket attack have been noted and we're prepared].

Continue reading

As its neighborhood roils, Israel must work closer with America

Over the past few weeks there have been a growing number of signs that relations between Washington and Jerusalem are even more strained than they’ve been over the past few years.

The US Administration has gone out of its way to make it clear to the Israeli leadership that it believes sanctions against Iran are working and need more time to evolve. The US does not want Israel to launch a strike against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and there exists a certain amount of unease at Israel’s opacity when it comes to sharing its Iran plans with America.

Where do Israel and America’s interests dovetail, and where do they part? Continue reading

Israel’s existential threat crisis

I’m trying to make up my mind, you know, about ‘it’. Should I be worried about it, really worried about it, somewhat worried about it? Should I panic? Should I pack an emergency suitcase? Or is it not as serious as some people make it out to be?

As a Jew born into the generation of Jews who are lucky enough to have come back to our historical homeland – after 2,000 years of exile and horror – you can understand my anxiety when serious people tell me that Iran’s nuclear program threatens to put an end to this historic homecoming. Continue reading

Love in the time of Uranium

“America’s commitment and my commitment to Israel and Israel’s security is unshakeable. It is unshakeable. I am proud to say that no U.S. administration has done more in support of Israel’s security than ours. None. Don’t let anybody else tell you otherwise. It is a fact. We are determined to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. And that’s why, rest assured, we will take no options off the table.” – US President Barack Obama, December 17, 2011

Continue reading

Netanyahu and Obama are running against each other

Some thoughts on the situation

1. Silvan Shalom, the Likud’s number 2 man, had no idea that PM Netanyahu was planning to bring forward the Likud primaries date. He was caught completely by surprise. And just for that, he doesn’t deserve to be Likud leader. In this profession, and in this neighborhood, if you’re not constantly trying to politically or militarily outmaneuver your opponents, chances are they will get you. The wolf and the sheep have not laid down together yet here. If Shalom doesn’t know that by now, he’ll never know it, and he can’t lead the Likud, or this country. Continue reading

Can Israel live with a nuclear Iran?

Some thoughts about the situation following the release of the IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. So, nu, do they have nuclear bombs or not? Are they clearly trying to make them, or is it still not clear? Does the report have a smoking gun or does it not have a smoking gun? Was the report watered down at the request of China and Russia or was it not? Do we still have time or is time up? What happens now? Continue reading

Israeli intelligence rules, OK?

The conventional wisdom around these parts in the days following the return of Gilad Shalit in a costly prisoner exchange deal is that the much-vaunted Israeli establishment was handed a resounding failure by failing to locate the missing soldier, and proposing a viable rescue operation. Continue reading

The Middle East is on the move

The Middle East is on the move.

The Old Syrians are on the way down, and the new Syrians, whoever they may be, are on their way up.

The old Libyans are digging in, and the New Libyans are trying to flush them out.

The Americans are on the way out of Iraq, and the Iranians are on their way in.

The Iranians are also on their way into Syria, Bahrain, Lebanon and Gaza.

Christians are on their way out of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Gaza.

The Iranians sent Lebanese to Moscow to meet with the Russians, and Mexicans to kill Saudis in America.

Turkey is on its way back in to the Ottoman Empire’s stomping grounds, and the Kurds from Northern Iraq are heading into Turkey, and Turkey is chasing them back into Northern Iraq.

Egypt is moving sideways, and so are Tunisia and Jordan.

An Israeli soldier went from Gaza to the Sinai and finally to his home in the Galilee. One thousand Palestinian terrorists left Israel and went to the West Bank, Gaza, Qatar, Syria and Turkey.

Saudi Arabia takes one step forward [letting women vote hey, it is 2011 after all] and two steps back [not letting them drive, as well as the odd beheading]

Yemen is the only place not going anywhere.

Some thoughts on the Gilad Shalit deal

1. Hamas number 2 Mousa Abu Marzouk has apparently opened a Hamas office in Cairo to prepare for a new base for the terror group. This is an extremely interesting development, as Hamas’ offices in Damascus are looking rather shaky the deeper Bashar Assad’s Syria sinks into oblivion. Will Hamas leader Khaled Mashal join Marzouk? If and when Hamas leaves Syria, what will that mean for the organization, and its new relationship with Egypt? It’s natural for Hamas to be based in post-Mubarak Egypt, where the Muslim brotherhood [Hamas' mothership] is a resurgent political power and is sure to play a prominent role in any future political constellation there. If and when Mashal leaves Syria, it would signal that Hamas has bet against the survivability of Bashar Assad. Continue reading

Postcards from the edge

As I got home this afternoon from work, I saw a postcard in my postbox, and thought perhaps one of my friends had sent me a nice memo from some far-flung adventure.

Alas, it was not to be, for what I got instead was a sunny, yet disconcertingly ominous postcard from the Israel Defense Forces Homefront Command wishing me a happy and safe Jewish new year.

Happy and Safe New Year

On the flip side of the postcard, I noticed that it wasn’t specifically addressed to me, but that the army had put the same postcard in all of my neighbor’s postboxes too. How sad, I thought, not to be sent a personal postcard from the IDF. At the bottom of the postcard the army left us all this message: “A small tip for a happy and safe new year: Check where your protected space is and what equipment it needs to be stocked with.”

"Check your protected space"

So are they trying to tell us something?

I think I’m going to send the IDF Homefront Command a postcard in return, perhaps with a picture of me wearing a gas mask and sitting in my lounge with my bags packed in front of a giant atlas of the world, and on it I’ll write: Dearest army, please don’t send me any more postcards, I’m already a bit jumpy. Thanks, and have a happy new year.

For over 2,000 years the Jews said they were coming back, didn’t the Arabs notice?

Some thoughts on the situation.

1. Arab Israeli Member of Knesset Dr. Ahmed Tibi traveled to NY with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to advise him during his bid for statehood. Tibi stayed with the Palestinian delegation at an expensive hotel in NY. Tibi even sat with the Palestinian delegation at the General Assembly hall. The Knesset allows its members a budget for “outreach with the voters.” Obviously, this budget comes from Israeli taxpayers. So which voters am I paying for Tibi to reach out to? Continue reading

Can we officially become the 51st state now?

Let’s face it folks, we can’t make it in this neighborhood by ourselves.

We’ve lost all our friends, and we’re not making any new ones. And more and more, wild animals are taking the place of inspired revolutionaries. The Arab Spring is turning into a clusterfuck before our very eyes.

The 2010 Gaza flotilla organizers failed to reach their destination, but their ultimate goal of causing us major diplomatic harm has been achieved. The Islamic Jihad terrorists who last month killed 8 Israelis couldn’t have wished for a better outcome than 80 million Egyptians ultimately turning against Israel. Continue reading

Playing Chicken with Turkey

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is quickly becoming Israel’s most dangerous enemy, and I think the time has come for him to be treated as such.

Erdogan has cut diplomatic and defense ties; cancelled military maneuvers; he’s going after our gas reserves in the sea; says his country will sue Israeli soldiers at The Hague; will take Israel’s blockade to the ICC; and now threatens to send his navy our way. Continue reading

It’s September, is the sky falling yet?

Good morning and welcome to September 2011.

For about a year now, we Israelis have been told to fear the onset of this month, as if September somehow signifies the start of our ultimate doom, as if September, instead of bringing a little relief from the cruel July-August heat, is actually going to get hotter.

But it’s already 9:30 in the morning on the first day of September, and, looking out my office window, I see a few clouds, but the sun is out, the highway is clogged as usual, and the parking lot is slowly filling up.

I’m personally not feeling more fearful than I did yesterday, or last week, but I could be wrong; I’ll recheck a couple of times today to make sure [I don't want to be breaking any laws or not following any instructions]. But for now, it’s just the usual anxiety about the state of my health, the state of my bank account, the state of the transportation system, and in a general, psycho-somatic way, the State of my forefathers. Continue reading

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 95 other followers