It looks obvious

The short review of the previous round of armed conflict between the US and Iran is very interesting. It add some missing perspective. I would be very careful drawing conclusions from this article toward possible strike against Iran now. It is very interesting to note how just few years before the first gulf war the different countries played different rolls:

When its shipping came under attack, Iran retaliated against Kuwait, a financial supporter of Iraq, by focusing its attacks on Kuwaiti-bound ships. Under heavy pressure, Kuwait turned to the U.S. with the idea of re-flagging some of its tankers. In January 1987, the U.S. agreed to place Kuwaiti ships under the Stars and Stripes, and dispatched naval forces to the Gulf to protect them.

The U.S. escort plan was code-named “Operation Earnest Will.” To avoid errant attacks by the Iraqis, such as the one that had occurred against the USS Stark in May 1987, the U.S. worked closely with Saddam Hussein’s regime. To facilitate communication between Iraqi jets and U.S. ships, a UHF monitoring frequency was provided to the Iraqis on a monthly basis by the U.S. military attaché in Baghdad. The U.S. also supplied Iraq with the convoy routes in advance. In light of subsequent events, this fairly extensive U.S.-Iraqi cooperation has been kept very low profile.

The close alliance between Iraq, Quwait and the US seems very unlikely just few years after when it was important to, finally, notice how villain was Saddam Hussein.

June 1982. I’m walking in school with radio, listening the news -  reports about forces movements in places I didn’t know that existed before (and that I later learn about in first hand). I remember the English teacher, that didn’t like me, kissing me when I announced about the cease fire and the relief in her eyes. Her husband, my electronic teacher, was there in reserved duty.

That summer I went to summer camp, organized by the army, preparing us for future rolls of combatant soldiers and officer. We were talking with a paratrooper that “was there”. We admired him and were jealous. We were worried that no fighting will be left for us when it will be our turn. I guess nothing can compete with the stupidity of the youth.

At least two guys that were with me at that summer camp died in Lebanon. We spent our youth in the mountains of Lebanon and the streets of Gaza and Hebron, killing and dying. We kept fighting the war of June 1982 telling ourself that this is the only way to protect our families back home.

Watching the the trailer of the new animation movie - Waltz with Bashir reminded me this summer. If the movie is as good as the trailer, and from what I’m here it is, it should be a great movie.

I have to admit that this news is rather surprising:

Bahrain’s state news agency says that King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa issued a royal decree appointing a female Jewish lawmaker to the post of ambassador.

[...]

Nono is the first Jewish woman in the Shura Council, which includes a
Christian woman among its 11 female legislators. All its members are appointed by the king. The elected 40-member lower house has only one woman lawmaker.

She replaced her cousin Ibrahim Nono, who held the seat in parliament for four years. A businesswoman who lives both in Bahrain and London, Nono also is the first Jewish woman to head a local rights organization, the Bahrain Human Rights Watch.

What a brave woman!

Going back to work the day after arriving back from Israel is not the most fun thing I ever done. Trying to fight the hundreds of e-mails and many issues, which I completely ignored when vacationed, while fighting the jet-lag is making the usual Monday “back to work” mood even worse. The truth is that it all would be much easier if I wouldn’t comeback with mixed feeling from Israel - Some sad thoughts about the levantinization of Israel, but I need to recover from the jet-lag before righting this post…

One of the small funs of being in the middle of November in Eilat, in what the hotel calls “on the water room”, is to check the weather at home and see this:

It looks much nicer here

Few more pictures can be found here

Coming back to visit home after long time, it is somewhat reassuring to see that somethings never change: My mother wonderful cooking, The traffic jam at Raanana junction and the knowing that no meter what I’ll get lost driving in Jerusalem…

Few more pictures can be fond here

After two days of trying,unsuccessfully, to get some help from my mother’s ISP technical support I have to conclude that I live to long outside of Israel. It seems that customer service here is very well trained to get rid of the caller as fast as possible with the least satisfactory solution - most commonly sending the caller to some other part of the organization. Internet service here is, apparently, divided between the ISP and the facilities provider (i.e. the cable company or the phone company) - and their technical support is very well trained in sending the caller to the other party.

I just don’t understand why the Israelis are willing to live with this horrible service, but this is yet another sign of living in the US for a decade…

Charlie Savage,The author of Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency, reviews at the Atlantic the accumulation of power by the executive branch and he is suggesting:

In 1944, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson warned that each new assertion of executive power, once validated into precedent, lies about “like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need. Every repetition imbeds that principle more deeply in our law and thinking and expands it to new purposes.”

In the six decades since, presidents of both parties have seldom hesitated to use all the powers available to them. So what will future presidents do with the arsenal they will inherit from Bush and Cheney? So far, the 2008 candidates have volunteered little about what limits, if any, they would respect if entrusted with the presidency. It’s time to start asking.

Knowing Giuliani’s authoritarian tendencies and Clinton’s first round at the white house, we should be worry.

Analyzing the different reasons for the inherent weakness and inefficiency of the modern political system in the Arab world Fouad Ajami included the beauty of the Arabic poetry, and its influence on the the daily culture. And while poetry is beautiful it is lacking the practicality so needed when discussing political issues. However, it is so much better than American Idol:

Imagine an American TV network deciding to take the American Idol format and apply it to poetry; lining up poets to read their poems in front of temperamental judges while the nation gets out its mobile phones to vote for its favorite poet. One can be sure the show would not survive the first commercial break before the chastened executives pull the plug on it and replace it with yet another series on the Life and Times of Nicole Ritchie. Yet, that was exactly the formula for the latest TV sensation to take Arab countries by storm.

 I recommend listening to the clips embedded in the post, even if you don’t understand Arabic, it is still beautiful and give some first hand impression.

And from poetry to a dance, a war dance. Reading this excellent Hebrew sport blog I learned about an interesting tradition of the New Zealand national rugby team - they are performing before every game a traditional Maori war dance name Haka. Beside the obvious observation of the relative similarities between rugby game and tribal warfare I’m wondering if the adoption of the Maori dance is part of more integration of cultures that happened in New Zealand, compared with other colonized parts of the world.  

Israel, and its foreign policy, are being criticized for variety of reasons. Sometime the critic is valid and justified, sometime it is honest but wrong and sometime it has questionable motives. But blaming Israel for Global Warming is, by far, the most original I encounter…

Well I guess Israel and the neighboring Arab countries have to settle all their disputes, not for the sake of peace and stability but because it is distracting. This is a compelling argument…