Rethinking Gaza

If you've been following any Israeli news source, you've probably read that rocket attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip have been increasing over the last couple of weeks. The small city of Sderot which is only miles from Gaza is the location most often hit. The rockets are generally small and very erratic but they have claimed lives and sent most of the area into fear. The IDF has responded and have prevented numerous attacks, but also have killed civilians. Recently, a sort of cease fire has been put into place, but no one is confident that the cease will hold (in fact there have been three rockets shot into Israel since the cease fire).

It's a rather serious situation and many in Israel are rethinking the decision to evacuate from Gaza unilaterally 18 months ago. It's not as if the general public thought that an enhanced presence in Gaza was a good thing, and most civilians, especially the non-religious ones, didn't want their sons serving and defending a few number of people in the Gaza strip. However, the withdrawal was billed as a way to bring security (if not peace) to a volatile border and there is no doubt, that quiet has not come to the Gaza Israel border. In fact the Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped by Hamas in July is still in captivity and there has been very little progress in securing his release.

The future of Gaza is in remarkable flux. Constant tensions between Hamas and Fatah, Israel and Palestine, Orthodox and Secular will continue to plague the area -- hopefully the cease fire and some open dialogue will surface and better days are on the horizon.

Gay Pride ... Jerusalem

Last week after days of protest and controversy I attened Jerusalem's Gay Pride parade, which actually turned into more of Gay Pride Rally. Believe me -- the rally was much much more fun than the parade ever could have been. One of Israels top hip hop bands played, it was a great day and despite threats the protests were kept far away from the rally.

The ultra orthodox Jews were protesting the parade for weeks, including blocking streets, burning tires and mild skirmishes with police. During the week the situations in Gaza began to escalate (more to follow in a future blog) and all groups, the LGBT community, Police/Government, and Ultra Orthodox were all able to claim some sort of victory by turning the parade into a rally.

Two years ago a fantatical Ultra Orthodox Jew stabbed three people that were marching in the parade so security alerts were remarkably high. Of course, the irony of Gay Life in Jerusalem is that it seems homophobia it is the only issue in the country that can bring muslim, jewish and christian leaders together.

Check out Jon Stewart's great piece on Gay Pride Jerusalem.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=F2SGKs_eSu8

Man's Shabbat

The first Friday night of every month the male members of my class get together for what they term a Man’s Shabbat. (Yeah, yeah – I can see the feminists in the room saying “isn’t every Shabbat man’s Shabbat”, and I agree, but that is not the point.)

The men of HUC get together the first Shabbat of every month and eat “manly” food, like potatoes and Chili – with meat. They drink beer (more to follow) and play cards or play guitar. (yes you read that right, they play guitar at man’s Shabbat). I’m not sure, but rumor is that they scratch themselves and belch a lot.

I have never been to a man’s Shabbat. I’ve been invited --- they wouldn’t want to exclude me, but it’s really not my style. You see,

1. My idea of hanging with the boys has nothing to do with man’s Shabbat and --- unless it involves smashing them --- has nothing to do with guitars.

2. I like spending time with women

3. I was never in a fraternity, especially a Jewish one! Which is where, I think, a lot of this male bonding over Shabbat – let’s eat tacos, talk about chicks and make off color jokes – stems from. (Not that I don’t enjoy any of those activities, in fact they are some of my favorite pastimes) but I’m not longing for my A E Pi, Z B T, Duke lacrosse days.
   
   
4. The men at HUC don’t like sports. Which to me seems like an obvious staple of any Man’s Shabbat. Sure individuals may like the Packers or the Lakers or Michigan, but I think there is one other true sports fan here.

5. Any Shabbat that ends with some 24 year old guy singing “The dreamer keeps a dreaming” really isn’t for me.

6. HUC students don’t really know how to drink. Which I think may be a problem with Jews in general. Basically, they either don’t drink or drink so that they get drunk. (this is not an indictment on either) But, it’s very hard to be the only one that wants to have a drink at dinner - “scotch on the rocks – you must be kidding me.” Also as a side note, when they do go to a bar they don’t know how to tip either – but don’t get me started.

Furthermore, when they drink sometimes they have drinks with fruit in them. Fruit in a drink – at man’s Shabbat.

I’ve promised the masses that I’d go to one. I may. If I do you I’ll keep you posted.

Rabin's Memory

10 years ago, when I was living in Israel for the first time, I went to the one year memorial of the anniversary of the death of Yitzhak Rabin. It was one of the most incredible events I've ever been to -- 100,000 + people in Tel Aviv for the rally.

This past weekend, I went to the 11th anniversary rally. It was, as you can imagine, very somber. Not only was it a memorial rally, but the state of peace in Israel is at one of the lowest levels it's ever been. The memories of this summer's war still linger, cyclical violence occurs in Gaza and recently, an extreme hawk Avigdor Liberman (i even like Joe better) was appointed to serve as a member of the Government.

David Grossman, the keynote speaker at the rally and one of the star authors in Israel today said of Liberman's joining the government: "The appointment of a habitual pyromaniac as director of the nation's firefighters." Grossman, a known peace activist and celebrated writer, son died in the war in Lebanon this past July. I've linked the translation of his speech below. It's remarkable.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/784034.html

It was great to be in attendance. Also speaking was Dalia Rabin (Yitzhak's granddaughter) and performing was a who's who of Israeli musicians including David Broza and Eviv Gefen. Visibly absent were any politicians (they weren't invited) and anyone wearing a kippah (they don't agree). All in all a fantastic evening ... we can only hope that things move towards peace. Let's get back on track