israeloutlook.com

I love the cynicism and posturing of Arab leaders. They wax eloquent over the brotherhood of Arab and Muslim, while stabbing each other in the back.

In 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of Egypt, started a war he couldn’t win. That much, most people know. What people DO NOT know is that when it became clear that they were losing, Nasser called up the Jordanian King and told him that they were winning. He said that the Arab world would laugh at the Jordanians, if they didn’t get into the fight. King Hussein believed Nasser, and entered the war – and lost badly.

I love the cynicism and posturing of Arab leaders. They wax eloquent over the brotherhood of Arab and Muslim, while stabbing each other in the back.

In 1967, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the leader of Egypt, started a war he couldn’t win. That much, most people know. What people DO NOT know is that when it became clear that they were losing, Nasser called up the Jordanian King and told him that they were winning. He said that the Arab world would laugh at the Jordanians, if they didn’t get into the fight. King Hussein believed Nasser, and entered the war – and lost badly.

Read Full Post »

We are so caught up in our own world view, that we often forget that some people aren’t like us – that they do things for reasons that we find to be horrifying.

Take the situation with Hamas and Hezbollah. (Please!)

They wave their arms and beat their chests and cry over the injustice of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. They cry that they merely (in their own humble way) seek to free their people from slavery.

It’s quite a performance, and they’ve done it enough times that it looks pretty realistic.

We are so caught up in our own world view, that we often forget that some people aren’t like us – that they do things for reasons that we find to be horrifying.

Take the situation with Hamas and Hezbollah. (Please!)

They wave their arms and beat their chests and cry over the injustice of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands. They cry that they merely (in their own humble way) seek to free their people from slavery.

It’s quite a performance, and they’ve done it enough times that it looks pretty realistic.

Read Full Post »

This morning, I will be on my way to a place that has become a traditional target for missiles: Tel Aviv. They haven’t fired any quite that far, but it’s only a manner of time. Jerusalem is safe from missile attack. Tel Aviv is not.

It’s interesting to reflect on how often this has happened before. No. Forget interesting. It’s depressing, but we’ll reflect anyway.

Remember the sixties and seventies? This is all a flashback to those days, and a friend of mine has illustrated this comparison beautifully in her latest post, Home of the Free Because of the Brave. In fact, you should bookmark her blog. Here’s the link:

This morning, I will be on my way to a place that has become a traditional target for missiles: Tel Aviv. They haven’t fired any quite that far, but it’s only a manner of time. Jerusalem is safe from missile attack. Tel Aviv is not.

It’s interesting to reflect on how often this has happened before. No. Forget interesting. It’s depressing, but we’ll reflect anyway.

Remember the sixties and seventies? This is all a flashback to those days, and a friend of mine has illustrated this comparison beautifully in her latest post, Home of the Free Because of the Brave. In fact, you should bookmark her blog. Here’s the link:

Read Full Post »

There is always room for criticism. Always.

None of us is perfect, and that goes for Israel. That’s why, when the dust settles, we’ll look at what happened and see if we couldn’t have dealt with this situation more efficiently. We’ll try to see how we could have done more to minimize the damage to life, and the quality of life, among the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

But, we do that when the dust settles – not when we are being attacked. This is NOT the time to criticize Israel for defending herself. This is NOT the time for armchair generals to dictate strategy to people who have spent their entire lives trying to find a way out of this mess.

There is always room for criticism. Always.

None of us is perfect, and that goes for Israel. That’s why, when the dust settles, we’ll look at what happened and see if we couldn’t have dealt with this situation more efficiently. We’ll try to see how we could have done more to minimize the damage to life, and the quality of life, among the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

But, we do that when the dust settles – not when we are being attacked. This is NOT the time to criticize Israel for defending herself. This is NOT the time for armchair generals to dictate strategy to people who have spent their entire lives trying to find a way out of this mess.

Read Full Post »

You would think that after 14 years of living in Israel, that I would be used to this.

You would think that after more than a hundred years of being in the land of Israel, that my Jewish neighbors, friends and compatriots would be used to this.

We are not.

I hardly even know how to describe the feeling. I am outraged. I am horrified. I am dumfounded.

It’s like having a relative who is psychotic. (I have one of those.) She’s sweet and kind and lovable 99% of the time, but 1% of the time you will find a knife between your ribs, if you stop paying attention.

You would think that after 14 years of living in Israel, that I would be used to this.

You would think that after more than a hundred years of being in the land of Israel, that my Jewish neighbors, friends and compatriots would be used to this.

We are not.

I hardly even know how to describe the feeling. I am outraged. I am horrified. I am dumfounded.

It’s like having a relative who is psychotic. (I have one of those.) She’s sweet and kind and lovable 99% of the time, but 1% of the time you will find a knife between your ribs, if you stop paying attention.

Read Full Post »