Israel's 'Toy Soldiers' draw fire

A summer camp for Jewish tourists, like teenager Daniel Roth, who come to the Holy Land just to play toy soldiers, has inspired Chris Hedges, a veteran Middle East reporter, to post a fervent piece on Truthdig. He examines the inequalities and iniquities of religious-inspired weapons training gigs in a foreign land. Once you think it through, this IDF gun camp's not quite as "marva-lous" as its on-line hype.
Hedges writes:

If you are an American Jew and you join hundreds of teenagers from Europe and Mexico for an eight-week training course run by the Israel Defense Forces, you can post your picture wearing an Israeli army uniform and holding an automatic weapon on MySpace.

The Marva program, part summer camp part indoctrination, was launched in Israel in 1981. It allows participants, who must be Jewish and between the ages of 18 and 28, to fire weapons, live in military barracks in the Negev desert and saunter around in an Israeli military uniform saluting and taking long hikes with military packs. The Youth and Education Corps of the Israel Defense Forces run four 120-strong training sessions a year....
How have we reacted when we discovered that American Muslims were being taught in a foreign country to fire machine guns at paper figures and simulate military maneuvers? And what about the summer schools in Gaza organized by Islamic Jihad designed to train young Palestinians in the basics of military life? These Gaza camps, uncovered in 2001, were widely denounced by Israel as proof that the Palestinians were teaching their children to hate and kill.

The argument in favor of camps in Israel, as opposed to camps in Pakistan, is that these young men and women are not going to come back and use what they have learned to harm Americans. They are not terrorists. Muslims, however, have not cornered the market on terrorism and violence. Radical Jews have also been involved in terrorist attacks in Israel and the United States... The program inculcates hatred and a belief in the efficacy of violence to solve the problems in the Middle East. It identifies Israel with militarism. It feeds the idea that a Jew born in Brooklyn has a birthright to settle in Israel that is denied to an American of Palestinian descent.

Jerusalem, aside from being one of the most beautiful cities in the world, is one of the most literate, creative and intellectual. Do these young men and women really know the best of Israel by spending eight weeks playing soldier and glorifying the military? Is the cause of Israel advanced by mirroring the twisted militarism of Islamic fundamentalists?...The danger of a military program such as these is that it solidifies a mind-set of us and them. It romanticizes violence.
(Wheee!) It widens the divide that leads to conflict. It makes dialogue impossible. There are great Israeli institutions. A summer working for them, rather than wearing an army uniform, unleashing bursts of automatic fire in the desert and singing Israeli patriotic songs, might actually help.

photos courtesy of MySpace and Marva's website

It's Official: Blair's the new Mid-East Peace Envoy

It took 24 hours for the Quartet to sing from the same page, but the job of Middle East Peace Envoy has been accepted by Britain's Tony Blair, the man who took ten years to convert Cool Brittannia to Cruel Brittannia in the view of most Middle Easterners. It remains to be seen whether he waives the rules for conflict resolution in this seething troublespot. Will he deal with Hamas? (Mahmoud Abbas, the West's choice for Palestinian President insists on 'no dialogue with putschists, murderers and terrorists') Will the man who helped quell the troubles in Northern Ireland make any difference in the land of Guns and Moses?

"He's not superman, doesn't have a cape," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

"He's not designed to be doing that. What he is designed to do is to work as an aggressive facilitator"

Ah, so that's what Blair is meant to be. Bush assured a London tabloid that "Blair ain't my poodle", and now the White House has clarified what kind of cute animal tricks it has in mind.

One of Blair's last meetings as Prime Minister was office with California's musclebound Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is as close to a superhero as US politics can get. His Austrian father famously was in the SS. The wartime exploits of Gustav Schwarzenegger, a brownshirt and "Chained Dog", have caused critics to hound the Republican politician, who clinked glasses with the ex-Nazi Kurt Waldheim at his own wedding banquet. Arnie has been able to make nice with conciliatory visits to Jerusalem, after these revelations, and even can negotiate family feasts with a bunch of Kennedys (his in-laws). The larger-than-life politician may be able to lend Blair some handy diplomatic catch phrases, ie "Hasta la Vista, Baby..." to replace that one that Ms Condi Rice seems to have worn out: "I'll be back!"
Tony is eagerly changing hats for this new role, says the BBC.

smoke signals?

Photo of Jewish passover rites, from Associated Press, shows some Orthodox families burning bread in Jerusalem before 11 am.

In the midst of this Passover holiday, which celebrates the Jews' return from the wilderness, there are decidedly mixed signals from Israel's leader, who rated a dismal three per cent approval rating in one recent poll.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has called on King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and other Arab heads of state to talk peace inside Israel--what they consider the belly of the beast--and he suggests that peace can come to the region within five years. Some analysts think that the shifting situation with Iran may be behind this diplomatic step.

Many hawkish Israelis are appalled by this notion, and consider it a sellout to even consider revival of the 2002 Saudi peace plan. Arab analysts shrug it aside as empty talk from a weak leader, and doubt that anyone would show up.
According to the BBC, a regional meeting is likelier to take place outside of Israel.

Dig it--or not?

Mounted police at Jaffa gate, helicopters aloft--- lots of fanfare herald this particular archaeological dig. Historical, hysterical, whatever: the controversial salvage operation going on in Jerusalem's Archaeological Garden, while stone throwers are set to pelt a back-hoe despite the glowering glances of 2000 armed cops, is truly a weird scene.

The plan to refurbish this sensitive place in the Old City has predictably affronted Muslims, who accuse Israelis of defiling their holy places or even plotting to destroy them to make way for a third Temple and bring on Armageddon.



But angry archaeologists are weighing in, too. Some 18 professors of archaeology objected last March to Olmert's office plan to fix a new causeway from the SW corner of the Temple Mount up to the domed Muslim shrine. Their petition was ignored. Historians and Islamic clerics both may feel they get shafted when city engineers dig down into the relic-strewn rubble held holy by three monotheistic religions. There's a rich mother lode of knowledge at stake, and the timing couldn't be worse. (Defence Minister Amir Peretz pointed out yesterday, rather belatedly, that fomenting chaos at a sacred Islamic shrine when trying to initiate a Middle East peace process is counterproductive.) There is a lot of vicious posturing on both sides of this issue

Izzy hopes that the outcry from the Arab street to desist won't make Israeli officials all the more stubborn and maybe spark off a new Intifada. (Though some analysts say that Palestinians will grasp at any excuse to resurrect this ugly option.)

The detention of the Islamic Movement's head and six of his cronies by the border police probably has added fuel to this explosive situation. Prime Minister Olmert may think this is a key issue to show the nation that he does have the stones to lead it. Rock on, Ehud, but choose your moment. Don't antagonize the Muslims just now. If Ariel Sharon could stir from his coma and advise, he'd probably caution about potential riots after Friday's prayer tomorrow in the Old City.

"Jahrusalem" - respect, man.

This is the only kind of dread that should be tolerated in Israel.
At last night's reggae concert at HaMa'abada (The Lab), a smallish alternative music venue in Jerusalem, the crowd was totally captivated by U-Roy (pictured right) and Junior Murvin. The mixed audience, wearing forelocks and dreadlocks and every conceivable kind of Rastafarian headgear or kipa, stood and swayed to the beat. For a moment, it seemed like all it might require for peace in the Middle East is heavy bass and drums, horns and guitar, and a little mutual respect, man, in Zion.
Tres-Ann Cooke, a Jamaican pacifist, told Izzy that Grandpa U-Roy, resplendant in his yellow suit and grey dreadlocks, way outperformed Ziggy Marley. She attended that gig on Israel's Mediterrranean coast last August, just after the Lebanon War. It was meant to be happy clappy, but she thought it bombed.