Lift Off!
Elana's art news:

Five of Elana's drawings have been selected to be exhibited at Beit Daniel at 62 B'nei Dan Street in Tel Aviv. The opening is on Monday, the 4th of April, at 8 PM. All who are in Israel are invited to attend. We're really looking forward to it.

As big as this news about the show is, I'm delighted to announce that Elana has been accepted to the MFA program at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, which had us both doing the happy dance approximately fifteen minutes ago.

!!!!!!!!!
- posted by @ 9:25 PM

 
They Must be on Speed...
On Sunday our friends Carina and Luke, whose wedding we attended back in November, arrived in Israel for a one-week vacation in Israel. I can't believe the pace they've managed to keep.

We drove to the airport with Celwyn, Jacob's mom's boyfriend, to drop him off for his flight back to the U.S. and then pick Carina and Luke up. They were considerate enough to arrange it so that we dropped Cel off, parked, and waited for about twenty minutes. The timing worked out perfectly. We expected them to be exhausted; the trip from LA is about as long as a trip could get, and they were travelling for about twenty-four hours (a layover in New York included). But, no, they were actually pretty wired, and eager to get on with their vacation already; with only a week here, they didn't want to waste any time at all. So the four of us marched to the Old City and checked out the Holy Sepulchre (the Church, that is), the Kotel, Dormition Abbey, and a few shops; we had lunch there, then we walked back for dinner. This was when their exhaustion hit them, so we drove them back to their place (they are renting an apartent a few blocks away) to let them sleep.

However, the schedule was merciless; they wanted to see the Dead Sea and Masada, and Monday was the only time we could arrange. We left Jerusalem at quarter of seven--they were well rested and wired again--to beat the traffic and get to Masada early. We hiked up the Snake Path; less than twenty-four hours after disembarking the plane, they were atop Masada. Our day wasn't done; we explored the ruins before driving to 'Ein Boqeq for lunch, and then back up the Dead Sea coast to 'Ein Gedi, where we went into the spa for floating in the Sea, the mud, and the mineral baths.

Tuesday, while Elana and I were at our schools, they traipsed back up to the Old City and explored on the own, and had the all-to-common experience of being denied entry to the Dome of the Rock for not being Muslims. That night, when we met up again, we took them to Emek Refa'im for their first shawarma (okay, not the first, but their first real one). Yesterday they hit up the Israel and Bible Lands Museum, then accompanied us to Tel Aviv for an art opening at Gallery 33, that of Philadelphia-based painter Stuart Shils. Today Elana and I are back at school, and I'm not sure exactly what they are doing; our plans for Friday or to visit Ashdod with them, and then on Saturday and Sunday head up to the Galilee before their return flight to LA on Monday.

It's been great to have them around. It's too bad they're here for such a short time, but wonderful and wondrous that they have such energy.

Today is Purim in the un-walled cities in the world, like Tel Aviv and everywhere else; however, for cities with walls, such as Jerusalem, it is not until tomorrow. This is because the evil Persian wazir Haman, in the Purim story, planned to kill all the Jews in the unwalled cities first and the Jews in the walled cities second. However, since tomorrow is a Friday and Purim cannot fall on a Friday or Saturday, in Jerusalem and Yafo and other "walled" cities, it will be celebrated on Sunday. So for those of you in the unwalled cities in North America--this specifically does not go out to the Jews of Quebec City today--Chag Purim Same'ach!
- posted by @ 12:02 PM

 
My Best Friend's Wedding
Two days ago, my childhood best friend, Jacob, got married.

Jacob and I are fortunate enough to have attended each other's weddings now, despite having lost touch over a number of years during college. We saw each other over summers during the four years of University, and reconnected around when Elana and I got married. In fact, I joked to Jacob at the wedding that he was kind enough to travel to our wedding in LA and then to travel to us in Jerusalem for his wedding. He, of course, made Aliyah last year.

As happens in Israel, it didn't take him long to find his bride. Her name is Esther Tova; we had met her a couple of times before, once when we went out to dinner with them and once at the engagement party.

The wedding was great: incredibly high energy and lots of fun. Jacob is khazarah b'tshuva, which means that he has become Orthodox after being secular. The ceremony was longer than ours, and very comprehensive; the khupah took place on the tayelet, the Promenade, in view of the Old City and the site of the Temple. Immediately after the breaking of the glass, Jacob grabbed his bride and the two of them madly dashed away--to where, we were uncertain, but the running escape was quite unexpected. There was much laughter and joy, and amazing energetic dancing. Because it was an Orthodox wedding, the dancing was separated by a mekhitza, a barrier. The women danced with Esther Tova and the men with Jacob; every once in a while, someone would bring them a glass of water and a chair to sit on. I, of course, did not see Esther Tova during the dancing (except when the two were lifted on chairs so they could see each other over the barrier), but speaking about Jacob, I have to say that while I thought that I was energetic during my wedding, he really put me to shame. The dancing was raucous, loud, uninhibited and spontaneous. Even the Rebbes were shakin' it. I could not imagine a better wedding for Jacob; I've never seen him so happy, and Elana and I were thrilled to be there.

As a sidenote, our experience at the wedding underscored exactly how small the world's Jewish community is, and how focused it seems to be on Jerusalem itself. Our friend Sechy came at our invitation; Jacob had mentioned a few days earlier that he loved that Jerusalem weddings were crashed, so to speak. That is to say, the couple invites their nearest and dearest, and they bring others along, and then sometimes unknown passers-by will just join in the simcha. At the wedding, Sechy, who unlike us is integrated into the Orthodox community, ran into a good number of people whom she knew. We had our share of coincidences, as well. Besides the young man who asked me to daven who happens to share my Hebrew name and has my middle name as his family name, the son of Elana's teacher Israel was the bass player in the band and the guy who played Sagot in the production of Picasso at the Lapin Agile which I directed in 2000 was there as a classmate of Jacob's from Yeshiva. Of course, Jacob's family, some of whom I hadn't seen since middle school, were also there, but I won't put that down to coincidence.

From the way that Jacob and Esther Tova were looking into each other's eyes during the whole ceremony, and the gentle chemistry we have seen between them on other occasions, we have no fears for their future together. What goes without saying should in this case be said: we wish them all the best for a life of joy, love, and fulfillment.

I spoke to Jacob on the phone yesterday, and I asked him how he was holding up, now that it's all over. He replied happily, "Brother, it's just beginning." Amen.
- posted by @ 10:59 AM

 
The Israeli Brand of Racism
A number of events recently have drawn my attention to a side of Israel which I would rather ignore, but cannot: Israeli racism. Now I want to add an important disclaimer at the outset here: I by no means agree with the propagandists who brazenly slap an "APARTHEID" sticker on the Jewish state, any more than I agree with anyone who uses "Nazi" and "fascist" interchangeably. But more on that in a moment. "Apartheid" is a specific term and does not apply to Israel by any stretch of the imagination: all citizens of Israel have an equal vote, whether they be Jewish or Christian, Moroccan or Arab or French or Chinese (yes, I do know a couple of Chinese Israelis).

But Israel does have a racist side, as do, sadly, most places in the world. One way this racism presents itself is from one group of immigrants directed at another; usually, it is the older, "more established" immigrant communities that look down on the newer ones. This leaves the Ethiopian Jews in the luckless position of having arrived here after everyone else. The other major groups of Jewish immigrants are Russians and Eastern Europeans ("Ashkenazim"), Western Europeans ("Sephardim"), Persians and Arabs ("Mizrachim"), Moroccans, and by far the smallest group, North Americans (this last one is almost negligible). There is a comedy sketch done by two famous Israeli comedians, at least fifteen years old, where they play every character. First they play two Arab men watching the first wave of European immigrants come ashore, and mutter "Oh, great. Look what's coming. I tell you, Ahmed, the country is going downward..." Meanwhile, the two Jews take a moment to celebrate arriving in Israel (they exult in heavily accented Hebrew, "Herschel, we are here at last! Our land!" etc.), and come ashore. Immediately we see another boat landing, this one with two Russian Jews. Meanwhile, the two Europeans look on, in much the same way that the Arabs had done, sneering and lamenting at the Russians coming ashore, despite having arrived a mere moment before. The process is repeated, as the Russians sneer at the next wave of Moroccan immigrants, and then the Moroccans sneer at the French, and so on. Although old, the sketch really had its finger on the pulse of disparate communities here.

But the most appalling form of racism here (at least to me) is the racism against the Arabs. Yes, we are at war with a group of them. But being at war does not excuse many of the more disturbing sentiments I have heard expressed. One guy in my class, whom I will not mention by name, has blasted the disengagement plan as a "transfer plan," likening it to the Nazi transportation of Jews to death camps. "Jews should not uproot Jews from their homes," he sniffs, and then mocks the "fat Druze policemen" who are going to find themselves physically unable to carry out the plan. When pressed--and I didn't have to press to hard at all--he said he would have no problem uprooting the million or so Arabs from Gaza and relocating them (he did not use the word "transfer") to surrounding Arab countries, with no compensation of any sort. He expressed an "understanding" and a "sympathy" with a potential assassin of Ariel Sharon, though he did emphasize that he would never do such a thing himself. He called Sharon "a Nazi" and then lamented the fact that people in this country get upset about the use of that word when it applies. Well, it doesn't apply: to me, "Nazi" does not mean "fascist," and even that designation I take issue with; Sharon is a legitimately elected leader who is compensating the settlers who leave Gaza, and is relocating them to villages and settlements within Israel proper, not death camps. But that aside: it is impossible for me to imagine that Jews, of all people, have not learned the consequences of such blind racism.

What is the cause of this? Is it, I asked myself, a revenge? We were on the receiving end for two millennia, and now we have some strength, so we can do whatever we want? I don't think so. I think it is just standard racism and xenophobia, which exists everywhere in the world. Perhaps that makes me the racist: expecting a higher standard from Jews than I do from the rest of the world's population. I thus hold the rest of the world to a lower standard, and thus implicitly assume that my group is better. But I have always held myself to a higher standard than I hold others, and frankly, I find racism pretty despicable wherever I see it, including within myself.

Another colleague of mine (Jewish) recently admitted that all of his friends were Arabs, that he could not stand the aggressiveness and insensitivity of Israeli Jews. Don't get me wrong, I like Israelis very much. But the fact that Israel is a young country; as cultures go, in its adolescence; with components of an ancient civilization working to find its place in a modern world; all of this coagulates into a harried, aggressive, xenophobic, impolite and jaded context for interpersonal relations. The Arabs, of course, have a much more continuous and very polite society (certain extreme elements and obsessions with Israel notwithstanding), and I think that is what my fellow student is referring to.

I love Israel, with all of its faults. But I've said it before and I'll say it again: if there is ever peace, Israel will have to come to terms with its identity, and quite honestly right now I fear for its social future.
- posted by @ 12:17 PM

 
The Side-Effects of America's Grand Experiment
I have been meaning to write this entry for a while. Any regular readers of this page are probably well aware that it's been a long time since my last in-depth political analysis. Be forewarned: this one is very ambitious.

What caused me to write it now? Well, a number of factors. I suppose that the immediate cause is an email Elana received which posited the question: to what extent is America responsible for the apparent wave of democratization that seems to be sweeping the Middle East?

Last semester, a course was offered at Hebrew University entitled Islam and Democracy, which promised to look at the "lagging process of democratization in Islamic countries." I elected not to take the course; I wasn't sure that the basic premise was even applicable. I wouldn't take a course which offered insight into the "lagging process of Islamization in the United States," either. But now, with all that's going on here (and the situation is changing daily), it's time to look at democratization in the Middle East.

I'm sure everybody is aware of what is going on in Iraq. Anyone who watches CNN once a week is aware of the elections (which seem to have been legitimate, even if they may turn out to be politically meaningless) and the developing situation there. Obviously, the progress that is going on there is in violation of the Prime Directive, so to speak; it did not occur organically.

But there have been ripples from that war throughout the region.

Let us begin with Egypt, for that is the least complicated issue. President Hosni Mubarak is up for reelection--by which, of course, I mean it is time for the Egyptian people to stand up and let their bay'ah be counted. But now, he is acceding to pressure from opposition groups to allow others to be placed on the ballot, with him. Don't get too worked up about this; he won't lose, of course, and Mubarak has recently proven himself to be a relatively reasonable guy. But we see something very special here: we see a dictator giving some concession to public opinion. Let's hold that thought for a moment, and take a look at the situation in Lebanon.

A couple of weeks ago, Lebanon's former and perhaps future Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri was assassinated by a car bomb. al-Hariri was quite popular. In fact, his tenure as Prime Minister helped Lebanon recover from the devastating Civil War, and his popularity is one of the few things that most Lebanese agree on. Even using the phrase "most Lebanese" in a sentence is a strange experience, since the society is so splintered that most groups don't even agree amongst themselves on the key issues, let alone with the other players. Are you ready? This is about to get very confusing. al-Hariri was a Sunni Muslim, and was a strong advocate of Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon (Syria, of course, has been militarily occupying Lebanon since the Civil War, ostensibly as a peacekeeping force but more accurately for territorial ambitions). Syria is a Sunni state, or at least a state of a large Sunni Muslim majority. Lebanon's (now ex-) President, Emil Lahoud, is a Maronite Christian (by law the President is a Maronite and the Prime Minister a Sunni, part of the fragile peace which forces power sharing among the various sects based on population, but the last census was conducted in the '30s and all are afraid to revisit it for fear of a demographically motivated explosion...like I said, very fragile). However, he has been a supporter of the Syrian presence there, even though the Maronites are historically allied with Israel above any other regional country.

When al-Hariri was assassinated, it set off a mass popular movement in Lebanon, across sectarian lines, demanding the resignation of Lahoud and the immediate withdrawal of Syria. Well, Lahoud has resigned his government, and now Syria, under pressure from the United States and cognizant of the "Syria out!" chanting in Beirut and Tripoli, is suddenly cooperative, open to the idea, even promising to withdraw from Lebanon! For the first time (at least that I can think of), a popular movement in the Middle East has BROUGHT DOWN A GOVERNMENT and compelled another to action. One can perhaps point to the 'Abbasid revolution (750 AD), but the 'Abbasid was a military one; the mass demonstrations in Lebanon have thankfully remained bloodless, and the government bowed to the pressure. On the one hand, it is not surprising that this happened in Lebanon: Lebanon has a history of autonomy going back to the Wuliyat of Beirut under the Ottomans, and so the separate identity of the peoples of the Levant has long been developing. At the same time, it is almost inconceivable that Lebanon would be the site of a mass popular movement, since the Civil War, as of today over for a mere fifteen years, was in large part caused by fundamental disagreements about the nature and even the legitimacy of a Lebanese state and, especially, a Lebanese identity. Again, we see one government resign and another sharply change course as a result of popular sentiment.

This is not even to mention the post-Arafat PA, which recently announced its intention to unify the chaotic security apparatus--seen by many optimists, including myself, as the first step toward taking physical action against the terrorist groups and thus legitimizing the government. This is a crucial because the numbers who politically support the terrorist groups (for one reason or another) hover between 20 and 30 percent, and that is simply too high a percentage for a multi-party democracy to remain peaceful, and thus (at least in the Palestinian case) extant.

I would argue that, in a region where elections are almost never competitive, these developments are definitely a first step towards democratization. Don't get me wrong: I am making no predictions about the potential success of these movements, but am rather giving a simple read of the motivations behind them. Democracy has almost never begun at the top: the French Revolution, the American Revolution, and the collapse of the Soviet bloc stand out as three critical moments in democracy's history, and all began in the subjugated class. In fact, I can think of only one example where democracy was a conscious choice of a ruling autocracy, and that is Turkey. It is said that Mustafa Kamal Ataturk's party's greatest victory was its electoral loss and the peaceful transfer of power to its opponent. But other than that, democracy is almost invariably the result of a popular movement.

In Iraq, as I mentioned, any popular movement towards democracy (probably it was a long way away from finding expression, anyway) was aborted by the American invasion and unnatural, if laudable, toppling of the Ba'athist regime; this was democracy forced upon a country, something which has never been tried, and the results are still very much uncertain. One election does not a democracy make. But in Egypt and Lebanon, the people (a term which perhaps implies a bit too much) are pushing a political agenda, and it is counter to that of the governments--and the governments suddenly feel compelled to respond. This is unique in the Middle East, and is a much more hopeful start to democracy than elections which take place under foreign military occupation.

And why now? Why, all of a sudden, are the people making their voices heard, and why are the goverments listening? We cannot ignore the psychological effect that the American invasion had on the other rulers in the region. Perhaps they feel the implicit threat in the American action: Democratize or We'll Blow Up Your Country and Broadcast Your Physical on the Nightly News. In fact, I do not see any real reason besides that war that a spirit of democracy would suddenly make Hosni Mubarak and Emil Lahoud and Bashar al-Asad feel all warm and fuzzy.

This brings us to an unexpected conclusion. If Mubarak's inclusion of other names on the ballot is an indication of democratization; if Lebanese of all sects are making their voices heard and actually agreeing on something; if the PA is going to be a true representative of its people; and it is all a direct result of the American invasion, then we are left with the fact that America invaded Iraq to bring it democracy (ahem*oil*cough) and bumblingly spilled it across the region from the airplane on the way to Baghdad. Besides the exceptional case of Ataturk's Republican Peoples' Party, democracy has never been grafted onto a political culture. America's grand experiment in Iraq may fail, and it may succeed; but it seems clear that, if these events are expressions of a desire for democracy in the region, America's experiment has had some side effects which produced, in other countries, the desired result of the test case. That is, America works to democratize Iraq, and as a direct result, movements begin in Lebanon and Egypt to democratize themselves. I have much more hope for the nascent democratization in Egypt and especially Lebanon than I do for the forced democracy in Iraq.

America cannot take all the credit for this, nor all the responsibility. America was not behind the al-Hariri assassination nor how fed up the Lebanese are with Syrian occupation. Nor did it influence the popular sentiment in Egypt that pressured Mubarak to add names to the ballot. But perhaps it provided an object lesson in Iraq, which sent the message to the powers-that-be nearby, which they bought, that democracy is going to happen the easy, natural way or the hard way. And perhaps that made Mubarak think twice about running unopposed. And although there was no American threat to invade Lebanon, the sniping at Syria has been pretty pointed of late, and Syria's sudden willingness to withdraw is...well, sudden. And Lahoud, for that matter, is an extension of Syria's influence.

America is not responsible for the wave of democratization, if that is what is going on. True democracy comes from popular demand. But perhaps, by destabilizing Iraq, America (probably inadvertantly) created an environment in the neighboring countries which may allow democracy to grow. Only time will tell.
- posted by @ 2:13 PM