Media Bias

I just find it so fascinating, and I want to talk to someone about it - like this article for example, published on CNN on October 12th:

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/gaza-airstrikes-warnings-invs/

The facts are all true (as far as I know), and yet it reads like Israel is a powerful opressor and Gazans are weak and helpless. I wonder if the readers ask themselves questions while they read the article?

It says that there are tunnels for Hamas but the civilians have no bomb shelters - couldn't Hamas build shelters with the same concrete used for tunnels? Couldn't Hamas build a warning system?

According to the article, Israeli military is responsible for warning Gazans of incoming bombs. They get a phone call. A "rare" phone call. Is that the problem? That it's "rare"? Is the problem that it comes from the Israeli military? Are armies supposed to give warning when they bomb?

I'm not saying it's fun to get a call telling you that your house it going to be bombed. It's not. It's like when Hamas announces that they're going to shoot rockets at 6pm. You don't think "aw thanks for the heads up!".. It feels more like your boss telling you "we need to talk" and scheduling a meeting for the next day.

Gaza should have a warning system and bomb shelters, that's what a responsible government does.

The Hamas Charter

Hey echo chamber! How many pro-Palestinians do you think have actually read the Hamas charter?

https://www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/2538093.pdf

Like, I lead a fairly conservative life but my world view is liberal and usually I relate to the liberal way of thinking. But right now I can't for the life of me relate to the language used by the liberal West. 

Here's just one quote from the Hamas charter:

"The initiatives conflict, what are called "Peaceful Solutions" and "International Conferences" to solve the Palestinian problem. As far as the ideology of the Islamic Resistance Movement isconcerned, giving up any part of Palestine is like giving up part of its religion. The nationalism of the Islamic Resistance Movement is part of its religion, in that it educates its members, and they perform Jihad to raise the banner of Allah over their nation."

Tell me more about how the Palestinian leadership is interested in a two-state solution..?

New Years Resolutions

 So Hamas fired rockets at midnight on New Years. What's their goal? Most of the rockets don't kill or injure anyone, just scare the hell out of everybody and create all sorts of fun PTSD. It's sick.

Anyway I had this crazy idea to make goals for myself for the new year, maybe if I list them here I can focus on getting them done. Because these past few months have made me rethink a lot of what I want from life. My priorities have shifted I guess? Like, my job isn't interesting, that's for sure, and I don't really care because an interesting job really isn't important when you're at war. But also there are truly important things I could be doing with my time, so maybe I should try to do those?

* Diversity: I should work on creating diversity in the workplace and in the army. That would really benefit Israeli society. Women and men, a variety of races, ages, religious views. It's so important.

* Programming: this goal is more personal. I just really need to properly learn C++.

* Sex education: I'm convinced that better sex education would make the world a better place all around. By sex-ed I mean everything from how fertility works, sex and pleasure, contraception, biology in general, sexual orientation, gender identity, consent, relationships and how to recognize red flags in a partner or in yourself. It's not just a lecture you give to teenagers, right? It's a full class that starts in elementry school and goes all throughout high school. I know that conservative societies will have a hard time with it, so the content can be made to fit whatever the society is willing to accept - as long as the information taught is true. For instance, there's no reason that girls shouldn't be taught the basics of fertility awareness even in the most traditional communities.

"If Hamas were out in the battle fields then Israel could kill them, but if Hamas violates the laws of war then Israel has to give them immunity"

Just something I heard on the Unholy podcast. It's crazy that it's true.

 "If Hamas were out in the battle fields then Israel could kill them, but if Hamas violates the laws of war then Israel has to give them immunity."

Not crazy?

What does it mean to have a "reservist" army?

Israel sees military casualties differently from the rest of the world. Other countries see military deaths as less problematic, but we see each soldier as an individual and to us its no different from civilian casualties.

Listen to a few minutes of "Unholy" where Jonathan describes this phenomenon (from 22:18 for about two minutes):

The reason for this is the fact that our army service is mandatory and that the majority of the army is reserve forces.

October 7th

I wanted to write down my experience on that horrible day, because one day we'll want to look back and understand what happened and people's experiences are how we're going to remember the story. 

7:30

My mom woke me up. We were living with my parents because we hadn't moved into the new house yet. We got the keys in mid-September but the house still needed work. I was sleeping in my old room with Yuvali and Yossi slept down the hall with Lavi in Ari's old room. That worked for us, because Yuval still wakes up at night and this way Yossi and Lavi can get a good night sleep.

My mom came into my room all nervous, saying she was hearing booms and there seemed to be rockets shooting all over the country, and she wanted us to be awake and downstairs in case we needed to go to the mamad. Immediately my heart started beating fast and my stomach felt like was tied in a knot. My parents live in a valley so they hear rockets and interceptions from all over, it's very nerve wracking. I took Yuvali downstairs and Yossi and Lavi came down too. It was chag so my phone was off, I turned it on and put on the news and learned that Hamas had infiltrated the Gaza border, but it wasn't clear how many terrorists and where they were. Hamas were shooting rockets all over the country. Bubby was sleeping in the mamad and Mommy wasn't sure whether to wake her up - it's not Bubby's first time being in Israel with rockets, unfortunately, but we knew it would make her nervous.

Around 8:30 she came out and just when Mommy was about to say something we had our first siren and we all went into the mamad. Abba came back from shul, he had gone to vatikin so he could be home with the kids when we went later.

It was simchat torah, and Yaira, Mom, and myself had planned to go to Levana davening at Brenda's house, which started at 8:30. I got dressed and decided to go - Yossi stayed home with the kids. I got to Brenda's around 9:00, luckily she lives right across the street, and Yaira and Kedem were already there. So were a few other women. I looked at Yaira and tried to make a face that says "well, this is shitty." We tried to have a normal davening, but there were a few sirens. Talli Rosenbaum stood outside just to make sure we would hear the sirens when they happened. Brenda's mamad light was off so I turned it on and said "oops".. Anyway I thought I was funny :) It was just so surreal. We even danced for hakafot, it sort of worked. I went back home in between - I was going to read the haftara, which is the beginning of Yehoshua, and I was really nervous about it. Yossi said he got a message from his miluim and they were waiting for instructions.

I don't know how I got through davening. Aviad drove over with Gefen. Around 11:00 Yossi called me out of Brenda's house and signaled that he was leaving. All I could say was "Yos." I mean, what do you say when your husband gets an emergency call to go to war? He drove out to the new house to get his things, then came back and left me the car because he had a ride up north.

I did read Yehoshua, but couldn't concentrate on it. Davening went on so long, it was almost noon and we hadn't even done musaf yet. Steve Ganot came home and locked the door, there were rumors that terrorists could be anywhere. We decided to stop the service and all went home.

I couldn't eat. I tried to keep calm around the kids. Kedem and Lavi put their toys in the mamad and spent most of the day playing in there. At some point in the afternoon I had coffee and that helped me relax a bit. I was getting whatsapp messages from the city of Beit Shemesh and from the Moatza with Homefront Command updates, basically telling us to stay near a mamad and download the Pikud HaOref app. Aviad was glued to his phone, but I stopped looking at the news. He sat on the deck outside and I went to talk to him, and he just said "it's bad." Yaira and I kept pretending to be normal for the kids.

As the day went on we saw more people from the neighborhood drive off - everyone was being called to miluim. We heard planes all day long, and more booms. We tried to stay indoors but did go out to the deck, the weather was beautiful, the contrast was so strange. I was worrying about Yossi. The Vocalocity whatsapp group was buzzing too, people checking in with each other, one of the guys said that his husband's family were trapped in their mamad in Ofakim with terrorists in the streets.

In the evening we started to hear numbers. First they were saying there were 60 people killed, then 100, then the numbers started to rise. Only later did they mention the Nova music festival, hundreds more killed. We knew there were hostages taken to Gaza, and we knew that people were still held hostage in their homes. How does an army (or country) deal with these sort of hostage situations? It looked like Hamas had invaded Israel and was present in quite a few cities, and looters were coming in, stealing things, and taking it all back into Gaza. It would be a few days before we'd learn exactly what happened.

I tried to stay in touch with Yossi. He was headed up north to Amiad, which is the base where he usually does his miluim. The plan was for his guys to replace the soldiers there so they could be sent down south. He got his gear and weapon but they stayed on the base for a while, they didn't really know what to do. 

On Sunday they sent him to some outpost on the Lebanese border. Hizballah were trying to infiltrate and they were shooting anti-tank missiles and soldiers on the border. That was the scariest part. Are they going to join the war? Is Iran going to join? Is this WWIII? Sunday night Yossi wrote that he wouldn't be available for a few hours. He wasn't back online until late Monday morning and I couldn't concentrate on anything until I knew he was safe. He kept using words like "אירוע" and "פעילות" which to me just means that he's in danger. Later he told me that they had to do some sort of ambush all night, but they weren't really prepared for it - he hadn't calibrated his weapon and they didn't have proper gear. And that's the other thing - the IDF is smart and knows how to handle almost any situation, but if you make stupid decisions then people get killed, and doing an ambush without a calibrated weapon is a stupid decision. So Yossi and his guys were lucky.

Schools were immediately cancelled. Aviad was called up on Sunday. I was supposed to go back to work on October 9th, which I did, but I worked from home and actually did no work at all. I had one meeting with my boss, that's it.

Bubby was supposed to stay in Israel for two more weeks but she managed to get a flight for Friday. In the meantime she was amazing with the kids! She played with Lavi and watched Yuval, and while Yaira and her kids were over she entertained them for hours. Lavi and Kedem really enjoyed playing together which was excellent for me because I wasn't really functioning. Mommy's tours were cancelled of course, so she spent her time cooking for soldiers and for us. Abba's base was closed to civilians so he spent his time at our new house installing the air conditioning and doing other work.

Best I could do was try to work on the house. Things move slowly because the Palestinians aren't working so there's no construction, and other suppliers are short-staffed because people are in miluim.

That was the first week.

Things you might not know about Israel if you've never lived here

These things are obvious to me but I wonder how many of them would surprise the average European or American?

• Work week starts on Sunday. We work Sunday through Thursday, and then the weekend is Friday-Saturday. This makes sense, because Saturday is the Jewish day of rest and Friday is the Muslim day of rest, and Israel is mostly Jewish and Muslim. There are Christians here too of course, and their schools and community centers operate Mon-Fri, but for all other purposes Sunday is the first day of the week.
• Every house, apartment, and public building built since 1991 has a bomb shelter in it called a "mamad." It looks like a regular room but the walls are solid concrete, the door is made of steel and has a hermetic seal around it, and if there's a window then it has a steel cover that you have to close in the event of a war. (*Turns out Switzerland has these too, which is funny because they haven't fought a war in over a hundred years.) Most of the time it's just used as a regular room, but you're supposed to have some emergency supplies in it in case you have to stay there for a while - so we keep bottled water and some snacks there, and should probably have a first aid kit and maybe an extra phone charger. In 2003 we all kept our gas masks there too.
• The IDF is a conscription army, which means that every Israeli over the age of 18 must serve for 2-3 years (as long as the country is in danger, but this has been the case since the country was founded in 1948). There are exemptions of course, but the vast majority of Israelis do some sort of army service right out of highschool. It's not all combat, right? There are plenty of desk jobs and there's even an Education Corps (which is a fascinating topic altogether). I have lots to say about what this does to a society (for better or for worse), maybe for a different post.
  
• Israel is very proud of its agriculture. Main exports include oranges and other citrus fruits and we have a successful wine industry. This is pretty cool considering that almost half the area of Israel is desert (definition for desert: an area that gets less than 200 mm of precipitation per year). Still, a lot of our fruits and vegetables are imported - I guess for financial reasons.
• Israel's official language is Hebrew, but street signs and official documents usually include Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
• German engineering. The building style in Israel is similar to European building, specifically German. Also, lots of words used in construction are German. The reason has to do with the German immigrants who came here at the beginning of the 20th century and brought the construction industry with them. In fact the Technion University, which is a prestigious engineering school in Haifa, originally taught all its classes in German. (Fun fact, that's why the Hebrew University is called the "Hebrew" university - because it was the first university in Israel to teach in the Hebrew language.) 

I'm sure I'll think of others. I'll keep adding.

Tiktok

Ok in my last post (just now, actually) I wrote about Tiktok. I'll be honest - I don't have a tiktok account and I don't know much about it so I really shouldn't have an opinion. But I'll tell you what I do know: tiktok aims to get an emotional response from its users just like any social media platform. Short videos aren't there to make you think, they're there to make you angry or to make you buy something. It takes a lot to argue with a video. So you watch some video about the middle east or the Jews or Palestine and you feel like you understand the subject enough to have an opinion. Then you see more videos like it and you're convinced that your opinion is correct. It's just no way to get an education :|

The Giver

Remember "The Giver" by Lois Lowry? I read it many years ago, probably for school. I might have gone back to read it again at some point. At the time I thought it was about how utopia can't exist - like, the message is that a perfect society isn't really perfect.

But I was thinking about it and I realized it's a different message. It's about the memories. The Giver's job is basically to hold on to all the memories of the bad things so that history doesn't repeat itself. And I think that's missing from today's tiktok-educated Gen-Z. Someone on Facebook pointed out that older people tend to be pro-Israel and young people are pro-Palestinian. I didn't ask where she puts the line between young and old.

It reminded me of another thing I heard once, something like "if you're not a socialist when you're young, you have no heart; if you're not a capitalist when you're old, you have no brain." I don't think this quote has to be taken literally but I like the point about how people's opinions change as they get older and learn more about the world. (Maybe the point is that young people are more fueled by emotion?)

So which is it? Are older people pro-Israel because they have more knowledge and experience? Is it because they remember the intifada or 9/11 and know what terrorism is like? Were they always pro-Israel? Or is it an age thing, did their opinions change as they got older and the young people just aren't there yet?

Going back to Gen-Z's, it's not only them. There are lots of lucky people in the world who really don't know terrorism and war, and they really don't understand just how shitty a situation can be. They're busy trying to find a "good guy" and a "bad guy," an "oppressor" and a "victim." One foreign reporter (on the BBC maybe?) asked if trading three Palestinian prisoners for one Israeli hostage means that Israel thinks that Palestinian lives are worth less than Israeli lives. I mean, WTF? Does she have any idea how negotiations work? Like, she actually thinks that Israel decided on a whim how that hostage deal would look?

The point is that if you want to have a strong opinion about war, you actually need to understand war. Tiktok needs a Giver.

War Thoughts, November 29th, 2023

 Some messy thoughts I've had in no particular order:

- I just want this war to be over and for Yossi to come home. That's really all. I know that we need to get rid of Hamas so they never terrorize us again, but the price of losing soldiers now feels too great. I *know* I'm wrong, and that if we don't fight now we'll lose even more lives later, but it's just like in economics: losing soldiers I know now feels like a greater cost than losing some random Israelis later. I don't want to say it out loud because it's horrible, but that's how I feel.

- I keep reading about Israelis (my friends on Facebook) trying to do "hasbara," right? And the reason we think that's important is because we're all convinced that if only the world saw the truth they would know that Israel is the good guy. Of course I can't stand behind that sentence, right? "Truth?" There's no truth, only perspectives and narratives. "Good Guy?" There's no good guy, just a very complicated situation and a bunch of people who want to stay alive. But we're so convinced that hasbara is important.

Anyway I realized why it's important to me. It's because I need for people to see the complexity. I don't need people to think that Israel can do no wrong, I just can't stand it when people are so biased and don't see it: like when one woman writes that Hamas kidnapping children is "debatable" but Israel helping to bring incubators into Shifa hospital is "propaganda." Like, if Hamas do horrible things it's somehow excusable but if Israel does something good it probably has bad intentions. I mean, I get it. We all do the same thing with people we like or dislike. But it's actually not ok.

- Two things that I actually do believe to be true:
1. If a situation looks black and white, like there's an obvious right and wrong, then you're probably not seeing the whole picture. (The only situation I can think of that's only wrong is domestic violence.)
2. People see themselves as victims. Individuals and groups.

More Media

We're in the same boat. The Israelis and the Palestinians, both trying to win over world opinion, both failing miserably, both certain that everyone is against them, and both probably right to think so.
See, because Israelis are monsters. Palestinians are sub-human.

Israelis are racist monsters who want nothing other than to terrorize, occupy and kill anyone who isn't Jewish. Almost like Nazi Germany. Our goal is to take over the world by means of war and violence. Our policies are based on racism and discrimination and religion. This is what the world is seeing, and this is what our PR is trying to fix. (I'm only half exaggerating, by the way - I wouldn't be surprised if people actually felt this way. I mean, I feel this way about extreme Islamic organizations, so it's possible for a person to believe that this is true.) So Israel realized this and started working on improving our image in the eyes of the world. I believe we're doing a good job so far, judging by the support we seem to be getting from various world leaders.

Palestinians are sub-human, lead by a leadership that they are incapable of fighting against. They cannot 'show restraint,' or at least nobody expects them to. They are victims unable to fend for themselves, their world views are primitive. I have seen many leaders call on Israel to stop the fighting, but when addressing Hamas they do so in third person, as if not expecting them to really hear. And the Palestinians need to fight this image if they want respect from world leaders. Palestinians from Gaza need to write letters defending their cause, or at the very least make noise when they see that Hamas is using obvious lies in the media.
I'll give an example - when the three boys were kidnapped, there was a photo going viral of an Israeli soldier smiling next to two Palestinian prisoners. The photo claimed to be of one of the boys - one who is 16 years old, and definitly not a soldier. So on one of the Gaza Facebook pages someone had commented on the photo "This photo is not the kidnapped boy. If you respect youselves, remove this photo. Your cause is just, you don't need to lie," and yet the photo was never removed. The feeling I get from that is that there is no one to talk to on the Palestinian side. That I cannot have an intelligent conversation with a Palestinian. So I'm waiting for them to fight this image and to convince me that they are worthy humans with whom I can negotiate.
I guess part if me just wishes that instead of trying to foil Israel's PR efforts, the Palestinians would put the same efforts into making themselves look good, too. Israel has been fighting a media war and so far it is winning, it just doesn't seem right that the Palestinians are so far behind.

Media

So I came across this article on al-Jazeera:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/07/israel-media-strategy-2014716114935957662.html

In short, the author believes that Israel aims to use lies and deceit in order to promote its cause. At first it bothered me, but then I thought, isn't that what media is all about? Choosing the right words in order to convince your audience? So the author pointed this out, but really he wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know.

In the same context, I saw an article about the things that Hamas has told its activists to tell the media (I can't find the article now, but it said something about telling the world that all the people who were hurt are innocent civilians). So wait, are they lying? Or is this really what media is all about?

Sometimes I want to point out a news site that is obviously biased in some direction, but then I have to draw a line - because there is a difference between 'choosing your words' and actually lying. But then I realise that the difference is so subtle that I'm not sure that anyone can find it.

So eventually I reached one conclusion. Realise that there is no way to make writing objective.

So when you read, don't expect that you'll be receiving any perfect truth, and when you write, be sure that you are being honest with yourself and choosing words that best fit what you are trying to say. The reader will then decide if he wants to listen. That's all.

I'm so proud to be Israeli right now. Not from a political perspective - but just because of the people that this society is made of.

So many people with so many different opinions, but who don't try to paint a black and white picture. People who are sensitive and respectful and don't try to sound harsh and make grandiose statements, people who just say what they think from the heart, from a place that's so human.

I dunno, maybe it's just my friends (the ones I'm seeing on my Newsfeed), and all the other people really are extreme, but I don't care - I think my newsfeed represents many people in the Israeli society, and I like what I see.

That's why I share posts. Because I want the world to see what I see.

Lots of amazing humans.

People Are Awsome

There have been so many interesting projects starting up these past few weeks - Israelis trying to show support for one another. I'm constantly impressed by the creative ideas that people have.
Here's one I'd like to join -

http://unityquilts.blogspot.co.il/

Calling Out

We're all calling out - against violence, in favor of revenge, in favor of a two state solution, against settlements, in favor of justice, against murder, against radicals, against occuppation, in favor of annexation, against demonstrations, against media...

I have a call - I'm against interruption. Seriously, stop interrupting each other all the time.

I do it a lot - and only notice it some of the time. And I can't help but notice it on the news - there are all these interviews with politicians and public speakers, but it just looks like the interviewer is only there to be heard and doesn't really give a shit about what the person being interviewd is trying to say. Which kind of defeats the purpose of the interview. Nobody can finish a sentence! And I'm thinking, maybe if you stop and listen, and respond to what the other person is saying instead of what you think they're saying or what you want them to be saying, you might realise that we're all more alike than we think.

Just listen. Ask questions in order to hear an answer. It doesn't even hurt that much.

Galgalatz

Man, the music choices today... Every song makes me cry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrXfGxng89k

The boys have been found - their bodies were discovered under a pile of rocks just south of the junction where they were kidnapped.

This is what terror is all about. This wasn't an attempt to negotiate a prisoner exchange, it was a murder for the sake of murder.

The Palestinians were using the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys before the Israelis were - the hashtag is meant to raise awareness for Palestinian children imprisoned in Israeli prisons. Dozens of them, maybe hundreds, I don't know. Israelis adopted the hashtag two weeks ago - the world needs to see that we want our kidnapped boys home, too. But the difference is that a prisoner only becomes a prisoner if he is arrested, and is only arrested if he is suspect of committing a crime. Terror is about harming people who are simply present at the wrong place at the wrong time. It's about not feeling safe, no matter where you are.

Israel went through that recently, during the second intifada. I was too young to really be affected - it started when I was ten years old, I think I didn't completely grasp the situation. But now? What will I do in an intifada now? There's nothing you can do to ensure your own safety. It's not like you can say you'll just mind your own business and no one will bother you, because your own business is exactly where terror affects you. If we go back to that, and unfortunately I feel like eventually we will, every Israeli will have to be scared of taking a bus or eating at a restaurant, because you never know if it might just blow up and be tomorrow's news.

Why Kidnapping? Post from last week.

It's a big mistake, opening Facebook. Especially during school. Especially when there are hot political debates going on.

It's so distracting... While you're on, and also once you've closed the window, but you're still thinking about the things that you read.

I can't bring myself to respond to people's statuses because I know that then I'll piss people off even more, and get picked apart by anyone who disagrees, or maybe even agrees, with that I say. I'm scared. Actually, it might be a good exercise -- when people criticise your writing, you learn how to write better. Maybe I should try it. Anyway, for now I prefer to stick to my quiet little blog.

One status I read stated the following: kidnapping is horrible, and the writer's heart goes out to the families whose sons are missing. However, for Palestinians, kidnapping is understandable. And people who live in settlements are aware of the danger. They live there anyway out of religious ideals, and therefore should must suffer the consequences.

At first I was disgusted. Then I took a breath and read it again. I realised that I agree with almost everything that was written:

- Kidnapping is indeed horrible. Nobody deserves to have their children disappear on their way home from school. (I don't think this point needs further explanation. In general, I think most people would agree that the only time it is legitimate to take someones child from them by force is if the parent is abusing the child, and even that's a difficult subject.)

- For Palestinians, kidnapping is understandable. *I'll add that there is a clear difference between saying the a deed is "understandable" and justifying it. Many things are understandable even though they are clearly not OK. I do not intend to justify a kidnapping.*
One of the things that the Palestinians suffer from most is the daily arrests. Nearly every night, the IDF raids villages and refugee camps and arrests people who take part in supporting terror. These are generally people who coordinate transfers of weapons and funds intended for acts of terror. Sometimes they've even taken an active part in planning an attack that has been carried out -- which means that they have blood on their hands. Some of these people are released soon after, some are detained and questioned and then released, some are detained until they can have legal support and are then tried and, if found guilty, sentenced to prison (for varying amounts of time - naturally depending on their crime).
The problem arises when the IDF knows that someone is guilty, but the proof is only found in classified information. Meaning that in order to take the suspect to court, the IDF risks losing a source. This has two main results: the first is the danger to the source's safety - if your source is a person who lives in one of these villages and the person is exposed as sharing information with the IDF, he will be in danger - either the PA will choose to arrest him, or fellow villagers will be after his life; the second is, obviously, the fact that this source can no longer be used to obtain information. So the suspect arrested by the IDF stays in some sort of detainment, and since Israel has been known to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees in exchange for a single abducted soldier, it is understandable that a Palestinian will believe that kidnapping Israelis will assist in bringing Palestinians back to their homes.

- People living in the settlements are aware of the danger. This is true. There have been several periods of time in the last 40-or-so years when there has been tension between Israelis and Palestinians (by tension I mean violence), and during these times the chances of an Israeli being harmed was higher if the Israeli lived in an area surrounded by Palestinian villages, rather than Israeli cities. However, the area where the kidnapping took place has been calm and quiet in the last few years, and more specifically - most people who hitchhike do not get kidnapped. In fact, a person is much more likely to be sexually harassed or get hurt in a car accident, but such things have little to do with where you live and more to do with the fact that there are still idiots out there who think it's ok to drink and drive, no matter where you are in the world. So residents may be aware of the danger, but it's not imminent danger so I don't see it as a consequence to living where they choose to live.

- They live there anyway out of religious ideals. Only partially true, and this is what really bothers me. There is a religious concept that says that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews, and it is our right to live in it. But most people don't live there for that reason. Most people live in West Bank settlements because the area is beautiful, the communities are warm and welcoming, and houses are relatively inexpensive - one can live in a big, beautiful house on a lovely quite street, just a half-hour drive from the major cities (no traffic), for the price of a tiny apartment in Tel Aviv. It's impossible to walk around Talmon and not fall in love with the place. So I have a problem with calling settlers "selfish people of religion," it's just too ignorant.

On Thursday night, three teenage boys disappeared.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4530177,00.html

I try to put myself in their families' situation - the general idea is all too familiar. It's 11 o'clock at night, and I see that my 16 year old brother isn't home yet. So I wonder if I sould lock the door. Is he even coming back tonight? I can't remember. Maybe he's staying at school until tomorrow. Or maybe he's out with friends and will be back late. I'll text him, then. He doesn't reply. So do I wait? I text again. Then, being a big sister and all that, I start to worry. So I call. He doesn't answer. My stomach gets all jittery
But then I tell myself that I'm being stupid and he's probably just fine. He's with friends, he doesn't hear his phone, and who wants to call his big sister, anyway?
And in the morning, there he is - safe and sound.

But what if he weren't? It's every sister's nightmare. Not to mention a parent's nightmare, but I can't yet put myself in those shoes.

It's so, so close to home. My sister and brothers hitchhike all the time in that area - apparently these boys were waiting right where my sister usually catches a ride when she has to get to Jerusalem. And although I don't know them personally, I know friends and members of their family.

At this point, we know that they've been kidnapped - probably by Hamas (and not just some lunatic working on his own). The military and secret service are busy doing everything they can to get these kids home safely. The rest of us are praying.

The palestinia response makes me sick -
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4530177,00.html
(Never mind the Israeli report - I'm Israeli, so of course I'm biased - but the video is made by Palestinians, just watching it is enough.)

Hello Again

Hi there blog.
I know I've been ignoring you for a long time now, and that we probably can't just pick up where we left off, but I'd like to get into the habbit of using you again. I like this platform betten than Facebook - it feels more personal. Facebook statuses get lost in the huge amount of data floating around there, but blogs make for a comfortable, easy place to write away from all the noise.
I thought of opening a new blog, one that will focus on topics that interest me, or maybe just one topic, and it'll be that kind of blog... But I like this one. I like that I started it eight years ago planning Sarit's birthday party, and that i called it "Defying Gravity" because I was obsessed with Wicked at the time. I may have been much younger (we all know what a difference a few years can make at this age), but I like those old parts of me.
So, I may eventually change the name, or the background colour, or the font or something, but lord - give me strength to return to my blog!