Electric Light Is the Most Efficient Policeman: Breaking The Silence

On a recent visit to Hebron with  Breaking The Silence, our guide told us that when he came home for Shabbat, during his army service in the occupied territories, he could tell no one at home about his experience. Even his own mother didn't want to know and said " it’s okay, you are home now.”

Breaking The Silence was founded in 2004, it is an organization of veteran combatants who have served in the Israeli military since the start of the Second Intifada and have taken it upon themselves to expose the Israeli public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories.

The purpose of the organization is to shed light on Israel’s operational methods in the Territories and to encourage debate about the nature of the occupation (from the book Our Harsh Logic compiled by the organization Breaking the Silence)

Publicity has been seen as an effective tool already by the famous supreme court Justice Louis D Brandeis (the first Jew to be appointed to that court in 1916) who wrote that “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases.”(1915)

But in Israel the publicity of Breaking The Silence is seen as a betrayal and not a remedy. Because the organization collects testimonies of soldiers about their experience in the Occupied Territories and then publicize them inside and outside Israel, it has become the enemy of the people. Thus speakers from Breaking The Silence are banned from appearing before  students and soldiers. Even our prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who grew up in the largest democracy in the world, talks about them as traitors..

If we compare our state to a family this is quite understandable. In dysfunctional homes the children are usually instructed never to talk about the problems to people outside the family. Moreover, in extreme cases of abuse children are threatened not to mention it to anyone. Thus, the worst crimes often happen inside the place which is supposed to be a safe haven-- our own home.

We were brought up to believe that our army, the Israeli army, was the most ethical in the world. For us a phrase like "the purity of weapon” was not an oxymoron but an important principle, going back to the time before the founding of the state of Israel. It was also a favorite topic of discussion in our youth movements' activities.

The name IDF explicitly states that the purpose of our army is to defend us, but throughout the years the definition of defense has changed, and what is seen as a threat today is not the same as it was in the early days of the state of Israel.

The public activity of Breaking The Silence, and their educational work should not be perceived as a threat to Israel, quite the contrary. In the age of social network when we could find everything on the web, arguments like this  organization  is causing demoralization, or it is giving ammunitions to those who hate us anyway, is not valid anymore.

We should be proud that in Israel we have watchdogs like Breaking The Silence, which publicize injustice, they help us be better people and stay that way, or as Louis D. Brandeis said in the latter part of his statement “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants, electric light the most efficient policeman.”

P.S This is the link to the essay, which I wrote, following the visit to Kiryat Arba and Hebron with Breaking the Silence.

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/i-am-a-camera-visiting-kiryat-arba-and-hebron/

The essay appeared in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/electric-light-is-the-most-efficient-policeman-breaking-the-silence/

The Deception of A native Accent

When our friends returned to Israel, after spending ten years in the States, their daughter was almost sixteen year old.  Since she spoke Hebrew with no trace of an accent, and this was the beginning of the tenth grade, and all the students were new to the school, every one assumed that she was a regular Israeli. For the better part of the year, she sat in class understanding very little, but no one suspected anything.

A native accent is deceptive, and could even be dangerous, not only in high school, but especially in the army. Nowadays there  are quite a few children of Yordim (Israelis who left the country) that return to Israel on their own to serve in the army.  Those young people speak fluent Hebrew, but like my friends’ daughter, they are not Israelis.

Returning to Israel from another country after growing up believing that here was their real home, these young people have many dreams and expectations.  However, they lack the knowledge and the necessary experience of our society to be able to deal with the reality of the army.

Please keep reading in the Times Of Israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-deception-of-a-native-accent/

On Ice Scrapers And Other Solutions

This morning I had to scrape ice off my car's windshield. This statement may appear banal unless I add that it was the first time ever that I experienced such low temperatures in Tel Aviv, a city where  the average temperature during the winter months is 18 °C and it can easily go up to 25°C.

Since I don’t own an ice scraper, I resorted to the old trick of using a credit card, which I learnt during my long stay in cold climates in the US.  My partner was impressed, he has never seen ice on a windshield before, and thought me resourceful.

Since Thursday we have been having a historic winter storm in Israel. In Tel Aviv it has been raining continuously, and we had several hail storms. Also, it was the heaviest snow storm since 1953, Jerusalem is still covered with almost a meter of snow and is disconnected  from the rest of the country.  Snow continued to fall across Israel till Saturday afternoon resulting in major power outages and road closures. At its worst 60,000 houses did not have electricity, now it is down to 18,000.

 Back when my daughters were young we went down from Iowa City to St Louis for Thanksgiving.  At the end of the weekend when we were heading back, we heard a winter storm warning. Still we decided to take a chance and drove back hoping that we would be able to get home on time.

Unfortunately, as we drove north the weather got more and more severe, with a blizzard and zero visibility. We almost made it, but near Fairfield Iowa, a mere  59 Miles / 94 Km south of Iowa City, the highway was blocked and rescue operators  evacuated the stranded passengers  to the homes of the townspeople who offered to put them up for the night. 

The whole operation was swift, efficient and calm, our very young daughters (2 and 3) were not even alarmed.  The four of us spent the night at a home of a very welcoming couple who fed us and put us up.

The generous members of the Fairfield community opened their homes to strangers in need as a matter of fact.  Besides the humanity of the invitation, what impressed me most about this solution was its simplicity. As the weather became increasingly dangerous, the rescue forces  prepared for the eventuality of closing the road and lined up volunteers.

I have been listening to the Israeli radio since Friday, hearing speculations and accusations of who is to blame for the unfortunate outcomes of this winter storm. I am sure that we could find numerous errors and poor judgments, but there was no way to predict something so unfamiliar, which has not happened in Israel for 60 years. Perhaps a simpler  question to ask is who is responsible for the winter storm, and that of course would be God or Nature, thus it could be easy to just pin the blame on Him.

At the end the army was called to the rescue; it has the right equipment and the expertise. As Israel allocates so much money to the needs of our Defense, it is only fair that the army come through at a time of need by clearing the closed roads and helping those who were stranded in their homes without electricity, water or food.

But perhaps  before  the next winter storm it is a good idea to line up a pool of volunteers in other cities who would put up people who are at risk of being stranded in case of a storm. When the storm starts they could be transported to safety before the roads are completely closed.

 The rescue operation in Fairfield was simple and inexpensive, and in the freezing weather it really felt like a heartwarming solution.