No sirens today.

A bus exploded in Tel Aviv.

I'm fine and no one I know, as far as I'm aware, was among the injured.

I'll have some more to say later, most likely.

I'm just... really tired right now.

I mean, a bus blew up in Tel Aviv.

This...

I don't know.

To anyone and everyone who is (re)blogging or (re)posting or (re)tweeting pictures of dead or injured children (or anyone) connected to the current violence raging in Israel/Palestine, please stop.

Please stop spreading images of the worst time in someone's life.

Please stop spreading images of salacious violence.

Please stop spreading images of death that are used as propaganda.

Please stop enabling the callous and cynical use of pain and suffering.

Please stop enabling the media to be a source of death pornography.

The use of dead children to create sympathy says more about you, than about anything else.

I ask this, not because I am a sensitive and delicate flower who cannot abide the image of blood or of poor dead babies. No, it is because I despise the use of pain and suffering of real people as an attempt to manipulate my emotions.

I hope the worst time of your lives aren't used so callously.

"So far as we feel sympathy, we feel we are not accomplices to what caused the suffering. Our sympathy proclaims our innocence as well as our impotence. To that extent, it can be (for all our good intentions) an impertinent- if not inappropriate- response."

Susan Sontag, "Regarding the Pain of Others"

Orginally posted on my tumblr. Twice.

I've been following the News concerning the two boats - Free Gaza and Liberty - cruising from Cyprus to Gaza in an attempt to break the siege.

And wouldn't you know, despite radio sabotage, rough seas and down right hostilities coming from the Israeli Naval Forces, the boats actually arrived to Gaza port carrying medical supplies, sustenance and a bunch of Palestinian, Israeli and International Peace and Solidarity activists brining hope to the besieged people of that hell-hole.

For current updates on what's been going on, go to the website:
Free Gaza.

I know that the reaction of the pro-Israeli contingent (the ones who don't see how being pro-Palestinian is also being pro-Israel, that is) are shouting out: what about the support for the people of Sderot, Ashkelon and the surrounding kibbutzim that are being bombarded with Qassam rockets... All I can say is, that it really isn't Hamas' fault that the Israeli government is willing to keep those people hostages in the name of the National Erec- ahem... National Strength.

Is Hamas accountable? Oh yes.
More so than the Israeli government and the IDF? Hell no.

I hope this incident incites some more action within Israel/Palestine and without and that something happens over the next few months.

I also hope the people of Gaza are somewhat comforted by this activity and action.

Peace and Solidarity friends.

I had this really good entry all thought out, with lots of examples and points and arguments. But all that has seeped out of my brain due to end-of-Semester stress.

See yesterday Army (most of them Air Force) officers traveled around schools all over the country in a joint project with the ministry of education. This project is part of the 60 years to Israel commemorations, celebrations and what not.
At one of the school in which some of these officers came to speak, a demo by New Profile in which they constructed a huge papier mache brain and proceeded to squirt at with soapy water. I thought it was really smart and funny.

I told about it to my brother and mother and was really blown away by their negative responses.
My brother said they were being stupid and my mother asked if the demonstrators don't ask themselves what they can do for Israel.

Ahem.

See, the officers were there to talk about values and meaning of Israeli citizenship and what it means to be a Jewish nation in Israel - according to what I read about the project wasn't about convincing hight school kids that it's better to serve that to evade (which has been, according to the media which is trying to ensue a moral panic, imo, on the rise for the past two years).
I personally think it's wrong for the army to be a presence in schools other to give an overview of the positions available in the IDF and for that to be in after school hours so that it doesn't take over academic times - but that's really optimistic.

I don't believe for a minute that all they spoke about yesterday were "the values of Israeli citizenship" - Army service since the conception of this country has been a formative part of Jewish Israeli Identity (Druze and Bedouin can volunteer for the draft, but it is not mandatory). I'm pretty convinced that they spoke about the fact that to be good citizens they should serve their country through the IDF, that in the IDF they will learn what it means to be a moral, ethical and good Israeli citizen.

I think it's been a long time since the IDF has participated in a War that was solely for the protection of its citizens. All the operations across the borders have been offensive since the 80's and all withdrawals have been unilateral, meaning no agreement was discussed with those whose territory we were leaving. Almost all the operations done on the civilian population in the West Bank (and once Gaza) are defended by saying it's in the name of security are excuses to control said population by fear and humiliation. The soldiers (boys and some girls of 18 and 19, commanded by 20-somethings) are scared and they have guns and they've been taught to hate that little girl in a hijab, or that teenage boy with hate for them in return.
Do I even need to mention the immorality of the collective punishment on Gaza?

A small aside about Gaza: I can talk about the fact that Hamas fires Qassams at innocent people in the West Negev and Sderot, but seeing as the government that is funding this oh so educational project gives less than a shit about those people being fired upon, the less said the better.

I was asked why I don't have sympathy for those soldiers who have to do those horrible things in the name of security. I do. I have a lot of sympathy towards them and the fact that they are serving in an Army that requires them to do such unethical things and that they are educated to view those who are not like them as less-than-human.
Those soldiers traumatize and in turn are traumatized as well.
I wrote about this phenomena not too long ago.
Those soldiers, my soldiers, are ordered to invade other peoples homes in the name of security. They sometimes take food and other electrical supplies from those homes.
Some of them remain silent about what they once they are discharged.
Some of them break through this silence.

I don't believe that the Army does what it is supposed to do and it is because of this that I criticize it, that I feel a reform within its system and the way we, as Israelis, view the function of the military in our lives.
The gun is never a sacred instrument... in Hebrew it is equivalent to male genitalia.
Maybe I'll give a feminist reading of the role of the IDF, it's been done before, but now I've said what I felt had to be said about how I feel about the Army entering schools and talking about civic "values" and "duties".

Or not.
Depending if you find my little hell-hole interesting.

Racism you say? No, no! Can't be. A (Jewish) Member of Knesset threatening other (Arab) Members of Knesset with ethnic cleansing.
I'm shocked.
No, no I'm not
Though to be purely candid, this is part of Effie Eitam's regular rhetoric. And he is pretty upset about the fact that Palestinians with Israeli Citizenship (colloquially known as Israeli Arabs) are protesting the IDF's operations in Gaza - calling it War Time Treason.
*sigh* Because protesting military action is treason, but threatening with ethnic cleansing is just dandy.

Something slightly different: "Honour" Killings are more common than people would like to admit. Well, one of the more famous cases in Israel, involving the Abu-Ghanem family of Ramla (a Jewish-Arab mixed town in the Israeli Centre) have shown some progress: Today the murderer (who killed his sister for being "immodest") was sentenced for 16 years in prison.

Like the article says the major problem of this phenomena (in Israel, I wouldn't presume to know about other countries in which "honour" killings are prevalent) is that the Police don't take the problem seriously enough and show a whole lot of lenience towards the families in which this happens because it is considered an internal Hamula issue, that means it all stays in the Clan, in the family; more often than not, a girl who runs away to the police for protection because is sent back because, as I've said, the authorities send her back... let the Sheiks deal with her.

What makes the Abu-Ghanem case a special, and relatively famous, is the fact that the Mother (of the girl and her murderer, seeing as they were siblings) came forward last year.
I can only imagine the kind of will power it took to go to Israeli authorities and talk about the tragedy of nine dead woman, all killed by family members.
You gotta admire them for that and for trying to stop the cycle of women being disposed of like garbage.

And the Peace Talks will continue between Israel and the Palestinians, despite some shiftiness - sans Hamas of course who resumed their rocket firing (or at least didn't stop other groups from firing), no doubt Hamas will resume their own Qassam brigades in no time - their sense of self preservation leaves something to be desired... *sigh*.

There is joint blog about the reality of Gaza and Sderot, that two men have been writing together since January. An Israeli who goes by the alias Hope Man and a Palestinian who goes by the alias Peace Man are the writers and it's called Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot.

As you can imagine they've both been writing quite a bit the past few days.

The two writers have started a petition that calls for everyone to sign, obviously, and calls for a cease fire on both sides and one month to give the two sides time to rethink their policies.

Sign the Petition - One Month

Maybe it's the fact that I'm the daughter of immigrants.
Maybe it's the fact that I find hypocrisy distasteful.
Maybe it's because I really am *shudder* a statist at heart.

Perhaps this is simply because this is the reality of the situation and no matter how humanist I am in my philosophy, I'm not the one who runs the current socio-political paradigm that creates that huge divide between Israelis and Palestinians.

It's no secret that I sympathize and empathize with Palestinians and Palestinian national self-determination... this is because it is the basic human and civil right of every nation on earth to live in a territory as a home-land. It is what I was taught (and understood) Zionism to be for the Jews; what Zionism actually was and is in praxis is not what I want to write about.

Because of the Zionist movement, Jews did create a home-land in historical Palestine (now Israel and the Palestinian Authority).
The problem is that Israel is a colonial remnant with all the baggage that goes with it.
Israel is different that other colonial remnants, is that it came late in the game and it has now based itself and isn't going anywhere.
Nor do I believe it should.

The history that we all go back to - 1948, 1967, 1987, 2000 etc. It doesn't do any good.
It doesn't matter anymore who started what and when.
Only that we finish it.
By communication, by stopping the usurpation of land, by shifting the status quo even if it pains those involved.
By agreeing, not on a Hudna, but an actual two sided agreement and not a unilateral decision.

It's not in Israel's best interests to keep the people of Gaza under siege and/or attack or keep building settlements in the West Bank. On the other hand it's not in Hamas' best interests to keep bombarding Sderot, the West Negev and beyond, and for Abu-Mazen to start flashing sabers.

Intifada #3 is in no ones interest.

Except the USA.
They get money.

BTW, you can call me naive all you like, but other than what I suggested, there really is only the annihilation of one or both of the Nations in question, which I don't think anyone wants.