Oppenheim Arts & Letters

Israel - Gaza : Basics

I may update this page as I become aware of more summaries of key issues involving Israel's military restraints as well as provision of services to Gaza.

As noted elsewhere, I trust the Israeli government implicitly as regards its release of information, and with rare exception, may accept the main body of straight (no op-ed or "analysis) Israeli or Jewish reportage at face value.  If the Israeli Defense Ministry, for example, claims it sent N tons of cement to Gaza, I'm disinclined to question the claim.  If it turns out such shipments are monitored from delivery to application on site--i.e., for repairs to a hospital damanged in the 2009 winter war in Gaza--then all to the good, for who and what behaviors would be to blame for the mobilation of Israeli air power or Palestinian use of civilian personnel and municipal sites for war operations?

If it has been quiet, so far, this year, there's probably a good reason for it.  Whatever reason you may have in mind, be sure not to miss the information, even reduced to data, in these few references.

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  "Behind the Headlines: the Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza."  May 25, 2010: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Israeli_humanitarian_lifeline_Gaza_25-May-2010.htm

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Flickr Photostream (includes IDF images of weapons found aboard the Mavi Marmara): http://www.flickr.com/photos/israel-mfa/

Israel Ministry of Defense.  "Gaza Strip Merchandise and Humanitarian Aid: Detailed Crossing Activity - In the Year 2009: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32598706/Gaza-Strip-Merchandise-and-Humanitarian-Aid-2009-2010

Israel Ministry of Defense.  "Gaza Strip Merchandise and Humanitarian Aid Report: May 30 to June 5, 2010: http://www.scribd.com/doc/32650677/Gaza-Strip-Merchandise-and-Humanitarian-Aid-May-30th-June-5th-2010

Julian, Hana Levi.  "Israel's Aid to Gaza: 'No PA Arab Denied Medical Care."  Arutz Sheva - Israel National News, May 26, 2010: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/news.aspx/137709

Gaza Lifestyle - Photography by Abed Rahim Khatib

I've posted three positive and one negative (more by title than anything seen) photo story by the busy photojournalist Abed Rahim Khatib.  Make of them what you will--Gaza and its residents may look better in pictures than in the verbal propaganda, which would have the whole lot living primitively and starving.  Should any reader wish to see photographs in which refugees do in fact live in the most makeshift manner while starving in earnest, a few examples of that may be found in the next section.

Khatib, Abed Rahim.  "Israel allows shipment of cement and steel to Gaza."  Demotix, May 13, 2010: http://www.demotix.com/news/329368/israel-allows-shipment-cement-and-steel-gaza

Khatib, Abed Rahim.  "Israel allows shipment of clothes and shoes into the Gaza strip."  April 4, 2010: http://www.demotix.com/news/294004/israel-allows-shipment-clothes-and-shoes-gaza-strip

Khatib, Abed Rahim.  "Palestinians prepare flowers for export to Europe."  December 17, 2009: http://www.demotix.com/news/206411/palestinians-prepare-flowers-export-europe

Khatib, Abed Rahim.  "Gaza's farmers are entering their third year of export restrictions, imposed by Israel."  October 10, 2009: http://www.demotix.com/news/206978/gazas-farmers-are-entering-their-third-year-export-restrictions-imposed-israel

Other Refugees

War torn environments may not all look alike, but they may in some ways work alike, and that comes across in the photography, transience being the first observable fact of life associated with martial violence.  Unlike processes involving expulsion, murder, and persecution outright and subsequent resettlement (for survivors) elsewhere, there seems to be strata subject to the same horrors but in which temporary accommodations become permanent, the shelters of sticks and textile refuse become tents the become small buildings that become concrete structures.  Still, close in time to the trauma, little of it looks pretty and most of it may be decidedly underserved.

Blass, Michael.  "Is the world failing Somali refugees?"  Radio Netherlands Worldwide, September 3, 009: http://www.rnw.nl/international-justice/article/world-failing-somali-refugees

McLellan, Ian.  "Kakuma Camp."  Demotix, July 21, 2009: http://www.demotix.com/news/kakuma-camp

Murdock, Heather.  "Tougher Times Ahead for Somali's Refugees."  VOA News via Refugees United Australia, January 25, 2010: http://refuniteaustralia.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/tougher-times-ahead-for-yemens-somali-refugees/

Pistilli, Francesco.  "FerrHotel Occupato - Somalian Refugees Occupy Abandaoned Hotel in Bari."  January 12, 2010: http://www.demotix.com/news/277089/ferrhotel-occupato-somalian-refugees-occupy-abandoned-hotel-bari

Refugee - United Nations Definition

“A person who is outside of his or her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.”

Article 1, 1951 Refugee Convention

Updates

August 2, 2010:

http://www.alresalahtalk.net/vb/showthread.php?t=3636<br />

Use "Google Translate" to interpret the photographs of the opening of a large shopping mall in Gaza. 

While it's prudent to question claims about Gaza's poverty using development milestones as evidence otherwise, it may also be fair to question both the ownership of such enterprises locally and the potential "mansions and mill shacks" development story that such may represent. 

By way of historical analogy, the possession of "dacha" or summer homes on the Black Sea by Communist Party cronies by no means signaled the presence of affluence across the broad constituency of the Soviet Union.  On the other side of any so-called "Jewish Question" or most contemporary anti-Zionist rants frankly reside forms of mobocracy that would wish those less fortunate would look toward some other than their leaders for their hapless state.

In any case, we may see from the above that Gaza possesses some wealth: what impedes the widening of its distribution?

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Cordoba Project Draws Thousands to Protest

Robert and I were expecting 500; imagine our wonder when close to 5,000 showed up. This is just the beginning. We are going to sue to designate the Burlington building a war memorial.

Geller, Pamela.  "Excelsior! Upwards of Eight Thousand Protest 911 Mega Mosque on D Day."  Atlas Shrugs, June 6, 2010: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2010/06/excelsior-five-thousand-protest-911-mega-mosque.html

Cordoba?

Look up the history.

Start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caliphate_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

The Caliphate of Córdoba (Arabic: خلافة قرطبة Khilāfat Qurṭuba) ruled the Iberian peninsula (Al-Andalus) and North Africa from the city of Córdoba, from 929 to 1031. This period was characterized by remarkable success in trade and culture; many of the masterpieces of Islamic Iberia were constructed in this period, including the famous Great Mosque of Córdoba. In January of 929, Abd-ar-Rahman III proclaimed himself Caliph (Arabic: خليفة) of Córdoba^[1] in place of his original title Emir of Córdoba (Arabic: أمير قرطبة 'Amīr Qurṭuba). Abd-ar-Rahman III was a member of the Umayyad dynasty; the same dynasty who held the titles of Emir of Córdoba since 756

Stop here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martyrs_of_C%C3%B3rdoba

The Martyrs of Córdoba were forty-eight Christian martyrs living in the 9th century Muslim-ruled Al-Andalus, in what is now southern Spain; their hagiography describes in detail their executions for capital violations of Muslim law in Al-Andalus. The martyrdoms instanced by Eulogius took place between 851 and 859; with few exceptions, the Christians invited execution by publicly stating their faith/beliefs: some martyrs appeared before the Muslim authorities to denounce Muhammad; others, Christian children of Islamic-Christian marriages, publicly proclaimed their Christianity (Coope 1995). The lack of an interested chronicler after Eulogius' own martyrdom has given way to the misimpression that there were fewer episodes later in the 9th century.

And wind up here with the question following the URL: http://www.cordobainitiative.org/?q=content/shariah-index-project

The Shariah Index Project seeks to address the religion-politics relationship question that has racked the Muslim World since the death of the Prophet Muhammad. A contentious issue between religious Islamic political and secular political parties within the Muslim World, and between Muslim and Western nations (for whom Church-State separation is a foundational concept), it evolves around the right balance between institutions of political power and authority and institutions of religious power and authority, and whether the modern nation state Muslims live in should be a secular or religious (i.e. Islamic) State?

What do you think: give it a go?

* * *

Update (August 15, 2010): I gave the issue a little more thought at this address: http://commart.typepad.com/oppenheim_arts_letters/2010/08/15-1000.html

# # #

All Aboard the Fascist Flotilla!

There are two things I trust in my fellows Jews implicitly: 1) ethical, legal, and moral integrity -- i.e., beneficent and clear thinking about others and themselves; 2) honesty.

With that bias, perhaps, in mind, here in its entirety comes the latest press release from Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs:

Specific Flotilla Passangers Linked to Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Other Terror Organizations, 6 June 2010

Specific Flotilla Passengers are Active Terror Operatives Linked to Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Organizations

6 June 2010

The following passengers on board the Mavi Marmara are known to be involved in terrorist activity. The Mavi Marmara attempted to break the maritime closure on the Gaza Strip on Monday, May 31^st 2010, and was boarded by Israel Navy forces.

Fatimah Mahmadi (born 1979), is a United States resident of Iranian origin, and an active member of the organization “Viva Palestine”, she attempted to smuggle forbidden electronic components into the Gaza Strip.

Ken O’Keefe (Born 1969), an American and British citizen, is a radical anti-Israel activist and operative of the Hamas Terror organization. He attempted to enter the Gaza Strip in order to form and train a commando unit for the Palestinian terror organization.

Hassan Iynasi (born 1982), a Turkish citizen and activist  in a Turkish charity organization, is known of providing financial support to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad Terror organization.

Hussein Urosh, a Turkish citizen and activist in the IHH organization, was on his way to the Gaza Strip in order to assist in smuggling Al-Qaeda operatives via Turkey into the Strip.

Ahmad Umimon (born 1959), is a French citizen of Moroccan origin, and an operative of the Hamas Terrorist organization.

Source: http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/06/intel-specific-flotilla-passangers-linked-to-al-qaeda-hamas-and-other-terror-organizations-6-june-2010/

# # #

Phyllis Chesler on Israel's Persecution

Once, Jews were persecuted because they had no ancestral home — and no army, navy, or air force. Now, Jews, both in Israel and around the world, are persecuted precisely because they have an ancestral home which dares to defend its citizens from deadly harm. This Jew-hatred refuses to die. And Jewish-American, Jewish-European, and Israeli leaders have refused to recognize that the contemporary war against the Jews is bigger, and the consequences graver, than ever before in history and that this war is primarily being fought — and won or lost — through propaganda and the manipulation of ideas. Leftist progressives and journalists in the West have joined forces with Islamists, the United Nations, and human rights groups in propagating Big Lies against the small Jewish state.

Chesler, Phyllis.  "The Lynching of Israel: The Global Propaganda Wars Gather Force."  Blog at Pajamas Media, June 1, 2010: http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/

# # #

Gaza Boat Show - No Party for This Landing

Source: YouTube poster "idfnadesk".  "Close-Up Footage of Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF Soldiers (with Sound)."  YouTube, May 31, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LulDJh4fWI

Fans and sponsors had billed the boat show as an nonviolent humanitarian effort.

Beware the sweet talk.

# # #

Boat Show From the Air

Source: YouTube poster "idfnadesk". "Demonstrators Use Violence Against Israeli Navy Soldiers Attempting to Board Ship."  YouTube, May 31, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU12KW-XyZE

Any, either side, may do this at home: web search term "IHH International Humanitarian Relief Organization".

With this event, whether I blog directly on it or interested parties embark on their own research missions, more will come out about the depth of Israel's commitment to peace with Gaza, its weekly throughputs of material and service aid, its reception of Gaza residents in its medical system as needed.  More information too will come to light on the precise makeup of the boat show's sponsors, their motives, and their customary ways of doing business.

I've read numerous op-ed or "news analysis" type predictions of this event as becoming a public relations nightmare for Israel, but I'm going to buck that tide here and suggest that what's coming is a far gone left winger's worst encounter with some truth, finally, about the character and nature of the company indulged, kept, and served.

# # #

Gaza Boat Show Smaller Than Expected

Composed Sunday, May 30, 2010--

Last Sunday, eight boats were committed to challenging Israel's sovereignty and its obligation to all of its citizens to forestall shipments of war materiel by sea.

Today, three have abandoned the route, citing "technical difficulties" for cause, leaving five boats floating toward Israel's navy.

Although Israel Foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor may have said, as quoted by The Times of Earth, "If we let them throw egg at us, we appear stupid with egg on our face. If we try to prevent them by force, we appear as brutes," [1] Israel's defense and security plans belie any appearance as brutes, for they include the following:

• Detainee's debriefing camp providing immediate medical support and swift transfer to deportation for most or jail for some, including participating Israeli citizens.
• Plans to inspect and then, through United Nations shipping resources, distribute aid to Gaza as intended by donors. 

Folks, I hate to tell you, but if an operation involves a state's military, life just doesn't get much friendlier than that.

Composed Monday, May 31, 2010--

More important, Israel's own campaign to get goods into Gaza dwarfs the efforts of those at sea.  The state's Ministry of Foreign Affairs claims, "Well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel over the last 18 months equaling nearly a ton of aid for every man, woman and child in Gaza. Millions of dollars worth of international food aid continually flows through the Israeli humanitarian apparatus, ensuring that there is no food shortage in Gaza. Food and supplies are shipped from Israel to Gaza six days a week. These items were channeled through aid organizations or via Gaza's private sector. [2]

How is that for "Zionist criminality"? 

The story only gets better.

No Palestinian is denied medical care in Israel. However, if the Hamas regime does not grant permits for medical care, the Israeli government can do nothing to help the patient. Israel will facilitate all cases of medical treatments from Gaza, unless the patient is a known perpetrator of terror . . . In 2009 alone, 10,544 patients and their companions left the Gaza Strip for medical treatment in Israel. Moreover, there were 382 emergency evacuations from Gaza for medical purposes. [2]

The May 25, 2010 Ministry of Foreign Affairs article covers in brief factoids the distribution of the basic elements of decent living, from the provision of building materials, including tons of concrete for direct use on known projects, to the distribution of electricity and sewage services.

Against that backdrop of Israeli efforts to contribute to the maintenance of a basic and decent quality of living even in its sworn enemy's camp, specifically, the Hamas government that has its hooks deeply set in the lives of Gaza's residents, have come the boat people.

In my fair and recession-battered small town, I too may take a camera into the low-rent districts and show all vacant buildings and structures, commercial and residential, in states of disrepair (truth to tell, given the age of some of neighborhoods here, even decent enough and occupied homes may sport their share of jury-rigged wires, peeling paint, and sagging porches), but I wouldn't claim such images to then represent the whole of a house, town, or region at large. 

Running coals to New Castle, as the saying goes, this would seem the way in which well-intentioned people get themselves involved in something that gets them killed.  With Israel's cooperation and resources providing essential goods and services (e.g., medical) directly and with donors around the world passing through to its people other than war materiel, Gaza has long been "rescued" despite the lethal agenda, not to mention fratricidal behavior, of Hamas.

In light of the above, we may now catch up with the story.  This has been posted on YouTube by AljazeeraEnglish, May 31, 2010:

Source: "Israeli troops storm Gaza flotilla": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFEBbDkyrqQ.

I have long mantained that a state's military, any of them, are generally "too large"--imprecisely lethal, minimally adjustable once mobilized--for the work at hand and have yet to be proven wrong on that; I've also said, and this in relation to Somalia, the best thing to do in the presence of an army if not directly engaged is to avoid or flee it.

Now you have watched above the flashy part of the story.  Let's fill in what happened before that happened.

Source: "Israeli Navy Addresses a Ship in the Flotilla and Offers it to Dock in the Ashdod Port."  May 30, 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKOmLP4yHb4

It's an old ritual, the establishment of political and military policy, fair general warnings at sea, and then a request, followed by the bravado of an invitation: "Negative.  Negative.  Our destination is Gaza."

The boat show's destination was Gaza.

Israel says the troops returned fire after they were attacked with live rounds, knives and clubs, but the organizers of the Gaza blockade busting bid insist the soldiers started shooting the moment they hit the deck.

"They fired directly into the crowd of civilians asleep," the Free Gaza Movement said. [3]

Let the Tuesday morning quarterbacking begin: I have a feeling Gazans know the sources of their electricity and water, their beef and medicines, their building materials and manufactured goods of all kinds, and not only where they come from but how they're delivered in the main and overwhelming part.

All of this, and this in light of America's Memorial Day Weekend: propaganda, self-aggrandizement, and show business with real blood.

Not only did the peaceful of the world not need the Gaza Boat Show, it's doubtful whether the people of Gaza needed at all.

Reference

1. The Times of Earth.  "Israel ready to stop Gaza-bound ship convoy."  The Times of Earth, May 27, 2010: http://www.timesofearth.com/Politics/?NT=6&nid=22885

2. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  "Behind the Headlines: The Israeli humanitarian lifeline to Gaza."  May 25, 2010: http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/About+the+Ministry/Behind+the+Headlines/Israeli_humanitarian_lifeline_Gaza_25-May-2010.htm

3. Krauss, Joe.  "The deadly last moments of the Gaza flotilla."  Agency France Press in The Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2010: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/deadly+last+moments+Gaza+flotilla/3092011/story.html

Other Reference

AP.  "Flotilla bound for Gaza delayed, loses key members."  The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/Home/Article.aspx?id=176830

Deitch, Ian.  "Israeli gunships head to sea to block flotilla."  AP via Deseret News, May 28, 2010: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700036059/Israeli-gunships-head-to-sea-to-block-flotilla.html

Johnston, Cynthia.  "Israel flotilla action criticised by friends and foes."  Reuters via The Vancouver Sun, May 31, 2010: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Israel+storms+Gaza+bound+ships+dead/3091901/story.html

Katz, Yaakov.  "IDF to intercept Gaza flotilla."  The Jerusalem Post, May 27, 2010: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza-flotilla-20100531,0,7691835.story

Katz, Yaakov.  "'We will remain non-violent'".  The Jerusalem Post, May 30, 2010: http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=176832

Sanders, Edmund.  "Gaza aid flotilla anticipates high-seas standoff with Israel."  Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2010: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-gaza-flotilla-20100531,0,7691835.story

# # #

Mudbrick Homes

Make it Mudbricks [1], the monicker for an Australian manufactury, beautifully promotes the material on which the Great Wall of China has stood for centuries.  This page especially charms: http://www.makeitmudbricks.com.au/properties.html

A new project by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) aims to build around 120 mud brick houses for dozens of homeless families in the next few months. Each house costs about US$10,000 and takes three months to build. [2]

Among issues touted in this week's "Gaza Boat Show" has been that of delivering supplies of concrete to the war battered strip.  Israel claims the material will be used to build or reinforce Hamas bunkers.

Jihad Al-Shaer got tired of waiting for Israel to allow cement and steel into the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and took matters into his own hands, building a house of clay bricks. [3]

The Reuters-to-Haaretz article (yes, we are all sitting in the second row seats to history today, so double triple thanks to those journos out there eating dust for breakfast) from which I've listed the above lead goes on to note, "Homes of red, fired brick, tile roof and timber, of the sort common in the West and China, are rare in the Middle East and the Palestinian territories."

Source: YouTube poster "koratfarang262."  "Volunteer Thailand Mud Brick Building Projects."  YouTube, February 11, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-GXm3bCz6M

Source: YouTube poster "gazanews2009."  "Mud brick building in Gaza."  YouTube, May 6, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9VxHPGOs1c

The building material need not imply technology deficit.  Our cognitive or linguistic association of "mud brick" construction with primitive living rests with temporal associations, for it is an admittedly ancient technology.  However, and all the more remarkable for how very well it competes with materials costing much more in energy and labor, it evidently lends itself to the support of thoroughly modern technology complements.

Source: YouTube poster "gudlaren".  "Wayne and Karen's mudbrick house."  YouTube, June 27, 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_hEiDs57UU

Wayne and Karen's place looks like wood frame and mud brick, but it's still mud brick for its boundary between exterior and interior space.

Source: YouTube poster "redpharmacist".  "Mud Masters."  YouTube, March 2, 2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk5nBAc2-IY

Whether contemplative on this subject, active in architecture and constructure, full of it politically, our human ability to produce a positive outlook on life and become resourceful and innovative would seem universal.  Egotism, impotence, and vanity may call for concrete construction, but aesthetics, practicality, and technology do not.

In fact, as implied by the leftward movement toward organic, energy efficient, and environmentally sound solutions to challenges in living, it's quite possible that instead of "going back to mudbrick construction", much of humanity may actually be moving forward with it, albeit with the mixed motivation of limitations in choice, whether determined by immediate environmental resources, economics, or politics, as well as advantages discovered in the options available.

Reference

1. Make it Mudbricks: http://www.makeitmudbricks.com.au/

2. IRIN.  "Photo Gallery: Mud Brick Houses in Gaza".  Page introducing slide show.  March 2, 2010: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88284  Slideshow URL: http://www.irinnews.org/photogallery/Gaza_mud_brick_houses_Mar2010/index.html

3. Reuters.  "Deprived of concrete, Gaza discovers clay bricks."  Haaretz.com, April 29, 2009: http://www.haaretz.com/news/deprived-of-concrete-gaza-discovers-bricks-1.275054

Other Reference

Davey.  "The Yemen's mud brick buildings."  The Architectural Review.  Available via Highbeam Research, article dated July 1, 2002: http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-90117382.html

EHow.  "How to Build an Adobe Home."  http://www.ehow.com/how_2108244_build-adobe-home.html

Earth Architecture: http://www.eartharchitecture.org/

Graeme North Architecture.  "Mud Brick and Cob - Natural Earth Building & Stabilisers."  White Papers: http://www.ecodesign.co.nz/mudBrickCob&Stabilisers.shtml

Mehta, Deepa.  "On Conservation and Development : The Role of Traditional Mud Brick Firms in Southern Yemen."  Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University in the City of New York: http://globelics2009dakar.merit.unu.edu/papers/1237859320_DM.pdf

Mudbrick Manor: http://www.mudbrickmanor.com.au/story.html

Mudbrick's Weblog: http://mudbrickhomeshow.com/

Pictures of Mali - Djenne Countryside - a mud brick home, Senosa: http://www.travel-pictures-gallery.com/mali/djenne-countryside/djenne-countryside-0010.html

The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.  "Isometric Reconstruction of the Temple Oval."  Drawing by Hamilton D. Darby, pencil and charcoal on paper": http://oi.uchicago.edu/OI/MUS/ED/TRC/MESO/architecture.html

Practical Action.  "Additives to Clay: Organic Additives Derived from Natural Sources": http://files.uniteddiversity.com/Ecological_Building/additives_clay_organic.pdf

Tech-Dry Building Products.  "Earth Building Protection":

Wikipedia.  "Mudbrick": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudbhttp://www.stopsaltdamp.com.au/blue%20earth.htmlrick

# # #

Obama and the Double Story

Consider the "Primary Story" the one conventionally observed through the Big Media and associated "straight journalism" lens and interpreted at face value. 

Simple enough? 

It would seem so: if we trust the reporting to have been accurate, then we may trust our filters to have responded to news appropriately (according to how we were raised, educated, and informed), and in doing so move along secure in our similarly conventional wisdom.

In the open societies at least since World War II, the elements of Big Media may have at times come to blows over the meaning of events, but by and large the receptive public accepts at least the facts and overall impression of events and their portent, leaving enthusiasm for wildly alternative reporting and conspiracy theories to clever and imaginative pundits if not exactly a crackpot fringe.

We're not only unaccustomed to informational flim-flam from the main body of reporters, we're most certainly not familiar with any elected government creating an impression adverse to our interest to cover an intent well within our interests.

By and large, we have taken U.S. President Obama's vaunted realignment with Islam and glaringly public snarls, snubs, and stops involving israel's government in the same vein.

What we've seen a year and a half into Obama's administration would seem to be what we're getting, and for conservative Jewry, which looks out for all of the Jewish community, what we've seen doesn't look good.

However, entertaining the concept of the "Double Story" takes us into the ideation that creates out of any given set of facts an entirely improbable possibility. 

Americans, Jews, and, I like to say, Danish Cartoonists generally find themselves on the receiving end of the double stories floating out of the many quarters of the Islamic Small Wars: not Al Qaeda, don't  you know, but the CIA and Mossad took down the Twin Towers, an elaborate "false flag" operation to pave the way for making war on Islam, a preposterous theory--even Noam Chomsky has debunked it--but fashionable for some as a double story with its own persistent "9/11 Truth" movement.

The double story, my term for a class of narrative containing two tales--i.e., a sensible primary story accompanied by many squirrely thoughts racing around beneath it on facts reported, borrowed, and invented--may be played by . . . guess who?

What if, for example, Obama's egregious treatment of Israel's Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been largely for show and with some domestic Israeli pain added for emphasis?

* * *

Well here comes the "Blair Resignation" involving the now former, Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair, wihch brings up a name frequently paired with his as an antagonist: John O. Brennan, also a top advisor to the Obama Administration.  Lately, Brennan, as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, has been talking of reaching out to elements within the terrorist organization Hezbollah, talk that may be taken as yet another slap in Israel's face. 

However, just about two years ago during Obama's election phase, Brennan also demurred from selection for an Administration role over his record of support for Bush-era CIA-approved practices like waterboarding and "rendition" for terrorist suspects.

Whatever Brennan may believe today about Bush's "War on Terror" and his role in it, he's had his bona fides as some kind of hardliner for a while--it's doubtful he's traded in the fundamentals of his career character at this stage.   

Then too given the military relationship between Washington and Jerusalem, notes like this one referring to trade in military technology pop up in the news now and then (this is just one I could find quickly on the web):

This aid serves an American interest, of course: It wants its allies, including Israel, to all use compatible operational systems and logistical infrastructure. Therefore, Washington wants Israel to acquire F-35 aircraft. Should the U.S. Air Force, which will be primarily using F-35s in the coming years, need to deploy squadrons to Israel during an emergency, it would want to find suitable maintenance here (Oren, April 29, 2010).

While Obama greets Binny at the back door and Clinton puts down her foot, the U.S. military and the IDF continue working on the same nifty rides and planning for adventures in the years ahead.

Were a Palestine created without a state military, Israel and the United States and allies would have to keep secure its exterior boundaries, and if there's something, anything, other than diplomatic signal in the slights, the appeasing talk, the so-called realignment, and general appearance of inaction in the shadow of aggression, pray tell what it was or is.

Writing for Haaretz, Amir Oren seems to suggest that America's leverage of Israel's defense assets weakens the posture of Israel's conservative government, but here the double story might apply: the superficial look of circumstances involving an American turn to the far left accompanied by outreach into factional competitions within the Islamic Small Wars from al-Shabaab rivals in Somalia to elements within Hezbollah looks like change, but such may not represent anything changed within the realpolitik of the engagement with militant Islam and its associates.

It's possible that all that has changed is the public impression of states of affairs formed out of spotlighted moments of political stage craft intended to "show the hand of peace" as promised and make of it a convincing show and argument.

For the time being, it remains far in the interests of the open societies to avoid accelerating or intensifying hot conflicts, ongoing or potential, associated with the Islamic Small Wars while feverishly--and this a little bit to a lot under the news radar--grinding and realigning militant edges or de-energizing their motivation. 

The same thought applies to feigning away from any premature direct challenge to Tehran. 

The double story as psychologically reactive to information may remain forever a common but marginalized phenomenon in the folk life of the open societies--and pray they remain open!--while the notion that such may be deliberately constructed has been with us since the invention of magic shows, propaganda, and public relations.  In this suggested double story scenario, instead of producing a reassuring Yankee Doodle impression of its diplomatic and military strategy, Obama's Administration has given at least conservative analysts a most sinister sequence of signals, and yet the whole shimmers between "real and believe it"--and, so far, the  writers I read have taken that track-- and "staged" (and all will turn out well). 

If all turns out well indeed, and whether near or far in the future, the world at large may dispense with its indulgence in elaborate conspiracies and fantasies woven out of the atmosphere produced by characteristically autocratic, opaque, and secretive governments and ersatz thugocracies.

Reference

Associated Press.  "Intelligence director to resign."  Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2010: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2010/05/ap-source-intelligence-director-to-resign.html

Mazzetti, Mark.  "Blair to Leave Intelligence Post After Rocky Tenure."  The New York Times, May 20, 2010: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/21/us/politics/21intel.html

Greenwald, Glenn.  "John Brennan and Bush's Interrogation/Detention Policies."  PolitiFi, February 6, 2010: http://politifi.com/news/John-Brennan-and-Bushs-interrogationdetention-policies-173939.html

Greenwald, Glen.  "John Brennan and Bush's Interrogation/Detention Policies."  Salon, November 16, 2008: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2008/11/16/brennan/

Oren, Amir.  "U.S.-IDF Relations are much warmer than U.S.-Israel ties."  Haaretz, April 29, 2010: http://www.haaretz.com/magazine/week-s-end/u-s-idf-relations-are-much-warmer-than-u-s-israel-ties-1.287443

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Peace Talks - Three Recent Videos

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While Islamist Watch provided the lead and URL's to the above videos, most certainly neither it nor any in the online community aligned against militant Islam choreographed the above events, which I find chilling.  I'd like to provide an interpretive excuse, one that recognizes the latest true faith, but then the Jews take it as axiomatic that if God gave them a message, he give it perfectly and in universal space and time: no upgrades needed or abrogations required.

Perhaps what others have received, or claimed, that is their business or gift, but whatever it may be, none who are not of it need deny or verify its legitimacy.

Not to be forgotten: "There is no compulsion in religion."

For reference, I'm going to leave this note short.  As most know, clicking on an embedded video will return you to its source (all are on YouTube).   A URL to Islamist Watch's home page persists in the journals list to the left, and the specific article by David J. Rusin (published May 14, 2010) is located here:

http://www.islamist-watch.org/blog/2010/05/jihad-on-camera-hatred-at-ucsd-lars-vilks-attacked

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