Opuscula Watch your words!

 

In a Jewish Week article heded Misguided Presbyterian Vote an editorial writer wrote: By a 310-303 vote last week, a prominent American Protestant denomination made history. The Presbyterian Church, with about 1.8 million members, became the first major Christian group in this country to approve a resolution in favor of economic divestment from American businesses that make equipment that helps foster Israel’s occupation in the West Bank (Emphasis mine)

Unless I am sadly mistaken, the West Bank was part of Israel in the UN-approved borders; it was "annexed" by Jordan in a war of aggression.

If the West Bank is occupied it is Occupied Israel.

For all the university degrees held by Israelis, for all the English majors working in public and private public relations jobs, it is beyond my comprehension how Israeli "hasbarah" - PR - can be so lacking.

Much of the blame for the current anti-Israel rants in the media and on "social" networks can be traced to (a) Israel's poor PR effort and (b) anti-Israel forces' PR.

It really IS "what you say" that forms the public's opinions.

A simple example: Propaganda vs. Public Relations.

"Propaganda" has a more negative connotation for English speakers than the slightly less obnoxious "Public Relations."

Because Israeli PR people, a/k/a "flacks" which at one time applied to this scrivener, allowed the "West Bank" to be labeled "occupied Palestine" to appear unchallenged in print and on the air, the lie took hold of the audience's mind.

Once a "fact" - true of not - is accepted as truth, it is extremely difficult to "re-educate" the people who hold the "fact" as true.

It's said that the chief nazi and his propaganda minister believed in telling the "big lie," knowing that if it was bold enough and told often enough people would soon accept it as a truth.

Companies such as Coke, Caterpillar, Sanka, and 3M used to have teams of people scanning newspapers and magazines and listening to radio and television for misuse of their trademarks. Now the checks are mostly computerized.

Newspaper editors from my day knew that if a reporter wrote that someone drank "Sanka" - meaning instant coffee - the editor was get a nice note telling him or her that (a) Sanka was not a generic term for instant coffee and that if "Sanka" was used, it better be "Sanka Brand." It's "Scotch" tape, never "scotch" tape - fail to make it a capital "S" and 3M's legal department will be calling. (By the way, people from Scotland are Scots, not scotch, although the libation is "scotch.") Not all tracked vehicles are Cats and Caterpillar makes more than tracked vehicles; editors had to challenge reporters: "Is it really a Cat?"

Granted, all of the above are working diligently to protect their trademarks, but in the end, what IS a "trademark?" IMAGE, how people perceive a product.

If a cellophane tape fails to stick and someone relates that the "scotch tape" was lousy, 3M's image is denigrated even if the tape was from China and not 3M.

Write that coke (lower case "c") was served at the party and the Coca-Cola folks will remind that it's Coke or Coca-Cola with a big "C" if you please. (Once the concern was only for the trademark; now it's also to clarify that the "coke" really was the cola variety rather than the white powder.)

Israel's government and its friends outside the government need to be alert to the language its PR practitioners use and the terms non-Israelis, friends and foes alike, use across the media. In this case, "media" includes the "social" networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

ACCORDING TO MY DAUGHTER, still in her 20s and living in Israel, Israeli young people do defend Israel and counter anti-Israel propoganda. She made her point by showing me Facebook post after post after post.

My point, however, is that Jewish publications such as Jewish Week should never allow a canard to propagate on their pages.

When I was a reporter in Trenton NJ I had an editor (Sam Graff, by name) who insisted on changing "land fill" to "garbage dump" in every PR-provided "news" release.

The only difference I could see is that a land fill is a garbage dump covered over, but the land fill owners always took issue with Graff's editing and eventually "garbage dump" disappeared in favor of "land fill."

Jewish Weekly editors could have served Israel better by having the paragraph read foster Israel’s presence in the West Bank.

"Presence" lacks the negative impact of "occupation" but still preserves the idea that Israelis are present in the area. "West Bank" should have been "Judea and Samaria," but I think that change may be a "lost cause."

Opuscula How to tell building's age? Look at the roof

 

How can you "guesstimate" the age of a building in Israel?

Look at the roof.

If you see a "dood shemesh" - solar water system - then the building probably is an older structure. If it lacks a tank and solar collector, it’s a newer structure.

View through an Israel Rail coach window north of Tel Aviv (click on picture to enlarge)}

The height of the building, especially away from Tel Aviv, is another clue.

Duplex c 1972 in Bet Shean

Dishes for tv and internet can be found anywhere and everywhere, old buildings and new.

UNLIKE FLORIDA, Israel has NOT abandoned solar water heating.

When I arrived in south Florida c 1953, many residences sported solar water systems on the roof. Not so today; all the "tanks on the roof" are gone and the majority of water heaters in south Florida either are electric or gas.

In Israel, most hot water systems are solar with electric (or gas) back-up. Even the multi-story structures have solar; the tanks, however, are hidden.

Before whole-building solar systems were developed, Amcor, an Israeli company, developed a "hang-on-the-wall" unit for individual apartments.

What , Israel has is air conditioning - on the buses, on the trains, in almost all offices and residences regardless of age. Older places have room air conditioners; newer buildings have central A/C.

My Mother-In-Law just replaced a room unit with a new one from Tadiran, an Israeli company.

Israeli name
China product

Close inspection of the box in which the unit arrived had, in very small print, Made in China. (The unit was sold under the name of three companies: Amcor, Tadiran, and Toshiba.)

Tadiran, when I worked for the Electronics Division what seems like 100 years ago, was taken to task for putting its name on batteries made in Korea. When tested, the batteries were as good as any other, but that was Korea. Truth in blogging: We own two (2) Hyundai Elantras with which we are most satisfied.. Israel is more and more making cooperative arrangements with China (Sin) and India (Hodu). Having used products from the "Far East" for more than a few decades I hope Israeli importers assume responsibility for QA/QC on the imported products.

UNOFFICIAL LANGUAGE

There are two (2) official languages in Israel, alphabetically:
  Arabic 
  Hebrew 

HOWEVER, anyone with survival-level English can "get by" in Israel since almost all signs - at least those transportation related - are in Arabic, Hebrew, and English.

Station sign with inset (click on photo to enlarge)

I have never met an Israeli in a "public" position, e.g., passport control, information kiosk, who lacked at least a basic command of English. English is taught in Israeli schools from 5th grade, but as with students around the world, some learn and others don't. (I tried - and failed to teach English to some 7th graders who were could not be convinced of the value of an "international" language. Still, someone always is available to translate.)

Opuscula Riding Israel's rails: From Yavne to Haifa

 

Yavne: We've been riding the rails, being convinced that the best way to (a) get from point to point and (b) to see much of the country in comfort is to buy a ticket on Israel Rail.

We rode from Yavne to near Haifa - and back.

What you discover riding the rails is that Israel is a land of cranes and fields.

Source: http://www.rail.co.il/EN/Stations/Map/Pages/RouteMap.aspx

Israel is, unlike less civilized countries, is expanding its rail system. Coupled with better-than-good bus systems, a car is pretty much an expensive option. The train to Bet Shean is expected to be operational in 2016 or sooner; bridges already are in place and awaiting tracks.

The trains are clean (!), climate-controlled, reasonably comfortable (OK, the seats are a little hard - bring your own cushion if you have a sensitive backside), have Wi-Fi and electrical outlets for computers, the ubiquitous cell phones, and other devices.

There is one caveat: the railroad cars (coaches, carriages) are packed to Standing Room Only capacity on Fridays, early Sundays, and the days before and after holidays; soldiers ride both trains and buses gratis. Still, even in SRO conditions someone will give their seat to a geezer.

Because we bought one-way tickets we paid a small penalty over the round-trip price, but even then our half-price geezer tickets were only 27.50 NIS from Yavne to Hutsot HaNifrats, north of Haifa Center - HaShmona. We changed trains twice going north and once coming south; the wait times were short.

As I write this, US$1 = NIS 3.455580, you do the math.

According to one of my sisters-in-law - here after SIL - she and her husband buy roundtrip tickets from Hatsot HaNifrats to Tel Aviv - they like to shop - and their geezer tickets include bus passes so they can ride a local bus from the train station (takana rakevet) to wherever they want to go in Tel Aviv, then return to the train station. Not bad for less than US$10. ('Course what they spend in Tel Aviv . . . )

The trains have large, fairly clean windows that allow passengers to survey the landscape as they roll by.

Near any city of consequence - and a few of little consequence - the view is a mixture of cranes raising buildings of 10 or more stories next to open fields that, depending on season, are either bare or bearing.

Old houses compete with new mid- and high-rises for space in established communities; it's easy to see a Mandatory-period structure next to a new building.

All this from a train window.

Opuscula LGBT pennant flies Over Tel Aviv embassy

 

What's wrong with this picture?

A better question: What is NOT wrong with this picture.

The Times of Israel headline reads: U.S. embassy raises flag in support of TLV pride week

The sub-hed adds that A rainbow flag indicating support for the LGBT community was raised over the US embassy in Tel Aviv for the first time Tuesday, according to US ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro.

Has the LGBT set taken over the embassy? Have they taken over the country?

Being tolerant is one thing; appearing - even appearing - to cater to one small segment of a population is another altogether.

It is not "homophobia* to feel that heterosexuals are now second class citizens in their own country. It IS failing to be "politically correct" to object to a minority's political pennant flying alongside the Red, White, and Blue.

I would object if it was the Boy Scout pennant; ditto the NLB or NBA or even the NFL pennants. Let's fly the Seminole Indian Tribe of Florida flag over the embassy; at least that's actually the national flag of a tribe of Indians that never surrendered to the federal government.

If the LGBT pennant can fly over the embassy in Tel Aviv, why not the Black Panther pennant? How about the Nation of Islam? Maybe the NOW pennant? Certainly these pennants represent minority groups.

The ONLY flag that should be flown at a U.S. embassy - in the non-capital of Tel Aviv or anywhere else - MIGHT be the host country; that would be "politically correct" as well as "socially" correct.

Given the the resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's politics, I suppose we should be glad it was the LGBT pennant and not the Palestinian Authority pennant; perhaps if the embassy were located - as it should be in Israel's capital - it probably would be raised over the embassy.

Pennants over Embassy?

Which brings us to another issue, albeit one that failed to make The Times of Israel headline.

Why, despite the U.S. Congress' insistence, have the president and his predecessors refused to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel's capital: Jerusalem?

Is there a U.S. embassy in any other non-national capital?

Do these presidents - some allegedly "friends" of Israel - think Jordan is going to launch a war to recover what it lost in its last attack on the Jewish state?

Or, since the White House now is home to a Muslim, does anyone really believe Israel will surrender any of Jerusalem - other than the Temple mount, of course - to Islamists, "Palestinian Authority" or otherwise. Perhaps the White House is waiting for Rome to claim a historic Jewish site (David's tomb)?

 

  *   Homophobia

According to Merriam-Webster Online is defined as irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against homosexuality or homosexuals
and by Dictionary.com as: unreasoning fear of or antipathy toward homosexuals and homosexuality.

Opuscula Things may be Looking up at last

The following two (2) articles are from The Israel Project's The Daily Tip for June 11, 2014. After The Daily Tips is an interesting entry from Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for June 12, 2014

From The Daily TIP

Veteran journalists took turns at Wednesday’s daily State Department press briefing aggressively questioning ^{NB 1} the wisdom and coherence of the Obama administration’s approach to a recently appointed Palestinian unity government – agreed to by the rival Hamas and Fatah factions – hours after rockets fired from the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip struck a major road in southern Israel. The Israelis held the new Palestinian Authority (PA) cabinet, which has formal jurisdiction over Gaza and is treaty-obligated to seize the illegal rockets inside the territory, responsible for the attack. Washington has committed itself ^{NB 2} to working with and funding the new PA government. Veteran Associated Press diplomatic writer Matt Lee on Wednesday pressed State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki on how that position could be maintained in light of that morning’s rocket attacks. Psaki’s answer – that Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas had condemned the attacks but was unable to stop them – triggered another round of questioning. Lee questioned the geopolitical judgment behind supporting such a reconfigured and incapacitated PA, asking “if you recognize that [Abbas's] ability is extremely limited to prevent this kind of thing… how is it that you made the leap to go ahead and say, ‘All right, this is a government that we can do business with?’… if you think that this guy doesn’t have control over everyone who is either a member of or is backing his unity government, why would you do business with it?” When Psaki persisted in asserting that the U.S. would continue to fund the unity government, Reuters journalist Arshad Mohammed stepped in to ask why Washington was unwilling to use its leverage – “to stop dealing with the unity government or to stop funding it” – in order to stem the projectile fire. Mohammed suggested that the current policy, under which funding would continue despite the Palestinian attacks, signaled that Hamas could “send an unlimited number of rockets in and they can still be supportive of this unity government and you’ll still give the unity government and the PA money.”

Egypt’s Third Army has deployed the equivalent of a battalion of soldiers near the Israeli border to conduct counter-terrorism operations and prevent jihadists from targeting Israeli civilians – and especially civilian planes – with anti-aircraft weapons, according to a Wednesday report ^{NB 3} published in the Times of Israel by veteran Israeli Middle East analyst Avi Issacharoff. The move was coordinated with Israel, and is bound to be read against a stream of news and leaks pegging Israeli-Egyptian security cooperation at unprecedented levels. Asaf Ronel, the world news editor from Israel’s left-leaning Ha’aretz, described the development as a “new level of cooperation between [Egyptian President el-Fattah El-Sisi] and Israel.” Concrete details have been emerging for almost a year of security cooperation in the Sinai Peninsula, and had been preceded even earlier by what appeared to be unprecedented military-to-military coordination. The Egyptians have also over the last year undertaken a systematic campaign to degrade the access that the Palestinian terror group Hamas has to the outside world, and to destroy the smuggling tunnels that the group used to import rockets and missiles that were subsequently turned against Israeli civilians. For their part the Israelis, along with Saudi Arabia and much of the rest of the Gulf, have expressed frustration over ongoing decisions by the Obama administration to deny counter-terror assets to the Egyptian military for deployment in the Sinai.

And finally

Word of the Day

stoic \STOH-ik\
noun

 

1:   capitalized : a member of a school of philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium about 300 B.C.E. holding that the wise man should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submissive to natural law

2:   one apparently or professedly indifferent to pleasure or pain

Obviously a Jewish (or Jewishly-aware) editor.

 

NB 1: State Department transcript of session at http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/06/227452.htm#PALESTINIANS

NB 2: State Dept. Pressed on Hamas-PA Unity, Comparisons to Hezbollah in Lebanon http://www.thetower.org/0449oc-state-dept-pressed-on-hamas-pa-unity-comparisons-to-hezbollah-in-lebanon/

NB 3: Times of Israel report at http://www.timesofisrael.com/fearing-jihadi-attack-on-israeli-planes-egypt-sends-troops-to-border/

Opuscula Maybe now Israel Has worthy president

 

During the reign of Shimon Peres, now Israel's former president, the state was burdened by a man whose self-flattery destroyed the office.

From the beginning, Israel's presidency has been an almost non-political one; the president was a meeter and greeter of foreign dignitaries.

Peres, to the embarrassment of many Israelis, apparently thought his role similar to American presidents, and in the process, did as much damage to Israel as America's incumbent is doing to the United States.

Fortunately the presidency is time limited and Peres' term is, thankfully, over.

In his place Knesset Members (MK) - not the public - elected a former MK to represent Israel to the world for the next seven years.

Hopefully, Reuven Rivlin will restore honor to the office.

Changing of the guard

According to ABC News,

Israel's parliament on Tuesday chose Reuven Rivlin, a veteran nationalist politician and supporter of the Jewish settlement movement, as the country's next president, putting a man opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state into the ceremonial but influential post.

Rivlin, a stalwart in the governing Likud Party, now faces the difficult task of succeeding Shimon Peres, a Nobel peace laureate who became an all-star on the international stage.

The second paragraph of the ABC piece offers a hint of ABC's political leanings. Peres, then Foreign Minister, was given the Nobel prize in 1994, a prize he shared with then Israel Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin, and the Egyptian terrorist Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa (a/k/a Yasser Arafat). This is the same prize that the U.S. president was given after less than a year in office, suggesting that in both cases the prize was granted prematurely.

Hopefully Rivlin will not, as Peres did, tell a person who had the audacity to challenge his opinion to Go back where you came from.

Rivlin who most assuredly has political opinions must understand that those opinions must be shared with the world through a proxy; that the presidency is ceremonial.

The government rests in the hands of the prime minister and his hand-picked yes men (and women). As with the current U.S. president, all power (for now) rests in the hands of the country's chief executive.

If Rivlin can restrict himself to the duties of the presidency then he may go down as the president who restored honor to the office, an office tarnished by Peres who apparently forgot his career as an MK was over before his MK cronies awarded him the prize of the presidency..

Opuscula Let them starve

 

"Palestinian" terrorists in Israeli prisons are on a hunger strike.

Israel's chief politician wants his fellow pols to authorize force-feeding of the strikers.

The Israeli medical group says forcing food into the strikers is "torture" and it will not sanction it.

TO BE FAIR, many of the strikers have been incarcerated for long periods without charges being brought, without a trial, conviction, and sentencing.

According to an Israel HaYom article heded PM to lawmakers: Allow force-feeding Palestinian hunger strikers, The prisoners demand their release and the end of the open-ended "administrative detention" measure, which allows the authorities to hold individuals in custody without charge or trial for protracted periods. Over the years, virtually all administrative detainees have been Palestinian terror suspects.

The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem said that as of April, 191 Palestinians were in administrative detention. Overall, Israel is holding more than 5,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of anti-Israeli activity.

Normally, my first and only reaction to prisoners going on a hunger strike - in any prison in any country under the rule of law - is "let them starve." Hunger strikes are, after all, voluntary.

Israel, as are most "western" countries, are less or more, "countries under the rule of law. That means a person is

 *   Arrested

 *   Charged

 *   Tried

 *   (and if convicted) Sentenced

Note I wrote "most western countries." There ARE countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia that won't qualify as "countries under the rule of law." The U.S.' detention of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) Cuba, makes the U.S.' inclusion under the "countries under the rule of law" questionable; the prisoners should be charged, tried, and if found guilty, convicted and executed (thereby eliminating recidivism on the part of the terrorists).

The time between arrest and charge should be minimal; likewise, the time between charge and trial.

In the U.S., people charged with a crime are guaranteed a speedy trial.

Israel's law is based on English law which, compared to the U.S., seems a bit draconian. Israel, unlike either the U.S. or England, is under constant threat of terrorists and, due to that, may be allowed some "slack" in the criminal handling process.

I would not, as Israel's chief pol proposes, force feed any prisoner. Anyone who wants to go on a hunger strike is welcome to do so. Moreover, I will honor the prisoner's desire to die rather than eat, even when the prisoner is unconscious. I would not want to deprive a Muslim of his right to martyrdom and 70 virgins.

At the same time, Israel needs to treat its prisoners fairly; arrest, charge, trial, and if convicted, punishment; if innocent, freedom.

It does Israel no good, now or in the future, to detain prisoners without charge for more than 48 hours or to cause prisoners to be incarcerated for months awaiting trial.

While justice needs to be carefully administered, it must be administered in good time.