Aljazeera goes under gaza

watch this to see what the tunnels between Egypt and Gaza are like!

Two unilateral ceasefires later, and we're all back in school, quite confident that this means we can relax--for at least a week. I'm not so convinced(!) But we haven't had any rocket attacks in two whole days. I am finally pushing myself to get down to business with school work with the prospect of them extending the semester by a week. I had a great day yesterday, very productive, and a very interesting class on the Iranian Revolution. My professor had some interesting comments about Iran's involvement in Gaza and the military op, which I will try to relay to you here (although know that this is just one person's opinion/suggestion, and I may not understand it entirely):

The Iranianization of Lebanon and Palestine

Here in Israel, Hamas' full name is "The Iranian-backed Hamas." There has been so much talk about Iran being behind the scenes in the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, yet throughout this whole current conflict, we have barely heard a peep out of Iran. Whats the deal? Its true that because Hamas was boycotted after the election, it went to Iran for funds, deepening their relationship. But with 1200 dead and 5000 wounded in Gaza and only 13 soldiers and a few civilians dead on Israel's side, you have to ask, is that all Iran can do? You also have to ask, how did Israel (or "the Israeli War Machine," full name) get away with such atrocity?

My professor suggests that By linking Hamas and Hezbollah with Iran, it removes them from the Palestinian struggle and puts them into a constructed category of "the war on terror," insinuating that all terrorist organizations are linked together, with united crazy purposes, ultimately linked and backed by Iran, axis of evil. He warns against assuming that the weapons used in the Lebanon war by Hezbollah can from Iran. They may have, but they were Chinese in origin. The truth is, no one knows much, especially the media. He says that by saying that Hamas is backed by Iran, that the Palestinian struggle is just a pawn in the grand Iranian conspiracy to wipe Israel off the map would be just like saying that Israel is a pawn in the hands of America, used to wipe Palestine or the Arabs of the map. Though some might argue that this sentiment holds true, one has to admit that it seems a bit far reaching.

But putting Hamas into this category, this obscures the national struggle, and in a way legitimizes what Israel has done, as part of the global war on terror. He also reminds that the most violent and destruction that Iran has done in the past 30 years has not been to the outside world, but to its own Iranian people, and that this is something that is always overlooked.

anyway, something to think about. I would really appreciate comments.

Pictures below are:
1) smoke from an explosion I passed in a bus last weekend on the way to Jerusalem. yikes!
2) and 3) view of Jerusalem on a dramatic, hazy afternoon
4)sign in Jerusalem with everything spray painted out except the Arabic

Back in Beer Sheva, class today, in a bomb shelter. One siren sounded in the middle of class, and it was really hard to concentrate after that, as you can probably imagine. So far, I feel ok about sleeping here. It helps that almost everyone else in my program are back, as well. wish me luck through the night, and send your prayers and good thoughts to Gaza and those young soldiers there. ceasefireceasefireceasefire

here is a very good article from Jpost, written by Gershon Baskin. I think he really hits the nail on the head in this one, check it out, its short.




http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1231866575327&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

This is a video of the Grad that hit my dorm... it is also what I might return to on Wednesday, when classes are supposed to start. Sirens sound daily, rockets are falling often... can I handle it? finish what I have come here to do? or give up, come home with nothing so show for? get a work visa and move with no money in my pocket and no job lined up? realistically, this will calm down soon, but when? tomorrow? next week? next month? Will Israel make it to stage three? four? will Gaza become like Iraq? I have an Arabic midterm next Thursday, 100 pages to write be the end of next month. I'm so selfish to be thinking about myself all the time when 800 + are dead in Gaza, and my IDF friends (19, 20 yrs old) are there doing the killing. My head is swimming...

Here is a great article sent in to the American magazine Jewcy by my friend and classmate Neal Ungerleider, January 5, 2009 titled "Life in the Tel Aviv Bubble." He writes about what it was like to pop back down to Beer Sheva and get some things he left there. It's really good, I think.

-------------------------------


During wartime, the cognitive dissonance in Israel is overwhelming.

I'm typing this piece from the safety and comfort of Tel Aviv, where I went after my neighborhood was struck by rockets. There's a bloody and terrible war happening an hour's drive from here. 19 year olds who would be attending keggers in America are in gunfights with Hamas militants. Little kids are being blown to bits because their next door neighbor launched rockets at Israel a few months ago. There is madness, stupidity, heroism and a million other things besides happening here.

But right now I'm staying in a comfortable neighborhood in north Tel Aviv that reminds me of the Upper East Side back in New York. There are lots of ladies who lunch and a strip of coffee shops a few blocks down where you can get a decent cappucino and pain au chocolat.

I am bouncing between the houses of distant relatives and friends because of the war. These days, I'm normally an MA student in Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheva. However, Beersheva came under rocket attack on December 30 and 31. One Grad rocket landed less than 700 meters from my house on early Wednesday morning. I ran in midsleep to a bomb shelter and heard the explosion as clear as day through the fortified concrete.

As a result, the IDF's Homefront Command has indefinitely cancelled classes at Ben-Gurion University and shut down almost all commerce in the cities surrounding Gaza.

I returned yesterday to Beersheva yesterday to pick up some personal effects. I stumbled onto a ghost town. Workplaces that don't have rocket shelters are closed. Stores that aren't fortified are closed. Schools are closed. Restaurants are closed. A few hardy kiosks, greengrocers and cafes that run day-by-day are remaining open and risking government fines. Nothing but stray cats, retirees chain-smoking outside their shelters and little kids sneaking away from their moms to throw rocks at the stray cats. Too depressing, too zombie movie.

The only hopping place in Beersheva right now is the Soroka Hospital, the Negev's largest medical facility. Though Beersheva has been lucky enough to escape rocket fire during the past few days, other cities haven't had that blessing. Ashkelon, Ashdod and the poor citizens of Sderot have been under constant rocket attack since the cease fire between Israel and Hamas broke down a few weeks ago.

Although both Ashkelon and Ashdod have hospitals, the critically injured are bought to Soroka. Helicopters land at Soroka carrying poor bastards whose arms and legs were shot full of shrapnel. There are Bedouins from the desert whose villages lack air raid sirens and cannot hear the warnings. There are manual laborers who work outdoors and don't have access to shelters. And then there are just the people who can't run quickly or who found their shelters padlocked shut by a neglectful city government.

Hell, there are even a bunch of Gaza civillians who were medivac-ed out of the war-sieged territory for treatment here.

Coming to Beersheva by train, almost all of the other passengers were reservists called up to duty. There was one kid who looked like one of my Russian friends from high school. There was a cute girl with a hipster-ish haircut reading Israeli gossip magazines while wearing a shoulder tag for an elite intelligence unit. There was a reservist with an iPhone and designer glasses who looked for all the world like a New York blogger. On the ride down to the Negev, we could see black helicopters flying over the Occupied Territories looking for any escalation of the situation there. Radio attachments from cell phones were playing the latest news from Gaza. I tried to use my limited knowledge of Hebrew to figure out what was happening while talking in broken English to the reservist in the next row.

I came back to Tel Aviv to hear of stone-throwings by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank and of more deaths in Gaza. Meanwhile, I'm sitting at a bar, drinking imported beer and eating a Cubano while talking about Barack Obama and the IDF with the bartender in bad Hebrew.

And there's a war an hour away, but everyone's ignoring it here in the "Tel Aviv bubble."

Gaza War Diary III: If Mexico shelled Texas, like Hamas shells Israel
By Bradley Burston, from Haaretz yesterday

Analogy One: A fanatical religious party wins a string of elections in Mexico's northern states, then stages a civil war to drive out the federal government and take full control.

The party's charter demands the return to Mexico of the occupied territories of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Texas.

Firing homemade rockets and more advanced projectiles smuggled in from Iran and China, the party's gunners can hit a total of one of every seven Americans, or 43,598,000 people, in a broad swath which includes Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Albuquerque, Austin, San Antonio and Houston, and Las Vegas.

In all of these areas, pre-schools, grade schools, and universities are all forced to shut down. Families sleep in bomb shelters, and return to them several times a day during air raids. Businesses are shuttered, and the economy shuts down.

http://www.wwlp.com/dpp/news/wwlp_local_connecticut_localstudentsonisraeliattacks_200812311639


Here is an interview with some of the guys that I went with to Bethlehem talking about the bombing and what its like. Its short, and doesn't say anything new, but hey! my friends are famous! I gotta spread the word.

I'm in Jerusalem until Friday, its sunny but the nights are frigid!! I'm meeting a lot of interesting people, and learning a lot -a lot- about Judaism. more later.

So I'm a refugee, couch surfing for at least the next week. I made the decision to leave Beer Sheva when the 4th rocket fell on my town, and the sirens were no longer functioning dependently. I packed light, sprinted to the train station, and got on a packed train to Tel Aviv, which is a northern city out of range. Unfortunately, school has been canceled for a week, which means serious business (if you thought bombs weren't already serious, consider that my university didn't cancel class until the fourth rocket fell on my friend's street, 5 minute's walk from campus). I guess you all must be wondering what I'm feeling, whats going through my head. Its a mess. I spent all of Tuesday night and Wednesday running back and forth from the shelter, bracing myself for the explosion. Who knows when it will stop? Will I ever feel like I can live normally in Beer Sheva with this pending threat? Does that mean I should leave at all? Since most of everyone I knew was going to Tel Aviv, I decided to join them. Tel Aviv was a great place to escape to because everyone here is SO welcoming, nice, fun. I've met some of the most beautiful loving people here the past few days. If anything can take the edge off, its life in Tel Aviv. But it is also sort of disturbing. I mean, it's an hour and a half train ride form Beer Sheva, and I met people here who didn't know a thing about was happening. I went to a drum circle on the beach, something I would normally be really into, but all the happy hippies dancing around like nobodies business sort of bothered me. How, with all the horrors happening in the south, can they live so lightly? I'm not saying that it makes them less compassionate people. This is Israel. You have to be tough and you have to figure out how to live your life and make your home here home. Its just difficult for me to think about my friends that stayed in Beer Sheva, laying on the floor all day listening to the eerie sirens drone and rockets blast. And about the kids in Gaza. And Muslims in Jerusalem who are not permitted to enter the old city to pray. And the Palestinians in Ramallah who are tear gassed for protesting.

Last night was wonderful, though. I spent Shabbat dinner with some of Miriam's friends,who were all musicians and peacemakers. We sang James Taylor, Cat Stevens, Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Neil Young. We sang prayers beckoning the angels of peace...and it was this kind of lightness that I needed so badly. For all the evil tendencies people have in the world, there are some truly beautiful souls out there working to balance them out.

Tel Aviv and the people I've met here really make me miss my friends at home, more than any other time since I've been here, or maybe more than ever. As depressed as I would be if I had to come back to the US now, I am feeling very home sick for ya'll. Maybe it's all the worry vibes your sending my way. I feel it, thank you and I love you. Send some good energy to Gaza, too, they need it more than me! hell, I'm on an indefinite vacation, half-heartedly planning a trip to Petra. I'm fine! I'll let you know when you need to worry about me. <3