Tel Aviv Rooftop

As you can see from this shot of the wintry rooftop it's an usually foggy day in Tel Aviv. The weather matches the mood of many people in Israel (although not necessarily the majority) saddened by the Gaza war, especially by the huge toll it has taken in civilian casualties and material destruction. Despite everything there a few positive results from the whole catastropohe might be emerging. From Israel's point of view, the world now realises that arms smuggling from Iran to Gaza via Egypt is a real problem that needs to be dealt with and might even take real action. Another is that there are hopeful signs that that the US administratioin will place us high on the agenda. Meanwhile an article in Ha'aretz's wekeend magazine cast some light on the way that the international law department of the army accompanied and advised the military before and during the operation. "not crossing red lines but not stopping at grey ones" . The relatively free interpretation o...

Appropriate street art in Florentin With any luck, the government will declare a unilateral cease-fire this evening and the fighting (or at least the worst of it) will be over. Apparently Israel has enough guarantees, from the Egyptians, the Americans and others to be able to call it a day and declare a victory of sorts. If all goes according to plan, the residents of southern Israel can at last look forward to not being shelled for a while, while on the Egyptian side of the Gaza-Egypt border and even further afield, steps will be put in place to prevent the Hamas from re-arming. If that indeed happens the Israeli public, which has overwhelmingly supported this war, will be satisfied (for a while) and the politicians can go back to running for the elections (set for Feb 10). Moreover, the prevalent Israeli notion that every once in a while the country has to "go crazy" and show the neighbours that we are just as barbaric as they, will have been validated yet again. Public op...

One of the the interesting aspects of any war is how the media covers it and to what extent the government controls the flow of media to the population. In this one , the mainstream media, with the noteable exception of the doveish Ha'aretz , has been uniformly pro war while dissenting voices have hardly been heard. Friends were at an anti-war demonstration organised by various peace groups last weekend and told me that thousands took part but I don't remember seeing any media coverage. Protests by Israeli Arabs have been continuing on an almost daily basis but since there has been no real violence and since their opposition to the war is to be expected, these have been relegated to the back pages. According to a recent poll, 94% of Jewish Israelis support the operation, although it's not clear how many would like to halt it now. It's hard to escape the feeling that there's a guiding hand feeding this almost wall-to-wall support. For one thing we are not being shown...

Day 15 of the war. Saturday evening. Today we drove to the Jerusalem hills where we met old friends and took a look at the pretty Beit Jamal convent near Beit Shemesh. From there we drove to a restaurant on a moshav surrounded by greenery for a pleasant lunch . Next door at the excellent Flam boutique winery we bought a reasonably priced bottle of their Classico. We then drove home to the rooftop to hear that the death count in Gaza now exceeds 800. illustration only Yesterday the security cabinet rejected the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire and decided to continue the military operation. By the look of the fighting however, it doesn't seemed to have given the green light to launch "stage three" of the operation. This would involve going into whole neighbourhoods that Hamas have turned into booby-trapped warrens in and around Gaza city and rooting out the Hamas gunmen among the civilians. The results would be devastating f...

Enough. There's a point when even a justified military campaign turns into a bloodbath and this I think is the point we are at. With over 600 Palestinians killed (up to half of them civilians according to Palestinian sources), I think we've done enough damage. Today at least 30 civilians were killed and scores wounded in a school in Gaza when the building was hit by Israeli mortars. The incident carried all the hallmarks of the fighting that is going on there. The school was closed because of the fighting but UNWRA opened it to provide shelter from Gazans who had fled the fighting in the south. Apparently, a Hamas mortar unit positioned in or near to the school (in the belief that the Israeli army wouldn't open fire on a school) opened fire on the army which, in line with the new policy of returning fire everywhere (after warning civilians when possible) returned fire. Splits are beginning to appear in the Israeli leadership. Olmert wants a cease-fire soon with clear condit...

The top part of this poster, designed by graphic arts students at the Sapir College near Sderot, says 'Sderot'. The bottom half which says 'Rothschild' (elegant Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, a symbol of the Tel Aviv 'bubble') shows capuccino-sipping Tel Avivians oblivious to the hostilities. The 8th day of Operation Cast Lead finds Israel at a crucial juncture and facing difficult choice. Stop now and hope for a cease-fire that will create the "new security environment" that was the goal of the operation? Or send in the ground forces massed at the border and deliver Hamas another crippling blow that will guarantee the objective of halting the rocket fire into southern Israel? With some 430 Palestinians killed in Gaza and over 2,000 injured in a week of aerial attacks, many think that enough is more than enough. The Hamas will have learned its lesson and a cease-fire should be called to allow the mediators to move in and find a diplomatic solution....