Tel Aviv Rooftop

I t's been a roller-coaster week. The sort of week that, in most countries, would be spread over a year. It started with the shocking self-immolation of Moshe Sliman  at a social justice demonstration  in Tel Aviv, continued  with the departure of Kadima from the cabinet , the decision to g rant university status to the Ariel University Center   and the visit of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton  and ended with the Damascus explosion and the  terror attack at Burgas airport in Bulgaria  . The frequency with which I (and everyone else) am bombarded with dramatic news of potentially cataclysmic proportions has an emotionally numbing effect. Soon after the shock and despair comes the desire - for the selfish sake of remaining in my comfort zone - to downplay, to rationalize.  If Moshe Sliman was driven to pour "flammable material over his clothes and body" and set himself on fire, maybe Bibi was right when he said ...

Dudu in brighter days With relations with the Obama administration rapidly deteriorating to crisis proportions, one would have thought that the possible loss of Israel's most stalwart ally would be dominating the headlines 24/7. One would be wrong. In fact the top story of the last few days has been the involvement of entertainer Dudu Topaz in physical assaults against TV executives "Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ordered an eight-day extension of the remand of one of Israel's top television stars on Monday, branding Dudu Topaz the ringleader in a series of violent attacks on TV executives. Topaz was arrested Sunday over the attacks on TV producer Shira Margalit two weeks ago, the CEO of the Channel 2 Keshet franchise Avi Nir in November 2008 and actors' agent Boaz Ben-Zion some six months ago." The babyfaced Dudu Topaz was (it seems only yesterday) Israel's top TV personality, the 'King of the Ratings', MCing peaktime shows which involved a combinat...

The heavens opened a few hours after Bibi got the nod from Shimon to form a government. "The start of the winter," said the forecaster on the radio in view of the drought and heat this winter. Maybe Kadima will join Bibi's right wing government and maybe it won't. In any event the situation is critical. As someone wrote in the trendy/lefty Ha-ir local TA paper, it's romantic to be a leftist again, for the few to huddle together in companionship and wallow in the glow of being special. Lone tree still survives development along the old Ottoman train line In these situations the thing to do is to take a wintry walk around the neighbourhood in search of other versions of reality Horses in Neve Tsedek raised a smile from the locals. People stuck their heads out of the windows and strangers started talking to each other. A recent and intriguing news items not related to the elections was a report that "The Obama administration has given the Palestinian Authority a...

"Peace sells but who's buying?" is a slogan (painted onto a wall in Florentin ) that I never managed to get my head around. It sounds catchy but doesn't make sense. If peace sells then there must be buyers - right? But what if there is more than set of buyers in the peace market. Then peace would be bought by some but not others. Also right. That, I think, is exactly what is happening right now. There are buyers in the peace market. The US for instance which would like to offset its losses in Iraq and blunt Iranian/Shiite advances with a deal between Israel and the pragmatic wing of the PLO. The same goes for Europe and the rest of the international community. Then there's Olmert , prepared to make peaceful noises as long as this holds out a chance of staving off demands for his resignation over his malfunctioning in Lebanon and/or corruption allegations. And Abu Mazen , keen to show Hamas -controlled Gaza that violence (especially against Fatah) doesn...

"40 years of occupation is a stain won't be able to erase, " reads the sign. At at another productive rehearsal with Mid Life Crisis http://www.myspace.com/mlcisrael yesterday two of the guys mentioned that they were going to the peace rally protesting 40 years of occupation. I hadn't been planning on going, knowing that it would be a small, ineffective, ashkenazi affair that wouldn't even register with the media. The power lies with the politicians, not with the street and certainly not with the side-alley that is the active peace camp in Israel today. At best, it would be another social occasion where ageing lefties and keen youth movement members rub-shoulders nostalgicly for an hour. Still it had been a while since I'd gone to a demo and so we showed up at the end of the march from Rabin Square to the plaza in front of Tel Aviv Museum (where even a small demo looks bigger). My fears were quickly realised. There were maybe 2,000 demonstrators coming fro...

The 40 th anniversary of the Six Day War has engendered a spate of articles, TV programmes and reminiscences . Apart from the fighter pilots who knocked out most of the Egyptian Migs while they were still on the ground, no-one seems to be relishing the moment too deeply. Today's Ha'aretz had some thought provoking pieces : http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867052.html Tom Segev on how the common wisdom in Israel before the war was that the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza was contrary to the national interest and how the occupation came about in an unplanned way in the war's euphoric aftermath, as in a ‘wild fantasy’. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867057.html Amira Hass on how the occupation at initially made it possible , for the first time since 1948, for Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel to reconnect but also how it later hemmed them into increasingly small spaces. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/867053.html Fatah negotiator Saeb Er...

My first blog was on December 30, 2006 and it was called Setting the Scene. I did a 360 degree tour of the immediate region from the rooftop and briefly described what was going on there http://telavivrooftop.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2007-01-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=4 Today, The basic elements are still the same but the entire picture is much worse. In Jerusalem sits a discredited government living on borrowed political time, traumatised by the Winograd report on Lebanon II and incapable of making strategic decisions. In Sderot , on the border with Gaza, thousands of residents have been evacuated as scores of qassam missiles devastated homes and caused numerous injuries. After years of incessant bombardment the government still hasn't found the money to build proper shelters for the people of Sderot . Even the evacuation of its terrified residents was partially funded by the Russian oligarch Arkady Gaidemak w...

I was thinking about an image that might illustrate how most Israelis view their political institutions at this point in time and happened upon this ruined, dangerous, old pre -fab(erected in the 1860s by Christian 'Lovers of Zion' in the American Colony). In the background the get-rich-quick-and-screw-everything-else Neve Tsedek Tower dominates the landscape. Rabin Square was filled last night with 150,000 (or whatever) people holding a variety of political views yet united in their demand for Olmert and Peretz to resign. Peretz seems to be wavering but Olmert (with the backing of most of his Knesset faction) is hanging on. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/855600.html After Tsipi Livni blew her chance to grab the leadership of Kadima , who knows what will happen. If the public wants to bring down the PM, thousands will have to demonstrate in Jerusalem -and for long, bitter weeks. Somehow, despite the general disgust with Olmert , I don't see that happening. Toda...

Winnograd report fallout is at fever pitch and the people want Olmert's neck. If Olmert's popularity could get any lower it would be subterranean. The tsunami of demands for him to resign is obviously having a physical effect on him too. All eyes are now on the big demo planned for Thurs night in Rabin Square. I hope they don't spoil it by letting politicians (and especially Bibi) demand Olmert and Peretz' heads. The best outcome possible is probably Olmert's replacement by Tsipi or even Shimon. That would keep Labour (without Peretz at its head) on board and we might be spared new elections. Anything but Bibi. But will they have the balls to do it? Sources close to Livni deny that she is planning a putsch http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3394533,00.html I hope they're wrong. On a more serious note, a new song has appeared on the Mid Life Crisis page on myspace http://www.myspace.com/mlcisrael It's called Ecstasy and features New York flautist...

I have an uneasy feeling that we are approaching a dangerous new period in our relations with our Arab neighbours. Olmert's response to the Arab League peace initiative has been arrogant and short-sighted - predicting peace with all the Arab states within 5 years while simultaneously not accepting the initiative as a basis for negotiations with the Palestinians. Henry Siegman wrote an interesting article on the initiative and Israel's response to it in the International Herald Tribune http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=19338 A more positive Israeli response might serve to swing Arab public opinion against the powerful militant Islamic groups in its midst. A perceived rejection will do the opposite. It could provide the justification for a new round of violence whether it be a third intifada or a clash with Syria or a heightened wave of Islamic terror attacks against Israel. This is therefore a critical time. When hopes are raised and then dashed, there is bound to be ...

The leadership continues to self destruct, the latest "victim" being finance minister Avraham Hirschson suspected of embezzling the equivalent of about a million euro when he was a Likud activist http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/840096.html .Come to think of it Hirschson has always been a shadowy figure, seeming to appear out of nowhere to be quickly entrusted with managing the nation's finances. In authentic Israeli fashion, Hirschson , after a 7 hour grilling by the police shrugged off questions about his political future , noting that , "I am now running the treasury, and will go on doing so." His political buddy Ehud Olmert said much the same the other day when he noted that, despite his acute unpopularity, the PM's Office is "my place of work". The second they find themselves in deep shit, our politicians ditch all the high-minded verbiage and their public positions are suddenly transformed into simple places of employment apparent...

Storm clouds approaching the rooftop from the west and today a suitably blustery day for catching up on the news after our all too brief trip to a relatively sane country. A sift through the papers over a large cappuccino at a cafe on Rothschild Blvd revealed political storm clouds on the horizon as well. Domestically, Olmert , suffering from chronically low popularity and haunted by a string of corruption investigations is now anxiously awaiting the results of the interim report of the Winograd Committee he himself appointed to investigate the fiasco of Lebanon II. By all accounts, the results will be damning. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?173879089840& pagename = JPost / JPArticle / ShowFull Various scenarios could emerge: Olmert's resignation and replacement as Kadima head and PM by Tsipi Livni ; the mass defection of Kadima MKs to Likud thereby instituting Bibi as PM, even new elections. Whatever happens, a weak and rudderless leadership and a Knesset full...

Katzav (who?) 'out', former justice minister Haim Ramon 'in' (out actually) after a three judge magistrates court unanimously found him guilty of molesting ' heh ' a 21 year old working in the PM's Office whom he French kissed , the court found, against her will. Like most people I thought that the court had given Ramon a raw deal until I heard heh's story on Channel 10. In a nutshell she explained, convincingly, that he forced himself on her. Despite her childish voice she was well spoken, straightforward and believable. Bye Bye Haim . Now who's next in line?

What a show it was . President Katzav ranting in the most unpresidential fashion, claiming total innocence, charging that he was the victim of a clandestine plot hatched between the media and the police to down he who was not of the elite. Then asking the Knesset to allow him a leave of absence because of 'contraints'. Well, whether or not he manages to clear his name (I doubt it) he's out. Which means that the acting President of the State of Israel is ..... Dalia Itzik who is also the Speaker of the Knesset and a former minister. An unremarkable politician blessed with a very big mouth, this former teacher thanks to Moshe Katzav's (alleged) misdeeds, occupies the very pinnacle of our establishment. However , if (heaven forfend) anything untoward should happen to Dalia, the acting President will be ... Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Ahmed Tibi, former advisor to Yasser Arafat, recently seen at a Fatah rally in Ramallah exhorting the masses to march on Jerusalem. But n...

Watching the evening news in Israel is a depressing activity at the best of times. Tonight's edition was especially grim.Two examples. Olmert, already a lame duck premier, is now officially under police investigation for his alleged influence on a tender to sell Bank Leumi that would benefit a millionaire chum (Channel 10 did not fail to mention that his predecessors Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon had also been investigated with the cases eventually closed for lack of evidence). Ha'aretz's revelation that unofficial talks between Israelis and Syrians had led to a draft peace agreement were scorned by the PM's bureau. You can see it all on http://www.haaretz.com Olmert's legal entanglements (the Bank Leumi case is one of several) sit on top of an odious pile of criminal investigations. These have cut into entire swathes of the establishment : the President, the army and the political leadership (conduct of the Lebanon War), the finance minister, the former minister of...