traffic misery? just what the car czar ordered

David Rubinger, an irrepressible charmer of 82, managed to tease a confession out of Jerusalem's traffic czar, Kobi Bartov. The man finally admitted what local drivers have long suspected.
"I cannot pass a law that would prevent private cars from coming to downtown Jerusalem," he told Rubinger, a renowned photojournalist. "But what I can do is to make life so miserable for the drivers, they will eventually leave their cars at home and come by bus." See The Jerusalem Post for his whole story.

Bartov has narrowed traffic lanes downtown so no ambulance or fire engine could possibly get to a medical emergency or a terrorist's bomb site. Concrete pillars prevent vehicles from pulling over to let them pass. Siren, schmiren: it's just a big bottleneck. Plus there's nowhere to park.

Some cities, like chaotic Bangkok pictured above, experience the phenomenon of improving their roads, only to attract more cars and get even more clogged than before. Batov takes a different tack. He doesn't care if post-Intifada, many Jerusalemites still are leery of public transport. He aims to frustrate, trick and defeat motorists until their only salvation for sanity is public transport. Traffic commissioner is not an elected post, because the guy is not exactly popular.
(photo of Palmach Road by I.Weismehl; Bangkok's trafffic JMcG)

Flagging Olmert's Snub to Pakistan

Is this the shape of things to come?
Artist Zoya Cherkassky has designed an Interim Flag to update the present national banner and unfurled it in cyberspace on Independence Day. She explained to Ynet news that “The problem with the current flag is that it was born Jewish and only appeals to Jews. There are other people in this country, and just as Arabic is a second language, I would expect that this would be reflected in the flag." To many, these are fighting words. But she has a point.
Zoya's flag shows a Star of David with undefined boundaries. In fact, the shape resembles an explosion, which seems brutally apt for the present situation, as tensions with Hamas increase by the hour and Israelis must brace themselves for a new wave of terror attacks. Preparations for new military incursions into Gaza are underway, they say, and strikes will start after a report on the political and military blunders of the summer Lebanon War gets published. It's deja vu all over again, so it is crucial to reach for a better solution. The red warning flags are hoisted all around, jaws are flapping the same stale slogans, and it's high time to think outside the box.

That's why rejecting Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf's offer to intercede in peace talks with the Palestinians was a poor decision. As todays' Haaretz commentary points out, Israel should welcome a bid from non-Arab Muslims who recognize that peace is the path forward.

Musharraf is no stranger to the risk of extremist Islamic groups, since he must deal with pro-Taliban Mullahs in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Provinces and Baluchistan who object to his western leanings. He is no paragon as a democratic leader, having seized power in a coup. But Olmert's snub to the general, a beleaguered US ally who happens to have his own nuclear weapons, comes across as high-handed, shortsighted, and stubborn. It shows his weakness. The attitude of Pakistan, along with non-Arab Muslim countries such as Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia, could prove critical. The Prime Minister has turned his nose up at a "powerful incentive, under which not only 350 million Arabs, but some 1.25 billion Muslims, would cease to view Israel, at least officially, as an enemy that ought to be annihilated." This is a chance for diplomatic relations and normalization in exchange for not being "dragged into a military abyss." Not a bad bargain.

Moses and Black Gold

So why did Moses take 40 years to find the Holy Land from Egypt?
It takes a while to locate the only place in the whole Middle East without oil.
Oy veh

...overheard at an Independence Day picnic in Liberty Bell Park. Lots of laughter and self-deprecating jokes made the rounds. A newspaper poll showed that after 59 years as a nation, more people here identify themselves primarily as "Jewish"(55 per cent) than as Israelis!

Firework displays and precision aerial stunts by Air Force jet squadrons delighted the Independence Day crowds barbecuing under clear skies today, but there were some more ominous fireworks too. The military wing of Hamas broke their truce to unleash about 100 rockets into Israel, acc to the BBC. There were no reports of injuries, although two IDF soldiers were attacked by a settler who defied their orders at a road checkpoint. A march into the former settlement of Homesh looks set to go ahead, according to local reports. And the beat goes on.

Israel's own anti-semites

Everywhere you look today, there's an Israeli flag flapping. The Jerusalem Post handed out Star of David bunting with each morning paper, and most cars and taxis fly the flag, too. The nation is geared up first to salute all its fallen soldiers and terror victims on Monday. Sirens signal when to show respect. Next comes the big national 59th birthday bash which commemorates David Ben-Gurion declaring the state of Israel in Tel Aviv and putting the kibosh on the British Mandate. Plastic hammers are the big accessory: smash the past, you sabras.

With all this rampant nationalism on display, Ozzy Bee tells me it's particularly disturbing to learn that no anti-semitism laws exist inside this country. There is so much critical coverage of European legislators who outlaw racism, but neglect to specifically ban anti-semitic acts as well. It turns out that there's a homegrown problem with anti-semites inside Israeli cities, mostly vandalism committed by ethnic Ukranian skinheads against the Ultra-Orthodox. They desecrate tombs, steal mezuzahs, and beat up the Haredim. Girls join in the fray. Wire reports and other newspaper articles have estimated that close to 500 acts of anti-semitic violence happen here each year, and are increasingly frequent. Read 'em and weep. Few Israelis acknowledge this great unmentionable, although some admit to institutional prejudice against the "permanently suntanned" Sephardics and Ethiopian immigrants. This resurgence of perverse anti-Jewish sentiment was never envisioned by the founders of the Jewish state. It is a disgrace.

Rothko & Mozart - escapes into art

The current Rothko exhibit in Tel Aviv's Museum of Art hit me hard in the gut. The press notices should have prepared me for the impact of intense colour and stripped-down form of his paintings, so familiar from art history textbooks and reproduction posters. But in person, they seemed almost overpowering.
This show traced the evolution of Mark Rothko's work, including some early figurative paintings like the demon goddess of the night, Lilith, shown below.


(Another artful and powerful Queen of the Night came calling in the flesh in the Occupied Territories. She appeared in the Magic Flute, one of the pieces performed by the touring Choir of London for a Palestine Mozart Festival which lasted two weeks. Enraptured Palestinian kids from refugee camps would clamber on stage to join the cast for an intimate curtain call. The moment seemed enchanted. Sadly, four of the participating Palestinian musicians missed the final performance in East Jerusalem because their permits were denied and Israeli guards would not let them cross the checkpoint. But I digress).

It was the purely abstract works of Rothko that took my breath away in Tel Aviv. Fuzzy edges of vibrant solid hues mark off entities that enhance one another, never quite touching. Somehow it evoked a coexistence which is vibrant and distinct. If only the lifestyle equivalent could be pulled off in this part of the world,life imitating art would really be something to sing about.
As I left the exhibit, a saw a guard wrest away the mobile phone from a museum-goer who had been surreptitiously snapping all the Rothko paintings. He deleted the tiny images one by one as the photographer scowled, then sulked. It was like a performance artist playing a bully.

'Blue Suede Jew'

A BBC 2 documentary follows an Israeli Elvis Presley impersonator on his journey from the Holy Land to Graceland, and even Uri Geller, the spoonbender, gets in on the action. It's hilarious, but touching too, to explore this obsession of Gilles (Gil) Elmalih. There's more than just the predictable karaoke warbling of 'In the Ghetto' by a chubby wanna-be with sideburns. The family acknowledges that Elvis has left the building...but now communicates with him via paper messages (scrawled in Hebrew!) which the King somehow tosses from heaven onto the sitting room carpet. Living in the West Bank, family becomes convinced that only the King can restore world peace. His divine messages convince them to shlep to Vegas and Memphis. They are chosen.

Though the 79 minute film was completed in 2006, it screened this week in Britain, and has been picked up online. Click here to watch a clip from the Morgan Matthews documentary. Critics loved it.

As the ultimate ersatz Elvis, Elmalih managed to leave his mark in Israel, too. There is a turn-off on the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway signposted "Elvis", and if you pull over you're bound to get all shook up at a commemorative gas station and a 50s style roadside diner with clientele as odd as the decor. See this article about the Elvis Inn. Frequently, travellers in Israel are overwhelmed in historical reverie, but chicken-fried Americana from the 50s seems definitely anachronistic in this Biblical landscape.

Teenage Bride nabbed as bomber-to-be

Among yesterday's terror arrests was a teenage bomber-bride from Nablus, who was picked up at dawn with six others in a raid on her West Bank refugee camp. The story of this potential "femme fatale" from Palestine is troubling. She may have been trying to escape a dismal arranged marriage by pretending to be a terrorist. This morose wanna-be martyr could hardly be called feisty or drop-dead gorgeous. From all indications, the girl's preference would be to curl up and die.

Newlywed Najwa Hashash, just 19, despaired of married life with her increasingly feeble bridegroom. The honeymoon was definitely over, because the teenager was required to do the chores of a nurse and orderly along with the housework in cramped quarters. She was desperate to find a way out. Her husband, much older, had little chance of recovering from his debilitating illness according to this article in Ynet. Najwa was arrested yesterday by IDF paratroopers, after rumours circulated during the past three weeks that she planned to strap on an explosive belt and cross the closest checkpoint. Earlier, she'd been detained by the Palestinian Authority and released after questioning. Apparently, they deemed Ms Hashash incapable of anything so hush-hush.

In fact, Najwa's neighbours inside the Balata refugee camp in Nablus suggested that the bride had the blues and spread this malicious gossip herself, hoping to be arrested and jailed as a potential suicide bomber. It was just an escape gambit which would leave her "honor" intact and spare her being murdered if she managed to run away from a bad marriage. But others reckon that a recruiter for the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades took advantage of her misery and persuaded Najwa that if she planned to end her life, she might as well take out some Israelis with her. Why not be glorified as a martyr and get a stipend for her family? (Unsurprisingly, the al-Aqsa Brigades deny any contact with her.)

The Israeli army raided West Bank houses at dawn Tuesday and hauled Najwa in along with two dozen other terror suspects in an ironic twist to Palestine's annual Prisoner Day. They'd released 500 inmates in a good will gesture the previous afternoon, although at least 7600 more-- including 362 children and 82 women-- still are in lockup inside Israel. About ten per cent are held in protective custody indefinitely, without charges against them.

The IDF is not expected to be lenient with Najwa, and there is little hope that she'll be tried quickly. They say Palestinian women are increasingly taking an active part in the conflict, including kidnaps and stabbings. Motives don't really matter. Two of five suicide bombers last year were female, and one was a grandmother. IDF and Shin Bet forces recently arrested 19 Palestinian women suspected of terror activities against Israel. Ten of these women were allegedly affiliated with Fatah and the remainder with Islamic Jihad. Violent female militants are not the only threat. Women tend to serve as messengers, and frequently carry cash for militant groups. So did Najwa accomplish her plan by getting arrested? Did the IDF thwart a deadly attack or enable an adolescent scheme to replace the lonely prison of marriage with actual jail time? Was this girl ever an actual threat?

('Suicide Barbie' blonde bombshell poster is by the conceptual artist Simon Tyszk.)