Israel/Palestine

The Israel Defense Forces are very different from the American military. A battalion hung a sign saying it would refuse to help remove settlers from the West Bank. Can you imagine an American brigade hanging a sign saying something like, "Hell no, we won't go to Bosnia" or "No More Iraq Deployments!"? 

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John McCreary of NightWatch fame answers my question of yesterday about what the Saudi bombing in Yemen (and the Israeli arms interception near Cyprus) might mean:

The significance is that Saudi Arabia is now engaged in counter-insurgency operations.  Tallying the score in the Middle East-south Asian region during the past five years, a Shiite government is in Baghdad, replacing a secular government, but violence is down for now. 

The Taliban in Afghanistan now operate in more than 220 of the 400 districts in Afghanistan, compared to fewer than 30 five years ago. A new Pakistani Taliban movement has sustained insurgency in the Pakistan border regions and spread terror east of the Indus River boundary and threatened to carry it to India.

Iran and North Korea have continued to proliferate weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. Lebanon has no government. Most Central Asian states have returned to the Russian fold. Western China has become less stable and more unpredictable. Yemen is fighting a low level civil war that has now required Saudi Arabian air force assistance. Iran continues to send arms to its proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia. New Iranian made rockets now held by Hamas in Gaza can reach Tel Aviv, and maybe Dimona. Iran's nuclear program continues to expand.

The tally does not look like progress towards stability."

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Two small military actions in recent days intrigue me. First, the Israelis intercepted in the Mediterranean what they described as a shipload of weapons headed to Hezbollah. Then the Saudis bombed Yemeni rebels. I don't know quite what it all means...

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Today's good news is that Israeli agents snuck into a London hotel room and planted software in a Syrian official's laptop that enabled them to collect information on Syria's secret nuclear program. This set up the surprise air strike in September 2007 against a nearly completed reactor out in the eastern Syrian desert.

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I see where representatives of the governments of Israel and Iran have been meeting secretly in Cairo to chat about nuclear weapons. I was surprised, but good for them. 

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This angle hadn't occurred to me: The head of the Israeli Space Agency says that the Obama's decision to scrap the deployment of land-based missile defense systems to Eastern Europe is good for Israel. He explains that Israel benefits when U.S.-Russian relations improve:

"Thus far, American attempts to stop the development of an Iranian nuclear bomb have not succeeded -- partially because the Russians have not cooperated with their efforts," he explained. "It is possible that because of this concession -- and it is a concession, even if the Americans said that it was not -- the Russians will be more helpful on Iran and will more support the American initiative." 

I also wonder if he believes that having Europe feel a pang of the vulnerability Israel feels about Iran might improve Israel's international position.

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"Rahm Emanuel: Self-hating Jew or peace-broker?" Haaretz lays it all out.

Bottom line is that his dad, Benjamin Emanuel, says Rahm is a good Zionist:

I'm simply surprised that in Israel they jump down his throat," he says angrily. "I love the country, my children are Zionists, they came to Israel every year, and I don't know why they're attacking Rahm. I support Netanyahu, I was a member of the Etzel" -- referring to the right-wing pre-state military underground.

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This is a terrific film about war and memory. It plays with your mind especially because it is an animated documentary -- the only such thing ever made, I think. It also is a good meditation on the difference between what you think might be going on across a battlefield and what is really going on. That's a lesson for any commander -- and for any journalist covering combat.

It is ostensibly about the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, but it really felt more like what poorly prepared soldiers might feel in any war. It is out on Netflix now. I recommend watching it twice in one sitting: First just the film, and then the director's commentary, which is like another layer of the story. (Also I noticed a lot more in the background in the second go-round.)

My favorite part was the one-minute version of Apocalypse Now, set in Lebanon. Wordlessly, it summarizes everything that goes wrong in a war.

My wife thinks it should be a double feature with The Hurt Locker. That's a bit too much PTSD for me in one bite.

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