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Archive for February, 2011

Israel’s Supreme Court Confirms IDF General’s Impunity

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Judge Edna Arbel: rewarding IDF impunity

When Ehud Barak designated IDF general Yair Naveh to be deputy chief of staff, Yesh Gvul filed a complaint seeking an injunction barring Naveh from taking the position because of his approval of targeted assassinations of unarmed Palestinian militants. It claimed, based on reports by Uri Blau and documents leaked by Anat Kamm, that these murders violated a Supreme Court ruling. In addition, Naveh flagrantly dissed the Supreme Court itself in remarks he made to Uri Blau.

So for those of you who admire the Supreme Court as the highest expression of Israeli democracy, may want to reconsider when you discover that the Supreme Court, in a ruling written by Judge Edna Arbel, rewarded Naveh for his insolence by dismissing the Yesh Gvul petition, though it did have some mild criticism for Naveh’s effrontery. This means that the one time when the Supreme Court had an opportunity to weigh in on the question of what these killings did violate explicit Court rulings barring such acts, it chose to ignore the opportunity and punt. A true mark of judicial courage and the flourishing of Israeli democracy.

The lone Israeli Palestinian judge levelled criticism on Naveh about his crudities:

We must focus on the fact that this individual who filled a high-level position in our society assumes for himself the freedom to express himself in a fashion which alludes to his disparaging views of the judicial system and the principle of the rule of law. He should remember that his nomination to a public role, let alone a very high level role, conveys on his not just rights, but obligations which continue even after his role is completed. One of those obligations is to serve as an example to society and to soldiers serving under his command in honoring the rule of law in general and the decisions of the court in particular.

The statements of the respondent are problematic not only because they encourage defiance of the rulings of the court and lack of faith by society in the judicial system and the principle of the rule of law which obligates every citizen.

To which I reply, that’s all very nice and perhaps this lone judge knew he had no support among the others for overturning the appointment, but this is little more than a slap on the wrist. The decision overall rewards impunity and the words above are worth little unless the judges were willing to back them up with action. And they weren’t.

The truth is that only on very rare instances is the Court prepared to do the job that such courts do in other true democracies. Concerning security matters. the Israeli version almost never questions the national consensus and the State’s position. The truth is that the Court gets good press it hardly deserves and gets little of the criticism it does deserve. That’s because apologists like Tom Friedman are busy proselytizing for Israeli democracy while ignoring its flagrant flaws.

It is clear to almost any reasonable observer that the Naveh killings violated a Supreme Court ruling prohibiting assassinations when the victim was unarmed & could be apprehended without murder; or when civilians would be in the line of fire. Both conditions were violated in this case. The Court had the evidence clearly in front of it and could have ruled so that similar future IDF procedures would ensure consistency with judicial decisions. Instead, it chose to defer to the military because, in Israeli society, the military always knows better. All that this decision has taught IDF generals is that they should keep their mouth shut when they intend to flagrantly violate court decisions.

In other situations the Court behaves no differently. Years ago it ordered the Apartheid Wall to be moved in certain portions. Yet the IDF has so far stalled without paying a price for its obduracy.

On a related note, now that Yoav Galant‘s appointment has been vacated by Barak and Bibi, the government is put in the weird and dysfunctional position of not having any fully vetted or kosher candidate. Knesset members are up in arms and Bibi/Barak’s plan to appoint Naveh as interim chief of staff has run into opposition. You can’t appoint a chief of staff without vetting the name with the Turkel Commission. And Naveh’s name hasn’t been vetted. So the government’s plan to appoint Naveh bypassing Turkel has drawn fire. Now there are calls to extend the current chief of staff’s term as a stopgap measure. But Barak hates Ashkenazi with a passion and wants him gone. It’s a big mess and a perfect reflection of the dysfunction of the current government.

Tags: Israel Defense Forces, israeli war crimes, israeli-supreme-court, targeted killings, uri blau, Yair Naveh, yesh-gvul, yoav galant
Posted in Mideast Peace | 5 Comments »

Cut Off U.S. Aid to Egypt–Now!

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

The Obama administration seemed determined Wednesday to put as much daylight as possible between Mr. Obama and Mr. Mubarak, once considered an unshakable American supporter in a tumultuous region, with Mr. Gibbs once again raising the specter of a cutoff of American aid to the Mubarak government if the Egyptian president failed to bend.

–N.Y. Times

Pro-Mubarak thugs face off against anti-government protesters (Ben Curtis/AP)

If Hosni Mubarak and his thugs want to terrorize the people of Egypt why should U.S. citizens pay for it? We give over $1-billion every year that goes directly to the Egyptian military. The same military which disappeared from the streets conveniently just before Mubarak’s paid thugs rampaged through Tahrir Square on camels and horses trampling peaceful demonstrators underfoot, not to mention shootings which left at least three dead today and hundreds wounded.

If the Egyptian military and those who command it can’t control their country and do their jobs, what are we paying them for? Just today, Robert Gibbs said that the administration would consider freezing aid as a next step. Well the time has come for next steps. Cut the aid now. There is only one way to get to a dictator or an alcoholic: cut him off.

Until Mubarak goes and a transitional government is appointed leading to free, fair elections for a new president and parliament, Egypt shouldn’t get another dime. This is a no-brainer. It should be implemented right now. There are no down sides that I can see, and it will save Egyptian lives plus win a few points in the Arab world, where we’re sorely in need of them. If we don’t get on the right side of history here, history will shunt us aside and look for those who were and give them the credit and glory.

The Times story also pointed to another important consideration for U.S. policy:

“There’s part of this that’s dangerous to Al Qaeda,” said Juan Zarate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, who was a top counterterrorism official during George W. Bush’s administration. “If the street protests lead to a peaceful, pluralistic transition, that does huge damage to the Al Qaeda narrative,” he said.

This goes with what I wrote yesterday, a Turkish-style government in Egypt with a strong Islamist component would run completely counter to the Al Qaeda narrative. It would show both the Arab and western worlds that it is possible for Muslim nations to have free elections, tolerate diversity including religious diversity (Egypt has an important Coptic community), and still integrate Islam into the political mix.

The Israel lobby is now trying to plant its own message into the mix. It runs like this: if you desert Mubarak, instead of mullahs in Teheran you’ll get them in Tahrir as well. Here is Bibi himself on that note:

“Our real fear is of a situation that could develop … and which has already developed in several countries including Iran itself — repressive regimes of radical Islam,” said Netanyahu.

Netanyahu continued, adding that although the protests may not be motivated by religious extremism, “in a situation of chaos, an organized Islamist body can seize control of a country. It happened in Iran. It happened in other instances”.

There is almost nothing in common between Iran in 1979 and Egypt in 2011. There is no charismatic Islamist leader like Ayatollah Khomeini waiting to take power from the Shah. In fact, while the Muslim Brotherhood is a formidable force inside Egypt, so far it has remained very much behind the scenes of the current wave of unrest. It has put forward no leaders who could rally the masses for an Islamic republic like the one that captured Iran. As I wrote above, the comparison you will never hear from the Lobby is to Turkey, which if there is any comparison to be made appears more reasonable.

Tom Friedman quotes this unintentionally ironic comment from Israeli political analyst Mark Heller:

“Everything that once anchored our world is now unmoored,” remarked Mark Heller, a Tel Aviv University strategist. “And it is happening right at a moment when nuclearization of the region hangs in the air.”

Really. I thought nuclearization of the region hung in the air around 1967 when Israel first is rumored to have put together a crude doomsday nuclear bomb to use if the Arabs overwhelming Israel’s defenses. Why when Iran may (or may not) be contemplating a nuclear weapon, is that when the danger of nuclearization suddenly hangs in the air? Might there be just a whiff of hypocrisy hanging in the air as well?

Tom as usual just plain gets under my skin with his patronizing barely concealed racist ignorance against the Arab world:

What the turmoil in Egypt also demonstrates is how much Israel is surrounded by a huge population of young Arabs and Muslims who have been living outside of history — insulated by oil and autocracy from the great global trends. But that’s over.

…Today, I believe President Obama should put his own peace plan on the table, bridging the Israeli and Palestinian positions, and demand that the two sides negotiate on it without any preconditions. It is vital for Israel’s future — at a time when there is already a global campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state — that it disentangle itself from the Arabs’ story as much as possible. There is a huge storm coming, Israel. Get out of the way.

This is the very Orientalist nonsense Edward Said railed against and rightly so. Who says Arabs are living outside history? Where are they living: on Mars? What are they if not human beings? Arabs are not insulated from global trends. In fact, the Middle East is one HUGE global trend. For Friedman to say this indicates this it is HE who is living outside global trends and history.

Further, his notion that Israel must “disentangle” itself the Arabs’ story is precisely wrong. Israel, unless it wants to move somewhere north of Midtown (Manhattan that is) will be deeply entangled with the Middle East and those who live there. To say Israel should separate itself indicates Israel should live as if it’s somewhere else or perhaps even another planet.

Does Tom forget the Zionist mantra that the Jewish nationalist movement arose to return Jews to the world and to history from which they’d been alienated by centuries of impoverishment, dispossession and anti-Semitism? It seems to me that the N.Y. Times pundit is calling for a return to Jews as mandarins, as Other, as outside of history, or at least Middle Eastern history. This would not just be foolish and divorced from reality, it would also be disastrous for Israel, a small nation dependent on the kindness of allies for its long-term existence. Israel needs to make friends, not lose them. It needs to engage with the Middle East, not disengage.

The more and longer I read Tom Friedman, the more unmoored he appears to be intellectually and politically from anything resembling reasonableness or clarity.

I’ve created a new Facebook group which I hope you’ll join and tell your friends about. 1,000 members might send a message to an overly cautious Barack Obama to act.

For up to the minute blogging of the Egyptian Revolution, you can follow UW Prof. Ellis Goldberg’s NisralNasr, and his daily reports on KUOW every afternoon direct from Cairo, where he’s fortuitously on sabbatical (how many times in an academic’s life does something like this happen to them?).

Tags: al-qaeda, arab democracy, ayatollahs, egypt, Hosni Mubarak, iran, Islam
Posted in Mideast Peace, Politics & Society | 29 Comments »

Jobs to Demolish Jackling House Next Week

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011

Jackling House: slated for demolition next week by Steve Jobs

Architecture preservationists have lost a major battle to save an important part of California’s historic legacy. Steve Jobs, owner of Woodside’s Jackling House, built at the turn of the century by George Washington Smith (who designed many of the distinctive buildings of Santa Barbara and was a champion of the Spanish revival style), has won a long legal battle to demolish the home. He will begin doing so next week.

Uphold Our Heritage, the preservation group founded to save the distinctive home, and which battled with Jobs for years, lost its last legal battle in 2010. They had been joined in the campaign by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Apparently, Steve Jobs’ Apple leave of absence has given him time to focus the important things in life, like obliterating this piece of California architectural history.

As the Apple founder faces what appears to be terminal cancer, one has to wonder whether this is the legacy he wishes to give the world: that of a stubborn, willful, always victorious man who will stick his finger in the eye of his opponents if given half a chance. Destroying Jackling House is an act of vandalism that impoverishes the state. The day of Jackling House’s destruction is a day that will live in infamy and will tarnish this man’s reputation and follow him wherever he goes.

In 1966, developers tore down New York’s gorgeous old Pennsylvania Station and dumped its magnificent statues of ‘Day’ and ‘Night’ in a Jersey Meadowlands dump where activists, who came to be known as historic preservationists, discovered them moldering in the swamp. Images of these relics spurred the anger that led to the founding of the architectural preservation movement. I shudder to think where the pieces of Jackling House will end up. Jobs can’t dump them in San Francisco Bay as there are now environmental laws prohibiting it. No doubt, the pieces will be ground up to a pulp or powder so as to leave no traces to attest to Jobs’s vandalism.

Tags: jackling-house, steve-jobs
Posted in Arts & Crafts/ Architectural Preservation | 5 Comments »

Obama Tells Mubarak to Go in All But Words

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Obama tells Mubarak to go (AP)

Barack Obama has a lot of faults, but sometimes at critical junctures he gets things pitch perfect. So was his speech tonight on the situation in Egypt, in which he all but told Mubarak his time is up. What was amazing about the speech that the words he delivered were subtle, the message couched in diplomacy-speak. He didn’t direct, he didn’t command. That wasn’t his place. But anyone with any sense could tell what the real meaning was: neither your people nor the world will settle for anything less than you going, and going now (note the last word in the passage below):

…We have spoken out on behalf of the need for change. After his speech tonight, I spoke directly to President Mubarak. He recognizes that the status quo is not sustainable and that a change must take place. Indeed, all of us who are privileged to serve in positions of political power do so at the will of our people. Through thousands of years, Egypt has known many moments of transformation. The voices of the Egyptian people tell us that this is one of those moments…

Now, it is not the role of any other country to determine Egypt’s leaders. Only the Egyptian people can do that. What is clear — and what I indicated tonight to President Mubarak — is my belief that an orderly transition must be meaningful, it must be peaceful, and it must begin now.

Also pitch-perfect (and doubtless causing much heartache in Tel Aviv and Aipac headquarters) was this reference to the players who should be part of Egypt’s future government:

Furthermore, the process must include a broad spectrum of Egyptian voices and opposition parties. It should lead to elections that are free and fair. And it should result in a government that’s not only grounded in democratic principles, but is also responsive to the aspirations of the Egyptian people.

For those who can’t tell the players without a scorecard, this was surely an implicit reference to the Islamic Brotherhood. For an American president to even implicitly say that an Islamist party belongs in an Arab government is close to revolutionary. Now, maybe Bibi wishes he’d extended that settlement freeze a few months ago! This is what you get when you cross an American president.

What will be interesting is to see how Egypt negotiates the next few months and the transition to its next government. What type of role with the Brotherhood and Islamists play in the next phase? Will there be a way to integrate them successfully into electoral life, into a new democratic system? If there is, then this could be a serious blow to Iran. Thus far, the most prominent model of Islamist rule the world has seen is the Iranian republic. Not a very persuasive or appealing one. If Egypt and the world can midwife a new regime that incorporates many of the disparate interests of the Egyptian population, then it would give Iran a real run for its money. It would say there is an alternative. There is a way for Islamists to be in government, while not having a state that tortures and torments its non-Islamist foes.

Such a government would probably honor its past treaty commitments into the Sinai peace agreement. But it would also no longer be Israel pawn or patsy. It might actually refuse to act as backup to Israel’s Gaza siege. It might press Israel as hard as Turkey has. In fact, I hope to high heaven that the Turkish Islamists can reach out to their Egyptian brothers and sisters and advise them about the best way to pursue their new political agenda. It seems to me that if Egypt could be governed as Turkey has been, that this would be the most powerful Islamic rejoinder to the Iranian mullahs. Two Muslim countries that listen to the people, acknowledge their Muslim identity, but show respect for secular and non-Muslim citizens. I realize that the Turkish model isn’t perfect especially regarding the Kurds, but the record of the current Turkish government is far better than Iran’s overall.

The responses from Israel and her more strident supporters continue to be out of synch with both the reality in Egypt and the way its revolution is being viewed by the rest of the world. Haaretz’s headline is:

Israel urges West: Make sure new Egypt regime honors peace deal

Israel clearly is of the opinion that everyone in the world should be devoting 90% of their time to obsessing about its interests in the world. It may come as a shock to the Israelis that Egypt right about now has far more important things to worry about than its peace treaty with Israel. There will be time to devote to this issue once there is a new government in place. But to shrei about that now is simply tone-deaf. For another dose of cluelessness there’s always Yossi Klein Halevi, ex-JDL leader, who graces the op-ed page of, what else, the NY Times, Israel: Alone, Again?. Can’t you just hear those mournful violins keening for poor little Israel whose Egyptian sugar-daddy is about to give up the ghost. Where will poor Israel turn, alone and friendless in a cold, barren Middle East?

Give us a break, would ya? For starters, Israel can cultivate relationships with its neighbors just like any other normal country in the world. Instead of using its military to impose Israeli will, it might try looking for common interests as other nations do who have peaceful, secure relations with their neighbors.

Tags: Barack Obama, egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Islam, israel, Mideast Peace, muslim
Posted in Mideast Peace | 11 Comments »

Galant is Out, Naveh is in as Interim IDF Chief of Staff

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Yair Naveh, interim IDF chief of staff: 'Stop bothering me with the Supreme Court!'

Galant is out. Naveh is in, at least temporarily.

It appears my fears of yesterday are being realized regarding the replacement for Yoav Galant as IDF chief of staff. Any sentient person realizes that whoever takes that post will have blood on his hands. And indeed, the new interim candidate is Yair Naveh, an officer with a past equally tainted as Galant’s was. It was Naveh who ordered the assassination of unarmed Palestinian militants, a potential war crime which motivated Anat Kamm to leak documents from his office when she worked there. It was Naveh who, when asked by Blau why he didn’t respect the rulings of the Supreme Court regarding targeted killings said:

“Stop bothering me with the rulings of the Supreme Court. I don’t know when they apply and when they don’t. I do know that targeted killings work and prevent terror attacks. I take my orders from the operations command [and not human rights activists].”

When asked by Blau: “Why do you approve beforehand an attack on an unidentified target [an innocent bystander],’ Naveh answered: ‘These are questions you shouldn’t direct to me. These matters are approved at the level of the prime minister and what is done is done.

This is what will now command Israel’s national army brought up with its mother’s milk to believe in the concept of the “purity of arms.” A laughingstock is what it is I’m sorry to say. Naveh implicitly accepts Blau’s terms by acknowledging that he’s contravened the rulings of the Court by saying that his commanders and prime minister are his ultimate authority and not some puny court. Is this the rule of law? Or the law of the jungle?

It’s a bitter irony that in responding to a Supreme Court appeal against his nomination, again by Yesh Gvul, to be deputy chief of staff, Naveh had this to say (now) about the Supreme Court:

As a citizen and soldier of the State of Israel I feel respect for the High Court, its judges, and decisions. As an IDF commanders, the rulings of the Court are ones that I do not dispute. This is how I conducted myself when I was senior officer of the Central Command, and how I conduct myself now.

Look. What do we expect. Israel’s army and politics, again I’m sorry to say, is a place in which liars, fools, sex fiends, charlatans and thieves rule. That’s why Galant was tripped up. It’s why Yair Naveh can lie through his teeth with a straight face when it suits him.

The Walla report on this story notes that Naveh did not dispute that he uttered these words to Blau, but rather that the reporter ‘misinterpreted’ them, the language of scoundrels everywhere caught out in a lie they seek to take back. He finesses the matter now by saying that he relied on the orders he was given by his superiors presuming that they followed the rulings of the Court. I don’t know about you but I think I’m going to be sick.

I’d almost rather have Moshe Feiglin be chief of staff. At least you know he wouldn’t waste his breath with nonsense like this. He would tell the Court to shove it and dare the Court to take action against him. Then we could have a real test of democracy and see who would win. But with liars and scoundrels like Naveh, democracy and the rule of law don’t stand a chance. The Court laps up what Naveh put before it today and will gladly approve his nomination because it wants to trust him. It doesn’t have the guts to doubt him. That’s the tragedy of Israeli democracy. No one is minding the shop.

And as if we don’t have enough to be disturbed about regarding Naveh, it was he who, as CEO of the Jerusalem light rail project, determined that cars be segregated by gender so as not to offend the sensibilities of the Haredi community. When women’s groups were up in arms, he responded by saying he was honoring the civil rights of the Orthodox community! Clearly, this is a guy with a Teflon mouth capable of talking his way out of almost any embarrassing situation.

Tags: Israel Defense Forces, israeli-supreme-court, targeted killings, uri blau, yesh-gvul, yoav galant
Posted in Mideast Peace | 12 Comments »

IDF Chief of Staff-Designate Likely to Lose Job Before He Starts…and for All Wrong Reasons

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Yoav Galant's home and stolen land (Edo Erez)

Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, the prime minister’s choice to be the next IDF chief of staff, has an almost insurmoutable obstacle in the path to his assuming his new job. He stole (or ‘appropriated’ if you prefer niceties) government land and annexed it to his home, lied about it, and now has lost the support of the government legal advisor who would defend him before the Supreme Court, if he could be defended. An Israeli NGO, Yesh Gvul, brought suit in the Supreme Court claiming Galant wasn’t fit to assume his job because of his unethical behavior. Most Israelis believed this issue was a mere fly in the ointment. The land theft had been publicly exposed many months earlier and it didn’t appear to harm his career then.

But that was until government lawyers starting poring over Galant’s testimony in court about the land and how it ended up in his hands. Then he became indefensible.

But as Gideon Levy writes, they appear about to reach the right decision but for the wrong reasons. It’s ironic that of all the unethical things Galant has done in the IDF, this was the one likely to do him in. Galant grabbed a piece of land for himself, true. But what are a few dunams compared to the vast amount of territory Israel has stolen from the Palestinians? Let’s not lose the forest for the trees.

Not to mention Galant’s role as commander of IDF forces during Operation Cast Lead, whose second bloody anniversary was commemorated last month. The bloody hand that killed 1,400 Gazans, 1,100 of them civilians, was about to be raised in a salute to the nation. The officer responsible for the war crimes committed then, for killing 250 unarmed police cadets, for killing the Samounis, for raining white phosphorus. That’s the reason Galant didn’t deserve his promotion. Not a case of petty corruption that characterizes the life of just about every Israeli politician, general or CEO.

One thing we can say though is that Galant’s brazen act of theft and his attempted coverup characterize public life for just about any Israeli of power or means. The way to the top is paved by deals and lies and payoffs. Chiefs of staff are no different.

Israel, of course, has its priorities screwed up. But you know what? I’ll take the right outcome for the wrong reasons anyday. Cynics, though, will say: what does it matter whether the new chief of staff is Yoav Galant or Benny Gantz, one of the other contenders? Aren’t they all the same? Perhaps yes. But to me opposition to this appointment is like the way you play defense in basketball. You harrass your opponent every way you can. You try to deflect him from his game. You do everything you can to stop him. Every little thing helps. You just don’t know what will be the decisive act that does him in.

The choice of Galant by Netanyahu indicates terrible weakness in the vetting process. In this country, the FBI and others go through the backgrounds of candidates for high government positions with a fine tooth comb. Those who nominate or appoint them want to know what they may face when the promotion is announced publicly. It’s a sign of how much consideration is given to such ethical issues that a known flagrant incident from Galant’s past wasn’t considered sufficient to disqualify him for the job. And poor Galant has the rug pulled out from under him only two weeks before he was to be sworn in for the plummiest job any IDF officer could secure.

Kudos to Yesh Gvul on their expected victory in this case. I’ll take such a win any way I can get it.