Tikun Olam-תקון עולם: Make the World a Better Place

Former Israeli cabinet minister Ophir Pines-Paz testified to the Winograd Commission investigating Israel’s failure in the Lebanon war, about the leadership’s attitudes and expectations going into the war. If one didn’t know what actually happened during this war, one would react in reading Pines-Paz’s testimony with utter disbelief. Is it possible that an entire cabinet can approve a war without believing they are doing so? Is it possible a cabinet can initiate hostilities without taking any responsibility for doing so or for ending them? Is it possible a nation can initiate a war and expect the rest of the world will force it to end–and then to decide it must force the world to force it to end the war by using tactics so outrageous that the world would react in horror? All this and more is possible according to Pines-Paz:

Former Minister of Science, Culture and Sports MK Ophir Pines-Paz (Labor) told the Winograd Committee the cabinet did not discuss a diplomatic end-point for the Second Lebanon War, as it expected international pressure to force Israel to finish it within a few days, the Committee reported Monday.

“The leading diplomatic sources… gave us a working premise that we didn’t have much time to work with, and that we needed to act until we would be stopped - but then no one stopped us. This is what happened. Not only did no one stop us, they encouraged us, and we let this go to our heads,” the former minister said.

Pines emphasized that Israel was dragged into a war without actually deciding to enter one.

“I learnt of the Israel Defense Forces plans for the war from the media,” he also testified.

At a certain point the cabinet came to the view that they would have to “force the world to force us [to stop the fighting],” so Israel needed to hit hard in order to bring international pressure upon itself, Pines said…

The ministers were asked to approve a “meaningful, but limited [operation]. But absolutely not a war, and in no way a comprehensive, large-scale campaign,” Pines said.

One thing this proves is that certainly all the Labor ministers and perhaps the Kadima ministers as well were “had” by Olmert and Halutz. The cabinet played no oversight role whatsoever in any significant military decision. I find it incredible that a minister would leave a meeting not understanding he’d just approved a war.

Given this treatment, how Labor can continue to play footsy with Kadima by participating in the governing coalition is beyond belief. Certainly Labor is too weak to win an election and Barak’s refusal to bolt is based on a survival instinct. But at what cost in moral probity? Well, talking about morality is useless since Labor has long lost sight of such matters.

Can you imagine a government so paralyzed that once it starts a war it cannot stop it on its own initiative? If Pines-Paz is to be believed, Israel determined that the only way it could stop the war was by getting its allies to force it to end. Is it possible that an entire nation can be like a deer caught in the headlights, immobile and incapable of taking action on its own behalf? Of course, in Iraq we see an example of a president and Administration betraying such inertness. But at least there is a Congress willing to step in and replace Bush’s faulty judgment with its own, thus eventually bringing that war to a close. But Israel, to its detriment, has no such checks and balances. And in Lebanon it, and the Lebanese themselves, paid a terrible price for this.

What is, of course, deeply ironic about this is that Pines-Paz is one of the good guys. He resigned his portfolio rather than continue sitting in such a bankrupt government. He’s willing to tell Israelis, even if it makes him look bad, that Emperor Olmert has no clothes. But will any good come of it? Will anyone learn any lesson from it? Sorry to say, but that is doubtful.

tags lebanon-war, ophir-pines-paz-testifies-to-winograd-commission

The gag order imposed on media reporting of the Shin Bet treason case against Azmi Bishara has been lifted. Unfortunately, we don’t know much more now than we did before. But at least it has freed Bishara from enough constraints that he has published a sharp rebuttal to the charges (as much as they are known) in the L.A. Times.

Haaretz has reported the case based on anonymous security sources giving their view of the charges. A dubious proposition journalistically, but that seems to be how Israeli media operates giving (too) wide latitude toward government sources. It also would be nice to see a whole lot more “alleges” in this dispatch since otherwise we’re to assume we should accept the Shin Bet’s allegations as truth. Here is what those sources report:

The police and Shin Bet have sufficient evidence to indict former MK Azmi Bishara for crimes such as contact with the enemy, say sources who have seen the evidence in recent weeks.

The sources say it will be very difficult for Bishara to refute the evidence, even if he appears in person to participate in police interviews.

…Most of the allegations involve contact with Hezbollah intelligence agencies, which the police and the Shin Bet say were responsible for collecting intelligence on Israel during the Second Lebanon War. The bulk of the evidence is based on wire taps of Bishara’s telephone conversations with Hezbollah agents. These recordings were authorized by the Supreme Court.

The evidence also suggests that Bishara assisted Hezbollah in broadening the impact of its attacks on Israel by helping direct its rocket barrages and offering recommendations on how to carry out psychological warfare against Israelis. Bishara is also suspected of transferring to Hezbollah military information, but the military censor has imposed a gag order on that information.

In addition to the evidence suggesting that Bishara’s activities were tantamount to treason, investigators are working on an angle involving financial violations.

The investigators are trying to connect evidence to suspicions that Bishara violated the law forbidding the funding of terrorism. The evidence is based on the testimony of a family of Jerusalem-based money changers who say they have delivered hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to Bishara’s home in Beit Hanina. The funds have also not been declared to the tax authorities as required by law.

The investigators have so far been unable to trace the money and are not sure whether Bishara kept the funds or distributed them to other organizations. The police are considering initiating an investigation in a number of countries where the funds are known to have originated or passed through.

I’m glad to say that no U.S. publication, especially after the misinformation it’s been fed by the Bush Administration for the past six years, would ever report a story like this.

So what do we have? The spooks claim they have enough evidence to indict. They claim, without providing any evidence, that he had contact with Hezbollah agents. What’s a real stunner is that Bishara, if the Shin Bet is to be believed, was a sort of civilian “spotter” who phoned in coordinates to the Hezbollah gunners to improve the aim of their rockets and kill more of his fellow Arabs (who suffered high casualties during these barrages). As for “transferring military information,” do you think one of the most mistrusted members of the Israeli Knesset would be trusted with ANYTHING in the way of “military information.” As for “offering recommendations on how to carry out psychological warfare against Israelis,” we’ll just have to see precisely what that means in terms of real actions rather than just allegations.

All of this of course is nothing new for Bishara since the intelligence agency has been after him for years. But what is new is the corruption allegation. They believe he received several hundred thousand dollars from foreign sources. They can’t determine whether he distributed them to Arab political organizations or kept it himself and they can’t determine where he got the money. Sounds like a slam dunk to me.

All the rest is bunk. The treason angle is bunk as far as I’m concerned. Mere ventilating for the sake of the right-wing Israeli constituency which wants Bishara’s hide; and an effort to intimidate Bishara and his movement into scaling back their nationalist demands and aspirations. The Shin Bet recently announced that Israeli Arab nationalism was a grave threat to Israel and that would do everything in its power (and that covers a lot of ground both legal and not when an Israeli intelligence agency makes such a statement) to defeat such an effort whether or not it was pursued legally. When the security services of a democratic nation publicly declare that they will defeat a domestic political movement which is adhering to the rules of that democracy–is that nation still a true democracy??

It’s only fair, since Haaretz in this article basically allowed itself to be a mouthpiece of the Shin Bet, to air Bishara’s rebuttal in his first major article in a U.S. publication since the charges began to fly. He begins with a very apt historical comparison of his own predicament to the Dreyfuss Affair:

in an ironic twist reminiscent of France’s Dreyfus affair — in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state — the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel’s failed war against Lebanon in July.

The reason it is an apt comparison is that Dreyfuss too was a public official (an army officer) and member of a despised minority (a Jew in France) accused of treason. The charges against Dreyfuss were trumped up by anti-Semitic army officers who wished to cover up malfeasance by themselves and others.

Of course, we only know of Dreyfuss’ innocence now. In the moment, I’m sure Dreyfuss and his actions may’ve looked as suspect as Bishara’s do to some Israelis. We will only discover the truth or falsehood of the charges against Bishara in the course of time. Perhaps the Bishara case will not turn out to be as black and white as Dreyfuss was. Or perhaps it will.

Here Bishara responds to some of the basic charges against him:

Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone — a journalist or a personal friend — can be defined as a “foreign agent” by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah — Israel’s enemy in Lebanon — has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What’s more, unlike those in Israel’s parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speeches.

Here Bishara provides a lesson in the history of Arabs in Israel:

When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.

For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villages.

Today we make up 20% of Israel’s population…But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.

More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty — Israel’s “Bill of Rights” — defines the state as “Jewish” rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.

Here is the crux of the threat that Bishara poses to Israel and the reason why he drives the security apparatus crazy:

I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel’s illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.

This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.

In other words, just as Israeli Jews have ties to their brethren near and far, so too Israeli Arabs have family, cultural and super-national ties to their brethren living in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. If Israeli Jews maintain solidarity with me here in Seattle, WA–why can’t Bishara maintain solidarity with Arabs of neighboring countries?

This expression of solidarity clearly threatens Israeli Jews and the government. But if we look back on our own history, we find that the 19th century was full of anti-Catholic bigotry which posited that immigrant Catholics owed a greater allegiance to Rome than to America. And what is the dual loyalty canard raised against American Jews but another form of this.

If all Bishara did in these alleged conversations was what he says he did here (”asserted the right of the Lebanese…and Palestinians…to resist Israel’s occupation”) then he has done nothing legally actionable.

In this concluding section, the Arab politician lays out the history of persecution he has suffered at the hands of the Israeli justice system and places it in the context of the Arab nationalist struggle:

During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in elections — all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman — an immigrant from Moldova — declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel “have no place here,” that we should “take our bundles and get lost.” After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my execution.

The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being severed from our natural connections to the Arab world…If we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.

Before one accepts the load of malarkey about treason and indictable offenses in the Haaretz article one ought to ponder the cogency and power of this message. In Azmi Bishara, Israeli Jews have found a worthy adversary, one who will challenge them “where they live.” People may hate this man. They may find him an odious charlatan. But in a way he is the mirror image of Israeli Jews and their attitudes toward their fellow Arabs. Bishara seems to be saying: “if you hate my people I will become an adversary worthy of that hatred.” The Israeli majority, in its smugness and racist notions of Arab inferiority, has found a leader who reflects back at them their intolerance. So, yes, Bishara may be a demagogue. He may be a hot-headed, egotistical show-boater. He may incite Arab anger and even hatred against the State. But what do Jews expect? Have they met their Arab fellow citizens anywhere near halfway?

I hear echoes of Martin Luther King’s FBI harassment in Bishara’s invocation of the American civil rights movement in this passage:

Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy.

As I wrote above, whatever this man’s weaknesses, this paragraph in particular makes clear Bishara’s ability to invoke references to his audience’s own political history and experience in order to draw them closer to his own. A worthy adversary and one to be reckoned with.

tags civil-rights-movement, dreyfuss-affair, hezbollah, israeli-arab-nationalism, lebanon-war, shin-bet-accuses-bishara-of-treason

Sara Roy is a raging prophet like the great Jeremiah. She has done what many of us liberal Jews tried to do during the horrid catastrophe called the Lebanon War last summer. She has encompassed in words the fury, the rage, the anger, the suffering we all felt; the embarrassment we all felt at Israel’s unremitting assault on Lebanon. I must’ve written 30 or 40 blog posts about the war. In each, I tried to match my molten angry emotions with suitable words. But words sometimes failed. I could never reflect sufficiently my fury in language. But Roy has done this in an essay published in Counterpunch. She has done it simply, even elegantly if such a word is suitable for such a subject. She has done us Jews proud in articulating the assault on our humanity and our Jewishness that this war entailed.

You must read this essay and you must read it now. Then, if you can, you should buy and read the book from which it is excerpted. I fully agree with Roy that Lebanon severed some bond or connection we may’ve previously had to Israel as eternal victim. Our relations with Israel can never be the same as they were before. We can never be as trusting. We can never be as sympathetic. Though we may love Israel this war has tempered that love.

This break reminds me of the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel. Despite being seriously injured, Jacob holds the angel to a draw and will not relinquish his grip until the angel relents. As a result of this life-changing experience, the angel gives Jacob a new name to symbolize his role as the father of a new people: Israel. Like Jacob/Israel, this war has injured us grievously. But unlike Israel, it has given us a name we would rather not know or share. We must not act as if nothing has changed. That would be the ultimate denial of our Jewishness and the humanity of the Lebanese victims.

Roy also speaks eloquently of the corrosive attempt by American Jewish organizations to impose a false unity in articulating our response to the war. Her denunciation of such attempts resonates for many of us as we search for a path that remains true to our love of Zion, while acknowledging the horror of what we have witnessed in the name of Zion:

Jews do not feel shame over what they have created: an inventory of inhumanity. Rather we remain oddly appeased, even calmed by the desolation. Our detachment allows us to bear such excess (and commit it), to sit in Jewish cafes while Palestinian mothers are murdered in front of their children in Gaza. I can now better understand how horror occurs-how people, not evil themselves, can allow evil to happen. We salve our wounds with our incapacity for remorse, which will be our undoing.

Instead the Jewish community demands unity and conformity: “Stand with Israel” read the banners on synagogues throughout Boston last summer. Unity around what? There is enormous pressure — indeed coercion — within organized American Jewry to present an image of “wall to wall unity” as a local Jewish leader put it. But this unity is an illusion — at its edges a smoldering flame rapidly engulfing its core — for mainstream Jewry does not speak for me or for many other Jews. And where such unity exists, it is hollow built around fear not humanity, on the need to understand reality as it has long been constructed for us — with the Jew as the righteous victim, the innocent incapable of harm. It is as if our unbending support for Israel’s militarism “requires putting our minds as it were into Auschwitz where being a Jew puts your existence on the line. To be Jewish means to be threatened, nothing more. Hence, the only morality we can acknowledge is saving Israel and by extension, ourselves.” Within this paradigm, it is dissent not conformity that will diminish and destroy us. We hoard our victimization as we hoard our identity — they are one — incapable of change, a failing that will one day result in our own eviction. Is this what Zionism has done to Judaism?

This is a breathtaking polemic. Even if you heartily disagree with my or Roy’s perspective on Israel, Zionism or the war, I hope you will wrestle with it in the spirit that Jacob wrestled with the angel before being transformed into Israel.

Hat tip to Hasan Bateson for notifying me about this jewel.

tags counterpunch, jacob-wrestling-with-angels, jewish-ethics, lebanon-war, sara-roy, the-war-on-lebanon-a-reader

Haaretz publishes an eye-opening inside account of the General Staff deliberations that went into the planning and execution of the IDF strategy during the Lebanon war. It shows a curiously tentative and hesitant set of senior commanders who propose ideas only to see them dismissed by chief of staff Halutz; after which the same commanders abandon their original ideas and embrace Halutz’s prescriptions. It shows the army is disarray and dysfunction.

This passage struck me as prophetically ironic in light of the symbolic defeats that the IDF suffered in the village of Bint Jbail:

…On July 16, Bint Jbail is raised for the first time as a target for a possible IDF operation. Major General Benny Gantz, head of the ground forces, makes the recommendation to the chief of staff. “Hassan Nasrallah’s victory speech [in May 2000 after the IDF's withdrawal from southern Lebanon] was made in Bint Jbail. We must dismantle that place, it is a Shi’ite place - and they must be driven to the North. I would even consider a limited ground operation in this area, which can be held.”

Lest anyone still believe the IDF’s then defense of its gruesome tactics in Lebanon, in which it claimed it was only targeting military locations and not civilian, note Gantz’s pointed reference to “dismantling” the village and displacing its civilian residents. He wants to do this not because Bint Jbail is a military target, but because Nasrallah has made the village a symbol of Hezbollah resistance to Israel.

I also note the chilling final sentence: “I would even consider a limited ground operation in this area, which can be held.” The IDF, of course, lost 8 soldiers in Bint Jbail in a single day and never completely took control of it. As a result, the status of the town has risen to legendary proportions in the eyes of Hezbollah and its supporters. So in effect, the IDF created a myth on behalf of Hezbollah and only burnished it further in its attempt to “teach Hezbollah a lesson” there. A case of MAJOR hubris.

During a later period of the war, after major Israeli losses occurred there, the General Staff has this colloquy:

Kaplinsky: “Regarding Bint Jbail, I agree with Udi [Adam] on one thing. There is no tactical military significance to conquering Bint Jbail [but] there is another sort of significance … that of symbolism and what we are doing, we are doing for those who are going to tell the story tomorrow.”

Adam does not agree: “We do not need a heroic battle in order to conquer that crap-hole [Bint Jbail].”

Halutz decides on a renewed operation against Bint Jbail and tells Adam: “On point of principle, I tell you this: You say there is no story. Well, I think there is one - and it is not on their side, it’s on our side.”

It’s ironic that the IDF command here confuses its strategic objectives with pure symbolism. Instead of winning a war it tries to deliver a symbolic blow to Hezbollah in attacking Bint Jbail. In the end, it lost the war AND created a strong symbol on behalf of its enemy.

There is further irony in the fact that only Uzi Adam, the commander responsible for actually fighting the war, understands the fatal mistake his comrades have made in focussing their energy on Bint Jbail. And the concluding irony is that Adam was the officer removed from command and blamed by Halutz for the failure of the latter’s war. In this nuthouse, Adam was the relatively sane one.

Haaretz closes its account with more prophetic, and ironic words from Amos Yadlin, chief of military intelligence. Here he speaks of Hezbollah’s rockets which are raining down on northern Israel:

On the matter of the Katyushas, we must show that it is possible to defeat this thing, otherwise it will follow us for years. Apparently this can only be done on the ground … Come on, our fathers beat all the Arab states in six days and we are not able to go in with two divisions and finish off [the area] south of the Litani?”

What does this tell you about the comparative worth of this generation of IDF officers vs. Yitzchak Rabin and his commanders during the Six Day War??

tags amos-yadlin, bint-jbail, dan-halutz, haaretz, hezbollah-defeat-of-idf, katyusha-rockets-attack-northern-israel, lebanon-war, uzi-adam

Yesterday, gunmen attempting to topple the current Lebanese government assassinated Pierre Gemayel, Industry minister, and scion of a major Lebanese Maronite family. In the aftermath of the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel, Lebanon seems to be sliding slowing into chaos. And it is a crying shame. Lebanon is precisely the Middle Eastern country which could exemplify democracy, entrepreneurship, innovation and tolerance if it was given half a chance. Unfortunately, too many outside agents feel they have too much at stake to let Lebanon live in peace. This is why you have Iran and Syria manipulating Nasrallah like a marionette to do their bidding within Lebanese politics.

The local bloggers I feature at Israel Palestine Blogs have been writing for weeks about the ominous speeches delivered by Nasrallah and company which accuse March 14th supporters of being traitorous lackeys of Israel and the U.S. The words murder and coup have been on the tips of peoples’ tongues there for some time. Whether we are entering a Night of the Long Knives or a period that can be transformed into a victory for democratic forces remains to be seen.

During the height of the recent mad war, I conceived the idea of a radio program showcasing Israeli and Lebanese music of peace (at this post, you can find a program playlist and lyrics translations). I thought it was the least I could do to show that there are those on both sides who have not yet lost their minds. There are those on both sides who have their priorities right, who want peace.

Richard Isaac, who has a phenomenal command of contemporary Israeli music, collaborated with me on the show and Barbi Danielle DeCarlo aired it on KBCS’s The Old Country. Rabih AbouJaoudé guided us through the Lebanese music we chose. We’re all very proud of the wonderful music and the political message we were trying to make.

You have another opportunity to hear the show this Sunday at 7 PM on KCBS FM (91.3–live audio stream). And for those of you who will find it difficult to catch the show live, I’ve just uploaded the audio file.

Finally, after listening to the show, won’t you consider purchasing an album by one of the performers? Above, I feature Marcel Khalife’s The Bridge, which contains a song aired on our show. In this way, you will put your money where your mouth is in terms of supporting peace and those who make it through music. And you’ll also make a contribution to support the work of this blog through a small Amazon commission.

tags israel-lebanese-peace-music, kbcs, lebanon-war, marcel-khalife-the-bridge, pierre-gemayel-assassination

There is almost nothing positive or constructive that has come out of the war in Lebanon. It is an unmitigated disaster for everyone directly involved. But I have to say that I have found humanity and compassion in places I wouldn't have expected it. I've discovered wonderful Lebanese blogs (some featured at Israel Palestine Blogs), which have articulated a by no means monolithic analysis of the situation. Their perspective is subtle and nuanced and often is able to embrace the humanity of the Israeli side. I don't know if I could muster as much of an ability to 'reach out' to the enemy as they have. And here is yet another example of this from a ...

Chava Alberstein is one Israel's greatest musical performers whose career has spanned 40 years and more. She written and recorded some of the finest popular music to come out of Israel. She is a chanteuse in the finest sense of that European tradition--a woman of her time, keenly aware of the the human condition. In 1989, she released Chad Gadya (hear it), a modern reworking of the traditional Passover song. The original is a song meant for children but which recounts the cycle of suffering endured by living things. At the end, it provides comfort that God can smite even the ...

Another Chiah Hezbollah 'terrorist' bites the dust (photo: UrShalim/Assafir) First we had Qana where 28 are confirmed dead (14 are missing there but it is still too dangerous to search the rubble for the remaining bodies). Now we have a new massacre du jour. Chiah, where the AP reports at least 30 bodies have been recovered after an IAF airstrike on two homes demolished them. That would make it the current 'winner' in the IAF 'death sweepstakes.' Here's an earlier report from Blogging the Middle East which first alerted me to the story: Some hours ago two residential buildings in Chiah were struck. Chiah is pretty ...

I'll start this post by going all the way back to 1982. I was then a graduate student in Hebrew Literature at UC Berkeley. I wanted to use Yiddish as one of my minor languages so I took the summer to attend the YIVO language program. It was a glorious program in so many ways. But I didn't bargain on Ariel Sharon starting a major war during my time in New York. But he did and I became a Yiddish student by day and an anti-war activist by night (and day). I teamed up with an especially creative fellow, Jay Bender (where are you now?), through the Manhattan New Jewish Agenda chapter and we jointly ...

Yes, the Olmert government is showing downright kindness to the residents of Kiryat Shmona, one of the hardest hit towns in all of Israel from Hezbollah rockets. It's packing them all off on 'holiday' to the French Riviera for four days of R&R. Not really, but don't you dare use the words "mass evacuation." By golly, that's not what this is: The government is offering some 17,000 residents of border towns to leave for several days, Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said Tuesday. In making the announcement, Maimon avoided the word "evacuation," saying instead that the residents were offered to leave the war zone for several days of recuperation. The government will pay for the stay of those leaving ...