Israel’s deranged war on Gaza earlier this year was one of the most painful episodes in recent Palestinian history, in which one of the world’s most advanced armies devastated the towns and refugee camps they had caused decades earlier with the most brutal weaponry.

Although numbers can never convey the grotesque manner of the slaughter, Palestinian medical officials counted over 1,400 dead, mostly civilians and including close to more than 500 women and children.

Israel, on the other hand, claimed to have only lost 13 citizens, the bulk of whom were soldiers killed by friendly fire.

But some extraordinary vigilance by me (okay, I was playing on my phone next to the TV and overheard something) has uncovered some startling figures. Tuesday was Israel’s Independence Day, when it granted Palestinian lands independence from its Palestinian owners, and there was some official memorial service held that night for Israelis killed ‘in the service of the state’ over the past year.

Oddly, that number came to 133. That is WAY more then the 13 soldiers and less than 20 civilians that had been counted by the Israeli army and government during that time period.

The following dialogue captures the moment of discovery:

MHMD: not that it really matters anymore, but today israel held a memorial service for all of its soldiers killed in the past year. the total number came to 134. perhaps the israelis werent being quite so honest about their dead in gaza?

Um Mazen: where did you see the 134 figure?

MHMD: not sure, heard it on tv, wasn’t paying attention. Ah, off Haaretz: 133 soldiers and civilians. Still, I don’t recall that many being killed. The number is definitely much larger than what was let on…it was what..less than 15 civilian deaths due to fire from Gaza, and less than 5 in the West Bank?

Um Mazen: 133 killed in the service of the state. No way! Either hey are including police officers and others killed in the ‘line of duty’ (ie. whether by other Israelis or in car accidents) or they are obscuring Gaza figures.

MHMD: definitely sounds like a gaza coverup.

According to the Defense Ministry, 133 soldiers and civilians died during the past year either in the course of military service or as civilian casualties of hostile activity.

military service or civilian casualties of hostile activity.

those are not car accidents.

Fadi: why didn’t they mention the gazillions of rockets. isn’t that a more important statistic than number of deaths? i thought the number of rockets was the most important statistic in the world, ever. i think israel is soon going to have a national holiday dedicated just to the gazillions of rockets. there will be an hour of silence, and mahmoud abbAss will partake in it. Assali will wake up in the middle of the night in order to partake in the silence as well, from d.c. they will release a gazillion balloons in the air, each balloon representing a square inch of metal used in the rockets. this is the only way people will fully comprehend just how relevant these rockets are. this needs to happen.

Um Mazen: You forgot Insane Ibish. He will weep.

Fadi: I think the next statistic will be the number of civilian and military deaths resulting from terror attacks, terrorism, Palestinian violence, Islamofascism, Muslims, Arabs, sexually transmitted diseases from Arabs/Muslims, pan-Arabism, Hizballah, Hamas, and/or natural causes. they need to find ways to conflate the type of victims and the causes of death in order to inflate the threat of Islam, Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, terrorism, and the rockets. I think this will work. They should definitely do this. I imagine these types of conversations must take place within the ministry of information.

Subula: be thankful that you guys didnt have to be here when the siren blared to commemorate the deaths of all the soldiers that have died fighting for israel. everyone is supposed to just stop what they’re doing and be silent the whole time until it stops.

Um Mazen: I heard it – office is next to Beit El.

MHMD: We hear it every year. There’s enough settlements in our midst to make sure we do. And the firework displays. It’s sick watching them celebrate in Psagot, just a few hundred yards away.

So basically, the mythical lions of the Israeli Occupation Forces took a bit of a beating from Palestinian fighters armed with nothing more than Kalashnikovs and fighting on flat, open terrain. No wonder the bullies took it out on so many children.

Interestingly, the total number of Israelis killed by ‘terror’ or war in its entire existence does not exceed 24,000, roughly three times the number of Palestinians it has killed in the last 8 years alone.

We’re receiving requests to post on Bono’s concert for Obama yesterday at the Lincoln Memorial where he mentioned Palestine. The Nation is going nuts. This is how that alleged “shout out” went:

“This is not just an American dream,” [Bono] said, adding that it was “also an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream… an Israeli dream… and also a Palestinian dream.”

So anyway, we’re supposed to believe, like the Nation article does, that this is all nice and wonderful and should wet ourselves, like the Nation article does.

But what all of this excitement really is, and make no mistake, is testament to how fucking low we’re allowing the bar to be set for us that we’re supposed to celebrate a mention that, as Mhmd aptly put it, “sounds like the regular stupid liberal drivel…israelis have dreams, palestinians have dreams, if only they’d be nice to each other.”

Liberal drivel, indeed. This is the type of crap that will bring about the two-state non-solution.

These people are the enemy. There are sides to be taken here, asshole. I’ve stopped believing liberals were a little better than the fascists; at least the fascists let you know exactly who you’re dealing with.

FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Programmer Buydatti: (in an e-mail forward) Bono from U2 just mentioned Palestine during inauguration concert in front of Obama! It came at the end of the song Pride (In the Name of Love) and “for the Palestinian dream”

Fadi: i heard he also screamed for a “Free Israel”… no joke, from somebody that was there.

Programmer Buydatti: Oh, well in that case Bono could suck it…

Emily: friend of mine said he sang ‘israelis want peace, palestinians want peace.’ blablabla

Fadi: Ok, here’s what may have actually happened: “Let freedom ring. On this spot where we’re standing 46 years ago Dr. King had a dream. On Tuesday, that dream comes to pass,” before launching into ‘Pride (In The Name Of Love)’, U2′s tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “This is not just an American dream,” he said, adding that it was “also an Irish dream, a European dream, an African dream… an Israeli dream… and also a Palestinian dream.” (The Nation)

Fayyad: John Nichols (the author) is an asshole. The quintessential liberal type QQ loves to hate…

Will: We got a request to put this video up. Perhaps someone can find it and post their thoughts?

QuiQui: Can I veto? This is ridiculous. If we do it, can we make a post about how fucking low the bar is for us that we’re celebrating a fucking liberal shout out like that, which also calls for freedom for Israel? For fucking Israel? Take fucking sides, asshole. I hate bono.

Mhmd: admittedly i have not seen the video, but it sounds like the regular stupid liberal drivel…israelis have dreams, palestinians have dreams, if only they’d be nice to each other. if 1300 people hadnt been slaughtered in gaza this month, Bono wouldn’t have remembered us.

Diana: You are too young to be so cynical, Mohammad.

Diana: I think that it should be part of Fayyad’s post of the “cause of the day” – this week it’s Gaza; next week it is the blue whale.

[Tarboush tip: Jackie]

Mohammad: sometimes i feel this is all a game to israelis

Fadi: they suck. Roy is an idiot. I mean, i always thought us arabs were shitty with the conspiracy addictions (Saddam mossad agent, jews did 9/11, etc), but man, Zionuts are just as bad if not worse. they’re actually convinced that arabs frequently fake atrocities (referring to Roy’s recent comment on Em’s post bout how it looks like the zaytoon building shelling is another “fake atrocity”).

Programmer Buydatti: Perhaps their women don’t cry because they’re heartless bitches. Ours still retain their humanity…

Mohammad: OR perhaps their women dont cry coz..they dont have much to cry about in comparison?

<< Fayyad: Maybe it’s just that their soldiers do the crying…. These are the lions of the mythical army of Israel…. How do these guys look in ground combat?

Will: Arab women cry because they are so anti-Semitic they hope their tears gather into a flood that destroys Israel.

Chaim: No way!

Mohammad: Hey, Arab women don’t cry, they love when their kids die remember? Those tears are carefully trained Pallywood actresses

Not only did those comments and the conjoined hurling of shoes spark what would later be known as “shoe-gate,” but it created a flurry of chatter in Western media about the symbolism of “the sole of the shoe in Arab culture,” with sweeping, unfounded monolithic anthropologically-oriented assumptions about “Arab culture” reminiscent of Orientalist fascinations of yester-year. Here are some I made note of in Western broadcast news realm:

ITN: “The biggest insult in the Arab world, to slap your shoe on somebody”

Patty Culhane of MSNBC: “Now people at home might be wondering, “what is the importance of the shoe?” Well in arab culture that’s considered, the sole of the shoe is considered an insult. So it was this reporter’s way of insulting President Bush during his surprise visit to Baghdad.” Were people at home really asking themselves, “hmmm, there must be a REASON why he threw his shoes at Bush. There has be some Arab cultural symbolism I’m missing, and thus, I need media outlets to explain it to me.”

BBC World News does one worse by rolling footage of “the angry arab mob” slapping the toppled Saddam statue with their shoes as the reporter explains the “importance of the sole of the shoe in arab culture”: “But in the Arab world, a shoe branded against anyone is a huge symbolic insult.”

Comparatively these culture claims sound eerily similar to ones made in the 19th century by british orientalists writing on the Middle East. For example, in Anna H. Jessup’s 1897 article “Children in Palestine” for The Biblical World, she makes the profound observation that, “A nursing baby is promptly given anything it cries for –from cooked food to raw vegetables and unripe fruit.” Yes, because responding to a crying baby is only specific to “Palestinian/Arab culture.”

However, for the slippery puddle produced by the attar-like Orientalism seeping through these MSNBC, ITN and BBC off-the-cuff, on-the-spot reports, they seem less offensive when compared to the following New York Times article that appeared two days after the incident. The opening line to the article written by Timothy Williams and Abeer Mohammed “In Iraqi’s Shoe-Hurling Protest, Arabs Find a Hero. (It’s Not Bush.)” is testament to this: “Calling someone the “son of a shoe” is one of the worst insults in Iraq.” I find this analysis more troubling given that the writers of this article had time to sit and cogitate about such a ludicrous claim, and EVEN with such afforded time, to find sources to support their claim! But still they didn’t. Therein lies the most illuminating aspect of this story: Even respected news outlets like the NY Times and BBC see no need to justify essentialist views on the Middle East or Arabs because they see what clearly are opinions as facts about an entire population of people. Even when they get it all wrong.

Actually the most insulting part of his action was not what he did, but said. As he hurled the shoes, he yelled “Ibn Kalb.” Many an Arabic-speaking students are familiar with the dramatically different reaction one gets with the slip of the “Kaf” in place of the “Qaf.” They can tell you the hard lesson they learned. Also, as Will pointed out in his post “A New Arab Hero Emerges,” most likely, it is what you say or don’t say that gets you in more trouble. I mean, throwing a shoe at your rowdy kids is so commonplace that it really has lost a lot of loathsome weight. But, not greeting a relative, that is so rare it warrants the severest of rebukes! I remember refusing to give salaams to my aunt once and, as a result, causing a civil war within my extended family. It was already under frequent discussion that I was very inconsistent with my cheek kisses, and this one incident sent all 30 of my cousins and 10 plus uncles and aunts into a passionate fit against me and my parents. I was literally assigned a hearing with a jury of my peers, waited for a deliberation and was delivered an official sentence-all nine yards! Balah, ma bmzah!

But the best part of shoe-gate was not the throwing of the shoe or Bush’s impressive dodging skills, but his half-wit jokes and political analysis geared at minimizing the historic and political importance of this event:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RFH7C3vkK4]
Bush sounds more like a Kindergarden teacher than a president of 8 years as he explains the Al Baghdadiya journalist’s motivations in a less than subtle attempt to dodge not just a shoe but also the original question posed by a journalist about the so-called political success in Iraqi back to the incident: “Well, to get back to the shoe. It’s one way to get attention…like driving down the street and have people gesture with not all 5 fingers…I don’t know the guy’s cause was…but that’s what happens in free societies.” That’s right Bush, your legacy as President of the US will be reduced down to starting two losing wars, jeopardizing world security in the process, turning a blind eye to the death of conservatively a million Iraqis and the displacement of at least 5 million Iraqis stemming from you “liberation” efforts, a failed economy, choking on a pretzel and now, dodging two shoes at a press conference centered around the “Iraqi victory.”

But in all seriousness, I am not trying to downplay the special place the “sole of the shoe” has or doesn’t have in the soul of the Arab or in his or her “mind,” but there are far more nefariously-regarded things throw. As such, KABOBers created a list of top ten plus “Things to throw…Worse than a shoe” (list originally composed by Fayyad-all the uncredited ones are his contributions):

1. A Rock
2. First Born
3. IED
4. Falafel Sandwich
5. A Zionist
6. A Smart Bomb
7. A bucket of labne (Sunbala)
8. A stack of 3 Million Syrian Lira’s
9. man2ooshe (Emily)
10. Saeb Erekat (Diana)
11. The words “stupid” and “ihmar” (me)
12.Bacon n’ Eggs (Sunbula)
13. A #1 license plate (me)
14. A molotav cocktail (Mohammad)

Lastly, the bigger point that has been missed about these Anthropologists du jour, at the end of the day, getting a shoe thrown at you is undesirable in EVERY culture. Unless of course it’s part of some obscure martial arts training I’m not aware of. Fadi’s comment speaks directly to this point: “Today i threw my shoes at two of my bosses and a coworker; thankfully, hurling a shoe at somebody is considered an insult in only the Arab world.”

WILL: I have several million dollars in a drug-human trafficking-prostitution-day care center ring. How will this investment be effected?

MOHAMMAD: Normally such loot remains safe from macro economic fluctuations. However, judging by your inability to spell affected, I think your cash-money is at a great risk of being lost due to your own incompetence.

WILL: Good point. “Macroeconomic” is one word, though, so check yourself. Be careful, my friend, you are talking to the runner-up of the 1991 city of Dearborn spelling bee.

NABEEL: i have 25 bicycles stored and ready to go for when the shit hits the fan. i’m ready for this madmax shit to go down. i’ll be trading my extra bikes for grain and antibiotics.

WILL: When the madmax shit does go down, I invite you all to seek refuge in the Arab enclave state of Dearborn if you can make it there. It will be run as a shia’ fundamentalist state though. So ladies, bring your burkas; men, grow your beards.

FADI: american politics sickens me. clearly she’s being tokenized.

WILL: Did McCain throw the election away? Or is this going to make Obama’s “change” rhetoric carry less weight?

With 5 kids, she’s going to get the American teitas’ votes. She is married to a native dude — albeit one who works for an oil manufacturer.

But, ideologically, she’s a scary nutball who will gut out government even more then Bush did.

As for looks, she’s no Ségolène Royal. But she’s much better to look at than John “Fire Marshall Bill” McCain.

Will Biden smoke her in debates?

MAYTHA: I don’t know who’s scarier as an american veep-cheney or her? someone who can screw up shit up because they know what they are doing or someone who can screw up shit up because they dont know what they are doing.

PROGRAMMER BUYDATTI: She’s clearly tokenized. Much more experienced folks were passed up just because she’s a woman who’s young and easy on the eyes.

I haven’t heard her speak — but based on substance, Biden would smoke her in a debate. She’s a newbie. Unless she can deliver speech like Obama, she’s just good to look at.

I’m finding it hard to believe that Americans can be so dumb as to eat this shit up. She’s clearly being used to market McCain to a diff audience. It’s a desperate attempt to appear as relevant as Obama.

Pathetic.

FAYYAD: I just heard a broadcast of her speach on Day to Day, Buydatti, I know Barack Obama, and she’s no barack obama…. Haha, I’m funny. She actually sounded a lot more like miss north Carolina. BTW, she was runner up for Miss Alaska, and she played on a basketball team in HS that won state… She ran for city council of small town, then mayor, and all of sudden governor. She practically ran agains the republican party, she claims to be a reformer, but some one on NPR said that’s easy to say since she’s the only un-indicted republican politician in the state.

She really does not sound elequent, informed, or deplomatic. She speaks in a way that makes her appealing in states with 5 electoral votes or less only. She got this massive applaud when she decalred her acceptance of the VP slot on the 88th anniversary for women’s voting rights, as if she was miss suffrage. My only concern is that Biden will get caught looking at his watch in the debate with her, that is if he accepts to debate her.

To answer Will’s questions, McCain just made a really dumb-smart move. He tokenized her to specifically go after two demographics, former femal supporters of Hilary, and evangelicals. He knows his chances went down against Obama, especially agains the Obama-Biden ticket, so he decided not to play their game, he knew he could not win at it.

Two things the democrats can burn her on in no time: Her Rovian politics, and the fact that she no more prepared to be commenader in chief than Chaim Sugarman, while McCain is almost gauranteed to die in office.

FADI: She’s also sick in the head. What kind’ve elitist hunter (you know, hunters that can afford to go up in the air to do their hunting) pushes such a platform of legalizing aerial hunting. it’s sick.

And ya, I think even Republicans are scared when they think about the fact that she is one heartbeat away from being President. WTF!?!?

The recent prisoner exchange between Hezbollah and Israel was a historic event, returning all Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails to their homeland, as well as the bodies of close to 200 fighters killed in Israel over the last three decades. Even more importantly, it fulfilled Hezbollah’s stated goal when it captured two Israeli soldiers in 2006.

The deal inspired praise and criticism across the political and social spectrum, not just amongst the countries involved, but across the world. That diversity present even amongst us here, so rather than post personal reactions, we held another one of our Spitfireside Chats on the topic:

Sunbula: i feel divided at times about supporting Hizballah or not. yes they are like the only people who in the recent past have given the Israelis a run for their money, but i often feel doubtful about their adopting of the Palestinian cause. when nahr el-barid was being destroyed last year, they cheered for the Lebanese army. i respect their tactical brilliance but in the larger picture they are a conservative religious party that wants to fight israel for its own interests and has a reactionary socio political vision, so i think when supporting their small victories we as leftist/progressive people should keep this in mind.

Quiqui: Hear, hear.

Kalash: I’m a little confused by the prisoner swap… The only thing that makes sense to me is that the Israelis are trying to lull Hezbollah into sleep so they can come after them later (not necessarily militarily). I don’t trust those bastards but if they truly are willing to make peace with Syria that would be a major blow. If they were to give up Shebaa farms, they’d take away Hezbollah’s last solid claim to being a resistance group. The other major issue is prisoners, and that’s now been addressed, to a certain extent. So while this is a symbolic victory for Hezbollah, in the long run, it could prove to be part of a greater victory for the mf Israelis… I don’t see them being particularly vulnerable.

As far as Kuntar is concerned, the whole issue is getting the same old cookie-cutter coverage we have become all too familiar with – only one side of the story is told. In one article he was referred to as sporting “a Hitlerian mustache and haircut” at his reception! I think Kuntar and the other freed prisoners are the only real winners.

On some of the other things that were said:
- I wouldn’t give so much credence to Christian support for Hezbollah. Sadly for us, most Lebanese are blind followers of their political masters. I can’t help but frown at a Aoun supporter who stands up for Nasrallah when a year before that he was hoping for his downfall. With the fucked up sociopolitical climate in Lebanon, Hezbollah does need other groups (especially after what happened in May).
- As far as their interests and those of their constituents are concerned, Hezbollah does work well in Lebanon’s messed up sectarian government. However, I don’t think that’s true in a general sense. Right now, Hezbollah is the singe most divisive issue in Lebanon. While it may not be in the open politically, the question of Hezbollah’s status is a major obstacle to the way the country is governed.
- Hezbollah’s reaction to what was happening at Nahr el Bared was understandable given the profile of Fatah Al Islam. Look at what’s happening in Tripoli. While both sides support the Palestinian cause, politically (and religiously) they don’t see eye to eye.

Sunbula: i agree with Kalash that the only victors are the freed prisoners who can go back to their families, finally.
as far as hizballah’s nationalism is concerned, they are nationalist when they feel like it and when it suits them. and their nationalist discourse, at least if you watch al-manar is not one that i like. plus most of their rah rah military songs really suck. the only exception was “hala ya saqr libnan” which was done by a boy band in ramallah!

Diana: I am very disappointed that Dalal was not buried in Palestine as her family wished (there were also 3 from the Galilee)…but maybe I am just being sentimental.

I cannot decide whether Hezb agreed to their release to Lebanon so that they could firmly demonstrate that they are the only real resistance movement and gain political points or for other reasons.
At least in the minds of most here, Hezbollah is a nationalist ARAB movement (indeed the only nationalist movement) defending not only Lebanon but Palestine. I was recently chatting with some PLO/Fatah folks who recounted the ‘good old days’ of the movement in the 70s. For them, the swap was like finally admitting that your cancer-ridden family member is dying and worthless while at the same time watching his/her spouse run off with a new younger, more attractive (wo)man.

I must admit that I have been impressed with Manar TV – especially their detailed reports about the inner workings of the swap and its aftermath. That said, I still believe that Hezbollah acts in its interests, not in mine.

Quntar’s speeches were awesome and he kicked Haniyeh and Abbas’s asses on TV. (he publicly decried Haniyeh on Aqsa TV and called for Pal unity).

Tarik: The most disgusting part of it all is the kuntar dude. sick bastard– and the media is truly demonizing him as a viscous murderer (which he probably is), however the “reception” he received back in lebanon was that of a “hero”? can anyone confirm that? i cant believe that lebanese would be proud of a fool who basically hit several “soft” targets- it just seems so foolishly vengeful to me… to kill a family, that is- and the whole debacle gives the zio-media machine hella material to falsely portray israel as a truly benevolent, honest “neighbor” who makes painful sacrifices to the enemy in the name of “peace” and “reconciliation”- RIGHT?

Kalash: Kuntar’s release has important symbolic value for Lebanon – it’s not about him and his alleged crimes, it’s about the longest serving Lebanese prisoner in Israel. The Israelis are good at shaping news to their advantage and this time is no exception.

Part of the unfolding drama here has people stepping up pressure on Syria to release the Lebanese prisoners being held there. I can’t help but wonder if the Israelis had that in mind when they accepted to release Kuntar and company…
BTW, the latest product of the conspiracy theorists is that Israel released him so he could assassinate Nasrallah (or at least work as spy of some sort).

Nimr: Clearly the returned lebanese were subjected to a mind control project (a la Project MK Ultra http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Project_MKULTRA). Next time things start getting a little hectic with the good ole party of god they will be activated!!! I mean come on… everone was thinking it. no? really?

Kalash: Not only that – after the release of these guys, there are no more Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails! Even countries like Jordan have some of their citizens locked up over there… Hezbollah showed that liberating Arab prisoners from Israel is not incumbent on any sort of
‘peace’ agreement… not only that, it can be achieved with blatant defiance of the Zionist regime. That is nothing to squawk at and should help comfort anyone who is taken aback by the official reception that Kuntar and co received.

Remember also that there was no Hezbollah in Lebanon back in 1979…

Fayyad: So that makes Marwan Bargouthi a Manchurian Candidate?

Tarik: Marwan Barghouti… haha- ya I though he was the de facto president of the west bank? oh… wait… he isnt done with his mossad training yet…. woops

Will: My only comment is that we have to remember that Israel has internal
politics as well. The families of the soldiers mounted public campaigns pushing for some sort of deal to resolve it. Ehud Olmert is pretty weak politically and may have just moving with prevailing political winds. And since Hezbollah’s about to get hung out to dry with US-Israel moves against Iran and Syria, little deals like this are more likely now than later. Rather than see this as a win for Hezb, it could be a harbinger of their geopolitical isolation.

Fayyad: I see the swap in the same light all the other deals took place in. Once Hezbollah captured the soldiers, the deal was going to take place, despite the tought talk of “we don’t negotiate with terrorists” that followed from the Israel’s, and especially after launching a foolish war and several commando raids to free them but failing.

It was just a matter of time, and the timing of this one, is just what Will explained, Olmert is very weeks, and public pressure was very strong in Israel, and accepting of swap deal, especially after the populations became diselusioned by invinsibility of their army and the ability to walk in, slap Hezbollah around and leave with the captured soldiers.

However, there are two minor detailes that make this swap unique. 1) Hezbollah fucked up earlier this year when it used force against other Lebanese, it lost much of its credibility, and having been provoked by western puppits like Hariri Jr. is no excuse. So it needed this deal to re-introduce itself as a “Resistance Movement”, the fanfare and the list of returning prisoners and remains point in that direction. Samir Kuntar is Durzi, and was a member of the PLO, Hezbollah’s march in celebration was joined by Durzi leader Walid Junblat, not exactly a friend over the last year or two. The remains include many Plaestinian and other Arab PLO fighters, including Dalal Almugrabi. Their funerals will be turned into massive shows of support and “affirmation of resistance” to “Israeli occupation”. The receptiopn at Beirut airport already included all Hezbollah’s political nemessis, including PM Senioran and Hariri. So this was a great tactical win for Nasrallah and co.

2) When Israel agrees to a such a deal, it turns gloomy for a few days, you can sense a mood of surrender, and the try to foget it a few days later, especially as they celebrate their wins from the deal. This time, instead of the gloomy mood being relieved by the return of the soliders, it go even worse as Israel’s got to see on TV that their returning soldiers are only remains in black coffins. They felt played by Hezbollah, whcih is evidant in the speaches of Israel leaders after the swap, several cabinet members who voted for the swap called for the assassination Kuntar, and Olmert himself launched a salvo of threats of attacking and destroying Hezbollah. Not t mention the phone calls the israeli military placed to residents of Southern Lebanon threatening them of attacks of they celebrate with Hezbollah.

1. Norelco beard trimmer

2. Apple pie

3. A Lynard Skynard’s Greatest Hits CD

Hanaan: 

1. A limited-edition Armani orange jumpsuit for when they inevitably get sent to Guantanamo.

2. A Photo shoot with Barack Obama for the cover of “The New Yorker” magazine.

Maytha: 

1. Avatar dark-tinted sunglasses (preferably Ray Ban’s)

2. A haute couture hijab

3. FBI pens and notebooks (extra supply leftover from AAI and ADC banquet gift-bags).

4. A Larry King phone-in question opportunity.

5. Waterproof protective covering for his/her Qur’an.

6. A reality series on E! with potential for Lohan and/or Kardashian cross-over episodes.

7. A cameo on “Sleeper Cell.”

Diana: 

A “once-in-a-lifetime” offer to be a blogger on KABOBfest.

tarik: 

A $100 GAS CAR (for driving the prices so high)!!!

There are other possibilities though. Livni may also have been aiming the sentiment at Hamas, which is “controlling Gaza by weapons, training and money,” apparently from Iran. (Of course not because they won the last election fair and square– democracy anyone?) Or she was giving it to all the Gulf people who would rather excuse themselves to go barf than see formal ties, or worse, sit in a room with Israeli government officials.

The following is an internal discussion on the significance of the Qatari and Omani reception of Livni. As Chaim protested, “Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog!”

MHMD: Hey what do you guys make of this? Well, there really isn’t much to make of it, I’m not surprised-but is there anything left to say about the Qataris and Omanis meeting so openly with Livni?

Emily: I had an argument with a friend recently. He’s from Bahrain and was thinking of coming to Jordan, and I suggested that we meet there. I also said oh maybe I’ll bring my friend along from Shefa Amr! She’s never been to Jordan!

At which point he seriously took the conversation off the record and was like “wait… she’s… israeli?” He didn’t want to hang out with her in Jordan (a Muslim Arab Palestinian citizen of Israel) because of her Israeli passport. He was like, there’s a boycott. I have to stick to my principles.

I think I spent a half an hour typing like a madwoman about all of the violations against Palestinians in Israel even though they are “Israeli.” And furthermore pulled up the call for boycott and sanctions and sent him the actual text of it- ‘institutional boycott’ etc etc.

Anyway I’d like to post about this and the context of Livni’s visit. I thought Qatar was like the rest of the Gulf states in that people with Israeli passports can’t travel there? Or is it the one exception or something?

MHMD: Well, Qatar’s always been the most openly friendly Gulf state with Israel-if I recall correctly they were the first to allow an Israeli Trade Office to open there. As far as I know, the ban on Israeli passport holders in the gulf is one bigass myth-Israelis travel freely to the UAE and Qatar, and I’m sure they do to Bahrain and Oman too. The Omani FM said one of the purposes of his meeting with Livni was to discuss the reopening of the Israeli Trade Office in Muscat.

Furthermore, I recently saw a news report on MBC quoting several Israeli and US studies that reveal there are up to 220 Israeli companies active in Iraq now. The Arab boycott is just one big joke.

Chaim: Why do you D-bags host these conversations on this listserv, take it to the blog! And use my title: LIVNI LAVIDA LOCA… I just wanna see it in print cause I’m so proud of it Or do a round-table burn… KABOBfest hasn’t done one of those in a great long while.

Emily: Maybe it can be on what constitutes a violation of the boycott: Qatar and the gulf countries giving Israeli businessmen free reign when there’s a boycott going on, or me working for a Palestinian org that is actually an Israeli org inside of Israel, or just talking to Palestinian citizens of Israel (as many regular gulfi people seem to think- I have more examples)

Is my working in Israel a violation of the boycott of Israel for all people of conscience?

Does the boycott include the exclusion of Palestinian people with Israeli passports otherwise known as Arab ISRAELIS?

I’m pretty sure we all agree that Qatar talking to Livni is hypocrisy… or do we?

MHMD: Livni accuses MP Tibi of trying to sabotage two-state solution That should be useful too.

Nimr: I strongly disagree, actually. I hate it when US pundits blast Obama for saying he would meet with the leaders of Iran, Hammas, Venezuela, N. Korea or whoever (well, I actually think there should be “high level” conversations first. Meeting the pres. should be the carrot for substantive talks). I feel I would be the hypocrite to criticize Qatar for talking with Livni.

I see no harm with welcoming and meeting with Livni. It’s not like they are going to let Israel bury nuclear waste there (see: Mauritania). For the record, I think the academic boycott is dumb and counterproductive too. Heck, I think the travel restrictions in general are silly as well. If any Americans are going to boycott Israel, you better be ready to get your ass boycotted 300x over by the rest of the world too.

Also, let’s be clear. As Mohammed pointed out, the rules about travel prohibitions are not universally followed. UAE “unofficially” lets all kinds of people who visit Israel and/or are Israeli citizens come there for business (lots of diamond, tech and finance). That might be open for criticism. Alternately, Yemen allows their own Jewish citizens to visit Israel for family and/or religious reasons, they just do it super on the DL. I applaud that. Syria might not have suffered the loss of its Jewish population if they could have come and gone as they pleased.

Lastly, to put the visit in context, Qatar is very much trying to position themselves as players on the international stage. This kinda thing is probably more about them posturing as players than caring so much about Israel, Palestine or the peace process.

The boycotts and restrictions ultimately do much more to hurt “us”, financially, culturally, symbolically and politically than them.

My 2 cents

Emily: So are you against boycott, academic institutional etc? What about monetary divestment campaigns? I really don’t think any boycott, academic or institutional, would cause much actual harm to the boycotting organization itself unless it depends on funds from Zionist orgs or people.

That’s a really good point about Syria and Yemen. It’s stupid to not let people travel. It’s just dumb.

I think that boycott is in fact a decent tool to get Israeli organizations and institutions to take notice of what is happening. I’m here and I don’t see people really having to notice much in their everyday lives. Life goes on as usual while 10 minutes away people are under occupation. I think that for many educated people who want to be part of the global community (Tel Aviv University, for example), if they got responses when they tried to make a conference saying people won’t participate because of the occupation, it would make them have to notice. I’ve heard Pappe stand on a podium, spread his arms, and say “please! boycott me!”

But the way it happens, it is carried out all wrong. people are not allowed to travel. That is stupid. Businessmen instead make a ton of valuable connections over everyone else’s heads, and don’
t feel a thing even though there’s a ‘boycott’.

Fadi: I think isolation will work. I think boycott, whether academic, cultural, or economic, advances such isolation. Whether doing away with a certain type of boycott (such as academic) will harm the mission of isolating Israel, I don’t know. Maybe the academic boycott is not necessary. Maybe it is. I think the reward (saving Palestinian – and Israeli – lives) is worth the risk. I think isolation will work. I understand the arguments against its practicality, or that it harms civilian infrastructure. I’m fairly certain that refusing to publish papers by Israeli academics, or cutting off grants or joint research (much of it on military and arms research) is not going to starve Israelis to death. I think isolation will work, this has been empirically established (for example, South
Africa). Those willing to argue against boycott of Israel, I think, must also argue against the boycott of Apartheid South Africa. If you’re not willing to do that, then there’s a double standard being applied.

Nimr: I would be interested to see any empirical data on isolation working as a strategy. Most of the data I have seen shows, 1) isolating other countries rarely works and 2) the connection between isolating S. Africa and the end of apartheid is anecdotal, and most probably part of a matrix of many other factors (which may or may not exist in Palestine).

Andrew Mack and Asif Khan have analyzed UN sanctions and their conclusion is that results have been mixed at best. They point out that sanctions work well as a tool of policy, but not as a policy. Look at the disaster of isolating Iraq under sanctions, Cuba, Hammas, Burma, Iran etc. Attempts to isolate them failed, and tended to strengthen the targeted elements, not weaken them. Also, it is almost impossible to isolate any country, this didn’t even work with S. Africa (otherwise DeBeers would not be facing anti-trust issues in the USA). Israel and others kept strong relations with apartheid S. Africa.

This is further complicated by the particular governmental structure of Israel where small fanatical parties have disproportionate influence (domestically and in the USA). Attempts to isolate Israel will only strengthen their power and influence, as it will prove their narrative. (which would lead to more death and land appropriation)

I think the more apt analogy for Israel is the United States, not S. Africa. Like I said if we expect people to start boycotting Israel, culturally, politically, economically and/or academically, we must be prepared to suffer the same treatment in spades. As an American, I feel that the actions of my gov’t do not represent my values. In spite of that lots of people die directly and indirectly from my gov’t's actions. The same could be said of countless Israelis.

It gets complicated really quickly too. The US allowed black S. Africans to come to the US to attend college for instance. Should we not allow Arab-Palestinians? If we do, should we not allow progressive Israelis? If we do….

I think the divestment campaign makes sense, but only so long as this is on an org by org, individual by individual basis and not gov’t policy. I am all for not collaborating with Israel on any research that has military focus and/or biased scholarship (i.e. propaganda), but a sweeping boycott is counterproductive. Some of the best most critical scholarship of Israeli policy comes from Israel.

Specific targeted sanctions (high tech, weapons, etc) are vital parts of foreign policy, but isolating countries/groups seems to have a fairly dismal track record.

Will: I saw this research a long time ago… I think they also argued that if it does not work at the stage of threats, it won’t work. Also, democracies are much more responsive to the threats of isolation, theoretically. Hard empirical analysis would be hard to do because the sample size is probably pretty damn small.

We can assume sanctions against Israel would work if the whole world stood behind them. So we should ask, how realistic is this, on what basis, and would do the prospects of good relations with the Arab world mean?

I would not say Qatar is hypocritical, since they have not exactly been touting anything but a soft position, anyways. I do not think the Arab boycott has truly existed since Egypt got off board in the late 1970s. So asking if it is legitimate is hypothetical. If it existed, it would be, though.

In principle, I am against normalizing Israel until it has clearly defined borders, a clear demarcation of its polity, and lives up to its obligations under international law — in the context of a just and viable solution with the Palestinians. Until then, recognizing Israel without its recognition of the Palestinians is one-sided and
legitimizing criminality.

I do not see how accomodationism could bring about peace. Eretz Yisrael is a non-negotiable ideological strain, first, and the settlements are internalized in the Israeli public’s worldview. Accommodation means accepting these fundamentals, which strike at the heart of Palestinian rights.

Emily: What about the fact that Palestinian civil society has called for boycott/divestment/sanctions? I for one think that we should be listening to what they are saying, and doing our best to implement where we can, for the mere fact that they are the ones calling for it. This probably does not translate to the govenrnmental level, at least not at this juncture. However there are many areas where resolutions can be passed and where choices not to participate/invite/invest can be made and publicized.

That said, I am working in Israel. Does this violate what I’m saying above?

Fadi: That’s right, I think sanctioning dictatorships (eg. Iraq, Cuba) or populations that were never in a position of prosperity to revert to (HAMAS) is clearly different from boycotting governments that are accountable to a people that are benefactors of a system that oppresses others. The Apartheid regime in South Africa, like that in Israel, does have a population that it is accountable to. I’m not sure why you would bring up Iraq or Cuba, I think we can agree that their dictators don’t care about their constituents and are not accountable to their constituents – so there’s a good chance isolation will not work there. Despite your opposition to boycotting Apartheid South Africa, you can’t dismiss the isolation of South Africa that led whites there to realize that “ok, we can no longer benefit from Apartheid, let’s choose a new path.” If we can agree on isolating Israel as a means to liberate Palestinians, then we can discuss the
details (such as travel restrictions on Palestinian citizens of Israel).

But i do think that Qatar and other Arab states are hypocritical. If there are no official policies on boycott in a certain Arab state, I do think these dictators do frequently evoke the Palestinian cause, and express support for Palestinians, to their people. They do not support the Palestinian people, they exploit the Palestinian people. The regimes care about filling their pockets and insulating themselves (e.g.., by strengthening themselves politically in the global arena);
engaging in economic deals with Israel is not something done out of necessity – or at least a morally pure necessity (maybe they think they need to do it in order to retain their authoritarian rule). I would not see them as hypocrites if they normalized relations with Israel while not pretending to be strong supporters of the Palestinian struggle.

Maybe some disagree, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. policy of sanctioning HAMAS and punishing the civilian population will lead to some shift in the next election, if there ever is one. That is, I wouldn’t be surprised if that policy w
orks. It’s a disgusting policy, and it’s a much different situation, and certainly isolating Israel will not lead to a humanitarian crisis such as that which exists in Gaza (and existed in Gaza before Hamas, before Fatah, before the PLO) or that which existed under Iraq’s dictatorship during the sanctions.

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