Messianic Family Album

The philosopher who gave the IDF moral justification in Gaza

Interview of Prof. Asa Kasher of Tel Aviv University, an Israel Prize laureate in philosophy (Haaretz magazine)

When asked whether the IDF should be guided in its operations in Gaza by the concept that there should be zero tolerance for endangering the lives of soldiers, Kasher responds,

"The soldiers' lives are endangered by virtue of their very presence in Gaza, by virtue of the fact that we send them to an area where there are enemy snipers and explosives set to go off in areas where the IDF is present. Sending a soldier there to fight terrorists is justified, but why should I force him to endanger himself much more than that so that the terrorist's neighbor isn't killed? I don't have an answer for that. From the standpoint of the state of Israel, the neighbor is much less important. I owe the soldier more. If it's between the soldier and the terrorist's neighbor, the priority is the soldier. Any country would do the same."

The end

THE END

Cast

In no special order

(*killed)

President of the State of Israel Shimon Peres

Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Olmert

Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak

Palestine leader Ahmud Abbas

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal

Israel Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Hamas Interior Minister Said Siam*

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama

U.S. President George W. Bush

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown

President of Syria Bashar al-Assad

Man in charge of Israel's security, Amos Gilad

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev

Head of Gaza medical emergency services Moawiya Hassanein

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg

Israeli Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog

President of France Nicolas Sarkozy

Hamas' deputy chief in Syria Moussa Abou Marzouk

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum

Palestinian pollster Imad Freij

Hamas interior ministry's security director Saleh Abu Sharkh

local leader of the Hamas militia Mahmoud Abu Watfah.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum

senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor

Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwant

Head of Israel's internal security agency Yuval Diskin

Gaza police chief Tawfiq Jabber*

Hamas commander Nizar Rayan*

Hamas commander Abu Zakaria al-Jamal*

Hamas commander Jamal Mamduch*

Hamas commander Hussam Hamdan*

Hamas commander Muhammad Hilou*

Hamas commander Mohammed Shalpokh*

UN spokesman Chris Gunness

Israeli military correspondent Ron Ben-Yishai

Israeli internal security chief Yuval Diskin

Israeli-trained doctor of Gaza Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish

Palestinian top religious cleric Nizar Rayyan*

Hamas head of the General Security Service Salah Abu Shrakh*

Professional Palestinian soccer player Wajih Mushtahi*

UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes

IDF Spokesperson Major Avital Liebowitz

Senior Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel Saeb Erekat

Jordanian King Abdullah II

Chief of General Staff Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi

Deputy Chief of the General Staff Major General Dan Harel

Commander of the IDF Army Headquarters Major General Avi Mizrahi

Director of Military Intelligence Major General Amos Yedlin

Head of Personnel Directorate Major General Avi Zamir

Head of Operations DirectorateMajor General Tal Russo

Head of Plans and Policy Directorate Major General Amir Eshel

Commander of the Israel Air Force Major General Ido Nechushtan

Commander of the Israel Navy Admiral Eliezer Marom

GOC Northern CommandMajor General Gadi Eizenkot

GOC Central CommandMajor General Gadi Shamni

GOC Southern CommandMajor General Yoav Galant

GOC Homefront CommandMajor General Yair Golan

Head of Technological and Logistics Directorate Major General Dan Biton

Commander of the Military Colleges and Senior Field Commander Major General Gershon Hacohen

Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major General (res) Amos Gilad

President of the Military Court of Appeals Major General Shai Yaniv

Head of C4I and Senior Field Commander Major General Ami Shafran

IDF Spokesperson Brigadier General Avi Benayahu

Director of Development of Weapons Systems Infrastructure Brigadier General Shmuel Keren

Defense Establishment Comptroller Brigadier General Yossi Beinhorn

Military Advocate General Brigadier General Avichai Mendelblit

Financial Advisor to the Chief of Staff Brigadier General Maharan Prosenfer

Commander of the General Staff Corps and Commander of Training and Courses for the IDF Senior Ranking Major General Yishai Be'er

Levels of power and a lunchbox for refugee

Village of Silwan. In the close neighborhood of Jerusalem, the arabs have houses down in the valleys, and jews are up in the hills. Proper composition for dialectics of power.















This lunch box is a leftover from a shop in Tel Aviv, it was meant to be as "humanitarian aid" to the refugees from Sudan that are living in Tel Aviv Israel.
But I ended up taking one with me to the beach because a young Sudanese man, who was carrying them to the refugee flat, was telling me that nobody want eat this stuff anyway. "When one is having almost nothing, one can survive rather with nothing also."

No truce?

It is the 14th day of the latest conflict in Gaza, Palestine, and im sick of watching BBC news. Catastrophe in Gaza by Israel is analogical to the siege of Sarajevo by the Serbs in terms of the international reaction. In Slavoj Zizek's book Parallax View is an striking quote proposed by Rony Brauman who, on behalf of the Red Cross, coordinated the help to Sarajevo:
the very presentation of the crisis of Sarajevo as "humanitarian", the very recasting of the political -military conflict into humanitarian terms, was sustained by an eminently political choice: that of, basically, taking the Serb side in the conflict.
The occupation of the Palestine by the Middle East's Sparta is let to do what they are doing by too many international powers. And I have wittnessed here in Israel reasonable Isreaelis in favor for the brutalities done by their government, of course they are saying it is not enjoyable but it is necessary.
But here in Jerusalem, there is almost no physical signs of the war. One of the most important battlegrounds of this war is struggled of course in media but also in virtual reality also: The Israel Defense Forces has opened a Youtube channel broadcasting footage taken over the last five days in its air offensive on the Gaza Strip: http://www.youtube.com/idfnadesk. Interesting propaganda!

Shark: 40 shekels / kg

Conflict CD

I visited al-Khalil aka Hebron, the second holy city for both Judaism and Islam. In the very center of the city is a zionistic settlement of about 400 Israeli living there, protected by few thousands soldiers. Arabs are forbidden to keep their shops open in the old city.
I was exticed to meet young arab activists who wanted to help me take pictures of the israeli soldiers. It was nice. They also gave me a CD about the conflict for 10 shekels (2 dollars). When I got home I put the CD right in the laptop only to find it to be blank.
Maybe th most evil gifts I have got.