What happens to a social justice movement when armed warfare gets in the way? Why the still unconfirmed identity of those responsible for Thursday’s attack is problematic and what is fizzling on Rothschild Boulevard? Rechavia “Rick” Berman gives you the week’s top stories as they ought to be told. A new weekly feature on +972
By Rechavia “Rick” Berman
Silent protest by J14 (Tent Protest) movement, Tel Aviv (photo: Oren Ziv/Activestills)
Shhhhh…step right this way, the Weekend Wrap tour will be leaving as planned, just be very quiet. If you’re very quiet you can hear the other shoe drop. In any case, be quiet, cause people “shootin’ guns and shit,” as the great Eddie Murphy once put it. And in these parts, when people be shootin’ guns other people gots to be shuttin’ the fuck up about whatever else they’s talkin’ ’bout at the time. It’s a local thang.
Bibi Netanyahu got the security-related distraction he wanted in spades, when parties as yet unknown committed a series of coordinated attacks in the city of Eilat in Southern Israel. Eight people died, two of them soldiers and the rest civilians, in a combination of rocket, gunfire and bomb attacks.
Even as all the commentators agreed that this carries the signs of jihadi and salafist groups well to the batshit side of Hamas, based in the Sinai and not in Gaza, Israel determined that timeliness is far more important than actual connection and designated the Hamas-created popular resistance committees in Gaza responsible for the attack, taking out that organization’s top echelon pretty much completely. And the fact that these attacks were almost certainly carried out by organizations at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip? Organizations whose only hope of any real achievement is by heeding Sun Tzu, who said that the best is to foil the enemy’s plans, the next best is to foil his alliances, and only after that comes defeating his forces in the field? Never mind all that! Must look resolute and appear to be pro-active!
So they provoke Israel into attacking Hamas through Egypt, and now Israel’s fragile cease fire with Hamas is over, and its fragile peace process with Egypt is shaken after Israeli retaliation hit and killed Egyptian forces, who were caught in the crossfire (as meticulously planned by the attackers).
So lets recap: groups even more radical and violent than Hamas, who are vying with Hamas for control of the Gaza Strip and with Egypt for control of northern Sinai, managed to get Israel, the Hamas and Egypt shooting and shouting at one another.
Also, it didn’t take long for the limitations of the Iron Dome to be exposed, as within the first three days of shelling two improved flying pipe bombs got through the defensive rocket system and caused casualties.
Also, the General Security Service (Shabak) wasted no time in making it very clear, very loudly that they had given the army very detailed and specific information of the impending attack. But remembering Clinton trying to take out Bin Laden back in ’98 and getting blamed unfairly for wagging the dog? I should shut up about the obvious thoughts pursuant to the above intelligence.
But hey, at least Bibi got the attention nicely and fully off the social justice protests. One has to wonder if that’s not a blessing in disguise for a protest that was still dealing admirably with the obstacle course the establishment was throwing up, but was at the same time beginning to show some significant fissures.
Of course the greatest fissure of all was starkly shown once the boom boom began. The lie was flatly put to the story that the majority of the tent protesters were some sort of radical left, when the decision made in the face of the terror attacks was classic mainstream Israel: Quiet – they’re shooting. Nevertheless the protesters made no sign of yielding the stage completely or for long, and held a 5,000-strong “silent march” in solidarity with the victims, after which the “radical left” (activists for Arab-Jewish communist party Hadash) wouldn’t shut up about the shootings going on and got yelled at for “ruining it for everyone else.” Meanwhile there were similar small demonstrations around the country.
Before Netanyahu got his rally the troops moment the leaders of the protest (who are dealing increasingly with “um, who elected y’all to speak for me” sentiments) responded to Bibi’s creation of the “Trachtenberg Committee” by forming one of their own – twice as large as the government committee they complained was too large…
The Trachtenberg Committee is headed by an economist named Manuel Trachtenberg, who is known for pro-social views. That said, and regardless of the unclear extent of Trachtenberg’s ultimate influence, the Director of the PM’s Office Eyal Gabbay was bluntly honest with the protester delegation, informing them that “this government will not be the one to transition to a welfare state” and that the road to get the demands posed by the protests met is through the ballot box.
Schweppes drew a lot of ire for placing a sample-tasting booth in the middle of the tent encampment on Rothschild Boulevard. Other commercial exploitations were popping up as well.
So the most critical week for the #J14 protest, now significantly torn on the war issue (stop me if you’ve heard this before…) has passed, but for the moment it is still there, which is more than anyone would have believed 5 weeks ago. How’s that song go? “…gave proof through the night that our flag was still there…”
And on that starry-spangly note, that’ll do it for the current installment of this fine and educational feature. The Weekly Holyland Wrap is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your senses and check your comments where appropriate. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.
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Rick’s book, “Jewcy Story”, a popular history of the 2nd Temple Era, can be bought for Amazon Kindle, for cell phone or for PC here.
August 21, 2011
11:29 am
“when parties as yet unknown committed a series of coordinated attacks in the city of Eilat in Southern Israel.”
Smells like USA’s 9/11 from across the sea.
You’ve got a military that ignores warnings and fails to prevent an attack, attackers who look like Egyptians and come from Egypt but are treated by Israel itself as a BLACK FLAG operation, and immediate and disproportionate military response attacking Gaza (when Gazans had not been shown to be involved — a whipping-boy thang, perhaps another Israeli specialty). Just like 9/11 and Iraq.
August 21, 2011
12:17 pm
Let us not forget Israel’s long and ugly history of false flag operations when we ruminate over the various possibilities of who could have been behind the attacks.
August 21, 2011
1:05 pm
Organizations whose only hope of any real achievement is by heeding Sun Tzu, who said that the best is to foil the enemy’s plans, the next best is to foil his alliances, only after that comes defeating his forces in the field.
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“We have seen the enemy, and he is us.”
Guess the IOF never heard of Sun Tzu, let alone read it, and much less the political gang that rules Israel, all together running like headless chickens, shooting anything that moved, and showing off on brainless macho media displays.
What a shame.
There was a time I compared Israel’s army to that of Vietnam, since both countries share similar geographic patterns (the policies of all powers are inherent in their geography, said Napoleon), lacking strategic depth against their coastlines, and both armies have defeated bigger enemies in numbers and weapons, but that analogy is no more.
The IOF has been corrupted to the core when turned into an “army” of occupation, and lost all strategic perspective on myopic tactical/occupational day to day repression duties.
Now the IOF’s “military intelligence” has turned into the proverbial contradiction in terms. Just look at the the political/international mess they create every time they spring into action. Israel’s perception abroad has grown to be that of a rogue state, with no levelheaded political or military minds at the helm.
Taoist
August 21, 2011
10:34 pm
This headline soothed me a bit – I’m not the only nutty conspiracy theorist around. This war is too convenient for everybody: 1)putting out all this J14 stuff, 2)weakening Pal’s position in UN in September, 3) calling off Barak’s worst nightmare – military budget cuts, 4)strengthening Barak’s standing against Shelly Yechimovich (there’s still an open position of the “Left” leader). And why did IDF virtually ignore Shabak’s warnings – sheer stupidity? But still, both Barak and Gantz were in the area couple of hours in advance.
When you put this all together, it just smells bad.
Now call me a nutcase conspiracy theorist if you like
August 22, 2011
12:53 am
Supreme excellence lies in doing not a lot at all whilst allowing the adversary to foil their own plans.
Great story as ever, well told and written, Rechavia; I laughed like a drain
August 23, 2011
4:54 am
Well, it looks as if a few Qasam, ehem, “rockets,” the quiet response from the powers-that-be, i.e. EU, et al(with the shameful exception of the US since Obama is now in full campaign gear), the lack of internal support to the same old, same old “wag the dog” tale, and the mess the IOF creates with his “strategy” of hysteria, worked wonders to put some sense into Netanyahu’s gang of retards.
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http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-tells-cabinet-israel-lacks-legitimacy-for-major-gaza-operation-1.380121
Netanyahu tells cabinet: Israel lacks legitimacy for major Gaza operation
At four-hour cabinet meeting, Netanyahu and Barak offer arguments for restraint: international isolation, limitations of Iron Dome, diplomatic crisis with Egypt.
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Taoist
August 23, 2011
11:07 am
I guess I am missing something. The problem now is not that 8 people died and tens of rockets fell on innocent civilians with not provocation. The only question that bothers the sophisticated writers on this blog is what organization the terrorists belong to. According to them Israel should have conducted a year long police investigation of the source of the terrorists – apparently with the full cooperation of the Hamas, the PCRC and the Egyptian authorities. At the conclusion of this investigation, Israel should have submitted the results to the UN to see them stopped by the opposition of the ‘free state’ of Lebanon still shaking in its boots from Hezbollah’s threats.
August 25, 2011
1:08 am
Hello Radu, straw-man much? Do you support retaliation against those who did not in fact cause the provocation? Your message proves what I said – some people think that striking back is the most important thing, even if you’re striking against the wrong people and lying to your own citizens in the process.