I’m glad it’s Christmas and I’m glad yesterday was Christmas Eve my editor is not working  for this  story should be written for  Newsweek, I can’t and I’m glad.  I know it’s a digital world and whatever you write goes everywhere however, the events of the last few days need to be written. I cannot ignore the events of the last few days, but I am happy they will be appearing on my blog and not in Newsweek.  The New York Times has a story this morning and it does a reasonable job of the describing  the events of the last two days, but ultimately it’s missing a little context. Two nights ago Israel channel 10 broadcast a video of a wedding that took place two weeks ago, in which the young celebrants were dancing with guns and knives celebrating the burning of the Arab family Dawabsha.  In the attack an infant and his Mother were burned to death while others were inured

Here you can see the video

The tape had undoubtedly been leaked by the Shin Bet, who was being criticized for their aggressive interrogation of the suspects in the killing. The Shin Bet  has received court approval to use physical means to obtain the cooperation of those being held, and there were rumors that they have finally confessed. Protests took place in front of the home of the head of the Shin Bet and violent demonstrations have also taken place at the entrance to Jerusalem and other places.  A number of right wing politicians attacked the actions of the security services.  The service often uses physical means to obtain the cooperation of Palestinian prisoners and while the Israeli supreme court has outlawed such interrogations they created a loophole for the “ticking bomb theory”. That loophole has been generously interpreted by the Israeli security services and courts.  In this case, they used the theory that those being held were planning additional attacks something that is more than likely although whether it was a ticking bomb or not is certainly up for interpretation.

While the question of how to interrogate prisoners is an important one and certainly deserves its’ own attention for the moment this is not the heart of the story. For the heart of the story is the celebration itself and what it means.  It first and foremost says that A, those who burned the Dawabsha family were Jews, B that they have supporters.  The film immediately received almost wall to wall condemnation, with even Prime Minister Netanyahu criticizing what was depicted there, although he was quick to say that Palestinian incitement is worse.  Naftali Bennet the head of the right wing Bayit Hayehudi came out with the strongest condemnation claiming that people like that were the greatest threat to goals of the settlement movement. Some of the right wing spokesmen were a little more circumspect in their attacks, with Minister of Justice Shaked decrying the fact that the film was shown, with some still attacking the actions of the Shin Bet.  A group of National Religious Rabbis issued a statement calling on the Shin Bet to stop interrogating suspects and asking that their confessions be thrown out.

The real question facing the Israeli public is whether those shown on the film are a small isolated group or in fact, represent a much larger group of people.  I have no way of answering that, not living in their circle or almost ever visiting the West Bank.  I fear however, it is. How much of the hatred has come from an education that emphasizes our superiority, or how much we are the “chosen people”?  How many of the “true believer” think that they are doing gods work on earth?  How different is that then the killers of ISIS?  Furthermore,  I always opposed the occupation not because of what we did to the Palestinians, ( who as a group I always felt were one of the least deserving of statehood of any national group) but rather what it did to us, what it did to our soldiers.  You can’t be an occupier for three years and return unaffected.  You cannot live in the middle of the West Bank in “hostile “ territory where you are hated and develop a love for your neighbors.  People like to say that Jews do not do these sort of things, but Jews have also never in our recent history been occupiers.  I don’t have answers, as anyone who reads me regular knows, we cannot make peace with ourselves, but we must understand that 45 plus years of occupation leads us down a path where some of our children turn out unrecognizable.  The mutual hatred is very real.  They hate us and many of us hate them, but we are the ones in power, and we must find the ways to insure that our children do not hate , that our children do not engage in hideous actions, that somehow despite 100 years of warfare we remain true to the values that make us  deserving of being a people.

The stabbings continue. There has been more rocket fire from Lebanon. However, on Sunday evening most Israelis turned their attention to a dramatic political/social development. On December 21st Israel’s Minister of Interior/Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom resigned from the government and from the Israeli parliament. Shalom’s resignation came after 11 different women came forward and claimed he had sexually harassed them at some point within the last ten years.

Shalom joins a long lineup of powerful Israeli men who have been disgrace and lost their jobs in over the course of the past decade as a result of their sexual impropriety. Of course, topping that list is Former President Moshe Katsav, who is currently serving a prison sentence for rape. The tally of top police officials who have either been forced to resign, or who are currently under a cloud of suspicion, is long and includes a high percentage of those who were amongst Israel’s top cops only a short while ago.

Just two weeks ago Yinon Magal, a freshman member of Knesset was forced to resign after a former subordinate co-worker accused him of improper advances at Magal’s going away party. Magal’s swift acceptance of responsibility and abrupt resignation from the Knesset seem to have given Shalom’s accusers the courage to finally come forward. Charges of Shalom’s sexual impropriety first surfaced last year when Shalom was planning a Presidential run; charges which eventually derailed his candidacy. After a brief police investigation the Attorney General cleared Shalom of the allegations, however the shadow of impropriety never quite left Shalom. Then, last week, one victim after another started coming forward report their accusations to the press. By Sunday, when corroborating witnesses began coming forth, Shalom had no choice but to resign. Shortly after Shalom’s resignation the Attorney General announced that despite his departure from the Knesset and political life, the A.G. was ordering the police to begin a criminal investigation into Shalom’s behavior.

When events like the above-mentioned occur it is always a challenge to put them into perspective. Should we be ashamed that so many of our politicians and other public officials have been accused of sexual improprieties? or should we be pleased that these facts have come to light and that the people who have acted inappropriately (and in many cases criminally) are paying the price?

While many commentators this morning are rightfully lamenting the reality that women had previously felt too uncomfortable to report Shalom, in this case I choose to see the glass half full. The transformation that has occurred in Israel in the past generation regarding what is acceptable and what is not acceptable work place behavior is truly remarkable.

A generation ago, the former commander of the Air Force, and later President of Israel publicly stated: “The best men become pilots, and the best women are for the pilots.” If someone were to utter such a statement today, that person would find him or herself instantly unemployed. Needless to say, today a number of Israel’s pilots are in fact women.

When I served in the army (approximately 40 years ago), it was common for the married senior commanders to carry on an affair with their young secretary. Thankfully, a generation later, when my daughters served, neither of them were subjected to any inappropriate experiences (and the same was true for most of their friends.) Sexual relations between senior commanders and young soldiers have become strictly forbidden, and constitute a clear-cut career-ender for anyone who violates that rule.

Of course, the system is still far from perfect. One of my daughter’s friends did indeed encounter harassment during her enlisted service in the army. Initially, no action was taken. However, once the allegations were brought to the attention of the base commander, swift and appropriate action was taken. The perpetrator, who was in the regular army found himself discharged and the young woman went on to become an officer, who now serves as part of the standing army, and expects to make her career in the military.

For most of my life, Israelis have always liked to say – “We are a young country, still finding its way” – and that is certainly the case in many areas. I have no doubt that in the areas of relations between men and women, as well as regarding how we treat acts of impropriety, we still have a way to go. However, its clear that with the many challenges facing Israeli society, in this area at least the progress has been remarkable.  Hopefully, we will be able to tackle our many other challenges just as well.

Neither President Barack Obama nor the Republicans seem to understand the threat presented by radical Islam. According to an article published last week in The Atlantic by Peter Beinart, the President believes that radical Islam, as practiced by ISIS, is “a small toxic strain within Islamic civilization.” Moreover, Obama does not believe radical Islam is a true ideological competitor to democratic capitalist societies. In contrast, some Republican presidential candidates consider radical Islam the single greatest threat to western civilization – with Mario Rubio warning we are at war with people who “literally want to overthrow our society and replace it with their radical Sunni Islamic view of the future.” Unfortunately, each of these perspectives completely misses the point – albeit for very different reasons. Obama’s view completely overlooks the pull of religion, while the Republicans, whose base is comprised largely of evangelicals dare not  raise the issue of religion at all.

The true challenge facing the west is not as President Obama states – whether the ideology of radical Sunni Islam will be more compelling than the ideology of the west. Rather, the daunting clash surrounds whether extreme religion is more compelling than the ideas and tenets of western democratic thought. The fight over communism was eventually determined by economics (since communism turned out to be an inefficient engine of economic development in the second half of the 20th century). It is harder to see how a battle with fundamentalist religion can easily be won.

In 1999, Thomas Friedman wrote The Lexus and the Olive Tree. Friedman’s underlying question was whether the world – and especially the Muslim world – would pick the path of the “Lexus” (i.e. technology, education, and a better future for their children), as opposed to fighting to retain control of their olive trees. Friedman’s visionary book was the first to correctly present the dilemma we face today. Friedman book had one weakness he understated the central role of religion in determining the existential importance of the olive tree, placing too much emphasis on the role of nationalism.

Regrettably, over the course of the past 16 years the “Olive Tree” has won. From bus bombings here in Israel, to the attacks of 9/11; from the massacres carried out by Boko Haram in Africa, to the genocide going on Syria; fighting over olive trees in the name of religion has taken hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide – almost all of these terrible loses have been in the Middle East.

President Obama’s position that radical Islam is merely a passing phenomena, which if only contained will disappear, might have been justified – had the Muslim Brotherhood not successfully hijacked the Arab Spring in Egypt (even if temporarily). History might have taken a different turn had the fall of Mubarak brought a liberal democracy to power in Egypt. However, that did not happen and for a year we witnesses the rise of a religious theocracy in the center of the Arab world, until it was overthrown.

The problem of fundamentalist religious sects is not limited to the Muslim Sunni world. Here in Israel democracy has been under assault by those who believe God gave all of the land of Israel to the Jewish people, and no man has the right to return any of that gift. Fundamentalist interpretations of Judaism led to the assassination of a Prime Minister, as well as a concerted and successful program to undermine any chance of reaching peace. The impact of Jewish zealots could also result in changing some of the fundamental values of a nation founded to be a secular democracy, with Jewish culture informing its national character.

That all being said, one should not stop after only examining Islam or Judaism. Why are the Republican presidential candidates as misguided as President Obama? The answer is the same reason that 90 years after the Scopes trial (a trial during which John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution in a Tennessee school) almost none of the Republican candidates are willing to say they believe in Evolution – for fear of offending their fundamentalist base; a base that believes the literal word of the Bible must be believed and cannot be reinterpreted based on modern knowledge.

The liberal democratic world is engaged in a fight, and its a fight that is as all encompassing as the fights against Communism and Fascism. It is a fight over our very values, proclaiming we are all equal, regardless of whether we are men, woman, gay, straight, black white, or anyone else. This is a fight over the very concept that a woman’s life is her own, as is her body. This is a fight over who possesses the ultimate authority in a nation – elected officials or religious leaders.

Nearly 220 years ago the brightest minds in America met and wrote the U.S. constitution. America’s founders understood how dangerous it would be for religion and government to mix.  They understood that it was the responsibility of the democratically elected government to ensure the rights of the people. As such, they composed a constitution, creating a mechanism that could be amended to protect the rights of all people. Today, the real confrontation is the conflict between those who believe that both men and women have “inalienable rights”, among which are “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” and those who believe that religious leaders who follow the dictates of texts from previous millennia should decide what rights individuals retain. Today, the nexus of the fight is with ISIS, the most extreme of the Muslim groups. Ten years ago the battle was with Al Qaeda. Before that the challenge was with the theocrats in Teheran. It should be clear that our struggle today is also with those who blow up abortion clinics, and those who try to stop the teaching of evolution in the schools, and with those who deny women education and freedom of choice in their lives.

I say to President Obama: ISIS may or may not be contained in the coming months. However, the fight against the very ideas that have spawned ISIS cannot be so easily contained. This contest is not (as too many Republicans claim) against radical Islam. Our fight is against anything radical, (or more correctly fundamental religion), regardless of which religion it is a part. We are capable of achieving tactical victories over ISIS or any other one group. Yet, in order to achieve a strategic victory over the forces of darkness, who push to return us the middle ages, we must recognize our true enemy – and that is religious fundamentalism, regardless of its stripes.

Today my regular column in Newsweek is about President Rivlin and how a right wing politician became the favorite of the people of Tel Aviv.  One of the things that I left out was how unassuming he is.  He flies on regularly scheduled flights, economy and on this visist he arrived in New York and took Amtrack to Washington.  Could anyone imagine Bibi traveling in any other way than in his leased plane? Rivlin represents what we would like to be and is the antithesis of Bibi- that is part of the reason we love him.

I  have not written until now my reactions to events in America, the actually bombing and the American reaction.  The bombing engendered in me a profound sense of sadness.  I understand the attacks on us here in Israel.  We can deal, and although I believe the underlying reason we have not been able to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians has a great deal to do with Islam, its still at its core a fight over land a fight that one can understand.  I also understand the total frustrations of a young Palestinian who has grown up knowing only our occupation, and the only Israelis he has gotten to know are the members of our army or other security services.  It is not unreasonable to that they would lash out and try to do something, anything.  I also do not consider attacking Israeli soldiers as acts of terror.  Attacking civilians clearly is and we should learn to differentiate.  But I am deviating from my main point, something that I will not do in an article but feel free to do on my blog- I find it so hard to understand how someone who grew up in America could turn his guns of innocent people and slaughter them in the name of Islam.  I might understand it if they were attacking government building or other symbols of authority- don’t get me wrong I would not condone it in any way, but at least, I might understand it.  But a group of regular people at a holiday party?  Some of the other mass shootings, however inexcusable and horrendous at least seem to have some logic- a kid or kids who feel picked on at school lashing out at his classmates or even the attack on the Planned Parenthood Clinic- spurred on by lies told by politician a slightly deranged person attacks.  But here a husband and wife team give up their child and kill the innocent?

How does the world fight this? I truly do not know.  We are fighting  religious people.  Yes we are not fighting all of Islam, but there is clearly a strong strain in Islam that has condoned violence- and has condoned violence against the innocents.  How do you fight this. The numbers speak for themselves, even if only 5% of the Muslim condone these acts you are talking about 50,000,000 people.  There is a very real problem when religions think they should move from the spiritual to corpereal world.  We can see that with our own right wing religous groups.  It is something that needs to be addressed and discussed openly, but the problem with the more extreme Islamist is very real and very difficult to address.  If we look at almost all the violence in the world in the last 20 year with a few exception ( Ukraine being one) they have all and are all taking place where Islam meets the west.  Why is that? How do we fight it? It’s not enough to say that the Islamic world will have to work that out on their own, for while Islamist are killing fellow Muslims in larger numbers then they are killing others, as we have seen in Paris and now in San Bernidino, others are dying as well. I do not have the answers or even a thread of an answer.  I am tired to hearing we must first identify the cause, or if only Obama would say what the problem is.  Well we have all known what it is, and I certainly have said what it is, but now what?  I truly do not know and that is scary!

Yesterday was our fifth Thanksgiving in a row in  Israel.  Thanksgiving is the one American holiday that it seems American expats in Israel celebrate. There are two reasons for this. First for those of us who grew up in the observant world it was the one holiday that everyone could come and celebrate.  As opposed to Jewish holidays where driving might get in the way, Thanksgiving was the only holiday where relatives near and far could travel and get together.  It was also the only holiday that only the most extreme in the Orthodox world could come up with reasons not to celebrate.  Of course, there is also a simple reason, most of us have good memories of getting together with extended family on this holiday.

Living in Israel changes that and very few of us have extending family in Israel instead it is friends that generally have to be the stand-ins.  Our Thanksgiving celebration centered this year as it has the last few, on the friends of my daughter, most of them who she had met while in the army.  The house was properly filled with he friends,  Amy and I invited two friends to join us, in addition to the friend who was visiting  and Eytan had a friend as well, 24 people joined together in a uniquely American tradition in the heart of Tel Aviv.  We ate turkey which had to be specially ordered, feasted on a large number of side dishes, and drank the wine that my daughter’s friends brought.  Of course, no Thanksgiving could be complete without having Pumpkin Pie. In addition, my daughter made a unique Kalua desert that my Mother used to make on special occasions.  It was lovely and for a few hours we were seemingly all transported to another place and time.  Of course that was only partially true since we were indeed in Tel Aviv and the friends that Amy and I had invited are highly political and while we feasted like we were in New York, our discussion were far more serious  than the average Thanksgiving dinner in America.

It’s been a very difficult day,  we have gone from worry about the state of the world to once again worrying about our problems here. For a few days we could be spectators, seeing the events in Paris as events that we should be concerned with as Westerners but still it was happening there and not here.  I found the events scary, only in the sense that it showed how strong the hatred could be- and in Paris it was general not aimed at anything specific in the way many Palestinians hate us.  I had written my weekly column for Newsweek on an Israeli perspective to the attacks in Paris, and how at least from my perspective they are worse them the Palestinian attacks on us.  I must say I am tired of all the whining about double standards, yes killing us is terrible, but we should not be surprised A) that the world gets more upset when the number 1 tourist destination gets attacked and so many get gunned down.  France gets 83 million tourist a year we barely get 3 million, why are we surprised that people identify with Paris.  Not to mention the attack on Paris could easily happen in any other place our attacks are centered here, with people rightly or wrongly think they have been wronged.

Today terror returned to Israel- 5 deaths, two right here in Tel Aviv, the ambulances carrying the wounded passed close to my window.  Its not a distant matter.  Its also terribly depressing since I see no solution.  No solution for us and no solution for the world from greater terrorism.  A survey was published that 11% of the citizens of Turkey have positive feelings towards ISIS.  One could say- you see it’s only 11 percent, but 11 percent is over 8 million people.  How does the world end this?  It is has been fighting it now for 20 years in one way or another, and the sum total has been we are worse off today then we were 20 years ago.  Then there is our problem.  Anywhere else in the world our dispute could have been settled with a partition, but the Palestinians could not expect us here on even part of the land. Now we have a people who really really hates us.  There is nothing we can really do about that.  Yes maybe we could have done something different over the years but here we are, the hate us, and the mother of one of the terrorist said tonight that she is proud of her son who had done Palestine proud- how do we reach peace with people who believe that.  So we cannot reach peace, we cannot pull out and we cannot live with them? What do we do?  I truly do not know?

Despite all this life in Tel Aviv goes on.  The streets tonight are packed like any Thursday night.  Tonight near my house there was a demonstration at MacDonalds to allow the workers to organize.

It’s been almost two days since the terrible event of Friday night.  As opposed to so many who posted so quickly whether on Twitter, Facebook in  articles I have not felt competent to sort out my feelings, and try to write something that makes sense until now.  I am still not ready to write an article for Newsweek, although I will play with some ideas and themes that I might expand into an article for Newsweek tomorrow  or the next day.  On the personal level it was a very strange night, we  had over for Shabbat dinner close friends, one of whom was German and over the course of dinner we had a heated discussion on politics, including the seemingly unstated IDF policy of killing all knife-wielding terrorist,  I can still hear one of our other friends saying to our German friend, that if there was terror in European streets she might feel different.

About 2 hours after our guest left word of an attack on Paris suddenly spread and I spent the next few hours  glued to Israeli TV as events unfolded.

Last night I briefly attended a rally in Rabin Square held in solidarity with the people of Paris.  As I was walking to the rally, it dawned on me that the last rally that I attended that had to do with France- was one I helped organize in the early 70’s against French President Pompidou and his policies towards Israel.  A strange feeling

I must admit I still have not gotten my head around the barbarity.  I have in the past compared ISIS to the Nazis and I think that comparison is even more valid.  There is something very inhuman of gunning down, one by one innocent people just because they are different.  While a bomb can kill as many, and certainly blowing up a plane or crashing it into a building can kill more, there is something very chilling about people who can just kill innocents men and women without the smallest sign of compassion.

A few random or not so random thoughts.  I really cannot stand all the posts by fellow Israelis who keep on posting something to the effect that they are certainly sympathetic to the French, but why is the whole world condemning this and not condemning Palestinian terrorism.  While I certainly do not condone Palestinian attacks especially those against civilians, there is certainly a big difference.  Most of their recent attacks have been against soldiers, which I hardly would classify as terrorism.  But even their terror attacks have thankfully been on a whole different level, not the mass planned killing that took place in Paris.  I know it’s not for trying, but they cannot pull it off thankfully. Finally, as much as we find their terror attack abhorrent, and as much as I think there is no diplomatic solution possible now, we cannot ignore the fact that we are occupying them.  Who exactly is occupying Paris?

That is not to say that there is not a link, and that link I am afraid is Islam.  Events in the last few days have a very clear link.  The only reason we have been at war for the last 65 year is that the Arabs of Palestine in 1947 refused to accept the UNSCOP recommendations and agree to the partition of Palestine.  If they had our history would have been very different.  The Arabs refused to compromise- they believed that the whole land was theirs and so they saw no need to agree to partition.  This problem has been endemic in conflicts in the Middle East and partially explains the many wars on one hand and the many terrorist attacks, on the other hand, involving Muslims.  It’s not that Islam is in itself bad, however when Islam and politics meet, as they do in much of the Middle East one is suddenly dealing with absolutes in relations between nations and peoples. One is suddenly dealing with the word of god and once that happens no man may compromise for god. Of course, we have similar zealots and they are equally dangerous to us, but at least until now they have not controlled our government.

One final thought Friday’s night attack is going to have a profound impact on the concept of Europe without borders.  Gone for the moment at least is the open borders that transformed Europe, the French are not going to rely on the Greeks and the British will not rely on the Italians to make sure that everyone entering Europe is properly vetted.  Furthermore despite all the noble talk about not allowing the events to impact that policy towards refugees, there is no doubt it will.  Already Poland which did not want to take any refugees has used this as an excuse to say it will not take any, and many other countries that agreed are now going to be under severe political pressure to refrain from taking any more refugees.

It was just this morning that I was standing around a group of friends talking about the situation, and our sense was that maybe the worse was behind us.  All the attacks in the last few days had taken place in the West Bank, it seemed far away.  The economy seemed at least for the moment unaffected.  This afternoon all that changed, two stabbing, two different cities, both effectively suburbs of Tel Aviv.  Once again the terror is no longer far away ( 50 miles) but in the middle of our cities, and once again everyone will be on edge, no matter where we are. The two most severely wounded an 80 year old woman and a 70 year old man- I guess they were easy prey for 20 year old men.

Most of us were depressed enough this morning, all having the sort of morning after discussion after Saturday nights rally, and almost everyone I spoke to all member of the same Tel Aviv bubble were disgusted and discouraged.  Everyone agrees that the rally was a disaster, a meaningless get together, where Clinton so outshined every Israeli, it was embarrasing.  Even more so, since of all the speakers other then his family he was the only one to know Rabin.  Then there is the realization that we are all stuck with our current Prime Minister, who is a brilliant politician but a terrible leader, and yet there is no one to challenge him.  To round off the events of the day- Mosiac Magazine published an artice titled What do Palestinian Want, by Daniel Polisar.  The article lays out in detail, both how much they hate us, and how much they living in reality of their own making.  A totally depressing article, in a depressing day.

I just got back from Rabin Square, from what I have to call a disappointing and sad night.  This is the fourth year in a row that I attended a memorial to Rabin.  There is no question that this was the biggest crowds, no doubt a result of the fact that President Clinton was the main speaker.  I had spent a great deal of time this week thinking about  my retrospective article on Rabin for Newsweek.  They decided to call it The Hope that Died with Rabin a title that I think was very accurate.  I am sorry to say that no one tonight managed to say what I think I wrote.  Clinton came closest of the speakers, and not by coincidence he was closer to Rabin then any of the other speakers, other than of course his family members who spoke briefly.  President Obama also spoke via a prerecorded video and he too was excellent.

I am not sure what it means when the most forceful and best speakers memorializing an Israeli Prime Minister are Americans, but it can’t be good for us.  Part of the problem as tried to convey in my Newsweek article is the attempt to make the killing of Rabin into a lesson on tolerance.  But it is not.  It was the successful action of the right to stop the peace process.  It’s not clear if it was going to succeed, but having Netanyahu our Prime Minister a great deal of the time since the assassination  cannot have been good for the chances of peace.  Having the event sponsored by the Youth movement that required unanimity is certainly problematic. The fact that Bnei Akiva and Beitar could block Shimon Peres from speaking at the memorial is very problematic to say the least.  No one was able to say what is most clear- Rabin believed we needed hope and believed in hope- Netanyahu believes only in fear.

A final point that I have told before- but I can’t help but repeat.  I had the honor of sharing the stage with  Rabin, one evening at of all places the amphitheater on Mt Scopus the same place he spoke after the Six Day War.  A much more personal accounter took place with Leah Rabin, I was in the army a lone soldier and one Friday afternoon the phone rings, and on the line was Leah Rabin the Prime Minister wife.  She had met my Mother at Bond Breakfast in the US and just called to give me my Mom’s regards, and ask how I was doing.

The day is coming to an end, we just uploaded our first Apple TV app which is also our first game.  It’s a Presidential election trivia game, and to get it out with all the new requirements of the Apple TV we had a family hackathon for the last few days.  As a result, I have tried living in my own little world of American election history and tried to ignore the events taking place in Israel- if just a little.

Of course that really is not possible, with my phone going off every few minutes with a different notification from Asset Source, or Channel 2 news, the events around are really hard to ignore.  The complete idiocy of our governmental system is hard to ignore on a day like today.  After Prime Minister Netanyahu spent the last week trying to prove to the world that Israel has no intention of changing the status quo on the Temple Mount- Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hoteveli- a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party, gave an interview in which she says that she is hoping for the day that the Israeli flag flys from the Temple Mount.  In any other country in the work she would have been fired on the spot, but not here.

Today is the 20th anniversary to the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.  The official governmental ceremonies took place today, and once again it was difficult to hear Bibi who was the chief inciter against Rabin speak about him.  There has been some really strange revisionism going on the last year from the right wing, making the claim that the death of Rabin hurt the right, since if he had not been killed he would have stopped the Oslo process.  I am working on a longer the usual article for Newsweek that will go with my  coverage of the main commemoration in Saturday night, where President Bill Clinton will be speaking.  I hope to examine the issue in depth, and look at how a political assassination has been depoliticized. Meanwhile it’s been raining, they say that is a good thing, it does make it harder to walk our dog who hates water!