Another week is coming to an end in Israel, the third-week  violence.  Yesterday that violence reached a Bet Shemesh, a city where one of my closest friends lives in.  As she said to me on the phone last night- Nothing bad ever happens in Bet Shemesh, and I guess that was the point of the terrorist, similar to their attack in Raanana- we should not feel comfortable anywhere.  It is certainly having an impact.  If one is rational about it, it’s clearly no more dangerous in Israel then any of the big US cities before crime was brought down.  Certainly as someone who spent many a year in Morningside Heights ( Upper West Side of Manhattan) I should not feel unsafe, and in reality I do not, but after getting use to the feeling of absolute safety that I have always felt in Tel Aviv, I am glad these days that most of where I go I take “Mac” our dog with us.

Yesterday evening I was in Dizengoff Center.  Usually on Thursday night which is the night of the food fair, the place is teeming with people.  Last night it was mostly empty.  That seems to be the case throughout the country.  Stores have been empty and I am sure we are going to see all too soon more signs “Store for Rent”.   There have been other small changes, suddenly security guards that were there only for the show, are carrying weapons and soldiers on leave are not only carrying their weapons, but they are carrying them with magazines inserted- something that in itself can be dangerous.

I was initially planning to write to turn these events and observation into a piece for Newsweek, but as opposed to these posts which I just read through for overt grammar and spelling errors, I actually spend time and effort in editing my Newsweek pieces, something I do not have time for at the moment.  We just finished a large client project, have anther one on the cusp of being finished. We  two, are also in the midst of trying to finish two important products of our own, one of which it for the Apple TV and must be finished by Sunday night if we want to have a product at launch- so this is it.  Next Saturday night is the major commemoration to mark 20 years since the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin.  I am going to have to find the time to  write a major article on impact, 20 years later for Newsweek.

The news in Israel today has been dominated by the story of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s ridiculous statement about the Mufti being the one to convince Hitler to engage in the Final Solution.  This news almost overshadowed the largely routine news of soldiers being stabbed run over and stoned in the West Bank.  To most Israelis, especially those living in Tel Aviv the West Bank is a world away, however, the soldiers being attacked are our sons and daughters so it’s not easy to ignore.

It is a strange microcosm of our conflict that both sides need to lie and exagerate the evils of the other side.  Just when you think it cannot get any lower, Abbas has to claim we have killed a kid who is alive and Netanyahu has to out do him by claiming that the Grand Mufti was responsible for the holocaust.  When my twitter feed first started referencing the speech yesterday I thought he must have been misquoted and planned to contact the PM office to get the actual transcript- but alas he was not misquoted and reading it in context is just as bad as just hearing about it.

I really fear the level of hatred on both sides- ours and theirs.  It has clearly reached new heights, fed by leaders on both sides.  We have over the years done enough bad things to each other that its escapes me why our leaders have to make up falsehoods.  The reality is grim enough.  What is strange is that in both the case of Abbas and that of Netanyahu the facts they stated were not exaggerations but pure falsehoods that could easily be checked.  I must say I am mystified.

The violence continues, many observers think it will go on for months or more.  There does not seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel.  As  I wrote this there was another attack in Jerusalem, another attempt to run over Jews, it failed the attacker was killed.

Yesterday a  very reasonable suggestion was made on my Twitter feed; have ambulances have two sirens, one for regular events and one for attacks.  People are just too nervous.  Yesterday morning all of Tel Aviv was tied up in one traffic jam as police pursued a suspicious vehicle and closed off roads. We actually got through a day with no successful attacks, could things be quieting down  maybe- we can always hope.  It should be noted that a number of attacks were thwarted yesterday when a number of Arabs were caught with knives and arrested.  Meanwhile my son’s school cancelled their annual three-day trip for the students scheduled for next week, originally they said they would wait until Monday to decide, but they concluded it was not going to end soon.

Yesterday, most of the media attention was directed at the Palestinian kid who Palestinian President Abbas claimed we had killed and is doing fine in Hadassah Hospital after the 13 year old tried knifing Israelis.  Of course in a sign of the time Human Rights organizations were quick to condemn Israel for violating the privacy of the kid.  Israelis often say that we are lucky in our enemies, that they always seem so divided and often incompetent.  There is of course, some truth to that, and clearly Abbas calling the 13-year-old who he had to know was alive a martyr was one of those stupid moves.  But in some ways it also works against us, at times the Palestinians almost seem to incompetent to make peace.  When Saeb Erekat who has been the chief Palestinian negotiator for more sthen  a decade calls on the world to stop us from massacring Palestinian children he makes it all that less likely that a majority of Israelis will ever believe peace is possible.  Furthermore the Palestinian ability to believe their own lies only deepens the hatred.

Many Israelis have been obsessing about either the wrong-headed coverage of events or at least until that last few days the very limited coverage. Neither surprises me.  However terrible this is for us, less people have been killed or wounded here in the last week than on a weekend in Chicago.  Furthermore, we should be used to the fact by know that part of the press are not fair.  Its been that way for most of my lifetime.  I, of course, have nothing to complain about in the year and half, I have been writing for Newsweek, they have printed every article, but one that I filed and the only editing they have done has been for punctuation and grammar.

I frankly have no idea what the next few days or weeks will look like. While there have been less stabbings, only one today, there has been other violence including the burning of Joseph’s tomb in Shechem(Nabulus) a place a had to guard almost 40 years ago during my basic trainingThis wave might just pass, on the other hand, it could also just as easily last weeks or months.

I have not written for Newsweek since earlier in the week, and although I made a judgement that there really was nothing new in the last few days, which is probably true on the level of what the readers of Newsweek are interested in, but on a more personal level these have been unsettling days that I need to share.

The wave of  knife attacks continue unabated.  On Thursday I traveled to Jerusalem for a conference on how to integrate more Arab Israelis in the labor force, a conference that was taking place at the residence of the President.  As the bus began its rise to Jerusalem the first reports started coming over my twitter feed on a terror attack in Tel Aviv, it soon became clear that the attack took place near the Azereilli Mall and army headquarters a location a ten minute walk from our house and a place we go on a regular basis.  In this case like all the others, the terrorist was killed and his victims were only lightly wounded since he attacked them with a screw driver and not knife.  Once in Jerusalem, I headed to the Presidents house, I had hope to walk but was too late for that.  My taxi driver was a stereotype of a Likud supporter and I of course engaged in a political discussion.  He had no  real answer what we should do, just that we have to be tough. Interestingly his historic knowledge did not go back beyond the Six Day War.  In our discussion the one argument that I think might have had an impact on him as the old saying “better be smart then right”, and that was on the whole issue of the Temple Mount.  The meeting at the Presidents House had a certain surrealness about it.  At the simple reception before hand were the economic leaders of the Arab-Israeli sector as well as leaders of Israeli industry. As I spoke to many of them I carefully avoided current events, and instead tried to learn about the companies and ventures that they were engaged in, all interesting, but I had the general sense from them that although there had been a rapid increase in the number of start-ups and other new ventures in the Arab-Israeli sector, it had not reached the sort of numbers that were transformative. President Rivlin who was clearly warmly received by the audience of about 150 addressed the elephant in the room at the beginning of his remarks, by saying that these are difficult times but that we in the room need to be even more determined in our efforts to make significant progress in integrating Arab Israelis into the economy.  For the rest of the evening, the discussion was limited to the challenges of the integration of the Arabs in the Israeli economy.  When it was over I had a chance to enjoy the Jerusalem night and walk back to the Central Bus station and 40-minute walk.  As much as I love living in Tel Aviv I truly do love walking around in the clear night air of Jerusalem.  My return to Tel Aviv was disturbed by the reports of another terror attack this time in Afula.

Yesterday was another day of attacks mostly in Jerusalem although there was  one again in Afula.  This time it was Arab-Israeli woman, and after being surrounded by police when she did not drop her knife she was gunned down, all caught on an unsettling tape.  For those who believe that the death penalty for terrorist, these past few days should be a good test.  We clearly have a policy of killing all those who attack with knives, I do not  believe it’s coincidental that almost all have been killed.  Mind you, I am not against the policy, but we probably should recognize it for what it is, so when this all ends we can judge the success or failure.  Have we created deterrence or have we just increased the level of anger and violence-  Time will tell.

When all is said what is most disturbing is my concern that I do not see how this is going to end. Maybe it is just a wave that will subside, maybe if we say it enough people will believe us that we have no aim to make any changes in the status quo on the temple mount, but I am not sure.  I find it very disturbing that Arab Israelis have joined in the demonstrations saying explicitly that they are doing it on behalf of Al Aqsa.  When the Head of the Joint Arab List who I spent an hour interviewing just a few short months ago leads the demonstration I have to ask myself what is he thinking? Does he really believe we would do something? Or is he just using the Temple Mount cynically as Arab politicians have for 100 years to inflame the masses?   Gershon Baskin who spent time in the last few days both in Ramallah and East Jerusalem says that he did not meet one person in either place that did not actually believe that Israel was not planning to seize at least part of the Temple Mount.

Earlier this evening I was talking to a friend who is psychologist and has been involved in Jewish/ Arab/Palestinian encounters for many years.  She said to me that it is the Arab Israelis who are the most angry and hardest to talk to.  She said the Arab Israelis all of whom( at these discussions) are doctors, lawyers or engineers, men and women in their late 20’s are all obsessed with the historic wrongs done to their people, and the villagers that are no longer there and the rights of the 8 million refugees to return.

Very disturbing indeed.  It’s been a very disturbing week- and yet life here goes on, I have written this at a mall just outside Tel Aviv, my son went to a movie with friends so I rented a car to take him and it’s more convenient to take my computer and work here then go back and forth.  There was barely a parking space available in a huge parking lot.  The streets and parks of Tel Aviv were packed today,  Israelis have a remarkable ability to go on with ones live regardless of the situation. As one of them  I try my best, I just worry about the future.

I should be working on one of the many projects that I am behind on tonight, but tonight’s stabbing in Jerusalem has truly worried me, both the event and the reactions of many.  First to the event itself- a family -Father, Mother, infant child were heading to the Kotel via the Damascus Gate they were attacked by a 19 year old Palestinian from the West Bank with a knife.  The terrorist grabbed the Fathers gun and after stabbing the wife managed to get off a few shots before being shot dead by police officers who were 50 meters away.  This attack occurred after the terror attack that killed two members of the Henkin family on Thursday night.  It also comes after the repeated, stone, molotov cocktail and other attacks in Jerusalem, many of which has taken place along the dividing line between Arab and Jewish Jerusalem.

The situation in Jerusalem and the West Bank has clearly been heating up and it would probably not be wrong to call this a third Intifadah.  Unlike the second Intifadah this does not seem to be organized from the top rather it is coming from below.  Yes there is no doubt that the calls by Abbas to save Al Aqsa are not helping, and clearly as I wrote recently the Temple Mount has been used for almost a hundred years as a rallying point for Arab violence against Jews.  However, it is impossible to disconnect events in the West Bank and Jerusalem to events in other parts of the Middle East.  That a certain percentage of Arab youth have become radicalized beyond anything we have known is a fact.  They no longer need to receive an order to undertake an attack, killing their “oppressing Jews” is fair game.  How we stop this  is very hard to see.  Complete separation?  Not really an option in Jerusalem.  Although tonight the Ger Rabbi has called on his Hasidim not to go to the Kotel until future notice- Not a good sign. Reach a peace agreement- not a realistic option at the moment, so I am frankly worried

What  is further troubling is the views of the right- their answer a more iron fist.  “Let the IDF do its job”.   What job is that? Have the death penalty for terrorist, even though there is no evidence it has ever worked.   We saw what an iron fist accomplished in Syria for Assad. There are I am afraid, no good answers. In some ways it the solution lies somewhere else, radical Islam must be defeated and its path discredited, but we cannot do it, the West is proving inept at doing it, and moderates Muslims seem unwilling.  Remind me what was wrong with Uganda…..

Listening to Prime Minister Netanyahu speak at the UN last night was very difficult.  While not a great fan of Netanyahu last night was the first time I truly felt like I wanted to throw something at the TV to shut him up.  I felt embarrassed to be an Israeli. Netanyahu no doubt spoke many truths about Iran, and many need to be said, but as he droned on and on about Iran for almost 40 minutes, I felt embarrassed.  Why, because at the moment the world and even Israel is facing more immediate problems.  The world is worried about the fighting in Syria, the refugees from Syria, the spread of ISIS, that is what the world is worried about, and those things are equally as worrisome to us.  Instead he spoke once again about the holocaust and the fact that we will never again be defenseless, but spoke about it from a place of fear and powerlessness.

I have reflected on what made me so angry, and have decided beyond the inappropriate timing of the speech, and the fact that he spent almost all of it discussing Iran something that is clearly a done deal, and certainly does not work to repair our relations with Washington, it was once again his depiction of us as this poor embattled state.  What were the terrible things that happened to us this past year.  I certainly did not come back here to live in a poor embattled state.  It was telling looking at the Facebook pages of some American Jewish friends- there was appreciation for the speech- ” We have to stand by Israel since no one else will”.

I am sorry that is not the country that I know or the country that I want to live in.  We are a strong country with probably the most advanced (technologically) army and air force in the world.  According to foreign sources we have had nuclear weapons now for almost 50 years and we have missiles that not only launch satellites in orbit, but can actually do it in the wrong direction.  ( Most satellite launches are West to East to make use of the spin of the earth, but so as not to worry our neighbors we launch over the Med)  .  We have a high tech sector second only to Silicon Valley.  It is time to end the hand-wringing the fear mongering.  Yes, it’s good for the Netanyahu politically, and its good for some American Jewish organization to raise money, however, it’s not true and it ultimately undermines our very security that we are worried about.  What country is more likely to be a victim of aggression, the one that depicts itself as poor isolated and almost defenseless, or the one with friends and with an army no one want to start up with?  What country is going to get its kids to stay as oppose to emigrate to find greener pastures? What country is likely to get greater and greater foreign investments?  It’s time to stop our crying- it’s time to stop talking about poor isolated Israel- it’s time for the chief spokesman for that point of view convert his 45 seconds of silence to permanent silence on the matter.

I have not written for a while.  Ten days in New York meeting my new grandchild and spending time with my daughter and son-in law were wonderful, but somehow it did not lend itself to any writing.  Getting any work done was a challenge, beyond what I needed to do for a few projects that were very time sensitive.  Writing did not seem to be possible.  I wrote a first version of my Yom Kippur article for Newsweek on my plane home, since I figured that it would be very similar to previous Yom Kippurs.  However, the first thing I had to do once I ate, on Wednesday night was to rewrite the article.

Being a grandfather for the first time is transformative, but frankly ifI am honest not nearly as transformative as having children for the first time.  I must say however when I looked at my grandchild Liam Zeev I could not help but wonder. what sort of world he would be living in. Will it be one filled with wonders and advances or one filled with disasters, natural and human.  I spoke at my daughter synagogue ( the one I grew up in ) Anshe Sholom on Sunday before I left.  I spoke  about our future here in Israel and reflected that I know    have to worry what will occur when its time for my grandchild  to go into the army.  . I hope to have a video of the speech on You Tube soon.

Today is a sad day.  This morning Moti Kirschenbaum died.  He was one of the most distinguished Israeli newscaster.  While I had watched him at times in the past, it has been in his last incarnation as the co-host of London and Kirschenbaum that I have watched religiously for many years.  In the United States I paid to receive Israeli news by satellite just for that purpose.  Yesterday I watch him host his show- this morning he was dead.

Meanwhile the news keeps coming-

I am writing this on the second leg of my flight from Tel Aviv to New York, via Moscow on Aeroflot .  This is the first time in 40 years that I have been to Moscow or flown Aeroflot . Boy have thing changed.  On my last Aeroflot flight the woman next to me pulled out an umbrellas before tale off, I looked at her strangely, and she said with her eyes you will see.  Sure enough as the plane accelerated for takeoff water started coming down from the ceiling.  Today Aeroflot flies a fleet of modern Boeing and Airbus aircraft .Their crew is friendly and helpful and the inflight entertainment good. Not so sure about the food, I ordered vegetarian as is my habit and received the exact same food for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner, it was not bad but.. As an minor airplane buff, it is really nice to see they are doing what one of the U.S. Airlines proposed to do in the 70’s give the passengers a live feed from the nose of the plane during takeoff and landing.  The U.S. Airline concluded that it would scare the passengers, I guess Russians are made of stronger stuff.

I spent the night in Moscow with Russian friends.  Having been there in 1975 in the waning years of Communism, all I can say is how much it has changed.  One of my strongest memories of that visit was the lines that seemed to form in stores when something was available.  Today there are stores, many high end everywhere.  The people especially the women are all smartly dressed, and based on stickers on bags and in other places seem proud to be Russian.  Putin remains very popular.

Physically one can’t help by being struck by the how large the city is, and how every is built big.  In a matter of a couple of hours we traveled by train, subway cab and foot and covered vast areas of the city, which is full of old and new buildings, including a completely new downtown full of skyscrapers.  At 1 am in the morning as the evening came to an end, I found myself having a snack with my hosts and sharing a brandy, discussing the nature of man and life, somehow that seemed so very Russian.

On the first leg of the flight from Tel Aviv to Moscow the plane was full of charedim(ultra Orthodox Jews).  Most were on the way to Uma in Ukraine to celebrate Rosh Hashannah, at the grave of Rabbi Nachmun.  Sitting in next to me in the plane was a young boy he looked 12 but was actually 15, he seemed bright and engaging, so after helping navigate his receiving kosher food, I decided to engage him in a little conversation about his beliefs.  That discussion began with whether or not he could drink “unkosher” coffee.  While some of the discussion was expected, only the Jews have survived through the centuries, as well as his lack of knowledge even about his own community-he had no idea that the Haredi communities are only a few hundred years old, one thing he said was downright unsettling.  He said he was taught by his Rabbis that the holocaust was a miracle brought about by God to stop assimilation.  He said the holocaust had forced Jews to be Jews and thus it was a miracle.  When I asked him how could any miracle include the death of 1,000,000 children he was of course speechless.  He was surprised when I told him that the holocaust did not stop assimilation and told him what the inter marriage rates are in the U.S. Today.  When I told him that yes, he was right that the intermarriage rates were high in Germany before the war, but it was not high where most of the victims lived he asked me for the percentages.  It’s clear why the Haredi world fight so hard to keep knowledge out of the hands of their young, for what they are taught is so full of lies and inaccuracies that it is clear that a little real knowledge would seriously upset their society.  Somebody need to make it their mission to get that knowledge to these kids.

One final note on the last leg of the flight I  had a half an hour discussion with a Habadnik, who was going through the plane asking people if they were Jewish and then asking them to put on Tefillim.  As opposed to my normal discussion on the importance of the mitzvah of Tefillim vs other things, this discussion was center around the question of the appropriateness of asking the question are you Jewish on Aeroflot plane going from Moscow to New York as opposed to on the streets.  I tried to explain to the young man that going around on a plane asking if you are Jewish has a great deal of historic baggage, that interfering with the privacy of people on a plane was not an acceptable behavior. I was helped by an orthodox passenger who seemed to be a supporter of habad, but close to my age and had more wisdom then the young man.  We may have convinced him to instead of asking are you Jewish, to ask do you want to put on Tefillim? Stopping him seems to high a mountain to climb.

I was going to write this yesterday, but yesterday I became a grandfather for the first time, so on that happy day, I could not get myself to write the downer that is to follow.

While I certainly have never been a great supporter of our Prime Minister yesterday I felt embarrassed to be an Israeli.  Opposition leader Herzog yesterday suggested Israel accept a number of the refugees from Syria, the idea seems a little problematic considering the bad job we have been doing with the African refugees that we already have. On the other hand its cleary the right thing to do, both morally if not just for the PR.  However our Prime Minister who is totally tone death (except maybe to the rhetoric his supporters like hearing) rejected the idea of accepting any refugees and instead told the Europeans that if the had followed our example of building high fences they would not have this problem. He said we are a small country with no strategic depth and thus could not take any refugees. Our defense minister not to be out done said no one should try to teach us morality, we helped enough.

When it comes to reality I thinks it would be ridiculous for us to try to take any of the refugees before we find a solution to the 50,000 Africans who are here.  Something I think we are morally obligated to do, and if our PM would say that at the moment we wish we could be we are working hard to absorb the African who came- Ok- but to once again to say we are a small country with no land depth who cannot- is really hard to hear.  I am sure the Swiss thought the same thing when they turned away Jews, at their gates. Last week I wrote an article about the lessons of the holocaust and how the left and right seem to have learned very different lessons, the events of this week only strengthen those differences.  How can we continue to blame the world for indifference for our plight when, when the tables have turned we are just as bad.

We cannot keep up this schizophrenic attitude towards the world, on one hand be proud of the fact that we have highest number of start ups, that Tel Aviv is considered by many as the best city in the world  for ex pats, that we are a member of the OECD, and then on the other play the poor embattled country who cannot help, cannot even abide by its responsibility under international law, law that we helped draft , to help refugees.

A final thought as we near the period of the Jewish High Holidays.  Where are the Rabbis? Once again, the Orthodox ones those who are in control of religious life in this country continue  to show how morally bankrupt they are.  They worry about whether people can rent bicycles on Shabbat, but are indifferent to the suffering of others in the world.  They are concerned how many Yeshiva students are studying Talmud every day, but are unconcerned for others in the world.   It is the Catholic pope who speaks out demanding that his flock care for the refugees.   A Palestinian who I follow on Twitter  Iuyad El-Baghadad retweeted the tweet of MJ Rosenberg – “Strange being a Jew right now. The Pope & the Germans are moral exemplars & Israel is the opposite. Times change.”

I hope that by the time my one  day old grandson grows up we once again have leader in this country  who he will be proud to call his leaders.

So today the inevitable occurred, President Obama received support from the 34th  Senator for the Iran agreement. There is now no way to override a Presidential veto, and the only open question is whether there will be enough votes to even pass the resolution of disapproval.   The result was predictable from the start and anyone who has been reading me these past months know that is what I predicted.  To this day I do not understand why either Netanyahu or much of the organized Jewish community walked into near certain defeat.  Leaving aside the details of the agreement which are mixed, you do not take on a sitting President in foreign affairs unless your survival is at stake, and despite what some critics argue that is truly not the case here.  Like everything else in the Jewish community no one either here, or in the US will take responsibility for the failure and resign.

It is now time to pick up the pieces and try to repair what is left of what use to be a bipartisan relationship.  That will be very hard to do.  Many bridges have been burned and in my opinion it will be hard to rebuild the consensus on Israel.  The  events of the last two months have like I predicted strengthened J Street and hurt AIPAC, something that many will be happy about, but it worries me.

A few other thoughts, first about the famous picture about of the Palestinian boy who was throwing rocks and a soldier tried to stop.  There have been a number of good pieces written on the event especially by Asher Pfeiffer and by Ben Caspit, but I want to add  a personal reflection.  It was 40 years ago in November, that I was sent as a basic trainee to guard Joseph Tomb outside Shechem or Nabulas.  Back then the territories were not considered as dangerous, since we had been in basic training a mere 2 weeks and were certainly not prepared.  But I can still remember 40 years ago Palestinian kids throwing rocks at us, we just ducked since there was little we could do, the really sad part, I was a young man then I certainly am no longer, those same kids are certainly grown men with kids and maybe grandkids, and yet the cycle continues.

One last thought and that is toward Europe and the refugees.  Europe is facing one of its greatest crisis.  On one hand after World War II strict laws are in place that effectively force Europe to accept the refugees, and there can be no question under international law that the current wave is indeed refugees.  On the other Europe is already feeling overwhelmed with its transplanted Muslim population, a population that has among other phenomena brought back anti-Semitism to Europe.  Its a no win and everyone is paying the price for allowing Syria and Iraq to come apart.  Below is my weekly radio show appearance mostly devoted to that topic.