The news tonight is that Jonathan Pollard will be released in November after being incarcerated for 30 years.  Pollards’ release is not  early, it’s standard after serving 30 years of a life sentence.

I have always identified with Pollard and felt guilty for not doing more on his behalf.  We are close to the same age, the major difference is that when I went back to graduate school I had already been in the Israeli army, so I was of no interest to the recruiters of the CIA NSA and others that tried to recruit my fellow students at Columbia’s School of International Affairs.  I have always wondered what would have done if I had been put in Pollards position.  Luckily I was never placed in his position.

It’s hard to contemplate the 30 wasted years, the children he never had all the wonderful things that I did over these past 30 years and he did not.

I hope thousands of Israelis greet him, and I expect the Israeli government to give him 30 years of back pay and a pension that a military officer would get.  But I hope none of the current and past Israeli politicians have the chutzpah to do anything but apologize to him. For we have failed him, he has sat in jail for 30 years and we could never find a way to free him.  History will not be kind to the Israeli politicians, American Jewish leaders and others could do nothing but let him waste his life away in jail.

I can only hope that he lives a long life and gets to enjoy the rest of it as a free man in the State he gave up so much for.

It’s Tisha B’Av in Tel Aviv as it is in the rest of the world.  Last night Tel Aviv exhibited is normal schizophrenia to religious holidays, with all the bars closed, but some restaurants were closed and some were open, with no particular pattern.

When I was 17 and still considered myself religious during a summer I spent in Israel, I concluded that it was wrong to continue the fast day, now that we had Jerusalem and certainly in those days felt like  we had the Temple Mount.  To me it was just another example of the unwillingness to make fundamental changes now that we had the state.  Of course for many years I continued to fast, until I could stop myself.

As my religious affiliation changed over the time and for many years I identified more with the Conservative movement, I was particularly upset at that movement- after all the Orthodox movement does not really have the means of making changes, the Conservative movement does not have the guts to make any changes.

Talking to a friend in the park today, who is more conservative than me (politically) but not any more religious, he defended the continued observance of the day by saying, that is one of the beauties of Judaism, its unchanging.  That of course in my mind is one of its biggest failings; Orthodoxy does not have the means to changes ( and of course the Haredi world follows the views of Chazon Aish ” if it’s new it’s bad”) the Conservative world does not have the guts to make changes, and the Reform world does not seem to know what to change.  For those of you fasting I hope you have an easy fast- for the rest of us it’s another work day here in Israel.

So yesterday my article in Newsweek appeared on why the Jewish community and Israel should stop trying to block the Iran deal.  I had wanted to publish the article in the Jewish world, but when the Jewish Week did not get back to me, it was simpler just to use it as my weekly column .  Its so strange that this matter has turned into such a litmus test, when I am still waiting for one person to show me how opposing the agreement turns out good for Israel.  On one of the most important items in Israel’s security, both the agreement and more importantly our relations with the United States, politics are dominating, both Israeli and American.  No serious discussion is taking place here.  I remain frustrated by the lack of thought.

I am a bit humored by the fact that commentators in the US have been criticizing the hearing on the topics, while in Israel people can only stare in amazement at what seems to be the seriousness of the hearing.  Here there have been “public hearings” on the agreement between the government and the gas companies. The hearings were forced by the courts and have not been taken seriously by the government

Yesterday I wrote an article in the Times of Israel, Why I thought it was crazy for the Israeli government to continue opposing the agreement with Iran, and agreement which is less then optimal. Last night I received the E-mail that said that AIPAC and other Jewish organizations are all in, in their opposition.  I think it’s crazy and self defeating.  Not one person can explain to me scenario how this ends well.  But instead like lemmings the American Jewish community and most Israelis politicians keep saying the same thing.  What is the alternative- “A Better Deal”.  Yes it would have been better to have a better deal, but considering where we are now, that is impossible.  After I said it’s a fight we can’t win, he said it’s better to fight and lose then not fight at all.  My answer, that is for people not for nations.  We should not fight a fight we cannot lose, and even if we win we lose.  Not sure what I can do, but I will continue trying to bring some sense somewhere.

So the agreement has been reached in Vienna, and I must say I have rather mixed feelings about it.  I have read the full agreement, and I have issues with many items. I have no doubt that with a different negotiator America might  have done better.  That said the US was never going to get the agreement that Netanyahu wanted.  This agreement does freeze the Iranian program for between 10-15 years, and does bring the break out time to a bomb from 3 months to a year.  All good accomplishments.  Its geopolitical implications however, are bad.  The bottom line what was the alternative? Yes maybe a better negotiating team( certainly not Bibi based on his success in negotiating a coalition agreement)might of had a better outcome- but could anyone have gotten the Iranians to agree to a 25 year agreement instead of 15?  Could anyone have gotten them to agree to immediate inspections of any and all of their military bases?  I truly do not know.  The moral implications of negotiating any agreement with the Iranian regime are problematic- but what was/is the alternative.

I do think that Israel will be making a mistake if it actively lobbies Congress.  Whatever it wants to do quietly is fine, but I was very surprised by what Lapid said to me on the phone during the interview i had with him today.

This  past week talks between the the major powers and Iran on its nuclear program have repeatedly been extended.  This past week almost all of the reporters on location have been convinced that an agreement would be announced any day. In my interactions with some of them I heard, its complicated and they are going over ever detail carefully.  I have an alternative theory-  Before this round of talks began the Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei gave a speech outlying his red lines.  Observers wrote them off as posturing, I suspect that this is not the case that Khamenei might have meant what he said.  The Iranians I believe were sure that the West would cave, as they have done before, and my sense is that Secretary of Kerry might have been inclined to make further concessions but President Obama was not wiling to do so.

If you are reading this you are probably saying what is he smokin, but hear me out.  Two weeks ago I believe that President Obama might have been more flexible- before the recent Supreme Court decisions sealed his place in history.  His accomplishments in the domestic arena are set, he does not need this agreement to secure his place in history, a bad agreement  could just destroy his future reputation. So neither side is willing to give in, but neither side want to give up- we have a stalemate.

Everything  I just wrote is purely speculative- but its as good an explanation of events this past week in Vienna as any

Welcome to my personal site.  I have had a web site since 1995- Historycentral.com. That site is dedicated to telling the story of American and World History. I have had my corporate site Multieducator  for 20 years.  My high school English teacher would be shocked to know that most of what I do is write, which is ironic since good writing does not come easily to me.  I have always spoken better then I write, but somehow that’s is what I do most of the time.  I write for our web site, I write the content for our Apps and I write about what is happening in Israel.  For 18 years I have written what some call a blog, but I never considered a blog about events in Israel called Israel Update. Eleven years ago I moved back to Israel. Over the past few years I have blogged for the Times of Israel. In 2014  I started writing for Newsweek and have been doing so ever since.

For the past six years I have been a frequent guest on i24News commenting on both American politics, Israeli politics and aviation.  I am also a frequent contributor to ILTV, and have been a guest at Knesset TV and Galie Tzahal.

Over the past few years I have worked on developing over 70 Apps for the iPhone and iPad.  Most of the Apps are on the App store but some have been contract work.In 2014 , I traveled to Poland with my daughter Tali, to gather the content of an App we did on the major cities and Jewish communities of Poland. That App has been totally redone and now includes 400 town and villages in Poland all of whom I wrote  a history of the Jews. It is in beta now.

I titled this – I am complicated- and I am.  I have been an Apple Developer for over 30 years and have strong views on the role of technology in our society. I have taught on and off since I was in high school, and it’s one of the things I enjoy the most.  I have strong beliefs about education, and spent almost 10 year of my life founding and then being President of private Jewish day school.  I currently live in Tel Aviv a city I love, in a country that I love, but on somedays I hate.  Over the past few years I have published a number of books I have been slowly working on a book on Israel in the 21st century, but I have no idea if or when, I will finish it.

I am happily married to Amy Erani, who has been my partner in all my ventures, and have three wonderful children.