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Friday, February 01, 2008

oh yeah... keep telling me how they want peace

Sorry no post today.  I's been a busy morning for our peace partners over here in my neighborhood. But go ahead and enjoy your lattes over there on Shenkin.  Nothing to see here.

Posted by David Bogner on February 1, 2008 | Permalink

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Hope you're safe and that all's well.

Posted by: Yaron | Feb 1, 2008 3:02:52 PM

Not the best way to end the week and enter Shabbat. Hopefully things quiet down there. Grr...those evil terrorists.

Posted by: tnspr569 | Feb 1, 2008 4:06:19 PM

Hi David-you know me (or at least my name). I'm a regular reader. I love lattes and live in Tel Aviv not too far from Sheinkin. What am I supposed to infer from that statement? Am I different from someone who lives in Haifa, Beersheva, or anywhere else in Israel far away from where this happened?

Posted by: Benji | Feb 1, 2008 4:26:14 PM

Oh dear. Hope you're all safe & sound.

Posted by: Chantyshira | Feb 1, 2008 11:38:35 PM

I was also taken aback at this post. I am relieved to hear that no one was killed or injured in this terrorist attack, as I would be if the attack had taken place anywhere else in Israel. But, David, choosing to vent your spleen on those remaining Tel Avivians who (may) still believe you have something worthwhile to say and not on the national press who chose not to publish this news today was poorly done. 'Nuf said.

Posted by: Jen | Feb 2, 2008 1:33:35 AM

May I add my name to the chorus of irritated Tel Avivim?

Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but in the 4.5 years I lived in Jlem, terrorist attacks elsewhere in the country did not exactly empty out the coffee houses. For that matter, I suspect that, had I been in J'lem yesterday, I would have found that the coffeehouses were chock full of people talking about all sorts of topics...and not necessarily the attack.

Without declaring my own position on left-right rift, yes, Tel Aviv tends to be more left wing than J'lem, and possibly than the rest of the country. And J'lem tends to be more right wing than Tel Aviv, and possibly than the rest of the country. Rather than looking at this as an automatic negative, one could say that the polarity allows us to balance out forces and make sure that many opinions and many views get out there. I would not want a government populated by the far left, but I certainly would not want one populated by the far right either.

Furthermore, it is a mistake to assume that left=apathy. I would not be surprised if there is more apathy in T"A, though I should emphasize that I no basis for this save for "just a feeling". That being said, many people do care; they just have different opinions and different views than do you. That is not the same as apathy.

I believe that your anger, while warranted, is misdirected. I also believe that this left-right animosity does Israel and Am Yisrael far more harm than good, insofar as it forces us to effectively blind ourselves to any merits in the arguments of the other side and creates more sin'at chinam. Rak zeh haser lanu!

Shabbat Shalom,

Gila

Posted by: Gila | Feb 2, 2008 11:30:01 AM

There is a widespread perception that there are two states: the State of Israel and the State of Tel Aviv.....others have defined the split differently--chareidi/chiloni, or Arab/Jewish, etc. However, while the residents of TA are not all sheep who think exactly alike, and it is unfair to stereotype them, there is still this perception (however much Tzfonim may dislike it) that there is a trendy-Left-secular-elite that cares little for the hardship and grief of the rest of the country, and which believes that they have an entitlement to run the country (government, media, academia) the way they see fit and self-select their own successors.

Like many stereotypes, this is no doubt untrue in its totality -- but outside of Tel Aviv, folks, the term Tzfonim is not a term of endearment, and it may be because there is an germ of truth in the perception of elitism, trendy Leftish politics and secular Ashkenaz snobbery. Such a perception is not conducive to Israeli/Jewish unity, but then neither is the stereotype promulagated by the Left that all settlers are fanatics and all religious are fanatic parasites with too many children.

When the media ignores (or minimizes) attacks on Israelis whether in Sderot, the peripherary, or in Gush Etzion, or other spots over the Green Line, then this lends credence to the belief that the Tzfonim don't care about the rest of the country as long as THEY are not suffering. Our government's failure to address the grief and fear of its people EVERYWHERE in the face of terror only serves to reinforce this belief.

I doubt David wrote this in order to offend residents of Tel Aviv (and as a rule, he doesn't write in order to offend folks).....but the way I read this post was that too many folks in the Gush Dan region don't really give a d#$@ about what happens outside of Gush Dan. If it happens to residents in the Territories, well, they chose to live there; if it happens to residents of Kiryat Shmona or Sderot, well, they're (shhhhhh....)not exactly "like us" if you get my drift.

Certainly this may not be true of many or even most folks in Tel Aviv....but I have personally had conversations with Jews who live in the Center and who essentially parrot Hamas---"if it's really all that dangerous, then they should move (for Jews living in the settlements)--or the government should evacuate them (those living in the peripherary). C'mon, folks--Other Jews are under attack and it doesn't even make the headlines anymore?? And we're not outraged? What's a Jewish state for if not to provide ALL of us with a place of safety in which to raise our children?

Posted by: aliyah06 | Feb 2, 2008 9:12:12 PM

Or, might Trep just be mocking the press' constant and aggravating desire to look the other way and keep us looking away too? That's the way I read it. We certainly have enough of that in the States; if the news doesn't fit the press' conceptions of the Ideal World, the news gets buried. E.g., we've had a positive *dearth* of news about Iraq, lately, because the rebuilding/political reconstruction efforts in Iraq have been going pretty well. No enough military and civilian personnel dying to suit the tastes of the media, so they MoveOn.

So -- that's my Polly-Anna vision of the post. Nothing against those latte-drinkers, eh, Trep?

Er, Trep?

Posted by: Wry Mouth | Feb 3, 2008 1:31:02 AM

What amazes me is the near complete lack of press in what is a serious escalation.

Friday's attack wasn't a spur of the moment event.

The IED was hidden under the snow the day before. The bomb thrown on Friday at the civilian car was specifically thrown there to draw the ambulances and IDF troops in as close to the hidden explosive as possible.

Traffic was stopped for hours as troops searched the snow covered roads for additional hidden explosives (and unconfirmed rumor has it they found more).

While the tactic of a secondary device being exploded to kill the ambulance crews and IDF troops arriving later at the scene is not a new Palestinian tactic, that this tactic has now been imported into Judea - should have made headline, yet the entire event it being surprisingly ignored.

Posted by: JoeSettler | Feb 3, 2008 1:27:03 PM

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