Dove's Eye View

Young Israelis dodge the draft, some in protest

Link: Young Israelis dodge the draft, some in protest - Yahoo! News.

To many she is a traitor, a coward and a parasite. But 17-year-old Israeli "draft dodger" Saar Vardi says if more people thought like her, the Middle East would be a more peaceful place.

Vardi is part of a growing group of young Israelis who are refusing to sign up for mandatory military service, often in protest over the Jewish state's occupation of Palestinian territory or because of last year's unpopular war in Lebanon.

Army statistics show the number of young people who do not enlist for military service has crept up in recent years to more than 1 in 4 men in 2007 and more than 43 percent of women.

No More Salute And Keep It In the Family

Link: SignOnSanDiego.com > In Iraq -- Generals opposing Iraq war break with military tradition.

What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation's history. In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war.

From the San Diego Union-Tribune. A tide is shifting.

Iran Holocaust Show Sympathetic to Jews

Link: Iran Holocaust Show Sympathetic to Jews - World on The Huffington Post.

It is Iran's version of "Schindler's List," a miniseries that tells the tale of an Iranian diplomat in Paris who helps Jews escape the Holocaust _ and viewers across the country are riveted.

This article reminds us that 25,000 Jews still live in Iran, the largest community left in the Middle East outside of Israel, and they have their own representative in Parliament.

That's surprising enough in a country where hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has questioned whether the Holocaust even took place. What's more surprising is that government media produced the series, and is airing it on state-run television.

The Holocaust is rarely mentioned in state media in Iran, school textbooks don't discuss it and Iranians have little information about it.

Yet the series titled "Zero Degree Turn" is clearly sympathetic to the Jews' plight during World War II. It shows men, women and children with yellow stars on their clothes being taken forcibly out of their homes and loaded into trucks by Nazi soldiers.

"Where are they taking them?" the horrified hero, a young Iranian diplomat who works at the Iranian Embassy in Paris, asks someone in a crowd of onlookers.

George Lakoff on the "Betrayal" Flap

George Lakoff is a linguist who knows how to demolish Bush propaganda. Read here: Whose Betrayal? | BuzzFlash.org.

In a country that takes its freedoms seriously, freedom of speech must be maintained. Betrayal through deception is much worse than being impolite. Where tens of thousands of deaths and maimings are concerned, it is immoral not to point out betrayals when they are real. It is patriotic to root out betrayal on grand scale wherever it occurs.

The American people have been betrayed by the architects and apologists for the invasion and occupation of Iraq. By avoiding the politeness trap in a patriotic, direct, and factual way, MoveOn correctly framed the betrayal of trust for what it is.

No Impact Man: Happier people, happier planet

Colin Beavan reports on the former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, who transformed his city by putting people ahead of cars: No Impact Man: Happier people, happier planet.

"There are a few things we can agree on about happiness," Pe�alosa says. "You need to fulfill your potential as a human being. You need to walk. You need to be with other people. Most of all, you need to not feel inferior. When you talk about these things, designing a city can be a very powerful means to generate happiness."

And also, it turns out, a powerful means to generate environmental friendliness.

Click through and read all about it.

A Tiny Quake

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About a mile from my house. I felt it while blogging the previous post: Magnitude ? (uncertain or not yet determined) - SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA, CALIFORNIA.

There was a groan, like the ominous sound the big scary alien spaceship makes in a movie theater with enormous speakers - then after a second, the house shook. Nothing fell down, and I have not yet inspected for cracks. "That was a TINY one," my husband said. He was working in SF the afternoon of the 1989 quake; he knows from quakes.

We're certainly feeling a lot of earth tremors around here, next to the Hayward Fault. Hold on to your hats...

Oil Prices Surge and Dollar Falls - New York Times

Uh-oh: Oil Prices Surge and Dollar Falls - New York Times.

The dollar fell to an all-time low against the euro today and oil prices surged to a record, suggesting that a weaker American economy will be accompanied by higher prices for energy and other imported goods.

Even if you don't believe in either peak oil or climate-driven ecological collapse, the above news is plenty reason enough for you to quit buying so much imported stuff. Buy local food. Buy locally-produced consumer goods, or buy second-hand. Walk more, bicycle, and use public transit.

Ramadan Karim and Shana Tovah

The Muslim month of fasting and the Jewish New Year coincide today, creating a double holiday for the children of Abraham. Ramadan moves up eleven days each year, so that its date cycles through the seasons as the years go by; when I lived in Egypt in 1983, Ramadan took place in June (ugh - long, hot days); not too long ago Ramadan coincided with Hannukah and Christmas; in 2007 it begins approximately today. The Jewish New Year also moves its date, as do Passover and Easter, but the Jewish calendar has been reconciled somehow so that the High Holy Days oscillate between mid-September and early October.

To all of my cousins, good Ramadan and happy new year!

In Memoriam: September 11

(drafted on September 11, posted a little late, sorry)

I was nursing my five week-old baby on the morning of September 11, 2001, when my brother called me. We don't watch TV in our house and normally don't bother with morning radio, either - too jarring. He tried to tell me what was happening, and I asked if he were going to work then (my husband was about ready to walk out the door for his office in SF). My brother's voice broke. "Leila, it's a national emergency, nobody is going to work. Turn on the television."

My convalescent toddler crawled on the carpet and my baby squirmed on the nursing pillow in my arms as I watched those images. The last time terrorists bombed the World Trade Center, in 1993, I was living in sight of the Twin Towers. They loomed dark over the harbor, lights extinguished for the only time in memory, as sun set upon that winter day. Now they were demolished, gone.

I thought of the firefighters from my old neighborhood, 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. They used to flirt with me (and all the women) at the supermarket, and they waved to and played with all the children who passed their engine. The news reports tolled the terrible possibility - so many of those men among the lost.

From my adolescence onward, television images of Beirut under fire had marred my soul. Now this other city I loved so much, New York, was suffering a similar, terrible wound.

America's response to 9/11/01 was not New York's response. That first day or two I got several emails from friends who live in sight of the towers, saying: let's not kill people in retaliation. Let's not attack other countries just to make ourselves feel better. My friend who walked her toddler five miles in a stroller to get away from their Lower Manhattan home was one who emailed her list, calling for measured, reasonable, peaceful actions. She did not get her wish.

One sign of hope appeared right away, on the morning of September 11. New Yorkers stepped up. The whole world saw what I had always known, that New Yorkers have enormous courage, generosity, pluck and ingenuity. They know how to organize themselves to deal with a crisis, in a mass-mind sort of way that cannot be directed by managers or leaders. It wasn't just the American flags that appeared everywhere, it was the crowds of people lining up to give blood, donate supplies, cook meals, dig through rubble, or wrangle bulldozers. New Yorkers have a reputation for being cold and unfeeling, but I have never agreed with this charge. Surviving in an enormous city requires people to give help unselfishly, without a lot of fuss and vanity, and New Yorkers showed what they are made of.

Rest in peace, all the victims of terrorism in this world.

Is Israeli Aggression Wrong?

Who wrote this, and in what newspaper? Rattling the Cage: What Israeli aggression?.

...countries aren't supposed to fly their jets into another country's airspace without permission. It's considered an invasion. An act of aggression. It gives the invaded country a casus belli - a justification to strike back.

In short, it's wrong. It's the sort of thing that starts wars, and countries are supposed to try to avoid wars, not start them.

So Israeli leaders have nothing to say about the Syrian reports. This is the diplomatic equivalent of a wink. Everyone understands.

What's hard to understand, though, is how the Israeli media can be so docile, so obedient, in the face of such a reckless Israeli act. I was watching Channel 2 Thursday night, and I couldn't believe what I was hearing, or rather not hearing.

None of the journalists, who clearly assumed that this incident had really taken place, thought it worth mentioning that Israel had just risked starting a war with Syria. None of them challenged Israeli officials on the wisdom of this. All they talked about was what Syria might do now, whether Syria would go to war. That Israel had just provoked Syria, had just escalated the conflict, was the elephant in the newsroom that they pretended not to see.

That would be Larry Derfner, known "lackey for the Syrian government," writing in that "pro-Assad propaganda rag," the Jerusalem Post.

Hat tip to Josh Landis, a loyal American and respected professor of Syria Studies.