Serious Mideast news…or Political backdrop?

After just over four weeks in Israel, I can categorically state that I am totally OD’d on the two news stories that seem to be on every local and international station or online news website I go to: The Rio Olympic games (locally), and the US presidential race (worldwide). Thankfully the former ends this week. But the election coverage will continue and only increase as we get nearer to November 8th.

My problem is the endless stream of talking heads and “experts” (usually a former politician, campaign staffers from both parties, a retired military officer, 2 journalists – from the left and the right – and a scholarly professor who has a formula that can predict the results), that pop up on multiple stations. Within one minute it’s easy to know which candidate the station supports. And since it’s the same talking heads, regurgitating the same data and story-of-day, it gets pretty boring pretty quickly.

I was hoping to find fresh faces and analysis from my usually trustworthy stand-by news sources like Fox, CNN, SKY (England), Sputnik (Russia), PressTV (Iran), and even Al-Jazeera USA (online), but to my surprise (or not…) they all had more or less the same talking heads with the same rudimentary and predictable partisan talking points.

But the horrific terrorist attack in Turkey on Sunday, where a young boy of 12, recruited by Daesh (ISIS) blew himself up at a Kurdish wedding in the Southeastern city of Gaziantep, killing 51 celebrants and wounding dozens more, snapped me back to the reality of the Middle East.

Here are some of the news stories you may have missed. One has a possible connection to the elections.

Turkey and Israel – Last Saturday Turkey's parliament approved a reconciliation agreement signed with Israel in June, ending the six-year rift between the two regional powers over the Marvi Marmara boarding incident. Both countries will reappoint ambassadors, and military and commercial ties (which were never really disconnected) will be “reestablished”.

Turkey and US – Scheduled before Saturday’s Islamist terrorist attack, on August 24 vice president Joe Biden is visiting Turkey, for meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. This is the first visit by a high-ranking U.S. official since the failed coup attempt in July. While the ongoing war against ISIS will no doubt be high on the agenda now, I understand that the main reason for the visit was to discuss the deterioration in US-Turkey relations, and the delicate subject of extraditing fanatical Sunni cleric Fethullah Gülen, who Erdogan accuses of organizing the failed coup.

Also on the agenda will probably be the recent request from Erdogan’s new “Best Friend” Vladimir Putin to use Turkey’s air force base at Incirlik for bombing raids against anti-Assad Arab and Kurdish rebels in Syria (in addition to the bases Russia is already using in Iran).

This could be a major humiliation to the US if Erdogan agrees to the request, since:

      

1.   The base was built by the US for the American and Turkish air forces.

2.   It’s the main US, “Coalition” and NATO staging area for air strikes and rescue missions in Syria, Iraq and potentially Iran.

3.   The US stockpiles over fifty B61 Thermonuclear (Hydrogen) bombs at Incirlik

4.   Putin is supporting the forces the US is fighting (Assad).

5.   Turkey is fighting the Kurds that the US is supporting.

6.   Russia and Iran are developing close military relations, etc.

So if this is such an important tactical and strategic issue for the safety and security of the United States and Israel, am I the only one that’s wondering why vice president Biden is going to try to thwart it? Especially after Turkey’s Prime Minister Yildirim said on Saturday that he sees no reason why Russia and the US can’t “share” the base.

Why Biden? Such a high level meeting would not be held unless the outcome is known and agreed on in advance. If failure, then the meeting would be cancelled in advance and further staff-level negotiations would probably be held. If successful, then the president, not the VP should be in the limelight at the photo-op. Unless…

I have a wild theory. Could it be that Joe Biden is the understudy who is being prepared to stand in at the last moment as the Democrats presidential candidate if, hypothetically the position becomes available, and that this whistle-stop trip to the Middle-East where he is meeting key leaders very briefly is for the photos to support his international “credentials” with voters?  I said it was a wild theory…

Could be serious news, could be political backdrop, or could be both.

DISCLAIMER: Opinions are the writer’s, and do not represent SWJC directors, officers or members.

 

First Impressions of Israel after 14 Days and 25 years

Tirat Hacarmel, - It's two weeks since we landed in Israel...after 25 years of living in the U.S.

 

The last few months in Dallas were a whirlwind of:

1. Preparation activity:
   • Selling the house and most of our two and a half decades of accumulated "stuff".
   • Buying a whole bunch of new "stuff".
   • Loading and shipping a container.
2. Personal activity:
   • Catching up on a whole bunch of medical check-ups and follow-ups.
   • Getting copies of all our medical records.
   • Saying goodbye to a lot of friends family and contacts around the country.
3. SWJC activity: Working with Susan and our Board to modify the structure of SWJC, so that despite my move to Israel the organization will continue to grow and thrive, while expanding our important educational, programming and fundraising activities.

 And all this while dealing with some serious mixed emotions:

 

On the one hand leaving a sort of nomadic, upwardly mobile, highly satisfying, successful and enjoyable life and career, built position by position with no real planning. On the other hand, going home to the country I love and have served and defended, with weapons and words, my whole life.

 

Or creating a large distance between us and our son, daughter-in-law and three amazing grandchildren who live in Florida, vs. living in Israel just five minutes away from our daughter, son-in-law and four amazing grandchildren who live a short walking distance from the warm, sandy Mediterranean seashore.

 

However any mixed emotions, doubts, regrets or second thoughts evaporated as soon as we stepped off the plane at Ben Gurion airport. The light warm breeze that hit me through the space between the door and the jet-way carried the unmistakable fragrance familiar to every Israeli, whether from their military service, numerous hikes and school trips, youth movement camps or family outings - It's the unique, intoxicating smell of Israel's post-harvest agricultural heartland in July. A varying combination of decomposing cut wheat and rye, wild flowers, organic fertilizer, a hint of pine forests and plowed earth.

 

We were home. No doubts, regrets or mixed emotions. We were HOME!

 

Here is a brief report of my initial impressions to date:

1. News coverage. Not surprisingly, the US elections are hardly given prominence in the Israeli broadcast and print media. Sure they'll mention the two candidates' bad jokes, legal problems, accuracy of statements, latest polling, or new (real or perceived) potential legal, trust or health problems...but it's just not a big headline or lead item in the news here. This will no doubt change as we get nearer to the elections. But for the moment the headlines, front pages and lead stories in the print and broadcast media are almost exclusively about the Summer Olympics in Rio. The fact that Israel has already started to win medals just adds to the excitement. It's interesting that the Olympics have not only bumped the US elections from the top of the news food chain, but also the usual Israeli signature national concerns: security and that perennial crowd-pleaser - Israeli politics.
2. Bureaucracy: Bad news and good news. The bad news - after 25 years the bureaucratic system is still alive and well. In the course of two weeks we had to run around to deal with officials at the:
   1. Ministry of Interior (to confirm that we are citizens and get new ID cards)
   2. Ministry of Absorption (to confirm our status as "returning residents")
   3. Ministry of Finance (to get our tax exemptions as "returning residents")
   4. Office of Customs and Excise tax (forms to get our container released from the port)
   5. National Insurance Administration (forms for National Social Security and Health Care insurance)
   6. Maccabi HMO to sign up for health care + supplemental health insurance + long term care insurance.

The good news - while in every office you still have to take a number (literally!), the system is so well run and efficient that we never had to wait more than three to five minutes for our turn. All the offices were air- conditioned and the officials smiled (never saw that before), were friendly, and went out of their way to help and expedite things. On this score things have certainly changed for the better in twenty-five years.

 

A few more observations:

1. Because Haifa is the largest mixed city in Israel (Tirat Hacarmel is a suburb of Haifa) , about half of the officials we saw were Israeli Arabs, both Christians and Moslems. The same ratio holds true in the streets, stores, the big mall we go to almost daily, restaurants, etc.
2. In no government office did I see the once ubiquitous and omnipresent glass-of-tea-with-two-sugar-cubes. I guess that Israeli officialdom has finally moved on from its "Bolshevik style" origins. No tea in a glass - but a Starbucks style cup of coffee on almost every desk.
3. In case your wondering most Israelis are still, loud, many smoke (mostly outside, though), many still drive like absolute maniacs, and all will offer their sage opinions and well meaning advice whether they know you or not (stranger to me yesterday at a falafel stand: "if you touch that sauce you'll end up in the ER"). 
4. Israel is hot and humid. But every building, shop or mall you enter is air-conditioned, extremely hi-tech and everyone is friendly and will go out of their way to help and point you in the right direction, even if they have no idea where that is.
5. The beaches are clean , the Mediterranean is warm and the boardwalks in Haifa carry the best ice-cream in the world.

These are just my initial, jet-lagged impressions. More observations and, of course, current analysis on Israel and the the Middle East in future updates.

I look forward to talking with you at our upcoming SWJC LIVE briefings from Israel. See dates listed above. Contact  Susan at the office (214-361-0018) to confirm your participation.

 

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed above are the writer's, and do not represent SWJC directors, officers or members.