Going for a ride in a handbasket...

Not that we needed anyone to tell us, but the second part of the annual report written by State Comptroller Eliezer Goldberg only reinforces my belief that the state of domestic affairs in Israel is going to hell in a handbasket. I won't bore you with most of the gory details regarding the illegal funneling of funds to various settlements and outposts (some of which, were unauthorized outposts), the dreadful state of affairs in our hospitals and fraudulent voting, in which a number of dead people managed to make it to their local polling stations to cast votes for the Knesset. One particular issue mentioned in Haaretz yesterday afternoon stood out in the typical Israeli fashion of cutting corners and not making the effort to get things right the first time around:

"The comptroller also discovered that a bridge built by Israel Railway at a cost of NIS 8 million near the new terminal at Ben-Gurion International Airport will have to be demolished because it deviates from building limits for the area and interferes with the flight path at the new terminal."

Perhaps it happened because the new terminal - referred to as Ben-Gurion 2000 because it was supposed to begin operations back in the year 2000 - along with its flight path, still aren't finished, and it was difficult for them to gauge the correct distances by envisioning where the flight path would eventually be. That might explain the flight path interference issue (though I'm highly inclined to doubt it), but what about the issue of the deviation from area building limits? Who's the intelligent official behind that particular display of creativity? Any fool can build according to the limits, but it takes a special brand of idiocy to ignore the regulations AND build the bridge in the wrong place, resulting in astonishing amounts of money being wasted in building and then in tearing down said bridge. Maybe this individual felt that by creating facts on the ground (something our governments have always been strongly in favor of, opponents be damned), they would instead be able to change the flight path - a mind-numbing thought, but always a possibility.

I read another frightening article on the Haaretz Website recently. Apparently, the Knesset voted down a bill that would have called for a prime minister to resign in the event that he (or she) is indicted. I find it troubling that our elected officials often seem uninterested in many of the real social issues plaguing our society, yet they always seem to make themselves available for voting on those issues that are geared towards bettering their own situations or smoothing over their own legal troubles. The moral and ethical bankruptcy emanating from our government simply boggles the mind, and I imagine that it must come as a surprise to no one that our beloved country (and I do love Israel, don't get me wrong - I'm just not terribly keen on the way it's being run) is mired in a veritable plethora of crises of every conceivable nature. Perhaps if our politicians would make an effort to straighten up and fly right - in essence, get over themselves and start acting responsibly towards the nation as a whole instead of deviously wrangling on behalf of narrow interest groups on the fringes of society, our collective situation will finally take a turn for the better.

Terrorism...

Words cannot describe the revulsion I felt upon hearing of yesterday's heinous terror attack in the Gaza Strip. Whether or not I or others believe the settlements should be there is irrelevant at times like this, when a pregnant woman and her four young daughters are murdered in such a horrific manner, and you can't help but wonder about the depths of depravity to which these twisted individuals are capable of sinking. There can be no justification for the cold-blooded, point-blank murder of four little girls and their mother, no matter who they were or where they lived.

I choose not to focus on the political aspects of their senseless deaths, but on the personal tragedies of those left behind. In the blink of an eye, a family of six (seven, if you count the unborn baby) has been destroyed, reduced to a shattered family of one. To lose one child is to experience indescribable pain. You feel that your whole world has fallen apart, and indeed, it has. People around you continue to go about their lives, and you wonder if you will ever be able to do the same. You wonder if you will ever be able to smile again, to laugh again, to look at another child without wanting to die yourself. If you are lucky and you are strong, you will find the way to cope with your pain, and eventually, gradually learn to live again. The pain doesn't go away, it simply becomes a part of you, something you carry with you always, but with any luck, you don't let it rule your life. That is losing one child. How does one recover from losing an entire family? It is truly incomprehensible. How can you go on, knowing that those you hold most dear have all been taken from you, wrenched away with such agonizing cruelty? How do you find the strength to live, let alone to heal? It is at times like these that I almost envy those people who can derive some semblance of comfort in believing that even the most horrendous acts are all a part of G-d's master plan, and that somehow, their loved ones had completed what they were put on earth to do, and that is why they were taken. I truly hope that Mr. Hatuel, husband to Tali and father to four beautiful little girls, is able to find the strength to go on living, the strength to smile again someday.

What some people have conveniently chosen to ignore is that terrorism is always a crime. It is vicious, indiscriminate violence, perpetrated with the singular goal of causing as much devastation and carnage as possible. It can happen anywhere at any time. Thousands of innocent people around the world have been murdered while riding buses, trains and planes, going to work, going to school, going out to eat. The list is endless, and the "creativity" shown by the terrorists in carrying out their attacks knows no bounds. To differentiate between victims sets a dangerous precedent whereby some victims are more acceptable than others, essentially condoning the justification for murder. One can disagree with the settlers and their actions, or disagree with the actions of the Israeli government, but to "understand" the murder of innocent civilians by terrorists and see it as an acceptable consequence of these actions is just as culpable for these deaths as if he or she had personally pulled the trigger or set off the bomb.

Disengagement and a Little Final Four...

Well, today is the day. Today, the nation holds its collective breath, watching and waiting to see how the Likud party members will vote on Mr. Sharon's disengagement plan from Gaza. I'm not holding out much hope that the referendum will pass, given that the polls appearing in all the newspapers show that support for such a plan has eroded among the rank-and-file members of the party. Frankly, I'm not surprised, seeing as Sharon can't even manage to drum up support among his cabinet cronies, and no one is fooled by the lukewarm affirmative responses of Ministers Livnat, Netanyahu and Shalom (whose best quote ever has to be, "My name is Peace and I believe in peace," or some equivalent catchy little phrase). I've seen more enthusiasm from my dog when we take him for his annual vaccinations.

The big question is, how binding are the results? Far be it from me to claim expertise when it comes to the Israeli political arena (who am I kidding? I've got the right to claim expertise just as much as the next Israeli, and, as we know, all Israelis are experts when it comes to local politics, well, when it comes to anything, really...), but it does seem rather farfetched and more than a little bit frightening to think that major national decisions will be taken based on the outcome of a vote among those who support the Likud enough to be paying annual dues. If a referendum is being offered, I would think that a national referendum, one that more accurately reflects the feelings of all Israelis and not just the beliefs of one relatively small group of people, would be the way to go, especially seeing as the polls show that the majority of Israelis support the disengagement plan. Instead, Mr. Sharon is allowing the country's future to be hijacked by a party known historically for its ideological bent to the right, and more currently known for its criminal scandals and internal strife at all levels. In any event, I'm inclined to believe that this whole referendum is merely a ploy on Sharon's part to deflect attention from his family's growing list of troubles, and it seems to be working. After all, Sharon has proven himself to be a veritable master of the "Wag the Dog" political ideology, making outrageous statements as to his intentions regarding the current situation, seemingly in the hopes that we will forget about something else he's just done (or that one of his sons has just done) or is about to do, but never actually following through on said intentions (and quite often doing the direct opposite). If his methods weren't so predictable and borderline pathetic (and perhaps if he was not the key decision maker in our country), it would be laughable. Instead, it's just very, very depressing.

I suppose the question that we are all pondering now is not so much what happens today, but what happens tomorrow - the day after. Will the referendum pass and then be brought to a vote in the Knesset or will it fail and sink into oblivion? If it fails, will Mr. Sharon still try to bring it to a vote in the Knesset? If it fails, how will the Prime Minister try to save face? How will his actions affect the Likud party? Catch Israel's latest locally produced soap opera in a media outlet near you...

On another note...

Since we are less than 12 hours after Maccabi Tel Aviv's incredulous 44-point win over Skipper Bologna in the Euroleague Final Four Championship final game, I would be remiss if I didn't give the game at least a brief mention. To be honest, I had every intention of watching the game from start to finish, but I somehow slept on and off through quite a bit of it. Of course, it seems that Skipper Bologna did as well, given the lopsided final score. I did manage to catch part of the third quarter and all of the fourth quarter, and actually found myself feeling sorry for the Italians, as our boys in yellow and blue simply trounced them, making what seemed like every basket, including more three-pointers than I've ever seen in one game. It was truly amazing to watch. Derrick Sharp for Prime Minister, anyone? We are the champions, my friends...