Funeral in Town

Hundreds with flags in the Military Cemetery of this town. Many paratroopers with dusty boots. Some were sitting changing footwear. The Maglan Commando soldier's name was Tal Lahat. 21, Beit Sefer Gordon, Rabin High School. Like my daughters. 

Hurting. 

Carmen de Laura del Sol

 

The last film of the festival was Carmen, directed by Carlos Saura, with Antonio Gades and Laura del Sol (pic). The story is about flamenco dancers preparing the real show Carmen based on Merrimee. This was my first time seeing real flamenco, the opposite of formal and prudish Spanish folk dances. 

Formerly I knew flamenco as ridiculous poses and guttural incomprehensible"singing", but here it made sense and is beautiful. A memorable experience.  

Every day I learn something new. 

Thanking Pakistan

Meir Javedanfar is an Iranian-born Israeli Middle East commentator and academic. He left Iran in 1987, and now lives in Israel. He wrote about his personal experiences in Iran and how the Sochnut smuggled thousands of Iranian Jews to Pakistan. 

"In terms of ties with Iranian smugglers, it is possible that the Mossad had established connections with them during the 1970s, when Israel and Iran had diplomatic relations. This could have been to set up escape routes for Mossad agents and other Israelis in Iran in case other avenues out of the country were closed in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

At the time Pakistan was vehemently anti-Israel, antisemitic views were widespread among the population, and Israel had nothing to offer it. So why, from the early 1980s until the end of the operation in 1997, would the Pakistani government agree to host thousands of Iranian Jews, who were smuggled out over a decade and a half as part of a Mossad operation?

The likely answer is U.S. support: In all likelihood, once the Iranian Jews arrived on the Pakistani side of the border, U.S.-sponsored Jewish and other refugee charities were responsible for housing and helping them, until their cases were processed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s actions did not impact its relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). When it came to Pakistan-IRI relations, their security-oriented priorities were far more important than Pakistan hosting Iranian Jews.

Pakistan returned none of the Jews who escaped across the border. Iran's Jews, including many members of my family and my synagogue in Tehran, will forever be indebted to its government and its people for hosting them."

The first Pakistani I met was a doctor working in Northern Nigeria, in Bauchi. He spoke Urdu (which is like Hindi) and had clear blue eyes. He also spoke excellent English. Later I met Pakistani and Afgan Jews in Israel, they are a branch of the Irani community.   

Cowards never reach the top

 

I attended the Water Authority meeting where it was accorded to grant one of the five contracts for building and operating desalinization plants to Mekorot, the State Water Company. The Vice manager of the Authority, Zvicky said that Mekorot was offering a higher price than private companies and that it was his opinion that they are unable to build it. But he had a certain feeling for the old State company. The Manager, a former chief engineer of Mekorot, said nothing. 

The proposition was approved without opposition. Zwicky was right, Mekorot was unable to build the plant which caused a 100 million dollar loss to the State budget. I am still blaming myself for cowardice, why I did not say my opinion that it was wrong and unethical to give preference to a State-owned dinosaur when we know that it will cost the taxpayer. I was unable to open my mouth. Many of the presents were former Mekorot employees and working as freelancer consultants for the company. I was also offered the possibility to do some side work for Mekorot.

The plant never produced drinking water and was sold to the GES consortium, comprising Shapir Engineering and Industry (TASE: SPEN), controlled by the Shapira family, and Generation Capital consortium for NIS 909 million, which is much more than Mekorot estimated. All five of Israel's main desalination plants are now privately owned. 

 Ultimately I was moved to a lower job in the Authority.  For cowardice. 

We never give up

 

Netzarim synagogue as it was fifty years ago. 

Netzarim (Hebrew: נְצָרִים) was/is an Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip about 5 kilometers southwest of Gaza City. It was established in 1972. In August 2005, the inhabitants of Netzarim were evicted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan. 

That was a Big Mistake. 

A research article in yesterday's HaAretz fishwrap shows that the Netzarim area has been razed and prepared for re-settlement. The menorah displayed in the pic above has been retrieved from a museum and returned to the site. 

He walked through the fields (an Israeli film)

 

Following the EPOS film festival, we went to an Israeli movie about a kibbutz pre-Independence, the Palmach, and a love story. Very good, very sentimental. The girl, Iris Yotvat, was beautiful (now 72 - left acting to have a family, teaches Tantra Yoga in Karkur). She plays a Yeldey Teheran orphan, so I had to learn the story of those 800 Jewish orphans who arrived in British Palestine through Iran. Assi Dayan plays Uri, the rude and heroic tzabar (Israeli native).

 Recommended. 

Bad Neigborhood

There is a terrible article in ZERO HEDGE about the situation Egypt.  Its foreign debt reaches 100 billion, and the interest payments consume 65% of its budget. The problem is more hopeless than Argentina ever. 

The logic is simple: increased spending on mega-projects, financed by high-interest debt, has allowed the military to rapidly expand its wealth  while the repayment of debt is financed through the appropriation of public resources, which is in turn financed by a regressive taxation system. This creates a diabolical cycle of structural poverty impossible to escape.

The mechanism is well known in Argentina where ten percent (or more) of every public infrastructure project was delivered in cash to the governing clique, while the projects were financed partly by foreign debt. More projects - more money into the pockets of the military rulers. Who cares about what the projects are or pretend to be?  It is irrelevant if it is the purchase of expensive weapons, an irrigation scheme, or building a new capital in the desert. The bigger and the stupider, the better. 

The increased influence of Gulf capital in the Egyptian economy comes with grave economic consequences. Last September, an Emirati firm acquired a 30 percent stake in the government-owned Eastern Company, which controls 70 percent of the country’s tobacco market. The deal was valued $625m.  

The article warns of increasing pauperization of the Egyptian people. This neighborhood never was good and is fast getting worse.