Exhibit One. The Israel flag incident in Duisburg. Being discussed a lot in both Israeli and German blogs right now. Interesting comments from “a former member of the German security authorities” here.

My take: Police’s job would have been to protect free speech from mob violence. No doubt there were enough legal grounds to arrest those shitheads. Why didn’t they? Probably because kicking down a door and removing the flag was easier, less risky, and feasible without calling for reinforcements. Understandable but dangerously wrong.

Judging from the way the public discussion is evolving, it seems that a lot of people agree.

Exhibit Two. the n-th “Jedem das Seine” incident. A minor “scandal” apparently started by the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

For background info, Wikipedia has an entry in English. The expression goes back to antiquity and has been used in German in a variety of contexts, most of which innocuous. Personally, I’ve heard it used mainly in the sense of “whatever rocks your boat”. That it was also used on a concentration camp gate – as a cynical kind of “you get what you deserve” – is something that I’d heard before, but I’m not sure it’s universally known in Germany. It’s certainly not the first thing that comes to mind when talking about coffee, or mobile phones.

My take: While we’re at it, why don’t we cleanse the language of some other words phrases with a “Nazi past”? Like “socialist” and “worker’s party”, for example – as in “national socialist german worker’s party”? (Unofficial ban on the word “national” is already in place in polite society – too right-wing). We could also rename the “Fuehrerschein” (that’s a driver’s licence to you) to “Fahrerlaubnis” – the equivalent term used in the old East Germany – to avoid any unsavoury connotations. The potential is endless…

No but seriously, this “concern for our Jewish fellow citizens” bullshit is just a distraction from very real threats facing Jews in Germany now, which are NOT being addressed – as the “Duisburg flag incident” illustrates. It also gives ammunition to the neo-nazis – their whole “stop the guilt trip already and leave the past be” spiel fits right in here.

BTW, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve tried to discourage native English speakers from using the words “final solution” in a hi-tech context – to describe some technical solution as being better than both an existing solution, and some interim-but-still-not-perfect solution. The ultimate, bee’s knees, dog’s bollocks solution, basically. Perhaps I should name and shame them all?

So there we were huddling in the staircase, wondering how to keep her calm, then she started singing and suddenly we were all smiling. You’ve never heard anything so sweet.

When the siren stopped she wanted more – as with music, she often wants to hear the same song a dozen times in a row. After the siren stops you’re supposed to wait 5 minutes before leaving your shelter. So we spent those 5 mins trying to explain to an upset toddler that the siren is not a song on a CD that we can play again at the touch of a button.

Never heard any impact – probably hit far from us.

Link:

And how was your breakfast?

Went out for a walk to Tel Azekah the other day. Highly recommended, you can see for miles up there. There are also playgrounds for the kids courtesy of various Jewish communities in the UK (the whole place is part of “Park Britannia”), as well as simpler “toys” like acorns and pine cones that went down well with our daughter. Soon after we got back home the siren went off and we thought it was for real (apparently while we were out, we missed an announcement that there would be a “drill” soon). True to form, Betterhalf and myself started arguing whether the top or the bottom of the staircase would be safer – it’s debatable since the staircase is open to the north and shrapnel could theoretically fly in from there. We agreed on a spot well before our 45 seconds expired, but still we shouldn’t be getting into arguments in an emergency. Gotta work on that…

Then just as we’d taken up our positions, a neighbour informed us it’s just a drill. Whew.

I was at this very petrol station about a week ago. Most of the cars there at that time had green-on-white Palestinian Authority number plates rather than the black-on-yellow Israeli ones. I’m also pretty sure that the guy who sold me a (not very tasty) coffee was Arab too. WTF? Are these guys being targeted because they’re from some rival faction or something? Or does that place get more Jewish traffic at other times of the day/week? Either way, if this attack had succeeded there’s a good chance that West Bank Palestinians would have got hurt, as well as Jews. Arab solidarity, my arse.

In other news, friend up north says sirens went off as far south as Yokne’am this morning, when Nahariya got hit. Also says he saw protesters in Haifa doing Nazi salutes. Here we go again… how very tasteful.

UPDATE: Here’s what Muqata says about the petrol station attack:

9:43 AM Shooting at the Mishor Adumim gas station. Terrorist neutralized.

That’s how I knew it was that petrol station – forgot to “hat tip” earlier.

10:00 AM Attack at Mishor Adumim gas station was suicide pyromaniac(!). Palestinian tried to light himself on fire in order to blow up the station. What an idiot, all he had to do was make a call on his cellphone while filling up (at least that’s what the warning signs say). One bystander injured.

11:24 AM The Palestinian terrorist from Mishor Adumim was an employee of the gas station. (h/t TJ)

Heh. I wonder if it was the same guy who sold me that coffee? And did my 10 shekels help fund terrorism?

I’m pretty far left on the political spectrum and my views aren’t very popular today. But I think war is no solution. Any solution has to be political. Today we are fondly remembering Arafat because, as bad as he was, he wasn’t as bad as Hamas. In a few years we’ll be longing to have Hamas back because someone even worse will come along. It’s like driving – don’t be right, be smart. See that guy who cut you off right there? He had no right to do that, you had the right of way. But that doesn’t mean you should crash into him, right? So, let’s negotiate with the Americans, Egyptians, Europeans…

This morning, a Hamas rocket landed in the town where this guy lives. He’s been sleeping in the fortified “safe room” of his house for the last week or so.

Considering what the last two Israel/Hamas “ceasefires” have done for this part of the world, I’m not sure I agree. Then again, he’s been here, oh, only about a hundred times longer than I have, so what do I know. Anyway, I thought he’d be a fine specimen of a vengeful, warmongering Joo to parade here on the blog. He’s also a great driving instructor by the way.

I told my employees not to speak in Hebrew and lie about where they come from, they should say they were from Spain or somewhere else. If people ask you where you are from, never say you’re from Israel.

As a former EU resident, this rings very true to me – even when replacing “Israeli” with “perceived as Israeli or Jewish”. At least here the people around us aren’t hostile. Put it this way: it would have to get a LOT worse before we’d consider leaving Israel. And even then we’d check other options before Europe.

Ironically, shit like this probably helps Israel because it pushes more people to immigrate / return here (Stats Show U.S., U.K. are the ‘New Aliyah Frontiers’). Most EU immigrants are relatively well off compared to the Israeli average, and well educated, so they help the economy too.

The house we live in was built in the 60s, so doesn’t have a “safe room” like most of the newer houses in Israel. Home front command instructions state we have 45 seconds to seek shelter if we hear the alarm – but I don’t think they got the siren to work yet. We did hear an announcement over a PA system yesterday, but it echoed like crazy and we couldn’t make out what they were saying. In any case, with our daughter in tow I’m not sure we’d make it to the nearest bunker in time. The recommended alternative is to sort of huddle at the bottom of the staircase. Makes sense because it faces north and Gaza is south, and also most rockets don’t penetrate through more than 2 concrete ceilings, so being on a lower floor is good. Still, not as reassuring as a proper underground bunker.

My “heroic contribution” in this whole thing was going to be to just get on with my life and work, and not let the shitheads scare me. That’s proving just a tad harder than I thought. To think that people in Ashkelon have been enduring much worse for months – and people in Sderot and elsewhere near the border, much much worse for years. Also the people in Gaza – I won’t cry any tears for those who are firing at us, but the kids and anyone there who just wants to get on with their life – sad, sad.

On the plus side, our little daughter is unbelievably sweet. I seem to notice it more these days…

Since the IDF commenced its ground operations in Gaza on Saturday night, I have been hungrily eyeing my hat.

On Friday I argued that the Olmert-Livni-Barak government is following the same defeatist strategy in Gaza today that the Olmert-Livni-Peretz government followed in Lebanon two and a half years ago.

Read the whole thing.

• Qassam Rockets and Mortars Fired from Gaza, 2003-2008 (Not sure if this actually includes all of 2008; November and December 2008 saw lots of rocket fire, so the total for last year may be higher)
• Israeli Injuries and Fatalities Due to Rocket and Mortar Fire (2001 – Sept 2008. It doesn’t mention Gaza specifically, so I assume it also includes Hezbollah rockets fired at Northern Israel)
• Summary of rocket fire and mortar shelling in 2008 (pages 6 to 10 show month-by-month data for 2008, including the last so-called “ceasefire” or “lull in the fighting”)

Two things piss me off here.

First, international media not covering these events, making it look like Cast Lead is some kind of unprovoked attack on poor Gaza. Israeli and other bloggers have been complaining about this media bias for a long time, and I agree.

Secondly, why is detailed data like this not prominently displayed on English-language websites / news outlets that are controlled by Israel or Israel-friendly organisations? Sites like the IDF spokesperson’s blog, for example. While Israel is stepping up its PR efforts now, I think there is still a long way to go. Too much English-language content is just a mediocre translation of Hebrew source material, which doesn’t have this kind of data because it’s aimed at an Israeli public, which is intimately familiar with the situation and doesn’t need those details. The marketing guy in me is just itching to give some of these sites a makeover, and lecture the authors on basics like “know your audience”. For example, one important “user persona” would be a lazy, uninformed news editor under time pressure, looking for a quick, tasty soundbite right now. They may be biased, they may be ignorant, they may not believe your soundbite and may qualify it with words like “Israel claims that…”. But if the soundbite is tasty, short, well prepared and easy to understand without background knowledge, will they refuse to air / print it? I don’t think there is any objective way to answer that question at this point, because I haven’t seen much material like this out there. But my gut feel is, Israel could do better in that area.