More notes:
http://www.imshin.blogspot.com/2003_09_28_imshin_archive.html Bish has pointed out some interesting things with regard to the letter (they are all apparently ex-IAF pilots, a few of them still do reserve duty, although I've read that hardly any (Thank you, Allison for the link) were actually called to do any of the missions they are objecting to, so their refusal is actually academic). I still have to do some research, organize my thoughts about some of the information he has uncovered and find relevant links, but the one thing that stands out is that one of the ringleaders is none other than Yigal Shohat, husband of the infamous Orit Shohat, the far left wing pain in the neck that writes in Haaretz and its Tel Aviv local rag Ha'ir. I've discussed her before. Her husband is a known refusenik (Hebrew link, don't be sorry, it's a rather uninspiring and uninteresting speech given by him in Tel Aviv on 9th January 2002 about the merits of refusing). This couple's well-publicized sentiments emboldened Orit's mother, famous Israeli singer of old, eighty-something-year-old Yaffa Yarkoni, into making a fool of herself by taking a public stand in favor of the refuseniks a while ago. This provoked much mirth and merriment at the time, because Ms. Yarkoni is not famous for her brains or for her common sense. Or for her voice, for that matter. Every time I hear Shlomo Gronich sing Bab-el-Wad I cry. I just can't help it. Her rendition, on the other hand, (the original, sadly) makes me cringe. Oh well, they say she was pretty when she was young.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0429-02.htm JERUSALEM -- To generations of Israeli fans, Yaffa Yarkoni has been "the Singer of the Wars." Whenever troops marched into battle, they could be sure Yarkoni would follow. Clad in fatigues, she raised spirits at the front with her rousing renditions of patriotic songs.
So it seemed natural for Army Radio to interview the iconic singer in her home a few days before Israel's Independence Day this month. Once again, Israeli troops were at war, this time in the West Bank, where they were sweeping through Palestinian towns and refugee camps in Israel's largest military operation there since the 1967 Middle East War.
But this time, Yarkoni offered no words of encouragement. Instead, she bitterly criticized the troops, the government and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in an anguished tirade that shocked her interviewer and enraged many Israelis. "When I saw the Palestinians with their hands tied behind their backs, young men, I said, 'It is like what they did to us in the Holocaust,' " Yarkoni said. "We are a people who have been through the Holocaust. How are we capable of doing these things?"
Her words were deemed so offensive that the union representing the nation's performing artists called off a planned tribute to Yarkoni that had been in the works for two years. The head of the union said it was forced to make the move after members of the public flooded its offices with complaints and returned tickets purchased for the event, and after sponsors canceled their financial support.
Government ministers denounced Yarkoni. The town of Kfar Yona canceled her performance at a Memorial Day event to honor Israeli soldiers who have fallen in battle. Youth movements declared a boycott of her music. The septuagenarian received so many hate calls, her daughter said, that she is now too frightened to appear in public.
At a time when many Israelis believe that they are locked in a battle for their existence with the Palestinians, Yarkoni's remarks, and the backlash against her, have stirred a debate here about freedom of speech and the nature of patriotism.
"What happened to Yaffa Yarkoni," said Naomi Chazan, a left-wing member of the Knesset, Israel's parliament, "exemplifies the fact that in the current climate in Israel, anything that is not the official line is considered treachery or betrayal."
Yarkoni is not the only public figure who has come under attack recently. Yossi Beilin, the dovish former justice minister, found himself the target of a boycott effort this month. A group of 43 professors and instructors at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba signed a letter protesting Beilin's scheduled appearance to lecture on Jews in the 21st century.
Instead of being invited to lecture, said Dr. Arieh Zaritsky, a geneticist who was one of the signatories, the former Cabinet member should be standing trial in Israel for helping draft the 1993 Oslo peace accords between Israel and the Palestinians.
"I think he is a criminal," Zaritsky said.
Beilin did deliver his lecture, and a stream of university professors took to Israeli radio and television talk shows to denounce what they said was an attempt to stifle academic freedom.
But Zaritsky denies that those who opposed Beilin's appearance are against free speech.
"We wanted to save Ben Gurion University from the shameful appearance of a person who has demonstrated, to say the least, a lack of judgment," he said.
In a poll published Friday, the Israeli daily Maariv found that at a time of threat, large segments of the Israeli public are more interested in unity than free speech.
Asked whether journalists who criticize the army's current operation in the West Bank and the government's policies in the West Bank and Gaza Strip harm national security or strengthen democracy and the country, 58% of those polled said they harm national security. Asked whether it was appropriate to cancel the performance honoring Yarkoni after she spoke against Israel's policies in the territories, 55% said it was.
"It's not only Yaffa Yarkoni or Yossi Beilin," wrote Maariv analyst Hemi Shalev of the poll's results. "Fifty-eight percent of the public, a stable and definite majority, believes that journalists who criticize [army] operations or government policy 'harm state security.' No more and no less, and very, very scary."
It is one thing, Shalev wrote "to believe in the colossal failure of Oslo or the need to take measures against the Palestinians with a strong hand and powerful arm, and another thing entirely to accuse anyone who thinks otherwise of something akin to treason. This is a slippery slope."
Yarkoni declined to be interviewed for this story. Her daughter, Orit Shohat, said her 77-year-old mother is too distressed to speak. But Shohat said Yarkoni, who has not previously made political statements, has no regrets about the comments she made.
"They interviewed her just after she saw the pictures from the Jenin refugee camp," Shohat said. Her mother was shocked by footage of the large-scale destruction carried out inside the camp during a battle there between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen, Shohat said.
Colombia: Druglord extradition official
Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- Colombia's president has signed an order to extradite to the United States one of the country's most notorious druglords, El Tiempo newspaper reported Tuesday.
The decree by President Alvaro Uribe makes official the transport of Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela to the states, where, if convicted, he could be sentenced to life imprisonment.
Orejuela -- the erstwhile chief of the world famous Cali cartel -- has been in a Colombian prison since his 1995 arrest. However at that time extradition to the United States was forbidden by Colombian law.
In other Colombia news, Colombia's largest left-wing rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has rejected an offer to hold talks with the Colombian government to swap their hostages for imprisoned rebels.
FARC uses hostage taking and drug production to fund their 40-year war with the Colombian government.
No connection:
[embedded reporter]Kevin Sites has made several trips to Colombia, covering U.S. anti-drug efforts, including cocoa spraying operations and the training of the Colombian government's Jungle Commandos. When Colombian paramilitary forces captured travel writer, Robert Young Pelton and his companions in November 2002, Sites interviewed them live, via videophone from the edge of the jungle, shortly after their release.