Cleavers, Huxtables and Obamas: American Dreamin’

The White House is about to become, once again, the home of the American Dream.  Among the many things to celebrate tomorrow, I am looking forward to having a First Family that truly models the American Dream with youthful energy, a sense of style, and two young girls that are off-the-scale on the cute-meter. There are clearly four strong personalities in the Obama family, yet they are clearly a family unit with strong bonds of love and respect.  Cleavers and Huxtables, move over: make room for the Obamas!

Does Language Matter?

How do words shape our perceptions?  For a fascinating deep dive into what “proportionality” means in a legal-military context, and how the word is being misused in the current Gaza conflict, check out AZ’s new post: The disproportionate response myth: Anatomy of a propaganda campaign.  A follow-up ShuStu post further examines how a subtle misquote, gone unchallenged, gives a completely untrue understanding of the speaker's meaning:  Palestinian propaganda: a classic example. 

Welcome Back, AZ

Exciting news: AZ is blogging again!  She’s set up a great-looking blog – ShuStu – and invited me to join her.   Check out her moving personal disclosure statement.

Time-out for Israel and Gaza

Israel is in the process of withdrawing its troops from Gaza, and plans to have all its troops out of Gaza prior to Obama’s inauguration tomorrow.  My immediate response upon hearing this news was “Good job!”  

Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire on Sunday, stating that they had achieved their objectives: diminishing Hamas’ operational military capability, destroying Hamas’ arms caches in Gaza, and destroying the tunnels through which Hamas smuggles arms into Gaza. 

Following Israel’s unilateral cease-fire, Hamas also declared a cease-fire – for one week.  They went on to state they will resume the smuggling of arms and rebuild their weapons supplies.  Clearly, Hamas’ plans for Gaza’s future include more attacks on Israel. 

No one is deluding themselves that anything has been resolved by Israel’s recent military response to Hamas’ provocation, but Israel has given itself a window of relative quiet, and given Obama some time, as well, to deal with other priorities.  By acting quickly and decisively now, Israel has ensured that they will not have to take action against Hamas in Gaza during the first six months of the Obama administration.  As inauguration gifts go… not too shabby!

Inauguration Schedule

According to tradition, the new President will be sworn in January 20 at noon.  Where will you be?  Will you be at work, going to the cafeteria to watch the event?  On the road, listening on the radio?  Watching via your computer at your desk?  Will you be at home, at school?  Watching alone, or gathered with friends, colleagues, or maybe strangers in a restaurant or café?  Will this be one of those landmark events – will you always remember where you were when…?

The Inauguration Day festivities will start at 10:00 AM, with a variety of music, welcoming remarks, invocation, and the Vice-Presidential swearing-in all preceding the Presidential swearing-in.  AP has published a schedule of “official and unofficial activities”, but without specific times. 

The schedule starts on Saturday (!) and continues through Wednesday.  That may seem like a lot of celebration, but I think we are all hoping that there is a lot to celebrate.  These are dark times, even for those fortunate to not be personally affected by the ongoing wars or the economic crisis.  We, as a country, are in need of hope and optimism, and an event we can all celebrate as one.

I, for one, am looking forward to turning the page on the Bush-Cheney years, and hoping for a fresh start for the country.  But for all Americans, the quadrennial Presidential inauguration is a solemn moment, as well.  Especially when there is a change of administration, this is a moment to reflect on the meaning and power of democracy.

Gaza: location, location, location?

[Also on ShuStu] The Gaza Strip, as its name implies, is a long, narrow strip of land, located on the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.  The Gaza Strip is about 25 miles long; most of the Gaza Strip is 4 miles wide, with the wider lower third about 7.5 miles wide.  It borders Egypt on the South, Israel on the North and East, and on the West – 25 miles of beautiful Mediterranean shoreline, sandy beaches and rolling dunes.  Think of Cape Cod but with warm water and better weather: moderate temperatures year-round, with over 300 sunny days a year.  Think of the coast of Florida, minus the hurricanes and humidity.  Geography has blessed Gaza with the potential to be heaven on earth.    

The optimist in me believes that it is still possible to transform the Gaza Strip into a Mediterranean gem, but the only people who could do it would be the Gazans, themselves.  It would require vision, courage, steadfast will and some very tough choices: a good place to start might be with new leadership. 

Housekeeping: Verifiable Facts

Some of the commenters to my posts have published some incorrect information in their comments.  Opinion is fine, and I welcome dialog and diversity of viewpoints, but “facts” should be actual, verifiable facts.  I do not want my blog to be a means of propagating misinformation.  Nor do I wish to spend inordinate amounts of time researching and correcting so-called “facts”.  So, in future, where a comment has a level of distortions or factual untruths that seems deliberate, I will delete the comment.  Where I feel there is an honest mistake, not malicious in intent, I will try to correct.

So, here are some corrections…

PrinceValiant cites as 13 the number of “Israelis killed from 2001-2008 by missiles.”  I don’t know if that number is true, but it is certainly misleading when Gaza has been a base for suicide bombers who have caused many more deaths and injuries in that time span.

PrinceValiant cites the number of Palestinian casualties in the current violence as “of going past 700 now, of which, one third happen to be children.”  (The comment was posted on 11/9.)  At that time, reports coming out of Gaza from the UN and Palestinian doctors indicated that about a fourth of the casualties were civilians.  So unless some of those “children” were Hamas militants, the numbers are grossly exaggerated. 

(Update:  The ratio of civilian casualties has unfortunately risen to 40% according to reports by Palestinian doctors in Gaza.)

PrinceValiant states that Hamas was willing to make peace with Israel.  That is a bizarre fantasy, given that the stated goal of Hamas is the destruction of Israel.

So, PrinceValiant, in future please make sure your “facts” are actually factual if you wish to publish on my blog.

A final word, which I can’t resist:  A good way for Hamas to stop the Israeli attacks would be to stop firing rockets into Israeli territory.

The Fallacy of Disproportionate Response

It is clear to most observers that the current round of violence in Gaza was initiated by Hamas, the Gazan leadership, and that Israel has a right and obligation to defend its citizens.  Many are condemning Israel, however, for it’s “disproportionate response.”   Let’s examine this concept for a moment, and think about whether it is applicable in this situation.

If the objective were retaliation or revenge, tit for tat, then it would make sense for the response to be proportionate to the provocation.  If the objective were to punish Hamas for their repeated attacks on Israel civilians, then the concept of proportionality would also be relevant:  “Let the punishment fit the crime.”  The intent of Israel, as they have stated clearly, is neither retaliation nor punishment.  The intent of Israel is to diminish the ability of Hamas to continue the attacks.  

Proportionality would require that for every rocket fired by Hamas into an Israeli population center, the Israelis fire a rocket indiscriminately into Gaza population centers.  Would this be preferable to Israel targeting its fire at Hamas militant strongholds and ammunition supplies?  Would it stop the free flow of ever-more-powerful weapons into Gaza?  Would it lessen the risk in any way to Israeli civilians?  In my opinion, the answers are no, no, and no.  In light of Israel’s stated objective of defending its citizens, the concept of proportionate or disproportionate response is simply not relevant.