That's Capital

Israel today

A few articles by Israelis today captured my sense of a nation that is dangerously lost, caught in a defensive stupor.  Below is David Grossman's response to the flotilla violence.

A Puppet on a String - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

No explanation can justify or whitewash the crime that was committed here, and no excuse can explain away the stupid actions of the government and the army. Israel did not send it soldiers to kill civilians in cold blood; indeed, this is the last thing it wanted. And yet, a small Turkish organization, fanatical in its religious views and radically hostile to Israel, recruited to its cause several hundred seekers of peace and justice, and managed to lure Israel into a trap, precisely because it knew how Israel would react, knew how Israel is destined and compelled, like a puppet on a string, to react the way it did.

Also read Ronin Bergman's Wall Street Journal piece that, like Grossman's, portrays a nation and its leadership that is creatively and perhaps morally exhausted. To its severe critics and enemies, the country is morally bankrupt. While I don't see how most of its critics (and certainly its enemies) own any moral high-ground (in fact the opposite), as someone who has admired Israel in idea and reality, it's hard to feel anything but repulsion for the current state of affairs. The security situation has been used to legitimate an ugly occupation, corroding the moral core of the occupying force. The Palestinians suffer the physical violence. The Israelis end up suffering the violent insensitivity which ricochets back on the perpetrator. Bergman, an Israeli military and security analyst, puts it best for me.

Everything that has happened in the past year—the Goldstone Report condemning Israel's war in Gaza, the international furor after the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, even the statement singling out Israel at the recent Nuclear Nonproliferation Conference—is taken as an indication that any attempt to do the "right thing" is pointless and perhaps counterproductive. One might as well simply give up.

This feeling is shared by a large section of the Israeli population—not merely the right wing of Israeli society. While many are condemning the IDF's operation on Monday, it is probably fair to say that the majority of the country instinctively understands why these events were permitted to occur.

Israel's fatigue and deep sense of ostracism is, to say the least, unhealthy. It would be unhealthy for any country at the best of times. But it is particularly troubling when the country in question is at perpetual war, and when it is repeatedly threatened with annihilation by the leader of a country who is actively pursuing nuclear weapons. And, of course, it is profoundly disturbing when the fatigued and isolated country itself has the means to strike pre-emptively and punishingly at its enemies, including in ways from which, realistically, there may be no return.

As a supporter of a Jewish state, in arguing with left wing friends, in recent years I have often felt like a friend defending an addict. But again, what's difficult is the seemingly willful blindness of Israel's critics to what that nation confronts. Regardless, with a set of ministers leading Israel who seem willfully ignorant - if not often bigoted and lost in hubris based on violent stupidity - it is hard to defend any of them. And as well as worrying for the people whose occupation these dangerous men dictate, I worry similarly about the people these same men apparently serve.

More fuel for local markets

See this article from last week's NYTimes.

From a company called PaperG.  Furthers the ability of local businesses to use the web effectively for advertising. A powerful piece in the eco-system that is growing to make local economies an engine for something much larger.

Most Lucid critique of financial markets yet

And with some solid-sounding solutions.

John C. Bogle: Restoring Faith in Financial Markets - WSJ.com.

Great use of graphics to chart history

Op-Chart - Picturing the Past 10 Years - Graphic - NYTimes.com.

From Leon Wieseltier

Washington Diarist: Platon's Cave | The New Republic.

From one of the bright people I know

Martin Anderson: Health bills create a new GM | Contributors | projo.com | The Providence Journal.

Marty is an uncommonly courageous and insightful business as well as social thinker. Link is to some thoughts he shared with a bunch of people a couple of months back. I remember suggesting he get it published. But it was more a long email, he said. Tonight he told me someone took it and without asking sent it to the Providence Journal. They published it on their own. Outside of showing the entire world all his thoughts on social policy, he's one of the world's great adventurers. Check out his Yellow Jeep Road from travels north last summer

Iran and America's complicated relationship

The Great Satan Myth | The New Republic.

Interesting piece that details a much more complex relationship that I had known.

Netanyahu is positioning himself left of Rabin - Haaretz - Israel News

Interesting piece.

Netanyahu is positioning himself left of Rabin - Haaretz - Israel News.

Yalla Peace: The movement to restore grassroots support for a Two-State solution, Israel and Palestine

Israelis are always screaming about security. Palestinians are always screaming about justice. Personally, I think it's Palestinians who need security, and Israelis who need to feel a sense of justice in legitimacy where they live. Anyway, this guy doesn't quite address things that way but he lays out a way for getting there. Horray. Someone speaking truth to power.

Here's the original article, and here's where you can find the man who wrote it, Ray Hanania, a Palestinian American who writes columns for the Jerusalem Post.

Thanks, Pres...

Spoke to a really smart business consultant and professor who focuses on innovation last night. She spoke with excitement about some of the organizational processes that are shifting to drive more innovative business cultures and products. Asked her when such processes might come to politics. She said they're already here, having come in with our current president.

Obama, for her, is the new model of politics. It's about collaboration. But as she suggested, collaboration is not sweet. It's messy. To paraphrase her, "he knows that what's needed is to put opponents in a room and have them rip each other to shreds till something new and positive emerges." She pointed out the huge portfolio of casualties Obama inherited, some from his predecessor but just as many due to the changing nature of America's global role, technology, and new players. When I said he's starting to remind me of Hamlet, more dithering than generative contemplation, she rightfully pointed out that his decisions will have huge impact. It may not be satisfying to watch a thinker in action but the fruits of the thinking will, at least, be considered.

That said, Maureen Dowd 's column today and another piece in the British Spectator, both suggest a man who playing a very tough game. The Spectator piece is particularly troubling, as it gives a British perspective of an American president insultingly uninterested in solidifying alliances with allies - at a time when those allies are fairly important. And this is happening on both a foreign and domestic court. Instead, he seems to have a passionate interest in courting adversaries. That's dramatic but my concern is, brilliantly strategic as he may be, Obama may have a slight addiction to the drama - not of big pronouncements (like Bush) - but something equally corrosive; befriending dragons cause it's more interesting than building something with existing friends.

Hope not. And my cryptic title, aside, I genuinely hope any easy clever quips made here prove me more wrong than our president, in no enviable position.