Terror alert on Israelis abroad

The following is a statement just released by the Anti-terrorism bureau of the Prime Minister’s Office. [It is a repeat of a similar release after the assassination of Hizbullah operations chief Imad Mugniyeh. The PMO calls this current release a 'sharpening' of the travel advisory.]

There are currently some 600,000 Israelis vacationing abroad, and I’m wondering how on earth the government hopes to get this message through to them. This travel advisory refers to all Israelis vacationing everywhere. The statement says that “Hizbullah is working constantly, tirelessly to harm Israelis all over the world, with a special emphasis on kidnapping operations.”

Today’s statement [in quotes], and my interpretation follows.

“Raise your level of awareness and sensitivity to anything and everything that strikes you as unusual.”

In essence, the PMO is telling Israelis to become extremely paranoid. Unless you have to, don’t leave your hotel room. When visiting an exotic location, do not take part in any local customs or cultural activities whatsoever. Treat everyone with suspicion.

“Reject any attractive and unexpected business or social offers.”

Don’t talk to anyone at bars, clubs or restaurants; don’t flirt with anyone, under no circumstances go home with anyone; don’t get into any discussions about potential business deals, even if they do revolve around creating jobs in the Middle East that could lead to peace.

“Don’t let anyone you don’t know or unexpected guests into your hotel room.”

See above.

“Avoid lingering in places or attractions that are off the beaten track, especially at night.”

Visit only places that are tourist traps, and only during the day.

“If you spend any length of time in one place, make sure to vary your daily routine regularly: change hotels, travel routes, eat at different restaurants, and visit different places of entertainment.”

This is actually good advice: Taste as much of the local culture as you can, don’t eat at the same restaurant more than twice no matter how good the food is, or go to the same bar more than once, no matter how much you enjoy it. Don’t make any friends on your travels.

Seriously, if this is the only way the Prime Minister’s Office is warning the hundreds of thousands of Israelis currently abroad that they are in immediate danger of being kidnapped, then I get the feeling that the government is just trying to cover its behind if something like an attack happens. If the threat is truly concrete [the agency says there is a concrete threat but not to a specific location] then a much more serious public information campaign needs to be launched. Tour operators need to informed and asked to communicate to their customers. Local law enforcement agencies need to be informed and placed on alert. Israelis in especially dangerous locations [where Hizbullah is known to have an established infrastructure – like West Africa, South America, and certain parts of South East Asia] should be put on alert or told to come home.

But, alas, Israelis are especially obstinate when it comes to interruptions of their vacations. Despite the concrete terror alert for the Sinai, there are still thousands of Israelis vacationing there. In any case, asking Israelis to keep a low profile during their annual vacations is almost an oxymoron.

Don’t Tag Me Bro!

Maybe it’s because I think I’m un-photogenic, always have, always will; that I don’t want photos of me tagged. I choose the pictures of myself that I want to share with the world carefully. Sorry, does that make me weird?

And maybe it’s also because I value my privacy - something to do with a creeping sense that what with Facebook, Gmail chat status, twitter, Flickr, Zoominfo, and LinkedIn – someone always knows what I’m doing right now, i.e. what my status is, what I did last night, who I did it with, what I’m going to do today, tomorrow and next week and who else will be there.

Now I’ll be the first to admit: I buy into this stuff with the best of them. I change my Facebook status when I want to be noticed, and when I want to share. When someone takes out a camera at a party I rush over because I want to be in the picture, because I want to be tagged together with these people.

When I’m lonely or bored I check who’s online on Facebook and Gmail chat.

When I miss my friends I click on their latest photos to see what they’ve been up to.

And yes, sometimes I Facebook stalk, just like you do. I even went from ‘It’s complicated’ to ’single’ and back a few times – I shared.

But lately the shine has started coming off. There are too many cameras everywhere. I’ve noticed that at every bar, club, picnic, café, restaurant and beach I go to people are snapping away. Snapping and tagging, snapping and tagging.

In real life I see real people at real events, and they’re all taking pictures of themselves all the time. Later, when they post the pics online, I see photos of the events, from different angles, things that I didn’t know were going on while I was there; I can even catch people giving others looks they didn’t think the others would catch them giving. Sometimes that’s good, and sometimes that’s bad. You naturally miss a lot of subtext at any real life event, but on Facebook you can go back and see more, almost like using a time machine. Snap and Tag.

Soon, shop owners at malls will take my picture and post it on their profiles, tagging me as a valued customer. The storeowner will throw one arm around me and snap a photo with the other arm, him all smiles and me all embarrassed. Or if I haven’t been to his shop for a while, he’ll post a pic of me and tag me as lost, offer a reward to someone who brings me back. What if I’m tagged shopping at a competing store? Will there be a group established that hates me? Will I be charged more?

Soon, we won’t just be able to relax, to disappear into a crowd. Even if we’re not directly facing the camera and photographer, we still might be in the shot, and still be tagged. This just makes me nervous. I find it harder and harder to relax in social settings, when every few minutes someone around is posing for a picture. Was I in the frame? What was I doing at the exact moment when someone across the room took a picture of someone else entirely, but managed to get at least a part of me in the frame? This calls for a level of situational awareness I simply don’t have.

It’s bad enough to see myself in pictures online not giving it my best pose, you know, just talking to someone, or looking at something, you know, like you still sometimes do in real life. What’s worse is to get critiqued on those photos when somebody makes a comment about you. Now you have to deal with a review of a performance you didn’t even know you were giving.

I still want to be a part of Facebook, I’m not ready to live unplugged yet.

But, in the tradition of Don’t Tase me Bro! Please, Don’t Tag me Bro!

Some thoughts on Syria

I feel sorry for Bashar Assad.

The closer Israel and Syria get to direct peace talks, the more aggressive those opposed to that deal seem to become, and Assad is taking some serious hits to his administration. What has always held true, that there is a strong government in Syria that can sign, implement and maintain a peace accord with Israel, is starting to come undone. The assassinations of Imad Mughniyeh and Mohammed Suleiman have seriously embarrassed the Assad regime. The message that these two events sends, both to the internal Syrian audience, and to the wider Arab public, is that Assad is not in complete control of his country, that he is on shaky ground. If this is truly the case, and somebody is working to destabilize the Assad regime, then the prospects that the latest round of Syrian-Israel peace talks could lead to a breakthrough, and that peace could be maintained, are diminished. Which, of course, could be the real aim of whoever is behind the attempts to rattle the Syrian government. Peace between Israel and Syria would open the door for other Arab states to do the same. Syria’s benefit would be greater integration with the West, moving away from the axis of evil, and isolating Iran [who would be left alone on that axis with North Korea].

Assad needs to find out who assassinated these men on his soil, and quick. He needs to show his country that everything is under control, that his regime is stable. Problem is, the hidden hand behind the assassinations could belong to his biggest ally and only real friend right now, Iran. If this is the case, Tehran is sending a very strong message to Damascus: the further you progress with Israel, the closer you come to losing your head. Iran would love it if Suleiman’s assassins turned out to be Israeli, and already their state media is spinning that story. Iran has an enormous interest in framing Israel for the assassination: It’s scared to death of Syrian-Israeli-Arab world peace.

Or, the hand behind Assad’s woes may belong to Israel’s Mossad, in which case the indirect talks mediated by Turkey will most likely be called off. In any case, Assad’s security apparatus has been infiltrated to a very high degree. You don’t just blow up the car of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus and gun down Mohammed Suleiman [Assad's military advisor] in Tartus without intimate knowledge of these men’s whereabouts. Israel had a long score to settle with Mughniyeh, and killing Suleiman could somewhat disrupt Syria’s weapons transfers to Hizbullah, of which he was in charge. In terms of Israel: Mughniyeh maybe, Suleiman - highly unlikely.

In addition to this, somewhere down the line, Assad’s regime is likely to face its stiffest challenge: the probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. If the UN tribunal investigating that incident accuses elements of Assad’s regime, and perhaps those closest to Assad himself, the Syrian leader may start feeling like he has very few friends left.

And peace with Israel, whose parliamentarians are on the verge of making it almost impossible to trade the Golan Heights for peace, becomes more remote.

Olympic cheer-O-meter: Iran gets booed

Just watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, with all the countries’ athletes marching into the stadium in the Parade of Athletes.

As the Iranian delegation walked in, a palpable, clearly audible boo was heard from the assembled audience. Why did I hear this so clearly? Not just because I’m acutely attuned to anything about somebody who wants to wipe me off the map, but actually because just before Iran, a thunderous cheer went up as the small Iraqi delegation marched into the stadium. There are at least two other people in the room with me who heard the same, and I don’t think I’m making this up. We’re watching the opening ceremony on British EuroSport Live channel, and even the commentator, after hearing the crowd’s reaction to the Iranians, said, “Quite a controversial welcome for the Iranians.”

The contrast between the cheer for the Iraqis and the boos for the Iranians was very distinct, and very interesting. Has Iran become a pariah state?

Now, a lot of other people are talking about Iran getting booed.

Truth is I feel bad for the Iranian athletes. I can’t imagine how great it must be to march into an Olympic stadium representing your country, only to have it tinged by something like this. What’s going on in the mosques of power in Tehran is not the athletes’ fault.

However, when something like this happens, you do have to wonder.

Clearly Iraq has a lot of sympathy in the world. And I wonder if Iran’s image in China [and not just in Israel and America] is negative. I’m sure there a lot of Chinese at the Olympic stadium now, but also tens of thousands of audience members from other countries. Who booed the Iranian delegation? I don’t know what the average Chinese person thinks about Iran’s policies, but I’m guessing that the average Chinese person doesn’t have much of an opinion on Tehran’s push for nuclear development, or their support for Islamic extremist groups. Perhaps there was a majority of foreigners at the stadium. In any case, it sounded pretty much like a wall-to-wall boo at the Bird’s Nest Stadium.

Israel got a decent cheer as well as Palestine [4 athletes].

So far, Brazil and Spain seemed to get the largest cheers, with Canada coming close.

The Russian delegation got quite a huge roar, despite the fact that Russia and Georgia are, as of today, officially at war.

I thought that countries were not supposed to go to war with each other during the duration of the Olympic games.

America just got a huge cheer.

IDF, Mossad, Shabak eye Kadima leadership

Just realized something interesting: all four candidates for the Kadima leadership have impressive security backgrounds:

Shaul Mofaz is a former IDF Chief of General Staff, Minister of Defense, and he also heads the Israel-US strategic dialogue. He is on the security cabinet.

Avi Dichter is a former paratrooper, General Security Service [Shabak] agent, and head of the internal secret service organization for several years. He is currently Minister of Internal Security, which oversees the Police. He is on the security cabinet.

Tzipi Livni is a former Mossad operative. Not much is known about her service in Israel’s foreign intelligence service, but a report a few months ago in a British paper claimed she took part in a terrorist hunting mission in Europe. She is also on the security cabinet.

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit is currently the head of the Knesset’s oversight sub-committee on the secret services, where Sheetrit is privy to much of the defense secrets and issues of the country. He knows exactly what the Shabak and Mossad are up to, and as such, he is also on the security cabinet.

That’s a pretty impressive list of candidates for the leadership of Kadima and Israel. Now the only question is, do they have a party?

Saudis want to boycott Nissan over Israeli ad

Love this story by my favorite intern Stephanie Rubinstein:

Gulf states may boycott the Nissan Motor Company as a result of an Israeli TV commercial that depicts Saudis angered by a fuel-efficient car, a Saudi official has said.

The new campaign by Renault-Nissan caused an uproar in the Gulf when it showed a group of Saudi oil barons screaming and attacking the Renault-Nissan vehicle.

The Saudis are shown leaving a hotel and encountering the new, fuel-efficient vehicle. One man pounds his fists on the car and is then held back by his companions as he shouts at it, “Hawks should peck at you day and night.”

At the end of the commercial, the voice-over says, “It’s clear the oil companies won’t like you.”

Where have the newspapers gone?

My newspapers didn’t arrive this morning. I have a routine every morning: read the papers, do some yoga, get ready for work. Suddenly I had some free time.

Instead if calling customer service I wrote this:

The day the newspapers didn’t arrive some people walked around aimlessly in the streets; some men spent the morning making coffee for their wives and talking to them; husbands rarely talk to their wives in the morning [instead they practice looking serious and concerned when reading the newspaper], wives have to talk to each other in the mornings and that’s why you can never get them on the phone; some men actually got to take a closer look than usual at their kids before they left for school.

The radio stations didn’t know what to do. The news show presenters ummed and aaahd until the half-hourly news bulletins, and then they ummed and aahd again. Eventually some of the smarter ones just started calling politicians to ask them what they thought about the news not coming. The opposition politicians said it was the government’s fault, that the government had to go, and that if they were elected, they would make sure such a terrible thing would never happen again. But after they said that they really didn’t have anything more to say.

Mrs. Clean is from Mars, Mr. Security is from Venus

While the real battle between Tzipi Livni and Shaul Mofaz to replace Ehud Olmert as Kadima chairperson and prime minister is taking place amongst the 30,000 Kadima members and not the wider public, the two frontrunners have retained the services of skilled campaign consultants to convince both the party membership and the general public that their candidate is worthy of Israel’s top job.

Livni’s core team consists of kingmakers Reuven Adler and Eyal Arad, the duo that established Kadima for Ariel Sharon and got him elected as Prime Minister. On Mofaz’s side is world-renowned political strategist Arthur Finkelstein. While Livni is ahead in the latest polls, Mofaz is closing the gap, and the momentum seems to be with him, hence Livni’s announcement Monday that she has formally hired Adler and Co. Within the general population, Livni is more popular, but in the crucial Kadima membership, Mofaz is stronger. Livni’s team has until September 17 to stem Mofaz’s surge, while the latter will attempt to keep his momentum going.

Mofaz’s team will position their candidate as Mr. Security, a former IDF Chief of Staff, Minister of Defense, and currently heading the strategic dialogue with the US, whose entire life was spent fighting Israel’s enemies, and as such, the secure candidate to steer the Jewish state through what is undoubtedly very stormy security seas to come.

Livni’s team will position her as a strong Mrs. Clean, as Sharon’s successor, and as someone who can restore the country’s faith in the political system in general, and in Kadima in particular. Kadima was founded on the promise of being different to the corrupt Likud, especially its notorious Central Committee. That image has been largely destroyed by Olmert, Hirshzon, Hanegbi and others. That Livni’s hands are politically clean, after all the corruption that has flooded this country of late, is the foreign minister’s strongest selling point.

Tell me no leaks

As the news editor of the only paper of the big four newspapers in Israel that did not publish any leaks of the Olmert - Talansky affair this week I feel that I am in the unique position to offer my assessment of what has turned out to be an extremely bizarre story.

The Jerusalem Post has covered the story of the daily leaks of the questioning of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his long-time associate Uri Messer with a benign detachment, with some amusement, and a lot of worrying about the state of our democracy. I don’t feel bad that we weren’t leaked to. On the contrary, I am happy that we are not perceived as a willing tool in somebody’s campaign, be it the Prime Minister’s Office, the police, prosecution, or any number of lawyers representing Shula Zaken, Uri Messer and Morris Talansky. We’re playing it straight, and that’s the way I prefer it.

Schalit: Big picture or family photograph

Since the conclusion last week of the Goldwasser-Regev-Kuntar deal, several leading commentators have argued that the Israeli families’ campaigns to free their sons hampered the deal, setting a higher price for the Israeli side. They accuse the media of playing up the personal tragedy that has befallen the families over the strategic interests of the country. The commentators urge the media and the family and friends of captured soldier Gilad Schalit to learn the lessons of the Hizbullah swap, and to lower their profile. They say that the national-strategic interests of dealing with the Hamas terrorist entity in Gaza and its long-term effects on the region far outweigh the personal-private interests of a family wanting to get their son back from captivity. Don’t confuse the big picture with the family photograph, they say.

This view frames Gilad Schalit as an IDF soldier, captured in battle, and whose return should be negotiated within the larger strategic picture of the Israel-Hamas-PA matrix. He is not my brother, my son, my army buddy or the boy next door, they say.

To the Schalit family, their friends and Gilad’s army buddies, Gilad is first and foremost a son, a brother, an army buddy, whose negotiated release should be prioritized over the long-term plan of how to deal with Hamas. The Hamas problem is not going away so quickly, there is time to work out the bigger picture. They are against the framing of this issue as purely the personal versus the national. They see Gilad as part of the national, a part that can be dealt with easier and quicker than the bigger picture. The Gilad camp wants the Israeli government, who wants to make a deal, to make up its mind quicker.

Hostage News Network

My head is swimming with hostage news. Last week we closed the final chapter of the Goldwasser and Regev saga, and our attention is focused squarely now on the Gilad Schalit case. Lately, Hamas has been making sounds to the effect that they want to replace the Egyptian mediators in the Schalit deal, with Germans or possibly Qataris. We’re not convinced this is a genuine call, as Hamas desperately wants the Egyptians to pressure Israel into opening the Rafah crossings into and out of the Gaza Strip. Only Egypt has enough leverage over Israel and Hamas to seriously mediate a hostage negotiation for Schalit.

I decided to look around at some of the other hostage news making the headlines around the world, and I’m interested to note the similarities and differences between what happened here last week with the return of the bodies of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and hostage news elsewhere.

So in that spirit, here is the inaugural bulletin of the all new Hostage News Network:

British PM Gordon Brown is here today, the day a Shi’ite group in Iraq released a video saying a British hostage has committed suicide while in custody.

A bad deal, but is it good for Israel?

While on a recent trip abroad, a senior Israeli defense official was asked by a foreign diplomat why Israelis were making such a fuss about the Schalit, Goldwasser and Regev kidnappings.

“I mean, aren’t you the ones who invented kidnappings in the Middle East?” the diplomat asked the Israeli.

True, Israeli commandos have, in the past, kidnapped Syrian and Egyptian generals from their beds, and Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists from their bases. Mossad agents even captured and smuggled Eichmann from Argentina and Vanunu from Italy.

So what’s all the fuss about? Why are we so emotionally vulnerable to kidnappings of our soldiers that the public pressure exerted on the government, via the media, corners the decision-makers and forces their hand in hostage negotiations? Why do we allow the kidnap weapon to be used to such effect against us by our enemies?

Rhodes: Israelis would make great cricketers

It isn’t every day you get to meet your hero, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to have met and interviewed mine today. Throughout my childhood, Jonty Rhodes was my inspiration, not just as a cricketer but as a role model. He was never really selected as a batsman or bowler [although later on in his career his batting improved dramatically]. He was selected as a fielder, whose prowess became legendary, and who could turn matches with his field work. I was never a good batsman or bowler, and nobody in my family had ever played cricket before. Rhodes’ example showed me that through fielding I could be part of a team, and cricket gave me so much growing up.

Anyway, here is an exclusive interview with Jonty Rhodes:

For those not familiar with South African cricketer Jonty Rhodes, the Cricinfo cricket website biography of the legendary sportsman is a good place to start:

“Rhodes worked harder than anyone else in a team of hard workers, frequently delaying the team bus at the end of practice for one more round of reflex catches hit from ten meters or less. Nobody has ever fielded better in the key one-day position of backward point, where he leapt like a salmon, threw opponents off balance, and stopped singles by reputation alone.”

The 38-year old Rhodes played for the South African national team from 1992 to 2003 until he was forced to retire due to injuries. He was voted one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1999, and is considered the best fielder the game has ever known. A gritty team player, Rhodes was repeatedly selected for the national side for his outstanding fielding, taking the place of batsmen and bowlers. His fielding saved his side many runs, it won games, and won Rhodes legions of followers worldwide.

Inside Israel’s greatest treasure

I took these photos this week in the Banyas waterfall and Tel Dan spring in northern Israel. I think water is a huge issue in these parts, and always was. I’m not the first person to think that one day the price of water will exceed that of crude oil. Thousands of years ago the earliest inhabitants of the Tel Dan and Banyas chose these spots because of their abundant water, which flows from the melted ice on nearby Mt. Hermon, and from underneath the ground.

I played with the camera focus and light, and tried to capture as much of the movement and contrast from within the splashing water, and I’m very happy with the results.

By the way, Tel-Aviv Municipality today hosted the 4th Annual Water Fight at Rabin Square. It sure looks like fun, and the organizers say “the aim of the event is for people to have fun. We want to make people smile and feel happy, and get wet at the same time.” I think its time to put a stop to this stupid event: taking water from the municipal fountain and wasting it on a water fight is just so pre-water-crisis-days.

This AP picture from today’s event at Rabin Square just says it all: Take the most valuable possession you have and throw it away:

Anyway, below is a sort of photo essay of one of our greatest natural treasures, enjoy.

If I die tonight

Woke up this morning alive, everything is fine. I guess the curse didn’t work. Here’s the blog post from last night:

I’m going to bed very soon, and I’m still alive. If I die tonight in my sleep its because a ‘religious’ man cursed me in Jerusalem today. As my friend and I drove past him, on the road towards the tunnel that takes you to the center of town, a man dressed in black pants, white button-up shirt, a long black coat, black shoes, and a black bowler hat screamed out “Tamut Halayla” [You should die tonight.] And all because I was driving in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. There were other cars in the area and it wasn’t a haredi neighborhood. He didn’t scream at them. I think he was a redhead.

Barak unplugged

There is nothing I can report to you from our one-and-a-half hour meeting with Defense Minister Ehud Barak at our offices today, as it was agreed beforehand that the briefing would be entirely off record.

What I can do however, is to give you my impressions of Barak at this point in time, and the thing that stands out most about him right now is that he is angry and feels that he needs to act: angry at the way the government is handling things in general; angry at Kadima, angry at what he believes are lost opportunities and wasted resources.

When talking about strategic and defense issues - Barak’s words were measured and his tone relaxed, and I got that reassured feeling that on these matters, Ehud Barak is the best possible person for the job. One year into the job as Defense Minister, Barak is confident that the security establishment is on the right track to meet the threats of the future, and he comes across as eminently believable.

Water wars

Next week, the Standards Institution of Israel (SII) is hosting an international conference with the relatively innocuous and convoluted title of “Crisis Management of Water Utilities - ISO/TC 224 WG 7.”

ISO stands for International Standards Organization, TC stands for Technical Committee number 224, and WG 7 is Working Group seven. In simpler terms, what is happening at the SII next week is of such critical importance worldwide that it took months of wrangling over the wording of the title of the conference, with some participating nations wanting to stay away from a more alarmist, yet more accurate, conference title such as “Security of Water Utilities in the New Era of International Terrorism and the Increase in Frequency of Natural Disasters.”

When it comes to the vital resource of water, and the complex issues surrounding it, Israel has long been a world expert. Situated in arid land and surrounded by enemies, the Jewish state has had to devise tools and methods to make the best possible use of the water available to it, as well as defend its water resources from sabotage and attack. Both peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan have included water agreements. Potential peace agreements with the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Lebanon, if and when they come, will detail water arrangements.

Drink tap water, trust me

Israelis, especially in the south, have been drinking desalinated water from the tap for the past two years, but increasingly, that trend is not catching on in the rest of the country as the perception that tap water is unhealthy continues to take hold. The desalination plant in Ashkelon produces much of that region’s water, and is one of the most technologically advanced facility of its kind in the world.

“The quality of desalinated water in our taps is increasing every year,” says Jacobo Sack, a veteran official at Israel’s National Water Carrier, Mekorot, and now a water and wastewater quality consultant. The increasing awareness of Israel’s acute water resource shortage has put the issue of drinking water at the forefront of the national agenda. Increasingly, Israelis will rely on desalinated water, both for drinking and irrigation, and the number of desalination plans in the country is slated to increase.

But there seems to be a vast disconnect between the contention by experts that desalinated tap water is clean and healthy, and the perception of just the opposite by large segments of the population. While there are no hard figures showing how many people refuse to drink tap water, preferring instead the bottled option, the phenomenon is quite prevalent, especially in the greater Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem areas. Some of the most common reasons given for not drinking tap water are: inconsistent water quality testing, frequent Health Ministry warnings for certain areas, the perception that water-carrying pipes are old and rusty, and, finally the taste.

Mr. Security and Mr. Politics

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz has been grilled by the local press over the past few days for saying in an interview that should Iran continue developing its nuclear program, Israel will attack it. Some commentators even went as far as accusing him of putting his political primary race, which hasn’t even been announced yet, above Israel’s strategic interests.

Shaul Mofaz, a former IDF Chief of General Staff and Defense Minister, has for years been in charge of Israel’s strategic dialogue with the United States. This posting was given to him not just because he has the security credentials necessary to understand the issues at hand, but also to sweeten the bitter pill he was given when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert replaced him with Labor Party’s then chairman Amir Peretz at the healm of the Defense Ministry. That move was seen as purely political, and Olmert paid the price of having an inexperienced defense minister at his side when he chose to embark on a war with Hizbullah in 2006. Since then Mofaz has been doing his job quietly and studiously, with very little fanfare or media leaks. He has been at the heart of the most sensitive security issues the Jewish state faces for years, building a reputation as a solid Mr. Security, a dependable ex-general we can count on in times of danger.

So why did he throw it all away?

Smoke free anniversary

Last year towards the end of May I stopped smoking. To be totally truthful, I’ve had one-and-a-half cigarettes since last May.

The first one was in Istanbul.