Musica Mizrahit

I just got back from the Sarit Hadad concert at The Roxy tonight. It was an interesting event - Sarit herself was stuck in traffic and so arrived an hour late. No problem - in the meantime, the DJ spun great middle eastern techno, music that stirs my soul.

I was scheduled to say a few words before the concert, and I was a little nervous as always - it doesn't matter if I speak for 20 seconds, I can't concentrate on anything else before the speech. However, it was taking so long for the show to start that I was nevertheless able to let myself go and dance with friends from work.

After locating the organizer, I gave her my business card so she could introduce me. It's funny what some people consider to be professional behavior in front of a crowd - this woman stood in front of 400 people, squinted at my card for a few seconds, and then, with a very thick accent, introduced me as "Director of Public...pause...Disturbancy". It was so terrible that it was funny.

From the river to the sea...

Last night I attended a community memorial in honor of the victims of terror in Israel. It was a moving although sparsely attended event involving local Jewish and political leadership. There was also the ubiquitous anti-Israel protestor waving a Palestinian flag at the entrance to the memorial, something that has started to help me find the location of these events.

Some local children began the event by reading the names of victims of terror. Then came the moment of silence in honor of the dead.

A few seconds into the moment of silence, a call pierced the air: "Free, Free Palestine! Free, Free Palestine!" The anti-Israel protestors had interrupted the moment of silence, shocking us out of our rememberance and immediately helping us to understand the kind of extreme radicals with whom we were dealing.

The entire event was marred by these hecklers, who shouted "From the river, to the sea, Palestine will be free!" - something that very clearly calls for the destruction of the state of Israel - a zero-sum game, in short.

The keynote speaker was a young American man whose American girlfriend was killed while studying abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She was sitting in a cafeteria eating lunch when a bomb went off, killing her and eight others instantly. The Hamas terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attack.

In the middle of his speech, the young man was interrupted by one of the protestors, who shouted "She was killed because she was tresspassing!"

Can you imagine the type of people we are dealing with, when a study abroad student is considered tresspassing and condemned to instant death? I have nothing against the general Palestinian population that desires to live in peace alongside Israel, just as Israelis alongside them. Furthermore, I support their desire for a state. However, I have everything against someone who justifies the killing of innocents for political purposes. The sooner the Palestinians rid themselves of these radicals in their midsts, the sooner they will find themselves living and governing themselves in safe and prosperous society alongside the state of Israel and not instead of the state of Israel.

There is no excuse for targeting innocent civilians.