Wednesday, October 24, 2007

I Don’t Believe in Conspiracies

Today is Rabin Memorial Day. According to the Jewish Calendar he was assassinated today, 12 years ago. According to the Gregorian calendar it was November 4, 1995.

I think that every Israeli that was a grown-up at the time remembers exactly where he was and what he has done when the assassination was reported.

At the time I was a new student at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem. It was Saturday night (the equivalent of Sunday night in other places around the world) and I had to get back from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. My boyfriend at the time lived just nearby Malchei-Israel square, today called Rabin Square, as there Rabin was assassinated.

It was a time of controversy between those that supported peace with the Palestinians for almost any price, and those believed that Israel is making too many waivers in this peace process. Fed with assemblies for and against the peace process, and some un-related assemblies, each meant that our street is blocked again and thousands of people from all around Israel packing the area, we have decided to attend the assembly to show our support, but leave early, to make our way to Jerusalem before it ends and everyone is pouring to the streets again.

There were dozens if not hundreds of thousands of people. Everyone was in a lifted mood. We really thought, for the first time in many years, that peace can happen.

As planed, we left for Jerusalem and replaced the hectic atmosphere of the assembly with a movie in Jerusalem. Not long after the movie started someone came into the cinema and said, “Rabin was shot”. There was a hamming. People called their acquaintances to see if it is true and started leaving the theater. We were just sitting there, not really understanding what we’ve just been told. We stared at the screen, eventually we just left. Later, on the radio we heard that Rabin was dead.

The following day, I spent many hours standing with thousands of people out of the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) district, just to be able to walk across Rabin’s coffin, tell everyone that we still believe in peace and honor Rabin for all he had done for peace, including giving his own life. The policemen didn’t let us stop by the coffin, not even for a moment. You could just walk by, letting others do the same as you.

The conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of Rabin started not long after. Probably a year or two. Then, many years passed without them being in the headline, and they are here again. Same as was with assassinations of American presidents like JFK.

They claim that Igal Amir, the convicted assassin, was actually using empty cartridge, while the actual murderer was sitting in Rabin’s car. They claim that Rabin was actually brought healthy to his car. They have all their “proofs” for that, but I just don’t believe it. I don’t believe it for two main reasons:

1. Igal Amir never said that he hasn’t done it and never said he was sorry for what he has done.
2. I don’t believe in conspiracies.

I believe that Wag the Dog and JFK are just movies, and that what happened there, can only happen in movies.

In order to have this conspiracy true, we need at least ten of people involved and one person to take the blame of something he hasn’t done and pay for that in a life sentence. We also need all these people to remain silent for the rest of their lives. This is simply impossible. The officials are trying to keep quiet actions that are much less significant, and they simply can’t, because there always be someone that will speak at a certain point. I can’t believe that this could happen here either, in the most terrible action taken in Israel by an Israeli for political reason.

Tel Aviv, Israel

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Costa Rica

In Costa Rica every day is a bad hair day. Could be part of the reason I look like a mess in all of the pictures we took there. But it is partially because my high expectations from this trip were not satisfied.

In my vision I saw myself wandering at the Costa Rican forest while dozens of colorful birds are circling above my head, cute forest mammals running across me and monkeys dangling on their tails from the tree canopies… anyone who have seen Disney’s Snow-White knows what I am talking about. Well… I may be exaggerating. But I did expect to see an unusual amount of wildlife. Unfortunately reality was different, considerably different. I have only seen a handful of animals. Not even really seen a few of them, more like been told that I have seen… I mean… the guide says: “see the third tree on the left? Go up with the trunk, between these two little branches you see something brown… well, that’s a sloth”. Gee thanks… from where I was standing I could not say the difference between a sloth and a coconut.

Tel Aviv, Israel