But this apparent, superficial simplicity might also be their inbuilt failure as shown by the use of a quote from the book by Moshe Feiglin in his op-ed contribution in today’s Jerusalem Post: IDF Insubordination can save Israel to underline his point that disobedience and insubordination are really a duty of a good citizen. Cut from the context and standing for itself the dialogue of the king and the Little Prince it seems just fine.

Of course Saint-Exupery let’s the king say that the ruler can only order what can be fulfilled by the subjects as rule has to be based on reason. And the fact itself can’t be argued. Heart and brain have to come together in those who rule a country to secure it and propel it ahead. Yet, the king who speaks is a caricature, a king without subjects who is blown around by the one subject that shows up like a blade of grass in a hurricane. It shows that it has nothing to do with reason or good ruling to turn around in one’s decisions as a government with every ailing of every subject at every time.

I’ve been born and raised in East Berlin and I’ve seen a peaceful revolution by means of disobedience, obstinacy and simple misunderstandings or lack of communication. I grew up in a country were in it most recent history the most evil things happened because people just followed their orders and later used this as an excuse. Hence, I can follow Mr. Feigling’s remarks that some laws just need to be disobeyed and some orders rejected as they completely violate any rule of moral, humanity or reason.

Yet, as long as Israel regards itself as a democracy and hasn’t yet turned in a monarchy or even dictatorship, anarchy is not the right thing to promote. The individual has his/her chance to participate in the decision making process in many ways. The individual can vote or be voted for, can involve in parties, challenge laws in courts, express his/her opinion on the street in peaceful demonstrations, participate in the system of checks and balances and use the media for his/her ends… It’s not perfect but it is from all the bad choices around the best we have.

I already have my problems with a direct democracy a la Switzerland where the people can express their nebulous fears of a raise of Islam in their country in a vote about minarets. I could write a whole article alone about the psychology behind the phallus symbolism of minarets and church towers and what a fear of minarets obstructing the sight of church towers could say about the libido of the common Swiss. Yet I leave it at the remark that a less fear driven approach by a smaller, pre-elected group of rulers with more insight and more foresightedness might have come to less striking and reputation-damaging solutions (restrictions in building regulations anyone?) with better prospect of success with the actual problem of a creeping Islamization of Europe. A per se permission to disobey rules and laws set up by a government voted into office with the majority of votes because they don’t fit the own ends and deeds is out of question for me.

And to finish this off – an army is an army and not a political party or movement. You get drafted and you serve because it is the duty of each citizen as long as the country needs protection. It is a limited time in which the soldier enters a special relationship status with the state where s/he is charge and guard of the state at the same time with special rights (payment, safeguarding etc.) but especially a special duty to loyalty. Because as the word ‘to serve’ implies already the soldier or the army made up of soldiers is not the ruler but the servant. As hard as it would be on me as well to obey someone just because s/he has more stripes (and here we are at the phallus symbols again) it’s the only way the army can fulfill the only reason it is around – protection of the state. Hence, disobedience in an army, though there might be cases where it is asked for, will never save someone but rather endanger the whole people.

The very first aliyah gift I was presented with was my own domain makingaliyah.com, coming with the technical support from my very good friend and web mistress Anne Moss. She hosts a whole bunch of very interesting blogs starting from www.israelimom.org where she blogs about life in Israel in general, continuing with TheCatSite.com and CatsGoShopping.com for the servants of feline masters and Gifts4Kids.net for servants of underage masters to her latest child a blog for webmaster nerds b6s.net.

Now, I need to fill my precious gift with life. And guess what! I already have a rough outline of a plan I want to discuss with you today.

Things I plan to cover:

Diary – First and foremost this blog is of course about my aliyah and the thinks I do and experience while integrating into my new home. I want to cover all ups and downs and curiosities daily life has in store and hope I will manage to make it a worthwhile read.

A pillow makes aliyah – I won’t go alone. I will be accompanied by a pillow, another gift I got from a friend of the online community @freiwoman from Twitter. And other than it is the case with me who has chosen freely to leave Germany behind to discover the world, the pillow is kind of forced into the adventure. As a little makeup for that I give the pillow room to rant here freely about the things it doesn’t understand.

Photos and News from my home of choice – I bought me a new digicam that is even water resistant for up to three meters so I can show you where I go and what I saw. Adding to that I just can’t have a blog about Israel without talking politics. I would explode if I missed out on that.

Aliyahguide – Over time I hope to gather all information others would need who want to take the same step and come to Israel to live here. This is not unique but I think a blog with the title makingaliyah should also provide this information. But I will focus mainly on things interesting for those coming from Germany, other Western European states and the US.

Aliyahnews – I will scan all news available from NBN, the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Absorption and add good news to my site.

Ole, Ola, Adoption! – A little pet idea I want to realize once I got settled in at least a little bit. I am given a great opportunity as I will be participating in a special program at a kibbutz for the first time in the new country. And I have been fortunate enough to get to know so many great people via the diverse social media who will help me to stay and overcome the obstacles that will naturally pile up on my path – life isn’t a rose garden. Yet, many young, well-educated adults who might have passed the age of 20 or 25 but are still without family of their own might flinch from doing aliyah though they would be an enrichment because they fear the loneliness and the missing encouragement and assistance of a family living near by. With Ole, Ola, Adoption I want to bring together these Olim with typical Israeli families so that the one can grow roots while the others can smell the wind of the wide world.

What do you think? Is anything missing you would expect of an aliyah blog? Does anyone want to contribute – old olim, new olim, olim to be or Israelis? I am open to suggestions and to any help. Thank you in advance.

The Divine Comedy, written in the darkest parts of the Middle Ages, is considered one of the major works of world literature. Narrated in the first person it gives an account of a trip to the afterworld with return. Honi soit qui mal y pense and chastisement for those who chalk Dante’s visions up to the consume of too much of the good Italian red wine or the use of forbidden substances, subject to the Narcotics Act

Anyway, according to Dante the place located between heaven and hell, Inferno and Paradiso, is called Purgatorio. It is the area of sublimation and catharsis. In Dante’s mind it was a mountain rising from the ocean with a path winding around it towards the light. Other as in hell, there pain and desolation can’t be outgunned by anything else, on the mountain dominates hope, critical self-reflection and learning.

Now, Dante’s medieval, Christian vision of the world is somewhat hard to reconcile one to one with my Jewish-secular, scientific coined picture of the world today, to boot as my visions of an afterlife with heaven and hell drift towards zero. Yet, I am attracted by the powerful picture of a mountain ascent via a spiraled path when I think about life.

Frequently I end up at a point in life where I am crept over by a feeling I’ve been there already, maybe a short while or a long while ago. And then again not. The perspective on the future, on what lays ahead of me, might be the same. But the level from that the reflection is done has changed. I have proceeded on the spiral path around the mountain and, as I have learnt things on my way, I hopefully have ascended some.

Sometimes, a detour or shortcut via the direct way up might seem tempting. Sometimes, boulders, rubbles, trees might block my outlook onto the familiar sight and might bring me in danger to loose myself. Sometimes, I’ll make a false step at challenging places and will be in danger to slip off.

But then my family and friends are on the spot. They line the path, grant me their company for a certain leg or my whole life – might they be close at my side or further away. They are my rope team, my mountain rescue service, my security net and sometimes the thorn in my flesh that eggs me on.

I am thankful for that, I am thankful for you.

This post was created as part of a global groundswell of gratitude called TweetsGiving. The celebration, created by US nonprofit Epic Change, is an experiment in social innovation that seeks to change the world through the power of gratitude. I hope you’ll visit the TweetsGiving site to learn more, and to bring your grateful heart to the party by sharing your gratitude, and giving in honor of that for which you’re most thankful.

acrylic on canvas, 50 x 100 cm

My latest picture finished last Sunday (Nov 15, 2009). I had the idea to this picture during my trip to Israel in September. One Friday Josh and I visited Yad V’Shem and were invited afterwards to a Shabbat dinner with a family at Jerusalem. Only a few days afterwards we climbed Masada during sunrise. And every time I visit this rock in the desert I hear this voice in my mind saying ‘Masada mustn’t fall again!’ This time this little voice added: ‘As often as they have tried to bring the Jewish people to fall, they never managed to succeed completely. After Masada, after the holocaust and everything in between – We are still here and we are here to stay.’

Did you enjoy every moment, every wink? In E.T.A. Hoffmann’s story ‘The Sandman’ the eyes of the life-size doll Olimpia and her glances, from his perspective always tracing the student Nathanael, make him first meet insanity then death. Yet, even though constant surveillance is torture, eyes and their glances are mirrors of the soul and of life. Hence, they fascinate me and are a never ending source of inspiration. 

So, it is no wonder that I got hooked by two other books in which eyes play a major role – Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. Admit it, you never thought you would ever hear these two works mentioned under the same breath. Yet Dante’s paradise, for him a divine or heavenly place that is fortified on all sides against the invasion of evil or unhappiness, is with its 9 spheres quite similar to Rowling’s 9 story, medieval castle with its thick walls, high watchtowers, which is known as a ‘stronghold of ancient magic’, which can only be seen by those few with the ability to wield magic and which would never have come into existence without the same talent. 

And what is all this talk about eyes then? While Dante travels to paradise while looking into the eyes of his first and deepest love Beatrix, a love he was never to live, Harry is recognized by his eyes that are so similar to that of his mother, who died because she loved him dearly. These eyes accompany us on our travel to and through paradise searching for the gold in the world and in us. 

And still, the eye in the first picture of my ‘Hogwarts and Dante’s 9 Spheres of Paradise’ series shines rather like a black sun. It reminds us that Paradise is fragile and nobody living there is a one-dimensional, all-good, all-saint creature. This is a message repeated on every sphere of Dante, every level of Hogwarts, every picture of the series. 

If already paradise up to the Fixed Stars and the Empyrean Heaven is not perfect why should our world beneath it, that vibrates around us, be split in good people and Death Eaters, even though I admit such an approach would make the judgment and solution of complex conflicts and the opinion finding process much easier? Yet, we need to keep aware that gold is buried in mud. We all and everything have light and have a Shadow that escorts us like an uninvited guest who came to stay. 

Furthermore, everyone has a story, a past, strengths and weaknesses, has a parentage and background and talents. It’s not without reason that it is said: Whoever rescues a single life rescues a whole universe. The largest universe for us to discover, the only corner of the world we can change is us. 

I sallied forth, have the freedom, am a permanent student of myself. After I’ve read a lot – next to other books I’ve read ‘Who am I? And if yes, how many?’, a question I, the pumpkin and it’s seeds, can clearly answer with “21” – it was time to write my own story. ‘One King’s Children’, even though it was not planned like that as it is designed to be a political thriller, became another try to get a better understanding of myself and to embrace a cactus. 

No fear, your eyes on me have not yet driven me crazy so that I started to stutter nonsense. One calls a Jew born in the country “Sabre”, prickly pear. Therefore, the place s/he has grown from must be a cactus. Israel, the land my grandparents did their share to build up, the place my mother was born and the dream living in my heart, has the beauty of a succulent with thorns one has to deal with. While looking into the stingy subjects as well as while arguing any other subject the world can bring up I allow myself the wealth of an opinion of myself and of taking my own path. And as you can see I make them tangible and audible at occasions like these. 

Remembering, attention gaining, turning the limelight onto an injustice that needs to be eliminated as fast as possible as it already lasts for way too long is in the end my primary concern here and on this day. So, let me repeat my question from the very beginning – so you still know what you did during the last three, three and a half years, since June 25, 2006? 

No? One young man called Gilad Shalit knows to name exactly the one thing he did since he did only one thing. After at age 19 being kidnapped by Palestinian militants in a cross border raid from the Gaza Strip at June 25, 2006 he sat in captivity ever since. 1215 days, more than three years without any contact to the world he loved – what an unbelievable long period in an already tight measured life time! Much more than just a wink. It is a time span in that a seed grows to a seedling resembling already the tree it once will become. It is a time span in that the tree of life has developed and changed so much. 

Since very recently, since a video message was published, that the Israeli government bought at the high price of the release of 20 convicted criminals before their time, we know that Gilad Shalit has kept hold of the tree of life during all these years. But now in the very latest it is high time to give him as well the opportunity to search for the gold in the world and in himself, to discover himself, to allow him the wealth of an opinion of himself and to enjoy every wink. It is time to rescue another universe. Freedom for Gilad Shalit!

It is a place where the boys reaching drafting age might not be called upon at all or rather learn to handle bandages or bed pans than weapons as the land hasn’t seen any war for more than 60 years. In the heart of good old Europe it is firmly embedded in the EU, NATO, and UN. It had time to prosper and grow, it even had 20 years almost to the day to become one nation and to close the scar the Wall once had ripped open. Hence, the place I am going to is known for a rather good economy and a very strong social security hammock some people choose or are forced to use their whole life long without leading a miserable one. It offers health insurance and education at no or low costs for all. 

It is so deeply rooted in the Christian tradition and values that it can call itself a secular state with religious freedoms for all and still only few would question the righteousness of the statement when shops close on Sundays, Christian holidays are given off by law and Christian values are protected by the constitution. It is an undisputed democracy even though the large parties have a hard time to distinguish their programs from each other as they all gather in the middle and people complain on a very high level. And it is liberal enough to allow for a female chancellor, an openly gay mayor heading the capital and in the future a not less openly gay foreign minister. 

Yes, I am aware of the privileged life I am allowed to live in Berlin. Yet still, l have this silly hope for someone to come up to me in the last minute telling me that I mustn’t step into this airplane, that I have to stay; saving me of the need to make a decision and defend it; giving me an excuse not to return – as I have fallen in love. 

I have fallen in love with Anat, Tsachi, Ron and Dan, Amos and Zipora, Boaz, Ayelet and their motek who have welcomed me with open arms, doors and hearts into their home though they barely knew more of me than a few words sent back and forth via internet. I fell in love with Debra, Aaron and their two daughters who celebrated Shabbat with me in Jerusalem after a day in the beginning dedicated to the blackness and pain of Yad V’Shem. And maybe last in this list but definitely not least I fell in love with Josh whom I discovered to be in many ways so similar to me that it sometimes became scary, but in the end he is so much braver than I am. 

However, even more so I fell in love with what I call my cactus. If Jews born in the country like my mother are called Sabres the thing they grow from must be a cactus. And Israel has the rough, stingy beauty of a succulent. 

It is not always easy to embrace her. Some examples? I was more than just a bit disappointed when I tried for several months before my trip that ends today to find a contact in the IDF able and willing to explain to me why – though I have always been a citizen of Israel thanks to my mother – I have never been called upon for service in the army and how I could possible make up for it by working for the IDF now applying my skills even at the high age of 33. Though I called, wrote emails and letters, and approached all possible sources up to Def Min Barak and President Peres I received the typical Israeli runaround and never even got as much as a recognition of my tries. I didn’t like the fact that at some occasions even friends introduced me as German although I’m Israeli – just that my Hebrew is still rotten. But hey, there are people living in the country who are even worse and don’t even try to use it. And when it comes to some of my favorite subjects – domestic and foreign politics and international law – high levels of testosterone, religious and national fanaticism as well as unteachable enemies and maybe well meaning outsiders getting involved in the conflicts produce many stings that pinch the skin when hugging. 

But it is always worth to care for Israel as its flowers and fruits repay one a thousand fold for any hustle. Where else would they ask me for the Jewish holidays we just celebrated to check my identity if not at Ben Gurion airport? In Israel’s beautiful lap of all places I am not the orchid in a field of corn and its flowers, always in a more or less immanent danger of becoming one of an extinct kind. I am just one of a kind, maybe able to find a significant other of the same species in order to multiply; definitely able to use my skills to make a difference in a still young, unsettled nation. Here the constant struggle of survival in a sometimes hostile environment is turned into palpable energy, lived daily and not saved in banks and insurance funds for a distant day that may come or not. 

The words don’t just sound like it, I’m a Zionist. But in the end it is not so much that I think that Israel needs me. I am not that vain. She can survive and prosper without me. But on this trip even more so than ever before I realized that I need her. 

Bred and raised in Germany by an Israeli mother and a German father I combine the blood of the henchmen with the genes of the victims. That’s not just a pathetic sentence. While my maternal grandparents were in dear danger of dying by the hands of the Nazis and later did their share to built up the state of Israel, my paternal grandparents never overcame their brown ideas, their proud in being completely Aria and this grandfather fed me in my childhood with his cherished stories of how he guarded the V1 rockets in France and crossed half of Europe until he ended in Italy once they had to abandon their ‘babies’. 

I don’t know how my parental grandparents were able to compartmentalize and how they were able to blend out the guilt. Nor do I understand why my maternal grandparents were allowed to live while millions of others were tortured and killed. But I’m thankful my people is still alive and lives its culture and traditions. I’m grateful I’m allowed to live. And I am indebted to owe this blue passport with the menorah on the cover that promises me that I will never again be denounced to prey. And now I want to know how it is to live this promise, secure it for generations to come. On the way I hope to find the other, still missing half of my Me that was put with me into my cradle and made me the orchid. 

I guess then it is now the moment to enter the airplane back to the old life to let go of what was and dive into the dark and unknown. I will try to do it organized as much as the life of an artist can be organized and to start it with a conscious decision. But still I need to jump into a void. I can just hope that I will be brave enough and lucky to find the right people helping me along, to avoid the stings as much as possible and to be rewarded with the beauty. 

I leave with a promise to my love: I’ll come back home asap.

Special Tweet for Special People Sarah

Another special tweet

just another view on it

and yet another

That’s deserving of thanks. Anything making the fate of Gilat Shalit easier and lessens the number of days he still has to spend in this dreadful captivity is highly welcomed. Yet, I wonder why information on the mediation leaked just in this moment. Was it just the upcoming visit of Netanyahu turning the focus onto the German Israeli relations?

Honi soit qui mal y pense. Germany has a general election for the Bundestag upcoming in September. After just another legislative period under the lead of a great coalition of SPD and CDU/CSU current chancellor Merkel can’t score in any domestic question anymore. The involvement of Bundeswehr in Afghanistan is seen very critical since what started as a happy boys scout trip has made more soldiers return in coffins than the ordinary, politics-dispirited German, who asks what dealings Germans have at the Hindu Kush, can stand. And though Germany is still in the ban of Obama-mania, the pivotal hero isn’t inclined to pose for nice photos and nice words. Hence, another success in some unsolved question praised internationally would come in handy.

That Germans involved precisely in talks with the Hamas is somewhat telling. Although Merkel joined Netanyahu in calling for tighter sanctions on Iran now, one shouldn’t forget that Germany is one of the best trading partners of the Mullah regime that is as well the backer of the Hamas. As they mediate and do something good for Gilad Shalit and Israel they talk with the terrorist organization. Though this might seem a simple statement the reasons behind it or the consequences of talks becoming public are not. This is just another small step to a possible normalization of relations with Hamas as is more frequently demanded in Europe lately.

But while I’m always for talks with enemies to further peace as one does not negotiate peace agreements with friends I would think it necessary to work things the other way around. Mediate if you are in a position to help but do it in secret without the desire to take advantage of the result for your own position domestically or internationally. Ask the terror organization publically for a renunciation of all terror (legal-wise there is no use in asking them to recognize Israel as Jewish state or state of the Jews as states exist once they consist of the three elements state territory, state authority, body politic and the Jewish element has to be anchored in a possible constitution; yet politic-wise it would be a nice add on). And only once they did so and meant it, consider publically to talk to them officially.

Yet, this wouldn’t help Merkel in the upcoming election anymore as it would take too much time and patience. And it is probably not in the interest of Germany’s good trading partner…

I read this dialog this afternoon on twitter. And it reminded me immediately of Tucholsky’s ‘All soldiers are murderers’ remark. 

Tucholsky? Kurt Tucholsky (January 9, 1890 – December 21, 1935) was a German journalist and writer. He was one of the most famous publicists of the Weimar Republic, a social critic, democrat, participant of WWI and afterwards adept pacifist. His remark ‘All soldiers are murderers’ originally derives from the gloss ‘The Guarded War Arena’, published under the alias Ignaz Wrobel in the mag ‘Die Weltbuehne’ in 1931. There he wrote: 

“There had been four years long many square miles of land where murders were obligatory, while half an hour away from that place it was strictly forbidden to do just that. Did I say: murder? Certainly, murder! All soldiers are murderers.” 

Tucholsky, who was co-founder of the Friedensbund der Kriegsteilnehmer (Coalition for Peace of Participants of the War), criticized with his remark national governments that force young men in recruiting age to kill for national interests and deduced that a war is an ordered, collective murder. 

From then on up to today the remark has occupied many German courts including the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Supreme Constitutional Court) and has become a catch phrase of the German pacifistic community. 

Yet, what do you think? Where would we be without people brave enough to risk their lives for our freedom and integrity? 

Sure, you could say that if all people laid down their guns and embraced a peaceful life we wouldn’t need any army anymore – swords into ploughshares, peace and prosperity for all! But with humankind as it is, always dreading the different in the other, always thinking the own kind superior, and always begrudging the other of the things s/he has earned or gained this is just utopia. 

As long as the prisoner’s dilemma enchains our minds we need armies to enforce our values – our laws, democracy, freedom and sheer our lives – and defend them against those attacking us. Certainly, armies need rules too and have to keep up to moral standards. Their conduct needs to be checked and checked again, as weapons mean power and power might fog the brains and wits. And any misconduct needs to be punished severely.   

But in the end, imho no soldier in the army of a democratic state is automatically a murderer. And to blame one of cold-blooded behavior in a moment of death or life is plainly defamation and over-simplifying a very difficult situation.