It’s been a great first week in Israel, getting to know the Israeli anyclip team that work hard to make the dream of any moment from any film instantly. But, as it was for everyone here, this week was overshadowed by the events with the Marmara.

Before moving to the U.S. I used to read two newspapers a day, listen to the radio news at least once, watch late nigh news on TV and check the web. In the U.S. I read ynet once in the morning (to make sure Israel is still there) and I found that I am more obsessed about my Google Reader reading list than the news. But anytime I get back to Israel, it is back to my old self of reading the paper (thanks to Dan Botique which gives me Haaretz every day), checking ynet 5 times an hour and watching the news on TV. It makes life much harder…

American would want to know what the Israelis are thinking, well everyone here (except for Bibi and Barak) feel that we were right to do what we did but stupid to do what we did. Nobody likes to be hated by everyone, and the people in Israel are no different. No one is happy with the outcomes, but like in the U.S., the IDF is above everything, so no one criticizes it. The criticism it aimed toward the intelligence groups and the political leadership.

Talking politics is Israel’s national pass-time and everyone has an opinion. So when one wanders and asks why such a smart nation keeps voting for Netanyahu, the answer is what’s the alternative? and sadly we don’t have a good one. There is no amazing charismatic leader that will say what everyone is thinking (and more than 80% of Israeli voters would give all the occupied territories in a second and would compromise on Jerusalem for a promise of a long lasting peace) and would stop giving up to the extreme right and to the religious parties. Is Israel going to continue being the new South Africa? it all in the hands of Yair Lapid.

Israelis’ favorite question to me is “have the Americans had enough with Obama?”. Being such a small country in the center of the world news you tend to think that everything is revolving around you, and now that it is clear to everyone that Obama doesn’t really like Israel and puts the Arab nations before Israel shouldn’t he lose the next elections?

I personally think that this is the wrong question and, like many Israelis, I didn’t really get that before living several years in the U.S. The right question is the relationship between American Jews and Israel. In the past, Israel enjoyed an overwhelming support from the American Jews and therefore could blindly rely on the U.S. support. But today, with the fourth generation after WWII, American Jews are well… American, who are more worried about the U.S. economy, health care and civic rights than being Jewish or about Israel and therefore Ma Laasot will vote to the Democratic Party irregardless of Israel. Israel has to understand that, which means that if Israel wants the future generations of American Jews to continue give their support to Israel things have to dramatically change in the peace process (BTW1: I think it is the opposite with the Muslim and Palestinians in the U.S. who now blindly support the Palestinians) (BTW2: I never grasped the challenges of Judaism in the U.S. until the last Holocaust memorial service in Emanu-El synagogue, in which we were part of less than 10 people group under the age of 40 out of 2000 people who attended the service).

I am hoping for a quieter week in terms of politics and for getting more good work done.

I’ve never had a guest post on my blog before. But I’m thrilled to start with this one. It’s a great story about determination & passion and it’s by Nick Crocker who starts at Boxee today.

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