Tidbits' part II

Sorry for the delay. Here's some interesting items: - Of all the reasons to attack America, this is the best he could come up with?! Your average indymedia nut could do better than that.. - What a great idea! - Shai has another entry in his ongoing coverage of Israeli cinema (I think he should turn the entries into a comprehensive book, it's very good)

Tidbits

- Murphy's Law: My usual ride (6:30) had no room, but I got a hold of a person who was also going to BIU, only to find out that he left at 5:45 in the morning.... - The Ministry of Education conducted an inspection at the collel, to see if we all really learn there. - Finished Benny Morris' revised refugee book. I hope to comment on it another time.

I knew I was back in university...

1) ..when I stepped out and felt that suffocating, oppressive Shefela weather (remember, it isn't the heat, it's the humidity). 2) ..when I found out that the office I needed to enter happenned to be closed for another two hours that day. 3) ..when I found myself overburdened with courses, and still not making the required quota. Let us hope that this year is better than this first day experience.

Latrun: Myth and Reality

The telling of history, and especially military history, is often pervaded with incorrect and sometimes outright false information. This stems both from the unclear and disorganized nature of battle itself, as well as intentional disinformation spread by various parties. The Arab-Israeli Wars are perhaps the prime example of this. Many wild accusations have been made over the years, some of which are still prevalent today - such as the "240" dead at Dir Yassin (it was around 120) in 1948. One of the strongest and most emotionally charged of these stories is the "popular" description of the First Battle of Latrun at the end of May 1948, known also as Operation Bin-Nun Aleph. According to this version, David Ben-Gurion cobbled together a group of Jews "just off the boats" from Europe into a brigade (the 7th) and sent them - before they could be properly trained or even understand Hebrew - on a suicide mission to attack the Latrun area, fortified by two Arab Legion battallions, in order to relieve beleagured Jewish Jerusalem. He did this in flagrant disregard for both the advice of his operations officer (and de-facto Chief of Staff), Yigael Yadin, as well as the brigade commander himself, Shlomo Shamir, both of whom pointed to the unpreparedeness of the brigade on almost every level. The result: a slaughter unheard of in the annals in the Israeli War of Independence. The number killed, according to this version, range from the hundreds to the thousands. Needless to say, this makes Grant's attack at Cold Harbor (also inaccurately told - see Gordon Rhea's book on the subject) look like a skirmish. It is also incorrect in almost every aspect. Whatever isn't exaggerated is taken out of context. There isn't room on a blog to rebut everything here, so I'll stick to some of the main points, with a bibliography at the end for the rest. 1) The 7th brigade was not compiled solely of immigrants "just off the boats" at the time of the First Battle of Latrun. Several, more experienced units, including the veteran 32nd battallion from the Alexandroni brigade, were attached to balance it out. The 32nd was compiled of native born Israelis or veteran immigrants. 2) Neither Ben-Gurion nor the brigade command knew that the Arab Legion was at Latrun at all, let alone entrenched with a strength of two battallions. According to the (outdated) intelligence in their possession, the positions in and around Latrun were held by Palestnian irregulars. 3) On the basis of this information, the brigade planned to attack Latrun and neighboring Dir Ayub with only three of the nine available companies. The rest were to provide support or perform other tasks. Of the three companies that were to attack, two belonged to the 32nd, and were to attack the Latrun police station itself. Only one company was from the 72nd, which was one of the two battallions made up of new immigrants, and was to attack Dir Ayub. 4) The number of those killed at Latrun is as follows: 32nd battallion - 52 killed, 72nd battallion - 22 killed. NOT 400, CERTAINLY NOT 1,000, BUT 74 killed. Most of those killed were not "fresh off the boat", but were in the country a relatively long while. Moreover, the battle was not a constant charge against entrenched positions with "boat cannon fodder" as has often been alleged, but was rather a retreat almost from the outset. Next time someone tells you, or writes about the "hundreds slaughtered at Latrun", remmeber that this is baloney. For those of you who are interested in finding out more, I recommend the following (in Hebrew): 1) A. Yitzhaki, Latrun, Part One, Jerusalem 1982, p. 210-236. 2) Y. Gelber, Nucleus for a Hebrew Regular Army, Jerusalem 1986, p. 248-253. 3) Y. Markovsy, Gahelet Lohemet, Tel Aviv 1995, chapter on the first battle of Latrun.

Conference Blues

Well, university starts next week, so no more slacking off :). I decided to take this opportunity to write on one of the academic activities I enjoy the least - the academic conference. Academic conferences are always too long, too boring, and too pointless. I have yet to attend a conference, even on subjects I like, that did not evenetually make me want to jump out of my skin for lack of something to do. Therefore, as a public service, and in the hope that conferences will not be nearly as bad as years past, I have compiled the following short list of pointers for those who have to lecture at conferences (commentary will follow in a seperate posting): 1. Keep it short, simple and to the point. 2. If you are assigned 20 minutes, the lecture had better damned well be no more than 20 minutes. No exceptions. 3. Thank you's should last no more than 3 minutes. 4. Look at the audience, not at your notes. Engage us. Use humor if possible. 5. If there is "time to kill" during a session, don't. The audience will thank you. 6. STAY ON TOPIC. 7. Don't use 20 examples when 3 will do. Save the other 17 for the article. The same goes for evidence supporting your argument. 8. Lectures are not laundry lists. Please make each subject interesting in and of itself. Avoid the following monotonic method: "there's this....and then there's that....and then there's this..." 9. If you can not follow any of the above, edit the lecture. As for you poor shmoes who have to attend conferences, here's some suggestions: 1. Assume the worst, that the conference will be awful (it usually is). 2. Bring a book, CD Player, or play games on a pad of paper. 3. Make sure you sit in the middle or back, This way no one will pay attention if you fall asleep (snoring, on the other hand...). This has been an Emergency Public Broadcast for the conference- impaired. If you have attended a conference, don't forget to scream in horror on your way out. Thank you, and have a nice day.

Acharei Hachagim (After the holidays)

'Round here in Israel there's a special period known as "Acharei Hachagim - after the Holidays - which is both a term for a time period, as well as an excuse ("I'll get to it after the Chagim") for the procrastinaters among us (you know who you are). Myself, I'm pretty happy that the Chagim are over and that I will get back to learning - university vacations are much too long for my taste. Anyway, I had a very good time - my relatives from abroad visited us and will be staying a few more days for my sister's bat mitzvah. I hope that everyone had a good time during Tishrei, and wish everyone the very best "Acharei HaChagim". PS You might want to check out Shai's very interesting series on Israeli cinema.

Hashem Yikom Damam

I don't think that there's anything left to say.

Stunning discovery

"I'm shocked, shocked to find that gambling (Hamas members) is going on in here (UNRWA)" -Casablanca

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

Many commentators have said that if we only retreat all the way to the Green Line, with no exceptions, then peace will come to the Middle East and everything will be hunky dory. I will only tackle one aspect of this fallacious assumption - the subconcious belief that there's nothing beyond the Green Line except settlements deep in Palestinian territory. As a public service, I will therefore make a short list of some of the places that are beyond the Green Line: 1) A section of Road No. 1 (Jerusalem-Tel-Aviv Road) in the Latrun area. 2) Road 443 to Jerusalem. 3) Gilo, French Hill, the entire Old City etc etc. 4) Gush Etzion, Modi'in Think about this the next time you delude yourself that the '49 borders are miles away from Israel.