BHL

Every once in a while I run to one of the Barnes & Noble "Meet The Writer" sessions. This time was definitely worth it. BHL himself was there to present and speak about his new book, American Vertigo. I'll save you the synopsis (which you can check out at Amazon.com if you feel like it) but let's just say it made the cover of the New York Times book review, and to say that Garrison Keillor, who reviewed the book, did not like it, would be an understatement.

Having said that, BHL in person is always a good show. The man knows how to entertain an audience. Since the book deals at length with the things that make America (and actually when BHL says America, he means the USA) unique, most of the discussion and Q and A dealt with that uniqueness. At a certain point BHL made a comment that raised quite some eyebrows, but one that I definitely appreciated. He said that there was one thing that was very unique to America, one thing that only one country in the world had done. He then stopped and said: no, sorry, two countries in the world share that uniqueness. He said there were two countries in the world that were formed not on the basis of a common birthplace or language, not on the bases of a common skin-colour or background, but based on a belief in a text, and he added, not necessarily religious. Those two countries are America...and Israel.

Scrap That !

In my eternal quest to find new and innovative ways to operate a scrap business, I think I have finally come across the "right" way to do it. Certainly the most original way. Check out this site.

Coming to America

20 years ago this week, I left Antwerp and moved to the States. Where am I celebrating the anniversary of this momentous event ? In Antwerp of course. Here for the celebration of the 80th birthday of our “Pater Familias”. And of course the pictures I decide to share with you are of a culinary nature. Just some of the things we were lucky enough to be able to dig in to during the party. I didn’t get a shot of the main course or dessert, but let me just say it was supercalifragilisticexpialidelicious.

Gadget 2

Every once in a while I get so excited about a piece of technology, I just have to share it with everyone. Here's another one of these things. Some of you know that I am nuts about watching certain TV shows. I can't miss an episode. This product is called iSee and it turns an iPod into a video recorder. I am always amazed when people break barriers and combine things in new and innovative ways. Check this out.



You can use pretty much anything as a source, as shown in this diagram.

Muenchen

Nice to see a couple of much more eloquent individuals, both of whom are very much "in the know" when it comes to the subject matter, pretty much agree with my last post (incidentally Zvi Zamir is actually portrayed in the movie by an Israeli actor):

'Munich' on their minds Jewish Standard Published 12/30/2005 Opinion Editorial

Don't confuse us with the facts.
Yossi Melman and Steven Hartov

In 1984, the blood of the Israeli intelligence hunters and the Palestinian terrorists hunted in "the war of the spooks" was still congealing in the back alleys of Europe, when a young Israeli national named Yuval Aviv teamed up in a writing venture with a budding Canadian journalist named George Jonas. Aviv claimed to be a freshly defrocked Mossad assassin with a true tale to tell, and thus the game began.

The resulting best-seller was called "Vengeance," a detailed account of Israel's response to the Munich Olympic massacre of 1972. Seen through the eyes of Aviv's undercover persona,
"Avner," the tale seemed to marry well with the factual newspaper accounts of how Israel systematically eliminated the Black September killers of her athletes. At last, the book was made into a successful HBO film called "Sword of Gideon." Both Jonas and Aviv reaped substantial rewards for their "scoop."

Some years later, however, the truth about "Vengeance" was revealed in a Manhattan courtroom as Yuval Aviv was sued by a third party over royalties for the HBO film. From court documents and our own investigation, Aviv had never served in the Mossad, or in any other Israeli intelligence organization. He had failed early on during his basic training as an IDF commando, and his nearest approximation to "spy work" had been as a lowly gate guard for El Al airlines in New York in the early '70s. The tale he had woven for George Jonas was apparently nothing more than a Walter Mitty fabrication.

How then, did Steven Spielberg and his producer, Kathleen Kennedy, choose to once again bless Jonas and Aviv's tale by optioning it as the credited source for "Munich"?

Numerous offers to provide the production team with facts of the case were rebuffed. More than 30 years had passed since those early days of deadly cat and mouse (events that now seem quaint in comparison to the daily horrors of global war on terror), and participants on both sides were ready to talk. Yet the men who held the secrets were never approached. The phone never rang at the house of Zvi Zamir, who, as the former chief of Mossad, could have clarified the myths in a modest hour. Mike Harari, the former head of the Mossad department of operations who supervised Israel's hit teams at the time, did not receive a single inquiry from the Spielberg team. The families of the 11 murdered Israeli athletes were disappointed because they were not approached by the Spielberg people. Even Mohammed Daoud, the former Black September chief widely accepted as one of the Munich massacre masterminds, was dismayed that no one wanted to speak to him.

So far, the reactions to "Munich" have been predictable and essentially emotional. Some find it balanced, while others view it as overly sympathetic to one side or the other. Yet what we find most disturbing is that it is substantially a fiction that, given the influence of Hollywood cinema, may soon be regarded as a definitive historical account. The troubling question is whether there is an obligation to historical truth in a work of art that portrays real-life figures such as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, using documentary footage to support its thesis. We believe that the answer is "yes."

Steven Spielberg is a man of great artistic power, and with that power comes responsibility. For a director who delivered such historical works as "Schindler's List," his behavior in this case resembles that of a cub journalist with a great story in hand, who chooses to run it rather than confuse us with the truth and facts.

Yossi Melman, a journalist specializing in intelligence affairs for the Israeli daily Ha'aretz, is co-author of the New York Times best-seller "Every Spy a Prince." Steven Hartov, the editor-in-chief of the quarterly Special Operations Report, is co-author of the New York Times best-seller "In the Company of Heroes.

Flashback No.6

June 27, 2000. We had just completed a visit to our supplier in Montreal, Canada, and decided to make our way to the airport. Expecting our supplier to order us a taxi, he surprised us by putting us on the company helicopter and getting us to the airport by air. If you click on the picture and look carefully you can see the Montreal Olympic Stadium in the background.

That stadium brings up a whole lot of memories, some of them quite relevant today. The Montreal Summer Olympic Games took place in 1976, mere weeks after the Israeli raid on Entebbe to free the hijacked passengers of Air France flight 139. Like pretty much every Summer before that, I spent my entire school vacation, essentially two months, in Israel. That Summer though, the last one before my Bar-Mitzvah, was very different. There was a certain euphoria over what had just happened in Entebbe. Soldiers who appeared in uniform to any movie theatre got their tickets for free. Falafel stands did the same with their wares. You could feel it in the air: people were happy, proud. The nations of the world had nothing but praise for Israel (well, for a couple of weeks at least). These Olympic Games were also the first Summer games since the Munich massacre of 1972. So on the day of the opening ceremonies I was sitting in front of our old black and white TV watching every country march into this Olympic Stadium, and then it happened. The Israeli team walked in. All the athletes were wearing white hats. As soon as the banner with the word "Israel" appeared, the entire stadium got up and started applauding. It was definitely spontaneous. It was also one of the most moving moments I can ever remember. It was clear that there was both admiration for Entebbe and respect for Munich ‘72 behind this, but even at 12 years old I sensed that I was witnessing something very significant. Then the announcer’s voice called out the word “Israel”, and at that precise moment the entire Israeli team took off their white hats in a synchronized move, to salute the public. The applause intensified even more. I remember tears streaming down my eyes. I also remember the Israeli TV announcers getting all chocked-up at what they were witnessing.
Which brings us to last night. Dani and I went out to see Steven Spielberg’s “Munich”. I am not going to get into the whole debate over whether this movie is “good for the Jews” or not. That’s not my place. What surprises me is that the man decided to make this movie to begin with. The movie is based on a book by George Jonas which I remember reading back in 1984. In French it was entitled “La Vengeance d’Ephraim”, in English plain “Vengeance”. It was pretty controversial back then for the same reasons that the movie is. The book then served as inspiration for the 1986 TV movie “The Sword of Gideon”. The role of Avner played by Eric Bana in Spielber’s version, was portrayed by Steven Bauer, and Golda Meir by Colleen Dewhurst. My point is that the story had already been told. Maybe it did not have Spielberg’s flair for drama and gravitas, but it’s been done before. The source material had been denounced and debunked back then already, so why base a movie so many years later on the same, seemingly unreliable material ? Spielberg has said in interviews that he found other sources and only loosely based his movie on that book. But having just seen the movie I can assure you that almost the entire book was in there. There are maybe three things he added in his movie which might redeem (in his eyes at least) the entire project. First and foremost he does show us the entire 1972 attack in all its ugliness. Of course some people will object to the fact that the final moments, the most heart-wrenching in fact, showing the terrorists eliminating the last hostages still alive, are shown mixed with Avner making love to his wife. You can’t please everyone, but the point is, apart from the 1976 TV movie “21 Hours At Munich”, (which I highly recommend seeing, by the way, assuming one can still rent it somewhere), I don’t believe the Munich massacre was ever dwelt upon in any movie and it certainly deserves this attention. It afforded me the ability to discuss these events with Dani, so as an educational tool it has value.
The second addition (and the one causing most of the controversy), is the fictional (assuming the rest of the story isn’t, of course) conversation Avner has with a Palestinian terrorist in Athens about the chances of survival of the State of Israel and Palestinian national aspirations. This is the Hollywood political-correctness bull that this movie did not need, but I’ll leave my opinion out of that debate.
Finally there is an interesting scene with Ehud Barak dressing as a woman in Beirut in 1973 in a daring raid to execute a terrorist (a story now made famous from Barak’s own biographies). Chances are the movie will be nominated for some Oscars, and maybe Spielberg may even get his hands on some, but it sure ain’t no “Schindler’s List”.

Stern

Howard leaving terrestrial radio...on my birthday. Figured I'd mark the day, the event, right here on the blog. Back home just in time to hear the farewell broadcast.

USA and Israel

When checking in to my Lufthansa flight in Frankfurt a couple of hours ago, I noticed something interesting. All flights to the USA from Frankfurt have a special check-in desk. That desk is marked "USA and Israel". This brought to mind the famous story from the late 60's or early 70's (which I just told over lunch at Rafi's house on Shabat). In it, Ben-Gurion and Moshe Dayan are talking to each other about what they could do to solve the economic problems Israel had in those days. Moshe Dayan then proposed: "I got it ! This is what we do: we launch an attack on the United States. They beat us. We are annexed as the 51st State. The dollar becomes our official currency. All our problems are solved !"
"Ingenious !" exclaims Ben-Gurion. But then, pensive, he adds: "But what if we win ?"

This post was entered courtesy of the "Connexion" service by Boeing, allowing me to access the internet from my flight at 10,000 feet.

Announcement made over the PA-system

Velkom laydies und gentleman
Ve are happy to haf you onboard dis Lufthansa Airlines flight
Please be seated
Lift up your tablet und secure it
Put your seat in the upright posishen
FasTen your zeat-belt
AND I VANT TO HEAR ONE CLICK !!!

Zum Befehl !

Ve haf ze meanz to make you go to ze vashroom vitout ze zigaret !

Back To School

Faces of children in Israeli schools.

Natbag

Impressions of my arrival during the night in Tel-Aviv.

I AM-sterdam

I have the privilege of doing business in Amsterdam with some people who are lucky enough to have the coolest offices around. These pictures don't do the place justice.



You can see some more on their own site.

On the way out I ran into this total stranger.

And finally a view from my hotel room giving out on the Muntplein in the evening hours.

Roots

...or as the Beatles used to say: "Get Back To Where You Once Belonged". A short stop-over in Antwerp. These pictures may not be very significant to a lot of you but they represent the starting point of every "TRAM" adventure Dani has ever gone on. Notice the nice Jewish lady looking at me with suspicion on the first picture, and the young-man jumping the rail on picture 2. As they say in Israel: ללא מילים.

The Untouchables

That last entry just urged me to re-visit that famous scene at Union Station. I found this website which contains a shot-by-shot analysis of this amazing scene. At the bottom you will see a link entitled "shot-by-shot breakdown", and for those of you who haven't yet run out to the nearest Blockbuster to rent this classic (written by David Mamet, music by Ennio Morricone, directed by De Palma, with Sean Connery as he finds out that Andy Garcia's character calls himself "Stone", turns to him and in his inimitable brogue intones "Shtone ! Your name izhn't Shtone !"...could you even CONCEIVE of better entertainment value) you can follow that famous scene on the steps as it unfolds.

You'll excuse me if every once in a while I drop a little movie reference or mini-review in here. Before you know it there'll be a reference to "Blade Runner" or some other Ridley Scott flick on this blog.

Flashback No.6

Odessa, Ukraine, December 7, 2000. A picture taken in a historically very significant location. The Odessa steps leading down to the harbour. For those of you familiar with the famous images from the movie "Battleship Potemkin" by Eisenstein (1925), a batallion of soldiers is slowly walking down those famous stairs, holding rifles, on their way to crash a mutiny by naval officers in a re-creation of a failed revolution which took place back in 1905. As they march down towards confrontation, a baby-stroller accidentally released by a mother is making its way down the stairs as well.

Brian De Palma's "homage" to this scene takes place at Union Station in Chicago in the movie "The Untouchables". As Eliot Ness and his men confront Al Capone's henchmen and a shoot-out erupts, a mother accidentally releases her baby-stroller and in slow-motion Andy Garcia swoops down to catch the stroller while shooting Capone's men at the same time. A great cinematic moment.

Flashback No.5

January 1991. Just as scud missiles started flying towards Israel, with coalition forces ready to strike against Saddam, while the US were urging people not to travel, my boss decided I needed to be in Russia. I flew out on a Saturday night from the then Pan-Am terminal at JFK. The terminal was empty. My flight was empty. I was alone in Business Class onboard a Pan-Am 747. There were 4 other passengers on the plane, all in coach. They were Jewish activists on their way to Russia to help the last of the refuseniks (a few weeks later the first direct flights from Moscow to Tel-Aviv became something one would regularly see at Sheremetyevo 2 airport, so I am not exactly sure how necessary the type of mission these guys were apparently on was in those days).

My first Russian experience, in the dead of Winter, and my contact in Moscow decided this was a nice time to go visit the birth-place of the Russian Orthodox Church: Suzdal. This picture was taken in Suzdal, very early in the morning, around 7 am, as we walked around checking out churches which were each a few hundred years old. The picture is a little damaged, but let's just say that even those fancy hats were not enough to keep the cold at bay (and, no, I'm not really short - the guy I was with is VERY tall).

Black Friday

From today's New York Times:

November 26, 2005

Dawn Rush Hints at Strong Start to Holiday Sales

By MICHAEL BARBARO

At 12:05 a.m. yesterday, moments into the earliest store opening on the busiest shopping day of the year, the beleaguered employees at the CompUSA on 57th Street in Manhattan laid down some ground rules: no more pushing and no more grabbing deeply discounted merchandise out of the hands of other customers.

"Civilized! Civilized!" implored one employee, as he dumped a cardboard box full of computer equipment into the outstretched hands of two dozen shoppers, who nevertheless lunged at one another to secure some of the limited supply of wireless adapters and Internet cards.

I am not going to reproduce the rest of the article. You get the idea. The following picture was taken at CompUSA on Route 17 North in New Jersey on the famous "Black Friday", just as these two unidentified shoppers attacked some of the computer equipment on display.

Flashback No.4

I have been going to Poland regularly since 1992. Usually these trips are very "business" and I rarely get a chance to "see anything". One exception was a trip during August of 2000. I had some business in Southern Poland, for once, and therefore decided to visit Krakow. My father had often told me about his time in Krakow after the war. In particular he mentioned to me one specific address: Miodowa 26. I always liked the sound of that address. It sounded a little like "Mila 18". I still think that if he ever publishes his memoirs one day, he should name it "Miodowa 26". It was there that he was working for "Mizrahi" after the war. He even met my mother there at some point in their early courtship.

As soon as I arrived in Krakow, I made my way to that street, called up my father on my mobile, and what followed was an amazing experience. He described to me in detail what the street looked like in the 40's, and funny enough very little had changed. When we got to number 26, he described to me exactly what I was looking at, the door, the entrance, the steps, the Agudah building across the street (which unfortunately was in total disrepair). It was an unforgettable moment.

We then went for a nice walk in the town, and it was nice to see that "chinos" are very popular in Poland (check out the spelling).

A little sightseeing followed (that's my good friend Andrzej there with me).

Finally after some meetings in the Katowice area, I had to head for my next destination. I therefore went to the Katowice airport (and I use the term "airport" very liberally here). As we were getting ready to board our flight for Dusselforf, it seems our border guard felt the call of nature. He therefore had to take the necessary measures to ensure nobody "crossed the border" during his absence. So, as the picture shows, while Corporal Polanski was moving his bowels...Poland was closed.

Gadget

For those of you who know me, you know what kind of geek I am and to what extent little doodads that enhance and change the way you work, travel and entertain yourself get me all excited. Here's one I just couldn't contain myself to share with you. The shape of things to come, for sure. Check out this site.