Joel Schalit

Coming to a Conclusion

In 2008, I edited three books, an international news portal and a Jewish cultural periodical, led the design of a leftist publisher’s website, and completed the last two revisions of my own book, Israel vs. Utopia. It was an incredibly exhausting year. Nevertheless, I put to use every conceivable kind of editing skill, in every publishing context, that I’d ever acquired, and somehow, got it all done.

This past week, the website I designed finally launched, and I received physical copies of two of the three edited books in question: Martin Bull’s Banksy Locations and Tours, and Naoki Inose’s A Century of the Black Ships: Chronicles of War between Japan and America. Bull’s book is already out in the US. Black Ships is forthcoming in April. The third title, James Horrox’ A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement, will be out in June.

It is enormously gratifying to see these long-term projects slowly being released. As tempted as I am to share it, yesterday I got a chance to look at a very advanced draft of my own book’s cover too. In preparation for my publisher’s catalogue, after five years of steady work on IvU, I was positively thrilled to have this labor of everything, for lack of a better term, moving to its design phase.

I’ve been absolutely fried these last two weeks, and have been doing very little personal blog writing, shy of entering a link here and there. There’s more news yet to come. In the meantime, check out my first entry for the Religion Dispatches blog. It was written on my friend Evan’s suggestion, and published Tuesday night.

Portable Storage Device

Yesterday, I went to a local internet cafe to fax a copy of my Israeli passport’s first three pages to my parents. In the midst of transferring the title of my stepmother’s Opel station wagon to me, they needed proof of Israeli identification.

Handing over the paperwork to the cafe’s Somali owner, I noticed this wall display behind him. “Who do you think is the election’s winner?” the guy asked, as he took note of the Hebrew-language documentation I had given him.

Appetite for Self-Destruction

If you followed the Israeli elections this week, you’re already aware that the actual victor is not Tzipi Livni or Bibi Netanyahu, but Avigdor Lieberman, a former nightclub bouncer from Moldova. He may have come in third place, but, as Lieberman never ceases to remind us, he’s going to determine Israel’s agenda.

I have my way with the right-wing MK in my latest editorial for France 24. Placing Israel Beiteinu‘s electoral appeal in the context of the failings of the Olmert government, I try and provide something other than the kinds of war-focused explanations currently being offered by the editorials I’ve read thus far.

Everywhere a Montage

Whenever I’m in London, I think of Michael Jackson, the Bible, and Gaza. At the same time.

No Such Thing as the Diaspora

Israeli conservatives always proffer the most inexcusable of anti-Zionist conundrums. Indulging justifiably anti-colonialist reflexes, they frequently are wont to discourage foreign Jews from involving themselves in domestic political affairs. “We know what’s best for us, don’t get involved,” or so the tired retort often goes.

At the same time, those Israelis who issue such admonitions are also the first to bemoan Diaspora Jewish alienation from Israel. Such concerns have multiplied in recent years, especially considering how increasingly divergent foreign Jewish opinion is on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, in contrast to Israeli government policy.

One of my favorite Jewish writers in the UK, Keith Kahn-Harris, has just published a great piece in Makom‘s new supplement to the English edition of Haaretz. Encouraging Diaspora Jews to get involved, Keith’s article explains what’s at stake in remaining complacent, and why Israel’s affairs are the responsibility of global Jewry.

Council Estate Irony

It could be celebratory tagging. Considering how much pro-Obama iconography is to be found in our neighborhood, its not unreasonable to consider.

However, from the looks of it, this displaced gate blocking entry to the nearby council estate looks like it had been marked long before the US elections, in all likelihood, in reference to something else.

Still, its a terrific commentary to encounter at this historical juncture.

Mystery Meats

Throughout Europe, kebabs are taking a fierce beating. Following the prohibition of new ethnic eateries opening in Lucca, a move that Italian leftists decried as culinary ethnic cleansing, a UK government survey disclosed some nasty facts about the British dietary staple.

Aside from being decidedly unhealthy, a considerable number of the kebabs sampled were found to contain trace elements of pork. I haven’t read what London’s Turkish community newspaper had to say about it. However, on Friday, it was clearly headline news.