23-Jul-06: Is That Consensus We See Breaking Out?

The image at right is of a bumper sticker (translation: "We'll win") which arrived at our home with this morning's edition of Haaretz, the Hebrew version. (We subscribe.)

Outside of Israel, the full import of the unity breaking out here might not be so obvious. But for Israelis accustomed to fractious, robust and tumultuous disagreement on almost every issue, there's something almost end-of-days about seeing Haaretz deliver what some might consider a jingoistic, sectarian message. The colors and the typography suggest (but we're not certain about this) that there is a certain Israeli bank which stands behind this gesture and probably funded it. But - to their great credit - there's no commercial logo, no "sponsored by" notice, no attempt - at least none we can see - to generate any commercial advantage. It seems to be nothing more or less than a call for national unity at a time of tremendous stress. In Israel. Heavens to betsy.

On commercial television, there's more. El Al are saluting their pilots - many of whom serve as reserves in the air force - via an emotional TV ad, for their devotion to the national effort. (El Al is no longer the property of the government following last year's privatization.) Sano, a maker of cleaning products, is engaging at their own expense at morale-raising via newly-created TV ads saluting the steadfastness of the Israeli public. NATAL, which provides mental health services at times of stress, is running a fairly intensive campaign inviting those who have a hard time dealing with their homes and towns being blown up to call them and get help. Magen David Adom, the ambulance service (and Israeli affiliate of the International Red Cross) is reminding us, via a new TV ad, of what great work they're doing under very difficult circumstances. SMILE, one of Israel's larger Internet Service Providers is running cheery TV ads that offer two months of free internet connectivity as its contribution to the war effort.

The three free-to-air TV stations (channels 1, 2 and 10) are all operating on an essentially 24-hours-of-news-and-talk format, much of it direct coverage from Haifa and the north. We've just watched an interview in English between one of the news readers and a Lebanese blogger called Yasmine. Here's the key part:

Israeli News-Reader: Do you think the Hezbollah are going to give up?
Yasmine: Fanatics never give up. I just hope their supplies run out.
INR: How do the Lebanese feel about the Hezbollah? Do they support them?
Yasmine: Only the Shi'ites do. Nobody that I know supports them. We just want to be free of them.

Since we're glued to our televisions like most of the population of this stressed-out country, we'll be sharing other aspects with you in the coming days.