Cheers!
It’s a little early for Oktoberfest in Germany, but it’s already Septemberfest in Jerusalem. Liz lifted her glass at the Jerusalem Beer Festival.
Two drinkable items on the roster:
Haven’t drank this in over 3 years! Used to be my nightcap on my semester in England; we had a proper bar on the floor below us in the dorms, so it was top off the night with a Strongbow or a Snakebite (which I still haven’t had since then; Snakebite is something different here).
2. Taybeh Beer.
Believe it or not, Ramallah has its own brewing company and the liquid is not bad at all… A friend introduced this to us from his Israeli Arab classmate. They have a dark and a light.
Post-Ceasefire Life
Sabra Prickles lives in Shlomi, just two kilometers from the border with Lebanon. It’s taking a while to return to a quiet life after a month of artillery fire, but she’s getting there.
So now there is no background noise of artillery fire and we can walk freely outside.
On the first Sunday of the ceasefire my son’s classmate had a birthday. Her mother wanted to hold the party at the local beach. I thought it was a great idea but warned that other parents might still be nervous of an outside event….Of course just burgers are not enough, every party must have an entertainer. This guy introduced himself by explaining how pleased he was to be back working at children’s parties – he had spent the last month as an infantry solider in Lebanon….
After balloons and some games he told the children of a night he’d spent in Lebanon. In the middle of nowhere carrying heavy equipment they had crouched under some bushes for cover while Israeli and Hizbollah fire crisscrossed the night sky above them. The blazing colours had, he claimed, inspired him to create a new game. The children liked the story and loved the game….
The Matnas (local community centre) arranged an activity program for the children in the morning of the first full week after the ceasefire. Sunday they just met up with their friends and on Monday there was a trip to Kfar Maccabbiah (home of the Jewish Olympics). …
Kfar Maccabbiah had invited groups from several towns in the north as well as from Sderot (main target for Qassams from Gaza) in the south. They were very organised. As we walked through the entrance they handed us a snack breakfast and the lead us to the area reserved for Shlomi…When the children rested between dashing around all the different pools they refreshed themselves with iced lollies and candyfloss.The food was laid out on tables buffet style with staff serving at the hot platters. There was a wide choice of food and it was tasty. Even though we piled our plates high we went back for seconds. After a month of bland army food my husband really enjoyed the spicy stir-fry noodles.
In the afternoon there was a performance by the stars of the children’s channel and a couple of pop stars. There was some highly amplified singing and an insane amount of bouncing around on stage. Meanwhile the parents had a heated discussion about the failures and corruption of local government during the war. Stories communal to all of the inability to obtain food parcels while warehouses were packed full, trips to 5 star hotels that nobody knew about except those close to the Mayor, donated electronic goods that had never been distributed and the total disregard for the majority of the population stuck in security rooms. The more you hear the worse it gets. Children with special needs or health problems who were told that there was no relocation of any sort while donor organisations tell a totally different story of trips and relocations.
I thank everyone for being so generous but I think from now on organizations will have to supervise their assistance programs much more closely….Tuesday we had our congregation board meeting. We spent half the time discussing various initiatives to help members of our congregation deal with the aftermath of the war.
First order of business was to confirm that we had made the necessary repairs to the community center where we meet for Friday services. A katyusha had fallen in the yard damaging an aircon unit and some railings as well as shattering the windows. The center is a government building but we had decided that the bureaucratic red tape would tie us up forever and so we took on responsibility for repairs. This ensures a quick return to normal services for us and we hope will build goodwill for the future….My husband was at home for most of the week as the army had given him extra days to catch up on sleep before he returned to work. At work they were desperate for him to go back and he was greeted with great celebration when he returned on Thursday. You would think that with the children at the community center and my husband at home to run errands I would have had plenty of time to work. But husbands, however pleasant they maybe, are time-consuming. They needing feeding and clothing and occasionally you have to talk with them and pay them some attention!
By the end of the week I had mountains of laundry. All I seemed to be doing was cooking and washing dishes, eating and keeping my hubby company as he consumed the news.
On Friday I had planned to take the children out but they were happily occupied with their guest and I was absolutely exhausted from doing nothing all week.In the evening we went to services in the community center, through the newly repaired windows we could see the children playing in the courtyard and the shrapnel marks peppering the walls.
Feeling Lucky
All over the country, Israelis have been soberly watching the newly-released video of the kidnapped soldiers on the evening news, it was particularly heartbreaking to view the footage of Ron Arad, who has been gone so long.
For Dave of Israellycool, viewing the film was well-timed and had a silver lining: it offered him some badly-needed perspective on a rough day:
I was just remarking to my wife tonight how much bad luck we seem to be having. Yes, I admit to feeling a bit sorry for myself, after it became apparent this week that we will almost certainly lose thousands of dollars in a transaction gone wrong. If this wasn’t enough, I got a flat on the way home tonight, and had to wait almost an hour for assistance since I couldn’t see a darn thing (more lights on the roads, please!)
But when I got home, I happened to catch the footage of Ron Arad on Channel 10. Now, I feel like one of the luckiest people in the world.
Perspective’s a b*tch.
Can You Be Too Angry To Blog?
David Bogner says yes:
I’ve woken up every morning this week hoping for a reason not to be angry. The reason for this unusual aspiration is that I know from experience that the one thing 100% guaranteed to chase away any shred of creativity I might have possessed when I opened my eyes… is anger.
But then I check the news sites… and the anger returns.
Every morning I read about more stonings… more Molotov cocktails… more stabbings… more shootings… more roadside bombs… more kassams.
Why are the terrorists turninig up the heat?
Because they can smell the weakness and indecision wafting off of our leaders and are pressing what they perceive to be their advantage.
Since our leaders agreed to that shameful ceasefire they have continued making and breaking a seemingly endless stream of promises. They promised the Israeli people that the laughable terms of the ceasefire would lead to the unconditional return of the hostages. They promised the families of the hostages they wouldn’t lift the embargo of Lebanon until the hostages were returned. They promised the world they would never negotiate a prisoner exchange with terrorists.
I am sick inside at the realization that there is literally no honor in the lot of them and that there is quite simply no promise our current leaders won’t break.
I have woken up every morning this week thoroughly ashamed to be an Israeli… and far too angry to write.
Faking It
Israeli drivers are notorious for their impatience and the way they ignore the rules of the road and the speed limit. The Israeli police and other government authorities are notorious for refusing to increase their budgets so that there is real enforcement of traffic laws, and not enough speed traps on the roads and highways. (the two are obviously related.)
So how do you try to get drivers to slow down on the cheap?
Fake speed traps.
A Hebrew web site has uncovered numerous fake cameras planted on roadsides around the country. The One Jerusalem blog magazine is helpfully showing its readers how to distinguish between the real cameras and the fakes.
The model on the left is real — the Hebrew site points out all of the features that prove it is. The one on the right — as Elaine from Seinfeld would say, “Fake, fake, fake, fake.”
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