Being Prime Minister Ain’t What it Used to Be

October 18, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Politics 

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Rinat spent a day at the Knesset, where she used to work every day, and talks about how times have changed. Those who remember Rinat in the early days of her blog, when she arrived in Israel as a wide-eyed, somewhat confused new immigrant, will be impressed at how she has been completely transformed into a savvy experienced observer of the Israeli political scene….

I’m writing just to say I wouldn’t want to be Ehud Olmert these days. I hadn’t been in the Parlament for nine months at least. It was weird to go into fifth floor, to the parties weekly meeting and enter Kadima’s meeting room (that used to be Likud’s one once) and to see Olmert sitting in a place which… doesn’t fit him, I guess. Anyway… After Olmert and Netanyahu (the opposition leader) speeches, I just ran to the third floor in order to wait for the MKs to leave the assembly. A few minutes later, Olmert left and headed towards the office of Knesset spokeswoman, Dalia Itzik. It was even weirder. Surrounded by bodyguards he walked through the journalists and even talked to some people.

I remember that at Sharon times, noone could even approach the PM. The security guards would stop everyone. People would stand for long minutes without moving in order to let the PM and his guards pass. We knew that the PM was about to come many minutes before he actually did because of security.

I also remembered Olmert as a populist. The kind of politician who likes shaking hands with everyone around. I myself shaked hands with him many times when I used to work for the Knesset channel and he was just a minister. He carries on keeping his sympathic style. It’s nicer than the tight security system that intimidated and annoyed journalists and regular people when Sharon was in power. At the same time, Olmert’s era shows us that more than leadership, Israeli politics has definitely lost its magic. The time of the big leaders is definitely over. At least here. At least now.

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A Pilgrimage to Furniture Mecca

October 18, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Travel 

After regaling us with photos and commentary from his trips to insignificant places like the Old City of Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, our friendly attache from the Phillipines, Ernest, is finally getting down to business and checking out the important, key locations — the real Israel.

He went to IKEA. And he’s got the full report, with captioned photos, as always

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The Israel Wayback Machine: (pre, pre, pre, pre – ‘Skype Out’)

October 18, 2006 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life 


Click here or on the image for the translation

One Jerusalem has a cute item illustrating what I’ve been trying to tell my kids for a long time: what using telephony here was like BEFORE the Internet, and the advent of SkypeOutMSNMessengerAOLYahooGoogle, cellphone SIM cards, prepaid calling cards, you-fill-in-the-blank, etc…


Remember these? My kids don’t. Israeli asimon
telephone tokens, with graphics helpfully
imprinted right on them!

Ok, granted, they go a bit further back than I was aiming for – 1925(!) – but hey, the dialing instructions for calling Bethlehem from Jerusalem (about two whole miles – tops) are worth the price of admission. What I still don’t though, get is where the “asimon” telephone token goes…

(Cross-posted at Israel At Level Ground)

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