Foto Friday #20
Photography is an art form with shifting perspectives. The lens is the transmitter for multiple forms and ranges of complexity and viewpoints. In today’s digital age, photos provide instantaneous art gratification. Immediate, tiny morsels of art form at the fingertips of the masses.
Are you following me?
No?
Me neither. I’m spouting junk. Enjoy. Good Friday to all.
Beach…My Mom’s Recipes and More
Palestinian Culture Festival, Jaffa…..OCCUPIED
Sudanese Refugees….fugitive peace
No Mikva Baths
A homeless person who broke into a mikva ( Jewish ritual bathhouse) for a dunk was sentenced to 60 days in prison, according to Hebrew daily Yediot.
The homeless man has a history: his criminal record includes dozens of violent outbursts and the sentencing judge said although breaking into the bathhouse wasn’t a critical violation, the nature of the act presents a threat to society.
After the ruling was handed down, the public defender representing the homeless man appealed to district court and was denied. From there it was straight to the top – an appeal to supreme or “high” court.
“The State is sending a homeless person to prison for merely attempting to maintain some semblance of humanness,” said Dr. Yoav Sapir, assistant public defender.
Cleanliness is one thing; but busting in on people in their.. uh…skin is another. That’s a sorta crucial issue, if you know what I mean.
Chhhheck it Out
Newcomer alert: Gideon Lichfield covers matters Palestinian and Israeli for The Economist and he recently decided to get his own blog up and running.
The result is fugitive peace.
Gideon has been based in Jerusalem since 2005 and before that was in Moscow and Mexico City. His blog is his own material i.e. not associated with his Economist pennings. As Lichfield puts it:
“It’s a mixture of analysis and anecdote:..the backstory..commentary on the rumours doing the rounds, who’s spinning them and how the media plays them; tales of daily life; and the jokes that people tell each other in their blackest moments, because I’ve long thought that in our struggle to report this conflict without accusations of bias, we journalists too often miss out the wicked sense of humour with which Israelis and Palestinians alike can face their tragedies.”
A sample:
Avishai Pinchas, the hero of this week’s story, brought some 50 Sudanese refugees to stay in a series of huts in his back yard. Why does he have a series of huts in his back yard? Because Avishai, who seems at first to be just what you would expect of a third-generation Israeli Jew from a Yemenite family – practical, unassuming, right-of-centre – is actually a messianic Jew (meaning that he believes Jesus was the son of God but not in all the subsequent paraphernalia of Christianity, though the details of messianic Jewish belief vary considerably). His wife, Yolanda, was raised a Protestant in Holland. The huts are for other messianic Jews who come to the kibbutz for retreats, to meditate surrounded by the harsh beauty of the desert.
WELCOME!
Who’s Sniping?
Yesterday’s Hebrew daily Yediot carried a front page story about Israelis getting “sniped” in L.A.
The deets: Within the past half year, half a dozen Israelis have gotten quite a shock when answering the doorbell: an “unknown guest” beckons the person outside, verifies the person’s identity and then repeatedly shoots him in the legs. 
What does the LAPD think? That all of the victims are somehow tied to the underworld and that this is a private way of settling grievances sorta thing.
LAPD spokesperson Karen Smith told Yediot’s reporter that from the evidence they’ve gathered so far, police are linking the shootings to goings-on within Israel’s organized crime scene.
Didn’t these people learning anything about opening the door to strangers? Sheesh. Stay indoors. It’s hot outside.
Shhh… Be quiet…. or you might get fined
If you plan on doing any yardwork or hiring a gardener in Jerusalem, make sure no one is working between 2 and 4 PM. Apparently, that is mandatory nap time, according to this Ha’aretz video. (Now, I don’t know about you, but between 2 and 4, I’m at work. Think I can negotiate nap time into my work contract?) Apparently, a team of Jerusalem police officers are tasked to patrol Jerusalem and fine anyone making a bit of noise during these “enforced quiet hours.” Now, I don’t know about you but it seems like an extraordinary waste of my tax dollars (which I would like back … so I can pay …. wait … my TV tax….). According to this report, Israelis are paying more and more taxes and work for the government longer than for themselves. Probably because we’re paying for ridiculous things like quiet patrols (and TV taxes, but that’s a story for another time)! What is this? 1984?
Memo to cops: How about fighting crime instead? Several of my friends have recently been burglarized in the past few weeks … during quiet hours when they (like most people should be) are at work. But, really, if you are going to enforce quiet hours, how about tell the construction workers outside my windows to start working at a more reasonable hour – like, at least, 7AM!
French Inundation
During the past week I’ve noticed that whenever I’m in Tel Aviv shopping, walking, or generally going about daily business I hear French being spoken.
An influx of French immigration to Israel over the past few years would definitely contribute to this phenomenon.
But, says things.co.il, so does a sharp increase in numbers of French tourists frequenting Israel.
This summer, and especially in August, there’s a feeling that there is a larger amount of tourists around. In past years I’ve heard mostly English (Americans). This year, French is spoken everywhere. Unfortunately, I don’t speak French. I only understand a few simple words.
There are so many French tourists, that some places, not those that are near the sea, adapt themselves to tourists. I was quite surprised to sit for a few hours in a restaurant and to hear only French songs. I was especially surprised hearing a blues song in French. That sounded quite strange.
Well, last summer there were hardly any tourists, and I was writing mostly about anti-war demonstrations in Tel Aviv , so I can’t really complain about blues songs in French…
Ball Four
Filed under: General, Israeliness, Life, Pop Culture, Sports
I know, the name’s been taken, but Ball Four seems like the perfect title for this comprehensive play by play of the first season of the Israel Baseball League, written by Israeli journalist and ISRAEL21c contributor ELLI WOHLGELERNTER. He, more intelligently titled it ‘The Oys of Summer’.
For all of us who had great times at the games we went to, the behind the dugout controversies and fights seems like one of those Israeli telenovellas that we’re addicted to.
Here’s hoping that despite all the problems outlined here, the IBL will be back for another season next year.
Permanent or Temporary?
If you’re an Israeli living abroad, how many times have you told yourself and others: I’ll be going back before the baby starts 1st grade..? Or: ..before the youngest is bar-mitzva’d? Or: after they finish college?
Sound familiar?
It is. And Israeli writer Roni Floman has just published a book on the dilemma Israelis abroad, specifically those in Silicon Valley, face vis a vis “should I stay or go”. 
Temporary or Permanent addresses “the issues that Israelis living outside of Israel have to deal with, especially around the issue of moving back – or not.”
Most Israeli’s will tell you that they have plans to move back to Israel sometime in the future. The joke is most plan to move back “when the kids graduate college”. As Roni says, most of the time, the kids are the excuse for either staying abroad, or coming back to Israel…. at any age….
writes Israeli VC on Sand Hill Road.
The book’s in Hebrew and can be ordered here.
Home for the Holidaze
Make some room at the table, cook up a few extra kneidelach and get your cameras in paparazzi mode.
Hollywood’s en route for the holidays. Or so says Isrealli who blogs that Madonna & husband Guy Ritchie along with 1st timers to Israel Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher will be spending Rosh Ha’Shana at the Tel Aviv Kabbalah Center.
L’Haim!
Living in the past
Forget the Rolling Stones and their much-touted longevity. They never came to Israel.
But Jethro Tull, with the ageless Ian Anderson, and the… well, aging Martin Barre on guitar, still put on an electrifying – if slightly by rote – show.
They certainly satisfied the full house last week at the cozy Jerusalem Train Station amphitheater, the first of three shows here. Here’s a clip from the third show at Caesearea.
And a nice review from Ben Jacobson in the Jerusalem Post.
And what’s with Bruce Springsteen – is he really an anti-semite?
A massive tour to support his upcoming reunion album with the E-Street Band – Magic – was just announced with oodles of European dates. But once again, no show here… What gives, Boss?
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