The busy skies of Israel
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life
Eyewitnesses point to the flying object that landed at Bat Yam Beach on Saturday. (Photo: Israel Police)
However, that doesn’t mean that some weird things don’t continue to happen in our skies. On Thursday, the Red Sea resort peacefulness of Eilat was interrupted when a rocket – perhaps a Katyusha or a Russian Grad – landed in a warehouse in neighboring Akaba, Jordan.
The rocket may have been fired from the Sinai in Egypt, and neither Israeli nor Jordanian security sources were certain whether the target was supposed to be Jordan or Eilat. Either way, since it landed early in the morning, it didn’t affect anyone’s day of snorkeling or paragliding in the balmy spring weather.
Sunbathers at the Bat Yam beach south of Tel Aviv, who were taking advantage of the nice weekend weather, weren’t bothered by rockets, but by something more celestial – perhaps a meteorite?
According to sun worshippers who packed the city’s religious beach (which is usually set with separate hours for separate swimming, but open to all on Shabbat), an unidentified object fell very close to the lifeguard booth and caused a small fire.
“I spotted a small object landing from above and starting to burn,” lifeguard Yisrael Rokach told Ynet. “At first I didn’t understand what happened; I thought someone threw it down from above,” the lifeguard said. “When I got closer I saw a small object that kept on burning and smoking. I immediately called my fellow lifeguards, who didn’t believe me. They came down and at the same time we called the police.”
Police sappers were called to the scene to investigate the mysterious flying object, which another lifeguard said “kept on burning and gave off an odd smell. It kept on burning even when we put it in the water and it melted seashells as if they were candles.”
The Chairman of the Israeli Astronomical Association, Igal Patel, said the object was a meteorite.
“Meteorites fall all the time, but one falling in a residential area before the eyes of witnesses is indeed a rare occurrence,” he said.
However, others aren’t quite convinced. “Meteorites are never on fire and they don’t generate smoke,” said Darryl Pitt, founder of the Macovich Collection of Meteorites. Pitt viewed video of the unidentified object and said he is 100% sure it is not a meteorite.
“Meteorites are not remotely hot enough to ignite a fire or be on fire. This is the stuff of movies and vivid imaginations,” he told Ynet.
Witnesses to the event are choosing to believe there was something special about the incident, however. As another Bat Yam lifeguard put it, “There is no doubt that there’s some holiness on the Bat Yam beach.”
Foto Friday – Ashdod Ahoy
Filed under: Business, education, Environment, Foto Friday, General, Life, Picture of the Week, Travel
Ashdod, the New York Times noted in a recent article, is a Mediterranean city “that is shunned by most guidebooks”.
But, as the NYT discovered, Israel’s unglamorous port to the south has, in recent years, gained cachet among Israelis of Russian origin who have infused the once-drab city with color, culture and a lively night-life. It’s still not glamorous but there’s a lot to do, particularly if you like eating seafood and drinking vodka on the seaside, surfing or fishing.
The Port of Ashdod, calls itself “Israel’s Economic Gateway”, and that it probably true. Here are some facts: Just 40 km. from Tel Aviv, it is the closest to the country’s major commercial centers and highways. The Ashdod Port has been operating since 1965 and is one of the few ports in the world built on open sea.
The Port’s website is chock-full of the sort of information that shipping groupies love, such as timetables. cargo routes, wave measurements, and descriptions of facilities as well as videos and a 360 degree virtual tour that is really fun to play with. Oh, and of course, a photo gallery.
During 2005,the Ashdod Port inaugurated the Eitan Port, the country’s first fully computerized container port, following an investment of around NIS 3 billion. One of the largest infrastructure projects ever undertaken in Israel, the Eitan is a deep water port that includes a 1,150 m. extension to the main breakwater and 1,700 m. of new quays with a water depth up to 15.5 m.
The Ashdod Port Company handled about 827,916 containers in 2008, compared with 808,697 during 2007 in terms of TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit, a measure used for capacity in container transportation). More statistical information is available here.
The company also engages in community outreach and educational programs, including the Green Submarine project, which integrates ecological teaching with artistic activity, a school educational program together with IMMRAC – the Israel Marine Mammal Research & Assistance Center, and an Ornithology Center on the banks of the Lachish Stream adjacent to the port, together with SPNI – the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel.
On the front
Do I have a warped sense of reality from living in Israel? I was starting to wonder.
Earlier this week, I sent out to friends and family in the US a link to a short video news story my friend Arieh produced for the Media Line news agency on Karkal, the mixed men-women combat unit that my daughter is currently training for.
Arieh traveled down to the border with Egypt where Karkal units patrol on foot in camoflauge, guarding against terror attack and infiltration. And he spoke to the soldiers doing the job, where they explained the dangers involved, as well as what it was like in a mixed unit.
In addition to being proud of her, I thought everyone would appreciate learning about the life she was going to be leading for the next two and a half years, once she finishes her training.
But a couple comments I received made me start thinking about the whole issue of raising children and sending them off to be in harm’s way. Maybe it’s not something to be proud of, and we’ve just been conditioned by the military nature of our surroundings that it’s a good thing we send our kids off to do.
But leave it to my wife to bring me back to this side of the Earth. We didn’t ask for enemies, and if nobody volunteered to do these dirty, dangerous jobs, then most likely, Israel would not be around. I think it’s probably difficult for an American or any Westerner to understand the daily threat facing us, and comprehend the importance of our sons and daughters having to be the front lines against that threat.
So, yes, I hate the idea of raising children to become soldiers and placing them in life-threatening situations. And yes, I’m totally filled with pride that my daughter chose her path in Karkal, and that she’s spending her army service defending her – and my – country.
Google wishes Israel a happy 62nd
One more for Yom Ha’atzmaut #62 years and the Israeli independence annals…seems that Google Israel got in on the celebrations, so in case you missed it:
It’s gone now, but Happy 62nd bday, from the search engine experts.
From Israel to Afghanistan
Yaakov (not his real name) is one of the most unusual Anglo immigrants to Israel I’ve met in a long time: he’s just taken a job with a private U.S. military contractor to guard the American embassy in Kabul. That’s right, a Jewish Israeli in Afghanistan armed with an AK-47.
I met Yaakov at the annual Independence Day BBQ hosted by my friend and Israel21c colleague David Brinn. Yaakov was a U.S. Marine before making aliyah four years ago. He now lives in Ma’aleh Adumim with his wife and young daughter.
His work since immigrating has been sporadic – too old for the military and too qualified for a local security job. So, in order to feed his growing family, he’s returning to the work he’s done so well in the past.
The firm he’ll be working for is “like Blackwater,” he told me – Blackwater being the controversial military company to which the U.S. State Department outsources certain defense functions. Blackwater has been engaged in a number of high profile kidnapping cases in the past, paying ransom money that the U.S. would prefer not to talk about.
Yaakov’s tour of duty is for a year – 9 weeks on, 3 weeks off. His flight to Afghanistan takes him through Dubai where Israelis are not particularly welcome these days (he has to hide his Israeli passport).
Before his latest posting, Yaakov spent some time in Iraq. Wasn’t it terrifying there, I asked? He countered by reminding me of how people viewed Israel during the height of the Intifada – a country where bombs were going off every day and it wasn’t safe to sit in a café or take a bus.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. We continued to – and still do – live a normal life, taking our kids to school, shopping, going to the movies. Ditto for Iraq, he said. About the biggest problem Yaakov encountered was gaining weight. “The food at the cafeteria on the base was too good.”
Yaakov added one caveat about “normal life” in Baghdad: Absolutely everyone, including kids, is armed. That would certainly give me pause for concern as I headed out to buy a falafel.
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