Saved by the meat

August 3, 2010 by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Food, Life, Travel 

View from a window at Amirey HaGalil

Amirey HaGalil was not our first choice for a romantic weekend getaway in the north of Israel for our 22nd wedding anniversary. That would have been Bayit BaGalil. But at twice the price (and not including dinner), we opted for the more reasonable option.

Amirey HaGalil is located next to Moshav Amirim, which has been turned into a destination for vegetarian bed and breakfasts. To get to Amirey HaGalil, you drive down a steep driveway into a pastoral setting with fruit trees, hammocks and lounge chairs framing a large enclosed courtyard, which serves as the focal point of the hotel. It’s really quite lovely.

Amirey HaGalil bills itself as a spa-hotel, but the spa section is rather sparse, devoid of the usual parade of patrons in white terry cloth robes drinking fresh herbal tea prior to entering their treatment rooms. We were the only people waiting for a massage.

We opted for what was billed as a romantic “couple’s massage” but which turned out to be a drab room with two tables set next to each other. The headrest for my table was broken in such a way that each time the masseuse dug into my back, it pressed painfully into my Adam’s apple. I tried moving this way and that to no avail. My masseuse apologized but offered no rebate or discount.

Our room was similarly perfunctory. The “mini-suite” had a separate living and bedroom, but the bathroom was just a couple of steps up from a kibbutz facility. To make matters worse, the shower head – like my massage table – was broken.

Still, we enjoyed the large Jacuzzi in the living room – big enough for two, lots of bubbles – with a stunning view over the Galilee hills. The free DVDs were also a nice touch – we watched the film adaptation of David Grossman’s “Someone to Run With” – a powerful and highly recommended film.

The highlight of our stay, however, was dinner. The “chef’s restaurant” served a fabulous meal, from the freshly baked bread with some surprising tapas (including a white bean dip accompanied by fresh spiced chickpeas and onions) to our entrees. I ordered the “trio” – a meat lover’s extravaganza with mangold leaves stuffed with entrecote, lamb pieces in a chicken breast wedge, and rice stuffed with another meat whose name I didn’t catch but it was delicious. There was also a spicy pepper soup and berry sorbet between courses.

Of course, you don’t have to be a guest in the hotel to eat there, but this unexpected treat included in the total price for an average facility made it that much easier to swallow.

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Eilat under attack

August 2, 2010 by · 2 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Travel, War 

August is one of the busiest seasons of the year in Eilat, as well as its hottest. The kids out of school, summer camps finishing up, and semi-attractive deals offered by the dozens of hotels and resorts in the Red Sea haven all contribute to an influx of tourism from within during the month.

Especially since Israeli tourism to Turkey has dropped to virtually zero because of the post-Flotilla diplomatic tension between the countries, Eilat is even more packed than usual. Which makes this morning’s news about five rockets likely fired from Sinai landing near the city is sending tremors throughout the country.

The five rockets – two in the Red Sea, one in a field near Eilat, and two in Jordan – included one which reportedly landed in front of the Intercontinental Hotel at the neighboring Jordanian port city of Aqaba, injuring four.

According to initial reports, a possible group behind the rockets could have been Hamas, which is known to use Sinai to smuggle weaponry and operatives in and out of the Gaza strip. There are also known to be global Jihad elements in the Sinai who have the capability to fire rockets toward Eilat. The attacks could be a continuation of the weekend rocket attack on Sderot, an attempt by Palestinians rejectionist groups to torpedo planned direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

Regardless of the reason, the fact that rockets are falling close to the main vacation center in Israel is disconcerting indeed. Some Facebook posts are already intimating cancellations of plans to go to the Red Sea location: “My summer vacation is ruined,” wrote one FB poster.

Rocket attacks in Eilat are rare but not unheard of, with two attacks having occurred in the last five years. In April, two rockets fired landed in Eilat and Aqaba.

But what’s more disconcerting about the attacks – both in the Eilat area and in the South near Gaza – is that if the terror groups are trying to goad Israel into another Operation Cast Lead-type incursion, these incidents won’t be remembered at all.

The world media will write about Israeli aggression and overreaction, and ignore the fact that a sovereign state has been attacked. The average newspaper reader of TV news watcher in the US or Europe probably has no idea these acts of violence have taken place against Israel. But, if Israel retaliates, you’d better believe they’ll know about it.

So, besides getting the word out that Israel is being attacked seemingly on a daily basis these days, there’s one other thing to do: keep going to Eilat. I’m not going to cancel my plans to vacation there near the end of the month, and I urge everyone else to do the same. The coral reef and the dolphin beach more than make up for the inconvenience of having to dodge a rocket here and there.

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Nostalgia Sunday – 1 Year Later: GLBT Youth Center

August 1, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Life, Nostalgia Sunday, Religion 

Sometimes its important to look back at the not-so-distant past and take a measure of how far we’ve progressed — or not.

Despite yesterday’s infernal heat, thousands of people, gay and straight, gathered in Tel Aviv to mark the one-year memorial anniversary of the GLBT Drop-in Center killings that took two young lives, injured 13 physically and damaged countless others psychologically.

Last year, photographer Gil Lavi documented the spontaneous outpouring of emotion and mourning that followed the horrifying event. The shooter has still not been found.

At the time, Lavi wrote: “This occurred inside a community center for gay and lesbian youth who are afraid to come out to the wider community. A man with a loaded gun came in at around 11pm and opened fire. The statements coming from the police say that he wore a mask. You could say that all those youths who depended on this center for their free expression are forced to wear a mask on a daily basis. Their mask doesn’t cover their face, rather their soul.”

This year, there are signs of increasing tolerance on the horizon and — at least as far as the secular community is concerned — they come from an unexpected source. Orthodox rabbis and educators from Israel and abroad have created and signed a statement of principles “on the place of our brothers and sisters in our community who have a homosexual orientation”. “We hope and pray that by sharing these thoughts we will help the Orthodox community to fully live out its commitment to the principles and values of Torah and Halakha as practiced and cherished by the children of Abraham, who our sages teach us are recognized by the qualities of being rahamanim (merciful), bayshanim (modest), and gomelei hasadim (engaging in acts of loving-kindness).”

Let us hope that these prayers provide much-needed direction to the children of Abraham and come true, speedily and in our days.

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Goin’ down to Yasgur’s farm – in Jerusalem

August 1, 2010 by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Music, Pop Culture 

You’d be surprised how many ex-hippies originally from North America there are around Jerusalem. Granted they’re grayer or balder, and most of them either sport a big kippa if they’re male, or a colorful head covering if they’re female, but they’re still out there.

And you can see them this week, along with hundreds of just plain music fans of all ages, when the second annual Woodstock Revival show kicks off at the capital’s Kraft Stadium.

Joining a stellar lineup of local artists who perform in English taking on a Woodstock-era heavyweight – including Habanot Nechama’s Yael Deckelbaum performing Janis Joplin songs, last year’s favorites Lazer Lloyd and Yood reprising their Jimi Hendrix tribute (complete with a feedback-drenched “Hatikva”), and sets devoted to the Who, Led Zeppelin and Simon & Garfunkel – two special guests will be Abigail Yasgur and Joseph Lipman from California.

Yasgur is the cousin of Max Yasgur, the celebrated Caktskill dairy farmer who offered his land for the original Woodstock festival in 1969, and was immortalized in the Woodstock album, film and in the song “Woodstock” by Joni Mitchell.

“We’re looking forward to seeing what it’s all about,” Lipman told me last week about coming to this year’s show in Jerusalem. “There’s a certain tikkun olam/Messianic element to the Woodstock generation and Israel is a place where these ideas are very much alive.

“We understand that there are in the expatriate community a bunch of ex hippies, current hippies and it’s great. There are certainly people in Israel working towards a more beautiful and complete world. And I think it’s very fitting that there be a Jerusalem Woodstock festival.”

Yasgur and Lipman published a children’s book last year called Max Said Yes!, encapsulating the Woodstock story for a child’s point of view. And the couple will be doing a ‘read aloud’ at the Jerusalem show, bringing a little bit of the idealistic magic that marked the original festival 41 years ago.

Last year’s inaugural Woodstock Revival in Jerusalem, to benefit the American Football in Israel association, indeed was full of good vibes, with plenty of Astroturf room, beverages, balloons, frisbees and children freely running around amid the great music. While the Jacob’s Ladder Festival might be the ultimate Anglo musical event of the year, if you want to consolidate the experience into six concise hours, then give the Woodstock Revival a turn.

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