Pooping out the Pope

May 1, 2009 - 12:14 AM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, History and Culture, Religion, Travel, coexistence 

Pope Benedict XVI welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres at the pope's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome in 2007.

Pope Benedict XVI welcomes Israeli President Shimon Peres at the pope's summer residence of Castel Gandolfo near Rome in 2007.

We’re gearing up here for the arrival of one of the most charismatic guys around – attracting thousands of admirers to every appearance he makes. No, I’m not talking about Leonard Cohen, but Pope Benedict XVI, who arrives here the week after next.

It will mark the first visit of a pope to Israel since Pope John Paul II made a five-day pilgrimage in March, 2000.

I’m not sure who put together Pope Benedict XVI’s schedule, but even doing a quick scan of it left me breathless. It looks like somebody’s trying to poop out this pope, expecially considering he’s in his 70s.

Take a deep breath and imagine you’re in the Popemobile:

Monday, May 11

11:00 Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport, Official Welcoming Ceremony
12:05 Arrival at Mount Scopus helipad, Jerusalem. Welcoming Ceremony by Jerusalem Mayor, Nir Barkat.
16:05 Visit to the President’s Residence, joint planting of a tree in the Presidential Garden
17:30 Visit to Yad Vashem, Memorial ceremony at the Remembrance Hall; Wreath laying; Address by the Pope.
19:00 Interfaith Meeting, Notre Dame Hotel

Tuesday, May 12
09:15 Meeting with the Mufti, Temple Mount
10:00 Visit to the Western Wall
10:35 Meeting with the Chief Rabbis, Heichal Shlomo
12:00 Visit to the Church of Dormition – site of the Last Supper
12:30 Visit and Prayer at Latin Patriarch
16:15 Mass at the Garden of Gethsemane

Wednesday May 13
08:00-19:00 Visit to Bethlehem

Thursday May 14
08:30 Travel to Nazareth
09:15 Arrival in Nazareth, Welcoming Ceremony
10:00 Mass at Mount of the Precipice
15:50 Meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Church of the Annunciation
16:30 Meeting with the Faith Heads in Israel, Church of the Annunciation
17:30 Prayer at the Church of the Annunciation
19:00 Return to Jerusalem

Friday May 15
09:15 Meeting at the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch
10:00 Visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
13:30 Leaving Ceremony, Ben Gurion Airport

Whew! Talk about an intense four days. Let’s hope the Pope has some comfortable walking shoes.

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Israel picks up the bill

January 5, 2009 - 3:17 PM by DavidS · 3 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, Medical Breakthroughs, Politics, War, coexistence 

While the news is full of Israel’s “crimes” against the civilian population in Gaza, here’s one “crime” you probably haven’t heard about. Israel routinely admits residents of Palestinian Authority controlled territory into its hospitals – and the Israeli taxpayer foots the bill. Not only that; Israel even helps pay for treatment of patients in PA hospitals, where the patient never even comes near an Israeli hospital!

While many of us probably have heard of exceptional cases of Israeli doctors treating PA Arabs, I, and probably you, were under the impression that it was limited to high profile or complicated cases, such as the Save a Child’s Heart Foundation – with ill PA residents coming to Israel as a last resort. That kind of thing has been going on for a long time – even during the current war, as evidenced by the photo (courtesy of the IDF spokesperson), captioned “Injured Palestinian receiving medical treatment by Israeli and Palestinian medical personnel at the Erez crossing.” 010109injured2_b

But Israel’s contribution to the health of Palestinian Authority residents goes far beyond emergency assistance; according to some folks I interviewed for a story on a new database system being developed by an Israeli software company for hospitals in Bethlehem and Ramallah (an amazing story in and of itself!), Israel’s Health Ministry often pays for care of PA residents both in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority itself!

The company building the database, called i-Rox, is located in Bnei Brak, and consists almost entirely of ultra-Orthodox women programmers (this story just gets better all the time!). According to the company’s CEO, the programmers are building in a component that allows PA hospitals to share their information with Israel’s Health Ministry, because in some cases, Israel’s health funds help provide – and pay for – treatment of patients in PA hospitals.

Yes, I had a hard time believing it too – until I Googled this World Health Organization PDF document. According to this eye-opening reporting (for 2006-7), “Approximately 60,000 Palestinians from the West Bank area have been treated in Israel hospitals over the past year. Around 20,000 were hospitalized, and about 40,000 received ambulatory services of all sorts. Approximately 5,000 patients from the Gaza area have been treated in Israeli hospitals over the past year – about 2,000 hospitalized and about 3,000 receiving ambulatory services of all sorts. Among the patients receiving medical care in Israel, approximately 2,500 were children, the majority of whom received long-term treatment for cancer and complicated operations.”

As far as Israel providing services to PA hospitals, “Public health laboratories at the Israel Ministry of Health continue to regularly provide assistance to the Palestinian Health Authority in the way of laboratory tests for poliomyelitis, measles, mumps, influenza and other viral diseases,” the report says. Israel – via the health funds and the Health Ministry – continued those tests throughout the year, “in spite of the fact that the Palestinian Authority delays or halts payments.” Of course, the anti-Israel forces out there have never let themselves get confused by the facts – but at least we know the truth, and in this day and age, that’s no small feat.

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Happy Hanukka, Merry Christmas

December 24, 2008 - 11:59 AM by David · 1 Comment
Filed under: Holidays, Religion, coexistence 

A little hot-buttered rum, perhaps? (Photo: AP/Kevin Frayer)

Christmas in Bethlehem - A little hot-buttered rum, perhaps?

So, tonight is Christmas Eve. But you wouldn’t know it here in Israel, which I suppose can be both a good and bad thing.

Back when I lived in the US, I remember having a very low tolerance for the commercialized Christmas season – the radio and TV ads and circulars, the glitter and tinsel in store windows, the two months of Christmas songs on the radio (unless if was Bruce’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”), and all the other encoutrements of the American culture which I didn’t belong to.

But on the couple of times I’ve been back there to visit during the holiday season, it wasn’t so bad. I actually appreciated the elaborate home decorations, the perceived feeling that people were in a better mood, and even the shmaltzy music.

Here in Israel, unless you’re in a Christian Arab community, you won’t find many outward signs of Christmas. And this year, we have Hannuka coinciding, so the lights and colorful candles are out in full force and dominating the landscape.

Still, despite the inclement weather, thousands of Christians in Israel will be freely celebrating Christmas tonight and tomorrow (is this the only Christian holiday that runs on Jewish time, beginning in the evening and continuing til sundown the next day?).

According to Bloomberg News, Bethlehem is experiencing a fourfold increase in visitors after seven bleak Christmas seasons, with 250,000 visitors here this week.

“All 3000 rooms in Bethlehem have been booked for Christmas,” said Samir Hazboun, chairman of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Unemployment in the city has fallen to 23 percent from 45 percent last year.”

Michael Kreitem’s Bethlehem Star Hotel, along the ancient footpaths where Mary and Joseph once strolled before they returned with a son, was bustling with hordes of Russian-speaking Christian pilgrims, arriving from a one-day tour of Nazareth.

And if you can’t get there in person, IPrayTV is streaming the scene from Nativity Square and from the Church of the Nativity on Christmas Eve through Christmas evening.

Me, I’ll be spending the fourth and fifth days of Hannukka eating another in a countless batch of sufganiyot and latkes, and grumbling about gaining weight. But I may find the time to put “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” on the CD player.

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