Time change

October 3, 2011 - 10:51 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, Environment, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Israeliness, Life, Politics 

Okay. We’re done with the first three-day chag of this chagim period and are now dealing with the aftermath of leftovers, an aching neck and back, sick kids and general malaise. Oh, and the changing of the clocks which in theory gives you an extra hour the first night, unless there are small children in your life who wake up at their usual time, which is now 5:30 am instead of 6:30 am.

But I’m not complaining. Really. For one, leftovers are a great thing because it means I don’t have to even think about cooking for several days. As for the early mornings, it’s not ideal, but, since the husband is away I get to sleep earlier in any case. So I’m actually sleeping more than usual. But what I am confused about — and yes, I did write about this last year as well, when husband was away during last year’s fall clock change — is that I thought Interior Minister Eli Yishai had introduced a reform back in June that was going to rid of us of the ‘early’ daylight savings change.

At the time, he said he was going to implement the recommendation of a professional committee to extend daylight savings time to 193 days, from the current 170-191 days. A poll taken by the committee had found that 50% of Israel’s citizens wanted to extend daylight savings time. For Yishai, the issue at hand is the late sunrise hour that doesn’t allow the religious sector enough time to pray before the beginning of the workday. It also means a ‘longer’-feeling Yom Kippur, since the fast would end at 8pm rather than 7pm without changing the clocks, making the fast feel longer even though it’s the same 25 hours. But at the time, Yishai said the Yom Kippur issue is not the reason for changing the clocks so early in the season.

According to the Jerusalem Post, Meretz MK Nitzan Horowitz has accused Yishai of “fooling everyone” with his daylight savings time reform, as Israel turned its clocks back one hour late Saturday night.

“Despite all the committees and the promises, the foolishness continues,” Horowitz said. “The law hasn’t changed, and daylight savings time ended a month too early.”

According to Horowitz and many before him, early daylight savings time leads to wasted energy, damage to the environment, and an expense of tens of millions of shekels.

Agreed. It’s also just a pain. Have you changed all the clocks in your life yet? Do you ever remember how to change the microwave clock? Or the clocks on your phones? And while I’m not saying we need to get rid of it entirely, what about waiting until the end of October, which seems like a more likely time to change the clocks?

By the way, Ukraine recently canceled the use of daylight savings time, as well as seven former Soviet republics, Japan, China, India, Iraq, and the majority of the countries in North Africa, according to the Kyiv Post.

Lucky them.

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The people speak in the Carmel

January 6, 2011 - 10:26 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Politics, Social Justice, tv 

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is protected by bodyguards against angry family members of the victims of the Carmel forest fire. (AP)

Wednesday night’s televised live state ceremony at Kibbutz Beit Oren to honor the 44 victims of the Carmel wildfire last month was anything but stately.

Many of the bereaved families, furious over the lack of an official government inquiry into the behavior of the official bodies responsible for budgeting the bodies responsible for preventing and fighting fires, exploded in a barrage of verbal attacks on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Interior Minister Eli Yishai.

They demanded that Yishai leave the ceremony – which he did- and they held up Netanyahu’s speech for over 10 minutes, while stood expressionless behind a battery of bodyguards. The scene eventually quieted down and he gave his speech, but as soon as it was over, the heckles and tumult began anew and the rest of the ceremony was more or less scrapped.

Watching the events unfold on TV, there was an eerie sense that something really bad had the potential to take place. The people watching with me discussed just how long the bodyguards were going to let the prime minister stay in the hall before escorting him out. I really thought there was a chance that one of the ceremony participants – in the heat of the moment – might try to do him harm.

But the decision was made for Netanyahu to stay until the end, and the evening ended with physical violence, but many frayed nerves. It was a riveting few minutes of television, harrowing to watch as the pain of the families boiled over yet, at the same time, unable to turn away from the scene.

While we may tout Israel as being a developed nation with culture mores and democratic institutions firmly in place, last night showed that you can take us out of the Middle East, but you can’t take the Middle East out of us.

There was something even poignant about the outburst and display of raw emotions directed at our leaders. The families still believe in ideals – that a government is there to help its citizens, and when it’s perceived as not doing that, then there’s a sense of betrayal. In most countries, that sense of the government and its citizens being on the same side is long distant memory. Here, it’s still a fresh wound.

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Save summer hours

September 14, 2010 - 9:08 AM by · 6 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Holidays, Immigrant Moments, Israeliness, Life, Politics, Religion 

Not my kid, but you get the idea

We’re now three days into daylight savings time, and I’m somewhat obsessed with the topic. That could be because my boys — at least one of them — is waking up around 4:20 each day, which is 5:20 in his little body. I can usually get him to stay in bed until around 5 am, but no longer. But even if I do, I don’t really fall back asleep. Instead, I’m completely attuned to all the sounds and noises that are happening at that hour. There’s the muezzin sounding his calls somewhere to the east. Just outside my window, I hear the water sprinkler system click on, and think that I need to switch that to daylight savings time. Over beyond the kitchen window is the sound of the newspaper delivery guy backing his car up our driveway/simta, and above me start the sounds of my neighbor getting ready for his long daily commute to Israel Aircraft Industries.

The mornings have actually been getting better, as one of my almost-two-year-old twins is ‘sleeping in’ until 5:20, even 5:30. And I’ve figured out that breakfast — be it French toast, yogurt or eggs — needs to happen at 6, not later, in order to assuage the hunger pangs that hit them at the usual 7 am, now 6 am.

But while I did my part in signing the petition to keep summer hours until the end of October, I didn’t really boycott it. That would have meant missing an hour of mishpachton each day, and pretty much living in a bubble from the rest of my particular society. Local high-tech firms, however, are delaying moving their clocks back for the time being. According to an article in yesterday’s Ha’aretz, telecom firm 102 Smile is staying with summer hours until late October, as are venture capital firms IHCV and Walden Israel. Good on them, I say, although it’s gotta be a pain for their employees to live part of their life on summer hours, and the other part in winter hours.

Interior Minister and Shas politician Eli Yishai had a great reaction to the boycott, comical really. He feels the public debate over daylight savings time “targets the religious public”, given the reasoning for the change, which is make the upcoming Yom Kippur fast easier. I will be fasting, and trust me, I’d rather be fasting into the evening hours and not have to see darkness fall at 5:30 pm in September. He suggested changing the clock for the fast, and then bringing the summer clock back two weeks later.

Clearly Mr. Yishai has never been the one in his family dealing with the effect of the clock change on his own kids.

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Let the children stay

October 14, 2009 - 11:36 AM by · 4 Comments
Filed under: A New Reality, coexistence, General, Israeliness, Life, Politics 

deport1There hasn’t been a more sensitive issue on the Israeli table the last few months than that of children of foreign workers. Over 1,200 children of non-Israelis – mostly from Africa, who have been working in Israel for the last decade – are in danger of being deported by the government, despite the fact they were born here, speak Hebrew, and aside from the coveted identity card are as Israeli as anyone else.

The catch? They’re not Jewish.

This week, an interministerial committee was supposed to tackle the issue ahead of a November 1st deadline that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had set to come up with a solution to their plight. Their decision – to enable the children to remain in Israel through the end of the school year, and then we’ll see.

The campaign to deport the children is being led by Interior Minister Eli Yishai, the leader of the Shas party. He’s been adamant that the children of foreign workers not be given residency or citizenship in Israel in order to preserve the Jewish nature of the country.

According to Ha’aretz, Yishai does not object to Monday’s decision to postpone deporting the children and their parents until the end of the school year, saying this was for “humanitarian reasons.” But he stressed that he will not agree to any further postponements and will vehemently oppose granting the children citizenship or residency.

Allowing these children to stay in Israel “is liable to damage the state’s Jewish identity, constitute a demographic threat and increase the danger of assimilation,” he said, adding that he would give up his ministry if the government decides to let the children stay.

On behalf of all forward looking people in Israel, let me say that we look forward to the day that happens.

Minister for Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman, representing the humane side of Israeli society, said he couldn’t envision Israel resorting to deporting the children, who want to stay here, serve in the army and be productive members of society.

According to Ynet, he referred in a speech to a precedent established by prime minister Menachem Begin in 1977, where he granted Israeli citizenship to 179 Vietnamese refugees who escaped their homeland on boats after a regime change occurred in Vietnam. No country agreed to take the refugees in after being pulled out of the sea by an Israeli cargo ship.

“The State of Israel will be blemished should those 1,200 children not be accepted as Israeli citizens. It is humanitarianly the right thing to do. The issue must be solved and we are obligated to acknowledge them equal citizens of the State of Israel,” said Braverman.

It’s clear what the right thing to do here is. And if I need to risk the possibility that one of my children might one day want to marry an Israeli who isn’t Jewish, it’s a small price to pay.

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