Living Our Daily Lives

We have not written on the blog for several weeks; we keep looking for special events or news items about which to write. There are daily news items that we imagine you read about in the press, but no major developments
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There is talk that Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier in captivity now for three years, will be transferred to Egypt from Gaza as a first step toward his release. So far, no firm moves have been made.

There are reports that a significant number of road blocks in the West Bank have been removed, allowing Palestinians more freedom of movement. The road blocks between Israel and the West Bank remain in place.

The issue of a "settlement freeze" is still unresolved, at least to American satisfaction.

We pay attention to the continuing developments in Iran. They are happening almost in our back yard.

Even with all of these items getting our attention, Pat and I continue to enjoy life in Haifa. It is great not being a tourist; just living our daily lives. Certainly not dull or boring, really quite relaxing and refreshing.

I get plenty of exercise which is good for the neuropathy in my feet. Three times a week at the gym with a personal trainer; walking to shopping, to the bus, to the synagogue, doing errands. I was asked to teach a course at our synagogue (in English). I'm teaching five sessions on the "Book of Jonah". I plan to teach the same subject at Duke this fall. It is very interesting and challenging to teach to a group of students who certainly have familiarity with Hebrew and add English commentary. Quite different from the students I have at Duke. The sixth session will be our rabbi teaching on the parallels between the book of Jonah and Pinnociho!

Pat is very involved with photography. Her camera goes with her on her neighborhood walks and when we go places. She also regularly chants from the Torah at our Shabbat morning services.

We both continue to have counseling sessions with our counselors back in Chapel Hill, thanks to Skype and relatively inexpensive phone rates. Pat also counsels here with Israeli counselors.

On Sunday we will be going to Jerusalem for two weeks of study with 100 rabbis and educators from the US at the Hartman Institute. We'll be studying classical Hebrew texts each morning in small groups; there will be electives to choose from in the afternoon and programs each evening. We have been participating in this program each summer for more than 15 years and have developed some friendships and connections with other participants. Rabbi Sager, from Beth El, is also a regular participant. A highlight for us is to get together with him after evening programs and talk about the day in our Jerusalem apartment.

Our lives here are as full as we want them to be. We have made friends with folks from the synagogue. Pat has connections with people whom she has known here for more than twenty-five years. They are all eager to spend time with us.

We are truly fortunate to have this opportunity to be part of the life of this country. Israel, with all of its problems, has an important place in our hearts and minds. In some very deep way, it is another home.

Frank

And from Pat: here are some experiments, just messing around with Photoshop. All these are distortions of actual pictures I've taken...

Politics

In the newspaper Ha'aretz this morning they published the results of a poll taken on Monday, June 15th (the day after Netanyahu's speech) among 504 respondents with a margin of error of 4.3% The results were interesting. Only 53% of those polled had actually watched the speech. Of those who watched it, 71% agreed with what he said. (Of course this may be because the people who watched the speech were more likely to agree with him than those who did not.) When asked "Netanyahu declared in his speech that he agrees to a demilitarized Palestinian state. What do you think is the main reason he did?" only 5% said they thought it was because of true ideological change. 55% thought that it was a capitulation to American pressure. So while 71% agreed with Netanyahu and were pleased with the speech, 67% of those replied that they did not think that the speech would help advance the peace process, and 70% of the respondents replied that the did not think that a demilitarized Palestinian state would be established soon.

According to everything I have read, a large majority of Israelis liked the speech. I guess there was something in it for everyone: the left was happy to hear Netanyahu at last say he supported the idea a Palestinian state (albeit with many limits). The right was happy because he said that "natural growth" of the settlements would continue, that Jerusalem would never be divided, and the way he defined limits on a Palestinian state pretty much assures that under his leadership it won't happen. Newspaper commentators disagreed with one another; some praised and some blasted the speech, both from the right and the left.

The Palestinians loathed the speech, as you would expect. The demands made by Netanyahu, that the Palestinians recognize Israel as the homeland of the Jews, that a Palestinian state would not be allowed to make military treaties with other countries, that Jerusalem would not be its capital all made the terms completely unacceptable to them.

And what do I think? It depends on when you ask me. Sometimes I feel very hopeful; I believe (unlike most of the Israelis I have spoken to) that Obama is a friend of Israel and an ally who might be able to bring the Israelis and the Palestinians to the table. I'm also hopeful because I think that all the limitations that Netanyahu stated can be thought of as bargaining chips. Any negotiation means give and take so there needs to be terms on which there is a possibility of concession. At other times I feel hopeless; this situation has persisted now for decades and it is hard to see much willingness on either side for resolution.

I have to admit here on the blog that in the face of the events of the last few days I have moved to the right in my thinking about Iran. I agreed with Obama about the necessity of talking with the Iranians. But now I don't agree anymore. I was so hopeful about the election -- the pictures we got over CNN-International of masses of people wearing green, young people excited about the possibility of change, the huge numbers of demonstrators in green before the election -- gave me hope that a more moderate head of state in Iran might be elected. And then came the election. It would be very naive, I think, to believe the Ahmadinejad won such a sweeping victory. And the subsequent events -- the suppression of dissent, the murdering of demonstrators -- this is enough to convince me that Ahmadinejad is hell-bent on nuclearizing and that he will stop at nothing to maintain control.

Iran is perceived here in Israel as an enormous threat. Ahmadinejad has declared many times that Israel should be blown off the map, that the Holocaust never happened, that the the Zionist entity should be destroyed. Obama has stated that Iran should have civilian nuclear power. But people here look to North Korea which also was supposed to have only civilian nuclear power, and now the North Koreans are testing bombs and long-range rockets. Iran has the capability of sending missiles to Tel Aviv. And further, they will ask, what is to stop Iran from supplying nuclear weapons to terrorists???

So, especially in light of the re-election of Ahmadinejad, Israelis are happy to have a conservative in the Prime Minister's office. A large majoriey of Israelis, remember, have family histories of persecution. Their families largely came from Europe where family members who didn't leave were murdered, or from middle eastern countries where Jews were oppressed, or from the former Soviet Union where Jews were persecuted and oppressed. They have these memories in their bones. They are not about to take any chances now.


Pat

The Week of the Book

We live in a very technologically oriented world. Everywhere one sees people with small earphones in their ears listening to words or music on some form of I-pod. Cell phones are in use at home, on public transportation, at the gym, Amazon is advertising a new device, the Kindle, which lets you read books electronically.

Yet, every summer, here in Israel, usually in June, the country celebrates Shavua Hasefer, The Week of the Book. Hebrew books have had a strong influence on Jews ever since The Book. Jewish tradition honors and studies words. Through the centuries Rabbis and teachers have studied, taught, argued over sacred texts which serve to keep Jewish tradition alive. Generations of lay people continue to engage these texts.

Today, in Israel, more than 5000 new titles are published in Hebrew, and ten million books are sold every year. Israel is home to a rich and diverse book publishing industry. There are hundreds of publishing houses of all sizes, dedicated to publishing all manner of books, from religious to secular.

This past week all across the country publishers, distributors, and bookstores set up stalls on city streets, in public squares and malls in celebration of the written Hebrew word. People, young and old, gathered to browse, examine new and old titles, and purchase volumes often at bargain prices These national book fairs are wonderful cultural events.

This is just another one of the many wonderful things about living in Israel.



Frank

Azchara

This is one of my favorite views from Kibbutz Gazit, the kibbutz on which my son Gregory lived and now is buried. Yesterday was the twenty-seventh anniversary of his death. He was killed on the battlefields of Lebanon on the third day of the first Lebanon War. On that day it wasn't even yet declared a war -- it was then Operation Peace in the Galil. So long ago now.

Gregory went to Israel on a program called Etgar, which means "challenge" in English. He went right after high school. He was sent to Kibbutz Gazit, which is in the Jezreel Valley, a little over an hour southeast of Haifa. He worked in the fields, fell in love with his group leader, Ruti (and she with him), changed his name to Gideon and decided to make his life in Israel. He and Ruti moved to Haifa where he spent a year at Haifa University preparing to enter the university, but in the end he decided that he had to do his military service along with all his buddies, though he really didn't have to do it then because of his new immigrant status. But he did, and after his first year in the army the war in Lebanon broke out and he was killed on the third day. Ruti and I are still in close touch -- she never married. When she was 48 she decided to have a baby and now she and Yehonaton (now 5) and her partner Avram live in a tiny apartment in Ramat Gan. Ruti is an extraordinary woman...

It is the custom here in Israel to visit the grave of a loved one on the anniversary of the death (the azchara). For the last 27 years I have tried to be in Israel on June 9th every year, but in the last few years because of one thing or another I have been unable to be here on the day itself. When we go to the cemetery our friends go with us: Victor and Nurit, his "adoptive parents" when he was here; Amos, who was his other group leader with Ruti, and his wife Sarit; Daphne, a dear friend, and here and there others. Afterwards we go to Nurit and Victor's for sandwiches, fruit and cake. At the grave we tell stories about him and remember him and sometimes cry and almost always laugh and the whole thing is hard and wonderful and a treasure.

Now it is twenty-seven years. Amos and Sarit have a son, Gideon, who was born after Gregory died and now he is 21 and in the army doing difficult and dangerous work. And Amos told a story that just happened. One of Gideon's very close army buddies is a fellow named Ophir. One day Ophir asked Gideon if he knew of a guy named Greg Barry from Gazit who was killed in the first Lebanon War. Of course, said Gideon -- I'm named after him! It turns out that Ophir's father, Ricardo, was in the same unit as Greg and was with him on that fateful day, in fact, standing right next to him. In the battle, Greg was a mugiste -- a soldier who carried a very large and heavy weapon. So the officer in charge (the mefaked) went to investigate something and was fired on so he called for the mugiste. Ricardo warned Gregory not to go, but Gregory said "My mefaked has called me -- I have to go..." and he went. Three of them were killed in that skirmish: the mefaked, the medic, and the mugiste.

There is always more to tell. I got a letter months after he was killed from the parents of a soldier who had been trapped in a tank and Gregory had rescued him earlier that morning. Now Amos says there is a new guy in his son Gideon's unit, a Canadian named Jeffery, who (like someone else we knew) came to Israel completely on his own, decided to make aliyah, joined the army, and now is the modern day equivalent of a mugiste. May he and all the others be protected...

Pat

Obama's Speech

President Obama gave an astonishing speech on Thursday in Cairo. On many subjects I thought the speech was revolutionary; on others he simply reiterated positions that had been spoken many times by other presidents. The responses in Israel ran the gamut from enthusiastic rejoicing to "We no longer have a friend in the White House."

The Israelis in general were very delighted by two things in particular. Obama stated very clearly that the ties between the United States and Israel were strong and "never would be broken." There is no doubt that the US is Israel's strongest ally and many here believe that the strategic alliance between the US and Israel is her most significant assurance of security. Many believe that this alliance is so important that to defy the US's demands in any area is to threaten Israel's future. So the assurance that Obama gave was welcome indeed. Secondly, Obama was very clear there, in the heart of Cairo before a very large audience of Muslim leaders from many countries, that Holocaust denial is wrong, ignorant, and hateful. As Mahmoud Achmadinejad is notorious in his denial of the Holocaust and Israelis consider Iran their greatest threat at the moment. Obama's statement was welcome indeed.

On those two points there is general agreement, but beyond that I found great divisions of opinion in the press. I read Ha'aretz (the left-wing paper with an English edition), The Jerusalem Post (a right-wing English paper) and Ma'ariv (a kind of middle of the road Hebrew paper). On the issue of the settlements, as you would expect there were comments on all parts of the spectrum. Obama said in very clear terms that the US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. He was referring to the continued expansion of settlements as well as the "illegal" outposts which Israel has never taken down, in spite of prior agreements to do so. The left-wing commentators are thrilled -- in their opinion Israel finally has a true ally in the White House who will speak truth and put teeth into policy. More than 70% of Israelis believe that the settlements are impediments to peace. Previous US presidents have urged Israel to freeze any expansion. Obama is obviously ready to back up his demand with sanctions. Those on the right, on the other hand, are furious. They believe Obama is forcing them to do something which they strongly believe is against Israel's interests. And of course the government -- Netanyahu -- is in a squeeze. If he accedes to Obama's demand he loses his coalition and his government. If he refuses, he faces possible sanctions.

Further, while the left is delighted that Obama is being tough on the settlements, the right is complaining bitterly that Obama did not make similar explicit requests of the Arabs. Their comments are bitter, even accusing Obama of racism. (In this country the term "racism" (גזענות) is not so much about skin color as it is about ethnicity.) Obama did "lay down the law" about terrorism, but of course that is much less specific than a freeze on building.

Obama expressed deep sympathy with Jews about the Holocaust, and in the next paragraph expressed sympathy for the suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation. Commentators on the right had many negative comments about this, interpreting the juxtaposition of these two situations as an expression of "moral equivalence" in the two situations. Lots of ink was spilled in explaining why this was a horrendous offense against the Jewish people. Frankly, I believe that Obama was expressing sympathy to two peoples who have suffered and the interpretation is another way of whipping up opposition to an American president who would dare to "tell Israel what to do."

Many commentators feel very strongly that Obama was not hard enough on Iran's nuclear ambitions and they are deeply concerned that Obama may support Iran's development of nuclear power for civilian purposes. Iran has developed long-range missile capability which can reach Tel Aviv. They point to North Korea which is supposedly developing nuclear power for energy purposes but now is testing long range missiles. I'm paying attention to this concern; it seems legitimate.

In my opinion, the most important thing that may happen as a result of this speech is hope on the left. We have watched the progressive parties here in Israel decline in the past decade to the point of being almost moribund. People here quote Obama: Yes we can!!! My strong desire is that the left here will catch this optimism and hope and will rouse themselves and say Yes We Can!!! My hope is that Obama will be seen as the strong ally that he is -- the strong friend who will speak the truth even when it is unwelcome. Because I believe, along with a large majority of Israelis, that Israel's security and future depend on secure and legitimate borders and separation from the Palestinian people who require the same. Two states for two peoples. We've known that this will be the solution for well over a decade. Everyone knows this. Obama brings the hope that we might actually see peace come to this region within our own lifetime.



B'shalom,
Pat

Pleasures Great and Small

There are so many pleasures to enjoy here. Last week the country celebrated the holiday called "Shavu'ot" -- the Feast of Weeks. Shavu'ot marks the end of 7 weeks following Pesach (Passover) -- weeks in which in Orthodox communities it is forbidden to marry except on the 33rd day after Passover, when it is permitted. I forget why -- Frank probably knows. The holiday marks the day when the children of Israel received the Torah on Mt. Sinai. It also celebrates the bringing of the first fruits as sacrifice to the Temple in the spring. So there are really a multitude of things that happen here. One of the most important aspects of the celebration is a dairy meal -- cheese-filled blintzes, cheesecake -- sold and made and eaten in a veritable orgy of sweetened milk and cream! In the synagogue we read from the Torah the chapter on the Ten Commandments. On kibbutzim it is a spring celebration with a big parade featuring all the newborns on the kibbutz -- babies, lambs, puppies, kittens, foals, calves, baby goats -- and including any new machinery purchased in the past few months. Schools are out, shops are closed, and the people celebrate. Everyone greets everyone else with "Hag sameach!" which means Happy Holiday. And on Shabbat everyone greets everyone with "Shabbat shalom." Sweet.





Here's something else. They sell spices in the shopping mall -- spices and nuts and dried fruit -- all out in barrels and bowls. I have been buying these exotic mixtures that you put in rice. So delicious, so unlike anything you can get in Chapel Hill (as far as I know). Lovely to look at and tasty. Wish I knew more about them. They all have their unique uses -- for rice, for grilling meat, for boiling chicken, for making dessert...



And another thing: at the beach on Shabbat afternoon and evening they have "rikudei am" -- national dancing. You might think that this was traditional Israeli folk dancing, but it isn't. It's actually what we call line dancing -- everyone knows the steps and does the same thing to the music. There are apparently lots of groups that dance several times a week -- each song has special steps, some quite complicated. It's just lovely to watch -- all ages, dress, ethnicity, gender, thin and fat, short and tall, young and old. It would even be better to be among them, but it would take more learning dance steps than I have time for.



And lastly, today I wend to Tel Aviv to spend some time with an old and dear friend of mine. Somehow when I got off the train I got turned the wrong way and ended up in the heart of the financial district rather than in the front of the train station. I was in a canyon of tall, beautiful, brand new buildings -- very impressive. Then I went to lunch with Ruti at a restaurant not far from there -- very new, like a bistro, delicious salads. But when I wanted to go to the loo, I was directed to take the key and go outside until I came to a big door that said "OO" which is the symbol for the toilet here and in Europe. So I am including here a picture of the tall buildings and a picture of the door to the bathroom. What a contrast!! Israel is often a country of contrasts.



And here's a beautiful passion flower that I found on the way home...