tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61215486094235151402024-03-14T00:37:31.855-07:00HowardisraelHoward Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.comBlogger71125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-77799882883220369302009-06-09T10:51:00.000-07:002009-06-13T05:51:43.998-07:00BUSTEDNo it's not what you think, but its close. The other day I got an unsolicited email from a co-worker at my new job, saying that he had recently read my blog. I had no idea who this guy was and of course I immediately worried that I had said something offensive. I have religiously avoided making political, sexual or personal comments that could get me into trouble, specifically to avoid this very situation. As it was, the new reader made some constructive comments on the level of observing that the term "B.C." (Before Christ) was not used in Israel because it tends to acknowledge the deity of Jesus. (Does this mean that Jews are Christ-deniers and isn't that the kind of thing that would really piss off a Christian)<br /><div><br />Anyway, it got me to thinking that it was time to put this whole blog thing on hold. Now that I am working 24/7 (well, actually not on Shabbat, for "God" sake). I'm not supposed to comment on my job as it involves a product not yet released and I have virtually no insights into the "Palestinian" question which is the only thing my American friends ask about. "What was the reaction to Obama's speech?" Do you really want to know what was on the front page of the Jerusalem Post during the Obama speech, a huge group of ultra-orthodoxes have been protesting the opening of a free parking lot in Jerusalem on Shabbat. They throw stones, which is specifically identified as one of the 39 things a good Jew can not do on Shabbat. The thinking goes like this, if there is no place to park downtown, then nobody will drive on Shabbat and if nobody drives than the purity and integrity of the Sabbath will be maintained. That's what they are thinking in Jerusalem, while in Tel Aviv 20,000 people participated in the Gay Day parade culminating in the "religious" marriage of 5 same sex couples. Oh and as always finding parking was a problem.<br /><br />So the bottom line is I am going to take a blogging break, should the messiah come or some other significant evidence of the Apocalypse show up, I promise that I will immediately resume blogging. In the meantime, here are a few photos that were left over and I never got to use.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iGRnZ6LI/AAAAAAAAAqo/RiNV9Mikwpw/s1600-h/matzo1+030.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345388036426950834" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 484px; height: 364px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iGRnZ6LI/AAAAAAAAAqo/RiNV9Mikwpw/s320/matzo1+030.jpg" border="0" /></a>One of my very favorites. This is an amusement ride in Tiberias where ulta-orthodox families go to vacation. A very religious looking father has strapped his young son to a bungee cord contraption, the kid is then pulled downward and flung high into the air. The way the ride is set up, there is the image of a Christ-like child with arms extended, scared shitless, hurdling high up and down into the air while his parents laugh and shout encouragement from the side lines.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iGOV0DCI/AAAAAAAAAqg/9yFB0qGhvq8/s1600-h/greekort+004.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345388035547860002" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 393px; height: 295px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iGOV0DCI/AAAAAAAAAqg/9yFB0qGhvq8/s320/greekort+004.jpg" border="0" /></a>Food, food, food everywhere. This has got to be the worst place on earth to go on a diet. Every ethnic group brings its own favorites, cooking and eating are an integral part of every social interaction. Even a picky eater like me, can noshe himself to death.<br /><br /><br /><div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iF5qBPeI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/7Iip7zvWF3g/s1600-h/wastebasket+019.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5345388029995466210" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 320px; height: 240px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Si6iF5qBPeI/AAAAAAAAAqQ/7Iip7zvWF3g/s320/wastebasket+019.jpg" border="0" /></a>Caffeine is of course a basic staple of the type-A Jewish personality. Here an espresso comes with a personalized message written in Hebrew script, which unfortunately I have no idea what it says.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SjOc2BrGaTI/AAAAAAAAArQ/9bQ1EETtOnM/s1600-h/matzo1+022.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 535px; height: 401px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SjOc2BrGaTI/AAAAAAAAArQ/9bQ1EETtOnM/s320/matzo1+022.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346789634594990386" border="0" /></a>This is a picture from dockside at the Sea of Galilee. In the not too distant past, the water was up to the level of the white railings at the top of the dock. You can see where the old tires were used as bumpers to stop the boats from hitting the pillars. According to a recent (disputed) study, Israelis use about 4 times as much water as Palestinians and this is where a lot of it comes from or used to come from.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SjOc1868bhI/AAAAAAAAArI/p0QyyawmKwY/s1600-h/matzo1+004.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 373px; height: 280px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SjOc1868bhI/AAAAAAAAArI/p0QyyawmKwY/s320/matzo1+004.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346789633319267858" border="0" /></a>And finally one of my most cherished possessions. I am addicted to Matzo with butter and this is a great country to be so addicted. Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of this addiction is matzo crumbs all over the house, which upsets Vardit no end. So the solution was a special paper plate in exactly the shape of a matzo and conveniently disguised as an American football. These paper plates were on sale at the surplus store which specializes in products that Americans no longer chose to buy. So from now on, the unbreakable rule of the house is that all matzo must be eating on the appropriate "football" plate.<br /><br />Ok that's it for awhile. These are heady times for Israel politically and everyone is waiting to see how this U.S. v Israel v. Settlers v. Iran thing finally sorts out. It should be interesting and a great time for the Messiah to show up.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-50327599582367841472009-05-31T22:28:00.001-07:002009-06-02T21:09:48.830-07:009 to 5: Got to Earn a LivingI got a job! ugh! Just when I was getting into the"Jerusalem syndrome" of having <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Vardit</span> working day and night while I studied the Torah, along came a job offer I couldn't refuse. Here I was within inches of resolving the age old question of whether there are 8 or 9 angels on the head of a pin and now I have to go to work and will never know the answer.<br /><br />I took the 5 a.m. train up to Haifa this morning to get my work permit which was languishing in the Jerusalem visa office. Suddenly about 20 religious men barged into my rail car, put on their prayer garbs and began chanting and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">dovening</span> (rocking back and forth) all the while facing the rising sun. I kind of recognized what was going on, this is the early morning minion I had heard about. In order to be a good sport, I also started chanting (actually humming along) and rocking (and rolling) with everyone else. When I got to Haifa, my permit was issued in about 5 minutes, even though I was told it would take 2 months in Jerusalem. Go figure, God works in strange ways. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SiWfuMzinKI/AAAAAAAAAqI/lPKsb6LFloE/s1600-h/library+016.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342852149005163682" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 332px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 186px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SiWfuMzinKI/AAAAAAAAAqI/lPKsb6LFloE/s320/library+016.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SiWfdXc2EHI/AAAAAAAAAqA/PVN13CEfEog/s1600-h/library+018.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5342851859804983410" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 280px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 183px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SiWfdXc2EHI/AAAAAAAAAqA/PVN13CEfEog/s320/library+018.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><strong>National Library: </strong>I am sitting in a big fluffy chair facing the enormous window mosaics at the Israeli National Library. The mural is called "eternal peace." Actually, everything in this city has some kind of "peace" angle which is especially depressing since Jerusalem is one of those cities that has never been at peace. You know the mural is about peace because on the blue panel there are "plowshares" (or as we Midwesterners call them "shovels") which the swords have been beaten into. Get it?<br /><br /><div align="left">Anyway, in my left hand I am reading the book, Looking for a Hero: Joe Ronnie Hooper written by my 1962 college <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">roomate</span> Pete <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Maslowski</span>, a great <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Viet</span> Nam era biography which captures everything that was wrong with that war. In my right hand, I pick up the International Herald Tribune and read the first line of Tom <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Friendman's</span> column, "Stan <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Greenberg</span>, one of America's most experienced pollsters..." Stan was another good college buddy who introduced me to the woman I lost my virginity to in one of those early 1960's Washington, DC summers. All around me were "weird" Jews in long beards arguing loudly in Hebrew (maybe Yiddish) about esoteric questions of Biblical law. Part of me is in Oxford, Ohio, circa 1960 and part of me is in Jerusalem, circa now. It is truly a time warp moment. </div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong>Beitar Update:</strong> When we last left my soccer team they were going crazy on the field following their Israeli Cup victory. Their owner had disappeared into Russia while hiding out from an arms deal to Angola that soured. Now it seems that one of its stars, Amit Ben Shushan, was video taped at the celebration singing, "I hate you Arabs." He explained that he had gotten drunk and was singing along with everyone else, not understanding the words he was saying. This is exactly the same excuse (except for the drunk part) that I used to explain my lapse in judgment while cheering at games. But I REALLY don't know what the words mean, just as when I prayed with the men on the train. It's easy to get into trouble when you don't know the language!</div><div align="left"><strong></strong> </div><div align="left"><strong>Birthday Gift: </strong>I turned 65 this week and had my birthday in Jerusalem, which is kind of cool. Everyone wined and dined me; really I drank wine, can AA be far behind? The best part is that I now qualify for HUGE senior discounts, everything is half price, bus/movies/shows, even the front seats on the buses are reserved for "seniors only."</div><div align="left"></div><div align="left">I have been obsessed with a song I heard on the bus last month; the bus drivers get to listen to the radio as they drive, usually loudly. When we went to Krakow, the classical version of it was played at one of the concerts. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Vardit</span> went on a mission to various record stores and hummed the ten notes that kept running through my mind. After many, what must have been very embarrassing encounters, she found the song and gave it to me for my birthday. Enjoy:</div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHb_H8P7wDA">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHb_H8P7wDA</a></div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnZi19FQASY&feature=related" target="_blank"></a></div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><strong></strong></div><div align="left"><strong><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8"></span></strong></div><div align="left"> </div><div align="left"></div><div align="left"><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1089750.html"></a></div><div align="left"></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-47410802523979038012009-05-29T01:38:00.000-07:002009-06-01T00:14:11.767-07:00BOOK REVIEWI was walking down the street when I heard loud noises as if a thousand students were engaged in a heated argument about how many angels were on the head of a pin. I looked up and saw this building, "The Rabbi KOOK Universal Yeshiva." What more can I say!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5341162765442657762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 496px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 402px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sh-fPInAreI/AAAAAAAAAp4/1MWPqHtH340/s320/mosque+004.jpg" border="0" /><br /><strong>Ultra-orthodox Women:</strong> When an Ultra woman gets married she puts on a head covering, either a wig or a scarf. I have just learned to my dismay that I (actually, no man) is allowed to touch this woman (except her husband). That includes no handshakes, however a Heimlich maneuver would come under the "life or death" exception. Some women extend this prohibition to hugging their own sons. Before marriage an Ultra can grow and groom her hair presumably so she can attract a husband. I asked my female, secular <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">haircutter</span> the reason for the rule and she got really embarrassed and said, "you don't want to know." Which, of course, made me want to know more. Then she said, "the hair on a woman's head is the same as the hair (and then she pointed to below her waist)" She turned beet red, I hesitated, not quite getting it, and then we both broke out into laughter. As she explained a bit further, if a man sees the hair on a woman's head, it is the same as if he had seen her naked. I guess this is why one needs a Rabbi Kook to have all of this explained.<br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>Great Book:</strong> I just finished reading <em>The Holocaust is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes</em> by <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Avraham</span> Burg who is a prominent Israeli politician and former head of the Labor Party. It was a fantastically insightful book and here is a short review of the highlights.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">1. The expulsion of the Jews from Arab countries (after 1948) was a very significant and traumatic experience, where many of those families had roots and traditions going back hundreds of years, more than most Israelis. This experience is trivialized by the European Jews who claim it was insignificant compared to their REAL and only <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Shoah</span>.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">2. Arab Jews who came to Israel missed a great opportunity to bond with the Arab Palestinians who they shared a language and at some points a common culture. They could have been the bridge between the European Jews and the Palestinians.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">3. When Burg travels abroad he adopts a cooperative style of discourse; he negotiates in good-faith and looks for win/win outcomes to negotiations. When in Israel, he is much more competitive, he fights for win/lose outcomes. He realized that he felt more comfortable with his “abroad” personality than his Israeli one.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">4. Before the Holocaust Israelis had a positive, can do attitude. They believed in themselves and the ideals of a nation. After the Holocaust, the country became filled with Holocaust survivors who were “damaged” in many ways. There was a feeling of “<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">victimhood</span>” and every political crisis became a matter of life or death containing the claim of another Holocaust, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">i.e.</span> the Iranian crisis is a good example.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">5. The Israelis forgave the Germans too fast. Within a short period of time, (by 1950) the Germans expressed regret; there were reparations and soon normalized trade relations. Underneath, however there was still much Survivor hatred and that was directed in exaggerated force against the Arabs whose crimes (if any) were hardly as significant as the Nazis.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">6. The Eichmann trial could have been a universal message to the world that Jews oppose genocide and totalitarianism everywhere for everyone. Instead, the Israelis turned the Eichmann trial into something that was just personal to Jews; <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">condemned</span> exclusively was the Nazis' actions against European Jews, not the inhumanity of people to people<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">7. This process not only raised the European Holocaust in importance above all other genocides, but other similar crimes against humanity in Armenia, Africa, Cambodia and Serbia were either trivialized, ignored or even found Israelis on the side of the perpetrators </span><br /><br /><!-- Start Bravenet.com Service Code --><br /><script type="text/javascript" src="http://pub30.bravenet.com/counter/code.php?id=408744&usernum=2553074179&cpv=2"></script><br /><!-- End Bravenet.com Service Code -->Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-23189320339724084162009-05-27T02:36:00.000-07:002009-05-31T21:48:18.707-07:00A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A ZEALOT<strong>Religion:</strong> A friend suggested the theory that God answers the prayers of non-believers first because they are most in need of convincing. Since the believers are already hooked, they have the patience to wait their turns. Today I decided to go up to the Old City and test this idea. <img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340740081557710466" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sh4ezsbwJoI/AAAAAAAAApY/oMpvImQPlYA/s320/mosque+010.jpg" border="0" /> As I walked down into the caverns, I passed a group of about 30 Indian tourists (from India) dressed in colorful native garb. As I listened to their guide pontificating in Hindi, I wondered what God could they possibility be visiting here? Anyway, I quickly arrived at the hand print of Jesus on the stone wall of the 5<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">th</span> station, placed my hand over it and thought, "God(s) and/or Goddess(es) may thy will be done." I thought that was a safe prayer, who am I to tell God what to do, other than to just "do" what you want.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340740464296039442" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sh4fJ-PrlBI/AAAAAAAAApg/i-x9yr8QQ9Y/s320/mosque+012.jpg" border="0" />I then walled the several hundred yards to the Western Wailing Wall and as I put my hand to the stone was grabbed from behind by the "Morals Police" who gave me a stern look and handed me a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">kippa</span> (which I had forgotten) for my head. I repeated my prayer. Note: at Passover all of last year's notes were cleaned out, but it appears that new ones have taken their place. <div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340740470817197042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sh4fKWici_I/AAAAAAAAApw/XwIVXXWKKRg/s320/mosque+027.jpg" border="0" /><br />I looked at my watch and realized that the noon Muslim prayers were over so went the couple hundred yards to the court yard of the Dome of the Rock. As I prepared to enter I saw people taking off their shoes and I immediately thought, "is some Arab worshipper going to steal my expensive orthopaedic insert from my shoes." But I was stopped in mid-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">deshoeing</span> by another "Morals Policeman" who asked if I was Muslim. (Do I look Muslim?) When I said "no" he indicated no entrance to the Mosque for me. So I put my hand on the nearest pillar and prayed, but I'm not sure I was as close to the "source" as I could have been.<br /><br /><div></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5340740467866311458" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sh4fKLi5myI/AAAAAAAAApo/bK4j_UAudjQ/s320/mosque+026.jpg" border="0" />I should note at this point, that it seems to me that the governing of the Old City, at least as far as the logistics for tourists goes, is handled pretty smoothly under the Israelis. It was terrible under the Jordanians, (1948-1967) barely tolerable under the Ottomans (1600-1900), disastrous under the Christians (1200) and well, you know how the Romans did (100BC-200AD) killing Christ and sacking the Jewish Temple and all. I still think Disney would do the best job, cute Bible characters mingling with the crowd and those efficient <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">zig</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">zag</span> lines which move people quickly through the rides.<br /><br /><div><strong>Culture:</strong> Next stop was to go with <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Vardit</span> and a friend to opening night of the Jerusalem Festival which is about 3 weeks of non-stop cultural events all over the city. Tonight we went to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Mayumana</span> Dance Troupe which was an incredibly high energy, creative, "Stomp-like" production before about 500 older, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">whiteish</span>, patrons. It was fantastic and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Vardit</span> said she heard the lady behind her say, "This reminds me of Clockwork Orange." :-) Check out this <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Youtube</span> clip to get an idea: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6mLD3sIbyk&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6mLD3sIbyk&feature=related</a></div><br /><div><strong>Sports:</strong> Then it was off to a sports bar to watch the HUGE soccer game between <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Beitar</span> Jerusalem (My Team) and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Macabi</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Haifi</span> (the heavy favorite) for the Israeli Cup. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Beitar</span> won! And the town (or should I say the non-religious, non-cultured part) went wild. All roads led to Teddy Stadium which was great since I live (much to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Vardit's</span> dismay) right next to the stadium. At midnight almost 12,000, including me, poured into the stadium to celebrate. People (mostly young men who, as <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Vardit</span> would claim, have no life) were going nuts. Multiple yellow (our colors) smoke bombs were being thrown into the crowd, the PA system was cranked up all the way and a great time was had by all (except those old farts in the neighborhood who did have a life which began early the next morning. What a day and what a moment to suddenly realize that God could be a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Beitar</span> fan and his/her WILL might actually have been "done." In the morning the owner of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Beitar</span> issued a message of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">congratulations</span> from an "undisclosed location in Russia." I figured that was a bad sign, but he is on the run for selling guns to Angola and pocketing the money (or some such thing) Anyway, WE'RE NUMBER ONE!!</div><br /><div>Check out this great video:</div></div></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='433' height='318' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz5bNxLc6TZKCwIPVtcRhosF3B6PfKXTHeMaOsiO6OqKqr4ApXSN0LObVbeoXAKytaXN4vK-WLEyJD9A8CLvQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-66482228438708380842009-05-20T06:14:00.000-07:002009-05-20T13:03:24.059-07:00Karkow, And Now the Rest of the Story<div>What would a trip to Poland be without a walk down the worst memory lane, EVER! Rather than add more words to an already indescribable experience, I will offer my brief impressions associated with the following pictures. </div><br /><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337903814849391506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 408px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 314px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQLPPlM65I/AAAAAAAAAnI/f9KjWaEgqCY/s320/kracow+046.jpg" border="0" /></div><br /><div>Let me start off with the mother of all images. I am standing with a group of tourist on the railroad track that dead ends into <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Birkenau</span>. For those of you who are not familiar with Holocaust logistics, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Auchwitz</span> was actually a "camp" with minimal "killing" facilities. Next door was <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Birkenau</span> with 4 crematoriums and one of the Nazi's official extermination centers. Our guide has just made the following statement. "This train track was formally completed on May 30, 1944 and for the first time brought the victims right to the door of the crematoriums. Within one hour of their arrival, they were dead!" I stood there stunned, that was the day I was born. Enough said! As the group moved on, I stood on the platform contemplating how different the day must have been in Aurora, Illinois from what it had been here at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Birkenau</span></div><div><div><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQNYTaakTI/AAAAAAAAAoI/Dxxp7kGGMvU/s1600-h/kracow+064.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337906169519968562" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQNYTaakTI/AAAAAAAAAoI/Dxxp7kGGMvU/s320/kracow+064.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Vardit</span> and I walked into one of the many antique stores in the old Jewish section of Krakow. The store is packed with family heirlooms, kiddish cups, old books and piles and piles of dishes and silverware. I think, who owned all this stuff? We read the cute inscriptions in the books from parent to child, from lover to lover. And suddenly it hit me, the owners died in the Holocaust. These are all looted treasures, the thousands of empty apartments, doors left open, valuables sitting in the cabinets and the owners all gone. What an incredible transfer of riches from Jews to whoever came along and claimed the booty. I see the above picture which is made out of silk and recognize it as the poster that my daughter always kept in her room in Berkeley. This tapestry was last displayed in the apartment of a comfortable Jewish family circa Poland, 1940 and now sits on sale for $30 in a Jewish <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">memorabilia</span> store in a tourist strip in Old Krakow.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337903807878345506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQLO1nLMyI/AAAAAAAAAnA/f3UCjKwtjj4/s320/kracow+036.jpg" border="0" />The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Kashimer</span> section of Krakow housed the Jewish population and with the Polish economy in shambles, there is a successful tourist business in both Holocaust and Jewish cultural tours. The area has been completely renovated with museums and great Jewish restaurants surrounding the old town square. As I sat eating pirogi, matzoh ball soup and potato pancakes, I looked up and saw one of the few buildings that had not been <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">refurbished</span>. As with every other experience in Poland, one part of me imagined the vibrancy of this neighborhood, the food, smells, intellectual discourse and then I stared up at the empty window and imagined the families being suddenly dragged out onto the street and marched off to their deaths. This <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">contrast </span>between a rich cultural life that I feel part of (at least through my grandparents) and the unimaginable horror of the Holocaust dominated my feelings throughout the entire trip.<br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM9Iu_03I/AAAAAAAAAoA/ZMgny2Cz1xQ/s1600-h/kracow+043.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337905702797038450" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM9Iu_03I/AAAAAAAAAoA/ZMgny2Cz1xQ/s320/kracow+043.jpg" border="0" /></a> This image caught my attention at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Birkenau</span>, and reminded me of the escape scene in the movie The Great Escape. There is the boundary fence, the guard tower and the limitless surrounding forest. If you recall, in the movie the tunnel does not come out in the forest, it comes out in the clearing just beyond the fence. We see the dirt move, a shovel and then a head pokes out and the prisoner looks up to see they are completely exposed to the guards in the tower.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM8x0h3sI/AAAAAAAAAn4/4GDsr2rrSmQ/s1600-h/kracow+070.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337905696646225602" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM8x0h3sI/AAAAAAAAAn4/4GDsr2rrSmQ/s320/kracow+070.jpg" border="0" /></a> The one thing that struck me coming from Israel to Poland is that this is a Catholic country with almost no Jews. (There are about 4,000 in a population of 38 million) I was walking in the woods looking for the site of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Plaszow</span> Concentration Camp and stumbled across this weird memorial cross; Jesus with a crown of barbed wire thorns, what's with that. </div><div> </div><div>Here is the actual memorial for <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Plaszow</span>, a camp to which most of the Krakow Jews where march and killed.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337983822439210418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShRUATFFXbI/AAAAAAAAAog/k0nAuX8W6D4/s320/kracow+080.jpg" border="0" /></div><div>The gates of Schindler's Factory. This actually wasn't much of a tourist trap, I walked down a fairly obscure and quiet neighborhood and there was the gate from the movie and a small plaque; the movie was actually filmed on location here.<br /></div><div> </div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7mhlziI/AAAAAAAAAnw/UKJpgyPJEvc/s1600-h/kracow+068.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337905676434132514" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7mhlziI/AAAAAAAAAnw/UKJpgyPJEvc/s320/kracow+068.jpg" border="0" /></a> There isn't much to see of the old Jewish Ghettos of Warsaw and Krakow except in the exhibits of the many fine museums. I specifically made it a point to take the train up to Warsaw and walk through the ghetto. As a 10 year old boy in Aurora, I read The Wall by John Hersey which was the story of the Warsaw Ghetto and also a book called, (I think) the Theory and Practice of Hell which was about Dr. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Mengela's</span> experiments. Why my parents let me read that stuff, I'll never know. But I have been obsessed with Holocaust minutia ever since.<br /><br /><div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7iy3ZyI/AAAAAAAAAno/IKznzS5ymw0/s1600-h/kracow+089.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337905675432847138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7iy3ZyI/AAAAAAAAAno/IKznzS5ymw0/s320/kracow+089.jpg" border="0" /></a> I was walking through a fairly sterile neighborhood of Socialist apartment <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">architecture</span> which my map said was the heart of the Warsaw Ghetto. Suddenly I saw a mound of dirt and this sculpture in the middle. This was all that marked the heart of the Ghetto. I kept walking with my head down trying to feel the vibrations of the neighborhood and suddenly stepped on the granite strip that wound its way around the streets. I'm guessing this marked the barrier of the Ghetto. What distinguished the Warsaw Ghetto of course is that there was a rebellion of about 7000 remaining fighters and after the uprising the Nazi's completely leveled and burned the place down to the ground. There is no "there" to refurbish, it is history.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7SSeROI/AAAAAAAAAng/EawtvHQaWwo/s1600-h/kracow+090.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337905671002014946" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQM7SSeROI/AAAAAAAAAng/EawtvHQaWwo/s320/kracow+090.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Finally, all that remains of the Krakow Ghetto wall is a small section that was preserved for us tourist. The Krakow Ghetto was noteworthy because it was self-regulated for several years, had a health system, soup kitchens, industrial activity and despite the fact that it was the repository of tens of thousands of inhabitants of destroyed <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">stetels</span> around Poland, it held itself together amazingly well. That all came to an end when the remaining populations was march down the road to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Plaszow</span> for extermination. </div><div><br /><div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQLPUQDgAI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/ev8-MAtnnnE/s1600-h/kracow+066.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337903816102871042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShQLPUQDgAI/AAAAAAAAAnQ/ev8-MAtnnnE/s320/kracow+066.jpg" border="0" /></a> I don't know if it was necessary for me to make this trip. I was not overwhelmed by "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">tsuris</span>" (Yiddish for grief), but neither was I underwhelmed. I just couldn't stop thinking (as all Jews do) of that knock on the door and the sudden transformation of a pleasant, middle class life into a total, incomprehensible living hell. As we used to say, "I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">groked</span> it." ( To grok (pronounced <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">GRAHK</span>) something is to understand something so well that it is fully absorbed into oneself: from Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein)</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-12521108727712402832009-05-19T11:20:00.000-07:002009-05-20T06:13:45.495-07:00TRIP TO KRAKOW: First the Good Side<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337607853576280994" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 472px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 365px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShL-EB6_26I/AAAAAAAAAmI/vtD7WmJ8ZHM/s320/2009_05160008.JPG" border="0" /><br /><br />Welcome to Krakow! This huge soccer shoe greets the many tourists at the Krakow International Airport. (This isn't my specialty, but I didn't think soccer players kick the ball on the tip of their shoes, isn't that how old white guys like George Blanda used to kick field goals?)<br /><br />Initially, I went to visit the camps and the Jewish ghetto, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that long before Krakow became covered in blood, it actually was (and is) a delightfully cultured city. One is initially struck by the fact that Easy Jet flies a ~$100 round-trip weekend flight from London to Krakow which fills the city with British tourists who are only interested in the cheap food and unlimited beer. This is not a Holocaust tour group, but a "get out of Britain, cheap" crowd.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337610032766234658" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 413px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 316px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShMAC4CXsCI/AAAAAAAAAmY/XXaTjJ-9Bbk/s320/kracow+035.jpg" border="0" /><br />The town is just packed with fun things to do and it is hard to believe that not too many years ago this was a dreary Soviet satellite. The Poles must have really hated it and the city is filled with timeless Gothic architecture intermixed with Soviet style lifeless block housing. There is a new mall Galareia Krackowia which is the largest I have ever seen (except Mall of America) it is three floors of just modern stores and a food court with part MacDonalds and part authentic Polish food. I ate Polish sausages non-stop and when I did stop I ate Pirogis (12 for $4)<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShMGVgsTjcI/AAAAAAAAAmw/y7Enl0IdJyc/s1600-h/kracow+098.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337616949986954690" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 286px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 211px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShMGVgsTjcI/AAAAAAAAAmw/y7Enl0IdJyc/s320/kracow+098.jpg" border="0" /></a> I know this is racist (sorry) but I saw the most incredible Polish bookstores. (oxymoron?) This picture was of a coffee shop with probably every Holocaust book, new and used ever written. I was told the Poles read more books than any other Eastern European country. BTW: The Polish language is impossible except for Scrabble enthusiasts and actually a Yiddish speaking Polish Jew invented Esperanto here which lost most of its followers in the Holocaust. In addition Krakow is a university town and the home where Copernicus began his studies in the 1500's.<br /><br /><div></div><div>One of the more chilling scenes was of the old Jewish cemetery at the edge of the city. There were thousands of unkempt graves going back to the 1800's, a gap during the war and then hundreds of new tombstones erected recently by children of Holocaust survivors in memory of their parents. Overlooking this wooded and very spooky cemetery was an imposing and equally unkempt Soviet-style apartment complex with very old people hanging out of the windows watching us take pictures. Everyone of these onlookers was the type of person you wanted to ask, "what did you do during the war?" You could feel the clash of vibrations between the war survivors in the tenement and the souls of the departed in the graveyard. </div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337610038211467298" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 351px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 313px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ShMADMUnWCI/AAAAAAAAAmg/9JVs5uGB0Fs/s320/kracow+037.jpg" border="0" /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxdsbzXA7jfwMFIyFKyis0s8zUgI-sU063EipWEYsHl-ogr4UQdDghQfp6uEtnNg-rAc3Bj97uCNG98vBYxNA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div>Every night there is some kind of classical music concert at each of the about 10 local churches as well as folk and klezmer bands. The recital we saw at The Church of Peter and Paul not only featured the haunting song I had heard the harmonica players perform at Yad Vashem (theme from Gallipoli) but they also played another song which I couldn't get out of my head and we finally identified as the theme from The Scent of a Woman. </div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-34044760733512759022009-04-29T21:54:00.003-07:002009-05-05T09:35:44.035-07:00PILLARS OF ZION: PART 3Just when it seems like one is memorialized-out, the mood changes radically and we are into the 3rd foundation of the county-INDEPENDENCE DAY. As the last night of Memorial Day arrives I start to see teenage boys with shopping carts filled with wood for bonfires. At 8:00p.m. sharp the radio starts playing rock-n-roll, the candles disappear on TV and are replaced with comedy shows.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='401' height='337' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzgqJ_PrIxRLTa8ymX9eafM0Qi-2xnvD_QhyOFjKIdnMUX4gPSvYjEbuAmPjkMdd3g3ZrHPz_9jUhH9FDyZ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><br />We go up to Mt <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Herzel</span>, the Arlington Cemetery of Israel, to watch the fireworks which are pretty spectacular, although no Washington DC Mall on the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">th</span>. After the big show, all around the city there are mini-shows. I think, "this must be what Gaza was like only from the top down and not the bottom up." (or is it the other way around) Next day, everything is closed (again) and the entire country is taken over by barbeque's. I ask if this requirement is found in the Bible, but Independence Day isn't a religious holiday (probably the only one) and its the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">seculars</span>' day to celebrate. There is so much smoke in the area that warnings are given to people with lung problems.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331525846213763666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf1igm5iolI/AAAAAAAAAlw/5AAWOczrP94/s320/wastebasket+001.jpg" border="0" /><br />Ah, and now the seamy underbelly of the holiday. Amidst all the jubilant Israelis celebrating their independence are the Arab Israelis who celebrate (on the next day) the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Nakba</span> or "catastrophe" Maybe this is like our Thanksgiving on an Indian Reservation. But the "good news" is that because all the Israeli car washes are closed, everyone goes the to Arab car washes so they can arrive at their barbeque's in style. Like going to an Indian Casino on Thanksgiving.<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331525850008982066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf1ig1CZEjI/AAAAAAAAAl4/rYWDx5c_6BU/s320/wastebasket+003.jpg" border="0" />Couldn't resist this image. An Israeli guy pulls up in a new Chrysler SUV with Independence Day flags. He opens the door, and quickly changes the diaper of his kid in the back seat and then throws the diaper on the street (behind the front wheel) He see me taking this picture and pauses, then reluctantly bends down, picks up the dirty diaper and takes it over the the trash. I feel like the morality police and the consciousness of my people.<br /><br /><strong><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">BEITAR</span> JERUSALEM: WE'RE NUMBER THREE</strong><br /><br /><p>This is a big deal, I have FINALLY figured out what is so exciting about soccer; I won't bore you, but it has something to do with knowing the places on the field where goals are scored and then letting your mind wander until the ball gets to that point and then screaming hysterically. My team is <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Beitar</span> Jerusalem which plays its games about 200 meters from my house in the 20,000 seat Teddy Stadium. I go all the time and come home smelling like cigarette smoke and hoarse from yell. I often cheer, "We're Number One" and Vardit corrects me and points out that Beitar is really number three, so I still shout "We're Number One" but hold up three fingers because everyone knows that Beitar fans can't count.</p>I have learned, however, that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">BEITAR</span> (may God bless and keep them) are the bad boys of the soccer league; kind of the Oakland Raiders of Israel only worse. I have also discovered that the cheers "we" sing, are along the lines of "Kill the Arabs." Honestly, I didn't know this. So yesterday, the team was penalized 1 point for its fans yelling "Mohammad is Dead" (which is technically and legally correct) AND worse of all, they have to play their next home game WITHOUT fans. How mean is that. The game of course will be on TV but not only is it unsatisfying to yell at a TV, I'm sure <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Vardit</span> has a NO <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Beitar</span> TV rule in the house.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331529252156590610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf1lm3BlyhI/AAAAAAAAAmA/HbmgUs0ITpU/s320/wastebasket+021.jpg" border="0" />Just before I learned of the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Beitar</span> punishment I went out and bought myself a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Beitar</span> Wastebasket for my room. I actually bought it for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">living room</span>, but (as above) there is also a NO <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Beitar</span> Memorabilia rule for the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">living room</span>.<br /><br /><p></p>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-73357684281689032122009-04-29T21:54:00.001-07:002009-05-03T06:29:06.471-07:00PILLARS OF ZION: PART 2The second foundation of the country is Memorial Day which follows almost immediately after Holocaust <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Remembrance</span> Day. These are the two days that the country memorializes the 23,000+ people who have died "for" Israel since 1860 when the first Jewish settlers came to Palestine. It includes everyone from <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">soldiers</span>, police officers, civilians on buses, accidental death from <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">friendly</span> fire, even the poor schmuk who falls off his tank and is run over. And of course they keep track of everyone's name and the circumstances of their death.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='400' height='329' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyihAcC_tuDhJW4YIWJdgK1kUpm-dhXQqxDEsmOGH2RmaUERwt5FeLCHHELZRcrfGe-GxuSq8XwN9O4uuUSxQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />This video was shot in the middle of the busy <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Jerusalem</span> open market at the moment the 11a.m. siren went off. It's 2 minutes long so if you can wait, at least look at the frames from about 26-30. You will see in the background 2 figures, dressed kind of like Ultra-orthodox, walking among the frozen crowds. Here is the deal: everyone in Israel stands motionless for 2 minutes on Memorial day except (me who is moving my camera, ugly American!) and a certain group of ultra-orthodox Jews. They are protesting the fact that Israel is so secular (think Sodom and Gomorrah) and has strayed too far from God. As a protest, they continue to walk around doing the siren, which as you can imagine REALLY pisses people off. Oh, did I mention that the Ultras get large subsidies from the government so they can study in the Yeshivas and not work or go into the army.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331474447599058738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf0zw0I2vzI/AAAAAAAAAlg/X4ngfDQ_SEw/s320/remember.1+020.jpg" border="0" /><br />At night there are huge gatherings of people in parks all over the country with heavy memorial services. At a park near my house they put up a big screen and showed pictures of people who had died. Here is a picture of a girl who was killed on the #18 bus several years ago. All the media is given over to the memorial, the movie channels on TV just show pictures of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">burning</span> candles, the radio just plays sad, sad Hebrew songs, the Malls close early (so you know this is a big deal.) The newspapers which just yesterday had wall-to-wall Holocaust stories now have wall-to-wall memorial/war stories.<br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf0zxCSbAEI/AAAAAAAAAlo/1rUq2YD9ry0/s1600-h/wastebasket+021.jpg"></a><br /><div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf0zw1v7T5I/AAAAAAAAAlY/ZowE9j1kp3Y/s1600-h/remember.1+034.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331474448031371154" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sf0zw1v7T5I/AAAAAAAAAlY/ZowE9j1kp3Y/s320/remember.1+034.jpg" border="0" /></a> In the morning of the second Memorial Day I went up to Ammunition Hill which was a critical battle for Jerusalem in June 1967. The speaker, one of the paratroopers, pointed out that armies throughout history have spent years, actually hundreds of years trying to capture Jerusalem (i.e. Crusades) and his group captured it in about 3 days. This is an enormous source of pride. I watched a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">fascinating</span>, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">swoopy</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">duppy</span> multi-media show of the battle with film, and a great interactive map, (the red is Jordanian forces, the blue Israeli forces) It was so cool!</div><div></div><div></div><div><strong></strong> </div><div><strong>SWINE FLU UPDATE</strong></div><div>The big deal here is not that 2 people back from Mexico have swine flu, but the name of the flu itself. The question was raised, "What if an orthodox Rabbi, gets SWINE flu?" This would be a huge <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">blasphemy</span> and there were many cartoons in the paper on this matter of great urgency. So immediately the name of the disease was changed to something like D1D and the sanctity of the Kosher rules was preserved </div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-59390903554099449972009-04-29T21:51:00.000-07:002009-04-30T05:18:37.933-07:00PILLARS OF ZION: PART 1This was a complicated week (actually month) for holidays. The double whammy of Passover and Easter had barely finished when we launched right into the three pillars of the Israeli's national psyche. Pillar One is the Holocaust Memorial Day<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='401' height='304' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxN5G5o37B4K9haFbezAHageLZkR4AIolcxfx6tu7GHX3LlBK72loEao-P7SUSsH5qrA0X2S0iyb0pmkyWggA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />I am standing on a scenic promenade facing the Jerusalem city and valley. At 11:00 sirens go off all over the country for a 2 minute silent memorial. On my left is the end of the impressive <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Yad</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Vashem</span></span> Museum which after a long tunnel of exhibits opens majestically on to a view of the city. Everywhere in the country people/cars stop and contemplate, its very heavy.<br /><br /><p><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflRbj-BjHI/AAAAAAAAAkg/gH94IwD4cIc/s1600-h/holocaust+032.jpg"></a><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330385878329126322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 463px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 305px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflVtvmQ7bI/AAAAAAAAAlA/aUbJxf5J7dU/s320/holocaust+032.jpg" border="0" />This is a huge metal tree sculpture at the museum, as best as I can interpret, it depicts people in free fall. I arrived at <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Yad</span></span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Vashem</span></span> at about 9 a.m. and inexplicably found myself completely alone on the grounds. All the dignitaries were up in the open auditorium and as I walked around there was nobody, not even soldiers. It was very eerie, I mean here I was in the middle of the biggest Holocaust Museum, on the biggest memorial day in Jerusalem, admidst empty freight cars and granite markers and I was completely alone.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330389531088796338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 416px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 325px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflZCXMCOrI/AAAAAAAAAlI/iENKyijRKrA/s320/holocaust+002.jpg" border="0" />I find this to be one of the more interesting exhibits: the Hall of Names. In these volumes are the names and Pages of Testimony of people killed in the Holocaust. Millions of people's lives have been documented and the 360 degree circular atrium of the Hall's bookcases contains thousands of binders all of which are now computerized. Keeping track of these names and their stories is one of the highest priorities of the state, soon in about 10-20 years there will be nobody lucid enough to remember what actually happened. </p><p><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflcNqD6uuI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/qms1Z7oi_-s/s1600-h/holocaust+012.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330393023668468450" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 410px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 273px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflcNqD6uuI/AAAAAAAAAlQ/qms1Z7oi_-s/s320/holocaust+012.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflRb-tOSDI/AAAAAAAAAk4/dI3svm3gfeA/s1600-h/holocaust+012.jpg"></a><br /><br /><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflRb8RGFOI/AAAAAAAAAkw/FwAdjHQrySI/s1600-h/holocaust+006.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5330381174445839586" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 477px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 276px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SflRb8RGFOI/AAAAAAAAAkw/FwAdjHQrySI/s320/holocaust+006.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p></p><p>The huge conical ceiling is covered with photographs and each person/victim is catalogued on a Page of Testimony with family pictures and witness statements which must be verified before inclusion in the official record. </p><p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='399' height='329' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxwGIYr-QBaX9-ZnVTWbYtRpVOJhOZoGiEQK6JS_2ojFIBT9XcE7zkMgGY6fDJNUq6f8OPrEo7WsgJtX-Y6sQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />As I left there was a children's harmonica coral group. They were playing a haunting song which I am sure is the theme of a famous Holocaust movie, but I can not for the life of me identify which one. As you can see in the background there is an inspiring view of Jerusalem.<br /></p><p></p>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-16147842927316928582009-04-26T06:53:00.000-07:002009-04-26T08:07:10.478-07:00A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE<div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRogh2sQPI/AAAAAAAAAjw/oV8kV0nReSk/s1600-h/greekort+021.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328999167139004658" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 369px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 264px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRogh2sQPI/AAAAAAAAAjw/oV8kV0nReSk/s320/greekort+021.jpg" border="0" /></a> This is probably the most bizarre image I have seen so far (I think I've said that before), but this time I mean it. I was standing on the Via Dolorosa in the Old City at the V Station of the Cross (or maybe it was VI) and saw a crowd of people touching and kissing this "brown spot" on the wall. I asked a nearby Monk for an identification and he said, "that is the hand print of our Lord Jesus Christ." Whoa! So Jesus is being marched down the Via to his Crucifixion and at station 5 or 6 he stumbles against the wall and leaves this hand print, which over the last 2,009 years has been touched by millions and millions of pilgrims.<br /><br />This intersection of Via Delorosa and El Wad is one of the most interesting, probably in the world. Coming from one direction are Arab worshippers on their way back from prayers at the El Aqsa Mosque (they're the group with head dressings.) Going in the other direction are the Christian pilgrims who are retracing Jesus' actual steps and as mentioned kissing/touching the hand print. A third group is made up of Jewish tourists on their way to the Wailing Wall which is just down the road a piece.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='421' height='354' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwTAgU-zZKBvcvq2FdbSamxDdyrCMSbvbs3E5UKLGQJooP-2h5eFKwk14COnlidUzGCJ4v1BeMOsf_AA_vxEQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />This video starts with the Christian hand print touchers and moves to the Arabs returning from prayer. Note the sound of the trinket peddlers in the background.<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='395' height='288' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwNR9BWLJsNRumD7I3XJAwzShJCZzfkdjp_65JEbB7XWjbsLBi_FpQK5RO6cThlajyitTQiDU2lEc3yRfGnsw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />This video starts with a group of Jewish Wall Wailers and continues as the Arab worshippers passes along side of them. I can't tell you how incredible this mixing of different religious followers appears in person. At this one intersection there is just a mob of people who all believe that their God is the one true God, they are speaking English/Hebrew/Arabic and not acknowledging anyone else's existence except their own people.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329009088080564050" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRxiAPez1I/AAAAAAAAAkI/lDO58dDhaPU/s320/greekort+005.jpg" border="0" />Of course everything is overseen by hundreds of Israeli soldiers with machine guns and many check points.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329016184959904546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfR3_GLXqyI/AAAAAAAAAkY/qbJAbo66v3o/s320/matzo1+077.jpg" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5329016182802309922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfR3--I9YyI/AAAAAAAAAkQ/BTuKb_sCj3E/s320/matzo1+074.jpg" border="0" />The T-shirts are quite novel. This one was being sold in both Israeli and Arab stores and depending and which one it is either funny or revolutionary. Below is a collection including a Free Palestine combined with a Detroit Piston's NBA Jersey, the whole gamut of the political spectrum.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRoL7rIGMI/AAAAAAAAAjY/elVthUNbHCA/s1600-h/matzo1+062.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328998813292566722" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 350px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 264px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRoL7rIGMI/AAAAAAAAAjY/elVthUNbHCA/s320/matzo1+062.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328998812388104306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 343px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 249px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRoL4TfGHI/AAAAAAAAAjQ/oq2NpA3MLt4/s320/matzo1+053.jpg" border="0" /></div><div>No tour would be complete without a stop at the Virgin Mary's Birth Place and Tomb. As you can imagine, these two places were heavy duty, (ie NO TALKING OR JOKING) There was a solemn procession of very serious minded women, kneeling and crossing themselves, I felt very awkward when the sound of my camera kept going "click-click."<br /></div><div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5328998818676290258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 373px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 307px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SfRoMPutMtI/AAAAAAAAAjg/3zW7s5NpXAw/s320/matzo1+073.jpg" border="0" /></div>And finally lots and lots of stores selling christian "stuff." BTW: Most of the stores seemed to be owned by either Jews or Arabs, so what else is new.</div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-90313571798701713022009-04-20T12:10:00.000-07:002009-04-20T13:35:36.786-07:00ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERSJust as I put Passover behind me, up comes Easter and once again this town is alive with religious fervor. Actually, I missed the “real” Easter, the one with the Pope and the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Michelangelo</span> Last Supper painting; that was last Sunday. I <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">didn</span>’t see any mention of it in the papers and with all the Passover hoopla, there never was a ground swelling of Easter Fever. But alas, I was saved by a quirk of religious calendaring, as it seems the Greek Orthodox Church, that's the one with the cool icons, celebrated Easter a week AFTER the Roman Catholic Church. Just an aside, but these two churches share custody of the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">crucifixion</span>/resurrection site and have been fighting over such important things as the number of fingers one uses to cross themselves for thousands of years. I heard the priests of the two sects can't be in the Church of the Holy <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Sepulcher</span> at the same time because they are prone to fighting.<br /><br />In any case, I got up to the Old City early Saturday morning and there were several thousand people already waiting in line. It was a mad house with little old Greek ladies in black, (right out of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Zorba</span> the Greek) facing row upon row of Israeli soldiers desperately trying to hold them back.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326860780089551682" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SezPqBUyq0I/AAAAAAAAAjA/gwpaR1CLIDs/s320/greekort+055.jpg" border="0" /><br />Here a group of Israeli soldiers take a break on the steps of the church while mobs of pilgrims tried to break down the metal barriers.<br /><br />I thought I would get stuck in the crowd waiting for hours and suddenly saw this gaggle of monks walking down street so I tagged along and they suddenly became my <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">NBFs</span>. (New Best Friends) We were all joking and chatting in Greek or was it Russian, whatever. In any case it got me past the initial barricade of <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">soldiers</span>.<br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326860778532806738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SezPp7hooFI/AAAAAAAAAiw/oLpnWrDHbRE/s320/greekort+061.jpg" border="0" /><br />I next found myself in a huge courtyard, filled with more alternately weeping and screaming Greek and Russian ladies when out of nowhere there appeared a <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Scottish</span> Highlander band with bagpipes <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">blaring</span>. I was later told these were Jordanians, but why they had bagpipes I'll never know.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyv4GCJ_iVPt6_OUb6LJbgcoEYzfxCsY-ZuAb8-rW9uIv7gNk0qUjBQkdjLO5zXajgyHLynShB4IaLf1G__DA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />I followed the band further into the bowels of the Old City where we came to the plaza in front of the Church where Jesus was either crucified, buried and/or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">resurrected</span>, it's unclear what exactly happened here. But at some point a major procession of potentates appeared and disappeared into the church with me continuing to follow. The little old ladies had dropped away and now everyone (except me) had VIP badges<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwogvgUc-H4GZXy2TxTjlYjwY0zoFy-XqWxyjkJZf4R7-GWEp931XTFrI5rPiALNfPb3b7dvdgqK66kSDdMLg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><div> </div><div>The scene inside the Church was controlled <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">bedlam</span>, there were about 500 people squeezed into a room about the size of Jesus' tomb, if you can imagine that. The air was thick with incense (and myrrh, whatever that is) there were TV cameras, lots of kneeling, crossing of one's self and <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">sporadic</span> sounds of grief. Except for the hundreds of Israeli soldiers guarding this fort, I might have been the only Jew there (except of course for Jesus, his family and the disciples.)<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dw6KghmczOPbiO7d9DwqixiQSOdgDfHbD00hhXnV0F42nWFI6bOd_2yTP5JC1iM4d7q2tbFfalorPf9RQFwGg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div> </div><div>The center of the Church is dominated by this tomb like structure which supposedly houses the earthly burial spot of Jesus. I'm not sure I have the complete story exactly straight because at some point the wife of Constantine was digging around this area and found wood splinters which she identified as pieces of the original cross. Many battles were fought over this and many lives lost, but if you want to know more, check out <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Wikipedia</span>.</div><div> </div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326860780802507106" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SezPqD-xgWI/AAAAAAAAAi4/29DPPJpjMz8/s320/greekort+073.jpg" border="0" />Finally, I extracted myself from the group of mourners/<span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">revelers</span> and made my way outside where I discovered that I was on the inside of the barricades looking out at about a thousand people who wanted to get in. I had no idea how this happened and I think the soldier I was standing next to was as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I politely asked if I could be let out, he hesitated sensing that I was an intruder, but after an awkward pause he opened the gate and I jumped through it.<br /><div><br /> </div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-62284131856457248742009-04-19T04:30:00.000-07:002009-04-19T07:09:59.126-07:00HERE COMES THE SUN<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326367723692203906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 451px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 313px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesPOXHHn4I/AAAAAAAAAh4/jAwrdMf3lu4/s320/OLDCITY.JPG" border="0" />OK, so I didn't take this picture with my cell phone camera, it comes courtesy of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Vardit's</span> real camera. The sun has just risen above the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">horizon</span> and is hitting the Old City. Needless to say, "the crowd went wild" at this moment of truth. (BTW: this picture makes a great <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">screen saver</span>)<br /><br />Finally a holiday has come along that combines the unreality of the Ultra-Orthodox Jew with the unscientific creationism of the Evangelical Christian, its called <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Birkat</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Hachama</span>. According to one of the world's leading authorities on the subject, Rabbi <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Bleich</span> (a man by the way who does not use a computer and has a rotary phone) every 28 years the Sun returns to exactly the same spot it was at on the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">th</span> day of creation, which is always on a Wednesday. This year the event is super symbolic because it occurred on the first day of Passover and (if you do the math correctly) it also occurred on the first Passover in Egypt and of course on the 4<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">th</span> day of creation about 6000 years ago. There was talk that such a coincidence could only mean one thing: the arrival of the Messiah.<br /><br />So to make a long story short, about 50,000 Jews around the world from New Zealand to New York and of course passing through Jerusalem gathered at 6:28a.m. to say a prayer welcoming the Sun and I was one of those Jews. Arriving at Haas <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Promenade</span> at about 5a.m. to get a good parking spot about 1000 of us sang and shivered as we wait for the Sun to crack the plane of the horizon. It was a little irritating to realize that the West Bank Arabs in <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Jericho</span> got to see the sunrise about a minute before us Jews, since they would not have understood the significance of the event. There was some criticism about the fact that this whole celebration looked a lot like Sun worship, which if you recall your Bible is the kind of thing that really pissed off Moses in the desert.<br /><br />I ended up in the middle of the more ecstatic, musical and dancing crowd and the Rabbi asked us all to think about where we were 28 years ago (1981 and recently arrived in Berkeley) and where we will be in 28 years (2037 and probably God-willing not around any more). We then all waited a respectful period of time (about 10 minutes) and when the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Messiah</span> didn't show up, we headed off to a cute French restaurant for a nice Israeli breakfast.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesQsXQHM4I/AAAAAAAAAiA/FGVwqCqaqDU/s1600-h/passover3+041.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326369338637628290" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 408px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 250px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesQsXQHM4I/AAAAAAAAAiA/FGVwqCqaqDU/s320/passover3+041.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesQsQBl2RI/AAAAAAAAAiI/NWyPat05Y4c/s1600-h/passover3+024.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326369336697674002" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 411px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 314px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesQsQBl2RI/AAAAAAAAAiI/NWyPat05Y4c/s320/passover3+024.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><br /><br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><br /><br /></div><div></div><div>This is the view from the Haas Promenade, donated by the famous Haas Family of San Francisco (inventor of Levi jeans), a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">UC</span> Berkeley graduate, namesake to Haas Pavilion, home of the Golden Bears. A makeshift prayer site was set up with about 500 people, note the improvised curtain which separates the men worshippers from the women worshippers.</div><div></div><div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='395' height='317' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz0GjBZo1DGve-iCiChD4j9QVRRHd-9b0ILora-3cxcI0b2dwDK4Qf5ES_M_VS52KHGrdDZnZlFFuq2brf_5w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div>This was actually a very spiritual moment, intense singing and praying as the Sun came up and bathed the Old City in an orange glow. It was a teary moment, not sure about the "time-of-creation" thing, but definitely emotional.</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Here is Stephen Colbert doing a very funny spoof on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Birkat</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Hachama</span> which shows how flippantly the American public can treat a goofy religious phenomena:</div><div><a href="http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224061/april-08-2009/birkat-hachama---stephen-frees-his-jews"><span style="color:#333399;">http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224061/april-08-2009/birkat-hachama---stephen-frees-his-jews</span></a></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>Also a brilliant article in <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Haaretz</span> by Gideon Levy on the fact that Israel is a religious country in many ways not much different from Pakistan, Iran or <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Afghanistan</span>, OUCH!! There were lots of letters to the editor criticising this article, but I thought it was right on.</div><div><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077908.html"><span style="color:#000099;">www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1077908.html</span></a></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesNw6oy8rI/AAAAAAAAAho/0-aEXPXGr14/s1600-h/matzo1+094.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326366118320992946" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 462px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 338px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesNw6oy8rI/AAAAAAAAAho/0-aEXPXGr14/s320/matzo1+094.jpg" border="0" /></a>Here is a picture you don't see very often. I'm sitting in the stands at the local soccer game at about 5:30pm on a SATURDAY afternoon and the guy in front of me is wearing a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">kippa</span>, which means he is an Orthodox Jew<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesLmA0_o9I/AAAAAAAAAhY/0HoPYTPLT40/s1600-h/matzo1+094.jpg"></a> (he shouldn't be at the game on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Shabbat)</span> and he is eating a matzoh sandwich and of course sitting amongst fans that are yelling things like, "your mother is a whore" and worse. What's a nice Jewish boy doing in crowd like this on <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Shabbat</span>?" </div><div></div><div><p align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesL0EdEluI/AAAAAAAAAhg/M0Q1fvZluQg/s1600-h/matzo1+099.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326363973472524002" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 192px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 196px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesL0EdEluI/AAAAAAAAAhg/M0Q1fvZluQg/s320/matzo1+099.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesOhpu5vBI/AAAAAAAAAhw/sNkizDKUBtE/s1600-h/passover3+002.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326366955596790802" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 172px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 166px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesOhpu5vBI/AAAAAAAAAhw/sNkizDKUBtE/s320/passover3+002.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesL0EdEluI/AAAAAAAAAhg/M0Q1fvZluQg/s1600-h/matzo1+099.jpg"></a></p><br /><br /></div><div><p align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesL0EdEluI/AAAAAAAAAhg/M0Q1fvZluQg/s1600-h/matzo1+099.jpg"></a></p><br /><br /></div><p align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SesL0EdEluI/AAAAAAAAAhg/M0Q1fvZluQg/s1600-h/matzo1+099.jpg"></a></p><div><br /><br /></div><div><br />This is a picture of the check out counter at the local hardware store and the aisle at the supermarket. The plastic coverings are concealing "snacks" that can not be eaten by the Orthodox on Passover. There is an unenforced law in Jerusalem, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Chametz</span> Law, which forbids the public display of non-Passover approved foods, thus the coverings. Near the end of Passover, the less religious public starts ripping away some of the plastic to sneak out the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">sacrilegious</span> food. </div><div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-19328668363244261272009-04-08T01:07:00.000-07:002009-04-08T02:01:58.253-07:00PASSOVER MANIA: The PhotosIt's not possible to put in words the range and depth of the Passover Mania that is sweeping Jerusalem so I'll try to capture the mood in photos. Keep in mind the comment made in the paper today that "modern archaeologists can not find any evidence of the exodus from Egypt as describe in the Bible." You would think that would put a damper on things, but it hasn't.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231442261687906" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTGBsPmI/AAAAAAAAAgg/LQ8F313CBCU/s320/passover2+005.jpg" border="0" /><br />Probably one of the best photos I've ever taken. The guy in the picture is one of many who has set himself up on a corner with a boiling pot of water to sterilize the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">hametzy</span> (non-passover) dishes that people bring him. What makes this guy so unusual is the CAL Berkeley hat he is wearing. When I told him what it represented, he had no idea and said his sister gave it to him. I assume he also didn't know about the lack of evidence of the exodus.<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz1_M_ylCbq1UzKPEjxVTpDSxXcOm9AUnRGHndCbEXvGYpS9Vw_9G4aS48KKRsQLrIZnysBK7Wpvv0-7pYL2w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />There are long lines of people everywhere sterilizing their dishes. What I find curious is that the process of sterilizing is designed to kill germs, but the religious doctrine of "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">hametz</span>" is designed to cleanse the spirit. According to the boiling water theory, it is the people who should be dunked in the pot, not the dishes. I didn't share this with the Cal guy, just gave him a thumbs up and a GO BEARS!!<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sdxdpc2y38I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/JgNcDVRgap8/s1600-h/ultras+009.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231826347122626" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sdxdpc2y38I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/JgNcDVRgap8/s320/ultras+009.jpg" border="0" /></a> I got my hair cut today and I picked a pretty busy day to do so. This man is both <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">de</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">hametzing</span> and cutting/styling an orthodox wig. Ultra married women must wear wigs (more on that another time) and obviously you can't wear a <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">hametzy</span> wig on Passover, (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">dah</span>) so they have to be cleaned and dolled up for the Seder.<br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdpUFm8hI/AAAAAAAAAhI/igpJkMbxb7s/s1600-h/ultras+007.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231823993336338" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdpUFm8hI/AAAAAAAAAhI/igpJkMbxb7s/s320/ultras+007.jpg" border="0" /></a>Many people do a massive cleaning of their houses, but rather than live in them during the Passover and get them dirty, they check into hotels for the holidays. Unfortunately, the hotels are staffed by less religious people (both Jews and Arabs) who must be fed, but they don't want to eat matzohs all day so the hotel caters sandwiches on real pita bread. But (are you still following me) the workers can't eat bread in the anti-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">hametzy</span> hotels so the staff eats their meals in the underground garage. When they saw me taking the picture, they offered me a sandwich, but, not wanting to anger God, I declined.<br /><br /><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdoXfHbeI/AAAAAAAAAhA/hXLwAWEpr10/s1600-h/ultras+003.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231807725759970" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdoXfHbeI/AAAAAAAAAhA/hXLwAWEpr10/s320/ultras+003.jpg" border="0" /></a> Cars have to be <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">de</span>-<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">hametzied</span> too. So there are long lines at all the car washes. BTW: dog and cat food must be kosher for Passover so all old <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">hametzy</span> pet food must be pitched and replaced with special for Passover pet diets.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTjWIxFI/AAAAAAAAAg4/eV8_O2SlEEA/s1600-h/040409+019.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231450132071506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTjWIxFI/AAAAAAAAAg4/eV8_O2SlEEA/s320/040409+019.jpg" border="0" /></a> In the Ultra neighborhoods there are rows and rows of signs which lay out the latest rules of religious conduct. There are obvious ones like, "women must dress modestly in this neighborhood", but sometimes they get very complex. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Vardit</span> says these signs refer to the problem of the "<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">smeta</span>" year. For those of you who aren't up on that problem, every 7 years the fields must be left farrow (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">unplanted</span>) That was last year, this is now year 8. But, (still following) some seeds that ended up in the ground in year 7, are germinating in year 8 and you guess it, that is a huge problem. These signs warn people about buying food from vendors who might be including 7 year seeds in 8 year products. Let this be sufficient warning to all of you!!</div><div><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231446250426578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTU4rkNI/AAAAAAAAAgo/Zt9BtofZWXY/s320/passover2+012.jpg" border="0" />While the average religious person boils their dishes clean, the real Orthodox throw their old dishes away and buy new ones. Thus the stores are packed with people buying full sets of dishes, also sheets, table clothes, even kitchen appliances.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTZ_kcII/AAAAAAAAAgw/JOmGshQ6-Vc/s1600-h/040409+014.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322231447621496962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdxdTZ_kcII/AAAAAAAAAgw/JOmGshQ6-Vc/s320/040409+014.jpg" border="0" /></a> The seamy underbelly of the holidays! Piles and piles of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">hametzy</span> "garbage" are everywhere, garbage pickup has been doubled, scavengers are out and about. I'm told there are some real bargains in these piles, but haven't seem many.<br /><br />Finally, keep in mind that not much of what you've seen and read above is found in the Bible. If you recall the story, the Jews where told to get the hell out of "Dodge" and they left so quickly they barely had time to bake matzoh, which is for me one of the really nice parts of the holiday. I'm not sure where all these other traditions came from, but one of the most recent additions is that Passover is a gift giving holiday. Even the newspaper didn't know where that came from, but observed that gift giving on Passover is almost as big as Hanuka, so once again the malls are packed with people buying their friends gifts and of course, lots and lots of presents for the children. Thus, a holiday whose message used to be, "travel light with just the shirt on your back because you never know when Pharaoh will change his mind," has morphed in the modern Israeli slogan to "shop till you drop." </div></div></div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-36808444221000843882009-03-31T21:14:00.000-07:002009-04-02T05:10:43.245-07:00JERUSAELM STONE<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdSk78vZMrI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/QZ7ap7hIrrg/s1600-h/museum+030.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320058409655546546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 375px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 284px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdSk78vZMrI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/QZ7ap7hIrrg/s320/museum+030.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />This is the bathroom underneath the museum containing the Dead Sea Scrolls; see the female toilet symbol in the doorway? What a classy entrance. Note the nicely fitted cut stones which can be found everywhere in the city.<br /><br /><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320058406198112770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 435px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 387px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdSk7v3E8gI/AAAAAAAAAgI/7jIGKvCNns4/s320/book+010.jpg" border="0" /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;">T</span><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">his wall separates a residential neighborhood from the highway and goes on like this for what seems to be miles.</span><br /></span><br /><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Jerusalem Stone:</strong> In 1918 or so, the city plan for Jerusalem required that the fronts of all buildings be made out of stone. This gives the City an amazing and distinctive look. Compared to California, the buildings seem to me to be cold. I mean there is a LOT of stone everywhere and I find myself wanting to see a few nice cottages covered in cedar shingles. At the same time, the quality of the stone work is just breathtaking. Even if you could find someone in the States who could do this kind of work, I think it would be very expensive. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">I have recently learned that there is a down side to all this stone work. First of all, there is no wood for building. I recently hung a light fixture and was looking to attach it to the wooden support beam and was told that the Israeli's don't use wood in their construction. If you want a redwood deck, you have to import the wood from overseas. (BTW: there is no shortage of cement) Second and more importantly, the stone comes from the West Bank so in legal terms, there is a steady flow of natural resources from an "occupied territory" to the land of the occupying country, which is a violation of the Geneva Convention (Germany used to do this with Romanian oil.) That is a big deal to the Palestinians, but it is also a source of about half a billion dollars of revenue. (See this article for an in-depth analysis: </span></span><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0104/p6s1.html"><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">http://www.csmonitor.com/2000/0104/p6s1.html</span></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"> ) Finally, the best stone cutters are Arabs who are no longer allowed into Israel and to make matters worse, cutting stone is a huge occupational hazard because of all the dust particles. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /></div></span><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Passover Fever:</strong> I think this is the most bizarre story so far on Passover, but Vardit has assured me it gets worse. Do you remember the concept of "hametz," that is an impure, non-Passover approved particle and during Passover there can be no hametz in Israel, PERIOD! See if you can follow this, cows eat hay, some grains end up in hay, some grains ferment in cow's stomachs, fermenting grain is HAMETZ, hametzy grain ends up in cow’s milk and you can't sell that milk at Passover. Solution: a week before Passover the eating habits of the cows are changed to a special non-grain diet, chickpeas are especially popular. Also extensive cleaning of the stalls and filtering of the milk is performed. Even the cows get into the religious swing of things! </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Hametz Police:</strong> I'm just now learning about this group. They are responsible for making sure that people don't eat hametzy food (i.e. bread) on Passover. They have asked all "kosher" grocery stores to block all the bar codes on hametz food so if a customer takes a loaf of bread and goes to the checkout counter, the price will not scan and the product cannot be sold. This group also goes around with cameras to photograph politicians who might be caught eating bread on Passover and then their pictures will be published in the paper for the whole world to see.<br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Messiah Watch:</span></strong><span style="font-size:130%;"> (This section of my blog is new, but I hope to make it a regular feature for those of you who are anxiously waiting for the second coming.) Vardit had a conversation with an Ultra the other day who said he was not going to see his mother in New York for Passover because on Wednesday night, the first night of Passover, there will be an eclipse of the moon and there is anticipation that the Messiah might appear and he doesn't want to miss it by being out of the country. Wish I had thought of that excuse when I had to visit my mother at the nursing home. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Politics Update:</strong> We now have a government made up of 30 ministers of departments and 8 ministers without departments (without portfolios) Two are women, the Ministry of Women Affairs (dah!) and the Ministry of Culture and Sport. The only department that was not given a minister was the Department of Health, go figure! The table for the ministers at the Knesset can only seat 18 ministers (the last government's number) so you can imagine the huge problem that creates. Every minister gets a staff of about 10 people, an office and a nice operating budget. The word "bloated" is being used a lot to describe the new government. The new Finance Minister has no economic experience, but is a close friend of Sara Netanyahu, wife of the Prime Minister. The new Foreign Minister, Lieberman ("if you want peace, prepare for war" is close to indictment for money laundering and a loyal follower of his is in charge of the police department doing the investigation. Oh yes, 54% of the Israeli public does not currently support the new government and that is only 2 weeks after the election.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;"><br /></span></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-89343214401881206192009-03-27T00:49:00.000-07:002009-04-02T07:07:48.572-07:00BITS AND PIECES: March 30, 2009<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyGucXV87I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/rD_hmT9zCh4/s1600-h/caltree+004.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317773392463918002" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; WIDTH: 178px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 166px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyGucXV87I/AAAAAAAAAeQ/rD_hmT9zCh4/s320/caltree+004.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyGnM3msCI/AAAAAAAAAeI/PdfU6k_NxAQ/s1600-h/caltree+003.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317773268045180962" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; WIDTH: 186px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 148px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyGnM3msCI/AAAAAAAAAeI/PdfU6k_NxAQ/s320/caltree+003.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />California Dreaming:</span> This huge slice of a Sequoia tree can be found in the middle of the Hebrew University campus, it is the gift of someone who paid to schlep it all the way from California, hundreds of rings and all. I'm not sure what it symbolizes, longevity, a belief in nature? It didn't quite make me homesick, (I'm not really a tree hugger), but it was nice to contemplate a piece of home. What struck closer to home was the story of the poor schmuck who spent a year sitting up in an Oak tree in Berkeley protesting the University's decision to cut down an old grove forest for a new athletic complex and then he came to Israel to a West Bank protest and was promptly hit in the head by a teargas canister fired by an IDF soldier and might die. Talk about a life on the cutting edge of political dissent.<br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyFWC-TVKI/AAAAAAAAAd4/BmPKY3u6NJA/s1600-h/caltree+005.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317771873819514018" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScyFWC-TVKI/AAAAAAAAAd4/BmPKY3u6NJA/s320/caltree+005.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Matzoh Madness:</span> Its starting, the Passover Fever time of the year. And isn't it fortunate that I just finished reading a book by a revisionist historian (actually he is called a Biblical Minimalist) which says there is absolutely no evidence of a mass Jewish exodus from Egypt. The 60,000 liberated "slaves" have left no trace of their journey through the Sinai Desert and believe me the Israeli archaeologist have been looking diligently. The book also found very little evidence of King David and Solomon and the evidence he did find indicated that they probably weren't that great. Predictably this guy has been vilified by the archaeological community. </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5320094182145102546" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 273px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 205px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SdTFeLphktI/AAAAAAAAAgY/BYmy8jaCG9A/s320/468kotel.jpg" border="0" />You think you have a bad job, how would you like to clean up all of last year's requests from the Wailing Wall. I'm surprised some Israeli techie person hasn't come up with a paperless Wailing Wall.<br /><br /><strong>Wailing Wall Mystery Solved:</strong> I am often asked, "What happens to all the messages put in the cracks of the Wailing Wall?" You would think that after 2500 years there would be too many messages and two few cracks. Well, today I read that in anticipation of Passover, the Wailing Wall is cleansed of its messages by a guy(s) with a specially purified stick dipped in "mikveh" (ritual bath water) The spring cleaning will get rid of the message for peace written by Barack Obama when he passed through Jerusalem, as well as the tags of my late dog Lily that I inserted in May, 2008, and a request that UCLA win the NCAA basketball championships that I inserted last month. The messages are buried in a grave after a proper burial.<br /><p><strong>Armageddon:</strong> I had my first encounter with a "profit (sic) of doom" yesterday. While waiting for the bus, a crazy guy came up to me and in perfect English started pointing at the gaudy apartment complex that towers precariously over the house I'm living in. (see early picture in this blog series) He said that when the apartment building was completed, presumably in the Fall, the earth would shake and the hillside would give way and all the buildings would come tumbling down. I asked him how he knew this and he said, an "angel" told him that this was the event that was predicted in Revelations for the ending of the world. (I actually felt a little home sick while sharing a Telegraph Avenue moment with this guy.) Afterwards, I told Vardit, who hates these buildings more than life itself, and she was thrilled that their demise was expected in the near future even if it meant the end of civilization as we know it. </p>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-35001948610306381582009-03-26T02:30:00.001-07:002009-03-27T08:09:05.435-07:00BITS AND PIECES PART 2<div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SctLh5m6O-I/AAAAAAAAAdg/HOnFvIHZAdw/s1600-h/shouk+014.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317426830812789730" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 320px; height: 240px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SctLh5m6O-I/AAAAAAAAAdg/HOnFvIHZAdw/s320/shouk+014.jpg" border="0" /></a>I loved this sign at the Hebrew University, its a great metaphor for something, certainly not the Israeli political system. This dichotomy between the intellectual elite represented by the fabulous university system, brilliant opinion pieces in the paper and shelves and shelves of books and journals on the one hand and the complete bankruptcy, corruption, and overall misjudgments of the politicians is really something else. The latest news is that the Labor Party which used to be the backbone of the socialist Kibbutz system and one of the world's premier Social Democratic parties has decided to join the Netanayhu right wing government which also includes a racist, super secular party and an ultra-orthodox religious party. The middle of the road, peace party of Tzipi Livni has been left out of the equation. To pull this off, the cabinet has been expanded to 28 members from 17, Labor will get positions that supposedly help the working class like agriculture, the religious party will get departments to protect (expand) settlements and pay huge subsidies for extra children and Yeshiva education, Lieberman (anti-Arab/Russian) party will get foreign affairs and that leaves almost nothing for the ruling Likud party except maybe the Finance Ministry. This would be like McCain getting fewer votes than Obama, and then forming a government in which Sarah Palin's people would get 40% of the cabinet positions, Joe Lieberman's people would get 35%, Ron Paul would get 15%, Dennis Kucinich would get 10%, McCain would get 5% and Obama would get nothing. So there is a strong private industry/capitalistic fiscal policy, a no-two-state/no negotiations Palestinian policy, a welfare system for the Ultra-orthodox supporters and maybe civil marriages and easy religious conversions for Russian immigrants.<br />'<br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SctLhaJ7JmI/AAAAAAAAAdY/RBU27IrDExQ/s1600-h/PURIM+010.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5317426822369715810" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; width: 320px; height: 240px; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SctLhaJ7JmI/AAAAAAAAAdY/RBU27IrDExQ/s320/PURIM+010.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Boys Day Out:</span> The city is awash in young, studious and horny Yeshiva students. Its like Yentl on crack. Recently a group of 100 IDF soldiers walked out of a talent show because a female solder started to sing a patriotic song. Here's the deal: there is a special program for especially gung-ho Yeshiva students where 50% of the time they study Torah and 50% of the time they get to go and fight Arabs. This is experimental because all Yeshiva students are exempt from military service as are Israel Arabs, but obviously for different reasons. So it is forbidden for an ultra-orthodox male to listen to a female singing. Its a kind of Greek Siren thing where if they hear a woman's singing voice they can't concentrate on God's word or in this case, military instructions. Vardit tells me that when she goes to an ultra's house to test the hearing of a special needs kid, she has to ask permission if she can sing a song and if it is granted the father may have to leave the room. Weird (have I used that word before?)<br /><div></div></div></div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dyD_Zgd3dLGxHAQ023e1hH93L-dtj0L_8R7q-8LslrXKzWH_VdoUdZw1QIahAkRe2AWIKt6LLea52jSAycg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Marathon Day:</span> Today was the great Jerusalem 1/2 Marathon Race which wound its way through all the traditional holy sites. The route passed right under my bedroom window so I had a great view. The first guy through was a normal looking white guy (not a good sign), the second guy through was wearing a Jewish kippa on his head (really not a good sign) and the third person was a cute, Jewish, Sabra looking woman. My first thought was, "where are the Ethiopians and Kenyans?" What if they sponsored a Marathon race and no Ethiopians or Kenyans participated, can that still be called a "marathon?" Actually, there were a couple of good distance runers who came over in the celebrated Operation Solomon in which 14,500 Ethiopian Jews were rescued and brought to Israel. Just as the American Olympic track team is predominantly black, so too some day the Israeli team might comprise Ethiopian long-distance runners and Russian weight lifters all courtesy of the immigration policy.Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-90389212638255177912009-03-23T01:47:00.000-07:002009-03-23T03:20:36.655-07:00POST GAZA ANALYSIS<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScdN-2TY2AI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/zZgcKPfyrKg/s1600-h/yamica+013.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316303627258222594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 425px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 310px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScdN-2TY2AI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/zZgcKPfyrKg/s320/yamica+013.jpg" border="0" /></a>Kipa Man is a store with thousands of what Americans call yamakas or those cute little hats that Jewish men wear to cover their head before God, assuming of course that God is above us and looking down on our heads. If you believe God is below you, then you must always wear socks, but that is probably a different religion. Anyway, note in the lower left side of the picture is the UC Berkeley, CAL athletics logo, I thought that was pretty cool.<br /><br />Before I get started on my first Gaza blog, check out this great YouTube video by the guy who just made Waltz with Beshir.<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aJZGl15awE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aJZGl15awE</a><br /><br />When I last left Israel (September, 2008) the glow had worn off the 2nd Lebanese War and the general consensus was that mistakes had been made, planning was poor and the goal of weakening Hezbolla had not been accomplished. When I came back to Israel (January, 2009) the glow on the just concluded Gaza War was STILL bright. The mistake of too many Israelis killed had been corrected (only 13, half of which were by friendly fire or mistake), planning had been going on for over a year and the goal of stopping the rocket attacks, seemed within reach.<br /><br />What struck me most was the unanimity of support for the Gaza War. Friends who I would have thought were otherwise 'peaceniks" would say things like, "they lob rockets into our towns, what do you expect us to do, nothing!" Reports coming out from the IDF were clear, "Lessons had been learned from Lebanon." It was estimated that 90+% of Israelis supported the war.<br /><br />Recently it feels like the worm has turned. First of all, rockets still come out of Gaza, but not as many and it seems that the popularity of Hamas is still high in Gaza and higher than ever in the West Bank. So to many Israelis (I saw a 50% figure) that means the war was ended too soon and "they should have stayed in to finish the job." This, of course, is the same group that wants to preemptively bomb the Iranian nuclear facilities and is similar to the 27% of Americans who still think Bush is doing a good job.<br /><br />But a new objection has recently emerged coming from war stories of returning soldiers. They range from a clear cut example of an old woman being shot and killed for no reason, to the bizarre practice of writing "Kill All Arabs" in excrement on the walls of the living rooms of occupied homes. (I am told that this is a common cheer at soccer games) Put in simple terms, it seems that many of the disturbing images I heard about or saw while in the U.S. (and not seen by Israelis) actually happened. Suffice it to say, this has totally shocked the Israeli public. I am reminded of how shocked Americans were to see the photos coming out of Abu Grab.<br /><br />I must admit that the newspapers have been all over this story writing in depth about the soldier's experiences. There was a leaked memo telling soldiers to shoot at rescuers, quotes from officers that its "cool" in Gaza because you can treat everyone as though they were a terrorist target and a pamphlet from the IDF head Rabbi calling for a holy war against the Arabs.<br /><br />The best article I saw was from Gideon Levy and confirmed a comment that I think Alan Dershowitz once made that more criticism of Israeli policies appear in the Israeli press than anywhere else in the world. If interested check out:<br /><a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1072821.html</a><br /><br />I have seen so many English books on the shelves from not only Israeli revisionist historians (one guy I'm reading denies the Passover story and says Jews were not slaves in Egypt and there was no exodus) to many Palestinian intellectuals with excellent and biting analysis of the Israeli occupation. I don't mean to sound naive, but within limits, Israel does not appear to practice intellectual censorship. Maybe they don't have to because there is such a huge consensus of opinion which never seems to waiver.<br /><br />The current mantra put out by the Defense Minister Barak is that the IDF is the "most moral Army in the world," which is a curious oxymoron. (I wonder how the Vatican's Army feels about that) One is reminded of the line in A Man for All Season when the King threatens to behead Thomas More who responds, "this isn't Spain you know." So apparently it gives Israelis a good feeling to know that, "we aren't the Congolese Liberation Army, you know."<br /><br />I want to conclude this analysis by making it clear that I will not be joining Hamas in the near future. One should not lose sight of the fact that nobody likes Hamas, and that includes Egypt which closed their border, Fatah which supported assassinations of Hamas leaders and even Syria/Hezbollah which never opened up a second northern front in support. The real irony of the situation was Hillary Clinton's offer of $900 million to rebuild the infrastructure that Israel had destroyed with the $2 billion of U.S. military aide (isn't that what we did in Iraq.) One guy is paid to dig the hole and then another guy is paid to fill it back up, but after all isn't that the lesson of war.Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-62700047298709563182009-03-19T06:10:00.000-07:002009-03-19T09:40:08.559-07:00BITS AND PIECES<div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScJFLZ9MTtI/AAAAAAAAAcw/0yYFtT2kR1o/s1600-h/book+014.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314886572499029714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 423px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 347px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScJFLZ9MTtI/AAAAAAAAAcw/0yYFtT2kR1o/s320/book+014.jpg" border="0" /></a>This guy is tail-gating out in front of Teddy Stadium before the big soccer game between Hapoel Tel Aviv and Beitar Jeruslaem (my team). His hoka pipe was giving off the smell of strong tobacco and I think some apple flavor. I doubt if this traditional middle-eastern custom will be catching on soon at an American football game.<br /><div><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='366' height='303' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dz7-Weo95lKRRaOBDq8msfzIV7lRV40_2MKkvIu2L79PXKzew7A5j1PXuT3UTaFFsaUP4w1f1Umw3iD38_x9w' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div>The most exciting part of the game was a blown call by the referee when it looked like the goalie for Tel Aviv grabbed the feet of a Jerusalem player right in front of the goal. The ref initially threw the goalie out of the game, then changed his mind and the crowd went wild. It was amazing to see 19,000 nice jewish boys all screaming in Hebrew, "the referee is the son of a whore." What would their mother's think?</div></div><br /><br /><p><strong>Purim Update:</strong> There was a post-Purim article in the paper which criticized the story of Esther as sending young girls the wrong message. According to this revisionist theory, Esther basically exchanged sexual favors for political gain at the request of her old Uncle. She repeated refused to sleep with the King when commanded to do so by Mordaci, but he concocted this story about saving the Jewish people so she gave up her body for the "tribe." While in the end the Jewish people were saved, it is unclear if they were really in any danger, Uncle Mordaci demanded to be made a big shot in the King's government and all Esther got out of the deal was a book named after her in the Bible. BTW: Of the 22 books in the Bible only Esther and Ruth are named after women.</p><p><strong>Gaza Fallout:</strong> As you can imagine the Gaza War is turning into a real mess, or should I say the Israelis are just now realizing what everyone else in the world already knew. Tomorrow the report of the IDF comes out and it looks like there was a lot of "Israeli's Behaving Badly." It is supposed to be a bombshell of a story, (excuse the pun). The story that sticks in my mind is of an IDF platoon that took over a house with 10 women and children and a couple of old, incapacitated men. The family was kept captive for many days, without privacy, no bathroom privileges, lack of food and after trashing the house, the soldiers wrote racist slogans on the wall in excrement. But here is the kicker, in the kitchen the Israeli soldiers labeled the cupboards "milk" and "meat" with a magic marker. Apparently in the midst of what probably was a blatant war crime, the soldiers made sure that their rations were kept kosher and that there were no violations of dietary laws. Is that bizarre or what</p><p><strong>Circumcision Watch:</strong> I met a guy who was interested in having me do volunteer fund-raising work on a special project. It seems that in Africa uncircumcised men have a significantly higher rate of HIV-AIDS which they then give to their female partners. So the idea was why not circumcise African men to cure the HIV-AIDA epidemic and (if you are still following me here) what doctors in the world have the most experience in performing 60,000 circumcision per year. You guessed it. So a team of Israeli surgeons has gone down to various parts of Africa as part of Operation Abraham and in their first test of 3274 men ages 15 to 49 (ugh!), there were 20 HIV infections in the circumcised group and 49 in the uncircumcised group. Bill Gates has signed on to the program and now they need someone to raise money from the American Jewish community. I was a little stunned by the whole idea, Israeli's running all over Africa circumcising 40 year old men, what an image that would be in the "wrong" hands. (sorry for another bad pun)</p><p><strong>Pre-Passover Warning:</strong> I have been told to get ready for Passover, because it doesn't get any crazier than that. The basic theme of this crazyness is that everyone's house must be so clean that there can be nothing "chametz" inside or put in laymen's terms, no bread crumbs! We have the same tradition, but we call it Spring Cleaning. Watch this space for an update, but already the huge trash bins around the city are starting to fill up with mounds and mounds of thrown away chametzy garbage which are starting to bring out scavengers who take some of the really good garbage and sell it to poor people who don't have this chametzy thing. Garbage pick up is usually every 3 days, now it is down to 2 days and I'm told that just before Passover it will be down to twice a day. </p><p></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314934711821470530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/ScJw9e6DC0I/AAAAAAAAAdA/SHpWK9ckvwU/s320/book+009.jpg" border="0" />I feel a little creepy showing this picture, but an Arab looking guy got on the bus today wearing a traditional Fatah scarf, he sat directly across from two of the most Ultra-orthodox guys you can imagine. The bus was packed and the Ultra's were totally freaked out as were a number of other people around the Arab guy. I'm pretty sure this was nothing more than just an East Jerusalem guy showing his colors in hostile surroundings, kind of like a Stanford red shirt in a sea of Cal blue and gold (only nobody was shouting "take off that Fatah scarf"). In any case, this is the first time that I really felt the tension in the City, generally everyone just goes about their business.<br /><p></p>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-2118755605456901632009-03-12T05:33:00.000-07:002009-03-12T06:20:35.765-07:00CHAG SAMEACH: Part Three-the VideosSome images just require a video, so here they are.<br /><br />This truck blarring the music is part of the Biblical requirement on Purim to collect money for religious purposes. As a result everyone is fundraising like crazy, actually, everyone is begging, pushing cups in your face and demanding that you give money. One Ultra had a handful of dollars and Vardit said he was part of the sect which believes that Israeli shekels are bogus and that it is sacreligious to touch them. It's complicated, I will try to explain at another time.<br /><p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx6NsjUFEC4OrdSUUJvLRmhc7hBnOtrtI0FCnC4fXCdMp4fgrWnRsprDp4s_0zAqMdOalHiNJ1AbuILQB6hug' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p>The street scenes all felt like something out of Fiddler on the Roof or Yentl. Here the two Ulta's on the left and right are holding up a "Rabbi" who was too drunk to walk by himself. When the old man saw me with the video he got upset and shoulded something in Hebrew but the joy of the holiday must have washed over him, because his anger didn't last very long.</p><p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dx9nptbtH4b6LG0P17Qazyk8QR9v48SuMA7flCn05HXJlVDDTyl8l5o7ydIjt_TJE9N5Ux6E2fyprJfs9rs' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p>These guys were so excited to see me they started shouting, "You Tube" and wanted to know where on the Web they could watch the video. They were especially excited to know I was from Berkeley and told me they knew the words to God Bless America, but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to see their complete performance.</p><p> </p><p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxjrGPbnotUKDOzJ7lBf0rg4tE9ynLH69-7uYNOmf6_JOcUA-CNaDefgPILOAWNmfR3S1L5S8I-30-x2EcUew' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></p><p>This last video is pretty werid. A cute blonde girl, kind of a hippy Queen Esther showed up with a guy in a tie-dye shirt with a peace symbol who said he was from Boston. Behind them in the courtyard was a really anger dude who was drunk and just kept banging on the table over and over shouting something in Hebrew. </p><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzJu1qyAJ5FbAR-V7YXuXt97JwogtjQg12sYyAZX78pFLp4zjmsQR2dUNVophkIL6MgGUfbdTUo082eBZq_sw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-19171367401539605282009-03-12T04:58:00.000-07:002009-03-12T05:33:09.168-07:00CHAG SAMEACH: Part TwoSo many sights and sounds of Purim, so little space. These Jews really know how to have a good time!<br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271021093981330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj6WRrojJI/AAAAAAAAAbw/_fQ0L9Jcc9Y/s320/purim+038.jpg" border="0" />Purim in Israel has morphed into a great candy holiday in the tradition of Halloween and the stores are filled with prepackaged treats. These are given as gifts and it doesn't seem like the kids go trick or treating as we do. I told Vardit on Halloween in Berkeley parents make celery sticks with peanut butter and raisins which are called "ants on a log" and give them as a healthy snack alternative to candy, but she thought I must be kidding. I guess you have to be there to really appreciate the gesture.<br /><br />I did spend an hour up on a hill overlooking the City with a really cool orthodox guy and his 5 or 6 kids lighting firecrackers and throwing them over the side into the secular neighborhood. Firecrackers are illegal since the banging noise freaks everyone out, but you can't keep these orthodox guys from having a good time, especially if the Bible requires it.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271023591773778" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj6Wa_J1lI/AAAAAAAAAb4/EuGN6kUU6oQ/s320/purim+009.jpg" border="0" />This Ultra has a costumed baby in the stroller, his outfit is not a costume, but his best dress-up clothes, the hat is very expensive and comes from a dead bear in Russia.<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271026620556834" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj6WmRRZiI/AAAAAAAAAcA/zPD2lsahdME/s320/purim+020.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />This girl was one of the few really authentic Purim characters. She has a group of Haymen's hanging from the stick on her shoulders and I think they all have names in Hebrew on her sign.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271026207366306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj6WkuwnKI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/Fp-T8HSkGmw/s320/purim+024.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p>How cute is this? The boy on the left is dressed up as a police officer and the boy on the right is an IDF solider. This, of course, is every Ultra mother's dream, oh, except the Ultra orthodox kids don't have to go into the army because they are spending all their time studying God's word, but they can play "war" on the holidays.</p><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271563621075122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj612wLCLI/AAAAAAAAAcY/KoHF4-5YwwQ/s320/purim+027.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><p>Sorry this is a bad picture, but I was scared to death that it was a sin to take it. I went inside an Ultra-synagogue and it was just packed with drunken worshippers. In the front is a Torah and you can see off to the left is a kid dressed up as Yasser Arafat. Everyone was chanting and bouncing back and forth; oh yes did I mention that everyone, even the kids were drunk.</p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312275693017232210" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj-mN8781I/AAAAAAAAAco/wmfnUiGUMQ4/s320/PURIM+046.jpg" border="0" />This is one of my favorite costumes. The devil's pitch fork and the skeleton of the grim reaper. Not much Purim symbolism here, but oh sooo Jerusalem.<br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312271562209013506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbj61xfgrwI/AAAAAAAAAcg/rXsu0UzxTo0/s320/PURIM+022.jpg" border="0" /></p><br />Sorry, couldn't resist this picture. These two young women were dressed up kind of like Queen Esther if she had been a hooker. Lots of make-up, sexy outfits and they were parading up and down the plaza at Hebrew University. They started laughing as I started picture taking.Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-48545694038455144062009-03-12T03:25:00.000-07:002009-03-12T04:57:51.271-07:00CHAG SAMEACH: HAPPY PURIM - Part One<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbjyhWYxLlI/AAAAAAAAAbg/ANedkfXmpPo/s1600-h/purim+031.jpg"></a>I was walking down a busy street one night and a truck pulled onto the median divider with a totally smashed up car hanging from a crane on the back. Four guys jumped out and set up a sign which I'm told said, "A drunk driver killed two people with this car." As they were setting up, a huge traffic jam developed with screeching brakes and honking horns. In the morning I came out to get a better picture and the whole display was gone. Weird!<br /><div><br /></div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312260598234435554" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbjw3lgRT-I/AAAAAAAAAbY/0s7k3xAacvw/s320/purim+004.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div>Today was Purim, actually Purim was yesterday in Tel <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Aviv</span> and today in Jerusalem because of the biblical rule that holidays in walled cities happen a day later, Don't ask why, nobody knows, but it does mean two days off of work for many people regardless if you live in a walled city or not.</div><br /><div>Another rule which is not really written down is that Purim in a farm town in the Midwestern U.S. among a handful of Diaspora Jews is celebrated differently than in Jerusalem. I have vivid memories of a fantastic Purim in Aurora, Illinois around 1952 when I dressed up as King <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Ahasuerus</span> and my beautiful bride, Judy Pollack, the only Jewish girl my age within about 40 miles, dressed up as the lovely Queen Esther; someone, I forget who, came as the evil <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Hamen</span> who wanted to kill all the Jews and we hung him up to die. The rest as they say in The Wild Things is that we spent the day, "making mischief of one kind and another."</div><br /><div>In Jerusalem the holiday is spent in one of three ways, the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">seculars</span> go shopping, which seems to be the case for any holiday except maybe Holocaust Memorial Day. The kind-of-religious/kind-of-secular people treat the holiday much as we do Halloween with lots of candy and costumes with non-religious themes, (see photos in Part 2) and the ultra-orthodox, well they get really, really drunk. According to the Bible, Purim is the one day of the year when a Jew is allowed to get so drunk that he can't remember his name. In America this concept is better known as "boys gone wild" or as we say on Sport's Center, "let's go to the video!"</div><div></div><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzsBA2d9WXmyYTc6hpb9yWMs4tH5sbL0bJhD-XHIbomm0dr-bPUxvj-mK-On3NDQCXoeeoDQeq3MPJZqNgD' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /><div>The highlight of the day was when <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Vardit</span> took me to the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Ultra's</span> "hood" called <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Me'a</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">She'arim</span>. The men were dressed in their finery, with expensive Bear fur hats from Russia. (Yes they kill bears for a showy religious outfit) the kids dressed up in costume, some very creative, some just like their dad's only smaller, and of course very few women on the street. I'm told the women also can get drunk to the point of not knowing their names, but they have to stay hidden in such a state, for OBVIOUS reasons. </div><br /><div>Here was a really interesting twist on the story. Several years ago I told one of my Iranian friends about Purim and King <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">Ahasuerus</span> and he said, "oh, you mean King Artaxerxes" and I said, "NO I mean King <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Ahasuerus</span>." It seems the Persians have a similar story, actually they have the REAL story. Artaxerxes did in fact foil a plot to kill Jews and freed them from the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Babylonian</span> Captivity. There doesn't seem to be a beautiful Queen Esther in the story, since a Persian King would probably not have married a lowly Jewess (perhaps a one-night stand), but more importantly Artaxerxes had 350 wives (if one is to believe <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Wikipedia</span>) and if there was an Esther she would have found it difficult to compete for the number one slot on the King's busy schedule. </div><br /><div>This got me to thinking that instead of getting so drunk you can't remember your name, wouldn't this be a nice time to call Iran and thank them for freeing us Jews from the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Babylonian</span> Captivity. Instead, (if the newspapers are to be believed) the drunken crowds are all calling for the preemptive bombing of Iran's nuclear weapons labs. I'm sure such hawkish talk is making the Iran's wish that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Hamen</span> had never been hanged or at least that their King had never come under the spell of an <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">IJP</span> (Iranian Jewish Princess).<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312262764656574386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sbjy1sDjv7I/AAAAAAAAAbo/k0jMZAbka7g/s320/purim+031.jpg" border="0" />The market was packed with trays of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Homentashen</span> the traditional poppy seed pastry for <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Purim</span>. In Jerusalem they just use the poppy seeds, perhaps in the Persian tradition, they also smoke the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">discarded</span> parts of the opium plants. :-)</div><br /><br /><div>In any case, in Part 2, I included a photo essay of the day's adventures.</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-3028340862499477992009-03-10T08:36:00.000-07:002009-03-10T09:24:25.964-07:00PETTY RIP-OFFSThis is a very curious banner on a pro-Zionist building, that I'm not sure how to interpret. There is a picture of an American Indian with the statement: "Ask me about Land for Peace." with a map of Israel and an arrow shot through the location of Jerusalem. I THINK, the Indian sympolizes the Israelis, and the Palestinians (Americans?) are promising him if he (the Indian) gives up his land, then they (Palestinians/Americans) will give him Peace in return. And, of course, the conclusion is, "how did that work out for you (Indians/Israelis)!!" I don't know where to even begin analyzing this mixed metaphor.<br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbaP95NCigI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/jVwqKFW7B7U/s1600-h/PURIM+057.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311591104020384258" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbaP95NCigI/AAAAAAAAAbQ/jVwqKFW7B7U/s320/PURIM+057.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>My father once said, possibly as an old Yiddish expression, that if you lied to trick a person out of money that was theft, but if you used a "fountain pen" (presumably as part of a contract) to extract the money, that was fair and square. I'm not sure in Israel the average shop owner recognizes that distinction. </div><br /><div>Here's an experience that happened on my first week. I went to change $100 and on one side of the street was a licensed Money Changer with a rate posted in the window. On the other side of the street was a grocery store with a sign in English that said something like, "Dollars R Good Hear." So you know which store I picked. The owner greeted me like a long lost relative and when I said I was from California, he went on and on about all his relatives who lived there. I felt so comfortable with this guy. I gave him the $100 bill and he gave me back what he said was 320 shekels. I looked down at the 3 one-hundred shekel notes and the 2 ten argots (1/10 of a shekel) I said, "What are those?" and he said "They're shekels."</div><div><br /></div><div>Well to make a long story short it took me a day or so to figure out that an argot is not a shekel and when I went back to him he initially didn't recognize me, denied he knew anyone in California and finally acknowledged that the exchange rate was 300.2 shekels. Note: across the street in the "real" money changer's store the rate was 350 shekels. Needless to say, I was shocked and disappointed.</div><br /><div>When I saw a policeman on the street I stopped him and recounted the story. He asked, "why didn't you go to the licensed dealer or at least count your money when it was changed." I responded, "I thought, I'm a Jew, the grocery store owner is a Jew, why would one Jew rip off another Jew for 20 shekels?" The policeman couldn't stop laughing. When he asked where I was from, I was afraid to tell him Berkeley, California.</div><br /><div>Variations of this experience happen everyday. I went to the Post Office to change money and the receipt I got said 2050 shekels, but the clerk gave me only 2000 shekels. I stood there frozen, she looked at me and I looked at her. Then I said, "the receipt says 2050 shekels" and she said, "SOOO." Then I said, "where is the 50 extra shekels?" and she just kept looking blankly at me. Finally, she blinked, reached into her drawer, handed me the 50 shekel note and without skipping a beat went on to the next customer. </div><br /><div>Another time I went to the cafe at the Israel museum with my kids and ordered 3 drinks. When we got the bill, my daughter noticed there were 4 items. I called the waitress over and before I could say anything she grabbed the check from my hands and said, "there's a mistake" and quickly returned with a 3 item bill. </div><br /><div>I don't know what to make of all this, since I have so many similar stories. This is not outright theft worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, although at the national level it seems that almost every politician in Israel is being indicted for just such a financial crime. It is such pettiness, usually at the level of a few dollars and there never seems to be any remorse. It is always considered a simple mistake, certainly not the kind of thing that would break up a beautiful friendship between vendor and customer. My initial reaction was that this was a "Jewish" thing, but I am increasingly being told that it is Middle-eastern. I'm not sure, but in any case, I've started to pay much better attention and as expected I am starting to catch many more such "mistakes."</div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-21380346729884533282009-03-07T03:26:00.000-08:002009-03-10T09:31:09.322-07:00ISRAELI POLITICS FOR DUMMIESI see people reading small "prayer" books ALL the time, especially on the bus. They always move their lips when they read and even though they have read these prayers a thousand times, they still have to read and say them word by word. Note: Psalm 51, verse 17, says: "May the <em>words of my mouth</em>, and the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to You, O God, my Rock and my Redeemer." I think that's why they have to move their lips, get it!! I also see Ultra-conservative men running quickly down the street, I'm told this is because they are going from one religious training session to another and if they walk slowly, this will be time wasted and taken away from their studies. This gives new meaning to the expression "Time is Money" actually it should be, "Time is Study." <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbJ8ss51ymI/AAAAAAAAAbA/A-pyopC28qk/s1600-h/reading+039.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310444018033085026" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 180px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 146px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbJ8ss51ymI/AAAAAAAAAbA/A-pyopC28qk/s320/reading+039.jpg" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbJ8tP-qEQI/AAAAAAAAAbI/GP9DWq_IQBo/s1600-h/reading+041.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5310444027448529154" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 189px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 141px" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SbJ8tP-qEQI/AAAAAAAAAbI/GP9DWq_IQBo/s320/reading+041.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><div>So far I have avoided political comments, not because I didn't want to <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">offend</span> people, but because I never know what side of the argument I am on. It's easy to be opposed to Israeli military activity, but its hard to support the actions of a crazy guy on a bulldozer driving down the street in front of one's house. In any case, here is a brief discussion of the recent Israeli election results. </div><div></div><div>Israel prides itself on being the only democracy in the Middle-East which says less about Israel and a lot about the autocracies of the surrounding kingdoms and military governments. But it is this very claim of democracy that causes so much concern because once you make a commitment to democracy, you also make a commitment to majority rule and before you commit to majority rule you better make sure your side has the majority of people. It's unclear who is in the majority because if you believe in the one state solution, there could be more Arabs than Jews and if you believe in two states, then than could be more Ultra-religious people than secular one.</div><br /><div>Added to this problem is the fact that secular people LIKE ME don't make kids as fast as the Ultras and the Arabs (Palestinians), so even if there are currently enough secular voters to provide some sanity to the process, in the future that will not be true. As a result, the question always becomes, "what if the majority of voters are crazy and vote for destructive policies?" As the Bush years have shown, Israelis are not the only ones who wrestle with this dilemma.<br /></div><div>The essence of the Israel election disfunctionalism resides in its mathematics. There are 120 Knesset seats and it takes 61 votes to keep the government in power. If any issue fails to get 61 votes, the government falls which happens about every 2 years. In theory this isn't such a bad idea, but here is the problem; no one party in recent times has ever gotten more than about 30 votes and that means whoever can put together a coalition of 61 votes gets to run the government.</div><br /><div>Now, there were 33 parties running in the last election and they range from a party called, Holocaust Survivors in Support of Legalized <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Marijuana</span> (really!) to an ultra-religious party that believes God gave the entire Middle-east to the Jews from the <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Mediterranean</span> to Iran. A party needs about 2% of the total vote to get a seat and only 12 parties crossed that threshold. The Labor Party (Barack) which used to run the country got 13 votes, their poor showing signaled the end of the Labor/Kibbutz orientation of the past. The <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Kadima</span> Party center-left-2 state solution-pro-peace process, philosophy got 28 votes headed by a woman, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Tzipi</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Livni</span>. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">Likud</span>, (<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">Netanyahu</span>) <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">right-wing</span>, one state solution, anti-peace process, platform got 27 votes . But the real shocker is the <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_9">Yisrael</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_10">Beiteinu</span> party of Avigdor Lieberman who got 15 votes and they represent the new Russian immigrants who are very secular, many may not even be Jewish and are militantly anti-Arab. There are a few peace oriented parties which have about 10 votes and a few religious parties (like <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_11">Shas</span>) that have about 20 votes. </div><br /><div>Here's where the math gets really interesting. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_12">Tzipi</span> (the winner) can automatically count on Labor and Peace parties for about 51 votes and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_13">Likud</span> can MAYBE count on the Religious and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_14">Yisrael</span> <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Beiteinu</span> Parties for 63 votes. But not so fast <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_16">Likud</span>! Y.B wants civil marriages and new easy conversion to <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_17">Judisim</span> rules for the Russians, which the religious parties violently oppose. Also <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_18">Likud</span> stands for less government social programs and the religious parties want huge government payments for religious schools and child payments for large families. Generally everyone of the leaders hates or distrusts the others, Lieberman/<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_19">Netanyahu</span> are bitter rivals, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_20">Tzipi</span> can't stand <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_21">Netanyahu's</span> corruption and immorality, Labor will never be part of Lieberman's racist attitude towards Israeli Arabs. </div><br /><div>As a result of all of this, there is a lot of horse-trading and the currency for this is government ministries. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_22">Likud</span> has promised <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_23">Shas</span> that they can head the Housing and Education Departments thus building cheap settlement homes in the West Bank and setting up free religious schools for the orthodox, while Lieberman has been promised Foreign Affairs, Finance and Justice Departments. (Lieberman is under investigation for bribery/money laundering and wants to prevent anticipated indictments). <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_24">Tzipi</span> who probably could work with Lieberman because they are both secular, has demanded that <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_25">Netanyahu</span> support the peace process and the 2 state solution, something he has absolutely refused to do. </div><br /><div>Finally, just to complicate the matter, there is no way that a right-wing <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_26">Likud</span> government can ever work with the Obama administration and Hillary who are pushing for an independent Palestinian state and a halt in settlement construction. On a cheerier note, EVERYONE wants to bomb the crap out of Iran, sooner rather than later and certainly before Obama opens up a dialogue with both the Syrians and the Iranians a process that has already gotten started and will be difficult to stop.</div><br /><div>Sorry this was such a long explanation and at the time of this writing there is no clear government in sight although Netanyahu first offered a unity government with Kadima, which was flatly refused by Tzipi and he has now approached Lieberman which is freaking out Shas who sees these Russian Goys becoming instant Israelis. Stay tuned, there is many more miles before this journey ends. </div></div>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-17678367807411803882009-03-05T05:56:00.000-08:002009-03-05T07:15:38.896-08:00A CLOSE ENCOUNTERThis afternoon I decided to go to the Jerusalem Mall while our cleaner, <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Vitale</span>, tried to return the house to its <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">pre</span>-Howard condition. One of the agreements I signed on to when I came was that the house would be cleaned from top to bottom once a week whether it needed it or NOT. I feel that I am in a constant state of cleaning up after myself, but apparently I am missing some spots, like the kitchen and bathroom. In the "old country" where I'm from, we called this making the house (or car) "mommy friendly", if you need more insight into this issue consult the Men are from Mars/Women are from Venus books.<br /><br />In any case, I was enjoying myself while reading in a soft chair at one of the mall bookstores. I was reading political articles by David <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">Grossman</span> who is a peace activist and whose son tragically died in the Second Lebanon War. He is a powerful and eloquent advocate whose thesis seems to be that Israel has lost its way as a beacon of moral authority and has descended into thuggery. In the background, the music on the store speaker played The Best of Bob Dylan album and I got lost in "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Mr. Tambourine Man." I finished off the experience with a large middle-eastern plate of lamb sausage and rice and beans.<br /><br /><blockquote>This is a fast food plate at the Mall for $10, its fresh and tasty. It is<br />located right next to a Kosher <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">MacDonalds</span> which is packed with teenagers while<br />this vendor was almost empty. What a pity.</blockquote><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309706431863900402" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sa_d3iTayPI/AAAAAAAAAaw/E1b4h9QyF5U/s320/crash+017.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br />Unexpectedly my phone went off and <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Vardit</span> nervously asked if I was OK. I asked "Why" and was told that a Palestinian had just driven a bulldozer into a bus right in front of the Mall about a hour earlier. I rushed out just in time to see the bulldozer being taken away and all that was left was the media frenzy. The debris from the attack must have been cleaned up almost immediately.<br /><br />See: <a href="http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236246868064&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull">http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1236246868064&<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">pagename</span>=<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">JPost</span>%2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_7">FJPArticle</span>%2<span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_8">FShowFull</span></a><br /><blockquote>Photo shortly after the attack with just the media milling around, the<br />bus/police car/bulldozer where whisked away almost immediately.</blockquote><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309706953418708226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/Sa_eV5PxlQI/AAAAAAAAAa4/e6KWkFsWmCA/s320/crash+020.jpg" border="0" />Everyone is quite concerned because next week is the big holiday of Purim with lots of outdoor festivals and people are concerned about the anticipated reaction to the Gaza War. The irony of the situation is that for Palestinians, the "bulldozer" is the ultimate symbol of the occupation and immediately after the attack, the Jerusalem Mayor called for the destruction of the home(s) of the attacker and his family by, of course, a bulldozer. Amazingly, Israelis don't seem to see the dual symbolism of the bulldozer and are simply appalled that it would be used for destruction and not as the intended construction equipment.<br /><br />For those of you who pay attention to stuff like this, the left-wing Haaretz newspaper article said the bus was empty and there were not other injuries while the right-wing Jerusalem Post article said the bus was filled with teenage girls and several people were treated for shock.<br />See: <a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068909.html">http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1068909.html</a>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6121548609423515140.post-48576130669279755742009-02-27T10:19:00.000-08:002009-03-02T03:03:23.941-08:00THE WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SagvMZSQcWI/AAAAAAAAAag/twNKYeW__oY/s1600-h/shouk+005.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307544050848526690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SagvMZSQcWI/AAAAAAAAAag/twNKYeW__oY/s320/shouk+005.jpg" border="0" /></a>This was the sign announcing the bathrooms in a local restaurant, kind of creepy don't you think?<br /></div><br /><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-size:10.0pt; mso-ansi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><br /><p class="MsoNormal">I ride buses all the time in Jerusalem. I don’t want to borrow my friend Vardit’s car and even if I did, I think I would be scared.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I practiced driving last Saturday when nobody was on the road except Christians who I hoped had a more pleasant driving style than the Jewish/Arab Israelis.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>In any case, the buses are a trip from the drivers and passengers to the routes and fares. Here are some brief comments.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Maps: There are about 60 bus routes and one Hebrew map on the web which identifies the routes of 5 of the most popular lines. There are no other maps of any kind, nothing is posted at the stop, except the number of the bus, if you want to know where a bus goes, you have to ask, and everyone asks all the time.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I met a guy at a bus stop and he asked me “what bus goes to the Central Bus Station” and I responded very confidently, “Only Bus #6.” (which was true). He then proceeded to approach everyone of the other 10 people at the bus stop and asked the same question, all with the same answer and then as each new bus arrived (#’s 9, 19, 32 and 18) he asked the same question of each bus driver. Finally, a #6 came; he asked and then got on board. Every person at every bus stop seems to go through the exact same process. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Note: asking directions in Israel seems to be a social custom much like when people chat about the weather or sports in the U.S. Even when you pretty much know where you are going, you still ask people who look clueless for directions. Another variation of this insight is that people often give wrong directions, it is very unusual for someone to say, "I don't know where that is." Instead, people seem to prefer giving bad information rather than admit that they simply don't know, even I have gotten into the habit of just pointing in any direction and confidently saying, "its right over there." </p><p class="MsoNormal">Drivers: Bus drivers are clearly made of different stuff than the rest of us mortals. They often are on their cell phones, some even read the newspaper while driving and they are constantly talking to other drivers eventhough nobody can hear them except the passengers. To start with, bus drivers have to handle all the fare payments. A standard fare is 5 shekels and 9 argots which means anyone paying their fare in cash will have to get change (this would not be true if the fare was an even number like 5 or 6 shekels) Then everyone’s fare is different, seniors, students, children, and soldiers and there are different paper passes like all day, two day and one month, and 10 pass, 50 pass, all of which have to be hole punched by the driver. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Now here is the fun part. The driver is always in a hurry so the bus races up to the stop, quickly opens the doors and then while people are piling in, the doors close and the bus takes off. There are loud screams of protest of passengers who didn't make it on or off. Then while the bus is leaving the stop and merging into traffic, the driver start punching tickets, making change and processing all the different fares and tickets. It’s really an amazing operation. Of course since the bus goes so fast, it is constantly accelerating or suddenly stopping, which throws all the old people who are standing INCLUDING MYSELF, all over the inside of the bus. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Passengers: It is trite to say that bus passengers are aggressive and impolite, that goes without saying. What is fascinating is the diversity of the people with these characteristics and the many styles they display. To start with, nobody lines up, EVER. When the doors open a group of people get off at exactly the same time and in the same place as the people who are getting on. There are certain rituals, such as the asking for directions (see above) and depending on the mood it seems that some bus drivers always say “no” the bus doesn’t go there or “yes” the bus does go there, but I don’t think the answer is ever correct. There are continual arguments, most of which I don’t understand because they are in Hebrew. Fares are always disputed, as are seat arrangements and of course people are just normally having arguments about politics and life in general.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Cell phones are everywhere and are constantly going off, people answer and talk loudly without much objection from nearby passengers. Ultra-orthodox men will not sit next to women for fear that they will touch them so there is a lot of moving around. There are special orthodox buses run by the city in which women MUST sit in the back and men sit in the front. Everyone brings bags of stuff, mostly groceries and it is not uncommon for a person to sit in one seat and put their bags on the adjacent seat, even though the bus is packed with people. This of course results in more arguments.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>In all fairness, I must point out that most young people do give their seats to old people, LIKE ME. The first time it happened I was really shocked and thankful, now I always expect it and am upset when it doesn’t happen.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SagvDyV2zVI/AAAAAAAAAaY/06o8CkbIr9M/s1600-h/shouk+004.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307543902955687250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kORfI4uivgA/SagvDyV2zVI/AAAAAAAAAaY/06o8CkbIr9M/s320/shouk+004.jpg" border="0" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:times new roman;">Every morning I take the #18 bus to my Hebrew class and one day I noticed this plaque at the bus stop. Five years ago on February 22nd a #18 bus was blown up by a suicide bomber and 8 people were killed. One of them was the owner of Vardit's first dog. It was a chilling feeling seeing the memorial and thinking about what it meant and what had happened on exactly this same spot.</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Obviously, the scariest part is the possibility of a terrorist attack. People are always watching and racial profiling. I saw a driver refuse to open the door for a weird looking Arab guy with a big package. Of course every bus has a couple of 18 year old soldiers with machine guns and amazingly that gives one a feeling of security. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Traffic: The buses seem to always be playing a game of chicken with taxis and old people. Generally, the rule is that a taxi will always back down, but that old people never back down.<span style="font-size:0;"> </span>I was on a bus that nail a taxi, then the taxi chased the bus for several blocks and cut the bus off and then the two drivers really went at it. On the other hand, old people walk right in front of a moving bus and simply dare it to hit them. So far the bus has always backed down, but there have been many close calls. Since many of the old streets are very narrow and cars tend to park on both sides usually half-way up on the sidewalk, the distance between two passing buses can be only a few inches. Surprisingly, I seem to be the only person on the bus who thinks this is a close call and I am constantly covering my eyes and expecting the worst, but apparently the few inches is more than enough space because nobody ever gets hit. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><?xml:namespace prefix = o /><o:p></o:p></p>Howard Smuklerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08818052849342161123noreply@blogger.com0