Weekend Hospitality

I caught this on lifeinisrael.blogspot.com .  The blog is one I read daily, but the video is priceless.  It comes from a time when Israel was surrounded by enemies and life was harsh.  What is interesting is that there is no "internal" conflict.  Everywhere, Jews, Druze, Christians and Arabs work together to build the land.  It is sad that we have lost this spirit of cooperation.  The Christians are almost gone from the West Bank and remain and very small percentage of Israel proper. If you listen carefully, you can tell where the boarder is.  Bethlehem is referenced as a small town in the distance that cannot be visited because it is in Jordan. Watch this with you family on Yom Haatzmaut.  What a picture it paints!

I just saw this headline:  " EU Worried over Bibi's peace plans ".  The article continues a theme that has been played out over and over again during our last election and over the past few years.  To whit:  The Right is Opposed to Peace, or The Right is Against the Peace Plan. First, what sane person is against peace?  Everyone (and I mean Everyone) wants to live without fear of war, death or terrorism aimed at their selves, their family or their friends.  Peace is the absence of war.  So why would anyone be against peace? Secondly, the real issue is peace at what cost?  I'm sure my readers remember this old saw:  A man asks a woman if she will sleep with him for 10 million dollars.  She thinks about it and says yes.  Then the man asks if she will sleep with him for 20 dollars.  Of course not, says the woman.  What do you think I am, a prostitute?  Miss, says the man.  We already determined that, now we are just discussing the price. Israel has given and given and gi...

My son is now a soldier.  He officially became property of the army this week.  If he gets a tattoo, he can be punished for defacing army property.  If he comes home and breaks his leg, he can be punished for endangering army property.  I am very proud to have a son serving in the armed forced.  The last member of my immediate family to serve his country was my father in the 1950s.  Perhaps I'm the last of a dying breed in the US of A, but I still believe that it is ones duty to serve your country.  Because of my kidney problems, I did not and will not have an opportunity to serve.  My second son is also completely absolved of service because of his health issues.  Because he is young, he may still be able to volunteer once he successfully receives a new kidney. I went to Poland a few years ago on the graveyard tour.  For most Israelis, Poland is one big graveyard.  We started in the formal Warsaw graveyard, but each concentration camp and death camp was one more graveyard stop.  O...

I wrote last week that sometimes the dog needs to bite in order to keep your house secure.  This weekend, the Israeli Air Force took a big bite out of HAMAS.  As of day 5 of the way, the Air Force is running out of high profile targets.   Israel has lowered the frequency of attacks and has let at least one hundred trucks carrying supplies into Gaza.  HAMAS has responded by firing at least 35 long range rockets into Israel this morning. My conclusion is that HAMAS wants Israel to begin a land war (in Asia).  Having shown that they cannot do anything against the Israeli Air Force, they are desperate to prove their legitimacy as a military power.  Firing rockets into Israel accomplishes nothing except to piss people off (and to cause damage and death, but HAMAS does not care about that).   HAMAS would have all the supplies it wanted (non-military) if they had stopped lobbing rockets at Israel. HAMAS therefore wants Israel to start a land attack.  They believe that they can reproduce the s...

A few months ago, we invited Robbie Berman of the Halachic Organ Donor Society (HODS) to give a talk in our community.  His focus was on explaining why it is allowable for a jewish person to donate organs after brain stem death.   The talk was exciting and interesting and generated a lot of positive discussion.  During our Thanksgiving Anniversary dinner, we signed up 40 people for organ donor cards! Unfortunately, there is another side to this story.  Everyone who showed up to the talk had an anglo-saxon (english speaking) background.  Everyone who signed the card has the same background.  We made no inroads what-so-ever in the Israeli born population of our community. One of my neighbors decided to try and make a difference.  She talked to Robbie and to me about doing a signup drive for the whole community.  After discussion, we agreed that the first place to go was to get the agreement of our community Rabbi.  We respect his positions and see his involvement as critical to breaking ...

Yesterday was interesting on a political level.  The Israeli government responding to it's Supreme Court cleared out a number of residents of a house in Hebron.  The ownership of the building is contested and the courts have not yet reached a decision. Ehud Barak played a trick on the settler movement by agreeing to work out a compromise. This effort led the residents to lower their guard, allowing the Israeli Border Police to storm in uncontested and take over the building without casualties.  Angry residents of near-by (on foot) Kiryat Arba confronted joyous Palestinians.  The jews broke into occupied residences and there are reports of two people being shot by a jew (either by rubber bullets, or by live fire.) Implications: The Israeli Supreme Court once again got caught playing politics.  They should have made a legal decision on the ownership and then asks the executive branch to enforce it.  (Bad) Ehud Barak has lost whatever credibility he had with the settlers. (Bad) The...

My primary job these days is as a Phd Candidate in the Computer Science Department of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI).   I've been at it for three years already and probably have another two to go before I finish my degree.  One of the things I like best about being in a university environment is the chance to interact with students.  I really enjoy teaching.   Part of the fun is that I'm an extrovert and teaching is like theater.   The other part is that teaching really sharpens your understanding of a topic. As you may have heard, the university presidents in Israel have decided not to open the new school year.  The problem started three years ago with the Shochat Commission on Higher Education.   The commission was tasked with addressing the declining state of higher education is Israel caused by years of budget cuts and brain drain to the United States. During the commission hearings, it became clear to student leadership that the resulting report would recommend ...