Things and stuff – Yohay Elam שטויות בשתי שפות – יוחאי עילם
For those of you who are interested in some Jewish tradition, here’s a video featuring yours truly lighting the Hanukkah candles:
I’ve been to a house party on the 8th day of Hanukkah. The hostess, Gitit, insisted that we’ll put our beverages aside, stop chit-chatting for a few minutes and light the Hanukah candles. I volunteered to make the blessings, and Mr. Lerman captured the moment and Youtubed it.
I don’t like Hanukkah, since there’s no vacation from work!
Take a look at this picture:
This is an art gallery in Tel Aviv near my house. It’s wall looks as if it was hit by shells and bullets. Well, it’s not. It’s like that by design!
It’s a strange place. There is always someone at the front desk, yet I’ve never seen anybody enter the building.
Here’s another picture of the building:
Last week, there was lots of rain. So, I spent more time at home instead of wandering around. But instead of clinging to the computer and writing blog posts, I stayed away from the computer.
Why? I guess it was because of the cold air and the spirit of winter. I just remained in bed. Books that were collecting dust found themselves in my hands. I remembered that I can occasionally enjoy reading a book, or a blog post in a hard copy.
Another outcome of the cold winter was listening to music. I listen to music all the time, when sitting in front of the computer at home or at work. But music sounds different when I really listen to it, and not only overhear it. I tried listening to some podcasts as well, but didn’t that medium very appealing.
Anyway, those are excuses for not updating the blog for more than a week. I intend to get back to the normal pace…
I’ve already praised the Israeli “Dancing Camel” beer. It’s a tasty unfiltered beer that is a good competitor to the Belgian beers that I love.
Unfortunately, it became expensive. At my local bar, called “Armadillo”, they sell a pint (about 500ml) for 30 shekels. $7.5 for a local draft beer is way too much. It’s the most expensive beer in this bar. It tops beers that are imported from Europe (such as Weihenstephan , and naturally tops beers that are produced here, such as Danish beers Carlsberg and Tuborg. All these beers cost 20-25 shekels for a pint, which is a common price. Beer in Europe is much cheaper.
I asked the bartender about the high price, and she just said: “It’s an expensive beer”. I’m frustrated that a beer that is produced within a walking distance of the bar costs so much. I can understand that it’s a “boutique” beer – not a beer made in mass production, but it’s local!
So, I didn’t dance with the camel, but found comfort in my Weihenstephan. The high price of Dancing Camel remains unsolved.
Cheers!
In less than 3 weeks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders, amongst others, will meet in Annapolis for major regional peace conference. I doubt that this summit will be fruitful. I would love to give peace a chance, but even a left wing optimist like myself can’t ignore the dire situation. The Palestinians’ situation is terrible. I’ll concentrate on my country’s side.
People find it hard to believe our Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Too many allegations of corruption, and a deeply flawed war last summer in Lebanon don’t help him gain support in the Israeli public.
He earned points for the raid in Syria, which is widely seen as an essential and successful strike on a nuclear facility. He also won some sympathy for revealing his prostate cancer.
But this isn’t enough. His major coalition partner, the Labor party is offering a cold shoulder. The party’s leader and minister of defense, Ehud Barak, has a painful memory from pushing towards a peace conference. In the summer of 2000, when he headed the country, he pushed for the Camp David summit with Arafat and Clinton. Two months after the summit’s failure, the Intifada broke out. 6 months later, Barak was out of office.
The Israeli public still holds him accountable despite offering “everything”, a deal wasn’t struck. Not only that a historical end to the conflict (as Barak phrased it) was never signed, a bloody strife began.
So, now Barak is very careful. Well, planning a raid on Gaza for the day after the conference couldn’t be called being careful. Barak is being more “right winged” than Olmert.
Those are the politics. Without wide public support, Olmert can’t go far.
And what happens on the ground? Contrary to promises to the American administration, illegal outposts aren’t evacuated in the West Bank. The outposts are provided with electricity and water, making them harder to evacuate in the future.
Except the settlers, hardly any Israeli visit the occupied territories. Yet the government always saw them as part of the country. Here’s some evidence:
The road sign points to Ariel, the biggest settlement in the West Bank, located in the heart of the Samaria mountains. Ariel is a small town that no sane person goes to. Still, it receives special attention. Yes, also road signs are political decisions.
So, with the settlements still thriving, the vision of a Palestinian state and long lasting peace seems far.