Category: English

Olmert must resign immediately

The Winograd committee pointed a blaming finger at Israeli primer minister Ehud Olmert. The war was unmanaged. Decision making was not done in an orderly way. Going to war was done with haste. Failure.

Mr. Olmert, hand in your resignation.

The Winograd committee pointed a blaming finger at Israeli primer minister Ehud Olmert. The war was unmanaged. Decision making was not done in an orderly way. Going to war was done with haste. Failure.

Mr. Olmert, Go Home.

The committee, appointed by Olmert, published only an interim report, relating to a period ending on July 17th. On this date, Olmert spoke in the Knesset (Israeli parliament) and was very popular. Also defense minister Amir Peretz and the chief of staff (at the time) Dan Halutz are seriously criticized by the committee.

The public wanted a national inquiry committee with more authority. This committee’s interim report is enough for a resignation. Add 4 cases of corruption allegations, and less than 10% support. What more can we ask for?

Regarding the war, I don’t see any criminal wrong doing by Ehud Olmert. But publicly, this colossal failure doesn’t allow him to continue as our head of state.

Bring on the demonstrations!

Bone Marrow Donation – Go Get Tested

Ilana Bar suffers form lethal Leukemia. A transplantation of a suitable bone marrow could save her life.

Friends of Ilana have put up a site in Hebrew about her, and about how you can help.

So how can I help?

Go to Tel Hashomer hospital (near Tel Aviv) or to the Magen David Adom station in Haifa and spend 5 minutes for a simple blood test. Do it by Wednesday, May 2nd. That’s it!

By doing this blood test, your bone marrow details will enter the national database. You might be able to save Ilana’s life, or someone else’s life in the future.

More about Leukemia.

Frequent Dramatic News in Israel

The frequency of dramatic news in Israel astonishes many Westerners. Headlines that fill one day here are sufficient for a whole month in Belgium, Norway or New Zealand..

Today was a good example. A member of parliament is accused of working for the enemy during the war. A report by the State Comptroller recommends to open a criminal probe against the leader of our country – PM Olmert. A senior general admits that the army knew that the war couldn’t return the kidnapped soldiers.

And last but not least: The biggest political “earthquake” could be on Monday: The Winograd committee, appointed by the government to investigate the war, will hand in its interim report. It is long awaited. This report will seriously affect the careers of many politicians, and will hopefully reveal how decisions were made during the war.

For those of you who are interested in the Middle East or still troubled by the stupid war we had last summer, Monday afternoon (morning in the USA) should be even more dramatic.

Galilee in Green

Springtime in Israel is a great time to travel north. After an hour and a half of driving, you are in the green mountains of the Galilee. After some rain in the winter, and before the hot summer sun turns the green to brown, the time is right for a visit.

Springtime in Israel is a great time to travel north. After an hour and a half of driving, you are in the green mountains of the Galilee. After some rain in the winter, and before the hot summer sun turns the green to brown, the time is right for a visit.

Miron-Area-Panorama

My girlfriend and I took a short weekend vacation and traveled mostly around Mount Miron. Now, at the end of April, many flowers can be seen. The peak of the blossom was already behind us, but we could see lots of flowers.

Blooming-Flowers-Galilee-Israel

For a change, this time we stayed at a Druze village called Beit Jan. The breakfast was special: typical Druze dishes replaced the regular Israeli breakfast. Another difference was the price, which was approximately 30% lower than our last vacation (at a Jewish “Zimmer”). Other than that, it was the same 4 walls, a bed, and a jaccuzi. Not something extremely “authentic”.

Anyway, we had a nice stay at Beit Jan and did some nice trips in the mountains (got my sunburn).

Prepare your blog for the war

I’m almost there! Even if there is no war around the corner this summer, I made some refreshments ’round here.

I’ve changed the theme to something more pleasant, and made some other changes. Among the changes: A Contact Me form, no more Google Ads, better support for Hebrew posts, shorter links, a floating upper menu (good for exploring the photo gallery) and some more changes.

If you want to follow the stuff I write, you are welcome to add the RSS feed to your reader. If you don’t speak Hebrew, you are most welcome to read only posts in English via RSS.

If you aren’t into RSS, there’s a mail subscription thingy, and an email subscription service for English posts (no Hebrew).

There are a few unfinished things, but all in all, I hope that now my nonsense is more readable. If hostilities break out, I must have the best tools for reporting!