The Galilee Perspective

Brief Analysis of a Typical Media Story About Israel

2010-11-11T07:09:00.000+02:00

PUSHING AHEAD--not just GOING AHEAD. We all know Jews are pushy! (And if not, we do now.)

From MSNBC:
Israel pushes ahead with E. Jerusalem housing

Move comes despite opposition from Palestinians, United States

JERUSALEM — Israel is pushing ahead with plans to build 1,300 new apartments for Jewish families in Arab East Jerusalem, the Interior Ministry said on Monday, despite fierce opposition from Palestinians.
No, the Interior Ministry of the State of Israel did not say that it is building 1300 apartments in Arab East Jerusalem. It said that it is building in Jerusalem, period. An opinion has been inserted right into the first line of this story to make sure readers know that the Jews are the bad boys, and the Arabs are the victims.
The timing of the announcement could prove an embarrassment for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in the United States looking for ways to revive Middle East peace talks that have stalled over the issue of Jewish settlement building.
An embarrassment for Binyamin Netanyahu? The prime minister is not in the least embarrassed about Israelis building in Israel. The word 'embarrassed' was inserted in order to imply somehow that it is common knowlege that Israeli building in Jerusalem is a shameful act.

Peace talks have not stalled--they never really started. The 'stall' involved has to do with the existence of Israel, and not an entirely fabricated building issue. Before 1967 talks were not only 'stalled,' but non-existent. Notice that the Arabs have nothing to do with any of the problems--only Jews can stall peace talks. In reality, Israeli policy was completely obvious before these so-called peace talks began, and the Israeli governmnet made it clear that building in Jerusalem would not be stopped beyond a moratorium of specified duration.

Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said plans for some 1,300 Jewish housing units in two neighborhoods on land Israel seized in a 1967 war had been made public, passing another procedural stage toward eventual construction.
Ah, land 'seized in war.' Israel reconquered parts of its ancient homeland after repeated attacks against Israel by the Arabs. Now Israel's defensive wars and territorial ajustments are portrayed as aggression against Arabs, in order to steal their land.

She said the public could still raise objections to the plans and it could take a long time before building commenced.

"It can take months or years from this point until building can actually begin, or even before tenders for building are issued," Orbach said.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said regardless of when the building actually takes place, the latest Israeli move was a sign of bad faith.
But nothing new or unexpected whatsoever has happened, Mr Erekat. You knew explicitly Israel public policy on building in Jerusalem, as did the Americans. This feigned dissappointment is a scripted affair.

He said the Palestinians had hoped Netanyahu had gone to the U.S. "to make a choice for peace and not settlements."
Israel building in its capital means Netanyahu has mad a choice for what? War? And by the way, Jerusalem is not what the press calls a 'settlement.' It is an established large urban area of the modern city of Jerusalem.

This MSNBC story was illustrated with the photo of an Israeli neighbourhood in Jerusalem, and a lone Arab woman in silhouette dwarfed by the apartment towers. The imagery is distinctly intended to be anti-Israel. The giant buildings covering the land of this poor, simple village woman--another variation on David and Goliath story, with Israel as the nastly big fellow.

From: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40075378/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa

Talking Boards

2010-11-07T09:15:00.003+02:00

The silly Kabala game, someone's idea of kiddie amusement from the 1960s, I believe. Rather like the more famous Oui - Ja boards, better known as the Ouija Board, and around in various forms for most of known history as talking boards.

In any event, I think I have figured out the source of most national foreign policy around the world.

Curiously, if you reverse the French-German oui and ja, you get Jaoui, which sounds a lot like Yaweh. Some might really make something big out of that!

And you never know . . .

Tel Shikmona by the Sea

2010-10-16T08:28:00.006+02:00

Amazing what you pass on the way to the doctor. There was a villiage here 3500 years ago. That makes the 6th C. Byzantine mosaic floor seem almost too recent to get excited about. Just up the road is the place where the Union Jack came down on British rule. There are Templar graveyards nearby, and a bit further away, some of Napoleon Bonaparte's mighty warriors are buried. Bedouin dominated the area once, an so did the Kurds. And the Catholic Crusaders. Lots of peoples and cultures have come, and they have gone.

Only one has come back.

Lewy Promenade, Haifa

2010-10-12T13:10:00.003+02:00

An artistic rendition of the famous Lewy Promenade (טיילת לואי), next to the Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art, overlooking the Port of Haifa several hundred meters below. One of the best high views in an city in Israel. Surprisingly, not usually crowded. The might of the Israel Navy can be seen below, depending which vessels are in port. Large cruise ships as well. And the large grain intake and storage facility, Dagon's Silo (ממגורות דגון). It is in a part of the upper Karmel which abounds in pleasant cafes, sushi bars, a few Chinese restaurants, and lots of general purpose eateries. A Swiss-French place just opened up. The area is not at all dominated by fast food, and there is only one low-key McDonalds in these streets, which is not all that crowded compared to the street cafes. Haifa Cinemateque is here, too, showing art films and foreign films not of the Hollywood persuasion, and Hebrew films. Very popular. Boutique hotels are popping up more and more, though the big Dan Panorama twin towers dominate the hotel scene. There is a zoo, which explains the lion-roars on a quiet moment. The Karmelite subway upper terminus goes down the mountain through shopping and business districts, and ends up at the bottom near the port.

Peaceful Train/Peace Train

2010-10-05T07:08:00.004+02:00

Israeli train hurtling forward along the Mediterannean coast through the bright autumnal skies from Haifa. Next stops: Akko, Nahariyah, Tyre, Sidon, Beirut. Ah, but the Rosh Ha-Niqra tracks were blown back in '48. No one wants Jews on this kind of train. Happy, prosperous, jabbering Israelis, soldiers dozing with mouths hung open, squawking childred, shoppers clutching their purchases, day-tripper. The real Israel is so incredibly...
Normal

PEACE TALKS: Built on sand, and made of it, too

2010-10-02T12:06:00.011+02:00

If the so-called peace talks between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Makhmoud Abbas fail, as they surely must, it will have nothing to do with Israelis building in parts of Israel that the rest of the world does not want Israel to have. We were not born yesterday: Of course we know that the land in question is touted as "occupied Arab" or worse yet "occupied Palestinian" land. We are well aware that several incompatible realities are overlain on these lands.

However, if the talks fail it will not be because of the decisive--and constructive--activities of Jews in Israel. Nu? we like to build where we live--nothing new. The building freeze always had a limited time period, and an explicit expiration date, well known to their excellencies Abbas and Obama. For whom was the resumption of building a surprise?

NO ONE!

Abbas didn't have to linger so long over his whine-and-cheese waiting for most of the freeze period to run out before heading for the table. Bibi sat there staring at his watch and smoking cohibas, worried to death over Abbas. Was he hurt? Did he lose his way? Was he short of bus fare?

Now, over the years the Arabs have painted themselves into so many corners on the matter of Israel that we must soon revise the basic paradigms of the geometry of one-dimensional shapes (how many corners can one square contain?). They rioted once because the British Mandatory government said hence forth they would be called Palestinians, G-d Forbid! "We'll have none of that, sir!" they cried out. "We are Syrians!" Even the infamous Azmi Bishara, no friend of the Jewish state, is on record as saying that there is no such thing as a Palestinian. Probably why he went home to Syria. All righty then. Jews in the Palestine Mandate were Palestinians, Arabs were Syrians, except Druse who were (and still are) Druse, and Bedouin who couldn't give a rat's arse.

Something like that.

The UN partition gives these Syrians-not-Palestinians all of Gaza, and a heck of a lot more than just bits of Samaria and Judea. But the independant British-created eastern Palestinian state of Trans-jordanian Palestine marches into Judea and Samaria and unilaterally annexes the land.

Who complained?

Egypt marches into Gaza and takes the strip.

Who complained?

Of course there were terrorist attacks against Israel off and on throughout this period when Israel was shut out of all these parts of the Holy Land. So wanting to destroy Israel had nothing to do with "occupation" so much as it had to do with Israel's very existence.

By the mid-1960s Arafat and friends created the Palestinian People out of thin air. And now for my latest trick... Tiny Israel facing tens of millions of Arabs looked brave, and the Arabs a little bullyish, thus a small, defenseless Arab people called The Palestinians was spoken into existence. All right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Islam. Now Israel, increasingly wealthy, modern, and hi-tech, with an awesome army called the Guardian Host of Israel, looked like the Big Bully.

You get the picture...

Or you don't.

Either way, this show won't go on forever. It does have an ending, folks, and nothing important about this ending will have been decided in Washington or Brussels or Moscow.

Strangers Amongst Us

2010-08-07T22:23:00.011+03:00

A certain part of the Yankee web, and lesser bits from everywhere else, too, are abuzz with news of imminent disclosure by major governments of the true history of alien contact in the post-WWII era until today. The story is alleged to include all kinds of meetings between aliens, and everyone from Eisenhower and Churchill to young Queen Elizabeth and the popes. Shocking--or not--is the insistence of the talking heads and bloggers that a high percentage of adults in America and elsewhere firmly believe that we are being visited by beings from... ?

Not clear.

Genuine aliens as in outer space folk of interstellar origin probably still tops the list, to which we must add inter-dimensional beings, and, slightly related to the later, good old fashioned demons. There are many types of aliens, by the way, and they don't all get along with each other by some accounts. Aliens are held to be evil by many, as saviours of mankind by others, and of mixed intentions depending on which alien race we are talking about. You had to know that this wasn't going to be easy or simple.

A good deal, perhaps the majority, of this alien material is propounded in what some call the "alternate" media, the media that is real and true and honest, that tells it "like it is," as opposed to the "mainstream" media which is deceptive, and controlled by International Zionism and/or the New World Order, or just run and controlled by stupid, conventionally-minded eedjits. Never mind all those conventionally-minded eedjits, the so-called alternate media is very suspect itself, full of racists and anti-Semites, and demanding that its gospel be swallowed whole by the self-claimed independent thinkers just as much as middle America accepts the nightly network news. The rugged individualists are in fact soft and squishy groupies moving in lock-step with their self-appointed leaders.

Conventional wisdom is absolutely useless in thinking this through. Governments have a reputation for deception and cover-up, and institutional academia makes fun of any PhD faculty interest in such things as aliens, except, of course, as part of a study in popular culture. It is a dilemma, as it is way too easy to either accept uncritically the reality of alien contact, or to dismiss it all with humour and condescension.

And don't even think about claiming the middle ground--it is a killing zone of credibility as bad as either extreme.

Tidal Pool

2010-06-29T15:33:00.004+03:00

What child, of however many decades residence upon this earth, has not imagined himself shrunk down to a centimeter in height, and become the owner of many grand adventures in a once-small place? This tidal pool, just big enough for my two feet and a place to sit on the edge, became a mighty ocean, and the minnows within leviathans of the deep. Just for a moment. And it was good.

So necessary to leave the absurd, artificial construct of day-to-day life and return to reality once and a while!

Shoes on the Sea Shore

2010-06-09T02:30:00.007+03:00

Helen Thomas, an American Media Icon

2010-06-08T06:38:00.006+03:00

Now, Ms Thomas, when you suggested that the Jews of Israel "go back to Poland," did you mean to say, to the country of Poland in general, or specifically into the ovens of the extermination camps?

No big deal--just wanted to know.

Oh, and about your hasty evacuation of that "Helen Thomas-occupied" front row and center seat in the White House press room: Are you going back to Lebanon any time soon?

Well Helen, you may not be shy, but you are retiring!

An Ultimately Dangerous Game

2010-06-02T23:10:00.003+03:00

A NATO member, once with aspirations to be accepted as a part of Europe, now looking to the east and currying favours with its former Ottoman Arab subjects.

Slowly, the supposed political advancements of the post-World War II era, and of the post-Cold War era, are dissolving into ancient alliances with future plans.

Provision

2010-05-28T12:17:00.005+03:00

I crossed the road to the beach in front of my apartment building with no specific aim or purpose. As I strolled up and down sand, I was struck by the abundance of fruit and vegetables that had washed up. Here a yellow onion, there a cob of maize, then a small bunch of plump green grapes, an orange. A kohlrabi, another onion (this time purple), and some indeterminate greenery. A few ordinary pippins, and then, and then, the verdant green of a granny smith, well-knawed and thus much appreciated--the bite-marks a clear testimony to its flavour and quality.

I am reminded of a cab ride to work years ago, when the driver saw a sack of potatoes in the road ahead, and with great skill slowed down the van, opened his door, and snatched the spuds like an Afghan buzqashi player. The driver exclaimed the wonderful chips he was going to make that evening. One of the passengers, not excited himself about eating food found in the road, turned to the driver and said, "maybe someone hit a cow and it'll be lying in the road somewhere up ahead, and then you can have steak with your chips."

Provision!

Proximity Talks

2010-05-07T06:08:00.006+03:00

Incessant stillness

Raging in a silent place

Dry, timeless, painful rage

A Very Special Welcome . . . Mat

2010-05-04T22:35:00.007+03:00

Bibi, this doormat is suggested for your use. Please place it outside whatever room it is that you use to meet with envoys and potentates from the Golden West who come with thinly veiled threats and ponderous ultimata for the Jewish state concerning peace, borders, defence, walls, home-building, state-building, international law, and final solutions. Mr Prime Minister, make each and every one of them knows that this doormat was placed there just for them.

HEAVENLY SPOTLIGHTS: A Room with a View

2010-05-04T08:37:00.008+03:00

One can see the most amazing things from the front window, without even having to rise from the recliner. Some use the giant, mind-numbing flatscreen tv as their window. Some prefer the rear window, and glimpses of wife-murderers and other mysteries. I'll stick with the front view. More edifying.

I haven't had a television most of my adult life, and didn't grow up with one in the family livingroom, as the centerpiece and gathering point of life in the house. This doesn't make me superior, or in any way wiser. There are more ways to be an idiot by choice than there are cable channels, and that's saying a lot. Just that Teleos-vision is more my style. The view of the sea and the sky from my window is a form of perfection, as in something complete, lacking nothing, whole in and of itself. I'd rather be attracted to the high places, the places of brightness and colour, than to those dank, spelunkian, torch-lite dungeons inhabited by television. True, by my own choice I have not plumbed the half-centimeter depths of the American sitcom, or the latest too clever British humour offering; I have never watched Albania's Got Talent! and I live without game shows. I am denied the pseudo-analytics of the polished but uneducated suits and hairdos of corporate altnewsland. The jabber-jabber of the pundit does not assail my ears.

I think I can live with this lack.

Or maybe I can live because of this lack . . .

Look! Up in the Sky! It's a Bird, it's a Plane, No, it's . . .

2010-04-27T05:36:00.006+03:00

Magen David--Shield of David--struggling to form over Haifa on Yom Ha-Atzma'ut, Independence Day. But no, it is just light, and hardly even an imperfect Magen David. Imagination grasping at a suggestion based on a hint come out of an emotion. Mother Mary in a Marmite lid. Baba Sali in a dish of khoumous.

Yeah, something like that.

We all see what we want to see.

And some people want to see Signs from the Heavens. And miracles. And things of incorruptable, everlasting value.

Geez, some people!

THE 1942 WANSEE VILLA CONFERENCE IN BERLIN: The Final Solution to the Jewish Problem

2010-04-04T13:33:00.012+03:00

DIE ENDLOSUNG, the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. This was the subject of the Nazi conference at Wansee Villa, Berlin, on 20 January 1942. Mass murder was the solution of choice, notwithstanding the fact that nearly one million Jews were already dead by less systematic, inefficient means than were to be used later.

I am very sorry to report that, over the past month or so, I have heard a few of my fellow Israelis wonder if Obama has already had his own version of a secret Wansee Villa conference on a final solution to what is euphemistically called the Arab-Israel problem, and increasingly, the Israel problem. And starting to sound like a cynical reworking of the infamous Jewish Question. (Which once rated a Library of Congress subject heading all its own.)

Of course I am bound to admit that only a very few have uttered this fantastic notion. Surely this statistically irrelevent count means nothing? (Not that the establishment of truth is ever a popularity contest.) This is too much to accuse even an unfriendly American president of, is it not? The idea that the permanent solution to the so-called Arab-Israel problem is, for some leaders, such as Obama, part of an attempt at removing Israel by stages from the family of nations is unthinkable, or nearly so. Isn't it?

Shall we ask Mr Biden?

Say it ain't so Joe!

חג פסח שמח HAPPY PASSOVER

2010-03-30T17:23:00.001+03:00

Burning the hometz (chametz, khometz etc), any food with levening in it, is an ancient Biblical commandment for the Feast week of Pessakh, or Passover. Not everyone goes through this ritual, but it is amazing how many do. The spiritual significance is great: yeasty things represent arrogance and puffery, whereas humility is a requisite for approaching God in a spirit of heart-felt gratitude during the Pessakh week. Humility is the basis for honesty in all the doings of man, secular or spiritual. Honesty is a way of life for all who fear God. God is the source for life itself.

Cleansing the soul by burning bits of bread and flour: A mere tradition, an arcane ritual from the ancient dawn of Semitic spiritual awakening? Or a remarkable moment for grasping reality?

Getting Your Bearings

2010-02-07T14:16:00.020+02:00

I do not make the mistake of equating the 2nd Lebanon War back in '06 with the lengthy conflagurations that have destroyed millions of lives and prevented anything like a normal, happy existence for a generation or more. It was not a state-against-state war, nor was it really a war so much as an anti-terrorist operation.

However, in light of the fine art of the bellicose-turn-of-phrase practiced so frequently of late by Israel fans Khassan Nasrallah, Bashir Assad, and Makhmoud Akhmadinejad, and the arming and upgrading of Hizbollah, Hamas, Syria, and Iran's nearly ready nuclear weapons programme, I'd like to explain the purpose of these little steel balls in the photo above.

The purpose of these steel balls is to rip open human flesh, unto death if possible. Which is frightening when you think of the car park in front of my building where they were found, after a rocket attack. The road infront of our apartment is a relatively quiet cul-de-sac, and a very busy playground for children for hours of every day. A little family-run convenience store guarantees a steady flow of small-change sweets-junkies. Children and Hizbollah missiles is not a good mix.

Israel imperfectly carries the war of terror to the enemy, to his firing points, to his command posts, armouries, depots and communications lines. Our self-professed enemies blindly fire into our cities. Firing unsophisticated rockets on approximate trajectories is ineffective as a killing machine, but how will this play out with the new and improved weapons now in the bully's arsenal? Think about it. Shudder, shudder, and then shudder some more.

One set of enemies attempts to rip apart our flesh, and another would divest us of our humanity, our legitimacy, and our spirit. By definition Israel can do no right. Were we to agree to destroy ourselves, the enemies of the battlefield would ridicule our suicidal weakness, while our diplomatic enemies would censure us for taking unilateral action.

Our neighbours and near-neighbours have armed themselves with advanced ballistics, into which equation we must soon add nuclear weapons and sophisticated air defense systems. We will truly miss those crude, Soviet-Stalanist Katyushas when the rhetoric ceases and a new generation of missiles land in my car park.

What to make of it all? Massive stockpiling of increasingly sophisticated weapons by virulently anti-Semitic regimes, whose intentions have been clear all along, and life goes on as if normal? I think not. Anciently, in a situation as we now face, the prophets would have been walking the Land and exhorting the people to return to Ha-Shem, to end to their wicked ways and humble themselves. Yet there is the mortgage, and the job to worry about, and people are not showing panic or fear, and the grocery stores are well-stocked, and the this, and the that. Being pulled in one direction by the trivial, the apparently necessary day to day concerns, and being pulled in another direction by an existential urgency, and the need for some deep thought.

It is not easy to get one's bearings in such an environment.

Inhabiting the Divine Aesthetic

2010-01-14T22:11:00.008+02:00

What I choose to call the Divine aesthetic is essentially minimalist, readily comprehensible, and devoid of pretense. I recall a man once, who when asked what his accomplishments might be, said that he collected views. Those who thought that he was making an obscure reference to an accumulation of paintings or photographs, perhaps even picture postcards from a life-time of holidays, were wide of the mark. The old fellow simply meant that when he climbed a hill, or turned a bend in a country lane, or watched a sunset over the water, he appreciated the beauty of what he saw, and he absorbed the moment with subdued joy. They then asked him, "yes, but what did you do with your life?" He thought for a moment, having misunderstood the intent of the question, and chimed, "I said thank you for those views."

The Divine aesthetic is much like this example. Nothing is accomplished, yet here is where life is lived. We prosper in the gift of our own creation, and not in the illusion of our attainments.

God collects a bit of dust, and makes a man. Man responds by gathering a bit of dust and making a pot.

That was, possibly, the birth of hutzpah. Better the man had said "thank you" for his life, and inhabited the Divine aesthetic without guile or motive.

Arab Muslims Were Better Colonizers Than Europeans

2010-01-13T21:08:00.009+02:00

In 1187 the Kurd Salakh e-Dinn (Saladin) defeated the combined Crusader army near the hills seen in the distance. Photographed from Korazin, near the Mount of Beatitudes, overlooking the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee). This defeat was a noteworthy bad hair day for the Roman religion, and the European attempt at colonizing the Holy Land. Many Arabs consider it a victory of Islam over conquering Europeans. All of which is very interesting, considering that the Arab world was, before the rise of Islam, confined to one place--the Arabian peninnsula.
Now how did it come to be that so many non-Arab countries and cultures ended up being called "Arab" countries? Why are non-Arabs from Moroccan Berbers to Egyptians to Syrians and Lebanese Phoenicians all called "Arabs" today? Well, let me tell you.
Outsiders, conquering Arabs, did what the Crusaders did, but with one big difference: the Muslim Arabs were much more succesful colonizers than the European Catholic colonizers. And you know what they say--the victor writes the history.

Inshallah!

See Shells by the Sea Shore

2010-01-11T22:40:00.005+02:00

I am frequently to be found collecting shells by the sea shore in Israel. These specimens were found by a firing range which extends to within a few meters of the water. Among the cockles, whelks, limpets and murex, they caught my eye. They'd be real collectors items if only they weren't so common.

RODS & STAVES: Being There when it counts: Psalm 23

2010-01-09T10:40:00.009+02:00

The Lord is my sheperd; I shall not want.

He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul; He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for He is with me; His Sceptre and His Support, they comfort me. Psalm 23

I took a close look at the Hebrew text of this Psalm, and decided that I might translate it a little differently. Not that rod and staff are bad translations, as much as, perhaps, they are less complete as conveyers of the nuances of intent than other words. I like sceptre and support better than rod and staff. A sceptre is a symbol of the power of the throne of God; and God supports His people, Jew or Gentile, with an outstretched hand, which though unseen, will catch us when we begin to fall, steady us on uncertain or hazardous journeys.

Or maybe:

"Your power and authority, and your concerned loving kindness, they protect and sustain me in all travail."

Best would be two or three English words footnoted in the text to explain each Hebrew word, but then, that would make a cumbersome book that scholars might love, but nobody else could easily read.

There is a Being There, when being there really counts, and that is the point.

Paw Print in the Sand

2010-01-09T00:15:00.003+02:00

Ah, winter! Walking on the seashore in my shirt-sleeves, on a clear, breezy day, with the snow-covered peak of Mount Kheirmon off in the far distance. Some people dress according to the calender, so I pass people on the footpaths in coats and hats. Others dress by feel, and thus the joggers in shorts and T-shirts. Some check out the weather report--they usually tie a sweater or jacket around the waist or neck, just in case.

Then there're the romping canines, oblivious to anything but the joys of running naked in the sand, and chasing crabs and surf froth, and sniffing dead jelly fish. Hot, cold, wet or dry, nose to the wind, and off he flys.

Its a Dog's Life for me!

Green, Green, My Valley Now

2009-12-24T21:30:00.003+02:00

Amazing what a little rain will do to the brittle, brown hillsides of Galilee, nestled hundreds of metres below sea-level in the Jordan Valley

This photo was taken on the western shore about 15 kilometres north of Teveryah, aka Tiberias, yesterday on a misty, chilly morning. The southern end of the Golan on the other side of the lake was almost completely hidden in the mist.

We know the drill

2009-12-24T20:49:00.005+02:00

Once the mighty Persian empire lent an ear to little Israel, crushed by Babylon, her leading citizens exiled and weeping for Zion, for Jerusalem, for return home. Babylon booted us out, and the Persians placed us back in the Land. The Romans ransacked Israel and back out we went into exile. After a very long 1900 years the British Empire allowed us back home, and though the British house was eventually divided on this matter, British imperial order went a long way in facilitating the rebuilding of a Jewish country. Now Persia wants to see all this undone. In a sense, they are going against the spirit of their own decree, the decree of their ancient king Darius, who said that anyone getting in the way of the rebuilding of Jewish Jerusalem, especially the Temple, would suffer the penalty of having his house-beam removed, and being impaled upon it, and having his house turned into a hill of dung. (See Ezra 6)

What about it, Mr Makhmoud Akhmadinejad?

The Red Chair of Courage

2009-12-18T18:47:00.005+02:00

Anyone who takes the time put a chair at the end of a concrete pier under construction can't be all bad. Staring out at the ocean is an art, the art of emptyness, in a good sense of the word. One is left open to big thoughts about life and self and all kinds of other meanings-fraught notions. No one looks out at the waves and thinks of bonds and stocks and jobs and pillories, or schemes an aweful thing. The edge-of-pier folk seek not this or that specific thought, but rather solace, a restorative moment, a little peace, and what ever else comes naturally to the living waters-calmed physic of endlessly ailing modern man. Here at pier's edge we may learn as much what we are not, as what we are. It takes guts, of a kind, to let the mind wander out over the ocean far enough to look back with some perspective, at the person sitting in the red chair of courage.

Khappy Khanukah

2009-12-10T23:17:00.003+02:00

Not a corollary to the 25th of December Solstice revelry, or the rebirth of the Dying Shepherd, or the Roman Christ Mass, or the Hindu Festival of Light; or the various Germanic Protestant Decembral holiday observances; or, or, or.

Khanukah is a stand-alone celebration of the Divine and the miraculous. God and Man, in the sturm und drang of free will and too many choices, only one of which is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with thy God.

Marzipan Macabees are great, but they are not the point of the celebration of Khanukah. You did know that, didn't you?

Oh for goodnes sake, hand me the one in the red foil.

The Other Side . . .

2009-12-08T17:05:00.003+02:00

What is on the other side? Wandering around the hill-side town of Rosh Pinnah in northern Israel, and going down this cobblestone street in the Artists Quarter, I noticed a number of lovely old doors, weathered and latched.

Now is that padlock a warning to leave well enough alone--or is it a device of temptation, urging curiousity, or worse, goading us into petty vandalism for the sake of that curiousity?

Then I noticed that half the walls on the backside of the house were fallen in a heap, and much of the roof was missing.

Carving States, and Carving Turkeys, at the Negotiation Table

2009-11-16T06:52:00.012+02:00

The leading English-language Palestinian newspaper announcing the result of the UN vote to re-establish a Jewish state on a small part of the (quasi) British-ruled Mandate. Palestinian David Ben Gurion made the proclamation as the new head of government from the largest city in Palestine, and provisional seat of government, Tel Aviv. The battle for Jerusalem yet raged. The small part of Palestine that was offered to the Jews reverted to an ancient name--Israel. The Judean and Samarian heartland of ancient Israel, given by the UN to become an Arab state called by the very un-Arabic name of Filistia, was over-run and annexed by Hashemi Bedouins who controlled most of the Palestine Mandate, and now called Trans-Jordanians.

Thus was born a two-state solution for the British Mandate of Palestine, an on-the-ground reality. 80% of the land to the Arabs, and 20% to the Jews. A two-state solution, whereas, the hodge-podge of British, French and UN agreements was, at one time, a three-state solution: Israel (with the Golan!), Palestine (Judea, Samaria and Ghazzah), and Transjordanian Palestine now called Jordan (which was everything east of the river Jordan).

So what is all this going on about a Two-State solution? There are two states already, and an autonomous region, the Palestinian Authority. The bulk of the Mandate called Jordan is in Arab hands, and the majority of Jordan's population is Palestinian Arab.

Now they want a third state, too. A secret out in the open. The media is silent. But that is, in fact, the reality. Why is Trans-Jordanian Palestine, today's Jordan, the British-created state given to an Arabian Bedouin family dynasty in exchange for services rendered, now severed historically from the Mandate, as if it was never part of it?

A Bridge in Galilee

2009-11-11T20:07:00.005+02:00

Humans are always striving, even if only to get to the end of the day, or from one day to the next, or to the end of the week. So much of what occupies our time is getting from point A to point B. So here's a bridge that suits my mood. It doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't cross a raging torrent, or span a deep canyon. It is just a wonderful place to sit and and stare out.

Sometimes that's more than enough.

Winter Moon in Tel Aviv

2009-11-11T15:15:00.003+02:00

Taken while waiting for a train from Tel Aviv to Be'ir Ya'akov. A good example of modern towers in late 2oth and early 21st century Israel. The new towers and the old Bauhaus makes for an interesting city.

Sunset reflecting off windows on Mt of Olives

2009-11-08T19:08:00.004+02:00

I love to photograph the Mount of Olives from above the Kotel (Western Wall). Probably the most intense boneyard on planet earth. Or maybe they never heard of it in China and India, and that's a lot of humanity. Well, we're certainly aware of the Mount of olives, and maybe to the point of obsession. And some obsessions are good, as I see it. When you figure out what is really important in life, it bodes well to be obsessed, intense, preoccupied even. No point in moping about like a damp rag in a clean-up bucket.

Live! Feel a little anguish, a little pain, yearn for something important to more than just yourself. Very good for the soul.

A remedy that lasts a lifetime, and then some.

Reality vs. Fantasy in the Land of Israel

2009-11-07T17:49:00.011+02:00

The very mention of the Land of Israel can evoke radically different feelings and images in people. After very extensive research into the world of American web sites and forums, backed up by newspaper accounts and other reading, I summarize below the sentiments or feelings towards Israel (and let it go without further mention that I am generalizing, ok?).

I - Those who love Israel, which can be divided between A)Jews, and B) Christians of a less denominational and more directly Biblical approach. Both groups can accept failings and imperfections in Israel, without their faith in Israel being shaken. They idealize the idea of Israel, accept Israel as legitimate, but know that Israel is a real place with traffic jams and politicians.

II - Those who have strong, distinctly negative feelings towards Israel A) based on their own religious convictions, or B) who hate Israel for ideological reasons, most typically various neo-Nazi affiliates, and various Muslim groups.

Not all of the II-A group here are anti-Semitic at a personal level. They may abhore terrorism, or prejudice, but sincerely believe that the Nation of Israel died 1900 years ago, and that the current state is unrelated to any ancient Israel. Sometimes they believe that Israel is populated by some kind of counterfeit Jew, Edomite, Essauites, Khazari/Ashkenazis.

Group II-B folks are personal and inyofacist haters.

I was shocked to find that highly denominational and mainstream Protestants were frequently part of religious organizations which did not look upon Israel favourably, primarily because their theology says that they have replaced Israel in the eyes of God. Thus Israel as I know it is, to them, illegitimate. Catholic theology is also replacement oriented, and whatever the rapproachment of diplomats and high priests on either side, relations between the Catholic world and the Jewish world are not friendly and warm. Any warmth or friendship is at the level of personal friendships, which I would never belittle, but is not part of my point here. After all, many Jews and Muslim Arabs are friends, too.

III - Those who are indifferent to Israel, who know almost nothing about Israel, and never thought enough about Israel to have an opinion.

I don't worry much about them for now, but many of them can be led like sheep against Israel if future winds blow ill in such a way that impinges on their indifference, and blame can be laid upon Israel.

Why so much opinion about Israel at all on the Net? Why so much hatred of Israel, attempts to delegitimize Israel, cast Jews in a negative role historically? It is difficult to assess the degree of Israel-hatred in America, but all evidence points to a significant and lively base of enmity for Israel that cuts across the grain of society.

What historical events have lead to two groups, both self-identifying as Christian, one which has no good word for Israel, and the other which expresses a profound love for Israel?

Israel sets one man's heart to flutter, and another man's heart to ire. And for good reason, too. But I'm not telling. Not just yet . . .

Wilderness of Tzin

2009-10-25T16:19:00.006+02:00

The Wilderness of Tzin in southern Israel--the Negev Desert. Not a huge area, but if you get out into Tzin on foot, you can wander forever. Or you can step out of time, into the place of prophets and madmen, where God speaks to His mortal creations in a language as clear as the desert night sky. A land of waking dreams and night visions where your every day life can make no claim, and the mundane has no point of reference.

Remnant on a Yom Kippur War Battlefield

2009-10-24T19:16:00.006+02:00

Leftover from a bad week. A tank long out of service, sitting by itself off a lonely stretch of road on the Golan Heights, exposed to the elements. A gigantic clash of armour--one of the largest clashes of armour ever, took place nearby. Did we do this? Jew from Lvov and Vilnius and Brno and Vienna and Plonsk and hundreds of little towns in central and eastern Europe; and from the Jewish quarters of ancient pre-Islamic north African and middle eastern towns, and even from Britain and Canada and America and Australia and South Africa. The sons and grandsons of black coated, bearded orthodox Jews gathered in ancient Bashan, and hour away from Damascus by automobile, to fight such a great battle in the 20th century--almost 2,000 after Israel was "destoyed" by the Roman Empire? Armoured divisions and brigades grinding across the landscape, with jets overhead dodging Syrian surface to air missiles. Ah but in this war the battle was also fought by small groups of men in tanks, by the ones and by twos. The war was won by decisive action taken by experienced men who could not always wait for orders. And the Hand of God strenghtened those men, and gave them victory.

Not always easy to see that in one derilict old tank--the Hand of God.

Crop Circles מעגלי יבול

2009-10-20T07:26:00.007+02:00

Crop circles have not been very common in Israel. Since they are made by two very different, but equally hostile and dangerous life forms, aliens from another dimension, and bored young English university men, they are the devil to deal with.

Romans in the Gloamin

2009-10-19T07:46:00.008+02:00

The Twilight of Empire doesn't come easily. This is the Roman Aqueduct at Caesaria/Kaysaryah on the beach between Tel Aviv and Haifa. I am reminded of the old corny Scottish song "Roamin in the Gloamin," about strolling in the evening, by way of translation. Thus Romans in the Gloamin, or twilight, of empire. The various remnants of imperial powers-that-be on planet earth are all wandering in a dimness of their own making. Rhetoric and hyperbole, spin and shpiel. Deceit and conceit disbelieved at conception, incredulous upon delivery. Recited by rote, spoken as if truth, but taken to heart by no one. A game of automatons with no fans in the stands. Once merely tiresome, it now has the air of major disease; a terminal disease with foundational rot so advanced, so insidious, that the surgeon can only shake his head and refuse even ameliorative measures. Collapsed veins and no way to pump in painkillers. This twilight is going to hurt like hell, and make sure we know it, too. Quite literally, an undertaking, with paid mourners. The guy in the black tophat a parade drum-major leading the band into hell. Soundtrack of ravens and crows.

Megalithic Stone Circles

2009-09-26T20:28:00.005+03:00

At one time, building stone circles meant a lot to many people in many parts of the world. Having once tried my hand at duplicating Stonehenge in the backyard, I can understand this. But nowhere are the megaliths more beautiful than in the British Isles, and especially Scotland Highlands and Islands. This picture is the Callanish Circle on the Isle of Lewis & Harris, in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of the Highland Scottish mainland. An enchanted land without a doubt.

High tourist season, a beautiful stretch of weather, well-served by modern transport, and not a soul in site. At least for a while. The average view out the train window in most of Scotland would be a designated natural beauty site in most other countries. I had to stop taking photos.

Fathers: Abba Shimshon & Bedouin in Sinai

2009-09-26T09:09:00.005+03:00

Every son ought to have at least one photo of his father like this one. It doesn't have to be on a camel, though that helps, as does being at the foot of Mt Sinai. (Actually, Jebel Musa, Mt Moses, a traditional possible location of the famous Giving of the Ten Commandments.)

The nameless bedouin is certainly someone's beloved father, too. This is probably not his son's first choice of photos for the family album, but it does not represent subservience, but rather parnasa--making a living--and bringing home the lahbnei to his goat-hair tent full of children.

A Window on Eternity

2009-09-16T15:37:00.003+03:00

Hard to believe that only a few meters away from this view of the Mount of Olives you can order fat bagles, thin-crust pizza, soft ice cream, or a skull-cap embroidered with your name. That is Israel. That is Jerusalem. One foot in the 21st century, and another out of time altogether. A living, breathing contemporary city, and a gateway to eternity.

Shanah Tovah for the New Year 5770

2009-09-14T18:22:00.003+03:00

What? A view of the Kotel without the al-Aqsa mosque?! Can it be so?

Well, really now, it never was a very good symbol for Israel, was it?

A Walk on the Edge

2009-08-17T21:52:00.013+03:00

A cove on the shore of the Sea of Galilee--Lake Kineret, from the ancient Hebrew kinor, or harp, as it was thought to be so shaped. Shaped much like the anatomical heart, minus the hoses though. Jerusalem is the spirit and soul of Israel, and the Kineret, then, is the heart. The great pumps send the waters up almost 700 feet--to sea level--from this deep hole in the earth, and into the National Water Carrier and out to the rest of Israel.

Below is a composition for the Scottish Highland Bagpipe, commemorating a mountain in the Negev Desert of southern Israel which some archaeologists believe to be the true Mt Sinai. I've been composing for the pipes for many years.

Hear HAR QARQOM --The Saffron Mountain

Dining Area with Books & Cat

2009-08-16T10:25:00.008+03:00

Some people like to look at cabinets of dishware while eating. And what could be more interesting than staring at an armoire full of plates, at the same moment that you are actually eating off of one! A truly integrated, multi-sensory experience if ever there was. Though as a rule, I find books and cats more satisfying.

Usually we eat out of large plastic bowls while sitting in the salon. If only we had an armoire maybe we'd feel inspired to sit in the dining cul de sac.

Speaking of sacs, this is also one of the very few spots in all Israel where lessons on the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe (Khemet Khalilim Skotit) take place.

Fresh Food Every Day

2009-08-15T21:14:00.004+03:00

Green onion, yellow onion, hot red pepper, tomato, eggplant, and just off screen olive oil, cabbage, and puy black lentils. Maybe a little heavy on the "breath fresheners," but my kind of food!

A Tropical Bird

2009-08-08T20:49:00.003+03:00

This is from a series of birds that my wife Janet drew about 25 years ago for a showing in Hawaii.

Hezikaiah's Tunnel Inscription in Proto-Hebrew Letters

2009-08-07T09:43:00.008+03:00

This the famous Siloam Inscription found in Hezekiah's Tunnel, down by the City of David. The tunnel goes from the Spring of Gihon to the Pool of Siloam (Shiloah/Shilo'akh) to provide water for Jerusalem during the coming battle with Sennacherib and the Assyrians. It is 533 meter long, and is slightly but consistenly graded to flow down from source to pool. This excavation from around 700 BCE in the reign of Hezekiah.

Note well the alphabet used: Yes, it is the Hebrew alphabet, but no, it doesn't look like the lettering on the kosher butcher's shop. It is the alphabet that King David wrote with, and read. It is very primitive looking. Next time you play around with some digital version of the Hebrew Scriptures in English, or in some other language, don't forget what the first "edition" looked like!

Translation:

... the tunnel ... and this is the story of the tunnel while ...
the axes were against each other and while three cubits were left to cut? ... the voice of a man ...
called to his counterpart, (for) there was ZADA [straightness] in the rock, on the right ... and on the day of the
tunnel (being finished) the stonecutters struck each man towards his counterpart, ax against ax and flowed
water from the source to the pool for 1200 cubits. and 100?
cubits was the height over the head of the stonecutters ...

Mount of Olives from Silwan

2009-08-07T09:08:00.003+03:00

This is a photo I took of the Mount of Olives from a slightly different angle than one usually sees, from the villiage of Silwan. Silwan is, now, mostly Arab, but the name itself is a corruption of the ancient Hebrew place-name Shilo'akh, known to the west as Shiloah, with the final guttural tossed in the gutter of pronunciation mutation. Now, that isn't the end of it, as this place-name has yet another version well-known in the west, but usually applied to the healing waters anciently at the well-visited spring: Siloam. The final 'm' came from the Greek, I think.

Silwan/Shilo'akh/Shiloah/Siloam is also home to the archaeological dig Ir Dahveed, aka City of David. This area was actually inside the walls of Jerusalem at one time, and a strong minority archaeological opinion says this may have been the temple site, and not the temple site a few hunded meters away.

Plotting a Course, and Coarsely Plotting

2009-07-12T14:08:00.008+03:00

My trusty rusty dividers set atop a map of Israel, the Galilee-Golan region specifically in view. Yes, this picture is out of focus. But so is the political situation. Everybody's got their dividers out yet again, and have turned their wits to further carving up the Land of Israel.

Jordan, Trans-Jordanian Palestine, that is, Palestine on the "other" (east) side of the river Jordan, is an independent state which incudes the vast majority of Palestine, and most of who's citizens are what the modern, post-PLO world calls Palestinians. Of course part of Palestine has reverted back to its ancient and proper name of Israel. Historically there is no conflict about the geography intended by the two names: Renaming the Jewish homeland "Palestine" was a mean-spirited act done by the victorious Romans after the last ancient Jewish revolt. (Almost last--but that's another story.)

Camel Crossing

2009-07-02T22:42:00.007+03:00

In truth, I'd worry a lot more about a lot of other things crossing in front of me on the road than camels. I think the roads authority puts these signs up for tourists.

Sure beats:

WARNING! ROADSIDE CHARGES MAY BE INCURRED!

Highland Bagpipes

2009-07-01T20:30:00.007+03:00

This is a pencil drawing of my old Wm Sinclair & Son Highland bagpipes, done by my wife. The backdrop is Royal Stuart tartan.

I waited four years for this fine, hand-made set after ordering them in person from Mr William Sinclair in his workshop in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. Mr Sinclair is the second generation to make quality Highland pipes, after his father William, who began in the 1930s. His son Alistair, the third generation, is currently carrying on the family business. I am not certain if his son Ewan is in the business. That would make four generations of maintaining quality in what is now quite a competitive market.

You would think that my set would be the only one in Israel. However, there is another set of Sinclair pipes, made by William Sinclair senior back in the 1930s, owned by a very fine sabra piper of my good acquaintance. A top Jewish player who is a friend of ours, and who visits Israel often also plays old Sinclair pipes, which used to belong to a career pipe-major in the Scots Guards Regiment (a Scottish contribution to the British Army). We all three came by our Sinclair pipes quite independently of each other.

The Cat and I

2009-06-28T21:56:00.008+03:00

We've been together almost 20 years. Art's doing ok for an old geezer. A little stiff in the hips, a more bohemian attitude toward hygiene these days, obsessed with food and bowel movements, nervous sleeper, but could be a lot worse considering.

That's the cat I'm talking about--got it?

Editor's note: Arthur Katz Siegel, passed away at the end of October 2009, at home with his human family. We spoke to him, and held him, until he left us. Just a pet? No, he was a friend of nearly twenty years, with a God-breathed spirit just like you and I. He is sorely missed.

Alpha Male Chair in the South Pacific Corner

2009-06-28T21:35:00.006+03:00

I would assume that many homes have one of these corners. My wife's paintings, various gifts from my Mother's several trips to Ponape, in the south Pacific, and Churchill's History of the Second World War, as manly a set of books as ever there was. Dad's photo on the wall. Smoking pipes I no longer smoke, but definately a macho accessory. What you can't see are the various cutting tools--a Leatherman, a SwissTool, a diving knife, and the old key rings, bits of chain and string. And a few choice home-made back-scratchers. My favourite I call "the flensing tool," named after a blubber-removal knife with a 2-meter handle I saw in action at a whale-landing station in southern Iceland. Last but not least, a copy of Nevi'im, The Prophets, as in ancient Hebrew, as in Amos and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Habakuk and friends. It doesn't get anymore Alpha-environmental then this.

Cup rings on the tables. Lots and lots of cup rings.

The Good Fence into Lebanon

2009-06-28T21:31:00.005+03:00

This is the border crossing into Lebanon from Metulla, Israel, at the northern end of the Hula Valley in the Galilee. Nassrallah and the Hizbullah live somewhere on the other side. In another time, same place but very different dimension, Nassrallah would send me honey-sweetened and rose-water-scented baqlahwa for Rosh Ha-Shannah, and I'd send him a chub of Hebrew National kosher bologna for Eid. For now, its just missiles and gristle.

Yerushala'im Shel Zahav ירושלים של זהב

2009-06-24T14:41:00.006+03:00

Jerusalem. This is what it is all about for a very many people. Of primary holiness to the Whole House of Israel, and to Biblical Christianity; a tertiary holy site for traditional Islam. The Qur'an recognizes that God gave the Land of Kna'an to the Israelites in perpetuity, but modern so-called traditional Islam, alas, has a short memory. And Obama apparently has no memory at all.

Sunset on the Galilee Coast

2009-06-24T14:11:00.001+03:00

The beach at Nahariya, on the north coast of Israel. The world over, a beach at sunset with a solitary fisherman is a vision of peace and tranquility.

Of course, afterward you have to slit the poor little beasties open and pull their guts out, then go home to house full of screaming kids and a blaring television, cook them (the fish--not the kids), and then splurt ketchup all over them and eat em.

When A Terrorist Was A Terrorist

2009-06-23T22:07:00.008+03:00

Dare I say it? Shall those words come from out of my own mouth? Oh! Here it comes . . .

I miss you, Abu Amar. Yasser, you were the genuine article. No silk ties with Oxford knots for you, or putting on deodorant just because you were visiting a president or prime minister. You really made your clothing last, Yasser, season in and season out. And you didn't know about matching socks from adam. They say that khaki, like plaid, is never out of fashion, as you have demonstrated so elegantly. You were a terrorist's terrorist, and not ashamed of it. Forever the desert warrior fresh out of battle, with a manly scent about you, and a crusty festering wound or two. Now even Hamas guys show up in the darndest places wearing Italian suits. And your old PLO trench-mates, they shave, habibi, they shave every blessed day (except for Hanan Ashrawi, who should). Oh the humanity!

But now you're gone, Yasser, and a big hole remains in my heart (but not where you shot me, you bugger!), and another really huge one in Ramallah, which I think is where your house used to stand, yes?

You, I understood. Nu those crazy goons that run around today in Ghazza City, Washington, Ramallah, Paris are pale techno-terrorcrats in comparison. They won't amount to a hill of spicy chick peas in the great scheme of things. But who could ever forget Yasser.

So . . .

Here's looking at you, sh'kheed!

Firing Range . . .

2009-06-23T18:54:00.001+03:00

This was posted on the fence of a firing range on the beach between Shavei-Tzion and Akko, north of Haifa. (I made the sign a bit artsy, by turning up the colour a bit, and taking the letters out from behind the fence for better clarity.) It says:

DANGER!

FIRING RANGE

ENTRY FORBIDDEN

As in Jerusalem--to Jews?

Obama is not the first anti-Israel king of America. Frankly, they all were in many ways, with Lyndon Johnson the possible exception. But, King Barrack has upped the ante, and brought out into the open the issue of Jerusalem in such a way that proves what he is:

N O T - W I T H - U S

Like it or not, suicide is not our national pasttime here. Either King Barrack understands Israel, Jews and anti-Semitism, or not. If not, he is dangerous because he appears to want to act decisively inspite of his ignorance. If he does understand, than he is a very deceptive man, and an extreme liability to Israel.

I am also shocked at Hillary Clinton's gobspill. And I mean shocked. She is a classic Machiavellian mucilaginous spherical. She carpetbags the New York senate seat a number of years ago, as a bid to enter politics in her own right. She was then the friend of Jews and Israel. But Jews just don't mean anything to her, and certainly not the Jewish homeland, which is Israel, and not New York (or Miami) anyway.

Fine, don't like us, and then leave us alone. I don't give a fig what religion Obama is, or what his skin colour is, or whether he was born in America or not. My gorge is rising, and my mood is foul. He is not prime minister of Israel, is not my president (Baruch Ha-Shem!), and he certainly is not King of the World. Just another one of that class of grandiose princes and bloated merchants of this world, two categories of men about which the Tanach has little good to say.

So are we a country or not? Are we just a firing range? Awaiting eviction? And a fire sale? Good G-d these people have gone too far already. But we knew it would happen. The prophet Zachariah foretold the day when ALL NATIONS WILL GATHER AROUND JERUSALEM, AND ATTEMPT TO LIFT IT FROM ZION.

And so they are. I'm better now. Let the games begin . . .

Read Any Good Books Lately?

2009-06-23T14:47:00.001+03:00

Well let's see...

Greek island travel guides to places I'll likely never visit (Rhodos and Kritim). Great reads for travel and geography enthusiasts like me, though.

Ephraim Kishon humourous play. Thought up in Hebrew, written in German, then translated back to Hebrew.

An Open University of Tel Aviv introduction to the history of ancient Greece. A great starter before tackling the next more complicated level of ancient Greek history.

Autobiography of General Avigdor Kahalani, IDF armour corps commander of renown. You name it, and he's done it, and lived to tell the tale.

Ah, an old favourite in both English and Hebrew: The Old Man and the Sea. Say no more. Hemingway's perfect tale-telling language loses nothing in the translation.

Jewish history during the Second Temple period. Very scholarly. Either you're into it or not.

Kikero, aka Cicero. Definately ditto above, into it or not. I am. Probably why I paid 80 sheqels for this old used copy.

Jews of Ancient Rome. What a rich, lively world full of intrigue, and few who profess an interest in Bible or Jewish history knows about this not inconsiderable world.

The other stack includes early modern Common Law crime and punishment in England and Wales; Jews of the Russian Empire (who were forbidden from living in Russia); a charming little volume on the reasons why Rome declined and fell (none of which I believe--it was the lead pipes and the venereal disease, and besides they didn't really fall even if they did decline); and a slim slip-in-the-back-pocket hardcover account of a Boston man who sailed round the world before the days of radio or radar in a small wooden sailing vessel.

Plus a liberal sprinkling of techno-military thrillers (which certainly do not thrill me), spy novels, and murder mysteries. I used read a lot of science fiction, until most of the post-WWII biggies died of old age. I hate seeing "fantasy" in the sci-fi section of book stores. Much like a category of literature called "home repairs and soil science" (ok, houses usually sit on soil), or "French provincial cooking and non-malignant skin diseases" (hmm, who knows what they throw in the pot in deep countryside). You get what I mean anyway.

Tourist-Shooting Range

2009-06-23T12:33:00.003+03:00

I saw this advertisement for "Tourist Shooting" at a kibbutz about half an hour north of Karmiel. Now, I do know what they mean. Its just that, well, that grin on the fellow's face did leave me with a moment's hesitation in the matter. Those loud, cheery, bright spun-rayon clad knockabouts have almost been the victims of open season shooting in many a once-quiet, now-popular tourist destination.

Hostility to tourists, or at least making fun of them above and beyond normal inter-cultural play, was pronounced when I was in the Kingdom of Hawaii years ago. They were, and still are, under occupation after being seized illegally by the United States because it needed a mid-Pacific coaling station back then a hundred and something years ago. The plantations added a little sugar to the deal, needless to say. I started out mildly against Hawaiian independence, but ended up being very much in agreement with the independence movement. Except that it is probably too late for that, which is too bad, though the real problem is not political sovereignty so much as losing your identity in an agressive onslaught carried out by people who just don't care that much about such things.

But of course in Israel why would we object to the two millions who visit here? Standard international tourist survey polls show a high degree of satisfaction by tourists to Israel. Not because we know how to run hotels like the best in Europe (overrated unless you are in the truly wealthy category), or because we have low prices. Of course if you are an Israeli hiking around the Galilee, and you ever chance upon a tour bus full of Lutherans being taught by their pastor/tour leader at the Mount of Beatitudes how they are the New Israel, and how the Israel of today is a mean, secular entity unconnected to any Israel mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, and without rights to the land of "Arab Palestine," you might rethink that advert above.

Lock 'n Load!

Corner Vine & Louvre Window

2009-06-22T15:10:00.002+03:00

A truly peaceful corner on my little apartment balcony. The ancestor of this vine lived by an apartment building on the other side of the neighbourhood. A few centimeters were transplanted into a pot where it lived indoors for a few years. Then it passed over to me. One of our cats pulled over and shattered the large clay pot in which it lived, and I retrieved a few lengths and started over in another, smaller pot. This photo shows the happy vine six or seven years later.

We never feed the poor thing, though it always looked good anyway, if a little slow growing. So one day we fed it. Too much. It died, except for a few last green centimeters. Which are now thriving in a jar of water, awaiting a new bed of soil and a clay pot.

Isn't that just like life? Heck if I know. But it does suggest that a) cats can be dangerous to house plants, and b) I need to take better care of them.

JACOB WRESTLING THE ANGEL

2009-06-19T14:59:00.001+03:00

An artistic collaboration between myself and the City of Karmiel Gardens Department.

The municipality did some pruning and culling in the public greenspace by of our apartment house backyard. I grabbed a small chunk, and knocked away the soft, buggy parts, and a few odd protrusions. Next came the gritty sandpaper, then the fine. Then the oil rag, and a final polish. This is what greeted me. This is what was inside awaiting a new life as, well, art.

I think. But in any case, I like it, and it has survived multiple attacks from a tubby neutered fuzzball.

An antique olivewood walking stick

2009-06-12T17:04:00.001+03:00

I was returning from a long walk outside Karmiel maybe 10 or 15 years ago. At the edges of the industrial park was some waste land, formerly part of an olive orchard. The trees were mostly dead, or diseased, as the land was not being worked at all. A considerable amount of old cuttings were laying about, half covered in damp, rotting leaves and soil. I thought I saw a useable length of wood, so I tugged at it and pulled it out of the half-buried pile within which it lay. I reduced it to a manageable two meters or so with my Swiss Army knife saw. And this is what eventually emerged from the gray, leaf-stained wood with trimming and polishing.

The stick is resting on the sheet music for the tune "Sir James MacDonald of the Isles," a very old Scottish Highland bagpipe tune, of the type called piobaireachd. Beautiful, well-aged things go well together. Too bad that we don't understand this for ideas as well.

The crown of Gaulantis

2009-06-06T20:50:00.002+03:00

This is majestic Har Kheirmon (aka Mt Heirmon) in the Golan Heights district of northern Israel, anciently called Gaulantis, and Bashan as in the home of the giant king Og. Far from being a totured, twisted, desolate land, it ranges from green and lush orchards, to grassy meadows and fields. It is very open, and there are signs of ancient vulcanism. But it is no more of a wasteland than an English moor or the Highlands of Scotland. Very rural, but productive.

It may be of interest to note that the Golan Heights was included in the British Mandate of Palestine, and slated as Jewish land. There was a long Jewish history on those heights. The British loved cartography, sensible borders and a neat arrangement of geographical features. The Golan, including the Kheirmon massif, rivers and streams running down from its slopes, the Hula valley below, and Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) all make up a tidy watershed system. In 1923 the Golan was transferred from Palestine to the French Syrian mandate for a variety of reasons and trade-offs, without consultation with all parties concerned. Something to do with French-British plans well outside of the Golan area.

In the years between 1948 and 1967, before the Golan was brought back into the natural and agreed-upon scheme of borders, how did the Syrians use their "beloved ancient Syrian" region? The shelled Israeli villiages below, and tried to cut off the natural flow of water from the high ground they controlled. What has israel done up there since 1967? It has established a valuable agricultural community, including winneries, and a prosperous tourist economy.

There are any number of ways to look at border delineation between future states by colonial powers. But one thing is certain, the Golan Heights makes much more sense inside of Israel, was intended to be inside Israel, and the Syrians have a very brief and very thin claim based on Britain making a private backroom deal with France.

Vergeltungswaffe 2 -- Pox Germanica Today

2009-05-31T20:27:00.001+03:00

Vergeltungswaffe 2. The children and grandchildren of those d-mn things are still plaguing us. Some even use a potent kim chee pickling liquid as fuel, or a soupy yoghurt raita.

Hitler may have been stopped in his attempt at destroying the Nation-of-Israel-in-exile in Europe, but the nasty spawn of those V2s are alive and well and threatening to drop in at any time.

OK, the Germans got the world out into space, and to the moon. Werner "Paperclip" Von Braun is essentially the father of the American space programme--with a lot of others pitching in. Fine. But it doesn't end there. Aside from American, British, French missile programmes, that d-mn V2 also went east to the Soviet Union, and the net result was a Ukranian premier shooting a Russian astronaut into space, with a German missile, from a launching site in Kazakhistan, and a Soviet military well-stocked with long-distance missiles. So from Germany, the technology went to the Soviet Union, then off to China, who along with the USSR shared or sold to needy others. Like North Korea, Iran, Pakistan. The consequences of actions taken in one year may take many more years to reach their maximum deadliness, and be quite unexpected.

The Persians are threatening Israel with that same V2 legacy today. Might there be a secret axis of North Korea, Iran, and maybe someday a more radical Pakistan? What of the Russians? Just what is the mix of business and imperial ideology in Moscow these days?

I suppose it must be said that our Jericho III owes something to the V2 as well. But then again, we don't need to talk about a Pox Judaica, as the world already views us as some kind of unsightly blemish.

I apologize now to the all Germans who of course had nothing whatsoever to with building the V2 as an offensive weapon to be used against civilian targets, joining the NAZI party by consent, supporting Hitler, going along with the anti-Jewish laws, willingly participating in prison cruelties or death camp executions, or regretting the demise of the 3rd Reich.

Signposts in Life

2009-05-31T19:13:00.001+03:00

Photo taken on Har Bental, a volcanic cindercone hill on the Golan plateau. It is at about 1300 meters (4000 something English feet). There is a coffee shop up there, and a stunning view of Har Heirmon, still covered in snow though it is warm down below.

I am certain to have something to say about this later. Signposts in significant spots are intriguing. They invite comentary. The selection of some places, and the absence of others, is surely someone's commentary about something.

Purple Tree Season in Israel

2009-05-31T19:07:00.001+03:00

This is a shot from my apartment balcony of Presidents of Israel Street, the main drag through Karmiel, and a nice view of the central parks area and beyond.

Bensch on a beach at Shavei-Tzion

2009-04-01T10:01:00.001+03:00

My wife and I spend a lot of time walking on the beach from Naharyyah out past Shavei-Tzion, most of the way to Akko. This is part of the stretch north of Haifa up to the Lebanese border. Now, I have never had a Lebanese boarder, though I did once have a Welsh boarder who came with an apartment I rented. Not as in Welsh border collie, but actually an Israeli born and raised in Cardiff, devoid of any organic, patriotic or cultural connection to the dark and brooding Cymric state. In any case, it was a mighty peculiar situation. He was just there, and occaisionally he paid rent for his room. We took over the rental from a young man from Krugersdorf, South Africa who had hurt his back while doing his national service in the Israeli army and couldn't take all the stairs. The apartment in question was a fourth floor walk-up. Rather incidentally he mentioned while passing the key into our hands that a fellow from Wales lived in the second bedroom. He was saving up money to get a place of his own, so that his wife, a moshavnik from Lancashire, England originally, could come up to Karmiel. Well ok.

As it happened, the owners of the apartment quite correctly demanded the right to approve of our tenancy. The husband was from the states, but the family boss, his wife was from Scotland originally, but both were Israeli kibbutzniks for a long while already. We were a bit nervous about our living situation as there was a severe shortage of housing at that time, and every day El Al jumbo jets were landing at Ben Gurion International, and boats were docking at Haifa port, filled with newly released Jews from the former Soviet Union. Israel ended up with a million new citizens during that year.

So we met the Scots-born landlady-in-waiting on a chilly, rainy evening at a very unglamorous street cafe by the central bus station in Haifa. The caffeine in the turkish coffee, though considerable, barely compensated for the drowsing effect of the carbon monoxide fumes. Names were exchanged, hands were shaken, hesitancy overcome, cordiality exhibited; a contract was signed, and the deal sealed with that fine, internationally acceptable medium of cash (on the barrelhead). With thousands of immigrants living in caravan cities and even tents, that apartment was an answer to our prayers.

I may have mentioned to the Scots-born balaboosta that I was a long-time player of the Scottish Highland bagpipe, and that may have helped.