Blog/September 2019/Sep 13th

September 13th

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It was a pretty quiet, while busy, week for us. Esther taxed the not necessarily poor, I taxed Mom’s patience, Sarah helped set up a number of “book fairs” put on by her company, and Daniela and Jeremy have taught the twins to spin around like apprentice dervishes.

I’ve been quietly revolutionizing the software world. That’s just a slight exaggeration; however, I did make a new release of “8th”. Our “Summer Blowout Sale” has another couple days to run; so far, it was a decent success.

This coming Tuesday is “Election Day” here in the Land. I welcome it with open arms, as it heralds the end of all the political commercials, advertisements, SMS messages, Facebook posts, and the rest of the nasty nonsense. The ad campaigns have been, generally speaking, quite nasty as well as mostly untruthful. Not that I expected better, but the incessant strain on my patience has worn me down and made me more grumpy than usual.

The two biggest parties are Likud — the slightly right-wing party headed by Netanyahu (also known as “King Bibi”), and Blue and White – the slightly left-wing party, headed by Gantz and Lapid: a mediocre general and a mediocre media personality. The main draw of B&W seems to be that it’s not headed by Netanyahu, while the main draw of Likud seems to be the fear than any other party will hand over the keys to the Land to our enemies.

I should just point out that ironically and historically, it’s been the “right-wing” parties which, when in power, handed over the keys to the Land to our erstwhile enemies (aka “peace partners”).

In the meantime, neither of the Big Two has a decisive lead, and neither (according to polls) is going to be able to form a stable coalition. Thus, my friends, I predict a third round of elections towards the end of the year. I could be wrong, but things are very much “up in the air” at present. I’ll do my part by voting for a third party. By Wednesday this coming week we should have a good idea what’s coming.

A recent article in the “New York Post” opined on what American Jews just don’t get about Israel. To be quite blunt, the list is long. But the author’s main point is that American Jews think of Israel as being just like America, but with falafel; when, in fact, Israel is not particularly similar to America, and it resides in a very, very, rough neighborhood. The history of the region, in particular as it has affected Israelis, is a major contributor to how Israelis view the world and their place in it.

Which is why most of us neither understand nor sympathize with how American Jews view Israel. Nor do most of us feel obligated to kowtow to our cousins across the Atlantic.

The Good, the Bad, and the Crazy:

• In what seems unlikely, but is nevertheless true: 25% of Israeli Arabs think Netanyahu should be PM. It’s less surprising than you might think: they value stability, and Bibi’s proven to be averse to rocking the boat, and adept at keeping the economy flourishing.
• “Al Jazeera” claims America is becoming the “Handmaid’s Tale”. I read that book, unfortunately, years ago. I’m pretty sure that America does not resemble, even a little bit, the dystopia presented there.
• Why “James Bond” should definitely not be a woman. I concur.
• A London zoo is raising a “genderless” penguin. Because it’s 2019, I guess.
• Hasbro has hit on the most brilliant game idea ever: “Ms Monopoly”. No, it’s not a joke! Women get more money than men, as well as bonuses for various feminist-related activities. Because 2019 is turning out to be the stupidest year in history.

We’ve had nice weather this week; not too hot, and cool at night. The autumn is commencing, and not a moment too soon!

This shabbat our guests and we will dine upon:
homemade ḥalla, baked chicken, traditional cholent, potato kugel, a multitude of tasty salatim, fruit, and banana cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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