Blog/December 2007/Dec 7th
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December 7th (See this week's devar torah)
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Shalom! Time to sum up this week for the Aaron family, so here it goes. Well, nothing really fascinating happened to us this week. Sorry to disappoint you. But there are as always, observations and oddities…
If you don't already know, "CAIR" is a US-based Muslim political action group "the Council on American-Islamic Relations". Someone with my kind of sense of humor came up with the CAIR Bears. Order a dozen for the Zionist Occupational Government!
Fascinating information from the UNRWA showing how much various countries donated to alleviate the "plight" of the "Palestinian refugees". Egypt ponied up a whole $10,000. The oil-rich Arab Emirate of Oman came up with $25,000. Suha, the billionaire widow of Yassir Arafat (my God erase his memory!) donated… none of the billions her husband stole from her "people". Of course, the guilt-ridden Europeans came up with many millions of dollars, and the stupidity-ridden Americans gave $90 MILLION dollars. Talk about flushing your money down a toilet! News flash, America: they will still hate you (perhaps even more than before).
Speaking of Stupid Americans, here is an open letter to Sec'y Rice from the publisher of Israel Insider. An excellent read. Another recommended read is Fred Casden's most recent blog entry.
Esther's father has been here for a week now, and he and she have been going around town and "doing the tourist thing". I'm pretty sure Victor enjoys the Jerusalem area much more than he did the Seattle area. Anyway, this week Sarah also got off school for Chanukkah, so the three of them went on a walking trip from Har Hazeitim to the Kotel via the Kidron Valley. Like almost every square meter here, it's full of history (and graves).
You know you're in Israel when:
- You get stopped in the mall and a stranger asks you - not for the time, not for directions, but what the proper blessing is for immersion of dishes in a mikva
- There are chanukiot (chanukkah lamps) as decorations, everywhere in the city
- The stores have been selling "sufganiyot" (chanukkah doughnuts) for the past month and no one wants to look at them any more, let alone eat them
- You go to buy some fresh fish from the fishmonger, and the Muslim Arab working behind the counter says, "shabbat shalom"
- There are no Christmas songs playing, anywhere! B"H!
- A total stranger turns out to be a long-lost relative of some sort
One of my readers asked, "how did the daily mentality (of Israelis) end up being such a drag?". Meaning, why are so many so rude, inconsiderate and dishonest? My answer was that it seems to me several things. First, "living on the edge" as Israelis have for so long, makes them impatient and not interested in "social niceties". Second, the Socialist Nanny state giving hand-outs to people, fosters a sense of entitlement which is not based in reality. Finally, the widespread corruption among officials of that same state, trains people that if they wish to accomplish anything, they need to cheat and bend the laws as much as possible. I opined that when more financial reform has occurred here, and people can see a direct correlation between their efforts and the reward they get, the situation will change. Indeed, the state is far less Socialist than it was when I lived here over two decades ago, but it has a long way to go yet.
On the other hand, the increase in truly God fearing people (whether outwardly appearing so or not) has also improved the situation. Just today, standing in line at the grocery - a man bent down, picked up a twenty-shekel note and gave it to the cashier saying, "someone must have lost this". These sorts of vignettes happen every day, but they stick out in our minds far less than the outrageous actions of some.
By the way, for all you still in America; the economy here is very strong. The shekel has gained incredibly against the dollar (it's at a nine-year high). This even though we have the absolute least-popular and worst Prime Minister Israel has ever known. The unemployment rate is relatively low (very low in high-tech), and your knowledge of English is a definite plus. So why not come and be our neighbors? We could definitely use an improvement in that regard ...
Until next week,
shabbat shalom!
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