Haya Mashehu Mashehu – the Alyn Hospital Wheels of Love Closing Ceremony

Enjoying a Jerusalem Sunset

Enjoying the Scenery in Northern Israel

Alyn Hospital’s Wheels of Love Closing Ceremony

Alyn Children at the 10th Wheels of Love Closing Ceremony

There’s a Hebrew expression, “haya mashehu mashehu” which literally translates as, “it was something something” to describe an extraordinary event.  It was used by an elderly man sitting next to me yesterday to describe the closing ceremony of the Alyn Hospital’s 10^th Wheels of Love charity bike ride.  Before I continue, I must admit my bias.  While I have been a supporter of Alyn riders before, this was the first year that Andy was participating.  After 25 years of marriage, it’s extraordinary to see you spouse prepare for a physical and mental challenge that would be daunting to so many people.

 But, in spite, or in addition to, my pride, I was so moved by the children of Alyn, the staff who clearly love the people they help and the more than 500 riders from 8 countries* who overcame winter cold, winds, fog, rain, hail and an overabundance of mud through 1,800 meter climbs during the past week to raise more than $1.6 million for the hospital.

 Alyn sits on a hill overlooking the tree-covered hills of Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood.  The normally quiet street was anything but as hundreds of well-wishers lined it to cheer on the riders as they finished the last 42 kilometers of their journey.  Children waved signs (My favorite was one that read, “MY ABBA IS A WHEELY WHEELY GREAT GUY” with a picture of a bicycle underneath) and music blasted over the loudspeakers.  Camera shutters clicked and people shrieked as they recognized their mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa or friend pedaling the final sweaty and emotional meters across the finish line.

 On the grounds itself, children pushed themselves in wheelchairs over to food tables to enjoy hamburgers, hotdogs, cotton candy and popcorn. A clown on stilts entertained children with crutches while another delighted toddlers with bubbles, bubbles and more bubbles.  A group of drummers invited patients into a drum circle where they slapped darbukas (like a large bongo) while sporting enormous smiles.

Jews, Muslims. Sabras (native born Israelis), Olim (immigrants) took seats on bleachers as the children of Alyn, live, and on video, took center stage.  Nir Barakat, current Jerusalem mayor and former Alyn participant, sent video greetings from New York and the whole place was filled with such tremendous energy that it felt like the cheering never stopped.  But despite a series of speeches which maybe went on a little too long, the sense of purpose, the knowledge that this ride was special shone through during the entire ceremony.

 As the ceremony came to a close and we all stood to sing Hatikva (our national anthem) while witnessing a beautiful sunset over the Jerusalem hills, I felt so proud of all of the people; staff, riders (many of whom sacrificed precious vacation time and frequent flyer miles) organizers, donors and the dads who drove carpool while their wives cycled for the cause who gave of their time and money to improve the quality of life for every patient that has to come through Alyn’s doors  The fact that all of this was done in Israel makes me prouder still.

Shabbat shalom

*Riders represented Israel, U.S.A., Canada, South Africa, England, France, Belgium, Holland and Sweden. Another 150 riders joined the group for the ride from Modiin to Jerusalem so that 650 people actually crossed the finish line

If You Want to Lead, Lead

Today’s Jerusalem Post featured an article about how the ”pro-Israel” lobby J Street’s university arm has dropped  the “pro-Israel” portion of its “pro-Israel, pro-peace”  slogan because it alienates students on campus.  ( http://tinyurl.com/jstreetdropspro-israel-com).   J Street’s executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami’s defends this move by arguing that ” we have to deal with people where they’re at” 

 Mr. Ben Ami’s cowardly retreat is tantamount to failure.  As the leader of the “hottest” new Jewish organization,  his job is to give college students the tools to show that being pro-Israel and pro-peace are not diametrically opposed positions. If J Street believes that a 2-State solution is the best hope for peace in the region, they’re entitled to their beliefs.  But to condone dropping the words “pro-Israel” from campus material  gives our future leaders the impression that you cannot support Israel and support a peaceful resolution to regional disputes.

I attended a liberal arts college that had a small “Young Republicans” club on campus.  Being a Republican on a New York college campus in the late 70s and early 80s was not a popular affiliation.  However, its members did not change their name  to just “Young” or “Young People with an Alternative World View’”.  They called themselves Young Republicans because that’s who they were and, through activities and literature which they saw as moral and right, tried to attract more members.

J Street enters an implicit contract every time it recruits a new student member. You help us promote our Israel position on college campuses and we’ll give you the tools to do so.  The organization has not lived up to its side of the deal and, if they really want to promote their agenda, they need to decide if they are going to do what is popular or what is right.

Sof Haolam Smolah and Everywhere

In Israel, when you want to tell someone that you’re in the middle of nowhere, you tell them that you’re “sof haolam smolah”.  Translated literally it means, go to the end of the world and turn left.  Well, for the first time, Andy, his parents, and I visited Jonah on his base and I finally really understood what sof haolam smolah meant. 

When we asked Jonah for directions, he  said, “Just keep driving. Drive till you can’t take it anymore,  then drive some more.  Eventually you’ll see a tank on the right. That’s how you’ll know you’re there”  His directions were on target.  Miles and miles of unmerciful desert. 

Though 5 adult  tushes packed into our Subaru Impreza was not the most luxurious experience, the trip is one I would recommend to anyone trying to understand how such a small country can instill so much passion.

Fifteen minutes after leaving the lush greenery of Raaana’s coastal plain location, we hopped onto Highway 6 with the gentle slopes of Judah and Samaria  standing guard to the east while, in the distance, the shimmering glass and steel towers of Tel Aviv and Ramat Gan reminded us of how far this country has come in 61 years

Machtesh Ramon - The view from our car

Two hours later, passed Bedouin shacks with satellite dishes and an Israeli ashram (no, I’m not kidding) and we drove around the edges of the wilderness of Zin whose fissured cliffs posed great challenges to the Israelites wandering in the desert (see Numbers, Chapter 13) but would offer great peace and solace as evidenced by the fact that Israel’s first prime minster, David Ben Gurion, would make Tzin his home as he retired to his kibbutz, Sde Boker. he could greet each day watching the grazing ibex and enjoy the harmonious symphony of color bouncing off the panoramic stone cliffs.

Ten minutes later, we saw the ruins of Ovdat where, in the centuries just before the birth of Jesus,  the Nabatean nomads built a magnificent city on a cliff as a stopping point along their trade route which spanned from the Arabian peninsula to the ports of Gaza.

And shortly after that we reached the crown jewel of the Negev, Machtesh Ramon or as it is known in English.  The Ramon crater.  Traditionally, a crater is formed by meteor impact.  This one is different.  Hundreds of millions of years ago, the area that now serves as Israel’s largest national park, was covered by ocean. Approximately 5 million years ago  the ocean receded from the area and rivers and climactic events carved out the inside of the crater which was formed with softer rock than the walls around it.  The  crater is 500 meters deep and, on many days, you can watch the AIF (Israel Air Force) practice maneuvers inside the crater.  You actually enjoy the unique experience of standing above the F16s as they traverse the 40 kilometer long crater in a matter of seconds.

Exactly 3  1/2 hours after we pulled out of our car port on Greenberg Street, we found the tank marker and ate (while Jonah inhaled) a picnic lunch on a typically drab base.  I’m not sure there’s another place in the world where sof haolam smolah could be so rich.

Ad 120

Raanana Sukkahs

Which One's Bigger?

Etrogim for Sale

There’s a Hebrew expression, “ad meah viesrim”, (until 120) used to wish someone a long life. * Well, I could live here for 120 years and never grow tired of the daily splendor; the energy, the excitement, the seemless convergence of religious and daily life of  Israel during the Hebrew month of Tishrei.  Here are just a few examples.

1. In Elul, which typically corresponds to the month of August, it is traditional for Jews to blow the shofar each day to  help prepare them for the holy days ahead.   You don’t own a shofar or can’t blow the one collecting dust on your shelf?  No problem.  Sitting in traffic at the Raanana junction, you can toss a few coins into a Breslover hasid’s cup and he will blow a long, twisted, Cecil B. Demille-worthy shofar for you any time of day.

2. Ever wonder what it would be like to sit in the middle of the Van Wyck Expressway or the Capitol Beltway just for the fun of it?  In Israel, no one drives on Yom Kippur. No one.  It’s an incredible feeling to go to synagogue for Kol Nidre (Services on Yom Kippur night) , make your way to the main thoroughfare of your town and see hundreds, probably thousands of people just enjoying each other’s company.  Some  are out riding their bikes, tentative toddlers venturing on tricycles for the first time, people walking their dogs or just enjoying a beautiful stroll on a late summer night- the whole community comes together and you go back to shul (synagogue) Yom Kippur morning, with a renewed sense of spirit,  a sense of what and whom you are praying for.

3.  Yom Kippur is barely over, a few slices of lox left on the platter and the banging begins. the banging continues throughout the next day and can be heard off and on over the next several days as so many people put up their sukkahs.  Sukkahs on rooves, romantic sukkahs for 2 on tiny porches, sukkahs in parking lots, pizza parlor sidewalk sukkahs and some seemingly large enough to house the French foreign legion.

4. Here, you can buy sukkah decorations at the gas station, the hardware store, the supermarket or the pharmacy.  But if you can’t find anything in those places, you can go to the plaza outside Yad Labanim (a combination memorial to fallen soldiers/cultural center) and spend hours perusing the rows of stalls selling sukkas, decorations, schach (sukkah tops that here are fashioned here from large palm fronds the munipality cuts down just after Yom Kippur), etrogs (citrons), lulavs (palm fronds used in synagogue duraing the Sukkot harvest holiday( and of course treat yourself to some cotton candy or popcorn in the process).

4.  Enjoy a Sukkot holiday where schools are closed and lots of people take off from work.  As long as you leave your house early enough to avoid the inevitable traffic snarls, it’s fun to get out and hike trails or do a mangal (barbcue) at the beach with the rest of the country.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Shabbat and chag sameach (happy holiday!)

*Moses lived to be 120 years old, so saying “ad meah viesrim”  is like wishing that someone lives as long as he did

Thank You, President Abbas

I never thought I would thank Mahmoud Abbas for anything, but that changed. Last week, after meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly, he announced

We can’t accept the status quo because a partial halt means a continuation of settlements.”  “Even if it is halted by 95 percent, it is still a continuation of settlement activities.”   He continued to say that he does not reject talks in principle and hopes to continue talking to Israel about security and economic issues in the West Bank.  But clearly, final status talks will not take place for a long time.  http://tinyurl.com/abbasnonegotiations.

I think the settlement building issue is a straw man.  If Abbas and his supporters really wanted a state in the West Bank, they would recognize  Israel’s significant reduction in the building of new housing units there as a chance to build a homeland with a significant Palestinian majority in Judea and Samaria.   But Abbas clearly wants a Judenrein country and anything less than 100% Jew-free will be an excuse to refrain from negotiations.

Some may criticize my next statement for being too soft, but it’s sad that the Palestinians are stuck with leaders who are more interested in evicting Jews than creating a viable homeland. Compromise means that while you take a little, you also have to give a little and while I believe that there are plenty of moderate Palestinians who understand that something is better than nothing, once again their leadership has failed the people they are supposed to champion.

But, for Israel, Abbas’s stubbornness may have provided a necessary, albeit unexpected gift. Eventually, this country will have to understand that Palestinian demands for a homeland are not going to go away.  How we will meet those demands is a subject of much debate and concern.  But since Abbas has given us a vacation from the decision-making process, it’s time for us to look inward. 

While Israelis have established a self-reliant, can-do attitude that has allowed us to excel in fields as disparate as hi-tech and desert farming, we have much that needs fixing.  Public classrooms are grossly overcrowded.  It’s not unusual to have 40 students in an elementary school class.  Teen and mob violence are on the rise and  the number of people living below or at the poverty line continues to swell. Many younger Israelis see Zionism as a source of shame, not of pride, and we haven’t always done a good job of communicating the values of growing up in the Jewish homeland.

So, now that we have been shunned from the negotiating table, it’s time for the country to take a long and painful look in the mirror and start fixing what’s broken on the inside.  It’s a task that is arduous; devoid of glamour or a quick fix. But if we don’t, our future leaders will lack  the passion and compassion necessary to articulate Israel’s needs when and if meaningful negotiations ever resume.

I hope that everyone has a very healthy and happy new year.

Israeli Cowards Coming to a College Campus Near You

Do you know Maya Wind or Netta Mishly?  I don’t, but if your children attend any one of a dozen different U.S. college campuses, they may meet them in the next few weeks.* These women are young, beautiful nineteen year olds, and they have dodged compulsory military service because they object to Israeli treatment of Palestinians.  They are not honorable.  They are cowards.

Obviously, I’m not biased.  While Maya and Netta make chit chat at the local rathskeller, my son and his friends are fulfilling their responsibilities.  On call 24/7 our soldiers put their own lives on hold for three years (two years for young women).   They too would love the opportunity to skip town in the guise of conscientious objector and attend a Cornell frat party or a U. Cal basketball game. They don’t all agree with government policies but they understand that they are adults and with adult privileges come adult responsibilities.  They have the rest of their lives to champion the rights of whichever population they believe needs their help.  But, for right now, they have a job to do.

When Maya and Netta, through the support of CODEPINK and Jewish Voice for Peace, take the stage at U.Cal-Hastings, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, U Maryland and the other stops on their itinerary, I hope that students ask the following

1. Did they consider the fact that all of the security staff protecting them at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport once served in the Israel Defense Force?

2. When they return to Israel, how will they feel when they are served coffee by a 20-year-old barista who was cold and tired serving 2:00 AM guard duty when she was 19?

3. How did they help the children of Sderot cope with years of Kasam attacks?

4. What did they do to help the children of Kiryat Shmona who spent their 2006 summer vacation stuck in bomb shelters?

5. When their co-worker misses his daughter’s second birthday party because he has reserve duty, how will they feel?

6.  When they became mothers and their children ask, “Mommy how did you defend our country?, how will they answer?

Caring about people is noble.  Exploiting that concern to avoid responsibility is shameful.

*http://tinyurl.com/qu3kq6

Mourning Assaf Ramon

Everyone in this country is mourning the tragic and sudden loss of Assaf Ramon today.  If you want to read about the country’s reaction, please read  http://thevidaloco.blogspot.com/2009/09/when-bad-things-happen-to-good-people.html

Zichrono Livracha – May Assaf’s memory serve as a blessing

For the Record, Jane

OK,  let me start by admitting a well-kept secret.  I’m not a Jane Fonda fan.  Never have been. Most countries would have tried her for treason for being photographed on an enemy (North Vietnamese) anti-aircraft battery. She escaped with nothing more than some bad press. So, when I saw her name connected to an anti-Israel letter in today’s Jerusalem Post  http://tinyurl.com/mroeks, I wasn’t surprised

My first reaction when I read that she, along with other prominent entertainers, had signed a letter criticizing the Toronto Film Festival was to ignore it.  Who cared about a letter criticizing the festival for being an Israeli propaganda tool by presenting 10 Israeli films?  Unfortunately a lot.  When stars speak, people listen.  And Israel bashing has become so mainstream lately that I don’t have the luxury of wishing away the letter’s existence.

So, let me briefly try to refute 3 points in the letter.

1.  The chosen movies.  Of the Israeli movies shown at the festival, I have seen only one, Eytan Fox’s, “The Bubble”   For pure entertainment value, you’ll get your money’s worth (although it is quite sexually explicit for those offended by such scenes).  But, more to the point, Eytan Fox is an Israeli Leftie who has a reputation for being highly critical of Israeli policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians.  “The Bubble” is no exception as it explores the relationship of a group of Sheinkin Street (imagine SoHo) Tel Aviv Bohemians and a Palestinian acquaintance who ultimately falls in love with one of the Israelis whom he met at a border crossing. Had the signers bothered to see the film, they would have been shocked to see support for their position in spite of the fact that it was produced by a warmongering Israeli.  You would think that co-signer Alice Walker, of all people, would not judge a book by it’s cover.

2. The letter argues that “looking at modern, sophisticated Tel Aviv without also considering the city’s past…” I”’ll bite.  Let’s look at the city’s past.  Tel Aviv was founded on sand dunes on the outskirts of the port city of Jaffa in the early twentieth century.*  In 1921, the Jaffa riots broke out in which dozens of Jews were killed. Many of those that survived no longer felt safe and left for the then, relatively unpopulated area of Tel Aviv.  During  Intifadas 1 and 2, more than 60 Israelis were murdered in Tel Aviv by Palestinian terrorists and hundreds were injured in such politically provocative locales as a commuter bus and a nightclub.  Despite this, Tel Aviv remains one of, if not the most politically left, pro-Palestinian cities in the country and Jaffa is home to several youth and adult Jewish-Muslim artistic ensembles.

3.  And this one I have to thank Jimmy Carter for.  The hackneyed comparison of Israel and her policies to South African apartheid.    Just a few days ago, our Minority affairs Minister, Avishay Braverman, argued how the Israeli Government has not done enough for Arab citizens of the country.  A member of the Israeli cabinet is admitting that Arabs do not enjoy the same quality of  life as their Jewish counterparts http://tinyurl.com/mb4ogq.  Did P. W.  Botha champion the rights of the citizens of Soweto? 

Is the situation here perfect?  No.  Do we have a long way to go to achieve parity among the different sectors of society? Of course.  But let me buy Jane a coffee in the Raanana Mall on a Thursday night.  Let her see the array of hijabs, kipot (yarmulkas),  jalabiyas and long skirts buying and selling everything from paper to pearls and then see how fasts she dismounts from her apartheid horse.

 

 

 

 

 

*Jaffa itself in an ancient city where Jonah set sail before being swallowed by a whale and the port city where the wood from Lebanon arrived before being shipped to Jerusalem to build King Solomon’s temple.

Save Your Money, Don’t Buy Honey

This is free here!

Rosh Hashanah  is less than two weeks away.  Time to pull out the teiglach and tzimmes recipes or any other ones that require diabetic-inducing amounts of honey. But don’t worry, this is The Land of Milk and Honey and while you may need to take out a second mortgage to cover your holiday food bills, cross the golden sticky stuff off of your list.  Don’t have any in your cabinet?  Don’t worry.  Get a haircut, get a jar of honey. Load up your supermarket wagon, get a honey cake.  Buy two reams of computer paper, receive two jars of honey. Buy gas, get a jar of honey. Wherever you go it’s Rosh Hashanah.   So turn off the radio and close your browser. Remember, the real Israel is the place where you can start holiday prep just by picking up the dry cleaning.

Can Someone Please Explain the Logic to Me?

I opened up the newspaper yesterday to discover that an Israeli Arab has been charged with spying on  Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.  Maybe I should have felt incensed, but, quite frankly, I’ve been much more disgusted by the summer’s crime wave than news that the Chief of Staff was the potential target of assassination attempt. Maybe I’m old and jaded, but I just wasn’t all that shocked.  Well, at least not by the headlines.

Turns out that this was not some James Bond thriller with secret cameras tucked inside a felafel delivery truck or chumus bar, this spying took place in the Kfar Saba Country Club, thirty minutes from downtown Tel Aviv.  Now, don’t get too excited.  Country clubs in Israel don’t resemble Fresh Meadows or  Trump National.  We Israelis are big on hyperbole and, in reality, a country club here is more like a J.C.C. but, in a country full of Jews, the J.C.C. title just won’t work, so country club it is. 

And the secret agent in this case is not a poor, down-trodden Palestinian from a run-down refugee camp but an Israeli Arab (same identity card as mine) living in the solidly middle-class town of Tira (adjacent to Kfar Saba) and very much inside the illustrious Green Line.

The antagonist of our story, Rawi Sultani, was a member of the Balad Party,  Israel’s nationalist Arab party whose leader, Azmi Bishara, had made a career of mocking the Israeli government to which he was elected. Over the years, has taken advantage of political immunity offered to Knesset members and announced his support of the terrorist Hizbullahorganization.  He delivered his treasonous declarations on an illegal trip to the enemy state of Syria during ceremonies commemorating the death of Hafez al- Assad. This same one-time Knesset member was eventually stripped of his immunity and charged with money laundering as well as aiding a terrorist organization for providing Hizbullah with information regarding appropriate targets of rocket attacks during the Second Lebanon War. It is Mr. Bishara’s party that Mr. Sultani pledged his allegiance to when he was recruited by a Hizballah operative while on a trip to a pan-Arab camp in Morocco in 2008 attended by other Balad members as well.

In a country full of fanatics on both ends of the spectrum, I’ve found a comfortably uncrowded spot smack in the middle.  I don’t praise every Israeli sentiment or condemn every Arab one. But answer me this. How is it that my desire to build a new house in  Judea would be seen by some as a crime against humanity while it is somehow acceptable for a citizen to join a political party that has repeatedly called for the destruction of the state and then use his national identity card and proximity to the gym to spy on the Army Chief of Staff with the hopes of murdering him?