Goodness me!
A dubious honor, but still.

posted by Imshin 21:39

It’s time …
Just got this down from the “boydem” (the Israeli version of the attic). Seems the time is right. Dad says he’s been humming it too, lately. Definitely a sign.

Oh, and while you're there, you might try catching some of Michael Jackson's babies (this is nearly as much fun as the marbles).

posted by Imshin 21:23

A thought
James Dean made three movies. They were good. He was good. And then he died and became a legend. Immortal. A symbol for a whole generation.

What if he had lived? What if he had lived and his fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh movies had been terrible?

No one would remember his name today.

“Rebel Without a Cause” was the Friday night movie on channel 1. They don’t have any money because, being public broadcasting, they’re not allowed to have advertisements and they have a strong union. There’s a mandatory fee that everyone has to pay that keeps them going, but I think only Bish and I pay it. And so - “Rebel Without a Cause” (which again, I think only Bish and I watched) and an opportunity for some deep thinking about the meaning of immortality.

posted by Imshin 21:22

How a top British leftie persuaded Britain to back war with Iraq…Even the Guardian wasn’t amused. A Bilam in reverse, Tony Benn came to Baghdad to sing Saddam’s praise but his praise turned out to be a curse in disguise.
posted by Imshin 21:21

The good news
Sometimes a dark sky is a blessing. This year has been very rainy. After years of drought, the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) is filling up a bit.

Update: Dad's in Eilat, so it was up to Our Sis to point out that it's drought and not draught!

posted by Imshin 21:20

Shabbat Shalom.
posted by Imshin 16:38

A mistake?
Noticed by Adrian. Nick Denton thinks Israel is a mistake. Jews living in Israel should move. Grrrrrrrr.

The thing is, Mr. Denton, I am not just a Jew. I am an Israeli. Your idea may have been relevant sixty years ago, but no one was offering back then. Quite the contrary. Leave Israel? Live somewhere else? I can only envision not living here as a refugee, and the thought that it might come to that scares the hell out of me. This is my home. These are my smells. I belong here. People here speak my language (even if I’m finding it difficult to write in, just now), and we understand the same jokes that don’t translate (not necessarily a language thing, more a living-together-and-having-the-same-trying-experiences-and-memories thing).

Why is it that we are so proud of the gentle little cyclamens and anemones that spring up, as by magic, every winter? Why do we go out to look for them, by the thousands, every weekend? Maybe it’s because they are a wonder we can relate to. Like Israel, they are also fragile and endangered. But there they are, every year, despite all odds. Should we pull them all up, and move them somewhere safer? I don’t think that would be a good idea. This is where they belong.

posted by Imshin 09:07

War
Ok, I’ve been avoiding thinking about this, but now I have to deal with it (I still haven’t read the Home Front Command booklet, but both girls have). We’ve been told that the security room is NO GOOD! All that unpleasantness getting it emptied of the neighbors’ stuff – for nothing. Apparently it has to be kept open as an evacuation route and therefore cannot be sealed. So our options are: Use the communal air-raid shelter with 65 other cranky families; prepare a sealed room in the apartment (we’ve already decided Youngest’s room is most suitable) and hope the building doesn’t get a direct hit from a conventional missile; flee to Mitzpe Ramon (could be a problem because it looks like we’ll both be working as usual, but maybe we could send them with our in-laws).

It’s not clear what’s going to happen with the schools. I keep hearing on the radio that they’ll be open as usual. Bish read on Debka that the little ones up to third grade will be going to school. That means Youngest. I don’t fancy leaving Eldest alone at home in the apartment. She’s hardly the bravest child I know. I suppose they want people going to work as usual, to keep what's left of the economy going. I hope it keeps fine for them.

I’m starting to be nervous. I dislike this uncertainty about what’s going to happen with the kids.

Update: Some supplies stories here and here. Adrian can’t find any paraffin. I don’t get it. There can’t be many Israelis my age and older whose childhood memories of winter don’t include the (nasty) smell of a paraffin heater. And now he can’t find any? Weird.

Afterthought: Today they had the brand new "National Explainer", Maj Gen Amos Gilad, talking on the radio. This is the guy who comes on TV and radio in emergency times such as missile attacks and explains what is happening and what to do.

In '91 it was IDF spokesman, Nahman Shai. He was extremely popular. If he had run for PM right after the war he would have won hands down. I know of quite a few eleven-year-olds that were named after him.

In '67 it was Chaim Herzog. Before my time, but I’m told his performance was of great national importance. The whole population was completely hysterical back then and he calmed them down. He went on to become president.


posted by Imshin 21:20

Booooooooooooring (sorry, I’m a bit hyper)
I’m still finding it virtually impossible to be interested in the coalition building process. Discussing it is just a waste of time.

Sharansky’s Yisrael Ba’Aliyah is joining the Likud, though. So now the Likud is 40 seats. Israeli political analyst Hanan Crystal offered an interesting explanation for this on Reshet Bet radio station today. He said that in the past (back in the “Shtetl Collective” days - he didn't say that, I did), because Israeli Arabs didn’t want to vote directly for Mapai (the predecessor of the Labor Party) they established Arab parties that were affiliated with the party but ran separately. Eventually these parties started faltering in the elections and were reabsorbed into the “mother” party. This, according to Crystal, was the process Yisrael Ba’Aliyah also went through. They left the Likud so as to run separately on the immigrant ticket but always remained affiliated with the Likud. Now that there is no need for a separate “Russian” party, as we saw in the elections because most of the ex-Russians voted for Likud, there is no reason why “Yisrael Ba’aliyah” should not be reabsorbed into the Likud.

posted by Imshin 20:53

Aaaaaaaaaagh!
Reshet Bet radio station said today that, when war with Saddam breaks out, there will be no weather forecasts until it finishes (so as not to help out the enemy with data about wind direction and so on and so forth). How will I know if I have to force the kids to wear sweaters or not?

posted by Imshin 20:23

Yes, I do need a joke right now (even an old one)
Is it so obvious, John?

Alisa has sent another one:
A bright, young, fresh-out-of-school auditor just joined the IRS, excited
to begin tracking down high-powered offenders-just as the Enron or
WorldCom guys. Anxious for his first high-powered audit, he was a bit
dismayed when his assignment was to audit a Rabbi.

Looking over the books and taxes were pretty straight forward, and the
Rabbi clearly very frugal, so he thought he'd make his day interesting
by having a little fun with the Rabbi.
"Rabbi," he said, "I noticed that you buy a lot of candles."
"Yes," answered the Rabbi.
"Well, Rabbi, what do you do with the candle drippings?" he asked.
"A good question," noted the Rabbi. "We actually save them up and when we
have enough, we send them back to the candle maker. And every now and
then, they send us a free box of candles."

"Oh," replied the auditor somewhat disappointed that his unusual question
actually had a practical answer. So he thought he'd go on, in his
obnoxious way..."Rabbi, what about all these matzo purchases? What do
you do with the crumbs from the matzo?"
"Ah, yes," replied the Rabbi calmly, "we actually collect up all
the crumbs from the matzo and when we have enough, we send them in a
box back to the manufacturer and every now and then, they send a box
of matzo balls."
"Oh," replied the auditor, thinking hard how to fluster the Rabbi.

"Well, Rabbi," he went on, "what do you do with all the foreskins from the
circumcisions?"
"Yes, here too, we do not waste," answered the Rabbi. "What we do
is save up all the foreskins, and when we have enough we actually send
them to the I.R.S."
"The I.R.S.?," questioned the auditor in disbelief.
"Ahh, yes," replied the Rabbi, " the I.R.S. " ..and about once a
year, they send us a little prick like you."

More and more: I’ve been feeling sorry for myself all day. Now I feel much better. Thanks, Diane.

My youngest heard me laughing out loud at this one and demanded an explanation. Those who know her will appreciate how difficult it is to persuade this child to take no for an answer. They also know she would not rest until she had had a thorough exposition of every word along with examples. Hey, I have to make supper. We compromised. She showed me her dance routine (again). I wish she’d practice for her piano recital as much as she practices that dance routine.

It gets better. I love the blogosphere. Thanks, Steve.
posted by Imshin 17:04

I seem to have quite a lot in common with with Andrea. This is also why we will never meet and if we do we will find little to talk about.
posted by Imshin 18:36

Imshin, Imshin, quite contrary
I remember walking past the closed door of my parents bedroom, late one night, when I was a teenager, and hearing them talking. As a neurotic teenager, my instinctive reaction was panic. “Oh, no. They’re talking. It must be about me. What have I done?” Years later, remembering this as an adult, still neurotic but less so, I thought, “They were talking. That’s nice.”

It’s nice to be privileged enough to be married to your good friend.

I have always thought of Bish and myself as opposites (as in “opposites attract” and so on), but lately I’ve been coming to the conclusion that we are a lot less different than I previously believed. For one, we both dislike being told there is a right way to do something. We have to see the logic behind it ourselves. We can’t take someone else’s word for it. We don't run with the pack. I always assumed that this contrary aspect of myself was a result of my not being born in Israel. But Bish is, what, fifth generation Israeli?

The minute I started my Hebrew blog through Isra-blog I felt myself under pressure to conform to some collective concept of blogging. The Kibbutz is dead! I thought to myself, Long live the Blogibbutz! I realize that I was probably magnifying what was really happening, but I immediately and instinctively rebelled. The result is that I have probably alienated most of my potential Hebrew readers, but I'm much happier. Free at last! Free at last! I'd rather have four and a half readers, who accept me as I am, than five thousand that are trying to pressure me into their way of thinking on my comments. Was it Gil that once said that there are few Israeli blogs that discuss current affairs? Well, now I know why. It's easier to steer clear of provocative subjects and write amusing anecdotes to entertain the "Hevre" (the gang), than deal with recurring shark attacks.

Unity is necessary in difficult times. United we stand, divided we fall... blah blah blah. And I can understand the human need for conformity, especially in a society continually needing to fight for its very survival. But isn't unity possible without a straightjacket?

The thought suddenly crossed my mind that, although the Kibbutz was created as a rebellion against life in the Shtetl, it was, in practice, a direct continuation of it. Instead of ancient religious laws, the stern guidance of the Rabbi and the unforgiving gossip of the neighbors, the Kibbutzniks had strict Socialist ideology, the tyranny of The Collective and the just as unforgiving gossip of the neighbors. It's no accident that Jews were the ones that managed to realize this experiment of collective living and succeeded in pulling it off for such a long period. Life in an enclosed society with fierce peer pressure and groupthink as a norm was the reality and survival tactic of Jews in the ghettos of Europe for hundreds (thousands?) of years.

Left wing pundits in Israel ridicule the Israeli masses who still perceive voting Likud as a protest vote, even though the Likud has been in power for the large part of the last thirty years. I ask myself if this protest is not partly a rebellion against this very "Shtetl Collective" mentality; against this groupthink that insists that if you don't hold my views you are stupid, crazy or an enemy of democracy (or all three).

The Mizrahim (Jews from Arab countries) often explain their animosity towards the Israeli Ashkenazi (European Jews) establishment as stemming from traumas from the period of their absorption in the country in the fifties. I have always found this aggravating when I think that in the same period the country also absorbed a multitude of Holocaust survivors - shells of human beings that had lost everything and everyone and had experienced unspeakable horrors. These people held and continue to hold no grudge to speak of, although they were sometimes treated very badly, considering what they had been through. But the thing is, in the fifties, the "Shtetl Collective" was law of the land in the young Israel; Socialist groupthink was all pervading. The Holocaust survivors, with all their psychological baggage, most of them having originated in the Shtetls and Ghettos of Eastern Europe themselves, were probably better equipped to handle this than people who had come from a far less suffocating society. Mizrahi Jewish society in the Diaspora, I am told, was much more accepting and forgiving than its Ashkenazi counterpart.

The "Shtetl Collective" no longer rules Israel. I’m glad. I believe we are better for it.

We may feel threatened by our differences. We may be saddened by the changing face of our country. We may wring our hands in desperation because of we don’t all see things in the same way.

Or we can enjoy our rich diversity, and revel in the freedom that allows us to enjoy different cultures, different ways of life and different opinions, all in the same little country we all regard as home.

posted by Imshin 17:26

Look who's back from his blogging break!
Welcome back, Gil. I missed you.
posted by Imshin 23:54

Headline on Haaretz's financial pages: “Treasury to propose slashing 60,000 jobs in public sector.”

I wasn't born yesterday. I know this is a bargaining stand. They won't firing this much. Not straight away, anyhow. They can say what they like, but they'll have to come to some sort of agreement with the Histadrut (trade union). But it's troubling, nevertheless. It could include my "secure" job.

* * * *

I know a lot of Postal Authority workers, mainly blue collar: Mailmen, sorters, package haulers and so on, but also a few junior executives: Supervisors, Post Office managers. They often tell about their work conditions, the petty politics, trade union issues. And I thank my lucky stars because my work conditions are so much better than theirs. Last week they went on strike, I think it was just for a day or two and they went back to work this Sunday. If I understand correctly, the reason for the strike, which will probably be renewed soon, is the intention to turn the Postal Authority into a government company, starting with the dismissal of 250 Postal Authority workers (and probably more later on). I haven't really been following the story all that closely, despite my personal connections (My friends are not very happy to talk about it, probably hoping that if they don't think about it too much, it will go away, poor things).

My personal experience of the postal service in Israel is good. I remember when, back in the seventies, a letter from my grandparents in England took weeks to arrive, if at all. Service inside Israel wasn't marvelous either. Today the service is much faster and much more efficient, although it's still not a good idea to send cash money in an envelope. The Postal Authority also offers a lot more additional services than in the past. The service in the local Post Offices has greatly improved over the years, as well (at least in Tel Aviv, R.T. tells a very different story about his local post office in Netanya).

Now it may seem quite natural that a postal service in a small country, still in it's formative years, would improve greatly over a period of twenty or thirty years. I was very surprised when, during the latter half of 1999, I was in snail mail contact with a party residing in a rural area of the South West of France. Their postal service was abominable! It seems hundreds of years of bureaucracy is not necessarily a guarantee of efficiency, quite the contrary, in this case. From this I learnt to be much more appreciative of the Israeli service and its relatively rapid development.

Personal experience aside (and my use of snail mail is minimal, I must admit), from my friends' stories I know that the Postal Authority has been badly managed for many years and really has to make a serious effort to become more efficient. Top executives in the Postal Authority have apparently been political appointments for many years, if not forever. As someone said to me, it's an organization run by people who don't know what a letter looks like. Someone else told me that modern machinery that was bought is rotting in basements because it was found to be unsuitable after the purchase. What a waste. Appropriate and suitable modernization has not been implemented in recent years and a lot of the workers, currently employed in manual labor, are probably superfluous.

Today I will see some of my friends from the Post for the first time since the dismissals were announced. I wonder if personal letters of dismissals have been issued yet and if anyone I know is among the unlucky ones. And I wonder how they are all feeling.

I am the last one to call for a halt in development so as to prevent people from losing their jobs. I know little about economics, but it seems to me that the spurt in development, competition and creativity in the field of communications in Israel in recent years has created many many thousands more jobs than those that will be lost in making the postal service into a more efficient organization. At the moment we are in the middle of a recession, but, hopefully, we won't be in a recession for ever and things will start growing again, and then many more new jobs will be created. Am I right?

But in the meantime, good, decent, hard-working people are going to lose their livelihoods, and my heart goes out to them.

Update: Good news, I guess. I understand from my friends that the idea is to try to get rid of the freeloaders who are not good, decent or hard working, at all. The plan is for the managers to work in cooperation with the union committees in deciding who is to go, in order to prevent personal vendettas. It's not happening yet because the head of the union committee isn't happy for some reason or other, or something along those lines. The guys I met up with seemed to know exactly who should be going home, for the organization to get more efficient, but were rather skeptical about the ability of firing these particular people (Stands to reason. For someone to be a freeloader for years, he must be wielding some sort of power over someone or other).

posted by Imshin 16:59

Not my problem
I'm surprised at my equanimity in these days of coalition building negotiations. It usually annoys me intensely. Now I really don't care. I feel like I've done my bit and now let them work it out. I'm actually quite relieved the elections are over (although they're not really over until the fat ... erm... man sings).

There is a lot of mud slinging. I just turn the radio off. Not interested.

By the way, Our Sis says she went to see if she had to change one of her sons' gas mask. They took books, in preparation for a few hours' wait in line, but when they got there, she says, there was no one else there. Does this mean everyone’s already been? Or maybe people aren’t internalizing it yet.

posted by Imshin 16:27

One last word on the subject.
James Taranto pointed out yesterday that, contrary to what was written in the New York Times, America isn't “unsettled” by the Columbia tragedy. America was in shock in 1986 when the Challenger tragedy occurred, he says. This time is different. This time the feeling is depressingly familiar.

Here in Israel, we're quite used to bad things happening. No one is shocked by a terrorist attack anymore. Depressed, yes, but not shocked. But this is a new one for us. Even though there were a few educated voices that aired the opinion that the whole thing was a waste of time and money, and that Israel had a "real" space project in the development of satellites and missiles, there was something clean and good and naive about Ilan Ramon and his journey into space. It wasn't tarnished with any harsh realities. There was no ugly side to it, as far as we could tell. For a nation in love with travel, he was the ultimate traveler, boldly going where no Israeli had gone before.

posted by Imshin 16:21

Well blogging in Hebrew is turning out to be quite an experience. Intense. Sticky. Hazardous. Much like life itself here in Israel.

Working with Isra-blog is wonderful, though. Simple, clear, unbelievably user friendly. On the one hand, I have less control over my blog and there is a certain uniformity about the way all the blogs look. But on the other, I have much more freedom in other respects (isn’t that also so very symptomatic of Israeli life?).

Only problem is I get more than I bargained for as part of the package. Instant fame and fortune, even before I know what I’m doing, and my old foe …. Comments. No way to do away with them. And they’ve certainly started coming! I’ve already managed to get into some arguments and you know how much I like that. One thing I must say is that, as an old hand at comments (having used two different options since June), the commenting system is excellent and, if the Hebrew version is anything to go by, I highly recommend the English version of them that is available. If I ever add comments here again (yeah, right) I will definitely use the “Made in Israel” option (hint hint, nudge nudge).

Yariv, the guy who put it all together, seemed quite surprised when I broke it to him that quite a lot of serious bloggers do not make use of comments. Of course, he’s an interested party. He’s marketing comments, after all. Oh, well. I suppose I’ll just have to live with them, until a better alternative comes along.

posted by Imshin 16:09

Lisa Katz:
“Sixteen days ago, Gilad came home with the number 5:40 written on his hand. When I asked him what it was, he said his kindergarten teacher had written it on all the children's hands to remind them of the time when Ilan would be taking-off in the Space Shuttle that day.”

Read more.
posted by Imshin 21:35

Scud missile launchers identified in the western Iraqi desert. Yikes.

Wait a minute … I thought Iraq didn’t have any scud missiles.
posted by Imshin 16:53

Is this my alter ego?

Update: This has turned out to be a Fishalanche!
posted by Imshin 10:32

Lately, whenever something bad happens (which is quite often, sadly), I’ve been getting this mental image of someone in a suit being thrown. He gets straight up again, brushes the dust off his suit with his hands. And then he’s off again. Unstoppable.

Way to go.

This morning in the shower I realized where the image was from. Remember the big guy with the metal teeth in the James Bond movies? What was his name? Jaws, that’s it.

Is that us? I ask myself. Big lumbering baddies. Part ridiculous, part pathetic, mainly menacing. Oh, well.

At least I hope we get that smoothie Roger Moore in the end.

Later: No no no. This won't do at all. We're not the baddies. What's wrong with me? We're the ones who brush off the dust and continue. This is a good thing. They got it all wrong in James Bond. Silly movies anyway.

I remember when, as a child, I realized that the guy who played Jaws was actually a real person and probably wasn't a baddie at all in real life.

posted by Imshin 10:25

Happy Birthday R.T., Happy Birthday R.T., Happy Birthday R.Tee-ee, Happy Birthday R.T.
posted by Imshin 10:24

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