I have an e-mail problem. Until further notice, I will not be reachable, although those who have my number are invited to call (not too late, please, if you want a polite Imshin to answer the phone). If you can't wait for me to sort this out, you can always leave me a comment on my Hebrew blog, although I don't check my comments there as often as maybe I should.
posted by Imshin 22:21

I’m getting a bit fed up of saying this, but I think it’s important to stress it again and again: Contrary to some things I’ve been reading in some foreign publications, attempts to perpetrate terrorist attacks in Israel have not ceased, they are being STOPPED by Israeli forces.

The Israeli police thwarted an attempt to carry out an attack in the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem in mid-January, the capital's police chief, Mickey Levy, revealed Thursday.

A Palestinian on his way from Bethlehem to carry out an attack at the stadium was seized at the entrance to the city. Later, security forces found a three-and-a-half kilogram explosives belt meant for use by the bomber.

[…]

According to the data, there were 41 terror attacks in Jerusalem in 2002, including 17 suicide bombings. Eleven attempted suicide attacks were thwarted by the police.

And more:

A car that was about to be blown up in the Netanya area was discovered early this morning (Thursday, 27th February) in Tul Karem. IDF forces found a 20-kilogram explosive next to the car, and suspect the Islamic Jihad of planning the attack.

I got fed up long ago of writing about it every time a bombing here was prevented, I'm not a reporter after all, so I don’t do it any more. But this is a nearly daily occurrence. I think even the Israeli papers are fed up of reporting it, but we hear it on the radio continuously. And we mustn't forget the bombardment of Israeli town of Sderot with Kassam rockets. It’s a miracle no one has yet been killed from one of these rockets, although a few have been badly injured. We didn’t go into Beit Hanoun in Gaza for the fun of it.

posted by Imshin 22:06

And the Oscar goes to
Tim Blair noticed the most hilarious anti-anti-war column ever, by Julie Burchill, in today’s Guardian: Silly show-offs against Saddam! This one you have to click through to. I wonder how she got it past the censors. What a waste to have this in the Guardian. Their readers probably weren’t at all amused.

I must say, I find these "anti-war" people fascinating.

[By the way, the Oscar goes to Imshin for the silliest, most disconnected title ever for a post.]
posted by Imshin 20:18

After the attack
In this weekend’s Yediot Aharonot (the weekend newsy supplement is really good) Smadar Perry discussed the controversies that surround head of the Iraqi opposition Ahmad Chalabi. For instance, his criminal status in Jordan. He was apparently given a twenty-year prison sentence there, in his absence, for leaving the bank he owned there, the Petra Bank, with a 200 million dollar debt.

Professor Amatzia Baram of Haifa University, a veteran expert on Iraq, who has just returned from a series of meetings in Washington, was asked his opinion. “I know the American administration has an interest in constructing a democracy in Iraq, but because of the problems that will crop up – my estimate is that democracy will only be possible in two or three years.” He says “the first days after the attack will pose a great challenge to the Americans. They will have to immediately commence rebuilding the infrastructure, which will have been damaged in the attack. At the same time, they will have to make an effort to avoid internal massacres. There is a danger that immediately following occupation the Shiites will begin slaughtering members of Saddam’s Suni regime”, and he anticipates “revenge campaigns: People who were harmed will track down the murderers and the rapists that harmed their family members, and try to kill them.

There is also the danger that Saddam and Kusai’s Presidential Guards will respond to the attack with unconventional weapons, aimed at Americans and Shiites. It is necessary to be prepared for acts of revenge, and then revenge of revenge. The initial effort given over to this will determine the future of the American stay in Baghdad”.

Baram doesn’t see a real problem if Saddam and his sons survive the attack. He says a big enough money offer to those in resistance pockets will eventually persuade someone to betray them. I don’t know. It didn’t work with bin Laden, did it?

posted by Imshin 19:01

Nice day
It’s hard to believe that a few days ago we were in the middle of a storm, a snowstorm in some parts of the country. Today was warm, sunny and dry. We wanted to get the girls out of the house a bit so we all went for a walk in the old Tel Aviv port. It’s no longer a functional port. They’re slowly renovating the old quay and after years of being very run down, in recent years it has become quite trendy, with nightclubs and cafes springing up. It's actually quite nice there now. Today it was full of families enjoying the lovely weather, walking along the pier bridge thing and enjoying the blue sky and the beautiful calm blue sea. We reckoned that the cafes in the actual quay would probably be tourist traps and we sat down for a hummous a few steps away from the port. The weather was nice enough to sit outside. Not too hot and not too cold. Just right.

posted by Imshin 18:57

Shabbat Shalom
As you can see, we didn't go. I'm getting fed up with the girls being ill all the time. It hasn't been this bad since they were toddlers and started with the kindergarten illnesses. One good thing is that Eldest has been under the weather for a few weeks now, off and on and no asthma.

The bag is still packed and ready by the door. I would like to say it's my protest at the unfairness of the world, but I'm just lazy.

Talking about unfairness, did you hear about our pal Yasser? I wonder if they take this into account when they calculate the Palestinian average income.

I'm just being mean. It's probably all from Suha's royalties.

posted by Imshin 17:41

A bedtime thought
People who are a hundred percent sure of their opinions make me nervous. They make me suspicious. Isn’t it natural to be at least a little bit uncertain? Isn’t it understandable to think that such and such is probably the best course of action, for instance, but we can’t be completely sure of this? These people who are so sure, what makes them so secure in their knowledge of what is right and what is wrong?
posted by Imshin 22:57

Well, we’re packed. Hopefully, this time we’ll actually make it down to Mitzpe Ramon.
Here’s an amazing satellite photo of Machtesh Ramon. The crater is the thing that looks like an elongated heart. Isn’t it beautiful?

posted by Imshin 22:05

An explanation why Africa has so much AIDS. Awful.
posted by Imshin 22:04

None so blind
Even if it turns out not to be a relevant comparison, it seems very foolish to fail to see the similarities. Shlomo Avineri, professor of political science at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, continues the discussion of the most significant historic parallel of today’s situation with regard to Iraq.

It is today a commonplace that Europe's behavior in the 1930's in facing Nazi Germany was morally wrong and politically disastrous. Yet like the Bourbons, some European statesmen have not forgotten anything or learned anything from one of Europe's most shameful chapters of history.

[…]

So one has to wonder why people who view the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930's as wrong find it difficult to admit that there may be no other way but to use force against Saddam when his record is much worse than that of Hitler in 1936.

posted by Imshin 10:24

What’s this? Cyanide threats in the world’s safest place?! Gevaldt! Could this possibly mean… gulp… WAR?
posted by Imshin 23:57

Dixie Flatline - fierce words in support of Israel. Via Meryl Yourish.
posted by Imshin 21:34

IDF soldiers fight back
Five reserve soldiers have filed a libel suit against Muhammad Bakri, director of the "Jenin, Jenin" movie.

"The film portrays itself as a documentary, and presents so-called testimonies and facts," the reservists charged in their lawsuit. The soldiers claim the film includes scenes of alleged cruelty on their part, including unjustified gunfire and the harming of innocent children, and that all these incidents are fabricated.

"We received an emergency call-up order and went out to fight in order to defend our homes," said one of the reservists who brought the lawsuit, quoted in Haaretz. "We fought slowly, day after day, in order to avoid harming the civilian population. This film portrays us as war criminals."

posted by Imshin 21:10

Look what appeared in my mailpox…er…box:

THE PISTACHIOS WERE THE FIRST TO GO
By Helen Schary Motro

My first mistake was jumping back and forth between the stations, listening to the commentators on Channels 11, 22 and 10 spout wisdom as if their fingers were on the pulse of Rumsfeld at the very least, if not the great white chief himself.

"It's a matter of a few days, weeks at most," they chanted like a Greek chorus on every channel. They gave me no choice but to acknowledge the severity of my dereliction. We had reached this midnight hour - but my storage room aka bomb shelter held nothing but an assortment of bottled water which I had sporadically lugged home when it was on special at the supermarket or the gas station.

If we are stuck in there, what would we have for nourishment? Sadly, I had to admit, only the dusty bottles of wine left over from bygone Passovers. The next morning I hurried out to the market to finally buy the supplies I had so negligently put off.

I whizzed down the aisles, piling my cart high with all the non-perishables in the best example I have ever seen of impulse buying: juices, cookies, crackers, canned peaches, long-life milk, wafers, pistachio nuts, cereal, chocolate. Then into every available crevice of the cart I wedged corn, corn, and more corn.

Read on.

posted by Imshin 19:29

Of cabbages and kings II
While the Likud was fighting out the government jobs, today, I was blissfully unaware, at home with the girls. I don’t usually listen to the radio at home. Eldest’s school councilor called and reminded us to enroll for middle school. No queuing up any more, this is the second year running it’s been done in Tel Aviv via Internet. So the deed is done. Eldest was very excited, although she was quite sure about her choice. In the afternoon we went to the doctor and I heard on the radio on the way that I’d been missing all the fun.

posted by Imshin 19:27

Look who's back after three months of silence - Nikita as in Life by...
posted by Imshin 15:46

The dreary life of the intellectual
I’m starting to get it. The big big difference between Haaretz and Yediot Aharonot is that Yediot has GOOD NEWS too. All those little “human interest” stories are nice. The woman who marched through the snow to hospital to give birth, and the one who didn’t and gave birth at home; an amusing description of someone’s unsuccessful attempts to build a snowman with the kids; wonderful color photos of a white Jerusalem; Arik Sharon’s 75th birthday… These are nowhere to be found in Haaretz (These photos are all for Haaretz's foreign readers. Only two of them appear in today's Hebrew print version).

All you get in Haaretz is bad news of apocalyptic dimensions. Those old bores need to loosen up.

posted by Imshin 12:31

What should we blow up next, Uncle?
For those of you who don’t read Diane before you read me, she carefully read a very long Financial Times article, about a top al Qaeda operative called Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, for us (I had to type it out to read at my leisure). The Financial Times guys have apparently been playing connect the dots. Diane, probably the only person to read this article (I’ll get to it. The girls are sick; I was called home from work. So it might even be this morning, right after I do the laundry), noticed a very interesting family connection (not to Diane, silly – to Ramzi Youssef of 1993 WTC bombing fame, of course). And she doesn’t neglect to point out the Iraq connection, as well, found elsewhere.

[OK, I read it. It reminds me of those books I used to read in the late seventies, early eighties, about international terrorists like Carlos and Bader-Meinhoff. Full of exciting details. I sort of lost the trail somewhere round the Philippines.]

posted by Imshin 11:07

So Shinui, National Religious Party and National Unity it is.
It seems the Frog is back. Writing a bit about the politics I can't be bothered with. Haven't really got time. Let me just say I'm extremely satisfied with the ministries Shinui got: Lapid - Justice Minister ("Yesh!" Sorry, in-joke - this was his campaign thing. You had to be there...) and Vice (Do you say vice or deputy, as in Deputy Dawg?) Prime Minister; Poraz - Interior Minister (more about this some other time, trust me, this is the greatest); Paritsky - National Infrastructure Minister (that means he has the finger on Electricity Company's plug and in a position to do something about their shameless greed) and so on (can't remember the rest offhand and I'm hurrying to work. Posting this is very naughty as it is).

Meanwhile the ultra-religious parties are foaming at the mouth at being left out, especially Shas. To hear them you'd think Lapid's already started constructing concentration camps for Sephardis as we speak. Their revered Rabbi, Ovadia Yossef, is lashing out. This is one of his particular talents. The man may be the great Torah scholar of our day, I wouldn't know about that, but he certainly has a mouth like a sewer. More about this at Gil's (and some great photos of the water situation).

Having Shinui controlling the Interior Ministry is Shas' worst nightmare come true. But it's my idea of heaven. Especially with Poraz as minister. It's making my mouth water. Literally.

One thing I'm enjoying, in the sickest possible way, is watching Labor squabbling. Now that it's final that they're out of the government, they've started bringing out the knives. And using them on each other. Mitzna is still adamant that Labor did so badly in the elections because they sat in Sharon's government. He never gives up. What an obstinate mule. When he decides something, nothing will move him. And we need this fool as a top minister in the government because? I'm rather relieved that they're sitting this one out. I'm told that it's in our national interest that they be in the government, I just can't feel any enthusiasm about the idea. Just as well, because it's not going to happen. Not right now, anyway.

Not that I'm over the moon about National Unity (far right), mind you.

One last thing - popular Israeli TV interviewer, Yair Lapid, last night interviewed his father, Tommy Lapid, on his show. It was brilliant. I’m sorry I don’t have a transcript for you.

posted by Imshin 06:06

Stormy weather, including snow in Jerusalem, but it seems to be refusing to stick there so far. It's stuck good and strong in the Golan, though. It’s cold and stormy in Tel Aviv, too. And very very windy (Did I tell you a friend of mine's balcony collapsed last week? That was during a previous storm. She said she lay awake shivering all night, listening to the noise of everything crashing, but was too terrified to go out and see. Just as well). Friends in Jerusalem fled from work to their homes in the Jerusalem suburbs at lunchtime yesterday, afraid they would be unable to get home later on.

Bish heard it was going to snow in Mitzpe Ramon. I was working late yesterday, and Bish suggested he just put the girls in the car and take them. But Eldest wasn't very well, she came home with a bad cold, so we shelved the idea for the time being. I read it has started to snow there now.

They’re saying the climax of the storm will be today.

Oh, and have you heard that we seem to have a government? Later.

Update: Jerusalem and surrounding mountains were covered with snow today, as were the Golan and the Galilee. A house was reported to have fallen down today in Upper Nazareth, right on top of another house built just below it on the mountainside. Fortunately, no one was hurt.



Go see the great photos Harry took. I could be dead jealous, but I could also say: They have to live there all year round, they deserve it more than we do. The funny thing is, most Jerusalemites actually like living there. Go figure.

posted by Imshin 05:48

Answer for Diane about ma'amouls
My mother-in-law makes her ma'amouls with ordinary flour - 4 cups to 300g butter (Which makes it a dairy dish. I can't say Milchik about a Sephardi dish, it doesn't sound right and I don't know the Ladino.), 1/4 cup icing sugar and 1/3 cup rose water mixed with milk. If the mixture is too dry, add more of the rose water and milk mixture.

In case you were asking yourself - hey, what about the date mixture, this is not a full recipe. Just answering Diane's question. But all this has given me incentive to get the whole recipe. I am the worst baker in history. Just ask my youngest. She'll be happy to tell you her favorite story - how she told Ima that the cake was ready, and Ima said not yet, and then the cake burnt. But if it's written down, my daughters, who are undoubtedly more talented than their mother in all respects, will be able to make ma'amouls when they're older. Actually, I've been discussing with Youngest an idea a friend gave me, to start a documentation of my mother-in-laws recipes.

I haven't forgotten that I owe you her recipe for red lentil soup. I'm just finding it a bit difficult. I've been making it for years, based on her instructions. I just throw in the amount of ingredients that seems right at the moment I make it. I did try to write it down a few times and I couldn't decide what amounts to give. I have new admiration for the effort that goes into writing cookery books.

posted by Imshin 05:42

A Jazz band?! They got a Jazz band at lunchtime?! They had to give up weekend trips to Cyprus and shiatsu massages, though. Ahhhhhhh, that’s too bad.

Actually, I can’t complain. Most of my co-workers wouldn’t know a Jazz band if it hit them on the head with hammer. And they wouldn’t thank anyone for force-feeding them with anything like that while they were trying to eat. Eyal Golan, on the other hand…

posted by Imshin 12:19

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!
This is not a newspaper! This is a…a…a….a gossip-about-uninteresting-people-paper. Did you know that SPORTS is the most popular class among Israeli school children? I thought you didn’t. And did you know that most Israeli mothers think motherhood has proved DETRIMENTAL to their careers? Well, now you know! Aren’t you a happier, more fulfilled person as a result? Yeah, me too. And you’ll all be relieved to hear that Sarit Hadad, popular Israeli singer, did not collapse and was not hospitalized over the weekend, contrary to rampant rumors.

ARE THERE NO DECENT HEBREW NEWSPAPERS IN THIS COUNTRY?

So here’s the plan Bish and I have come up with. We beg, steal or borrow and become disgustingly rich. Then we buy an existing paper and fix it up so it is neither exasperatingly left wing nor offensively yellow. Hey, it worked for Conrad Black.

posted by Imshin 12:15

Last of the (small) giants.
Today was a busy day at the very large Yarkon Cemetery, which serves Tel Aviv and its satellites. “It’s Sunday,” Someone said, knowingly. I think he meant that all those that had died on Shabbat were being buried. A colleague’s mother had died. It was the first funeral I’d been to since Mum’s and I wondered how I’d feel. I was fine, but I realized that no funeral would ever be the same for me again. I’d always be partly burying Mum. During the actual burial, I found myself surreptitiously examining graves to see how the Hebron stone ages. That’s what we used for Mum’s grave.

Walking along, on the way to the burial site, I saw a group of my co-workers congregating over a fresh grave we were passing. They had noticed that there were an unusual amount of wreaths on it, many with very interesting inscriptions on them, and had stopped to see who it was. It was Isser Harel, mythological founder of Israeli security agencies, the Mossad and the Shabak, and the man most responsible for their reputation. The flowers were still very fresh. The funeral couldn’t have been over long.

We stood there for a moment, in awe. One of my co-workers commented on the fact that such a man had such a humble burial place, but actually it was entirely appropriate. This was obviously not a materialistic man or someone overly concerned with public recognition. During the many years he was one of the strongest men in the country, few ordinary Israelis even knew his name. But don’t be fooled, I remember reading that his subordinates were terrified of him.

His grave was the first in a whole new area, as if in death, as in life, he was staking out new territory. I guess they had to have room for all the people who attended the funeral.

Update: Obituary in the Jerusalem Post:

Seated at a long table in the restaurant was a group of IDF soldiers who seemed to be celebrating a birthday, or perhaps a promotion. I could not help but wonder whether these new guardians of Israel realized that they were in the presence of a legend.

My question was answered when, as we made our way to the door, every soldier at the table rose and reached out to shake the hand of a surprised and genuinely touched Isser Harel.

posted by Imshin 22:05

Yes! Bish has decided he just can’t take it any more. Having held out for nearly a year of my lobbying (not nagging!), claiming he couldn’t read anything but Haaretz with his morning coffee, he finally gave in. This morning we subscribed to Yediot Aharonot. We’ll give it a few days trial and then we plan to finally end our fifteen-year subscription to Haaretz.

And this is the straw that broke the Bish’s back. I think I'll have it framed.

Update: I admit I'm going to miss things like this:
"In Holland after World War II, a law was passed that Jewish children who had been hidden during the war would not be returned to their parents."
More.
posted by Imshin 16:41

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