Shabbat Shalom.
posted by Imshin 20:03

Diane sent me this troubling article from the Observer, a subsidiary of the Guardian: Just a taste of the terror of life under Saddam.

Jennifer has begun SpillingHerGuts on her very own blog. About time too. Have fun, Jen.

More from the Guardian: “My name is Ariel Sharon”. Notice they call Ariel Sharon (our Ariel Sharon) a world leader (never mind the derogatory adjective). Wow! World leader. I like it. Does that make us, like, a world power? Cool.

posted by Imshin 20:00

And now the blog.

Some people have too much time on their hands.
posted by Imshin 23:45

Perception is never very clear in the moments just before you fall asleep, even more so in the night of the Seder. After four cups of wine (five, including the "haramat kosit" (toast) at work before they let us go home early) it's not easy to fight sleep long enough to work out if the noise I'm hearing requires action. A man, his voice hoarse and distorted with rage, is yelling. A woman is screaming. It's not really screaming. It's more like the terror-stricken yelps of cowering puppy. I can't make out the words but the situation sounds volatile. If I get up and go to the window, will I be able to tell which apartment it's coming from? It could be anywhere. We're surrounded by hundreds of apartments in shouting distance. I only know that the apartment immediately across from us in the next building is empty, so the sounds can't be coming from there. I lie in bed, not quite awake, wondering if I'm imagining it, too foggy to find the energy to do anything. I know I should be trying to get more information so I can alert the police, but I can't move. The noise has stopped. I must be asleep.
posted by Imshin 23:17

Never
On Tuesday I happened to meet an acquaintance of mine that I know is of Iraqi descent. 'Planning your trip to the old country?' I asked him jokingly. It's a popular amusement around here lately, outlining imaginary trips to Iraq. No one takes it very seriously. He remarked that he'd mentioned the idea of going back for a visit to his mother and she had been horrified by the idea. She said she could never forget or forgive the horrors of the Farhud, the massacre of Baghdadi Jews by their Arab neighbors in 1941. Even the thought of going back to that country was too appalling for her. She had memories, still fresh, of little boys having their legs chopped off and grown men having their heads cut off. No, she didn't feel very nostalgic about Iraq. In fact she had no wish to visit any Arab country. She had no problem with Greece and Cyprus though and enjoyed her trips to those countries. The air stewards were so nice, she said. The flight from Iraq all those years ago had been far less pleasant. The women had been seated at the front of the plane and the men had been seated at the back. My acquaintance's father had his little daughter on his lap. Just before take off an Iraqi army officer got on the plane and proceeded to savagely beat up all the men in the back of the plane, including the father of my acquaintance, regardless of the little girl on his lap. The air staff was powerless. No, she had no wish to go back there.

posted by Imshin 21:19

Mum's Haroset
3 oz walnut (3 oz? What on earth is that in grams?)
¼ large cooking apple
Wine to moisten
2 level teaspoons sugar (brown if possible)
2 level teaspoons cinnamon
All in food processor starting with nuts.

Okay, I've made it. It's nothing like Mum used to make. Must be the wrong wine. And the wrong nuts. And the wrong sugar. And, most of all, the wrong finger on the food processor button. Maybe I should have made my mother-in-law's after all. Too late now.

posted by Imshin 13:39

Too busy to blog.
I wish everyone a happy and enjoyable Seder.
posted by Imshin 23:10

Very sad
Diana Moon announces that due to problems at work, she must not only stop
blogging but take down her blog altogether. She will return to blogging as
soon as possible. She wishes to thank all her readers. :-(
posted by Imshin 23:08

War with Iraq? Economic recession? Murderous suicide bombings? Forget it. The main news in Israel these days is the visit of four youthful teen idols, stars of the awful Argentian soap opera RebeldeWay aimed at adolescents, that all parents detest with a vengeance. I told you about Chiquititas a few months ago. This is far worse, but I can't be bothered to elaborate at this late hour.

As I write this, the said teen idols are appearing on the Dudu Topaz (barf) TV show. I can hear squeals of excitement coming from behind Eldest's closed door (we're watching Fox News). I just spoke on the phone to a friend whose son has also sequestered* himself in a room with a TV. As a matter of fact, tens of thousands (at least) of Israel kids all over the country are also staying up late this evening to watch them and I can promise you they are all squealing.

I bought Eldest tickets for the show months ago. She's going on Friday morning with a friend. I'm dropping them off. I hope the traffic won't be too bad. I've been trying to very gently and subtly prepare her for the possibility of disappointment, should she discover that, contrary to high expectations, this is not the greatest experience of her life ("You mightn’t be able to see very well, and there might be a slight problem hearing …"). She is quite reconciled to this. "Oh, I know. They can’t dance, they can’t sing", she tells me, not really realizing the screaming that will be going on all around her. At least she'll be too far away to be trampled on - I didn't actually get her the most expensive tickets. So if they can't dance and they can't sing, why go to a show in which they do just that? (Silly question)

When I was young my passion was the Beatles (Besides being a juvenile delinquent I was also a geek, but that goes without saying, doesn't it? I'm a blogger, for goodness sake). At least the Beatles could sing (Well, with the exception of Ringo, who couldn't even play the drums very well), but on the other hand they hadn't existed as a group for about eight or nine years, by the time I became enamored with them, and there wasn't a hope in hell of any of them coming to Israel (Besides John, maybe, if that's where he ended up). Paul was planning to come in those days, but rumor was he cancelled following his arrest in Japan for possession.

Adolescence is horrible. Could I please go to sleep and wake up with two married daughters with **grandchildren**. Ah, grandchildren. Bliss. Those are the best kind of kids. They’re fond of you; you get to spoil them silly without having to pay the price and best of all, you give them back when you get fed up of them.

Back to reality, today we got an answer about Eldest's middle school. She got in to the one that she wanted. Nice of them to let us know this early. They usually only tell you at the last minute, so if you're not happy you don't really have time to do much about it. Maybe they're only telling the ones who got their first choice, at this point.
_________________________
* I admit I didn't know this word. Diane suggested it.

posted by Imshin 23:35

I'm so tired, I haven't slept a wink
I'm so tired, my mind is on the blink
I wonder should I get up and fix myself a drink
No,no,no.

I'm so tired I don't know what to do
I'm so tired my mind is set on you
I wonder should I call you but I know what you'd do

You'd say I'm putting you on
But it's no joke, it's doing me harm
You know I can't sleep, I can't stop my brain
You know it's three weeks, I'm going insane
You know I'd give you everything I've got
for a little peace of mind

I'm so tired, I'm feeling so upset
Although I'm so tired I'll have another cigarette
And curse Sir Walter Raleigh
He was such a stupid get.

Lennon/McCartney, or would that be McCartney/Lennon? No, no, it’s definitely Lennon/McCartney. Isn’t it?

Such problems.
posted by Imshin 22:30

Our Sis found Mum's Haroset recipe. Therefore the Haroset Recipe Festival has been cancelled. My apologies to the hundreds of people who slaved over a hot magimix for days to reach the perfect mixture in order to send me their recipe.

I'll post Mum's recipe along with my mother-in-law's some time soon.
posted by Imshin 17:31

This would make a great board game
I happen to have my old school atlas at work. I took it there once, years ago, I forget why, and it's been languishing in the cluttered closet with the old files ever since. It's had quite a few uses over the years, the most notable being a not very efficient footstep. Of course, it's horribly out of date. Looking at it is like stepping back in time. Israel still includes Sinai, if you can believe it, and most of Israel's newer villages and towns are not to be found. Everywhere else has changed too. Europe is unrecognizable; in Africa quite a few states have changed names (and back again). Some pages are adorned with doodles I must have indulged in as a way of escaping particularly sleep inducing geography lessons way back when. And I was highly amused to find, on the last page of the index, carefully written in tiny pencil handwriting, a list of different types of fertile soil. I've always been fascinated by maps, but geography lessons in my day were not very thrilling. As for the list of soil types - I vaguely remember having difficulty memorizing some of the less exciting details that were listed in the study requirements of an exam, which allowed the luxury of open atlases, and that was therefore expected to be that much more difficult. So now you know that I wasn't very studious in my youth. Downright lazy would be more accurate. And you are now in possession of some damaging evidence of my juvenile delinquency.

Fast forward to the present day - when the war in Iraq commenced, the disgraced atlas came out of the closet and it has spent the last fortnight commanding a place of honor on my desk, open on the page romantically named "Countries of the Fertile Crescent". Visitors to my little office have looked at me with compassion and sympathy and have then rushed off to share with relish the sad news of the latest manifestation of Imshin's eccentricity.

This morning before work I read in Yediot Aharonot about Uday Hussein's letters that were uncovered in one of his Baghdad homes. In a letter from 1990, he discusses Saddam’s plans for the creation of a greater Iraq including Kuwait, Arabstan (apparently a part of Iran) and Palestine; Palestine apparently meaning the historical Transjordan including today’s Jordan and the whole of the land of Israel - thus proving what Israel had suspected all along. Hmm, interesting, I thought to myself and hurried off to work, late as usual.

It was only after lunch, which was an uninspiring sandwich eaten hurriedly in my office, because the kitchen and dining room are closed in preparation for Passover, that I remembered Uday's letter and had another peek at the "Fertile Crescent" on the map. These plans of Saddam are not really a new discovery, but I personally hadn't really thought about them much, especially not from Iraq's point of view, before. I was impressed.

The idea of a greater Iraq is a really good one. Not only does it give Iraq far wider access to the Persian Gulf, not to mention the oil, it also gives it access to the Mediterranean Sea. The most fascinating aspect of it, though, is that it effectually cuts up the Arab world into two pieces with Iraq being the sole controller of overland passage between the northern countries and the southern countries. This would give Iraq complete control over most of the commerce in the region, for a start. And there are a lot more advantages I can’t be bothered to organize in my head for writing down (still lazy). It’s a brilliant idea. It’s an exciting vision. If you’re Saddam Hussein that is.

Thank God (and the U.S.A.) that he didn't get around to doing it. I wonder what would have happened if they had timed the invasion of Kuwait better and the U.S. hadn't been available to do something about it.

And I wonder what Israel would have done had Iraq got around to taking over Jordan. He apparently was well on his way to doing just that in 1990. We couldn't have allowed that to happen. We would have had to attack, amidst fierce global condemnation, of course.

The world we live in is a crazy place.

posted by Imshin 17:28

Sharon interview
Ari Shavit interviewed Israeli PM Arik Sharon in today's Haaretz. Interesting. Some excerpts:

Isn't that phrase "painful concessions" a hollow expression?

"Definitely not. It comes from the depth of my soul. Look, we are talking about the cradle of the Jewish people. Our whole history is bound up with these places. Bethlehem, Shiloh, Beit El. And I know that we will have to part with some of these places. There will be a parting from places that are connected to the whole course of our history. As a Jew, this agonizes me. But I have decided to make every effort to reach a settlement. I feel that the rational necessity to reach a settlement is overcoming my feelings."

[...]

Have you really accepted the idea of two states for two peoples? Do you really plan to divide western Israel?

"I believe that this is what will happen. One has to view things realistically. Eventually there will be a Palestinian state. I view things first and foremost from our perspective. I do not think that we have to rule over another people and run their lives. I do not think that we have the strength for that. It is a very heavy burden on the public and it raises ethical problems and heavy economic problems."

[...]

In the past you talked about a long-term interim agreement. Did you not believe in a permanent solution and an end to the conflict?

"I think opportunities have currently been created that did not exist before. The Arab world in general and the Palestinians in particular have been shaken. There is therefore a chance to reach an agreement faster than people think."

Read the whole thing.

posted by Imshin 22:35

Anyone need any duct tape? I've got plenty. Plastic sheeting too.
Where did all this stuff come from? Did all this really come out of our apartment? Emptying the security room is turning out to be a very annoying chore. I think I'll leave the evacuation bags till tomorrow.

Bish is worried about the Syrians now.

posted by Imshin 22:03

On the way to work this morning I happened to notice a shesek tree full of ripening fruit in one of the gardens I passed. The dictionary tells me this is called loquat in English. It's a very popular tree in Israeli gardens. Our old apartment had three impressive specimens. Every spring when I noticed fruit ripening on our trees I would say to myself that this year we'd take the ladder down and pick some. We never actually got round to it although we lived there for eleven years. The trees and the fruit belonged to all the neighbors in the building, of course, but no one else bothered either. There were always customers for the sweet soft fruit though, besides the birds - the school kids from the ultra-religious boys' school across the road. I often used to come across a red-faced kid with bulging cheeks and pockets, sneaking guiltily out of the garden. I always pretended not to see. Half the fun is the fear of being caught. I should know.

We used to have the most wonderful mulberry tree on my route home from school. In season, we used to climb it and stuff ourselves with as much of the sweet fruit as we could, before the neighbors started shouting. I think most people can tell similar stories. I know Dad can. When I was growing up on Mount Carmel you didn't really have to climb the neighbors' tree to eat. There was a lot of fruit just growing wild, free for the picking. You had the carobs and the sabra fruit (which required certain skillfulness to pick and prepare for eating, otherwise you got the prickles on your fingers and on your tongue) and then there were the tznobarim, the nuts of the pine that my mother-in-law calls by their Ladino name of pinyones and uses in many delicious recipes.

When we used to eat them we didn't need a fancy recipe. All we needed was a lot of pine trees (preferably overshadowing a side walk, otherwise the tznobars got lost among the pine needles, and a big stone with which to break through the hard shell, and we were in for the meal of our lives. Our high school had plenty of pine trees and when I was little Our Sis used to bring me bags full of them, which I would take down to the sidewalk to break open and eat. When I grew up I was amazed to discover you can buy bags of them in the supermarket, shelled and ready to cook. But they're never nearly as succulent and delicious as those I collected myself from the sidewalk as a child.

posted by Imshin 20:37

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