Off to Jerusalem for the weekend. See ya. (Our weekend ends on Saturday so I'll probably be blogging again by Satrurday night, Sunday at the latest).

A thought: Maybe, if all the other guests have flown the nest, we'll be able to bargain for better rooms.
posted by Imshin 13:37

Little Shmuel Zargari, just eleven months old, was buried in Jerusalem yesterday. None of the members of his nucleus family attended the funeral, although he had a mother and a father and five brothers and sisters. But they were all wounded on the bus, some badly, and were in hospital while he was being laid to rest. They're still there. All except one brother, who was released yesterday.

It's not easy to see the pictures of the funerals of tiny babies. In Israel, Jews are not buried in coffins. They are wrapped in shrouds and covered with prayer shawls. Their bodies are trundled along to the burial sites on trolleys, with the mourners following. The bodies of babies and children make very small bundles on the trolleys.

The front page of Yediot Aharonot today has the photo of a tiny, bandaged baby, her face covered with horrible sores, lying on a hospital bed, surrounded by white plastic tubes. She seems to be sleeping peacefully. Maybe she is heavily sedated, poor little mite. She is five-month-old Shoshana Natanzon. Her sister, Tehila, just three-years-old, was among those murdered. There is a picture of her as well, ever so cute, smiling from under a straw hat that is too big for her. There's nothing like a photo of a cute, smiling kid, is there? We are programmed to react to such a photo with compassion. That's just the way we are made. It is difficult to grasp that the sweet little child, smiling up at you from the page, died a horrible, bloody death just a day and a half ago.

The picture of the American baby, Shmuel Taubenfeld, three months old, killed along with his mother, has the same effect. What a lovely little mischievous smile. You can't help smiling back.

posted by Imshin 09:28

I admit I'm jealous to see a relatively fresh Israeli blogger that has so much to say. I'm all out of words. I don't have an opinion about what should be done. Read Gil too. A caring person, who doesn't have a stake in all of this, says to me "Build the wall". But the wall that is really going up, big and strong, is the one in our hearts. Do you remember when that guy what's-his-name Van Kremschnitt something-or-other told us to build a wall so high that even the birds couldn't fly over? So up it goes.

Today I took the train to Netanya and back with the girls. Youngest had never taken a train. It was fun. In the middle we had lunch with Dad. It was like taking a train abroad. Clean, efficient, comfortable. Last time I took a train in Israel it was an old noisy, smelly affair from the British Mandate. It was desperately slow, the seats were uncomfortable, there was no air-conditioning, it rattled and the bathroom was a disgrace. Ah, but the view from the window. It rattled its way up to Jerusalem through breathtaking mountains and woods. It ended its trip in the picturesque little Jerusalem train station, dating back to I don't know when. The train doesn't go up to Jerusalem anymore, but the double-decker suburb train that serves commuters to Tel Aviv is quite impressive. Youngsters can complain all they like. Those of us who remember what train travel in Israel used to be, can only enjoy the experience.

Thus the wall. I will have a nice summer vacation with my girls. I will sit and watch the terrible pictures, all of them, right till the end. I won't look away. And then I will go to the beach, I will go out to buy the girls new sneakers, I will put Gaia on the CD and dance around the salon with Youngest.

posted by Imshin 16:29

And today
The UK Guardian, uncharacteristically, manages to be quite sympathetic-ish in its report about the attack. It actually blames the Palestinian suicide bomber for shattering the peace process (what peace process? It was never more than a shaky, volatile three-month cease-fire) and not the infantile victims. I disliked the emphasis it made on the fact that the bus was full of orthodox Jews (this was mentioned three times, in case anyone should miss it), as if it made any difference.

The inevitable question, as always, is how a grown man climbs on to a bus full of small children and babies and blows himself up in their midst. This is quite an easy one, actually. Because if he doesn't see them as human beings worthy of life in the first place, and has such lack of respect for his own life that he sees death as an exalted goal, we can't really judge him with the same values as we would ourselves, can we?

For us the murderous attack immediately raised an uneasy question. On Thursday, Bish, the girls and I are going up to Jerusalem to spend the weekend there at a hotel. Years of troubles have created a situation whereby the girls no longer remember Jerusalem. We just never go. I decided that we have to go. It's high time, regardless. We have to give them the opportunity to experience the magic of this place, drink in the smell, touch the stones of the Kotel. They have to know Jerusalem, although ours will be a watered down version. We'll stay mainly in the west of the city. We won't sit on Ben Yehuda Street or in Nahalat Shiva. They certainly won't get to experience my favorite in my youth – the old city (not the Jewish quarter). When I was a teenager we used to roam the alleys of the old city freely, eating hummous in Abu-something-or-other's (forgot the name), buying Rahat Lokoum (Turkish Delight) and Armenian bells.

Bish was the first to voice our unease. Let's not go, he said, while we were watching the pictures of children and babies being evacuated to ambulances. He's not crazy about the idea anyway.

As of today, we're still going. Tomorrow is a long way away. Who knows?


posted by Imshin 08:18

There are first reports of a blast on a bus in Jerusalem. It sounds like a big one. They're already talking about fatalities.

Update 21:35: First pictures. The bus, coming from the Western Wall, was full of kids. It was one of those big double buses and it was full.

Update 22:20: At least 18 murdered, over 100 injured, 13 of them critically. Many of the murdered were small children it seems.
posted by Imshin 21:20

Never look back.
The trip to Haifa with the girls was fun, but a bit weird for me. I thought I'd find it difficult to find my way round, but it was as if I'd never left. I didn't have a map and I was sure I'd get lost. But the car just seemed to take me to wherever I wanted to go. Everything looked strangely familiar, like it had all appeared in some vivid dream I once had, the kind you never forget. At the same time, it all felt like I was seeing it for the first time. I left Haifa twenty years ago. I never lived there as an adult.

The weirdest was the drive down Carmeliya, my old neighborhood. I haven't really been there since I was nineteen. R.T. had an apartment there about twelve years ago for a while, so I passed through a few times. Did I really live here? Didn't this street used to be one-way? Is that the supermarket? Was it always that teeny? Oh, look they built a roundabout. What's that horrible monstrosity they built on the empty plot where I used to pick Sabres fruits?

Our old apartment building, once the most impressive on our street, looked shabby and ugly, desperately in need of a renovation.

The truth is I didn't go back to the old neighborhood. The old neighborhood doesn't exist. But looking at it as a visiting stranger, I think it could have been a nice place for some kid to grow up in, back in the seventies. And it was, actually. Half of the buildings that now sport peeling yellowing plaster were not there back then. There were just empty lots, each with its very own private pine tree wood, perfect for climbing, building tree-houses, and learning about Mount Carmel's natural flora.

It's strange for me to think that people I used to know are still living there, in the same apartments. I wonder if they realize how much their surroundings have changed. Or maybe they haven't. Maybe it’s me that has changed. I've moved on and I've been too busy to look back. And maybe I've been happy enough with my life to not need to wallow in nostalgia.

posted by Imshin 21:19

Shark Blog is the very deserving Site of the Week on Israpundit. Stefan says really nice things about me there among other things, for some strange reason. Isn't that sweet?

And I'm on vacation from work as of today, till 3rd September. I've got lots of exciting activities planned for the girls and Bish, when he can get off. For instance, today the girls and I spent two hours and a quarter in the Consular Section of the British Embassy, (but then they went off for a real fun day with Our Sis). I am proud to announce that Misrad Hapnim, the Israeli Interior Ministry, at least the very busy North Tel Aviv branch near me, is way way more efficient, as far as serving the public is concerned, than the British Consular Section in Tel Aviv, although the clerk in the British Embassy is really lovely, helpful, and patient (but why on her own on a busy morning?).

Tomorrow the girls and I are off to Haifa as tourists. We'll see the sites, including the house I grew up in. I'm not sure they're interested in that particular tourist attraction, but they'll see it anyway. I haven't been in my old neighborhood for over ten years. I'm curious to see how small it got.

Oh, and top of the news here, in case you were wondering, is the latest Arik Sharon corruption affair (yawn).

posted by Imshin 22:12

The most interesting bit of news round here lately: Israeli fighter planes flew low over Assad's summer palace in Syria last week. He must have gotten the subtle hint because Hizbullah seems to have cooled it on the northern border. I wonder why Yediot Aharonot print version saw fit to bury the item on page 18.
posted by Imshin 19:28

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