Jerusalem Post says that according to Al-Hiyyat Abu Nidal was behind the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie.

Plans to demolish homes of the Jerusalem terrorists and strip them of their Israeli citizenship.

Look at these gorgeous kids in their little suits.

These are the first new immigrants from Yemen to Israel this year. The story says (Hebrew link) they came, with their parents and younger brother on a special flight from a country neighboring on Israel. It also says they've already been here on visits a few times, staying with relatives.

As I was saying, heaven.
My friend, A., and I spent most of Tuesday morning in a wayside cafe, trying to keep our four kids amused, while our husbands returned back home. Our friends’ car was heating up, so they went to change cars. Needless to say, we didn’t reach Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) that day. It had to wait for today, on the way back.

The late start only made the the place we were staying seem even more heavenly when we finally got there. The photos in this link don’t do it any justice. The bushes and trees surrounding the seven little villas this place offers have grown, since the photos were taken. The villas are now hiding among dense vegetation. There are little winding paths between the villas and a bubbling stream runs throughout. The villas are situated in a plum orchard and delicious ripe plums were literally falling into our hands. As is often the case in Israel, the proprietor turned out to have been a school friend of A.’s.

Wednesday found us in the waters of the nearby Snir River. This is one of the sources of the Jordan River that the Syrians tried to divert in the Sixties. The little river’s ice cold water and strong flow are very refreshing on a hot summer’s day. We went down the river to where it meets the Dan River. At the meeting point there is an overlooking fish restaurant. We just got out of the river, with our backpacks and wet clothes and sat down for a delicious meal (we’re vegetarians but A. and D. said the fish was very good).

In the afternoon, after a rest, we took the kids to ride horses in nearby moshav She’ar Yeshuv, where seventy-three army officers and soldiers were killed, five years ago, when two air force helicopters collided in the worst military accident Israel has ever seen. One of those killed had been in my year at school.

A funny thing happened while we were in the waters of the Snir. Bish and I both heard two booms. They were barely audible over the sound of the water. A. and her husband, D., didn’t seem to hear anything, and we didn’t tell them so as not to frighten them. We weren’t sure what it was. Maybe ant-aircraft. The Hizbullah sometimes target Israeli civilian planes in the area. It could also have been Israel firing on the Hizbullah. Whatever it was, it sounded quite far away. If Bish hadn’t heard it, too, I would have thought I’d imagined it.

But it didn’t bother us, or any of the many other people having a lovely time in the beautifully clear, cold water, surrounded by the green river vegetation, that fresh, watery smell in the air. It didn’t feel like it had anything to do with us at all.

I’m back from three days in heaven
More about it when I’ve rested.

I must just say that I was surprised to see my hits hadn’t dropped as much as I’d expected, probably because Renata at Balagan linked to me. She has recently made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) from Brazil, and her blog is a pleasure to read. It’s so fresh and full of enthusiasm. I hope she will be very happy here. We need sunny people like her.

Well, goodbye.
Everyone will be up soon, and we'll be on our way up north to Beit Hillel. We're planning to stop off at the Sea of Galilee on the way.

I haven't packed yet (I hear my mother gasping in shock), so I'll just go and throw a few things in a bag. By the way, in case you were worried about the fuel strike, it seems there's not a problem in the north of the country because they get their fuel directly from the oil refinery in Haifa (or something to that effect).

I'll probably be back and posting on Thursday. See you all then.

"He who controls the past controls the present." George Orwell, 1984.
GedankenPundit points out “the emergence of a new device on the modern battlefield: the repeal of history used as a weapon of war”.

“Most people believe Israel started the many wars it has fought with its neighbors”, he explains, “Few know that Israelis have been victims of terror attacks since long before 1967, or that Israel accepted the original 1948 UN Partition Plan while the Arab nations rejected it, or that the Palestinian refugees were displaced by wars started by Arabs, not expelled from their homes by Israel. Perhaps these myths are perpetuated by the ready access to information that the modern age has brought us; it has become so easy to obtain information that most people don't bother checking for corroborating reports from multiple sources. On the other hand, many people who should know better, such as university professors, also have fallen for the revisionist view of history”.

Another chance, yet again.
So we’re out of Bethlehem, encircling the town. Hamas and Islamic Jihad both pledge to continue the carnage. The PA is getting yet another chance to put things in order. Let’s hope they do it, this time.

Don’t laugh. I really hope they will.

Foreign press - still busy, lowering the numbers of Israeli dead. Reuters has it at 588. I think they’re loath to see it pass 600. Here are the true statistics, again.

Haaretz update: "Four people killed near Yeruham after vehicles they were travelling in crashed into a camel (Israel Radio)".

This sounds like a joke, but it isn't funny. Yeruham is near Dimona, in the Negev desert in the South of Israel. You know how often we travel down to Mitzpe Ramon, which is a bit further South. We're always amused by the signposts warning us of camels and sometimes deer (they have cute drawings of a camel or a deer. At one place, literally in the middle of nowhere, desert all around, there is a signpost warning of camel crossing and immediately afterwards, children crossing). But apparently there have been seven road accidents this year, caused by camels wandering into the road at night.

Like crazy Israeli drivers aren't enough!

Look what I just found!
Don't miss the amazing photos in the gallery. Needless to say, Bish, the girls and me will not be doing this up north tomorrow!

It's all song and dance and racist thuggery around here
according to an anti-Israel 15 minute cartoon-musical that will be shown at the Edinburgh international film festival. Made by an Israeli, of course, who else?

Strange statistics.
Get a load of this International Herald Tribune report. Suicide bombers are giving the Palestinians an edge, they say. The most potent weapon, they say. Keep up the good work, they sa… well, they don’t actually say that, but I got the feeling.

And get this: they say between 1,400 and 1,705 Palestinians have been estimated killed in the last 23 months (funny number, where did those 5 come from if it’s an estimate?) and between 563 and 610 Israelis have been killed. Even funnier (and I don't mean funny ha ha). Where did they get the Israeli numbers? We know exactly how many Israelis have been killed. Where does this 563 come from? Who aren’t they counting??? The soldiers? The settlers? The under-sevens? What is this? They say their estimates come from human rights organizations, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (those are the ones who smuggle arms in their ambulances) and the Israeli government. I don’t know that human rights organizations ever gave a damn about our dead, so maybe they’re getting the numbers of Israeli dead from the Red Crescent.

Here are the official Israeli statistics on Israeli casualties from 9/29/00 till the present day (it was updated yesterday).

An interview with Herbert Lom in the Guardian
About his part in the Ladykillers. (Have I mentioned it's one of my favorites?) Did someone die? Why are they talking about this movie all the time?

Some nicer stuff than dead terrorists:
According to today’s Haaretz “The United Jewish Communities (UJC) umbrella organization has donated $20 million to bolster security at educational institutions in Israel.” That’s nice. Thank you.

Also in Haaretz: Israel is sending aid to the Czech Republic to help the country deal with the recent severe flooding there.

Body of top Palestinian Nasty Abu Nidal
has apparently been found in a Baghdad apartment. He has been suffering from a severe illness for a few years now and it seems he shot himself. Here are a few of the many links to this guy enlightening us about his and his organization’s extreme nastiness. No one seems to have liked him, not even the Palestinians. I can't think why. People can be so mean. Oh, I’m sure IndyMedia Israel will have something nice to say in his memory.

I'll just have a look at the Arab media sites online to see if they're blaming his death on the Mossad yet. Nope, can't see anything yet.

Surprise, surprise! Reuters is calling him a Guerilla Chief!

Update: It has been reported that there were more than one gun wound. How did he manage that??? Israel TV channel one Arab affairs expert, Oded Granot, says Abu Nidal has been pronounced dead a few times before. I actually saw as much when I was googling. However, Granot commented that this time Abu Nidal seems more dead than on the previous occasions.

Haganah arms cache discovered after 54 years.
Another article Haaretz didn’t think would interest its English speaking readers:
A 15-year-old boy dug a flowerbed in Kibbutz Sdot Yam – and discovered a Haganah arms cache (which was called a slik) from the end of the British mandate. He was planning to turn a desolate corner at the back of the house dedicated to Hannah Senesh (Jewish poet and fighter. She made her home in the fledgling Kibbutz Sdot Yam before returning to her native Hungary to help Jews escape the Nazis, who captured and killed her) into a flowering garden. He hadn’t dug very far when he hit metal.

A Police sapper brought up an elaborate cache made out of two barrels, professionally galvanized against rust, 3m down. It contained some handguns, some Sten machine guns; some German “MG 34” machine guns (state of the art at the time); and some Tommy guns. Most of the weapons were in good shape and serviceable. At the time, the “sliks” were necessary, because the British would not allow the Jews in Palestine to arm themselves, besides the very minimum provided to Jewish policemen and Jewish British army soldiers, but without weapons they couldn’t protect themselves effectively against the Arabs.

Someone remembered Yehuda Michaeli, who was the “sliker” (responsible for concealing weapons), who was rather sad to see his slik had been discovered. He was asked if he knew about it and he said angrily “Of course!” Later, he explained that there where a few “sliks” that he and his partner Adi Zilberg (who has since passed away) prepared in their metal workshop and concealed, but refused to say how many. There were no maps, and they were the only ones who knew were they were. This particular “slik” was buried right before the establishment of the State of Israel, as a reserve to be used in an emergency, during the War of Independence.

Michaeli told no one of where the “sliks” where, not his wife, nor his children, fighters in elite army units. When asked why he never breathed a word, for 54 years, he said, “I am a “sliker”, I was sworn to secrecy, how could I tell?”


I was very taken with Hannah Senesh's story when I was growing up, and I read her diaries, stories and poems over and over again. I still get a bit choked up thinking about her. You can read more about her here.

The Hatzavim (Squill) are late to flower this year
Here are two of the first, photographed yesterday near Hadera.

The blooming should continue until the end of September.

Why does Haaretz only translate the boring stuff, and not things like this?

Another update on Israel Shamir
IB writes that "Israel Shamir's books are popular enough in Russia and he's a correspondent of "Pravda" in Israel."

About my claim that "the Russian community in Israel is mostly extremely right wing" he comments:

"The "Russian" community is extremely right-wing only in comparison with secular peace loving Israeli born Jews, and a lot of members of "Russian" community are ethnic Slavs (up to 20%) who simply have bought documents and hate Jews and Israel." Two good points.

I would like to thank IB for this information about Israel Shamir (I had been meaning to ask a Russian-born friend but hadn't got round to it) and about the "Russian" community (the inverted commas are in order because these people are now Israelis. I stand corrected).

I would also like to point out that I think the very large "Aliyah" (immigration) from the countries of the former Soviet Union has for the most part brought into Israel an influx of educated, hard-working, cultured people, and Israeli society is the better for it. When I point out their tendency to being right-wing it is in comparison to Israeli-born intellectuals, who have a strong tendency towards the left.

As is the way of the world, the "Russian" Aliyah has brought its share of problems, such as a certain amount of (particularly violent) criminals and a relatively large percentage of non-Jews. I am optimistic that, with the help of the community of Russian-born Israelis, we will be able to deal with these challenges.

I think it's rather scary that Israel Shamir's books are popular in Russia.

Update update: IB has requested to correct his former message. "I think I've exaggerated : there are up to 20%-30% non-Jews in the last aliya, but of course, not everybody of them has bought documents: Most of them have repatriated under the Law of Return, as grandchildren of Jews, children of Jewish fathers, or as spouses of lawful repatriants".

I'm really enjoying my new weather pixie (see left-side column). The wind seems to have change direction about four times today!

A reader reveals herself!
miki b says, "After the eighties and nineties come the "noughties". From the word "nought", a British version of zero".

So there we have it. The noughties. The naughty noughties?

Somehow, I'm not convinced. I guess it will have to do.

miki b also motivated me to widen the page a little. I've been wanting to do this for a while but hadn't dared for fear of mucking up the whole page and not being able to put it right.

I know you liked it the way it was before, Dad. Sorry. Maybe you'll get used to this, as well.