PrintJanuary 12, 2009
Israel's Weekend Refugees
Emek Refaim in the Jerusalem German Colony reminds me of the East Village, Georgetown, St. Michel, Belsize Park. The restaurant row is filled with people, in contrast to the empty streets of Be'er Sheva. Same country, but here, at least on the surface, quite a normal existence.
We needed a breather after 9 days of sirens and Grads during which my kids never went out. Thanks to very good friends from LA who have offered us the key of their house we have become weekend refugees, with class. View of the Old City from the living room,
On the way to the science museum a car stops parallel to ours and asks for directions to the museum. We are from Be'er Sheva says the driver. So are we, we answer. They were from the same street!
Most of the museums and sites all over the country offer free or half price admission to residents from the south, living around the Gaza Strip. The unintended side effect of Hamas' barrage is that thousands of Israeli kids are flocking to the museums and may one day boost Israeli and world science. As if the ratio of contributions of Jews vs. Muslims in Sciences is not disproportionate as it is : 145 Nobel laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics from 14 million Jews vs. 2 (two) out of 1.4 billion Muslims.
There is an exhibit at the museum on Einstein's life. One item particularly catches my attention: Einstein's letter to Roosevelt in 1939 warning him of the possibility of creating an atom bomb. The implications of that letter reverberate to this day and will afect us directly very soon. But then for a few minutes I forget the present and try to recall the step by step equations as they were in the Feynman's Lectures on Physics. The beauty of the physical world will always be there.
I use my daughter's laptop to connect to someone else's network . The news around the world is bad, the anti-Semitic disease is in its full swing. It will be impossible to shake them out of this hypnotic trance. Wilhelm Reich was right. The cartoon character in his Listen Little Man screams: We are all Hamas.
How easily things can turn from normal to surreal and back to quasi normal . But it may get worse .I look out of my window at the Dome of the Rock and the grey dome of the Al Aqsa. The Farthest Mosque. Not much has changed in 13 centuries. Same desire to dominate, same people as victims. The Israel Museum has a wonderful exhibit: Model of Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple Period, six centuries before the Muslims got into the habit of putting their places of worship on top of other people's holy sites.
It may get worse. Next time, if Ahmadinejad gets the bomb, the shelter will not protect us. Nor will a three day reprieve in Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad wants the return of the Mahdi. Period. Time is running short. Could it be that that the Gaza provocation is a distraction so that he can complete the Bomb? Elections Feb 10 is our last hope. They must not be postponed. Moshe Ya'alon seems to be the only Israeli politician who fully understands what is going on.
How to interpret the American abstention at the Security Council? We are alone against Hamas. Alone against Iran.
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In the car exiting Jerusalem Sunday (in Israel the week starts on Sunday) I tune in to the 8:00 a.m. news. Two Grads have just fallen on Be'er Sheva . Welcome home!
We needed a breather after 9 days of sirens and Grads during which my kids never went out. Thanks to very good friends from LA who have offered us the key of their house we have become weekend refugees, with class. View of the Old City from the living room,
On the way to the science museum a car stops parallel to ours and asks for directions to the museum. We are from Be'er Sheva says the driver. So are we, we answer. They were from the same street!
Most of the museums and sites all over the country offer free or half price admission to residents from the south, living around the Gaza Strip. The unintended side effect of Hamas' barrage is that thousands of Israeli kids are flocking to the museums and may one day boost Israeli and world science. As if the ratio of contributions of Jews vs. Muslims in Sciences is not disproportionate as it is : 145 Nobel laureates in Physics, Chemistry, Medicine and Economics from 14 million Jews vs. 2 (two) out of 1.4 billion Muslims.
There is an exhibit at the museum on Einstein's life. One item particularly catches my attention: Einstein's letter to Roosevelt in 1939 warning him of the possibility of creating an atom bomb. The implications of that letter reverberate to this day and will afect us directly very soon. But then for a few minutes I forget the present and try to recall the step by step equations as they were in the Feynman's Lectures on Physics. The beauty of the physical world will always be there.
I use my daughter's laptop to connect to someone else's network . The news around the world is bad, the anti-Semitic disease is in its full swing. It will be impossible to shake them out of this hypnotic trance. Wilhelm Reich was right. The cartoon character in his Listen Little Man screams: We are all Hamas.
How easily things can turn from normal to surreal and back to quasi normal . But it may get worse .I look out of my window at the Dome of the Rock and the grey dome of the Al Aqsa. The Farthest Mosque. Not much has changed in 13 centuries. Same desire to dominate, same people as victims. The Israel Museum has a wonderful exhibit: Model of Jerusalem in the Late Second Temple Period, six centuries before the Muslims got into the habit of putting their places of worship on top of other people's holy sites.
It may get worse. Next time, if Ahmadinejad gets the bomb, the shelter will not protect us. Nor will a three day reprieve in Jerusalem. Ahmadinejad wants the return of the Mahdi. Period. Time is running short. Could it be that that the Gaza provocation is a distraction so that he can complete the Bomb? Elections Feb 10 is our last hope. They must not be postponed. Moshe Ya'alon seems to be the only Israeli politician who fully understands what is going on.
How to interpret the American abstention at the Security Council? We are alone against Hamas. Alone against Iran.
=
In the car exiting Jerusalem Sunday (in Israel the week starts on Sunday) I tune in to the 8:00 a.m. news. Two Grads have just fallen on Be'er Sheva . Welcome home!
