My little Corner of the World

2006-05-19T17:47:00.000+03:00

Luke Skywalker's wedding ensemble

2006-05-03T19:28:00.000+03:00

Street performance for Independence Day

Maccabi!

2006-04-30T10:57:00.000+03:00

Tonight will be the final game of the European league final four, Maccabi Tel Aviv Vs. CSKA Moscow.
I'm not a big sports fan, but my father and brother got me into the European basketball league, espacially since we won two years straight, and now maybe for the third time?

Maccabi's stars are Will Solomon, Anthony Parker and Derrick Sharp. Occasionally they let an Israeli play. But all European teams are mixed like that, Americans, East Europeans and locals playing in the different teams, just like the NBA.

Europe's big on soccer, basketball isn't as popular. Countries that have a strong soccer league usually don't have good basketball teams, like Germany, France and the U.K. The only exception is Spain, that has 2 very strong teams (made it to the 3rd and 4th places this year).

I wish more people knew that kind of stuff about Israel, and not just the war-terrorism-things blowing up stuff. Anyways, wish us luck!

Dahab attack + Holocaust memorial day

2006-04-25T16:36:00.000+03:00

Today is Israel's national Holocaust Memorial Day. It means that restaurants and cinemas are closed for the day and there are only ceremonies and holocaust related movies on T.V.
The official ceremony last evening was interrupted by the news about the Dahab terrorist attack. Sinai and its beautiful beaches are to the common Israeli the cheapest and greatest vacation option. I myself haven't been there since 1999, but apparently many Israelis are not easily scared, just like this guy here, who survived the Nazis only to live in a Casino-less country.

Elections

2006-03-19T20:14:00.000+02:00

The first time I voted I was in the middle of my military service, on May 1996, after the Rabin assasination.

I missed the 1999 elections, exactly 3 years later, because I was in the middle of my European trip, somewhere in Austria.

I did vote the next time, January 2003, in the middle of the second Intifada.

And now I get to vote again, on tuesday, the middle of next week.

It seems like the winnig party will be Kadima, the party created by Sharon just before he had his stroke. This means the PM will be Olmert, who was once the mayor of Jerusalem. I don't plan to vote for them, and anyways a week's a long time in my part of the world, anything can happen.

A taste of the campaigning can be found here (no, it's not porn).

2006-03-16T09:34:00.000+02:00

Happy Purim!

2006-03-09T08:19:00.000+02:00

Pa'amon (bell) garden.

2006-02-19T20:44:00.000+02:00

Downtown. I crossed the street just to take this picture. I had to figure out how to get a focused picture in the dimming light, no tripod or anything. A beggar walks by, holding a plastic cup, asking for a shekel in russian accent. I mutter "just a second", finding a lamp post to lean on while clicking. "Oh, that's really more important" he says acidly, and hurries away.

Freedom of art 2

2006-02-19T10:54:00.000+02:00

Well, apparently someone else had my idea - only they bothered to actually make it happen - two local comic artists have anounced an antisemic cartoons contest. Notice the Muhammad-as-Jew cartoon.

Maybe I can find whatever artistic residue I have in me and enter the contest myself.

BTW, not all Israelis have a healthy sense of humor, so this competition is quite a brave thing.

Iran's part in saving Jewish children in WW2

2006-02-18T17:52:00.000+02:00

In 1942, it was possible to transfer about 1000 Jewish refugee children from Russia (they got there with their families from Eastern-Europe) to different ports in Iran, and they were gathered in a special camp in Teheran, to be transported to India, Yemen and finally Palestine about a year later. Those children are known as "The Teheran Children" . Iran, of course, had nothing active to do with this operation, organized by Jewish institutions and funded by Jewish philantropists, but the irony is there all the same.
Pictures (sorry, Hebrew)
And more on the subject from Yad Vashem (the Israeli holocaust memorial and archive).

2006-02-13T21:14:00.000+02:00

Seems like the only place where Jerusalem's different ethnic groups can co-exist is... the mall. We have our own "day of love" sometime in the summer, but why settle for one when you can have two?

2006-02-13T21:13:00.000+02:00

Today was Tu-Bishvat, a Jewish holiday that has eating dried fruits as part of its tradition.

2006-02-13T21:12:00.000+02:00

Tomorrow is Valentine's day, which somehow became the international day for buying stuff for your spouse.

Freedom of art

2006-02-13T09:22:00.000+02:00

The latest manifestation of the bad trip Iran seems to be going through these days is the Mshahari newspaper's holocaust cartoon competition. My first reaction is - why? what did we do now? How is this our fault again?

My second reaction - it has been done before. Not in the form of competition, but humor and the holocaust have met before. The holocaust isn't "holy", it's a tragedy, and dealing with it was done in many different ways - building memorials, writing its history, making movies (some of them comic - like Roberto Benini's or Mell Brooks's The Producers), in arts and yes - in jokes as well. There's a whole genre of Holocaust jokes which won't translate well to English, but are extremely dark humored.

So mixing humor and the holocaust is not a new thing, but I don't think that it's postmodernism that inspired this campaign. there's an attempt to get a reaction from Jewish organizations and show the double face of "free press", but whatever reaction they'll get won't be the burning of Iranian embassies. There isn't one in Israel, and Jews outside of Isael are too sissy to do that. Something else might happen - something they don't expect - reaffirmation of the idea of the freedom of the press, the arts and expression.

And I say, send your cartoons! My contribution to the the contest, had I been talented in this field, would be a drawing of a huge boot about to crush a very small creature, with a bubble coming out from him saying "please don't kill me". I realize it's not very funny, but I guess so was the holocaust.

We won't be so cooperative when it comes to the bomb, though.

For those who read Hebrew - a wonderful commentary about the one-dimensional, caricature-like Holocaust related art, which oversimplifies the tragedy into a black and white, good versus evil cartoon instead of deling with a more complex reality.

2006-02-12T21:32:00.000+02:00

Gamla - up on the Golan heights, overlooking the sea of Galilee lies this fortress. The most famous story involving this place is its part in the Jewish revolt against the Romans around 68 A.D. After a long seige and some bloody fighting the city was taken by the Romans, and the remaining Jewish population threw themselves down the cliff. This is a story that echoes the one of Massada, both of them are myths which modern Zionism adopted as stories of bravery. Thanks to post modernist thinking, fighting lost causes to the death is not a common theme here any more, but anyone wanting to understand the recent settlers' behaviour should keep that in mind - these myths were a part of our education, but to them the part of the Romans is played these days by their own state.
More about the history of this place: http://mosaic.lk.net/g-gamla.html

2006-01-30T21:13:00.000+02:00

Someone said it looks sexy.

2006-01-30T21:11:00.000+02:00

These were taken on the weekend following Sharon's hospitalization. I guess they were shooting the common people's reaction to the current event. Lucky for me , I'm not common.

2006-01-30T21:08:00.000+02:00

You can hide from the news, but the news can't hide from you.

2005-12-23T16:35:00.000+02:00

"Whoever did not see Jerusalem in its days of glory, never saw a beautiful city in their life."
(Talmud: Succah 51b)

2005-12-23T16:27:00.000+02:00

Tha amazigly beautiful "Rising sun, melting moon" modern Japanese art exhibition at the museum.

2005-12-23T16:25:00.001+02:00

Ahava (love) by Robert Indiana. at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

2005-12-23T16:25:00.000+02:00

Apsis of the Dormition Church, old city of Jerusalem. Apparently Mary took a nap here. I was there for a concert.

2005-09-26T00:50:00.000+03:00

��

2005-09-26T00:49:00.000+03:00

��

2005-09-25T21:30:00.000+03:00

Some modern watch towers. You can never have too many of them.