April 2008
19 posts
Confusion.
I’m very confused tonight. It was a long day of meetings, a trip to Masada, a trip to the Dead Sea, more meetings… Much was discussed, including meeting our first Arab Israeli and hearing his point of view about the two-state solution (which he believes in.) We talked about issues of identity, masculinity, telling your own narrative and not accepting the one that is told for...
You can't know a place until you know it's...
So it may seem like I’m a little preoccupied by this tour guide, Shmuelik. I am.He reminds me of my late grandpa, Bud. For those of you reading this who don’t know me (is anybody reading this who doesn’t know me?), I was very close to my grandpa. So close I don’t even know what to write about him. Not close in the sense that we saw each other a lot. We didn’t....
Vat a day!
Hard to pick out one highlight of the day. We started by taking a helicopter ride from Jerusalem to Sderot and toured the local police precinct where they catalog all the Kasama rockets that are being fired from Hamas in Gaza four or five times a day. There have been over 4,000 rockets fired in eighteen months and over twenty people have died. Sderot looks like any small town in Los Angeles....
Chaim Herzog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia →
Mike Herzog’s father.
Brig. General Mike Herzog and MK Ephraim Sneh
Wow. Now this is what I’m talking about. Access. We went to the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv and met with Brigadeer General Mike Herzog, the Chief of Staff to Defense Minister Ehud Barak. A man in his late 40s, he came in in a beautiful black suit, blue shirt, great tie… This guy had style. Turns out his brother is a well-known politician and that his father was once the Israeli...
Open Left:: Specifics and Hope In Israel and... →
One of the members of our party, Chris Bowers, a blogger for openleft.com
Shmuelik, Our Tour Guide
A man in his 60s named Shmuelik (Samuel in English) is our tour guide. Little Samuel. And he is little. And has perfectly coiffed white hair and aviator glasses. I pass on two anecdotes: From the airport to Tel Aviv, we pass a Lubavitch compound a mile or so down the highway. When someone asks if the Rebbe (Rabbi Schneerson) ever lived on the compound, Shmuelik tells us that “The Rebbe,...
In the car to JFK
The driver asks where I’m flying to. ”Israel,” I say, and then quickly add, “for business.” Why? Because I don’t want him to think I’m a Jew? Because I’m scared? Of what? That he doesn’t like Jews? Somehow I think it’s related to my extreme fear of death. The subconscious is a fucker.
Book Choices
I decided upon The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz and a book about Johnny Owen, the boxer. One non-fiction Jew text, one about fighting. Seemed like a good pairing.
Nerves. Excitement.
Okay. So I’m excited. And nervous. I keep typing in “Israel” to Google and seeing what news stories come up. Just waiting for trouble. It’s not rational. I’ve been to Israel. Twice. During difficult times over there. Both times, I’ve felt very safe. But now’s different. Now I have Courtney and Eliza. Okay. And Bill the dog. (But I think...
The Israel litmus test - Los Angeles Times →
An interesting article about the charges from the American Jewish community that Obama is not pro-Israel. “The fact is (and many American Jews are reluctant to accept it), the conflict in the United States between Israel’s supporters and its detractors is over. And the pro-Israel community has won. No figure in American mainstream politics can be viable without being firmly...
In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till... →
Maybe this blogging thing isn’t such a great idea…
What is the Solomon Project?
I’m going to Israel. I’m going on what’s called “The Solomon Project” with The National Jewish Democratic Council and the most prominent bloggers in the United States. (I don’t mean this to be snarky but I didn’t know there were prominent bloggers. I just thought there were people with blogs. And the Huffington Post). The Solomon Project is a trip...
