Israeli Mom

It’s pretty bleak out there, politically, these days. I don’t recall
the last time I talked to anyone, left or right, Jewish or Arab, who
mentioned any light in the end of the tunnel. Pretty much everyone is
busy with slinging mud at the other side, in an endless cycle of blame
laying. The sad thing, of course, is that both sides are often right
in their blame laying, as both sides have performed their share of
atrocities. Both sides have bodies of dead children to put on display,
cry “foul” and justify their own actions with.

Am I the only one seeing the symmetry in that? I know I’m going to get
it for even mentioning symmetry, and that’s the beauty of the
symmetry: people on both sides of the fence will condemn me for daring
to see any…

Anyway, I decided to write an optimistic post and explain why the
notoriously naive IsraeliMom believes in the old John Lennon “Give
Peace a Chance”. This is going to be a therapeutic post, so please
bare with me.

Back in 1993, having graduated from university (Atuda), I was drafted
into active service the IDF. I was quite anti-military, as left-winged
then as I am today, and preferred to stay away from contributing to
the “war effort”. Family and social pressures, and my own signing of
documents, meant I was going to go through with it anyway, albeit not
highly motivated.

Something else happened back then in September 1993. Peace broke. The
IDF as most of the “establishment” was faced with a new set of orders
following the “Declaration of Principles” signed by Rabin and Arafat.
I was fortunate to have been thrown right into the middle of it all -
into the IDF’s peace administration, as it was then called.

It was pretty amazing. For several years, I have had the rare
opportunity of witnessing the peace process “on ground level”. I saw
Palestinian warriors and Israeli combat officers literally shake their
war-scarred hands and sitting down to the table to talk about joint
security arrangements. I saw the way joint-security mechanisms were
put into place with joint patrols of Palestinians and Israelis taking
place. People on both sides seem to have forgotten those, but they
were real. They did happen. Agreements kept on being created. I just
Googled some words and it brought back some nice memories from my
early 20’s. Long days and nights of work on long legal documents - and
all with a sense of wonder and utmost dedication - we were making it
happen.

Even more amazing was watching the personal interaction between
Israeli officers and their Palestinian counterparts. It was friendly
and professional and all carried out in that local mix of Arabic,
Hebrew and English. As a side note, let me say that when it comes to
debating the problems of the Middle East, I have always found it
easier to talk to Arabs, and specifically Palestinians. I feel that
Israelis and Palestinians have a lot in common and share a lot more
than many of them would care to admit.

As for the negotiations, the rest, as they say, is history. On both
sides, extremists managed to bring the dialogue to a halt. Palestinian
suicide bombers joined hands with the Jewish Yigal Amirs to put an end
to the peace process and threw us all back into the throes of Intifada
and oppression. But for a brief historical moment, it was there. I saw
it, with my own eyes. It’s doable and I believe that we can do it
again. Why? because Israel is here to stay and the Palestinians are
here to stay and there is no other choice other than to find that way
again to living together and providing people on both sides a safe,
prosperous life.

There is a lot of anger on both sides. Disappointment, and some would
say disillusionment. Sigh. This will get us nowhere. We all need to get
back to our senses at some point and get back to the sane dialogue
these two wonderful and special local Middle Eastern tribes here can
and should have.

ETA: I wasn’t sure whether or not to post this. Thanking my good friend Steve for reading this post and encouraging to move ahead and hit “publish”. I am guessing a lot of people on both sides will not like the comparison and claim for symmetry - that too would be symmetrical, probably…

Sharing some pictures today. First, my boys showing their passion for babies in a recent family get-together. Both Ron and Dan simply adore babies. They really wanted a little brother or sister, but fortunately, my brother-in-law and his lovely wife live nextdoor and they just provided us with a sweet sweet baby for the boys to enjoy!

On to more “manly” stuff :p Congratulations to my Ron on finishing his year of Krav Maga training with a yellow belt! I’m impressed with the dedication and preserverence! Krav Maga is a type of Martial Arts thing which was actually developed in Israel. It’s a mix of various forms of traditional martial arts along with some common sense.

And this also marks the end of the school year. No more kindergarten for us - I can’t believe I’m going to have two school boys here next year! Time does fly!

As the world mourns the death of Michael Jackson, I think this might be a good time to share my own personal encounter with the legendary pop idol. This surreal encounter took place in an IDF base, of all places. Surreal, but real.

I was a young cadette in officer’s school sometime during the summer of 1993. We were all busy with our courses, with a daily routine that revolves around getting your room and gun ready for the inspections, studying for tests and generally being moved from point A to point B in a hot and dusty all-female base where the women’s officers course used to take place back then.  For those who know it, I’m talking about “Bahd 12″.

We knew Michael Jackson had been visiting Israel at the time, but believe me, nothing prepared us for that weird order of the day… as during morning inspection, one of our instructors solmenly announced we’re going to have a special inspection that day - with Michael Jackson overseeing our drills.

Did I say “surreal” already?

A group of the girls was chosen to do the special drills for General Pop and they had to practice all day long in the sun. When the time came, we all had to leave our guns behind, as MJ’s security folks didn’t appreciate him standing in front of several hundreds teenage girls armed with rifles.

The visit itself was fairly short. He was in a big fancy car, and the girls paraded in front of him with the rest of us sitting in the arena cheering. I think what we liked best about the whole thing was being allowed to cheer and shout for a while, for whom most of us couldn’t care less (although there were a few fans among us who were truly excited).

After the parade, the fancy car itself drove forward and Michael, never leaving the car, waved at us. I still remember that white glove of his waving.  More cheers, louder this time.  And then he drove away.

So, there you go. I am hoping this isn’t classified material by now

We’re so luck to be living 10 minutes away from the beach (although that holds true for most of the Israeli population, spread along the coastal plains). Nothing like an evening spent at the Mediterranean seaside, warm with a nice breeze and wonderfully warm water. So far, no jellyfish recorded on “our beach” so we keep going.

Living across from Ceasaria, we usually go to the Aquaduct  beach there. It’s named after the ancient Roman Aquaduct which was part of the water system of ancient Ceasaria. Pretty neat landscape mark - they sure were good builders as it’s still standing strong.

So, sharing some pictures from our latest beach excursion, with night time BBQ included.

That’s a view of the beach with the aquaduct in the background:

Here’s a closer look at the Aquaduct:

Pics of the kids playing with their Spiderman boards at the beach:

Our humble hot dogs (for the kids) and zucchini BBQ:

Gilad Shalit is a huge topic in Israel, and today we mark three years since he was taken hostage by Hamas.

Now, I do realize we have thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, but there are some major differences. There is no symmetry here.

1. Gilad is held hostage. Hamas has presented Israel with a list of demands which they want met before Gilad is released. They’re not talking about mutual release of prisoners if and when we reach some sort of a peaceful agreement. They are talking about a list of demands, a ransom, if you like, and unrelated to anything that has peace or even a ceasefire in it.

2. Gilad is held with no trial or even a POW status. The Palestinians in Israeli jails are all accounted for. Those who were arrested faced some form of a systematic legal procedure. Am I pleased with the way those procedures are carried out? Not really, but at least they are there.

3. Gilad has had no contact with his family or with red cross representatives. Palestinian prisoners in Israel have routine contact with the Red Cross and other various organizations. Their families know where they are held and in which conditions. Gilad’s family doesn’t have a clue where their son is or how he’s being treated.

Yea, I wish for this war to end and for all prisoners, on both sides, to be re-united with their families. I also feel a special commitment towards Gilad, who went into military service to protect me and my family and was kidnapped into a dark hole. He is not held as a prisoner of war, as he should have been. No Geneva rules are applied to him by Hamas. He and his family deserve better than that.

With all due respect to Hamas - and I don’t have a lot of it - as long as you keep hostages, instead of prisoners of war, it will be hard to get the world to treat you as something different than terrorists.

Yes, I wish the Israeli government would negotiate directly with Hamas. Not just about Gilad, but about everything else too. Regardless of that, I think the international community should apply more pressure on Hamas to either give Gilad Shalit the basic rights he deserves as a prioner of war, or if they are unable to do that - to let him go.

One benefit of direct communication via the Internet is that you get to hear what people on the other side actually think. Feeding on your own side’s mainstream media sources hardly ever reflects that.

Today, while tweeting with Sarah from Ramallah, we got to the topic of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. When I mentioned that Gaza was a bad precendent for withdrawl, she mentioned that “Gaza doesn’t count. It was not a “withdrawl”; they got the settlers out for other reaons (mostly water) and sealed Gaza up.”

“Water???” That was my initial reaction. Never sure if I’m really up to things, I went and asked IsraeliDad, who came back with the same “Huh? Water???” reaction. I asked, and Sarah was kind enough to point me in the direction of a few articles about the topic.

One of them, by an Israeli reporter who most Palestinians seem to respect, Amira Hess, explained the issue in this article:

On the eve of the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza Strip, two assumptions relating to water sources took wing among Palestinians. The first: behind Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to leave the Strip lies the fact that the supply of potable water, which was consumed almost exclusively by the settlers, has dwindled. The second: once the settlers leave, the Palestinians’ water problems have been solved.

These assumptions have been circulating from one neighborhood to the next and from one conversation to the next, acquiring credibility, and finally turning into solid truths in the eyes of many. And it is hard to argue, especially against the second, “positive” assumption.

The serious shortage of water in the Gaza Strip is apparently fertile ground for the creation of legends - a kind of refuge from the harsh reality.

I have to say, it never ceases to amaze me, the misperceptions and misconceptions that each side holds about the other and sees it as solid truth. Today I’ve learnt that many Palestinians truly believe that Israel withdrew from Gaza because the settlers ran out of pottable water.

Ok, as the joke goes, now go tell them you don’t have a sister… Let’s see -

1. There is water shortage all over Israel - no one is planning to withdraw out of Tel Aviv or Beer Sheva due to that.

2. If water had been the problem for the settlers - providing them with water wouldn’t have been much of a problem. Pipes, tankers, you name it - Israel manages to get water to tens of thousands of its people living in the desert and to move water all over the country.

3. If we were really pressed for water, we would have conquered Lebanon…. Kidding! Kidding! Joke alert! It would be an internal joke here, I guess. When I learnt that people in the Arab world think that Israel was after the water of Lebanon, I was just as surprised. On a more serious note, Israel is at the spearhead of water desalinastion solutions. It’s where we look towards and it’s so much cheaper than running wars for water.

Lord knows there have been reasons enough to withdraw from Gaza, totally unrelated to water. Now, I don’t claim to have had access to Sharon’s mind, but as an Israeli citizen, I can tell you that the entire country here was sure that the intent was to move towards a total peace agreement. Talks were underway about the next settlements to be evacuated in the West Bank. Gaza was meant to be a test case. Some were overjoyed about the possibility of moving towards a complete peace agreement and total withdrawal. Others were appaled and terrified. They all thought this was where we were going though.

It’s high time for a diet here. I gained over 10 pounds during our vacation in the US. Blaming Masters Burt Baskin and Irve Robbins won’t help me lose them (although they are liable for at least a couple of those pounds!). So, time to get serious and get back to my low-carb diet - the only one that seems to be working for me.

This time, I’ll do it with a twist. Since my main problem has always been accountability, I’ll try and tweet about anything and everything I eat, and about exercise too. My twitter account is here, in case you want to follow:

https://twitter.com/israelimom

And please, if you’re on twitter,  do follow me and provide feedback! If you’re not an MLM spammer or quote bot, I’ll probably follow back too.

The principles for my diet are simple enough. Based on several versions of low-carb/low glycemic index diets, they are:

1. A small meal or snack every three hours - nothing in between.

2. Each meal/snack should include about 30 grams of carbs - no more than 30 grams of carbs per three hours slot.

3. Each 30 grams of carbs must be accompanied by at least 15 grams of protein - to slow down carb absorption.

4. Only foods with low or medium glycemic-index values. Essentially, that means no white flour, no sugar, no white rice, no potatoes and no corn.

That’s about it, really. Last time I followed this routine for six months, I lost 40 pounds. Time to get back into it!

I’ve switched over to Google’s Chrome following what I’m sure was unbiased guidance from our friend who works for/at Google. It’s not even been a full day and I’m very happy with the change! I liked my Firefox alright, but lately it began doing the undoable and freezing on me in mid-browsing. It didn’t actually crash, just took time off for about 10 seconds at a time providing me with a “not responding” message in the top window bar. Ten seconds is eternity in browsing time, so something had to be done.

Fortunately, over the BBQ grill, as I was laying the marinated zuchini slices and our friend, the carnivore, was laying the hot dogs, we got to talking abotu browsers and he reminded me of that new Google browser I had neglected to try. So, first thing this morning, I downloaded and installed Chrome - very fast and easy install - and imported everything from Firefox into it. So far, knock on wood and spit three times, everything is working just fine. Some nice features too, so Chrome gets the thumbs up from me.

It’s a very techie couple of days all in all, in between getting myself acquainted with Twitter (hey, I’m a late bloomer, sue me) and finally upgrading our connection to 4MB (from 2). Not a painless upgrade either, as I’ve had the router crash the connection at least five times today already.

Ahhh, just had to do some typing and go beyond 140 characters - it feels sooooo gooood!

Not a typo, actually. We went to Tel Aviv this evening, but it was after the pride parade has pretty much run its course, so we just got to see a few “tails”.

We actually ventured out to the local sin city for a movie earlier. Terminator Salvation was too dark and depressing (plus too many holes in the plot), so we felt some fresh sea breeze would be nice. Walking along the beach promenade during sunset was just the thing - lovely.

Around Gordon beach in Tel Aviv, there were still lots of rainbow flags and some people dancing. Not too many though. I wish I had my camera with me as there were some very blog-worthy images to be captured… Huge rainbow flags with the Star of David in the middle… An IDF soldier in uniform with a rainbow flag on his shoulders… Gay couples walking hand in hand alongside religious Muslim women from Jaffa in their head covers… Some things you can only see in Israel

Picking up on my list of differences between America and Israel. Last time I discussed roads infrastructure, so only makes sense to talk about the cars and the drivers today.

So, yeah, everyone knows by now that American cars are generally huge, compared to ours. We drove a humble Dodge Avenger which is larger than the family car we have here at home (a Hyundai Accent). Most cars around us in California were larger, with tons of SUV’s and trucks all over the place.

American cars lack one crucial feature though, one that we have virtually on any car in Israel. It’s so simple and so brilliant: lines of rubber, usually black, stuck along the sides of the car:

So simple, so sensible. What it means is that when you park alongside another car and someone opens their door to get out, it won’t scratch your car. In America, you have to be careful when you open the door - or else you scratch some big shot new truck parked next to you. Tried and tested, trust me.

As for the drivers, or rather the driving culture, well, things aren’t as bad as in Israel, but American drivers, particularly in LA seemed fairly road-aggressive to me. I was expecting the English road mentality. In the UK, when you want to change lanes, you just have to signal and drivers immidiately slow down to make room for new. Well, doesn’t really work in the US, but that’s fine. In Israel, you signal and they hit the pedal to make sure you can NOT squeeze in.

Overall, driving in the US wasn’t so bad, once I got the hang of the huge intersections. Fast, aggressive but fairly orderly. As a veteran of Israel driving, I really enjoyed driving in America and even the long distances were easy to cross.