Israeli Mom

I haven’t posted in a few weeks and before resuming normal service, I want to explain why I was taking time off.

It all started with the Gaza flotilla.

People on Twitter began attacking me like I was the head of Shin 13 (the Israeli Seals). I’m used to attacks on Israel, but the flotilla incident kicked it up a few notches and frankly, made me sick.

Now, obviously, nobody knew too many actual facts on the day. Fog of war, if you like, even heavier at sea. Not that is stopped some people from going ballistic – who cares about facts when you already have an opinion, right?

And I guess this is where I really annoyed some people. Some extreme left-wingers were jumping of joy, or so it seemed. At last, they got what in their mind’s eye was solid proof of the true form of Zionism – they shoot peace activists too. Poor harmless peace activists doing nothing more than carrying food and medicine for the children of Gaza. And there I was, their pet Zionist who wouldn’t acknowledge the sheer evilness of the deed.

I didn’t actually support the Israeli response to the flotilla, but I refused to play along to the “evil Zionists” mantra. For one thing, I generally do not believe the world is black and white. It upsets people who like to brand one side – either side – as cosmic dark forces of the devil.

Which leads me to the more general notion I try to convey, not always successfully: I am proud to be Israeli and a Zionist, even though I completely and totally do not support the current Israeli government and its actions. I am me, myself. Not the Israeli government.

I think the current government’s actions are anything but real Zionism. They contradict the Zionist idea and its ideals. And I can assure you, I am not the only one who feels this way. This is what Zionism really is.

So, there. It wasn’t much fun being called names, and it made me stay away from blogging and from Twitter for a while. I just don’t need the headache and heartache. I do that occasionally, take these breaks, and then after awhile, I get back into the swing of it all.

Oh, and I’ve been busy doing other things, like planning our big trip to the US next year! I now have a plan for 90 days in the West Coast – beginning in San Francisco and ending there. I will post it soon for feedback and reviews. So much more fun than writing about politics!

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I often get questions from people about traveling in Israel. A common question is about using public transportation, buses and trains while touring Israel.

The answer, as always with this country, is complicated. Let’s start on a positive note: Yes, you can use public transportation in Israel.

Buses in Israel

Israel has a fairly extensive system of buses covering practically every city, town and village (or kibbutz!). This doesn’t necessarily mean frequent buses. In some places, usually inside big cities, buses run every 7-10 minutes. In remote areas, some villages may have a bus going through only once or twice a day.

The buses are modern and most won’t be overcrowded, although you could end up standing  if you go during rush hours. Using buses requires careful planning, but it’s doable, especially if you’re not in a hurry.

Prices vary according to the length of your journey. Expect to pay under 10 shekels for most in-city buses and 30-80 shekels going in between cities and towns. Children under 5 don’t pay, and there are discounts for senior citizens.

Here’s a link to the website that has the timetables for all the bus companies:

Bus Routes in Israel – in English

Trains in Israel

Trains will get you anywhere from Be’er Sheva in the south to Nahariya  in the north, with several stations in Tel Aviv in the middle.

Trains usually go on time (more or less) and you travel in modern air-conditioned carriages. It can get crowded on Sundays and Thursdays and during rush hour.  Expect to see a lot of soldiers on the train during these times – many armed. Don’t worry, they’re just our kids going back to base or back home.

There is also a regular and reliable service going to Ben Gurion Airport and you can get from the airport to Tel Aviv and most other stations day or night using the train. Very convenient, as the train gets right inside the terminal.

You could even get to Jerusalem on a train, although the route is curvy and slow and it takes several hours to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem this way (as opposed to 45 minutes by bus).

Train tickets cost anything between 25-50 shekels, with discounts available for senior citizens.

Israel Railways website – with timetables and routes.

Taxis in Israel

Cabs, or taxis, are available in every big and medium-sized city and town. They usually wait for passengers in designated places at central bus stations and near train stations. You can also hail a taxi on the street and you can phone in for one.

Prices vary according to the length of your trip. Israelis don’t usually tip cab drivers, though you may want to if you have a lot of luggage and you get a good service.

You will almost always be offered a fixed rate for your ride, but you can ask to have the meter running. It’s illegal for the driver to refuse so you can insist. As with cab drivers worldwide, there is always a risk of them overcharging (either with a high fixed rate, or just “taking the longer route” with the meter running). Tip: tell them in advance that you’re going to need a tax receipt. That way they know they can be traced if they cheated you.

Your chances of getting a good service are better when you go with a recognized operator. Avoid people who “hassle” you to go with them as you go out of a train or bus station. Keep walking until you get to the official taxi point, which is signposted and supervised. Alternatively, if you’re not coming out of a train/bus station, call in for a taxi.

So, Should You Rent a Car or Use Public Transportation in Israel?

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should, right?

I think a car would definitely be more convenient. Israel is a small country and you can do a lot of sightseeing in one day with a car. Driving for 20-30 minutes will get you from one attraction to another so that you could visit several places on the same day.

For example, with a car, you can head out of Tel Aviv and be in Nazareth in an hour and a half, visit the town and be at the Sea of Galilee half an hour later. Travel the various sites along the coast of the lake, including Capernaum and Tabgha, each about 10 minutes away from the other in driving distance.  Then drive on to Sefad, the Upper Galilee, the Hula Nature Reserve and even the Golan Heights and you can even drive back to your hotel in Tel Aviv. All in the same day without rushing it too much.

You just can’t do that with a bus. You’d be lucky to do both Nazareth and a bit of the Sea of Galilee and head back to the center. And you’re likely to be spending a couple of hours at least just waiting for your bus to arrive.

Car rental can be expensive though, so you need to consider your options.

Here are some things to consider -

• The length of your visit – if you have several weeks and intend on taking it slowly, you can certainly rely on trains, buses and the occasional taxi. However, if you want to cram a lot of sightseeing into a week or two, you would definitely need a car.
• Traveling with children – if you travel with kids, you probably want a car where you can keep a change of clothes, toys, snacks etc. You’d want to avoid the potential waiting times at various bus stations, some of which could be remote.
• Shabbat (Saturday) – trains and buses stop on Saturdays, the Jewish Shabbat. Service stops on Friday afternoon and resumed either on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. If you rely on public transportation, you should plan on spending Fridays and Saturdays in a big city where you can get around on foot or with a taxi.

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I love cheesecake, myself. I’m definitely making one for tomorrow, only it’s going to be a non-dairy cheesecake. Just wanted to clarify, before diving head first into the heavy stuff

What’s Shavu’ot Anyway?

Shavu’ot or Shavuot, or if you like, in the traditional Yiddish/American weird pronunciation, Shavuos, is a Jewish holiday. Literally meaning “weeks” in Hebrew it is also known as the Festival of Weeks. I think I covered all possible Google search terms here

This holiday is about two things -

1. It’s a traditional harvest festival. The focus is on wheat harvesting, but also about the first fruit and vegetables of summertime. Kibbutzim have, or used to have, huge processions for Shavuot showing off the fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as the young lambs, calves and babies born on that year.

2. It’s a celebration of being given the Torah by God, supposedly on this date some thousands of years ago. Religious Jews congregate in synagogues tonight in a prayer marathon, with the idea that heaven opens up at midnight. Or something along those lines – can’t say I’ve ever done that myself.

So, What Do We Eat on Shavu’ot?

I don’t know about gentiles, or even about Jews abroad, but here in Israel, we Jews have special foods for every occasion. Special pastries and sweets are usually the key markers of Jewish religious festivals.

Hannuka? Have a doughnut! Purim? Stuff yourself with poppyseed filled cookies (Ozen Haman)! Rosh HaShana? Just eat as much as you can on dinner and don’t forget to have some honey cake.

Ask any kid what do we have on Shavu’ot and they’ll tell you right away: cheesecake! Also, cheese and dairy puddings and if your Mom is really into it, then blintzes are on the menu as well.

Cheesecake???

Here’s the thing though – dairy products are a fairly recent addition to Shavu’ot. The holiday of harvest, remember? and of the first fruit and vegetable of the season. I checked on wikipedia and it says this on the practice of consuming dairy products on Shavuot -

One explanation for the consumption of dairy foods on this holiday is that the Israelites had not yet received the Torah, with its laws of shechita (ritual slaughtering of animals). As the food they had prepared beforehand was not in accordance with these laws, they opted to eat simple dairy meals to honor the holiday. Some say it harks back to King Solomon’s portrayal of the Torah as “honey and milk are under your tongue” (Song of Songs 4:11).

Well, I am all for having a non-meat meal for a holiday. A welcome change in the menu, as far as I’m concerned. The only problem is that it does not explain the need to consume milk-based products.

I highly suspect that the ancient Israelites ever had cheesecake. Or blintzes for that matter. A meal without meat would have been based on grains, legume, nuts, vegetables and fruit.

Wanna know where the cheesecake came from? Same place shopping for gifts entered Christmas and heart-shaped chocolates became one with St. Valentine’s Day. It’s called marketing.

The milk manufacturers (love the term, as if they were the cows) lobby is huge here. Agri-industrialists that pride themselves on using a variety of methods, including but not limited to, genetic selection, to increase milk production in cows to extremely high levels. Extreme is the key word here. Inhumane is another word. Antibiotics for injured sick over sized udders is another. Ok, key phrase there, not word, so I’ll give you hormones as another single word. Overcrowded sheds – is that one word or a phrase? How about horn amputation with no anesthesia?

But hey, who cares, as long as we can have our cheesecake!

Well, not for me this year. This year, IsraeliDad and myself are celebrating the first year of going vegan. Tomorrow, we shall have a Shavuot feast that will be entirely vegan. Cheesecake will be made of tofu cream, and dishes will focus on grains and vegetables. Back to the roots, if you like.

Hopefully, the time will come when enough people will demand better treatment for farm animals and we shall see more humane standards introduced. I don’t really care about animal rights, myself, only about animal welfare. Cows should receive the same consideration of pain and stress as our cats and dogs. That’s all. When that happens, I’ll be glad to go back to a real cheesecake.

Happy Shavuot everyone!

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The decision has been made. The Universe willing, we’ll be going on a road trip in the US and Canada in the summer of 2011.

I am working on a general plan these days, just to see that the idea is feasible, in terms of driving distances, things to do etc. Our time frame is a flexible three months.

The general plan looks something like this -

1. Arriving at LA. Taking a few days to get over the jet lag and then heading out to –
2. The Grand Canyon
3. Page, Arizona (Lake Powell)
4. Zion and Bryce National Parks, Utah
5. Option A: Canyonlands and Arches National Parks
6. Option B: Monument Valley and Mesa Verde National Park, Utah & Durango, Colorado
7. Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Colorado
8. Colorado Springs
9. Denver
10. Mt Rocky National Park
11. Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.
12. Glacier National Park
13. Calgary, Canada
14. Edmonton
15. Jasper National Park
16. Banff and nearby Parks to the west of Banff
17. Vancouver
18. Victoria and Vancouver Island
19. Olympic National Park, Washington, US
20. Seattle
21. Portland, Oregon
22. Crater Lake National Park
23. Road 101 along the coast
24. San Francisco and the Bay Area
25. Yosemite National Park
26. Road 101 again
27. Los Angeles

Whew.

This is a rough sketch, of course. I am working on pinning it down on a map these days (thank you Google Maps!). I have already discovered that the distances are HUGE. I mean, they’re even longer than what you might think, because the roads are winding.

I have no idea how people used to go on road trips before the days of the Internet. I am continuously hooked up to several sites these days, Trip Advisor, Google Maps and a local traveling forum in Hebrew. The National Parks site is also visited frequently, as well as various State Parks sites.

So, now you all know where I disappeared to.

If you have ideas, thoughts, tips or if you think you’d like to meet us along the way – leave me a comment here!

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Israeli Independence Day

My apologies for another “heavy duty” post today. It’s sort of a “heavy” week here in Israel, with the Holocaust Memorial Day, followed a week later by the Memorial Day for the fallen soldiers and then, the very next day, Independence Day.

Today is Memorial Day. The saddest day in the year in Israel, as we mourn the loss of so many lives to the war. Memorial Day is as personal and intimate as it can be. Practically everyone has either lost someone, and/or knows many people who have. People go to work, but are allowed time off work to visit the cemeteries where dear ones are buried and where services are held today at 11.

In about 12 hours though, everything changes. Memorial Day is over and bam! It’s Independence Day! Celebrations galore, with shows, parades and fireworks. It’s weird, but you get used to it. In a way, it makes you “snap out” of what otherwise would turn into a national depression.

The Palestinian Naqba Day

As Independence Day sets in, many Palestinians choose to mark Naqba Day – the Day of the Catastrophe. It’s their day of national mourning. And this is actually what I wanted to discuss in this post.

I can relate to the aspect of Naqba Day which mourns what happened to the Palestinians in 1948. It doesn’t matter if they fled the country or were expelled, the fact remains that entire communities were uprooted and turned into refugees. A tragedy, not only on the national level, but on a very personal level as well.

The date for the Israeli Day of Independence was chosen because it’s the day when the “Declaration of Independence” was signed. It really is the date of the establishment of the State of Israel.

What about the Naqba? If it’s about the suffering of the Palestinian people, about their humane catastrophe – an aspect I think more Jewish Israelis should be aware of – then it should be commemorated sometime towards the end of May and the beginning of June.

When you set it up specifically on Israel’s Independence Day – following neither the Gregorian nor the Muslim calendar but the Jewish calendar! – you are sending us a different message. You are saying that the tragedy isn’t in the uprooting of people, but in the very existence of Israel.

That’s a big problem when it comes to the Israeli-Arabs – 20% of Israel’s population, full fledged citizens. It’s a huge obstacle in the way of peaceful co-existence. Here’s why -

1. It means Jewish Israelis can never join their Palestinian friends in mourning the tragedy of the Palestinian people. Not only because they’re busy BBQ’ing, but because you’re making it into an anti-Israel day.

2. It means 20% of the population is not supposed to identify with the official Day of Independence. There are Arab soldiers in the IDF for example, where does that put them?

3. It makes the entire thing into a contest, IMO. I see a lot of Arab families in our local Independence Day celebrations. They come in from nearby villages and towns in Wadi Ara – I guess their kids want to see the fireworks too. Why make them choose? Why can’t they have a day respecting their national tragedy – why can’t we all have a day commemorating that?

I respectfully call out to my fellow citizens, the Palestinians who make up 20% of the population of our country – let’s unite around human suffering, let’s focus on finding common grounds, rather than on separation and hatred.

I hope that someday, Israeli Arab and Jewish children will learn at schools together. They will celebrate the Day of Independence together, and they will commemorate Naqba Day together – on different dates.

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Like many other Israelis, I try to stay away from the media on Yom Ha’Shoah – National Holocaust Day. I try very hard to avoid watching even a single documentary about the Holocaust. I’ve had enough and more then.

I’m a member of what they call the “third generation”.

Basically, for Israelis, this is how it goes -

First Generation – the people who went through the holocaust (or have had friends/family who have) and arrived in Israel. Most of them re-married and started new families.

Second Generation – their kids, who knew something horrible had happened, but didn’t get the details until much later. Their childhood was in the shadow of “that thing” which there parents never spoke of.

Third Generation – that’s us, who went through the crazy backlash of the 1970′s and 1980′s where schools were obsessed with the holocaust. As a kid, I’ve been through so many survivors’ testimonies, holocaust lessons, holocaust books (K. Zetnik anyone?) and movies, I think I have developed my own version of post traumatic stress syndrome from it all.

I vividly recall this one time where we were sent to a seminar in Kibbutz Lohamei Ha’Geta’ot – Fighters of the Ghettos. It was a nightmare. I’m not even sure how old we were – I suspect that in our early teens. We went through three days of constant “holocaust studies”. Evenings were dedicated to watching holocaust movies.

I don’t think it’s taking it too far, when I say I was scarred for life.

And the pendulum swings again. Myself, like many other parents of my generation, are far more cautious when it comes to telling our children about the holocaust. There will be a day when they will learn all the gory details. When they’re old enough, but not too soon.

I will share with them how their great grandmother was murdered. Under Nazi supervision, Polish workers poured barrels of acid over her and her family and friends, after having pushed them into the mass grave they were forced to dig in the woods. I will share the story of my grieving Grandmother and how she kept looking for her little brother and other family members, and gradually over the years discovered how they were murdered.

I want to give them time first. They need to grow up free from the fear which was instilled in us, free from the nightmares I still have occasionally, about life in the Warsaw Ghetto or in concentration camps.

That’s all I want to say today. I fully realize and am aware of how emotionally intense this day can be. I’m not trying to be controversial, just to share my personal perspective.

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What? Haven’t you heard? Israel has turned into a police state. Censorship all over the place and people are afraid of talking about “the affair” lest they get thrown in jail. “The authorities” were considering renting out a Gulag in Siberia for offenders, but it’s almost summer here and spending July in a cooler place may be considered a reward by some.

Oh wait, it’s not everyone. The regular people don’t really know about it. It’s a conspiracy after all. So it’s only journalists, torn by their inner need to tell the truth and their fear of the Shin Bet’s infamous dungeons.

Give me a break.

Look, the court order to prevent publishing anything about this affair is probably not very smart. You can’t prevent anything from leaking out this time and age. We have the Internet and all that, ya know. More importantly, this is Israel. Everyone talks and everyone knows everyone else. Can anyone really think it’s possible to hide anything here for more than a few days at most?

And note I didn’t use the term “gag order”. I don’t know what the official term for it is in English, but here it’s simply about not publishing content. Nobody is being physically gagged, ball stuffed into their mouth as their bulging eyes try to convey the horrible truth.

As for our poor frightened journalists. Journalists who write about defense issues are usually very well connected. I don’t know about Mr Blau himself, but I can assure you the ones writing about the topic and grunting about the “gag order” are not afraid of the IDF or Shin Bet. After all, they are probably well acquainted with top officials in both organizations.

This isn’t to say they will not be interrogated if they defy the order, but it will probably be a routine police investigation. No Gulags or even jail cells. I suspect the only thing they may potentially stand to lose is personal connections (and I’m doubtful about that even).

As for the “journalist-in-exile” Mr Blau. It’s not like the poor guy has been turned into a fugitive for reporting something. As far as I can see, he’s chosen to avoid showing up for a perfectly legitimate investigation concerning the alleged leakage of classified documents from the IDF GHQ.

As it happens, I was once personally involved in a similar investigation concerning the “Shtauber document”. Yes, I had to go through a lie detector test and it wasn’t exactly fun per se. It wasn’t torture either and as far as I recall – the investigators were polite and professional. Unless Mr Blau actually did knowingly break the law by being involved in stealing classified documents, I really don’t know what he’s running away from.

And I won’t even mention the female journalist involved by name. Not because of any court order, but because the lady in question has been sending out messages to bloggers and journalists in Israel to stay off her case. I’ll respect that – just wanted to clarify that AFAIK  this is the reason why posts about the topic have been disappearing (I know Shin Bet hackers would have been a more fun explanation).

So, with all due respect. One so-called “gag order” is not a reason to paint Israel as this fanatic police state where brave journalists fear for their life or freedom. It’s great to point out just how misguided and essentially ineffective the order is this day and age, but no need to turn what is a smelly little molehill into this a huge mountain.

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That’s the soundtrack here over the past few nights. Extremely accurate, a very loud beeping sound every three seconds.

We’ve had guests over for the weekend who couldn’t sleep during the night because the sound was so loud by their window. We were more fortunate in our bedroom, but could still hear it clearly when going outside. You could time your watch by it. One two Beeeeeeeeeep One Two Beeeeeep…. for hours on end.

Everyone had their own theory (or not very educated guess).

My brother-in-law decided someone’s alarm was going on through the night.

IsraeliDad thought it must be a bird and insisted on having heard it before.

Myself, I thought it was Aliens broadcasting some sort of signal over our neighborhood, testing our nerves.

We tried to investigate. IsraeliDad took a torchlight and went out in the night to find the source of the sound. I stayed home,not in the mood for being abducted into the mother spaceship. He came back, unchanged, I think, and said that as soon as he got close, the sound stopped, so he couldn’t locate it.

Well, Google is your friend. I figured we can’t have been the only ones to have heard this. Indeed, searching in Hebrew for “night time bleeps every three seconds” gave me the result.

Tree Owls. “Yanshuf Etzim” in Hebrew.

Tree Owl Fledglings - Picture by Ruti Ram from the website of the Ministry of Environmental Issues

And there’s a good reason why none of us would recognize it. Apparently, tree owls are Olim Hadashim – new immigrants to Israel. They used to fly through during winter time, but about a decade ago, they began nesting here. Nests were observed in the 1970′s, but since 2000 they’ve been growing in numbers. No one is quite sure why. There are now hundreds of nests reported every year in Israel.

So, what’s with the strange sound? Apparently, the cute silly little owl fledglings get out of the nest when they’re a few weeks old, and start rambling around nearby branches. They still can’t hunt, so they call out to their parents for food. Every three seconds, like clockwork, until Mom or Dad bring them their meal. And I thought my kids nag me when they’re hungry.

Fortunately, the noise stops once they learn how to get their own food, which should be in a few weeks time.

So, if you live in Israel, or travel through, look for the sound of tree owls. Our feathered Olim Hadashim!

Speaking of Olim Hadashim, please take a minute to visit MakingAliyah.com, where my dear friend and brand new Olah Hadasha (new immigrant) shares her story of making Aliyah to Israel. You can also read there about our recent trip together, from the coast of the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee.

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Passover, or Pessach in Hebrew, is upon us. The Eve of Passover, aka the Seder, is on Monday Evening.

Passover Obsessions

Going into town today, it was Passover frenzy all over the place: streets jammed with cars and people everywhere doing their holiday shopping. Those hosting the family for the Seder shop for food, food and more food. Their guests on the other hand, are shopping for fancy gifts to give to their hosts and to everyone else attending.

The other Passover obsession is with cleaning. This is more than just spring cleaning for religious or observant Jews. They aim at eradicating every and any crumb of chametz from their home.

For the non-Jews reading this: originally, chametz was the pita bread dough that the Biblical People of Israel didn’t get a chance to wait out for it to ferment and rise. Literally, chametz is a take off on the word “sour”, as in sour dough (fermented dough).  So, the Bible tells us not to eat fermented dough products on Passover. Orthodox Jews have taken this a few steps further, as they’ve done with most things, and these days, pretty much anything that doesn’t have a “Kosher for Pessach” stamp on it is forbidden.

Religious Jews freak out over this Chametz business. Houses are pulled apart, cleaned and put together again, just to avoid even the tiniest of crumbs. God forbid.

Looking at all of this saddens me. I’m not religious, but I’m very Jewish, and have my own take on Passover, derived from the cultural and historical context of this holiday.

What Passover is Really About

On his holiday, we celebrate something very special. Regardless of historical accuracy (or lack of it), it is a forming event in our national psyche. The main theme is freedom. More specifically:  the move from a state of enslavement towards national freedom.

The process was not an easy one, and took literally decades. It was a mental journey for these tribal people as much as a physical one – a forty years long hike in the desert.

So, yes, as they were leaving the place, they were in hurry and their pita bread didn’t rise. Is this really what we should pay so much attention to on this holiday? Honestly, I’d be pretty insulted, as a religious person, if I thought bread crumbs are what my God is obsessed with.

Not to mention the huge meals and gift exchanging, when the whole point of the process was to leave material comforts – in the form of the Biblical “pot of meat” behind, in the quest for freedom.

Thoughts About Alternative Passover Customs

In light of the real meaning of the holiday, I’d like to humbly suggest some alternative customs. Take a break from the shopping frenzy and bread crumbs chase (sounds like a great game for my new iPod Touch) and try these instead:

1. Remember how we used to be “the foreign workers ” in Egypt? How about showing some compassion for the foreign workers in Israel these days? Things that come to mind: the government giving a period of grace for illegal workers and maybe even giving citizenship to their children who were born in Israel, as well as to the parents. On a more personal level, how about inviting these people over to your Seder? Share some Jewish traditions with them and make them feel welcome in this country?
2. God really wanted the People of Israel to leave behind their “pot of meat” – so why not go for a vegetarian Seder meal? It will be kind to your bodies and to the environment, and will be very much in the spirit of the biblical story.
3. The People of Israel had to walk to Israel. On foot. For forty years. That’s some hike. I suggest a long family hike as a new Passover tradition. We’re going to try this ourselves, packing up the kids and going on a long hike from the coast of the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee. On foot, camping out in tents for seven nights. Yes, we’ll be spending the Seder out camping!
4. Finally, and I know, this one is a bit far fetched… but let’s keep cats in mind. The former  deities of Egypt sure could use your help, so care for feral cats is something I would try and push on this holiday as well. It’s a great time for a TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release) project in your neighborhood, preventing unwanted litters of kittens in a couple of months time. For more information, please read my article about feral cats.

So, what do you think? How does your family spend the holiday and what do you think about my new suggestions?

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Old alarm bell on display in Kibbutz Nir David

In Israel, it just isn’t effective.

A few weeks ago, we visited the Negev with the kids. On the way, we went through a kibbutz that theoretically is within kassam rocket range from Gaza. As we were sitting there, the kids playing in the playground, and us having a leisurely lunch under some trees, the air raid sirens started wailing.

I looked around.

Nothing.

People kept on walking, kids kept on playing. The sirens went through their 2 minutes long wail and that was it. About half an hour later, it happened again. I have no idea if a rocket launch had been detected in Gaza, or if someone was testing the sirens. Either case, nobody seemed bothered.

It’s not unique to air raid sirens either. I was visiting a new supermarket with my son yesterday and the fire alarm went off. The place was crowded, yet other than complaining about the noise, nobody reacted.

Now, I don’t know what it’s like in other places. From movies and TV Shows I’ve seen, people in the US appear to be more disciplined: fire alarm goes off and everyone calmly walks out of the shop, waiting outside for the all clear.

Never ever seen it happen in Israel.

I need to clarify something here – people aren’t careless. If you are in Sderot and the air raid sirens go off, you dive for shelter. Where the risk is real, people react. However, it’s the risk that people respond to – not the “instruction”. I think it’s yet another indication of the inherently anarchistic nature of Israelis – do what you think is right, not what the “powers to be” tell you to.

How do people where you live react to fire alarms (or air raid sirens if you have them)? Do they follow the official guidelines?

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