Report #9 - June 1999 - Yishuv Alon, Israel
Greetings friends - Here is the monthly report from Israel. It is a mix of personal
impressions from our experiences here. Please feel free to send your comments, critiques
and suggestions. Feel free to forward these reports, and equally free to ask that I remove
you from our list.
We are returning July 1. This will be our last report. We look forward to the last
upcoming month to be a time for last visits with friends, reflection, packing and timeout.
We also expect some good friends to visit from USA which will allow us to tour a little
once again.
The Galil and the Golan
are the names of two adjacent regions in the north and northeast part of Israel
known for the beautiful woods and landscape. We recently finished our last trip of the
year with a big excursion into this interesting section.
The Golan was captured by Israel from Syria in 1967. It is a mountainous region looking
down towards the west on settlements and kibbutzim near the Sea of Galilee (The
"Kinneret"). The Syrians used to shell the Israelis from these heights.
Capturing it in the 6-day war enabled Israel to better defend its borders and citizens.
The area is not well settled. There is one Jewish city built up within the last 30 years
on the ancient site of Katzrin, with that name. There are a dozen or so small Jewish
settlements, and the rest of the area consists of 3-4 pretty large Druze villages (they
decided to stay after Syria withdrew), and a great deal of fenced off areas with the
warning "land mines". It is expensive and dangerous to clear this previous
battle zone, so much of the area is left off limits except for the brave and stupid. Even
the national parks in the area, among the most beautiful in the country, are surrounded by
such signs and fences. There are many abandoned Syrian army posts including the now ghost
city of Kuneitra, which sits in a UN administered demilitarized zone between Israel and
Syria.
Many people feel that the Golan is important to Israel's security, and do not consider a
trade of the Golan for peace with Syria to be worthwhile. Bumper stickers from last
election, "HaAm Im Hagolan", "The nation with the Golan", are still
everywhere. However, Barak (newly elected prime minister--see below) has stated that he is
willing to consider negotiating with Syria. Time will tell.
The Galil is interesting because it is here that most of the Israeli Arabs live. In the
Galil it is much harder to distinguish Jewish and Arab grocery stores. There is a much
higher percentage (albeit small) of Arab-Jewish marriages. There is an accepted mutual
dependence that relieves much of the tension that hangs in the air in Jerusalem - where so
many fanatics on both sides exist.
Nevertheless the Galil has the hottest border in the country, that is the border with
Lebanon. We drove along this border a long way, once accidentally stumbling onto a road
that was open only to military vehicles; we quickly turned around. People (mostly
soldiers) die over the border in Lebanon from terrorist attacks at a steady rate. It is a
nervous place for a soldier to serve. The Egyptian and Jordanian borders are not wide
open, but at least they resonate a cool peace. The Syrian and Lebanese borders are
scarier.
There are many beautiful sections of the Galil including the coastal cities of Haifa, Akko
and Naharia, the Christian city of Nazareth, the mystical city of Tzfat, and the modern
planned city of Carmiel. I will spare you the LONG list of things we did here but... One
area worth mentioning in detail, because you won't find it described yet in the guide
books, is a new cable car ride in Kiryat Shemona.
Kiryat Shemona is on the border between the Galil and Golan, at the far north end of the
country. It is geographically reminiscent of Lincoln or Woodstock, NH.
The city sits in the valley, with mountains towering 2500 feet above it on the west side,
and the 6500 foot Mount Hermon in the distance on the east. On the west ridge is the
Lebanese border along with scattered kibutzim. Even this month, on election night,
katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon down onto the city. Citizens spent a night in
shelters for safety, and no one was killed, but there were some minor injuries and
property damage.
With all this, some entrepreneur built a state of the art cable car from the city to the
ridge 2500 feet up at a 45 degree angle. At the top is a kibbutz, a border road open to
the public but rarely used, and 300 mountain bikes. A 20 kilometer dirt trail well groomed
leads down the mountain to the city. This attraction is less than a year old and many
Israelis haven't yet heard of it, yet it is very popular among those who have. It is
really worthwhile as a tourist site for the view, and the recreation.
The leisure class of this attraction juxtaposed with the hottest border in the country is
really hard to describe.
The Holocaust Museum at Kibbutz Lohamei Hagetaot
is a museum focusing on the positive aspects of the Holocaust if there is such a thing. It
documents the Resistance, as well as the Righteous Gentiles of the world, and focuses on
survivors. We decided that our children were ready to see this museum, and we are glad
that we did. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Muesum in Jerusalem is a more depressing if more
"real" presentation. At Lohamei Hagetaot, there is a special exhibit for
children, whose best feature is the many "testimonies" shown repeatedly on
videotape of Israeli survivors who were children at the time of the Holocaust. The
stories range greatly from the heroic to the tragic, to the depressing, to the pathetic,
to the lucky but the mosaic painted by the collection of these story tellers, allowed my
kids (and me) to see a picture that otherwise is impossible to tell. Every story was
unique. We never heard it all. Every story was real, and colored by the personality of the
teller. There was plenty for the kids to empathize with, and plenty for them to be scared
about too. But they learned what happened in a productive positive way. They listened to a
half a dozen stories, waiting sometimes for me to translate, but always asking good
questions and acting more mature than I thought they knew how.
Lag Baomer
This day commemorates the end of the plague which killed many of Rabbi Akiva's students in
the second century CE. It is celebrated by lighting bonfires all over the country. There
is a connection between the fires and the end of the plague, but I forget what it is. Here
in the desert and elsewhere, people collect wood for weeks in advance. Even on this small
Yishuv, there were at least 4 or 5 bonfires. In Zosh's school, the 5th grade, on their
own, invited the first grade to come to a bonfire, run by the 5th grade! There were no
parents officially supervising, and there were just 3 or 4 parents at all, who came to
keep their first graders company. To the 5th graders credit, they organized a fun and safe
event. Zosh liked the hot dogs and especially the marshmallows.
Elections
took place this month. A quick review of the political system for those who care...
(Note -- anyone reading can get MUCH better info and explanation than I will provide by
checking www.cnn.com. Nevertheless, here's the quick story for those who don't want to
bother AND who know very little about Israeli politics.)
The system is a quasi-parliamentary system. There are 120 members in the legislative
"K'nesset". Each member represents some party. During elections each person
votes for a party. That party based on its raw votes, gets some number of the 120 seats,
with some minimum number necessary to get one seat. There are some dozen+ parties
including the two major parties: Labor (slightly left)and Likud (slightly right), two
Russian parties, three+ religious parties, two+ Arab parties, Meretz (far left), a new
Central party, a few fringe parties on both the left and the right, and a few special
interest parties like the handicapped party, and this year perhaps the most interesting...
Penina Rosenblum. She was THE Israeli model 15 years ago - a sexy blonde woman, who moved
up from a tough childhood and youth into modeling and then later into business. Now she is
championing rights for woman and minorities, and toting the anti-fascist line.
The parties often split and reform and realign.
The people simultaneously vote for a prime minister among a group of candidates nominated
by a subset of these parties. The PM needs 50% or more of the vote to be elected, or else
there is a run-off election between the two highest vote getters. The PM elections and
K'nesset seat elections are independent (it didn't used to be this way - Previously the
party with the most seats organized a 60+ seat majority coalition and appointed the PM).
Now the PM is elected separately, can be from any party, and he gets 45 days to organize a
majority coalition of 60+ Knesset members. He does this by trading minister portfolios and
power for the smaller parties' membership in the coalition. This gives the little guy
bargaining power. Each party has their own favorite portfolio list they hope to bargain
for.
For example, SHAS, a right wing religious party, currently has the Minister of the
Interior Portfolio. One of this department's current jobs, is to determine who is Jewish
and who is not, which in turn determines many other rights and privileges of citizenship.
They would often give a hard time to new Russian immigrants who could not easily
"prove" their Jewishness, using this power to bargain and influence. Now one of
the Russian parties is lobbying strongly for that Portfolio.
The ads got very heated in the last couple weeks. As in the USA, once a tactic that works
is found, it is used shamelessly and without any attempt to conceal it or make it subtle.
The main issue is the upcoming talks with the Palestineans. The tactic used by every
candidate is to present himself as a past war hero, and as someone who through that
experience knows how to make peace without being bullied. Old army photographs (before the
candidates developed their campaign bellies) are shown. The other guy is portrayed as
someone ready to sell the country out. Popular army generals are shown endorsing
the candidates. The bad guy is in B/W and the good guy is in color. The fact is that all
the candidates have war credentials. A "professor"'s endorsement is like the
kiss of death. It will be many years until a doveish intellectual will be prime minister.
One ad that backfired, is when Netanyahu compared the number of children killed in
terrorist attacks during the period of the current administration versus the number killed
in different times, presumably in order to show how much safer it is during his period.
The families who lost these children were quite vocal in there displeasure with this
exploitative maneuver.
Election Day
On election day there is no school, so we went to a crafts museum that shows kids how to
weave, do frescos, mosaics, ceramics, build flutes, make bread, press olives for oil, dye
wool, etc. It is a beautiful outdoor shady place on a hill opposite (ironically) the huge
Jerusalem Mall. It is arranged like an ancient city with the crafts done out of old stone
buildings, and areas connected by stone covered paths. During the week it is usually
opened only to school groups, but election day they opened to the public. It was a big
success, and now we have a homemade flute and a hand-woven mini-rug of which Zosh and Yair
are very proud.
All day long, one radio station played the favorite songs of current Knesset members. It
reminded me when AL Gore and Bill Clinton had Fleetwood Mac play at the Victory party.
There was a great variety of songs and it was fun to hear the choices that were real and
the ones that were politically motivated. No less than 8 members chose famous
"peace" songs. The army radio station said - forget the elections, let's vote
for the best song of 1999!
And the winner is...
Ehud Barak (One Israel - a coalition party which is essentially the old Labor party), who
now has 45 days to set up a coalition. Many people hope he will lead the country to a new
age of peace and prosperity in the path of Rabin.
Binyamin Netanyahu (likud) and current PM, has resigned from politics.
The only surprise in the results was in the Knesset results, where SHAS, whose leader was
recently convicted for taking bribes, and misappropriation of government funds, increased
it number of seats 70% from 10 to 17. This sends a clear message from the religious right
that they could care less for the secular courts and laws of the nation, a frightening
message reminiscent of Marion Barry getting reelected in DC, or perhaps the OJ Simpson
trial. A big question that remains is whether SHAS will end up in Barak's coalition or
not.
Politics on Yishuv Alon
Perhaps the only thing I can provide that really isn't available in the world news is the
political views of the members of this yishuv. Although the yishuv sits in an area well
past the "green line" border of 1967, and is subject to possible negotiation
with the Palestineans, the opinions and voting habits of the members is not at all
uniform. This is despite the fact that the area's "council" sent out a strong
"scary" letter, endorsing Netanyahu, and implying that anyone in Alon not voting
for him would be risking his home and lifestyle.
The political and religious views of the members here range from right to left. There are
people who vote for the party that wants to expel the Arabs, and there are those who vote
for the party that wants to expel the Haredim (Ultra Orthodox).
Heat Wave
The elections were followed by a bad heat wave here. Temperatures for 5 days straight
around 100+, (115 in Eilat), which caused everyone here to be very tense. It is not a good
time for teasing people. Despite the fact that they are all used to the hostile
environment, and that most have desert coolers, and/or air conditioners, the constant heat
still takes a toll. Our house has neither a cooler nor an air conditioner (we still have
portable heaters from winter though :) ), but indoors is not so bad. I thought of wrapping
the portable heater in a wet towel and setting in on just "blower", to simulate
a desert cooler. This idea was not well received with saner members of my family, so
instead I hung a big soaking towel up in the window, which served to block the meager
breeze rather than cool off the room.
On some nights, the sandstorms blow our hanging laundry 50 meters down into the ravine and
make walking around really unpleasant. The good news is that the laundry dries really
fast. Summer also brings various infestations of insects. Sandflies that can't be
easily seen leave many itchy painful bites. Ugly little black bugs crawl in through
any tiny crack and congregate at night near any light they find. When they accidentally
hit the light they fall with a little clink to the floor. There can be hundreds in a
pile in a matter of minutes. Luckily they do NOT bite. The consensus here is that are
simply disgusting ("magIl"); they are a common chitchat topic. Luckily the
disgusting bugs stopped pestering after a week or so. Sandflies still come and go.
We had our first and only scorpion in the house. It was a little one, and we killed it
before it stung anyone.
Our Kids
Zosh is looking forward to the end of school which is in just one more month. Since
locquats have come in season, he has started eating a lot of them (I never ate one until
this year -- there's a tree of them on campus). He and other kids save the pits which are
very smooth oval shaped marble sized objects, and are used for a variety of games.
Watermelon is in season and the kids love it. I am amused to see many faculty and students
taking a HUGE piece for lunch and sitting down with a knife and fork, with their head
buried in the monster sized fruit. No main course or no dessert, depending on how you look
at it.
Zosh speaks a broken but usable Hebrew. I took him and his best friend Paz to the new mall
at the nearby town. They were thrilled to get to slide on the brand new floors and get
their kid's meals (with a toy!) at Burger King. His class went on their annual class trip
for a day, to a medley of caves and underground attractions, most of which Zosh has
already visited. He seemed scared about going at first, but in the end seemed to have a
good time. He said that one of the caves had hundreds of bats. For Shavuot, the Jewish
holiday celebrating the Torah, he received his own Humash B'rashit (First book of Old
Testament) along with the rest of his class. Zosh has been going to private English
reading lessons twice a week in Kfar Adumim, the town where his school is. He has learned
a lot, and also has developed a very nice relationship with his tutor. I think that his
experience with her has given him a big confidence boost.
Yair went on yet another field trip where he visited the Wailing Wall, the Jewish Quarter,
Ammunition Hill, and the Montefiore Wind Mill, all in one morning! He had been to all of
these sites, and remembered that this time the door to the Windmill was open (when we had
gone last it was locked). He still loves Fridays because he gets to bring home all his
projects. Sometimes he gets to be Abba (daddy) for Shabbat. Then Fridays are really
special. He also has a usable but small Hebrew vocabulary, and feels very comfortable in
his Gan, where he is among the youngest kids. Before Shavuot, he dressed up all in white
and marched with his class to the Beit Knesset (local house of prayer) to learn
about the Torah. He came home with a special decorated crown for the holiday. Lately, Yair
has been practically inseparable from Chen, a girl in his Gan. They walk home from school
holding hands, and today for example, they played together until we went and told Yair it
was 7:00 and he had to come home for bedtime. There is a lot more freedom for kids to roam
around town here on the Yishuv than in a "normal-sized" town. Today, Chen and
Yair played at our house, her house, and then went to the park and the makolet (corner
store) by themselves.
Yona continues to move solidly into his terrible twos (he's 16 months), destroying most
things in his way and seeking out the rest. He likes to try to answer the phone even when
he hears one ringing on the radio or a tape. He has started to be able to clumsily run,
and is very cute when one of us pretends to chase him. He also likes to play catch (or
fetch). He knows how to climb up the kitchen chairs to the table, where he can get to the
fruit basket or whatever toys, books, knives, or whatever else happens to be there. He's
exhausting to be with during the day, but fortunately, he goes to sleep between 6 and 7.
Language and Friends
As many people here independently confirmed, it seems to take about 6-8 months for a young
child coming from abroad to start speaking in Hebrew and feeling like they can get along.
Of course the process is gradual and subtle, but the time frame held true for both Zosh
and Yair. They have completely internalized the local culture. Examples include: leaving
the house to go to a friend and coming home themselves; running up to the Makolet (general
store) sign for things for themselves and for the house; walking over to school and/or the
bus in the morning. In general, the kids here are more unsupervised than in the USA, and
our kids happily adapt to that. Yair walked home with his friend after kindergarten, and
stayed there for two hours, without letting us know where he was. We keep reminding that
he must stop off at home first, or call. His friend's parents didn't even think to call or
remind him to call.
Even Yona has his small share of words, which are mostly Hebrew. He says "zeh"
(this) and "kach" (take) when he hands us something, and refers to himself as
Na. He understands his babysitter (in Hebrew) and us (in English) somewhat. Unfortunately,
I don't think he will be retaining any of the Hebrew once we get back to Sharon.
My Work
I am finishing up my work with my 4th paper this week, and a lecture the week after. I
will be glad to move on to new things, and look forward to teaching again. I have started
to inch back into shape after a year of sitting at a terminal and typing, by running every
morning before the sun really hits hard. I have a long way to go to get back to 7:30 miles
:-)
Andrea's Work
I (Andrea) finished my volunteer job at Hadassah a few weeks ago. I met nice people there,
and helped them organize some (hundreds of) donated hearing aids. My last day at my
"real" job will be this Sunday. Even though I spend much of my time there
reading books, it was a very worthwhile experience for many reasons: I did get to do some
hearing tests (maybe an average of two/week), I interacted with many people in Hebrew, and
thus improved my Hebrew, and I got to know Yehoshua, the store owner, who comes from Iraq
originally. He has a very warm personality, and I often observed him being honestly chummy
with both ultra-Orthodox Jewish people and Arab people (sometimes simultaneously). Hearing
loss does not discriminate between cultures and neither does he.
One Last Story of Life in the Desert
We often contemplate the peace process, trying to envision how these intermingled
societies can share or divide the land that they both claim rights to. No one has very
good ideas about how to end the cycle of hate in this region, and indeed the random
collections of circumstances that contribute to it make it hard to apportion blame. This
story is a good way to end this yearly journal. It captures the essence of what I mean by
random.
There are a couple of guys on the yishuv, that run a tourist business about 500 meters
away on a hill called "Eretz B'reshit" (Genesis Land). There they have 20+
camels, and they provide rides in the desert with commentary on the landscape, just as
"Abraham saw more than 3000 years ago", etc. They are pretty successful, but
with their business comes a story that reflects the "street life" of the desert.
The day after they first bought their camels, the woke up to find that all ten camels had
been stolen. A camel costs about $2500, and as the story goes, their insurance had not
officially kicked in yet, hence this was due to be a serious loss. Many people in the
yishuv volunteered and covered the countryside in search of the camels. A friend from the
army who is a professional "tracker" was asked to help, but he too came up empty
handed.
This is at a time when there had been an incident of a young woman being murdered in the
wadi, and a local Bedouin tried and convicted. (You can find the news reports of this
brutal ambush on the internet, under "Kfar Adumim"). That Bedouin since then had
been forcibly moved to locations further from the Yishuv.
Nevertheless, one of the owners of Eretz B'reshit, an Iraqi Jew, who knows enough Arabic
to make his way around, decided to take matters into his own hands. He proceeded to visit
every single local Bedouin clan, one by one. When he arrived at each, he was greeted with
the standard warm welcome and strong sweet coffee. He told each clan, that he did not want
any trouble, and that he was sure that they did not want any trouble either. He simply
wanted his camels back. Well each clan distrusts the next, so little by little word of
this man traveled to the group who actually had his camels. He continued his travels all
day, traveling alone without a gun or knife.
The next morning, at the entrance to the city of Jericho, he found all ten camels tied
together neatly, waiting for him. The guard at the gate "had no idea" how they
got there.
This owner believes that if he had come with a weapon, or a friend, or even worse with a
Jeep and a few army officers, that he would have never seen his camels again. Coming from
an Arab culture, he claims that in such matters the most important thing is to show that
you are not scared. If they sense you are scared, then they know they have free reign. He
attributes the last few years of no incidents at all at his establishment, as a direct
result of this episode. He speaks with confidence, knowledge, experience and success. He
is believable.
It is a great story, a little reminiscent of the old West in the USA. Yet I couldn't help
wonder what a bad story it would have been, if the ending was that a frightened Bedouin
stuck a knife in the owner's heart and sold the camels to the slaughterhouse in Jericho.
No evidence being available, the result was a slightly wealthier Bedouin, a wife and 3
kids without a husband and father, the forced displacement of all the Bedouin in the area,
their homes razed by bulldozers, and one more generation of hate.
Best wishes to all our friends and family,
Shai and family,
Yishuv Alon
Sivan 5759