What can you do in six hours?

What do you do in Israel if you rent a car for a day or two? You go to Ikea! Well, if you're us, first you take a night drive to Kiryat Ekron to buy some booze.

Then, you go to Ikea!

In two days, we went to two different places that I've never been to before, and I drove on foreign roads (and dealt with getting lost on one of them) to get to both! Very exciting for me. It was a beautiful hour-long drive to Netanya today, although I wish we had taken the beach road up. We planned on getting there quickly, and driving along the beach on the way home, but really, who expected a) we would be at Ikea for 6 hours, and b) it would be raining on the way home. And of course, we got stuck in Israeli traffic, so it took us an hour and a half to get back.

So what's the difference between Ikea, Richmond (Canada) and Ikea, Netanya (Israel)?

um...

let's see...

hmm...












Well, okay, there are a few differences:

1. You have to go through security and a metal detector to get in.
2. The food in the restaurant is KOSHER!
3. Everyone speaks Hebrew.
4. The "doors" of the display rooms have mezuzot on them.
5. People stopped in the middle of the item pick-up area to daven mincha (afternoon prayers).
6. There are play areas for the kids all over the store, not just in the child-minding area.
7. You have to pay for a plastic bag to put all your purchases in.

(I don't mind that last item one bit, because maybe it keeps the plastic bag consumption down.)

Morey and I were in one of the departments, when we both did a bit of a double-take. It seemed, for a moment there, we had both forgotten we were in Israel, and were surprised when we heard Hebrew.

We have been waiting over 6 months to go to Ikea, so we had built up a big shopping list - apparently enough of a list to fill one hour for every month. We've tried to find the things we need (bookshelves and wardrobes - we have no closets) locally, but no dice. So, 6 hours and a bill big enough to cause Visa to call us to make sure it really was us using the card later, we finally headed home.

We're a little surprised at how exhausted we both are, and how much our legs hurt. Which, I guess, shouldn't really be surprising considering we spent 6 HOURS walking. Very slowly, but walking.

Our new purchases are being delivered tomorrow, so I have two wardrobes and three bookshelves to put together. And since ulpan starts up again next Sunday, instead of a week from Sunday as we were originally told, my timeline for getting these things all put together has shrunk considerably.

We have the car for one more day, so there are a few errands in the morning, but then, barring rain, the afternoon is for taking Maimo to the pea-ay-ar-kay (shhh. We don't want to get him excited in case it rains). It's his reward for being home alone today for 9 hours. Six of which were, y'know, spent at Ikea.

Election Day!

Today is election day in Israel, a national holiday. After weeks of banners, print ads, radio ads, tv ads (I am grateful yet again, that we do not own a television), it finally comes down to this:

• We walk to the local school (I more or less dragged myself, being sick as a dog).
• We find the room with our number on it.
• We stand in line, because only one person at a time is allowed in the voting room.
• When my turn is called, I hand my Teudat Zehut (national ID card) to the nice lady behind the desk.
• She hands me a pretty blue envelope.
• I go to a table that has a three-sided cardboard privacy screen.
• I am faced with this:

photo from muqata.blogspot.com

These are slips of paper. Each Hebrew letter represents a political party (yes, there are that many parties in Israel!).

• I pick up one (only one! If you accidently put in two, your vote is invalidated) slip with my party's letter, and put it in the pretty blue envelope.
• I seal the envelope.
• I walk back to the desk and put my envelope in the pretty blue box.
• I get my ID back from the nice lady.
• I leave, having done my civic duty.

It's a good thing the actual procedure is so simple, because deciding who to vote for in this country is not. Do you vote for the party where nearly every member is under investigation for some thing or another, with the exception of the party leader, who has shown a lack of strength? Do you vote for the one of the two parties whose leaders have already been Prime Minister in the past, and well, didn't do much to inspire confidence? Do you vote for one of the leftist green parties? The extreme right-wing party who wants to run all the Arabs out of Israel? The extreme religious party who thinks everyone in Israel should live under their definition of Jewish religious law?

There are three primary items, in my opinion, that are of utmost importance to voters in Israel: security, economy and religion (enforcement of or freedom from). Trying to find a party that covers the right combination of all three is a challenge. Just like in the US, except now I have to decide between 23 or so parties, rather than just the plain old 2 or 3.

I kind of wanted someone to take my picture as I voted ("look! My first federal election!"), but at the same time, I already voted in my local elections, so the "first-time" thrill was gone. And the stress of wondering how the election will go, who will be running our country, and what kind of coalition will be formed (with so many parties, no one party gets enough of a majority, so coalitions between the parties are necessary. It's really complicated here.) overrides much of the excitement. Whoever wins, may G-d grant them the strength, honesty*, commitment and faith to make decisions that will be for the good of the country and her people.


*All the Israelis who are reading this: stop laughing. I know, I know.

Another update to Morey's blog

I know, we're slacking over here, but hey! We have a Hebrew test to prepare for! Meanwhile, Morey's updated his blog with a new post, about circumsion. Call it a "slice of life" post ;)

Eyeless in Gaza

Posted on my personal blog:

I received an interesting, but disconcerting email the other day. An old friend accused me of - wait for it - changing. He harangued me for my present political position on Gaza and Israel's need to attack Hamas, and suggested the guy he used to know would never have supported the use of force. Apparently, I was much more of a Leftist in my youth. True enough. I like to think of myself now as a pragmatist, that is, I believe governments and people should conduct themselves according to reasoned need and not based on rules in some out-of-date ideological handbook. He changed, too. The guy I knew back then would have done more research before making such uninformed comments. In fact, I still remember him chewing me out for speaking out of my backside on Northern Ireland. But he has been living in the UK for many years, so I suppose he can be forgiven.

However, I felt his comments deserved a response. Gaza, after all, is a very complex situation.

Read the rest here.

Asshats

The one thing I will never understand is why all the celebrity protesters come out of the woodwork whenever Israel starts to defend herself from her enemies. After calling for Israel to stop its attacks on Gaza, Annie Lennox said violence could never be a solution to conflict.

First of all, let's define "violent":
- Physical force exerted for the purpose of violating, damaging, or abusing: crimes of violence.
- an unjust or unwarranted exertion of force or power, as against rights or laws: to take over a government by violence.

Now let's define "violence":
- acting with or characterized by uncontrolled, strong, rough force: a violent earthquake.

No one would say the IDF is uncontrolled. The moonbats out there could easily twist this around and say that Israel is "violating" Gaza or "using an unjust exertion of force" in Gaza, but once you define "violence" you see that the word is implies an uncontrolled, primitive force.

Much like a Kassam rocket. Strong enough to do violent damage to a home or a person, but not in a controlled, orderly manner.

Like an army.

Israel is not acting violent, Israel is acting like a nation being attacked. Israel is sending her army in to stop the enemy in a strategic manner. Yes, people die in a war. Death from a military strike can be a violent death. But a strategically dropped missile in a justifiable military action is not violence.

Sending primitive, but lethal rockets into areas whose target you can't specify, so you hit kindergardens, playgrounds and livingrooms? That's violence. And where were Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger* when these rockets were raining down on Israeli children? Having their nails done?

So I can't help but conclude that their silence means that Jewish children don't matter. If rockets are landing on Jewish kindergardens and playgrounds and the world doesn't cry out in horror, it can only mean that the lives of Jewish children are disposable.

And yet they call us Nazis.


*You can add Roseanne Barr to the list, too. Why are there so many Jews who don't care about Jews getting killed?

Why there is war in Gaza

Ground war

The ground offensive has begun in Gaza. We pray for the success and safety of our troops.



He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Force, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our God from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.

May Hashem cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighting men from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor. May He lead our enemies under their sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is Hashem, your God, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you. Now let us respond: Amen.

We also pray for the safety of the residents of the cities of Israel that are within rocket range.

*HT for image: The Muqata