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Raf is in Tel Aviv?
Yes. I live here. Usually. There is life stuff to do. Came for the day. Adina didn't want me on transit, and sent me off in her car. (She also advised me to go tomorrow and not today, which I should have heeded, because…)
The 70 minute drive took nearly four hours. Between construction projects and (I guess) the visit of President Biden, Tel Aviv streets were a parking lot. Maybe I should have come tomorrow after the Air Force One entourage leaves.
Have I mentioned that this country is a big construction zone? The number of cranes you pass near Tel Aviv is beyond belief.
<there was just a red alert... sitting in the corner, as this old building has no shelter... couple of distant booms... OK, back at keyboard>
Driving through Tel Aviv, there is plenty of traffic (far more than in Jerusalem), pedestrians out in some number (on the main streets, not so many in my neighborhood). I didn’t get to the shuk or anything today. Perhaps tomorrow.
Frequent Sighting
The poster says: Together we will be victorious!
Also on the roads: Cars with letters taped on: TV — reflecting a large number newly arrived journalists.
Weapons
In the 1980's I spent a month on Kibbutz Nir David in the Galilee. My madrich, Jack Saltzberg ז״ל, had lived on the kibbutz next door, Beit Alpha, for some years. He told me of a fellow member who feared the day an enemy army would rampage through. This member carried a pistol at all times and out in the fields would practice drawing and shooting. He wore a cowboy style holster. Practicing his quick draw one day, he shot himself in the foot.
It was a long crawl from the field to the kibbutz.
In more recent years, one shabbat I was walking my neighborhood in Seattle with a visitor. On our way from one shul to another. He commented that he didn't feel safe walking the neighborhood without a pistol in his belt.
Recent events show that even armies aren't security.
What is?
<another red alert... I was in the bathroom... The phone app says to get to the safe room in 90 seconds... The booms were much louder/closer this time. Maybe it was 90 seconds from the alert to the boom?>
Thoughts
Years ago, a friend of a center-to-right-persuasion said "You know, Raf, a lot of the problems here are created by Israel itself."
So much focus is on concrete events, perhaps a reminder: What was the topic for 2023, until eleven days ago? Political leadership focused on itself, not the country. Did that change in the last eleven days? Nope. The phrase "quality of leadership" does not apply to the governing Ministers here. No leadership. Qualities bereft of quality. I suspect the U.S. news isn’t covering the attacks by Likud leadership on Israeli journalism, inane policy proposals, etc. The crisis may be materially deeper than either military conflict or grasping, gasping, politicians.
Relief Area
Alef
Text message from my cell phone company: "In these difficult days we want to remind you that HOT Mobile is here for you..." Thanks, I guess?
Bet
Bumper Sticker: Drive slow. Surf fast.
Gimmel -- <Adult Content Warning>
Penis cookies received by an army unit. The Hebrew word for penis - zain - has multiple meanings, including being a slang curse. Learn about this aspect of Hebrew (in English) in this five minute podcast by Guy Sharett.
Handwritten note says:
Fuck Hamas (literally: Dick On Hamas)
Wanna hear a joke about my dick?
Sorry, it's too long!
Thank you for your service
From Ezra and Gideon
That is it from Tel Aviv. Back to tasks.