| Hi everyone, It's been an eventful week here in Israel. Focused on my own work, the big events passed on the edge of my radar screen but I was more aware of them than usual. We've had an escalating ping pong with Gaza and terrorists since the Itamar murders last week. Israel retaliated on that, Gaza sent Grad missiles, some of which landed as far away as Beersheva, Israel retaliated on that hitting 4 civilians accidentally in Gaza, and two days ago a terrorist bomb went off at a bus station in Jerusalem killing one person (a British national) and wounding 39 others, the first such attack in four years. Nevertheless the Jerusalem marathon is being run today and life goes on. Since both sides are determined to get in the last word, I expect this will escalate for a while until Israel really whomps the crap out of Gaza and the international community sits on our heads to cut it out. That's the repeat pattern. Ah, Spring in the Middle East, when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of mayhem. That's the problem here, too many young men running around. Seriously. Studies have shown that when the population has more than 25% males under 30, all hell breaks loose, anywhere in the world. I could have vouched for that thirty years ago in college. So the weather warms up, the testosterone rises, and here we go again.....No end in sight either, since both sides here breed like rabbits. I shake my head over the annual March Madness, and turn my attention back to my work. Our EBONE project has been running for 36 months now and I'm reporting on it. Time to start wrapping things up. I'm planning an international workshop in Ein Gedi for next year, which hopefully will draw a lot of European visitors. (Deliberately for Ein Gedi, deliberately for January. In midwinter the testosterone levels in the Middle East are at a minimum while the local guys focus on keeping their balls from freezing, and the balmy environment in Ein Gedi mellows out everybody. It's about the safest time to be in Israel. It's the peak of the spring season and the landscape is lovely as ever. I travelled to Haifa by train yesterday, and was refreshed by the flower-filled scenery. Galilee is especially beautiful a this time of year. It was pouring rain, even a flurry of hail, but we desperately need rain so this was welcome, however uncomfortable. I spent the morning at a conservation conference at University of Haifa, and then went to visit a very old friend, Prof. Zev Naveh. This was the man who arranged for me to come to Israel on a postdoc after the death of my husband, mainly to get me out of Cornell for a while. I don't think he expected me to stay for 30 years..... Zev is 91 now, and very fragile but despite surviving a stroke, his mind is as clear as ever. Slower though, and not as aggressive. He used to have long lists of things I must do, ready and waiting when I visit, and we would have to argue them out. No lists any more. Yep, he is slowing down. Either that or I've done everything he can imagine. The weather is clearing at last, and next week promises to be fair. I'm glad of that since most of next week I have to run around the country. Attending a conference in Ariel (Samaria), then teaching at Meggido on using a new computer service. (Meggido, or Armageddon! I never dreamed I'd be teaching computer services at Armageddon, but now that it is our northern district headquarters, I'm there quite often.) Happy to be there too; Megiddo is an amazing place for an archeology buff. Must get moving; the sun is out and I have to hang laundry. shabbat shalom, Linda |
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http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
1 comment:
HI Linda,
we would to see you n our marathon this year.
http://www.jerusalem-marathon.co.il/
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Amir Cohen,
Social media manager
Jerusalem Marathon
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