Good Times

Hello, hello! Me again. So I see my last post accomplished one of my goals. It generated a few more comments! Nothing like a little controversy to get people out of the woodwork. But I must say, I was expecting more comments than that! Especially since I reread my post later and was thinking to myself, "Wow, I sound like a violent war monger!" Which I am clearly not. But I hope that maybe it informed some people (although I don't think most of the people that actually still read this need informing), about what the true root of the problem is and maybe, just maybe, got people thinking about Israel's side of the story. Poor red-headed step child of the world that it is. And I have to say to Marc, you are truly way too kind in your words, and I think you might need to have your head examined! But I appreciate it even if I don't believe you, especially coming from the so-called "smart Sacks brother". (I hope you remember where that came from!)

So to address Marc's question quickly before I revert to my old frivolous habit of blogging about nothing, the mood in Tel Aviv is very much business as usual. If you didn't read the news you would not have a clue that anything is going on here. The only thing I really noticed was that there are fewer soldiers milling around the city with their Uzis because now, well, they have more important things to do. But really everyone is just carrying on with their daily business as usual. And while I, and most of my American friends, are continuing to stay away from places like the Shuk and the mall, I highly doubt that any Israelis are doing the same thing. They have a different way of life here. They are fully aware that their life as they know it (or their life, period) could be over at any second. With all the people that are out to get them you would think they would live in a state of perpetual fear and caution. But they don't. Unlike America, this is not a "fear" run society. They know that they could be gone tomorrow but that isn't going to stop them from doing what they need and want to do.

We know one Israeli who goes so far as to say that "nothing" (like a suicide bomb, etc.) will ever happen in Tel Aviv. He feels like it will just never happen because the perpetrators know that the retaliation they would face would be relentless. Which if Operation Cast Lead is any indicator, than he just may be right. But for me....well, I say never say never. Better to be safe than sorry. So we're just trying to be smart about it. So I guess it's a little ironic that we chose yesterday to be the day of our first Israeli bus ride (more on that later), but that wasn't a planned part of our day and just sort of happened. But then I often think to myself, okay, this is just silly. Am I being smart and safe or am I just letting fear take over? I think about being in the US and how we all live under an illusion that we are safe. I mean you can get randomly shot at just about anywhere these days. The mall, school, church for goodness sakes! And yet, I'm not going to let that stop me from shopping for my new summer wardrobe. I mean, we all have priorities right?

But I guess it's just because I am, for lack of a better term "comfortable" with that threat. Just as people here are "comfortable" with the daily threats that they face. It's all about what you are used to I suppose. Israelis are used to random rocket fire pummeling their small border towns and Americans are used to crazies walking into a shopping mall and randomly firing away. I guess to me the threat just seems bigger here. Maybe because it's such a small country? Basically anything that happens here is not all that far away from where you live. Where in the US something that happens 3,000 miles away seems like an entire world away. Or maybe because these "small" threats are just reminders of the overall threat that many people wish to see Israel destroyed. I'm not sure, but I do know that we, including all of our American friends here, are being more cautious now, while most Israelis probably are not. They're used to it, we're not. The idea that a war is going on literally in our back yard is a concept that is just hard to wrap your head around. Especially since everything here seems relatively normal.

So we acted like Israelis this weekend (no we didn't ruthlessly cut people off in traffic and lay on our horns at the person that prevented us from cutting them off), and continued on with our lives as usual and took a trip up North. (Not too far North of course, because well, now our neighbors up north are getting all crazy again.) Our friends that are leaving Israel at the end of the month organized a trip up to Akko for a lunch at Uri Buri, home of the most incredible seafood in Israel. Since it's about a two hour drive, and we decided that to drive for two hours for seafood no matter how good it may be, is just silly, we decided to stop in Haifa and visit the Ba'hai Gardens on the way. It's something we'd been meaning to do for a long time and for whatever reason we just hadn't made it yet. But I'm really glad we made it this time, because the Ba'hai gardens are simply stunning, not to mention the absolutely cleanest place we have seen in Israel....





As you can see the tour lead us down about 600 steps from the top of the garden down near the Shrine of the Bab. What we didn't know, until we were at the gate ready to embark on our tour, was that they take you down, but they don't bring you back up. After the tour they essentially open a gate and dump you out onto the streets of Haifa to fend for yourself and find your way back up to the top and to your car. Now I had called the gardens several times before to find out about tour info and not once, did anyone mention this to me. Typical. But there at least was a bus stop not very far away and were able to hitch a ride back up the hill. A very crowded, stinky unpleasant ride, so we were thankful that it relatively short. So we had our first experience on the bus in Israel and I have to say that I will continue to avoid it in the future if I can. Stinky bodies crammed into a small space=not my idea of a good time. So much for the zen feeling I had acquired while touring the immaculate peaceful gardens.

We also had the opportunity to view a short film at the end of the tour about the Ba'hai faith, which was interesting to see as we had new little to nothing about the faith before we came to Israel and heard about the gardens. It's truly a very amazing and interesting faith. It's a monotheistic religion that sees validity in all major religions and sees such religious leaders as Buddha, Moses, Christ, Muhammad, etc. as messengers from God sent down at particular times in history to suit the needs of people at those times. Basically their faith seeks to unite humanity and end all prejudice. And since Wiki is far more eloquent than I could ever be....."The Bahá'í writings emphasize the essential equality of human beings, and the abolition of prejudice. Humanity is seen as essentially one, though highly varied; its diversity of race and culture are seen as worthy of appreciation and acceptance. Doctrines of racism, nationalism, caste, social class and gender-based hierarchy are seen as artificial impediments to unity. The Bahá'í teachings state that the unification of humankind is the paramount issue in the religious and political conditions of the present world." Nicely put, don't you think? While their ultimate goal sounds just too good to be true, it's nice to know that there are people out there that not only think in this way but continue to strive for such a peaceful world. I mean a religion that actually unites instead of divides? Imagine that.

So after our religious experience we headed up to Akko to meet the rest of the gang for lunch. We've been to Uri Buri once before and thought it was absolutely amazing. Of course that time we had been out tasting wine all day so we were just hoping that our brains hadn't been clouded by too much Chardonnay and Syrah and that it was as good as we had remembered. Indeed it was. Best coconut curry fish soup we've ever had! And now I actually have the recipe, although I am sure that Uri did not disclose some exotic secret ingredient, because the list of ingredients just looks too simple and easy to produce a soup so creamy and decadent. But, I am of course going to give it my best try. To be able to have that soup at home whenever we want instead of having to drive two hours for it would be just awesome. Life changing, as Oprah might say. True to form we stuffed ourselves silly until we could eat no more....

After our meal we browsed a local shop for some sculpture for our apartment....

and caught the end of a beautiful sunset.

Good times indeed.