Riddle me this.
On Wednesday, the army sniffs out a terrorist in the village outside Kedumim.
Thursday, between Karnei and Emmmanuel, the army finds the burnt corpse of Yakir resident Dr. Daniel Yaakovi HY"D.
Today, you're demonstrating on the Azun road in protest over the recent spate of stone throwings.
And you won't let your kids tramp in my area because it's dangerous?!?
Friday, July 28, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
A few links and some tests
Giyus.org has a Windows based desktop application which will make giving knee jerk support to the Israeli government's decisions easy.
Wait, wait, hold your fire. I know I'm sounding horribly Leftist. I don't automatically supoort the Israeli government's decisions in this war? Well, no, of course not. The soldiers killed yesterday died because the Israeli government decided not to bomb and to send in ground troops instead. Protect Leban civilians who have been told to get out (and who know the consequences for not getting out), who have been given adequate time to get out, and the Hezballah terrorists lurking among them or protect Israeli soldiers?
And the day before, with Olmert going to visit people kicked out of Gaza last year and telling them, "You think you should still be in Gaza. The government thinks not, and we're right, so we're going to screw the country by giving the West Bank to terrorists, too!" (OK, he didn't put it that way exactly, but come on. We left Lebanon and got more terror. We left Gaza and got more terror, You'd have to be an idiot not to think the same thing will happen out here. Even Ha'Aretz says so.)
But whether you approve of what the givernment is doing, the soldiers still need support. Send them a hug and Elite will send them some chocolate.
So, those tests the Teens took? The Middle Teen flunked her driving test, much to the relief of everyone but her. (Overconfident teenager + car = bad idea. A little humbling is a good thing.) The Oldest Teen won't know his results until September, but he thinks he did well and showed that he has leadership ability without being pushy. The Youngest Teen has been sent to the plastic surgeon to remove a beauty mark at the top of her chest (quoth the doctor: "You'll want a pretty scar for when you wear low cut blouses." Uh huh. Someone explain to me why the local doctors think the Russians are their only customers and learn nothing about their other market share, the religious settlers?) and the dietician wants her to live on diet soda, black bread, and radishes. I'm just surprised she wasn't given a daily vodka ration, too.
Yestarday we took the Middle Teen to interview in the school where she may be volunteering for 12th grade. She fell in love with the principal, and if she gets accepted there she will have private tutors for three subjects: chemistry (which is her major but is not offered--a Russian chemistry teacher working in Hadera as a lab tech tutored the Shelef volunteer girl last year), history (no one in the school is taking five units as she is) and math (her school does the 003 & 005 tests by the end of 11th grade, everyone else does the 003 & 004, so they'll all be learning for 005 and she needs to learn 005, but since tutoring goes more quickly than a classroom, she may even be able to do 5 units instead of her projected 4). She won't be able to do her Bible thesis, so she'll have to make up last year's work (Bible's an easy subject for her, though) and she's already finished English, so her classroom time will be limited. Works for me!
And--lookee here, no visualization exercises for you today. (Well, if you insist, you can keep visualizing that black stockinette sweater. By next week I may actually have something worth showing). But here's some spinning--2 ply, 14wpi. Not finished yet, because I still ahve to ply it with a strand of blue mettalic, but that'll be done once the whole kilo is spun up, and this stuff's a bitch to spin: full of VM and neps. Never, ever will I buy rovings off Ebay again.
Wait, wait, hold your fire. I know I'm sounding horribly Leftist. I don't automatically supoort the Israeli government's decisions in this war? Well, no, of course not. The soldiers killed yesterday died because the Israeli government decided not to bomb and to send in ground troops instead. Protect Leban civilians who have been told to get out (and who know the consequences for not getting out), who have been given adequate time to get out, and the Hezballah terrorists lurking among them or protect Israeli soldiers?
And the day before, with Olmert going to visit people kicked out of Gaza last year and telling them, "You think you should still be in Gaza. The government thinks not, and we're right, so we're going to screw the country by giving the West Bank to terrorists, too!" (OK, he didn't put it that way exactly, but come on. We left Lebanon and got more terror. We left Gaza and got more terror, You'd have to be an idiot not to think the same thing will happen out here. Even Ha'Aretz says so.)
But whether you approve of what the givernment is doing, the soldiers still need support. Send them a hug and Elite will send them some chocolate.
So, those tests the Teens took? The Middle Teen flunked her driving test, much to the relief of everyone but her. (Overconfident teenager + car = bad idea. A little humbling is a good thing.) The Oldest Teen won't know his results until September, but he thinks he did well and showed that he has leadership ability without being pushy. The Youngest Teen has been sent to the plastic surgeon to remove a beauty mark at the top of her chest (quoth the doctor: "You'll want a pretty scar for when you wear low cut blouses." Uh huh. Someone explain to me why the local doctors think the Russians are their only customers and learn nothing about their other market share, the religious settlers?) and the dietician wants her to live on diet soda, black bread, and radishes. I'm just surprised she wasn't given a daily vodka ration, too.
Yestarday we took the Middle Teen to interview in the school where she may be volunteering for 12th grade. She fell in love with the principal, and if she gets accepted there she will have private tutors for three subjects: chemistry (which is her major but is not offered--a Russian chemistry teacher working in Hadera as a lab tech tutored the Shelef volunteer girl last year), history (no one in the school is taking five units as she is) and math (her school does the 003 & 005 tests by the end of 11th grade, everyone else does the 003 & 004, so they'll all be learning for 005 and she needs to learn 005, but since tutoring goes more quickly than a classroom, she may even be able to do 5 units instead of her projected 4). She won't be able to do her Bible thesis, so she'll have to make up last year's work (Bible's an easy subject for her, though) and she's already finished English, so her classroom time will be limited. Works for me!
And--lookee here, no visualization exercises for you today. (Well, if you insist, you can keep visualizing that black stockinette sweater. By next week I may actually have something worth showing). But here's some spinning--2 ply, 14wpi. Not finished yet, because I still ahve to ply it with a strand of blue mettalic, but that'll be done once the whole kilo is spun up, and this stuff's a bitch to spin: full of VM and neps. Never, ever will I buy rovings off Ebay again.
Monday, July 24, 2006
We interrupt this war
Even in the middle of war normal life goes on, especially when you're far (at least an hour) from the battlefront.
Tomorrow is a crucial day in the Moze household. The Oldest Teen is taking a day off of his first aid course to interview for an ROTC program with the army, the Middle Teen is taking her driving test, and the Youngest Teen has a slew of doctors' appointments. I don't know how any of these things will go: the prep course which Oldest took told him he's ready to go and has a good shot, as long as the army will accept people from our area. He has no police record (I taught him long before last year to pretend to be a tourist when picked up at a demonstration), has good grades, his hearing problem is unnoticable in an interview situation, he's personable and has leadership qualities. Really, the only reason I could see him being rejected is his address, which just--let's call things as they are--sucks. And not in a good way.
The Middle Teen--well, she drives well. Too well. She's just an accident waiting to happen with her over confidence, but when she had to do a lesson with a substitute driving teacher on Sunday she said her legs turned to jelly, so we'll have to see what side of the bed she (and the tester, for that matter) wake up on tomorrow.
The Youngest Teen? Well, no one will listen to me, so she's been going for tests on her achy stomach for nearly a year. Clues? The ache gets worse when both The Spouse and I are out of the country. The giorl could live on corn schnitzels and pasta. Mom's diagnosis? Missing her parents and bad nutrition when on her own. But will the doctors listen to me? Ha!
Wednesday the Middle Teen has an interview in what I assume will be her new school. Officially she hasn't been told which city she'll be volunteering/living in, but since the high school in Hadera called her in for an interview and we've heard nothing from Beit Shemesh, I'm assuming Hadera's the choice. Now if only Nassrallah would go away...
Tomorrow is a crucial day in the Moze household. The Oldest Teen is taking a day off of his first aid course to interview for an ROTC program with the army, the Middle Teen is taking her driving test, and the Youngest Teen has a slew of doctors' appointments. I don't know how any of these things will go: the prep course which Oldest took told him he's ready to go and has a good shot, as long as the army will accept people from our area. He has no police record (I taught him long before last year to pretend to be a tourist when picked up at a demonstration), has good grades, his hearing problem is unnoticable in an interview situation, he's personable and has leadership qualities. Really, the only reason I could see him being rejected is his address, which just--let's call things as they are--sucks. And not in a good way.
The Middle Teen--well, she drives well. Too well. She's just an accident waiting to happen with her over confidence, but when she had to do a lesson with a substitute driving teacher on Sunday she said her legs turned to jelly, so we'll have to see what side of the bed she (and the tester, for that matter) wake up on tomorrow.
The Youngest Teen? Well, no one will listen to me, so she's been going for tests on her achy stomach for nearly a year. Clues? The ache gets worse when both The Spouse and I are out of the country. The giorl could live on corn schnitzels and pasta. Mom's diagnosis? Missing her parents and bad nutrition when on her own. But will the doctors listen to me? Ha!
Wednesday the Middle Teen has an interview in what I assume will be her new school. Officially she hasn't been told which city she'll be volunteering/living in, but since the high school in Hadera called her in for an interview and we've heard nothing from Beit Shemesh, I'm assuming Hadera's the choice. Now if only Nassrallah would go away...
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Where's PETA when you need them?
Israeli TV channel 2 reported that dozens of cows were killed by a Katyusha attack. I'm expecting worldwide protests to begin shortly. Of course, it will all turn out to have been Israel's fault.
Knitting: Black, back, knit knit knit knit. Black, black, knit knit knit knit knit.
Knitting: Black, back, knit knit knit knit. Black, black, knit knit knit knit knit.
Monday, July 17, 2006
Happy Shiny People
Lisa Goldman has written an account of yesterday's anti-war demonstration in Tel Aviv, contrasting the "sullen curiosity at best, or outright hostility at (frequent) worst" of the right wing with the "sincere, goodhearted people" of the Left.
Well, let me tell you a story about another anti-war demonstration, this one last Friday in Jerusalem. I wasn;t there, but my son was, and I'll trust the accuracy of his reporting.
Friday my son was hitching back to Jerusalem, to spend Shabbat at his yeshiva, and the car that stopped picked up not only him, but a former elementary school classmate name Assaf Gavish. It let them out in front of the Kings Hotel in Jerusalem, across from a small plaza where an anti-war demonstration was taking place, near the Prime Minister's residence.
The boys got out of the car and saw the demonstration. "My friend," the Oldest Teen reported, "went a little crazy." He waded into the small crowd, yelling "What do you know about terror? What do you know about death? Have any of you watched your parents being slaughtered before your eyes?" You see, Assaf's brother, grandfather, and both his parents were murdered in their own home, with Assaf and other family members present, a few years ago.
So what did the "sincere, goodhearted people" of the Left do when this victim of terror told them off? They assualted him, verbally ("murderer" "fanatic" "Jewish terrorist") and physically. My son started towards them to intervene, but Assaf managed to break free and run over to the Prime Minister's residence guards and ask to file a complaint. The guards talked him out of it by agreeing to break up the demonstration.
Points to note:
1. For a kid from this area to go running to cops is almost unheard of. Cops, out here, are usually seen as biased, ad not in our favor. Today, with all the rocket, Kassam, and Katyusha attacks, with abandoned homes in the north being looted, with terrorists caught in one place and suspected in others, and with the possible kidnapping of another soldier, the police found time to break into a yeshiva, tear gas the students, and rough up the rabbi over an old police file. This isn't the first time they've played Cold Case when there were better things they could be doing, so no one local really trusts the Israeli police; if they were the better alternative, you can imagine what the worse one was.
2. For the police to break up a demonstration of the Left is nearly unheard of.
In the comments on her post, Lisa writes:
Well, I guess if the "sincere, goodhearted people," the "friendly, relaxed and open" leftist demonstrators cannot "withstand" a single 18 year old victim of terror telling them they're full of [I won't say what, but George W. Bush was caught using that word today], then their committment to peaceful demonstrations is not very strong, is it?
Knitting to clear the mind. Black bulky weight. On size 10.5 needles. In the round. Stockinette. Pictures? You don't need a picture. Just close your eyes and you'll see something close enough.
Well, let me tell you a story about another anti-war demonstration, this one last Friday in Jerusalem. I wasn;t there, but my son was, and I'll trust the accuracy of his reporting.
Friday my son was hitching back to Jerusalem, to spend Shabbat at his yeshiva, and the car that stopped picked up not only him, but a former elementary school classmate name Assaf Gavish. It let them out in front of the Kings Hotel in Jerusalem, across from a small plaza where an anti-war demonstration was taking place, near the Prime Minister's residence.
The boys got out of the car and saw the demonstration. "My friend," the Oldest Teen reported, "went a little crazy." He waded into the small crowd, yelling "What do you know about terror? What do you know about death? Have any of you watched your parents being slaughtered before your eyes?" You see, Assaf's brother, grandfather, and both his parents were murdered in their own home, with Assaf and other family members present, a few years ago.
So what did the "sincere, goodhearted people" of the Left do when this victim of terror told them off? They assualted him, verbally ("murderer" "fanatic" "Jewish terrorist") and physically. My son started towards them to intervene, but Assaf managed to break free and run over to the Prime Minister's residence guards and ask to file a complaint. The guards talked him out of it by agreeing to break up the demonstration.
Points to note:
1. For a kid from this area to go running to cops is almost unheard of. Cops, out here, are usually seen as biased, ad not in our favor. Today, with all the rocket, Kassam, and Katyusha attacks, with abandoned homes in the north being looted, with terrorists caught in one place and suspected in others, and with the possible kidnapping of another soldier, the police found time to break into a yeshiva, tear gas the students, and rough up the rabbi over an old police file. This isn't the first time they've played Cold Case when there were better things they could be doing, so no one local really trusts the Israeli police; if they were the better alternative, you can imagine what the worse one was.
2. For the police to break up a demonstration of the Left is nearly unheard of.
In the comments on her post, Lisa writes:
I guess if a country cannot "withstand" a few hundred people peacefully demonstrating, then its democracy is not very strong.
Well, I guess if the "sincere, goodhearted people," the "friendly, relaxed and open" leftist demonstrators cannot "withstand" a single 18 year old victim of terror telling them they're full of [I won't say what, but George W. Bush was caught using that word today], then their committment to peaceful demonstrations is not very strong, is it?
Knitting to clear the mind. Black bulky weight. On size 10.5 needles. In the round. Stockinette. Pictures? You don't need a picture. Just close your eyes and you'll see something close enough.
Sunday, July 16, 2006
The Orange Teens
It's odd to know the country's at war (oh, sorry, a state of emergency in limited areas of the country) and it not be anywhere near me. There were a few planes overhead yesterday, and the local Arabs must have turned up the volume because their 3:30 am prayers woke me, but other than that, it's been quiet. (Well, aside from the sound of the police coming to drag young girls--remember NN?--in for questioning, even though the charges were a year old and even though she was babysitting her brothers and sisters, and going with the cops meant leaving them, including a year old baby, alone.)
It's nearly a year since Israel abandoned the Gaza settlements, yet the Orange Revolution continues. The ManBoy and The Oldest Teen want to go hiking up North this week and The Middle Teen wants to go to Haifa for her birthday Tuesday and then down to Sederot this coming weekend. Because We Are Not Going To Let Arab Terror Stop Us. Because We Have To Show Solidarity. Because, quite frankly, these are teenagers and they don't get enough tension and adventure in their lives. Thankfully, The Spouse returns Friday, so I could tell The Middle Teen no about her weekend plans. I todl The Oldest Teen to check with the head of his yeshiva and see if he could get a pass out of learning; I'm betting that the answer will be no. (Delegating responsibility, that's my superpower.)
The first casualty of war chez Moze is my Amazing Lace entry #3. I've done the scarf, finished the socks,
but do not have the concentration needed to do a very large lace shawl with multiple charts. Oh, well, maybe when Israel's not at war anymore (like about the year 3043?).
Instead, I've been focusing on smaller projects. It's lavendar season
so I've been making up a bunch of sachets
Sort of look like bombs, don't they? Well, at least their smell takes my mind off what's happening. Still, I can't help but thinking this has nothing to do with the 3 captured soldiers. Oh, sure, that was the excuse for the start of it, but Olmert's said his real goal in Gaza is to prepare the ground to kick me out of my house, and I think the real reason behind the bombardment of Lebanon is that the blood of people living in Tzefat, Nahariya, and Meiron is redder than that of us living out here or than those living in Sederot. I have the very bad feeling that the soldiers are going to become the Sultaan Yaakub soldiers/Ron Arad of my kids' generation.
It's nearly a year since Israel abandoned the Gaza settlements, yet the Orange Revolution continues. The ManBoy and The Oldest Teen want to go hiking up North this week and The Middle Teen wants to go to Haifa for her birthday Tuesday and then down to Sederot this coming weekend. Because We Are Not Going To Let Arab Terror Stop Us. Because We Have To Show Solidarity. Because, quite frankly, these are teenagers and they don't get enough tension and adventure in their lives. Thankfully, The Spouse returns Friday, so I could tell The Middle Teen no about her weekend plans. I todl The Oldest Teen to check with the head of his yeshiva and see if he could get a pass out of learning; I'm betting that the answer will be no. (Delegating responsibility, that's my superpower.)
The first casualty of war chez Moze is my Amazing Lace entry #3. I've done the scarf, finished the socks,
but do not have the concentration needed to do a very large lace shawl with multiple charts. Oh, well, maybe when Israel's not at war anymore (like about the year 3043?).
Instead, I've been focusing on smaller projects. It's lavendar season
so I've been making up a bunch of sachets
Sort of look like bombs, don't they? Well, at least their smell takes my mind off what's happening. Still, I can't help but thinking this has nothing to do with the 3 captured soldiers. Oh, sure, that was the excuse for the start of it, but Olmert's said his real goal in Gaza is to prepare the ground to kick me out of my house, and I think the real reason behind the bombardment of Lebanon is that the blood of people living in Tzefat, Nahariya, and Meiron is redder than that of us living out here or than those living in Sederot. I have the very bad feeling that the soldiers are going to become the Sultaan Yaakub soldiers/Ron Arad of my kids' generation.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Just a quick note
Just a quick note to say that I'm fine. My area of Israel isn't under attack; in fact, it may be the quietest area at this point. We've been spending the day calling friends up north and inviting them to stay with us, but the stereotype of our area being dangerous is too persistent, and most are afraid to come here, even though the katyushas are falling one after the other and causing casulaties.
More about vacations, knitting, dying parents and crazy teenage kids when I can tear myself away from the news reports.
More about vacations, knitting, dying parents and crazy teenage kids when I can tear myself away from the news reports.
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