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Still gorgeous weather. Sunny, light breeze and it is just wonderful to walk around and see the sites of Jerusalem.

Will and I had dinner last night at Ragu Italian Restaurant on Bet Lechem (Bethlehem) road. It is a kosher meat restaurant, which means it serves nothing that has to do with milk. Everything is made with meat and tomato sauce or other sauces—no cream sauces. I had stuffed portobello mushrooms. The food was very good and the service was better than the average Israeli restaurant. It is a nice find in the neighborhood.

Ended up in the Jewish Quarter again today. I wanted to talk to Moishe at Shorashim about the Brit mila that was held yesterday at the Rimonim Prison. The brit mila is the circumcision of the new born boy and the giving of his Hebrew name. His father is Yigal Amir, the Orthodox Jew that shot and killed Yitzhak Rabin twelve years ago. He is in prison for life, married while in prison, and now has a new born son who had his brit mila on the exact same day as the assassination twelve years ago. Quite a coincidence? The baby’s name is Inon Elya Shalom. I wanted to ask Moishe what this name meant. He said Inon is another name for messiah and of course shalom is peace. So, his name has something to do with messiah and peace.

I went by Bridges for Peace and visited with them a bit—really a good organization in Israel. I know several people who have volunteered with them and have come away from the experience changed for life.

I stopped by the grocery store and said hello to the butcher. It’s good to see him and get his advice on the beef.

Just when I think I have the Israelis figured out, I do not. I got on the bus (public transportation), riding along when the bus driver pulls over and lets an elderly woman off. There is no bus stop anywhere to be seen, but it is close to where she needs to be, so he lets her off. I have also seen buses drive by the bus stop and keep going. The Israelis are like the “sabra” fruit of the cactus plant—prickly on the outside, but sweet on the inside. They never cease to amaze me.

Most ridiculous headline in the Jerusalem Post today: Syria-Based Palestinian factions said to be mediating between Hamas and Fatah. This is a real headline. Unbelievable!

A wonderful front page article by Calev Ben-David titled: “The long and winding road map.”

Let’s back up to 2003 when the road map was formally unveiled by the Bush administration, because the inherent contradictions between that approach and the decision to call the Annapolis conference are becoming clearer by the day. Introduced during the height of the second intifada, and designed to get a peace process derailed by the collapse of the Oslo Accords back on track, the road map was supposed to introduce new elements of accountability on both sides. Deadline dates toward agreement on final-status issues, accomplished in summit meetings between the respective leaderships, would now be dependent on fulfillment of an initial phase that required the Palestinians to end violence (or at least give a 100 percent effort to preventing it) while Israel would freeze settlement construction, including evacuating illegal settlement construction

Bottom line: Annapolis timing and purpose is outside of the framework of the roadmap.

Charles Krauthammer has a funny article: “The alternating presidency.” All about a woman who becomes president of her country, but her husband had also been president. Interesting dynamics. He thinks it may be a lesson for us to learn.

Last, but not least: At 23%, Israel’s smoking rate is lowest ever. Just 23.3% of the adult population smoke, compared to 25.5% a year ago.

This entry was posted by Sandra on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 7:59 am and is filed under From Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.