Zur Baher

Amira Hess is my favorite journalist to vomit on. She sees the world in black and white - black being the Jews and white the colonized Palestinians and occasionally the victimized Ethiopian and Sudanese intruders. Today she writes about the village of Zur Baher, near Jerusalem. Under the Turkish Sultanate, the village (meaning Big Rock or Big Secret) had 24 families living in natural caves; these people has multiplied to 40,000 today. Part of the village has been annexed to the Municipality of Jerusalem and its inhabitants enjoy Israeli citizenship, the rest are Palestinian Authority subjects. A house on the Israeli side sells for 300 - 400 thousand dollars, while the same a few meters further sells for 100,000 US$. Almost like Detroit and its White suburbs. The Israeli side is under tremendous demographic pressure: Palestinians try to marry Israeli citizens and bring in their extended families, lots of undocumented transients, and much building without plans nor permits. The place is unmanageable, the police avoids entering the neighborhood and the government tries to establish order and legitimacy. For Amira this is intentional, malignant, colonialist, planned destruction and transfer, although I agree that from her despicable self-hating point of view it well may be so.

American right wing blogs - always ahead of the general press - have adopted a cold, scientific tone, they are full of statistics and data. For example, one note about Ilhan Omar, a Minnesotta senator, whose very name and family origins are obscure (has been married to her blood brother for nine years), mentions that DNA controls show that in 98% of the Somali family reunion requests there is no genetic relationship and that they are ALL lying. It is more or less like our family reunion requests of our Ethiopian "Jewish" immigrants. In our case, the so called "Jewish" Agency never rejects them because it is known that Ethiopian "Jewish" families are fluid, marry and separate without thinking it twice, are polygamous and polyandrous, and they themselves are not sure who their parents and sisters may be. In Hebrew: Ethiopian Jews are not lying, they don't know. The Jewish religion is most rigorous regarding family purity, but for the State of Israel they are all kosher Jews and please be in the airport three hours before the time. 

Dysgenic trends among Israeli animals

Of course yesterday's note was a joke, Israeli animals are not becoming smarter and fitter: the opposite is true. I went down to the parking and pitiful meowing of a lame - three legged - cat greeted me. Immediately appeared an old lady with a cup of cream cheese and milk with bread crumbs, and the beggar, slowly and graciously, moved toward the feast. I had to stop at the exit because an ancient and venerable dog, painfully dragging its bandaged hind leg, was taking a rest. Obviously, the poor animal had been hit by a car (maximum speed in our street 20 miles per hour) and a generous soul took it to the pet hospital. The bakery in front was spreading bread crumbs to the three hundred pigeons of the neighborhood. A few hungry hoopoes and colored birds tried to take part in the celebration, but they were aggressively expelled by the symbols of peace. Scenes like these are common in my pet-loving town. Obviously, the large and growing parasite pet population is not being selected for fitness in the wilderness but for begging ability. I see many females carrying small 5 kg white dogs, they function as baby substitutes, and being mostly silent and self-propelled, they are better that human babies. Extrapolating present trends, we shall end like the Romans. The Latter Day Israeli Jews - formerly Eritreans - will inhabit our city and wonder what happened to the giants that built those tall buildings. 

Eugenic trends among Israeli animals

Cats and dogs cross the streets in red light and get hit and maimed. On the routes I see wild animals killed - roadkills - such as foxes, small Samarian deers, lots of reptiles and frogs. When driving fast, blind birds hit my windshield and spiral off to the asphalt to be eviscerated by the car behind. The hoopoe, Israeli national bird, is the stupidest of all. This mass massacre can have only one result: the dumbest are not surviving and we are breeding an intellectually able wildlife population. Humans have exterminated all their competitors, lately the Neanderthals, but it well may be that the genetically improved animals around will rise and outcompete us. Sci-fi novelists fear the rise of intelligent machines, but the rise of intelligent animals may be more frightening. Good night children, sleep well and dream with sweet angels! 

The Shekel is the World's Strongest Currency

According to HaAretz of today, the Shekel (left) has strengthened some 25% regarding the rest of the currencies and now is stronger than the dollar and the euro and the holy Swiss Frank. What people is doing with this new acquisitive power? They take vacations in Europe and exotic destinations. They buy chachkes by internet and the post. And they invest in real estate.

I am in TASE Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and follow with interest real estate prices. The high prices are frightening: How can it be that an apt. in Tel Aviv is more expensive than in San Francisco? It is unreal, unnatural, irregular, can't be. I still cannot cast away my mentality of the sixties, when Israel was perceived (and was in fact) a struggling embattled mini-country, begging donations. Now we are a rich country whose currency is appreciated even by foreign banks.

I think I may take a mortgage at 2% interest and buy an apt. in Rosh HaAyin. I am antediluvian and statistically, I have been dead for years, which is not the best age to undertake long term investments, but I have daughters and now two or more new grandchildren are on their way here. We are just starting.  

Beyn HaMeytzarim - Three weeks of Sadness

In the Jewish year, today is fast day in remembrance of the Roman Army breaking through Jerusalem's walls - 2000 years ago. Now we begin a three week period of lamentations, till Tisha BeAv, the day when the Temple was destroyed. During these three weeks we avoid fiestas and festivities, some people sit on the floor in the synagogue to show their humbleness. We should not be fasting: the Romans are gone, Rome has been sacked many times and Africans live among its ruins, while we are steadily rebuilding our country and the Temple.   

Plumbing Excellence in Israel

In January I designed plumbing systems for four gyms in Tel Aviv area. The Client was an international gym chain planning to open forty new gyms in Israel. Against Israeli practice, they paid well and in advance. After designing four, I resigned because the architect produced new designs every two days and demanded constant updating of the drawings. The gyms are all working and very successful. Now I was called to do an expert report on one of "my" gyms because they do not want to pay the plumber for his substandard work. I wrote my 26 pages illustrated report. I never saw such a bad workmanship in Israel. The pipes were fake Giberit HDPE, some of them even re-used ones! I advised to disassemble the whole thing, bring in an expert plumber with suitable equipment, and remake the whole thing. Which is impossible, because the gym is working and most of the plumbing is embedded in the concrete structure. 

Grandaughter