Let me say a few words about Budapest: There are some very beautiful buildings and some truly lovely places in the city. The view from the Buda side of the Danube is is beautiful. But overall, perhaps because of where our apartment is located, it seems like a very sad place.

We are located in the section that has many of the Jewish communal organizations and facilities such as some of the synagogues, two kosher bakeries (one for cakes and one for bread), three kosher restaurants, and the mikveh. However, the area is full of tall, old buildings that almost uniformly are in need of major renovation. The streets smell from mildew, sewage, and garbage. They are narrow and there is no vegetation. To get into an apartment (not just our building, but also the building where our friends are staying) it requires multiple keys to doors and gates placed within the building.

When I think that there are significant numbers of people who call these buildings home, I wonder what it must be like for a child to feel so encased by cold concrete both inside and out. I wonder why the Jews of Hungary, most of whom live in Budapest, don’t just pack up and come to Israel where there is sun and parks and health and life.

The Jewish quarter of Vienna was nicer, but people there also lived in big buildings far from parks and play areas. They all need to come home.

Today we made our way to Salzburg. It is a beautiful city. It is very green, very clean, and very old world. After wandering a while through the streets, we decided to ride the finicular up the the fortress. As we went to buy the tickets, we noticed that the group rate was less than the usual price, but we were only a group of 6 and not the minimum 10. As we discussed this along came a group of 4 Israelis who made our group number 10 and just as we were about to pay, along came two more….

The fortress called the Festung, overlooks all of Salzburg and every view is breathtaking.

The following article is taken in entirety from today’s Jerusalem Post www.jpost.com

May. 3, 2006 18:25
Soldier refuses to shake Halutz’s hand
By JPOST.COM STAFF

A soldier being honored at a national ceremony on Wednesday refused to shake the hand of Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz in protest against the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria last August.

The soldier, Cpl. Hananel Meged said that when he saw Halutz, all he could think of was the bulldozers razing his grandfather’s house in Gush Katif. His grandfather passed away shortly after he was relocated from his home.

The IDF said that, following the incident, Meged’s nomination as an outstanding soldier would be re-examined. The official response stated that such behavior was political, was not appropriate and there was no place for it in the armed forces.

The event, attended by President Moshe Katsav, Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Halutz, and a large crowd of veteran soldiers, represented a salute to the veterans and an appreciation of 120 soldiers singled out for outstanding service. Meged was nominated to be honored because “In spite of the difficulty experienced from his personal loss, he continued to function and contribute to the unit.”

During the ceremony, the chief of staff stressed the importance of maintaining a “strong and united IDF.”

Following the incident, the president reproached the soldier. Halutz said that the matter should be given a day or two in order to consider how to proceed.

On the other hand, some of the families who were evicted from Gush Katif last summer called Meged to laud him for his actions, Army Radio reported.

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Let me get this right. The soldier was judged to be outstanding. However, the sight of the chief of staff reminded him of the expulsion of his grandfather from the home that he had legally built and lived in—the expulsion that possibly contributed to the death of his grandfather. His act of disobedience was to refuse to shake the hand of one who had overseen that operation. He did not shout, curse, walk out, hold up a sign. He registered his feelings by refusing to shake a hand. And now they are thinking of re-examining his nomination???

Shame on them. Shame on them for throwing innocent people out of their homes, providing no adequate alternative housing, providing no alternate sources of employment, for demonizing these people – all for the vain hope that the Arabs in Gaza would settle down and stop targeting Israel. Well, a fine plan that was. The power plant in Ashdod is their prime target, and now, with their ability to get closer to it without the intervening Israeli communities, it is only a matter of time… And they are going to re-examine his nomination??????

Shame.

It’s Adar. You can tell. Israelis are in the Purim spirit. The Knesset voted to investigate the Amona evacuation (or as those who witnessed it might more properly term it, “pogrom.”). It is to be investigated by a Knesset committee that is tasked with understanding what actually happened that day when police and army personnel beat peaceful protestors.

As I recounted in an earlier blog entry, the TV camera showed more than one instance of police mounting a roof where unarmed people were sitting and on cue, tens of them took out their batons and began beating people on their heads.

That the defense minister and internal security minister will not allow those involved to be interviewed for the investigation is outrageous. That they say that complaints against individuals may be lodge insults our intelligence. It was not individuals that perpetrated the violence. These people were clearly coordinated and ordered to bash heads unless one is to assume they all got the clever idea simultaneously. What’s more, these people were not wearing any identification which is not only in clear violation of the law, but also makes it impossible in most cases to take any action against one specific person.

Let’s be serious. What happened that day was disgraceful. The most violent protestors in the US have not been beaten en masse by police. When the horrendous abuse films of the Brits abusing Iraqis were screened last week, my first thought was, “that is far less than our police were doing to our own citizens whose “crime” was trying to defend an illegal part of an outpost.” There was no excuse for the violence and the unwillingness of those in charge to allow a full and free investigation only intensifies the severity of the crimes committed.

The article from today’s Jerusalem Post follows:

Feb. 28, 2006 13:16 | Updated Mar. 1, 2006 7:39

Amona committee to begin work today
By SHEERA CLAIRE FRENKEL YIGAL GRAYEFF AND YAAKOV KATZ

A day before the Knesset launched its investigation on the Amona evacuation, both Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz and Interior Security Minister Gideon Ezra told the committee that they would personally appear in place of the officers that the committee had intended to question.

“The committee is political and if they have any problems they should deal with politicians and not put the burden on the back of the policemen,” said Ezra.

Mofaz and Ezra, whose Kadima party strongly opposed the investigation, accused the committee of trying to draw the IDF into unnecessary political discourse.

“This is an attempt to obstruct the Knesset from carrying out its work,” said Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud), who chose the panel to conduct the investigation. “Minister Ezra is in need of a democracy lesson.”

Ezra said that the police did not need to defend themselves.

“If somebody has a complaint against an individual policeman, they can go to the Police Investigative Department,” he said, adding that it was forbidden for politicians to attack the police or the soldiers in any way.

Suggesting that the move by Mofaz and Ezra was more political than ethical, Steinitz said any attempt to block the committee would infringe on the Knesset’s authority.

Meanwhile, MK Uri Ariel (National Union) who was chosen as part of a three-member panel to assist Steinitz, said that “in order to reach the truth and not provide excuses for Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, I am ready to not take part in the meetings of the Amona committee in which members of the security forces will testify.”

Ariel, whose religious party lashed out at security officials following the evacuation, said that he would abdicate from those meetings so long as every officer or soldier summoned by the committee appeared.

The committee has already been circumvented from interviewing two high-ranking IDF officers, OC Central Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Naveh and commander of IDF forces in the West Bank Brig.-Gen. Yair Golan. The two were scheduled to appear before the committee Wednesday, but will instead be represented by IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, who asked to appear before any of his subordinates so he could explain the Amona evacuation from the IDF’s perspective.

Earlier in the day Mofaz consulted with legal advisors including Attorney General Menahem Mazuz to see if he had the legal right to order IDF officers not to appear before the committee. Once he received permission from Mazuz, Mofaz announced he would testify before the committee in place of the IDF.

In addition to Steinitz and Ariel, the special committee will also be chaired by MKs Matan Vilnai (Labor) and Ilan Shalgi (Arrow). Other MKS on the committee can take part in the open hearings.

While carrying out the evacuation and demolition of nine houses in the West Bank outpost of Amona, the police clashed with thousands of protectors. More than 250 people were injured, including over 80 policemen

I have often wondered why it is that although I live in Israel and I follow the news closely, I rarely write about what is going on here. I think I have found a couple answers to the question. The first is that what is happening to us in terms of external threats is not pleasant. It is daunting to think that Iran has decided that it doesn’t want us to exist and that it is making plans and preparations for carrying out their final solution. It seems that only Israel and the US are taking them seriously. It makes me wonder how much good Holocaust education has actually done. All of the memorials in Europe to dead Jews don’t seem to have taught Europeans that when a people is threatened with extinction, that the threatener is deadly serious.

Instead, Europe is tripping over its own feet to apologize again and again and more and better for the cartoons that offended the Muslims. Whether of not they were in bad taste or offensive, to my small mind, seems beside the point. When I am offended I have ways of dealing with it that don’t involve destruction and violence. And were I to become destructive and violent, then I suppose I should be incarcerated rather than apologized to. But that’s only my thinking and what do I know about the world?

Meanwhile, AbbaGav has written a brilliant satirical piece in his blog http://abbagav.blogspot.com “Top 10 Discipline Tips for Unruly Children of the Jihad” that points out exactly what we are dealing with at our doorstep where we have an entity whose raison d’etre is our destruction.

Internally, we face a government that is rife with corruption. Our acting Prime Minister recently sold his Jerusalem home to someone’s offshore corporation for $2.7 million and is living in it for $2250 a month. Let’s see. We can all do the math. If we take off a zero, it becomes a bit clearer…. It is as if he is living in a $270K house for $225 a month. I’d say he got a pretty good deal.

One of his ministers has been advised by the attorney general, appointed by the head of his own party, Ariel Sharon, to resign because of charges of corruption, but he refuses to resign and has been given full support by the acting Prime Minister.

This, of course, is the same acting Prime Minister who sent police and army to bash in heads of Jews a couple of weeks ago in Amona. Bleeding heads of non-violent youth, people, including three Knesset members, who were brutally injured, pummeled in their stomachs with clubs, people who were trampled by horses, don’t seem to move the political establishment from their righteousness. Results of investigations into that documented, televised live on TV brutality are likely to be influenced by political pressure.

Is it any wonder that I would rather write about weddings and birthdays?

It all reminds me of a commercial that appeared on Armed Forces TV in Germany when we were living there in the late 1970s. A little girl is asked what she thinks about racism and she answers, “I don’t like to think about what I don’t like to think about.”

Is there a uniquely Israeli sport? Well, Israelis like soccer and basketball, but until recently I really didn’t understand that there is a uniquely Israeli sport. It is on a par with the US World Series and the European World Cup. Before the event they interview players on both sides. People in the country take sides and root for their team. During the event there is excitement and movement, and of course, the commentary. It is a sport that the TV networks cover with blow by blow descriptions.

Our sport is throwing people out of their homes. Jews, to be sure. Israel certainly couldn’t, wouldn’t even think of doing such brutal things to Arabs. And they do it with such enthusiasm! This past summer, 7000 people were thrown out of their homes. For the 1000 people in Amona today, residents and protestors, there are 6000 police. A recent comment on the action that I am watching at the moment (who ever said I wasn’t a sports enthusiast?) was about the police mounting the roof of one of the homes (the homes are all conveniently numbered, so we can follow the action) and the picture showed the police all taking out their bats and striking people repeatedly. The reporter (most of them root for the police) asked someone on the scene, “Why are the police beating the people on the roof? Weren’t they just sitting there?” The person on the scene said, “Well, yes, they were just sitting there, but this is what the police do in these circumstances” – as if this standard operating procedure was perfectly legal and understandable.

Interim score: In the last hour and a half, three of the nine homes have been destroyed. I’ll bet those rooting for the police are very proud. The injured have been numbered between 40 and 70. Many have been taken away to the hospital. A helicopter is leaving for the hospital now. It’s an exciting scene—fires, horses, water hoses spraying huge amounts of water on the protestors. Police taking rods and smashing in the shutters and windows of the homes where the residents are. Who needs baseball? Who needs soccer? We Israelis really know how to put on a show.

If God cries, he must be crying now. I am.

Ah, Gene Kelly. All I have to do is to picture him dancing through the puddles, and swinging around the lamp post and I once again am in love. He looked so happy, so full of life and energy, as the rain came teeming down. And he was “singin’, just singin’ in the rain.”

Today it is raining. And now I understand how one can be elated with rain. We have had a warm, dry fall and our winter began with springlike weather. Our garden required watering as the parched earth began to crack from the dryness. But finally, the rains have come. They fall gently and sometimes strongly and they turn the summer and fall browns and tans to verdant greens. Titora hill, across the street from us is filled with lush vegetation. Soon the wildflowers will begin to grown and bloom and the hill will be dotted in red and yellow and pink and purple.

On my way home from Jerusalem on Monday, I spotted three almond trees, too impatient to wait even until the month of Shevat, let alone Tu Bishvat, to bloom. Already their branches were filled with blossoms. In Israel, rain and water mean life.

And now, I should stop, put on my rain boots, and go dance through puddles and around lamp posts!