This is what happens when you land in Israel: two minutes before the plane touches the ground everyone is turning on their mobile phones, when the plane touches the ground, everyone rises up to get in better position and get their stuff from the overheads, then the door opens, and after you survive the bull rush and exit the plane, there is a couple, usually mix, scanning the passengers for potential troublemakers. Or, to be less polite, looking for Arabs.

Then you start a walk toward the passport check. It is a long walk, almost a kilometer, and at some point, through a huge window on the left side, the arrivals encounter their first image of the holyland: it is a commercial painted on a lawn. A house resembling a box of cottage cheese with the slogan: “it is so good to have you back home”.

I don’t really know… weiter lesen

We have reached a decision recently to buy a car. It’s first function must serve my new hummus business needs, and if possible, it should also function as a family car for weekend getaways.

Obviously, we ended up looking at the VW’s Caddy model.

For those of you not familiar with the above model, I can say only one thing: its designers must get some automobile noble prize. I never encounter a car design that was so fitting for its average user. Basically, the designers of the Caddy realized that the median driver of the car would be a small business owner with two kids, who can’t find his left or right hand because he is so occupied and discombobulated.

The automobile answer to this is genius: the Caddy designers created a car that allow you to leave in a mess. There is a place in a car to put papers… weiter lesen

I have left Israel almost 20 years ago. I now understand that I had to get away from the country, and I am in a state of mind and an age where I stopped apologizing for my decision.

I have left of personal reasons, and now I can see that my personal became a national scope. My departure from Israel has everything to do with the three horrible years I had spent in the Israeli army. I am not completely ready to write publicly about shooting incidents I endured during my service, but I can tell you (and it might sound sick) that this is one of these moments when a man can feel godly.

But apart from these incidents, the whole concept of an 18-year-old telling people when to work, love, fuck, breath can do to your soul what garlic can do for a lovers’ kiss. It’s been 20… weiter lesen

While making the last preparations for lunch today, I delved into this thought: what if I am entirely wrong?

I mean, what if all this block of believes, moral stands and political views that I have built for myself and conducted my life upon will not stand the wave of reality?

What if all my mechanics that call for two state for two people, for discussion about Jerusalem, 48′ lines, the right of some of the refugees and the abandonment of the settlement hallucination, what if all of these, once fulfilled with accordance to my wishes, will tackle the reality presented by very insightful people from the hawkish part of Israel? What if is it really not a territorial discussion, but an essential discussion about acknowledging the other side right to live in Israel?

There was something horrifying and relieving about that thought. It was horrifying to face, even for a moment… weiter lesen

I realize that the headline sounds like a bad joke, only it is not a joke: it is Klezmer meets Hummus, Sunday May 29th at 20:30 at Oranienburgerstrasse 29.

I don’t know Klezmer, but I am cooking a decent Hummus.

There is a new ad campaign in Israel. It is all over the country, on huge billboards.

The posters feature football players from the national team, under the headline: Blue and white is us. The slogan, reflecting the colors of the Israeli flag, encourages people to buy products that were produced in Israel.

Naturally, the players pictures were taken while they were wearing the official Israeli team national uniforms.

It is hard to miss the Adidas symbol on their T-shirt.

One of the main differences between Israel and Germany is driving. I will make it simple: When driving in Germany, I am expecting the expected. Things will go as they should go. If you deviate, you will have to carry any consequences. The gap for adjustments is quite narrow.

In Israel, you drive with the notion that the unexpected is the norm. It is not just tired drivers or people who make innocent mistakes, it is just people who use the road and the wheel as a stress relief, a discharge for aggression. You learn to adjust to it quite fast: while driving from the north today, I kept passing cars while driving on the right lane as if this was the norm.

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In a way the road is quite a reflection for the country. Before heading north today, we went to the beach in Tel Aviv. It was perfect:… weiter lesen

This is the fifth day of our vacation. Today was a good day. We drove down with my family to the Dead Sea, covered ourselves with mud, drove back to Jerusalem, ate excellent Kurdish food in Jerusalem, walked through the market, and drove back to Tel Aviv.

It was the first day of the vacation where we didn’t mingle with Israeli people. I didn’t get upset at all, or got frustrated. It was, when I think of it, an excellenet day. We just made Shabbat dinner with prayers for the bread and the wine.

I feel that another layer of my identity is starting to fade.

Mad world. Mad, mad, mad world. It’s like 2011 had decided to act like it’s 1984. New Zealand, Japan, Alabama, Westerwelle.

Not to mention the peaceful region: the west is assisting in the fallout of Mubarak in Egypt, while standing still while official Syria is killing its own citizens (how long are we going to hear about how Europe is “deeply concerned and deliberating issuing a harsh warning toward the Assad regime?”). NATO is viciously attacking a country that decided to let go of its atomic dream while letting its neighbor to develop our atomic nightmare.

America is suicide-bombing its own allies and interests, while Europe is acting childishly. There is no strategic political wisdom to stop the Shiite, and there is definitely no ethical consistency.

Amid this chaos and madness, the international world is itching closer and closer toward a brilliant decision: recognizing a Palestine state… weiter lesen

A friend of mine, who came to Berlin from Romania, told me once this story: she was walking on a sidewalk when she witnessed a band of Gypsies sitting in a coffee shop. She greeted them and they indulged in a little conversation. What are you doing here, they asked. I study, she replied. What instrument, they inquired.

I love Gypsy music. It reminds me of Kusturica before he fell in love with himself. Gypsy music in Berlin means even more as it marks the official ending of another horrible winter. This was one of Maya’s first associations: when she heard the trombone and the accordion, she knew it was time to ask for an ice cream.

It is quite amazing for me that in the past month I encountered two incidents where riders in the train had asked a band of gypsies to halt their… weiter lesen