Quotation of the day...

In Haaretz today we can read that Khaled Mechaal is denying Hamas targets schools and kindergardens, this happens because Qassam rockets are too primitive!

"We didn't attack a kindergarten. We have primitive weapons. I ask the international community and the Americans to give us more advanced weapons so we can shoot more accurately."

No It's not a joke, and this statement is made just a few weeks after the massacre in Mercaz Harav in Jerusalem where a Palestinian terrorist killed 9 children with a Kalachnikof.

waiting for good news again...

Our hebrew teacher is fantastic, really, he's an artist. Before I enjoyed going to the Oulpan, now I love it. The group is still very mixed, the youngest girl is about twenty and the oldest man is about 70 I guess. Little by little people tell their story. One couple are just married and want to start their new life in Israel, another family wants to live closer to G*d and has bought a house on the hills south of Jerusalem. Even if our reasons are different we are all full of hope to find the happiness we're looking for and eager to settle down in this little piece of land that we love.

I got an email today and some hope to find an appartement where I want. I'm concentrating on the appartement problem for the moment, it's easy, concrete and solvable, when I have found something nice to rent I will probably be seized with anxiety about work, language, the children's new school etc, etc.
It's scary and exciting ( ok, its getting more scary than exciting ) not knowing where we're going to live in less than 4 months. I'm telling myself that the worst thing that could happen is that we won't find exactly what we're looking for, which, unfortunately happens often in life.

I do hope we will get good news tomorrow.

Morning conversation

This morning my youngest son showed me his plastic sword.

-Look mum there is blood on it.

-Oh really, how come, did you put mum's nailpolish on it?

-No, I killed a catholic.

-WHAT???

-I killed a catholic ( laughing)

-What is a catholic?

-Catholics are those with other willies that eat pork meat ( still laughing, saying the w-word is so funny).

I don't analyze beacuse there is nothing to analyze, he could have said a vegetarian or a redhead instead of a catholic but I admit it sounded really, really horrible and I am relieved he didn't come out with this in front of other people.

I raise my children to respect people around them no matter their religion or colour.

The children's school is mixed with catholics, muslims, jews and vegetarians, they serve veg food at lunch and this tend to disturb the children's order of who is who.

I don't think it's shocking that the children ask each other to which community they belong as long as the answer doesn't change anything.

As my older son said about his best friend, -he is a muslim mum, but in friendship those things are not important, right?

Life's really exciting right now!

Sometimes when I'm in my car, I put on the radio as loud as I can and sing along, in those particular moments I feel invincible.
I'm actually proud of my husband and proud of myself because we have the courage to fulfill our dream.
Time will tell if we were right or wrong, but the adventure we're living right now is unreal and sometimes I'm afraid I will wake up and realize it was just my imagination...

"I prefer to be a dreamer among the humblest, with visions to be realized, than lord among those without dreams and desires." Khalil Gibran

A strange way to make bread...

The inhabitants of Novosibirsk in Russia have been informed, thanks to a bunch of idiots who hung up posters all over the city, that Pessah is approaching and that the local non Jewish children are in danger. Jews kidnap and slaughter children to obtain fresh blood for baking their special matza bread...

According to the posters people with a Jewish appearance had already kidnapped some children, the authorities had collected the bodies, and had the proof that the kidnappers and murderers were Jewish.

These kind of stories are usually told in Iran or on radical islamic networks, not in western countries.

Novosibirsk is Russias third largest city with 1 1/2 million inhabitants and a big community of 13 000 Jews.

Today, more than 60 years after the Holocaust anti-Semitism is not just a fact of history, it is a current event.

Purim again

I found a recipe on internet and wanted to make Aman ears but until now I didn't have the time.

Maybe this afternoon, but to be honest I don't like baking.

This evening the kids are getting disguised and we're going to the synagogue where Esther's meguila is read.

I read in the newspaper that Egypt is now going to supply Gaza with electricity, that sounds fair. I wonder how much that decision has cost Europe, even if it sounds heroic I don't believe Egypt accepted the deal just because they feel sorry for their Palestinian brothers...

136 DAYS BEFORE LEAVING!

The children's new French passports are ready and I've filled in the last application form for an Isareli visa.
My nights are pretty active, I'm fighting against giant ants, losing my front teeth, searching for an appartement, hiding under bomb shelters ...
Dreams are important and since I keep losing my teeth I decided to check it up on a dream site. "Dreaming of teeth falling out may represent insecurity. These dreams often occur at a time of transition between one phase of life and another".
Amazing.
The giant ant was probably beacuse I watched Men in Black the other day...

Ani medaberet ivrit!

Today I will enter the community center proudly and straight-backed.
I am no longer a beginner but attending the second class of Ivrit. Maybe I will ask where my classroom is in hebrew and pretend to understand the answer, I remember someone did that infront of me in October and how deeply impressed I was.
At home we're doing our best to learn with assimil, Sarit Haddad, Dora and Nemo but it's haaard.

Back from the perfect place...

...where women in their 80's are tanning topless and where wrinkles are only seen on the poor... Where every man over 50 who owns a Ferrari has a beautiful 18 year old Russian beauty on his side. ( Does the car come with the girl or vice versa?)
Cannes.
It's beautiful, clean and very chic.
The pizzas are almost as good as in Italy and the prices almost as high as in Monaco.
Walking in the marina looking at the yahchts we tried to convince ourselves that it must be really, really boring being rich...
We've had some interesting calls from Israel concerning appartements but nothing concrete though.
I'm not losing my patience, I'm a mature mother...
I'm not losing my patience, I'm a mature mother.!.
I'm not losing my patience, I'm a mature mother...

Yael Naim's New soul

Won the French award : " Victoire de la musique" yesterday, in the "world music" category.
Yael is half French half Israeli, her parents made aliyah when she was a child. Her record is in English, Hebrew and French, I like the style.
You will be able to buy it in the US in a few weeks and probably also in Europe.
Until then if you want to listen...

The Kaddish.

Today, in the synagogue, our Rabbi's voice trembled and tears were falling from his eyes, the pain was palpable when, in a total silence, he read the Kaddish for the 8 yong boys killed in their classroom in Jerusalem Thursday.

To the Westerner who "understands" the terrorist

In Haaretz today

By Bradley Burston
Tags: Hamas, Burston, anti-Semitism

To the Westerner who "understands" the terrorist: Spare us the explanations. Spare us the learned, sociology-drenched justifications.
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Spare us the reasons why you "get" Palestinians when they gun Jews down in cold blood. Spare us the chapter and verse on how the plight of the Palestinians is at the root of Islamic terrorism the world over, and if the Palestinians were to receive full justice, Islamic terrorism would pass from the world. Spare us. You may well believe, with the blind faith of the hopeful and the fear-stricken, that when these people are through with the Jews, they won't come for you. Think again. Spare us the post-modernism and the radical chic and the guff. Open your eyes. When a gunman walks into a Jewish religious seminary at the main entrance to that part of Jerusalem which has been Jewish since 1948, and which was stolen from no one, pay attention. When he opens fire on religious students hunched over books in a library, firing and firing until blood soaks holy book bindings and open pages of Talmud and the whole of the floor, pay close attention to the reactions of the self-styled people of faith who run Hamas. Spare us the conclusion that the only reason Hamas kills Jews, and that its underlying motive for encouraging others to do the same, is to force Israel to agree to a cease-fire. Spare us the "Israel's policies are responsible for the bloodshed" and "the seminary is, after all, an ideological bastion and symbol of the religious right" and all the other scholarly, arrogant, condescending and amoral ways of saying "they had it coming to them." Spare us the understanding for the motivations of the mass murderer who kills with God on his lips. Spare us the understanding of the words of the Hamas official who says that after all the Israeli killings of Palestinians, the Jerusalem killings are "our only joy." Spare us the sight of the thanksgiving prayers for the great victory, prayers that began in Gaza City mosques just after the slaughter of the Jews. Spare us the sight of the sweets being handed out by little children to motorists in passing cars in the Strip, sweets to celebrate the young Jews dead on the floor, the young Jews dead at their desks, the Jews killed for the crime of being Jews in that place of study and worship. Spare us the righteousness of those who condemned Baruch Goldstein for entering a holy place with an assault rifle and murdering Palestinians, but who can understand why a Palestinian might do the very same thing, Open your eyes. Last week, when Israeli forces drove into Gaza, and some 120 Palestinians were killed, many of them were gunmen, but with children making up another sixth of the total, one grieving father spoke with quiet eloquence, saying "Other places in the world, when this happens, there is a great outcry. When this happens here, the world is silent. No one cares." He's right. The world has grown content to let Palestinians die. The reason is not simple callousness. And it is not, as Hamas proclaims to its followers in Gaza, that the Jews control the world media and world finance, and thus Western government as well. The reason is terrorism. The world has grown weary of the Islamist's creed, that only the armed struggle can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and that the only proper resolution is the end of Israel. Even the Israeli left, which for decades championed the Palestinian with courage and determination, has, in large part, had it with the Palestinians. The reason is terrorism. The reason is murder. The reason is that the rulers of Gaza are people who see an intrinsic value in the killing of Jews for the sake of increasing the number of dead Jews in the world. The rulers of Gaza cannot bring themselves to accept the concept of sharing the Holy Land with the Jews. The best that the rulers of Gaza can do, is to bring an end to hope among their own people and ours as well. They believe that the Jewish state is temporary, and that they Jews will soon abandon it to Islamic rule. After all this time, you'd think they'd know the Jews a little better.

Frantic,

nervous... We're moving in a few months and we still have no appartement. I try to tell myself that it's great because we don't have to pay a rent for nothing but for the moment it doesn't calm me down. I feel like I'm paralyzed, I want to do lots of things but there is nothing to do but wait.

The appartement we already visited is on a Israeli rent site, I hope no-one will call so the woman will accept our price...

I had my mother on the phone yesterday she says that when she's telling people her daughter is moving to Israel they all answer but it's WAAAAR there. She seems to have nice friends...

The Druzes.

According to a poll made by the University of Tel Aviv 94 % of the Druzes in Israel identify themselves as Israelis and not Palestinians. I Didn't know much about the Druzes so I have been googeling to find out more.

The Druze religion is one of the most secretive and closed religions in the world. While there are some ties between Islamic and Druze belief, they differ on conversion: while Islam encourages conversion, the Druzes don't accept it.

In 1948 the Druzes fought on the Israeli side, that is probably the reason why, although they are a minority with only 104 000 people, they are well accepted in Israel today. Druzes do their military service and have also important positions in the army and in politics.

Most of them live in the North part of Gallilee, in "non mixed" villages, often on hilltops, probably because "historically" it was safer.

If you want to experience a Druze weekend this looks really nice:

http://www.zimmeril.com/SiteShow_EN.asp?site_id=1380

The International book fair in Paris...

always invites one country to be their "guest of honour", this year it's Israel.

Of course this is very disturbing for a big part of the Arab countries who are calling to boycott the fair.

What's the problem? you may think, Amos Oz for example, founded " Peace now" and is well known as a firm supporter of a Palestinian statehood, well, as my husbands granny used to say : even if you cut the "curl" on the pig it remains a pig.

Amos is still a jew...

The Islamic organization said its boycott call was a "response to the special standing (the fair) gives to Israel despite its atrocities, oppression and imposed starvation and siege against the Palestinian people."

They also say that the fact that the invitation coincidence with the 60th anniversary of Israel gives the impression of a kind of comon celebration...

I am aginst Chinas goverment, therefor I will stop eating rice, I will no more by Chinese Lapsang tea ( it will probably punish the "tea leaf and the rice farmer" but who knows, maybe he's really mean) and I will forbid my son to play with his best friend who is Chinese! I'm sure that will make the world a better place. Suddenly it sounds absurd right?

It's horrible to see that so-called intellectual people could be such idiots and easily manipulated!

Puke.

Predictable

I'm a medium. Today you can read in lots of newspapers that Israel went in to Gaza without any reason... I can't understand how 50 missiles can fall in Israel without a line in the papers. And I wonder if there is any country in the world that wouldn't react if their neighbours started bombing them. I know I know, I'm repeating myself again...

Spring is here, we had a wonderful day with the children in the parc. People we talk to start saying - Well, I hope we will meet again before you're leaving...

We're listening to Dora in hebrew and we're all singing tik gav, tik gav when we see the back pack. I bought Finding Nemo too, my 5 year old asked me how come the Jewish Nemo didn't wear a kipa...

The photo was taken i Tel Aviv, I love the colors...