What Matters In Tel Aviv, Israel?

Global Friction, Men/Women, Jew/Muslim: Incident - Anastasia Michaeli

2012-01-15T09:09:00.000+02:00

http://youtu.be/qJDX-YtYeMc << link to You Tube video if you can't see the one above <<

Knesset Member Anastasia Michaeli threw a glass of water at Knesset Member Ghaleb Majadele four days ago. It made for a great news clip and gave us all a peek at the hidden world of Knesset committee discussions. There is one Knesset channel on TV, but as most houses of representative and senate video feeds go, you can imagine how interesting most speeches members give -- ENOUGH TO IMAGINE THE PAINT DRYING. All of Israel's political, social, financial and every other category of friction ends up on the Knesset floor (and committee hearings.) I would venture to expand this craziness to even international friction between the west and middle-east, free world and the Arab non-democracy and maybe even free markets and structured Arab ones. When it comes to the edge between two civilizations, Israel is IT! Here, in this little state, we are truly the seam between the west and middle-east. We have the friction between Jews and Muslims, men and women, secular and religious, probably all three drove Anastasia Michaeli to lash out that day.

Unless you are here and see society pushing and bumping at the edges, you don't have a sense how much of a border mentality we have here in Israel. Here there is a true friction between west and (middle)-east, developing countries and the developed world, democracy and dictatorship, liberal and autocratic, developed and undeveloped, religious and secular... and a few other sharp differences between typical European modern states and middle-eastern developing states. Sometimes the contrast between people here is even hard to accept. One reason is simply limited space. Israel and each city (or region) is simply small physically. Jerusalem, a confluence of so many different `

The Russian immigrants, like Michaeli and her party's leader Avigdor Lieberman, have shown their friction with Arabs, orthodox Jews and left wing idealists. Lieberman's Israel Beiteinu party, is a good example of how a small (12.5% of the seats in the Knesset) section of the population not only holds power but also can influence what we see on TV and interrupt the dialog with other parties. In Israel tossing water at an opponent is not a disturbing act as much as a strange amusing one. There were clips from Russian water tossing fights between their politicians. Is it that Russians, after 70 years of repression, suddenly decide to assert their right to voice and opinion, then find themselves just a peep in the ever growing noise of political banter... turning into small extreme acts of protest. Just to be clear, a Knesset member dumping water at another member, even on TV, it's not something we take seriously. Every day there are protests much more serious and relevant to our lives. Ethiopians protested in Kiryat Malachi about housing discrimination: Ethiopians are prevented from renting and buying apartments in certain areas. This is a great example of an African community brushing with more established European and middle-eastern ones. Here the government does not deal with discrimination like in other places (i.e. US and Europe) so whatever happens inside communities usually stays there until the situation is bad enough to explode. While Ethiopians are accepted by most Israelis, there is still some discrimination. I am sure that in other places Africans also face certain discrimination, here in Israel there is a big community of Ethiopians, there are three generations of them from the time a large immigration has come in the mid 1080s. (see statement by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the state of Ethiopian Israelis) What we see here is a serious topic of friction between African communities, which should be well accepted by established European communities, but for some reason they are not. Israelis take this kind of problem much more seriously than water dumping in the Knesset. One important issue to notice is how these social and community frictions are not just serious but also taken as a reflection of how our society deals with global problems locally. Nobody wants to see discrimination, yet the situation is real and does affect many people. The government can't be testing and watching at every case of discrimination or even small attacks. Yet there is need for some sort of government or community standards. Well, we don't have a solution, at least not one that we can show off to the world. But that's not the end of it. The "Social Justice" protests of last summer as slowly making their way through Israeli society. In the government arena, all kind of new political candidates are looking for a place to make a change. Eventually it will get better. Like other things, it make take time, but it will certainly change. From my own little border, just right of Tel Aviv... THANKS for reading again :)

We Are Paying Too Much... NOT REALLY...

2012-01-07T21:09:00.000+02:00

Real Estate marketing sketch of Neveh Sharet building project in Tel Aviv. Land being so expensive, only high cost project make it in desirable locations. Real Estate prices have been rising steady in Tel Aviv for over a decade.

Israelis have started to complain that life here is too expensive. We get all kind of comparison articles with the high cost of life in Tel Aviv, even more expensive than New York, London and Paris. There are ground-roots protests on Facebook against buying cottage cheese from Tnuva and electricity from the electric company. If you pay attention to this daily buzz, and focus even further on internet social media (Facebook, Twitter and You Tube) you may think that Israelis are going to stop shopping any day now. Well, this is just one side of reality here. It is also an exaggeration because of media headlines and Twitter viral buzzing more than real life. True, some things are expensive and there are good reasons for it. Mostly it's a simple economic quirk of supply and demand (maybe economic quirk is not the right term, maybe market situation is more appropriate.) Israel has been having a chronic housing shortage for a decade now. This shortage is more prominent in the central region, and in Tel Aviv it is absolutely a chronic disaster. Land in desired locations is built up so much, the only solutions are either using small spaces left open (very expensive) or taking down an old building to put up a new one (very complicated.) This makes only high ticket apartments worth building. Builders and land owners only want to invest their time in high return projects. This way, even if a project is expensive and complicated the return is worth the investment. This trend, over a decade long, which shows up in real estate prices increasing to ridiculous levels. The government has been talking about solutions for years. Not much has changed and the

In the consumer goods sector, we have a typical "small market -therefore- no competition" problem. Tnuva, Israel's largest dairy supplier, makes a wide range of basic products, in high quality, and buys out competitors when the opportunity arises. They also manufacture for foreign brands like Yoplait Yogurt. This makes dairy products, especially basic items like soft cheeses, very expensive here. In some surveys exact products cost 1/2 in the US and the UK in comparison to Israeli products. The same is true with large bakeries (Angel), cookies and crackers (Osem), cleaning supplies (Sano), frozen meats and vegetables and even in supermarkets, pharmacies and small neighborhood shops. Companies establishing a leadership position, then quickly take over a large share of the market. Finally, they pressure outlets to market their products in better locations and end up "owning the market". This is what happens in any market without fair competitive laws. In the US, the age of the conglomerates, the robber barons of the 1900s, was probably the same as life here in Israel today. Israelis, with access to information around the world and a big sense of fairness, don't like this state of affairs. But, as previously mentioned, Israelis are not united to change this situation. The large market leaders point out that 60% of market share is not 90%. Consumers always have one or two alternatives to choose from. This is true in every product on the shelf when it comes to dairy products. There are always three alternatives when the shelves are well stocked. If you shop at midnight in the middle of the week, you may not see all the possible alternatives, but that is your choice in shopping hours. This is where the new protesters using social media come in. By simply steering buyers from Tnuva cottage cheese, sales of the product dropped more than 20% and some say 50%. Tnuva simply made a few adjustments to their pricing offering "2 for 1" deals. Then announced a small, 5% to 10% reduction in prices in a few items. The standard Tnuva cottage cheese container, at 250 grams, cost between 6 and 8 shekels (about $1.50 to $2.10.) What disturbs people more than anything is the daily price changes. Not only it shows that the prices are not "real", are not based on the cost of producing and marketing the item, it also puts the shopper at a dilemma: "should I buy the cottage cheese today and spend more, or buy it tomorrow and hope there will be a 2 for 1 sale?" Needless to say, shoppers are not happy about this situation. To distract shoppers from this confusion, there are always items on sale. As you enter the store, at a small isle I call "the buy me gauntlet". You are practically assaulted with all kind of deals. At the local Mega, a large supermarket chain, there are 2 for 1 deals, deals to "club members", deals from manufacturers and just deals depending on the season or timing (before or after holidays, seasonal, etc.) As you can see, this story is becoming a little long and has lots of details. That's life here, details and all kind of confusion. In the shopping and spending money category, Israelis are definitely on the expansion side. The economy has not experienced the downturn of the west. Actually, it resembles more the expansion of the east, not as much as China, but certainly somewhere between a strong economy and steady flat no growth state. As I write this, its obvious how life here is different yet similar to other places. We protest like others, yet we desire and spend a little different. More articles to come, so spread the word... THANKS FOR READING !

Credit Card Records Theft Hits Israeli 'Net Shoppers

2012-01-06T09:09:00.000+02:00

Credit card details were stolen from 400,000 Israeli accounts. Are the Arabs becoming smarter in attacking Israel? Or is this just an small group of Saudi hackers with too much time on their hands?

A group of Saudi Arabian hackers broke into a small Israeli shopping site. Apparently 400,000 account details, credit card numbers, PINS and more disturbingly Israeli identity numbers (teudat zehut) were taken. The group threaten to publish the details on the Internet so others can use it to steal. It seems like Israelis are not concerned about the fact that Saudis did this, or that this might be an attack on the state. They are much more concerned about their own bank accounts and paying for pizzas delivered on a camel to a tent in the Saudi Arabian desert. (There was a cartoon in the paper showing a pizza camel delivery to a tent, the delivery boy calling out an Israeli name and the man in the tent saying "cool, thank you" in Arabic (shookrah). Yes, our jokes also make us think of Saudis as camel riding Arabs of the 1930's, we all need our stereotypes. )

This brings up two points we tend to put in the back of our minds: a) the war keeps on going, it shifts into higher (or is it different) gear with technology; b) we are slowly losing our unity (as we become more individual.) On both accounts the Israeli public feels these trends as slow moving and inevitable. So why worry, scream and shout? Really, why pretend to care? Well... because it matters. Not just because of nostalgia and history. Not just because our parents were Kibbutzniks and heroic fighters and we want to be like them. It matters to us how secure we are and how secure we feel. It matters to us how unified we are and how much we care about our state and our neighbors. As a matter of fact, after you take out all the differences in culture and religion between Israel and everyone else, this is what identifies Israelis as really unique. Some would say better than most. Yet the government and security forces here are not taking this lightly. Israeli companies and the security forces have been developing computer security technology for decades. This gives the state the ability to tap into resources, both technology (software, hardware) and people. The Israeli entrepreneurial spirit can also use such a breach in security and turn it into a hot selling technology. After all we are the land of tech start-ups. When it comes to unity and care for each other, that's harder to legislate and spend money to fix. Here Israelis have to act without government leadership. So we have to see how this works out. I have hopes in the way Israelis change and improve in this area too. This country has amazing record of improving, specially when it comes to social changes.

When it comes to how people really think, the story is more complicated. Nobody is naive enough to believe of Arabs not using technology. Israelis sometime forget, there are more of them and they have many more resources (read money.) Arab countries not only have more money than Israel will ever have, they can buy whatever they want on the open market... AND THEY DO! (that includes hacker resources) That point Israelis seem to forget as the country becomes richer and the landscape turns from what use to be called "quaint middle-eastern" (read: you live in a Kibbutz like setting) to "suburban sprawl something between Brooklyn and silicon valley" (read: you turned this country into just another big American looking suburb.) We all tend to think of Israel as changing for the better. We sometimes tend to think of the Arabs changing for the better too. There is some truth to this as the Arab countries use more technology and can communicate with the world better. Yet, with all this progress and hope there are still here and there dark forces lurking in the shadows.

Orthodox Shock With Holocaust Image

2012-01-03T09:09:00.000+02:00

Orthodox demonstration use children with holocaust yellow "Jude" patches to make a point on religious freedom, definitely a way to get attention in Israel / nrg/Ma'ariv news photo

The friction between orthodox and secular Jews concerning public street behavior has hit a new high yesterday. Orthodox Jews, feeling intruded upon and even humiliated by indecently dressed women, took to the streets. But they did it with flair and a symbol deeply disturbing to Israelis and Jews around the world. They used small children dressed as Holocaust death camp survivors straight out of a camp liberation photograph. One Israeli commentator says the images on newspaper front pages and TV news programs look disturbingly similar German soldiers' photos of Warsaw ghetto uprising captured children. Israelis take images of the Holocaust seriously, this is exactly why orthodox protesters use them. Except this time the tactic backfired.

Orthodox communities have been complaining about closeness of women to men in public places, considered a form of temptation to men, therefor disturbing. This, from men (a small minority of ultra Orthodox Jews) who simply see interaction between women and men in public immodest. The friction between orthodox and secular Jews has come to a clash the last two weeks with secular women told to sit in the "back of the bus" in routes mostly serving orthodox neighborhood (with Israelis exaggerating once again and comparing one rider to Rosa Parks in the American civil rights struggle.) Until last week, when orthodox men put up a sign for women to go to the "other side of the street" in Beit Shemesh, a mixed orthodox and secular town just outside Jerusalem (see also a description on the Wikipedia page) spirits were relatively calm. The protest with Holocaust refugees dressed children changed all that.

The secular extreme see orthodox Jews gaining power and taking on "Taliban" like values. The idea of separating women, having them covered up and dressed in conservative manner and complete separation of men and women in public is as humiliating as the orthodox feel about women in revealing dress. Yet for most Israelis this is not a common view. The number of orthodox Jews who call for extreme separation of women is very small. Most of the orthodox population lives a modern and integrated life with everyone in the community. The areas where orthodox communities separate themselves from others are small and for the most part are not in any way forcing their behavior on others. The friction between opposing value holders keeps escalating, but it is a small part of the population which cares to be part of this. The call for "anti Taliban" laws disallowing women to be separated in public, like buses and trains, is not a concern of most Israelis. So don't let the international news outlets stir you spirits to blog and tweet for one side or the other. We got bigger worries like cost of energy when the Egyptians stop supplying gas and where is the water going to come for greener cities. Thanks for reading, keep up with the news in Israel and tell your friends to comment (here and everywhere else.)

In the Eye of the Arab Spring Uprising Storm

2012-01-01T09:09:00.000+02:00

Israel's IAI's Eitan UAV is the latest game changing technology Tel Avivian's hope will stabilize the relationship of Israel with it's new more democratic Arab neighbors / image courtesy of IAI web site.

Editor: I have been off doing personal and work related projects the last few months. Yet, life here in Tel Aviv has been swirling like always. Hopefully I will invest time to keep up with life here.

The last few weeks seem to move faster than ever. Arabs states bordering Israel are looking for big changes. The availability of the Internet and mobile phones make it impossible to shut down reports from the Arab street. Arab countries are made up of a young population, many with experience and connection to report to the world. Even under Arab dictatorial rule, the population enjoys freedom to use the Internet and mobile networks. Even in poor countries, good mobile phones with cameras and video cameras are common enough to make it easy to video clips for hungry TV networks. Tel Avivians tend to have a wait and see attitude when it comes to changes in the Arab world. We have seen wars between countries, economic development and talks of more freedom to the common citizen. If giving people cell phones and video cameras is more freedom, than Israelis are not impressed. If it gets down to real political and economic freedom, than we have something to be impressed. Maybe even something to be interested about. If real economic and political freedom comes to Egypt and Tunisia, cooperation, trade and even political bridges can give us something to talk about.

Tel Avivians are not clear on what will happen with huge changes in the Arab world. States which have never seen any democratic institutions are shedding off their dictatorial rulers like mushrooms after the rain. Opinions here range from suspicion of extreme Islamic rule in Egypt and Libya to optimism in over a hundred million Arabs around Israel adopting western style democracy. Most Israelis are not connected enough with the state of Arab popular opinion to base a well founded opinion in the matter. I wrote about the apathy of Israelis in the article on Tel Avivians sitting at the beach while the negotiations with the Palestinians are stalled. It seemed that Time magazine was completely amazed how little Israelis care about peace negotiations. Changes in Israel are so fast, they may not register with either traditional media (Time Magazine) or with American reporters stationed here. There are too many differences between how Israeli media reports public opinion and their American counterparts. The big gap in how American and European see the average Israeli and how they actually think makes for interesting surprises. This last year, 2011, brought both social protest inside Israel and dramatic changes in relationships with neighboring countries. Turkey, a long time allay of Israel seems to be Israel's worst critic. The two governments have been sniping at each other all year. Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, has not spared his critical version of faults in Turkey's treatment of Israel in the past year. While France has become a close allay; as recently as a few years ago their government was calling for Israeli military officers to be prosecuted in international courts for war crimes. The incident with French TV reporting on the killing of a Palestinian child in a cross fire between IDF and Hamas forces, eventually proven false, still lingers as a bad aftertaste in Israeli minds. Russia and China were looking like up and coming friends until this year, only to side with Iran and Syria for their own reasons. Both internal and international relations change daily. A single event can make or break both official and street level impression go from hot to cold. International news outlets, from the traditional TV channels to You Tube and Facebook, can sway opinions in hours. It simply means that you need to keep up with changes here.

The only constant I can point a finger to is: "keep up with the changes." If and when the Arab world adopts true democratic political and economic policies, Israelis will take notice. Until than, this small and fragile democracy is going to stick with what we understand and value. Just like other democracies, there are factions and frictions daily. Yet we live with it and most people realize that life is a struggle, both for the equal treatment of citizens and for freedom of the smaller minorities. The same goes for economic freedoms. While the majority of wealth is held by a few families, Israelis enjoy complete freedom at their work and business. This is not a perfect world, yet we still like to see relations with people with a some sort of freedom and similar values. Enjoy the changes here in Israel, come back for more...

Do Israelis Care About Arab Relations? or International Opinion?

2011-05-25T09:09:00.003+03:00

A run down Muslim mosque in Tiberius. Israelis do not care and associate enough with Arabs to care. A bad situation as a consequence of the Israeli-Palestinian-Arab wars raging ever since the state became independent in 1948 / image from Israel pikiwiki: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PikiWiki_Israel_11832_al_omari_mosque_in_tiberias.jpg

From US president Obama's latest speeches and meeting with Israeli prime minister to business people trading all the way to tourists: one question is asked about Israel:

Do Israelis care about the Arabs? or care about peace with the Palestinians? Do they care about what others think of Israel's image towards the Arabs?

The short answer: Not always - Israelis are too isolated from Arabs to care much (this is a new development). They are also too disappointed from International media and even more from foreign leaders to care about their image. This is a new situation and it could change. Is this such a bad situation? YES! ABSOLUTELY! Israelis care about tsunami victims in Japan and earthquake victims in Haiti. So not caring about hungry Egyptians and their bread riots and Syrian dictatorship protest killing seems downright cruel.

It's hard for Israelis to forget the history between Israel and the Arabs. With all the fighting and public obscenities over 100 years, Israelis simply want the Arabs to go away. The Palestinian people and especially their leaders are essentially blamed by Israelis for being unable to make peace with Israeli leaders. There are many reasons (now called excuses) that Palestinians have not made peace with Israel. Here, time takes it toll on people. Time is what changed the Israeli state of mind towards peace. After so many years, almost a century, Israelis are just tired of "fighting for peace" (as the late Itzhak Rabin use to say). Add to the element of time three generations of Israelis born on the land with hopes for peace. There are disturbing signs of how much Israelis don't care. The fence along Israel' borders, essentially closing borders completely was a hotly debated issue just three years ago. Today Israelis accept the fence as an essential security measure. With it come complete isolation between Israel and all surrounding states. On the streets and building sites around Israel you see very few Palestinian workers. You see many more Chinese and Asian workers than Arabs. Just a few years ago, Palestinian complained that the only jobs they could get in Israel were construction and cleaning. Today they would have to stand in line behind a dozen other foreign nationals. Israelis are essentially isolated from Arabs. With the shift from accepting Palestinians now Israelis are looking for European and Asians to take place of the Palestinians. This sad state of affairs it a trend that will take years to reverse.

Sometimes Israelis compare the situation here to other places: they think back at the cold war in Europe. Did the Dutch care much about oppressive Hungarian regime? From the 1950s to the 1990s, what did the Swedish people do for the Albanians? Not much. When two nations are isolated, they do not influence each other. This is what happened in Israel with the Arabs. This includes the Palestinians and the surrounding Arab countries Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. Before the second intifada (Sept. 2000 to 2006) Israelis remember shopping in villages east of Jerusalem for olive oil, goat cheese and furniture. Or going to a beach in Gaza. The old days are gone. A few months ago, Time magazine, published a story about how little Israelis, especially Tel Avivians, don't care about the peace process. [here] Or was it about the state of the Palestinian people? At first some Israeli publications were furious at Time magazine and that observation of what Israelis care about. Time magazine showed people on Tel Aviv's beach. They interviewed them on the peace issue: it turned out not at the top three things on people's minds. People cared much more about their economic well being, the local environment in Tel Aviv (roads, parks and schools) and a bit about how the government take care of issues related to everyday life. Another issue that disturbed Time magazine is how little do Israelis care about international media and Israel's image. My observation: welcome to the changing reality in Israel. After hoping for peace for sixty years and three generations, Israelis are just happy to be safe and have a good life. Would you blame a Parisian or a Berliner for that? How about a New Yorker or a mid-westerner?

Can this status quo change? Of course it can. It changes every day, now with Obama making an effort to give the peace negotiations another spin, Israelis are paying a little attention (again). Yet not enough. NEXT: a few opinions of the man in the street.

Israeli Legal Structure: Uphold Laws of the Land: Ottoman & British Legacy

2011-02-28T09:09:00.000+02:00

Shlomo Cramer in the uniform of British police 1938. Israelis served in British police and armies during World War II in the hope of stopping the German forces http://pikiwiki.co.il/?action=gallery&img_id=5752

I am still thinking about how to explain to the average Libyan citizen daily democratic life. US president Obama said recently "Democracy does not end with free elections". That might seem like an obvious statement, yet in many places this idea is not completely clear. How do you actually explain democracy? Israel is probably one of the best examples of democratic success. A country started completely unplanned by a few immigrants from around the world, mostly from non-democratic countries (Russia, Yemen, Poland). Now it is one of the best examples of democratic government. Democracy in Israel is complex and sometimes not exactly what you would think (a more direct description would be "a mess" and definitely "frustrating"). Still, Israeli democracy is free and usually fair for the average citizen. Democracy in Israel also support a strange legal system. A system made up of Jewish, Ottoman (Turkish), British and international legal roots all at once. The Israeli legal system resembles other democratic areas in the society. There is acceptance and compromise across the board. In government, business, culture, religion, economy and lifestyle, very different democratic ideas make up the landscape. People live with differences and usually try to accept them. Religious live with secular, nationalists live with free traders, business with labor. This acceptance is what makes for real democracy: living with differences and allowing others to have their own lives. Israel's legal system is a good example of democracy in this country.

Israel has a complex legal system structure. Roots from legal systems such as Rabbinical laws, Ottoman laws, British common / business laws and modern Israeli laws (from modern international influences) make up laws today. Together all these different laws may seem complex, but in reality they each cover a separate part in the system. Each logical and not that complicated. Family law is based on rabbinical law. This governs marriage and divorce and family related laws. Rabbinical laws are also used in permits for food sales and restaurant licenses. This originates from rabbinical Kosher food inspection practiced in Jewish communities of eastern Europe and the middle east. Rabbinic law has been practiced uninterruptedly for at least 1,000 years in Europe (some estimate 1,400 years). Since the ruling barring polygamy were established at the year 1,100, Jews have followed Rabbinical marriage laws. To some secular Israelis Rabbinical laws seem old, irrelenat and harsh. But overall the state seems to be well respected in International legal circles when it comes to family law. Family law judges come from the community of practicing lawyers (secular) and Rabbis (religious, Orthodox). The Rabbis are trained in orthodox yeshivas and usually practice family law for years in the Jewish orthodox community. This fact alone makes many secular Israelis judgmental. There is a big divide in how Jews practice religion in Israel and secular Israelis do not understand (trust and appreciate) most orthodox Jewish community laws.

You may be puzzled and ask what does Ottoman Empire and British Empire laws have to do in a modern Israel? Simply put, these have been "laws of the land" long before the Israeli state was founded in 1948. The Turkish ruled Israel for a long time from 1517 to 1917. They were defeated by the British in World War I. The Turks left the "Tabo" system (literally means land in Turkish): land registration system and land ownership laws. To this day, there are still land registration documents from Ottoman era. Laws on the books from the Ottomans have been translated to Hebrew and Arabic and integrated into modern Israeli legal practice. Both Jews and Muslims land purchases were registered with the ruling Turkish authorities. Their system considered fair and accurate to land owners. This part of Israeli law is also a little strange but still holds up in modern Israeli courts. The Israeli state and before that Jewish organizations tried to reform the Turkish practices. But until today, not much has been done. There are complaints from businesses and independent land owners on a few issues such as land leases. In Israel most of the land is owned by the state or the Jewish National Fund. Land is leased to individuals and businesses for 49 or 99 years. Many Europeans and Americans do not understand this arrangement. People who came from legal systems where land ownership is a fundamental right, do not understand leasing. Yet, land leasing practice by itself is not actually related to the Ottoman laws still practiced today in Israel.

British imperial laws govern many basic business and trade practices in Israel. Corporate finance is measured and reported according to British standards (companies report "turnover" rather than "earnings and profits"). Contracts and trade agreements laws has also been mostly based on British laws. These roots help Israel integrate well with European markets (regulatory and financial). It also maes for easier mergers and acquisitions of Israeli companies with European companies. The large number of American companies and investors seem a little confused that Israel, which has mostly done business with American companies the last three decades, uses European and especially British business standards. At times, the British business world seems downright hostile toward Israelis. Still, what has been started here during the British occupation is kept (the British ruled from 1917 to 1948). I think of the use of British standards in business as a reflection of stability and overall conservative culture in Israeli law. While some things are being updated, others stay as they were. So while Israel is a modern state in terms of government ideas and democratic rule, it's laws go back hundreds of years with basic concepts solid in established legal systems. It also shows of the flexibility of the Israelis, adopting systems of standards where none existed before. Jews from the diaspora did not have strong legal systems for land and business. Therefore it made sense to learn and use the systems available at the time.

Overall, Israeli legal system is structured, fair and well administered. There are well defined laws and legal structures which serve both citizens and the state. Some laws going back centuries even millennium. Israeli lawyers and judges practice a mix of legal systems, all derived from other systems which governed Israel long before the state became independent. There is more to write about how the legal system is run and how the citizens of Israel deal and feel about the legal systems and the people who run them. Not always fair or legal, but always interesting.

Money, Industry, Innovation: What Counts in the Israeli Economy

2011-02-25T12:09:00.002+02:00

Pioneering agricultural workers in Petach Tikva circa 1930, source: pickiwiki.org.il

Lots of people have written about the "amazing Israeli economy". Just recently the two books Start-up Nation and The Israel Test (Guilder) are examples of how Israel amazes people around the world. The reality is a little different than just simple amazement. Some things are truly amazing, and people coming to Israel the first time really see us as unique. Some are not amazing at all, but are still different. Israel, like many small countries, does a few things very well. There are great engineering companies here and some of the best international engineering teams for companies like: Intel, IBM, Motorola and Microsoft. Some things like drip irrigation and solar water heating are simple and amazing and made a huge difference in how Israelis live. But the most unique factor here is how people have focused on the economy like very few other countries. The countries who have done similar things also succeeded: Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brazil, Chile and recently China. They achieved just as much as Israel. The one big difference between Israel and other countries is our geographic location. Some it tied to natural resources: Israel has none! People do not expect Israel, amongst so many Arab countries, to be so successful. They also do not expect a new country, with very little to start with, not even a base population. Essentially the country started out with fresh immigrants all coming from a distressed environment. European Jews came from that horrible experience in the holocaust. Middle-Eastern Jews coming from discrimination in Arab countries.

It turns out that the economy in general is probably the single most important element in Israel's success. In the economy the most single element that has succeeded is keeping people employed. Keeping people employed means producing something. In the early days it was agriculture products with people who did not have agricultural background. Finally, the overall development of niche products, to be unique and strong in something small. This has meant doing all kind of things which sometimes go AGAINST social and government theories. In the 1970s and 1980s Israelis went into diamond polishing and established a large sector. Both private people and the state worked on building up the diamond polishing industry. Israel's strong position ended when countries like India started polishing diamonds, especially the low cost ones which were the high volume sellers. Losing this industry created a temporary depression in the Israeli economy, but Israelis weathered the storm and moved on to other niche markets. I will go into examples in more detail in future articles.

Currently Israel has invested heavily in innovation (technology, biotechnology and services) and in international trade. Israel has gone through the Dot-Com bubble and also through a downward real-estate cycle (2005-2008). In 2006 / 2007 there was a real fear that many small Israeli manufacturers would close down due to the total meltdown of bank credit here. The government offered loan guarantees but they were tied it to companies who needed money to market or manufacture products ready to sell. The problem was, small Israeli manufacturers did not know how to market internationally. Today there is a strong effort to send Israeli managers to train in international marketing and business. Learning and working in marketing at a local level is just not enough to compete on a global scale. In addition, Israel is also expanding it's reach globally by sending experts to new places not familiar with our fields of expertise (technology, building, finance, agriculture). In agriculture, specially in semi-arid climates, Israeli firms have developed varieties of fruits and vegetables able to grow well with less water. Today's Israeli seed companies enable farmers in countries around the world grow better produce and lower the risk associated with drought. One thing you notice in Israel is innovation in many areas. This reflects the curiosity and energy in the Israeli culture. You don't have to be an Intel chip designer or a Google programmer to invent something new. You can do it as an architect, a farmer, a pharmaceutical chemist and a financial analyst. The economic factor in Israel's success is a fascinating topic. I will write more and show some examples from today's life in future articles.

What Israelis Would Tell Arabs About Democracy: You Know Best...

2011-02-24T09:09:00.003+02:00

Israeli Knesset (house of representatives) -- New Arab Democracies: you need more than a pretty house to be a democratic state. (from Wikipedia / Hebrew edition)

What would you tell all the citizens of a country who just elected a democratic government? What would be the best and simplest pieces of advice? I have been thinking about this while Arab protesters (or is it revolutionaries) have been trying to remove despot rulers. Once you have a democratically elected government, how do you live like an effective citizen? What will make democracy in daily life better than a dictator run government? Probably every free state leader is searching for this answer right now. How can you teach a billion people to "just do it" democracy? (taking a phrase from a Nike commercial) Once the Arab states adopt democracy, this will be the largest change in the world's social structure in probably 200 years, maybe ever. So while the eastern European states may think that their shift from communism to democracy was a big event, the one going on now may overshadow that wave of change.

You Know Better Than Your Government: ? !

The one thing that you hear in Israel is criticism AND improvement on government policy. In a democracy everyone has to give his point of view. But that does not mean protesting with signs on the street, or screaming at a house of representative in session, or complaining by mail to government clerks. Just annoying people is not useful and actually makes democracy less effective. I am talking about a useful suggestion if it is keeping the streets clean from dog poop (shit). As the problem was in Tel Aviv a few years ago. All the way to how medical service is organized and funded. Government by the people means exactly that. Each person has to improve and contribute to their government's operation. If you lived under a dictator for a long time, in the Arab countries case forever, than this idea is the hardest to grasp. Some requests by citizens are not going to be popular. The government is going to set rules (i.e. you have to clean up after your dog). Then the government is going to start sending out people to enforce the new regulation. Then the government is going to start punishing and fining people (i.e. it will cost you $20 for every poop we find). Then the people are going to fight back and abuse, curse and even hit regulators that come to punish dog poop violators. You get the point. Sometimes democratic government is not good for everyone, it is suppose to be good for the majority. But the operative word here is "suppose". That does not happen every time. But most of the time it does.

With big policy decisions like healthcare and taxes the people need to be more organized and much more convincing. It is hard to show elected representatives that healthcare should be subsidized or that taxes should be lowered. It is even harder to show them how to improve these big issues. But without a voice from the people, nothing will change. In Israel there was a high tax on what was deemed "luxury items". Electronic products like TVs and home entertainment products were taxed at up to 100%. This was a taxation law enforced until 2006. It was probably started in the 1950s when home stereos were really luxury items. But the law stood as if time stopped for probably more than forty years. Everyone knew it was ridiculous, so everyone who went out on a trip out of Israel brought something with him. People would hide little speakers in their luggage. Many people had a DVD player or a small TV (in their original package) when they arrived at the airport. The law was ridiculous. Government taxing officials said that if the tax was lowered the state would lose money and that would be bad for everyone. What's wrong with paying twice as much for a nice home stereo? the reasoning went. You want a nice thing, you should be willing to pay for it. That all sounded "LOGICAL" but it was ridiculous. When the government lowered the tax by 50% to 80% almost nothing happened. No big sales at the electronic shops. No big statements in the Knesset (house of representatives) on losses in taxes. The only thing that changed is the number of people with big boxes bringing by themselves DVD players and TVs. It just quietly stopped. Actually, today the market is flooded with cheap electronic products.

But what about really important government decisions like how much to spend on security (military) versus medicine (cancer drugs)? This is the age old question government leaders have been asking. In classic economics of the 17th century the English wondered what to make and sell: "guns or butter". Guns are good when you need to defend your country. Butter is good when you want to make the people happy. You can't eat guns and you can defend with butter. But the question of what the people really need, not just want, when it comes to what the tax money should be spent. In Israel the military spending was always a "sacred cow". You don't mess with the security of the country no matter what. Recently there was the case of the American F35 stealth fighter deal. Israeli military really wanted this fighter. But when it came to security with the current situation, it was hard to justify US$ 100 million per plane. For the first time in a long time, this question was brought up. The old military system of asking and getting was not really working that well. What are you going to tell thousands of cancer patients who can't get expensive medicine if you spend the money on military planes? Are these planes going to stop Palestinian suicide bombers? This is one issue that many people really understood. It took lots of meetings with government officials and lots of private citizens to explain to government the importance of medicine over military. I am sure that many people did not want to hear this. Change is hard, and big change may be the hardest thing. But there is no way of holding it back. I will write more about changes that democratically elected governments have to go through. Sometimes changes that may risk their own existence. Something that most people just don't know how to deal with.

Maccabi Tel Aviv Basketball: Professional Team as a Reflecton on Economy

2011-02-23T09:09:00.002+02:00

Do sports teams make a city? or the other way around? At one time US sports franchises tried to convince city governments that sports teams are important to make the city an important destination site. The argument went, if a city is important enough to have other cultural sites like museums, symphonies and music halls, why not a sports stadium. This has been such a successful argument in the US that many cities have made the investment in a new stadium and attracted a sports team to come with it. Nobody has made the same argument to Tel Aviv. The city has two soccer teams, a basketball team and various other organizations running sailing, swimming and other sports clubs.

As Israel's second largest city (Jerusalem is first) and the center of Israel's central region, sports has plenty of drawing power. But unlike in the US and Europe, Israelis do not associate Tel Aviv as an attractive city because of basketball or football (soccer for you Americans). But still, Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball is one of the best teams in Israeli sports. It plays in the Euroleague against the best European teams. Yet, it still plays in small stadiums with teams here in Israel, in a much lower caliber games. So maybe sports stadiums do really matter. Maybe teams like Holon, Ashkelon and Haifa need to attract local fans with a new stadium and a better team.

So is the basketball team a push for a better city? Does it attract people and companies which would not have come otherwise? Does it help the economy of the city in such a way that it is really something the city must support? The way American NBA franchises tell cities in the US? I do not see it. I don't think that anyone here in Tel Aviv sees it either. Tel Aviv is somewhat different than Miami, Philadelphia or Toronto. It is not a regional city in a big country. It is a medium size city in a small country, spots fan wise isolated by itself (you are not going to see Jordanian or Egyptian fans in a regular game). But still, it's great to have one internationally known team playing in a great stadium. What Maccabi Tel Aviv brings to the city with it's high level playing is something that is hard to explain. Together with Nokia stadium you have a feel that you are somewhere else. We are not talking Boston, Los Angeles or Madrid. But still a real international team in a great stadium. It is almost like Tel Aviv is growing up a little. Just for that time while the game is on TV.

Should Israel Send Aid to Arab Revolutionaries?

2011-02-22T09:09:00.002+02:00

Protest poster against Quadaffi in recent days. From Haaretz.co.il story, 22-Feb-11

Cuba and France were known in Africa for sending doctors during civil wars and revolutions. Once in a while they would also send soldiers to fight on one side or to stop massacres. As a whole, African revolutionaries would not turn down medical aid from outside countries. Israel has helped people in crisis all around the world. Earthquakes, tsunamis, famine and war are times where people simply need help. So Israelis go, no matter what happens between governments and politicians. If the Libyan and Bahrainian clashes turn into full blown civil wars, should Israel intervene? Most Israelis would say ABSOLUTELY YES. There are plenty of countries willing to help Arab revolutionaries. I am sure that once again France and certainly Italy will send medical aid to Libyans. In the Persian gulf states probably the Iranians will want to jump in. But India is also close by and has a good medical system with well trained doctors and nurses. Will Bahrain even allow Israeli doctors to land and treat their injured? I would like to think that the answer is YES.

Israel faces a different dilemma: "would medical aid to Arab revolutionaries make a difference in future relationships?" It may make a big difference. It will certainly bring in good press around the world. It will also show neighboring countries a side of Israel they have not seen. The real Israel is made up of people who care about other people. Not the official line from their dictators, with the veil of hate against the Israeli government. The real question is how much the Arab world would change. Will the middle classes in these countries really build democracies and keep them in place? Will most of the Arab population support democratically elected governments? Will elected officials take on democratic responsibilities and keep an open government structure? It is hard to say, but from the way Arab countries have been developing my bet is on the people. Most Arab countries have a majority of educated population which lives a modern life. For the most part, Arab leaders have not kept modern communication from their people. Arab leaders have also not kept other modern lifestyle elements like transportation, technology, culture (literature, music) and most of all access to modern democracies around the world. A well educated Libyan or Yemenite professional has an ability to visit Asia and Europe just as much as any western European professional. In some countries, like the Persian gulf emirates I would argue they have even more access to outside information. There they are trying to make their geographic location an asset: a bridge between the east and west. Let's see where these developments take the Arab countries. I am sure that many people around the world are cheering for these countries to become democratic and join people around the world in open societies.

Will New Arab Democracies Open Diplomatic Relationships With Israel?

2011-02-21T09:09:00.001+02:00

A shaky handshake between Rabin and Arafat brought euphoria and strong economic good will for a while. Picture from UPI archive.

Let's look forward a year from now. Let's dream of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan and Bahrain with a democratically elected government. Let's dream a little of open diplomatic relationship and trade agreements with all these new democracies. Not just with Israel but with most of the countries in the world. Happy buzz around the world for the great advances in the Arab world. Something most of the west was hoping for since the 1950s. What does that mean in terms of diplomatic relationships with Israel? Not too far fetched if you just go back a few years. Remember the had shakes between Rabin and Arafat? Rabin didn't want to do it, but he did. Arafat was full of himself. They both got a Nobel Prize for Peace (1994). What most people forget is how the whole world suddenly loved Israel. They suddenly thought that the Palestinians are going to be just like the Israelis, free and democratic and unbelievably successful. Well, that didn't last, but it could have. If the Palestinians did become a democratic pluralistic territory, regardless of the issues with Israel. But with no real example of pluralistic democracy in the Arab world, that did not happen. Maybe it was just too hard to expect a small territory to innovate while organizing a whole new world for themselves.

Israelis would like to think that at least in north Africa and the Persian Gulf, Israel will be more welcome now. But the long peace with Egypt and Jordan are indicators to the contrary. The Egyptian peace has stopped the fighting but has not brought cooperation. Of course, with a shift from dictatorship to democracy, we can hope for big changes. That is what we have seen in eastern Europe just a decade ago. Countries that were either closed or cool toward Israeli business and trade warmed up and even became close allies. Building and architecture, IT (technology), military and security, agriculture, finance and even government professionals all have become a great collaborators. More Israeli architects and seed manufacturing salesmen look at developing eastern Europe as the next big market for Israeli services and goods. Israel is not alone here, this is exactly what Koreans, Chinese and Romanians are doing every day. The economies in growth and expansion look for places also in expansion. This is what freedom and fresh enthusiasm brings to economies. Israel goes through waves of enthusiasm like this every decade or so. They are mostly driven by outside forces. The agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is one such example. The Israeli population did not care much for what Rabin and Arafat were brewing behind close doors. Here, when the suicide bombers were at their peak, all we wanted is quiet. So did the Palestinian of east Jerusalem. Once the Palestinian Authority took control, the Palestinian people wanted the Israeli shoppers to come back and buy their produce, olive oil and furniture. Maybe get a car fixed in east Jerusalem at a discount price. But that did not happen, even today travel across the green line is not a casual event. Well, this is my little piece for today. We are going through exciting times, maybe the most monumental days in the history of the Middle East. But only time will tell which countries will get fresh Washingtons, Jeffersons and Franklins and which will continue with the dictators we all know and love. THANKS for READING!

Arab Uprisings All Around: Quiet Tension in Israeli Press

2011-02-18T09:09:00.029+02:00


	Haaretz showing protests around the Arab world. Not exactly democracy yet, but quietly hoping for a change. From Haaretz.com 18-Feb-2011

Arabs are rioting now for over a month. It started with Tunisia. A country that seemed quiet and cultured. The Israelis who came from Tunisian descend are known for their quiet personality and hard work. Then came the Egyptians, hardly people of protest, at least not the violent kind. We still hear a bit of echoes from Iranian protests. But somehow the government's harsh suppression and communication isolation has made us forget. We hear protest in other places, like little lights turning on in the middle of the night. One should remember that Israel is the only democracy in our little corner of the world. From the Atlantic ocean to India. Far south as South Africa and who knows how far north, maybe Russia if one considers that government democratic. Israel is by far the only democracy here. So suddenly seeing countries who did not go through the adoption of democracy asking for rule by the people is refreshing. But not really. Israelis are cautious about celebrating democracy in Egypt, Syria or Jordan. Here, we better off not getting our hopes up. We have seen the rise of Gaddafi in Libya and Mubarak in Egypt. We have seen changes in economy and government in the gulf states. We have seen the war between Iran and Iraq, with very little change in how these countries are ruled and their acceptance of democratic processes by the people. So the press is quiet about our hopes, so is the government. Unlike Obama and Clinton in the press, Bibi and Lieberman are shy to advise Arabs what to do next.

But democracy does not come easy. All democracies brought down dictators and kings with violent revolts. Despot rulers simply do not feel like going away peacefully "just to give power to the people". Some forget how the French guillotined hundreds of royals and aristocrats to gain their freedom. Or the hidden killing of the Russian ruling family, down to the children, in an unknown forest at night. Afterwords a revolution killing millions with two factions reds and whites. Or the American revolution, at the time unreported and unremarkable to anyone in Europe. The people who did not kill their royals: British, Spanish and Dutch, are still living with them. Some say in a somewhat unclear democratic structure. Royals still holding a position of power and reverence: a British royal wedding getting the "subjects" all giddy with pride. For European and American readers, the Arabs now protesting had plenty of royal weddings (on TV.) They also see plenty of fast moving royal processions in black SUVS racing through their capital cities. They have seen plenty of yachts and plenty of royal visits from emissaries the world over. Something the British see much less and the Americans, north and south, not at all. Now all the little people in these kingdoms wonder why they still have royals and palaces while most of the population can hardly afford basic daily needs.

So if the British and Spanish did not kill off their royal rulers, would the Libyans get a democracy peacefully? (like the British and the Spanish?) Would the Egyptians build a popular democracy with citizen support and respect to common law? What would Saudis and Yemenis need to do to their rulers? While Europeans are proud of their centuries of royal rule, the Arabs have them trumped by millenniums. Saudi and gulf state ruling families trace their ancestors for centuries and their ruling heritage for longer than they can remember. So asking them to "just be calm", as Hillery Clinton is seen to be doing day after day on TV, may not be the best advice for revolutionaries right now. I also don't think that calling Egyptian and Tunisian activities protests is honest. They are truly revolts. This is what happens when a leader decides to leave because he realizes what will happen to him and his family if does not. While the Arab revolutionaries have not taken arms yet, this is certainly something that can happen. In places like Lebanon and Jordan and in the gulf emirates. There is plenty of money, willing suppliers and even hidden caches of arms all over the middle east. The spark to arm a small group and attack the ruling parties is just waiting for someone to light it.

Bahrain, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and the smaller United Arab Emirates will not become democracies quietly either. Maybe the change is too fast for these small states, banded together in 1971. Barely two generation of leaders have ruled there, now they will be asked to quietly go away, give away their riches and power. Again, to let "the people rule themselves". Rulers descended from royal families tend to think that people simply can not rule themselves. They see democracies going back to the ancient Greeks working out just fine, but do not seem to understand how people without one man at the top can make things work out. Here in Israel we are still cautious and worried. If the Egyptians take on a full scale violent revolt it will certainly affect the Palestinians in Gaza and maybe even Israel directly. The same goes for Lebanon and Jordan. While Israel had to contend with the Palestinians for 60 plus years, that's nothing compared to full scale revolutions or civil wars that can be unleashed around us. There is even a worst scenario to all this revolutionary talk. If Egypt or Lebanon is taken over by a Muslim extremist government, things are going to be much worst. Imagine a government in Egypt aligned with Iran. Well, sorry for the grim thoughts on the blog, just giving a little peek into the worried faces of people here in Israel. Have a great weekend, whatever is left of it.

Kosher Conversations: Among Friends & Family & a Falafel Chef

2010-12-20T09:09:00.001+02:00


	Kosher stamps indicate rabbinical approval. These are printed on every food item in Israel. Only a small percentage of the food consumed in Israel is sold without Kosher approval.

Kosher food conversations hover in the background here in Israel. Hover because the definition of what is kosher means different things to different people. Hover lightly not heated debates, not bitter complaints, just a faded blurt "that's how it is". In it's core, Israeli food is kosher, for secular Israelis as much as for Orthodox Israelis. The conversations hover because of what kosher has become in a modern Jewish state (it is strange and bristly issue.) To secular Jews kosher means not eating pork and keeping milk and meat separate. How separate one keeps the two is one topic of conversation. Kosher also means rabbis inspecting restaurants and shops assuring milk products are not stored together or mixed in cooking with meat. Kosher inspection is a big business for the rabbinical inspection authorities. Tamir, a small falafel stand owner started out paying 300 shekels a year for his Kosher certification. That was eight years ago. Then he sold Falafel and coffee. Basically nothing that needed inspection. He added schnitzels (fried chicken breast) to his stand, which increased his income three fold. (previously he did not have meat or milk, just vegetables which are called "parve".) The kosher inspector raised his inspection fees by 50% every year, now reaching over 8,000 shekels a year. Tamir, pays the fees without any official complaints, what else can he do? He estimates that 15% of his clients come because he has a kosher certificate. The inspector has not shown up at his stand for five years. Even if he did show up in a surprise inspection, nothing would cause the old Falafel stand to lose it's kosher certification.

The secular businessman lives with this hidden tax, actually more of a low level bribe. The fees goes to the rabbinical system. A system which supposedly has official government support but certainly not enough as an official state religion. [Editor: this first person description of "bribe" by the writer is his own personal opinion. This is what Israelis are saying in private. Not the blogs official stand. ] State sponsored religious services, Kosher inspection being part of it, are not a big problem for secular Israelis. Actually, by my unofficial survey, secular Israelis complain more about Kosher restaurant food being boring or bland, than about the Kosher food inspection. This view reflects the Kosher restaurants customer preferences, simply functional food no gourmet or healthy preferences. Quality and taste of food in Israeli restaurants has nothing to do with Kosher cooking observance. There are plenty of good Kosher restaurants, especially in Tel Aviv. Maybe not enough, since most are busy and probably more successful than non-Kosher restaurants. Just last month I was invited to a Kosher restaurant in Azrieli center in Tel Aviv. Mercado is a meat restaurant and we had a delightful surprise. It is off the main shopping center at the third floor, round building. See menu on REST site [HEBREW]. There are plenty of nice Kosher restaurants in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In smaller towns you need to ask around. If you know of good Kosher restaurants, leave a comment. AND ENJOY !

Now, what does Kosher has to do with secular Jewish religion in Israel? NOT MUCH ! Secular state religion for most Israelis means celebrating the Jewish holidays. Holidays and ceremonies play an important part in Israeli life. Most secular Israelis love the holidays for their specific celebrations (Seder in Passover, candle lighting in Hanukkah.) This includes very basic Kosher observance, you pretty much can not find pork unless you really go looking. You will not find cheeseburgers or any kind of sandwich with meat and cheese. Most restaurants are Kosher but also on a low level. What you notice more than anything in talking about Kosher observance is the strange gap between belief (or values) in contrast with daily practices. Israeli secular Jews still hold strong to Jewish beliefs, but daily religious observance is almost none existent (i.e. very few Israelis pray regularly.) How do you explain this? Take a look at Italians and French and their Roman Catholic state religion. This is what you see here. French for the most part identify themselves as Roman Catholics, but a very low percentage goes to Sunday mass. The same goes in other Christian states. Explaining beliefs and practices take a bit of writing, so this will be a topic to come back to again and again. Ask and comment if you are interested in this topic.

Jewish Leadership Balance Shift: Israelis Looking at American Jews

2010-11-10T11:09:00.002+02:00

The balance of power in the world Jewish community is shifting. To some slowly, but here in Israel it seems like a volcanic eruption. From the 1880s Jewish immigration: community, religious, political, financial and spiritual leadership was not in Israel, it came from Europe. After the Holocaust it shifted from Europe to the United States. Israelis built a state, but still listened to outsiders for advice and guidance. As Israel grew and prospered it started developing it's own vision and leadership style. But until recently, Israel was still looking for outsider leadership advice. As Israel has gone through wars and peace periods, differences in policy with foreign Jewish community leaders started Israel in a more independent stance. Taking advice from the outside faded over the years. Today, events like negotiating with the Palestinians and immigration of Jews from the US caused a bigger and faster shift in leadership power. In Israel, this is new. As leaders, Israelis are still not sure of how to lead the world Jewish community. In education and Jewish culture, programs like Taglit-Birthright (a program started in the US) shows how Israelis can contribute and lead Jews in the diaspora. Today, Birthright is as important to Israeli leaders as it was to American leaders in the past. Experiencing Israel first hand is something that Israelis finally undersatnd. Israeli NGOS and government departments are now thinking of doing a birthright program with Israeli resources. Specially for Jews not in North American communities. Some say: that's about time.

The recent differences in opinion over Jewish construction in the Palestinian territories is one "volcanic eruption" shift seen here in Israel. American political leaders from president Obama to foreign minister Clinton are pushing hard on Israel to continue in the building moratorium, Israeli leaders from prime minister Natanyahu to foreign minister Lieberman are clearly not taking the American advice. This is not a snub at the American leadership. At least this is not how it is seen here in Israel. It is a strategic move in negotiation with the Palestinians. It is also a show of individual policy for Israel, listening to the Americans but doing what is needed for Israel. For Israeli leaders, navigating the domestic complex political landscape is hard enough. Satisfying foreign leaders with their personal opinions, and the desires of their country's politics is virtually impossible. This is where the balance of power shift is seen the most. In the Jewish community there is also a tectonic shift. Religious, culture and even finance issues are taking notice of the political shifts. The current global economic downturn caused a big drop in donations to Jewish organizations here in Israel. Schools, yeshivas, community centers, hospitals, have all seeing a drop in donations. Here in Israel, the economy has not taken a big drop. So now Israeli organizations are looking for funding locally. This is a big change for some organizations, finally they will have to sustain themselves without American money. What will happen when American Jewish organizations come in a few years with donations, directions and requests? Will Israelis say "thank you for your money but keep your opinions to yourselves?" Maybe not that bluntly, but I would not rule this out. Look for more balance of power shifts. No longer will Israeli organizations look for policy direction from abroad when they are conflicting with the perspective here. There is lots more to this story, come back to read more.

Modern Living in an Ancient Land: Echoes from the Past

2010-11-07T09:09:00.008+02:00

Colonia Aelia Capitolina map, a Roman city built by Caesar Adrea nos in 130 CE on Jerusalem's ruins. A reminder of the ancient in modern Israeli life. (image from WikiPedia (http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/היסטוריה_של_ירושלים)

Modern Israel is a new creation in an ancient land. In Israeli's daily life, there is a mix of the modern and the ancient at the same time. Entering Tel Aviv University's Frankel gate reveals a row of Roman statues lined up as they were guarding a procession of students entering campus. The Eretz Israel Tel Aviv Museum* gardens are dotted with ancient Hebrew and Roman mosaics. Family law is based on Rabbinical legal practices going back 1,000 year with basic values taken from the Torah, Talmud and Mishnah. Israelis regularly quote biblical and Talmudic verses in daily conversation. The speaker's richness in planting a fitting quote shows their religious knowledge and even where they grew up. Jerusalemites and Tel Avivians often compare their biblical and Talmudic knowledge. Jerusalem speakers, living in a more orthodox city use more biblical phrases. Tel Avivians using fewer but with more meaning sometimes. Less you use something, higher it's importance.

Living a modern life in an ancient land brings tensions between the two. On one side Israelis want to live in today's world with all the benefits and pleasures of a modern world. On another, Israelis from the earliest immigrants to today, want to discover and preserve ancient culture, values and practices. The land is filled with archeological digs, stringing a continuous path in time like breadcrumbs in a barren land. Culture and knowledge of ancient writings is continuously studied and interpreted to our modern language. Both orthodox and secular Israelis are proud in their own ways of the ancient heritage preserved here. Orthodox Jews are proud of the cultural and religious heritage. This is one of the unique quality of living in Israel with religious practices kept alive for 2,000 years. Values and practices, started in the time of Moses, still alive today. Secular Israelis proud of the history and culture resurrected through archeology and collection of artifacts from all around the world.

Tourists coming for the first time need to pay attention to where they are and what they see and feel. Tel Aviv, merely a hundred years old, looks modern and untouched by ancient memories. Before and after the Holocaust (1920s to 1960s), a strong ideal of Jews returning to Israel meant leaving the past behind. Many came to Israel turning their back to a thousand years of Jewish culture. This was a time to reinvent the Jews in a new land. In Israel it was different than in America. European Jews also went to America to reinvent themselves, but in the mold of Americans and their culture. European Jews coming do Israel did not have anyone to emulate, so they reinvented a completely new way of life. While a tour of Jerusalem (or Tzfat or the Sea of Galilee) for the most part, mean going back to the time of Jesus and kind David. To remnants of the days Jews worshiped in a Temple like the Greeks and Romans. A time where a prayer to God was not merely symbolic, it was a tactile experience with animal sacrifices and a Cohanim, a priestly tribe. These two traditions, one of keeping ancient memories and one of renewing and reforming to a new one are both here, just pay attention and keep looking for signs. Ancient and modern life is here everywhere!

* The Eretz Israel Tel Aviv Museum (literally "Land of Israel Tel Aviv Museum") Is a museum in north Tel Aviv. The collections focus on historical and cultural items with less emphasis on artistic one.

Israel's Most Enduring Green Policy: The Green Line, Agriculture, Drip Irrigation

2010-11-05T09:08:00.013+02:00

Fish ponds in lower Gililly. Northern Israel was first cultivated in the 1880s and started a 130 year tradition of turning Israel into a green space. From the air the effort has become Israel's ''green line'' / from Israel's PickiWiki Site

Last week I wrote about passive solar water heating [here]. Saving energy is a crucial and useful policy and affects every Israeli. A more environmental policy going back more than a century is greening the desert: planting forests, cultivating agriculture and cultivating urban green spaces. Israel's green line is one of the most important long term green activity. It is actually Israel's biggest contribution to the world and can affect more people in the surrounding states than any political and military activity. Politically the green line has become synonymous with Israel's 1948 borders. Today, the name is synonymous with the Palestinian struggle and Israel's security border. The name actually comes from aerial photos of Israel contrasted against background of the surrounding states. Essentially Israel looks green from the air. This is an amazing accomplishment considering the climate and history of the region. Since the first immigration of Jews to Israel in the 1880s, there has been an immense effort to plant forests, make living spaces green and cultivate agriculture. The effort has been a crucial economic engine in early years of the state when Israel became an agricultural economy. It is also been a symbol of care and nurturing of the land to millions of Jews around the world.

Israel's green environment policy started from an emotional desire to make the desert green. Jews coming from Europe brought the love of trees and forests and saw the potential to turn a brown land into green. Jewish leaders from Hertzel to Ben-Gurion had the vision that sparked a light into a small group of believers. The vision turned into a mission, make Israel a green example to the world. This mission was carried out by pioneers in socialized Kibbutzim settlements, in engineering projects connecting all of Israel to water sources and in technologies from irrigation to plant development. Flash forward 130 years and in Israel we have the Green Line, drip irrigation and a sustainable green land. If you look as far west as the Atlantic ocean and as far east as the Indian ocean, specially in space images, you see two prominent green spots: the Nile delta in Egypt and Israel's borders. If you look a little closer by walking in Israel's urban areas, you see more trees, shrubs and lawns than most middle eastern cities. If you look at Israel's agricultural industry you see diversity and creativity beyond countries many time it's size. This result is a combination of many factors. It is also a result of a sustained effort, both economic and governmental, to bring to life a vision beyond what can be seen today, a vision to leave something to future generations. This effort has key elements which can serve as examples countries who wish to change their environment in a green and sustainable ways:

Large scale national water distribution and management (Mekorot)
Sophisticated and simple drip irrigation use and manufacturing (Netafim)
Innovative local urban planning and sustained gardening policies.
Innovative agricultural efforts from acclimating plants to hard work. (Kibbutz)
Continuous active government policy and investment in green development.

In future articles I will cover these elements which combined make Israel a shining example of crating a green environment in a dry land. While the Green Line today is considered a geopolitically charge issue, it is also an amazing environmental fact. One that we forget sometimes in the midst of daily buzz. One that very few dispute and even more do not understand environmentally.

Let's Go Israel: Half of a Travel Guide for A Short Trip

2010-11-04T09:08:00.040+02:00

Let's Go Israel is a great guide if you are coming for business or a short trip. Plenty of background information. See excerpts on the Let's Go site: www.letsgo.com

What tour guide do you use on your travels? This question has as much to do about style as it is about information. Are you an organized planner? Or one who noses around and explores open eyed? Do you like traveling in style? Or are seeking real life local experiences?

I met Tim, an American coin collector on Hilton beach a few weeks ago. He came to Israel for the ancient coins. At first he was not planning on touring anything but Jerusalem, the museums and coin shops around Tel Aviv. But he brought two guides, one for Christian pilgrims and another was Let's Go Israel (official site) see book on Amazon: Let's Go Israel

I was surprised, since he looked rather buttoned down and serious about his coin collecting. More of a small businessman dress and mannerism than a backpacking college grad on a summer adventure. Tim was from Tennessee and has been collecting coins for over twenty years. He actually started collecting coins on a post college trip to Europe. He was interested in seeing Israel for himself after hearing so many different (and conflicting) stories. At first he did fear coming. But reading accounts on blogs from other coin collectors, he was definitely intrigued about Israel. What he wanted to see more than anything was the museums with their large collections of Roman coins. That was not his specialty, but he was curious to actually see ancient coins in good condition. He also wanted to see the Dead Sea Scrolls.

I asked Tim what impressed him the most. He said the quiet and order of Tel Aviv. He expected Israel to be one big outdoor market or a mess of tiny streets with bicycles to donkeys to cars and buses all crowded on dusty unpaved roads. He could not understand why his image of Israel was one of what he saw on TV of Cairo, Calcutta or Kabul. I guess it was the location of Israel in the middle east more than anything else. He was also taken back by the seriousness and honesty of the people. I don't know what he expected Israelis to be like. Finally he was impressed by the museums and the guides. He did not expect well organized collections and guides with specialties like ancient history and coins and glass. His image of Israel antiquities trade and culture was a mixed up with politics and culture. I pointed out how important antiquities tourism in Israel makes it a serious field. Something only people in the field, who know what to see and where to buy know well.

Tim made some calls back to his friends. They were all excited about his experience. When he told them that there were plenty of great books and pictures, specially of ancient coins, they wanted them as well. He ended up going to the Eretz Israel Tel Aviv Museum more than once to buy more books and posters for his friends. At first he was afraid to ship books by mail or UPS, but the Hilton Hotel desk clerk assured him it was the best way to take books back. In the end of his trip, Tim was relaxed, he told me on the phone that this was his best trip in many years. Not just the coins, but the whole experience. The last thing he expected was to be relaxed. Sometimes, when you take a chance, you discover not what you expected.

Rachel's Tomb In Bethlehem: A Woman's Night Prayer

2010-11-02T09:08:00.009+02:00

Night prayer at Rachel's tomb. On any given night, orthodox Jews fill the small space surrounding the old grave. Rachel's tomb is in Bethlehem close to Jerusalem about 1 1/2 hour from Tel Aviv. / © 2010

On any night, Rachel's tomb is filled with orthodox Jews praying. For women it has a special meaning. Last night I was visiting and a group of women were kneading dough to make challa rolls for their congregation. Making the bread at the tomb meant something special and they said a special prayer for friends. Overhearing some of the women, one said a prayer for a woman looking for a husband and another for a better paying job. Some said prayers for their children and their neighbors. People flowed in until 10 PM, closing time. There was even a tour bus around 9 PM, apparently they came from a Jerusalem hotel and only half of the group wanted to go.

I don't want to get too political or patriotic here. But there is a lost element in people who do not see Israel with their own eyes. These are not just foreigners, it's also Israelis. Israel has many places which have meaning to people. The religious have the places referred to in the bible. The patriotic and Zionist is the places with significance to starting the state. To the veterans places where battles took place, not just the modern ones. There are hundreds of places which people attached strong emotions to over the years. These places attract common Israelis who just want to be there, maybe say a prayer or take a picture. This is something that is lost on most tourists and Israelis. Rachel's tomb is such a place. It is small and simple. But to some women Rachel was a special woman in the Jewish tradition. Rachel's tomb is also a place Muslim women go to pray for an easy birth. Some also pray for fertility and to find a good mate.

Rachel's tomb is in Bethlehem a few minutes drive south of Jerusalem. From Tel Aviv it is about an hour and a half drive. There are buses from Jerusalem and you can also find organized trips through synagogues and religious organizations. Organized trips are about 50 Shekels. Taxi trips from Jerusalem are 50 to 100 Shekels depending where you start. From central Jerusalem the trip is about 20 minutes. Bethlehem has been safe the last two years but tourists are advised to go with a tour or directly by taxi.

British mandate stamp with Rachel's Tomb picture (from Wikipedia)

Israeli Economic Shift: Less Start-Ups, Bigger Investments (Globes top 10)

2010-10-30T09:09:00.028+02:00

Israel's economy is going through a tectonic shift. Small start-ups and small venture capital firms are disappearing. Big start-ups (US$ 10 million) and big venture firms are holding on. Darwinian survival of the fittest is hitting hard the Israeli start-up world, the lucky few survive, but many are dead or dying. In a recent article picking the top ten start-ups The Globes™ newspaper picked the year's most promising candidates. This is their sixth year of picking the top 10 start-ups and their past record is pretty good. The shift from many small start-ups to few big ones is driven by outside factors. Mostly the collapse of the American venture capital industry which brought a sharp drop in technology investments. As the old saying goes: "when the American venture capital industry catches a cold, Israeli start-ups catches pneumonia". Most of Israel's smaller venture capital firms have closed in the last four years. Investments in small start-ups has dropped to a trickle.

The Globes™ 2010 ten most promising start-ups*:

Rank	Company	CEO	Funding [US$]
1	Provigent	Dan Charash	55
2	Prime Sense	Inon Beracha	29.4
3	WIX	Avishai Abrahami	20
4	Waze	Noam Baradin	12
5	Panaya	Yosi Cohen	22
6	Solar Edge	Guy Sela	60
7	Broad Light	Raanan Gewirtzman	30
8	Work Light	Shahar Kaminitz	17
9	Life Bond	Ishay Attar	9.5
10	Aero Scout	Yuval Bar-Gil	70

* from printed Globes article, 25-25 October, 2010

As an Israeli with start-up experience the large investment level is music to my ears. Experience has shown how crucial a strong investor base and larger investments help to keeping a start-up going. Start-up companies succeed not just because of innovation or technology, sometimes just time and money is needed to get a company running on it's own or sold off. In Israel, with limited internal funding resources, we see too many companies fizzle out after the initial big investment runs out.

But as a start-up worker what is worrisome is the small number of start-up investments. As the venture capital firms invest more in less companies, less entrepreneurs are willing to start. Because the race to get funding is harder, less people even try. From experience, especially in Israel, we know that start-up success is also dependent on the number of tries. More start-ups try to get going, more will succeed. So the sharp fall in the number of start-ups the last two years is a big concern. There have been attempts by the government to help seed start-up projects. Programs to help entrepreneurs build prototype products and write a well formed business plan. But these programs have not taken into account the fundamental change in investor preference from many small start-ups to a few big ones.

It is hard to predict where the world of investment and entrepreneurship will take us. In Israel, where we nurtured an industry of building technology companies and selling them to others, the changes recently are hard to digest. Technology workers are not fully utilized, professional services are idle and the financial world supporting them is still waiting for a "comeback to the good old days". Like previous changes, something will happen, maybe not what we expect. If you ask most entrepreneurs what they expected before they started, you always get an answer like: "what happened is not what I expected". This does not seem to be something related to Israel or the personality of it's people, it is indicative of the continuous changing world we live in. Keep your eyes open and look for new development. Here in Israel we will run and dodge with the times.

056f9e91c65c4d87910285b36950eba1

Texas Instruments and Red Hat conferences in Tel Aviv

2010-10-28T09:09:00.029+02:00

Texas Instruments' technical conference drew 300 embedded engineers. Good news for Israelis and the company. The embedded processor (microcontroller) field is fractured with over twenty suppliers. TI is bringing their expertise in DSP to the Israeli engineering world. / © 2010

Last week Texas Instruments (TI) and Red Hat (earlier this week) held their annual conferences in Tel Aviv. Both companies announced new developments. Texas Instruments (TI) has revamped their controller and microprocessor lines. Red Hat is going to announce their Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL6) in a few weeks. The TI conference was a relatively small meeting with about 300 attendees. TI has not been a big microprocessor and microcontroller supplier until now. The Israeli market is small but strong in embedded devices. This makes a day conference with presentation from key corporate executives a crucial market presence. The Red Hat conference was attended by 1,200 people. Matrix, Red Hat's distributor in Israel, announced their 600th enterprise customer, which is over 50% growth the last year. Overall, Red Hat's low price and strong support, has been successful in today's weak IT market. Spending on IT is still low relative to the early 2000 spending rate. Red Hat competes with Microsoft selling enterprise servers to corporate customers, Fortune 1000 companies.

Tel Aviv is a good place to hold technical conferences. It is centrally located to most attendees and has plenty of hotels to accommodate a few hundred people. There are usually ten technical conferences in Tel Aviv (and the surrounding cities) each week. There is a "high season" for conferences, it starts in the fall and goes through winter. The season takes breaks during state holidays and school vacations. We just passed the Jewish high holiday season so conferences are in their peak period. Israel's technology industry is clustered in a few locations. The biggest cluster of technology companies is around Tel Aviv, with Haifa in the north and Jerusalem to the east the other clusters. Since Israel has a few technology specialties and the technology field is small (relative to bigger countries), in one conference a company can bring a focused audience and cover the whole country. This enables a company to discover the state of the market in one day, connect with engineers and IT managers and give their story directly to real users and managers. Israel is especially a good place to test a new product introductions, new business models or see how the market will respond to new technologies. The Israeli market is sophisticated, there are good potential customers and geographically Israel is close to Europe and middle eastern markets. Besides this, Europeans love to come to Tel Aviv in winter. The fall is also a great time to come, temperatures are not too hot, yet you can walk around with a short sleeve shirt or a suite and tie. Add to a visit here all the benefits of a medium size metropolitan city, modeled after European and American ones, and you have a perfect (technology) combination. Come and see Tel Aviv's technology live and in person, in fall or winter.

One unique aspect of Israel's technology world is its technical depth. In the Red Hat conference, a presenter from IBM gave a talk on the state of IT business today and shifting trends IBM sees (Web2.0, mobile communication.) The talk was wonderful but did not hit the mark. IBM is a big company and has a wide range of audiences. A talk about the general state of the IT technology today can be targeted at executives, both government and private industry, or can be more technical and targeted at key technology decision makers. The IBM talk had general technology trends but not enough for technical decision makers. This seems to happen more here in Israel than in other places. The country's small scale brings into one place both the high level executives all the way to the operational IT managers. This is something foreign speakers need to take into account. It is also something that Israeli organizers need to coach foreign speakers, if they are going to give relevant and interesting talks.

Update on Iben Gvirol and The Coffee Bean Closure

2010-10-26T09:09:00.007+02:00

At ''The Gregg Cafe'' in Dizengoff center, the manager's dog has it's own ''personal'' table. Not a common and acceptable practice, it is still telling of the informal feel of Israeli cafes. Not so with ''The Coffee Bean'' and regular laptop workers in 2009 / © 2010

About a year ago bloggers in Israel made some noise about working in cafes. They were grumbling about cafes being hostile toward people who sat and worked using laptops. Some cafes at the time did not offer free WiFi or did not have AC plugs to connect laptops power supplies. Tel Avivians love their cafes and to some it is their living room and office apartment extensions. A virtual (or actually real?) home-office away from home. In central Tel Aviv, where apartment prices are beyond belief, many people live in tiny apartments. Some work from home, that means sometimes working from the local cafe when they meet customers or clients. The American coffee chain " The Coffee Bean (& Tea Leaf)" had a nice big cafe on Iben Gvirol in front of Gan Ha'ir commercial complex. I wrote about The Coffee Bean's up and down policy toward laptop users. Around 2008 the Israeli high-tech sector collapsed. No new investment in start-ups caused companies to lay off thousands of workers. These were software engineers and professional support workers (salesman and marketers, human resource, administrators) as well as related professionals.

The Coffee Bean first went all out to accommodate laptop toting customers. Besides the free WiFi connection, they also offered AC plugs. At one time they were going to install a printer which you could use for a small fee. But somewhere around 2009 all this stopped. Apparently a few customers made The Coffee Bean their permanent office away from home. One guy actually brought in a keyboard and even a printed at one time. Another was a permanent fixture to such a point where he had "his own" table. While cafes are usually an informal place to go, there are limits, especially in Tel Aviv. For the most part people are well dressed and well behaved. Once in a while you get an excited loud customer, but that evokes a few stares from adjacent tables and the peace and calm is restored. Some cafes have a quiet feel, here is a place to catch a cup of coffee and spend a few minutes reading. For the most part, people do not come to cafes to talk on the phone. If you are having a meeting, it is usually between two to four people and is quiet. If you are not doing it all the time and are not hogging a table beyond the time that makes sense, everything is fine.

I am saddened to see The Coffee Bean gone. Hopefully another coffee chain will take over the place and keep the large space open as it was before. But in reality, this section of Iben Gvirol does not need another cafe. There are plenty of them just a few steps away. Life goes on as normal, a few changes here and there. Maybe this is a good lesson in commerce and change. Technology is going to change our lives no matter what we do. So changes are going to ripple into the way we work and live. Some people will benefit some will suffer. Laptops, WiFi, Netbooks and now tablet computers are making our office work portable. Now it's time for the rest of the world to catch up with our portable offices. Is this happening in your city? What is it like in the US and Europe? It will be interesting to compare business and consumer reactions.

Israel's Number One Green Energy: Solar Water Heaters

2010-10-24T09:09:00.013+02:00

One of Israel's most popular green energy technology is passive solar water heating. On each apartment building roof you see solar collectors and a water tank. Every apartment owner puts this small contraption and all the hot water for drinking, washing and bathing comes for free. At least eight months a year, there is no need to heat water with anything but the sun. Passive solar water heating has been used in Israel for decades. Solar collectors were popular since the 1950s, but the fuel crisis of 1973 lead to a law passed in 1967 which every new apartment must install a passive solar water heater. The only exceptions are high rise buildings where the roof is too small to accommodate all the residents. Today 95% of Israeli households use solar water heating. It accounts for 4% of the energy use overall. (see Wikipedia entry for solar water heaters: HERE)

To tourists coming to Israel, it seems odd to see solar collector on every building. Even on large commercial buildings there are passive water heating collectors. This simple technique of saving energy is second nature here in Israel. Just like other simple techniques of air drying cloths on a line, once people got used to this, there is no going back. While Israel has the geographic and climate conditions that enable year around effective solar energy use, so do many countries around the world. Could Israel teach the world to save energy used to heat water? Our use of this passive simple technique is useful and effective. Imagine half of the world using passive solar water heating. This could change the way we all consume energy forever.

Update on New Port of Tel Aviv, Dizengoff and Yermiyahu Streets

2010-10-20T09:09:00.005+02:00

Kaf-Gimel Yordei Ha'sira streets is a tiny two block street at the entrance of the new Tel Aviv port. A small detail commented in earlier article. Tel Aviv has so many little details, we sometime forget until reminded.

I have been meaning to write updates on lots of places mentioned before on the blog and cover new ones. After getting a strange comment on the New Port of Tel Aviv article fron 2007 I was nudged to get started. The last few weeks I went to the new Tel Aviv port on Saturday nights. Tel Aviv starts buzzing again after the sabbath as evening comes. This year, fall has been warmer than usual and no real rain yet. Some people want the summer to be over already, with temperatures in the 30°s Celsius (85 to 95 °F) most of us can understand the complaints. It's been a hot summer and as we near November we hoped for cooler weather. This year the heat was so strong it affected vegetable prices. Poor farmers were getting very low yields and the vegetables were small and dry. Last month prices went up three to four times normal, even the government was wondering what was happening and investigated the problem.

Back to the port. On a hot Saturday, people do their best to get to the beach. Not just swim or tan on the sand, simply to walk or sit by the water is nice. Last Saturday a strong breeze was coming from the sea in the evening. Up to about nine at night, families with small children were making their way between the shops and restaurants. Some restaurants had small crowds, mostly families. Most were getting ready for the dinner rush that starts at about ten. The shops are usually quiet between seven and ten. Some close for the night at eight or nine. Some are open until the dinner crowd finishes at eleven or twelve. You never know when someone would buy a pair of shoes or the latest Nike T-shirt. Fall cloths are not selling yet, people don't need sweaters when it's hot. Bathing suits are going at 50% off, sandals, even nice Teva pieces are going for 30% to 50% off. Hot weather in Israel touches everyone's lives. The economy seems a little sluggish at the end of summer and early fall. But you can hear lots of tourists talking in German and Japanese. The port area in Tel Aviv is one of the places where you can get an English menu in every restaurant. In most restaurants and shops you can find waiters and sales girls who can speak French, Russian and Spanish as well. That's why the hotel concierges send tourists here.

If you like to see more local shops and restaurants head to Dizengoff and Yermiyahu streets. Dizengoff has been a high end boutique and shop strip for decades. It is going through jewelry and women boutique phase. Just the last year I have seen a hardware store and an electronic repair shop turn into a women dress shops. At the north end near the port side is a row of wedding dress shops, the biggest concentration in Israel. Yermiyahu street has a good variety of cafes and restaurants. You can see Tel Aviv's young set hang out here at night. Once in a while a celebrity will be spotted. This area besides the port cafes is a place to see and be seen in Tel Aviv. Dizengoff and Yermiyahu are just south and east of the port district. The map here shows Kaf-Gimel Yordei Ha'sira street. A two block street from the port circle to the intersection of Dizengoff and Ben Yehuda streets. From the intersection of Yordei Ha'sira, Dizengoff and Ben Yehuda head south on Dizengoff. Yermiyahu is the first big intersection and you will start seeing cafes along Yermiyahu from here. You can continue on Dizengoff, on a Saturday evening shops are closed but window shopping is great at this time of day. If you head down Yermiyahu, pick a cafe and sit for a while. The young crowd starts arriving at about ten. Some cafes will be open until one AM or later. Clubs start going at about eleven, so if you want to see what Tel Aviv clubs are like, get in early, otherwise you will be on the street waiting to get in. ENJOY Tel Aviv evenings this fall, warm weather is great for now.

Satire (cartoon clip) about the Gilad Shalit popular views

2010-10-06T09:09:00.001+02:00

I stumbled across this video (on another blog) about views of different Israelis negotiating with Hamas over Gilad Shalit. As an Israeli I am sure that it is funny, in certain places. Each of us has a way of laughing at certain characters in everyday Israeli life. Overall, the clip is also disturbing, that's what satire is all about. It has the mother character (second to speak), the Israeli negotiator (main character) and various prototypical Israelis (Facebook geeks, techno geek (called "talk back" like comments on blogs), army buddy and dark song writer.) A disturbing thought comes across: how in the press and in private conversations we have all kind of banal excuses for keeping a man in a hole for years. The political view in Israel is continuously debated. The characters in the clip are familiar to most Israelis. It ends with a "calculation" of the amount of Palestinian prisoners for Israeli soldiers (and one Israeli drug smuggler.) If you have a sense of humor... or are interested in Israeli opinions on the exchange issue... ENJOY!