Lizrael Update: babbling about the expat life since 2004
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Mantra: Language barriers are mutual.
I keep forgetting… Language barriers are mutual… at least when you start out an English speaker. I keep forgetting that while I am shy about speaking up in class in Hebrew, some of my classmates are shy about speaking to me, or anyone, in English. I keep forgetting that while I don’t understand every item…
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On buses and facelessness.
The bus closest to my house is the 18. But it’s not the ideal bus. Today I raced through the hard rain to the bus stop a bit further, where the 18, 4 and 24 all stop, because lately, I’ve been waiting for 15-20 minutes for the 18 near my house.I waited a good 5…
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The Right Stuff.
Daniel Pipes, a new kind of Israel-basher By Bradley Burston I used to be an American Jew. And then I read Daniel Pipes. “As Israelis go to the polls,” Dr. Pipes wrote this week in an article that originally appeared in the New York Sun, “not one of the leading parties offers the option of…
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Olmert's first words.
Ehud Olmert, in a statement, after his party received the most mandates: “In the near future we aspire to fashion the permanent borders of the State of Israel, as a Jewish and democratic state with a permanent Jewish majority. We will attempt this through negotiations with our Palestinian neighbors. That is our hope; it is…
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Partial solar eclipse.
Mar 29, 2006 Partial Solar Eclipse (Magnitude 84%, Coverage 81%) Event Local Time(UTC+2) Sun Az(deg) Sun Alt(deg) Start 11:37:32 176 61 Maximum 12:56:36 214 57 End 14:13:19 238 45 Eye Safety E Check it out: today’s partial eclipse
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SUNDAY SUNday sunday…
Yesterday was the first Sunday for me (and a lot of people here) in a looong time. I miss spending the day around town, knowing I don’t have to worry about work (or Shabbat) for a little while…
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Exit polls.
ידיעות אחרונות קדימה: מנדטים30 • העבודה: מנדטים21 • ישראל ביתנו: מנדטים14 • ש”ס: מנדטים12 • הליכוד: מנדטים10 • האיחוד הלאומי/מפדל: מנדטים9 • יהדות התורה: מנדטים6 • הגימלאים (גיל): מנדטים6 • מרצ: מנדטים5 • מפלגות ערביות: מנדטים7 • הירוקים נמצאים על סף אחוז החסימה
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סוף סוף
At the end of the affair, I was feeling very sentimental. It took me 2 hours to get to my voting station because the bus never came and it was a pretty day at that point and I wanted to walk around the city I live in and get some fresh air. It was some…
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Etgar Keret in the NYTimes 2.
March 27, 2006 Stupor in Our Time By ETGAR KERET Tel Aviv THE parties my father votes for never get into Parliament. One year he’ll vote for some economist with thick glasses who promises a revolution in tax law, the next year for an irate teacher with a ponytail who advocates a revolution in the…
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Celebrate Election Day!
It is possible that I have the body of a spritely 23-year-old while having the soul of a 64-year-old mizrachi woman who grew up with no voice in anything and for election day she gets dressed up in a nice outfit and puts in her vote for Likud, every election day since she’s arrived to…
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First world country.
Walking to the bus stop near my house, passing young oranges and lemons blowing softly in the slight breeze.The old Mizrachi man who walks through the hood everyday and calls out in deep gutteral Hebrew is there, like clockwork, walking by me.And, waiting by the bus stop, I look across the street to see a…
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What is real?
At lunch we were talking about the Israeli army. S is here for a 6-month project and me and M work full time, year-round. We’re also both Israeli citizens, though I’m an immigrant and she’s a native. S could not understand why Israel even needed an army. “Israel’s not at war.” M and I stared…
Questions? Comments? Advice?