Monument to the Negev Brigade

On one of the weekends we made a trip to the Beer Sheva area to see the Monument to the Negev Brigade created by a famous Israeli architect Dani Karavan. Beer Sheva is the capital of architectural style called brutalism and this monument is a great example of the style.
Eighteen separate concrete elements symbolize Palmach Negev Brigade that fought in the Israeli war for independence. The monument is rather neglected and doesn't have any tourist facilities like bathrooms, water or security guards, however it is still a beautiful and meaningful place to visit. There are two audio stations with info in Hebrew a English. Kids enjoy running around, hiding, climbing the pieces, playing with acoustics and you can take a lot of artistic family photographs.

A few interestig facts about Israeli elections...

March 17th. Potentially a crucial day in Israeli history and everyone seems suspiciously calm. I compare it to the 2007 when Obama ran against McCain and Palin, trying to break the long Republican rule and a victory seemed so unrealistic up until the last few months. When some of my friends went door-to-door in New Hampshire trying to convert the state residents one by one. The Hope and Promise won back then, and I now brace for such a miracle here in Israel. Unfortunately most of the people around me are not very optimistic. Many are so disillusioned with the constant changes of governments, wars and high cost of living that they don't believe anything will change no matter who comes to power.

A few interesting facts about our elections:

1. There is a party that is running under the leadership (OK, spiritual leadership) of a dead person. Rabby Ovadia Yossef.
2. There is a party advertising itself with only one statement: "Death sentence to the terrorists"
3. Three letters that each party marks their voting cards with are usually not the letter of the party name. For example Netanyahu's Likud party has מחל, the Zionist Union has אמת  Why make it simple?
   
4. Zionist Union is ahead of Likud in the latest polls and this gives us a lot of hope. However their victory still doesn't guarantee that they will be able to build a coalition and form the government. 
5. Meretz - the truly democratic party in Israel is struggling to get enough votes to pass the threshold of even being considered for Knesset.  Many of their usual voters are strategically ditching the party for Zionist Union to give it a slight lead over Likud.
6. In a smart move three different Arab parties are running together with projected 13 seats in the Knesset (out of total 120). After the Zionist Union and Likud this is now the third largest party. Will they be invited to the coalition?
7. We are hopeful because there are some young, brave and smart people in the party lists, like Stav Shaffir from the Zionist Union. Here is the link to her brilliant viral speech (with English subtitles) against the accusation that her party is not Zionist enough. Click on the image:
   
8. V15 (Victory15) is a new household name in Israel. It is a grassroots outreach organization created by young Israelis and funded by the US billionaire Daniel Abraham and some other money. It does not affiliate itself with any party but it does call for a change of the current government. "Simply Change" booths and posters like this one could be spotted all around Israel:
   
9. 200 current and ex-IDF commanders create an organization and run ads in this weekend's papers saying: "Netanyahu destroyed the US-Israel relationships. Netanyahu failed to uproot Hamas. Netanyahu didn't stop the Neuclear Iran. Real security is more than just words."
10. Amos Oz, one of the most prominent Israeli writers and a proffesor of literature writes in this Satrday's Haaretz newspaper: We’ll begin with the most important thing, with a matter of life-and-death for the State of Israel: If there will not be two states here, and fast, there will be one state here. If there will be one state here, it will be an Arab state, from the sea to the Jordan River. If there will be an Arab state here, I don’t envy my children and my grandchildren.

Dear friends, please stay with us as we go through these crucial days. What party will get the majority of the votes, whether this party will be able to negotiate a coalition, how long the coalition will last, will the new government be better? For now we are living our Spring of Hope and Promise.

Anti-Netanyahu Rally, Tel Aviv, Rabin Square, Saturday March 7th

And the best image (borrowed from Haaretz) from the news hot air balloon above the square:

January, Tel Aviv, 50 shades of blue

Hanukkah Flavors

 Hanukkah in Israel is syfganiot (doughnuts) filled traditionally with jelly, in recent years also dulche-de-leche or chocolate.

In Ashkenazim families it is also potato latkes, Here are my, a bit burned. I finally own  a food processor and can shred the potatoes in minutes.

In my husband's Sephardi family of North African origin Hanukkah food are sfinge and fricasse. Fricasse is a fried dough sandwich filled with tuna, pickled lemon, spicy harissa, sweet carrot salad, potato and onion salad and olives.  Sfinge is a sweet treat: rig-shaped fried dough dipped in sugar.

For me any meal is not complete if it doesn't include tahini. I became a tahini freak ever since we returned to Israel making it from the raw state almost daily and ordering any tahini-containing dish at the restaurants. This Hanukkah I learned to make simple and delicious tahini cookies. 

Try it yourself:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of raw tahini from the can

1 cup sugar

baking powder

200 gram soft butter (not salted)

Mix it all, make 40-50 little balls, place them on a parchment paper 2" away from each other, can add a nut on top of each ball, bake for 15 min at 350F (180C). They will still be soft when you take them out and slowly harden. Cool and keep in a sealed container. Enjoy! 

Ahula Lake

This Saturday we took a family trip to Ahula Lake Nature Reserve that is a big WOW for kids as well as adults. Israel happens to be a perfect rest spot on a migration journey for the European birds escaping the cold winter to Africa. Over 120 species and millions of birds are passing by every winter. Originally they were feeding on the fish grown in the Galilee fish farms and frequently shot by the farm owners. Until the government decided to "welcome" them properly and flooded the Ahula area creating a large Nature Reserve and started charging small visitor fee of 5 shekels that goes toward the bird food. Now it is a birds paradise. Rumor goes may of them never even continuing the journey to Africa.

Turn your volume on to hear the birds feasting in this video:

There are cranes, pelicans, storks and many others.

                       

The route around the lake is around 10 km. 

You can travel it by foot, rent bikes for 1-5 people or a golf carts. Pushing such 3-person bike with my kids turned out to be an excellent and a very hard physical exercise.

In addition to birds there are also nutrias

and water buffaloes:

After these hard physical activity we planned to stop somewhere for a hamburger but couldn't resist trying the Druze pita. Paper-thin, spread with lebane, zaatar, tabule and spices and heated in front of us on a taboon, it was a delicious culinary experience.

Related and recommeded is a good Israeli family movie: Igor & The Crane's Journey

Keeping in Touch

Keeping in touch with our dear US friends is harder than it seemed and we especially miss you all during the Winter Holiday season.

We do know what is going on in your (US friends) lives, but rather superficially:
I still glance at the New York Times daily to see what is happening in our other home.
Moshe and Naor are trying to follow football and frequently watch Patriots live on our TV screens exchanging Instagram pictures with Boston friends.
Once a month I catch up some Facebook updates and say Happy Birthday to someone.
The New Yorker gives us a piece of US intellectual life with all the latest cultural highlights that we try to watch and read. Amazingly, movies, magazines, serials and books are now available around the world almost instantaneously.

But the really important daily details of your and our life do not cross the boundaries.
WhatsApp is so ubiquitous here for instant updates, while it is barely used in the US (for some reason unlimited data plans are more affordable and popular here).
Telephone and Skype connect but with a 7-10 hours back to the US it is very hard to catch each other leisurely.
While I was't working it was a pleasure to find each other on Google Chat or devote hours to detailed emails. Now we are barely managing with the demanding jobs and three kids requiring attention, food and rides. The only thing I could type at the end of such days is "Hi". Just like you.

The real meaningful re-connection happens only when you or we visit. We were lucky to be able to afford it this summer and had a wonderful time with many of you. Memories of these moments still warm our hearts.  Some of you or your kids came over to Israel and we picked from where we left.

I guess there is nothing to do about it. We should try to make efforts to do at least the little gestures as one line email, a snapshot of how your kids have grown, relationship or health status, connect kids on skype when they are on vacation, send each other recipes or pictures of something tasty we just made. This will be like a hug from abroad. A few of my dear friends are very good at it and I unfortunately am not but perhaps will make it my New Year resolution.

And please come to visit! I am preparing a list of places we discovered in Israel that are off the standard tourist list but are well worth visiting.