Jerusalem Holds Day-Long War Drill

(Photo: Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

By Dave Bender

Israel's National Emergency Authority (NEA) on Tuesday held a comprehensive eight-hour war drill in Jerusalem to prepare the city's residents for an all-out war with the Jewish state's adversaries.

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Israel: Hitchhiking Home

'Efrat: Misty Morn' Dave Bender, all rights reserved (Click the photo to embiggen for that panoramic look)

Not long ago, I hitchhiked my usual ride home from Jerusalem with an Efrat neighbor who was passing by the Gilo junction where everyone either catches a hitch, called a "tremp" in Hebrew, or an intercity bus - which comes by every 20 minutes or so.

It's usually much faster and often more interesting to hitch - and every time's a chance to meet someone new, learn something, often hear great music (speaking as a past radio programmer and DJ, folks in Gush Etzion and points south have awfully good musical taste) - and give someone a chance to rack up the mitzva points en route.

Dozens of riders, from teens to the elderly, regularly crowd together under the streetlamp alongside the bus bay, holding plastic shopping bags, backpacks and whatever else you'd lug along home after a day in town, at work or school.

They wait for rides to their communities, and - from firsthand experience - commonly not more that 10-15 minutes until a car or van going their way slows and shouts out the destination. The potential rider closest to the vehicle usually shouts out the destination for others who are going the same way.

Most evenings, there are two, three and sometimes even four vehicles pulling up at a time offering rides home. Amazingly, I haven't seen anyone hurt or a collision (yet...) as they clumsily merge back into the traffic lane alongside.

Guess that's just the way we roll in the Holy Land, so to speak...

After getting off a bus from in town, I stroll up to the junction and a car soon pulls up alongside.

The woman driver calls out, "Efrat;" I recognize her as a neighbor.

I get in, and a moment later a young woman walks up, carrying a infant, a car seat for the baby and a back pack.

Read that last sentence again, I'll wait...

...a slight young woman with a 1.5-mo.-old babe in arms, and baby gear, hitchhiked a ride with total strangers on a ride through the wild "West Bank," aka here, the hills of Judea.

Stop - hold that image.

She was headed to her village, Elazar, a short distance before Efrat along Rt. 60.

Our driver pulls out and we make small talk about visiting home towns overseas and family as we head off for the 14-km/9-mi drive along the two-lane road.

Our 15-min. southbound route under a brilliant full moon takes us into the Gush Etzion settlement bloc, past Bethlehem, Beit Jala and several other Palestinian Arab villages.

There have been numerous horrific shooting attacks against Jewish residents of our communities in the last several months, years, decades and more, but, on an evening like this, it somehow struck me as though we were somewhere in a would've, could've should've been small town, maybe somewhere in the rural U.S. dozens of years ago, before the idea of even a burly tough guy hitchhiking was an assumption of dangerous lunacy for either the driver or the ride.

Now think about that; hold that thought for a second.

Again, imagine the bond of trust, elemental "derech eretz" (innate decency, here), and healthy shared societal assumptions that brought together that vignette of the four of us, what it implies, and what it says about the hesed (grace), resilience and plain old decency and gumption of this society - as opposed to everything you read on the news about life here in Israel.

Now, could you envision such a scene like this anywhere else - really?

Shabbat Shalom.

'It's like a religious Pac-Man!' Totally hysterical. Made. My. Morning.

"A clip from the British show "An Idiot Abroad." On this episode Karl Pilkington visits Israel."



No British boycott here... (oh, the stupid - it burns!)

Jerusalem Sunset

Jerusalem Sunset
Originally uploaded by Dave Bender

On the right is the cantilever "Bridge of Chords," pillar towering over the entrance to the city. The Calatrava-designed tower is a striking architectural centerpiece of the municipality's soon-to-be-completed light rail system.

More photos embossed on calendars, posters, mugs and such, for sale (via Paypal) are here: http://cafepress.com/davebender

Western Wall at Night ( Exclusive Panorama Photo)

Western Wall Plaza. Dave Bender (All Rights Reserved)
Click on photo for larger panorama.

"Folded notes of prayers, blessings and personal requests to the Almighty, pressed into the crevices of the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City. What happens when all the cracks between the Herodian -era stones are filled?

The answer is here: www.davebrianbender.com"

Exclusive Israel Photography For Sale

Just a reminder for those who appreciate my photography: it's for sale here: http://www.cafepress.com/davebender

Jeff Beck Rocks Tel Aviv

"Higher"


"A Day in the Life"

From Ha'aretz (which - of course - must politicize everything, ideally, to Israel's detriment):

"Beck is one of a few high-profile foreign stars who have ignored calls to boycott Israel as part of a campaign that has seen a series of acts pull the plug on plans to tour the country.

Several pro-Palestinian groups had urged Beck, who first found fame with The Yardbirds in the 1960s, to scrap the show.

“We’ve chosen to rehearse in Israel and settle there for a few days, rather than rehearse in England and get off the plane – we want to acclimatize ourselves,” Beck was quoted as saying by website Israel 21C ahead of the tour, apparently unaware of the significance of the term 'settle' in regional politics."

Hamas Releases Shalit Death-Threat Video

Link: http://www.mako.co.il/news-military/security/Article-13483a90f3f2b21004.htm

The military wing of Hamas in Gaza on Monday published an online video clip purporting to show how Israeli Army captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit would be put to death if Israel does not agree to its demands for a Palestinian prisoner release.

In the video, which appear with running Hebrew commentary on Israel's Channel Two tv news site, Shalit is shown sitting at a table in a darkened room.

He is flanked by two captors. One unpacks a bag with what appear to be his belongings, including a letter to his family released earlier, and apparently orders him to write a "farewell letter." The second captor loads and cocks a Kalashnikov rifle.

The screen goes black and shots ring out, and the screen shows the words: "Is the mission over!"

The video is one in a series of psy-ops clips, intended to put pressure on Israel.

Shalit was abducted from an outpost within Israel alongside the Gaza border on June 25, 2006.

Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to visit Shalit.

'From Jerusalem to God - by Kotelevator'

Click here for the full-sized image.

By Dave Bender JERUSALEM, Aug. 16 (Xinhua) -- Worshipers and tourists at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism's holiest site, will soon have a new way of approaching the Lord above: an elevator.
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‎(Video) Knicks' Amar'e Stroudemire in Israel

Amazing who you run into at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market: the Knicks' Amar'e Stroudemire: http://www.davebrianbender.com/