Check the Situation and Check the Ball

Condi is in the Middle East and she was in Jerusalem today. We went and got a beer and put a note in the western wall together -- earlier in the day we headed off to the Israel Museum and floated in the Dead Sea. We had a nice day, it turns out she's really a nice lady, isn't going to run for president and believes that the Mets will win the world series and thinks Oswald acted alone. She also told me that VP Dick shot the guy on purpose.

Other things for me are going well, I jumped up a level in Hebrew and am now in Kitah Bet, it's a harder placement but the class is bigger and teacher isn't as good. Nevertheless, it's good to push myself and my Hebrew will get better. It’s not too tough, I’ll be fine.

Of course, the news in the North continues to dominate the country and a lot of the atmosphere of our program. Generally the mentality of the average Israeli is that they are behind the actions of the Israeli government (which is unique for the population) and support the actions in Israel in Southern Lebanon. I continue to feel the same way, but it’s a tough one.

Most people recognize that eventually Israeli actions will need to quiet down and Israel will need to withdraw back to the Israeli border. My hunch is that this will happen in the next 1 to 2 weeks, but it’s impossible to tell. The dilemma for many Israelis is that there is a concrete fear about any prolonged presence in Southern Lebanon. From 1982 until 2000 Israel had a major troop presence in Southern Lebanon which quickly became an impossible occupation and disaster for the country externally and internally (it's called the Israeli Vietnam). Many troops died and public pressure from Israeli citizens probably led to the withdrawal from Lebanon just 6 years ago.

That being said, rockets continue to fall on Northern Israel and Israeli soldiers were kidnapped in Israel – so inaction is not realistic.

I received an email from a friend of my mine and he was discussing his internal struggles with the entire situation. He wrote: "If someone came into my house and stole one of my kids, I would go buckwild on them, but then again can you go after anyone who had nothing to do with the matter in the process? Aren’t you causing yourself more problems and more fatalities? It's a tough one."

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I've been playing a little basketball at a park nearby my house. It's actually a great place, both Arab and Jews play at the park and they have lights that enable one to play ball late into the night.

This past Saturday, during the afternoon someone organized a game for other students in my program. I went to the court and participated in the whitest game of basketball ever. Never, Never, Never attempt to play serious basketball with 7 future Jewish professionals. Nice guys, Bad athletes. More shots went over the backboard than into the basket. I don't fancy myself a stellar basketball player -- but I was tough to be seen on the court for some of the plays. On the sideline Doron Sheffer was cringing.


Speaking of Doron, an entire generation of Israelis are growing up not knowing much about the Israeli Ice-man. This my friends makes me feel rather old. For instance, if you ask the average baseball fan under 22 who Dave Steib was, they probably would have, at best, only a slight recollection of this 7 time all-star. In 1985 Dave Steib was a god to me. Well Sheff's a little younger but he is descending into the same sort of status in Israel. He's probably a little more popular than DS (#37), but he's slipping. I think ESPN needs to remedy this by doing some sort of program on both DS and DS – ASAP!

Just an FYI -- Sheff was drafted before Malik Rose, Jeff McInnis and Shandon Anderson and in the same draft as AI, Kobe, Steve Nash and Ray Allen. I hope to run into him shortly.