Our very Own Swimming Pool

Well ...so...I decided to take my daughter to the swimming pool . The reason : Like your average  Jewish mother , I wanted to teach her to dive , at the age of three . I bought a punch-ticket (Is that how you call it ?) with 12 entries at the local pool. The pool was run by two strange looking guys -one extremely tall , with tatoos and long  curly hair tied in a ponytail , and the other one extremely short , also with a ponytail . Two other guys , who happened to be Arab were the life guard  ,and the keeper-a young guy with a sad look in his eyes .By the end of August  I  had used all the tickets and we really had a lot of fun ,but summer holiday was over ,and my girl hasn't  learn to dive . More than that , while my daughter really enjoyed herself - I wasn't fully happy . This summer was a war summer ,and I found myself holding back the tears because  all the young lives of our soldiers who died in this war . I should have told you my heart aches for the people of Gaza - but I would be lying . As I had mentioned before -it's not like I gloat over their suffering - but the Jewish people is like a family - and I lost my brothers -and it was ,and still is painful to a point where words are too little . They were all so young ,and so beautiful -inward and outward .  I can go to the swimming pool thanks to their love and devotion to this country .

 So anyway  I bought another punch ticket  with 6 entries ...
School year has begun ,and this afternoon we went to the swimming pool , only to find out it was closed. we came a 2 killometers way  on my old bicycle ,and it was pretty hot , and I yelled through the gate HALLOW , HA-LL-OW anybody here? There came along the keeper ,the young Arab guy with a sad look in his eyes ,and said - "the pool is closed "
 "But they said it would be open until the High Holidays !!!! " said I (The high holidays are all through September )
and he said - well it's open now from 6 Am till 9 in the morning ,and on Saturdays .
"How about if you let us in anyway ? " I asked - now this is an Israeli thing ,and I don't think it would have upset me -if he said he couldn't , but it's a cultural  thing here to try what looks impossible - what have I got to lose ?and indeed  he answered "How long do you plan to stay?"
 I looked at my watch , it was four o'clock so I said  "...err ..6 o'clock ?" and guess what , he let us in .
There was no one around , so for a moment ,the Jewish paranoid in me was afraid -but just for a moment . There was no life guard too. G-d in heaven how will we get along without the life guard??? pretty well apparently :-) we were in the shallow water anyway ,which reached up to her neck ,so I held her most of the time or I walked with my daughter . or she stood at the edge  of the pool and jumped to my arms  . I thank the lord in heaven for these precious moments of joy .

After a while the guy came over and set next to us  on one of those plastic chairs , and I asked him what was his name .He hasitated and said "Shallom" in the heaviest Arab accent possible. "where are you from?" I asked, and expected him to name one of the many Arab villages surrounding my town  , and he said -I am Jewish . I am from here .  I said - "I thought you were Arab" ,and he said "I was born here". , It's quite obvious he wasn't telling the truth - whatever his reasons may be - I didn't push . He seemed lonely and there was a kitten there , which he patted ,and so he immediately became an ally  of mine , as I too am part of the unwritten covenant of people who appreciate  cats , especially if they are talented enough to make you feed them and scretch them behind the ear - and while they truely use you for their little egotistical needs  , you are fully convinced they are gracefully doing you a favour .

So there we were in our own privet swimming pool with "Shallom" keeping us company . The pool is usually crowded with children  , and sometimes moms and dads and teenagers ,but for two hours I felt like I rented myself a swimming pool . Later on came the short guy with the ponytail ,and I wasn't surprised he wasn't upset ,but rather offered my girl water wings that someone had left behind . She enjoyed them for a while and then the two of them watched over her while I went to the "Deep water" and swam for a few minutes . At 10 minutes before six o'clock we were ready to go , not before the short guy gallantly  brought us my baby's  towel -as it was already a bit windy .

I myself use a black T-shirt and shorts whenever I go swimming ,and I don't really dry myself ,just squeeze the water out of my shirt , put my girl on her seat behind me ,and pedal  home. Autumn  is here . No doubt about it.


P.S "Shallom" , I later learned is an illigal-resident from Hebron. I think apart from being a bit lonely he had a good time here .

There is no " Palestenian People"

It's time we talked about the real reason for the on-going Israeli-"Palestinian" conflict : it's a mixture of jealousy and low-self esteem of the Palestinians  . The Arabs are simply jealous , because 600 years of Muslim occupation ended up in a desert land  with a few gangs and primitive agriculture . The Jews having returned to their homeland have made Israel into a pretty nice country within 150 years . So the Arabs are jealous. I can dig that . I would be jealous too - if I were an Arab . I'm actually very good at being jealous .It's a very destructive emotion ,and my advice is to simply try inner work to overcome it . another way to deal with jealousy  is to become friends with whomever you are jealous of  .When you love some one -you usually wish him well . Personally when I find myself jealous , I try to count my blessings . I say it as a woman who had  planned on having children as many as nature would allow , and ended up with one daughter. (I was hoping for eight) , I have quite a low income , and at the age of 43 I have my first car,and it's a used one. My car actually gives a new definition to the word used  and it is a daily miracle it works.

Please watch the following video that talks about the true origins of the Palestinians



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfN2IvnIA4M

Thank you :-)

Nighty night

Strudy Cliff

Israel is at war. Again. G-d knows how we Israelies did not ,and I repeat DID NOT want this war . But this is a game that I had known very well would have to come - and this is because , and I would say it for a hundred times more if I have to - the so called Disengagement was a bad bad mistake - and the sad thing  is - it costs the lives of Israelies and Palestinians .
My political views are extreme right , I guess , by definition. So how an extremist like myself feel about the death of people in Gaza ? Are you really curious ? does it make a difference ? Well , here is my answer: Plane and simple it is painful . It hurts . However if there is a threat over my children  - then I have no doubt what to do. That is to say , I would do whatever I can NOT to hurt civilians ,but I would go to war , knowing that my enemy's civilians may pay a price and die - in order to save my people.

It is interesting that all sorts of  "good souls" from Europe rush to the aid of the children from Gaza , but couldn't care less about the children of Sderot ( a city in Southern Israel- bombarded almost daily by terrorists from Gaza) . Unlike the IDF - the terrorists from Gaza do whatever they can to hit Kinder gardens , schools , homes . On the day three  Jewish teenagers  were kidnapped , they were giving away candies in Gaza .(They had done it also when a 3 month old Jewish baby was murdered with a knife along with her parents and brothers - Look up Fogel family on the internet - and this is not the first time families are murdered )...In Europe they pretend not to hear about it , or worse they justify it because these "criminal Jews" dared to live in Judea and Samaria .

I have heard a man from Gaza saying that Gaza is a prison ,and that the people there are so miserable that they have nothing to loose. My questions are :

1. making missiles and building tunnels is so much more expensive than building a school let's say . Why did they invest their money in death instead of investing it in life ? It looks like they had things to loose - their money and their lives for example .
2. Hammas was chosen in  democratic elections a few years ago - so it is not like Gaza people want peace and a decent way to make a living , and that's all they care about . It seems that culturally they believe in Jihad . Why is it that the heroes of their children-programs on T.V end up as Shahids ?(Suicide bombers)

3. Is it possible that Europe supports them with such great enthusiasm , because they feel guilty about the 1.5 Jewish children who were purposely and carefully killed by Germans and all those who aided them ? It is well known that the Norwegians for example sent the few Jews of Norway to death camps without a blink of there blond lashed eyes - so what's the story - you are trying to make up for your past crimes through our problems?

My answer is , sorry . I refuse to feel guilty . I grave for the children of Gaza- it hurts in a way only G-d knows  ,but I don't feel a speck of guilt for their suffering . Maybe it is European money and support that maintain their suffering.