The Sunny Side of the Wall
Sirens sound on Jerusalem Day, 2021
In the past, before and after missile attacks, Israeli civil defense sirens would first send out distinctive variable warning tones, meaning “take cover,” and follow them with a steady, single tone to indicate “all-clear.” But all-clear tones have not been used...
“I will whistle for them”
There is faith and there is unshakeable faith. Renowned Bible teacher Derek Prince once said of scripture, “Every word of it is true.” The creation story, the flood, the prophet Elijah’s ascension to heaven in a flaming chariot and Zechariah’s apocalyptic...
Beyond phone apps and deep breathing
The day after Israel’s third coronavirus lockdown ended we got a call from our good friend Eli. Eli had worked for years in Israel’s booming tourist trade but is now completely out of work. “We’re not far from your place,” he said on the phone. “We have the...
Americai?
A Russian-born Israeli friend asked us recently, “Is there going to be civil war in America?” As odd as that question seemed to my wife and me, two American expatriates living in Israel whose entire childhoods passed under an umbrella of seemingly unshakeable...
Hark! How all the welkin rings
Suspiciously Christmas-like decorations have begun to appear again in Jerusalem neighborhoods, parks and malls, though fewer than in the recent past thanks to the world’s most pervasive virus. But one will not typically hear Christmas music in public,...
Jerusalem Thanksgiving, 2020
Thanksgiving morning in Jerusalem, 2020, with our turkey properly stuffed and roasting in the oven, Marcia and I got a call from a British expat in town with whom we were doing business. “Good morning!” he began, “why don’t you chaps come down to the office...
Lockdown, Part 2
Israel is locked down again. Some restaurant owners here smashed plates in the streets to protest the nation’s second round of coronavirus restrictions. Other citizens simply went without pizza. Upon learning that just under 12% of recent, ongoing nationwide COVID-19...
What next? Israel has a sail-in theater!
While in Tel Aviv, why not catch a movie on a boat? Israel joined the elite ranks of Canada’s Port Toronto and Washington State’s Port of Everett this month when the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality launched (to use a nautical term) this country’s first sail-in floating cinema.
Force Zvika and the “virtue” of Israeli contrariness, a remembrance…
Native Israelis’ perhaps most annoying vice may also be their nation’s saving grace
Keeping the rules
— By Cliff Keller — Israelis got a scolding on Saturday evening. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed regret in reporting “a change in direction” in Israel’s fight to halt the spread of COVID 19.