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Helen Schary Motro

Helen Schary Motro

Graybeards Pull Off Israel Election Upset

Israeli politics were shaken to their core by dark horse newcomers belonging to a party few had heard of. Close to a quarter of a million Israelis voted for the Pensioners Party, also known as GIL (age), a party run by nonpoliticians that didn\’t even exist three months ago; a party founded only after the regular political parties ignored the pleas of its constituents and relegated their demands low on the totem poll.

Dear God…

A few days ago an AP news photo featured a plain white box labeled, \”Letters to God.\” A rabbi was taking them out one by one and placing them into the cracks of Jerusalem\’s Western Wall. The unopened letters joined the other messages, prayers and communications crammed into the interstices between Wall\’s stones by visitors great and small — from children who have just learned to write to one from Pope John Paul II himself. When the Israel postal service sorters come upon a letter addressed to the Almighty, they direct it to a special pile for delivery at the Wall in Jerusalem.

Never Been Mugged

In the door pocket of my car I have one road atlas of Israel, one map of the streets of Tel Aviv, one map of the Galilee and, at last count, no fewer than five of Jerusalem. I am always apprehensive of taking the wrong road, and winding up where I might be perceived as an unwelcome intruder.

Unwelcome Visitors Plaguing Israel

In strong language a week ago, the United States renewed its security warning against travel to Israel. Nevertheless, millions of visitors are certain to ignore it — including both the most welcome tourists and the least desirable arrivals of all.

Five hundred million visitors return to Israel in good years and bad,

Dialing for Peace

In the past two years, a soundproof curtain has descended on dialogue between individuals in Israel on the one hand and Gaza and the West Bank on the other. Without the possibility of interchange, it is but a small step to collective demonization of the other.

If Palestinians and Israelis are linked by anything, it seems to be fear and mistrust.

Now a one-of-a-kind social experiment has stepped into the void, attempting to pierce the soundproof curtain. Not between politicians. Not between delegations. Not between professional groups. Not between celebrities.

With supreme — and perhaps naive — faith in the common man, a local group has come up with a scheme to allow Palestinians and Israelis a first step in one-to-one contact: giving them the opportunity to talk.

All Quiet, So Far

Israelis hit the pinnacle of tension in the hours before the U.S. attack on Iraq, when the order came for every person to open his gas mask kit, twist on the filter, adjust the straps to fit his head and then carry the mask at all times. Recalling the first Gulf War, when Iraqi missile attacks followed the U.S. invasion in swift succession, they anticipated sirens screaming in the middle of the night.

During the first Gulf War, the Tel-Aviv area was the target of most of the Iraqi missiles, and people left the city in droves for safer locations abroad or in the country\’s periphery.

Although there has been a small exodus this time, most people are staying put. But they are keeping their ears cocked and, in the meantime, allowing themselves small luxuries that they think will calm them down.

Israeli Schools Prepare for War

My daughter\’s friend, Hilla, said her 11th-grade social relations class at Herzliya\’s Yovel High School normally focused on familiar
adolescent topics: interpersonal problems, difficulties with exams, the dangers of drinking and driving.

Intifada Put Aside in Slaying of Two Girls

Two child murders in Israel pushed all else off the Israeli news. The intifada, next month\’s elections, the souring economy and soaring poverty levels, all were forgotten by a country obsessed with the almost simultaneous disappearance of two girls in Jerusalem — one Jewish, the other Arab.

Mother Weathers Terror’s ‘Storm’

Either excoriated as illegal conquerors or praised as pioneers, Jews living in the territories conquered by Israel in the Six-Day War are never portrayed neutrally.

IDF Refuseniks

It was Yuval Lotam\’s first time in many years at a rally. \”I always mean to go, but somehow I never get moving in time,\” he said sheepishly.

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