Post for: #personal (10 Posts)

⚠️ This video contains air raid sirens recorded during the rocket attacks on Tel Aviv.

OK, I have to admit that now that it hit home, something's changed. The siren, office evacuation, frantic running-down-the-stairs-to-reach-the-bomb-shelter and hearing a big explosion not so far away while still on the way to the shelter, gave me a new realization about what the people of Sderot and the rest of the Southern District in Israel have been going through for the past 12 years.

Leaving politics aside, and taking the current military operation as a given, I'm amazed by the enormous effort taken by the Israel Defense Forces to surgically attack missile launchers deeply embedded inside the civilian population.

The absurdity of it all, having thousands upon thousands of Syrians slaughtered for months - just a few kilometers to the north - while the world stands still; having terrorists launch rockets targeted at women and children in Israel, while hiding behind women and children in Gaza; having Israel announce the invasion via Twitter, and both sides @replying to each other...

All this reminds me again and again what a snarky genius Einstein was:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

• Albert Einstein (allegedly)

Back from California.

We spent a few days in San Francisco. Pier 39. Lombard Street.

But the first stop was Ilan. He's one of those friends who are basically part of my extended family. Haven't seen him in years. Watching him and Orly meet each other for the first time was something I'd been looking forward to for a while.

Orly gave me a tour of Stanford, where she spent five intense and formative years. The grounds. Her old lab. Fellow researchers who still work there.

At one point she sat down on a sofa and told me she used to rest on it. Then her eyes lit up and she told me it was Philip Zimbardo's.

We'd been staying at Laura's apartment in the city. I'd heard a lot about her. It was great to finally meet in person. On the day of Passover eve we drove to her parents' house for the Seder.

The next morning we started our road trip headed east toward Sequoia. Laura drove.

Seven years ago today, my cousin Alon was murdered by a suicide bomber on a bus, on his way to Nazareth. I translated an article, from about a week after the terror attack, written by Natan Zahavi, a good friend of the family.

The Saint

Natan Zahavi says goodbye to Alon Goldenberg, his best friend's son, who was killed in a terror attack in Wadi Ara

Natan Zahavi, 26/03/02

Wherever he went, people stopped and stared. "God, he looks like Jesus", they said. Alon Goldenberg, 27 and a half, was murdered on the way to the courthouse in Nazareth because of some shitty offence (with a maximum fine of 200 shekels, in the worst case). 1.98 meters, weighing 83 kilos, a muscular body without a drop of fat, sun-burnt blonde dreadlocks, a tiny ginger beard, green-blue eyes. A good person who never wronged anyone in his life, said the hippie kids when they surrounded his fresh grave and sang for him. Son of the sea, surfer, Yogi, traveler, photographer, a starting philosopher, a human being that seemed like he didn't belong in this filthy world of ours, went up to the heavens in a fiery explosion because of a programmed suicide bomber sent by a maniac neighbor, those referred to as our cousins; yet another victim of the endless struggle between the damned descendants of Abraham.

Three years ago today, a great man left us. My leader and mentor, Israel Safran.

How fast time flies. I miss you every day since you've left, and think about you a lot, especially on how things would be different if you were still alive.