Do children add to our level of happiness?

Most people seem to have the understanding that children brings happiness into life. Research however, shows that the level of happiness in marriage is declining with the birth of the first child. It is called the “ U- effect” as the decline continues until it reaches the bottom when the children are 12 to 17 years old and from there it rises again.
Children often “ruins” a woman’s career, they cause a couple to have less time for one another and they are “heavy” on the bank account.

A research on what women like to do showed that to spend time with friends, to rest, to eat, to do sports, to watch television, to prepare food, to talk on the phone are enjoyed more than to take care of children.

I must admit that I was more than shocked about these results as I would have had a completely different order on my list of what I like do. Spending time with my girls would definitely be on top of my list and that has been the case since they became a part of my life. Actually I didn’t like this particular program until the following point…….

Professor Tal Ben Shachar has defined happiness as follows:
Happiness = pleasure and meaning. ( he would even write it like this: Happiness = pleasure and meaning.)
For something to be meaningful you need to feel that it is important and that it adds something to the world, and it has to be something that you are willing to pay a high prize for. With other words; For something to add meaning to life there is a need to work hard and for a long time.

So the conclusions concerning children are that:
Children do not necessary bring pleasure, but still they bring happiness to most of us because happiness is a combination of a little pleasure mixed with a lot of meaning.
We are the ones to decide what is meaningful to us.
Maybe it would be good for some people not to have children.

Elin Elkouby

How does work influence ones feeling of being happy?

An average person living till the age of 80 will spend his/her adult life as follows:
20 years sleeping
15 years working
10 years in front of the television.
6 years cleaning, preparing food and dealing with bank, post office etc.
3 years in a car
2 ½ years shopping
4 months sex ( with an average of twice a week )
The rest of the time is spent waiting for the lift, going for a walk, having coffee with friends etc.

From the above list we can see that working takes a big share of our lives. Research has shown that a person who works lives longer, is more healthy, is less depressed and has more satisfaction in life. 9 out of 10 winners of a lot of money actually continue to work.

For work to be satisfactory it is important that the worker has a feeling of doing something important and meaningful. Research has shown that nurses, workers in kinder gardens and primary school teachers are the people that express the highest level of satisfaction concerning their work. It is interesting to note that these professions are usually not very well paid. Lawyers, people who work with hi-tech, business men etc are paid much more but express less satisfaction.

Happiness is a feeling or an understanding and therefore is also very individual.
For people who work it can be useful to ask one selves a few questions:
Do I work only to get money?
Do I dream about quitting?
Do I feel that time stands still at work?
Does my work has any importance at all?
If all the answers are negative it is about time to do something about it.

Elin Elkouby

Happiness.
I do not spend too much time in front of the television but there has been a really good series on happiness for the last few weeks. Usually I don’t make notes as I am watching but this time I felt that I really wanted to get some of the information down on paper. It seems like we have lots of wrong ideas concerning what this is all about and what can add to it and because it is so important to us scientists have spent a lot of time trying to learn more.

How much is happiness dependent on wealth?

Many people seem to believe that if they won a lot of money they would be more happy but research have found that this is far from being the truth. Money does have an impact on our lives, but to be rich does not bring more happiness than having enough to pay for house, food and clothes. Most people get used to whatever is “more” or “better” very quickly and therefore gets back to the same level of happiness very soon after the “achievement”.

What makes us really happy cannot be bought for money. Whether we are happy or not has less to do with how much we earn and more to do with how we choose to live. Research show that the amount of money that people earn is less important to them than earning more than their friends. It is a sad fact that we seem to compare ourselves to others and this affects our level of joy. – A research made among sports men who won silver or bronze medals during the Olympic games showed that the ones who won bronze were happier than the ones who won silver. The explanation is that they compare themselves to the ones who didn’t get any medal while the ones who won silver were sad that they didn’t win gold.

People who let money direct their lives and who spend too much time thinking about it are less healthy. A wise man once said “what does it help to have all the money in the world if the angel of death won’t take bribes.

There are a few conclusions to be drawn from this:
1. Above a certain level it is true that more money does not bring more happiness.
2. If you want to be happy do not live next to people that are more wealthy than yourself.
3. Be a volunteer! It is healthy!
4. Thinking too much about money is a risk to ones health.
5. In order to be happy it is important to “invest” in good experiences (dinner with friends, a walk by the sea etc.) rather than in things.

Elin Elkouby

Sukkot- The Feast of Tabernacles

We have celebrated Jewish New Year and fasted on Yom Kippur and will be entering into a new holiday in just a few days. This time it will be one of the three festivals for pilgrimage and it is called Sukkot in Hebrew and the Feast of Tabernacles in English.
The two other festivals for pilgrimage are Jewish Pessach, translated to Passover, and Jewish Shavuot, translated to the Feast of Weeks or Pentecost. These two Jewish feasts have Christian parallel feasts, but that is not the case for Succot, at least not yet………

It is interesting to read the prophecy in Zachariah’s last chapter from verse 16 which describes that non Jews from all over the world will come to celebrate this particular feast every year. Many have wondered what is so special about this particular feast.

The Bible tells us that the reason why the people of Israel have to live in booths on this day has to do with remembering that the Lord brought them out of Egypt from slavery to freedom.

Many Bible scholars believe that Jesus was actually born into this world on the Feast of Tabernacles. They base this belief on information in Luke: 1 which gives information about Elisabeth and Zechariah, the parents of John the Baptist, and of Mary who goes to stay with Elisabeth for three months after she has become pregnant herself. It says in verse 41 that the baby leaped in her womb when Mary told Elisabeth that she was pregnant.
Earlier in the chapter we get information about Zechariah who is a Levite and therefore has service in the Temple. We learn that he belonged to the 8’th rotation of Abijah and therefore, based on information in 1. Chronicles:24,10, we also know when his time for serving in the Temple was.
When we put all these pieces of information together it points to the time around Sukkot to be the time for the birth of Jesus. In a spiritual way it makes perfect sense that the Messiah should be born on a holiday remembering the freedom from slavery.

But there is more to it: The seventh month is obviously not the first month, yet it is in this month that we celebrate Jewish New Year. New Year certainly symbolizes some kind of new beginning.
It will probably be during this time that the Messiah will come back and again cause the world to enter into another kind of “season”. Time will reveal all these secrets to us one day.

Elin Elkouby

Yom Kippur

is coming up. This day everything stops in Israel. No cars, no TV, no synthetic kind of noise…..Wonderful.

This is the holiday for bicycles and for walks but most of all it is a day of prayer and fasting. There are more secular than religious Jews in Israel, but Yom Kippur seems to be Holy to most people.

It all started in the Bible when G-g instructs the people of Israel the holidays of the seventh month. It says that on the tenth day of the seventh month, which actually begins at sundown on the day before, shall be a day of fasting and sacrifice. As the Temple in Jerusalem is no more and sacrifices cannot be done prayer has become the substitute. It is not allowed to do any kind of work on this day.

Yom Kippur in Israel starts with an early evening meal. It is usually a big meal as it is supposed to keep people going until sundown the following day. Fasting is understood as meaning no eating as well as no drinking. …….That is the hard part of it !

Children up to the age of 12 or 13 , Bat- or Bar-Mitzvah age, do not have to fast. Elderly people or people with diseases and pregnant women also do not have to fast.

One of the passages read from the bible on Yom Kippur is the prophet Jonah. This book has four chapters in it and the first three verses of each chapter says something about Jonah’s position to G-d; running away, coming back to, walking together with or running ahead of.

It is good to take at least one day a year for the entire people to give a thought to this matter.

Elin Elkouby

It’s Jewish New Year or Rosh HaShanah.

There are so many things to say about this holiday but I will only get into a few things. First of all it is strange that “New Year” is celebrated on the first day of the seventh month. This makes sense only if we remember that “our ways are not God’s ways and that our thoughts is not God’s thoughts.”
We need to be released from our way of understanding “time” which is controlled by the sun and the moon, day and night, the seasons of the year. If we try to relate to time not as a straight line but rather as a circle where the “beginning and the end” meets up it may start to make more sense.

God created the world in six days and He made the seventh day a day of rest. This number seven has ever since become a symbol of “the beginning of a new spiritual season”. (Just check this with Leviticus 23 and pay attention to how many times the number 7 is mentioned.)

So the Jewish New Year starts on the first day of the seventh month. (…a month which contains some other major holidays as well; Yom Kippur and Succot/ Feast of Tabernacles) One other name for the holiday is “the feast of the blowing of the shofar”. A shofar is a ram’s horn and it resembles the ram which was caught by it’s horns and which was used as a sacrifice instead of Isaac. The story from Genesis : 22about Abraham ‘s willingness to sacrifice Isaac on God’s command is read in the synagogues.--When Isaac asks about the sacrifice Abraham replies that God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering. The ram was not a lamb and it belongs to the goat family and not to the sheep family.
If we add to the story that Isaac was in his thirties when this happened, that he had to carry the woods for the sacrifice on his own back, that the blowing of the ram’s horn symbolizes “God as King of Kings and Lord of Lords” and that the word ram in Hebrew actually is from the same root of words as God it may cause our understanding of the story to grow in a prophetic sense.

Elin Elkouby

Haj Amin el-Husseini
is a key person to the understanding of the conflict in this land. He was born into one of the richest and most powerful of all the rivaling family clans in the region in 1893 (or 1895). He studied religious law at a university in Cairo and continued at the Istanbul School of Administration. A pilgrimage to Mecca in 1913 assured him the title Haj.

He fought with the Turks during World War I, but switched side to support the British upon his return to Jerusalem in 1917. He was a pure breed “Islamist” and the engine behind the Arab anti Jewish riots which swept over the land from 1920 and onwards. His instruction were simple; Kill the Jews and loot their homes! ….Jerusalem. Rehovot and Petach Tikva were attacked within the first year and 47 Jews were killed as a result.

Haj Amin el-Husseini was supported by anti Semitic forces within the British Administration in the region and given the title of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem as well as appointed President of the Supreme Muslim Counsel thereby making him both the religious and the political leader of the Arabs. Once he was in power he started terrorizing and intimidating anyone who opposed him. He killed Jews and eliminated any Arab who opposed his strategy of violence.

His methods were no different than the methods used today. By using lies he managed to fuel the Arab hatred against Jews. In 1929 riots broke out in Jerusalem, Safed, Hebron, Motza and Jaffo and resulted in 133 Jews being killed 67 of them belonging to the Jewish community in Hebron. The background of these riots were false accusations about the Jews being a threat to the local mosques.

From 1936 to 1939 the riots led by Haj Amin el-Husseini costed 415 Jewish lives.
In 1937 he expressed his support for Germany and asked the Nazi Third Reich for help to prevent Jewish immigration to the land, to oppose the establishment of a Jewish State and to provide the Arab population with arms. He was finally deported and exiled by the British.

Haj Amin el-Husseini developed close relationship with the Third Reich and its leaders. He received financial support from Germany during the riots of 1936-39 and actually had Adolf Eichmann paying him a visit in the land. While in exile in Syria he aided the pro Nazi revolt in Bagdad and ended up being Hitler’s special guest in Berlin until the end of World War II.

After the war he moved on to Egypt and was received as a national hero. He was never tried as a was criminal, in spite of numerous accusations against him, because the Allies were afraid of reactions from the Arab world. While living in Egypt he arranged the assassination of the Jordanian king Abdallah because he had given the position as Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to someone else. The Jordanian kings to follow ensured that Haj Amin el-Husseini never came back to Jerusalem. They knew that it would be a threat to peace in the region.

Haj Amin el-Husseini died in exile in 1974.

Elin Elkouby

Summer holidays are over

and 1.5 million Israeli children are back in school. Some of them have been looking forward to it while to others it means “endless humiliation”. Israeli schools offer small class rooms with up to forty children per teacher. In most schools the parents have to buy all the books as well as pencils, rubber, rulers, note books and t-shirts with school emblem. School fees of various kinds and school trips have to be paid for in advance and all these expenses are a heavy burden on many families. Some parents seem to try to avoid as long as possible to pay for these things which makes going to school a “heavy walk” for their children as the teacher will remind them every day of “who have still not paid” in front of the rest of their class mates.

I grew up under very different circumstances. Our school was “all paid for” even down to pencils and note books. We had no more than 30 children in a spacious class room equipped with shelves and drawers for every child as well as for the teacher. Biology, chemistry, physics, gymnastics, handcrafts and cooking were taught in special class rooms equipped for those particular subjects. We had a nurse working every day in her office at school as well as a dentist with an assistance who would check on all the childrens teeth twice a year from age 7 and nine years on. The dentist had her own fully equipped dental care office within the school building.

But Israel is far from Norway both in kilometres and standard of living.

I was surprised this year that school started without any threats of strikes lurking in the corridors……… but only to find in todays new paper that there is a possibility for a strike as soon as next week as the annual education budget has been cut rather than increased. An increase was promised last year following a several weeks long strike covering the entire country. Some teachers won’t get paid the two first months of the school year as there is no money on the budget for them….

---This is happening because the State had to coop with a war in the middle of last school year. The promise was made before the outbrake of the war. It seems like this is just another way we will have to continue paying for the right to survive…

Elin Elkouby.

Miri Awad and Ahinoam Nini

are two women who represented Israel with their song; “There Must Be Another Way” in the European song contest this year. This is also the title on their new album with 12 songs in Hebrew, Arabic and English. Miri Awad is an Arab looking like a Jew and Ahinoam Nini is a Jew looking like an Arab. Together they are “dynamite”.
None of these women are hypocrites. They wouldn’t go for something like this just to sell well or to just add some temporary sweetness to a rather sour reality. These two women have courage and the ability to see the potential in a situation where others see only closed doors and shades of black and grey.
Miri Awad has been much criticized by the Israeli Arab community who accuses her of being used to create a false impression of the situation between Jews and Arabs in Israel.
These accusations are shallow and just testifies to the fact that the ones who criticize didn’t even bother to listen to the words in their songs.
Neither Jews nor Arabs are happy with the situation in this country. Both sides suffer.
I think they do well when they sing; “And when I cry, I cry for both of us. My pain has no name. And when I cry, I cry to the merciless sky and say, “There must be another way.”
Later the words go, “Where can we go from here? Sister, it’s been a long night. What’s to come? I fear. Give me something to restore my faith in the light. Tell me that we’re here to stay, and that we can set things right.”
To all the pessimists in the world there is a message , “You’re broken when your heart’s not open. There is no point in placing the blame. And you should know I suffer the same.”
Both Jews and Arabs are descendants of Abraham through their forefathers Ishmael and Isaac. Abraham cared for both of his sons and for the others to be born to him later, and when he died both Isaac and Ishmael were there to bury him. If they could do such a painful act together I see the potential of hope in present day’s situation.
The song ends by stating that,”…the clock’s still ticking in a frantic trance, and we are locked together in a tragic dance, remember that every second offers a second chance.”

Elin Elkouby

Two heads are better than none.

Michal and Meir Negrin are husband and wife and as well as business partners.
Michal is a 1957 model and she grew up in kibutz Naan which is located in the center of Israel.(The kibutz is famous for inventing the drip irrigation system.) Her family name used to be Green. (Some may know that David Ben Gurion’s family name used to be Grun which is German for Green, and guess what; Michal’s great uncle was David Ben Gurion)
From an early age she enjoyed creating jewelry with lots of colors. She was not as enthusiastic about school, but her mother saw that she was good at what she was doing and encouraged her and provided tools for her works.
She got married to Meir Negrin in 1984 and he also believed in her talent. Soon they started selling her jewelry on the open-air-twice-a-week-artists-marked in Nahalat Benyamin in Tel Aviv.
After some time they had enough money to open up a shop in Tel Aviv’s trendy Sheinkin Street and in 1996 the factory was opened in Bat Yam. From that point on it completely took off…..
Michal Negrin creates jewelry, home décor and clothing inspired by Victorian style or from the 1920’es. Her style is frilly, fanciful and full of fun and color.
Today she employs close to 200 artisans who work at the factory and she has 23 shops in Israel. The Japanese love her style and 16 shops can be found around their country.
She has 4 shops in the USA, 5 in Mexico, 2 in Spain, and one in Croatia, U.K, Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Singapore, Taiwan and Holland.
Her success story is a mixture between her artistic talent and her husband’s business talent. How fun to see that things can work out when both talents are honored!!!

Elin Elkouby

It is 40 years since the first man put his feet on the moon.

I watched it on our black-and-white-TV and as such was one out of an estimated 450 million people around the world who actually followed the event through TV or radio. My mother was very exited about “how far mankind had come”, but I was a simple child at the time and what fascinated me the most was that the astronauts were jumping around being weight less. I would have loved to bump around in a place like that.

Neil Armstrong was the first man to put his feet on the moon. Upon doing so he said these words; “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
He walked on the moon on July 21, 1969.

Armstrong became a believer in God out in space. At one point in his life he came to Israel to “walk in the footsteps of Jesus”. Meir Ben Dov, one of Israel’s great archaeologists, was the one to show him around.
Meir Ben Dov is a Jew and not in particular a religious man. So he took Armstrong around to the different churches in Jerusalem and told him both the “Christian traditions” claims concerning the sites and his own reflections based on his knowledge of history and archaeology. As Jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt completely after the time of Jesus it is hard to claim with certainty that Jesus actually “had his feet” on any specific spot in present days churches.
At the end of the tour Mr. Ben Dov wanted to show Armstrong the area close to the southern wall surrounding the Temple Mount. He was actually digging in that area at the time. On this particular part of the wall the two main entrances to the Temple from the south are still visible. The gates are closed today, but in front of them there are huge original stone slabs.
While standing on the one in front of the middle gate Armstrong asked the archaeologist if there were any place at all where one could say for sure that Jesus must have stood. “Right where you are standing now”, was the answer.
(I know this story from Meir Ben Dov. I was fortunate to be taken around by him myself when I was studying to become a tourist guide in the early nineties.)

It took many years for Christians to understand that the closest they could get to “walk in the footsteps of Jesus” was to enter into the area of the Archaeological Park south of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Jesus spent most of his time in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount teaching the crowds. In order to get up there he must have entered through this middle gate as did other rabbis at the time.

It is almost too Jewish to be true…..

Elin Elkouby.

1,350 Palestinian refugees from Iraq on their way to US.

As the US is preparing to leave Iraq the State Department confirmed that as many as 1,350 Palestinian refugees will be resettled mainly in southern California. The US allowed 7 Palestinian refugees to enter into America in 2007 and 9 in 2008.
34.000 Palestinians used to be well treated guests of Saddam Hussein before the American invasion. As many as 21.000 of them fled to other countries after 2003 and approximately 13,000 are left within the borders of Iraq where most of them live under extreme conditions in refugee camps in the desert bordering Jordan and Syria . (Both Syria and Jordan has been willing to accept around 300 Palestinian refugees each but there is an absolute closure on both borders for more.)
Palestinian refugees have come in waves to Iraq. The first ones to arrive were refugees from the war in 1948. Most of these refugees were originally from either Yaffo or Haifa but they fled their homes and sought shelter with the Iraqi army which had arrived to fight the newborn Jewish state. As they did not succeed in doing so the refugees were joining them as they withdrew back to Iraq.
The second wave came during the war in 1967 and the third came as a result of massive Palestinian support of Saddam Hussein as he attacked Kuwait in 1990.
Kuwait used to be the country with the highest Palestinian population of all the Arab states. Up to 1991 they numbered more than 400.000 but since the attack on Kuwait in 1990 the Palestinians have been chased out of the country by the Kuwaitis.
No Arab country has ever offered Palestinian refugees citizenship. Even those born in the country do not have the rights of a citizen. Arab countries are scared of other Arab countries and do not want any other Arabs to enter into their territories. This is in a way strange as they all belong to the same ethnic group, share the same religion and speak the same language. However, every Arab knows that the worst enemy to an Arab is always another Arab.
When the US army entered into Iraq the good conditions for the Palestinians in Iraq changed. They had been issued special travel documents, had the right to work and were given full access to health, education and other governmental services. They also enjoyed subsidized rent or lived in government owned houses. This has been a source of resentment for Iraq’s poor Shia’ population who turned to be fierce enemies of any Palestinian as soon as Saddam Hussein was off “stage”.
Since the US invasion the Palestinians in Iraq have been chased out of their rented homes or have had their neighborhoods bombed continuously. They have been terrorized with robbery, rape, torture, kidnapping and murder.
What happens in Iraq is what happened in Kuwait in the 90’es, in Lebanon in the 80’es and in Jordan in the 70’es. The only safe haven for Palestinian refugees has been in non Arab countries.
Good luck California.

Elin Elkouby

Penina Pie.
I remember it well;
One of my best friends in Israel, Penina Konforti, went to study in order to be a professional confectioner. The place of study was at the Dan hotel in Tel Aviv and her teachers were the best in the country. Every Sabbath after our service in Tel Aviv we would go south to Gan Yavne and spend the rest of the day with our friends.
We lived in Tel Aviv back then, so for us to go to our friend’s home was like going to be in the country side. We both had daughters the same age and we all loved this time of rest and fellowship with people that we communicate easily with.
Every Sabbath Penina had prepared three different luxury cakes for us to test. They were all beautiful to look at and the tastiest cakes you can imagine…..Penina wanted to know our opinion about how they looked, how they tasted, if they were too sweet etc.
After she finished her studies she opened a confectioner’s shop at her house and later moved into new facilities in one of the shopping centers close to her house.
Our family left Tel Aviv and moved to Gan Yavne. Penina’s girl and my oldest girl are the same age. They went to the same kinder garden and class at school and every afternoon they would spend in my house.
One day we woke up to a new and strange reality. Someone had put up posters all over Gan Yavne with Penina’s picture on them. They were warning people from buying cakes at her shop claiming that she was a missionary “hiding” behind her shop. Rumors had it that she prepared the dough at the “priests” home and that she mixed “pig’s blood” in her cakes.
Few people had known that Penina was part of the Messianic fellowship before this happened. Now people came to ask what her faith was about and to express that they did not agree with what was happening, but she also lost many of her customers who decided to believe in the lies of some of the religious Jews in Gan Yavne. The nicest thing that happened was that the friends of her children went to take the posters down the same afternoon.

Since this first act of persecution Penina has been haunted by the religious Jews both in Gan Yavne and in Ashdod. More posters have been put up and small papers with warnings on them have been copied by the thousands and put in people’s mail boxes.
The Rabbis have refused to grant her a “kosher certificate”.
Penina finally decided to bring her case to court. I could assist with a “nice collection’ of posters, letters and everything that had been said or printed about her since this first event.( I collected the originals as they were being“published”)
Israeli bureaucracy is slow and her case has been moved through different court levels until it reached the Supreme Court.
Last Sabbath we celebrated that finally, after all these years, she got support from the court which ruled that there is no reason why she should not get a “kosher certificate” and which decided that the rabbis will have to pay all the court expenses.

So we have celebrated for one day, but that does not mean that the problems are over…….

Elin Elkouby

What did Raed Wael Sawalha do wrong ?

I have two teenagers at home and I enjoy seeing them grow and develop as independent individuals. Every step of this journey, since they were born, has added a lot of joy to my life. I loved to take care of them as babies, I enjoyed watching them as they learned to walk and I have enjoyed the conversations between us which have been taken to higher levels as they have grown. I have never considered them a problem of any kind to me.

We do not always agree. In fact there is no need for them to agree with me in everything. Growing up is about relating to the surroundings in a mature way and to take responsibility for ones actions. It is easier to do that if a person had been allowed to grow up and is acting in harmony with his/her own understanding of things.

It seems like not every parent or family member agree with me on this. There are families where to ask questions are considered rebellion and where acting according to ones belief is considered dishonoring the family.

Raed lived in an area with a lot of tension within the Palestinian society. His village was close to Qalqilia where there has been a lot of trouble between Fatah and Hamas lately.
The problems often cause a split within families as different family members have sympathies with different political fractions.
I do not know the details about his family other than that his father, uncle and cousin decided to torture him brutally and finally hang him because he allegedly had connections with the Israeli authorities.
Hundreds of young Palestinians have been killed by their own people for the last couple of years for similar reasons, but it is the first time it happens within the closest family.
Usually the children killed by their own father, brother or uncle are girls.

It must be hard being a mother under such circumstances. When news reporters come to interview the family or neighbors in such cases we always see the women trying to be invisible by covering their faces, hiding and not talking to anyone.

Israel and America is of course to blame for this !?!?!?????

Elin Elkouby

Hard questions.

I have just come home from guiding a group of tourists. Every time I go to the air port to pick up a new group I am wondering what it is going to be like. Most of the touring will be similar to what other groups have on their itinerary but it is amazing to see how different every tour turns out to be. The itinerary deals with the sites, stones and dust but the people in the group are what the Bible refers to as the “living stones”. When the two of them comes together only God knows what can happen……and something does happen.
I always learn something new being with a group and when they are gone that is what stays with me. This time is was a message from one of the tour leaders. She shared with us about the Queen of Sheba who came from a country far away in order to seek answers to her many questions.
Rumors had informed her about this Jewish king and his wisdom. Back in those days a trip like the one she did was tiresome, long lasting and dangerous. The Bible tells us that she came to the king to “test him with hard questions”.
Many people have questions which they cannot seem to find answers to and which are nagging from within. These are existential questions and when answers are sought but not found the person is left with a kind of sadness which often turns into a defensive and often also aggressive attitude towards people who claim to have the answers. The Queen came with this kind of attitude ready to push this king into a corner of no escape.
Her attitude changed, however, and she soon found herself having a conversation with Solomon where “she spoke to him about all that was on her heart.”
The gospel of Luke refers to this meeting between the Queen from the South and the King in Jerusalem an states that Jesus’ wisdom goes much further than the one of Solomon.
I am in the “question producer business”. We go through things in life and see things happening to others that leaves us with lots of question marks. I don’t know what my life would have been like if I had not had someone to turn to with my hard questions……and even better; I can speak to Him with all that is on my heart.

Elin Elkouby.

Counting the dead.

The director of a Norwegian peace research center criticizes the Norwegian Army for not being capable of giving numbers concerning how many Afghanistan’s have been killed by Norwegian soldiers. He claims that the soldiers should keep statistics over every person being killed, how it happened and to what extent the Norwegian soldiers were involved.
The Norwegian Army answers by saying that dead people a carried away quickly by the Taliban and that they do not want to enter into any competition concerning numbers with them. It also states that no civilians have been killed but continues saying that it is hard to know who is a civilian. Sometimes a civilian all of a sudden picks up a weapon and starts shooting.
Really….!!!!!
How come that it is so hard to understand that this is exactly what is happening in this part of the world.
I am amazed to see how this “ugly game of war” is being “played” by different rules depending on location. I have been following the news reports from Pakistan, Somalia and Afghanistan lately and see that thousands have been killed, many of them civilians. It is always described as the “good” fighting “the bad” and if the fighters are considered to be extreme Moslems the picture is clear.
What is not clear to me has to do with why extreme Moslems who’s aim is to conquer the entire world and to make sure that people live according to shariah laws are not seen as such if they happen to be Palestinians.
To believe that Hamas is fighting for the rights of the Palestinian people is a sour misunderstanding. Their aim is to convert every Palestinian to become a devoted Moslem practicing shariah and through that to join forces against Israel and to wipe out “the infidels” of the land.
If they should succeed in doing so the women will be the first to suffer. The ones who have started to enjoy the taste of the right to make up their own opinions and to express them are the next in line. This is what is going on in Gaza right now and what Hamas groups are trying to enforce on the people living in PA controlled areas in the so called West Bank.
Who will demonstrate in the cities of Europe and be a voice to those who are not allowed to speak up?
Who decided that one person’s life is more valuable than another?
Why does lives in Africa, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and other places count less than the lives of Palestinians?

Elin Elkouby

A dangerous place to live.

I enjoyed watching a list of supposedly secure and dangerous countries on earth. Norway was number 3 after Denmark and New Zealand. America landed on number 83 and Israel was listed as the fourth most unsecure place to live being all the way down to 141 and having only Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq being considered as even worse.
……and I say to myself, “What a wonderful world!”

What scares me the most in Israel is the bureaucracy.

Elin Elkouby

Choosing what to hear, what to see and what to say.

The Norwegian doctor Erik Fosse was back in Gaza almost a week ago. His college Mads Gilbert was not allowed to cross the border by Israeli authorities.
The two were the first foreign doctors to enter Gaza during the war last December and January and as such became spokesmen to the world concerning the situation in Gaza. Their description of what was going on was heavily colored by their personal political standpoint which is far (and further than far ) to the left and “signal red” by dye.
The base of their understanding concerning the conflict between the Moslem and the Western world is that “Israel is to blame” and that “America is the source of most evil”.
Whoever listens to them should at least know that before they uncritically accept their reports.
Magdi Allam used to belong to the same side in politics. He was born into a Moslem family and raised in Egypt but left for Italy in 1972 where he studied and ended up as one of Italy’s most famous journalists. He used to work for the communist newspaper “Il Manifesto” and continued to the center-left leaning paper “La Repubblica.” He was outspoken as a supporter of the Palestinian issue, an admirer of Yassir Arafat, supported Moslem immigration as well as the building of Mosques in Europe and used every opportunity to speak and write against Israel.
But, this has changed. From 2002 on he went through a major change of mind concerning the issues which had been his main focus for more than 25 years. He all of a sudden got an understanding of what the leading Moslems are after and it has caused him to pull the breaks. He is now the deputy director of one of Italy’s oldest newspapers called “Corriere della Sera” and has written a book called “Viva Israele” or “Long live Israel.
He accused Italy and the West of ignoring the dangers of an imminent "Islamization" of the society, and a possible Jihad (Islamic holy war) in Europe.
He’s criticizing Hamas and is saying that "the origin of the ideology of hatred, violence and death is the discrimination against Israel”
"I thought it was a big mistake to allow a terror organization to participate in elections. Condoleezza Rice and Tony Blair deluded themselves in believing that Hamas' very participation in the government would turn the group into a pragmatic political power. Instead, it turned out that Hamas will never recognize Israel's right to exist, will not relinquish terror and will not honor international agreements signed by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas wants absolute rule in order to impose sharia and to revive the international Islamic caliphate. As it pushes for absolute rule, it does not hesitate to massacre its Palestinian brothers in Gaza. It will try to do the same thing in the West Bank."

It is interesting that he sees what others refuse to see. Most people die with the opinions they had and the conclusions they made at a young age. Very few are brave enough to dare admit that what they used to believe is actually wrong. It takes courage to do so; especially when it causes danger to ones life. Magdi Allam never needed police protection before he changed opinion. Now he is surrounded by security guards around the clock.

What he said about Hamas is right. Last Saturday 6 people were killed as Abu Mazen’s security force came to arrest a couple of Hamas terrorists in the town of Qalqilyah. Three of the killed were policemen and the other three were the two terrorists and the house keeper where they were hiding. The case is considered the bloodiest intra-Palestinian incident in the West Bank in years and there is fear that the conflict within the Palestinian society will spread to other towns in the area. Hamas, of course, has promised revenge although it was the two terrorists who opened fire and shot policemen first.

How come that I cannot find this to have been reported in any media abroad ????

Elin Elkouby

Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks.

This feast has several names; Shavuot which simply means “Feast of Weeks, Hag matan Torah which means “Festival of giving the Torah”, Hag Ha’Bikurim which means “Festival of the First Fruits” and Hag Ha’Katzir which means “Festival of the Harvest”.
The barley has been harvested and we have been counting the fifty days of Omer and are preparing for Shavuot and the harvesting of the wheat.
It has been a period of temperatures swinging from low to high in waves. We have felt the heat of the Chamsine which is the result of a desert storm being brought to us through strong hot winds and lots of desert dust. The word Chamsine is Arabic and actually means fifty so the Bible and nature is in agreement when it comes to this period between these two holidays in spring.

Both the giving of the Torah and the story about Ruth is part of this holiday.
We learn from the Book of Ruth that she was a widow who followed her mother in law, Naomi, back to Bethlehem.
Naomi had left Betlehem Ephrathah together with her husband and two sons in order to dwell in the country of Moab. After her husband and both sons had passed away she headed back to her hometown in the Judean mountains. Her Moabite daughters in law followed her on the first part of her journey but only Ruth insisted on continuing after Naomi had released them. “Your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried, “ she stated and continued walking into a new and completely unknown future. Her decision was to become a blessing both to herself and to her mother in law……and even to us. They were on their way to the place and family that would bring forth the Messiah.
The Bible tells us that they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley harvest and that Ruth eventually “stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest.”
Ruth was completely accepted as “a daughter” by Naomi and her new family. She was to become the grand-grandmother of king David. She was “grafted in” physically just as Rahab had been one generation back in time. Rahab was the mother of the man Ruth was about to marry.

Shavuot is all about giving; The giving of the Torah, the giving of the first fruits, the giving of equal rights for whoever chooses God and the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.

To give is a lifestyle. It seems to me that people who give never complains about being in need. God instructs us to give and to follow His directions always brings blessings.

A wise man once said: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

Elin Elkouby

The new Palestinian government.

It has been interesting to follow the Palestinian building of a new government. It does not have the support neither of the Hamas nor of the Fatah nor of some of the other groups within the Palestinian political landscape.
Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) is trying to please his own people, the Egyptians and the West all together and does not really succeed in doing so.
The Palestinian people are being torn between Hamas and Fatah as it is these two main groups which control the media. They decide everything concerning “what to say” and “how to say it”. The people do well in supporting whoever is the strongest in their region. Not doing so can be dangerous.
Egypt has had a few issues lately with Iranian supported Hezbollah groups operating within her territory. Everybody knows that Hamas is supported by Iran as well. There is a lot of friction within the Egyptian society but Housni Mubarak still tries to host peace talks between the Palestinians as well as talks on an international level in order to put Egypt on "the map".
The West needs a Palestinian “address” which recognizes Israel, but if it does not have any support among its own people it won’t be of much use.

The new government consists of 24 ministers, including Salaam Fayad, who is both continuing as prime minister and who also is ministering the “money box”. Seven of the ministers served in the previous government. Fayad is known to be a moderate politician with good connections to both Israel and the West.

A few months ago it looked as if the Palestinian government was all Fatah and that the biggest group in opposition was Hamas. The war last summer actually was presented to us as if that was the case. We know that Hamas took completely over the Gaza Strip and that it also has strong support within many towns on the West Bank. The media presented this war as to be “the bad guys fighting the good guys” ( My blog on Jan.20.2009 deals with that issue. )

There is a major crisis going on within the Fatah at the moment. Some seem to be leaning towards Hamas. It is amazing how “scaring people to death” can result in a wish to get closer to the enemy.
During the war last summer lots of Fatah policemen were shot in their legs in order to cripple them. (Seventy of these policemen have come to Israel to receive medical treatment and artificial legs.) This may be understood as a warning to cause people to behave according to Hamas set rules. Fatah claims that Hamas has killed more than 700 of their people since the uprising in 2000. They kill the ones they know will not change....

The new government has yet to be approved by the majority of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Elin Elkouby

To be a guide

can be a wonderful spiritual experience. I meet with lovely people from many different backgrounds both geographically and spiritually. To show people the Holy Land is a true privilege. I am in the situation where I add knowledge and spiritual awareness to those who listen and I am fortunate to learn a lot myself from the people that I take around.
But in our walk in life we are not only on a spiritual journey. The body and the soul come along as well. As a tourist guide I need to keep my eyes open for people’s physical needs and to make sure that rest rooms are available and that people are not being exposed to too much sun as I do my explanation. People need to drink, to eat, to get some rest and it is important not to talk too much……(which of course is very hard for me …)

The travel agent is usually not very visible to the tourists, but they are working “behind the curtains” all the time. Tourism is a business. Families are depending on the income from this business. As a guide I am “recommended” to visit certain restaurants and souvenir shops along the way. The agent has made agreements with the owners and receives commission from visiting tourists. ( as do the team on the bus ) This is not something that is special for Israel but it simply is the way it works all over the world.
Don’t worry, it is not as bad as it may sound. Actually the system with “tourist restaurants” and “tourist shops” is a great help to us. These places make it possible to get lunch quickly and also to do shopping without wasting time and loosing people. The problem occurs when shopping become more important than the itinerary.

The driver is an important part of the trip. A guide and a driver is very much a team and the “taste of the trip” can depend on the relationship between the two. I have often recommended tour leader to ask for an Arab bus driver working for Arab Bus Company. It makes life easier for groups visiting Bethlehem or Jericho.
Jewish Bus Companies and drivers are not allowed into these areas. The group will have to change bus on the border if the itinerary includes visits to Palestinian Authority controlled areas. It is the “tourist shop” owners in these places that provide the bus for the visit and so of course they will make sure that the tourists are not only taken to see the Holy Places but also to visit their shop. In those cases where tourists are not interested in shopping but rather want to meet with people this can be a problem.
On the other hand we have a problem with Israeli Arab bus drivers working for Arab Bus Companies because they are not being paid.
People are so busy criticizing Israel for treating the Arab population bad. This is just one small example to illustrate how they treat one another.--- When I work with an Arab bus driver every conversation with him is about money. They loose money before they start working because they have to pay bribes to the person in charge of deciding which driver goes with which group. They have to pay the parking fee at the air port from their own pocket. If they do not live in Jerusalem they often have to pay for over night stays themselves. ---At home they have a wife and four, five six….children waiting for them to make a living.
My priority is always to spend enough time at the places according to the itinerary. When I work wit an Arab bus driver this is a constant source of confusion. If they do not receive commission from tourist shopping and a nice tip at the end of the trip they simply come out loosing money as they work.

So, pray for me. It is not easy to balance the different needs.

Elin Elkouby

Lag B-Omer, a new holiday coming up.

In the beginning of next week we are going to celebrate one of the minor Jewish holidays called “Lag B-Omer” or “the thirty-third day of counting the “Omer”.

The “Omer” is Hebrew for sheaf, or a bundle of grain tied together, but it also means a specific measure of grain. The Torah instructs Jews to harvest the first “omer” of barley, the first grain to ripen in spring, at the end of the first day of Pesach, after sundown, and bring it to the Temple in Jerusalem. ( see Lev. 23, 5-15 ) The “counting of the Omer” refers to the period of forty-nine days that are to be counted from that first night on to the beginning of the “ Feast of Weeks”. In ancient times the wheat harvest started on Shavuot (“Feast of Weeks”) so the counting of the “omer” served to connect these two major agricultural events.

The celebrating of “Lag B-Omer” is not based in the Bible. It rather refers to events in Jewish history which happened after the time of both the Tanach (the Jewish Bible) and the New Testament. Most people connect it to the period of the Second Jewish Revolt against the Romans led by Bar Kochva in 135 AD.
Others connect it to death of Shimeon Bar Yohai, a major figure in Jewish mysticism. He instructed people to rejoice at his funeral and so his followers are celebrating with great festivities which include the fist haircut for three-years-old boys.

Most Israeli children do not go too deep into the historical background of the holiday. What is most important for them has to do with the camp fires that are being lit all over the country. Children’s main occupation in the weeks prior to this evening has to do with the collecting of fire woods. (They turn it into any house builder’s nightmare…)
On the evening itself every open spot is covered with small and big camp fires. The nice part of this is that it brings the parents out of the house as long as the children are small. Potatoes are being wrapped in aluminum foil and thrown into the fire to bake and marshmallows are “puffed” on burning coal.
When the children gets bigger they prefer being alone with their friends. That gives the parents an opportunity to do something nice with their friends as well.

Lag B-Omer has turned into being the “Feast of the Camp Fires”. Most youth stay up all night so the schools have decided to stay closed on the following day. What dominates the atmosphere the next morning is the smell of “dying “ camp fires and quiet …….

Elin Elkouby

Another day of mourning.

Today is the Memorial Day for fallen soldiers. Every Israeli family has lost relatives or friends in wars or on army duty. The price for independence has been high.

One of my best friends in Israel is a 95 year “young” woman. She fled Germany together with her husband in 1934 and arrived in Israel. Before they left Germany her mother made sure to have some clothes made for her. These clothes and other personal belongings were put in two boxes and brought with them on the journey. She came from an “upper class background” and was heading for a new life in a kibbutz.
The two boxes didn’t really fit in with her new home. There were no permanent buildings other than the children’s houses and she and her husband lived like all the other adults in a tent. She was happy the day the boxes were opened for whomever to take what they pleased. There were no occasions for her to wear the clothes inside but others had never seen tailor made clothes of such quality before so they grabbed whatever they could get hold on and left the boxes empty for her.
My friend told me that nobody believed that she would ever make it on a kibbutz, but “ I had everything I needed in life as long as my best friend and husband was there right beside me.” They had left everything behind and were facing the future holding on to one another.
The War of Independence left her with the memories and a grave.

A couple I got to know in another kibbutz were both Holocaust survivors. He managed to flee Nazi Germany and she was from Italy and had survived a concentration camp. They got three sons and were proud and happy parents until the Yom Kippur War.
Today they have one son left.

I shall never forget the week when one of my neighbors received the message that their son had been killed. A special team from the army came to deliver the heaviest of news to the parents one evening. The fear of such news lives like a ghost together with every Israeli family for as long as their children are serving in the army.
Soon the news spread to all the neighbors and it seemed like all the other mothers came out from their houses. Some of them were holding their face in their hands as if afraid of loosing it and others were folding their arms around their tummies and were kind of bending forward as they were walking.
When a person passes away in Israel the family sits at home and mourns for seven days. During this time they are visited by friends and people who want to show participation in their sorrow.
The following morning and throughout the day our street was full of soldiers. They were both inside and around the house. People were coming and going non stop.
My oldest girl was in kinder garden when this happened. Her group of children adopted this family and tried to be a comfort to them throughout the year on various occasions.

As I have been writing the day has turned to evening and the stars are visible. Soon the celebrations of 61 years independence will begin and fire works will light up the sky.

Elin Elkouby

Today is the worst day of the year. It is Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Israeli year has two days that are extremely heavy to get through; one is today and the other one is in about a week from now and is the Memorial Day for fallen soldiers.

A new day starts at sun down and lasts until the next sun down. Last night had the lightening of candles and the memorial ceremonies at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) and other places. Today all the schools have their ceremonies and there has been a moment of quiet to honor to the memory of those who perished during World War II.

The most chocking experience for me when I arrived in Israel the first time in 1976 was that the Holocaust didn’t only belong to the history books. I actually met people who had “walked through the valley of death” and I couldn’t really tell if they had come out alive.
A human being is some kind of a body, soul and spirit-trinity and it seems like it is possible to kill part of that while the person is still “walking among the living”.
According to the historians 6 million Jews were killed during the Holocaust. According to me the number is much higher. I have seen dead people walking.

We still have some of them among us. Judah is an old friend of mine who originally came from Lodz in Poland. The Ghetto of Lodz had 230.000 Jews in it to begin with and another 25.000 were added later. By the end of the war only 877 Lodz Jews remained.
My friend was transported to a concentration camp together with his younger brother but they ended up in different barracks because of the age. One day his brother had managed to sneak over because he didn’t want to be on a transport leaving for some other place.
My friend told me, as tears were running down his face, that he took his brother by the hand and brought him over to one of the camp guards. He was afraid of being punished and was going to apologize on his brothers behalf and explain the situation to him. The next thing he knew was himself laying on the ground being beaten while his brother was carried away crying and screaming. That was the last he saw of his brother.
My friend is an old man by now but he never managed to get his life back on track. He collects whatever people throw away and fills up his house and garden with the junk. It is as if he does not allow himself to enjoy life and he is constantly blaming himself for existing. “He was younger than me but he understood what was going on. My brother was smarter than me.” Judah is the only one left from his family.

One of his neighbors told me that he was “a cute little blond girl” during the Holocaust. His mother dressed him up as a girl and let his hair grow so that the Nazis wouldn’t find out that he was Jewish.

I have met lots of people with numbers tattooed on their arms. Most of them do not feel comfortable wearing short sleeves.
---A group leader from England once asked me if the survivors saw themselves as heroes. I was shocked by the question and by the way it was asked and found it hard to answer.—In order to ask smart question there is a need for a certain base of knowledge. Some question reveals the “screaming “ lack of such. All the Holocaust survivors that I have met are still struggling to survive.

The Holocaust Museum in Israel is called Yad VaShem which means a “place and a name”. Isaiah: 56,4-5 sais:” To the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths and choose what pleases Me, and hold fast My covenant, even to them I will give in My house and within My walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.”

Elin Elkouby

The end of Passover and the Maroccan Jewish “Mimunah”.
We have come to the last day of Passover and every Jew with Moroccan background is looking forward to the sweets and the special pancakes (“ mufletta”) of the “Mimunah”.

I remember the first time I was introduced to this way of ending the Jewish holiday of “Pessach” (Passover). It was 1985 and I was a volunteer in a kibbutz called Alonim on the main road between Haifa and Nazareth. A friend of mine in the kibbutz told me that the Moroccan Jews were making sweets and that they opened up their homes to everybody who would enjoy the sweets with them. I was curious to check this out so we decided to go and visit some Moroccans that he knew of….
There were lots of Moroccan Jews living in a place called Migdal ha’Emek so we decided to go there. The car was parked and we heard cheerful noises from many places. Every Moroccan family had left the entrance door to their homes wide open for people to enter and enjoy their sweets with them. I had never experienced anything like this before. We entered a home and were well received. The house was packed with people standing around a table with home made sweets of kinds that were unfamiliar to me. I had never seen carrots completely soaked and dripping with honey and I had never tasted anything as sweet as that before.

There are a few theories concerning the reasons for celebrating “Mimunah”.
Some people say that it has to do with the redemption of the People of Israel in the future just as they were redeemed from Egypt in the past.
Some say that it has to do with a memorial day for the father of the famous Moroccan Maimonides as he passed away on this day.
Others again say that it has to do with some kind of a “New Year” celebration as it is close to the harvest and could be the beginning of a new financial year. The greetings for this celebration is “May you be prosperous and may you be happy!”

What I know the best is that my daughter loves the “muflettas” of this evening and that she is very disappointed if we don’t go to visit somebody who makes them.
A “mufletta” is a thin kind of pancake served with honey. It is so thin you can almost see through it.
What a lovely way to end the “Feast of the Unleavened Bread”.

Tomorrow the “Mimunah” is continued by having a barbeque in the park. Every Moroccan Jewish family will bring food enough for “an entire army” and spend the day under the trees while keeping the coal glowing from the morning on.

I am fortunate to have married a Moroccan…..

Elin Elkouby

Tel Aviv celebrates 100 years.
When a small group of people gathered on the sand dunes close to Yaffo in 1909 their intentions were not to build a city but rather a suburb to Yaffo. The name of the place should be “Ahuzat Bayt” or “ Housing Property”.
Yaffo in those days had turned into a crowdy, noisy and busy place. It was the main entrance gate to the country from the sea and was connected to a well developed railroad system which could bring people to Haifa and further to Damascus, to Beersheba and southwards through the desert towards Egypt or up to Jerusalem. Yaffo was good for business but did not have any quality living conditions to offer.
The first house owners in this new neighborhood on the dunes did not want their living quarter to turn into a busy town. It took several years and many heated discussions for the first kiosk to be granted approval and even after it was built it was allowed to sell cold soft drinks only.
The name was later changed to Tel Aviv.
The word “Tel” in Hebrew refers both to a natural hill and to an archaeological hill of ancient remains. “Aviv” is the Hebrew word for the season of spring. On that back ground “Tel Aviv” can be translated to the “Spring Hill”.
The reason for choosing the name however has more to do with other factors. Theodor Herzl, who is known as the “father of political Zionism” wrote a book titled “Altneuland” (which translated from German means “new-old-land”) When his book was translated to Hebrew by Nachum Sokolov the title became “Tel Aviv”.
The first Jews to settle this land were more politically than religiously focused, but the Bible and the reading of the Bible has never been considered a part of religious peoples lives only but rather the “root” of every Jew. Tel Aviv is mentioned in the Bible as a city inhabited by Jews in Babylon. This together with the Hebrew “understanding” of the name made it an easy choice.
As such it “has it all”. Tel Aviv turns on the lights of “belonging”, “roots”, “Hebrew” as well as “religious freedom”. It was easy for the inhabitants back in those days to identify with such a name.
Only in 1924 did Tel Aviv officially turn into an independent city. It was the Arab riots that forced this reality into being and it resulted in the building of the Tel Aviv harbor. As banks, shops and offices were added the number of inhabitants grew quickly.

In the time of the Bible when the Land was divided between the various tribes this part of the coastal plain was the inheritance of Dan. In those days this area was not as much appreciated because of lack of water and problems with peoples who were superior in warfare on the plains. It was considered better and safer to live up in the mountains.
Today the situation is exactly the opposite. Very few Jews have settled the mountains while the majority of the people live on the coastal plains from Askelon in the south to Nahariya in the north. Two out of five million people have made Tel Aviv and the surrounding towns their home.

Tel Aviv is the symbol of Jewish success in this Land.
Congratulations!!
Elin Elkouby

A visit from Poland.

I have had the pleasure to host a beautiful Polish teenage girl for the last three days.
My oldest daughter is participating in the Rotary youth movement activities and they have visitors from Poland.
Last year a group of Israeli youth went the other way. My daughter was one out of fifteen who spent a week travelling in Poland.
The Israeli schools are on vacation until after the Jewish holiday of Passover. Usually the kids get up late during holidays, but these visitors have made a change to that. The bus leaves for days trip at 06.30 or 07.00 every morning. They have been to the north and to the center of Israel and by the time they return they can hardly keep their eyes open.

Today Jerusalem is on the itinerary. When I was told that they will start by visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum, I felt a heaviness coming over me.
It was the German invasion of Poland that marked the beginning of World War 2 . Hitler didn’t have any high thoughts about the Polish people as they were not Aryans and really didn’t consider them as worthy to have their own land especially not when they came “in the way” for German access to Prussia.
Hitler related to Poland as a “war dump”. Many of the concentration camps were built on Polish ground and most of them were of a kind that could not be survived. Treblinka, Sobibor, Majdanek, Krakow, Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Lodz and many more, were all in Poland. 6 million Polish were killed during the war and half of them were Jews.
No doubt the Polish people suffered from Hitler…..

What saddens me is to know that Poland has been known as one of the strongest anti Semitic countries in the world. The “pogroms” were a fact long before the Nazis were even invented and the anti Jewish attitudes were based on teachings from the Catholic Church. The Church has a strong grip on the people even today and it seems that they still present the Jews as the “ones that killed Jesus”.
Pope Paul II was from Poland. He was the one who expressed the need for the Catholic Church to reconcile with both the Jews and the State of Israel. I hope his countrymen are following in his footsteps…..

What that this have to do with Olga? Nothing else than the fact that she has grand parents…..

Elin Elkouby

The Biblical Zoo in Jerusalem.

Many years ago, when I visited Israel as a tourist, I had gone up to Jerusalem to spend some days in the Capital. There is so much to do in Jerusalem……even to do nothing but watching people can be more than entertaining.
I had bought a “ pictorial map” and found that it said “Biblical Zoo” in one of the religious neighborhoods. So off I went….. to something that should be more than a disappointment. The zoo was a smelly place with unhappy animals stuffed into cages which were much too small.
Fortunately things have changed. The zoo was closed in 1991 and reopened at a new location in 1993. Today it is a spacious park with lots of green and water flowing.
The vision of the zoo is “ To establish a zoological collection and to maintain it under optimal living conditions, in an effort to preserve rare animals and species threatened with extinction. Prominently featured in the collection are animals from the Land of Israel, with special emphasis on those species mentioned in the Bible.”
Besides “displaying” animals the zoo is aiming at conducting research, breeding and reintroducing animals to the wild. There is a zoo hospital on the spot to ensure good care for wounded or sick animals. ( You can check out their web site at http://www.jerusalemzoo.org.il/ )

One of the special things about this zoo is that it is “kosher”. As we get close to Pessach or Passover( the Feast of the unleavened bread), the animals will be fed unleavened food only.

The signs giving information about the animals are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. In some cases they even have information in Yiddish. ( Yiddish is a spoken Jewish language “made up from” Hebrew, Polish and German.) Some religious Jews use Hebrew only for prayer and studying the Bible and use Yiddish as their daily language. As many of the visitors to the zoo are religious there are cases when information has to be given in Yiddish as well;
The most unpopular animal in the Bible is the pig….One of the species at the zoo is called “ Collared peccary”. This animal looks like a pig. In order not to offend the religious visitors this particular sign has an addition in Yiddish reading; “ Dos iz nisht a chazir.” which means : “ This is not a pig”.
The next time you are asked which animal has a curly tail, loves to dig in the dirt and sais “oink, oink” , the answer may not be as obvious as you think.

Churchill once said ; " I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."

Elin Elkouby

Bibi Netanyahu’s government.

On September 17’th 2008 Tzipi Livni won the Kadima leadership election. Ehud Olmert resigned as Prime Minister and Livni got six weeks to form a coalition. The election of February 10’th 2009 was the result of her not succeeding in doing so.
The election gave Kadima 28 of the 120 seats in the Knesset, Likud got 27, Yisrael Beiteinu got 15, the Labor Party got 13, Shas got 11 and the rest went to smaller parties.
As Livni could not form a government the “ball” was thrown to Bibi Netanyahu who started working on various options. He has had talks with both Livni, Lieberman and Barak and the journalists have not had much more than confusion to share with the public….. It has been a “stormy kind of quiet”.
From the “outside” it looks as if Netanyahu is trying to get the best qualified person in the various minister positions without considering the parties they represent. This has caused fear within the parties as they are afraid of loosing power as “units”.
Kadima was established by people who left both the Likud and the Labor Parties. For them to join forces with Likud seems threatening. It is as if they are going through an identity crisis….
The Labor Party has had an internal storm since Netanyahu announced that he would like to see Ehud Barak as Minister of Defense. The internal election on March 26’th resulted in 680 votes for joining Netanyahu’s coalition and 507 against. Barak is now striving to keep the Labor Party united and asks his Party-fellows to respect the result of the vote.

It is not hard to understand why Bibi consider Barak to be the best man for the job;
Ehud Barak is one of these people who just “ has it all”. He was born and raised in a kibbutz and enlisted in the army at age 17. He led a commander unit in the 1967 war and a tank battalion in the Sinai in 1973 and was soon noted for his exceptional bravery and coolness under fire by his superiors.
Barak led Israel’s anti-terrorist unit for many years and was involved in the planning of the Entebbe raid and hostage rescue mission which has entered history as the “most audacious and perfectly executed special force operation ever”. ( Bibi Netanyahu’s brother, Yonatan Netanyahu, ended his life leading this operation. )
Barak holds an under graduate degree in Physics and Mathematics and a masters degree in Economic Engineering Systems besides being a gifted pianist and linguist.
He has served as head of Israel’s Intelligence and Central Command, was appointed army Chief of Staff and stepped down to serve various governments as Interior Minister, Foreign Minister and Prime Minister.
Barak is Israel’s most decorated soldier. He has seen Israel’s security situation from every possible angle. It is therefore interesting to note that he was striving to engage the Palestinian leaders in a productive dialogue in the mid 1990’s, that he ended 17 years of Israeli occupation in Southern Lebanon and that he offered Palestinian prime minister Yassir Arafat to divide Jerusalem and to withdraw from various areas in Judea and Samaria. ( The Palestinians refused and “answered” with the Second Intifada in 2000)

For the Labor Party to join the coalition is seen by many as a “healthy” move as the government otherwise would be represented by too many right wing politicians.
Netanyahu will present his coalition to the President of Israel by the end of the month.

Elin Elkouby

Gilead Shalit; “When the Shark and the Fish first met.”

Today it is exactly 1000 days since Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit was on army duty together with two other soldiers in their tank on the Israeli side of the border to Gaza. Their tank was attacked by Arabs who managed to open the door of the tank and to put it on fire. Two soldiers were shot on the spot while Gilead was taken captive and brought to Gaza. This happened on June 25’th 2006.

A few day later, on Juli 12’th, Hizbollah terrorists crossed the border over to Israel in the north. They killed eight soldiers and kidnapped two others while the Hizbullah fired rockets from Lebanon at Israeli border town to cover the attack. This was the beginning of the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.
The two soldiers captured were Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.
On July 15’th 2008, coffins containing the remains of Eldad and Goldwasser were returned to Israel as part of a prisoner exchange.

The dead have all been buried but Gilead Shalit is still alive.

When Gilead was 11 years old he wrote the following story:
"When the Shark and the Fish First Met"

A small and gentle fish was swimming in the middle of a peaceful ocean. All of a sudden, the fish saw a shark that wanted to devour him. He then began to swim very quickly, but so did the shark.
Suddenly the fish stopped and called to the shark: "Why do you want to devour me? We can play together!"
The shark thought and thought and said: "Okay- fine: Let’s play hide and seek."
The shark and fish played all day long, until the sun went down. In the evening, the shark returned to his home.

His mother asked: “How was your day, my dear shark? How many animals did you devour today?”
The shark answered: “Today I didn’t devour any animals, but I played with an animal called FISH”.
“That fish is an animal we eat. Don’t play with it!” said the shark’s mother.

At the home of the fish, the same thing happened. “How are you, little fish? How was it today in the sea?” asked the fish’s mother.
The fish answered: "Today I played with an animal called SHARK."
"That shark is the animal that devoured your father and your brother. Don’t play with that animal," answered the mother.

The next day in the middle of the ocean, neither the shark nor the fish were there.
They didn’t meet for many days, weeks and even months.
Then, one day they met. Each one immediately ran back to his mother and once again they didn’t meet for days, weeks and months.

After a whole year passed, the shark went out for a nice swim and so did the fish. For a third time, they met and then the shark said: "You are my enemy, but maybe we can make peace?"The little fish said: "Okay."

They played secretly for days, weeks and months, until one day the shark and fish went to the fish’s mother and spoke together with her. Then they did the same thing with the shark’s mother; and from that same day the sharks and the fish live in peace.
THE END

Numerous attempts have been made to cause the release of Shalit. It is clear to everyone that the price will be heavy as an agreement will only be reached which has the exchange of prisoners as part of the deal. So far Hamas has presented a list of 450 Arab terrorists to be released from Israeli prisons. These are all men with “a lot of blood” on their hands and who are aimed at continuing their “contributions to Holy war on Israel”.

Gilead Shalit has become part of every family in Israel. To wake up to a new day knowing that he is in the hands of Hamas is tormenting. To see the light of hope being lit and later put out, in the eyes of his closest family is heart breaking. There is no way to describe it…….

On the other side of the border to Gaza there are mothers, wives and children who are longing for their dear ones to return home. The same people that we know only as cold blooded murderers and terrorists have family who’s hearts are crying out to be united with them.

We are just like Fish and Sharks in the sea. Our problem is that both sides see themselves as being the Fish ……..

Elin Elkouby

How to make God laugh.

An old woman once told her grandchild that “if you want God to laugh you should tell Him your plans for the future.”

If someone had told me this when I was young I would probably have been very disappointed. I had lots of plans and I took myself very seriously. I did not like to be laughed at.
Looking back on my life today, however, I must admit that I have been on “roads” that I had never planned for. I have enjoyed most of my “adventures” through life and there are very few experiences that I would have liked to “erase”.

One of the tourists participating on the last group I guided asked me ; “So what will you be when you grow up? ” He was himself a retired pilot who had not retired from life and who knew that God never retires anyone……
I am getting close to 50 and still feel that I have great appetite for wherever this “walk” will lead me next.
The first followers of Jesus were Jews. The name they choose for their fellowship was “The Way”. I can easily identify with such an aspect on life as a believer. The only focus should not be “Heaven”, but to see the opportunities that are placed right in front of our nose. We need to now where our goal is in order not to loose direction, but at the same time we should not be afraid to live while we do.
We go through “seasons” in life and we meet challenges that are not always easy or pleasant. Some have more difficult choices to make than others and life is definitely not “fear”. In the middle of this the “book that I never finish reading” promises that “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1.Chor;10,13)

I do not consider myself more clever than the One who created me. Still there are times when I shout to Him in despair and when I cry out in frustration and even in anger. –Some will say that it is not a very “Christian” thing to do to shout at God, but I am only a human being and never really tried to be a good “Christian”. –
One of the Ten Commandments sais ; “ You shall not lie.”, and I have always been very honest about being frustrated….If my own children are shouting at me I try to keep my mouth shut until “all the air is out” . Sometimes that is all that is needed for them to see the situation in a different light and to open their ears and willingness to listen. Sometimes after such a “storm” a hug is more appropriate than words as the quiet message of love can strengthen their inner cord more than a thousand lessons could ever do. Other times there is a need to use words in order to help sorting out the mess and to do teaching on standards in life. As a parent I will always prefer to be in a place where my children seek my company when they are confused.
I am confident that God is not less understanding towards me when I act out as a frustrated teenager in His presence.

But life is not just about sorting out hard feelings. I am very childish in my relationship with God and I let Him know that I see all “the flowers, the trees, the butterflies and everything else that adds color, taste, beauty and fun” to life as I walk along. I am constantly reminding myself not to take any of the good things for granted.

The Bible recalls Enoch “walking with the Lord” (Gen;5,19-24). His walk lasted for 365 years. A little girl was once asked by her Bible teacher to retell the story of this man using her own words.
Her version was this: “God and Enoch used to go for long walks together. One day God said “ We have come to a place where there is a shorter walk to my home than to yours.” Enoch enjoyed so much to be in God’s home that he never left .”

Elin Elkouby.

The Pope and Israel.

A delegation from Israel’s Chief Rabbinate were in Rome to meet with the Pope last Thursday. The reason for the visit was that the excommunication of Holocaust denying Bishop Richard Williamson was lifted last December.
The Vatican has made efforts to be reconciled with the Jews since Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations in 1993 and periodic meetings between Rome and the Chief Rabbinate were initiated by Pope John Paul II in 2004.

This is in line with the “new” trend within the Catholic Church from the Council of Vatican II initiated by Pope Paul XXIII in the beginning of 1959. As soon as he became Pope he announced that “it is time to drag the church out of the Dark Ages and into the modern world. It is time to open the stained-glass windows and let in some fresh air.”
Pope Paul died in 1963 but Vatican II continued in four sessions through his successor, Pope Paul VI. One of the changes has been that the Catholic Church wants to have dialogue with other faith communities such as Jews, Moslems and others.

The present Pope Benedict XVI gave the visitors a warm reception and said “The Jewish people, who were chosen as the elected people, communicate to the whole human family knowledge of and fidelity to the one, unique and true God.” He also thanked the delegation “who quickly helped to clear up the misunderstanding and to restore the atmosphere of friendship and trust.”
The Pope has accepted an invitation from Israeli President Shimon Peres to visit the Land, and will “ make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to ask the Lord- visiting places sanctified by His passage on the earth- for His precious blessing of unity and peace for the Middle East and for all of mankind.” The visit will take place from May 11-15 2009.

Shimon Peres’ response when he received the news that the Pope had accepted his invitation was; “I am delighted that His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI has responded positively and accepted my invitation to visit the Holy Land. The Pope will be a most honored guest, welcomed and respected by people from all walks of life. His visit will be a moving and important event bringing the spirit of peace and hope. Welcome to Israel.”

Pope John Paul II visited the Holy Land in March 2000. The first visit ever of a Pope to this land was in January 1964 when Pope Paul VI came and stayed for 11 hours.

Elin Elkouby

A “word” for the week end.

Being a tourist guide gives me the privilege to meet wonderful people from many different places and to be part of something that can be life changing to some of them.
The spring season has just started. The fields are green and full of flowers. The desert hills are covered with tiny green plants which make them look like green domes. The birds are singing, the sun is pleasant and the weather is …………. not as good for the land as it is for the body, soul and spirit of those who are touring.
This cartoon sais it all. It is a “Calvin and Hobbes” by Bill Watterson.

Let the day fall all around you

And let the breath of life surround you

What a day it should be a holiday

And those lazy days are hard to come by

Here for our pleasure, a moment to treasure

Stay with me and lend me your company

For You, You show to me

All the world gives for free

And there's no more that a man can ever ask for

And if we, we could see half He gave us to see

Then we'd be half way to finding the answer

So where will all the seasons go

It's for us to ask, it's for Him to know

It's too much for me, for such is the mystery

And all these things we take for granted

But how did they get here, when were they planted?

If we could see, then what would the answer be?

Today we'll see the butterfly

And we'll smell the grass and we'll feel the sky

Oh what a day, let no one take this away

But I will live my life forever, asking the questions

But answers will never come to me

For such is the mystery

For You, You show to me

All the world gives for free

And there's no more that a man can ever ask for

And if we, we could be half He wants us to be

Then we'd all be half way to finding the answer

This song was written by John Dawson Read and it has become my favorite of all times. It can be found on Cliff Richard’s album “Walking in the light”.

I thought this could be a good start on the week end.

Elin Elkouby

The feast of Purim.

This feast is not mentioned in Leviticus 23, and therefore is not considered a "holy" feast.
Purim is the plural of the Hebrew word "pur", which means lot- the object used to determine something by chance- and it refers to Haman's use of lots to choose the date for his intended destruction of the Jews. The feast of Purim is all about the Book of Ester in the Bible.

There are no historical documents to verify the story of Purim. There are different openions among scolars of whom there are those who believe that it really happened some time between 486 and 465 BC when Xerxes was Persian king and that Xerxes and Ahasuerus is identical. If it is a true story it must have happened when the Jews were in Babylonian Exile.

Purim is fun time for Israeli children. They have dress up parties in kindergardens and at schools followed by a short holiday.
One of the nice things about Purim is that people give baskets with sweets to family and friends.
I remember this to be one of the highlights during the year when my girls were small. They would come with me to the shop and choose sweets for the baskets and later help me fill them up and wrap them with a transparent colored plastic wrap. The baskets had both ribbons and a blessing on it for the family we wanted to pass it on to. My girls loved to take these baskets and deliver them to our neighbors. ----Of course we got some baskets too.........the girls were thrilled to have all those sweets in the house and I enjoyed this "giving and sharing with our neighbors"
holiday.

Last year, however, something happened which put an end to this fun. A family of Messianic believers received a Purim basket which exploded when their their teenage son picked it up. Jewish terrorists used this sweet holiday tradition to cover explosives. The bomb was powerful enough to kill him but as by a miracle he did not die. His body, however, got filled with shrapnel and he was in critical condition as they brought him to hospital. This young boy has spent most of his time at the hospital undergoing numerous operations since this happened last year.

Purim used to be a feast to celebrate that the Jews overcame an enemy determined to destroy them. Last years event turned this to be a day when Jewish terrorists turn against other Jews in an attempt to destroy them. What a sick thing to do....!!!

So, it was a little different to receive a Purim basket this year. I would never have picked it up if it had not been delivered by my neighbors in person.

Elin Elkouby

The mulberry tree.

I remember my first encounter with a mulberry tree. I was told that this was the tree in which a little fellow called Zacchaeus once climbed in order to get a glimpse of Jesus. That was the translation in the Norwegian Bible. Most English speakers know this tree to be a Sycamore tree. The Experts are still arguing…..and Zacchaeus would have climbed any tree that would have served his purpose.
What fascinated me was that it was full of sweet “raspberries” and that it had no thorns.

Later I was to learn that a mulberry tree is to the silkworms what the eucalyptus tree is to the Koala. It is not about some more “tiny fellows being fond of climbing”, but about food. The silk worm eats the leaves of the mulberry tree.
Today, unfortunately, there are almost no wild silkworms left and the mulberry tree leaves has been changed with an artificial kind of diet.

In the old days the people of the far East developed trade routes for them to earn money on silk production. There was a network of roads going across the Asian continent connecting the silk producers with the Mediterranean world, including North Africa and Europe. One of these roads went through the Negev desert.

The town of Safed, up in the Galilean mountains, was once a center for silk production. When the Jews of Spain and Portugal were expelled during the inquisition the Turks actually invited Jews to come and settle in Safed. In order to survive they started lots of businesses and the production of fabrics was one of them. The main production was from sheep wool but also silk production has been connected to this town.

There are no silk factories in Israel anymore so the mulberry trees are left for the ones who enjoy them for their berries.

Elin Elkouby.

Who said boycott ????

A Norwegian politician proudly announced on TV that he had never eaten an Israeli orange. I was thinking ; “No wonder you look pale…”
Often the question of boycotting Israeli produce pops up on various countries political agenda. They all seem to have the agricultural produce in mind, but Israel contributes with a lot more… I have been wondering if someone would have liked to be without this:

Israel the 100th smallest country, with less than 1/1000th of the worlds population, can lay claim to the following:

Most of the windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by Microsoft Israel.

The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in Israel by Intel.

Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centrino processor are produced in Israel

The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel.

The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 by four young Israelis.
________

According to industry officials, Israel designed the airline industry’s most impenetrable flight security.
________

In proportion to its population, Israel has the largest number of startup companies in the world.
________

Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century with more trees than in the 20th century. More than 60% of Israel is desert.
________

Israel: Bio-Tec and Medicine:

Israeli researchers have created a “biological pacemaker’ which corrects faulty heart rhythm.

Israeli scientists are developing a nose drop that will provide a 5-year flu vaccine.

A revolutionary new drug developed by the Hebrew University prevents re-clogging of coronary arteries after undergoing “balloon therapy’.

Israeli scientists have created a DNA nano-computer that not only detects cancer, but also releases drugs that specifically target and treat cancerous cells.

Israeli stem-cell technology is being used in the US to regenerate heart tissue.

Thanks to Israel’s Given Imaging Ltd, doctors have the PillCam. Israel’s Given Imaging developed the first ingestible video camera, so small it fits inside a pill.

Two of the most revolutionary drugs on the market:
Capaxone, which treats Multiple Sclerosis, and
Rasagaline, which treats Parkinson’s, were developed and produced by Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals.

Israeli scientists developed the first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast cancer.

An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment.

Researchers in Israel developed a new device that directly helps the heart pump blood, an innovation with the potential of saving lives among those with heart failure.
The new device synchronized with the camera helps doctors diagnose heart’s mechanical operations through a sophisticated system of sensors.

_________

Israel has the highest percentage in the world of home computers per capita.
_________

Israel has the world’s second highest per capita of new books.
_________

Israel has more museums per capita than any other country.
_________

25% of Israel’s work force holds university degrees, ranking third in the industrial world, after the United States and Holland. 12% hold advanced degrees.

Israel has the highest ratio of university degrees reported to thee population, in the world.
_________

Israel’s Nobel Prize winners:

Chemistry: 30 prize winners (20% of world total)
Physics: 47 prize winners (26% of world total)
Economy: 26 prize winners (42% of world total)
Physiology or Medicine: 53 prize winners (28% of world total)
Literature: 13 prize winners (12% of world total)

Peace: Menachem Begin , Henry Kissinger, Elie Wiesel, Shimon Perez and Itzchak Rabin
Israel spends more money per capita on its own protection than any other country on earth.

Elin Elkouby

….that they may be one.

I was on a women’s conference last week end. It’s called “ The Third Side”, aimed at women married to Jews, Christian Arabs or Armenians, themselves not belonging to either one of these groups. “Musalaha”, which means reconciliation, is the organization behind these conferences.

When I was invited to the first one a few years ago I didn’t really feel like “wasting” a week end away from my family. I was amazed, however, to discover the other women who were to join.
We spent most of the first week end listening to each other’s stories; What brought them to Israel and how they met their husbands. Each one of these women had a story which could have been a “best seller” if told though a book. What was interesting was that each one didn’t see anything extraordinary about their own story while all the others did.

We come from many different backgrounds and from lots of countries. The one thing we have in common is the fact that we have left what we grew up with and have started over again in a place very unlike where we came from. For many it caused a serious problem with language and culture and resulted in some seeing themselves almost as a “displaced” person.
The amazing thing has been that others clearly see the potential in a woman who hardly sees it herself. For some of the ladies this has been a great help and also a push to get out of self pity and confusion and to look up and onwards.
We have a lot to add to the Israeli society. We are more curious about different groups of people and have attitudes less colored by prejudice. We are not as easily seen as a threat as we approach someone “from the other side’. We do not teach our children to be afraid of neither Jews nor Arabs. There is no : “If you do not behave, the Jewish soldiers ( or the Arabs) will come and get you”….. in our way of bringing up our children.

Still we live being part of one or the other side of the conflict. In order to “survive” this it is important to have certain things explained.
This last conference dealt with “Operation Cast Lead”.
People belonging to a Messianic Jewish fellowship are used to be praying for the Israeli Army, asking God’s protection over the soldiers and being proud that some of the soldiers serving in elite units actually are Messianic Jews.
People belonging to an Arab Christian congregation are taught that participating in war is unbiblical. The Christian Arabs have an all pacifistic attitude based on their faith.
For these two “faith communities” to respect one another and to even love one another is nothing less than a miracle. We believe in such miracles and we need them desperately.

The most important thing to learn in life is probably that the base for love is not that we agree, but rather that we respect one another. ---I remember a friend of mine sharing an experience he had in Gaza. This happened before the second Intifada and when the Israeli Army were still in control of the entire Strip. He was on reserve duty for a month and had been sent to serve in Gaza. One day as he was patrolling with his unit he saw an Arab whom he recognized from a believers conference. The two men shouted from joy and gave one another a great hug while his army comrades and the other Arabs surrounding them were left watching with unbelief shining in their eyes.

The difference between the possible and the impossible is that the impossible may take longer.

Elin Elkouby