Fun with the Israelis!

Even though we were just a little tired of all the company, we still had one more get-together to attend for Zev. This time, I really had fun with these older people.

Nearly everyone at the table was a sabra except for one wife who was part of the 1969 aliyah movement, from Chicago.

The host and two of the men at the table were Army brothers- did the 1948 (Palmach (paratroopers)) and 1967 wars. Their duties alternated between field combat and working in the kibbutzim

The hostess' parents emigrated from Russia and lived in Tel Aviv. She told the story of how her grandfather, in 1903, arrived on a boat with building supplies to build a house. The house remained in the family for many, many years until it was sold a couple years back. She also made a delicious fancy dinner.

The host is a very well known Middle East expert, professor, and lecturer. He has traveled all over the world to talk to the youth about Zionism and Middle East. His current obsession is encouraging people to move to the Negev to balance out the population between Israelis/Jews and the Bedouins. In 1969, only 12,000 Bedouins lived in the desert. Now it's over 1 million. Whoa. Not only he knows all this stuff, he can speak in Hebrew, German, English, and Arabic fluently. He had to live in a Druz village for several years in order to become fluent in Arabic. He learned German while growing up in his German neighborhood in Tel Aviv (though the family isn't from Germany). He's actually from Baghdad and moved to Israel when he was 3 years old. Actually, his family never spoke Arabic.

The other characters of this party, I didn't get to know too well since they were not near me at the table.

Also I learned something important. There was a discussion about the War on Iraq. Then Grandma decided that she wanted to hear an Israeli opinion about why can't the US troops pull out now. The answer has changed my perception about the war. The answer was If the US troops pull out, then Iran will take over Iraq. Thus putting Israel in greater danger. The US troops act as a wall between Iran and Israel. This is now Bush's aim. I didn't realize that Bush was that pro-Israel and was hiding this reason from the American people. I won't complain again about the war on Iraq as long Iran remains a threat to Israel (hell, the whole Arab world is). I mean, the meaning for the war in Iraq has definitely changed in the past year. Now it's not about giving the Iraqis democracy, it's about protecting Israel. Apparently, there were voices that Bush should've gone after Iran instead of Iraq. Saddam was that much of a danger to Israel as Iran is now.

You won't hear another anti-war rheotric from me.