Sabbath

Another day of violence in northern Israel. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443775779&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull and a horrific accident in Bet Shemesh http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1099293.html

Weekends are always a tense affair - getting to sleep that is. Thursday nights begin the muslim weekend. That means lots of weddings take place. So at 9pm onwards fireworks are set off in the houses and streets. Some are so big it's like blowing a canon off. I had a terrible shock when on Thursday night a nearby house set off a massive firework. Our monastery shook from the blast. I got an aweful shock as I was about to fall asleep. Sometimes this blasting goes on till midnight. Last night I was awaken with a shock and ended up with an asthma attack. And this happens practically every Thursday and Friday night. Then the Jewish Sabbath begins - Friday night. Soldiers fill the Old City streets to protect Jews going to the Wailing Wall. Tension builds. Arab youths stand in street corners taunting the soldiers. Zionist yeshiva students chant and sing in the streets, often to provoke an arab response. I wonder if today the ultra-Orthodox Jews will riot at the carpark again. I'll go out and see in the afternoon.

The weather is still hot. People are eating more veggies and going for evening walks .... when they are not causing trouble. And I'm trying to catch 40 winks to make up for a restless night's sleep.