Vigil of Yom Kippur

Tensions are rising as Yom Kippur approaches. It begins tomorrow night. This morning at 5.30am soldiers closed off the eastern part of the City ... towards Bab Hutta and St Anne's Church. Then at 9am school children and youths marched down Herod's Gate to Lions' Gate through Bab Hutta chanting slogans against Israel. 2 days back, arab youths threw stones and smashed the windows of a tour coach carrying jews on the Mt. of Olives. No guesses how bad tomorrow will be.

As Yom Kippur requires everyone to repent from the past year's sins and the asking for forgiveness, the Israel papers today have focussed on the jewish exploitation of foreign worker. The study showed 90% of Tel Aviv businesses exploit foreign workers. Really bad record. http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.546449  And there is also the report of the bad treatment the Israeli govt gave to arab christians supporters. Shameful. http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.546014     Repent and atone for your sins, Israel!!!!

Then we have reports of ultra-orthodox jewish rabbis banning jewish women from organising zumba classes. The rabbis have more power and control than the police or govt. or law courts. Not much fun the New Year .... http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.546014   It's unlikely the rabbis think they need repentance .. rather its women who need it.

And the Iron Dome anti-missile system is for the first time being deployed in the Jerusalem area. Fears of an attack from Damascus is real .. and the Yom Kippur holiday conjures specters of the Yom Kippur War 40 years back. And the warning of hackers attacking Israeli websites on Sept.11 went pretty hollow. We didn't see much damage done.

Little Cafe - new, perky in
an old part of town

The bigger chaos came just after Rosh haShana on Monday when all computers and handphones n Israel switched to solar time. Officially the Israeli govt. has rejected this switch so early in autumn and has declared Oct 27th as the official switch ... following the rest of Europe. But telecom companies did not catch up on this and so we woke up an hour earlier on handphones and computers but battery run clcoks still kept daylight saving. The whole day was eventually settled as everyone switched back to daylight saving or adjusting the timezone to that of Athens instead of jerusalem.

And the happy note today - "Little Cafe" opened round the corner of Rusul Street just behind the Rockefeller Museum. Looks nice and friendly from the outside ...