School starts ... well almost all

A jug of cold water with
mint and lemon ... perfect
for a hot day

Schools in Israel and Palestine officially start today or tomorrow. Universities and other higher institutions start a month later. But in Israel, the association of teachers have decided to call off the opening of the school year because they had issues with the Ministry of Education regarding textbook materials. So no school for Israeli kids this week ... teachers go on strike. And if we should go by tradition, university staff should also go on strike ... they've been doing it for decades. One nice thing about the start of the school year - the streets, cafes, malls, beaches, trains are all a lot quieter and orderly.

The heat is still on us but it lasts only during the daylight hours. By evening it gets so cold I wear a hoodie. It's practically the beginning of autumn. The High Holy Days of Judaism will soon begin ... Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah and Sukkoth beginning Set. 13th and lasts for 3 weeks. Usually Sukkoth is the time when tensions with arabs as jews expect the coming of the Messiah and it necessitates the destruction of the Al Aqsa Mosque and the rebuilding of the jewish Temple. Not quite sure how violent this year will be. But violence on ancient temples are in the news this week. ISIS had destroyed the Palmyran temple of Baal Shemen and yesterday they destroyed the other iconic temple of Bel (or Baal). Awful.

September is upon us and soon 2015 will be over. How quickly time flies. Hopefully event the violence will blow away. Tourism has dropped to an all time low in peace time. The war around us is frightening people away. It will hit us hard toward Christmas.