Today marks the 1st anniversary of the death of our student Ilie, a young romanian orthodox priest, just ordained and married for only a year. He was on his way to celebrate Sunday Mass when a drunk driver drove into him. It shocked us all ... and still is a bitter and sad memory for all of us. Rest in Peace, Ilie.
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| It's the season for sufgoniot |
And yesterday saw Israel at its worst ... a public lynching of a foreigner mistaken to be a terrorist. The innocent died after a brutal onslaught by members of the public. The real terrorist shot and killed a soldier and wounded many others at the Beersheba Central Bus Station. In the chaos, an Eritrean asylum seeker was running and was mistaken to be an accomplice. Police shot him, and while he laid wounded, another shot him dead while members of the public stomped on him, kicked, smashed his body with chairs while shouting curses. All caught on camera. An innocent man dead. But what is worse ... it reveals the panic of the Israeli public. It no longer thinks, it reacts with animal instincts. It shows the level of utter helplessness by the ordinary person, and the inability of the govt. to contain the situation and assure the public. This crisis has taken a fatal twist and there is no turning back ... Pandora's Box is opened.
As if nature too was crying at all these misdeeds, it started raining today. In fact right now it's a lightening storm. Lightening flashes every few seconds. In a way it's pleasant. We miss the rain after all these years of drought.
And it's the season for sufgoniot (ponschski) - doughnuts with no holes. Ate a couple at Talpiot the other day with 2 students as we went to shop for some winter clothes on sale. Talpiot is the southern suburb of Jerusalem which has several shopping malls like the rest of the world ... a little sense of normality.
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