Another week begins

Palm Plaza decorated
with lights

Another work filled weekend for me. I had to go to Netanya to celebrate Corpus Christi Mass for the community there. It's well over 100 km away and I had to stop by at our house in Jaffa to rest. Almost all our churches throughout the country celebrated the feast with First Communion for the children. As such there were not enough priests to go to all the Mass centres and chapels in the outlying cities and towns. Anyway by the time I ended Mass it was past 9pm. It takes an hour's ride to get back from Netanya to Jaffa. And the taxi-drivers scalped me ... the onward trip cost me 300 shekels and the return journey ought to have been 220 shekels as agreed but demanded 250 when we reached Jaffa. Crooks. Add that to the US$200 cost for going and returning from Jaffa to Jerusalem ... it becomes a very costly journey. Nothing is cheap in Isreal.

The festival of Lights will continue for the next 5 days. I hope to visit it one of these nights. They look exciting enough during the day even when the lights are not on.

On the political scene, things continue to churn. 2 ministers have now resigned in protest over the PM's choice of the extreme right-winger to be Defense Minister. It was a move done out of spite, above all cutting his own nose to spite his own face (the PM's) because this right-winger is the PM's most aggressive and dreaded enemy. Yesterday there was a huge demonstration in Tel Aviv against this extremist politician - jews and arabs alike came out in force. They fear he will lead the country into another series of wars which he did when he was previously in govt. They are accusing the govt of becoming fascist. See http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.721996
and http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-tel-aviv-thousands-protest-israels-fascist-new-defense-minister/

Anyway it's exam time for all the schools throughout the country. And soon after that it will be summer holidays.