Winter is creeping in

Ethiopic family going to the feast

News is just coming out that there was a shooting an hour ago up in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood. 8 wounded and terrorist killed. It's a major attack since a lull of almost 3 months. But during these jewish holiday period, it's to be expected.

The past few days the ethiopic and eritrean communities were celebrating some feasts ... not sure what it is. It could have been a wedding. Anyway it's christian because most of the men and women wore cross-embroidered clothes. Anyway it was a big celebration as there were crowds coming into the Old City. A nice atmosphere of festivity to soften the tension of the Old City.

It gets very chilly in the nights. Jumpers and hoodies are worn in the evenings now ... and the change in weather is making people sick ... as usual. Winter has definitely crept in. I've been getting severe asthma attacks for 2 nights now. Haven't had them for several weeks but then many people are coughing a lot. Doc wants me to get a flu jab ... I wonder if I should. He says it's preventive because I'm always susceptible to illnesses. I noticed only old folks come to his clinic to get flu jabs. So I guess I count as one of the them!

Traditional ethiopic dress

Yom Kippur starts on Tuesday night. All week Jews by the thousands have been going to the Wailing Wall to pray the Selichot prayers and asking for forgiveness for their sins. It gets quite loud ... from our place which is 800 meters from the Wailing Wall we can hear the prayers and dirges over the public address system all night.

It's sad that news is focussing on the hurricane destruction in America ... not that it's unimportant ... but it's consciously avoiding the massacre in Aleppo. 2 more days and thousands more will be killed. And nothing is being done ... no public outcry, no international vigils and demonstrations. The world is silent. And its silence condemns itself of guilt.

On home ground, a rightwing hardline Minister earlier called for jews to sacrifice their lives to annex Samaria and parts of Judea into Israel (most of it is in Palestine). After a public outcry, he sought to clear his message ... but again today he seemed to call for jewish settlers in these areas to resort to violence against palestinians. http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.746539  Any wonder why palestinians are responding with violence?