Another week starts

Colourful fruit

I noticed that last night's roadwork had replaced 2 large sections of our road. There's a lot more to go ... so we're expecting more sleepless nights as roadworks take place only at night. Thus a new week begins.

The roadworks don't seem to disturb some of the local residents as they're up all night. The night markets have stayed opened for much longer than usual. Hawkers sell mainly fruit ... the summer harvest has started and soon the autumn harvest feast of Tabernacles will begin. Despite the drought, the harvest is not so badly affected as we had expected. That's because a lot of water has been bought from overseas to meet this natural disaster. A lot of it has gone into food production, as this would crucially reduce the prices of food. As it is, Israel is a very expensive place to live in ... prices of almost everything is a lot higher than many countries. In fact prices of small/mini apartments are almost the same as in Hong Kong now. But while food is cheap in Hong Kong, over here it's double or triple the price.

There's a nice piece of news in the papers today: 91 children from Gaza were allowed to enter Israel and see the sights which they probably will never see again. It was part of a summer exchange program organized by the UN. Israel granted entry permit to over 100 Gazans to include teachers to accompany the students. I think this is an excellent initiative ... as the children will see for themselves the good Israel is doing in preserving religious sites, educational and medical facilities and amenities to help even Syrian refugees. Win the hearts of one generation and they will turn away from the empty-promises of extremists.   http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5005486,00.html

The US State Dept. has declared the ISIS persecution of christians and minorities in Syria and Iraq is a genocide. Yes christians are facing a genocide in the Middle East, and this genocide has spilled over into Europe. In last week's Barcelona attack, the terrorists had planned to blow up the Sagrada Familia Church with over 100 drums of gas. Will the West every wake up and see that they're getting destroyed?  http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/15/isis-genocide-christians-religious-minorities/