Midweek

Sunrise this morning

You may not have read this in your news agencies, but here we've been under almost a daily barrage of rocket fire from Gaza. Almost all have fallen on empty plots of land and so far there are no injuries ... but it is scary to live in the neighbouring cities of Ashkalon and Ashdod. Some newspapers are saying there'll be a war in summer now that Hamas has stocked up enough arsenal to fire these rockets. Let's hope not.

5 years ago today

The skies are once again cloudy after a brief moment of sunshine. This morning the dew was so heavy we thought it rained last night. The sunrise was however spectacular... over the Dead Sea. We expect some in over the weekend ... which will be nice as long as it's not a storm like last week. 5 years ago on this day there was a massive snow fall. Here's a pic to remind you what it looked like at Damascus Gate.

This morning I noticed a rise in price presence. Even the mounted police are in the streets. I wonder why. It's only Wednesday and not many muslims from outside the City have come here.

Mounted Police on patrol today

Exams will soon start in our school. It has already start in some other schools. Lot of nervous students in the library .... usually you don't see them there at all. Students skipping prayers and meals just to squeeze an extra hour of revision. I have to invigilate 2 BA theses. That means a lot of reading.

There was a piece of disturbing news regarding the Israeli Welfare service, which by Law, will not help homeless people because they don't look dirty enough. How dreadful ... to force people to look undignified so as to receive some money or aid.   https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.833394

And the very high cost of living is given a study on ground zero. Even american slim (jewish migrants) find it unbelievable that things here cost double of that in America.  http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Milking-Israelis-for-what-theyre-worth-517331