Mid-Autumn Festival

Empty street on Sukkoth feast

It's the 2nd day of Sukkoth. Our streets are packed with jews ... some going to the Wailing Wall to pray, others join local tours to visit the Old City. These intermediate days before the final 8th day of the feast will be filled with festivals and events. That means the Old City and around it will be packed with people. It also means security will be doubly tight. I don't like it.

Yesterday was the first day of Sukkoth and the streets were deserted on the west side of Jerusalem. All shops closed, all offices closed. The same will happen on the 8th day. But east Jerusalem is full of  life ... the arabs continue their daily routine. Thank goodness because at least you can buy necessities and medicine.

Chinese community at festive meal

Sunday evening the chinese religious met to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. The moon is amazingly large and bright. Sukkoth and the Mid-Autumn Festival are celebrated on the same day. I bought some noodles and the chinese sisters cooked the rest of the meals. Matthias brought mooncakes. We all had lots of fun catching up as we hardly met for the last half year. Everyone was busy and couldn't meet up. In fact for the festive meal, 2 couldn't make it. Let's hope the rest of the year would be better and we can meet more often.

Well the festive spirit was not shared by everyone though. Ultra-orthodox demonstrators attacked a jewish woman in her car (presumably she was a secular jew) and had to be saved by 2 other ultra-orthodox men. Total implosion. This internal fighting will be the downfall of Israel ... not the arabs. The Israeli army can easily deal with the arabs, but it can't deal with the ultra-orthodox jews from within. This attack is evidence of this. The police never reached the victim despite her calling them.  https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5357888,00.html