Autumn fruit

Dates

The week starts and the autumn weather is taking over .... very cloudy days and very chilly nights. The autumn fruit are all ripening ... especially the pomegranates and dates. Pomegranates are the symbol of the jewish New Year which will be celebrated in 2 weeks time. Dates are the choice fruit for the feast of Sukkoth or Booths/Tabernacles. There are of course other autumn fruit such as grapes, plums, peaches ... and new introduced fruit such as guavas, mangoes, star fruit, custard apples and lychees. It's amazing how much fruit we can get here ... and it's all fresh.

However harvest time is always the time of clashes when extremist settlers destroy the crops of the arabs. That's one flashpoint for local violence. Then off ourse on Sukkoth extremist jews would try to tear down the Al Aqsa mosque and rebuild the jewish Temple so that the messiah will come .... and that is an annual flashpoint for violence. And there's more to come ...

Damascus Gate yesterday

It's the eve of Election Day ... and the PM is ramping up all the tricks to win votes ... and its the usual fear tactic ... the arabs are coming. He did that for the past 2 elections. This time he's adding promises to annex palestinian lands for Israel. It's a reckless move. Already the palestinians are talking about violent retaliation.

Well that's the last thing I need ... more violence. It only makes my position more precarious.