Category: food and drink

Israel, Day 9

September 11, 2023 • 9:45 am

I’ve been chilling in Tel Aviv, resting, walking along the sea, and eating, as sightseeing is thin on the ground here. This is a far more secular and modern city than is Jerusalem, and somehow I find the latter more interesting—though less relaxing. As Steve Pinker wrote me when I told him I was going to Israel for R&R, “Most people wouldn’t say that Israel is a place to go for some rest.”  But for me, resting is not the aim of a vacation, and I doubt that I’ll put in any beach time here, though there’s a beautiful beach on the Mediterranean right across the street.

However, there are several sights I want to see, and today I went to the first one: the modest and well-preserved domicile of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, only a few blocks from our hotel.

First, though, some food—for humans and then cats.  Breakfast at the hotel; as usual, it’s the big meal of the day:

Fresh bread, and they have lox and an adequate cream-cheese substitute:

There is Turkish coffee, “American” coffee, or you can, as I do, order a cappuccino.

Part of the spread:

Fruit, yogurt and some veg (the fruit and veg here are infinitely better than available in the States. The melon, for instance, is perfectly ripe:

Vegetables and salads:

Cheeses, dairy stuff, tuna, and lox (depleted):

Eggs and western breakfast stuff (you can also order oatmeal, Belgian waffles, omelettes, and green shakshouka (see below):

Something I always get: the King of Israeli breakfast dishes, shakshouka (the classic red version with tomatoes):

Free red and white wine by the reception desk, 24/7:

And a free happy hour from 5-7 p.m. daily, with wine, hard liquor, juices, and all kind of tasty nibbles (I haven’t had a drink since I’ve been here: for some reason I lose my appetite for booze when traveling).  They will also make drinks for you.

Happy hour nibbles, and not insubstantial ones. Last night they had big veggie spring rolls:

I always check out the cat food in local grocery stores to see if there’s anything interesting. Here all we get is American-style cat food with Hebrew labels:

And a certificate of compliance with kosher specifications (kashrut) at a local pizza parlor. Even in Tel Aviv they take this seriously, as conservative and Orthodox Jews (though I’ve yet seen none of the latter here) take it seriously. Note that the certification must be renewed every five months.

A few sights on the walk to Ben-Gurion’s house. Below, a warning, though I’m not sure what it’s warning about unless you have a pacemaker. Are you in danger of having your hand fly off?

Tel Aviv is a center for Bauhaus architecture, and driven by seen some but haven’t photographed it.  I will as I come across it, Architectural Digest explains:

When the Nazis rose to power in Germany in 1933, resulting in the closure of the Bauhaus design school that same year, tens of thousands of Jews fled Germany to settle in Mandatory Palestine. With 60,000 new immigrants arriving within just a few short years, housing was urgently needed. Dozens of architects were commissioned to build a new city. Among the most influential European architects selected were six German Jews who had studied at the Bauhaus school in Weimar and Dessau. They were key to the development of Tel Aviv’s “White City,” whose moniker is attributable to its whitewashed façades.

This may be Bauhaus:

Thie certainly isn’t, but it’s interesting, like third-rate Gaudi:

And the nearby British Embassy, surrounded by barriers.

Israel harbors 94 embassies, of which 89 are in Tel Aviv and 5 in Jerusalem (the U.S., Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, and Kosovo). In 2017, Trump, facing much criticism, moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.

David Ben-Gurion’s modest Tel Aviv home still stands a few blocks from the sea, and is pretty much as it was when he died. Here’s a capsule bio from Wikipedia:

David Ben-Gurion (/bɛnˈɡʊəriən/ ben GOOR-ee-ən; Hebrew: דָּוִד בֶּן־גּוּרִיּוֹן [daˈvid ben ɡuʁˈjon] i; born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first prime minister of Israel. Born in Płońsk, then part of the Russian Empire, to Polish Jewish parents, he immigrated to the Palestine region of the Ottoman Empire in 1906. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954–55.

Ben-Gurion’s interest for Zionism developed early in his life, leading him to become a major Zionist leader and executive head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led the movement for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine.

On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped writing. Under Ben-Gurion’s leadership, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the uniting of the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and the expulsion and flight of a majority of the Palestinian Arab population. Subsequently, he became known as “Israel’s founding father”. Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israel’s first prime minister and minister of defence.

There are three things to add about him. Without Ben-Gurion, it’s likely that Israel wouldn’t exist.  Second, he was an intellectual and deeply read man, which you’ll see in a second. Finally, he was deeply beloved by Israelis, and may have been the best Prime Minister ever. (He’s buried by a kibbutz in the Negev Desert.) Here’s a photo from Wikipedia:

Here’s his house at 18 Ben-Gurion Street (of course):

Except for some honors and awards, and items behind glass (his office is glassed off), the house is pretty much as it was when he died in 1973. It’s not humble, but neither is it grandiose. What makes it stand out most is the huge number of BOOKS.

Ben Gurion’s office (the only room behind glass). Perhaps this is just as it was when he died:

The kitchen and eating nook, with an old Israeli fridge:

Formal dining room:

Two bedrooms (looks like, as many couples did, they slept separately):

The living room adjacent to the office:

And oy, the books, divided by language and topic. Here, for instance, are his books on Hinduism:

. . . and on American Judaism:

LOOK AT ALL THESE BOOKS!

This is a panoramic shot encompassing bits of four rooms (click to enlarge):

Besides the books, there are many photos of Ben-Gurion with famous people and heads of state, as well as awards given him by heads of state, like this tusk;

David and Winnie:

David and Nixon (I don’t know who the woman is, but perhaps Ben-Gurion’s wife):

The old equivalent of bobblehead dolls. From left to right: Menachem Begin, Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, and Theodore Herzl.

Finally, right by the door is a WEIRD MANNEQUIN of Ben-Gurion, perhaps to show how large (or, rather, small) he was):

There was only one other couple visiting the house when I was there, and it surely deserves more attention than that. I learned a lot by going there and reading up about its famous inhabitant.

Ben-Gurion had a wife, Paula, three kids, and yes, a few mistresses on the side.

Israel: Days 6 and 7

September 8, 2023 • 10:30 am

Yesterday was our “strategic tour” with the boss of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), whose son drove Anna and I around Jerusalem, looking at different neighborhoods, including politically and strategically important places.  This morning we transferred to a spiffy boutique hotel in Tel Aviv for a week, where Anna has a science meeting. You thus get two days in one.

First, some information from Visualizing Palestine about how the West Bank (not part of Israel proper) is partitioned:

The Oslo Accords divided the Palestinian West Bank into three administrative zones: Area A (18%), where the Palestinian Authority (PA) administers civil and security matters; Area B (22%), where the PA administers only civil matters; and Area C (60%) where Israel maintains full control.

Area C includes all Israeli settlements and two thirds of the West Bank’s fertile agricultural land. While Area C is a continuous territory, Areas A and B are fragmented into 166 separate enclaves. In spite of the breakdown of the Oslo process, Areas A, B and C remain in force today.

It’s all very complicated, but what I didn’t realize is how close parts of the Palestinian-controlled Area A (green) are to Jerusalem, and how fragmented all the areas are (area B is in tan and area C in gray).

One minute we were in Jerusalem, overlooking the old city, and the next minute we are here. This is part of area A.  Are there similar signs in Jewish villages in areas adjacent to Palestinian ones?

Area A was so close to Jerusalem that Israel built their much criticized cement walls to keep terrorists from moving freely across the borders and creating.a lot of carnage. Part of one of those walls is shown below, but they ran out of money.  A lot of those on the Left criticized the walls for interrupting the lives of Palestinians who worked in Israel (and now had to be vetted at checkpoints), as well as for their symbolic and looming presence, but they did cut the number of Israelis killed in terror attacks by at least 90%.

Movement is still restricted here, but by fences with motion detectors:

This is what is called a Palestinian “refugee camp”, but it’s not tents and hovels as many imagine. Rather, it’s a village, much like Jewish villages:

We were not of course allowed to go into any area A places, though as an American I could have, though as a (secular) Jew I don’t think I’d chance it. Here’s a view of the Old City of Jerusalem very close to where the photo above was taken. The city walls and Dome of the Rock (the latter controlled by Jordan and usually restricted to Muslims) are evident.

There are only three roads cutting through the western hills that can be used to invade Israel, and were so used during the various wars between Israelis and Arabs, as in 1948 and 1967.  One of them is the road to Jericho you must take to get to Masada and the Dead Sea (see above).  Israel has now taken military precautions to batter any enemies trying to attack along these roads. Here’s a view of the east-west road to Jericho, bisecting the picture horizontally.

Where are the IDF? I was told—and this is no secret—that they have an underground base in the mountain indicated, underground to prevent damage from bombing. There is in fact a sign pointing to the entrance:

We then went to the famous Mount of Olives, a ridge to the east of the Old City of Jerusalem where you get a splendid view of the city, the olive trees that still remain, and he 150,000 Jewish graves that line the hill. (This has been a traditional burial spot for Jews since Biblical times, harbors many well known Jews, and costs you thousands of dollars if you want to buy a gravesite here.)

It’s a Christian pilgrimage site because of its association with Jesus tales from the New Testament. From Wikipedia:

The Mount of Olives is frequently mentioned in the New Testament as part of the route from Jerusalem to Bethany and the place where Jesus stood when he wept over Jerusalem (an event known as Flevit super illam in Latin).

Jesus is said to have spent time on the mount, teaching and prophesying to his disciples (Matthew 24–25), including the Olivet discourse, returning after each day to rest (Luke 21:37, and John 8:1 in the additional section of John’s Gospel known as the Pericope Adulterae), and also coming there on the night of his betrayal. At the foot of the Mount of Olives lies the Garden of Gethsemane. The New Testament tells how Jesus and his disciples sang together – “When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives” Gospel of Matthew 26:30. Jesus ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives according to Acts 1:9–12.

The Garden of Gethsemane lies at its base below, next to the olive trees (still there, though not 2000 years old) and below the graves. The view of the Old City and Dome of the Rock is splendid.

The graves:

The Old City and Dome of the Rock, a panorama:

Below: the crown jewel of the old City, revered by Muslims and Jews alike. Sadly, Jews are forbidden to enter, even though it sits atop the ruins of the First and Second Temple and the reputed Holy of Holies: the room said to contain the Ark of the Covenant that held the stone Ten Commandments.  Muhammad was also said to have ascended to heaven from this place, and that, due to an unwise decision by Moshe Dayan, trumps all Jewish access.

Here’s a reconstruction of the Holy of Holies from Wikipedia (with their caption). Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the rear chamber, and then only once a year on Yom Kippur. The closest Jews can get to it to worship is the Western Wall, and that’s why they press up against the Wall to pray. If it existed, it’s somewhere under the Dome of the Rock. Truly Orthodox Jews won’t even walk near the Dome for fear of stepping on the site of Holy of Holies.

A model of the Tabernacle showing the holy place, and behind it the Holy of Holies

The Dome of the Rock is not, as many think, a mosque. Rather, it’s a Muslim shrine. But Muslims did build a mosque on the hill: the Al-Aqsa Mosque, covered with aluminum rather than gold. The arrow indicates it.  A religiously crazed Australian, Denis Rohan, tried to burn it down in 1969 so a temple to Jesus could be built there. That triggered huge tensions among Muslims; Rohan was institutionalized and then deported.

Want a camel photo on the Mount of Olives? Me neither.

Anna and I returned to Jerusalem and had a late afternoon lunch of falafel in a pita, which was great.

After checking out this morning, we took an Israeli Uber-equivalent to Tel Aviv, checking into the beautiful Melody Hotel, only a block from the beach.  Free wine (all you can drink) in the lobby, beautiful rooms, free soft drinks in the minibar, and a free happy hour. I’m told the breakfasts are awesome. Did I mention the beach access?

My room:

Minibar with free soda:

Coffee fixings:

There’s a rooftop lounge with sunning facilities and this view of the beach past a park:

Anna was up there preparing her talk for the meeting:

Jay, who’s also a hummus maven, said there was a highly rated place three blocks away, and so we went there for lunch. Micha’s hummus!

The menu: it’s almost all hummus, though I was tempted to try the cholent as it’s Friday. The menu (a shekel is about 25 U.S. cents):

Hummus always comes with condiments and fresh pita:

I had hummus tahini and oy, was it good! It rivaled Jersalem’s Arafat’s hummus for sure. Isn’t it lovely?

Annd and Jay had hummus with chickpeas, and also pronounced it good. So much hummus, and so little time!

Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s almost happy hour.  Here’s a photo of the reflections from the outside on the silver elevator door:

Israel: Day 3

September 6, 2023 • 10:00 am

Today we had a four-hour visit to the old city, with our informed and genial guides Susan (a reader) and her friend Sami. We entered the city through the famous Jaffa Gate, one of the seven gates to the old city, and one that points north towards the port of Jaffa.

UPDATE: This happened just a day after our visit. Even the Old City and Jaffa Gate are not safe from terrorists (click to read; h/t Susan):

This gate is famous for an entrance of a British general taking over the city from the Ottomans. From Wikipedia:

In 1917, British general Edmund Allenby entered the Old City through the Jaffa Gate, giving a speech at the nearby Tower of David. Allenby entered the city on foot in a show of respect for the city and a desire to avoid comparison with the Kaiser’s entry in 1898.

You can see that scene in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia”. And here’s a photo from Wikipedia, showing Allenby at the Jaffa gate on foot (he’d defeated the Ottoman Empire, with the help of Lawrence of Arabia, of course):

Below, the “Tower of David” or citadel of the old city. From Wikipedia:

The Tower of David (Hebrew: מגדל דוד, romanized: Migdál Davíd), also known as the Citadel (Arabic: القلعة, romanized: al-Qala’a), is an ancient citadel located near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem.

The citadel that stands today dates to the Mamluk and Ottoman periods. It was built on the site of a series of earlier ancient fortifications of the Hasmonean, Herodian, Byzantine and Early Muslim periods, after being destroyed repeatedly during the last decades of Crusader presence in the Holy Land by their Muslim enemies. It contains important archaeological finds dating back over 2,500 years including a quarry dated to the First Temple period, and is a popular venue for benefit events, craft shows, concerts, and sound-and-light performances.

We went up on a nearby rooftop to get the “experience of the Resurrection,” and I was assured that although I didn’t believe in the Resurrection, I would if I saw the view from the top. (It didn’t work.)

Susan is a cat lover, and rescues strays. She has about 20 that live in her garden, and she feeds them twice a day and gives them warm blankets in the winter. Like me, she cannot resist petting a stray, and here are two.

A lovely ginger cat.

Believe it or not, this is an Anglican church, Christ Church of Jerusalem, the first Protestant church built in the Old City (1849), and with a congregation consisting of “Jewish Christians”. (Isn’t that an oxymoron?) There are no crosses, but Hebrew writing and a menorah on the altar!

A view from the rooftop over the old city. The golden dome on the right is The Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites of Islam—and Christianity. It’s on that spot where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac before God told him it was just a joke, and it’s also on that spot that Muhammad supposedly ascended to heaven.  But only Muslims are allowed to go inside the mosque, and Jews, while they can walk around it, are not allowed to pray—they could get arrested if they try. They must pray at the Western Wall (see below).

A panorama:

Below: The Dome of the Rock with the Mount of Olives behind it. The Mount from Wikipedia:

It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. The southern part of the mount was the Silwan necropolis, attributed to the elite of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The western slopes of the mount, those facing Jerusalem, have been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves, making it central in the tradition of Jewish cemeteries.

Several key events in the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, took place on the Mount of Olives, and in the Acts of the Apostles it is described as the place from which Jesus ascended to heaven. Because of its association with both Jesus and Mary, the mount has been a site of Christian worship since ancient times and is today a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants.

There’s a long market that extends from near the Jaffa gate to the Dome of the Rock and the Western wall. It’s largely tourist kitsch, but the side sreets sell staples; fruit, veg, and meat:

. . . and spices.

All the shopkeepers are Arabs; there are no Jewish shopkeepers because this is East Jerusalem, a Muslim area, and Jewish shopkeepers would cause tension. But there are plenty of Jewish shoppers.

A tee shirt. Note the kippe and the sidelocks.

Nougat and halvah:

For lunch we went to Susan’s favorite falafel joint, named—yes—”Arafat’s Falafel”. (There is no sign; you have to know about it.) Mr. Arafat, below, makes fresh hummus on the spot, and this was the best hummus we’ve had so far. Six bucks for a big plate, along with pita bread, falafal, olive oil, some whole chickpeas, and garnishes.

Grinding the chickpeas to make hummus:

Lunch!

I can’t imagine hummus can get any better than this:

A madrasa, or school where Muslim kids learn to read the Qur’an:

And the famous Western Wall (once known as the “wailing wall”), part of the Second (Jewish) Temple built by Herod. From Wikipedia:

The Western Wall plays an important role in Judaism due to its proximity to the Temple Mount. Because of the Temple Mount entry restrictions, the Wall is the holiest place where Jews are permitted to pray outside the previous Temple Mount platform, as the presumed site of the Holy of Holies, the most sacred site in the Jewish faith, lies just behind it.

I believe the Muslims have formal control of the wall. It wasn’t too crowded yesterday because it was hot.

Below: the arrow indicates ME inspecting the Wall (photo by Anna):

There were many Orthodox Jews there, of course.

And for a nominal fee you can rent Jewish garb like the tallis (shawl) or tefillin (leather phylacteries):

An IDF soldier worshiping. I was surprised by how many soldiers are religious.

And of course you’re supposed to write a prayer on paper and stuff it into the wall to increase its chance of being fulfilled. No prayers are discarded: from time to time the ones that fall out are collected and buried with a recently deceased person on the Mount of Olives. There’s also an online site where you can write a prayer that will be printed out and put in the Wall.

The women worship separately from the men: a sore spot for religious Jewish feminists. They had comfortable chairs, though.

It’s only a matter of time before a trans man tries to worship on the male side, or vice versa.

It was bloody hot! Anna and I took a break from the heat (photo by Jay Tanzman):

The Via Dolorosa is the path supposedly taken by Jesus on the way to his crucifixion; it has nine “stations of the cross” outside (each marking an incident on the trip, like falling), and five inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was supposedly crucified. The Via is about 600 m. long, and is full of Christians retracing that path, whose course we know nothing about.

The stations aren’t clearly marked because shopkeepers claimed that the crowds were bad for business. Anna, who reads Russian, says that this is one of them

Some of the Christians carry their own crosses with them to share Jesus’s trials, but the one below isn’t a full-sized cross! (Photo by Anna). Also, about fifty times a year (see below) people on the Via suffer from “Jerusalem Syndrome,” overcome by religious psychosis. They think they’re the Messiah or they just go nuts. One of them even tried to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque. If you’re curious about religious phenomena, read the Wikipedia article.

The stores around the Church are full of Jesus-related knicknacks  (Photo by Anna.)

Here’s the church, with the photo taken from Wikipedia. It’s certainly the holiest site in Christianity—if you buy the narrative. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre dates back to the fourth century, but has been considerably reconstructed. And of course recapturing it was one of the main aims of the Crusaders. Inside are the places where Jesus was supposedly crucified, his body prepared for burial, the burial site, and where he arose from the dead.

It has Crusader graffiti in it! As Wikipedia notes, the photo below shows “Crusader graffiti in the church: crosses engraved in the staircase leading down to the Chapel of Saint Helena.”

Right where you enter is a large stone slab. Although the stone has been replaced several times, this is said to be the spot where the body of Jesus was laid out for burial. Here’s a mural showing that.  (Photo by Anna.)

People prostrate themselves on the stone, but also leave items there for a short while, including backpacks, hoping to infuse those items with something of Jesus.

I decided to leave my Chicago White Sox hat there to see if it would acquire new powers. Even if it didn’t, perhaps I could sell it on eBay as a genuine religious artifact. Only kidding!  Here I am prostrating and putting my hat on the stone. Perhaps that’s blasphemy. . .(Next three photos by Anna)

My hat on the stone. Will it make the White Sox win the pennant?

I’m not sure if this is a cleric or a religious zealot (it’s hard to tell them apart).

Below, my favorite picture of the day (taken by me): a young woman overcome by the presence of Jesus. She hasn’t gone around the bend, but I read that 50 times a year a Christian goes nuts on the Via Dolorosa and has to be taken to a psychiatric hospital before being sent home. This woman has only a very mild case of Jerusalem Syndrome.

She’s in rapture, that’s for sure! She sat there for a long time, eyes closed and staring at the ceiling.

Israel: Days 2 and 3

September 4, 2023 • 10:00 am

Note: click the photos to enlarge them.

I spent most of yesterday with a man who works with a private agency that translates documents from the Arab world (also Russia, China, and other countries) into English and Hebrew, so that we (and other government agencies) know what is being said in mosques and in Arab state media.

If you know where to look, all the stuff to be translated is online, including sermons in mosques.  Lots of horrific things have been revealed, but I’m not sure how much of what I heard is for public consumption. Suffice it to say that the day was very interesting, and I learned a lot about how Israeli security works.

On the way to meet my friend, I passed the “Kippa Man” stall, a place that sells only kippas, the Hebrew word for the Yiddish “yarmulke”. These are the skullcaps or beanies worn by observant Jews. There are many stores selling them in the center city, some (like this one) selling only kippas, while others sell them along with other souvenirs, like the tee-shirt below.

You can find a kippa to fit your style and taste. The prices below are 20-25 shekels, about 5-6 American dollars.

But you can also buy other souvenirs. Here’s one that caught my eye, but I didn’t buy it. (Wearing it on an American campus would get you demonized!)

You can get burgers at his McDonald’s but no milkshakes (or even milk). It’s kosher, Jake!

At my friend’s office, he showed me a rare document: Mahmoud Abbas‘s Ph.D. thesis, for which he paid a thousand bucks. Abbas, of course, is the president of the Palestinian Authority, apparently for life. (He was elected in 2005 for a four-year term, but extended it indefinitely, and is sill in office.} He’s also chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Abbas is 87, and apparently will leave office only in a box.

Abbas doesn’t read or write Russian, so it’s weird that he has a thesis written in Russian and conferred by a Russian university (it’s about the dangers of Zionism with an addendum that denies the Holocaust).

Tablet has an article about it, saying that although a 19-page abstract is available publicly, this document isn’t:

Abbas’ dissertation has been a subject of considerable interest over the years. The thesis isn’t publicly available: By all accounts, it is kept in an IOS special storage facility requiring special authorization to access.

Well, no, because I saw it. But I can’t read Russian so I can’t shed  any light on it.  It appears to be Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda, and I don’t know who translated it into Russian, or even if Abbas even wrote it (his signature is at the bottom).

Lunch at a nearby restaurant: hummus and falafel at last! It was very good hummus, thick and creamy, mixed with hot, crispy falafel balls and served with good fresh pita bread, but my host old me that there is far better hummus to be had in Jerusalem. Ergo my search continues. He also demanded more olive oil from the waiter for me to pour atop the dish. I was still full from he huge breakfast at the hotel, so this is all I ate.

The next three photos are by Jay Tanzman, whose captions are indented.

Public toilets (read the red sign):

“Information for Shabbath [Sabbath] keepers. The toilets are activated by pressing an electric button.”

JAC: Since pressing a button seems to involve forbidden “work” on the Sabbath (which is why my hotel has a “Sabbath elevator” in which you don’t have to press buttons, as it stops on every floor), why is it not considered “work” to flush by pressing a button in a public toilet? This must have been the result of a fierce rabbinical discussion. Later, I was told that perhaps the Orthodox are being warned that they would have to press a button if they flushed, and that might deter them from doing their business.

But why not use the system they have in U.S. airports: when you stand up, the toilet automatically detects that and flushes. Standing up after using the john cannot possibly constitute work! As for urinals, they can flush sporadically without pressing buttons or pulling levers.

Jay says of the photo below: “Speaks for itself.”

[JAC: The Gazans were firing missiles at Tel Aviv just in the last two weeks. Fortunately, the Iron Dome knocks out nearly all of them. I have been told what to do if I hear the “incoming missile” siren: run, following everyone on the street.]

A group of young soldiers on their way somewhere. I surreptitiously took their picture from behind. I cold have gotten a picture from the front earlier, but I didn’t know how well that would go over.
Note that there are both men and women in the group. In Israel, everyone except the Orthodox Jews must serve two to three years in the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). Even Gal “Wonder Woman” Gadot did her stint. The exemption of the Orthodox from military service constitutes, in my view, an unwarranted coddling of religion, one of the things that makes Israel a partial theocracy.

This is a photo Gadot put on her Instagram showing her reporting for duty at the IDF for the first time. She served two years, from age 18-20, as a combat fitness instructor. This is after she was crowned Miss Israel in 2004.

Gadot in uniform. I love Jewish girls! (And don’t dare criticize her for doing her mandatory military service for Israel. She’s already taken a lot of heat for that from those who hate Israel, simply because she was born here.)

This afternoon we went scouting for good hummus again. On the way we saw what looked for all the world like an Orthodox Jew playing electric guiar for money in the streets. That can’t be rue (for one thing, the hat is wrong, and it’s culturally inappropriate. You be the judge:

And for lunch we went to a well known hummus joint in the center city, Hummus Ben Sira. The hummus plate came with lots of fresh pita bread, a big plate of hummus topped with whole chickpeas and olive oil, salad, and tomatoes, pickles. and sliced onions. It was a lot of food!

The hummus was creamy and delicious, beating yesterday’s selection (see above) by a long shot.

Jay had shakshouka, described by Wikipedia as

a Maghrebi dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic, commonly spiced with cumin, paprika and cayenne pepper. According to Joan Nathan, shakshouka originated in Ottoman North Africa in the mid-16th century after tomatoes were introduced to the region by Hernán Cortés as part of the Columbian exchange.

This spicy dish is common for breakfast in Israel; in fact, it was on this morning’s breakfast buffet:

A hungry customer waiting for his hummus:

Jay (Tanzman) and Anna (Krylov) in front of the hummus joint. If you’re in the Center City, I recommend this place, but the most famous ones in Jerusalem are in the Old City, where we’re planning to go tomorrow.

A panoramic view of the walls around the old city:

. . . and more shelters. The area near where I took the photo above is a gorgeous residential area, but houses are hideously expensive in Jerusalem:

One of the quiet and lovely streets nearby:

A house sign, which I’m told shows the family name:

And of course no matter where you are, there are always bomb shelters nearby:

Jay found a friendly and meowing tabby street cat to pet. Jay and Anna own two kitties, including a gorgeous gray British Shorthair named Mishka (see here; their other kitty is Geddi).

This has got to be the world’s fanciest YMCA: the Jerusalem International YMCA, whose construction began in 1926 and took 7 years.

Across the street is the King David Hotel, the most prestigious place to park your carcass in the city.The hotel, which partly housed British military before Israeli independence, was site of an infamous Jewish bombing in 1946, when the Brits were fighting the Jews.  From Wikipedia:

The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack on 22 July 1946 by the militant right-wing Zionist underground organization the Irgun during the Jewish insurgency. 91 people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.

The hotel was the site of the central offices of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine, principally the Secretariat of the Government of Palestine and the Headquarters of the British Armed Forces in Palestine and Transjordan. When planned, the attack had the approval of the Haganah, the principal Jewish paramilitary group in Palestine, though, unbeknownst to the Irgun, this had been cancelled by the time the operation was carried out. The main motive of the bombing was to destroy documents incriminating the Jewish Agency in attacks against the British, which were obtained during Operation Agatha, a series of raids by mandate authorities. It was the deadliest attack directed at the British during the Mandate era (1920–1948)

The King David Hotel:

From Wikipedia, the hotel after the bombing:

A colorful kitty statue nearby:

. . . and a fancy and very expensive pottery shop, which had lovely handmade stuff:

We saw a lot of security today, with heavily armed cops stopping people on the street (we didn’t know why) and asking for their ID. Across the street from our hotel as we returned, two guys were getting badly hassled by the cops.Again, I have no idea why:

Thus endeth Day Three of the Trip to Israel.

Israel: The morning of Day 1

September 3, 2023 • 11:30 am

I slept like a log, wrote a couple of posts this morning, and then met Anna Krylov for a lovely breakfast (her partner Jay was sleeping in). You wouldn’t think that a place like the Ibis, known as a budget hotel, would have such a great breakfast spread, but it did, and I must have eaten four plates of food (I didn’t eat at all yesterday). Here’s my cozy little room at the Ibis (click all photos to enlarge them):

Below are a few photos from my trip to breakfast, served on the eighth floor.

First, there are two elevators in the Ibis: a regular one and one to use on the Sabbath, which starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday.

In the Sabbath elevator, you don’t push buttons or touch the door, for the elevator goes up and down continuously, stopping at every floor with the door opening automatically. This conforms to the Orthodox Jewish habit of people prohibited from doing manual work on the Sabbath. (You’re supposed to go to the synagogue and spend the day contemplating the divine and reading the Torah.

But of course the Orthodox are constantly debating about what constitutes “work” on the Sabbath, and they have clever ways of getting around it (check out this quantum light switch, still subject to hot rabbinical debate).

The shabbos elevator. DO NOT TOUCH THE DOORS!

The breakfast room at the Ibis is large, with big windows overlooking the city. And the spread of comestibles is impressive. There’s Western food, which I ignored, and Israeli and Middle Eastern stuff, which is what I seized on.

Here’s the breakfast room, with the goodies lined up at the left. There are four stations, plus two coffee machines that make regular coffee and drinks like espresso and cappuccino. I didn’t see any meat, and I suspect the buffet is kosher.

The bread station, which includes pizza (remember, pizza, especially cold pizza, is one of the finest breakfast foods). The triangular sesame rolls at upper left were fantastic, but I can’t remember what they’re called. They went well with the cheese or dairy spreads (there’s also fruit as well as chocolate croissants and sweet rolls to the side).

This sweet pastry, which I loved, is called knafeh, and I was told it’s found all over the Middle East. It’s like a deconstructed version of the Greek pastry kataifi, but this one also has cheese in it. Wikipedia notes that there are several versions. This a good dessert to finish off breakfast, accompanied by strong espresso. I had two helpings.

Below: the heart of the meal: dairy spreads, cheeses, olives, salads, vegetables, and spreads like baba ghanoush. an eggplant puree. I had these with the triangular sesame breads, though I discovered bagels later (I saw neither cream cheese nor lox). But this was absolutely delicious and filling. The dairy spreads on the right were particularly toothsome, especially when mixed with the salads:

Cheeses and more salads:

The Western food, including eggs and potatoes. I didn’t touch it, for we had plenty of this for breakfast on the Galápagos cruise, and who wants eggs when you can have all the stuff above?

I didn’t understand these placemats. Why is the guy feeding a crow?

On the way from the airport to Jerusalem, I noticed a lot of very weird statues of creatures in parks and playgrounds:

Galápagos: Santa Cruz Island and Puerto Ayora

August 19, 2023 • 9:30 am

Here’s a brief account of Thursday’s perambulations on Santa Cruz Island and its largest city, Puerta Ayora. This is the first time we’ve viewed inhabited areas of the island (the population of the city is around 12,000, roughly half the population of the archipelago:

The city harbors two important organizations that we visited. The first is the headquarters of the Galápagos National Park, founded in 1968. It comprises 97% of the archipelago, and is a World Heritage Site. They also have a captive breeding program of giant tortoises (all the subspecies), which they hatch and, when they’re older, release on the appropriate island.

The other is the Charles Darwin Research Station, which monitors and supports all scientific research that goes on in the Galapagos. It’s also in charge of the important work of conserving the islands, including restocking species that have gone locally extinct and eliminating invasive species. Finally, it helps educate islanders, and Ecuadorians in general, about the islands

An aerial photo of the Station (and the nearby harbor) from its site:

Two photos of lava lizards from the National Park Headquarters. I’m not sure if these are two different species or a male and female of the same species. There are seven species (Microlophus spp.) in the archipelago.

I suspect these are different species based on the back patterns, but perhaps a reader knows better.

This is the stuffed remnants of the famous “Lonesome George,” the last remaining individual of his subspecies, helonoidis niger abingdonii.  He was found on the island of Pinta in 1971, and the grazing of feral goats (now largely eliminated) had reduced the population of this subspecies to only a single male: George. He became a worldwide symbol of conservation, as he, being a male, was the end of the line.

George was introduced to several females of related subspecies in captivity, but failed to produce offspring. (They were trying to reconstruct his phenotype by backcrossing.) George died in 2012, aged 101 or 102—fairly young for a giant tortoise. As a symbol of potential loss of species and subspecies, his stuffed remains reside in a temperature-controlled room at Park headquarters:

But nearby are the breeding sites for the turtle restoration project. Here’s one ripe for release: a “saddleback” tortoise. The subspecies come in two types: “saddlebacks,” with an indentation at the front of the shell, and “domed”, with no indentation.

This is a saddleback, and you can see that the indentation allows it to extend its neck out and up. These subspecies are found on dry islands where they must lift up their heads to graze on bushes and cacti. The domes variety (see below) are found on wetter islands where they can simply put their heads down and graze. Thus the differentiation is an example of an “adaptive radiation” driven by natural selection based on the different ecology of the islands.

A baby tortoise of the domed variety, about the size of my hand. It’s marked to designate where its ancestors came from. This one will be released when it’s bigger. The babies are ineffably cute (and are subject to a reptile trade in the U.S., which is legal so long as they are bred in the U.S.), but if you get one, prepare for a monster that can grow up to 700 pounds!

A saddleback adult raising its head:

The National Park has a small Darwin-themed museum, and contains this whale skeleton whose vestigial rear legs (which I mentioned in my talk) are clearly visible. I’ve put a circle around them, and took care to point them out to my shipmates as one piece of evidence for evolution. Note that they are not connected to the rest of the skeleton, reside entirely within the body, and thus are useless signs of history. (Vestigial organs need not be without function though: consider the repurposed “wings” of penguins.)

There’s an overly spiffy statue of Darwin outside the museum, with too much hair and holding a book that looks too thin to be either the Voyage of the Beagle or The Origin, and too large in size to be one of his notebooks. His shoes, a pair of English brogues, also look too modern, but I don’t known much about Darwin’s sartorial propensities.

The town of Puerto Ayora, which is quite touristy around the stations, with lots of trinkets on offer, but elsewhere is a typical Ecuadorian town

Tee shirts for sale. The trinkets make much of the double entendre of “boobies,” as you can see from the “I love boobies” shirt below.

A large carved wooden statue of a tortoise in a park. The inhabitants are rightly proud of how well they’ve conserved their islands and the flora and fauna.

The fish vendor site is my favorite place in the town, as seals and birds frequent it, hoping for a handout. Nearby a guy checks his cellphone while a sea lion rests comfortably nearby. I love how nonchalantly the locals coexist with the wildlife.

The best part of Puerto Ayora: the place they sell fresh fish by the harbor. Dozens of animals congregate nearby, drawn by the vendors’ generous habit of tossing a scrap of fish or two to the. animals. Even a marine iguana found its way to the place, though I don’t think they eat meat.

And dozens of hungry Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis, not endemic) crowd the fish vendor, preferring to wait for a handout than to go fishing in the sea.

An expectant bird:

It’s funny to watch the birds crowding the fish slicer. Every so often he tosses them an unwanted piece of fish, which they take off to the side and devour:

Even a brazen sea lion invades the stall; this one has put its head on the counter!

In the afternoon, after we had individual walks around town, we visited a local farm that grows cocoa, sugarcane, and coffee. We got to sample all of them, and all were excellent. Here’s a ripe cocoa pod, ready for extraction of the beans.

A still where the fermented sugar cane is distilled to make aguardiente, a potent (60% alcohol) form of  local moonshine. I had a small glass, and oy, was it strong! The still is very old, with the tub of water in the foreground used to cool the vapors containing ethanol

The pure spirit drips from the still:

The lunch stop was at a restaurant in the highlands called “El Manzanillo,” which is conveniently located next to a patch of grassland and forest that’s rife with giant tortoises. Look at all of them! These are not pets or residents; they are individuals who have come up to the highlands to graze and mate during the wet season. In a few months the females make the long trek down to the sea to mate and lay eggs. At their slow speed, it takes them weeks.

Each island has its own distinctive tortoise, with some bigger islands having two or three subspecies. My own view is that there are 15 subspecies in the endemic species Chelonoidis niger, but some of our naturalists think there are 11 living full species. As I said before, this is a judgement call given that most of them are geographically isolated from the others.

Lunch first, though I was eager to inspect the tortoises. It’s a pleasant, open-air restaurant.

This is probably the only time in my life that I was able to drink a sugarcane slush, made from pure sugarcane juice, which of course is very sweet.

And then a beer. I chose a local beer, “Boobies” porter. It was quite good. With it I had chicken, potatoes, and rice and beans.

On to the tortoises! This, as you can see, is one of the domed subspecies, and was estimated to be about 75 years old. (There’s no way of estimating age beyond size, though they are thought to live up to, or longer than, 150 years.) Now many of the turtles are marked by inserting chips in them, the same thing they do with cats and dogs.

It’s grazing. The dome prevents a big extension of the neck, but that’s not necessary as this subspecies simply lowers its head to eat the vegetation.

A head shot. They’re easily spooked, so you have to use a long focal length. Regulations stipulate that you must be at least two meters away from all animals.

As far as I can see, they ate every plant in the meadow. It must take a lot of vegetation to grow such a giant reptile!

A big ‘un with a little ‘un.

A fellow passenger trying to get a good head photo:

They were everywhere! It was a good day.

And one awaited us by our bus back to the port. The drivers are very careful to avoid them, as there are huge fines for running over one. There are also “tortoise crossing” signs along the roads, but I was unable to photograph one from a moving bus.

And a species I long wanted to see, the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis) of The Beak of the Finch fame. This is the species in which Peter and Rosemary Grant and their colleagues demonstrated strong natural selection (a change in beak size of 10% over the years 1976-1977), due to a drought that eliminated small seeds, and with them individuals with small beaks who starved to death.

Galápagos: Santiago island

August 18, 2023 • 9:30 am

First, the view from my cabin on Tuesday:  Isabela island:

And Wednesday’s “traditional Ecuadorian lunch”. It started off with a drink composed of purple Ecuadorian liqueur (at bottom) and pineapple juice. It was a good aperitif, but I don’t know what the booze was made from.

Ceviche with delicious pan de yuca: Ecuadorian (and Brazilian) cheese rolls made with cassava flour. They are addictive.

A palate-cleansing sorbet, whose identity was a mystery.

Mains: roast suckling pig (I asked for extra skin) with a cheese-and-corn vegetable and “towers” made of potato. Excellent, and quite filling

Dessert: dulce de leche cake, two cookies sandwiched around a chocolate filling, a piece of very bland cheese (like Indian paneer), and a piece of cream-filled chocolate. This lunch was so filling that I skipped dinner: I had NO appetite for the rest of the day.

Sunset on the islands:

Here’s where we were yesterday: off Santiago Island (formerly known as “James Island”). Darwin landed here—one of four islands on which he spent time.

A hearty breakfast. Some fruit juice I can’t identify, Ecuadorian latkes (o! for some sour cream!), a dish called tigrillo, made from scrambled eggs and green plantains (excellent), eggs, sausage, and fresh pineapple.

A morning Zodiac ride around the coast where we couldn’t land. You can see that the cacti are the first plant colonizers of the lava, making dirt for plants to follow. Note all the bird poop:

A Galápagos fur seal (I will call it a fur sea-lion because of its external ears). It has its bairn:

Shortly thereafter, we took a ride in a glass-bottom boat. It was my first trip in one, and it was okay, but not as good as snorkeling. (I can’t snorkel as I don’t have my prescription mask with me, and I’m blind without it.)

A mess o’ fish through the glass bottom. I have no idea what they are.


And a Santiago lava lizard. According to the Reptiles of Ecuador site, this must be Microlophus jacobi. 

The front feet of a marine iguana. The wicked claws are to help it grip the rocks as it grazes on algae.

And the clawed rear feet:

This species of yellow land iguana, Conolophus subcristatus, had gone extinct on Santiago but was reintroduced. It was a big success, and is doing well. This one, we were told, was a honking big male.

A front-on view of the animal above:

Lazing in the sun:

This smaller and less yellow individual, I was told, is a female.

A piece of lava that had contained gas bubbles:

A Galápagos fur sea lion with offspring:

And a happy pinniped face:

A non-endemic yellow warbler: the only yellow bird in the islands.

A mated pair of American oystercatchers, another non-endemic species. Male on the left, female on the right.

The female (resting):

And the red-eyed, red-beaked male:

A handful of sand reveals sea urchin spines, shells, pieces of lava, and miscellaneous “sand”:

And a rare sight, a pair of mockingbirds, the Galápagos birds that did make it into On the Origin of Species as exemplars of divergence after geographic isolation (nowhere in that big book will you find a mention of finches). There are four species on the archipelago; this one is the Galápagos mockingbird, Mimus parvulus.

A good shot of one. They’re hard to photograph as they’re always flitting about.

I’m a day late with this one, usually posted the day after, and we had a great day on Santa Cruz yesterday, seeing a gazillion giant tortoises and a gazillion pelicans (and a seal) importuning the vendors at the fish market. Stay tuned.