Israel Ramble letters Greetings! Thank you all for your responses to my survey, it has been helpful and educational. Most of you liked the new format, the personal stories and photos and my renderings about Israel. I do worry that the newsletter format will feel too formal, because I would like these letters to be from me to you. I write them as they come and wish it to be a kind of Israeli buffet you can scan and then eat only what seems palatable. I usually do not write directly about political and religious subjects. I am more interested in what may bring us together, our commonalities, rather than in our differences and I am not broadly educated in those subjects. Today's Israel Ramble letter features Lake kineret. Personal stories - Suddenly a man wakes up and feels he is a nation.. and start walking.. Shlomo Artzi 2012 Shlomo Artzi 1970 One of our synagogue friends had asked me on Shabbat about a Israeli song,"pitom kam adam" - Suddenly a man wakes up in the morning .He feels he is a nation and start walking And to all he meets on his way he calls out 'Shalom! The original singer Shlomo Artzi, his songs were the milk and honey of our childhood (and also our scorn sometimes), is still creating and singing even now, some 40 or 50 years later. I believe in some ways Israel artists rather than the politicians are leading the way, simply because they are freer to say what they really think, feel and sense, and implant new ideas and reflect the mood of the time. They do not get all the other singers singing opposite songs right at them.., they can say things indirectly, insinuated, they can be much more effective on the national psyche if you like, reflecting the spirit of the time and where winds are blowing, but I am afraid I am getting too philosophical. It is for me a quintessential Israeli song, it has hope in it, it brings together the past, present and future, and the close connection between the personal and the national is palpable. I remember asking one of my family members once how he was and he answered me by talking about the government, the national and the personal at that moment merged. When you are in Israel it often feels you are taking an active roll in shaping the national reality, it is especially experienced when serving in the army. Then I remembered this Israeli flash mob in Jerusalem I really enjoyed, based on that song, watch it here. Here is the original 1973 Shlomo Artzi rendition, and watch here for a more currentversion only for the younger generation please, do not watch it if your not under 20. If you have the eyes you can sense, by the difference of these 2 renditions, what had transpired in the last 40 years in Israel. Boaz Pnini Bridges 2 Israel Food for thought - My humble opinion about media coverage I am sure most of the newspaper reporters and media people are doing their best in bringing us news, without which we will be in the dark. Having said that.. trying to know Israel, or anything for that matter, through the media is like trying to know a person by his balance sheet, or by the car he is driving, it does tell you something, but it can be very superficial and only partial. Like the Russian doles, the babushkas, you see the outer one, but inside there are few hidden ones. Add to that the fact that the media is focuses on the extremes, good and bad, but have you heard about the warm smile Mr. Israel gave to his neighbor this morning, unlikely, but it is a part of reality, and life is made by little small moments, rather than by the sensational we are being bombarded with every second every day. The media has to sell and extreme sells and it often has to respond to the lowest common denominator, that's what sells best. So I am going to stop here, before getting too heated, Boaz Pnini Bridges 2 Israel It is not funny - A response from the Israeli Donkey Association One of our donkeys in the Judean Desert OP-ED from the Donkey Association in Israel Your Donkey Business article on your February 20th issue had come to our attention and we would like to bring to your attention what had really happened on that day, so that you may be better informed. We like to let you know that our donkeys are spread all around your earth and they are on a special mission. It occur to us that you think you are in control of us, but lets put things right. As we slowly chew plants along the road, we are here to teach you patience. We like roaming around and then we like to make you feed us and groom us and give us a warm place to sleep in, you call stable. It has astonished us that you think you are our master where in fact we make you do all these things for us. It has been documented in our annals this very story of your 1966 year, we have our own donkey calendar however, and on that day our donkey stationed in your Kibbutz called Yavne, feeling the urge to run free, had opened the gate of his stable to go where he wishes. Then you heard about it and sent your children chasing him, but for your information, this same donkey had made this voyage frequently out of his stable and back without you noticing, so your big clamor that day had no reason or purpose. On that very day the aforementioned donkey your children had been chasing, amongst them a child you called Boaz. We must informed you that our donkey found your chasing after him quite funny and grotesque and above all unnecessary, but knowing your human weaknesses, we understood. So, we just wanted to put things right for the sake of proper human donkey relationship in the future and to keep you informed of things as they really were. Your devoted servant, The Israeli Donkey branch of Donkey International