January 17, 2009 23:36 Jerusalem
This evening we took the 6 bus out to the Malcha Mall. The highlight of the evening: kosher lemehadrin Kentucky Fried Chicken. And I quote: “That was awesome! That was so good!”
But so far Saul’s verdict on Israel, is “I don’t like Israel.” What set him off first was his discovery Thursday night that many kids – not people but kids – his age and younger smoke. One of his first comments, made Thursday night as we walked through Ben Yehuda and Kikar Zion, was that Israel smelled like cigarette smoke with a kind of sweet fake odor.
His vehemence increased based on some of the uglier things we saw, including a pair of boys no older than his younger brother, Eitan (8th grade), smoking together proudly. One boy worked diligently on making smoke rings as they paced around the drop off area near the bus stop. Other boys, slightly older, boarded the bus with us. There were about 6 of them, and to a man they had to get the full toke out of their cigarettes before they got on. A group of girls, orbiting around them, displayed the same tobacco-ersatz sophistication.
The kids proceeded to behave abominably on the bus. But what Saul focused on as we walked back to our hotel was the cigarette smoking. “The Army is going to kill them. Once they get there they’ll have no idea what hit them. And then they’ll realize they’re wasting their lives.”
He commented further, telling me the kids are totally ungrateful for what they have. “They live here in the holy land and they have no idea how lucky they are.”
But all is not lost. “I also love schwarma. And the Wall was really awesome.” I’m pulling for lamb, American-style seasoned chicken and spirituality to win out over tobacco and its misguided sense of identity.
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