The Way Things Work in Israel

Tel Aviv
This blog begins a couple of days ago. When we arrived in Tiberias Saul was exhausted and over stimulated from our long drive and sight seeing. He napped and I went out for a bowl of soup. I made friends with the proprietor, Mickey, who’s family had been in Israel for generations.

I was having a great time and eager to plan the next day. Saul nixed everything I proposed. Then he started looking at the map of Israel and grabbed the guide book. While I ran another errand (the face soap adventure – see above) he compiled a list of the things he wanted to do. Among them: visit Sderot to demonstrate our solidarity.

I told Saul that if he was serious about visiting Sderot I would leave immediately. He was serious. So I had to admit to him I was speaking slighlty hyperbolic. It made no sense to drive from Tiberias to Sderot. My immediate task was to plan our visit to the Golan.

So the truth is I didn’t work on the Sderot visit until this afternoon. But I had something up my sleeve: before I left Los Angeles, I asked Gil Artzyeli, Los Angeles Deputy Consul General of Israel, for some contacts that could help me arrange a visit. So at 5:45 pm I started with the first name on Gil’s list. By 9 p.m. I had been invited to meet with the Mayor of Sderot and to visit Barzili Hospital in Ashkelon. When I told Saul we would meet with the Mayor he was thrilled.
And in between, our architect, Hagy Belzberg, called up to let me know he’d followed up on my ask for help meeting Moshe Safdie. Safdie is a personal friend, and Hagy arranged for me to speek with Moshe Safdie, the renowned architect whose accomplishments include the Yad Vashem re-design. Did I mention Hagy is also an Israeli?