Israel – Kim M. da Costa

”I love you”, sa den unga kvinnan

Men jag har ju inte berättat det roliga som hände på senaste resan till Israel!

Eller snarare på vägen tillbaka till Finland.

När jag checkade in på Ben Gurions flygplats satt det en ung kvinna bakom disken. Hon tittade i mitt pass och när hon såg mitt namn så sa hon följande:

”Jag älskar dig. Jag vet vem du är. Du är en av de där ”heja Israel”-människorna och jag älskar dig. Jag följer dig och det du skriver och gör och Du. Är. Underbar. Ha en trevlig flygresa.”

När jag sedan kom till gaten och skulle kliva ombord så stod den unga kvinnan där igen för att scanna min biljett. Nu sa hon:

”Jag är så exalterad över att få se dig!”

Är de inte underbara och kärleksfulla, de där israelerna?
Jo, det är de.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Att knyta band

Vi läste en del om kabbalah på judekursen i Danmark och efter det har jag läst många böcker i ämnet.

Den röda tråden – som sägs skydda mot DET ONDA ÖGAT – har jag burit i två år.
Den trillar av efter 3-4 månader och då knyter man en ny.
Jag har märkt (eftersom jag är vidskeplig samt ”tror på allt”) att innan jag knyter en ny – det är då något otrevligt händer. Eller allt spårar ur i allmänhet.

Helst ska någon ”man älskar” knyta och säga en särskild bön. I dessa moderna tider knöt jag själv den senaste samtidigt som Han satt i Israel och via skype ‘bönade’ åt mig (på ren och fin hebreiska). En fin stund!

Kabbalah har fått ett något dåligt rykte tack vare Hollywood-versionen som var så populär för några år sedan, men lär man sig om riktiga kabbalah så lär man sig att se på saker och ting på ett helt annat sätt.

I Tel Aviv har jag besökt The Kabbalah Centre. Där kan man gå kurser och man kan hitta en massa massa massa intressanta böcker. (Exempelvis: Rebooting – Defeating Depression With The Power of Kabbalah.)

Efter att ha läst de böcker som jag har läst, så uppskattar jag kabbalah på grund av att det man lär sig känns så otroligt självklart. It makes sense.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Kokande kropp i fyragradigt Jerusalem

Fotot är från en tidigare resa (Döda havet).

Jag har ännu inte skrivit några rader om min senaste (femtonde?) resa till Israel.

Det har sina orsaker som vi inte måste gå in på nu.

Jag kan dock säga att vad den unge mannen hade ordnat för mig med anledning av min födelsedag var… Det finaste och mest romantiska jag varit med om under mitt förvånansvärt långa liv.

Tänk: kibbutzhotell på bergstopp i närheten av Jerusalem (med spa, bubbelpool, simbassäng, enorm frukost osv) samt kvällen därpå utomhusfilmvisning mot väggarna i nämnda stads äldsta delar.

Det var fantastiskt. Det var vackert. Det var romantiskt.

Jerusalem bjöd på ynka fyra grader och regn – men min kropp kokade av hetta.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Den bästa dagen

Just den här dagen är alltid den bästa.
Jag talar om dagen innan jag reser till Israel.

De senaste åren har jag rest 3-4 gånger per år men varje gång känner jag samma lyckorus.

Jag trivs så bra i Israel och jag trivs så bra i världens bästa stad – Tel Aviv.

Denna gång blir min vistelse dock både kort och annorlunda.

För det första ska jag ju inte ”bara” träffa vänner, utan jag ska även träffa ”den där dejten”. Han ska möta upp mig på flygplatsen och tydligen har han någon sorts överraskning planerad. Det blir mer kibbutz och Jerusalem än Tel Aviv den här gången. Så mycket vet jag.

Han känns som en mycket generös och omtänksam ung man – och sådana karlar växer ju som bekant inte på palmer.

Sedan ska min födelsedag ”firas” på ett mycket lugnt sätt tillsammans med andra ”utlandssvenskar”.
En lugn middag och lite socialt umgänge – det är vad jag önskar i födelsedagspresent.

Här sitter jag nu och funderar på vad jag ska ha med mig. Dator + sladd, mobil + sladd, israelisk mobil + sladd, väninnans saltlakrits (alltid ett måste) (är saltlakrits verkligen något så oerhört nordiskt att endast vi gillar det?). Jag har lite shekels att ta med mig också. Och jag reser ingenstans utan penna och papper + en oläst bok.

Åh, antidepressiva, lugnande och de där tabletterna som ska hjälpa mig att sluta snusa (eller sluta med nikotinsubstitut i och med att jag ju bor i snusfria Finland). (EU är ett skämt som bör avvecklas.)

Shorts! Kanske även shorts! Det ska tydligen vara ”nordiskt sommarväder” i Tel Aviv i veckan (dock betydligt kyligare i Jerusalem).

Detta blir första gången jag reser till Tel Aviv med Finnair. I de flesta fall har jag rest med Norwegians supertidiga morgonflyg och det är så klart lajbans att landa i Israel runt lunchtid och ha en hel dag framför sig – men en är ju helt slut och förstörd efter att ha klivit upp på tok för tidigt, så morgondagens kvällsflyg känns som en välkommen förändring i mitt så föränderliga liv.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Livets vimsiga, festliga vägar

Här sitter jag, i Sessionssalen på Judiska Församlingen.
I tjänsten har vi en så kallad ”bootcamp”.
Vi har flugit in en mycket vis herre från Israel, och han ”ger Israelvänner och -aktivister de rätta verktygen att stå upp för Israel i en ofta fientlig miljö”.

Här träffade jag en Facebookvän som är ute på en väldigt liknande livsresa som jag.
Faktiskt har våra familjer – med ursprung i ett annat land – bott på samma gata i den västsvenska stad som jag växte upp i.

Och nu ses vi i detta skede i livet.

Jag har under åren träffat många som vandrar/har vandrat längs samma stigar.

Livet kan vara spännande mellan varven!
En måste bara vara öppen och våga säga JA TACK.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

A letter from Tel Aviv

Tel Aviv is a vibrant city and for someone who is looking for a good life and a good time… It has everything one wants. When I was young I had lived in New York City for a while, so I can compare… and I think I know what I’m talking about… I don’t know what people think about Israel in Sweden, but I have to explain that people who live here have no less fun (If they have the means to do it of course) than anywhere else in the world. Please believe me that one can live here for a long time without even thinking for a moment about politics or for example about the Arab-Israeli conflict!…

We’re going a lot to the theater and cinemas. Last weekend for example was a fun weekend. We went in midday to see ”West Side Story” which was performed in English by an American group at the Israeli Opera House in Tel Aviv. It was a great show with wonderful dancers and singers… After the show we went to a nice lunch at a restaurant not far from our apartment… The next day, on Saturday, we went again, this time to the theater to see a play. We saw ”Little man, what now?” At the Cameri Theater in Tel Aviv. The play is an adaptation based on the book of the German author Hans Fallada

This time too we were lucky and it was a fine show with good actors. After the show We went to a nearby Café and enjoyed a light meal and a coffee. Then we went to a bookstore and bought some books in Hebrew. My wife Was ready to make reservations and to go to another visiting show from the Berlin theater which took place on Sunday but I told her that three shows in three days are a bit too much for me… I tell all these details only to explain that people live here quite nicely just like any other city in the world.

Next weekend we’ll probably go to a movie or meeting friends or both…

A greeting from Dan Sifri

Tel Aviv

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Jerusalem Light Rail, Revisited

Once again, my family and I are visiting Israel from the northwest corner of the U.S., in Seattle, Washington, where I manage an Israel resource center (www.BroaderView.org). And once again, we are spending our summer in my hometown of Rehovot. While the kids are at day camp—“kaytana” in Hebrew—I roam the country by bus and train and car to see friends and acquaintances, old and new. Once again, my travels bring me to Jerusalem for a day of meetings. I wrote last year about my adventures on Jerusalem’s “CitiPass” light rail, and got some very positive reactions, so I thought I would post an update.

The air is cooler in Jerusalem, drier, crisper, breezier than on the inland plains. It feels different not only physically, but also spiritually—literally, uplifting, where my step is lighter.

The security checkpoint at the entrance to the Central Bus Station in Jerusalem is closed. It is not abandoned; the x-ray machine and metal-detector gate are still there, but pushed aside, unused. Two security guards stand around, more engaged in talking to each other than observing the passersby. Ironically, I feel more secure, not less, with the lax security. Obviously, Israelis are no longer anxious about suicide bombers, and it’s easier to come and go.

Walking along Jaffa Road, I note that it is back to the bustling commercial area it once was, before it was torn up for years to build the light-rail lines. There are fewer cars now and more pedestrians, and the Mahane Yehuda market is as busy as ever. Hair salons and clothes shops, hardware stores and cafes, a youth hostel and a hat seller, old buildings and new line my route, along with quite a few construction sites in progress. The economy is obviously booming.

The light rail passes by every ten minutes or so, silent on its tracks but clanging a bell to warn pedestrians to get out of the way. I fumble with the ticket machine but eventually figure it out and deposit my coins, 6.60 NIS (about $1.85) for a single-ride ticket. On the train, it seems that pretty much everyone is talking into a cell phone–speaking Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, Spanish, and a few other languages I can’t quite make out. (One of them was probably Amharic, spoken by Ethiopian-Israelis, based on the speakers’ skin color and facial features.) An ultra-Orthodox (“haredi”) man with long side-curls seems unperturbed standing next to a young woman in shorts and a tank top. An elderly Arab man helps an Orthodox mother maneuver her baby stroller onto the train. Another mother is talking on the phone about her teenage daughter who is bored at home, looking for advice on what she might do during the long summer vacation.

Next to me is a group of teenagers, each with a tag in a plastic holder hanging around his or her neck. I squint to make out the fine print, not wanting to appear nosy (though obviously I am). The tags say “Athlete,” and in smaller letters, “USA –Tennis.” The green lanyards say “Maccabiah 2013.” These young men and women are part of Team USA, the largest delegation to the “Jewish Olympic games” that open tonight. I start chatting with them, and learn fairly quickly that one of the boys is from Mercer Island, Washington; his family and mine belong to the same synagogue. A small world indeed!

It’s good to be back in Jerusalem.

–Nevet

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

”You only know what your media wants you to know”

Sometimes a ‘comment’ becomes a ‘letter’.
Enjoy.

@DannyBoy

The answers to your claims, lays in your own comment:
1. B’Tselem בצלם & rememberthesechildren
2. ”Berlin Wall”
3. ”The world doesn’t care what you think”
4. ”What your nation is doing towards the Palestinians”
__________________________

1. B’Tselem is a radical left-wing, civil organization, who is known for its inaccurate, sometime false or fictional information and manipulative facts. Btselem people have even ADMIT that their sample is not reliable, doesn’t reflect the specific death cases and therefor not valid. Btselem has admitted that several times in the past!

Here’s a simple one – Just the comparison between IDF and Gaza deaths is ridiculous and very wrong. Gaza has a few terror organizations. The most known ones are Hamas and Fatah, which are in a conflict between themselves and there are many mutal killings between these 2 groups. You must have seen the dead body, being dragged by a motorbike in the streets of Gaza – that’s a Fatah activists… His killing has nothing to do with the IDF.

If that is not enough, then there are also different tribes of Arabs living in Gaza. They never get married with each other and some are in a feud and runs a tribal militias. So yes, there are also killings between the Arab clans and families – all of that is something you never hear about in the commercial media.

Why do Bzelem and such organizations do this?
– Money (lot of it!) which comes from anti-Israel organizations in both the radical Islam and the radical Christian world.
– Political agendas against the right parties (Israel has a full democracy)
– social agenda

____________

2. ”Berlin Wall” – That belongs to Berlin, so please let’s respect the memory of the WW2 victims and leave this topic in Germany.

As for the wall in Israel –
Did you ever ask yourself how much money such a wall costs to make? If it was all about limiting people to move from one place to another, there would be no need for a wall. A much cheaper wire fence can do that job too.

This wall is there to STOP the BULLETS flying from ARAB towns, by ARABS, over Israeli towns, roads and passing by Israeli people.
I bet that no one ever bothers to report on that in your local media, but you can still find the facts around the net, among all the Anti-Israeli propaganda.

As for preventing Arabs to move into Israel – this is a results of EXTREME TERROR ACTS, by ARABS since the 2nd Intifada in 2001 – Shooting attacks on Israeli, Suicide bombers in buses 3-4 times a week (yes!!! that’s REAL), explosive devices in public places in the major cities in Israel, and of course 13 years of Rockets (Kasam, Grads etc) being shot from Gaza, over Israeli cities, despite Arafat sign on the Oslo Agreements!

Do you still wanna talk about the ”Berlin Wall”?
They may have to build one in Malmö, one day…

______________

3. ”The world doesn’t care what you think”

I think that this blog and many others prove this to be wrong too
(Thanks Kim) and that without talking about the many politicians, academic people and artists around the world, who show their support for Israel.

_______________________

4. ”What your nation is doing towards the Palestinians”

Well – what do you know about that?
What do you know about the reasons?
What do you know about the different Arab tribes who migrated to Israel in the past 200 years and now, they call themselves ”Palestinians” since 1967…

– You know ONLY what your MEDIA WANTS YOU TO KNOW.
The academic term to this phenomenon is – ”Construction of reality”. The media may be accepted as an official and reliable source of information, while in actual, it’s a commercial business. Like any other businesses, it’s meant to make profit. In this case it’s adverts. The only way to expose the audience to it is how to make them keep watching it. Therefore – over-dramas, shock, negative information, war, fights, conflicts, blood libels…

I guess that you have never seen in your local news any reports about Barkan factories, in Samaria (a part of the so called ”West Bank” since recent years). This is where Arabs and Israelis have been working together for almost 30 years now and are all doing perfectly fine!
BTW, if you support the boycott of these factories, remember that the people you hurt are the Arabs who live in Samaria and have no other way to make a living (no, the Palestinian authority doesn’t develop any employment or infrastructure, for it’s citizens – Israel does that part).

______________

I hope that this was read with care and attention.
If you really are interested in this topic, you can easily find a lot of valid information about Mass media, IDF, Israel, Jews, Anti-Israel organizations, The New Anti-Semitism, Hamas, Fatah, Oslo agreement, the wall, rockets, British Mandatory, Israel’s wars, Jewish history and archeology, who those ”Palestinians” really are and even their part in Hitler’s forces…

– It’s all out there – you just have to switch your mind from consuming adverts to learning, and start to accept the fact that you’ve been fooled and brainwashed by very evil people – I know who they are, what they are like, so I can’t blame you for your false assaults.

Peace!

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

Lena’s letter

In light of the awful terror attack in London I decided to take time to share with you some knowledge. It is not about Israel, it’s about the huge danger in your concentration in the wrong things.

It’s about Europe.

It’s about the whole world.

I will start with the subject of religion. Islam differs from Judaism in many aspects. One of them is Islamic endless attempt to force its religion on peoples of the world. Judaism, on the contrary, is very ”closed”. Some Islamic people dream about and pray for Islam in the whole world. But others take it too far and do it violently.

There is a group of Islamic extremists all around Europe (and other parts of the world), who enlarge their group by brainwashing other people. They violently and strategically plan to destroy democracy in the whole Europe and the rest of the world (because ”People can’t decide about rules, only Allah can”). They pray outside, in front of you in order to provoke you. They organize noisy demonstrations against your government and from time to time kill people in the name of their God while behind closed doors plan bigger and dangerous operations and train their Shahids.

Shahids claim, by the way, that they symbolically kill people to revenge the Muslim deaths. However, they kill themselves for different reasons (such as ”family honour” Shia Islam vs. Sunni Islam, bad life conditions because of dictators etc.) AND they live in the Western world because it is a better place.

On the other hand, there are many very normal and even nice, smart and contributing Muslims who silently believe in what they believe and live their normal lives in Europe. Some of them openly support Israel. But they put their lives in danger for doing it.

Anyway, look at the Europeans now. They are busy with the wrong things. Under their noses, groups of people try to destroy their world and force on them something that is completely opposite from democracy and freedom (although I don’t understand the reason). Why destroy a better world? Just go back to where you came from. But there is always this stupid war because of religion and MISINFORMATION (misinformation they get and misinformation you get).

Now about Israelis,

Israel is a ”better place” in the Middle East.

Israelis live with Muslims in peace in Israel. Maybe we are not big lovers, but neighbours. Very near our cities there are areas with such groups of Islamic extremists, who plan to destroy us, the only democracy in the Middle East, where Muslims are the most free.

The extremists do everything for it. It happened so that they rule the civilians in these areas and hide in hospitals and schools. They use children as live shields for YOU to give legitimacy for their actions. They value death over life. There are times when they succeed breaking into our cities and kill people in the name of Allah. There are disgusting events you probably never heard about, or heard but were sure Israelis were the ones who were responsible for it. These extremists broke into houses and killed whole families with tiny children, using knifes. On the other occasions they bombed buses or shot at bypassing cars. And for more than 10 years have been bombing us with rockets.

The IDF don’t even kill these terrorists, but put them in jail in good conditions. We heal them with our money. Why? Because our belief says that only God can take life, and man cannot do that. It’s part of our mentality. But there are occasions when there is no other choice but to protect ourselves.

In summary, I want to say that if I knew about Israel what you know, I would probably hate it too…

Just learn more about the truth in Israel, Middle East and even Europe to be able to face real big dangers in this world.

Start reading about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia4Belgium

http://www.bluestarpr.com/pallywood-fiction-lies-about-israel.html?gclid=CLGj-Lm1r7cCFcVY3godYVYAgg

http://arabsforisrael.blogspot.co.il/

…….

Lena
24 year old student from Israel

P.S. In my family there are Christians, Jews and Muslims. I was raised as both Christian and Jewish and married a man with Jewish – Muslim – Christian roots and we all believe in humanity. Israel is a Holy place for me because I live among people who believe in life, in family and in education. I live amongst people with the same mentality as mine – a unique one for Israel.

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!

A letter of appreciation

Hi everyone,

The first introduction with Kim’s blog was in the Israeli independence day of 2012 in an article I read. I was amazed to see the dedication of Kim of convincing the Swedish media that israelis are actually trying to live their life like everyone else.

There are many obstacles on the way to a stable agreement with the Palestinians. Israelis are suspicious because of the terrorist groups. But we still believe that conditions will change over time.

I wanna thank Kim for his courage to stand up against the Swedish media and speak in a different voice. It’s not an easy task and I’m sure Kim is not having fun about it. I admire his dedication and hope that others will follow him, through a true understanding of the Middle East jungle and the interests of both sides.

Sincerely,

Yair Halachmi
Rosh Ha’ain
Israel

Gilla, dela, följ gärna!