Moses Montefiore: did you remember to put in public restrooms?

Today class was cancelled since our teacher was sick, so instead I decided to go for a nice walk while waiting to see if my health clinic received the last blood test (we had received 2/3, but were waiting on the third). After wandering around Ben Yehuda I ended up in the first Jewish homes built outside the walls of Jerusalem in the late 1800’s by Moses Montefiore. I remember we read about this in our first year Hebrew class. I had never actually seen it though until now, and I had a fun time finally seeing what our book described. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to REALLY enjoy it as I had to pee like a racehorse at that moment. I kept trying to desperately recall the paragraph in the book, thinking that that would somehow aid in finding a bathroom. No dice…..

Also during my walk I bumped into one of my former co-workers from the t-shirt store. It was terribly awkward. Mostly because I thought she was going in for a hug, which I was kind of pissed about because I hate hugging people I don’t know all that well, but it turns out she wasn’t, so it turned into this sort of awkward dangly thing. I wonder if I’m ever going to get used to the concept of constantly bumping into people I know or whether it’s going to continue to catch me off guard and make me panic about going out into public at all for the rest of my life in Israel.

It’s really creepy when you’ll be on the bus or something and you look out the window and you pass by someone you know who is walking on the street, and, mind you, you’re on the complete opposite side of Jerusalem from where you both live. And good luck if you skip class one day, because you’ll almost without fail bump into your teacher at the mall or bank or whatever later in the day after class is out—this has already happened to a couple of my classmates.

I’ve also noticed that I see strangers on the street at least twice. As I was told by some Germans, “You see everyone twice.” Well that never happened in LA because it has like the same amount of people as all of Israel, but here in Jerusalem? It’s like every morning I see someone and then several hours later in a different part of the city I see them again. And then there are the strangers I see constantly, like people on the bus who I recognize. Like the old man who always looks like he’s about to vomit, who rides the 9.20 am bus every morning. It’s a little frightening to feel like you know everybody.


Anyway, while I was out I saw there was a rally calling for the government to get back Gilad Shalit. They had people waving flags with his face on them, and people with t-shirts and signs and whatnot. There were banners everywhere saying that Gilad is still alive, and people about my age were handing out bumper stickers to passing cars. Apparently it was outside the Prime Minister’s residence or something, but I didn’t realize it at the time, I only just read about it online.

I don’t want to get all political or whatever on this blog, but I just want to say that issues like whether or not to swap Gilad Shalit for hundreds of terrorists make me feel like I am 100% NOT entitled to an opinion. Certainly I have an opinion, but whether or not my opinion is valid is a totally different thing. When this kind of argument comes up, I feel kind of like how I imagine an Israeli might feel if he were in the US around election times. An Israeli might express his opinion to an American friend, but ultimately the American friend doesn’t give a shit if the Israeli’s opinion differs from his own because ultimately it’s the American who is going to have to live with the consequences of the vote. The Israeli’s opinion is more or less meaningless. Here in Israeli I feel kind of like the opposite, but the same. I AM going to have to live with the consequences of what happens here, whether it’s elections or prisoner swaps or whatever, but the fact is that I didn’t live through what happened before. Who am I to tell the families of terror victims to get over the fact that their loved ones’ murders are going to be released to get one soldier back? I didn’t live through the intifadas, I didn’t lose any family members or friends, and apart from seeing images of it on the news it had absolutely no effect on my life. But at the same time, who am I to tell Gilad Shalit’s family and friends, or even Gilad Shalit himself, that he can just sit in some unknown prison for the rest of his life? I don’t have family or friends in the army, I have no way of possibly imagining one of my family members, like a brother serving in the army, in that situation, and I have nothing in my life to possibly bring that situation close to home. So I guess what I’m saying is that, in general, who am I to have an opinion on the matter? I feel kind of like my expressing an opinion on certain things going on in Israel is a bit like waltzing into a car dealership and immediately buying the shiniest car I see, before I do any research or test drive or whatever. Except an opinion is a million times more important.

I don't know. Just a thought.