Roads I didn’t Take And Public Transportation

Many years ago when we were students and newly wed, I worked part time at one of the Steimazki bookstores in Haifa. A colleague, a lovely lady, had just moved to Haifa and told me that she was selling her house in Binyamina in order to buy an apartment on Mount Carmel. At that time, almost forty years ago, a house with a substantial yard in that small sleepy town cost the same as a modest apartment in the Carmel.

I had never really been to Binyamina, at that point, but felt that I knew the place since the train from Haifa to Tel Aviv stopped there. It seemed as though the town was within an easy reach from Haifa.

That night I went home and told my husband about that house, I wanted to buy it but he wasn’t at all sure. The main reason for his reluctance was that the train did not run on Saturday, and we would be stranded there. One could not move outside of town with no car, my husband argued, and that would mean additional expenses. In Haifa busses ran on Saturday and we did not need a car.

Although I was convinced that we were letting a lifetime opportunity slip away, I didn’t pursue the matter further. My husband was right, moving away from the city meant more than getting a good deal on a house.

Perhaps we should have listened to my intuition and invested in real estate in Binyamina. Prices in that town went up and prices in Haifa went down.

But today all those years later the train still does not run on Saturday and people without a car are stranded. Haifa, on the other hand, is still the only civilized city in Israel with public transportation on Saturdays and holidays.

Earlier this holiday a Facebook protest encouraged users to complain on the page of the transportation minister Israel Katz and express their frustration at the fact there is no public transportation in Israel on Saturdays and holiday and in particular on the long second holiday this year. Omri Hazut a public transportation user reminded the minister that "The seventh day of Passover is on Thursday, and the last night is Friday. From Thursday afternoon until Saturday night, there will be no public transportation!"

The Minister responded with the following outrageous argument: "Tell (Isaac) Buji Herzog to commit not to sit in a government that won't change the status quo. The display of hypocrisy by you and your friends on the left ... was proven in the last elections and got the appropriate response at the polls."

The Minister reacted like a bully in the most unprofessional way. As we well know Buji was not elected to be our prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu was and it is the government’s responsibility to take care of the  people who depend on public transportation.

In Haifa, people who use public transportation on Shabbat could do so because the “left” and the founding fathers of that workers’ city have always cared about the welfare of the residents and made sure that on their day of rest they could enjoy the city and get around, even as far as the sea shore.

It’s a shame that the “right” has no interest in doing the same. my guess is that Katz’s own people never ride the bus.

The essay appeared in the Times Of israel

http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/roads-i-didnt-take-and-public-transportation/

Enigma Of A Cultural Hero Or Between Arik Einstein And Bibi Netanyahu

NOV.28.2013 -

I am sad today, my favorite Israeli singer Arik Einstein (1939—2013) died suddenly yesterday morning. He wasn’t only loved by me, he was immensely popular. But since he was a highly private person and his family asked for a quiet funeral, I didn’t expect that an official state funeral would close down the streets of Tel Aviv.  Moreover, I couldn’t imagine that our  prime minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would appear at the funeral and claim Arik Einstein as his own. This was a hit below the belt--please let Arik RIP. I wish my last memory of the beloved singer could remain untarnished by an image of Bibi Netanyahu making yet another speech.

Actually this is a good place to start because everything about Arik Einstein was the exact opposite of Netanyau. Arik Einstein was a very talented man who wanted to be left alone, to maintain his privacy and to do the things that he loved quietly and outside of the limelight. Netanyahu is an intelligent man who cannot survive without constant attention and demands plenty of recognition for everything that he does.

Privacy is not a concept that Netanyahu appreciates; his rise to the top has only been possible thanks to television: like a sunflower he basked and flourished in its light. Since his days as the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations (1984 to 1988) when he “perfected his technique,” he has not missed an opportunity to be seen in public or to speak on television.

In contrast, in the early 80s Arik Einstein, by then already a successful and highly acclaimed singer and actor, stopped appearing in public.  However, he never ceased working and continued to make music and record. He had a special talent to attract and discover quality musicians and to bring out their special qualities. He collaborated with a large number of musicians and sang their songs in a beautiful clear baritone voice.  His clean and unaffected voice has become a symbol to everything which was honest about Israel, a voice of yearning for better and simpler days. 

 Arik Einstein changed the music scene in Israel for the better but never took any credit for it. He  even refused to accept the most prestigious award in Israel, the "Israel Prize.”

In an extrovert and noisy nation like ours, it is incomprehensible how such a private person who has stayed home for more than 30 years could become a national symbol and a cultural hero.  This quality of not tooting one's own horn but just doing the job quietly and professionally, even meticously, is also not a common Israeli trait. At the funeral someone said that every one of us has his/her own Arik.  I feel that this could be part of the answer.  We would like to believe that we are a little better than we really are,  and  that within us we have some of the humility, professionalism and integrity that Arik had.

It helped that Arik was good looking, witty and graceful, and since he withdrew from the public eye so long ago, he never grew old. In our hearts  he remained the Israeli Peter Pan -- forever fresh, handsome and young.

As for Bibi, unlike Dorian Gray, this fine looking man did age publicly in front of our eyes and his faults have become increasingly prominent - one of the unfortunate effects of over exposure.

Still since he took the time to be at the funeral and to speak about Arik, perhaps it could be an opportunity for Netanyahu to learn from this cultural hero a lesson about integrity. If such reflection does take place, I wouldn’t even mind to have my last memory of  Arik Einstein mixed with an image of Bibi.

  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58uKBDtZyo