And we tell ourselves no. Not that our schools are invulnerable fortresses, but an attack of this magnitude would be difficult to setup. One or 2 people with suicide belts might be (God-forbid) possible, but not such a large attack with weaponry and explosives. Just the logistics would, we believe, be too difficult to pull off here. Think of the vehicles that would be required to carry that number of people to the school through all the security that is considered normal in Israel. In addition, in most of the schools here there isn't a single room with the space to hold all the students. So it would take even more attackers and weapons. And so we tell ourselves no.
Of course another issue for Israel is will the attitude change in Russia to the fighting of terror? (In other words, will Russia recognize that Israel is fighting terror?) The arrival of the Russian Foreign Minister in Israel this week may give some answers. (Probably not.)
R faced a situation of violence in school. During the bus ride (it's a private bus paid for by the parents), two girls decided to take apart the foam on the armrest and throw them at R. R told them to stop, but they didn't. When S heard about it, she told the girls' teacher. The next afternoon, a girl (I don't know if was one of the original 2) stopped R from getting on the bus. R avoided a fight (do I approve or disapprove?) and got on the next bus, which also passes our place. Many open questions on this one, we'll have to see what happens today.
I went to the wedding of a friend from work last Thursday. This friend lives on a secular kibbutz, so I had to check if the food was kosher (if it wasn't then I would have to decide whether to go to the wedding anyway, but leave before the meal). 3 of us shared a car ride and it was my first experience of watching a GPS system (on a HP iPAQ) give directions. It worked pretty well, but still sent us to the locked back entrance of the kibbutz instead of the front gate. We arrived on time (it took about an hour and a half) and congratulated the bride and groom, the parents of the bride and groom and then went to nosh on the pre-wedding food and drinks. Some time after we arrived the Rabbi who would perform the wedding arrived, and after a while came close and seemed to want to talk to me. The rabbi asked me if I would agree to be a witness at the wedding. I said yes, if the bride and groom agreed. They agreed and I advanced to from the role of simple guest to witness. Now my assumption was that the rabbi had asked the groom who would be suitable, but as assumptions often are, I was wrong.
Jewish weddings require 2 "kosher" witnesses. A straight-forward requirement is that the witnesses not be related to the bride and groom and that the witnesses be designated as "the" witnesses, which excludes from the role of witness all other guests. (There's more, but that's enough for now.) Rabbis normally prefer religious men as witnesses and I fitted the bill. I signed the government wedding certificate for registering the wedding with the Ministry of the Interior and the ketubah (the Jewish wedding certificate given by the groom to the bride. The rabbi also asked the groom if he wanted anyone in particular to say the blessings under the chupah (the wedding canopy). The groom said no, he (the Rabbi) should do it.
When the time came to gather under the chupah, several men (relatives of the bride and groom came forward requesting to say 1 of the blessings under the chupah, the rabbi allocated blessings and then surprised me by offering to me to say one of the blessings as well. This change of plans surprised the groom, but afterwards he said the choices of whom to say the blessings were very suitable.
It's a Jewish customer for the guests to entertain the bride and groom. Even on a secular kibbutz, this custom was not forgotten, with young girls and couples dancing in front of them.
Interestingly, because the friends from work came without partners, when the time came for dancing, none of us danced.
But what about my "incorrect assumption." Ah, I assumed that the rabbi went to the groom and asked who would be suitable. That wasn't so. The rabbi made a beeline to me on his own. So why me, from all the others who may have worn kippot (skullcaps) for the occasion. The secret must be that I also have a beard.
S and I have started looking for a kitchen for the new place. We hoped that it might be possible to extend the current kitchen, so we went to the people who built the current kitchen. It was correctly explained to us that no matter how much they tried, they wouldn't be able to match the colors of the kitchen exactly. It would look piecemeal. So with a slightly heavy heart we have now set ourselves forward to buy a new kitchen. We were also told that the kitchen will take 60 days from the day of measurement.