$24 Billion for Wexler Freedman and more Bethlehem

Hi sorry, i got sick so I took a few days off.
First thing, I want to let everyone know that Ariela and I will be going before a special joint session of Congress to request a $24 billion dollar bailout package. I want to reassure you that we have heard the messages of the American taxpayer loud and clear and if we are indeed granted this small amount we will immediately impose salary caps of $10.3 million dollars per year on our top executives (me, Ariel, Lev and Benjy). No more fatcatting around for us. Also we promise that there will be no layoffs for at least 6 months -- although we cannot promise that restructuring will not occur (Lev will no longer be getting thirds of yogurt).
Some of you may be asking yourselves why the taxpayer should spend $24 billion dollars on a family of four and the answer is America cannot afford not to bail us out. Think of all the secondary and tertiary industries associated with Wexler/Freedman Holdings. With this one-time -- at least for now -- infusion of cash, it will be possible to ensure that we can continue to buy stuff, like pizza, for example which otherwise we could not, (or it would be harder without that $24 billion, anyway). Think of all the pizza shops that will go out of business if we don't have the money. We are also committing ourselves to greater and more rigorous financial oversight; Lev -- who prioneered our leveraged use of assest-backed corporate paper, which turned out not to be such a hot idea -- has been moved out of his post to other responsibilities, chiefly in daycare. Benjy, who has six years of experience, will now be responsible for long term strategic planning. Benjy brings to the job a firm understanding of addition and subtraction in numbers under ten and vague notions of how to multiply. Tell your congresmman and senator, America cannot afford NOT to give the wexler-freedmans $24 billion dollars.

Now on to other business. I promised to finish telling you all about Bethlehem. I will tell you briefly that there were a few other things I thought were worth noting. One of the activities we did was one in which participants step into the circle if a sentence applies to them. One of the sentences was "I am sometimes scared when I hear Hebrew." To see people step in for that one, was pretty hard for me. I guess I knew that Palestinians might very well be afraid of Hebrew but knowing and seeing are two different things. In the small group where we talked afterwards I mentioned how sad it was for me to think of Hebrew -- the revival of which I think is perhaps the great miracles of Zionism -- being frightening for people, nice, decent, good people, made me cry. Another related thing was to see the degree to which Palestinians of good will did not seem to 'get' Israeli and Jewish concerns for physical safety (with the notable exception of Sami Awad, who I mentioned previously). Saman Khoury, who was an author of the Geneva Inititaive, a sort of blue-print for a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict said that (and I hope I am not misrepresenting his views) that the Oslo process, started by Rabin/Peres and Yassir Arafat collapsed because Shimon Peres failed to win the election after Prime Minister Rabin was killed. Saman Khoury's account of why Peres wasn't elected, and why Oslo ultimately fell apart, left out one thing that to me was very important -- the Hamas suicide bombings in Israel. While Shimon Peres may be the perenial loser of Israel, he had some help with that one. I am not blaming Saman Khoury who I think is smart and courageous for pursuing a two state solution, but I did think that he did not see how fragile Israelis (and Jews generally) feel our safety to be -- rightly or wrongly -- which seems to me a major factor in moving forward. Finally, and on a hopeful note, we visited a place called Wadi Fukin which is just the other side of the green line from Tsur Hadassah in Jerusalem. It is a small farming village. It has an intersting history since the inhabitants were evacuated by the Jordanians in 1948 to a Bethlehem refugee camp since the village sat basically on the border. They would come in the day time and farm their fields and go back to the refugee camp at night. In 1967 when Israel took over the west bank the residents petitioned to return and eventually were allowed to. An organization called friends of the earth middle east, a joint palestinian, israeli, jordanian venture is working on water use issues with the residents of Wadi Fukin and Tsur Hadassah trying to encourage good neighbourliness. The village is beautiful though squeezed between Tsur Haddasah on the one hand and Betar Illit (a settlement next door) on the other. Teh village is working with friends of the earth ME to market and seel their produce in israel labeled as palestinian produce in the hopes that Israelis will understand that palestinian prosperity can benefit both communities.
Have a great Shabbat/Weekened. J