The Cleavage of Jerusalem, Praying for Jasham

Sorry it has been a while. Many of you have been asking for more chomping at the bit.
First of all I hope you all saw the fantastic piece in the Globe and Mail about how, since the election, a lot of American conservatives are considering seeking asylum in Canada. Soldiers who want to serve another tour of duty in Iraq, economists who still believe that de-regulating the financial sector is the best way to ensure long-term economic growth and executives from health insurance companies are snapping up property in Toronto and Calgary. Someone has even set up an apartment swap business so FSCL (formerly smug Canadian liberals) can go live in Chicago and unrepentant ex-Bear Sterns employees can move to Toronto.
Now for Jerusalem political coverage. There is a sign that has gone up around Jerusalem. It shows the Western Wall broken down the middle and urges people not to vote for front-runner Nir Barkat because he will divide Jerusalem. This is a funny claim since Barkat has probably the most right-wing bona fides of anyone in the race, while people who are putting up these signs, presumably the ultra orthodox, don't usually serve in the army. Certainly his chief rival on the right, Meir Porush, wasn't in the paratroopers. But what really struck me about this ad is that Tsipi Livni, the former prime minister designate (how's that for a provisional sounding title) who is with Barkat on the poster, presumably for extra scariness, has had her exposed clavicle photoshopped. Up close you can see that the FPMD -- who the Syrian press lauded for her good looks and style -- has had a tee-shirt airbrushed in under her open neck blouse. Unpacked: the holy people who made this poster accusing Livni of planning to destroy Judaism's most treasured religious and historic site, are carefully safeguarding her modesty (and not to expose the people of Jerusalem to the provocative top three inches of her chest). Hashem yishmor (God protect us) when the general elections roll around.
We went to the Kinneret last weekend. We drove derech yericho, ie. up the Jordan valley, ie. through the west bank, ie occupied Palestine ie. Judea ie whatever. I wasn't thrilled about this when we were planning it not because I was worried about safety so much since there are very few big Palestinian towns there and the road is well travelled. I just don't like the idea of gong somewhere where most of the people who live there don't want you there. The drive was unbelievably beautiful though first down through the Judean desert side of Jerusalem. The wadis have small bedouin (my friend David says they are displaced bedouin and I defer to his knowledge) encampments. You drive past the sea level mark down to the dead sea, the lowest point above-ground on earth and switch off highway 1 to highway 90. There Lev puked for the first time, right at the interchange, at the lowest point on earth (or close to it anyway) all over the back seat of the rental car. It turned out he had a stomach bug and he threw up a number of times on the trip -- often in some very picturesque spots -- but otherwise seemed perfectly content (as you can see). We cleaned up and drove on. The whole Jordan valley was very beautiful. The extent of the settlement there is pretty amazing and you wonder how on earth they are going to get all those people out of there when they finally do give that land to Palestinians. There are graffitis in Hebrew on old buildings saying "bring the sinners of Oslo to justice." I read somewhere once that the landscape of Israel was what inspired people to think of God and you can sort of understand that when you drive on those two roads. Giant, forbidding mountains soaring clouds, oases, powerful stuff. Then out the checkpoint through Bet Shaan and off to the kinneret. We stayed at the kibbutz haon guest village in a little shack right on what was once the beach though now because of low rainfall and poor water management you have to walk out several hundred feet to get to the water. I was molested by a startled fish who flapped between my legs, saw turtles and a "parpur" kingfisher (the black and white one, not a "shaldag," interesting that in English there are three native birds all called kingfisher but in latin and Hebrew the names are different) diving for his lunch and what I think was a baz adom (one of the runners up for Israel's national bird) a lesser kestrel. Also storks and herons (hasida). The boys swam and played with Noa. Friday night, a Russian family gave me a l'chaim of high octane slivovitz so I went to prayer services (in the bomb shelter) half in the bag. I got to hear a Yemenite style torah reading of the story of Noah. It was really interesting. Where we would say 'geshem' for rain, the yemenites read 'jasham'. Aside from the first week of Heshvan, the month of floods, when we nearly got swept away, Jerusalem has been dry. Its hard to pray for rain when the weather is nice but after seeing the kinneret, Israel's main fresh water source, so low, I will re-dedicate myself as well as using the "little flush".