Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

So the holidays are over and I did promise to lighten up a bit. Therefore I will not be mentioning the Haredi riots that were called for by a certain major rabbinic figure to protest the drafting of yeshiva students. I won't mention the 40 + people arrested for throwing rocks, hitting and verbally abusing the Police.  I won't even begin to tell you how I feel about this picture ( and the idea of Jews calling Jews Nazi's) and how unfathomable it is to me that the Haredi leadership allows this.

No we will not discuss any of this as we just finished Zman Simchtaynu and I am in a good mood.

Holidays in Israel are great. There is nothing to compare to Sukkot in the Holy-land. I know you can get the same weather in Florida but the one day Yom Tov can't be beat. We did not have our normal 25 people as we didn't host any students on their gap year ( though not for lack of trying) so it was just a simple family affair. Interestingly enough we were fortunate enough to host the new station chief  for China Daily and his family for one of the nights.

He and his wife are both journalists and they came with  their 12 year old daughter. She had  perfect American accented English, and was quite charming despite the fact the she did not want to talk about anything but Taylor Swift

It was their first experience in an Israeli home ( as we are now Israeli) and their first time in a Sukkah. We went through the explanations of the various customs and their meanings. We learned that chicken soup and matzah balls taste very much like a soup from his wife's home province but their matzah balls are made of pork. It also seems that they do not have smoked brisket or potato kugel in China ( they were not big fans and most likely left hungry).

We have had journalists from China over before and one of my favorite games is to try to get them drunk and find out what they really feel about China. The last time I did this a few years ago I was not able to get anything but the party line no matter how much I tried ( and no matter how much we drank).

The new journalist did not like to drink ( his wife did but apparently does not like scotch as Chinese whisky is better) but this time I found out a few things that I thought were very interesting although I am not sure if it is the party line or not.

As not to be too provocative the first thing I asked was what do the Chinese think about North Korea. I was expecting an anti American, why is Trump such a bully, response. Instead I got ' the Chinese people hate North Korea. They are nothing but a problem'.

OK

Next up  South China Sea ( again I don't want to provoke too much). This got more of the type of  response that I was expecting. It seems that there is a need for a build up as the Americans are clearly being very aggressive and try to impinge on China's inalienable rights. I said that seems plausible but that he should know that in the USA they tell that story a bit differently. He said that China needed protection from the USA and Japan. I replied that Japan does not have nuclear weapons and only a defensive army. He smiled and said ' that is what you have been told'.

I then asked him what he thought of Israel. I was very happy to hear that he thinks it is a great country and he is very happy to be here ( for the next 5 years so he better be). He mentioned how inclusive he thought the people were. He said that he was at the Kotel and someone offered to explain the symbolism of the Lulav and Etrog to him although he was clearly not Jewish. He had spent time in several war zones and  he is tired of war. He was glad to be in a quite country ( ???)  He would like to show Israel in a positive light by emphasizing its technological prowess and it's willingness to help people world wide. According to him, China is just waking up to Israel and its reputation as a 'start up nation'. He thinks the Chinese now  see many benefits with cooperating with Israel whereas a short time ago they were not on the Chinese radar.

This was great news as far as I was concerned. China is not know for taking Israel's side in the global arena and perhaps the shows a beginning of  a shift. I hope that is true.

and now or something completely different https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJUhlRoBL8M