It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since we sold our beautiful house in California, packed up our things and made Aliyah, or moved to Israel on the great adventure. Our four daughters were grown with their own careers or in university. Our son, Max, Maas 16, had just graduated high school and was looking forward to one day having a career in the field of foreign relations/negotiation. What better place to live it out than in the Middle East? John and I were longing to travel and from Israel, long weekends in Europe would be more affordable than flying from L.A.

Plus, I have a confession. We are Zionists. It is a word that is greatly misused and misunderstood, yet thrown around quite a bit these days. A Zionist is a person who believes that the Jewish people have a right to live as a sovereign nation (with the ability to defend itself against its enemies) in their Biblical ancestral and ancient homeland…as in the Children of Israel and the Land of Israel. It is the only true democracy in the MidEast. Not without problems: there are many of those, but that is for another post.

We were blessed to find a home to rent in a mid-sized city in the Galilee. Our landlady has been magnificent. We are paying less per month in rent for a four bedroom, three bathroom home than our daughters are paying for a one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles. Plus, we have sweeping views of the rolling hills of the Galil to the East and a gorgeous panorama of the Mediterranean Sea and Haifa to the West.

We have had our share of adventures, being new immigrants to a new culture and language. Instead of crying and wringing our hands, we’ve learned to laugh and make jokes. I have a whole comedy show of our blunders. John and I have ridden camels in the desert, snorkeled in the Red Sea (the fish!!!!), discovered so many archaeological and historical sites, sampled many cuisines from different cultures, visited many wineries and met the most interesting people. All of our journey, I’ve shared with you in past blogposts.

When Max entered the army for his mandatory military service, the blog took a turn for the more serious. He served in the foreign relations division on the Syrian border of the Golan Heights. Max worked with the UN coordinating their activities and with foreign dignitaries touring the region. During the Syrian Civil War, he was part of Oeration Good Neighbor, helping the civilians with humanitarian aid delivery across the border and with the triage units, helping injured Syrian civilians and sick children to be airlifted to local Israeli hospitals. Through him, we met and hosted Lone Soldiers from all over the world. It was all part of the adventure.

We knew that we faced the possibility of living here during wartime. This tiny country is surrounded by countries that want to obliterate her. In 2018/19, rockets rained down from Gaza. People were running to bomb shelters day and night, but it was mostly contained to the center of the country. Finally in October, 2023, war happened. And my blog transformed from feature articles on the diversity of the people, the places, the festivals, cities, the holidays and all that was fun to a daily reporting on the war.

Fast forward to today. John and I just returned from a month in the States. Our oldest daughter had her second child, a beautiful baby girl.

When we got to our hotel at night, we couldn’t help but notice that there were so many channels on the television, yet hardly anything to watch. The news coverage on all of the stations was mostly domestic, but with limited or no meaty information. And it seemed to run in a continual news cycle loop. So much is happening in the world that goes completely uncovered.

As for Israel and the Middle East, the Houthis in Yemen were sending over intercontinental ballistic missiles to the center of Israel every single day. They were all intercepted, thank goodness, but none of it was covered. The US bombed the crap out of Yemen for a week straight. Their oil fields, military and air bases, missile storage sites, ports. The Houthis had disrupted all shipping in the major Arabian Sea with their terror attacks on international cargo ships. The US sent over two THAAD air defense batteries to Israel. Iran has threatened to strike again. The Trump administration has moved 6 stealth bombers to Diego Garcia Base.

Big news in France: the French court sentenced Conservative leader Marine le Pen to prison for embezzlement and barred her from running in the 2027 Presidential election. The right wing, nationalist le Pen was the front runner against Progressive Macron. This is huge and will most likely split France or crate a huge pushback in the populace. In the UK, personal freedoms are being lost daily as police continue to arrest everyday, normal people for thought crimes, or posting to Facebook or social media something that is “objectionable.” Some of the posts have talked of the dislike of so many immigrants causing problems in their city; a disagreement with the policies of Kier Starmer; misgendering or “deadnaming;” writing a negative comment about Islam.

This is a short post. I’m still very jet lagged, and have a million things to do before the Passover holidays start on Friday. We’re in the midst of unpacking. We left with 2 suitcases, 1 filled with things for the grandkids. We came back with 4. We did some thrift shopping. John bought several vintage Hawaiian print shirts and a couple jackets. I found a magnificent Waterford rose bowl and a marmalade jar, for $20 a piece. I couldn’t pass them up. We bring back cans of Albacore tuna and green enchilada sauce. Bags of flavored coffee. Corn tortillas. Shoes. Jeans. Lots of vitamins and supplements. I visit my doctor each time I’m in California, so am able to get a year’s worth of my bio-identical hormones. Trader Joe’s, TJMaxx and Marshall’s as well as Home Goods become pilgrimage sites for us.

A huge thank you to all my readers and new subscribers for your patience during my hiatus. Happy Passover, a meaningful Holy Week and joyous Easter. I shall keep you up on more of the breaking news and have several feature stories to share with you after the holidays. Until then, prayers for the release of the 59 hostages still in captivity.