Tel Aviv Rooftop

Katzav (who?) 'out', former justice minister Haim Ramon 'in' (out actually) after a three judge magistrates court unanimously found him guilty of molesting ' heh ' a 21 year old working in the PM's Office whom he French kissed , the court found, against her will. Like most people I thought that the court had given Ramon a raw deal until I heard heh's story on Channel 10. In a nutshell she explained, convincingly, that he forced himself on her. Despite her childish voice she was well spoken, straightforward and believable. Bye Bye Haim . Now who's next in line?

Another stressful day at the orifice. I need a pick me up and decide to get that haircut I've not found time for. This means a visit to A my barber( see above). In a neighbourhood that has become synonymous with cool, good taste, A's barber shop is a homage to kitsch, throwback to mizrahi Israel of the 1970s, only more expensive. The place is a hall of mirrors, stuffed with flashy furniture. Above the sink where he washes your hair there used to be a water feature resembling a European castle and meadows. Now there is a hideous brass rendition of one naked child showering another. A completely bald and a man of many head coverings, is completely oblivious to the yuppie taste that surrounds him on all sides and is constantly dreaming up new ways to attract customers: a huge parrot in a huge cage, a million studs on each chair... A confirmed bachelor, A also loves his work, is a peacenik but can turn nasty if you just turn up without making an appointment first. And when so...

What a show it was . President Katzav ranting in the most unpresidential fashion, claiming total innocence, charging that he was the victim of a clandestine plot hatched between the media and the police to down he who was not of the elite. Then asking the Knesset to allow him a leave of absence because of 'contraints'. Well, whether or not he manages to clear his name (I doubt it) he's out. Which means that the acting President of the State of Israel is ..... Dalia Itzik who is also the Speaker of the Knesset and a former minister. An unremarkable politician blessed with a very big mouth, this former teacher thanks to Moshe Katzav's (alleged) misdeeds, occupies the very pinnacle of our establishment. However , if (heaven forfend) anything untoward should happen to Dalia, the acting President will be ... Deputy Speaker of the Knesset Ahmed Tibi, former advisor to Yasser Arafat, recently seen at a Fatah rally in Ramallah exhorting the masses to march on Jerusalem. But n...

Thanks to H for this shot of a shack in Florentine. It's only a matter of time before the entire neighbourhood is cleaned up and becomes less colourful. Bugsy’s, Florentine, Shabbat morning 10’ish. A dame in the corner is chain smoking and chatting with the ginger-haired waiter who looks as though he’s been waiting all night. Pushing breakfasts and coffee behind the bar is a guy with a full beard wearing a tartan trilby. We check out the joint. 50’s upholstered seats, a view of Washington Boulevard and on the wall a photo of gangland boss Benjamin ‘Bugsy’ Siegel http://www.gangland.net/bugsy.htm looking pretty beaten up and apparently in the act of being arrested. The Jewish anti-hero theme blends with the cappuccino and fringey morning-after vibe. Two butch chicks stroll in and perch beside the bar. My eye shifts to a papier maché sculpture of an S&M scene involving whips and black underwear. It’s cold outside and weird in. Some guy with a strange white hat placed backwards ...

Each sensation is quickly followed by anothe, leaving even media-hardy Israelis gasping for breath. Now that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz has resigned, who remembers that the prime minister is the subject of a criminal investigation? Still, with over 70% of the public saying they want Olmert to resign and 85% wishing that Peretz was gone, the political demise of this undynamic duo is just a matter of time. The question is how much time and whether the alternative (Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman?) is a more appetizing prospect.

Watching the evening news in Israel is a depressing activity at the best of times. Tonight's edition was especially grim.Two examples. Olmert, already a lame duck premier, is now officially under police investigation for his alleged influence on a tender to sell Bank Leumi that would benefit a millionaire chum (Channel 10 did not fail to mention that his predecessors Netanyahu, Barak and Sharon had also been investigated with the cases eventually closed for lack of evidence). Ha'aretz's revelation that unofficial talks between Israelis and Syrians had led to a draft peace agreement were scorned by the PM's bureau. You can see it all on http://www.haaretz.com Olmert's legal entanglements (the Bank Leumi case is one of several) sit on top of an odious pile of criminal investigations. These have cut into entire swathes of the establishment : the President, the army and the political leadership (conduct of the Lebanon War), the finance minister, the former minister of...

This is the studio of street artist Rami Meiri whose works enliven many a concrete wall throughout the city with their ultra-realistic images, mainly of ordinary people doing ordinary things like hanging out the washing or lying on the beach. The one I like best is of two teenage boys peeking through the window of the ladies changing room on the outside wall of the ladies changing room on the metzitzim ( peeping tom ) beach. I haven't seen much of his new work recently though. Maybe he's gone out of style, now that our environment is slowly becoming more ordered and in a uniform sort of good taste. Typically, Rami 's studio is situated in one of the last undeveloped stretches along Rehov Hayarkon , an area of overgrown back yards, semi-legal parking lots and rundown old houses. Down on the beachfront next to what was once the Dolphinarium and is now a half deserted hulk of contested real estate, the cat man is tending to his wards by placing small amounts of dry cat f...

This is the kind of photogenic junk you sometimes see outside houses in trendy Neve Tsedek, the shchuna (neighbourhood) that lies at the foot of my Tel Aviv Rooftop and a magnet for musicians, artists , healers and romantics of all kinds. The creator of these colourful boards happened to be returning home as I was taking the photo. No he didn't want to think twice about throwing them out. A few steps later I came across a fashion photo-shoot, also a regular sight in these romantic streets with their neo-European flavour. Neve Tsedek, which two decades ago was a notorious slum has been transformed into a quaint village in the middle of the big city and property prices have soared correspondingly. Which is why unscrupulous property developers, working hand in hand with a cash hungry municipality and irresponsible planning bodies succeeded in building this: Meet the Neve Tsedek Tower, the bane of the neighbourhood, a monstrous residential tower in which all apartments are designed to...

Click for optical illusion Today, I visited the Sapir College very near to Sderot , slap bang on the border with the Gaza Strip. The trip takes almost exactly an hour, less time than it would take to cross London or Paris. When you arrive you are in the range of the qassams that land in this area on a daily basis. "We're being targeted you know," said the Head of the Humanities Department , showing me a plaque on the floor that marked the spot of a direct hit a few years ago. They're keen on peace projects at the Sapir college. The dean had just met with a group from Combatants for Peace see http://www.sfcg.org/sfcg/pdf/soldierafor.pdf made up of former Israeli soldiers and former Palestinian terrorists "with blood on their hands" who talk to small audiences about the futility of bloodshed and the need to reach an agreement. The fact that the qassams are landing here on Israel's 'periphery' where the local residents are poorer and less inf...

It takes a too rare trip to the Galil to remind me that my Tel Aviv rooftop is not the only perch in the country. This was taken today at Agmon Hahula a reflooded section of the drained Hula marsh. Snowpeaked Mount Hermon (only 7% of which is controlled by Israel said our guide) is in the distance. We saw thousands of cranes gobbling peanuts especially grown for them in a nearby field but the birds on the lake are mallards.

Moshe Shachal an experienced former minister, top class lawyer and wheeler and dealer in the Labour Party, said today that the Israel is in a crisis and is facing two strategic threats, the most dangerous since the Six Day War. The first is an internal collapse (lack of leadership/corruption) and the second is the external threat (Iran/ Hizbullah/ Hamas). He said that for the first time since 1967 the Arab world (on al Al Jazeera for example) is talking about the possibility of eliminating Israel. I looked at the Al Jazeera website forum (albeit in English) on how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian problem http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/736515E4-37CE-4242-8A5F-854381D9DFEE.htm but failed to find the elimination of Israel proposed as a possible resolution. In any event Shachal might have been playing up the drama since he was also giving his backing to Ehud Barak’s bid to gain the leadership of the Labour Party (thereby replacing Amir Peretz (Olmert’s nemesis) as defence minist...

On January 1 the MTS group of companies (including one from China!) led by Israeli businessman Lev Levayev won the tender for the first line on the Tel Aviv metro. Ben Gurion asked Golda Meir to start planning a metro in 1952. In the 60's the plans for nearby Shalom Tower included space for a metro station (which won't be built there). So its been a long gestation period even by Israeli standards and for years we had the feeling that the chances of ever seeing a metro in Tel Aviv were about the same as the chance of shaking hands with the messiah. But now things are happening. Property owners are being asked to move and concerned groups whose homes and businesses are close to the planned line are beginning to sue for compensation. If all goes according to plan (and when has it?) by 2012 my Tel Aviv rooftop will be shuddering slightly every time a train goes by about 100 metres away (underground). Since we have to do everything our own way in Israel, the underground wil...

A Bedouin girl braiding a cotton bracelet on the beach in Sinai. Olmert is in Sharm el Sheikh meeting Mubarak today. As the Israeli media has been mentioning, the Egyptian President's foot has never stepped on Israeli soil and it is always the Israeli Prime Minister who makes the trip to Egypt. A group of rightist Members of Knesset protested this state of affairs in a letter to Olmert . It is annoying that the leader of a neighbouring country with which we have signed a peace agreement cannot bring himself to pay a visit. At the same time, the Egyptian Pres has to handle his own public opinion and paying visits to Israel while the Palestinians are still under occupation is not smart PR move from his viewpoint. These meetings always take place in distant Sharm el Sheikh on the tip of the Sinai peninsula, far from the seething streets of Cairo where embarrasing protests might take place. The nasty incident in Ramallah today when an Israeli arrest attempt ended with 3 Palestini...

This massive representation of Hedy Lamar, part of a huge "exhibition", heavily sponsored by the Orange cellular phone company, was recently shown on Rothschild Boulevard - the classiest street in Tel Aviv. The increasing appropriation of public space by powerful commercial interests with the cooperationof the municipality is becoming a hot topic. A propos commercialisation and corruption, senior figures in the income tax authority, as well as the Prime Minister's secretary, have been arrested on corruption charges. Wherever you look in Israel today it seems, the demoralising rot of corruption is deeply ingrained. If you're interested in this story see http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809021.html

TA brides like to be pre-nuptially snapped either at the Suzanne Dellal Dance Centre in picturesque Neve Tsedek or on the beachfront. This one is a parody - a stock still pantomime artist who will go through the matrimonial motions for a coin.

The last few days have been cold and rainy. This was taken at sunset facing Yaffo from the north near the Manta Ray fish restaurant. I take my morning "power walk" along this stretch of the Tel Aviv shoreline.