Tel Aviv Rooftop

It's taken me a while to post some more photos of the Negev in the Spring, partly because I've been avidly following the crisis between the US and Israel that exploded during Netanyahu's recent visit to Washington. Obama's demands, now being discussed by Bibi's mainly hawkish septet of ministers would essentially mean that Israel would have to show some serious good will towards the Palestinians, among other things by halting construction in East Jerusalem - anathema to Bibi's rightist and religious coalition partners  and to Bibi himself. As a result, Netanyahu has been left exposed and it remains to be seen how far he will be able to rely on Obama in the future.   While the warm spring winds blow through the suddenly verdant desert, Israel's relations with its strongest ally are suddenly being put to the test, not a situation that Israelis are used to. Netanyahu seems trapped like a moth in the harsh light of the crisis. If he sticks to his princi...

Parking says the sign at the Cornfehl (?) Farm. Not seen in the frame is funky little restaurant featuring goat cheese with an outdoor deck overlooking a flower garden and an orchard. Israel's real Wild West is of course the West Bank but the Negev comes in an honorable second place. The sun dries and cracks and blanches. The winds whip over the mountains and through the wadis and the flash floods carve out new terrain. A politically aware post about a trip to the Negev should mention the miserable “unrecognized Bedouin villages” to the south and east of Beersheba, the large army firing zones off limits to civilians and what seemed like an inordinate number of prisons. But we were on a weekend getaway and were interested in getting closer to some of the local inhabitants. Yeruham, perched on the edge of hamchtesh hagadol the Great Crater (diminished to only “Large” on the road sign) is home to a few factories (Negev Ceramica, the Phoenicia Glass Works) and a few thousand pe...