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Showing posts from April, 2012

Road 805

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When we lived in Tsfat in the 1980s, I once took my oil-guzzling, unroadworthy 1969 Saab to the Arab town of Sakhnin in the western Galil for its annual road test. Tiberius was closer but the word was that if you took your car to Sakhnin and gave the tester an especially generous handshake, your car would pass the test. Since the cost of repairs could be ruinous, the extra drive and bribe were worth it. I recall pockholed roads, a dusty, greasy area of garages, one of which was the official testing place and a general sense of neglect and stagnation hanging over the town.  A visit to the area not long after what is known in Israel as the October 2000 Events didn't do much to alter the impression either. I remember seeing smashed windows in bank branches and buildings plastered with photos of the victims. Well not any more. Driving between friends in the Galilee over the Pesach holiday we found ourselves on Road 805 that links the triangle of   Deir Hanna ,  Arrabe  and Sakhnin w