Tel Aviv Rooftop

Newspaper seller, Cairo, 2008   "They r coming. The people r coming. This is growing," wrote Egyptian blogger Sandmonkey 4 days ago, on  what was apparently one of the last posts to come out of the country before the regime shut down the internet. But the word got around nevertheless and Mubarak's days (maybe hours?)  seem numbered. Cairo bridge 2008 Groaning under the weight  of 30 years under Hosni Mubarak's oppressive regime and frusrated by empty promises of reform, inspired by Tunisia's 'Jasmine Revolution' and mobilized via Facebook, Egyptians are now bravely demanding that Mubarak step down. A recent article on Egypt and its future by Terry Newman, a business consultant who works throughout the Middle East, failed to predict the revolution but offered some interesting data on why it  may have erupted. Approximately one quarter of Egypt's population of over 80 million are aged between 18 and 29.  $200 per month is considered a good salary.

'Interrogate Me Too', 'Jews and Arabs Refuse to be Enemies', "Together We'll Protect the Democratic Space", 'Fighting for Democracy', 'The Geneva Initiative', Hadash, Peace Now. Just some of the banners held by some of the 15,000 or so demonstrators in Tel Aviv protesting the current wave of McCarthyism, and racism sweeping the country. The left, such as it is, got mobilized.  There were plenty of grey hairs among the marchers. As well as some Anglos. Although most of the marchers were young. And one was very young.

Levi Yitzhak is a company well known for producing hamechiron  , a listing of prices which is the bible of the second hand car sector. A few years ago it moved into the flourishing real estate field. Recently, it estimated that about 10,000 "ghost apartments" scattered throughout Tel Aviv were left locked and shuttered for most of the year. Nearly all of them had between 2  and 3.5 rooms and sold for 2-3 million shekels ($500,000-$750,000). Had they been on the open market you could have rented them for NIS4,300 -NIS6,500 ($1,100 - $1,600). But you can't rent them because their owners are foreign residents who need their holiday apartments to be available for the next weekend getaway or month-long holiday. And since they don't lack the money, they don't rent out their apartments. And since they don't rent out the apartments there are significantly less apartmnents for rent, which is turn raises the prices of the apartments that are available. The result is

Shana ezrachit tova (a happy civil New Year) is what (some) Israelis say to each other in the run-up to January 1st.This is of course to distinguish the New Year that the rest of the world is celebrating and the Jewish New Year of official, Hebrew, Israeli culture. This year's Israeli calendar started on Rosh Hashana or alpeh be-tishrei in the Jewish clandar which happened to fall on September 9 . Since Israel needs to live alongside the rest of the world, we keep both calendars. But a "happy civil new year" also struck me as a decent wish for the coming year because the notion of 'civil' so lacking in our discourse. Political and social processes have led to a fragmentization of society into niches (Jewish, Arab, secular, religious-Zionist, haredi, rich/poor etc.), each of which lives in its own segregated society. In such a world, Arab ladies pushing prams do not have contact with people who ride tandems, except when they happen to pass each other in a share