2024-03 Israel

Israel 2,

March 16, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I flew from Montreal to New York and then to Tel Aviv yesterday. The flight was uneventful, the food was pretty good, except that I had to keep asking for a refill of my wine glass. I hope that the airplane did not run out of wine because of me.

I am staying in a downtown hotel on the beach with a beautiful roof top terrace with a view on the beach. Many of the guests here at the hotel are volunteers with the same program as mine. We all ship out tomorrow to our respective army bases. The army bus will pick us up at 8:45.

It is spring here, 20C and was quite breezy yesterday. There was 20K of wind and there were a lot of boats out. As the bumper sticker says ‘I would rather be sailing’. The water was rough with no swimming signs, but that did not stop people from going into the water.

Last night I was invited for Shabbat dinner by a lady who takes care of MDA ambulance volunteers. I might be able to do that later in my trip. Here at the hotel I have met people from all over the word, not all of whom are Jewish.

Tel Aviv is a wonderful city. I will write about it later as I get to see it more. The city seems to be running normally; you wouldn’t know that there was a war going on. On the other hand, Hezbollah fired 250 rockets into the north of Israel. They obviously have not had enough yet.

Love,

Brian