Israel 47,

May 4, 2024

HI Everyone,

The 1960s was a time of revolt all over the world. I will discuss 3 countries with which I am most familiar leaving out others where I have less expertise.

In 1968, France was still recovering from the war. Unfortunately very little had changed from the class structure that had existed prior to the war. Hence, the occurrence of Mai 68. This period is still looked upon with nostalgia by many persons of my generation who lived through these events. I only came to France in 1970 and lived in France from 1971 to 1976. Therefore much of what I know is second hand information that I received through discussions with my friends and what I have read from my personal research. There was a major crisis in housing. Low cost housing was not available and what was available was expensive, hard to come by and often lacked modern conveniences. Education was elitist in nature. The ‘ecoles’ were expensive and hard to get into. The universities were poorly funded. Medicare existed but was not well run.

In France, the students and the workers had reason to complain and eventually to begin demonstrating. The revolt began with the students in May, 1968 and quickly spread to the factory workers. In a short period of time, the entire country was shut down. Nothing was running. There were demonstrations every day. Everyone had an opinion and every group was giving out pamphlets on the streets. France was close to a major revolt and it was not clear who the victor would be and whether or not this would be a success or be detrimental to the Republic. A brilliant leader, Charles de Gaulle arose and took charge. (I personally have not forgiven him for what he said in Quebec, probably due to a lack of knowledge.) The universities changed and improved the curriculum. HLMs and ILMs were rapidly built to house the workers and students. A minimum wage was established. New hospitals were built. Medical education was moved to the universities allowing better access for entry. The country took a new course for the benefit of the citizens.

In the USA there were reasons to complain and to demonstrate on the streets. In the early 60s, Blacks were not treated as equal citizens. There were laws against them. The white population in the South and even to some extent in the North treated them as second class citizens. Voting rights were suppressed. Lynchings occurred. Listen to the words of ‘Strange Fruit’ hanging from the trees, sung by Billie Holiday and written by a Jew, Meeropol and you will understand what lynchings were all about. The Civil Rights Movement began with marches in the south lead by Rev. King. We watched on tv, the beatings meeted out to freedom marchers by the local police force. Eventually civil rights laws were passed nationally by strangely enough, LBJ.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the students once again had something to complain about. The war in Vietnam was in full swing. The French had left, leaving a vacuum and a mess. There were over 500,000 American soldiers in Vietnam. There were over 50,000 American deaths and 1 million Vietnamese deaths both from the North and the South. Many believed that the war was an illegal war as it had not been approved by Congress. Other young people were against the war because of the draft. Why should they be sent to fight a war in another country that they did not believe to be right. There were demonstrations against America in European countries. Eventually a peace conference ended the war. The American soldiers came home. The North finished by invading the South and formed 1 country. America has now become a good friend of Vietnam and has put aside their differences.

In Canada, by and large we watched these 2 countries with some what indifference. Mai 68 was not well understood and was not our problem. We sympathized with the Blacks in the US. We can not say that there was no prejudice against the Blacks or for the Jews for that ,matter in Canada. However, those prejudices were not written into law. As for the war in Vietnam, some Canadians supported the war against communism, while others sided with the students against the war. There were demonstrations against the war which I did not participate in. As I have said in the past, I am allergic to demonstrations of any kind and stay away from them. If there are 3 people in a line up, I come back later when there are less people. The Vietnam war was taking place in another country between the Americans and the Vietnamese. It was not my war and I was not going to defend either side.

Tomorrow, I will give my negative opinion on the Pro-Palestinian demonstrations that are happening all over the world.

Love,

Brian

Israel 46,

May 4, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

There is an old Arab expression that says the following, ‘If you let the camel put his head in your tent, he will come into the tent, and he will push you out of the tent’. Unfortunately that is what we have done in the USA, in Canada and in Western European countries. France realized this some years ago, Sweden and the USA are starting to realize this now, and Canada has not yet come to the inevitable conclusion.

My grandparents and great grandparents came to Canada in about 1905. The left what was called the Russian Empire, which is now Russia, Belarus, Romania, Lithuania and Moldova. They left because of the pogroms which began in the1980s and only stopped in 1917 when the Russian Revolution put a stop to them. Many people today don’t know what a pogrom was. They managed to kill 1.5 million Jews over a 35 year period. 2 million Jews left Russia to come to America, the promised land. A promised land it was compared to what they had left, but easy it was not. Anti-semitism was rife in the USA and Canada. Although Jews were not killed outright, they were limited in where they could buy a home, which hotel they could go to, what school they could send their children to, what hospital would accept them and to some extent what job they could apply for. Nevertheless they survived and many of us became very successful.

My parents who were born in Canada told me on multiple occasions: ‘You are lucky to be born in Canada. You should be happy to live here. You have the opportunity to study, work and make something of your self. You don’t know what it is like in other places. Don’t forget that you are Jewish, but don’t stand out. It does not have to be written on your forehead. Integrate yourself with the majority of Canadians and accept the culture here and they will accept you’. It is the last statement that is the most important and which I hold most dear.

Unfortunately these truths have been left at the wayside. This year Canada will accept 500,000 immigrants and another 500,000 for the next 5 years. I have nothing against accepting immigrants, Most Canadians are 1-3 generations away from being immigrants themselves. The difference is that my parents, 1st generation to be born in Canada, 3rd generation to have Canadian citizenship, were proud to be Canadian. They would never dream of going to another country as they had heard stories of life in Russia from their parents and grandparents. In spite of the anti-semitism here, they loved Canada. They lived through the depression. They never felt that Canada owed something to them. On the contrary, when Canada went to war, they served both in the army and on the home front to make Canada a better place to live for their children.

The Canadian government, lead by JT, is accepting large numbers of immigrants without enough planning. Over 50% of the immigrants feel that we are accepting too many immigrants. There is no thought as to where we will house them and how can we send them to schools if the schools are already over crowded. Medicare in Canada is already in a shambles. 50% of Canadians still don’t have a family physician. Patients wait 3 months to see a specialist. People languish in emergency rooms for hours. Compare that to Israel where the waiting time from when we arrive in the ER to the time that a nurse and then a physician sees the patient, examines him/her and provides a bed is never more that 2, (yes 2) minutes. How will we provide Medicare to these people if the system is swollen to bursting now?

The main problem as I see it, is have we vetted these immigrants properly before coming to Canada because once they arrive here it is all readily too late? Have we told them that women are equal to men and have they accepted this? Do they accept gay rights? Do they understand that antisemitism and other forms of racism is illegal in Canada? Blacks, Jews, and Asians are protected by law in our land. In Ontario several years ago, a group of people asked to be allowed to have Sharia law. I am astounded to say that this was actually debated by the authorities before saying, no. No should have been the 1st thing that should have been said. There is 1 law in Canada and that is Canadian law which must be respected and to which we are all equal.

We bring people and encourage them to create your little Palestine here and don’t worry about expressing your prejudices. Free speech is allowed here. I have always said, if you come to Canada, and want to make your home here, leave your baggage in the old country. I don’t want to hear about Greeks hating Turks here. I don’t want to see Palestinians and their uninformed supporters demonstrating in the streets and on the campuses against Israel and now clearly against Jews who have lived here as Canadians for well over 150 years. If you want to fight a battle with the Jews-Israelis-Zionists, go to Palestine and fight. For them, Jews-Israelis-Zionists are all the same. How else could you explain demonstrations in front of Jewish schools, synagogues, ‘Jewish’ hospitals (Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto) and ‘Jewish’ buildings (the Bronfman building) on the McGill campus? I am Jewish-not Israeli-Zionist and I came here, to Israel to do my part here. I did not and will not demonstrate in Canada for an overseas battle. Yes, it is your right to peacefully demonstrate, although I would not do so myself, but listen to the rhetoric that is being yelled in the streets and ask yourself, is this what we want in Canada. If you want to fight an overseas battle, go there and fight it out there. You are not welcome to do that fight in Canada.

To be continued this evening with my feelings about the student demonstrations.

Love,

Brian

Israel 45,

May 3, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I have delayed making a statement on the recent student demonstrations that have rocked Canada, the USA and Europe. These demonstrations are also being copied in other parts of the world. I wanted to do some basic research as well, and combine that with what I already know to be fact. It is obvious to my followers that I will take the Israeli side, otherwise what have I been doing in Israel as a volunteer for 8 weeks.

I have learned in my discussions that certain people, when you aboard a topic of discussion, just ‘don’t know’.

1. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they have never studied the subject. This is usually quite simple if you are the one who is better informed. These people, if they are reasonably intelligent, can be taught the subject. This is what we do in universities. Afterwards, you can engage in conversation with these persons and discuss their point of view and perhaps learn from the exchange.

2. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they are incapable of learning. Unfortunately in our society, there is a vast number of people that are uneducated and incapable of understanding certain topics. These people can be influenced by good leaders or bad leaders to have certain beliefs and then to do certain deeds, some of which may be good, some of which may be bad. A good example is what happened in the 1930s. Germany was unlucky, Hitler was their leader. Russia was unlucky, Stalin was their leader. The UK was lucky, Churchill was their leader. The USA was lucky, Roosevelt was their leader. Had the UK and the USA not had these men as leaders, the world would be a very different place today.

3. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they don’t want to know. In many cases they are capable of learning, however they just don’t want to understand often based on the prejudices that they bring to the table by poor upbringing or poor information which they are incapable of sifting through. This group is the most dangerous group as they are incapable of engaging in an intelligent discussion. They have learned all that they want to learn in Twitter and Instagram. They read pamphlets, they don’t read books. They have no clue about historical events and what has brought us to the present situation. They shout slogans which they can not define past the time that it took them to pronounce the phrase. This unfortunately is the group that we are dealing with and who is camping out in tents on our university grounds.

I was born in the 1st half of the last century (1949). I was brought up in the 60s with the slogan ‘make love not war’. To some extent I still believe this to be true. If that is so, why may you ask have I chosen at age 74 to volunteer to go to a war in Israel and spend 8 weeks here with the IDF and MDA. The answer lies in the 43 entries that I have written in gobriantravel.com What I have done here is a small drop in the bucket if I compare it to the 6 years that my father spent in the Canadian Army defending freedom and democracy. I believe that that I have contributed to defending the same principles here in Israel where Israel once again is fighting for her very survival. Lofty goals you may say, yes but I must say that I have spent the last 74 years of my life preparing for the 8 weeks that I have spent here with these 2 organizations, in Israel.

To be continued tomorrow as I have only scratched the surface of what I want to write.

Love,

Brian

Israel 44,

May 2, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I just an evening shift with MDA and will do the same this evening. The shifts are always longer than 8 hours as I plan for 1 hour travel time to arrive a little early. We usually finish 1 hour late and the return traffic it takes 1 hour to get back to the hotel.

I often like to visit small museums in a city just as I like to go to small medical conferences. I find the smaller ones tend to be more personal and allow me to ask questions with ease. I decided to visit the Yemenite Museum in Natanaya, half an hour from Tel Aviv and on the route to my MDA station. I met the curator of the museum, Ester, a charming woman, my age, who is of Yemenite origin. She spent 1 hour with me explaining the Yemenite Jewish people and their culture. The Yemenite Jews left Israel, Judea, around the time of the destruction to the first temple and settled on the peninsula which is now called Yemen. They have a 2000 year old history in that place. They are part of the Mezrahi Jews as opposed to the Sephardic Jewish community. They developed a rich and very different culture.

The Yemenite Jews began to come to Mandate Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to the severe anti-semitism that developed in the Muslim/Arab countries beginning with the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. They were forced to leave a place where they had lived peacefully for 2000 years. The world often talks about the 600,000 Palestinian refugees that left Israel in 1948. They forget about the 600,000-900,000 Jewish refugees that left Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, etc. etc.

The Palestinian refugees were often not absorbed into the Arab countries. Instead, they lived in ‘camps’ and accepted 2 billion dollars a year for support from UNRWA for 75 years. A Palestinian refugee was defined as anyone who lived in Mandate Palestine (British governed Palestine) for 2 years. This is the broadest definition of a refugee.

3 things happen to a refugee: 1 he/she dies, 2 he/she receives citizen ship in his/her new country, 3 he/she returns home. On the other hand the refugee status of a Palestinian is inherited from generation to generation no matter who the Palestinian marries. Hence we now have 6 million people claiming refugee status. In 20 years, there will be 12 million. This makes them the fastest growing refugee population in the world with their own private UN refugee organization, UNRWA. Hence the problem of today. UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas. There are 16,000 UNRWA workers on theUN payroll in Gaza and another 14,000 in other Middle East countries. How can I get that job? All other refugees in the world fall under the UNHCR. (The United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Wow. No Palestinian refugee had to move more than 50K. The Jewish refugees had to move 2000-5000K from their homes with no compensation. They were absorbed in the USA, Canada, France and Israel and given immediate citizenship.

Life was not easy for the Yemenites in 1948 in Israel. Israel had to absorb 600,000 refugees from Europe and the Arab countries in 1 year in the newly founded country. To make matters worse, Israel was attacked by its 5 neighbours in an independence war that lasted 2 years. Israel had accepted the partition by the UN. The Palestinians and the Arab countries did not accept the partition. Many new immigrants had to live in tents for years. Israel now has a varied population after 75 years of intermarriage with the Ashkenazie Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, the Sephardic Jews from North Africa and the Mezrahi Jews from the eastern part of the Middle East.

Love,

Brian

Israel 43,

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday and today were about the same so I will combine them into 1 dissertation. I had an evening shift on Monday, 3:00 to 11:00 finishing at 12:00 and returning to the hotel at 12:30 and a morning shift today, Tuesday from 7:00 to 3:00 returning home at 5:30. Long days with little time to recuperate between shifts. Tomorrow I will sleep in as I only begin at 3:00. I am at a new restaurant on the beach for dinner and a beer with enough time to write my blog and keep you up to date with my work.

I worked in Bat Yam last evening and in Richon Lezion for the day shift today after 5.5 hours of sleep. Both teams as usual were delightful to work with. Quick, efficient, pleasant, respectful to the patient, I can never say enough superlatives. I hope that they have the same comments about me.

1 case was a 48 year old male with severe chest pain, profuse sweating, pain irradiating to the arms and jaw, an obvious MI. We had to work quickly as time was of the essence if we were to get him to the hospital on time. Usually we have a driver, an experienced P-M, a junior P-M and me. In this case we lacked the junior so I had do both act as the physician and the junior P-M. We did the usual, history, physical, IV, EKG, oximeter. We then quickly gave, oxygen, ASA, heparin, and a pain medication. The patient started to improve immediately. We raced to the hospital with sirens blazing. The complication could easily have been ventricular fibrillation , asystoly and cardiac arrest. The P-M emailed the EKG to the hospital which showed a Q wave, an elevated ST segment and a reversed T wave, an obvious acute MI. The medical team including a cardiologist were waiting for us in the medical ICU in the ER. A cardiac echo was done immediately and after exchanging the monitoring, the patient was whisked to the cat (catheterization) lab for an angio and stent or bypass if necessary. We saved him with a rapid diagnosis and immediate institution of the appropriate treatment with no waste of time which could have cost the patient his life. Amazing!!!

For the 2nd case we were dispatched to a poor area of town. We had to carry our equipment up 4 flights of stairs as there was no elevator. The P-Ms kept asking me if I was OK. The patient was a 40 year old female, schizophrenic, who had tried to ‘jump out of the window’. The P-M spoke quietly to the patent, calmed her down, gave her a sedative and spoke with a psychiatrist by phone, By that time things had cooled down and as the patient was no longer in acute distress we decided to leave her in the company of her mother. Here is the sad part of the story. On the wall was a lovely picture of the patient’s mother, who was present, in her beautiful white wedding dress with her handsome husband standing in front of a nice new white car. Also on the wall was a picture of the whole family with their 5 young children. In the bed room was the husband in bed with a wheel chair bedside the bed. He had obviously had a stroke and could barely move or talk. On the couch was another daughter with obvious mental problems. Another picture showed a son with a grandchild who seemed to be doing well. We spoke to the mother at length who with social services was coping the best that she could. With this on her shoulders, I don’t know how she gets up every morning to face the day.

Another case today was a 45 year old woman who threw herself on the railway tracks in an attempted suicide. The conductor of the train saw the woman and was able to stop the train in time before running over her. The police were called and took her off the tracks. When we arrived, things were quite stable. The P-M spoke to the patient at length. She was not married but had 1 child and was known to be depressive. The P-M called the psychiatrist for instructions. In these cases, as there is a risk to the patient, we are authorized to give the patient a strong sedative and to take the patient by force with the police if necessary. With the P-Ms support by talking gently to the patient, we were able to convince her to come with us to a psychiatric institute where she is known and where she could have proper treatment.

Just another day in paradise…..as the song goes.

Love,

Brian

The hospital where Rabin was taken to after he was shot and where he passed away

On the beach at a restaurant at night in Tel Aviv

Israel 42,

April 29, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I am sending the following article to you because the author has responded on paper what I truly believe to be true. I would welcome your comments. 80% of countries that belong to the UN do not have legitimate votes in their own countries. But at the UN, they come and ‘vote’ as a bloc against Israel the only true democracy in the Middle East. I will put this on my blog for all of my followers to read. 

Today I saw videos of tents being put up on the McGill campus, my alma mater, where I am currently a Clinical Lecturer. What does trespassing on private property mean in Canada? The students who are protesting, except for their cries of ‘free Palestine’ would be tied to a pole and whipped if they ever made their ‘woke’ points of view public in a Free Palestine with a Hamas government or in any other Middle East country for that matter. Look at what they have done to women in Iran who rebelled against the religious authorities. Where are the world wide demonstrations against Iran?

Quora

The problem with Antonio Guterres’ statements is that they are deepities.

The term “deepity” was popularized by American philosopher Daniel Dennett, who described it as a statement that sounds thoughtful and profound to someone with a shallow mind, but is in fact trivial and either meaningless or false.

Take, for instance, Guterres’ comment that Hamas’ pogrom did not take place in a vacuum. This is a textbook example of a “deepity”. The carnage Hamas inflicted on Israeli civilians didn’t take place in a vacuum? Really? No shit, Sherlock! Nothing takes place in a vacuum. The founding of the modern nation of Israel didn’t happen in a vacuum. Israel’s stance towards its neighbors and other countries in the Middle East didn’t occur in a vacuum. The Holocaust didn’t happen in a vacuum. World War II didn’t happen in a vacuum. World War I didn’t happen in a vacuum. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki didn’t happen in a vacuum. The French Revolution didn’t happen in a vacuum. Every event in human history has a context. Every serial killer, every gore-soaked monster has an origin story full of moral ambiguity and heartbreak. Nothing under the sun — nothing under any star in the cosmos — happens without a reason. Cause-and-effect is one of the most fundamental realities of the universe.

So to begin with, the statement that what Hamas did, it didn’t do it in a vacuum, is breathtakingly trite.

Beyond that, what it insinuates is false. One insinuation is that Hamas and its fighters have no agency, because of the historical context — while Israel doeshave agency, no matter the historical context. But why? Why does “no vacuum” means “these people are not fully responsible for their actions” in one case, but “you can’t do “x” to defend yourself no matter what the circumstances are” in another? The implication that Hamas is not fully responsible for its actions is false, and also insincere because of the double standard applied here.

It also implies that whatever Israel did wrong is fully responsible for the rise of Hamas and its ideology. No responsibility is placed on Islamic extremism or antisemitism. No responsibility is placed on Russia’s age-old machinations in the region, either. Rather, it is insinuated that to the extent Islamic extremism and antisemitism exist, Jews are to blame for them for not being 100% morally pure to a man at all times. This is the same argument that was used to rationalize the Final Solution.

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You want to talk about things not occurring in a vacuum?

Let’s talk about the actions of the Soviet Army as it marched through Germany and later occupied parts of Germany at the end of World War II.

To begin with, nothing Palestinians ever suffered can even remotely compare to what the citizens of the Soviet Union went through in the context of the Nazi invasion of their country. In addition to the outright extermination of Jews and Gypsies, the Nazis considered the “Slavs” to be subhuman and brutalized them without regard for civilian life. As a result, the Soviet Union experienced carnage on a scale the world had not seen since Genghis Khan conquered China back in the12th century.

As the tide of the war turned, and Soviet soldiers began marching westwards, they had to pass through what was left of their country. They passed through flattened cities, burned villages and barren fields. They passed rotting corpses and saw charred bodies of children and old people. They saw barely covered mass graves. They saw mutilated and defiled bodies of women and girls. In addition, most of those soldiers had lost friends and close family to the war. Many had lost their entire families.

And then they arrived in Germany.

You probably know what happened next. I just want to make sure you realized it didn’t happen in a vacuum.

And you know what the curious thing is? Apart from a couple of extreme Russian apologists, I don’t think I’ve ever heard — and I certainly haven’t seen on Quora — anyone rationalizing or defending Russian atrocities in Germany as something that “didn’t occur in a vacuum”. Where be the rousing voices defending the mass rapes and the beatings and the murders as an understandable reaction to extreme psychological trauma, never mind a valid liberation technique? Where are all those lovers of freedom and humanity, who believe we simply can’t judge someone who’s ever experienced aerial bombardment, no matter what they do?

From what I gather — and believe me, I’ve scrutinized the profiles and the feeds of many, many pro-Hamas commenters here — the same people who act as apologists for the torture, murder and kidnapping of Israeli and Jewish civilians, including small children, also believe there is absolutely no justification for what the Soviets did in Germany.

What is the difference, I wonder?

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Guterres’ statement that Israel has to follow international law is another deepity.

EVERYONE has an obligation to follow international law. His comment is technically true, and also meaningless.

It also implies something false. International law does not ban military retaliation for an attack. International law does not prohibit civilian casualties, as long as civilians are not targeted and reasonable — reasonable — steps are taken to minimize those casualties. International law does not require a country that’s at war with another to supply food, medicine, water and materiel to the enemy. International law does not mandate that two countries at war suffer comparable civilian casualties.

Is it possible the Secretary General of the UN doesn’t know diddly squat about international law?? Well, hell, we live in a world where nothing matters anymore, so sure, why not.

That he is an ignorant, uninformed, superficial moron, and that all his numerous aides, researchers and advisers are also ignorant, uninformed, superficial morons, is actually the most charitable interpretation of his comments.

---

Housekeeping note: I am keeping the comment section open for now, but I will not dignify any antisemitic or pro-Hamas (but I repeat myself) comment with a response. I will delete it immediately and block and mute its author, as well as the author’s tens of followers and anyone who’s ever upvoted any of their antisemitic posts. Yes, I am doing “block bans”, because I’ve had it with the antisemites these past couple of weeks. If you lean that way, we have nothing to talk about, and I am fine with us not having any kind of a dialogue, ever.

UPDATE: Comments closed. Maybe temporarily, maybe not.

Israel 42,

April 28, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I was off on Friday and Saturday. The weather was perfect for touring. On Friday, I drove up the coast and on Saturday I walked around Tel Aviv.

I decided to visit a neighbourhood called Neve Tsedek. N-T is an older area where the houses are about 100 years old. The streets are very twisting, narrow and often cobblestoned. Most of the area has been renovated and gentrified. There are single homes but mostly row housing. The homes that have been updated are beautiful and I am sure very expensive The area is not far from the beach. There are many high quality shops and restaurants. I had a capuccino and a frozen yoghurt decorated with fruits and chocolate sauce.

Later in the afternoon, the sun came out and so did the heat so I did some body surfing.

You can see from the pictures the contrasts that are apparent in the city. There are high rise apartments, houses that have not yet been renovated, gentrified streets and mansions. There is always something to discover in the city that they call ‘the city that never sleeps’.

I spent the day today in the ambulance. The cases were very routine. Tomorrow I will do an evening shift, leaving me the morning to catch up on my emails. As usual, I am sipping a beer, finishing off my first pizza in Israel and writing my blog.

Love,

Brian

Israel 41,

April 27, 2024

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday was somewhat cool with temperatures in the mid 20s and cloudy so I decided to do some touring by car. I took towels and a bathing suit just in case, but the weather was really not nice enough for my usual swim in the Med. I drove to Natanya a medium size city north of Tel Aviv. The city seems nice to live in but less interesting to visit than Tel Aviv. There is a central market place/plaza with stores and restaurants which I drove around but didn’t stop as I could not find a parking spot. I then drove along the coast to observe the beach. The beach is at the bottom of a cliff that has a beautiful point of view. You could either park for free and walk down, which was quite a hike or drive down and pay for parking. I chose the later but drove through the parking lot to get a good view of the beach. It was windy so there were a lot of surfers out. I love to watch surfers. It seems like a sport that I should try once, with lessons of course, before I get too old to do these activities.

I then drove to a Caesarea, another town north of Natanya. Israel is a tiny country so the distances from one place to another are not far. All of the land in between the towns is exploited one way or another with agriculture or industry. They don’t have the endless forests here like in Canada. You can’t really get lost as you can always see civilization. Caesarea, as the name implies was built by the Romans. Herod the king got a bad rap in the bible for certain deeds. However, he was quite the builder. Masada was built by him as a summer palace. After the Romans, there were numerous conquests by the Arabs, the Crusaders and the Ottomans to name a few. The city was an important port and has an aqueduct. The ruins, as the name implies were quite ruined. However some vestiges remain which are worth seeing. To top things off and to enjoy the view, I had a capuccino and a gelato.

I then drove to Herzliya which is another town just north of Tel Aviv. The town is very pretty with numerous parks. There is a lot of wealth here and the houses in the town are grandiose. Unlike North America where the front lawn is very important, these houses as in much of Europe are protected by high walls making viewing somewhat difficult.

Last evening I was invited to Vickie’s for a Passover Shabbat dinner. Vickie was very influential in getting me my place with MDA. Vickie is originally from Turkey but made Aliyah many years ago. She always invites young students to her house when I am invited. Yesterday I made the acquaintance of 2 young fellows from Turkey who were spending several months here learning Hebrew and doing internships in their respective fields of interest. It was interesting talking to them about their lives as Jews in Turkey. Turkey is a Muslim country which has had a checkered relationship with Israel. I must say that having lived in Canada for 74 years, up until Oct 7, I have never directly or indirectly had an antisemitism incident towards me. The 2 fellows gave me the impression that as Jews, they had to be cautious living in Turkey. Outward displays of Judaism would not be dangerous but could possibly not be welcome. Seeing the demonstrations in Canada, the US and Europe, I can only hope that we are not moving towards this problem.

Love,

Brian

Natanya

Caesarea

Herzliya

Tel Aviv suburb

Israel 40,

April 26, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I wrote my last blog sitting on the beach late in the evening. I am now writing this blog while sitting at a cafe, sipping a capuccino and waiting for my laundry to complete its cycle at the laundromat. It reminds me of my days as a medical student in Reims, minus the iPad of course.

I was asked to do a double shift yesterday in exchange for 2 days off. It seemed like a good deal. I was up at 5:30, had a light breakfast and drove to my MDA station to start at 6:45. I actually worked at 2 stations, beginning my second shift in the afternoon and finishing at 11:15, returning to my hotel at midnight. I needed to relax a little so I had a salad and beer at my favourite bar/cafe/restaurant on the beach while doing emails.

Both shifts were rather routine as sometimes occurs and which I have described on previous blog entries. On the last shift I worked with 3 young ladies. As usual, I was impressed by their professionalism, kindness to the patient, speed and efficiency. The P-Ms have 2 years of intensive training and are very well prepared for all emergencies with appropriate protocols and back up with higher authorities if they need on the spot advice. I try to add any medical advice and approval of medical decisions when asked for my opinion. They seem to like to have a physician on board for back up when necessary.

We had 1 case which could have been a disaster but which turned out well for the patient. She was really lucky to survive and should go out and buy a lottery ticket as ‘Lady Luck’ is definitely on her side. She was driving on the highway at 100K when she lost control of her car. The car went off the road and jumped a 3 meter high group of shrubs. it was lucky that the car did not hit a tree as it would have split the car in two. Instead the shrubs slowed down the car and saved her life. The car was destroyed. We had to get the fire department to extricate her from the vehicle. We took the usual precautions, back board, neck brace, IV line etc and got her out through the back window. We got her to a trauma center and ran her through a number of blood tests, x-rays and CT scans. Other than being seriously scared , and a few minor bruises, she was totally unscathed by the accident. She was very, very lucky.

Love,

Brian

Israel 39,

April 26, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

Here are the pictures corresponding to my last blog entry.

Love,

Brian

Hospital

Military

rehab center