Daffodils in December

Driving conditions were difficult on the Mt. Gilboa scenic route on Saturday.

The previous day a brief newspaper column advising, "Where to go and what to see” told about the daffodils and the cyclamens now flowering on the upper slopes of Mt. Gilboa. Predictably, droves of wildflowers enthusiasts set out to see for themselves. About halfway along the route traffic had come to a standstill. A few enterprising people left their cars and began directing vehicles, unravelling the Gordian knot at the centre of the traffic jam.

Before long we were on the move again and found the place where from time immemorial daffodils have flowered. On one wide slope we saw enough daffodils to inspire a latter-day Wordsworth.

Further to the east we saw clusters of cyclamens among the rocks. A few weeks from now anemones and poppies will start to flower. Later still, in early spring, the Gilboa Iris appears on the mountain’s eastern slopes.

The popular scenic route was once part of the patrol road guarding the border with the Jordanian held West Bank on the southern side of the mountain.

After the Six Day War it gradually became more accessible. A short distance to the south the new security fence has replaced it altogether.

Four hundred metres below the scenic route the valley road designated route 71 by the Israel public works authority, connects Beit Shean to Afula.

For much of its course route 71 was built over the Roman Caesarea-Scythopolis highway, a “via publica,” part of a network of 2,500 miles of roads that covered the Roman provinces on both sides of the River Jordan.

This section of road between Scythopolis ( Beit Shean) and Legio ( Megiddo) was built by the soldiers of the tenth Roman legion in the year 69. It is the earliest known Roman road in Israel.

Three years earlier the Great Revolt broke out and road building attained high priority to enable the rapid movement of Roman troops, siege machines and supplies.

Let’s take a two thousand year time warp to the road between Ashdod and Jerusalem. When Tanya Rosenblit a woman known only to her family and friends boarded an inter-city bus bound for Jerusalem on Friday she had no idea she would become the centre of a controversy.

The public bus she boarded normally carries a lot of ultra-Orthodox passengers and travels to an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood in Jerusalem.

As a matter of custom imposed by the Orthodox passengers, women sit in the back of the bus. Tanya was the first passenger that morning on the bus and she took a seat behind the driver. As the bus took on more passengers along its route, an ultra-Orthodox man demanded that she should sit in the back of the bus as is the custom on that route. She refused and kept her seat even when the driver suggested she move to the back. Eventually he called the police. A policeman arrived assessed the situation and asked her if she would voluntarily move as requested. Cognisant of a ruling made by the Israeli Supreme Court earlier this year stating that involuntary separation between the sexes on public buses was against the law. Rosenblit refused to budge and after a thirty minute delay, the bus continued its journey to Jerusalem with the defiant "suffragette” sitting up front.

Later Ms. Rosenblit posted her account of the showdown on Facebook and the rest is history. Someone likened her to Rosa Parks, the news media people were standing in line to interview her. Even Prime Minister Netanyahu found time to meet her and praise her action. Just two weeks ago Secretary of State Clinton criticised segregation of the sexes on Israeli buses.

At this juncture it’s important to stress that most of the segregation is voluntary and takes place mainly in ultra-Orthodox neighbourhoods, but it is spreading.

It would be conveniently simple to divide Israel’s Jewish population into two sectors, one secular and the other religiously observant. Such a division is inaccurate and misleading.

In reality each sector has many variants. Some secular Jews adhere to traditional Jewish customs and practices. Not all religiously observant Jews can be classified as ultra-Orthodox. There are many shades and varieties of Orthodox Judaism. Many Orthodox Jews oppose segregation of women or anything, either custom or practice that is coercive in any way.

The problem is compounded by an unrelated matter involving a maverick Orthodox group that seeks to impose its political goals by force. Attempts to dismantle illegal Jewish outposts in Judah and Samaria (the West Bank) have been countered by a small vigilante group often termed “hilltop youth.” Their reprisals involve a “price tag” usually directed against the Palestinian population. Cutting down olive trees, burning cars, defacing and burning mosques are among the price tag methods they employ. However, recently there have been attacks on IDF soldiers and a forced entry into an IDF camp where the commander was attacked.

Following this wave of price tag reprisals a third of the IDF units stationed in the West Bank is deployed protecting Palestinian communities.

Till now the people who perpetrated these attacks have been dealt with leniently. Now they have crossed a red line and hopefully these hooligans will pay the penalty for their actions.

The secular majority of Israel’s population and the "modern" Orthodox sector are well integrated. However the extreme fringes, the ultra-Orthodox communities occasionally clash over contentious matters. Old bones uncovered on building sites, during road construction and archaeological excavations, have often triggered demonstrations. Municipalities cancel concerts with female artists or insist that they be fully clothed. These municipalities remove advertising of even modestly-clad women from streets and buses.

A commotion over Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) soldiers boycotting ceremonies where female soldiers sing evoked a firm disciplinary response from the IDF high command.

A recent population projection estimates that by 2059 the majority of Israelis will be ultra-Orthodox Jews (providing there will be a two state solution to the Conflict). Anyway by then we will find it consoling to know that most of Europe will probably be Muslim.

This week we are celebrating Hanukah and among the many children’s entertainment activities the Petah Tikva municipality saw fit to implement segregation in some of the performances of the Hanukah show it sponsors at the municipal performing arts centre. Boys and girls will be seated separately. The Haredi minority is growing rapidly. Ultra-Orthodox couples interpret the biblical injunction requiring us to be" fruitful and multiply," literally. A case in point is my cousin Alan and his wife. They underwent a religious "metamorphosis” about the time they arrived in Israel. They live in Kiriat Safer an Orthodox town hallway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The town synonymous with Modiin, the place where the Hasmonean revolt started, is populated by Orthodox families. Alan and his wife have fourteen children and hosts of grandchildren. Alan's mother, my aunt, is hard put to remember all their names.

The date we celebrate Hanukah sometimes coincides with Christmas. This gives me an opportunity to add a few iconoclastic remarks.

Two years ago I wrote, "The Hanukah theme 'A great miracle happened there/here,' as we know refers to that miraculous cruse of oil which was normally enough to light a temple lamp for one day managed to last for eight days.

The story is a later Interpolation first mentioned in the Talmud. It seems the authors of the Books of Maccabees forgot to mention it. Contemporary and later writers found no reason to praise the miraculous cruse of oil."

The earliest mention of Hanukah as the festival of dedication is found in the New Testament, ^"And it was in Jerusalem at the feast of the dedication, and it was winter." John 10:22 .

"Hundreds of years after the rededication of the Temple, a brief mention in the Babylonian Talmud added a whole new dimension to Hanukah. Now it's too late to correct the narrative even if we were to seriously consider this 'mission impossible,' .we would have to forfeit all those fattening gastronomic delights and the 'Feast of Lights' would be a dimmer, poorer festival.

The heroes of Hanukah- the Maccabees, founders of the Hasmonean dynasty were short lived heroic figures. Their sons were a pack of cutthroat intriguers, who murdered their brothers and mothers in their relentless quest for power. Nevertheless, we continue to sing their praises and join sports and social clubs called Maccabeans.

Christmas trappings appear particularly incongruous with the Holy Land climate and landscape. Furthermore, the Christmas narrative has a few problems. In Nazareth there are two churches of the annunciation, each claiming to be the site where the "annunciation" took place

The nativity has its problems too. Let's skip the "immaculate conception" and consider the birth of Jesus. As opposed to the broader acceptance that his birthplace was Bethlehem, some say he was born in Nazareth. To further complicate matters there are two towns called Bethlehem. The Bethlehem of the Church of the Nativity is in Judea a few miles south of Jerusalem. The other Bethlehem is only a few miles from Nazareth. Being born there seems more logical and archeological excavations conducted there add weight to this claim. On the other hand the southern Bethlehem doesn’t appear to have been inhabited in or around the time Jesus was born. To further complicate matters Herod died too early to fit into the appropriate time-slot mentioned in the gospels. My advice is don’t put too fine a point on historical accuracy and allow facts to confuse you. So when the time comes to sing:

“O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;”

Be of good voice and forget the other Bethlehem.

British journalist Suzanne Moore has a column in the Guardian. Recently she recounted a bad experience she had in Israel. The title of the piece

“ The worst Christmas ever was when I took the kids to Bethlehem.” Their holiday started well in Eilat where her children were having a good time. The tale of the trip to Bethlehem and their stay in a very “no-frills” hotel in East Jerusalem was all her own doing. Moore wrote nothing bad about Israel. She merely expressed her disillusionment with Bethlehem and the whole experience.

I copied one of the comments posted to her article:

“As the early Christians co-opted the European pagan winter feasts to use up perishable stored food in order to assist conversion, and biblical scholars estimate Jesus birthday to be around September despite no contemporary record of his existence; why on earth would you take your kids to Bethlehem in December?”

Just the same I wish you a Happy Hanukah or a Merry Christmas, whichever is applicable.

Beni 22^nd of December, 2011.