The beach and the desert
Yesterday morning I took my youngest grandson, Hillel (8), for a walk along the beach, while he was visiting us during the Chanukah holiday. We descended to the beach using the elevator that is nearby at the Sironit Beach. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny, with a mild cool breeze off the sea. It's hard to believe it was December!
We walked to a new large circle that has been set up containing exercise machines, about 20 of them, all brightly colored. It was very busy there, with lots of people of all ages trying the machines and circulating between them. The space was covered with canvas to give shade and it was extremely pleasant sitting and cycling while looking out to sea.
Then we walked all the way along the beach about a mile to the stairs up at the Seasons Hotel near my studio. The "Gallery on the Cliff" happened to be open and they had a show of book covers painted by professional artists for an Israeli children's magazine, so my grandson had something to look at.
After we had visited my studio we went to the Shearim concert held every Monday noon, and it was a clarinettist, who is very popular, who played some Mozart, but also some Benny Goodman favorites as well as some Klezmer music, so it wasn't too bad for Hillel (although I'm sure he was bored, but he was very well behaved).
Then we drove him back to Beersheva, where we lit the 7th candle with Miriam's family and stayed overnight. This morning before returning we went with Miriam and the kids to visit the memorial to the Negev Brigade. This is a huge concrete structure on one of the highest hills on the edge of Beersheva, and from there you can see the whole city and valley and really tell that you are in the desert.
The memorial (or andarta) is quite complex with strange concrete shapes and explanatory reliefs of the battles. It is important to note that the Egyptian and Jordanian armies invaded the Negev, where they had no right to be, and tried to take it over (each for themselves). But they were beaten back by a combination of a few thousand local Jewish farmers and scouts and later the Palmach and Hagana, eventually combined into the IDF. Some 350 Jews were killed fighting for the Negev, their names etched on the rough concrete walls. Incidentally, the local Arabs were Beduin who took little part in the fighting, and there were few of what we would now call Palestinians living there. By the time the fighting stopped in 1949, the Egyptian and Jordanian armies had been defeated and expelled and the Negev remained part of Israel.
Maybe its because we live in such a small country, but I had some feeling of disjointedness going from the beach to the desert in a day. I was aware that the sacrifice of those who secured the Negev allowed us to enjoy the freedom of the beach in Netanya.
We walked to a new large circle that has been set up containing exercise machines, about 20 of them, all brightly colored. It was very busy there, with lots of people of all ages trying the machines and circulating between them. The space was covered with canvas to give shade and it was extremely pleasant sitting and cycling while looking out to sea.
Then we walked all the way along the beach about a mile to the stairs up at the Seasons Hotel near my studio. The "Gallery on the Cliff" happened to be open and they had a show of book covers painted by professional artists for an Israeli children's magazine, so my grandson had something to look at.
After we had visited my studio we went to the Shearim concert held every Monday noon, and it was a clarinettist, who is very popular, who played some Mozart, but also some Benny Goodman favorites as well as some Klezmer music, so it wasn't too bad for Hillel (although I'm sure he was bored, but he was very well behaved).
Then we drove him back to Beersheva, where we lit the 7th candle with Miriam's family and stayed overnight. This morning before returning we went with Miriam and the kids to visit the memorial to the Negev Brigade. This is a huge concrete structure on one of the highest hills on the edge of Beersheva, and from there you can see the whole city and valley and really tell that you are in the desert.
The memorial (or andarta) is quite complex with strange concrete shapes and explanatory reliefs of the battles. It is important to note that the Egyptian and Jordanian armies invaded the Negev, where they had no right to be, and tried to take it over (each for themselves). But they were beaten back by a combination of a few thousand local Jewish farmers and scouts and later the Palmach and Hagana, eventually combined into the IDF. Some 350 Jews were killed fighting for the Negev, their names etched on the rough concrete walls. Incidentally, the local Arabs were Beduin who took little part in the fighting, and there were few of what we would now call Palestinians living there. By the time the fighting stopped in 1949, the Egyptian and Jordanian armies had been defeated and expelled and the Negev remained part of Israel.
Maybe its because we live in such a small country, but I had some feeling of disjointedness going from the beach to the desert in a day. I was aware that the sacrifice of those who secured the Negev allowed us to enjoy the freedom of the beach in Netanya.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:13 PM
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