Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Happy July 4th in Israel!

I'm listening tonight to Reshet Bet, and "American Pie" starts playing! I guess this is part of their July 4th coverage. Suddenly I feel nostalgic for when the song was first released, in 1971, the year I turned 15.

I celebrated July 4th today, although without fireworks. I went to the American consulate in Jerusalem for their annual party. A good friend of mine received an invitation because she's the director of the Jewish-Arab kindergarten at the Jerusalem YMCA. It was a lot of fun and quite a scene. Good music, including America the Beautiful, a nice speech by the consul supporting a two-state solution, great food, and very interesting people, including as a special guest, Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad, Palestinian businesspeople and P.A. officials, American military who are part of the US security assistance to the P.A., members of the Marine guard of the consulate, local Christian clergy wearing splendid hats, activists for peace, and lots of other people. I also had a chance to meet the Deputy Principal Officer of the consulate, who is the daughter of friends in Ithaca!

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