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| Tori Avey's Blintzes |
It is not a long weekend here in Israel. In fact, Israel never really has long weekends unless they are part of Jewish religious holidays. For that matter - Sunday was a normal work day (as it always is here in Israel). But since my work schedule is based in Canada - I get the day off today. Can rest up a bit before watching the Montreal Canadiens play game 7 vs the Buffalo Sabres at 2:30 a.m. tonight. Hoping for the best - and that I will still have a Canadian hockey team to watch in these NHL playoffs even if that means a major disruption to my sleep patterns.
This blog may be a bit of a smorgasbord as there are so many topics to cover. So I will write about whatever I think might be interesting and leave you to decide whether my selections match up with your tastes.
Eurovision
I have to start with Eurovision, the annual shlock fest in Europe. As you might have heard, the Israeli singer Noam Bettan, finished in second place with his song Michelle, which he sang in French, Hebrew and English.
Bettan is 28 years old, the son of immigrants to Israel from France. His family immigrated to Ra'anana (some people say that is only 15 minutes away from Israel - partially because of the high number of immigrants living in Ra'anana from western countries).
Bettan went to high school with a family member of ours - and was known to enjoy the famous chocolate chip cookies made by another family member. (As they say in Hebrew, those who know, know). ("Hamevin yavin").
In any case, this was the 70th anniversary edition of Eurovision - the annual European song contest which also includes Israel and Australia. Eurovision has been using the motto "United by Music" since 2023 - but this year - the contest was definitely not united.
Despite pressure from anti-Israel activists, the contest rejected efforts to oust Israel from the contest, led by such moral luminaries as Spain (which still hasn't come to terms with its 1492 Inquisition and Expulsion of its Jewish population). When the efforts of the anti-Israel coalition failed, five of the protagonists boycotted the contest and withdrew over the issue - Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Iceland and the Netherlands. That left 35 countries participating in the contest, of which 25 made it to the final.
Israel's 2nd place finish was the second consecutive runner-up finish for Israel - and Israel's fourth time finishing in the top 5 in the past 5 years. Israel last won the contest in 2018 with "Toy" sung by Netta Barzilai. Over the 70 year history of the contest, Israel has won four times.
The contest is known for spring-boarding the careers of many musical artists including Abba, which sang Waterloo in 1974 and Celine Dione who successfully represented Switzerland in 1988 to capture first place. Dione was not Swiss (she was Canadian of course) but at the time, as long as the composer and lyricist were from the country - the country could engage a performer from any foreign country. I have been waiting for my phone call with the opportunity to sing for Lithuania, Romania or maybe even Montenegro - but apparently Eurovision has since changed the rules and you have be a citizen of the country you wish to represent vocally. I think it's too late for me to carry the flag for Israel - and the competition is too steep, but who knows, maybe one of our three kids? One day?
Over the past few years, the issue of Israel's participation has created dramatic tension inside and outside of the event venues. It is true that Eurovision kicked out Russia in 2022 following Russia's invasion of Ukraine - which was an arguably unprovoked invasion. One could argue about geopolitical reasons for Russia's actions but I think it is fairly difficult to argue that this was anything but unprovoked. Ukraine had not attacked or threatened to attack Russia in any way even though Ukraine was looking to join NATO.
On the other hand, Israel was attacked on October 7, 2023 by Hamas/Gaza - which Israel had left in 2005. Israel was also attacked, simultaneously or shortly afterwards by Yemen, Hezbollah (Lebanon) and groups from Syria and Iraq, all sponsored and trained by Iran, which ultimately entered the war directly. More than 1000 Israelis were murdered in these initial attacks, many of whom were civilians and many of whom were tortured to death. The idea that Israel should be ostracized and subject to bans and boycotts because it responded with strength to these massive attacks is really quite obnoxious. Thankfully, most European countries rejected this call and refused to boycott the contest over the issue. In fact, the winner of the contest, a singer from Bulgaria, Dara, who sang "Bangaranga" spoke publicly in support of Israel just days before the final. Contrast this with "Nemo" the non-binary winner of Eurovision 2024 from Switzerland, who attacked Israel at every available opportunity. Sadly, Nemo is probably unaware (or simply hypocritical) about the fact that Israel is probably one of the only countries in the Middle East (if not the only country) in which they could freely celebrate their sexual identity. Nemo would probably be safer in Israel than many of the other European Eurovision contestants.
There is much more than can be written about Eurovision - many Israelis are glued to their screens annually on the night of the finals, waiting to see if Israel will finish "on the map" and demonstrate to the world that it has important cultural and musical contributions to make - even if they are being made as part of a shlocky contest.
Just one final comment about it - and that is about the judging. In the finals, each country has a jury of "professional" judges that award points to 10 other countries - except their own. Historically, these professional juries are a cesspool of politics, deal making and shady exchanges. For example, Cyprus and Greece almost always award each other the highest number of points. (This year was no exception). Likewise for the various Scandinavian countries - and Britain and France often enjoy the same arrangements. Historically, the "professional" juries rarely provide high numbers of points to Israel, no matter who is singing. But the the other half of the voting comes from audience votes - phone in and on-line voting. There, Israel has done exceptionally well, even in the countries that boycotted Israel this year.
So after all of the judging this year, Israel was in 10th place or so after all of the "jury votes" had been announced. As the audience vote came in, Israel moved up higher and higher. Six different countries awarded Israel the highest number of votes from audience voting (including France, Germany and Switzerland) but only one country's "professional jury" gave Israel the maximum votes - and that was Poland. After Israel's audience total was announced - Israel moved up to first place - and held on to that spot until the very last country's votes were announced - Bulgaria - which then overtook Israel by a significant number.
Going in to the contest, Finland had been the heavy favourite. Voices in Finland were calling for Finland to bar Israel from participating next year if it had won (the winner hosts the following year's contest). But Finland lost - and Bulgaria has no stated intention of banning Israel. It will be interesting to see if the five boycotters continue to boycott next year or they will re-join or try to re-join the contest.
For now, I have taken Spain, Iceland, Slovenia, Ireland and the Netherlands off my travel list. I hear that Iceland is quite beautiful the right time of year and I enjoy Amsterdam. Slovenia wasn't really on my list anyways and Ireland has been a bastion of anti-Israel hatred for some time now - so I wasn't planning to visit Ireland anytime soon either.
To conclude on Eurovision - (I have written much more than I intended to write), here are two more videos for your enjoyment.
First of all- here is Noam Bettan's song Michelle in Yiddish, with the name changed to
"Rachel". Thanks to some AI apparently.
Finally - this a version of "A New Day Will Rise," Israel's entry to last year's Eurovision sung by Yuval Raphael as a duet with Noam Bettan. In other words - Israel's back to back 2nd place finishers at Eurovision - singing together. This was recorded in March 2026. Enjoy.
I particularly enjoy this duet - and I hope you are able to access these videos from wherever you are in the world.
Israeli Politics
As you might know, Israel must have elections before the end of October, 2026. This means the current Knesset will be dissolved shortly and a date will be chosen.
The ultra-religious parties have indicated they would prefer a date two days before Rosh Hashanah - or in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. They are betting that the highest number of their constituents will be available to vote those days. Secular Israelis are often out of the country on those dates - since it is an extended three-week holiday break for many companies - or at least a period with a much lighter schedule.
Prime Minister Netanyahu is pushing for the latest possible date - at the end of October. Supposedly, this would give him more time to try and improve his support (which has been fading) or to negotiate a plea bargain deal and leave office permanently, perhaps coupled with a pardon from the Israeli President.
As of now, Israeli parties are still putting together their final slates of candidates. Prime Minister Netanyahu still seems to have a plurality of votes but not a majority. Predictions for Netanyahu seem to range from 25 to 36 seats out of 120 Knesset seats. Right now, former Prime Minister Bennett and former Prime Minister Lapid are running together as a joint slate and are polling in second place with 24 to 26 seats. The key is that in almost all of the polls, Netanyahu's government seems to be polling at between 49 and 52 seats out of 120 down from their current number of 68 seats. If these polling numbers turn out to be accurate, that would be a dramatic loss of 16 seats for Netanyahu's ruling coalition.
On the other hand, the opposition parties, not including the Israeli Arab parties (which have usually avoided joining the government), seem to be polling the range of 56 to 59 seats. According to these results, the opposition would need the support of either the ultra-religious parties or the Arab parties in order to form a government - unless the numbers move by a few seats.
We could well wind up with a stalemate but it is too early to make predictions. The final slates have not even closed yet and there could be dramatic changes still to come in terms of the field of candidates.
What is certain is that Israel will not elect a "left" or "far left" government. If Netanyahu loses, it will be something similar to Hungary - where we would see a change of leadership - and changes on some big issues, primarily domestic, I think - but not too many immediate dramatic shifts.
I do think that if the opposition were to win, we would be likely to see less corruption, a dramatic difference in the tone of public statements, and a reinvigorated respect for the judicial system in Israel. It is too early to say what kind of policy changes we will see vis-a-vis the Palestinians, Lebanon, Syria and Iran. But Bennett is campaigning on a variety of domestic policy changes including the availability of civil marriage in Israel, enlistment for all Israelis including the ultra-religious and respect for the judicial system. So the public discourse would certainly be quite different with new leadership.
The War/s
Israel remains, unquestionably, in an ongoing state of war on several fronts, despite some different cease-fire agreements.
Israel is fighting most actively against Hezbollah and Lebanon. Lebanon has continued to send attack drones, missiles and rockets to Israel, with its most potent weapon being drones that are not using gps systems. Several Israeli soldiers were killed over the past two weeks fighting in or near Lebanon.
Captain Maoz Recanati z"l was killed on Friday. He was a 24 year old Golani soldier due to marry his fiancee next month. 20 year old Staff Sargeant Negev Dagan Z"l, another Golani soldier, was also killed on Saturday in Southern Lebanon. I picked these two only because they were the most recent fatalities. In total, since October 7, 2023, more than 1,150 Israeli soldiers have been killed and 850 civilians have also been killed.
Although Israel would love to have a peace deal with Lebanon and many Lebanese would like nothing more - Lebanon is effectively being held ransom by Hezbollah, an Iranian backed terror organization, that controls large swaths of Lebanese territory, including large sections of Beirut. The Lebanese government needs to be able to control Hezbollah and prevent it from attacking Israel. If it cannot do that, and Hezbollah continues to attack Israel, Israel has no choice but to continue to fight Hezbollah. Israelis are hoping that Israel will soon reach a real peace deal with Lebanon and citizens of both countries will be able to tour each other's countries. But for now, this still seems like a distant dream.
In Gaza, there continues to be some ongoing fighting, though access to news is somewhat limited. Recently, the current commander of Hamas was killed in fighting. Ultimately, Hamas continues to try to reassert its control over Gaza while Israel and some other partners seek to disarm Hamas and create the conditions for different leadership in Gaza. It is unclear to me when or how an end to the fighting will be reached with Hamas / Gaza but I am hoping that someone will soon figure out a way to resolve this situation.
With Iran, Israelis seem to believe that a new round of fighting is imminent, possibly starting today, tomorrow or over the next few days. This was the view of a the Russian ambassador in a recent interview, apparently, and seems to be the view of many commentators. Although Trump has massive American military might in the region, he has been making threats for weeks and seems to have little domestic support for renewed hostilities with Iran. However, the Iranians do not seem to be interested in accepting the conditions that Trump is offering for a full permanent cease fire. Iran is acting as if it holds all of the cards - or most of them. As I write this, there was just an announcement that the U.S. has rejected Iran's latest "proposal" to end the war.
Both Trump and Iran seem to be playing chicken. Most commentators that I have heard claim that neither Iran nor the U.S. is interested in renewed fighting. However, the current state of affairs is nothing less than an embarrassing loss for the United States - with no significant, demonstrable gains other than a major degradation of the Iranian military forces.
Netanyahu is pushing for renewed hostilities because he understands that none of the war aims have been achieved. Iran still has its enriched uranium, its missile program and its proxies, even though some of the proxies have been degraded to an extent. There has been no regime change and Iran continues to threaten several countries in the region - the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Israel and any countries relying on the use of the Hormuz Straits (other than Iranian allies). From the Israeli government's perspective, Israel and the U.S. should try to "finish the job" and achieve some or all of their war aims.
Trump is of course facing massive domestic pressure, a decrease in popularity, an increase in oil prices and a sense, I would say, that these "war aims" may not even be achievable. Trump is concerned that renewing the fighting may not put the U.S. in a better position and he may simply wind up deeper in the quagmire. For Netanyahu, he would prefer somewhat of a "Hail Mary" pass. If the fighting can be renewed and completed before election time, he might be able to claim that the whole operation was victorious because of his leadership. However, if things go awry, and that is at least reasonably likely, Netanyahu might slide even further in the Israeli polls and might need to consider taking a plea bargain deal rather than standing for re-election.
For now, there is a great deal of uncertainty here in Israel, since renewed fighting could break out at any time and throw the whole region into disarray.
Travelling to Israel
Most foreign airlines have still not resumed their normal service to Israel, though some are scheduled to do so at the end of May or the beginning of June. El Al prices are very high and space is limited. Arkia, Air Haifa and Israir are also flying out of Ben Gurion airport, but let's just say that I am not that excited about flying on any of those airlines.
Last month I flew via London. (El Al to London and Air Canada from London to Toronto). The El Al planes were the very nice Dreamliner 787s with screens. Similar to the planes that Air Canada uses. Smooth, quiet and a bit more spacious than some other planes. El Al even rolled out a proper boarding system this year, starting in January 1, 2026, replacing its chaotic "everyone can board now" with an orderly board by zone process. And in London, yes, it worked. Boarding was orderly, organized and reasonable. The food was decent, the entertainment screens had a wide variety and the flight was quite nice. Too bad El Al is not a member of one of the major alliances as the "Matmid" program for frequent flyers is still horrible. But otherwise, this was quite a nice trip.
I should also note that the UK now uses pre-travel visas - ETAs - which you need to arrange before you fly. But once you have done so, Border control processing is quick and efficient. It was great.
Flying back, I flew via Zurich. Zurich border control was less organized and took much longer. I spent a day in Zurich (which is only a 10 minute train from the airport) but that is for another blog perhaps
From Zurich, I flew El Al. This was the "good old-fashioned El Al." No real boarding zones were used, the planes were older and noisier, the food was terrible and there were no personal screens. Of course, it is the only show in town flying from Zurich to Tel-Aviv so I suppose El Al can afford to run whatever service it feels like running.
A large contingent of Israelis held a prayer service just before take off - though it was around 6 p.m. and they were having a big fight trying to decide whether to pray Minchah (afternoon prayers) or Ma'ariv (evening prayers). In the end the Ma'ariv voices won out - even though it was too early to count the Omer (Observant Jews count the Omer for 50 days starting on the second day of Pesach (Passover) after dark each day.) You can't count the Omer until after the sun goes down.
In any event, surely with all of the daveners on the plane, I could take comfort in the enhanced safety of the plane, assuming that these prayers had reached the intended recipient.
Shavuot
I am going to wrap this up by noting that we are celebrating Shavuot on Thursday night May 21st and Friday May 22nd this year in Israel (it is only a one-day holiday here).
Following in the footsteps of my late grandmothers z"l and my dear mother (who hasn't made blintzes in a while), I will be making a decent sized batch of cheese blintzes to be served as part of a dairy meal, best eaten with sour cream. A shout out to Tori Avey's recipe site which has some excellent blintz recipes. As well as all kinds of other recipes. I have tried many of them and they are really terrific. Her Rosh Hashanah honey cake, made with chopped granny smith apples, is excellent - but I digress.
Some Jews observe the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot - and Israel's dairy industry loves that tradition. We went out to buy some cheeses today to fill the blintzes and it was a zoo in the dairy section of the supermarket. But we went early. I am sure it will be completely insane by Wednesday - if there is anything left on the shelves. A few years ago, we left things a bit late and had a very difficult time finding some cheese products that we needed.
There are others who maintain that you cannot properly celebrate a Jewish holy day unless you actually eat meat on the holy day but we have always been part of the first school. (Some extended family members of mine here in Israel are decidedly in the second group).
The tradition is to study Torah all night on Shavuot, which is after all, a holiday marking the receipt of the Torah by the Jewish people. What goes best with dairy and Torah studying? Cheese cake and White or Rose wine of course - and both of those will be served at our Erev Shavuot dinner even though I am not a big cheesecake fan myself.
I have lots more to write - perhaps I will do a bit of a travel blog about a number of sites we recently visited in Israel. But for now, I am going to call it a day. This has taken quite a while to write and I am running out of gas (and we all know how expensive gas is these days).
Wishing everyone a Chag Shavuot Sameach and looking forward to seeing many of you soon in North America.
