NEAUSEATING video of the day...

Actual video of Palestinian terrorists using UN/Red Cross AMBULANCES to transport arms during a firefight with the Israeli Defense Forces.

Why aren't you pissed off?

Follow the link: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=21813_Palestinian_Terrorists_in_UN_Ambulances&only

Thanks, LGF...

Israel Outdoors 2K6

Got back from Israel about a week and a half ago after staffing a birthright israel trip with Israel Outdoors. Trip was sick. Participants were awesome. Israeli guide rocked. Basically, a perfect trip. We mastered the art of counting from 1-40. Trust me, it was a sight to be seen.

My brother and I stayed an extra two days after the trip and hung out in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. We left just as the proverbial shit was starting to hit the fan. A very weird feeling took me over as I watched the news on the rocket attacks in the North from a shwarma stand on the beach in Tel Aviv: I didn't want to leave Israel. I wanted to stay...even though I knew I was coming back for school in three weeks.

I'll have more ramblings about why I feel the way I feel. But for now, here are some pictures of the trip.


The gang in Jerusalem



Ladies and gentlemen, I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story. I need all of you, to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!!... in Ein Gedi

Wearing Bonaroo's shades on Masada

On top of Masada at 5 a.m., sweating, disgusting, exhausted, and smelly.

Ariel throwing up on our first hike in the Galilee

Wine is goooood

Enough Levis, leave already!

Some photo highlights of my going-away party at Le Souk in NYC. Thanks to all the people who showed up to see me off. We ROCKED that place...

Patrice and me

Gideon and Erbsen. In.

Leora and Me

Troubs...being troublesome

Zaky and Mouf...are you kididng me?

Jackie, Tomback, and the other hoochie mamas

All my UJA-Federation peeps!

Seth, me, and the exact same shirt

Craig being a "tough guy" and Arielle just being sweet

Niiiiiice

I don't even like these assholes

Denise drumming her ass off

Marissa...get back to work on those FFT emails!

How did Barry get into a picture with Allison and Nicole?

Jen...all the way in from Jersey/Hofstra

The next night...my "bachelor party" at Churrascaria Plataforma

Now THIS I would kill to see..

My possible dream concert...and yes, I took both of these pics!

Pearl Jam to Join U2 in Concert

Bands will play at Aloha Stadium on Dec. 9

Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 20, 2006

Pearl Jam will join U2 on the Aloha Stadium stage Dec. 9, creating an exceptional double bill sure to ease fans' disappointment over the postponement of U2's original April concert date.

Tour promoter the Next Adventure announced this morning that the U2 "Vertigo '06" concert -- originally scheduled for April 8 -- will take place in December.

Pearl Jam will join the band as a special guest, Next Adventure said, along with Rocco and the Devils, the band headed by U2 stage manager Rocco Reedy.

(c) Star-Bulletin, 2006.

Two weeks and counting...

I have a crush...

YES! Yes for cripes' sake, yes I'm still going to Israel for grad school in two weeks. I sincerely and totally appreciate everyone's concern. But I'm still going. The campus, I've been assured, is safe. The fighting, for now, is in the north. And classes are going on as scheduled. The food in the dining facilities, meanwhile, is another matter. I'm actually more worried about how I'm getting utterly and totally screwed on financial aid by the school. "Plunder the North Americans for all they're worth," the school is probably saying. Nice.

The falafel better be worth it. And yea, the education too.

So August 6...I'm out. Off to Jerusalem. Am I scared? No. Am I nervous? Yes, but in the "first date with the girl who you've been crushing on for a long time" kind of way. The kind of nervous where the potential for the pot of gold at the end of the tunnel is tangible and true. And if it doesn't work out, at least you can say you tried.

I have a crush on Israel. A really bad crush. A crush on the way she acts, on the way she moves, on her toughness, on her vulnerability, on the kind of place she wants to be one day when she is finally allowed to grow up. And, my god, is she beautiful. She's beautiful when the beads of sweat tickle the top of her forehead in muggy Tel Aviv. She's beautiful when a gentle wind sweeps through her hair in the valleys in the north. She's beautiful when the moon draws a mischievous smile from her on a cool dessert night.

Maybe she'll like me back. I'll find out soon enough.