Letter from Israel: Reflections on a thoughtful Friday night

By Nechemia Meyers

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After Friday night dinner, it is customary for Israelis to sit around their coffee table and discuss the events of the week. And last week most of the conversation in our home was about the report, later denied, that the Jews of Iran would be forced to put a yellow badge on their clothing.
Everyone sitting there agreed that this was horrifying, but most certainly possible. After all, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had already demonstrated his desire to walk in Hitler's footsteps as regards the Jews, and there is no reason to believe that he would forego a yellow badge.
The fact that this badge is not to be, at least in the meantime, does not eliminate our anxiety in regard to President Ahjadinejad's plan to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, or the fact that most of the world doesn't seem unduly perturbed by his nuclear-powered plans.
Last Friday night, our guests and we finally turned away from Iran to other, generally frivolous topics. What could be done, several people asked, to make the forthcoming World Cup soccer games freely available to the Israeli public rather than forcing them to pay a special $100 fee for the privilege of watching the matches.
Also tossed around were estimates of whether the Israeli song to be performed at the Eurovision Song Contest by an African American living in Israel, had a chance of winning the competition.

Since the people at our coffee table were in their late 60s or early 70s, there was naturally much talk about illnesses (everyone there has several) and grandchildren (all of them bright and beautiful).
It is no less than amazing that Israelis are able to compartmentalize their thoughts. They feel threatened by the possibility of a future Iranian A-bomb and by "ordinary" Arab terrorism tomorrow and the next day.
But young men and women go on planning their treks to India and Bolivia, while their parents go on trying to figure out how they can possibly raise the money they need to buy a new set of living room furniture or a late model car.
Moreover, despite the looming Iranian threat, people are buying new apartments, the price of which has risen considerably in recent months, and attending cultural events in record numbers.
During the next couple of weeks many Israelis will be attending plays, dance performances, concerts and recitals by artists from Israel and a host of other countries within the framework of the Israel Festival.
Also taking place during the same period are smaller festivals in Tel Aviv and Abu-Ghosh, where all the concerts are held in churches.
And even without festivals, there are two dozen plays, a dozen dance evenings and umpteen musical events in the Tel Aviv area alone.
Who, then is being realistic? Those who sit around on Friday night worrying about the Iranians and the Hamas? Or those who go on enjoying life and hoping that Ahmadinejad's fate will be no different than that of an earlier resident of his country, Haman?

Nechemia Meyers is a writer in Rehovot, Israel.