Shalom, Mr President!

Tonight I heard President Obama address over 1,000 Israeli college students in Jerusalem. I'm so glad that I got to participate in this event. I think that in retrospect, it was an historic speech. He delivered it with poise and confidence, and the message was spot-on. He covered three main points of security, peace, and prosperity, and his remarks were aimed largely at the youth of Israel. This is a strategy that worked well for him in winning two Presidential elections, as well as in Cairo in 2009. He made it very clear that Israel's future was definite, and that America is always there for them. Some security highlights included:

• Iran should be dealt with through diplomatic channels (though all options are on the table)
• Hezbollah is a terrorist organization
• Hamas should renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist
• Anyone who questions Israel's right to exist might as well reject the earth beneath them or the sky above them...[thundering applause]

This last point was the pinnacle of his remarks. And just as he had everyone's attention and full support, he surprised them with this question: "What kind of future is it going to be?" And then he laid out his vision for the possibility peace with the Palestinians, and a viable two-state solution to the Arab Israeli conflict. These are not new words or new ideas, but perhaps they will find fertile ground in new ears. Who knows?

I paid very close attention to those sitting around me and their reactions to his words. Some people were elated at the mention of peace, or the notion of 'two nations for two peoples'. Others looked worried. I saw one older gentlemen furrow his brow and grumble that "not a word of this is true" when the President went off-script to tell about the Palestinian teenagers he had talked to earlier that day, and how their dreams and aspirations sounded no different than youth in Cairo, or Tel Aviv, or DC. Those who cheered the loudest at his remarks for peace seemed to be the youngest ones there, but he drew several standing ovations. Everyone there cheered when the lone heckler of the evening was silenced and Obama made a light-hearted joke about it.

Perhaps there is something to this angle of engaging the youth. Perhaps only those young enough not to be tainted by the memory of the last war are the key to mobilizing the people to settle this dispute and to end the ongoing occupation. It appeared that way tonight. Only people can push the government to act. We'll see if that happens. As for hearing the President speak, I was truly impressed with my Commander-in-Chief. He may not have managed to win my vote, but he has won my respect, and particularly on the topic of Israel-Palestine issues, he has 100% of my support.



Shalom Ya'll,
Stew

**For the full text of this speech click here.

Locusts!

So we thought we had seen it all here in Israel...until we were surrounded by a swarm of locusts from Egypt. That's right--locusts. From Egypt. Does this sound weird to anyone else?

Driving back to Tel Aviv from our trip in the Negev we ran into one of the many swarms of locusts that have been arriving to southern Israel from the Egyptian Sinai (read more here).

These are large insects, harmless to humans, but they can do serious damage on crops.
Israel is hoping to prevent this, but they are in the millions now.

We found it quite ironic that as Jews prepare to celebrate the passover, they will recount how God brought them out of Egypt using the 10 plagues,  one of them being locusts. Also, the Hebrew word for locust is הארבה ("harbay"), which sounds exactly like the word for 'many'. Indeed...

Some Yeminite Jews even eat these little guys as a delicacy. Apparently there are four different species that are considered kosher in the Torah. Bon Appetite!

Shalom Y'all, Stew

Assignment News

Well, it's official.  Or as official as it can be in the military:

We are moving back to DC this summer!

Stewart no longer gets to moonlight as an Israeli jazz musician who studies middle eastern politics & travels on the side.  Come this July, he will actually have a real job... at the Pentagon of all places.  First, they trusted him with airplanes, now foreign policy.  What is this world coming to?!? All kidding aside, we are extremely proud of him.  Gaining a master's degree in Modern Middle Eastern History, taught entirely in a foreign language that looks like hieroglyphics, is no easy feat. This grand Olmsted experience has perfectly prepared him and our family for what's next.  Or so we hope.  Either way, he's really excited to get started.

We are all absolutely thrilled to be heading back to the East Coast and our old stomping grounds in DC.  This is familiar territory to us since family is only a state away, and this will be our third time living in the greater DC area.  We might even take a gamble on the housing market this go round.

But, with all the sequestering going on I doubt anything like this is in our price range....

Shalom Ya'll,

E