Rant of the Day (There's Someone on the Wing!!)

There was a time when I used to post all sorts of stories like the upcoming one. I wonder how many readers remember my infamous Manila posts, my rant about a certain restaurant in London, the origin of the Muqata Wafflemaker or Elvis the Drug Dealer...

Regardless, I don't rant everyday but its time to let off some steam.

Last time I flew to India for business, I brought all my food with me. Not that there's so much Kosher food to eat in India to begin with, but I brought everything: cereal, boxed milk, tuna-fish, pitot, a bunch of manachama (manot chamot) [just add hot water for an instant meal], and bottled water.

I sparingly ate every meal knowing that there was no margin of error, and I didn't want to get stranded without any Kosher food.

After a few days, it was time to fly home to Israel, via London and I was thrilled that I'd have a "normal" kosher meal on the plane, even if it was "airline food".

During check-in, I double checked to ensure that my kosher meal was in fact reserved, and I'd be receiving it on my flight. All was in order.

Luckily for me, this leg of the trip was in business class and I sat in the upper deck of the plane (you'll soon see why this factoid is important for the story)

About 30 minutes into the flight, the stewardess (air-hostess? what's the proper politically correct term?) came by and reassured me that my kosher meal would be ready shortly. My stomach growled in anticipation -- I guess there's something about flights that makes one hungrier than usual, and having spent the week rationing my food, I was famished.

Meal service began.

Meals were given out one at a time, as I hungrily looked on in anticipation...one more minute...and I'd have "normal" food for the first time in a week.

And then, the stewardess smiled and presented my meal to me.

A linen napkin covered tray with steaming hot food, smiled at me.

"Excuse me," I said, "I ordered a Kosher meal."

"This is a Kosher meal," stated the stewardess, as she smiled and pointed to a piece of paper written in Hebrew, Yiddish and English which was neatly lying on the tray.

Shaking my head in hungry disbelief I asked, "didn't you see that the entire tray was wrapped in plastic, with big red letters on it, "ONLY TO BE OPENED BY THE PASSENGER", and that the hot dish of the meal had the same warning on it?"

The stewardess smiled back, "This is India. They didn't want you to feel bad that your meal looked different than everyone else's, so food services opened up your meal, and we heated it up with everyone's food, so you wouldn't feel different than everyone else ."

It took a minute for all this to sink in.

"Do you know that I'm not able to eat this now?" I asked?

The stewardess sighed.

I asked her if she could look out the window of the airplane for a second, and if she could read what it said in big letters on the wing.


"DO NOT WALK OUTSIDE THIS AREA," she read from the wing.

"Exactly!", I said, "Maybe...just maybe someone in the India ground crew thought the wing would 'feel bad,' and walked all over the wing. After all, you can walk on other parts of the airplane, but not that specific part of the wing, and we wouldn't want the wing to feel differently, would we? Even though there's a clear warning on it, how do we know that no one walked all over it?"

The stewardess nodded her head seriously and said, "You're absolutely right. Would you like anything else to eat?"

She managed to find me some fruit and a coke.

Ten minutes later I was surprised when a member of the cockpit crew, perhaps the Captain or Co-pilot walked over to me.

He bent down to talk to me and in a very serious voice said, "We radioed back to Bangalore airport. Apparently, the person you saw walking on the plane's wing was a fuel technician, and he is specially trained where he is allowed to walk on the wing, and where not to walk."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"I didn't say I saw someone walking on the wing," I blurted out, "I was trying to make a point by the comparison of my meal to the wing, and how instructions should be listened to..."

The cockpit officer gave me a puzzled look, and said, "I thought you would be happy to know that the person you saw on the wing knew where he was allowed to walk."

"Thank you," I said, "I'm very relieved now," and he turned around going back into the cockpit.

No one seemed to "get it."

And why am I reminded of this now?

I'm going back to India soon, and needed to apply for a visa. The procedure required that I provide my current and expired Israeli passports, as well as my US passport to the Indian Embassy in Tel Aviv.

Now, my US passport was very recently issued and is therefore a "USA Electronic Passport". You can tell from the weird symbol underneath the "United State of America"that this is a genuine electronic passport.

The exciting features of an electronic passport include some of the following (but isn't limited to)...

* Securely stored biographical information and digital image that are identical to the information that is visually displayed in the passport;

* Contactless chip/RFID technology that allows the information stored in an Electronic Passport to be read by special chip readers at a close distance; and

* Digital signature technology that is used to verify the authenticity of the data stored on the chip. This technology is commonly used in credit cards and other secure documents using integrated circuits or chips.

Sounds great, right?

Located on the inside back cover (where the electronics are located) is a message in clear, bold, block letters:

THIS DOCUMENT CONTAINS SENSITIVE ELECTRONICS:
FOR BEST PERFORMANCE, DO NOT BEND, OR PERFORATE,
OR EXPOSE TO EXTREME TEMPERATURES

Imagine my surprise when I received my Israeli passport with the new visa to India in it and all my other passports...AND THEY WERE ALL STAPLED TOGETHER BY THEIR BACK COVERS.

The "do not perforate" rule doesn't apply to India...(after all, you wouldn't want your passport to "feel bad" that other passports can be perforated, and not new US electronic passports...so who cares what it says...who cares if it ruins the electronics?)

Will this affect the validity of my US passport, now that it has 7 pairs of staple marks in the back cover, probably ruining all the high tech invested in it?

Probably not yet, but I doubt the friendly people in TSA will care or even believe me when I say, "it's not my fault, the Indian embassy in Tel-Aviv did it," as they drag me off to one of those newfangled full body naked scanners.

PS: My travel agent informed me today that the airline I'm flying on from India to London leg of my trip, no longer offers Kosher meals when leaving India. I guess following directions proved to be impossible...

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Amichai Steinmetz: Still Missing

Amichai Steinmetz is still missing in India.

Like the thousands of Israelis who tour the world after their military service, Amichai, who served in a volunteer elite unit in the IDF, went to tour in India. My own brother-in-law is off in China somewhere, having completed his IDF service as well.

"Amichai Steinmetz, 24, of Ma'aleh Halevona, set out from the village of Kiriganga on a day trip July 22 and hasn't been seen since.

"He went with a friend and the friend went one way and he went the other," Amichai's grandfather Sol Steinmetz, a resident of New Rochelle, N.Y., said. "He only took with him his tefilin and a few things and that was five days ago. He had a cell phone."

Concerns over the whereabouts of Steinmetz grew after he failed to return to the village or contact his family on Friday, as he has done regularly every week since he left Israel about six months ago.

The Israeli consulate, the Chabad House in the nearby town of Manali and the Harel Insurance group, an Israeli insurance company specializing in search-and-rescue abroad, are currently coordinating efforts with local authorities to find him.

Chabad.org reported that rescuers in recent days have benefited from a respite in the torrential rains typical of northern India during the monsoon season.

The Web site added that an anonymous donor has pledged an award of 100,000 rupees, or about $2,000, for anyone who locates the missing man." (JTA)

How can you help?

Unfortunately, the money from the insurance company to pay for the search effort has been exhausted. Amichai's family is turning to volunteers in the India area to help with the search, and for people to help contribute to fund the search.

Information for donations is on the above flyer (they really need the money.)

Website in Hebrew, here
Facebook group, here.

Do you know someone in India now who would be able to help the search effort?

There's a phone number on the above flier which you can use to contact the Steinmetz family.

Add him in your thoughts and prayers: Amichai ben Devorah

On behalf of Amichai's family, thank you.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

The Holtzberg's

I left work for 30 minutes yesterday to pay my respects to the Chabad couple, Rabbi Gabi and Rivke Holtzberg, who were tortured and brutally murdered in Mumbai, India last week by Muslim terrorists. I drove to Beit Orot neat Har HaZeitim, put on my MDA EMT vest, took my equipment of of my car, and waited at the corner for the procession to pass. Loud Arab music erupted from the corner, so I went to the policeman and told him about it. He seemed unimpressed. I told him that it wass totally disrespectful for music to be blasting as a funeral procession was about to pass, and he had better do something about it.

I think my MDA vest helped, because he actually took me seriously, and forcefully told the Arabs to shut off their music. When they refused, he called over another police car to deal with them; the music ceased and the Arabs dispersed.

A minute later the procession came by. Police cars, MDA ambulances and Hatzala ambucycles led the way, followed by the black vans of the Chevra Kadisha, carrying the bodies of Gaby and Rivkie.

I walked along the sidewalk beside them, thinking about the terror attack. 20 seconds later they were gone, on their way for burial at Har HaZeitim.

Drove back to work, wondering why in every single generation, our enemies continue to pursue us.

May G-d Avenge their deaths - Hashem Yikom Damam.

**see this link about the Holtzberg's.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Hypocritical Israel

In light of the horrific massacre in India this past week, with hundreds dead (over 300) and well over a thousand wounded, Israeli "security officials" criticized India's handling of the terror attacks.

"Israeli and international media quoted Israeli security officials as claiming the operation was risky and premature" (Haaretz)

"In hostage situations, the first thing the forces are supposed to do is assembling at the scene and begin collecting intelligence," a former official in Israel's famed anti-terror agency, Shin Bet, told The Jerusalem Post.

"In this case, it appears the forces showed up at the scene and immediately began exchanging fire with the terrorists, instead of first taking control of the area," he said. An article in another newspaper, Haaertz, said: "In the first several hours after the Mumbai incidents began, the response of the Indian authorities was slow, confused and inefficient." (India Today)

Hypocracy rules in Israel today as IDF soldier Gilad Shalit remains a hostage in Gaza -- a terrorist state created by Israel, and Israel's only stated way of freeing him, is the release of hundreds of murderous terrorists.

Today, Gaza Palestinians shelled the Nahal Oz IDF command center, resulting in 8 soliders wounded.

"Surgeons at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon were forced to amputate the leg of 21-year-old Noam Nikash of Beersheba. Doctors were trying to save his other leg.

Seven other troops, including two female soldiers, were lightly to moderately wounded after terrorists fired mortar shells from the Gaza Strip on Friday evening. The soldiers were taken to both Barzilai Hospital and Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, and an additional soldier was treated for shock.

By Saturday evening, six were still hospitalized, one in a serious condition, two moderate, and three were lightly wounded, according to Israel Radio" (Jpost)

Israel, the country that adopted the "turn other cheek" mentality -- resulting from the Oslo accords, the country that ran away from Gaza destroying Jewish communities left and right, exiling close to 10,000 Jews from their homes, are the last country on the planet that should be able to chastise anyone about how to deal with terror.

Yet my anger at Israel is displaced only by my sorrow and condolences for the families of the Jews murdered in Mumbai this past week.

Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg

Rivka Holtzberg

Rabbi Leibish Teitlebaum

Bentzion Chroman

Yohevet Orpaz

and at least 3 more unidentified Jews.

May G-d avenge their deaths.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Kol Yisrael Areivim. Terror in India

24 hours later....12:56 PM The ZAKA organization volunteers who flew to India from Israel have been asked to enter the Beit Chabad building. The operation has not finished, and the fate of Chabad's Shaliach Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg is still unknown.

Pictures and Videos of the India CounterTerror Unit going into the Beit Chabad, here.

Israel Radio Channel 2 Miki Gourdus reports that he has heard from India reports that Gavriel and Rivka are still alive. Let's hope he's right! (1:19 PM)

Shabbat Shalom...

Jameel.




Update: 2:51 PM Reports from India are conflicting. Sky News reports the terrorists are demanding to negotiate with the Indian government over the release of hostages. Mumbai's a mess.

Update: 1:40 PM. :-(

Update: 12:07 India Counter Terror Unit operating in the Taj Mahal hotel, with over 100 hostages, including Israeli diamond merchants. Explosions heard in the hotel...

11:37 AM As I write this, the India counter terror unit is operating inside the Beit Chabad in Mumbai (Bombay) India, trying to free the hostages, including 6 Israelies (unsure if this number "6" includes the Chabad Shaliach Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg).

Initial reports say that the Gavriel and Rivka are unconscious, but alive, and therefore, they really need Chasdei Shamayim to pull through.

Your good thoughts, prayers and tehillim can help.

YNET: Report: 6 Israelis held hostage in Mumbai

(Video) Terrorists seize Chabad offices in Indian city, reportedly hold six Israelis hostage. Ultra-Orthodox organization officials say emissary, his wife unconscious. Local commando unit reports one gunman killed, four remain in building. Rabbi's son, nanny seen leaving place safely. At least 10 sites attacked overnight; 101 people killed, 314 injured

India News reports over 900 hospitalized.

Reports indicate that the "official" numbers are much worse than being reported; While YNET writes about 314 injured, the real number is much higher.

CNN reports that this is the largest Jihad terror attack since 9/11.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד