January 1, 2012- Charedim Demonstrate, Killing Continues in Syria

While much of the world was celebrating the New Year last night, in Israel Charedim demonstrated against what they claimed was a campaign to exclude and persecute them. They even went as far as to dress up their kids as holocaust victims with yellow stars. It's not clear to me how much Israelis are disgusted or just trying to understand what planet these people are from? Some of the Charedi demonstrations were in support of the Charedi man arrested for demanding that a young woman soldier in Jerusalem move to the back of the bus.

Israel and the Palestinian authority will be engaging in some limited negotiations this coming week. Do not expect them to amount to much. Meanwhile, the killing continues in Syria. I do not believe many Israeli observers believe that Assad will be able to continue holding on to power.

Israel lost one of its original cultural icons today Yaffa Yarkoni. Yarkoni was 86. Her most famous songs go back to Israel's War of Independence.

Finally, if you are flying on El Al Airlines, beware. Two months ago El Al started limiting baggage on the NY-Tel Aviv route to one bag. Now they are giving incentives to ground clerks who can bring in the most revenue by catching overweight bags.