Grapevine:Nothing compares

BEN-YEHUDA MALL has frequently hosted arts and crafts installations, but nothing that could compare with the joint project of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation’s Kan radio stations and Eden, the municipality’s economic development department, as part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem.

As of this past Sunday, passersby are confronted with a three-meter-high model of an old-fashioned National Pansonic transistor radio, in which the radio bands are displayed on a digital screen.

Headlined as the Voice of Israel from Jerusalem Kan (Here) Big Time, the project was hailed by Kan CEO Eldad Koblentz as a winning combination of nostalgia and digital broadcasting, “because Jerusalem is the sound track of us all.” He added that the public is invited to enjoy the past and the future with the content of Kan.

FOLLOWING A recent amendment, retirement age in Israel is 68 for most men and 70 for judges, be they male or female. At the end of this month, Prof. Zeev Rotstein, the director of Hadassah-University Medical Center, will celebrate his 67th birthday. If the current crisis had existed a year ago, he could have retired with grace.

He can still take early retirement or return to Sheba Medical Center, and perhaps save a lot of needless heartache, not to mention expenditure, if the pediatric hemato-oncology unit is moved from Ein Kerem to Shaare Zedek Medical Center. It’s obvious that whatever agreement may be reached, the doctors who resigned cannot work under Rotstein, who has a completely different mind-set.

Even if by some miracle the previous status quo is reinstated, it is only a matter of time before there is another explosion. One has to wonder whether Rotstein’s attitude does not derive from a sense of vengeance. When he first wanted to study medicine, he applied to the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical School and was rejected.

As a result, he went to Italy and his first two years of medical studies were at the University of Bologna.

He completed his studies at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School of Medicine. Today, he calls the tune at the very hospital which once rejected him.

FOR REASONS of security, there have been no demonstrations outside or opposite the prime minister’s residence for more than two decades.

Demonstrations are held around the corner, where the prime minister cannot see them and does not always hear them.

In fact, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not even in the country over the weekend, because he had gone to Strasbourg to attend the funeral of former German chancellor Helmut Kohl. But one has to wonder why protesters – who are not permitted to come closer than 70 meters to the Petah Tikva home of Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit – are permitted to come much closer to the Prime Minister’s Residence.

At Saturday night’s demonstration, Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center and founding member of Women of the Wall, warned that taboos imposed at the Western Wall could spread to the greater community, where there would be segregated lines in supermarkets and segregated seating on public transport.

FOR REASONS of security, there have been no demonstrations outside or opposite the prime minister’s residence for more than two decades. Demonstrations are held around the corner.