August thoughts...

The pool season is almost over. Temperatures are higher than ever, and the "early crowd" savors every minute of our "vacations at home."

On TV, they're trying to convince us that the patriotic place now to vacation is "up north." The "poor tourist businesses" are suffering, so we ought to go and give them money. The fact that the Disengagement victims are still floundering and mostly unemployed. Things are even worse for the farmers. Let's see how quickly the northerners are compensated...

We, in Shiloh, live in the shadow of Disengagement. It's like a monster shuffling around us. Sometimes closer, sometimes further away. "Whatever they call it," will it happen to us? G-d forbid. When we travel to Jerusalem or any exiting from the Shomron, we see walls, fences and inspection booths, like, l'havdil, passport control. Our fellow Israelis reject us, as they did our compatriots in Gush Katif and Northern Shomron. There's no unity.

I'm not looking to vacation in the north. I never "go on vacations." I visited the states to see family, neither to shop nor "to tour" or have a good time.

Where else but in Shiloh would I find an "isolated" swimming pool with "separate hours" and pleasant staff? It's less than a five minute walk from my home. Most hotel pools are in full view of the hotel rooms and guests, so what kind of "separate hours" can they have when men can easily watch us, when we're not supposed to be seen?

At home I eat what I want, when I want, and I don't have to pay extra.

Will there be a change in the politics here in Israel? Maybe, but I doubt if it will be soon. I remember that in 1973, after the Yom Kippur War, the same politicians who endangered the country were re-elected. It took another three and a half years to change the party in power.

G-d willing, the present "mess" will stop Olmert's plans to exile us.

I have just a few more mornings in my oasis, to relax with my friends and thoughts. G-d willing, we will no longer be threatened by politicians trying to make history by destroying their own country. Let my biggest problem be: "Did I remember my sun screen?" or "Where are the ear plugs?"

Chodesh Tov and Shabbat Shalom