Turning, inspiring, challenging

For ABC Wednesday,  K is for Kollek and Kapoor.
(There is more about Kapoor's sculpture in two previous posts.)

To quote the Israel Museum plaque (and no, their signage never uses capitals):

turning the world upside down, jerusalem, 2010

anish kapoor, born India 1954, active london

stainless steel 

commissioned in memory of teddy kollek

founder and father of the israel museum

mayor of jerusalem for 28 years

as a tribute for his vision for the museum

Here in Israel last week, and again yesterday at his White House seder Pesach, President Obama spoke often about the Jewish imperative of tikkun olam:
every person must do their part in fixing the world.

And I say that looking at our world in the usual way seldom gives us a clue as to how to make that repair.
In order to see things  not as they are but as they should be, we need to be  turning the world upside down.
Looking at challenges from a completely different angle, is this not called "having vision"?

Kapoor's tall polished steel hourglass inverts everything, brings heaven down to earth, elevates the earthly Jerusalem.

If you would like to see what brought our Israeli students to cheers, applause, and standing ovations,  President Obama's now-famous speech is here.
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Goodbye, President Obama, and thanks!

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In addition to the Greenpeace protest atop the Bridge of Strings that I showed you in yesterday's post, there was this smaller sign under the bridge.
At the table was a man on hunger strike urging President Obama to free Jonathan Pollard,  who has been in prison since 1987.

Obama visited the graves of Herzl and Rabin at Mt. Herzl this morning.
Then his motorcade took this road down to Yad Vashem.
The street was decorated with many American and Israeli flags.

Toward noon the sunny weather changed into a windy yellow dust storm.
Plans changed just as quickly.
Instead of helicoptering to the Church of the Nativity, they drove to Bethlehem, a short ride from Jerusalem.

Obama's 51-hour visit in Israel ended after 4:00, and the President flew over to Jordan.

They say he came to win the hearts of the Israeli people, to work his magic on us, to "enchant" us.
I think it happened!

I wonder if the sand storm was a sign of the  "winds of change."

Just after Obama was airborne, we heard about his first dramatic success in changing things:
At the airport Obama telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan, passed the phone to PM Netanyahu, and a reconciliation between Israel and Turkey was achieved!

May it be the first of more good surprises.
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UPDATE, Saturday: Times of Israel has put together a nice "The defining words and pictures" summary of Obama's three days in Israel.   You can see the 21 pics in a slideshow.
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Greenpeace in action!

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(All photos can be much enlarged. Click once, and then again.)

Greenpeace strikes again!

 I first saw the climbers on Jerusalem's Bridge of Strings at 7:45 this morning.
I hear they started their surprise action already at dawn.

This is not the first time Greenpeace has used Calatrava's bridge to protest.

By 1:30 the hot sun was beating down on the five.
Greenpeace Israel on Facebook is now saying the activists were hanging up there for about TEN hours!

The view from across the street, near Binyanei HaUma, where President Obama would come at 5:00 to give his keynote speech to Israeli students.
The trams kept going over the bridge.
Some of the car drivers on the busy road tooted their encouragement to the protesters.

The police waited below, snapping photos.
Our media was not mentioning the event all day.
Only now, at 7:00 pm,  I hear on the radio that when the climbers finally came down four were arrested.
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Whether you agree with the tactics and ideas of Greenpeace or not, you had to admire the strength, determination, idealism, and courage of these young people up in the air today.
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(Linking to SkyWatch Friday.)
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A mistake with "The Beast"

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Trust me, the photo shows 2 of the 7 helicopters that just came over our place carrying President Obama, Peres, and Netanyahu.
Such a short flight from Ben-Gurion Airport to Jerusalem.

But what a fashla  just as Air Force One was approaching Israel's shores!
"The Beast,"  the very special armored limo of the President, would not start!

Jordanian and Israeli officials quickly coordinated the airlift of  a replacement  presidential limousine from a US storage facility in Jordan.

According to The Times of Israel  live blog,  the Americans had filled the tank of  The Beast with diesel**  fuel by mistake!

Just when you think every little detail has been taken care of for this historic visit . . .
I'm just glad it was not Israelis who made the mistake.
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UPDATE at 9:00 pm:
The Jerusalem Post is reporting this:

. . .  Various news reports said it had been mistakenly filled with the wrong fuel, but the Secret Service did not confirm this.
"One of our protective vehicles experienced mechanical problems in Israel earlier today. This is why we bring multiple vehicles and a mechanic on all trips," Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary in Washington.
"Situations like this are planned for extensively by our advance teams so that the president's itinerary is unaffected by these types of issues."

**UPDATE #2 at 11:00pm:
Now it's the other way around. According to CNN, The Beast should have gotten diesel but was filled with gasoline by mistake:

The official limousine awaiting President Barack Obama's arrival in Israel malfunctioned after its driver refueled it using gasoline rather than diesel fuel, an official said Wednesday. The limo failed to start, and required towing . . .

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(Linking to Our World Tuesday.)
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King David awaits Obama

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Jerusalem's King David Hotel  anxiously awaits the arrival on Wednesday of President Obama and his entourage of hundreds.
Every room of the prestigious hotel is in fact booked for them. 

Recently I was delighted to find this huge historical  photo covering  a whole wall in the lobby.
It shows Ragheb Bey al-Nashashibi, Arab mayor of Jerusalem 1920-1933, inaugurating the new King David Hotel tennis courts on June 13, 1931.
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