Biden and Math Tutoring

Today I watch Vice President Biden's speech at Tel Aviv University online. He began by talking about his personal relationship with Israel and the continued heaping praise for quite some time before he got anything somewhat substantial. He finally said that it takes a friend to deliver the harshest truths and condemned the new housing tenders that were issued for Jewish communities in East Jerusalem. But he did it in incredibly watered down language and the praised Netanyahu for saying no building would probably happen for years.

While that is good news, it means that he simply doesn't understand how the Palestinians see the issue. It doesn't matter to them that the building won't take place right now and will give them time to negotiate. The fact that they were issued at all is seen as an affront and an attempt by Israel to pre-judge the final status of Jerusalem. I think Jews obviously have the right to live anywhere in Jerusalem, given the fact that Israel gets billions of dollars a year from the US, it would be nice if Netanyahu showed a little respect to our elected leaders. Also, if there is room for 1600 new housing units for Jews, I think he should be able to allow some for Arabs as well (I know he keeps saying that Arabs are free to buy houses anywhere, but that just isn't true in practice). Is there a law I'm not aware of that says only idiots are allowed to be elected to high office in the world?

This afternoon, instead of tutoring in English, I joined a different class and taught math. Luckily it was just basic algebra so it wasn't that bad, but doing math in Hebrew is still a little weird. It's frustrating when you show a kid how to do a problem, over and over in different ways and he just won't pay attention. I'm a patient person but I think I would go crazy if I did this for a living.

On my way home I stopped off to get my hair cut. I finally found someone who actually listens when I say I only want a trim. Although I guess that could also be due to the fact that my hair was ridiculously long, giving her a little leeway. Also, lots of people are doing Passover cleaning now and someone was getting rid of a dresser. So Boaz helped me carry it home and now I have a real place to keep my clothes. Very exciting.