Omer’s birthday – I wanted to take the kids out for ice cream – something special. Bussa بوظة was the ice cream of choice. But when we got there, it was closed. That’s when I remembered it was Eid El Adha – عيد الأضحى – when Ishmael escaped being sacrificed by his father. (I hope I spelled it right – I’m still learning Arabic.) But what was written on the door of Bussa was that they hoped they would be opening again soon.

So since we had already parked our car, we decided to find somewhere else that had ice cream. And since it was so hot, we went to the Tel Aviv Mall. And there was no ice cream. Three places listed there on the internet, but none found. We wound up in Gregg cafe and pigged out on pancakes. I would have preferred local ice cream.

So Ben and Jerry’s was in my mind. Hillel Schenker published an article agreeing with the boycott of the territories. And he’s right too. But I can’t help thinking that strengthening BDS is not my bag. Well, there’s another year and a half before it happens. In the mean time I’m hoping that a two-state solution can be put on the table.

There is another, more basic, issue here. I keep remembering sitting with a guy in a beautiful garden next to a fountain in Ramallah, and we said – life has been good to you since Israel took over, hasn’t it? It was probably 1975, and I was noting his Rollex, his expensive clothes, the beautiful environment. Yes, he said, but I would give it all up for freedom. Freedom? I said. You were under Jordanian rule before us. There never was a Palestinian State. But there will be, he answered.

For now, I can’t even decide about ice cream.