I’m not afraid of heat, and didn’t mind walking through Tel Aviv today in 40 degree heat.  But it’s almost sunset and it’s still 35 – Celcius of course.  I remind you – this is April.  Imagine what it will be like in the summer.

And I remind you, this is Ramadan.  That means almost a quarter of our population is fasting all day – no food OR water until sunset.   

It shouldn’t be surprising that we had something of a riot in Yaffo last night.  We’ve been gentrifying the neighborhood for almost a generation – It must be almost 20 years ago that I was rehearsing with Liz in her house in Jaffa when a stone flew in the window next to me.  “Just children playing,” she said, and went back to our music.  I saw a video yesterday of a tv interview we did together in her practice room and it reminded me of that moment.  What were we doing playing jazz in that neighborhood anyway?  I don’t mean that Jews shouldn’t be able to live in Arab neighborhoods, because we have many Arabs living in our Jewish neighborhood.  The problem with Jaffa is that the very nature of the neighborhood has been changed by wealthy entrepreneurs.