Israel: Food for Thought and Thoughts of Food · Global Voices
Yaeli

Food, whether it be descriptions of a favourite nosh (snack) or something you'd really prefer to never pass by your palate again, places to consume or acquire particular food items, preparations of said items, and what was occurring while food was being eaten, prepared, or just thought about provide frequent food for blogging content within the Israeli blogosphere.
This week McDonald's featured in two bloggers’ musings.  Lisa Goldman, of On the Face provides a look at their newest commercial appearing in Israel and explains the premise:
So an American couple gets hungry during a long day of shopping and darbuka drumming in Jerusalem's Old City. Instead of making the obligatory stop at Abu Shukri for hummus-chips-salad-pita-falafel-who-cares-about-the-calories-we're-on-vacation meal, they run over to a taxi driver and ask him where they can get a real “local” salad.
Meanwhile, Lirun of East Med Sea Peace describes a scene he witnessed at his local McDonald's in Yaffo that is, as he notes, not at all uncommon, and inspired him to write about it in a post titled “McPeace“:
…a birthday was well underway.. a beautiful bunch of local kids was celebrating hysterically.. the 7-8 year olds were on the verge of a food fight but just about under the control of the 3 mothers supervising.. a closer look and listen clarified to me that these were Arab and Jewish kids although it was hard to tell who was who without listening to each kid's default language setting.. there were fair kids i expected to be Jewish that were Arabs including a very animated little blond girl and a very elegant and well mannered brunette.. and darker kids that surprised me with their Jewish accented Hebrew. An elderly lady with head covering walked in and saw the gathering and administered one hell of a tongue flick – middle eastern cry of joy..
He continues the story to the ending that is sure to put a smile on your face and concludes with the sentiment “we know how to laugh together.. surely we can do more..”
But in this region even food can be disputed and used as a point of acrimony as the folks over at Jewlicious point out:
I thought it both amusing and interesting that a mildly amusing article about Israeli passion for hummus, had commentators writing in the comments section that hummus was Palestinian food and the Israelis stole it, just as they did the land.
What is wrong with people?
Stephanie, writing for Israelity, points out that not all parts of the country are peaceful as well and in the south of the country, in Kibbutz Kfar Aza kindergarten children are attending school in the most unlikely but the safest place from the Qassam rockets that are being shot at the kibbutz from Gaza –the fortified Kibbutz pub.  In her post titled “Kinder Pub” she notes that life has become pretty warped “when you find humor in the fact that little kids are attending kindergarten inside a pub because it’s the safest place for them to be during school hours” and goes on to describe the scene of children sitting on bar stools across from shelves of bottles of Jack Daniels and Grey Goose as they play and put together Lego structures.
Returning to a lighter side of things, over at FiLi's World congratulations are certainly in order as he writes about being chosen to receive a 3-year scholarship to study International Business in Taiwan and his experiences at the Dragon Boat Festival Feast that was thrown for the current and previous scholarship winners in Israel.  He provides a few pictures of the “Philippine cooked Taiwanese food” served at the celebration and of the scholarship winners.
Other Israelis blogging about food and things related this week include Jameel at The Muqata who titles a post with what is obviously a truism in his life, “Mondays are for Waffles.”  Savta (Grandmother) Dotty doesn't mention a word about what was consumed at the weekly soup salon she hosts but she does detail how her Friday soup guests have pitched in to help her fix up her apartment at Cousin Lucy's Spoon.