Water on Jerusalem Day

• Men in their seventies will tell you that when they were in the army, they learned how to manage with very little water. It was a matter of discipline. They were, I suppose, all too dehydrated to notice that as their throats dried, their thoughts slowed. Finally someone did observe that, however heroic the spirit, bodies need water. Noncoms started insisting that their men drink. And again. And again. A friend's husband, cabdriver in civilian life, told me his job in reserves in the sixties and seventies was driving a water truck, a job without prestige but essential.
• On the day Jerusalem Day was celebrated, a radio DJ mentioned that Betsalel and King George Streets would soon be closed off because of the parade. First I heard of that parade. I walked over to see it. An ambulance pulled up on the plaza outside the Mashbir at the top of Ben Yehuda. Volunteers got out gave volunteer vests to others who’d arrived on their own. There were a lot of metal barriers lined up on the sidewalk but traffic was still flowing.
• Gradually clumps of police collected and clumps of soldiers. A soldier went from group to group saying, "There’s water over there." She pointed. "Go get some." A policeman went over to the cops. "Go get water over there," he said. Men and women sauntered over to get water and ambled back. Then they put up the barriers to redirect traffic.

Copyright 2006 Jane S. Fox