Great news!

Thank G-d for the great news out of Dallas--Dad has no more chemo for the foreseeable future after 8 months of treatment! To everyone who's been praying for him--with all the gratitude to you and to G-d imaginable, you can go ahead and stop for the time being!

I wrapped up my first month of graduate school on Wednesday. Budget Management and Planning and Pathophysiology of the Elderly aren't getting any easier, but grad school's not supposed to be easy. As this is my first experience of a holiday break at university in Israel (2 weeks off for Pesach), I'm still grinning my head off after having all my professors say "Chag sameach/Happy holiday" to all of the students on the way out of class. G-d bless this country.

It's raining again in Jerusalem...most likely the last time for this winter. The country is exploding with spring color, from university in the Negev to my beautiful Baka neighborhood up to Tzfat. Everything is about as green as it gets all year, with plenty of yellow mustard plants for good measure. Shabbat in Tzfat was beyond peaceful. It was great to also pray on Shabbat at the Ari synagogue, which feels more like a museum when visiting it on tour groups. It was full of life, song, and joy.

As for the other picture most of you are getting of Israel (conflict, obstinacy, violence), I will address that with the writing that has most spoken to me this week. Horovitz says it very well as always. Here's a sort of addendum to that. Barry Rubin, back to my issue of the Obama administration swerving in my lane. Charles Krauthammer's take on the incident. Even more Horovitz. And a Jerusalem Post editorial. And even more on the ramifications of the drama. Giving Hillary Clinton an E for her misplaced effort in condemning Palestinian glorification of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi (who killed and wounded scores of Israeli civilians) are leaders of Palestinian Media Watch. Douglas Bloomfield with more on the Obama administration's under-emphasis on Palestinian incitement. Michigan alumni doing things: Lee Rosenberg is now president of AIPAC. Here, the key to Netanyahu's AIPAC speech was an emphatic point of Israel saving American lives. On that topic, Petraeus set his words straight here (with video). Arutz Sheva toots its own horn here, saying it already caught that over a week ago. Friend and former co-OTZMA-nik's brother Joel Pollak gets his voice out on the issue here. Some more important facts on the issues, courtesy American Thinker here. Within the context of this report, I love my Prime Minister right now. Daniel Gordis is troubled, as we all should be, by these developments.

And if all the diplomatic issues aren't enough, in Israeli Health Care news, a terribly sad assessment of our ultra-Orthodox and utterly feckless and reckless Deputy Health Minister.

Gotta go clean for Pesach. Shabbat Shalom!
אריק/Eric