ISRAEL: Assorted quirks

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All-things-Israel are full of little contradictions. Some quirks are endearing, others enraging and some just are what they are.

Here are a loose assortment:

• Tzipi Livni’s Kadima party won the elections, but it is the Likud Party’s Benjamin Netanyahu who is forming the new government.
• The Jewish National Fund plants eucalyptus trees in Israel for shade, but the Nature and National Parks authority is cutting them down because the trees are an invasive species.
• Israel and Syria aren’t talking peace. But they are talking apples, as Israel allows Druze growers in the Golan Heights to export the fruit to Syria.
• The Durban 2 anti-racism convention is getting off to a really bad start. Moreover, it’s not being held in Durban, South Africa.
• The British Embassy won’t rent a Tel Aviv space owned by a company that also builds in the settlements, but it’s open to dialogue with the Islamic militant group Hezbollah.
• A Gaza Strip cease-fire is being negotiated, but there’s more ‘fire’ than ‘cease,’ with about 100 rockets fired into Israel since the Jewish state’s military operation ended in January.
• One can be Jewish enough to qualify to make ‘aliyah,’ or immigrate to Israel, but not Jewish enough to marry in a religious ceremony. Authorities have known about the problem for a decade but are only now trying to solve it quickly when threatened with legislation.
• Bureaucracy can kill a person but it can also save lives: Israeli authorities approved an expedited naturalization for a teenager in need of an urgent liver transplant during a birthright visit to Israel.
• Israeli athletes are having a hard time in international sporting events, although Israel allows athletes from all countries compete.
• Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz announced that he intends indict outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in the Talansky case. But isn’t that how Olmert became the outgoing premier to begin with? He resigned in September but remains prime minister until the next government is formed. Which brings us back to the top item.

-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem