From Our Haifa CorrespondentMaimon Schwarzschild

Menachem Kellner, who teaches at the University of Haifa, sends two vignettes of life in Israel:

Although our leadership does everything in its power to make us look like morons, and the demonization of Israel proceeds apace throughout the so-called progressive world, not everything here is grey and demoralizing.

Earlier this week I attended a conference at the University of Haifa - an apartheid institution of course - on "Women and Gender in the Talmud" and had the following experience:  The lecturer was a scholar from Germany, "Jewishly challenged" (i.e., she isn't Jewish), speaking with erudition and in flawless Hebrew on the figure of "Yalta" in the Talmud.  I regret to say that I had never heard of Yalta, but apparently she is the woman mentioned more times - 7 - than any other woman in the whole of the Talmud.  Sitting next to me were two students, both young women, both wearing the sort of head covering prevalant among Israeli Muslim women. I suppose the only way this could have been a more multi-cultural experience is if I myself were a Spanish-surnamed American of Irish descent - which I happen not to be.

Earlier this evening I saw a "promo" on TV:  In big letters, the words "Spanish Inquisition" flashed on the screen, followed a few seconds later by the words "Expulsion from Spain in 1492". Then in much bigger letters, with a crescendo of music in the background: "IT IS TIME TO GET EVEN WITH SPAIN! - WATCH TONIGHT'S SOCCER MATCH BETWEEN THE ISRAEL NATIONAL TEAM AND REAL MADRID!"

No doubt Jimmy Carter would not be amused.