No Joke

If only this was just a fictional tale from Chelm, that mystical, mythical place where miss-guided fools do such absurd things...

But it's happening in the real world, unfortunately.

Yesterday, or the day before, I caught my daughter's boss, Eliad Shraga, on the TV trying to explain why Olmert shouldn't have the right to appoint the committee to investigate the war.

It reminded me of the time we were looking to buy an apartment in Jerusalem. We were very young and I was pregnant with our first child. One thing we knew was that we mustn't sign a contract without having our own lawyer approve it.

We found an apartment, which was under construction, met the contractor, got a contract and contacted an old friend, who pre-aliya, was the lawyer who specialized in getting our friends out of jail after "illegal demonstrations."

It helped that

• he was a friend
• he spoke English
• was qualified to practice law in both countries
• and of course we trusted him

After going over the contract, he had a couple of recommendations, that things be changed, or we shouldn't sign.

So the three of us went to the contractor's office, in the Sansour Building, Zion Square, Jerusalem. He was our spokesman and explained it all to the contractor who replied:

What do you need a lawyer for? I
have a lawyer. Everything's legal. Use mine.

We tried to explain that his lawyer protects him interests, and our lawyer protects ours. Finally we left, walked down the stairs, then stopped, looked at each other and burst out laughing.

The TV guy said exactly the same thing to Eliad:

What's the big deal? Olmert appointed a
judge. Isn't that what you wanted?

Eliad tried to explain that the judge was Olmert's judge, beholding to Olmert.

So, 36 years on, and nothing has changed.
picture credit