Qum (and Tehran) sequel. Israel:

The Jewish shops at the Tehran bazaar seemed to be doing well, as did the Armenian ones. I had no problem at the airport taking my Tehran to Tel Aviv flight, although there would have been a problem, if it had to land while flying over Iraq. I remember nothing from that flight that would be of interest in deciding whether an Israeli air force return from attacking targets in Iran would proceed smoothly; an attack that began to look likely when I began writing the first part, but that didn't look like a good idea anyway. By now, at the start of the sequel two weeks later, it looks like a remote possibility.

In Tel Aviv, I happened to arrive for the 70^th birthday of my uncle, the father of the three Yaari brothers in different Kibbutzim, all of whom had come to Tel Aviv for the celebration, so I managed to see all three cousins (with part of their families). We had grown up quite close together in Germany, so my sudden arrival without notice (no telephones in Israel then, unless urgent need for business) was welcome all around, especially for my uncle who by a conspiratorial “white” lie was made to believe that I had come specifically for his birthday. Without having been aware of it, I had bought him a carved ivory chess set in Hong Kong (he had originaly taught me as a child to play it); which made the “lie” more credible.

When I decided to try to stop for a day in (divided) Berlin on the way to Copenhagen (slightly to the West), my brother said he can see to it. The answer was that no, I was not to stop in Berlin, and as an Israeli citizen at the time I had to pay 15% of the price of the round-the-world trip, according to some alleged regulation. I told them I wouldn't object if they got the money from Dow Chemical which had bought / paid for the ticket. For all I know, it may just have been that clerk showing his “power”. Neither I nor Dow had to pay. But having had no problem with the Israeli passport in Iran and crossing Iraq, it was in Israel where it became a problem, so I had to waste part of both my two days there in government offices.

The first visit to Copenhagen also turned out to be my most eventful, far better than seems to be expected for the climate change conference scheduled there in December. On today's BBC World, there was speculation on whether Barack Obama will lend his prestige toward some sort of success by attending, while noting that his popularity has suddenly dropped quite a bit. Maybe Netanyahu's attendance should be given a higher priority, in recognition of his apparent higher prestige in the US.

That was demonstrated convincingly after he had let Obama know his rejection of the call for a stop to illegal construction for the West Bank squatters (“settlers”), so as to enable scheduling peace negotiations with a photo op at the Washington meeting with Palestinian Mahmud Abbas. In spite of the rejection, the latter had to let himself be photographed shaking “Bibi's” hand, with Obama behind them, in what is being compared to the Rabin-Arafat handshaking photo for the Oslo accord. Abbas may well be more committed to peace than Arafat, but certainly not Bibi than Rabin. But when he tried to shake murdered Rabin's widow Leah's hand at the funeral, she could, and did, refuse; since she viewed him as responsible for much of the hatred of her husband generated by enemies of peace negotiations. Poor Abbas has since seen a need for a public change of course. Maybe Obama sees a way of retrieving peace hopes, too.