Everyone in England loves the Golan

The international news about the Golan took an interesting twist today, which should have every English soccer fan in smiles.

You see, Omer Golan scored the winning goal for Israel, in extra time no less, to give the blue and white a stunning 2-1 victory over Russia in a key qualifying match for the Euro 2008. The result is that Israel, although being out of contention, has given England a chance to redeem themselves if they can manage to tie or beat Croatia later on this week.


England national coach Steve McClaren said: "I would like to pay tribute to Israel for the professional way they went about their job. They showed what a proud nation they are and they deserve a lot of praise for their efforts."

I personally love the titles coming out of today’s Google News Search on the Golan:

• Golan happy to help (Sky Sports)
  
• Media hail 'King of England' Golan for Israel win (ESPN Soccernet)
  
• GOLDEN GOLAN (People.co.uk)
  
• Golan stuns Russia (The FA.com)
  
• Golan, Israel stun Russia to keep England's hopes alive (Sports Network)
  
• Israel's Golan goal lifts England to unimagined heights (Sportingo)

And of course this one just shows you how popular the English take their football:

• Britain's foreign minister praises Israeli soccer victory over Russia (Haaretz)

What's today?

The third Thursday of November; and that can only mean one thing for wine lovers: Beaujolais festival!

Well, really the tradition is that wineries and bars open their doors Wednesday evening and pop open the new vintage as the clock dials swing into Thursday. But up in the Golan, as reported last year in the post titled Beaujolais all the way, the folks here are a little more laid back and more prone to being in bed at midnight.

The result is that the Golan Heights Winery's Beaujolais festival takes place tonight beginning at 8:30 pm. If my notes from last year serve me correct, the new 2007 Gamay Nouveau wines should be opened around 10 pm.

See you there!

Unexpected traffic

Twice a day I tune into Galgalatz: on my way into and out of work.

And as Wikipedia (correctly) states, the radio station, “broadcasts primarily nonstop popular music and traffic reports.”

Because of this, I get my fair share of traffic reports sprinkled around music and the top of the hour news summary. Traffic in Tel Aviv is bad, traffic in Jerusalem is bad, traffic in Haifa is bad, and the list goes on and on.

And while I speed along listening and imagining people sitting in downtown Tel Aviv traffic, I toy with the idea of calling in and reporting that the roads in the Golan are, as one would guess, traffic-free.

This morning as I was pulling out of the moshav, however, and two soldiers unexpectedly called me to a halt – and not a just move with caution, a full stop. A full stop for a few minutes because a pack of four or five self-propelled Howitzer-like artillery pieces were chugging along the Golan terrain and needed to cross the road and head back into the training field.

So I guess we in the Golan have our fair share of traffic, too.