I’m about 95% moved in. I left a few things at the old apartment, and, well, I didn’t unbox anythying other than my work computer.

Tig and Gracie are currently hiding in the vanity in my bathroom. I expect they’ll be out sometime tomorrow, and maybe back to normal in a week or two.

Sarah brought me chocolate. She’s so smart. I was thinking before she got here that this apartment was missing something vital: There was no chocolate in it.

I got my first mail at the new address, too. Tickets to High Holiday services. Fitting.

A new cat, a new home, a new year.

Life is good.

Medical professionals and paramedics from 18 countries will be competing in a lifesaving “Olympics” hosted in Israel.

The first MDA Olympics, initiated by MDA director-general Eli Bin and medical division director Dr. Zvi Feigenberg, took place in 2006 around the Kinneret and the Western Galilee. But this year’s competition will bring more medical teams - 40 - from more countries and will open on the top of Masada.

The competitions are aimed at testing the professionalism and capabilities of the medical teams - in saving lives. Medics and paramedics from MDA, the IDF and international emergency services from Turkey, Canada, Ireland, England, Holland, Norway, the US, Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Jordan and Poland will participate.

On the two consecutive days, the teams will go through 11 stations of treatment and safety, including one at night, during which they will have to deal with various scenes that will test their capabilities for giving proper treatment responses, medical response for “victims” of a mass casualty incident, treatment for conventional and non-conventional incidents and also giving life-saving treatment to patients and victims with problems in the fields of trauma, cardiology, pediatrics and respiratory emergencies.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, medical professionals are engaged in a different kind of lifesaving Olympics. They are running as fast as they can to get away from the Hamas authorities in order to save their own lives.

Speaking from Ramallah, Zakarnah told Ma’an, “De facto government police on Tuesday arrested Maysarah Fayyad, a nurse who works at Mubarak Hospital, Dr Kamal An-Namlah, head of surgeons at Nasser Hospital, Dr Abdul-Halim Al-Masri, from Ash-Shifa Hospital, Wisam Karim, administration employee at Muhammad Ad-Durrah Hospital, Usamah As-Sa’idi and Muhammad Lafi from Muhammad Ad-Durrah Hospital.

He added that de facto government security assaulted the arrestees, beating while them in detention at Al-Mashtal prison in order to pressure them to end strike.

“The one who supervised interrogation of the arrestees was Salih Kaheel, director of de facto government detectives in Gaza City,” Zakarnah added.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Tony Blair’s sister in law and other “peace activists” sailed to Gaza to express solidarity with the Gazans who are under “siege.” Neither Israel nor Egypt will let Ms. Booth leave by land, so currently she’s been trying to stay busy. She wanted to go shopping, but the shelves at the grocery store were bare due to the Israeli siege.

No they weren’t.

British journalist and peace activist Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British premier Tony Blair who is now an international Middle East peace envoy, shops at a grocery store in Gaza City on September 3, 2008.

No words of concern from her about the plight of Gazan doctors or of the patients who can’t get treated. But she’s awfully chummy with the guy who ordered the crackdown. Apparently her concern for Palestinians only extends as far as the camera’s lens can reach.

(Despite the impossibly high concentration of photographers in Gaza, there are relatively few pictures of people waiting for health care and none of the violence against doctors. But there are plenty of Booth with or without chief Gaza thug Haniyeh.)

Tim McGirk of Time seems more interested in promoting the legend of Lauren Booth than the plight of Gaza’s doctors.

Booth’s two young kids started school on Tuesday and she frets about how they’ll handle their mother’s absence. “When they ask: ‘Mummy when are you coming home?’ I have to say ‘I don’t know.’ And that’s a frightening answer for a child.”

Given that she’s smiling in at least half of the available pictures of her, I find it hard to believe that she’s suffering all that much. Neither does Israelly Cool!

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.