AboutDon Radlauer Expertise I`m originally from the United States, and now make my home in Israel - after living for some years in Hong Kong and England.
In addition to handling general questions about Israeli life and history, I can field questions relating to strategic aspects of terrorism and counter-terrorism, as well as some tactical aspects. As an Associate of the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), I can draw on ICT`s accumulated expertise in this area. As the Lead Researcher for ICT`s "al-Aqsa Intifada" Database Project (and author of "An Engineered Tragedy", ICT`s report on the findings of this project), I have become the world`s leading expert (indeed, as far as I know, the world`s only expert) on the demographics of the victims of the phase of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that began in September 2000.
Going beyond terrorism per se, I can answer questions regarding pretty much all aspects of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Experience
Experience in the area I've lived in Israel for over eight years. For more than five years, I have been associated with the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel. My own role there is, to a degree, that of "expert in everything else" - that is, I'm less of a security expert than many of the other researchers there, but I have a broader background in other areas, including banking and finance, general scientific subjects, and so on. I also can draw upon the knowledge of other ICT staff.
Publications ICT website, http://www.ict.org.il
My blog, "On the Contrary: Don's Mideast Musings" is at http://radlauer.blogspot.com .
Question QUESTION: in Jerusalem, can you see the entire constellation of stars at night? Can you even
see the degree of their brightness to the point where you can tell which ones are
near, and which ones are far off?
ANSWER: Dear Peter -
I don't live in Jerusalem, and in fact I normally don't even go there more than once or twice a year; but it so happens that at the moment I'm a cast member in an amateur theatrical production based there; so I'm traveling to Jerusalem once or twice a week for evening rehearsals.
Like any city, Jerusalem throws off a fair degree of "light pollution", which detracts from really good star viewing. On the other hand, Jerusalem is fairly high - the place where this play has been rehearsing is at around 785 meters (call it 2600 feet) above sea level - so on a clear night you do have a pretty good view of the stars. You can definitely distinguish the brighter ones from the rest, and (if you've got sensitive vision) you should be able to see the colors of the various stars fairly well.
For really good star viewing, the best places in Israel are either the higher parts of the Negev desert, or possibly the Golan Heights (although the latter tends to be cloudy much of the time).
Best regards,
-Don Radlauer
P.S. I must admit that I'm rather curious as to why you asked this question. It's rather different from most of the questions I receive!
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: ah! when david looks at the stars and says how he feels so small! and when
HaShem says "look at these stars, for everyone you will have desendents!"
And i was in Scotland recently and you could literally see tens of thousands
and it really was quite beautiful. and i liked the image of old Hebrew
Shepherds camping out under the sky with their old wooden staffs looking up
and dreaming of God really. So i wanted to know! Other reasons too.
Answer Ah - a good question asked for a good reason, then! Well, in David's day stargazing would have been pretty spectacular - from Israel, or indeed from a lot of other places. Essentially no light pollution, essentially no air pollution... The only bad news is that there were also no eyeglasses, so if you were nearsighted there wasn't much you could do about it other than squint. People back then were also much more attuned to the stars than most of us are today: almost nobody spent much time indoors, and the sky was crucial in figuring out the seasons, the weather, and so on.
In short, your image of the old Hebrew shepherds is an accurate one.
