Month: March 2024

I first met Sam Soroka in 2003 at a restaurant in Bordeaux. We were there for the large Vinexpo wine exhibition. David Ziv then the creative, innovative CEO of Carmel Winery was determined to shake away the cobwebs of the old Carmel Mizrahi. He opened a boutique winery within Zichron Ya’acov Wine Cellars, also Yatir Winery at Tel Arad in the south, and Kayoumi Winery, a grape receiving station at Ramat Dalton in the north. He appointed Peter Stern, the legendary wine consultant of the Golan Heights Winery for twenty years, to advise Carmel and strove to infuse the winemaking at Rishon Le Zion and Zichron Ya’acov Cellars with new talent.

One of the problems we have in our region, is that everyone hates the other. Deeply. It is a hate and mistrust that has been nurtured, matured and aged for generations. Families have inherited the prejudice with their mother’s milk. I am reminded of Moshe Dayan’s eulogy of Roi Rothberg from Nahal Oz from nearly 70 years ago. Not much has changed. They do not see our story and suffering, and I must be honest, we do not see theirs. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. It is not just us, our whole Eastern Mediterranean region, is divided by religion and centuries of war. The Greeks and Turks have deep issues. Their disputes are even older than ours. Cyprus is still a divided country. As for us, our relations with our neighbors have been on a downward spiral, especially since Hamas took over Gaza and Hezbollah high jacked Lebanon. Hezbollah and Hamas now set the tone. Optimism is out of the window.