CTPS/SIAC flies in Israelis

SHMUEL MITZVAH

Everybody in the whole world knows that Israelis are the best at planting trees. So when the trees in Stanley Park in Vancouver got knocked over by the wind, we were the people they called to help. Just last month, we came from Israel, to help the Canadian Jews with their trees. It is like in Israel where we have big rockets hitting us, here in Canada they have big storms that kill the trees. Really, it is terrible.

So there was me, Shmuel, and five others, we came with the Canadian Tree Planting Service/Service d'Implantant des Arbres Canadiens, Tel-Aviv branch. Branch like a chapter, not like on a tree, ha ha ha, and chapter, but not like in a book, you know?

We flew on your Air Canada, which is not really so kosher but it is much cheaper than our El Al. When you see the service, you know why. They don't speak Hebrew, they don't have any falafel and you even have to pay for the wine with dinner!

We were glad to see what it looks like here in Vancouver. First we landed in your capital city, Toronto, and it was not so nice. There were some very ugly buildings and a lot of snow on the ground.

Anyway our mission, it is called Operation Security Fleece. Everybody wears fleece here in Vancouver for hiking and sometimes just to go to the coffee shop. We are bringing fleece to the trees. Of course, we did not bring the trees with us from Israel; the CTPS/SIAC gave them to us when we got to Stanley Park where we are planting them. The trees came from a store called Home Depot.

While we were planting, there were some people with protest signs. They were from the group SLF (Squirrel Liberation Front) and they were there to support the squirrels who have lived in Stanley Park a long time. The people said maybe we weren't really planting trees but making a secret settlement and kicking the squirrels off their land. The squirrels released some video of us working to the media here to show that we were trampling on their rights.

"We live in trees, not under a rock," said Chief Squirrel Nutty Paws. "We know what is going on here. This is not about making the forest bloom! All these Israelis want is more trees for themselves."

But it is not true, we only want to help with the trees. We just built a wall around the squirrels to protect them.

We met many nice Canadian people in Vancouver though. They were so friendly and so happy that we have come here. We had a real Canadian experience! A man called Bob and his wife, Cindy, invited us over for something called brunch. We had pancakes and maple syrup and they also made bacon but that, we didn't eat!

We will always remember the wonderful time we had with our Canadian friends.

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