Your tax dollars at work

Yesterday, the long awaited shipment from Carta, Jerusalem arrived from Israel. The order was 8 pallets, so a few books were involved :)

Normally a shipment from Israel via surface takes about 2-3 months, depending on circumstances. For example, the last shipment got caught in two different dockworkers strikes: one in Haifa, and the other one in Italy. Shipment time: 4 months. This time, the ship made good time and was in New York in about a month. But, for some reason it took longer than normal to clear customs. And, when it did arrive, 3 of the 8 skids had Homeland Security tape on the outside of the wrap (the skids normally have heavy cardboard around the outside to protect the boxes of books). Fine, that happens. But, one of those skids also had forklift forks through some of the boxes. The damage wasn't on the packing cardboard around the outside, so it had to happen after the wrap had been removed for inspection.

I know you want to see your tax dollars at work, so here you go:

Nice fork damage in the side of the box:






Here's what a book looks like after a fork goes through it:



By the way, I think I know why it got inspected, whereas most Israeli shipments don't: Eshel's Masada book was in the shipment and it arrived right around Passover.