2nd
September 2022
Shabbat
Shalom everyone! Can you believe that it’s already September? 2022 is in it’s
ninth month, let’s see what the remainder of the year gives birth to!
For
a change I’m going to start right away with news so that we can talk about the
more pleasant aspects of life, leaving us with a sweet taste in our mouths.
This
weeks Torah reading is Shoftim, or Judges. It teaches us that prior to the
Children of Israel entering the Promised Land they had to learn how to behave –
how to create a fair society with laws and mores befitting. Judges and law enforcement officers were appointed
and as their leader Moses declared “Justice, Justice shall you pursue” which
leads me to a very important Supreme Court decision this week.
Amiram
ben Uliel
committed a heinous crime, the crime that only a zealot could justify. In 2015 Ben
Uliel firebombed a house killing three members of the Dawabshe family in the
small town of Duma for no apparent reason other than that they were Palestinian
Arabs. He and his cohorts thought that they would get away with their foul hate
crime but after his final appeal, the Supreme Court upheld Ben Hiliel’s three
life sentences. “Justice, Justice shall you pursue”
Recent
Israeli air strikes against Iranian arsenals and missile sites in Syria are
causing a rethink of the Iranian presence in that wretched and devastated
country. After 500,000 ordinary Syrians died, were killed mostly by their own
leader, perhaps the Iranians realise that Israel may be tiny but is definitely
the moused that roared and we have a very loud roar. Syria, once proud, is
finished and apparently the Iranians decided that it is less strategically
essential than they thought.
Mikhail
Gorbechov,
who passed away this week, was arguably the primary catalyst in the breakdown
of the Former Soviet Union. His determined leaning toward the West and his
recognition that Sovietism led to corruption and uneven distribution of wealth
he encouraged and was in power during the virtual breakdown of the Iron Curtain
and the actual breakdown of the Wall between East and West Berlin. His decision
not to shoot those crossing to freedom was a brave and historic move that
brought about the recognition of Glasnost and ultimately Perestroika. Of
course, those of us who were involved in the Campaign for Soviet Jewry during
the 1970’s recognise that the brain-drain of Soviet Jews undoubtedly
contributed in a major manner to the downfall of the USSR.
"At
Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this out loud today, l would be
greeted by universal laughter. In five years perhaps, and certainly in fifty
years, everyone will perceive it."
(Theodor
Herzl, 3 September 1897)
I
happen to believe that there are no coincidences in this world. This week a
group of 1,400 active Jewish (and non-Jewish) leaders from around the world met
in Basel, Switzerland, for the 125th Anniversary of the first
Zionist Congress. It was not just a celebration, although celebration it was,
it was a very important coming together of leaders in every relevant stream of
Zionism to discuss the manner in which it affects our lives today. Zvi was
there to represent Maccabi World Union, the largest Jewish non-religious and apolitical
Organisation in the world which represents over 400,000 members. As I saw the
photographs of Zvi standing on the podium in the Congress Centre as if giving THE
Herzl speech and leaning on the railings of the balcony of room 117 in the Three Kings Hotel in Basel
I must admit that my mind went back to the “coincidence” of Mikhail Gorbechov’s
passing and the Zionist Congress and how Zvi, with Yonah Yahav, all those years
ago, fought a Prime Minister (Golda) and brought about the freedom for Jews to
emigrate from the then, Soviet Union, to Israel with the blessing of the
Israeli Government. Zvi and Yonah proved yet again that if you will it, it is
no dream.
https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/switzerland-event-marks-125th-anniversary-of-first-zionist-congress/
Last
week I wasn’t in the mood to describe the current morass, farrago, muddled
miscellany of personal interests that makes up Israeli politics. I don’t know
if it distresses me too much to think that we are yet again wasting billions on
irrelevant campaigns and lost days of work, or the fact that the same man is
causing us to go into our fifth elections in three years, or that same man took
a supposedly pragmatic party and agreed to form a coalition with the devil –
aka Smotrich and Ben Gvir for the sake of getting back into the Prime
Ministerial seat.
Who
are Smotrich and Ben Gvir? A pair of ultra-extreme right wing politicians who appeal
to the worst side of everyone, the racist, anti-Moslem, Kahanists who represent
everything that I despise. Wait, let me be absolutely accurate, in a deal
brokered by Benjamin Netanyahu, the far right parties of Ben Gvir and Smotrich
will unite and help to form a stable coalition with the Likud. I sense Menachem
Begin is spinning in his grave at the dreadful turn of events. The Likud Party
was founded on the premise that it covered a wide range of political views, Zionist
of every hue and now, members of the Likud central committee including people
like Dudu Amsalem and Miri Regev call Benny Begin and old fool. Please excuse
my rant but I love this country and we deserve better than the feasible
coalition or the right thus presented https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Likud
OK,
rant over, who else is there and what are their chances of achieving 61 seats?
Top
of the “Middle of the Road” list
Yesh
Atid led
by Yair Lapid (current PM) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesh_Atid
National
Unity
(Blue and White united with New Hope) led by Benny Gantz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Unity_Party_(Israel)
Yisrael
Beitenu
led by Avigdor Liberman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yisrael_Beiteinu
Meretz led by Zahava Galon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meretz
Labour
led
by Merav Michaeli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_Labor_Party
Ra’am led by Mansour Abbas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_List
Together
they can glean 52 seats of the 61 needed to form a government coalition.
However there is an unexpected turn by Degel Hatorah religious party led
by Moshe Gafni https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degel_HaTorah
which if they move from supporting Likud to joining Yesh Atid and National
Unity they will tip the balance from Likud to the above coalition.
I
hope that left you a little less confused. I know who I trust, I know who has
kept his word, acted in a dignified manner from the very start and now that he
has been joined by three similarly minded former Chiefs of Staff my “petek”
will go for National Unity because the most natural partners to create a
relevant a coalition, one that we deserve, will be Yesh Atid and National Unity
with fair representation of other parties which represent the honest working
men and women of this country.
I
have gently returned to work, Impact-se CEO Marcus Sheff ( https://www.impact-se.org/ ) saved some
of the best news for my return from the UK. Thanks to our revelations UNWRA has
to justify the billions in aid that pours into their coffers without actually
working to ensure a better life in Gaza and the PA. As more and more countries
withdraw their financial support after reading our reports UNWRA is now crying
out that they are starved of money. It is rather like the bully who cries
because someone hit him back. In addition, the team went out of Impact’s
regular area of the MENA region and produced a report on the Russian textbooks and
their attitude toward Ukraine and found it lacking in tolerance.
Can
I move over to more palatable subjects? I realise that the election process
here is broken and one reason I want a change is so that we can repair it.
Firstly
I want to thank Claudia de Beneditti for the wonderful recipe book and for
being an excellent companion to Zvi while in Basel. I promise to try out some
of the recipes for each Shabbat and report back to you!! In the meantime our
Shabbat dinner will be of my own creation until I actually have time to sit down
and read the book. Thank you dear Claudia!
Both
of us have been really busy this week but not with anything exciting! Yesterday
was special though. In the morning Zvi went to the Waldorf Astoria Jerusalem
for the Bar Mitzva of the grandson of Mindeleh and Avraham Jasqui who
coincidentally became great-grandparents on that very same day! Mazal Tov to
all!!
Last
night we went to a surprise party in Nes Ziona, a lovely dormitory town right next
to Rehovot, to the home of Leor and Shiri Raviv – Zvi’s son and daughter in
law, for a celebration of Shiri’s parents (Menashe and Galia) Golden Wedding.
We were very honoured to be invited because out of the thousands of friends
that this amazing couple have, only about 40 of us were invited. Very few
spoke, mostly about the crazy adventures that both enjoy all over the world,
but the stars were definitely their daughters and their children. They sang and
danced to their parents, some practiced some spontaneous and sang along with
the “Shira b’Tzibur” community singing that both Galia and Menashe love. Zvi sang a special song for them, reminding
them how lucky we are to have them as our “mechutanim” our in-laws.
Zvi
has gone to a meeting then he will come back to get me, I will drop him at his
parliament at Caffit in the Botanical Gardens, which as you know is one of my
favourite spots in Jerusalem, and then I can go to visit Rachel and find out
how Yosef, Talia and Ayala did on their first day back to school. Ye, this
government succeeded in preventing yet another teacher’s strike (there’s a
first for everything) and the children all went back to school on September 1st
as planned. I already know that my tea will be ready, the delicious challot hot
from the oven and my loving grandchildren trying to tell me their stories as
quickly as possible so that they can return to chatting with friends!!
Oh
yes, we will go to the Botanical Gardens on the incredible new road from right
next to our home directly into Jerusalem through a series of tunnels. Road
number 16 or the Ariel Sharon Highway came in over a year early and cuts the
travelling time from at least 20 minutes (far more during rush hours which seem
to be 24/7) to a mere 5 minutes from our home to Shalva. In fact I am going to
Shalva with my wonderful cousin Joanna on Sunday which is going to be wonderful
as always. She couldn’t come to the opening of Dr Dan’s Room and really wants
to see it in action. Once finished we will stay on for lunch in the excellent
restaurant then go our separate ways.
Tami
Isaacs Pierce
is a baker. She opened a small bakery in Hampstead, London and it is growing
not only in popularity but in size. Tami and her sister Sasha are the daughters
of my friend Stephen, grand-daughters of my mother’s friend Queenie, and neighbours
of ours in The Oval in Cardiff so of course I am proud of Tami’s achievements
as the Challah Queen. This week the huge supermarket chain Tesco’s put Tami’s
Challah recipe in their magazine. https://www.
Gosh,
I was going to wax lyrical bout seeing the relief map, the amazing panorama
from Samuel’s Tomb but I feel I have taken enough of your time. Time for music
and this week we have hopeful songs.
Shalom
Lach Eretz Nehederet – Shalom to you wonderful country, is self explanatory.
This is a wonderful country! https://youtu.be/__oEmwpEmTc
Looking
at those who rule our world I thought about the character of Mr Bumble in the West
End production of Pickwick
Harry
Secombe, that wonderful Welshman, so funny with the voice of an angel. If I
ruled the World https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpzCM1aitHw
I
love the last song because of its lyrics, it’s also a really fun melody. It talks about the day when fairness and
parity will come to our tortured earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXnM_nz1icc
A day
will come, a day will come
shortly, soon it will
come
everyone knows
in the depths of their
hearts
a day will come, a day
will come, it'll come!
A day will come, a day
will come
it comes closer and goes
on it's course
no longer will a man be
degraded
because of his race or
his color
a day will come, a day
will come, it'll come.
It'll come, it's today
thus we said and it's not
a dream
if we'll die like Moshe
on the summit of Mount Nevo
this we'll know, it's
already here
it's already here, it's
already here
A day will come shortly
the liberty bell will
call out
and blacks and white will
gather around
a day will come, a day
will come, it'll come.
A day will come, a day of
light
a day of celebration for
the black man
G-d will then smile down
from his seat on high
a day will come, a day
will come, it'll come.
It'll come, it's today
and with the morning
we'll rise and suddenly
we'll suddenly be human
beings like everyone else
so we'll know, it's
already here
it's already here, it'll
come!
I wish you a Good
Shabbes, a fine weekend, a good month of Ellul and kindness in your life
Shabbat Shalom from
Jerusalem dear friends, Shabbat Shalom
Sheila
No comments:
Post a Comment