3rd
April, 2026
16th
of Nisan, 5786
Shabbat
Shalom! Is it really Friday today? Between the missiles from Iran and the
Houthis and the rockets from Hezb-Allah and then the joys of Seder Night and
matza crumbs all over the apartment I forgot completely that I owed you a
newsletter!!
To
all my Christian friends, I wish you a spiritual Good Friday, a blessed Easter Sunday
and a weekend of peaceful contemplation.
Why
speak of peaceful contemplation at all? Because when I listen to some of
today’s anti-war leaders — those who refuse cooperation, restrict support, or
insist that distance will somehow keep them safe — I cannot help but think,
with real unease, of Neville Chamberlain and his promise of “peace in our
time.” It is not a comfortable comparison, but history teaches us that good
intentions and hopeful words are not enough when faced with brutality, bad
faith, and open aggression. There are moments when the desire to stay out of
conflict risks becoming a dangerous form of moral blindness.
Chamberlain’s
later wartime speech,
delivered on September 3rd 1939, at 11:15, words which marked the beginning
of WW2, were far more honest: Commonwealth “Now may God bless you all and may
He defend the right. For it is evil things that we shall be fighting against,
brute force, bad faith, injustice, oppression and persecution. And against them
I am certain that the right will prevail.” Recognition that there are times
when evil, oppression, and persecution must be confronted, not wished away. If
history teaches us anything, it is that turning away from the threat does not
make it disappear it only delays the moment when right must finally stand
against wrong.
It’s
very comfortable
to allow Israel to be the vanguard, for us to break into our Seder Night 5
times as sirens herald another rush into the mamad, while those outside Israel enjoy
a peaceful family seder, but we are, without question the canary in the coal
mine and although your problem is not missiles on your heads, it is in many
ways yours is more pervasive, killing off standards and traditions, even
Christian Holidays, be they British or American or Australian, or Canadian. I
know that most of you are fully aware of our situation, your support and love
keeps us going, but do you also understand our anger? Do you realise that while
the Ayatollahs and their proxies are determined to wipe us off the map, the
West is blaming us for forcing Trump into war? Doesn’t anyone realise that
nobody, nothing, can force Trump into anything he doesn’t want? OK your petrol
costs more at the pump but if they fully close the Straits of Hormuz to
shipping, everything will cost more! OK digression over…..
Actually,
my digression
simply takes another departure. A common complaint is, “Why are you bombing the
poor Lebanese”, presumably the only side shown by BBC and CNN. First of all we
aren’t, we are bombing the interlopers, Hezb-Allah, who turned a thriving
Christian country into the fierce internal
enemy and attacker of Israel, a ferocious and murderous Iranian proxy currently
sending rockets and missiles every half hour on towns and villages in the north,
a gloriously beautiful north which has been physically destroyed, acting from
well below the Litani in a clear infraction of UN Resolution 1701 which called
for Hezb-Allah to retreat behind the 29 mile buffer zone bordering Israel, in practice from the Litani River (another
river that most people don’t know) to Israel’s border.
We
lost another four beautiful boys in the battle on the Lebanese border. Noam
Madmoni, 22; Maxsim Entis, 21; Gilad Harel, 21; Ben Cohen, 21. We lost them in
a battle we didn’t want. May their young souls rest in peace and their families
be consoled by the incredible support of the families of other lost soldiers.
Did
you know
that Iran’s covert operations are active in Kenya and Tanzania, close enough
that Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, son of Uganda's president has blitzed X with
posts such as "We stand with Israel because we are Christians," he
wrote, adding in another post, "Uganda is the David that was forgotten and
neglected by the world. We will defeat the giant, Goliath." Uganda, like
Fiji, has offered to join Israel in the fray. The Fijian UNIFIL troops were, if
I recall, the only ones who really upheld UN1701 and took part in Israeli
everyday life. They even played for the Israeli team in 7 a side Rugby!
I
have deep reservations
about the recently passed Israeli law introducing the death penalty. Not only
has capital punishment in Israel been reserved for crimes against humanity and
used only once in the case of Adolf Eichmann, but the wording of this law
appears to apply to Arab terrorists alone, rather than to all terrorists. That
distinction is deeply troubling. We know, painfully, that terrorism is not
confined to one community, from the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak
Rabin to the violence of Jewish extremists against Palestinians today, we have
our own dark examples. A law that is not applied equally risks undermining the
very moral and legal foundations it seeks to defend, which is why Israeli human
rights organisations and several Knesset members have appealed to the Supreme
Court to have it overturned.
On
March 29, 2026,
one Israeli policeman blocked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem from entering
the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Palm Sunday Mass, marking an unprecedented
restriction on Christian leadership. Although the restriction was lifted when
the Israeli Authorities learned about it, one has to put it into perspective. The
Western Wall Plaza of the Kotel was empty too, the restrictions on any areas that
do not have safe rooms or shelters, and the Old City, which was built long
before Iran became an enemy, has neither, were advisable. Hence restrictions on
all religions, even the Temple Mount, to the chagrin of the Islamic Authorities,
were inevitable. So, before the usual rush to judgement, and unwise decision of
one policeman, one must consider the circumstances.
As
we celebrate Pesach,
we are reminded that this season also carries deep and painful memories. We
still mourn the victims of the Park Hotel massacre in Netanya in 2002, when a
Hamas terrorist Abdel-Basset Odeh, dressed as a woman, entered the Seder night
dining room filled with families and elderly guests and detonated a suitcase
bomb, killing 30 people and injuring around 140. Hamas claimed responsibility,
and although the planners were later sentenced to multiple life terms, the
passage of time has not eased the loss. For many, Pesach remains not only a
celebration of freedom, but also a quiet moment of remembrance for those whose
Seder night was stolen, and a solemn reminder of the fragility of life and the
enduring need to protect it.
This short video of Douglas Murray put everything into perspective https://youtube.com/shorts/ji2PxgAjL-E?si=b7rUw_ofD2EPBPrj
Our
Seder night was delightful! We sang Vehi Sheamda twice, once in our traditional
family tune and once in the more modern version but most importantly we relayed
to the children that although it’s tough and living in Tel Aviv they have to
spend too much time going up and down stairs to their mamad, we will survive
this as we have all the past attempts to make us disappear instead of which we watched
all our enemies fizzle out and
disappear, even the huge and powerful Roman and Ottoman Empires! Much to our
delight our cousins Sergio and Sara drove down from Netanya, unperturbed by the
threat of missiles from Iran; Amiad, Noga, Ella and Yonatan came from Tel Aviv,
Ira and Sheli from Ashkelon, Judy and Zamir from Tel Aviv and Tomer from
Jerusalem. We had made arrangements just in case, for whoever wanted to stay
over, but in the end just Sheli chose that option. Everyone read a paragraph, Sergio
in Spanish and although Ira and I can read Hebrew, she read in Russian and I
did in English as per family tradition! As usual there was far too much food because
once you have had the eggs in salt water (many versions of what that
represents)
Funnily
enough
nobody questions why it took 40 years for the Children of Israel, led by Moses,
to walk the relatively short distance from the Red Sea (Reed Sea) to the
Promised Land Clearly one reason is because the Children of Israel hadn’t
invented WAZE, but what else? One explanation that I really like is that we
were so argumentative that poor Moses, who was doing his very best to obey
God's message met with dissatisfaction and confusion. The perfect example is
the golden calf that greeted Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai, but it's
not the only one. He was so frustrated at one time that he lost his cool and
was denied entry to the Promised Land by the Almighty. Anyway, when they got to
the Holy Land and The mission involved one leader from each of the twelve
tribes, who scouted the land for 40 days to decide whether this was really all
they had been led to believe. Most of the scouts got scared or just lazy and
told lies about giants and put doubt into the people's minds until two honest scouts,
Caleb and Joshua came back carrying grapes, and declared it the land of milk
and honey.
Anyway,
back to the Seder, the children had great fun searching for the Afikomen, Yonatan
was thoroughly frustrated that his big sister found it after a harrowing 15
minute search!! I hope that your family seder was delightful and delicious. I really want to try and see Rachel today,
although I think her children will be elsewhere and, let’s face it, I won’t be
getting my usual freshly baked challah roll with egg salad today!
So
it really is Friday and although I’m scared to tempt fate, I have managed to
get through my writing without a siren and Zvi managed to get off to his
parliament. Now that all the local parliaments have relocated to the Harel Mall
where there is a public shelter, I’m have a sneaky feeling that he won’t find
parking. They most certainly have a lot to talk about this week!
If
you don’t shed a tear to hear this song, to remember our pride at Paul Newman’s
performance as Ari Ben Canaan in the movie Exodus, then you are too young to
remember the movie! Here the golden voice of Andy Williams sings the theme song
written by Pat Boone. Never more appropriate https://youtu.be/3JsfWgxSH3g?si=1n_meyi96rzfSS_t
In
this world of fragmentation and disunity, perhaps we can find in our hearts to
discover “One Love” It’s so long since I gave you Koolulam so today we find
unity for this song, for Jerusalem, for all of us. https://youtu.be/TZzK29_V8jQ?si=ZtivXih4T6HSwJUG
Louis Armstrong knew more about Judaism and Israel than most. His version of "Let My People Go" tells the story of Pesach. I love it. https://youtu.be/fHbC8Nhd46s?si=CiBCydVtjwBITPcl
That’s
it folks! May your prayers this festival, whether you are Christian, Jew,
Moslem or non-believer, may your prayers be for togetherness, to defeat hatred
by reaching out to those whose arms are ready to accept love and avoiding those
whose hearts are closed. Remember that we are strong because we live to love,
love to live and love life.
Shabbat
Shalom, with all my love from Jerusalem, glistening white after the rain, the
view from our veranda. I’ll be thinking
of you when I light my Shabbat candles tonight.
Sheila
