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10th November, 2016
Shabbat Shalom dear friends.
I suppose one could call this the day
after the day after the night before.
Clipper Kyle of the Los Angeles Clippers posted
thus on Facebook
I HOPE DONALD TRUMP WILL BE A GOOD
PRESIDENT.
WANTING HIM TO FAIL IS LIKE WANTING THE
PILOT OF A PLANE WE ARE ALL ON TO FAIL.
Americans are either despondent or
overjoyed, but rarely are their emotions mixed.
I was not surprised at the result, nor was Zvi. We travelled in the less
affluent areas of the USA, the rural areas, not the big and sophisticated
cities and the citizens felt forgotten, ignored and abandoned by the big
administration in Washington. Not a new feeling, I believe it has been brewing
for a long time but the hope of Obamas election has been dissipated by the
facts on the ground. We told friends how the vote would go but I guess we have
too many journalists among our friends and the message didn't get through.
The intellectual snobs
of the media got it totally wrong.
They assumed that if you were white, educated and comfortable you would never
vote for Trump. They got it wrong - again.
I do
not take sides, am neither excited nor disappointed, just a fly on the wall of
American politics, a fly who recognises the importance of change.
Donald Trump is unconventional and
not in any way part of the Washington establishment, that was his attraction.
Americans, particularly those of the periphery, were tired of the establishment
because it hasn't worked for them. The poor are sick and tired of being ignored
and see Donald Trump as their hope for job creation. Sadly so many people of
colour, white, pink, caramel or black, feel that their hopes were dashed by
past administrations. It did not take genius to foresee this result, perfectly
explained in this article http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/11/sneering-response-trumps-victory-reveals-exactly-won/
The professional
diplomats and specialists on protocol of the White House must now kick in with
advice, smooth the very rough edges and teach him protocol and diplomatic
double speak. He is highly intelligent and will step up to the plate.
Now is
the test of democracy - accepting the new leadership when you didn't choose the
winner.
I am
staggered at the violent rallies against Trump in Los Angeles, Seattle
and elsewhere, fighting with police and the burning of effigies of the
President elect. Such actions are anti-democratic – democracy is accepting the
bitter result, rallying ones thoughts, initiating new tactics and running for
office or backing a candidate. The next elections start now and violent protest
is not the answer. It reflects very badly on the USA.
British
media reaction has also been one of dismay, many believing that
Trump will take Britain into war and after Brexit, without the backing of
Europe, Britain will be alone. It does not hold water. The last President who
kept America out of war left Britain fighting Hitler for 3 years and Europe was
never Britain's Ally, the Commonwealth that always stood beside Britain. Today,
the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month bears testimony
to that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day.
War has been raging in the entire Middle East for many years and Allied troops
are dying daily at the hands of terrorist killers who hate the West. The very
left wing Israeli media is licking its wounds too – indeed several members of
Zvi's Parliament mocked him when he said Trump will win. One even insisted rather
forcefully that Hillary would win by a huge margin.
Incredibly
the world kept right on turning and the sun rose despite the
results of American elections!!!
Russian
Prime Minister Medvedev came to Israel for talks with Prime
Minister Netanyahu (who I neither chose nor wanted but support as the
democratically elected leader). We knew because we went out for dinner
yesterday with our dear friends Teresa Strangeland and Don Hughes and
Don, a history buff, chose the King David Hotel. I was a little surprised that all the convenient
parking spaces alongside the YMCA were cordoned off, and then we saw hundreds
of police. Curiouser and curiouser!!!
We walked through the
exquisite lobby out onto the historic King David balcony where Winston
Churchill wrote his famous letter about the Jewish homeland, (http://www.martingilbert.com/blog/winston-churchill-and-the-foundation-of-israel/ ) and Zvi gave a synopsis of the history and view of the
Old City as only he knows how. We
carefully chose a table with a glorious view, Teresa and Don who live in
Alberta, Canada, soaked up the warm balmy evening, I said "Shame Andrew
isn't here" – "Call him" said Zvi, "I forgot my phone in
the car" – Zvi volunteered to go and bring my phone and met Canon Andrew
White in the lobby!!! Andrew recently underwent extensive tests and his MS has
severely affected his brain and he has early onset Alzheimer's so he is driven
even more to complete his blessed work. He has formed a new NGO since FRRME
sacked him as Director for breaking the rules and releasing Yazidi sex slaves.
I do not take sides, I just want him to be happy and fulfilled in his mission
on earth. We had a brilliant evening and both Teresa and Don were thrilled at
spending an evening with Andrew. We took photos on Medvedev's red carpet
although not with him, the delightful young Israeli secret service guy said
that the Russian guards would not be kind if Zvi poked the camera through the
barrier to take a photo. Since I read the story of Flat Stanley for my children
I know what a barrier on your head can do!
About
three weeks ago I received a delightful letter through
the post. It was a "save the date" for my nieces wedding. I was about
to open the envelope when Zvi stopped me and demanded I look at the address.
Someone had scribbled out Israel and replaced it with PALESTINE. I was horrified on every level; quite apart
from the racist aspect, defacing Royal Mail is a criminal offence. I spoke to
two people, my son Gideon who is a Barrister (Advocate) and Welsh Member of
Parliament Guto Bebb neither of whom are shrinking violets in the face
of adversity. After many strong letters to and fro, from both Gideon and Guto Bebb,
Guto met with the General Manager of the Royal Mail who sent me a beautiful
bouquet of flowers of apology and explained that actually finding the
individual would be very difficult, so he decided to go to the offending
central post office and have an expert give a talk on racism. Thank you to Guto
and Gideon, and to Matthew Wake, GM of the Royal Mail.
Just
one small fact about the Trumps, Ivanka Trump uses an Israeli
baby buggy!! She has a Doona, the brilliant car seat cum buggy
invention! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEaRIcUZT80 Amiad, Zvi's
eldest son is a partner in the company so we are very happy that the future
grandbaby in chief will be in a Doona
Other than that it was
a good week, relatively quiet but good.
On Sunday I had
meetings in Petah Tikva, Monday I met with Cardiff girlfriends in Herzliya,
gosh I love being with them. We grew up together in Wales and it feels so good
to know that one has nothing to explain - they know from whence you came. On
Tuesday Rachel and I had breakfast in the Botanical Gardens to celebrate her
birthday, before heading off to find her an appropriate present! Yesterday I
had a call from my friend Irit and we decided to meet for lunch – in the Botanical
Gardens! I love it, especially in autumn; the trees reflected in the lake,
framing the shimmering water, the sun dancing between the lily pads, the occasional
ripple of fish popping up to greet a passing fly. Good food, good company and
glorious view.
As I
left the Botanical Gardens a very Israeli thing happened. A
bus driver beside me at the traffic lights tooted his horn, indicating to lower
my window. This is Israel so I was not worried I simply complied. "Hamuda
if you keep driving on that front tyre you will destroy it – go to the top of
the hill and there is a garage with an air machine". Of course the air machine was broken so I stopped
at my usual car electrical specialist and he told me not to go to his neighbor who
would cheat me, filled the tyre with air, called another tyre guy nearby and sent
me there. The second tyre guy was just amazing, took a huge screw out of my
tyre, repaired it and chatted merrily giving good advice. He charged me $10 and
wished me safe driving. Incidentally all of the above kind people were Israeli
Arabs.
Tomorrow night is
already Shabbat again!
While looking for
appropriate music I remembered the beautiful young woman who sat at our Seder
Table 18 months ago, while on a visit with the Israeli Opera production of La
Boheme. She was so much fun and then Zvi asked her to sing something, anything,
and we both fell in love with her, Nadine
Sierra singing the American national Anthem for both candidates https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTJdq4yoIkM
I had already chosen
the next song - Leonard Cohen's
Halleluya in Yiddish before the news of his passing https://youtu.be/XH1fERC_504. May Leonard Cohen rest in peace his immense legacy assured.
Baruch Dayan Emet
From beautiful
Jerusalem, the centre of our world I wish you Shabbat Shalom. From Zvi and I
Happy Birthday to Rachel, Ayala, Shiri and Ori……… yes it was an expensive
week!!!
Shabbat Shalom and
remember, this week's Torah reading is where the whole Isaac and Ishmael story
begins. http://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/3161/jewish/Lech-Lecha-in-a-Nutshell.htm
With love
Sheila
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