200306
6th
March 2020
To
start this missive with the usual jovial Shabbat Shalom, Good Shabbes may seem
somewhat over optimistic, but actually it really isn't. Despite the politicians
and "the virus" several very positive things have happened this week.
I think I'll start with the good news and then depress you and then put some
music to raise your spirits again!
The
good news is that an agreement with the Taliban seems to be on the
horizon, brining thousands of soldiers home. A war of nigh on 18 years which
has flummoxed 3 Presidents, costing $2 trillion and 35,000 lives looks like it
will finally come to an end. It was a lose lose situation, to all intents and
purposes, another guerilla war fighting against an unidentifiable enemy who
were/are prepared to capture, kill and execute all who they deemed an enemy –
the Taliban. If there is one thing we have learned over the past 20 years, it
is that no matter who we defeat something worse arises from the dust. To come
to an agreement with the Taliban has taken great bravery. In hindsight we can
say that it should never have been Afghanistan, or Iraq for that matter, it
should have been Iran from the very beginning but too many world leaders were
scared to tackle the true enemy of freedom, the true perpetrators of virtually
all the terror attacks in this world. Thank you James Earl Carter.
So
we still don't have a government! The final result gave Likud 3 seats more
than Blue and White but forming a coalition is quite another matter. There are
120 seats in the Knesset and forming a government depends on who one can garner
from the other parties which was always a centre left and centre right
situation but of late has become a far right addition to Likud and a far left
addition to Blue and White. Of course it is very easy to blame Avigdor Liberman
who has steadfastly refused to sit with Netanyahu, the Haredi community (unless
they work and serve in the IDF) or the Arab Joint List.
Netanyahu's
government has ignored, time and again, the needs of the Israeli Arab
community. The catalyst for bringing out the Arab vote was, probably, the Trump
plan which included many moderate ISRAELI Arabs who live in what is known as
the Triangle, in Northern Israel to feel disenfranchised since the plan
included transfer of Israeli Arabs within this region to the Palestinian
Authority.The plan is a starting point for negotiation but Netanyahu denied it
and Benny Gantz spent a great deal of time going from town to town insisting
that Blue and White would not allow it - but both parties refused to include
the Joint List in their potential coalitions. The final straw was when Netanyahu
said “Israel is not a state of all
its citizens, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people—and it alone.”
That
deeply insults about half of the medical teams in Israel, to say nothing of the
Northern Bedouin, Circassian, Druze, Christian Israeli Arabs who serve the
country loyally.
While
some of the MK's of Joint List have questionable loyalties they are not
unreachable and the vast majority of the Israeli Arabs are hard-working loyal
citizens and should be treated as such. The combination of the above caused
even the most apathetic Israeli Arabs to come out and vote, achieving 16 seats,
and in my opinion, has pushed the MK's of the Joint List further away.
The
wonderful President Ruvi Rivlin, who will decide who will be given first
chance to form the next government coalition, spoke for us all when he said "We don't deserve another
awful and grubby election campaign like the one that ends today and we don't
deserve this never-ending instability. We just don't deserve this. We deserve a
government that works for us.
It
is irrelevant whether you call it Covid-19 or the Corona virus – it is scary. There is no reason for hysteria but there is
good reason to closely follow the precautions of the medical teams. In fact
Israel has probably been the most cautious, actually turning away tourists from
Korea last week and the list of flights stopped and tourists banned from
countries is growing. China, South
Korea, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam, France, Switzerland, Spain, Germany
and Austria, Israelis returning from the European countries are self-isolated.
Unfortunately the Corona Virus has appeared in Bethlehem so we had to close the
Christian sites and our medical teams are helping the PA to isolate cases.
Purim this year will be a rather miserable
affair with most of the Adloyadas (street festivals of Purim events) cancelled,
children's theatre, pop
concerts and municipal parties also cancelled. Quite apart from the physical
concerns, many businesses, particularly those dealing with entertainment,
tourism and companies that rely on manufacturing in China are going to be in
dire financial straits. I was impressed by the following video which while
insisting that one takes all the necessary precautions, reassures us in terms
of numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQ6lTGo4Pcc
Talking
of Purim,
yet another festival which fits Zvi's description of "They tried to kill
us, we won, let's eat" Rabbi Jeremy Rosen's writes in his lucid and
compelling manner the true story of Purim. We have a tendency to judge events
in today's context which is really irrational when one considers events
thousands of years ago! One sees Haman, Ahasuerus and Esther in a totally new
light and my favourite in the story, Mordechai, is revealed. Actually I always
felt sorry for Vashti but that's another matter!! http://jeremyrosen.com/2020/03/poor-him.html
Why are the good
things always relegated to a
back page? This news should be headlines.
Hungary, Canada, the
Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Uganda, Brazil and Australia hold that the
ICC in The Hague does not have the jurisdiction to hear Israeli war crimes
lawsuits and wrote official letters stating this to the court before the
February 14 deadline for such submissions.
The UN
kindly produced a list of 112 companies, many international, which operate over
the greenline. It is irrelevant to the UN that those companies provide work for
the Palestinians! If you want to know who to support, the list is here. https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2020/02/12/the-un-publishes-a-blacklist-of-112-firms-working-at-israeli-settlements/
This
whole "over the green line" business drives me nuts. So many
countries control of claim land thousands of miles outside their land mass,
like the UK and The Falklands or the USA and Samoa… to say the very least, why
are they so concerned with where factories and companies are situated. https://jewishbusinessnews.com/2020/02/12/the-un-publishes-a-blacklist-of-112-firms-working-at-israeli-settlements/
I know
you have been waiting with bated breath to hear the new Israeli Eurovision
song. What was that you said? What is the Eurovision? Well it is an
international song contest, the one that launched many an international career
for the winning contestants…..like ABBA! Anyway, I love this year's entry, sung
by Eden Alene in four languages –English, Hebrew, Amharic and Arabic, was
written by Idan Raichel and Doron Medali. Eden has an amazing voice and
apparently learned four versions of the song and the choreography all in one
day! She is absolutely beautiful!! https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=gWMeV3xXuDQ#dialog
The
Maccabeats have a very light hearted way of describing Purim in English songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgJInVvJSZg&t=181s
Ofra Haza, an exquisite voice lost through ignorance. I don't have a
subtitled version but this is a translation of the traditional Yemenite song. http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-imninalu.htm Now sit back and enjoy the sheer purity of
Ofra Haza singing "Im Na'alu" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvDkryqHoHE
I had the
honour of a visit from Joy Wolfe this week. Joy is a driving force behind so
many British pro-Israel activities, even though she thinks she getting older I
find her schedule breathtakingly busy!! Just a week in Israel and she already
visited Standwithus, Victims of Terror and WIZO, quite apart from coming in to
see me! Another wonderful visitor was Daniel's close friend Poodle and her
lovely husband David. It's always a joy to be with her and while David went off
to find Judaica we had some lovely time together. Other than that I have been trying to walk 2
kilometres a day, weather permitting. Actually the weather over the last few
days was glorious although the
"blessed" rain returned today with a vengeance!!
If I
don't get a move on and stop chatting with you about the weather then we won't
have any Challot for Shabbat! Yes I decided that today I will make our Challot,
Rachel needs the occasional rest! It's just Zvi and I this week, no big Friday
nights at the moment.
Stay
well and stay safe. With all our love from Jerusalem, incredible city, so
beautiful, so spiritual and so troubled.
Shabbat
Shalom
Sheila
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