200519 Many Ministers and Impact-se

200519

19^th May 2020

Well here goes the Mid-week update!

Usually one says "Do you want the good news or the bad news"? Well, today I'm going to say "Do you want the 'I have no idea what is going on' news, or the incredible news!!

The I have no idea what is going on news concerns the fact that we have a government but have no idea how long it will last, whether the master manipulator will actually hand over the Premiership to his co-Premier in 18 months and whether he will even be finished with his trial and be in or out of jail at the time!!

As if that isn't confusing enough we have some 35 Ministries including one Minister for Water! I'm just relieved that they didn't split the offices into hot and cold water sharing a secretary for tepid! I am joking, but in fact I am furious! The country is in financial chaos, as virtually everywhere is, monies promised to small businesses has not arrived, people have lost their jobs left right and centre, they claim they have no money to save our National Airline, El Al, unless they fire some 2,000 employees and yet we have 35 offices, with 35 office staff and the very nice salaries paid to each Minister! The new government will cost a total of NIS 238.5million, or an annual increase of NIS 79million.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/.premium-israel-netanyahu-gantz-biggest-government-ever-takes-oath-complete-ministers-list-1.8852044

Today's research claims that 70% of Israel's Covid-19 cases emanated from the USA, people returning from either vacation or visiting for Pesach. https://www.jpost.com/health-science/70-percent-of-coronavirus-in-israel-came-from-the-united-states-new-study-628448

Now for the really good news. In fact now for the incredible news!

Impact-se tends to work behind the scenes. We don't hit the headlines but rather we can be seen in the text of articles about tolerance in education. We prefer it that way because it allows for the slow and careful process of reaching and teaching the important issues in places of influence without creating diplomatic tsunamis.

Yesterday, in a meeting chaired by the Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Dr. Muhammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian Cabinet approved a plan to make changes to the PA curriculum for the upcoming 2020-21 school year.

The announcement (available in Arabic here) follows last Thursday’s passage of three separate resolutions through the European Parliament that condemn the Palestinian failure to remove hate speech and violence in textbooks. The resolutions were driven by IMPACT-se. 

The legislation has implications for EU budget allocation to Palestinian education aid. It also urges the European Commission to prevent abuse of EU aid to teach hate and incitement.

In March 2020, the UK government announced it is “deeply concerned about allegations of incitement in Palestinian Authority’s school textbooks” in a speech and written response to a parliamentary question on the issue by Middle East Minister James Cleverly MP.
 
In December 2019, the Norwegian Parliament instructed its government to withhold funding to the Palestinian Authority if incitement is not removed from textbooks. The Parliament described the new PA curriculum as “devastating to the peace process”.
 
In December 2019, the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee passed the bipartisan Peace and Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act (H.R. 2343) by unanimous consent and is moving through U.S. Congress.
 
In August 2019, the United Nations issued an unprecedented report (p. 5-6) calling on the Palestinian Authority to remove all Anti-Semitic material, hate speech, and incitement to violence from their school curriculum that perpetuate prejudices and hatred.

IMPACT-se has been integral to the initiation and adoption of these measures keeping the Palestinian curriculum a hot-button issue in Parliaments across Europe and in the United states.

Selected examples and main findings on the Palestinian Authority curriculum can be found here.

It is rare to find a small organisation with such a huge impact on the lives of young people around the world. Hatred, the teaching of hatred may start at home but the only way to stop the cycle is to introduce new ideas of equality and respect through school, through teachers and through what a child reads.

I'm so proud that the introduction of tolerance in education emanates from Israel.

I promise to tell you all about our week on Friday. Friday, Jerusalem Day….the Hebrew date for the moment we were able to reach our holy sites for the first time in 19 year, the years that Jordan had control.

Today, oh boy today is at least 40 degrees Celsius with winds blowing a gale in Jerusalem but the earth standing still in Raanana!!  I know we have a "sharav" every year for a day or so but this seems to be endless. The funny thing is they are predicting cool weather and rain for Shabbat!

Have a wonderful week and we will talk on Friday

Love from Jerusalem where the government is talk talk talk and Impact is walk walk walk!!

200515 Cabinet, Churchill Conference

200515

15^th May, 2020

Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom and Ramadan Kareem

Obviously you know that yesterday was the 14^th of May but I wonder if you know that two historic events occurred on that date? The first, which brought such enormous joy and pride to the Jewish people is the Declaration of the State of Israel and the second was a huge disappointment!

Last night, 72 years after the declaration of the State by David Ben Gurion, the new Israeli Cabinet was to be sworn in. An insanely large Cabinet, said to be between 34-36 members, many positions invented for the occasion, but nonetheless a Cabinet. Israel was about to have a working government for the first time in about 2 years! At the eleventh hour the swearing in ceremony was delayed until Sunday! The rotation of the PM position was worked out and Ministries for Blue and White Party members were accepted but the rebellion came from the Prime Minister's own Party! Why? Because Netanyahu did not find Cabinet positions for 6 of his closest allies, Ministers in his former Cabinet. Of course Gantz immediately withdrew his resignation as Speaker of the Knesset since his position as Minister of Defence is no longer a certainty. Oh boy – their Shabbat will not be filled with Shalom. https://www.ynetnews.com/article/S1qDJv9qL

Politics is a dirty business and loyalty is rarely repaid. Yemina, Naftali Bennet and Ayelet Shaked, have loyally supported PM Netanyahu throughout but yesterday they learned that they have been discarded like old rags.

The 14^th of May this speech was made by Winston Spencer Churchill,  conceivably the greatest leader of modern times, made his first speech (‘Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat’) as Prime Minister to House of Commons. “What is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival". 80 years ago (1940), https://winstonchurchill.org/…/blood-toil-tears-and-sweat-2/

May 14th was also the date of the very first broadcast of Kol Yisrael, the Israeli Broadcasting Company

I missed the 100 year anniversary of the San Remo Conference by a few days, so it wasn't on May 14^th but rather at the end of April 1920, but its importance history and in refuting the cant of the far left and the Palestinian misrepresentation is ultimate. The full text of the Balfour Declaration became an integral part of the San Remo resolution and the British Mandate for Palestine, thereby transforming it from a letter of intent into a legally-binding foundational document under international law. What is little known about the San Remo Conference is that the Arab representatives at the conference never opposed the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine, His Royal Highness the Emir Feisal, representing the Arab States was far too concerned with the formation of Arab States and hardly bothered with the "hell-Hole" called Palestine. I suggest you not only read this excellent article by Dan Adler but watch the video of history unfolding. https://israelforever.org/interact/blog/why_you_should_know_san_remo/

Today, the 15^th of May, the day after the Gregorian anniversary of the declaration of the State of Israel, is Nakba Day – Catastrophe Day – for the Palestinians. It has taken on a life of its own and spurned the international belief that Israel displaced an entire nation and performed ethnic cleansing. In the world of today it is very hard to prove that someone is not an underdog but rather that they created their own very real hell. My prayer is that the day will pass without any more terror attacks. Sadly there have already been 3 individual attacks and a soldier lost his life. Rather than explain yet again I chose to give you a brilliant article by Khaled Abu Toameh explaining the real situation of Palestinians in the entire area https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15979/apartheid-coronavirus-lebanon

Much has been said about the behaviour of the Haredi community during this pandemic. Here in Israel it took time before the level of danger was understood and at first the tightly knit Ultra-Orthodox communities did not follow the rules and suffered terrible losses. However, in the USA particularly "obviously Jewish" groups have been the target of terrible anti-Semitism and accusations equal to the blood libels. That doesn't surprise me and neither has the secular reaction to those accusations but wait, let's take a look at the situation here in Israel, it has turned on its head! While criticizing the observant Jews for wanting to go to synagogue the secular Jews have been crowding the Tel Aviv beaches, not observing either distancing or masks and standing for hours to get into IKEA! It is a case of pots and kettles and it is time we learned to live together, each in their own way before the situation explodes.

This pandemic, whether you call it Covid-19, Corona, the virus or any other name has, tragically, taught us that all the things we thought were essential to the "good life" are actually irrelevant. Families have learned to live together and to deal with loss, to appreciate those who care for us, from the Consultant Physician to the garbage collector; the work of teachers and school administrators fell upon parents who no longer believe that the education of their children is easy. Many discovered cooking and making meals became a joyous, even fun, family task; working from home gave so many young people the chance to get to know their children. The elderly and infirm (in Israel at least) became stars in their own cities with meals brought to their doors and young people calling to see if they needed anything or just for a chat; in other words, I believe that we learned to appreciate the little things in life like having a Shabbat meal together. Where is it going? Is it going? Will it come back? I don't know and every prediction is made on a whim because nobody knows but let's try to count our blessings. My friend Dr. Nir Boms wrote https://www.jpost.com/opinion/covid-19-has-taught-us-that-life-is-always-priceless-627323

This time next week we will celebrate Jerusalem Day, in honour of the Hebrew date of the reuniting of the City of Jerusalem after 19 years of Jordanian rule. The story has been told and the songs sung but little can describe the joy of returning to the Holy sites. Today we take a visit to the Kotel (Western Wall) for granted, not realising the battles fought and even the way the beautiful plaza looked when our soldiers arrived there. Here are two videos of the entry into the Old City and the famous words "The Temple Mount is in our hands" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6e3kKu5XaU and the same men today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-sdse016Dk

Those of us old enough to remember that day, indeed that war, the 6 Day War and the implications thereof. It was the most glorious victory, a victory for the right to pray at our holy sites and yet that was the moment the world turned on us. As Ephraim Kishon so brilliantly wrote in his book "So Sorry We Won" the world never forgave us for defending ourselves.

So this week was really exciting!!! Zvi and I went for a wonderful walk in the Gazelle Valley https://www.itraveljerusalem.com/ent/gazelle-valley/ and even had a social distancing picnic in the Jerusalem Forest!! I enjoyed both so much that the next day I went back for a walk in the Park with my friend Betty. We didn't see any gazelles but it was just wonderful to feel the breeze in our hair and walk through the wilderness and see the newly replanted fruit trees – this was once the orchard of Jerusalem. Unfortunately there is little breeze today and it will get hotter and hotter over the next few days with temperatures into the 40's. To my amazement Zvi put the air conditioning on almost as he woke up yesterday!!!

As the restrictions lighten I will go to see Rachel et al today. As always it will be so hard to keep my distance but I must and tomorrow is Yonatan's 6^th birthday so we will join the other "oldies" in their garden, sitting far from the children but thoroughly enjoying being near them. The restrictions are slowly being lifted here. Parks are opening, shopping malls too but while in Tel Aviv they are full here in Jerusalem people are more cautious and I noticed that the car park of the mall is barely one third full. Schools are returning, slowly, carefully but it is time for parents to go back to work or the economy, both personal and national, will fall completely. The best part is that we can begin to meet as families again, which was the hardest part for everyone.

Choosing music this week was not difficult. Obviously Jerusalem of Gold, Yerushalyim shel Zahav, which celebrates the liberation so emotionally. Shuli Natan sang the words of Naomi Shemer at the Israel Song Festival in Jerusalem on May 15^th 1967. She won and the last few stanzas were added after we could finally reach the Old City  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2KcBLXdlNk

In case you hadn't already guessed, I love Koolulam! Their latest video is of people all over the world singing Coldplay's Fix You in a Zoom recording. It's stupendous!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_7jvxBObaw

Finally a recording of Leonard Cohen's Halleluya to celebrate first responders https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=vH4UA_Ocf4o&feature=emb_logo 

That's It! I have to go – I am going to visit my friend Frida who has not been very well lately, obviously sitting well away from her. I thought to take her some plants for the garden, to cheer her up. Then on to Rachel whose incredibly beautiful plants were attacked by some particularly yucky yellow bugs……with more plants!! It looks like a busy day.

Be well, be calm, be hopeful that this will all pass soon I promise you that Israel is on the verge of some incredible scientific innovations concerning this virus.

Shabbat Shalom to one and all. Please give your loved ones virtual hugs from me.

Sheila