210325
25th
February, 2021
Shabbat
Shalom! Pesach Sameach, a blessed Pascha and for those who do not celebrate
those three, have a wonderful weekend!
Yes, I
know, the elections provided yet another quandary! There is no clear winner of
the fourth election in two years but I have a sneaky feeling that it may well
be solved this time.
There
are several options to forming a government
1.
Benjamin Netanyahu steps down and
allows Likud to join with other relatively centrist parties to form a
government coalition
2.
That the status quo continue and Benny
Gantz takes over the Prime Ministerial position as per the original agreement
(with the PM's trial coming up very soon it could work)
3.
The Centre Left parties (Labour, Blue
and White (Gantz), Yesh Atid (Lapid) and going centre right Naftalis Bennet's
Yamina, New Hope (Saar) join with Mansour Abbas (Ram party aligned to the
Moslem Brotherhood) or the Combined Arab Party and form a wide coalition
4.
Likud (Netanyahu) joins with the
Haredi parties and the far right Otzma Yehudit (Ben Gvir)
5.
All the anti-Bibi parties form a
government, left right and centre!
6.
The most likely option….. a fifth
election – the last 4 elections over 2 years cost us nearly 4 billion shekels!!
Just a
couple of months ago the picture was entirely different. Netanyahu went right
down as yet Israelis suffered yet another lockdown, economic closure and
poverty hit a large proportion of his voters. Likud alternatives, Saar and
Bennet were set to get about 15 seats each, Yesh Atid was on 20 and for some
reason Gantz was not going to get in at all. We go back to work and apparently
all is forgiven! Interestingly enough the Haredi and Arab votes are down.
Here's
an explanation of the system https://honestreporting.com/12-things-to-know-about-israeli-elections-and-what-happens-after/
The
final count https://www.jpost.com/israel-elections
The
politicians have
stopped talking to us on TV but the pundits never seem to stop! Nobody really
knows what will happen or which party leader will be given the task of forming
a coalition by President Rivlin, but they seem to have opinions on everything! The
recipient of most attention is Mansour Abbas!!! It never fails to amaze me how
anyone could suggest that Israel is an apartheid country when Arab Knesset
Members are highly vociferous and here is an Arab Party, aligned to Hamas,
which may just hold the balance in the coalition!!!
Let's
get away from politics, please! We had an amazing time in Eilat with Zvi's
boys and their families and to make my life complete, after Shabbat, Rachel's
son Yosef put himself on a bus after Shabbat and arrived in Eilat at 04:00 joining
us for the remaining 2 days. Eilat is not a sophisticated town; it is a beach
and entertainment town. I hear you ask how on earth did we manage to go to an
hotel in Eilat when we are still in semi-closure! Well, Eilat is a "Green
Town". Your Green Pass is checked on arrival, and any children are only
allowed in with a current Covid test. The hotel itself is thoroughly checked
and has to qualify with very strict Covid restrictions. It felt so amazing to
be free, admittedly with masks but free to go wherever we wanted. The weather
was crazy – 34C – but wonderful. It was arranged by the boys for Zvi's birthday
and it was fabulous.
If you
think that I've been relaxing while surrounded by packing cases and Passover dishes,
you are wrong. On Wednesday, Marcus Sheff, CEO of Impact-se and I went
to see former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to tell him about the work of
Impact-se. Of course our meeting was preceded by a discussion of the elections,
but I cannot divulge his very clever assessment!! He was fascinated to hear of
our initiating the European Parliament’s powerful Budgetary Control Committee
passing a resolution censuring UNRWA’s hate-teaching.
IMPACT-se
worked closely and for several months with committee leadership on the
resolution. The result was an unprecedented condemnation of UNRWA by a European
Parliament committee.
The
resolution points to the “hate speech and incitement to violence” in UNRWA
material;
Demands
that UNRWA publishes all its educational materials in open-source form;
Demands
UNRWA publishes the Palestinian Curriculum it teaches;
Demands
that all school materials which are not in compliance with standards of peace
and tolerance will be removed immediately;
For
decades, UNRWA successfully evaded criticism by those who tried to hold it to
account for hate-teaching and failure to promote peaceful conflict resolution. IMPACT-se’s
review, policy recommendations, governmental and legislative activities have
finally changed this pattern.
I was
very excited to meet the team at Impact's offices. What a phenomenal group of
young people, each one a higher IQ than the next, all former members of
Israel's elite intelligence unit, each incredibly enthusiastic at the importance
of their work. I really fell in love with each and every one of them.
Marcus
and I
spoke about our meeting with Ehud Olmert. To hear his explanations and to recognise
that if not for him and his brilliant chutzpah in blowing up the Syrian nuclear
facility, against US recommendation, Iran would now be in control of that
facility and able to easily destroy Israel. What a bold and brilliant PM he
was.
I came
back to Jerusalem to the familiar aromas of cooking which fill the air before
each festival. On Pesach the appetite arousing aromas of the traditional foods
of our dispersion are intermingled with the scent spring cleaning and the
occasional huge pot of boiling water on street corners of the religious
neighbourhoods where one "dips" ones everyday pots and utensils to
ensure they are rid of any bread/yeast related crumbs, and the sound of
shopping…..shopping and more shopping as Passover gifts are bought, even if
they are exchanged during the middle days of the festival!!
So
having accepted that our political situation is overly democratic, that our
current home is in a state of pandemonium and our new home beginning to take
shape, we are on our way to Passover and all its beauty, telling the story of
our flight to freedom, our lack of patience with our leaders as we sit around
the Seder Table each of us reading a paragraph or two from the Haggadah. Even
when the older children are bored by this adult activity they learn so much of
our history – they have to pay attention or they lose their place for when it's
their turn to read! Learning of our Jewish history is every bit as important as
learning about the history of where we live, if not more. It's all about
traditions. Traditions create our identity and those who have no patience with
their past create children without identity.
This
year, for first time in 56 years I am not making the Seder at home and we
are taking everything to Amiad's home where we will share the table with Amiad
and Leor and their families, 19 people in all, including our "other "
family, Ira, Valeri, Tomer and Shelly. I still remember Tomer, aged 2, standing
on the chair and reciting "Ma Nishtana" in a tiny piping voice – Why is
this night different from all other nights. Today he is a graduate of the IDF
preparing to either travel or study and Shelly is an officer in the IDF. Everything
about that table and the service, even the foods, will reflect our past and the
incredible people who made us – our parents and grandparents and those who went
before them.
I
readied two big sides of salmon, Leor and Shiri will bring the chicken, Judy
is making a giant pot of chicken soup and I'll make kneidlach, Amiad and Noga
bought salads and will ready the Seder Table and Rachel made a huge pot of her
delicious beef "Tsli" even though they will have Seder at their home –
her house is already Pesachdik, dishes and pots changed, she and the children
having scrubbed every inch of the apartment. Zvi's parent's beautiful gold and
white service is already at Amiad's as is my silver cutlery. Front and Centre
will be my parent's Seder Plate – bringing back so many memories. Today I will
prepare the Bitter Herbs (fiery freshly grated horseradish), Parsley for
dipping into salt water, burnt egg, lamb bone and of course my famous Charoset –
or combining, according to my grandfather's recipe. Grated apple, a spoonful of
ground almonds, a touch of cinnamon, sweet wine or grape juice and a little very
finely sliced lettuce. Oh it is scrummy and each time I taste it I think of my
Zeidy, my amazing, gentle, kind, red-headed, Zeidy, Yosef Glicker. Every item
set out on the Seder Plate has a deep meaning, every word in both Aramaic and
Hebrew relates our journey from slavery to freedom. https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/pesach_cdo/aid/1998/jewish/The-Seder-Plate.htm
Black
history
has changed the USA. Rabbi Jeremy Rosen wrote about the similarities and
differences in the freedom of American Blacks and Jews leaving slavery to
freedom. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and many other Jews walked beside Rev.
Dr. Martin Luther King on his walk from Selma to Montgomery on 21st
March, 1965; I learned that a Jew, Abel Meeropol, wrote Billie Holliday's iconic song "Strange Fruit"-
read his wonderful article. http://jeremyrosen.com/2021/03/freedom.html
Something
Ehud Olmert said warmed my heart and I take the essence of what he said
"It doesn't matter how the elections turn out, this is still the very best
country in the world, we get through predicaments, we cope with enemies, we thrive
through situations that other countries flounder and even through the entire
pandemic we initiated and succeeded, at a cost to those who lost their jobs,
but that will change"
Latest
news! Professor Gili Regev leads the team that has inverted an
Anti-Covid nasal spray that works within 2 minutes. https://www.timesofisrael.com/life-saving-nose-spray-that-kills-99-9-of-viruses-begins-production-in-israel/
So I
must continue with my preparations as I wend my way through the packing cases…..
The
songs we sing at the Seder table have evolved over the centuries, absorbed from
the many countries of the dispersion, of the Diaspora. This one counts our
blessings in a very special way https://youtu.be/1XU-3IuzPEE
"Who Knows One"
Chad
Gadya
– Only one kid, appears to be the story of a man who buys a kid for 2 zuzim but
in fact, is so much more and all about belief and life https://youtu.be/dsW1JTCByOs
Finally
the Maccabeats and the Les Miserables Passover. Enjoy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmthKpnTHYQ
I wish
you a good Seder and hope that this year you can be with your loved ones
Shabbat
Shalom, and remember that the evening ends with 3 words which sum up our
yearning for freedom
"L'Shana
Hab'aah b'Yerushalim – Next year in Jerusalem
With
love
Sheila
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