17th May 2024
Day 224 of October
Shabbat Shalom dear friends.
This has been a week that left me so exhausted, and for so many reasons,
that I just hope I'm able to talk to you with some sense of reason.
A war is going on around us, the policies of our current government mean that not
only are we not winning the war on the ground, we are losing the war of public
opinion, losing the international media war and worst of all our country has
been cut into 1/3 of its size.
I believe I have written before that one of the worst decisions of this dreadful
government looked logical at the moment but as with most of their policies,
without any thought of the future. While it was clearly essential for the kibbutzim
and villages on the border with Gaza, those that were burned, destroyed and
over a thousand people slaughtered, to be given homes, albeit temporary,
elsewhere, their own homes unlivable, but by making hundreds of thousands of
people refugees in their own country, both in the north and south, the
brilliance of the Iranian – Hamas Hezb-Allah – war machine has created a
situation whereby through constant bombing and missile attacks on those empty
homes, nobody can go back. It may sound an upside-down philosophy on my part,
but had the people been in those homes, our enemies would not have continued the
destruction because their determination to win the information/emotional war
throughout the world is at least as important to them as the physical war. This
is a war of attrition on every level; a brilliant strategy, machinations of
evil to influence the world media and clearly young minds and a weakening of
this already tiny Jewish state.
There are those who fall for the media hype, yes even Jews, and seriously believe
the insane idea that we are conducting genocide. The birthrate in Gaza is the
highest in the entire region! Israel has never and will never want the death to
any other peoples, sadly it is our enemies who want us gone. Just like that
sad, sad poem about the Jews of Europe, Iran is just starting with the Jews of
Israel, then the Jews of the world, The Christians, the moderate Moslems, the
Hindus (perhaps you haven’t heard what happens in India), and Buddhists, until
finally there will be nobody to fight for those who remain. We are the canary
in the coal mine.
One last scream, I must get out of my system. President Biden is a
Zionist and our greatest ally ever. He openly says that he disapproves of
Netanyahu but that does not make him our enemy. You don’t know Edna Halbani but
Edna was Head of Protocol in the Prime Minister’s Office for at least 20 years,
and in a television interview yesterday she said that President Biden is not
only the most amiable and caring of all the world leaders she tended to, but he
is undoubtedly the most loyal ally of Israel, an Israel that he loves. Those
who do not recognise it need to wake up. It is not a matter of political parties,
it is matter of the man.
I have long wanted to get that off my chest, breaking my tradition of being the voice of apolitical
reason, but felt that it coloured my impartiality, but like most Israelis, our
love of Israel has become our only thought. The understanding that the defence
policies has brought us too many deaths of incredible young men and women in
the IDF has galvanized us in our grief. Israel is a tiny country where everyone
knows everyone and the number of seriously injured and amputees is growing
daily. We are exhausted. Exhausted from the remarks of two members of the
government who are quoted in the International Court of Justice as if their idiocy
is the policy of the State of Israel. The fact that South Africa, conceivably
one of the most racist countries in the world, has taken Israel to the International
Court of Justice is yet another insanity.
The highest level of Islam is a visit to Mecca to the Kaba, where men then add the title
Haj to their name. This week a woman opened out a Palestinian flag at the Kaba
and was immediately arrested by the guards who grabbed the flag. She was taken away by the guards. I found it
fascinating that in the West she would have been applauded but in Saudi Arabia
she will have been punished.
However, and this is a huge however, a 20 year old, wonderful, beautiful young woman
with the voice of an angel gave us hope! Eden Golan sang in the
Eurovision Song Contest and although the judges were unkind the general public,
all over the world, loved her and voted for her. I assume part of the reason is
that hers was the best song – possibly the only normal song. She was shunned by
other contestants and one of whom insisted that she be removed from her sight –
and Eden had to go to a separate dressing room with guards. Another However,
Eden sang incredibly (I’ll put the video at the end of the missive) and
Britain, Italy and others gave her the maximum public votes! In fact, she said
that the boos from the audience galvanized her to perform her very best!
Echoing the mood of the contestants,
the professional judges awarded Israel a paltry 52 points, putting Israel well
down the leaderboard. Then something remarkable happened. In the public vote,
Israel was the overwhelming choice. An extraordinary 323 points – including a
maximum 12 from the UK – propelled Eden in to fifth place. Eurovision is hardly
a scientific poll but it does give an intriguing snapshot of public opinion.
It's clear the protesters running amok in London and our universities do not
represent the silent majority.
Following on from the Eurovision, here are two very important videos; Piers Morgan’s interview
with Hen Mazzig and Chris Williamson with Douglas Murray (both Hen and Douglas
are gay) about Gays for Gaza or as Douglas Murray says that’s like Turkeys for
Thanksgiving! It related to the Eurovision but I beg of you to watch. I warn
you that there is strong language in the Douglas Murray interview. https://youtu.be/hDRpCW_Hngk?si=9cerX2_1yW9nh1FJ
and Hen with Piers Morgan responding to drag queens for Palestine https://youtu.be/IQGpdRSz5Rs?si=nXz09SRJnNBanevX
Yom H’Atzma’ut, was strange this year. We wanted to celebrate our
incredible country but didn’t have the “cheshek” or inclination, for our usual
big parties so we invited a few good friends for brunch and we managed to speak
about family, gardens, food only occasionally of our real fears for the 77th
year of Israel. We soared for most of our 76 years and our current shaky flight
has to end in a safe landing.
My exhaustion is partly from having driven over a thousand kilometres
this week, but the emotional exhaustion comes from the news we received on
Sunday. I have written many times about the Silver family who despite sharing
my maiden name were not blood relations but family in every sense of the word. Valeri
and Ira made Aliya from Moscow just one year after I did – in fact yesterday we
discovered that it was one year to the day! Both of them immediately began their new lives
in Israel by reaching out to the Jewish world, working hard as emissaries and
within both the Jewish Agency and Keren Hayesod. In fact, in the last years, instead
of retiring and taking up hobbies, Valeri chose to greet new Olim from Russian
speaking countries as they arrived at the airport, including the Ukrainians who
came find refuge. He cared about every single one of them ensuring they were
taken care of in their various hotels. To our deep sadness, dismay and sorrow,
Valeri passed away suddenly on Sunday, far too young at only 62 years old, just
two months after they moved to the city of Ashkelon, to their dream apartment. They
are surrounded by loving friends, young women who were in the IDF with Sheli
surround her with love, their Russian speaking friends ensure they are not
alone and Habad brings them lunch each day, lunch and consolation. I cannot
believe that Valeri will not be at our Seder table next year as they have for
the last 30 years, it doesn’t seem possible. My favourite Valeri story is that
he grew up speaking Hebrew, his mother and grandfather were Israeli but moved
to Russia, mistakenly believing that Communism in Russia was as socially
inclined as in the West, and when he and his beautiful Ira came to Israel, he
discovered that his perfect Hebrew was heavily accented! It still makes me
smile, in fact when I think of Valeri, I smile. Ira and Valeri gave us two
incredible Israelis, Tomer and Sheli, two young people who have served this
country and continue to be proud Israelis, something that their father wanted
more than anything.
I have no words left so I will give you my
choice of songs
Hurricane, which was originally called October Rain, in a special animated
version dedicated to a fallen soldier but meant for all those who fell both in
the IDF and on October 7th. https://youtu.be/RR9dz18yYCw?si=6rXMcnc2gJSBL_Vq
When Zvi took a Keren Hayesod mission to Moscow in 1990, it was not only his first
visit to Russia, it was when he met Ira and Valeri. One of the events, where
Valeri joined, them took place in a restaurant where they heard the original
version of many songs that made Aliya during the first years of the State of
Israel, songs that gained new Hebrew lyrics. Among them Katyusha, which became
Agas v’Tapuach, or Pear and Apple. https://youtu.be/DQfQTZ4YqjM?si=6Eq2eQdivYdN4FaZ
On Remembrance Day. Omer Adam sang a special interpretation of the song
Rikma Enoshit, or Human Tissue, dedicated to those who were slaughtered on
October the 7th singing together with the families. The words “When
I die something of you in me will die within me. When you die, something of you in me will die within you. Because all of us, yes all of us, are all
one living human tissue and if one of us goes from us something dies in
us and something, stays with him” https://youtu.be/yAB_akSqWOc?si=GbcNpUOeplIhAIlU
I wish you a Shabbat shalom. I wish you good friends,
good health and good news
With love from Jerusalem
Sheila
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