The view from my veranda

Dedicated to Valeri Eran Silver z’l

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