20^th September 2024

Shabbat shalom to one and all. Gosh, what a week!

So much has happened, so many wrongs that we seem unable to make right and finally, one or two voices of reason in a world of easily herded sheep. After the news items I will bring you a few of those rare and precious voices of reason.

A poll amongst young Israelis discovered that almost 100% of our 18-30 year olds knew someone who was either killed in Nova or as a soldier of the IDF. First hand knowledge, either family or friend who was killed as a result of this war. Terrifying, ghastly.

Sometimes I feel like a broken record when I say that the United Nations must be disbanded, just as the League of Nations was disbanded because it was unable to prevent World War 2 or the Holocaust. Almost a year after the diabolical savagery of the 7^th of October and the dissolution of democracy in too many countries, Josep Borell condemned the “Beeper Affair” and the United Nations General Assembly voted 124 to 14 to deny Israel the right to self defence in Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem. Once upon a time we would have said “the mind boggles” but disbelief at the actions and words spoken in the United Nations have long gone beyond simple surprise.

If I may explain the “Beeper Affair” and its incredible success on many levels. The leaders of Hezb-Allah chose to change their communication from cell phones, which can be easily traced and listened in on, to beepers; what we once called pagers. Low-Tech methods of communication. These pagers were given to Hezb-Allah members, and to those around the area (world) who support Hezb-Allah. A double edged sword because not only were they wounded when the beepers exploded, it enabled our people to know exactly who supported Hezb-Allah according to who’s beeper exploded. There are so many obvious questions that arise; who’s original idea was it and was it an insider planting the idea in the minds of Iranian led leaders? who made and planted the minute amount of explosive? was it Israel or an ally? Whoever did it, it was a brilliant tactical idea.

I was fascinated to read that the number of weddings in Gaza has grown enormously and I wondered why, under the circumstances. Apparently one of the Hamas demands is that only married couples get food aid! So the outcome of Hamas stealing aid trucks so that only Hamas supporters get aid, they are basically ensuring that their supporters marry and have more little Hamasniks! I suppose one could call that planning for the future!

“Canada will always have Israel’s back.” Those words by Canada’s former Premier, Stephen Harper, when he spoke before the Knesset, are no longer true. Since Justin Trudeau became Prime Minister those values have gradually eroded, fast disappearing, despite the fact that the people of Canada still hold the values of Stephen Harper.

So it is with Sweden. Perhaps best shown in the official votes of Sweden in the Eurovision song contest. The officials didn’t give Hurricane even one vote yet the people gave us the top score of 12. Yet again, the voice of the people is diametrically opposed to the government policy toward Israel. The people of Sweden chose to present the wonderful Eden Golan, singer of Hurricane, with an award. https://youtu.be/yakolvi4E70?si=b3QlsgBFWshto2Ys

Allister Heath is a journalist and commentator. The Telegraph is conceivably Britain’s most honest newspaper and here again, the voice of the normal citizen, in this case of Britain, is heard. Indeed, the voice of reason in this crazy world. It is not short, but worth every word. Please, don’t skip over it to the body of my missive.

“Robbed of its moral bearings, bereft of any sense of right and wrong, incapable of distinguishing heroes from villains, the West can no longer celebrate when good triumphs over evil. Israel’s brilliantly audacious booby-trapping of thousands of Hezbollah pagers, followed by the blowing up of the terror group’s walkie-talkies, is a stunning fillip for the forces of civilisation worldwide. 

A tiny nation of just 9.3 million, of which 7.2 million are Jewish, living in a country the size of Wales, reeling from the worst anti-Semitic pogroms since the Holocaust, Israel is leading the war against barbarism, its young conscripts doing a job that would once have required intervention by a Western coalition acting as global policeman. The fact that so many in Britain, Europe and America, especially the young, no longer take Israel’s side in this existential combat exemplifies our cultural, intellectual and ethical degeneration. 

The Biden administration is obsessed with preventing “escalation”, even though that is what is required if Iran is to be stopped from gaining the means to wage a nuclear World War III. All too predictably, America, seemingly determined to ensure the survival of every regional terror group, appeared upset at the successful attack on Hezbollah. David Lammy, our foreign secretary, is delivering speeches claiming climate change is a worse threat than terrorism; in a rational world, Lammy would be privately congratulating his Israeli counterparts for the most successful surgical operation ever conducted against a terrorist organisation, with few civilian casualties, and pledging Britain’s help. Instead, Keir Starmer has turned against Israel, banning the sales of some weapons – a policy that Germany appears intent on following – and refusing to oppose lawsuits against the Jewish state, in an unforgivable moral inversion. 

Labour has placed Britain on the side of those nihilists masquerading as human rights lawyers who negate the essential distinction between victims and aggressors, between rule-bound, democracies desperate to minimise civilian casualties, and bloodthirsty dictatorships for whom their people are pawns to be sacrificed. 

Hezbollah is funded and controlled by the Iranian regime, an obscurantist, fascistic, millenarian tyranny that persecutes minorities, women and dissidents. Violating human rights and plotting war crimes is Hezbollah’s raison d’être: its 150,000 missiles point towards civilian centres and, like Hamas and Iran itself, it seeks Israel’s liquidation, guaranteeing the massacre, expulsion or subjugation of Jews. Hezbollah has forced some 63,473 Israelis to flee their homes since October 7. This is unsustainable and explains why a major Israeli response is looming; obscenely, this will trigger widespread condemnation of the Jewish state.

Western foreign policy is a mishmash of cowardice, delusion and contradictions. Iran is a threat to the world; its alliance with Russia is deepening. Turkey, led by the despot Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened Israel with invasion, yet remains part of Nato. Qatar, which puts up senior Hamas terrorists in luxury hotels, is a major non-Nato ally of the US, home to a crucial Western military base and a major investor in London. Egypt, a recipient of US aid, has tolerated myriad tunnels to southern Gaza, refused to let in any Palestinians and, bizarrely, is not held responsible for supplying Gaza with provisions, that task falling to Israel. None of the three latter regimes face sanctions: global ire is reserved for Israel. 

One reason Western elites have become so Israelophobic is that, infected by wokery, they increasingly loathe Europe’s and America’s history and traditions, and view the Jewish state as a standout example of a Western model they reject. Winston Churchill would be convicted for crimes against humanity today, as would Franklin D Roosevelt and Harry Truman. D-Day would be ruled illegitimate because so many French civilians died during the Battle of Normandy.

Democracies might as well not bother with nuclear weapons, for detonating one, even in retaliation for an unprovoked attack, would be deemed a war crime. I’m in favour of much stricter rules than those governing World War II, of doing everything possible to protect civilians, but this is madness. The Just War is a foundational principle. States have the right to defend themselves. Every civilian life lost as collateral damage is a tragedy, but pacifism is a deluded utopia that fails to grasp the reality of the human condition. It is madness to criminalise all warfare, and despicable to focus on that conducted by democracies and ignore that advanced by our enemies.

It is equally stupid to entrust so much power to legal activists. Much historic anti-Semitism has been ratified by kangaroo courts, including during the 1930s. The Trial of the Talmud took place in France in 1240, with rabbis forced to defend religious texts against trumped-up accusations of blasphemy and obscenity. 

Other bigot-fests masquerading as ordinary trials include the Disputations of Barcelona and Tortosa, the Damascus Affair, the Dreyfus affair that prompted Emile Zola’s seminal J’accuse, and the trial of Mendel Beilis in Ukraine in 1913. It is a well-established model that hasn’t gone out of fashion in far-Left quarters. They no longer explicitly single out religious beliefs or individuals but leverage lawfare to delegitimise what just happens to be the only Jewish state. 

The fact that the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice have the trappings of a legitimate legal setting does not mean they necessarily embody justice. The fact that their rulings are deemed legitimate by Left-wing elites doesn’t automatically make them such. The fact that today’s blood libels take on the language of “human rights” doesn’t make them less monstrous. The fact that it is possible for a country as unjustly governed as South Africa to lead a genocide case against Israel proves that the entire system is rotten. The case is backed by Iran, Brazil’s far-Left president, Ireland and Egypt: we must have been transported into an alternative, Kafkaesque universe. 

Israel is the supreme embodiment of law-bound national, democratic sovereignty, of peoplehood, of matching a nation to a state, of post-imperialism, of capitalism and technology, and of the continued relevance of the monotheistic religions. If you tear down Israel, you destroy the very ideas that underpin the West, the international order implodes and the autocracies triumph. The stakes are thus unbelievably high. We must support Israel, and allow it to finish the job of annihilating Hamas and defeating Hezbollah.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/18/israel-hezbollah-exploding-beepers-devices-war-hamas/

Each generation has produced a thinker, author, philosopher who writes with honesty about the Jews. Rabbi Jeremy Rosen wrote about George Eliot’s book Daniel Deronda. Well worth reading, it’s short and fascinating https://jeremyrosen.com/2024/09/daniel-derondageorge-eliot-and-the-jews.html

For Sefaradi Jews (those who date back to the Spanish Inquisition) we are nearing the end of the 40 days of Selichot, the period of Repentance, whereas Ashkenazi Jews, who observe just one week, are just beginning the days of Repentance. It is a fascinating period and special prayers are said everywhere but especially at the Western Wall, the Kotel. My grandchildren went to the prayers last night along with thousands and thousands of others. The entire area was packed with Jews of every variety! Religious (obviously), observant, traditional and even secular Jews who love the beautiful traditions of the ceremony. Since the days of King David these prayers include a recitation of the 13 Attributes of Mercy, a descriptive passage from Exodus that expresses God’s merciful nature: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/selichot-prayers-of-repentance/

I didn’t feel 100% this week and of course Zvi, despite his best efforts to come home early, is still in Mexico. My Rachel, my amazing daughter, has taken the mother – daughter relationship and turned it on its head, staying here with me while running her home and caring for her children. It isn’t the first time that she has shown what an amazing human being she is. She, together with Ira and Sheli, our adoptive family, have ensured that I was not alone. We talked, watched fascinating television and they kept me company. I know how lucky I am and thank heaven I’m definitely on the mend. I cannot express how incredible Rachel is. It made me think how important it is to show people that one cares, to make that phone call no matter how busy one is. A quick conversation to a friend, a family member, a neighbour, to ask how they are, if they need anything, is of paramount importance. Human contact and it doesn’t take long.

Zvi, during his visit, has managed to see family, old friends, give several lectures and show Yosef (who is now back home) the beauty of Mexico. Despite dire changes in government, the exciting colours of the art and architecture cannot be wiped out.

Selichot prayers, like true religious belief, doesn’t understand separation or differences. Here we hear the prayers in beautiful music by Chazans, Cantors, and children of every walk of Judaism. It is so beautiful that you don’t need translations, the music itself expresses the emotions we share. https://youtu.be/XMACTX4gT9I?si=FTNlwXccHivU2zrT  If you look carefully you will see and hear the Mayor of Jerusalem, Moshe Lion, who has a beautiful tenor voice.

Each day we hear of more beautiful young people, our soldiers, giving their lives, suffering horrific injury so that we can be safe. Cantor Natanel Hershtik singing the prayer for the IDF, for our young heroes. Please God keep them safe, bless them with courage and good leaders. https://youtu.be/uL-yEVU18Cc?si=P8h7w2rQg-a0UHcD

Matisyahu is an amalgamation of all of us. Religiously observant yet very much part of this world, trendy, singer, truthteller, composer who is as happy in prayer as in reggae and rapping, here he sings One Day. “One Day the people will say that we don’t want to fight no more”. Halleva’I. https://youtu.be/WRmBChQjZPs?si=3OriiqvoJF9j_65P

Shabbat. No matter how you pray, in which direction you face or through whom you express your existence, there is one aspect of our religions that is paramount: Compassion. Compassion for those who differ from us not only those who do as we do. Compassion for those less able to cope and those who seem to be able to cope with everything, no matter how different we are we are the same. We love and lose, we know joy and pain, we sometimes stand on our hind legs over silly things that we should let go of. Friends and family, family and friends and all those we pass in the street without reading their faces. During this time, the period before the High Holy Days, this time of contemplation and repentance, we must change the way we look at people, we must find what we love not what we hate, which rarely has a basis in truth.

I send you love, real love from Jerusalem, along with our prayers that one day, one day soon, we can find what unites us.

Shabbat shalom dear friends, Shabbat Shalom from our veranda and its view over the Jerusalem Hills all the way to Jerusalem, shining in the autumn sun.

Sheila