# 388 – It’s Tough Out There

It’s tough out there

Greetings to everyone!

First, please help me solve my tech problem. I need to switch totally to Gmail. That includes re-building distribution lists. That takes time. (Yes, I have time, but…)

In the meantime, pls. check that this email address is from [email protected] and not [email protected]. Which means that, if you respond to this email, you may have to make a change to your ‘reply’. Thanks.

My last Letter was just over a month ago. Actually not as long ago as I suspected. There have been no crisis meetings, suicides or wars started that I know of, as a result of my silence. Oh no, that’s not quite true…In fact, the World has changed dramatically during this month.

I did actually start a Letter focusing on the ultra-religious here, emphasising my sadness that, even in this tiny Jewish world, there are adamantly independent sects who dress differently to each other and swear allegiance to only their rabbi (who is the son of the previous leader and so on).

Some are pro-Zionist, having accepted the fact that that she need a state, despite the continued absence of the Messiah. Some are anti-Z. Some will defy the laws of Corona, others do wear masks, albeit not so comfortably, considering the size of the male’s beard. You will find many who will throw sticks and stones – literally – at your car or at you for defying the Sabbath – and they will also perhaps burn some tyres in the neighbourhood. But they rarely will stick a knife in a tourist, or bomb a wedding party. In fact, ‘never’ is closer to the truth.

Benny Gantz is our Defence Minister. He’s the one who tried to make a power-sharing deal with Netanyahu, but then got screwed. So, Monday night, presumably with full permission of the PM Bennett (who just returned from a chat with Biden), he travelled to Palestinian HQ in Ramallah for a chat with Pres. Mahmoud Abbas. Oh, the criticism…

from all directions. Yet it did no harm in my opinion. We’re not about to give the Palestinians what they think they want. I say ‘think’ because they have several voices, from extreme to moderate.

Again, the Jerusalem forests burned in perhaps the largest fires Israel has ever seen – although, thank God, no casualties. 41 dead in the Carmel fires taught us a lesson.

Just as America fails to solve the crime in the ‘black communities’, so, too, Israel is faced with unprecedented crime in the Arab communities, with another 3 gun-deaths this week. It’s a vicious and very tragic cycle.

And so to the World news. On a mini-scale, we had our own ‘Afghanistan’. In fact, twice: Southern Lebanon and Gaza. We gave ‘them and the World’ (and many of our own people) what they wanted, withdrew every sign of Israel (literally), and look what we got in return: Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in S. Lebanon, both planning the destruction of Israel, both happy to support ultra-terrorism. Thanks to the abandonment of Afghanistan, our ‘containment’ of these 2 regions has become more precipitous. Did we make mistakes? Would it have been better to have remained in those 2 areas? Perhaps.

But, like the poor Western society, it ain’t easy to make the right decisions when dealing with someone who is playing a different game, with different rules, on a different surface, and speaking a different language.

Bush, Obama, Trump and now Biden all made mistakes, and not only in hindsight. Yes, Benny Gantz can go and talk to Abbas about a $500 million loan, with open of the conditions that it is not used to rewards terrorists and their families for their deeds. But a separate Palestinian entity under today’s circumstances?

I’m sorry, but however much we talk about it, we’re a century away from neighbourly peace. May I remind you that Israel may be a thorn in the Arab world’s throat, but without that thorn, there is already sad and violent internal conflict throughout the Arab/Moslem world. That tribal mentality is now dramatically illustrated in sad Afghanistan. Perhaps I need to up my holdings in the security and arms industries.

Schools in Israel opened up today. The positive case figures are almost at their highest. And in most countries, the politicians really don’t know what to do. Maybe, as one of the current video jokes illustrates, we should vaccinate the politicians first, certainly not the front-line workers. Then, when it all goes wrong, who cares? (Hey! I’m not sure I quite agree with whet I just wrote).

I suggest you read some of the background stories to the Paralympic competitors. It brings us back down to earth and makes us realise how lucky we are. Did you see the devastating effort put in by the swimmer, no legs or similar handicap, coming in maybe minutes after the winner. That’s courage in the face of adversity.

Stephen