# 454 – Which T-Shirt?

Which T-Shirt?

I picked up my pendant. Shall now join the growing millions wearing one:

‘Bring them home now. And in Hebrew: ‘My heart is captive in Gaza’

We have stopped again at the Plaza of the Tel Aviv Museum with a table for 240, laid ready for the hostages with placards and flags and thoughts displayed everywhere.

Imagine the situation:

I’d like a t-shirt, please.

Certainly, sir! Which size? 

XX-large.

Certainly, sir!  Which image? 

Sorry?

Which face? We have 239 of them. 

We have babies and Holocaust survivors. 

We have whole families or single. 

We have Thai workers or Bedouin villagers. 

We have members of any majority or minority group you wish to mention. 

They are all beautiful people. 

They are all hostages in Gaza. 

We don’t know who’s alive or who’s dead. 

So which image do you want on your t-shirt?

Sir, why are you crying? 

People in the streets around the world don’t care. They’ve forgotten about the hostages. Why?

Sir, these hostages were in Israel. Israel’s not a very popular place these days. 

But why?

Yesterday, supporters of Israel were In the streets of Paris. Tomorrow, big numbers will converge on Washington. (My in-laws from Florida will fly there). It not only means that we still have many friends. It also means that many of us are not scared of the horror that is already here).

But yes, of course, we are scared. At my age, perhaps not me, or even our generation. But our kids, and their kids. The universities in the west (I hear/see less about the others) are rife with antisemitism. Are these the future leaders of our countries?

News from Gaza – If you believe the Hamas-controlled news, it’s a disaster in the making. (Almost forget what caused this). If you believe the Israeli news, and the reports from the Israeli army, we are very close to providing the people of Gaza and those suffering in and around Al Shifa hospital, with much-need real humanitarian help.

I repeat my concern from yesterday: where are the hostages? How can we get them out? How many are alive? How many of the living will die before they are released? And still the protesters are one-sided.

Breaking news!! Matt and Anne (oh, sorry, Joan) called back. I’ll write about that tomorrow…

Last-minute news: historic UK Cabinet shuffle. The right-leaning Suella Braverman, the one who described the protest marches as hate marches, is out; the government chooses not to have her guts. The Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, takes over as Home Secretary. He’s nice; he was in Israel recently. He won’t be outspoken. And the new F.S.? David Cameron is back! The man who caused the great Brexit mistake. A political shock. He also won’t rock the centrist boat.

I never thought I’d say this, but bye-bye UK. Applications for emigration of the Jews to Israel has recently almost doubled. Today’s news will boost that.

I have never, eve​r, thought like this. Now I have to. Breaks my heart, and dashes to smithereens so many of the life principles that have helped me get where I am.

​Stephen