# 115 – Pressure Time

June 14, 2009

Netanhayu is about to give a speech at Bar Ilan University, where this ‘right-wing’ politician is expected to ‘cave in’ (gleeful quote from such newspapers as the UK’s Guardian and Independent’ and the BBC) to the Obama pressure and hint at a 2-state solution. Political parties left of Likud will be ‘shocked’.

Hey! Welcome to the world of politics.

I KNOW Obama is a potential danger for Israel. And I hear the warnings from the right wing. But he appears to be an excellent politician. He’s too new for opponents to prove that he’s not. He’s using his newness – and the catastrophic lack of popularity by his predecessor – to move quickly forward.

His speech yesterday about $300 billion cuts to the medical service in the US was given with the same confident air, despite the fact that it will be opposed by so many (look how Hillary failed with a similar subject when she was her husband’s health representative).

The optimistic side of me is crossing it’s fingers…

I listened yesterday to BBC’s ‘The Forum’. This was an excellent edition, focusing on the effect of individuals on globe-shaking events. Main focus was on USSR/Russia and pre-post Apartheid South Africa. Albie Sachs was among the guests. What a brilliant man.

He grew up in wartime S. Africa, was a left-winger (which made him extremely unpopular among too many whites), was a strong supporter of the ANC, which cost him an arm and more when a letter-bomb failed to kill him. He is currently a judge on the Constitutional Court of the country, having actually helped write that constitution.

Names that came up were, of course, Mandela (and Oliver Tambo) and in the USSR, of course Gorbachev. Sachs and his colleagues endorsed my focus on the importance of having a person who is not only the right one, but also happens to be there at the right time (Stalin would have destroyed Gorbachev, but not sure about Mandela – he actually did survive whatever the Afrikaaners threw at him).

Obama fills so many of the criteria I feel are necessary to have an impact. He does appear to have influenced even Bibi Netanyahu. In a few hours, we shall see if that is true. In a year or two, we shall see if I am right.

And…

Remember – Shimon Peres was our neighbour upstairs for many years, prior to us moving to the next-door building. Still meet his ‘estranged’ wife, Sonia, at the supermarket. (They appear to have split up since he became President and moved to Jerusalem – she never was a good partner to his political; life – and perhaps he was not a good partner to their family life. The price of destiny?).

And….while I’m sounding my trumpet, and in an attempt to ensure that I do not gain weight again, this is me a few minutes ago, wearing shorts that I bought on Friday from an Israeli fashion shop. I’ve NEVER bought anything from them before…

Thanks for your patience…

Stephen