# 85 – November 5th

November 5, 2007

Guy Fawkes’ Day for the English. A day to remember a thwarted attempt to overthrow Parliament. How would we have celebrated had the bombs under the Houses of Parliament actually exploded, killing King James and his followers?

Last night, here in Israel, we showed a possible scenario. For it was 12 years since Yigal Amir shot Yitzhak Rabin. 150,000 people gathered in the very same square where he sang and died. President Shimon Peres spoke, also the Defense Minister, the mayors of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem and Rabin’s son, Yuval. Every 2^nd word was peace. And I am sure it was repeated on millions of TVs around the country, and in our hearts during the 2 minute silence.

Saudi’s King was ‘wined’ and dined’ last week in London. How would his country have reacted to such an assassination? Certainly different. Yigal Amir, Rabin’s killer, would not have had the pleasure as he did yesterday, in jail, of witnessing the circumcision ceremony of his son. Yes, the very same November 4^th. How stupidly democratic are we.

Condoleezza is here again – her 8^th visit to the region this year. Cannot fault her for trying. Remember that Arafat was Clinton’s most frequent visitor to the White House during his region, yet Bush never met him. Is Abbas so much better?

I do wish the King of Jordan would finally come clean and remind us that the original proposal was for his country, handed to his grandfather by the British and French as a prize for assistance against the Turks, to be the home for the Palestinians.

All the talk about splitting this tiny area….Fact is that, strategically, there was far more chance of splitting this relatively large area into 2, not 3. Even today, as I have said before, Jordan remains perhaps the only country in the World with 65% of its inhabitants being foreigners: Palestinians.

OK, hypothetical. The horror continues. Luxembourg continues to lob Kassams into Belgium. (What? Oh, sorry about that).

Stephen