# 253 – Qatar

June 2, 2014

I warned not too long ago about the ridiculous influence this cash-rich suburb of Cuckooland has over us.

Here is Israel, the name is all over the place – because of Qatar Airways’ sponsorship of Barcelona FC and Messi.

Boycott, you say? Don’t silly – we don’t do silly things like – all the others. We tae life a little less cynically over here.

But…..Qatar IS taking over Israel!

Their sponsorship (money) is acquiring the airways – the airlines…and the advertising they sponsor: my morning weather is brought by Qatar.

(Abu Dhabi’s airline, Etihad, has not only bought into almost a dozen airline companies, including 49% of Serbian Air, they sponsor top sports teams, including the great Harlequin rugby club. Why? So that they can paint their name big on the roof of the main stand, which happens to be on the flight path of many planes landing at Heathrow. Ain’t that clever).

Qatar…a reminder that they’re this little country with less citizens than the borough of Kensington, but with almost as many ‘guest-workers as Germany in its heyday, some of whom have died during the construction of the magnificent and temporary stadiums, due to lack of safety (why should sheikhs care for a few Nepalese?).

We all know – yet totally ignore the fact that Qatar has been sponsoring international terrorism for years. They are the main financiers of the international Moslem Brotherhood.

Now they are being accused of bribery, involving their winning bid to take the 2022 World Cup. So there’s a chance that FIFA may not have to face the embarrassment of players and spectators dying in the 50C heat of Summer 2022.

Not only are Korea, Japan, Australia, USA getting excited, as they were the other countries being considered. Check the stories: the 2018 tournament site (given to Russia) is now in question, as the voting took place at the same time.

Beware the slippery slope of oil-rich mania.

You ALL know that the Pope was in Israel last week. God for him. He seems like a thoroughly decent man. The very fact that he is the first Francis, and is trying to remind people of the modest and moral principles by which St. Francis of Assisi was known, is to be respected. But, my eyes, he lost his believability with the photo-shots and soundbites he used –

• Falls into Palestinian trap of praying at the security wall. Reminder: this was ONLY put up – successfully – as a security wall, against the bullets raining into Israel. It makes up only 9% of the security fence (which itself was ONLY put up – successfully – to prevent infiltration of suicide bombers into Israel). There is no reason not to believe that this will all come down when there is peace. (Need we define the word ‘peace’?).

• Invites Presidents Abbas and Peres to the Vatican to ‘pray for peace’. And they have accepted. Well, it can’t hurt, and it does give religion a chance to succeed. Are you all holding your breath?

• And this is the most difficult point to get across: he was being politically correct by treating both sides ‘equally’. Do that, and the ‘more guilty one’ (whichever it is) will continue to jump on the bandwagon and continue to accuse the mostly innocent one of being mostly guilty.

I’ve also focused on the misuse and varied use of the word ‘democracy’ recently. And yet, the first use of the democratic procedure on the subject of the existence of the State of Israel continues to be totally abused by most of the Arab nations. The 1947 UN vote on the subject was not popular with the Jews; they wanted far more (going back to the 2-state solution suggested in 1947, when the 2nd – Palestinian – state would be where Jordan is today). But they accepted the decision. Democracy.

The Arab nations did NOT accept the democratic vote, because it did not go ‘their way’. Democracy?

In fact, almost every time there is an election in the Arab world, it is only democratic in their eyes as long as they win. If they lose, they forget how even to spell the word!

The Palestinian Unity government has been sworn in. In fact, I’ve never known so much swearing over such an event. An analogy: First you take grey and try to make it white. Don’t work. Then you mix the grey with black, and it works even less.

Get my meaning?

Please – PLEASE – don’t keep asking us to lay down our arms – or perhaps to take down the security fence – just because their has been some Palestinian cheek-kissing. Let’s at least wait and see.

Suicide: In our country, the word conjures up more than the usual images. You will all have read about the man captured by pure chance yesterday, trying to cross into Israel from the West Bank (aka Samaria, aka Occupied Territories, aka Palestine). He seemed overly padded and hot and bothered for a lovely sunny day.

You DIDN’T hear about it? Oh….

Apartheid: Yesterdays’ Jerusalem Post featured a letter that can be summarised thus: The Jewish girl had been already 1 month at Hadassah with pregnancy complications – expecting twins. They then decided to perform a Caesarian. She was made to wait several tense hours before being taken into the O.T. After a few minutes, she was taken out again to make way for an even more urgent delivery.

It happened, the more urgent case was an Arab woman. It was accepted; some moaning perhaps, as in all cases. But no complaints. Try to imagine it had the ‘shoe been on the other foot’. THIS is democracy, and this is NOT apartheid.

Finally, if/when you visit Israel, you will be welcomed into our house – and I shall not be able to resist showing you some of my glass collection, as I am doing so here.

This style of glass is from the early 18th C. These are all called heavy balusters. The come in many shapes and sizes. The main shapes along the stem are called knops – and here we have some rare ones:

…..Stephen