# 267- Soul-Searching

October 6, 2014

IS – ISIS – ISIL – Well, Good Morning….Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Let’s call it ‘Soul-Searching’, for this is my intention today.

But first, this is the horrible place called Israel..

Israel happens to be the centre of the Levant, and ancient name given to an area that includes many countries in this area, including Cyprus. Levant is the ‘L’ in ISIL, and I strongly recommend that Mr. Obama, Mr. Cameron and other such misinformed folk stop saying whatever the IS activists/terrorists/jihadists/militants/rebels tells them to. I can also tell you that we in Israel ARE very aware of this, and we shall stand up to it. (Sounds ‘rightist’, but I was just being pushed against the wall…).

Just down the road, in Gaza, people are being forced daily to suffer at the hands of their leaders (do stop blaming us, please), while here, we quietly tell our people to stop driving for a day (except for emergency services) and have fun. Officially, it really is a day when the religious and the more traditional secular take time off to look inwardly and think how they can improve, both actively and passively.

The synagogues are full, many kitchens are empty. Official TV and radio is off. But, even those looking introspectively are doing so with a smile. They have no problem meeting the rest of society, who are in the streets, riding, walking, skipping, talking, scooting and sitting. This below is me and almost 2 year-old Maya, aiming in the wrong direction on the normally excessively busy Haifa Road.

Now, back to all the IS stuff. Do the Israel-bashers really understand what’s going on?

And the poor politicians have no idea with whom to talk. There is need for their erstwhile enemies to inch towards becoming their friends.

And one day, Israel’s ‘I told you so’ will ring true.

I was one of the many who said, 20 years ago, that you did not need one Jew in the Middle East to have a war there.

And, I also said, that, if/when we solve the problem with the Palestinians, this will be only to prove that it’s not the problem; it’s far greater than that, and it’s on your doorstep.

And if I see/hear another reference by the pathetic left of an apartheid Israel, those seeking the boycott of Israel via BDS, I’ll do more than scream.

Just yesterday, I was having coffee at our local mall, and snapped the next image…

What do you see? First of all, a kosher MacDonalds. No cheeseburgers, for example. And the sundaes and milk shakes are served at a separate counter. What you also see are 2 soldiers among the customers. That’s no big deal, of course. The lady between them is a religious lady – orthodox. So far, so good. But the server in the middle of the image is not only an Arab, she’s a Muslim.

Apartheid Israel? What a load of crap!

Left-wingers…During the 50-day conflict with Gaza recently, Stephen Sakur had several programmes on the subject. Now I need your help – anyone’s help. Stephen and his colleagues interviewed Mads Gilbert (Norwegian activist), Ilan Pappe, Gideon Levi, and, previously, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd), George Gallaway, Gilad Atzman and, Ken O’Keefe. All of these are vicious anti-Israel leftists. (Of course, that’s just my point of view).

I do not see that he interviewed anyone ‘from the other side’, although I am sure he did. But who?

I was told to watch the Gideon Levi interview. He is a journalist here. He is hated by many. The left-wing newspaper Ha-Aretz, has hired bodyguards to protect him. His sons surely love him, but it is known, and he admitted, that ‘they do not agree with his views’. He even tried to stop them serving in the army – for political reasons; nothing to do with being a pacifist.

His words are devastating, and if you watch the interview, you will be shocked that a nation, especially one in such a desperate situation as Israel, can allow such a person such immunity. He is NOT a politician – and he is ‘disturbing the peace’. But as I’ve tried to inform you, this is a stupidly decent society which allows free speech.

The interview with Ilan Pappe was even worse. Pappe is, according to Wikipedia, ‘Israeli historian and socialist activist. He is a professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies’.

As I have written before, the  very word ‘historian’ is a mess. I met a ‘new historian’, who clearly said that there are 2 forms of new history: that which is written as a result of new facts being uncovered. And that which is written, because we don’t like what is currently written.

Doesn’t ‘fit in’ with ‘our interpretation’ of what happened.

I have become very wary of any historian, especially when he is teaching. Because, as in the case of Prof Pappe, he is teaching his version. And I can assure you that Pappe is one of the most dangerous voices I have ever heard, pretending to be ‘Israeli’.

‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in politics is very subjective. Here in Israel, it’s a very sensitive subject. Israel is, as I think most of you now gather, fighting for its life. The army is not just some military dictatorship. It is the defence of this country, trying so hard to still reflect decency, fairness, moral justice etc. etc.

We need left-wingers like a hole in the head. And I would ask Stephen Sakur and his BBC team, to show just a little more balance in their programmes. He may be asking hard questions, but he is giving a soapbox to some of the most disgusting personalities I have ever seen.

Stephen