Just when we thought we were safe along comes the recession. Not many saw it coming, and the few of us who did could do nothing about it except warn anyone who would listen. That does not deter me from warning about the next big hazard that is now ready to stalk our streets.
This outcome of economic disaster is much more dangerous and pernicious than the problems that cause it. I am describing xenophobia and race hate, which originates from fear and ignorance.
Yesterday we saw evidence of this in the UK when wildcat strikes broke out in protest at foreign workers being used to fulfill a contract in an oil refinery. The imported workers are from the European Union and can therefore work legally, without restraint in this country. Furthermore the contract was given after a formal tendering process to an American company, and it was they who sub contracted the labor in from mainland Europe.
I have the sinking feeling that the people who follow “ ‘ism’s” instead of employing their own brains are behind this “spontaneous” wave of protests. I mean followers of Communism, Socialism, and Fascism etc. These people wait any length of time to find an opportunity to fulfill their exclusive utopia. Like any fanatics they believe that they are the followers of the only true religion and there can be no other. That’s the trouble with ‘ism’s, they are mean spirited and vicious. They will only be happy when they have control, and the control must be total, no one else can be allowed to exist. The Taliban in Afghanistan are just another form of this type of extremism, as are Al Queada, Hamas and many others. But we must be very wary of letting anyone open the door even an inch to the creeping extremism.
The pickets in support of the British workers who didn’t get the work are technically illegal. But the big point is that they are emotionally right, it doesn’t feel acceptable for British workers to be out of work whilst their European counterparts are bussed in to fill the vacancies.
It would be even easier for us to make that point if there were not British people working in every other country in the world. We can’t use this economic equation only when it suits us.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
PoliceNotPoliticsPlease
Tomorrow is my birthday, I shall be approaching the status of an ancient but I still feel like a boy. How did this happen, where did the years go?
Aren’t I that little wide eyed boy pressing every button to ride the elevators up and down the tower blocks at the end of my street with my friends, hoping not to get caught, but confident that I could outrun anyone if we were. Where did the innocence of that first drink, cigarette, kiss or “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” all go?
Perhaps it’s that part of us that form the bedrock of our personalities, the thing that makes us behave a certain way in our later lives. Because along with all the mischief we perpetrated on our neighbors we also learned the rudiments of how to properly behave, what the rules were, and what would happen to you if you disobeyed them.
My first major lesson in this regard came when my friend, Francis Monk, who I shall always blame for leading me astray, and I decided to find out what girls in bathing suits looked like. We were neighbors in West Acton, a quiet suburb of London, in small homes with no pretensions. We were about six years old and the back end of my garden had a heavily wooded area that overlooked the big swimming pool belonging to Haberdasher’s School for Girls. It was the Girls bit that grabbed our boyish attention. The older girls would walk shivering to the poolside, wrapped in large towels, and then, just before they jumped in, they removed their towels. We could see that they had bumps where we had no bumps, and no bumps where we did have bumps. Both of us had done our best to investigate this phenomenon by trying to accidentally enter our bathrooms when our sisters went about their ablutions, but no luck!
We had to take drastic action if we were to find out the secrets of the female form. We didn’t know why, but we knew this was an important part of our quest for knowledge. We consulted with each other and came up with a plan. We would throw a bunch of rocks from the garden into the pool and when the girls jumped in they would hurt their feet and in their astonishment would be forced to jump out of the pool and this would cause them to expose their bumpy bits to our more leisurely inspection.
The night before the appointed day Frances and I climbed the garden shed, quite a feat in itself, something akin to the ascent of the North face of Everest, and, without breaking cover, managed to lob a large arsenal of rocks into the pool. Satisfied with our efforts we went to sleep excited. The next morning arrived, nice and shiny, the warm sun coating our backs as we lay on top of the shed and waited for the girls. Right on schedule they arrived, and clearly these were the big girls, and this was beyond our wildest expectations. They went through their normal ritual of giggling and standing by the pool and dipping their toes in to test the temperature and then finally, there was the brief flash of blue swimming costume as the young ladies jumped into the water.
Within moments there was a great deal of thrashing around, shouting and complaining as their feet found our pointy objects. As planned they all started to jump out of the pool in a mild outbreak of mass hysteria. We forgot all about our covert reconnaissance as we burst into a fit of giggle. As in one of those Vampire movies there was a terrible moment as all the girls and their teacher turned in our direction. The game was up; they clearly knew that we were the guilty parties. We ran without looking back, jumping from our elevated perch, not wanting to hear the accusing voices.
We thought we were safe as there was a major fence between the school and ourselves and were too naïve to understand that it was perhaps foolish to undertake a crime from my own back garden. But nothing happened that day, and being young boys we compared notes about the bumpy bits and decided we needed to do a bit more thorough research.
The next day dawned and there was a ring on our doorbell. I answered it and standing there was the biggest police officer I had ever seen. He was wearing Sergeant’s stripes and was not happy. “Is your mother in? “ He asked, I knew the game was up, and I could feel a dreadful knot in my stomach as I estimated how many years they would lock me up for. I trudged up to my mother, and told her that there was a policeman downstairs for her. “What have you been up to? “ she asked me, on her way downstairs. I intuitively knew it was best not to volunteer an admission of guilt, after all the police man might only be there to arrest someone else she knew so didn’t answer. I would admit nothing under any circumstances; let them provide evidence of my throwing the stones. How could they? I thought hopefully.
I heard a muffled conversation from the front door and my mother, who until then I had loved without reservation came back up the stairs. She looked at me and shook her head, “Get downstairs and talk to the Sergeant.” She instructed. I went, my head bowed, to meet my executioner. When I got to the door he seemed to have grown a bit, he was so big that he was now blocking out the light and all I could see was a giant blue silhouette.
Very calmly the policeman questioned me about what had happened at the swimming pool. I broke down in terror after about ten seconds, and admitted everything. “Your mother has asked me to deal with your punishment,” he intoned, and with that he gave me a belt around my ear. I can still feel the sting, imaging the reddest ear in England, and that was my ear, it was also ringing so badly that I think I can still hear it reverberate if I try hard enough. The policeman continued, “And if I have to come and talk to you about this again I shall lock you up and it will be for a very long time, understood?” I swore I understood perfectly and I did. I have never thrown anything in anyone’s swimming pool ever since, in fact I have had that small boy’s healthy fear and respect of the law ever since.
It’s what I would call common sense policing and perhaps London’s new Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, appointed today, could learn something from such common sense. It is long past time that the men doing this job thought a little less about politics and a bit more about being a police officer.
Aren’t I that little wide eyed boy pressing every button to ride the elevators up and down the tower blocks at the end of my street with my friends, hoping not to get caught, but confident that I could outrun anyone if we were. Where did the innocence of that first drink, cigarette, kiss or “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours” all go?
Perhaps it’s that part of us that form the bedrock of our personalities, the thing that makes us behave a certain way in our later lives. Because along with all the mischief we perpetrated on our neighbors we also learned the rudiments of how to properly behave, what the rules were, and what would happen to you if you disobeyed them.
My first major lesson in this regard came when my friend, Francis Monk, who I shall always blame for leading me astray, and I decided to find out what girls in bathing suits looked like. We were neighbors in West Acton, a quiet suburb of London, in small homes with no pretensions. We were about six years old and the back end of my garden had a heavily wooded area that overlooked the big swimming pool belonging to Haberdasher’s School for Girls. It was the Girls bit that grabbed our boyish attention. The older girls would walk shivering to the poolside, wrapped in large towels, and then, just before they jumped in, they removed their towels. We could see that they had bumps where we had no bumps, and no bumps where we did have bumps. Both of us had done our best to investigate this phenomenon by trying to accidentally enter our bathrooms when our sisters went about their ablutions, but no luck!
We had to take drastic action if we were to find out the secrets of the female form. We didn’t know why, but we knew this was an important part of our quest for knowledge. We consulted with each other and came up with a plan. We would throw a bunch of rocks from the garden into the pool and when the girls jumped in they would hurt their feet and in their astonishment would be forced to jump out of the pool and this would cause them to expose their bumpy bits to our more leisurely inspection.
The night before the appointed day Frances and I climbed the garden shed, quite a feat in itself, something akin to the ascent of the North face of Everest, and, without breaking cover, managed to lob a large arsenal of rocks into the pool. Satisfied with our efforts we went to sleep excited. The next morning arrived, nice and shiny, the warm sun coating our backs as we lay on top of the shed and waited for the girls. Right on schedule they arrived, and clearly these were the big girls, and this was beyond our wildest expectations. They went through their normal ritual of giggling and standing by the pool and dipping their toes in to test the temperature and then finally, there was the brief flash of blue swimming costume as the young ladies jumped into the water.
Within moments there was a great deal of thrashing around, shouting and complaining as their feet found our pointy objects. As planned they all started to jump out of the pool in a mild outbreak of mass hysteria. We forgot all about our covert reconnaissance as we burst into a fit of giggle. As in one of those Vampire movies there was a terrible moment as all the girls and their teacher turned in our direction. The game was up; they clearly knew that we were the guilty parties. We ran without looking back, jumping from our elevated perch, not wanting to hear the accusing voices.
We thought we were safe as there was a major fence between the school and ourselves and were too naïve to understand that it was perhaps foolish to undertake a crime from my own back garden. But nothing happened that day, and being young boys we compared notes about the bumpy bits and decided we needed to do a bit more thorough research.
The next day dawned and there was a ring on our doorbell. I answered it and standing there was the biggest police officer I had ever seen. He was wearing Sergeant’s stripes and was not happy. “Is your mother in? “ He asked, I knew the game was up, and I could feel a dreadful knot in my stomach as I estimated how many years they would lock me up for. I trudged up to my mother, and told her that there was a policeman downstairs for her. “What have you been up to? “ she asked me, on her way downstairs. I intuitively knew it was best not to volunteer an admission of guilt, after all the police man might only be there to arrest someone else she knew so didn’t answer. I would admit nothing under any circumstances; let them provide evidence of my throwing the stones. How could they? I thought hopefully.
I heard a muffled conversation from the front door and my mother, who until then I had loved without reservation came back up the stairs. She looked at me and shook her head, “Get downstairs and talk to the Sergeant.” She instructed. I went, my head bowed, to meet my executioner. When I got to the door he seemed to have grown a bit, he was so big that he was now blocking out the light and all I could see was a giant blue silhouette.
Very calmly the policeman questioned me about what had happened at the swimming pool. I broke down in terror after about ten seconds, and admitted everything. “Your mother has asked me to deal with your punishment,” he intoned, and with that he gave me a belt around my ear. I can still feel the sting, imaging the reddest ear in England, and that was my ear, it was also ringing so badly that I think I can still hear it reverberate if I try hard enough. The policeman continued, “And if I have to come and talk to you about this again I shall lock you up and it will be for a very long time, understood?” I swore I understood perfectly and I did. I have never thrown anything in anyone’s swimming pool ever since, in fact I have had that small boy’s healthy fear and respect of the law ever since.
It’s what I would call common sense policing and perhaps London’s new Metropolitan Commissioner of Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, appointed today, could learn something from such common sense. It is long past time that the men doing this job thought a little less about politics and a bit more about being a police officer.
Monday, January 26, 2009
ShameOnUsAll
When I was growing up in the austerity of post war England we had some certainties in our confined universe. Our country could always beat the Germans in a fight, our music and fashion were the best, our police were the best and our bureaucrats and politicians were boring, straight and efficient. Oh how sadly things have changed.
The Insight column in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper yesterday exposed four members of the House of Lords who it is alleged, accepted bribes to amend legislation. Today one of the Lords implicated stood up in our second House of Parliament and admitted he had accepted the offer of money in this manner but didn’t feel he had done anything wrong. He went on to add that he apologized if he had done something they considered wrong.
What world do these people inhabit? It is entirely wrong and deplorable behavior for any member of our political elite to accept money from anyone, ever, to do the job they were put in place and are well paid to do. It is even more worrying that their Lordships don’t appear to understand that they have done something wrong.
There is now some evidence that this is just one example of this legislation fixing. When you listen to the tapes already in the public domain recorded by the Insight team it soon becomes clear that there has been long-term endemic corruption of this kind in the House of Lords
The second house of the British Parliament is, it is now clear, used for this form of corruption because the elected House of Commons is too tightly regulated for anyone to get away with it. Ironically even if the House of Lords find their peers guilty the only punishment that can be imposed is for the colleagues to refuse to listen to them speak in a debate. There is little wonder that these greedy, grubby little men would risk such opprobrium for the large sums of cash seemingly on offer.
I am hugely disappointed that our previously revered system of government has allowed this awful pattern of action to become a part of the covert political reality of our country. We have to examine both ourselves and our country in light of this awful expose. How could such reprehensible actions exist in our society? Why do seemingly upstanding businesses feel it is appropriate or permissible to offer bribes to our legislators?
It is vital that the laws are changed so that the next time someone behaves like this in the House of Lords they will get thrown into jail for a very long time. Otherwise the citizens of our country will have no trust in their leaders or moral compass from those of whom we rightfully expect more.
The Insight column in Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper yesterday exposed four members of the House of Lords who it is alleged, accepted bribes to amend legislation. Today one of the Lords implicated stood up in our second House of Parliament and admitted he had accepted the offer of money in this manner but didn’t feel he had done anything wrong. He went on to add that he apologized if he had done something they considered wrong.
What world do these people inhabit? It is entirely wrong and deplorable behavior for any member of our political elite to accept money from anyone, ever, to do the job they were put in place and are well paid to do. It is even more worrying that their Lordships don’t appear to understand that they have done something wrong.
There is now some evidence that this is just one example of this legislation fixing. When you listen to the tapes already in the public domain recorded by the Insight team it soon becomes clear that there has been long-term endemic corruption of this kind in the House of Lords
The second house of the British Parliament is, it is now clear, used for this form of corruption because the elected House of Commons is too tightly regulated for anyone to get away with it. Ironically even if the House of Lords find their peers guilty the only punishment that can be imposed is for the colleagues to refuse to listen to them speak in a debate. There is little wonder that these greedy, grubby little men would risk such opprobrium for the large sums of cash seemingly on offer.
I am hugely disappointed that our previously revered system of government has allowed this awful pattern of action to become a part of the covert political reality of our country. We have to examine both ourselves and our country in light of this awful expose. How could such reprehensible actions exist in our society? Why do seemingly upstanding businesses feel it is appropriate or permissible to offer bribes to our legislators?
It is vital that the laws are changed so that the next time someone behaves like this in the House of Lords they will get thrown into jail for a very long time. Otherwise the citizens of our country will have no trust in their leaders or moral compass from those of whom we rightfully expect more.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
EndMultiCulturalism
It has recently become acceptable to demonize an entire religion for the actions of some maniacs in their midst. I am writing about Islam. I am not an expert on this religion and as far as I am concerned, if they left everyone else alone I wouldn’t bother with them any more than I would Catholics or Hindus or any other religion.
In the last few months I have received an ever-growing number of hateful messages aimed at the Islamic world. If they were aimed at any other group there would be a huge outcry. I wonder if people who read my articles believe that because I am a Zionist and a supporter of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state that I would automatically hate Islam. For the record my support of Israel has no bearing on my respect for Islam as a religion.
However my contempt for Islamic extremists runs deep. They are selfish bullies who follow an obscenely tunnel visioned and warped version of their religion that has no place in a democracy. They demand that everyone live in a Caliphate in which we all have to be devout Muslims or die. These are the same kind of people as those that run the terrorist group in Gaza, Hamas, who publicly state it is now legitimate to kill all Jews wherever they are, even the Jewish children. The same people as the Taliban in Afghanistan, who have stoned people to death for adultery and poured acid into the faces of young girls who dared to attend school. The same people who killed over 3,000 innocent civilians working in a couple of buildings in New York on 9/11.
Don’t ever confuse the legitimate reactions of self-defense and self -preservation with the awful acts of carnage that provoke us. The spin -doctors of extreme Islam has so confused our Western population that they now confuse the victims with the culprits. It is no longer questioned that it is legitimate to attack our values and us but improbably we constrain ourselves and limit our reactions. We must continue to do so or we will sink to the level of the gutter with our enemies who confuse our courtesy, civility and hospitality with weakness and foolishness.
Make no mistake the Islamic extremists remain dangerous and are working hard to destabilize and destroy any society which doesn’t conform to their dreams of a Caliphate and they will do anything to reach that goal.
We must not be idiotic in the way we combat such lunacy nor can we ignore the threat however unpalatable that may be to their well intentioned fellow traveling nincompoops of the liberal left who want to pretend no such threat exists. It would be easy to adopt the tactics of the Nazis to beat down this threat but that would, perversely, only encourage the militant Islamic extremists further.
Instead of our reducing ourselves to circulating hateful propaganda to match the venomous poison of this mad fringe of the Muslim world we should be doing all we can to eradicate their falsehoods. We can only do this with intelligence, wisdom and wit.
Our leaders must launch a coordinated campaign of public relations aimed to penetrate the ghettoized world the Muslim minority inhabits.
We must immediately abandon the failed experiment of multi culturalism that has contaminated our Western societies during persistent waves of immigration.
We must facilitate integration and abandon any thoughts of a separate society living within a larger society. For a start that means that students in our education system have to learn the language of their host country and there should be no attempt to cater to their mother tongues.
We must support other democracies with all we have so that we can defend ourselves in this continuing war for the survival of our civilization. Make no mistake this is a war in all but name. At the moment it is mainly a war of ideas, philosophy and words, but in many places in the world the war is already punctuated by the sound of bullets. We must wake up to this real threat and confront it without losing what we are and what we must value.
In the last few months I have received an ever-growing number of hateful messages aimed at the Islamic world. If they were aimed at any other group there would be a huge outcry. I wonder if people who read my articles believe that because I am a Zionist and a supporter of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state that I would automatically hate Islam. For the record my support of Israel has no bearing on my respect for Islam as a religion.
However my contempt for Islamic extremists runs deep. They are selfish bullies who follow an obscenely tunnel visioned and warped version of their religion that has no place in a democracy. They demand that everyone live in a Caliphate in which we all have to be devout Muslims or die. These are the same kind of people as those that run the terrorist group in Gaza, Hamas, who publicly state it is now legitimate to kill all Jews wherever they are, even the Jewish children. The same people as the Taliban in Afghanistan, who have stoned people to death for adultery and poured acid into the faces of young girls who dared to attend school. The same people who killed over 3,000 innocent civilians working in a couple of buildings in New York on 9/11.
Don’t ever confuse the legitimate reactions of self-defense and self -preservation with the awful acts of carnage that provoke us. The spin -doctors of extreme Islam has so confused our Western population that they now confuse the victims with the culprits. It is no longer questioned that it is legitimate to attack our values and us but improbably we constrain ourselves and limit our reactions. We must continue to do so or we will sink to the level of the gutter with our enemies who confuse our courtesy, civility and hospitality with weakness and foolishness.
Make no mistake the Islamic extremists remain dangerous and are working hard to destabilize and destroy any society which doesn’t conform to their dreams of a Caliphate and they will do anything to reach that goal.
We must not be idiotic in the way we combat such lunacy nor can we ignore the threat however unpalatable that may be to their well intentioned fellow traveling nincompoops of the liberal left who want to pretend no such threat exists. It would be easy to adopt the tactics of the Nazis to beat down this threat but that would, perversely, only encourage the militant Islamic extremists further.
Instead of our reducing ourselves to circulating hateful propaganda to match the venomous poison of this mad fringe of the Muslim world we should be doing all we can to eradicate their falsehoods. We can only do this with intelligence, wisdom and wit.
Our leaders must launch a coordinated campaign of public relations aimed to penetrate the ghettoized world the Muslim minority inhabits.
We must immediately abandon the failed experiment of multi culturalism that has contaminated our Western societies during persistent waves of immigration.
We must facilitate integration and abandon any thoughts of a separate society living within a larger society. For a start that means that students in our education system have to learn the language of their host country and there should be no attempt to cater to their mother tongues.
We must support other democracies with all we have so that we can defend ourselves in this continuing war for the survival of our civilization. Make no mistake this is a war in all but name. At the moment it is mainly a war of ideas, philosophy and words, but in many places in the world the war is already punctuated by the sound of bullets. We must wake up to this real threat and confront it without losing what we are and what we must value.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
TheManComesAround
Today I welcome President Barack Obama to his new post. Ironically, as I started to write this article the play list I was listening to automatically selected Johnny Cash singing “The Man Comes Around”. There could not be a more appropriate theme tune for the next few years. “ Behold a white horse,” sings Cash, and the question is stark, is our society ready to die an ignominious death or is there some glory yet to be won by us in ways yet unimagined if we follow the black man riding our white horse?
There are, without doubt, wholly unrealistic expectations for Obama that he couldn’t fulfill even if he were the Messiah, which for the sake of those of you too dewy eyed to realize, he isn’t and doesn’t claim to be.
We understand the sheer excitement and exuberance of the day brought about because the man is seen as the natural inheritor of greatness bestowed on the first African American to achieve the dream passed to him directly from the founding fathers, through Abraham Lincoln via Martin Luther King.
The rest of the world, almost without exception, shares America’s excitement about today’s events. The reason for this is that the world actually likes and admires America. We share many common dreams and aspirations, and the world wants America to do well but it no longer enjoys America acting as the lone gunfighter taking on the guy in the black hat alone. Now the time has come for a series of genuine partnerships built around political consensus. Both the problems and solutions are global. Obama clearly understands this and we can only hope that this is the path he intends to pursue, even when the going gets tough.
Obama passed the first test, which wasn’t easy, in winning the Primaries against some super tough opposition in the person of Hillary Clinton who he later had the good sense to appoint as his Secretary of State; he then vanquished a creditable and honest competitor in John McCain. But that is now just history, and today the clock starts on the new President and what he can actually achieve in office.
There will inevitably be a honeymoon period when everything the newly elected President does is viewed in a rosy hue that lends brilliance and luster to his every action. Because of the unique circumstances surrounding his inauguration, turning it into more of a coronation, it’s likely this period might last more than a year. Lest you forget Prime Minister Blair and President Bush both had remarkably successful honeymoon periods in office but left under clouds of suspicion and loathing.
We can only use today to pause and speculate on the enormity and complexity of the problems facing Obama. No incoming President has had as much to deal with on day one in office. Not just a total financial and economic collapse, but two wars and problems in the Near and Middle East, Latin America and we could go on, but it would just serve to depress what should be a day of celebration and joy that this man’s perceived ability alone has catapulted him to the highest elected office in the world. Can we dare hope that this man is the lever around which we find the tipping point where America and the West reassert its moral purpose and compass? It would be wonderful if this were the case.
America needs a great leader and the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Whatever our personal views on Margaret Thatcher she took the UK from an ungovernable economic basket case and totally turned it around, so one motivated and determined person of enormous vision can lead us and save the situation. One person can make a difference, is Obama that man?
The world joins America in praying for the new President to be as good as he looks and sounds, we could all do with some calm, astute and well intentioned leadership shaped by humanity, intelligence and heart. The world welcomes President Barack Obama.
There are, without doubt, wholly unrealistic expectations for Obama that he couldn’t fulfill even if he were the Messiah, which for the sake of those of you too dewy eyed to realize, he isn’t and doesn’t claim to be.
We understand the sheer excitement and exuberance of the day brought about because the man is seen as the natural inheritor of greatness bestowed on the first African American to achieve the dream passed to him directly from the founding fathers, through Abraham Lincoln via Martin Luther King.
The rest of the world, almost without exception, shares America’s excitement about today’s events. The reason for this is that the world actually likes and admires America. We share many common dreams and aspirations, and the world wants America to do well but it no longer enjoys America acting as the lone gunfighter taking on the guy in the black hat alone. Now the time has come for a series of genuine partnerships built around political consensus. Both the problems and solutions are global. Obama clearly understands this and we can only hope that this is the path he intends to pursue, even when the going gets tough.
Obama passed the first test, which wasn’t easy, in winning the Primaries against some super tough opposition in the person of Hillary Clinton who he later had the good sense to appoint as his Secretary of State; he then vanquished a creditable and honest competitor in John McCain. But that is now just history, and today the clock starts on the new President and what he can actually achieve in office.
There will inevitably be a honeymoon period when everything the newly elected President does is viewed in a rosy hue that lends brilliance and luster to his every action. Because of the unique circumstances surrounding his inauguration, turning it into more of a coronation, it’s likely this period might last more than a year. Lest you forget Prime Minister Blair and President Bush both had remarkably successful honeymoon periods in office but left under clouds of suspicion and loathing.
We can only use today to pause and speculate on the enormity and complexity of the problems facing Obama. No incoming President has had as much to deal with on day one in office. Not just a total financial and economic collapse, but two wars and problems in the Near and Middle East, Latin America and we could go on, but it would just serve to depress what should be a day of celebration and joy that this man’s perceived ability alone has catapulted him to the highest elected office in the world. Can we dare hope that this man is the lever around which we find the tipping point where America and the West reassert its moral purpose and compass? It would be wonderful if this were the case.
America needs a great leader and the darkest hour is just before the dawn. Whatever our personal views on Margaret Thatcher she took the UK from an ungovernable economic basket case and totally turned it around, so one motivated and determined person of enormous vision can lead us and save the situation. One person can make a difference, is Obama that man?
The world joins America in praying for the new President to be as good as he looks and sounds, we could all do with some calm, astute and well intentioned leadership shaped by humanity, intelligence and heart. The world welcomes President Barack Obama.
Monday, January 19, 2009
GoodbyeGeorgeW
I am taking this opportunity to say goodbye to President George W. Bush. Sure, like you I have seen him lampooned a million times in every conceivable way. It wasn’t always like this, it’s strange how short our memories are, like the incoming President Barack Obama, George W. had a popularity rating of over 80%.
The perception of the outgoing President is that he was a total idiot who couldn’t walk and talk. Interesting that those who know him paint a totally different and contradictory picture. I don’t have personal knowledge of the man, a great many of whose policies I don’t like or simply abhor. But I don’t think he is a fool and I don’t believe he had been foolish, any more than most of his predecessors.
Moreover I am prepared to take bets that long-term history is going to be a great deal kinder to his stint in office than predecessors like Clinton, Carter or many others.
Obviously speaking in public was painful to George W. and any of us listening to his tortured syntax and garbled grammar, but that didn’t mean he was stupid any more than Barack being a brilliant orator will make him a great President.
I instinctively hate big business being in any way involved in government at any level, whatever the rationale, and I especially find some of the big American corporations genuinely terrifying harbingers of some dreadful corporate world and these people appeared to have their hooks into George, but I don’t think these same corporations are strangers to anyone who has previously inhabited the White House. I would love to see Barack create some distance between himself and those insider interests.
Bush didn’t seem to handle emergencies well but then again, do you remember Clinton or Nixon facing emergencies, they tried to lie their way out of their problems. Carter, probably the President with the highest IQ of the lot didn’t have a clue how to handle the Iranian hostage situation and is still making lame excuses for his lamentable choices. Perhaps no one forgives Bush for the War on Terror, which I believe was and still is necessary, even if it has been disastrously handled in many ways.
The truth is that President Clinton is fondly remembered for his time in office because people felt prosperous whereas they despise President Clinton because the economy is collapsing around their ears, the people are terrified for their future, and they’re looking for someone to blame and Wall St is just too alien and anonymous to understand let alone attack. We’re left with the outgoing President to despise and blame and although we’re all culpable to a lesser or greater extent the real culprits live in the City of London and New York’s Wall St.
Like the comedians who found Bush ideal lampoon material I will miss this misunderstood President for his apparent humanity and despite his frailties. I hope President Obama will be nothing like him as times have certainly moved on, and we need a very different type of man for the uncertain future we all face.
In the meantime I thank the outgoing President for trying his best, which at times was good enough, and for his very obvious attempts to do the right thing. I hope he has a long and healthy retirement and gains satisfaction from his successor’s achievements. I hope and believe he will.
The perception of the outgoing President is that he was a total idiot who couldn’t walk and talk. Interesting that those who know him paint a totally different and contradictory picture. I don’t have personal knowledge of the man, a great many of whose policies I don’t like or simply abhor. But I don’t think he is a fool and I don’t believe he had been foolish, any more than most of his predecessors.
Moreover I am prepared to take bets that long-term history is going to be a great deal kinder to his stint in office than predecessors like Clinton, Carter or many others.
Obviously speaking in public was painful to George W. and any of us listening to his tortured syntax and garbled grammar, but that didn’t mean he was stupid any more than Barack being a brilliant orator will make him a great President.
I instinctively hate big business being in any way involved in government at any level, whatever the rationale, and I especially find some of the big American corporations genuinely terrifying harbingers of some dreadful corporate world and these people appeared to have their hooks into George, but I don’t think these same corporations are strangers to anyone who has previously inhabited the White House. I would love to see Barack create some distance between himself and those insider interests.
Bush didn’t seem to handle emergencies well but then again, do you remember Clinton or Nixon facing emergencies, they tried to lie their way out of their problems. Carter, probably the President with the highest IQ of the lot didn’t have a clue how to handle the Iranian hostage situation and is still making lame excuses for his lamentable choices. Perhaps no one forgives Bush for the War on Terror, which I believe was and still is necessary, even if it has been disastrously handled in many ways.
The truth is that President Clinton is fondly remembered for his time in office because people felt prosperous whereas they despise President Clinton because the economy is collapsing around their ears, the people are terrified for their future, and they’re looking for someone to blame and Wall St is just too alien and anonymous to understand let alone attack. We’re left with the outgoing President to despise and blame and although we’re all culpable to a lesser or greater extent the real culprits live in the City of London and New York’s Wall St.
Like the comedians who found Bush ideal lampoon material I will miss this misunderstood President for his apparent humanity and despite his frailties. I hope President Obama will be nothing like him as times have certainly moved on, and we need a very different type of man for the uncertain future we all face.
In the meantime I thank the outgoing President for trying his best, which at times was good enough, and for his very obvious attempts to do the right thing. I hope he has a long and healthy retirement and gains satisfaction from his successor’s achievements. I hope and believe he will.
ScaryTimes
Today there will be two blog articles, this one about domestic matters, and the other to say goodbye to President George W. Bush.
We are all very concerned about the government and its latest bail out of the banks in the UK. Today’s figures are just so astronomical they could choke our economy for a couple of generations to come if this doesn’t work. We are now entering the realm of fantasy fiscal policy, which has been trodden before, in Weimar Germany and more recently in Zimbabwe.
The solution being sought involves in our government in theory creating a bank for toxic debt. This central clearing house will deal with all the bad or suspect debts floating in the banking system, and now to be guaranteed by us, the taxpayers. This is a black hole that could bury us; it is extremely treacherous territory from which there might be no escape. Our government doesn’t actually know how big this risk is, no one seems able to do so.
Add to this the tactic of simply printing more money to meet potentially unending obligations and we could yet face the day when wheelbarrow manufacture might be the boom business of the new decade, simply because we would need some means of wheeled transport to carry our worthless money in if the pound continues to implode.
You can already feel the affect of this decrease in comparative value when you travel to the USA or Europe and realize that your pound has dropped about 25% in value in a relatively short period of time. We need to see the economy stabilize and the government’s latest measure take effect or we are in huge trouble. Even if they do become instantly effective, and I doubt that, there is still no light at the end of this particular tunnel.
I’m sorry if I am confirming the pundits naming of this date as the most pessimistic and downbeat date on the annual calendar but we have to face the future with pragmatism and that tells us that our Prime Minister did what he had to a few weeks ago as he probably had no alternative other than to watch our banks topple like a row of dominoes and – it simply wasn’t effective and it hasn’t worked in broader terms. Our banks are still not liquid enough and are still not lending to the small and medium sized businesses or solid citizens, as they must if we are to financially survive.
Although today's bail out is larger in both size and ambition I don’t trust the banks to take a view bigger than their own boardrooms and next shareholder event. They are going to have to be dragged screaming to do what’s right by the government or they will simply not comply.
The scariest thing I have recently witnessed was President George W. Bush as he calmly made arrangements with the American legislature for the next $350 billion of public money to be downloaded to the boys from Wall St. When he was asked how we were going with the previous £350 billion, provided less than a month ago, he smiled and said, “That’s already been spent.”
This money isn’t endless and we need to see some positive signs from our banking system or we are falling into the biggest financial hole in history. We need to start handing out the shovels and digging!
We are all very concerned about the government and its latest bail out of the banks in the UK. Today’s figures are just so astronomical they could choke our economy for a couple of generations to come if this doesn’t work. We are now entering the realm of fantasy fiscal policy, which has been trodden before, in Weimar Germany and more recently in Zimbabwe.
The solution being sought involves in our government in theory creating a bank for toxic debt. This central clearing house will deal with all the bad or suspect debts floating in the banking system, and now to be guaranteed by us, the taxpayers. This is a black hole that could bury us; it is extremely treacherous territory from which there might be no escape. Our government doesn’t actually know how big this risk is, no one seems able to do so.
Add to this the tactic of simply printing more money to meet potentially unending obligations and we could yet face the day when wheelbarrow manufacture might be the boom business of the new decade, simply because we would need some means of wheeled transport to carry our worthless money in if the pound continues to implode.
You can already feel the affect of this decrease in comparative value when you travel to the USA or Europe and realize that your pound has dropped about 25% in value in a relatively short period of time. We need to see the economy stabilize and the government’s latest measure take effect or we are in huge trouble. Even if they do become instantly effective, and I doubt that, there is still no light at the end of this particular tunnel.
I’m sorry if I am confirming the pundits naming of this date as the most pessimistic and downbeat date on the annual calendar but we have to face the future with pragmatism and that tells us that our Prime Minister did what he had to a few weeks ago as he probably had no alternative other than to watch our banks topple like a row of dominoes and – it simply wasn’t effective and it hasn’t worked in broader terms. Our banks are still not liquid enough and are still not lending to the small and medium sized businesses or solid citizens, as they must if we are to financially survive.
Although today's bail out is larger in both size and ambition I don’t trust the banks to take a view bigger than their own boardrooms and next shareholder event. They are going to have to be dragged screaming to do what’s right by the government or they will simply not comply.
The scariest thing I have recently witnessed was President George W. Bush as he calmly made arrangements with the American legislature for the next $350 billion of public money to be downloaded to the boys from Wall St. When he was asked how we were going with the previous £350 billion, provided less than a month ago, he smiled and said, “That’s already been spent.”
This money isn’t endless and we need to see some positive signs from our banking system or we are falling into the biggest financial hole in history. We need to start handing out the shovels and digging!
Friday, January 16, 2009
Hiding
Have you recently sent a text to someone via your mobile phone because it saved you from confrontation?
Or perhaps you've sent a quick e mail rather than confront a potentially
difficult chat?
When those options were not available did you speak on the phone rather than meet in person?
Our modern use of technology has resulted in hiding behind our communication devices. There are layers of cowardice involved in these new patterns of behavior and almost all of us are implicated.
It is also not obvious to us how much we use these electronic devices as an invisible shield behind which we can hide, or simply run our lives, until they suddenly become unavailable.
Today, for the fourth time in a week the power went out in my home. This outage has apparently affected 1,700 homes in my district and is further evidence, if any were necessary, that our first world country is doing its best to become third world as fast as it can. Suddenly nothing works and a plan B is essential.
My TV went out and I couldn’t do my exercise tape, the server went down so I couldn’t post the article that was going to feature today and the heating went off so the temperature dropped like a stone. I couldn’t microwave my porridge or turn on any lights. As I was due to meet a production client to discuss some techno questions it seemed a good idea to choose another venue or we’d be talking in the dark, literally.
But back to the key question, is this avoidance of direct, personal interaction a good development or is it a disaster?
I cannot imagine a more damaging descent into a woeful world in which you see most young mums talking on their mobiles whilst they ignore the efforts of their young children to grab their attention.
Now you see people walking along together but talking to other people on their mobiles as if the partner they are with wasn’t even present.
Yesterday it was reported that a young girl in the States used her text facility on average once every two minutes for her every waking minute. When questioned why she used this service so much she replied that she liked to talk. Ironically the one thing she was not doing was talking to anyone. In fact she was ignoring the people around her in order to communicate to those who were not. To me this is rudeness writ large and it demeans the people being ignored.
Worse still we have people being fired from their jobs by text as if they were robots with no emotions or rights to humanity or caring.
Sometimes using a communications device places increases the distance between us. If we were all to remember our humanity and opt for personal contact we would improve our connectivity and our quality of life would be enhanced as a result.
Or perhaps you've sent a quick e mail rather than confront a potentially
difficult chat?
When those options were not available did you speak on the phone rather than meet in person?
Our modern use of technology has resulted in hiding behind our communication devices. There are layers of cowardice involved in these new patterns of behavior and almost all of us are implicated.
It is also not obvious to us how much we use these electronic devices as an invisible shield behind which we can hide, or simply run our lives, until they suddenly become unavailable.
Today, for the fourth time in a week the power went out in my home. This outage has apparently affected 1,700 homes in my district and is further evidence, if any were necessary, that our first world country is doing its best to become third world as fast as it can. Suddenly nothing works and a plan B is essential.
My TV went out and I couldn’t do my exercise tape, the server went down so I couldn’t post the article that was going to feature today and the heating went off so the temperature dropped like a stone. I couldn’t microwave my porridge or turn on any lights. As I was due to meet a production client to discuss some techno questions it seemed a good idea to choose another venue or we’d be talking in the dark, literally.
But back to the key question, is this avoidance of direct, personal interaction a good development or is it a disaster?
I cannot imagine a more damaging descent into a woeful world in which you see most young mums talking on their mobiles whilst they ignore the efforts of their young children to grab their attention.
Now you see people walking along together but talking to other people on their mobiles as if the partner they are with wasn’t even present.
Yesterday it was reported that a young girl in the States used her text facility on average once every two minutes for her every waking minute. When questioned why she used this service so much she replied that she liked to talk. Ironically the one thing she was not doing was talking to anyone. In fact she was ignoring the people around her in order to communicate to those who were not. To me this is rudeness writ large and it demeans the people being ignored.
Worse still we have people being fired from their jobs by text as if they were robots with no emotions or rights to humanity or caring.
Sometimes using a communications device places increases the distance between us. If we were all to remember our humanity and opt for personal contact we would improve our connectivity and our quality of life would be enhanced as a result.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
LurchingToTheLeft
For reasons that don’t make much sense we are lurching to the political left, when perhaps we need to be holding hard to the centre. This goes for both the UK and the US, but it infects most of the industrialized world.
It is the knee jerk reaction of the population to look for answers to our political leaders, and I think they don’t actually have any answers other than to posture, smile and wave as if they do.
The questions to which they don’t have coherent responses are just too complex and intractable for them to provide easy solutions. Of course they would like to leap with a single bound to our rescue to earn our undying adoration, but it isn’t going to happen unless one or more of them is a whole lot greater than they initially seem.
That’s the reason they look to the old wisdoms for solutions and most of these are to be found in the wisdom handed down by the liberal, so called intelligentsia. Sadly this is a group whose ideas have been previously totally discredited, in fact they got everything wrong first time around so why should we trust them with anything now?
The economical collapse in slow motion is only being delayed by all the global bailouts that have served to provide a breathing space, so far nothing more has been achieved. Don’t get me wrong our leaders didn’t have much of a choice in order to avoid what would have been a totally catastrophic meltdown and an immediate Depression but now we need wit and far sightedness and instead we are getting the impression our leaders don’t have anything but the wrong history books.
Add to this the unresolved War on Terror and the ongoing hot actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and you have a recipe for disaster that would tax the greatest brains in history, let alone the pygmies of power who presently represent us.
There is the potential of President Elect Obama, but if ever someone had to hit the ground running it is Barack Obama. He will have no time to think when he shortly assumes office and we all pray and hope that he is as good as he and his legions of supporters believe him to be.
However he does suffer from the strictures of conventional left leaning liberals in that they now are more doctrinaire and inflexible than any other major political group in the world. Even the Communists running the People’s Republic of China appear more open to new economic solutions.
In the UK we have had an economically right wing New Labour government for more than a decade but in this crisis their left wing credentials are appearing with depressing regularity and speed as the country marches into the world of Big Brother as the government tries to micro manage everything in our lives from cradle to grave.
This will also be the fate of the USA unless the idea that our governments know what’s best for us is fought and halted. This crisis has proved that governments, just before bankers, should not be allowed free rein to manage us.
It is the knee jerk reaction of the population to look for answers to our political leaders, and I think they don’t actually have any answers other than to posture, smile and wave as if they do.
The questions to which they don’t have coherent responses are just too complex and intractable for them to provide easy solutions. Of course they would like to leap with a single bound to our rescue to earn our undying adoration, but it isn’t going to happen unless one or more of them is a whole lot greater than they initially seem.
That’s the reason they look to the old wisdoms for solutions and most of these are to be found in the wisdom handed down by the liberal, so called intelligentsia. Sadly this is a group whose ideas have been previously totally discredited, in fact they got everything wrong first time around so why should we trust them with anything now?
The economical collapse in slow motion is only being delayed by all the global bailouts that have served to provide a breathing space, so far nothing more has been achieved. Don’t get me wrong our leaders didn’t have much of a choice in order to avoid what would have been a totally catastrophic meltdown and an immediate Depression but now we need wit and far sightedness and instead we are getting the impression our leaders don’t have anything but the wrong history books.
Add to this the unresolved War on Terror and the ongoing hot actions in Iraq and Afghanistan and you have a recipe for disaster that would tax the greatest brains in history, let alone the pygmies of power who presently represent us.
There is the potential of President Elect Obama, but if ever someone had to hit the ground running it is Barack Obama. He will have no time to think when he shortly assumes office and we all pray and hope that he is as good as he and his legions of supporters believe him to be.
However he does suffer from the strictures of conventional left leaning liberals in that they now are more doctrinaire and inflexible than any other major political group in the world. Even the Communists running the People’s Republic of China appear more open to new economic solutions.
In the UK we have had an economically right wing New Labour government for more than a decade but in this crisis their left wing credentials are appearing with depressing regularity and speed as the country marches into the world of Big Brother as the government tries to micro manage everything in our lives from cradle to grave.
This will also be the fate of the USA unless the idea that our governments know what’s best for us is fought and halted. This crisis has proved that governments, just before bankers, should not be allowed free rein to manage us.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
MyArrest
Apparently my arrest is imminent. I appear to have broken the law, but honestly I thought I was doing the right thing. It all started as a dispute with a neighbor some years ago. In fact it was the father of my present neighbor and my late father who had the original argument. That started when our neighbor threw a Molotov cocktail through our window on the night I was born and tried to kill us all. The argument has never ended; my neighbors still want to kill us.
Dad was a tough old guy; he’d fought for the British in the Second World War against the Nazis. Our neighbor was on the other side, but that’s ancient history now, so I shan’t go into those details. Suffice it to say dad and the family got through that bad period and we stayed on in our house. In fact, despite all our neighbors, and their friends trying to attack us every so often we became quite successful at farming, something my family hadn’t been allowed to do wherever they lived for too long to remember, and to everyone’s surprise, not too bad at fighting either.
The years passed by and we developed some more industries in our neighborhood, and we learned how to look after ourselves. Now our family had grown and didn’t need or get much help from anyone else. We even took in our relatives from overseas who had to run away when our neighbor’s friends threw them out just because they were members of our family.
Each time our neighbors tried to take our land they made everyone crazy. It seemed strange to us that the police in New York told us we were in breach of the law when all we did was to fight back every time we were attacked, but we understand that there has to be laws so we do our best to obey them all, even the ones we don’t much like.
What our family finds really difficult to understand was the incidents that happened a couple of years back when our neighbors crept into our home one night and took two of our boys’ hostage. We never found out what happened to one of them, but the other one was returned to us dead. The neighbors didn’t even apologize for our loss but everyone in the entire neighborhood went mad when we tried to rescue our boys.
Over the last few years our neighbors kept telling us over a loudspeaker that they wanted to kill our entire family and they backed this up by firing a gun into our backyard every day.
Some days the neighbors fired the gun 80 to 100 times but when we called the police in New York they told us not to worry because the gun was homemade and not too deadly unless you took a direct hit, although they thought the neighbors might have some proper guns coming in from out of town, and these might be very dangerous.
The proof that our neighbor wasn’t really trying to kill our children when they shot at them in our yard was the fact that they didn’t really aim the gun when they fired it and therefore the number of injuries our family took was just a series of playful accidents.
We went looking for our neighbors to discuss this several times and each time we did the police threatened to arrest us and the local newspaper printed stories calling us monsters and killers and aggressors.
It was very upsetting but we eventually found that the neighbors were actually hiding in tunnels that they’d dug under our property. We went into some of the tunnels and found guns and ammunition and plans to attack us when we were sleeping. We showed all this to the police and they told us not to worry because these were defensive tunnels and the neighbors were only using them to bring in medicines and food from their neighbors on the other side of their property.
We asked the police if that were the case why did they also have guns and ammunition in the tunnel on this side and why did they fire these guns at us and tell everyone they wanted us dead and gone?
The police told us not to worry as this was no real threat but we should understand that our neighbors were simply trying to convince their neighbors that they wanted us out, but in reality the whole thing was a sham, for now, although they do want us dead when they are ready. Just before that occurred the police told us that they would discuss the matter with the neighbor and that they’re sure they can convince them not to kill too many of us.
After waiting for the police to have that conversation with the neighbors for the last 8 years and nothing happening we decided we had better sort this our for ourselves. We picked up some of our own guns and we went looking for our neighbors to stop them shooting at us.
We knew that everyone else in the district would get upset when we did this, because that’s what always happens when we try to stop our neighbors shooting at us. In fact this time we were told that as our guns were built in our garage we clearly had an unfair advantage and when we used our guns this would be disproportionate.
So, to be fair we sent a note to our neighbors telling them what we were going to do, and when and where, and then we telephoned them to make sure that they’d get the message. We wanted to discuss these matters with the men in the family who liked to fire guns at our kids but they pretended not to read our notes, or hear our messages.
In fact their tough boys decided that the best way to fight us was to use their kids as a shield. This isn’t the way we do things, as we try to look after our kids, and in fact, despite our arguments with our neighbor, we want to look after their kids.
Our grandmother, whose name was Golda Meir once said it better than I can, “We can forgive the neighbors for killing our children. We can’t forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the neighbors when they love their children more than they hate us.”
As I said to the police officer who came to arrest me, “maybe, one day.”
Dad was a tough old guy; he’d fought for the British in the Second World War against the Nazis. Our neighbor was on the other side, but that’s ancient history now, so I shan’t go into those details. Suffice it to say dad and the family got through that bad period and we stayed on in our house. In fact, despite all our neighbors, and their friends trying to attack us every so often we became quite successful at farming, something my family hadn’t been allowed to do wherever they lived for too long to remember, and to everyone’s surprise, not too bad at fighting either.
The years passed by and we developed some more industries in our neighborhood, and we learned how to look after ourselves. Now our family had grown and didn’t need or get much help from anyone else. We even took in our relatives from overseas who had to run away when our neighbor’s friends threw them out just because they were members of our family.
Each time our neighbors tried to take our land they made everyone crazy. It seemed strange to us that the police in New York told us we were in breach of the law when all we did was to fight back every time we were attacked, but we understand that there has to be laws so we do our best to obey them all, even the ones we don’t much like.
What our family finds really difficult to understand was the incidents that happened a couple of years back when our neighbors crept into our home one night and took two of our boys’ hostage. We never found out what happened to one of them, but the other one was returned to us dead. The neighbors didn’t even apologize for our loss but everyone in the entire neighborhood went mad when we tried to rescue our boys.
Over the last few years our neighbors kept telling us over a loudspeaker that they wanted to kill our entire family and they backed this up by firing a gun into our backyard every day.
Some days the neighbors fired the gun 80 to 100 times but when we called the police in New York they told us not to worry because the gun was homemade and not too deadly unless you took a direct hit, although they thought the neighbors might have some proper guns coming in from out of town, and these might be very dangerous.
The proof that our neighbor wasn’t really trying to kill our children when they shot at them in our yard was the fact that they didn’t really aim the gun when they fired it and therefore the number of injuries our family took was just a series of playful accidents.
We went looking for our neighbors to discuss this several times and each time we did the police threatened to arrest us and the local newspaper printed stories calling us monsters and killers and aggressors.
It was very upsetting but we eventually found that the neighbors were actually hiding in tunnels that they’d dug under our property. We went into some of the tunnels and found guns and ammunition and plans to attack us when we were sleeping. We showed all this to the police and they told us not to worry because these were defensive tunnels and the neighbors were only using them to bring in medicines and food from their neighbors on the other side of their property.
We asked the police if that were the case why did they also have guns and ammunition in the tunnel on this side and why did they fire these guns at us and tell everyone they wanted us dead and gone?
The police told us not to worry as this was no real threat but we should understand that our neighbors were simply trying to convince their neighbors that they wanted us out, but in reality the whole thing was a sham, for now, although they do want us dead when they are ready. Just before that occurred the police told us that they would discuss the matter with the neighbor and that they’re sure they can convince them not to kill too many of us.
After waiting for the police to have that conversation with the neighbors for the last 8 years and nothing happening we decided we had better sort this our for ourselves. We picked up some of our own guns and we went looking for our neighbors to stop them shooting at us.
We knew that everyone else in the district would get upset when we did this, because that’s what always happens when we try to stop our neighbors shooting at us. In fact this time we were told that as our guns were built in our garage we clearly had an unfair advantage and when we used our guns this would be disproportionate.
So, to be fair we sent a note to our neighbors telling them what we were going to do, and when and where, and then we telephoned them to make sure that they’d get the message. We wanted to discuss these matters with the men in the family who liked to fire guns at our kids but they pretended not to read our notes, or hear our messages.
In fact their tough boys decided that the best way to fight us was to use their kids as a shield. This isn’t the way we do things, as we try to look after our kids, and in fact, despite our arguments with our neighbor, we want to look after their kids.
Our grandmother, whose name was Golda Meir once said it better than I can, “We can forgive the neighbors for killing our children. We can’t forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the neighbors when they love their children more than they hate us.”
As I said to the police officer who came to arrest me, “maybe, one day.”
Monday, January 12, 2009
Passion
Passion is a word that we in the UK don’t employ very easily or readily. We have become easier with passion in recent years, so it’s said, since the huge public emotional outpouring which followed the tragically premature demise of Princess Diana.
What does passion mean to us? For me it’s a different thing for each set of circumstances.
The passion between a man and a woman changes over time, it starts as a lush burning fire, too hot to touch, it ignites and flames, and draws us to itself, until, with time, it begins to warm rather than burn, and then it must be appreciated in a new, perhaps less exciting way.
Such passion doesn’t have less value because the fire doesn’t burn so brightly, perhaps because that’s the right life cycle of passion. It simply doesn’t serve us well to always be red hot. For a fire to burn for the longer term it must be fed, banked, preserved and nurtured. It shouldn’t always be savage and brilliant, but does its job best if it warms and is seen in sepia hues. There’s nothing wrong with mature passion even if it is considered less immediately gratifying and exciting.
Passion can be what a person feels for their football team, and it can seem ridiculous and unfathomable to someone who doesn’t share the same passion. I am passionate about the greatest football team on the planet, and that is the wonderful Manchester United, who are literally champions of the world having won that tournament last month in Japan after qualifying by winning both the English and European Championships.
Strangely that passion never seems to lessen in intensity, but then again we’re distant lovers, Manchester United and me. In fact I don’t know if this love and passion is reciprocated but sadly I suspect it isn’t. I wonder if the club knew me better that they wouldn’t tire of me. Perhaps the old adage that familiarity breeds contempt is true.
I used to be a passionate follower of the left wing in politics, and then, as I got older and wiser, and a little more prosperous I became a follower of more middle of the road politics. Again my passion had dissipated with the passing of time.
I am still a passionate Zionist and I think that passion will stay with me for my entire life. The only difference now in my passion for the cause of a Jewish homeland is that I realize that some of the back-story and events surrounding these issues are not precisely as I understood them to be when I was a child. Nothing is all white and black although it can come pretty close. But as a younger man I had an optimistic belief that everything could be rationalized and that common sense and logic would always win in the end. Sadly this is not always the case, and at some times in certain places it is never the case.
I reserve a great deal of passion for my writing, because it gives me so much and the love I give it is unconditional and passionate in its intensity.
My undying love is reserved for my family and friends, because they are wonderful and I guess, in part because they are also passionate about me.
For those of you who lose their passion, and become uncertain and say they’ve changed I have news, you didn’t change, we’re basically unable to change, but your circumstances might have changed and you convince yourselves that a search for some new thrill can replace the flames of an older passion that still burns bright enough to warm yourself by, even if on this lower light it no longer excites to the same extent.
Maybe I have become able to accept second best and no longer search myself for a passion that is so pure and desirable. Perhaps settling for less passion is a failing on my part or is it a sign of logic and maturity. Can we have both, or are we doomed to live with a reality in which it must be one or the other?
What does passion mean to us? For me it’s a different thing for each set of circumstances.
The passion between a man and a woman changes over time, it starts as a lush burning fire, too hot to touch, it ignites and flames, and draws us to itself, until, with time, it begins to warm rather than burn, and then it must be appreciated in a new, perhaps less exciting way.
Such passion doesn’t have less value because the fire doesn’t burn so brightly, perhaps because that’s the right life cycle of passion. It simply doesn’t serve us well to always be red hot. For a fire to burn for the longer term it must be fed, banked, preserved and nurtured. It shouldn’t always be savage and brilliant, but does its job best if it warms and is seen in sepia hues. There’s nothing wrong with mature passion even if it is considered less immediately gratifying and exciting.
Passion can be what a person feels for their football team, and it can seem ridiculous and unfathomable to someone who doesn’t share the same passion. I am passionate about the greatest football team on the planet, and that is the wonderful Manchester United, who are literally champions of the world having won that tournament last month in Japan after qualifying by winning both the English and European Championships.
Strangely that passion never seems to lessen in intensity, but then again we’re distant lovers, Manchester United and me. In fact I don’t know if this love and passion is reciprocated but sadly I suspect it isn’t. I wonder if the club knew me better that they wouldn’t tire of me. Perhaps the old adage that familiarity breeds contempt is true.
I used to be a passionate follower of the left wing in politics, and then, as I got older and wiser, and a little more prosperous I became a follower of more middle of the road politics. Again my passion had dissipated with the passing of time.
I am still a passionate Zionist and I think that passion will stay with me for my entire life. The only difference now in my passion for the cause of a Jewish homeland is that I realize that some of the back-story and events surrounding these issues are not precisely as I understood them to be when I was a child. Nothing is all white and black although it can come pretty close. But as a younger man I had an optimistic belief that everything could be rationalized and that common sense and logic would always win in the end. Sadly this is not always the case, and at some times in certain places it is never the case.
I reserve a great deal of passion for my writing, because it gives me so much and the love I give it is unconditional and passionate in its intensity.
My undying love is reserved for my family and friends, because they are wonderful and I guess, in part because they are also passionate about me.
For those of you who lose their passion, and become uncertain and say they’ve changed I have news, you didn’t change, we’re basically unable to change, but your circumstances might have changed and you convince yourselves that a search for some new thrill can replace the flames of an older passion that still burns bright enough to warm yourself by, even if on this lower light it no longer excites to the same extent.
Maybe I have become able to accept second best and no longer search myself for a passion that is so pure and desirable. Perhaps settling for less passion is a failing on my part or is it a sign of logic and maturity. Can we have both, or are we doomed to live with a reality in which it must be one or the other?
Friday, January 9, 2009
TheWordsWeDareNotUse
It is interesting to note how many people I have spoken with since
arriving back in the UK a couple of days ago who are sickened by the anti Israel reporting on the supposedly fair and equal handed BBC and other news organizations in this country as compared to the US where many non Jewish public figures have come out in support of Israel's position. I won't revisit all the obvious arguments already aired elsewhere including my own articles, suffice it to say that Israel is being demonized and de legitimized by a vicious propaganda campaign that takes no account of the facts.
If any other country had been attacked by thousands of rockets
over a period of years it would have retaliated to stop the
attacks and no one would even have questioned it. This is not the case with Israel, it alone is supposed to accept being repeatedly attacked and provoked without the right of self-defense that is inscribed in the charter of the United Nations.
Israel is defending her citizens from incessant and continuing attacks and the fact that Hamas is discussing a cease-fire is in recognition that they are being seriously hurt by the combat despite their blood curdling threats.
Through the logic of Alice Through The Looking Glass all of the actions for which Hamas and its friends are guilty get reflected in this crazy distorting mirror to become Israel’s crimes and misdemeanors.
Israel hits the targets in which terrorists are hiding, even if they are behind or within civilian centers, they have no alternative. Remember the reason for this is the terrorists belief that hiding amongst civilians is their safest option and, in addition, any concomitant increase in casualties suffered as a direct result of their cynical actions wins them support from the international media organizations.
We have become soft in the head if we allow such anti Jewish and anti Israel slurs to remain unanswered. Israel not only has the duty to defend its citizens but it also has the moral duty to fight the terrorists and to seek their destruction.
Whilst we discuss how people behave during war how many Jews do you know, presently or in history that intentionally killed or maimed children or people at prayer?
Can you name a time or place in which Jews sought to force unwilling people to convert to Judaism or threatened with death anyone who was Jewish who wanted to follow some other faith or no faith at all. In case you don’t understand current events might I remind you that extreme followers of Islam still swear death onto any Muslim who wants to leave that faith.
How many Jews do you know who have bombed places of worship to murder indiscriminately?
How many times have Jews desecrated the graveyards of other religions?
How many Jews strap bombs on themselves to intentionally murder
civilians?
Many are not aware that even during the present battles in Gaza Hamas is murdering any suspected Palestinian collaborators and counting them amongst those considered to be casualties of Israel’s combat units?
How many times in modern history has an air force leafleted a targeted site to warn the inhabitants that it is about to be attacked? That is precisely what the Israeli air force has been doing.
Israel has to fight the fanatics around its border in order to survive. It is only through its strength that it can move forward with anything approaching a normal life for its citizens. If Hamas and the other extremists stopped attacking Israel there would be peace and all the outstanding issues could be addressed.
But Hamas and their fellow travelers claim their strength is that they love death, and the weakness of those they fight for Western democratic values is that we love life.
They are right about what we love, but wrong about one aspect of their despicable calculation, loving life is our strength, not our weakness.
Many false and unedifying accusations listed above have been aimed at Israel and are not true. Israel has had to target their enemy wherever they hide but Hamas and their friends have, as a matter of continuing policy, targeted innocent civilians for many years, but apparently only a few of us noticed!
It is laughable but sinister for the media to draw any moral equivalence between the actions of their beloved terrorist murderers and the reactions of Israel or the West in general. The Western powers make many mistakes but intentional genocide is not one of them in recent times.
The only common denominator that media organizations, the politically hard left, the fascists and the Islamic militants have in common is their knee jerk unreasoning hatred of Israel and the Jewish people's right to a Jewish homeland in its ancestral home? Because in the end that is what this argument is really all about.
Many learned commentators and pundits, Jewish and otherwise have been faced with the question of why Israel is clearly judged by a different set of criteria to any other country and the truth is obvious but mostly remains unsaid in polite society, it is the oldest question sparked by the oldest hatred, the words we dare not use, anti Semitism. It seems as if this is the only permitted racism in the world of today and it sickens me. The difference between now and the last two millennia is that now there is a country called Israel and the lives of these Jews don’t come cheap. If the Jews had to rely on the goodwill of the rest of the world there might soon be no Jews.
arriving back in the UK a couple of days ago who are sickened by the anti Israel reporting on the supposedly fair and equal handed BBC and other news organizations in this country as compared to the US where many non Jewish public figures have come out in support of Israel's position. I won't revisit all the obvious arguments already aired elsewhere including my own articles, suffice it to say that Israel is being demonized and de legitimized by a vicious propaganda campaign that takes no account of the facts.
If any other country had been attacked by thousands of rockets
over a period of years it would have retaliated to stop the
attacks and no one would even have questioned it. This is not the case with Israel, it alone is supposed to accept being repeatedly attacked and provoked without the right of self-defense that is inscribed in the charter of the United Nations.
Israel is defending her citizens from incessant and continuing attacks and the fact that Hamas is discussing a cease-fire is in recognition that they are being seriously hurt by the combat despite their blood curdling threats.
Through the logic of Alice Through The Looking Glass all of the actions for which Hamas and its friends are guilty get reflected in this crazy distorting mirror to become Israel’s crimes and misdemeanors.
Israel hits the targets in which terrorists are hiding, even if they are behind or within civilian centers, they have no alternative. Remember the reason for this is the terrorists belief that hiding amongst civilians is their safest option and, in addition, any concomitant increase in casualties suffered as a direct result of their cynical actions wins them support from the international media organizations.
We have become soft in the head if we allow such anti Jewish and anti Israel slurs to remain unanswered. Israel not only has the duty to defend its citizens but it also has the moral duty to fight the terrorists and to seek their destruction.
Whilst we discuss how people behave during war how many Jews do you know, presently or in history that intentionally killed or maimed children or people at prayer?
Can you name a time or place in which Jews sought to force unwilling people to convert to Judaism or threatened with death anyone who was Jewish who wanted to follow some other faith or no faith at all. In case you don’t understand current events might I remind you that extreme followers of Islam still swear death onto any Muslim who wants to leave that faith.
How many Jews do you know who have bombed places of worship to murder indiscriminately?
How many times have Jews desecrated the graveyards of other religions?
How many Jews strap bombs on themselves to intentionally murder
civilians?
Many are not aware that even during the present battles in Gaza Hamas is murdering any suspected Palestinian collaborators and counting them amongst those considered to be casualties of Israel’s combat units?
How many times in modern history has an air force leafleted a targeted site to warn the inhabitants that it is about to be attacked? That is precisely what the Israeli air force has been doing.
Israel has to fight the fanatics around its border in order to survive. It is only through its strength that it can move forward with anything approaching a normal life for its citizens. If Hamas and the other extremists stopped attacking Israel there would be peace and all the outstanding issues could be addressed.
But Hamas and their fellow travelers claim their strength is that they love death, and the weakness of those they fight for Western democratic values is that we love life.
They are right about what we love, but wrong about one aspect of their despicable calculation, loving life is our strength, not our weakness.
Many false and unedifying accusations listed above have been aimed at Israel and are not true. Israel has had to target their enemy wherever they hide but Hamas and their friends have, as a matter of continuing policy, targeted innocent civilians for many years, but apparently only a few of us noticed!
It is laughable but sinister for the media to draw any moral equivalence between the actions of their beloved terrorist murderers and the reactions of Israel or the West in general. The Western powers make many mistakes but intentional genocide is not one of them in recent times.
The only common denominator that media organizations, the politically hard left, the fascists and the Islamic militants have in common is their knee jerk unreasoning hatred of Israel and the Jewish people's right to a Jewish homeland in its ancestral home? Because in the end that is what this argument is really all about.
Many learned commentators and pundits, Jewish and otherwise have been faced with the question of why Israel is clearly judged by a different set of criteria to any other country and the truth is obvious but mostly remains unsaid in polite society, it is the oldest question sparked by the oldest hatred, the words we dare not use, anti Semitism. It seems as if this is the only permitted racism in the world of today and it sickens me. The difference between now and the last two millennia is that now there is a country called Israel and the lives of these Jews don’t come cheap. If the Jews had to rely on the goodwill of the rest of the world there might soon be no Jews.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
AmericaThenandNow
As I leave for the airport in a few moments we can pause for reflection on what’s the same, and what is changed about America.
We have previously noted that the country is holding its collective breath and hoping for the best from President Barack Obama. With just a few weeks to the inauguration this remains the same, but the sense of urgency is increasing in direct proportion to the ballooning size of the problems facing the country.
As President Clinton used to remark the keys to the problem remain the economy. Without getting that right nothing else can be fixed.
Some things remain the same about this country; the people are amongst the most polite in the world. Even if this common courtesy is plastered on a bit thick at times it is still preferable to the icy indifference of many European citizens and the plain rudeness of many in the UK.
There will be tests of the country in general, and the President in particular, from Russia and Iran, and the leaders of those countries should remember that it is the liberal democratic Presidents who act the most tough when pushed too far. It was J.F.K. who nearly went to nuclear war with the Soviet Union over the Cuba missile crisis not Nixon nor Reagan.
The portions of food served in American restaurants remains gargantuan and I recommend you all travel with a companion so that you can share meals, or buy yourself some jumbo sized clothes!
I recall a time, many years back, when the traffic in LA was easy to navigate, and the surface streets were hardly ever blocked. You can no longer make such a statement; now the supermarket car parks can even be full, which is truly shocking.
The movie theatres are still outstanding but not cheap when they provide stadium style seating. But the managers of the cinema complexes in Europe should be trained in the States so that they could learn how to do the job proficiently.
In fact the quality of service is still better in general than anywhere else. Mind you when you are expected in California to provide a gratuity of 20% I think you’re entitled to great service with a smile.
Another outstanding aspect of American life is the sheer diversity and choice available to you. The other day we woke up in Los Angeles and decided that the grand kids should experience the joys of snow. We jumped into the car and drove for less than two hours to Lake Arrowhead and had a great meal by the beautiful lake and then took the kids onto the wonderful toboggan run. Their laughter was uncontained particularly when I fell like a collapsing tree onto the rock hard ice. Apart from this discomfort our day could not have been better.
Similarly we have been into the desert and out to the coast several times and had a wonderful day on each occasion. There’s probably nowhere else where a family is spoilt with so much choice and I haven’t even mentioned Disneyland, the museums, parks and zoos, all enhanced with some of the best weather in the world.
So, as I speak to friends and family members who tell me that I am going to experience minus10 degrees when I get back to the UK I can only hope that the heating is working OK in my home and that the pipes haven’t frozen and that the politicians are not screwing up too badly. But at least I will have those wonderful friends and relatives to share a laugh, a tear a hug and a memory with. In the end nothing is more important.
We have previously noted that the country is holding its collective breath and hoping for the best from President Barack Obama. With just a few weeks to the inauguration this remains the same, but the sense of urgency is increasing in direct proportion to the ballooning size of the problems facing the country.
As President Clinton used to remark the keys to the problem remain the economy. Without getting that right nothing else can be fixed.
Some things remain the same about this country; the people are amongst the most polite in the world. Even if this common courtesy is plastered on a bit thick at times it is still preferable to the icy indifference of many European citizens and the plain rudeness of many in the UK.
There will be tests of the country in general, and the President in particular, from Russia and Iran, and the leaders of those countries should remember that it is the liberal democratic Presidents who act the most tough when pushed too far. It was J.F.K. who nearly went to nuclear war with the Soviet Union over the Cuba missile crisis not Nixon nor Reagan.
The portions of food served in American restaurants remains gargantuan and I recommend you all travel with a companion so that you can share meals, or buy yourself some jumbo sized clothes!
I recall a time, many years back, when the traffic in LA was easy to navigate, and the surface streets were hardly ever blocked. You can no longer make such a statement; now the supermarket car parks can even be full, which is truly shocking.
The movie theatres are still outstanding but not cheap when they provide stadium style seating. But the managers of the cinema complexes in Europe should be trained in the States so that they could learn how to do the job proficiently.
In fact the quality of service is still better in general than anywhere else. Mind you when you are expected in California to provide a gratuity of 20% I think you’re entitled to great service with a smile.
Another outstanding aspect of American life is the sheer diversity and choice available to you. The other day we woke up in Los Angeles and decided that the grand kids should experience the joys of snow. We jumped into the car and drove for less than two hours to Lake Arrowhead and had a great meal by the beautiful lake and then took the kids onto the wonderful toboggan run. Their laughter was uncontained particularly when I fell like a collapsing tree onto the rock hard ice. Apart from this discomfort our day could not have been better.
Similarly we have been into the desert and out to the coast several times and had a wonderful day on each occasion. There’s probably nowhere else where a family is spoilt with so much choice and I haven’t even mentioned Disneyland, the museums, parks and zoos, all enhanced with some of the best weather in the world.
So, as I speak to friends and family members who tell me that I am going to experience minus10 degrees when I get back to the UK I can only hope that the heating is working OK in my home and that the pipes haven’t frozen and that the politicians are not screwing up too badly. But at least I will have those wonderful friends and relatives to share a laugh, a tear a hug and a memory with. In the end nothing is more important.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
IsraelMarchesIntoGaza
The Israeli Defense Forces launched a ground offensive into Gaza today. This follows Israel’s weeklong air bombardment with the announced aim of stopping the relentless rocket and missile attacks by Hamas onto Israel. These rocket attacks have been more or less continuous for a number of years, and total more than 10,000.
There was a nominal cease-fire for the last six months that Hamas ended unilaterally after announcing there will never be peace with Israel or any extension of the ceasefire. The Hamas organization then launched over 100 more rocket and missile attacks against Israel, which provoked Israel into action. Clearly Hamas wants to fight Israel, particularly on the Public Relations front. They believe they cannot lose as they are perceived as the little guy fighting the big bully so they want to suffer civilian casualties and position their fighters behind and amongst the civilian population intentionally whilst they aim their rockets at Israeli schools and civilian centers.
Hamas combatants will seek to ambush and trap Israel’s soldiers rather than confront their superior firepower and conventional advantages. It’s hard to fight superior forces and it is also difficult to fight an asymmetrical battle. If Israel really wanted to win this battle tactically it would have to reach the strategic decision to demolish Hamas and re-occupy Gaza. Israel doesn’t want to do this and therefore has set much more limited objectives to diminish the missile and rocket launching capability of their deadly foe.
Earlier on Saturday, some 13 people were killed in one Israeli air raid when a missile struck a crowded mosque in Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics claimed. Israel accused Hamas of using such mosques to hide weapons, ammunition and arms manufacturing.
Despite the inevitable consequences, or perhaps precisely because they were seeking such an Israeli military reaction the Hamas terrorists in Gaza continued to fire rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, one of which hit the port of Ashdod, injuring two people.
Demonstrations were held against Israel's military operations around the world but no one other than Jewish supporters of Israel appeared to notice that Hamas instigated this entire conflagration.
Meanwhile in Israel thousands of reserve soldiers have been mobilized as the offensive in Gaza widens with the launching of a ground invasion that Defense Minister Ehud Barak says "won't be short" or easy.
It is wise to assume that some of these actions by Israel are a warning to Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon who fought a month long war with Israel in the summer of 2006.
Israeli ground troops began pouring into Gaza earlier Saturday. The incursion expanded an 8-day-old operation that had been conducted almost exclusively from the air.
At least 30 Hamas gunmen were reported killed as IDF troops swept into the northern Gaza Strip where they met fierce initial resistance from Hamas forces entrenched in well-prepared fortifications just over the border.
IDF sources said that the real goal is to conquer territory in northern Gaza, including rocket launch sites, from where most rockets are fired. They are using about four brigades' worth of troops inside the Gaza Strip.
Another main aim of the operation is to deliver a heavy, long-term blow to the Hamas military wing, which the IDF estimates, had not been seriously damaged by the air campaign.
It has been argued that Israel’s response to the rocket and terrorist attacks of Hamas is disproportionate. I don’t understand why this is so. How would the UK or USA or Russia or France, in fact any other country, be expected to react when it had been attacked 10,000 times?
Remember, Israel had pulled out of this territory years ago, and Hamas broke the cease-fire repeatedly and refused to renew it and no one seems to remember that Israel had released convicted terrorists as a gesture of goodwill in the last few weeks. None of this appears to matter or count.
I don’t believe that Israel has any other alternative left open to it and we can only hope that this operation will be as brief, victorious and final as possible. The alternatives are simply not tenable or acceptable.
There was a nominal cease-fire for the last six months that Hamas ended unilaterally after announcing there will never be peace with Israel or any extension of the ceasefire. The Hamas organization then launched over 100 more rocket and missile attacks against Israel, which provoked Israel into action. Clearly Hamas wants to fight Israel, particularly on the Public Relations front. They believe they cannot lose as they are perceived as the little guy fighting the big bully so they want to suffer civilian casualties and position their fighters behind and amongst the civilian population intentionally whilst they aim their rockets at Israeli schools and civilian centers.
Hamas combatants will seek to ambush and trap Israel’s soldiers rather than confront their superior firepower and conventional advantages. It’s hard to fight superior forces and it is also difficult to fight an asymmetrical battle. If Israel really wanted to win this battle tactically it would have to reach the strategic decision to demolish Hamas and re-occupy Gaza. Israel doesn’t want to do this and therefore has set much more limited objectives to diminish the missile and rocket launching capability of their deadly foe.
Earlier on Saturday, some 13 people were killed in one Israeli air raid when a missile struck a crowded mosque in Beit Lahiya, Palestinian medics claimed. Israel accused Hamas of using such mosques to hide weapons, ammunition and arms manufacturing.
Despite the inevitable consequences, or perhaps precisely because they were seeking such an Israeli military reaction the Hamas terrorists in Gaza continued to fire rockets into southern Israel on Saturday, one of which hit the port of Ashdod, injuring two people.
Demonstrations were held against Israel's military operations around the world but no one other than Jewish supporters of Israel appeared to notice that Hamas instigated this entire conflagration.
Meanwhile in Israel thousands of reserve soldiers have been mobilized as the offensive in Gaza widens with the launching of a ground invasion that Defense Minister Ehud Barak says "won't be short" or easy.
It is wise to assume that some of these actions by Israel are a warning to Palestinian militants in the West Bank and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon who fought a month long war with Israel in the summer of 2006.
Israeli ground troops began pouring into Gaza earlier Saturday. The incursion expanded an 8-day-old operation that had been conducted almost exclusively from the air.
At least 30 Hamas gunmen were reported killed as IDF troops swept into the northern Gaza Strip where they met fierce initial resistance from Hamas forces entrenched in well-prepared fortifications just over the border.
IDF sources said that the real goal is to conquer territory in northern Gaza, including rocket launch sites, from where most rockets are fired. They are using about four brigades' worth of troops inside the Gaza Strip.
Another main aim of the operation is to deliver a heavy, long-term blow to the Hamas military wing, which the IDF estimates, had not been seriously damaged by the air campaign.
It has been argued that Israel’s response to the rocket and terrorist attacks of Hamas is disproportionate. I don’t understand why this is so. How would the UK or USA or Russia or France, in fact any other country, be expected to react when it had been attacked 10,000 times?
Remember, Israel had pulled out of this territory years ago, and Hamas broke the cease-fire repeatedly and refused to renew it and no one seems to remember that Israel had released convicted terrorists as a gesture of goodwill in the last few weeks. None of this appears to matter or count.
I don’t believe that Israel has any other alternative left open to it and we can only hope that this operation will be as brief, victorious and final as possible. The alternatives are simply not tenable or acceptable.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
HappyNewYear
First, to everyone who reads this column, happy New Year!
As we journey together into 2009 we all wonder what surprises will unfold during this year, and just how many will be pleasant or otherwise.
We cannot ignore the realities of the global financial tsunami currently rolling over us while we hold on to every bit of firm high ground we can find.
It is equally implausible, in fact unwise to overlook the Wars on Terror and those in Afghanistan and Iraq; and how could we avoid mention of the current Middle East battle raging in Gaza and the dangers posed by a resurgent Russia and the Iranian / Islamic nuclear threat.
Some of my readers have written to me expressing their dismay that I have been too pessimistic featuring such concerns in my recent normally upbeat column. I am, by nature an optimist, but I am also a realist and pragmatist. We have had little news of good cheer to make us feel upbeat recently. However I can report that all is not gloom and doom in this corner of the electronic universe.
We have reasons to be generally optimistic that are not based on logic or improving economic trends or even positive signs in our common horoscope. These hopes are based on what we are, and what our system of life has achieved in the past. Our Anglo American democracies have stood the test of time and triumphed over great adversities and powerful adversaries in the past and I believe we shall do so again.
Of course the journey is sometimes very hard, and can, on occasion, leave many casualties, and awful suffering. But in the end we will overcome these problems because ours are the greatest countries in the world, and that’s why the world envies us, and has every reason to do so.
It is no accident that so many people still desperately seek any possible method to live in our midst, its because however bad things seem for this moment, most people recognize that ours are the countries they want to live in. And, if it isn’t the UK or the USA the economic migrant wants a piece of, its New Zealand, Australia or Canada that magnetizes people. There is no coincidence here; our Anglo Saxon systems of democracy, our long-term stability and our innate sense of common decency are desirable to most people in the world.
In our wish to survive the current problems we must do nothing to damage the very core of our national being in its defense, as long as we cherish and protect these values with all our strength we shall overcome all adversities and every adversary.
As we journey together into 2009 we all wonder what surprises will unfold during this year, and just how many will be pleasant or otherwise.
We cannot ignore the realities of the global financial tsunami currently rolling over us while we hold on to every bit of firm high ground we can find.
It is equally implausible, in fact unwise to overlook the Wars on Terror and those in Afghanistan and Iraq; and how could we avoid mention of the current Middle East battle raging in Gaza and the dangers posed by a resurgent Russia and the Iranian / Islamic nuclear threat.
Some of my readers have written to me expressing their dismay that I have been too pessimistic featuring such concerns in my recent normally upbeat column. I am, by nature an optimist, but I am also a realist and pragmatist. We have had little news of good cheer to make us feel upbeat recently. However I can report that all is not gloom and doom in this corner of the electronic universe.
We have reasons to be generally optimistic that are not based on logic or improving economic trends or even positive signs in our common horoscope. These hopes are based on what we are, and what our system of life has achieved in the past. Our Anglo American democracies have stood the test of time and triumphed over great adversities and powerful adversaries in the past and I believe we shall do so again.
Of course the journey is sometimes very hard, and can, on occasion, leave many casualties, and awful suffering. But in the end we will overcome these problems because ours are the greatest countries in the world, and that’s why the world envies us, and has every reason to do so.
It is no accident that so many people still desperately seek any possible method to live in our midst, its because however bad things seem for this moment, most people recognize that ours are the countries they want to live in. And, if it isn’t the UK or the USA the economic migrant wants a piece of, its New Zealand, Australia or Canada that magnetizes people. There is no coincidence here; our Anglo Saxon systems of democracy, our long-term stability and our innate sense of common decency are desirable to most people in the world.
In our wish to survive the current problems we must do nothing to damage the very core of our national being in its defense, as long as we cherish and protect these values with all our strength we shall overcome all adversities and every adversary.
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