Yesterday I was at a beautiful wedding – not large by Jewish standards – around 170 guests.   I used to live across the road from these friends and knew the bride 32 of her 33 years.   I didn’t know at the time who lived in the house opposite because I used to work in the City, leave home early, get home then collapse in a heap.  However, my neighbour obviously knew my movements, because as soon as I stopped working to have my first baby, there was a knock on the door and that was the start of a new friendship and the start of becoming part of a community and an amazing circle of friends.    Being so close in every possible way, we obviously got to know each other’s extended families, so I knew all the Hull side that came down to London and the American branch too — it was lovely to reunite and catch up with so many people on such a joyous occasion.   Sadly I had to go up to Hull a couple of times recently as my friend lost first her brother and then a few weeks later her father also died - so to be celebrating  a simcha  together was especially beautiful, one that the Rabbi said in shul on Shabbat was long time coming – and no one took offense.   Good for the bride – she waited until it felt right and her new husband is a truly wonderful guy - long may they be blessed .

The chupah took place in a beautiful West End synagogue; the ladies and men seated separately.   Everyone is aware of my single status so a good friend jokingly remarked, “Look at that lot over there,” referring of course to the men, ”which one would you take home?”   The truth is that the men across the aisle while most certainly losing their youthful glow (and their hair) and most now in retirement mode were great guys.    I knew them as good and honest and respectable, decent people, all I’m delighted to add still happily married to their long term spouses.    I just smiled, but the thought did cross my mind that I didn’t think any one of them would actually want to take me home.

I did have a wonderful time; the bride was  s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g… she is very very tall and very very slim and she wore a gown I had never seen the likes of before and I don’t think I could do it justice trying to describe it, but when I told her that I thought it was very Carrie, of SATC fame, she said that was the best possible compliment.    As I said, I did have a wonderful time, but!!!!   I don’t brood on it, but something was definitely missing.   The bride and groom were not so young, in fact someone told me the groom was about 38 and it made me think back because at that age we were celebrating No.1 son’s  Bar Mitzvah.   And then it really hit me; this was my old crowd, my good friends.  We’d shared simachot and sad times and children and grandchildren and the ups and downs of life together for over thirty years, yet one was missing and he should have been there; we should have been there together, dancing like we all had done together twenty years earlier, still the same, but now  just a little worn in the joints.    

So, I look around at all my friends and wonder.   Can I leave you now?   Is it time to up sticks and move away from them?   I am blessed to be part of a lovely community, to walk into synagogue and not feel a stranger, to know I have such a wide circle of friends locally.  Yet — I don’t live near a single member of my family.   I moved to this area where my husband and his family lived when we  got married 34 years ago.  My mother, my brother, my aunts, uncles, cousins and now my son and daughter all live in North London.  

The days of spending afternoons with friends and children are long gone; the days of entertaining each other, making dates ahead of time so we could get babysitters are long gone.   Some are retired and globetrot, many owning second homes abroad.  Some are grandparents and Saturday night is likely spent babysitting.    On days off, ‘ladies who lunched’ has now become ‘retired couples who lunch’ – which is all lovely, but where does that leave me?   Oh, I’m not moaning, just noting that the whole dynamic has changed.   I hardly see them any more.  Sure we still talk, but you can chat to anyone, anywhere at the end of a phone.   

Apparently Jamie who, bless ‘im, is an open book, told a friend of mine he had seen a house he liked.   She told me this across the dinner table last night.    Jamie sees all my friends.    He commutes back to Chigwell to work and near his office are hairdressers and beauty salons that they frequent, so he sees ‘em all and they all love him —- he’s such a shmoozer.    When I mentioned that maybe I’d buy his apartment there was a stunned silence around the table.  Another friend asked me to repeat myself and then the first friend said, “What about book club?”    Well that was exactly why I had formed it – for selfish reasons.   As I just commented, I wasn’t seeing anyone, but I wasn’t losing friendships, everyone’s lives are so full and different now.   This way I was seeing around 12 girlfriends every month, every one of them avid readers.    I would never give up my baby, my book club –  I’d still come back every month and see the girls, which is moreorless as much as I see them now…  and at engagements and weddings and funerals.

So now I’m off to Jamie’s neck of the woods to take a look at the run-down house he wants to buy and renovate and take a closer look at his place which is literally down the same road.   Maybe it really is time to move on, as they say!   But don’t tell mother – I haven’t told her yet – much easier for her health and mine to wait until it is a fait accompli.

must get myself together
put on my face

brace myself against the weather
got this day free

well not so much
it’s still costing me

we’re not that busy
work’s slow

can’t spend it shopping
a day off and I’m broke

© ann raven 2009

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You’d think I’d be pleased to be told to take the day off, but I feel at a bit of a loss.   It wouldn’t seem so bad if I was really given a day off, but I will have to make it up or lose the pay.   It’s circumstances and the fact that my colleague and I are too darn efficient.   I often tell her to exercise Parkinson’s Law, but she works like speedy gonzales.  Mind, I don’t really like to be in my office with nothing to do and my boss likes even less paying me to do nothing, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve found lotsa little extras to do that we don’t normally have time for and done myself out of working today.    Ironically you would think this means I may soon be unemployed (and at my age unemployable) but I actually think my job is fairly safe – for now!

So, you’d think a whole day to do as I please (well half-day now - I’ve just finished my book – more of that another time) would be a bonus.  The truth is I work and operate best under pressure.   Today I am so not in the right frame of mind to be creative, although I quickly threw out the verse above, and I don’t feel like cooking or cleaning.     However, I did surf the net for properties.  

I viewed a ground floor apartment the other day – about ten/fifteen minute walk from Jamie and Lucy.  It had a nice kitchen, two nice bathrooms, two good sized bedrooms that needed ripping out, so far so good, until the living room – it wasn’t big enough.    I told the agent out right, not wanting to waste anyone’s time.    I do fancy an apartment, at least I think I do.    A fairly modern block would be okay, but I like the idea of a Victorian or Edwardian conversion.   Those houses are full of character, the rooms are bigger and airier (is there such a word) and it will be worlds away from the square box I live in now, although this house has served me well.  

If I do find something, or if J & L find something and I end up buying their gorgeous garden flat, I won’t sell this house.    I’ll probably let it,  get an income to cover costs plus some, and if I’m not happy with moving away from here, I could still come back.  

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Jedward are out – halleluyah.   At last they performed with no tricks, just them and a microphone and yes, what we all thought was confirmed, they can’t sing.   I still wish them well and think there’s a glittering future in store for them.    Shock horror Olly was down there with them, when it should have been Lloyd, who also cannot sing… maybe not as bad as the twins, but nowhere near as good as the others.   Thank goodness Danni didn’t chicken out and go for the public vote – she stuck with her guns that it is a singing competition and that is how she has judged it every week.  

So – who to win?   Joe and Stacey have the best vocals.   Olly knows how to wow the audience and Danyl… not sure what to make of him; I think he’s gorgeous, I love his performances, but what’s with the judges and the media always putting him down.   He’s luvverly.

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I don’t think I’m going to Israel for Channukah… it’s a shame, I really wanted to see the children and give them presies, but I’ll best say no more – guess I’ll have to wait till February!

Rachel and I are planning a trip to the big apple next year – just the two of us – mother and daughter, so that should be fun.   She wants to book it sooner than later, which is rather odd since we never like to plan our lives so far ahead.   Can anyone recommend a good hotel?

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I love NCIS – and now I love NCIS Los Angeles.   Recently Rach and I caught the first episode and she kept saying isn’t that Chris O’Donnell, you know Robin.    Chris O’Donnell, who he?   Me not looking at Mr O’Donnell - me looking at the super-uber-cool LL Cool J – Ladies Love Cool James – oh boy!    Yeah, this is how I spent some of my day off, surfing youtube.  

I am incensed and I owe a good good friend an apology – I lost my rag, not with him, but with the system.     We have discussed it a million times and last night was no exception – he wanted to drop the subject, but I wouldn’t let it go because I find it so outrageous and I’m sorry that I give him a hard time and I’m sorry he has to put up with this – and I know he’s not alone, so this is for everyone.  

I thought slavery had been abolished, but when an employee has no rights, no contract, is paid peanuts and can be let go at a moment’s notice, it does make me wonder.      This friend worked for over eight years, full time for a company and was made redundant at the outset of the recession over a year ago.   The company is still in business and he was given zilch, no redundancy pay, not one single cent – why, because where he lives the employee has no contract and no rights.    My country is not perfect  but unless a company goes under and the employee becomes a creditor, there are statutory payments they have to make when letting someone go.    Since losing that job  and being unemployed for a while, he is now working for a supermarket under the same conditions, no contract, no rights.

I am sure that every supermarket employee in this country has a signed contract, proper annual leave entitlement, even in their first year, sick pay and an element of security as long as they fulfil their contractual obligations and the company is still trading.   I would like to name and shame the American supermarket chain my friend busts a gut for, but I don’t want to do anything that would jeopardise him.   Instead I shall rant here and hope I express it better in verse. 

Injustice

this is the promised land
the golden medina
where the grass is greener

in this ‘new’ land
its declaration vows
the pursuit of happiness for every man
life and liberty and equality

if you’re the employer
not the employee!
what hypocrisy!

“In G-d We Trust”
the motto of this State
that’s not enough when
the ethos means

no business ethics
no rights
no contracts
no leave

they can dismiss you as they please
no such thing as loyalty
no pat on the back, a job well done
you’re an asset to the company

instead – you’re a liability
dispensable, expendable
to hell with security
if you don’t like it, tough

there’s always another
to take your place
in the land of the free
the United States

It’s odd the moral dilemma I find  myself in when driving to work.  I know it’s just a  silly little thing and hardly requires deep meaning or philosophy, but still it bothers me.   Obviously it’s the rush hour, the roads are horrendously busy, traffic jams, road works, broken lights, accidents, sirens, the usual.    I don’t mind letting people out ‘cos I would like someone to do the same for me – and I try not to block sideroads when stuck in a line that ain’t moving.  The thing is doing this the whole journey means it takes longer and then I could be late for work and I do have an obligation to my boss – he  does pay me to be there.   So, if I don’t let someone out and I’m given the evil eye I feel terrible, and even if I’m not given the eye, I feel terrible - they don’t know I’ve already been “gentleman jim” umpteen times and the clock is nearly clocking on time.     Strangely it makes no difference what time I leave the house, traffic is traffic.   I don’t have this problem going home – I let ‘em all out!   Funny, the silly thoughts that go round my head!

Here’s some exciting news – the Israeli branch of my tribe have moved home.   They’ve left the big house in Neve Daniel (where the wind whipped round the hillside, it was cold cold cold, but the views were breathtakingly stunning – and I shall miss all their neighbours who over the years have hosted me many a Shabbat lunch).  They’re now in a much smaller apartment in Raanana, an area I have only  passed through once and that was for a quick falafel and hummus; hopefully I shall visit them real soon,  although not sure there’s enough room at the inn for mother.    It’s funny how things work out.  Jon was made redundant almost a year ago, his old boss got him an interview for another job that he did not get.   That company then recommended him to another company and he got that job then - they poached him back.   Well the new job’s in Herzliya which meant a commute of 2 hrs morn and night, hence the move.   Yeah, think I’ll definitely go online and check those flights for Chanukah and I need some new pics :)

I rarely check this bog’s blog’s stats, I don’t need to go there to know I don’t get many visitors – aaaaaah!   Well, the point is I did see my stats and the one post that consistently attracts a steady stream of interest is Privileged to Walk with Angels, the one I wrote after my trip to Israel earlier this year.   The good news is, I’ll be repeating the experience and I’m really excited – it was such an honour to meet such amazing people, heroes and heroines, the victims of terror and the people who help them - and baby No.3 is due around the same time.   Kill two birds with one stone – what a ghastly expression when you think about it - better not think about it!

I haven’t posted any poetry here in a while; I’m now putting it directly on My Poetry Page.  If anyone’s even remotely interested, there’s some new stuff and some old that I’ve played around with and tweaked here and there.    I’m in the process of putting it here too.  

Currently re-reading Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, Michael Chabon’s Final Solution and Kathryn Stockett’s The Help.   Also treated myself to some poetry by real poets which is a joy to dip into when I can’t sleep.  Have now happily got my copy of The Narrows – just need to find time to sit and watch it in peace and quiet – not because anyone else lives here, but because of the  darn phone and don’t suggest I unplug it or switch off my mobile, they’ll then worry and it’s so not worth the aggravation – still it’s nice to know they care.

Other news – I thought I was gonna move.     I walked into my house the other day, looked around and decided it needed a makeover of some sort.  It was redecorated and recarpeted not so long ago, but the curtains and light fittings were already here when I bought the place and they’re pleasant enough but they and my furniture are all looking a tad tired.   It hit me that I’m now ready to move on and out and start over.   Coincidentally Jamie said he’d found a house near him he thought I would like, and I hadn’t even told him my idea.   I said I’d rather move to a flat (apartment) so he said he’d buy the house and I could buy his place, which I love love love, and I was so excited except the house he was gonna buy has fallen through… and there was I  wading my way through the John Lewis catalogue.   Guess it wasn’t meant to be, but watch this space. 

“Every quiet step is thunder to beetle life underfoot, a tug of impalpable thread on the web pulling mate to mate and predator to prey, a beginning or an end. Every choice is a world made new for the chosen.”

I allowed myself  the luxury of spending the morning in bed;  the sun was pouring through my bedroom window and I felt like a cat on a hot spot, every pore of my skin soaking up the warmth… purr!     Also the purrfect spot to finish my book.   It was last month’s book club choice, but this was not a book to rush, it was one to savour every well written page.   Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver.       I had to agree with some that the connection of characters is somewhat contrived and the women predictably the strong characters, the men put in their place… but that didn’t matter.  The whole package took my breath away.   I was making notes, taking pleasure in the language, her style, her creative use of metaphor and I learnt so much.   It could have been preachy, but I found it a font of  beautifully presented knowledge.  I don’t think I can give it justice in my limited use of words… it’s one I would recommend you try for yourself.

I rationed myself.   Everyone loves a page-turner and I could easily have read it in a couple of days, but for me it was something special like an expensive treat  from Hotel Chocolat;  a little piece to nibble every day and I didn’t want it to finish.   Her prose was like pure poetry to my eyes and my senses.  

The story is set one humid summer in the lushness of Southern Appalachia, the true star of the book.   The book is redolent with sex:   ”Here and now spring heaved in its randy moment. Everywhere you looked, something was fighting for time, for light, the kiss of pollen, a connection of sperm and egg and another chance.”   Barbara Kingsolver is a biologist, she knows her subject  and she cleverly weaves her knowledge between her characters in chapters headed Predator, Moth Love and Old Chestnuts. 

Predator centres on Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive 40-something divorced wildlife biologist who works out of a solitary log cabin maintaining the trails and observing and protecting the wildlife, her particular interest being the preservation of coyotes.   Her solitude and peace is disturbed when she encounters Eddie Bondo, a guy many years her junior, a hunter who does not share her view of coyotes; they fight, they make love.   Further down the mountain we meet the subject of Moth Love, Lusa Maluf Landowski daughter of a Jewish/Polish father and a Palestinian mother, an entomologist, a young farmer’s wife soon to become a young farmer’s widow who inherits the family farm and problems with her many in-laws.   Old Chestnuts wonderfully describes elderly feuding neighbours, widower Garnett Walker and his obsession with the American chestnut tree and Nannie Rawley and her organic orchards.   Both knowledgeable and both fiercely defending their views.   By far the most entertaining and endearing characters.    

I learnt so much about the natural world; relevant debate about coyotes and predator/prey relationships,  as well as insects and a whole host of other living creatures; arguments about the use of pesticides and the harm that they do; the whole eco-system.  The story is not purely about coyotes and moths and  trees, it’s about human interaction.    Prodigal Summer is a beautifully written testament to nature and human nature.   Unlike most books, I found the ending did not disappoint -  it was surprising though.   I would love Barbara Kingsolver to write a sequel… there is a lot more to tell.   I want to know what happened next and like nature and the environment, it is a never ending story.

I will read it again, but next time in the summer, in the sunshine, in the park, within the sound of chirruping birds, buzzing bees, butterflies and breezes… and Val, I think you may like it.

WE ARE GOING TO SEE

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Since I have an obvious dislike of getting up in the dark, I have acquired a new clock radio and light – it’s  real cool!   You set the time for when you want it to wake you, a low light comes on half-an-hour earlier and by the time the radio comes on, the shock of being roused so obtrusively is counteracted by the room bathed in a soft light.   I can also put the light on when I go to bed, read for a little while and the light dims to darkness just about the time the book is falling out of my hands. 

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I recorded and now watched The Event: How Racist Are You? – unfortunately my sky+ didn’t catch the end when Jane Elliot herself was interviewed.   Her motive has been to expose and rid the world of racism, but it didn’t work on this group of British lab rats, a mix of whites and ethnic minorities.   She has been doing this experiment in schools since the 1960’s, dividing a class into two groups;  blue eyes and brown eyes.    The blue-eyed group were separated for a couple of hours in a less comfortable room during which time she tries to convince the brown-eyed group that the blues are inferior and should be treated like second-class citizens.   The blues are then invited to join the browns who are encouraged to put them down.   The idea was for people who were unlikely to have ever experienced discrimination or been overlooked and ignored, or been stopped indiscriminately to see how it feels and to learn from it.

Initially some of the volunteers had sussed the exercise, refused to participate and left, escorted out the building.  Jane Elliot thought they were latent racists; the reverse was true; they didn’t want words put into their mouths, to be made to abuse a group because they were told to by someone else when they didn’t feel that way.     Once the remaining guinea pigs were settled, debate began and opinions bounced around, but some were so entrenched they totally lost the plot and lessons were not learnt that day.  Her tactic  was to bully; her intention was good; her experiment failed – at least with the Brits.     One  white man thought he was discriminated against because he was tubby, a woman because she was old, totally missing the point.   One elderly lady did admit she was uncomfortable with the different races in the country today and noticed how different it was from her childhoold, but said that her children had no problem with it.     I was disappointed the experiment did not work on this occasion but sadly I’m not surprised. 

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The trick or treaters are out in force tonight – hope they are all done knocking on ol’ ma annie’s door before  X-Factor.  Yes, I know I moan about the show and if the twins are not voted off tonight I shall be sorely tempted to switch off, but not  this weekend, not when  my ab fab fav rock star Jon  Bon Jovi is on the show

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They say little things please little minds… well the little things in question are olives.   I have posted pics here of the olives growing in my garden.   I should have taken pics of the grapes too, but my little vine was not evergreen and I’ve just replaced it with jasmine.

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For some reason I can’t open blogger today!   No probs with wordpress or other sites or hotmail etc. just blogger!  Am I the only one?

A  few rants on silly things and then a rant on something rather more serious.

Driving home from work yesterday I was dazzled.   No, not the glare of the low hanging autum sun (the clocks had gone back, it was now dark, more of which later)  but  the tree on the big roundabout near my home was adorned with sparkly Christmas lights.   For goodness sake, it’s still October!   There should be laws and I hasten to add I am not a partypooper:

1. Christmas decorations do not get put up until December
2. Christmas music/jingles do not get aired on radio or in stores until December
3. Peace And Goodwill To All Men.   A  philosophy that should be practised every day of the year.  Like a dog, it’s not just for Christmas   (sorry, think this should have been No.1)
4. … and any others I’ve forgotten and you’d care to add!

Secondly, it’s half-term week!   I’ve had to go out early every morning this week – my journey has taken half the time, or sometimes even less than that.   There should be laws:

1. All schools adopt the school bus system
2. If you live in walking distance of your child’s school, walk them there, please 
3. … and any others I’ve not thought of and you’d care to add!

Thirdly, the clocks went back an hour- argh!    My body-clock didn’t go back quite as easily as the millions of clocks in the house.   At work my body-clock tells me it’s time to go home;  the office clock tells another story.    There should be laws: 

1. No one should have to get up until they are wide awake (i.e. me)
2. No one should have to get up until the room is filled with natural light (i.e. me)
3. On a day with no sunlight *stay in bed/stay at home/eat hot buttered crumpets and squaff lotsa hot chocolate/watch mindless tv/read trashy mags/read a book/have a long hot soak (*delete as appropriate)
4. No one should have to go to work in the dark (i.e. me)
5. No one should have to come home in the dark (i.e. me)
6. … and any other reasons not to go work that you’d care to add!

Here’s the last of the silly rants – John and Edward are still in.  Unbelievable!   They purportedly collected the highest number of votes!   There should be laws (or a change of rules):

1. The judges (i.e.  Louis Walsh) should pass a test of compos mentis
2. The acts should be solely judged on their singing talent, not comic value, otherwise we may as well vote for a pair of chimps.  Oh the voting British public did
3. We should vote for the act we want to leave
4. Someone on the x~factor should learn to count
5. … and any others new rules you’d care to add – including one I’m tempted to do – switch off!

Auntie (for non-Brits the BBC) gave Nick Griffin free airtime, free publicity and freedom of bigotted racist speech.   The man came across as an utter imbecile, laughing idiotically throughout the whole show; good grief it was serious man!    Bonnie Greer wanted to slap him – read what she has to say here and also the views of his own mother-in-law.  

The voting British public not only vote for a pair of untalented chimps on a show that is the launchpad of a glittering career for people with genuine talent like Leone Lewis and Alexandra Burke,  but now a higher number of the voting British public are seriously considering voting for this bumbling fascist chump and his cronies.    They are dangerous.   In Europe Anti-Semitism did not lie dormant since the end of the Holocaust, it  lie close to the surface and is now fermenting and bubbling away about to erupt.   It is the same for all elements of racism today… the Jews are not the only ones who are hated and reviled and attacked and are not the only ones who should be alarmed. 

Today the world is a smaller place – we travel widely – we live in a multi-cultural society – information is at our fingertips at the press of a button – BNP policy smacks of Ayranism – if your face don’t fit.   I don’t want to think what these people may be capable of.   Let’s think about it;  the likes of Leone and Alexandra wouldn’t be given those same opportunities, assuming they were allowed to stay in this country along with anyone whose skin colour is not white, eye colour blue and not of whatever faith they deem fit is acceptable.     

On Thursday, Channel 4 @ 10.00pm watch a programme called The Event: How Racist Are You?   I am sure it will be an eye opener  to many people and a warning not to be taken lightly.   I have said it before, I will say it again - I am afraid, very afraid. 

I am soooooooo excited and my kids were soooooooo excited for me too thinking they had some great news for me.   Huh – I’d already heard   

BON JOVI 

will be in town – he’s gonna be on the X-FACTOR  in a couple of weeks time and I must must must find out…

HOW DO I GET TICKETS?????  

and- and- and- he will be doing the O2 next summer.    The last time he played there was a Friday and Saturday night in June a couple of years ago when a nice Jewish girl like me couldn’t go – I was gutted.   My kids were also excited to tell me that he’s got a new album coming out, hence the world tour – how little they know their mother - I pre-ordered it the day I got notification.   Gee… children think they know it all!!!!!  

Still Rachel and I had an ab brill awesome time when we saw him a few years back, unfortunately at Milton Keynes ‘cos Wembley wasn’t completed and he was meant to be the opening act there.   Of course I’ll be at the O2, once or twice or maybe more.  Watch this space!

Also thank you BON JOVI for the birthday greeting the other day… yeah, I still have ‘em, but for some weird reason I’m always much much happier the day after.    

Talking of the X-FACTOR, anyone got any predictions yet?   How much longer will we be subjected to John and Edward?   I’ve got nothing against two young lads having fun.  I reckon they only auditioned for the X-FACTOR for a laugh not for one moment expecting to be in the finals.   There is some real talent this year and I hope a potential star is not booted off  just to keep the twins in for pure entertainment or controversy value ‘cos they sure ain’t got the X-FACTOR.  I do think for the future tho’  Ant ‘n’ Dec should watch their backs.

Now on to Strictly!  What’s with it this year?   So far I’m finding it rather lacklustre and boring.   Not ‘cos Arlene’s out and Alesha’s in, she’s lovely, they’re both lovely, but nobody’s getting me excited, not like Alexandra Burke did for the X-FACTOR or Rachel Stevens (who I still think wuz robbed) did for Strictly last year.   And Brucie, sorry luv,  I record the show and fast forward when you’re on!  

My last spot of reality tv – gosh, I’m exhausted – anyone would think I’d spent hours in the kitchen.  Well I do but not like the marathon that was Masterchef: The Professionals and tonight a worthy winner was crowned.   Boy did they work hard.   It was very very close, but I think Greg and Michel (he’s so cute and adorable) got it right.   The others were fantastic too and all equally worthy finalists with potential glittering careers ahead of them, but Steve Groves definitely has that extra something, that special je ne sais quoi – he has  vision, a sense of creativity and awesome talent.   Congratulations Steve, you deserved the title!

Yes, I do watch programmes that don’t have Vincent D’Onofrio in them although I’d love to see him on Strictly or Dancing with the Stars.   Think about it sweetie – we know you can tango and it only takes two

The Jewish people are approaching the conclusion of  the ten days between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, known as The Days of Awe a time for reflection and introspection.   For me that’s a constant.   My conscience is very active; I know I say the wrong thing, make bad choices – many regrets.  I search my heart and soul, I want to be a better person and seek answers that are elusive.   We are made in G-d’s image; we are given freewill, the choice to be good or bad.    G-d is all loving and all merciful.   As I heard today, He doesn’t wish to destroy wicked people, He wishes to destroy their wickedness that they have a chance to become good.   

Yom Kippur is the time to ask G-d’s forgiveness for the sins we committed against him; we also try to reconcile differences with each other;  if I have upset or offended anyone, I apologise and ask for your forgiveness.  

I wish those of my faith an easy and meaningful fast and may you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.

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I reproduce here Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly two days ago.   I want to spread his words and pray they reach out and make their mark.    The world has to understand that Israel is not alone in its potential destruction, the whole world is in danger and I do not stand alone in being afraid, very afraid.  

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Mr. President
Ladies and Gentlemen

Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.

I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.

The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth.

Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.

Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments.

Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?

A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?

This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie?

One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife’s grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?

Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.

But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?

A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!

Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You’re wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.

This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.

In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.

The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.

Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet.

What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come.

We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.

I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.

But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after a horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind.

That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction, and the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?

Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood?

Will the international community thwart the world’s most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?

Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?

The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?

Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging.

Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.

For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.

We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.

In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis.

We didn’t get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare.

You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.

Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded?

Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country’s civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II.

During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.

That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances.

Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas. We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave.

Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy’s civilian population from harm’s way. Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel.

A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.

By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth! What a perversion of justice!

Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce? Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.

If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity.

And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here’s why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense.

What legitimacy? What self-defense?

The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country – of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!

Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?

We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow.

Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace. Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.

And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.

In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state.

Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.

Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more.” These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city – in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem. We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland.

As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.

But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.

That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don’t want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.

We want peace

I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order.

The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.

Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the “confirmed unteachability of mankind,” the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.

Churchill bemoaned what he called the “want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong.”

I speak here today in the hope that Churchill’s assessment of the “unteachability of mankind” is for once proven wrong.