A Tenuous Peace

Today President George W. Bush arrived in Israel, his visit is said to be in honour of Israel's 60th birthday. Most of us, and I too, believe that Bush is a good friend of Israel, but even so I fear that there is some other additional motive for his visit. Surely he wants to make peace between Israel and the Arabs before he leaves the presidential office, and that is something we all want - but not at any price. I am afraid that pressure will be put on us to give in to many Arab demands, without getting any security from them. If we give in to these demands, who can guarantee that they will not attack us later from a stronger position and with additional and more sophisticated weapons (probably supplied by Iran). The Hamas terrorist organisation, which it seems the majority of the Palestinian Arabs now support, has said and continues to say that they will not agree to the existance of a Jewish State, and until they agree to letting Israel exist, there is nothing to to talk about. Their President Abbas has no power these days, and speaks in two voices, "peace" to the Western world, and "war" to his own people. Well, we'll have to wait and see what President Bush has in store for us, in the meanwhile today so far has been one of welcoming ceremonies with many smiles and handshakes.
The people in Jerusalem are having some traffic problems today, as many roads have been closed for security reasons, and of course our police force is on full duty. I sure hope that President Bush's visit here will be succesful for all, and he will safely return to his country. I certainly wish him well.
Just heard on the 6 o'clock evening news - a missile fired from the Gaza Strip fell on a large shopping center, a mall, in the town of Ashkelon, causing many injuries (no complete details yet) and much damage. But it is known that the top floor of the building served as a children's clinic, and many children were among those hurt. I am sure President Bush has been informed of this latest firing - I hope he'll understand our position even better now.
Shalom from Irene

Today is Memorial Day for our fallen soldiers - there are sadly so many thousands of them and unfortunately more may die in the future due to Arab terrorism - and there were services in all the military cemeteries in the morning. Again, as last week during Holocaust Remembrance Day, a siren was heard all over the country at 11.00 o'clock, and traffic stopped and people stood still for two minutes. No places of entertainment are open today. Yesterday evening I too attended an open-air memorial ceremony in my district. As always many came to attend it, and even the teen-agers and younger children behaved quietly and respectfully.
This evening the Memorial Day ends, and our 60 year Independence Day begins, and this is a time for celebration. There are many of us who think that these two days should not come together - one can not change sorrow into happiness by the clock, but there are others again who say that if it were not for the soldiers who gave their lives for their country, there would not be an Israel, and there would be nothing to celebrate. There is something in that too. May the the fallen rest in peace.
I will close today's blog by translating the last two lines of our national anthem.
"To be a free nation in our own country,
Land, Zion, Jerusalem."
Shalom from Irene

Today is "Holocaust Remembrance Day" in Israel. All media programs are about this sad period in Jewish history, all newspapers are full of it, and a short while ago, at 10.00 o"clock, the sirens went off all over the country. No, it was not an air raid or terrorist action - it lasted for two minutes and all (most) movement in the country stopped. It was for remembering the six million dead during the holocaust, and cars stopped in the streets, people stood still wherever they were at this moment.
I was alone at home, but even so I stood up and tried to think of the 6 millions of Jews so brutaly murdered by the Nazis during World War II, but for some reason I could only think of my own immediate family - my parents, my elder brother and sister. And I tried hard to remember what they looked like, but I couldn't see their faces in my mind. I was a ten year old child when I last saw them, the only one in the family to survive the war - and suddenly I felt my eyes filling with tears. I felt so terrible about this, my own private sorrow. And I feel guilty that during those two minutes of silence my thought were not about the other 6 million murdered.
There is no other subject I can write about today, so will close my blog. Shalom from Irene

A few days ago, Ben-Ami Kadish, an 84 year old Jewish American man, a World War II veteran, was arrested for allegedly spying, passing on classified information to Israel, during the years 1979-1985. The documents he reputedly passed on couldn't have been highly classified, because Kadish had a low security clearance at his work as an engineer (and what were they doing in a library for engineers?). Evidently he passed on only just over 50 documents during these 6 years, and these referred to subjects which Israel already knew about - nuclear weapons, F-15 fighter jets (which Israel already owned) and defensive Patriot missiles which were given to Israel five years later.
So why did the FBI suddenly wake up to these facts after about twenty-five years? Can the reason have anything to do with President Bush's coming visit to Israel for our 60 years celebrations? Can it be connected to the possible giving of a pardon by Bush to Jonathan Pollard who was convicted of spying for Israel (a friendly country) and is serving a life sentence, already in his 23rd year (trying to prevent setting him free) - whilst others who spied for enemy countries only got a maximum 4-5 year sentence ? Is it possible that Kadish was arrested in order to put pressure on Israel in giving in to Arab demands whilst they ,the Arabs, still refuse to accept the physical existance of Israel at all? Is it just anti-Semites in the State department and the CIA? Many more questions can be asked concerning this arrest and I quote some speculations by Shlomo Slonim who is an expert on U.S.-Israel relations who said the documents Kadish allegedly supplied were not top secret and could be found in any library. He added that apparently somebody was trying to trump up something relatively minor and make it into a scandal of some sort.
I personally believe that Kadish was arrested to try and force Israel to make huge concessions with the Arab terrorist organisations in order to secure "a peace agreement" before Bush leaves office. And after all, Kadish was released on $300,000 bail - which goes to show he was not a serious spy at all. But whatever the reason for this coming out after so many years - it can certainly not have anything to do with American security. That's all for today. Shalom from Irene

Will just write a few lines about things going on here - nothing of great importance maybe, but that is usually for the best.
We are now in the middle of our Passover week, and most people, not only the religious, keep to a Passover diet which does not include bread, flour, yeast and such. Shops and restaurants are forbidden to show these non-kosher-for-Pesach foods openly, although they are allowed to sell them. But some of the ultra-religious groups are even against selling them, especially in Jerusalem and made a number of demonstrations in front of these businesses. (It didn't change anything though).
A day before the beginning of the festival, the Gaza Arabs tried to make a violent attack inside Israel, burst through a closed gate with an armoured vehicle followed by two jeeps filled with many tons of explosives, but luckily they were foiled in their plans by our armed forces, of whom 8 were wounded. A few days before that, unfortunately three of our soldiers were killed in an ambush, but except for the usual Kassam rockets fired on the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, the whole Passover week has been quiet.
Another unpleasant thing here, are the so many road accidents, and maybe even this week when many people have taken off from work and go visiting nature reserves all over the country or visiting relatives in other towns, there have been more than the usual number of accidents. Many news items begin with the number of dead and wounded on the roads. Some reasons for this increase maybe bad roads, but it's usually the human factor which is responsible. It may of course, be caused by the constant stress we live under.
To end on a more cheerful tone, I'll add that many towns in Israel are having different festivals this week, open to all the public. Even the entrance to the zoo is free of charge. That's all for today. Shalom from Irene