In Israel things seem to be quiet and people are getting on with their lives. The schools went back on 1^st September, to the considerable relief of parents. They are however about to break up again just before Yom Kippur and will be closed until after Sukkot. There are a large number of vested interests in the Israeli education system which needs a major makeover.

In the Knesset I anticipate some political bloodletting. Accusations are beginning to be exchanged regarding what did or didn’t happen in Operation Protective Edge, and how much was or wasn’t known about the tunnels. Jews have always been argumentative since the days of Moses, but the real problem in Israeli politics at the moment is that there is no credible leader apart from Netanyahu and until one emerges he is fairly safe no matter what does.

That is not to say that the Israeli government has in any way lost its disturbing ability to say the wrong things at the wrong time. I take no view as to whether or not another settlement is needed in the West Bank, although I am irritated by British (often Jewish) pundits who feel themselves entitled to express a view based on complete ignorance of the facts. The Rabbis were very wise when they said “Ain shemiya dome lireiya – hearing is not as good as seeing it for yourself.”

What does disturb me is the timing, which in politics is everything. If it is true that the pressure on Netanyahu to announce the new town on the West Bank came from other members of his coalition, then that is one of the major disadvantages of coalition politics. In Britain however you are beginning to understand the problems of coalitions!

I had the pleasure of visiting Rabbi Dee in Efrat this week, and received a totally new perspective on what is going on in the area generally referred to as the West Bank.

Efrat started life as a settlement in 1983, peopled significantly by national religious Jews who believed as a matter of religion that they should settle in Judea. It is probably true that had the Arabs made peace immediately after their crushing defeat in 1967 the various settlements and towns in the West Bank might never have been built. However the Arab ability to ignore reality, so carefully fostered by the Western democracies, created a vacuum which the Jews ultimately filled.

The leadership of the charismatic Rabbi Shlomo Riskin from New York and the establishment there of a modern Orthodox yeshiva (which among many others trained both Rabbi Sylvester and Rabbi Dee, both Rabbis of Radlett United Synagogue) caused Efrat to grow significantly.

The areas known in Israel as Judaea and Samaria are actually full of a number of flourishing towns. Maale Adumim and Gilo among others are suburbs of Jerusalem. Towns like Efrat and Gush Etzion are significant centres. Efrat is now a town with a fast-growing population of people who settle there not because of religious or political ideology but because it is a very pleasant place to live, with an extremely good school system and a very broad approach to Judaism in the modern age.

Efrat is surrounded by prosperous Arab villages with quality housing and cars. These Arabs are comfortable and settled being part of Israeli development. The education medical care and Social Security that they receive is superior to anything that the Arabs receive in other areas, let alone Gaza, and they come under the protection of the rule of law in Israel, rather than brutal anarchy.

It’s quite strange here at the moment. People don’t quite know what to make of the ceasefire, and whether Israel has actually won or has merely purchased a brief respite, and must be prepared to do it all over again in a couple of years.

The chorus of “victory” celebrations in Gaza was notable by its absence in Israel. There will be much soul-searching and investigation into what happened and why. Did Israel know about the tunnels from Gaza? Have all the tunnels been destroyed or is much of the network still intact? Was there a plan to infiltrate Israel on Rosh Hashanah and cause massive slaughter? And if so did Israel know about it, and if not, why not?

The loss of the PR battle, and the frightening resurgence of anti-Semitism all over the world as a result, is another issue. Israelis tend to discount the necessity to explain their motives, and we are living with the consequences all over the world. Why this has to be so is something that escapes me. Eloquence and the ability to teach facts were always great Jewish skills.

But life goes on and the future continues to be built. Last week I went to the wedding of two soldiers; the bride’s brother Eli wrote a good account of his time in tanks in last week’s Jewish News. The Chuppah took place in the Jerusalem hills just as the sun was setting. The groom’s family comes from Morocco, the bride’s from England. As the guests danced around with great ecstasy and happiness despite the hell some of them had recently been through, I knew that our future is still safe –“Am Yisrael Chai – The Jewish people is invincible”.