ELKAN’S VIEW 27^TH May 2015

Last week I went with two of my grandchildren (and their parents) to spend Shavuot in Kibbutz Keturah which is in the Negev about 50 km north of Eilat.   Keturah was founded by a group of American immigrants in 1973, and although everything is theoretically in Hebrew everyone appears to speak English.

The kibbutz is in the Arava, the sort of dry desert through which the Children of Israel passed on their way to the Promised Land. One can understand here how difficult and soul destroying the journey was. The heat is dry – it went up 37 while we were there – but the Kibbutz has been planned carefully with plenty of trees, some very thoughtful water supplies, and above all a very pleasant swimming pool where most people seemed to spend several hours in the afternoons.

The kibbutz is also the site of one of the largest solar energy fields in Israel. Sunshine is of course a very plentiful commodity in the Negev, and the land is available. The Kibbutz is also involved in bio-technology, fish farming (at Eilat), and such modern matters as a computer repair unit that operates all over the country.

When Masada was excavated a number of seeds were found, and experimentally these were carefully germinated. One of them produced a Judean date palm and this tree, known as the Methuselah tree and grown from a 2000 year old seed, flourishes in the kibbutz.

Religiously Keturah is observant, but there are members from a number of different strands within Judaism. Over the Ark in the beautiful Kibbutz shul was the verse from Psalm 126 “”Shuvah et shviteynu ka’afikim BaNegev – bring back our exiles like streams in the Negev” which when they flow, do so with force. To those who live there from all corners of the Jewish world, and to those of us who had the pleasure of spending a wonderful Shabbat and Chag with them, this verse which we sing at the beginning of Birkat Hamazon, has particular resonance and relevance. We were living in the middle of the rebirth of the Negev.

ELKAN’S VIEW 20^TH May 2015

One of the most irritating things about Western commentators on the Middle Eastern situation is that they ignore reality and assume that the Arabs are really European gentlemen of a slightly darker hue. Nothing could be farther from the truth and no settlement is possible in the Middle East without an appreciation of this fact.

The Arabs have a long and glorious history. Up to the 13th century they were in many ways the intellectual drivers of civilisation and even to this day the numbers that we use are described as “Arabic numerals” and are really variations on the Arabic alphabet.

But their civilisation works in a completely different and non-democratic way to that in which Christian Europe developed. Arab society is tribal, has loyalty to its particular conception of the Muslim religion (such as the dispute between Sunni and Shia which is currently tearing the Middle East apart), and is comfortable with strong authoritative government. The assumption that the Arabs really want democracy and given the chance will embrace it is simply naive.

The Arab Spring, a concept of journalists more than anything else, has now evolved into a yet more violent and inhumane society.

The same lack of reality applies to commentators on Israeli politics. The fact that Bibi got in with a substantial vote is an indication that there is no overwhelming expectation in Israel at the moment that there can be an immediate settlement with the Arabs. Since there is no one on the Arab side who can sign a peace agreement and make it stick, the urgency to negotiate one has diminished. The incredible Abbas, now in the 11th year of his four year term as president, cannot deliver, is afraid to try, and in any case makes precondition demands which he knows Israel cannot possibly meet. The possibility of an aggressive terrorist state on the West Bank of the Jordan makes any moves in that direction unacceptable to the majority of Israeli voters.

In meantime the situation is stable and we can live with what we have.

ELKAN’S VIEW 13^TH May 2015

I have just lived through two general elections, in both of which I had a vote and in neither of which I voted.

As a citizen of Israel I have a vote in the elections. However I was in England on 17 March, postal voting is not easy to arrange, and I still have no idea who I would have supported. In 2013 it was Yair Lapid, but I’m not sure I would have voted for him this time.

As a citizen of the United Kingdom I have a vote for 15 years after leaving the country which I think is wrong in principle, and I choose not to exercise my right.

Both elections produced unexpected results although possibly both for the same reason.

In Israel it seems that people came into the polling booth, heard “the still small voice” and perhaps reluctantly preferred the leader they knew than the one without experience.

It ought to have been easy for Netanyahu to form a coalition instead of waiting until the last hour constitutionally possible but the outcome of the trading between factions has produced a result that is unsatisfactory. Many good up-and-coming parliamentarians have lost their seats because they were too far down the electoral list. The proportional representation system does not allow constituencies and there is no direct accountability between the citizen and his representative.

The Israeli system, with all the conflicting parties trying to grab what they can for their supporters, is disastrous. Netanyahu’s Cabinet has had to be expanded far beyond what is needed, and will cost much more than the country should be paying.

The result in the UK, although equally unexpected, has produced a government which has a degree of unity, and which is able to move forward with a sense of purpose. In my opinion and viewed from the Israeli perspective, the result is satisfactory, far better than it might have been.

Contemplating what might happen in America in November 2016 has suddenly become very interesting!

ELKAN’S VIEW 6^th April 2015

One of the classic definitions of the Jewish people is that we are “Rachmanim bnai Rachmanim – Merciful human beings, the children of merciful human beings”. Given the fact that during our history as a nation we have been treated with more cruelty and less mercy than anyone else, this itself is remarkable. We have no record in our long history of persecuting anyone else.

Natural disasters however are something totally different. Israel is a country liable to earthquakes – there was a mild one last week stretching from Ashkelon to Eilat. The prophet Zechariah describes the Mount of Olives as splitting “half to the north and half to the south”. In the Musaph service on Yom Kippur there is a prayer for the inhabitants of the Sharon plain, roughly from south of Tel Aviv up to Haifa, that “their houses should not become their graves”. Current building regulations in Israel require houses to be earthquake proofed.

Modern disasters tend to be on a large scale, although this may be simply because we now know more about what is going on in the global village. The recent horrendous earthquake in Nepal has brought out the best in Israeli society. There are more medics on the ground from Israel – some 250 of them – than from anywhere in the world, with its large and now famous field hospital, previously deployed in Haiti, Japan and the Phillipines.

Some of the key personnel have come from the Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem with which I am well acquainted, including the medical director and his deputy. Others have come from all the major hospitals in Israel and form one of the most significant and proud statements of Jewish ethics that can be seen in the world. If there are human beings that are suffering, Israel will try to assist as far as it can. Judaism regards all human beings as having been created in the image of God, and today it is the proud achievement of the State of Israel to extend their care to all suffering humanity regardless of colour or creed.