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.

ELKAN’S VIEW 29th April 2015

Israel is a Jewish state which means that sometimes there are Jewish ways around problems. I got caught in Jerusalem some years ago doing something in the traffic that I most certainly should not have been doing. An unnoticed policeman waved me over, so I tried the usual ploy of claiming that my Hebrew wasn’t good but he spoke excellent English. The policeman explained what I shouldn’t have done, fined me 250 Shekels, said that since it was almost Rosh Hashanah he wouldn’t give me any points, and wished me a Shanah Tovah which I heartily reciprocated!

Sometimes things do seem to get out of hand. I parked free outside my son’s flat in Tel Aviv for the first day of Pesach. Later on the Saturday night -Second Seder outside Israel – I came out to find I had got ticket, issued at 8.50 pm, for parking in an area reserved for local residents.

As I left Netanya this week I received my demand for car tax for NIS1826 – just over GBP300 – which is a little steep considering I drive a hybrid. I have to pay the bill and then wait for another demand through the post which shows that the bill has been paid. I then take that and the car for its MOT, which will be another GBP60, and seems to involve a great deal of duplicate paperwork.

Often Israeli systems can be very efficient. I went to visit a friend in the gigantic Tel Hashomer hospital this week. When I came to leave I had lost my parking ticket and expected problems. Not at all! The voice at the other end of the machine asked me my registration number, told me exact l when I had come in, the machine issued me a replacement ticket, and I was on my way for the standard price.

And when I got to the airport this week, Cellcom sent me a text asking if I had remembered my passport and boarding card!

ELKAN’S VIEW 21st April 2015

I am writing this on the afternoon of Wednesday 21^st April, Yom Hazikaron, the day of national memorial for the 23,320 Israeli soldiers who have fallen in the defence of the state. Last night at 8 PM, as happens every year on Yom Hazikaron, the siren sounded throughout Israel and the whole country came to a halt. That was repeated again at 11 o’clock this morning and like many people I was thinking of those for whom the siren commemorated for the first time the son or brother or husband or fiancé who fell in Operation Protective Edge last summer.

The mood changes this evening, and as in Jewish communities throughout the world mourning gives way to joy. We have paid a very high price for our state and we continue to pay it. Like so many others I hope that my grandchildren don’t have to go to war to protect their freedoms but in an increasingly uncertain and unstable Middle East that is probably too much to hope for.

But what an amazing state we have produced! A world leader in so many things that require intelligence. Every time you pick up your computer, or avoid traffic using an app on your smartphone, or benefit from a range of amazing medical advances, you are benefiting from products of the State of Israel.

And it has some other unique features. Israel is the only place where more women fly F-16s then drive cars in Saudi Arabia, where army reservists are commanded by officers younger than their own children, where an entire country comes to a halt to mourn those it has lost, where there is a remarkable diversity of Jewish dress behaviour and practice, where Arabs are allowed to vote in a democratic election. It was David Ben Gurion who said “in Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles”.This is something that we all experience here on a daily basis.

And long may it continue thus. Israel is really “Reshit tzemichat geulateynu – the first flowering of our redemption”. I am proud every day to be part of it.