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Random Thoughts and Observations

I woke in the early hours of this morning having thoughts of Benjamin Netanyahu. Maybe I was having a nightmare about him?

The theme seemed to revolve around a closing scene of the 1960s Jack Lemon movie, The Days of Wine and Roses.

There is a scene in the movie where Joe, played by Lemon sees his reflection in a bar window, and realizes in horror that he hardly knows his own face.

Substitute Lemon for Natanyhua.


Regardless of the outcome of this round of hostilities, Natanyhua is finished. He’s history, toast, reduced to a footnote in Israel’s storyline.

I’m no lawyer but I suspect that there is a case to be made for charging Natanyhua with treason, treachery, dereliction of duty, and disloyalty to the State of Israel.

In several other countries, Natanyhua would find himself up against a wall being offered a blindfold and a last cigarette. In his case maybe a last cigar.

Natanyhua blinded Israel with pink champagne and cigars, and a Camalot feel.

The image I have used with this blog gives me zero pleasure.


A thought-provoking, first-rate opinion article by David Grossman. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his observations, this is a must-read piece for all supporters of Israel.

“Who will we be when we rise from the ashes?” “Novelist David Grossman: Are we capable of understanding that what has occurred here is too immense and too terrible to be viewed through stale paradigms?” https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/who-will-we-be-when-we-rise-from-the-ashes/




A piece of flotsam, who should crawl under a stone and hide, dares to demand.

Where has he been these past years? It’s easy to pass judgment after the fact.

“Ben Gvir demands Netanyahu add another minister to war cabinet to broaden opinions” “National security minister, left out of narrow forum overseeing conflict with Hamas, accuses members, including PM, of having mishandled terror group for years and causing war” https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-demands-netanyahu-add-another-minister-to-war-cabinet-to-broaden-opinions/

The opening paragraphs of this article read:

National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Monday demanded that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu add a minister to the three-person war cabinet, accusing those already on the panel overseeing the war against Hamas of having harbored misconceptions that enabled the terror group to carry out its devastating attack on October 7.

Ben Gvir demanded that the additional member not be from the premier’s Likud party or Benny Gantz’s National Unity, which left the opposition to join an emergency government in the wake of the Hamas assault that killed over 1,400 people in Israel, the vast majority of them civilians.

“As a member of the coalition, a senior minister in the government, and a member of the cabinet, I accepted your unilateral decision on the composition of the ‘narrow cabinet’ which does not include me — the national security minister,” the leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party wrote in a letter to Netanyahu.

“I do not intend to confront you on the matter, despite the fact that it is appropriate that the position of the huge number of voters who put their trust in us and asked us to represent them should be heard in the limited cabinet,” Ben Gvir wrote.



“Rep. Rashida Tlaib triples down on Hamas hospital narrative, casts doubt on findings from Biden admin” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/rep-rashida-tlaib-triples-down-on-hamas-hospital-narrative-casts-doubt-on-findings-from-biden-admin/ar-AA1iJfqo

One can only assume that her glasses are so dirty that she can’t see the truth staring her in the face. There again, just maybe she does not want to see the truth about her beloved Hamas terrorists. She needs to be consoled for her blindness.





Another one who seems to have lost her sight as well as her sense of civility is Greta Thunberg. She also needs to be consoled for her blindness.



Excellent opinion piece by Peter Hitchens:

“Who can seriously call on Israel - a nation the size of Wales - to weaken its defences further by agreeing to the clamour for a two-state solution?” https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12631373/PETER-HITCHENS-seriously-call-Israel-nation-size-Wales-weaken-defences-agreeing-clamour-two-state-solution.html

The five opening paragraphs set the tone for this must-read opinion piece:

Have you noticed that Israel is the only country in the world that gets blamed for being attacked?

And that there are people who loathe it so much that they are actually prepared to defend or excuse the deliberate mass murder of civilians, including old women and tiny children?

There is something deeply wrong with the Western world's view of Israel, and this is not confined to absurd, marginal figures such as Jeremy Corbyn, wandering in the dense jungles of Trotskyism. It is far deeper and broader.

The Western prejudice against Israel is most easily detected in the BBC. The Corporation long ago abandoned its impartiality over many issues, most notably man-made global warming.

But it excuses its refusal to call the child murderers of Hamas 'terrorists', on the grounds that its impartiality is so important.






My response to an acquaintance reminiscing about his activities in 1980s South Africa.

Your remarks took me back to the London of the 1960s; The Swinging Sixties.

In 1962, I attended the Richmond Jazz and Blues Festival. I was fortunate to witness a young Mick Jagger together with Kieth Richard, Brain Jones, and Charlie Watts playing with Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. The four would later that same year be joined by Bill Wyman and form the Rolling Stones.

More, significant to my understanding of the situation in South Africa was the Mann-Hugg Quartet. On Keybroads was a 22-year-old South African Jew, who had recently arrived in the UK. His name was Manfred Sepse Lubowitz. Manfred, who that same year adopted the stage name, Manfred Mann, had I leaned strongly opposed apartheid in South Africa, hence his move to the UK.

During my last year of school and throughout my time in college, I regularly, much to my father's and stepmother's disapproval attended demonstrations in front of the South African Embassy which was, and I assume still is, close to Trafalgar Square. And demonstrations outside the Rhodesian High Commission in Covent Garden.

Heady days.

My father, who was born in London in 1915, had some twenty years later taken part in the routing of the British Fascist movement’s plan to parade through the streets of East London, at that time a heavily Jewish area. He even gave serious consideration to going to Spain and fighting against Franco and his fascists.

And yet, here, 30 years later, his views on South Africa and Rhodesia seemed to have changed significantly. Strange?

My father’s attitude spurred me to put aside the history I was taught in school – we know that history is written by the victors – and understand what the British did in India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and numerous other regions.

Thanks for the time jolt.




Please sign this declaration and forward on. It has been set up by a concerned group of British citizens from a wide range of backgrounds and professions to show solidarity with British Jews against all acts of Antisemitism in the UK and around the world. https://britishfriendsofisrael.org




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