The hotel didn’t make it
Last week I happened to drive past the Jeremy Hotel in Netanya. You may remember there was a terrorist attack there just before the Passover Massacre in the nearby Park Hotel. A baby and a young man were killed. It’s a small hotel. Religious families often spend their Shabbats there. I know a girl who split up from her husband and he’s been living in the hotel next door, which is the same sort of place. Well anyway, when I drove by last week, it was completely dark. I thought to myself, they probably only open it on weekends, for the religious guests. Last night, erev Shabbat (Friday night) I drove past again. All dark. It must have closed down. So sad.

All the hotels in Netanya are struggling and many are closing down. It’s just that I always look at this one when I drive past, because of the terrorist attack.

posted by Imshin 10:52

The count is up to 12. 4 soldiers including regiment commander Colonel Dror Veinberg; 5 border police fighters and 3 of the alert team from the Jewish neighborhood in Hebron. According to Reshet Bet radio station’s report, the colonel was one of the first to arrive on the scene. He got out of his jeep and stormed the Palestinian terrorists.
posted by Imshin 06:11

Something very bad has happened in Hebron. A shooting incident. Palestinians opened fire on Jewish worshippers returning from the Cave of Makhpela. When the rescue services arrived they opened fire on them too. So far they're talking about at least 11 dead, 20 wounded. These numbers aren't final. It's a long time since the event occured and there should be more accurate numbers by now. Bish reckons the numbers are probably higher. A TV guy just gave the same assumption. They're saying on TV that the Palestinians were shooting and throwing grenades for about half an hour. Ehud Yaari says the Islamic Jihad took responsibility. He explains that the Islamic Jihad is directly connected to Iran and Hizbullah and can no longer be seen as an independent Palestinian organization.
posted by Imshin 21:49

Shabbat Shalom.
posted by Imshin 16:30

Gil has posted a joke.
Must be a man thing, because Bish sent it to me a few days ago by e-mail. I wasn't crazy about it then, either. Bish says I have no sense of humor.
posted by Imshin 11:57

Germans seem to have some issues, too
Group Captain Lionel Mandrake
VC, AFC, RAF (Retd.) has posted a letter written by a German friend. She finds it difficult to understand the British Remembrance Day, which was last Sunday. She says such a day could not be possible in Germany. She says the idea of patriotism is unacceptable in Germany. She doesn’t seem to understand that remembrance days commemorate fallen soldiers, not wars, not militarism.

Can you imagine being part of a people that is so ashamed of its history that many do not feel comfortable to mourn their fallen dead? That the idea of having even a defensive army is abhorrent? That taking pride in their country, with its centuries of considerable human accomplishments (music and philosophy for starters), its beauty, etc, is so unthinkable?

I can understand how they should wish to demonize Israel. It must help them immeasurably to shed off some of their guilt. Look, it’s not just us, they seem to be saying, the Israelis are just as bad as we were and even worse.

This is not in any way backed up by the facts, of course. It’s pathetic. The tormentor finds moral justification sixty years after the fact.

And we thought we were a psychotic people.

It seems they have taken their anti-military and anti-war-at-all-costs sentiment to extremes. Understandable, under the circumstances, but it makes one think. How about dealing with what seems to be a tendency for rigid, extreme behavior instead of blindly rejecting any external symbols that can be perceived as militarism?

I shouldn’t be writing about Germans. The subject brings up strong feelings in me I can’t control. I would like to be noble about it, but I can’t. And I think it’s getting worse as I grow older.

Reading over what I have just written, I realize that many in Israel also dislike so-called militaristic symbols such as the flag and the national anthem, and find them offensive. But people I know who have lost loved ones in war find our remembrance day for the fallen very important. Maybe they take comfort in the fact that for one day, at least, the whole country remembers with them. The loneliness of a war widow in Germany must be terrible. Most were not *bad people*, after all, most were killed in bloody wars that their leaders sent them to.

Later on: When I started writing this post I was feeling truly sad about the fate of Germans and the price they must be paying for their past. I gradually became defensive, as I usually do when Germany comes up. The result is much more aggressive than I meant. I do have anger about the war and about the Holocaust. I recently did a lot of reading about Jewish life in Poland in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. This was round about when I started studying a bit of Yiddish (very popular in Israel, right now). How can we begin to grasp that it was a whole world that was just wiped out? It's not something that was transferred somewhere else. It's gone. It's not something you can ever fully grasp. Like I can't grasp Saddam wiping out whole villages of Kurds. I don't feel it's fair to be angry with present day Germans for what some of their parents and grandparents did to my people. But the anger is there and I'm not sure what to do with it. So it inadvertantly pops out when Germans are around or get mentioned. I shouldn't write about Germans. Then again, I'd probably shelve everything I wrote if I left it for a day or two before posting.
posted by Imshin 11:16

A chance archaeological find of hundreds of Iron Age Philistine ceramic ritual objects in Israel is significant due to the artistic beauty of the items and the fact that they shed light on the Philistines' religious life and customs.

This was on TV. Bish and I were very excited when we saw it and we called our eldest to come quickly and see. We’re so square. We actually thought she’d be interested! She was extremely disdainful that we should disturb her for such a thing.

posted by Imshin 22:20

The terrorists are coming
“It can happen anywhere, any time and there’s nothing you can do about and no way of protecting yourself. So worrying is pointless.” (I’ve summarized but that’s the gist of it). Canadian security experts just doing their bit to prevent mass hysteria. I’m sure Canadians feel much better now.

posted by Imshin 19:40

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. Maybe I can.
Diane of Gotham is hanging up her blogging boots...er...mouse. Oh, Diane, I will miss Gotham very much. It was one of my most favoritest (what, that's not a word?) everyday musts. But I can't blame you. Blogging is a crazy, obsessive pastime.

Fare thee well. (Wolfie, click through, you'll like it).
posted by Imshin 17:40

We're no angels.
Yisrael Harel gives us some food for thought in today's Haaretz. Before you automatically write him off as a lefty, let me just mention that he's one of their two token right-wing commentators (the other one is Moshe Arens). I often find him too right wing for my liking and wonder if Haaretz editors are even aware that there are people who see reality as somewhere in between these two extremes, and that maybe they should be bringing some more mainstream views.

Today Harel replies to members of Kibbutz Metzer who have been blaming the terrorist attack in their kibbutz on the occupation. He assumes they mean the 1967 occupation and not the 1948 occupation, but points out that this differentiation is maybe not so clear to Palestinians. Kibbutz Metzer makes its living, he points out, off the lands of Arabs whose villages were destroyed in 1948. According to Harel, they are the occupiers in the eyes of their Arab neighbors, with whom they take pride in having such good relations. They are even worse than Jewish settlers in the West Bank who built their homes in unbuilt areas, on state land, he says and asserts that there are still people living not far from the kibbutz who claim that these are their lands. Go read it. He says it better than me. Interesting stuff, although I must say, I don't agree with his conclusion.

His article reminds me of Ein Hod. Ein Hod is a lovely, picturesque artists' village, just south of Haifa, that used to be an Arab village called Ein Houd. (Some of?) the original villagers still live nearby in an illegal village with no electricity or running water. I'm not aware of the historic story that brought about this situation. Some of the good-hearted residents of Ein Hod occasionally organize outreach projects for the children of Ein Houd who are desperately poor. This summer I saw on TV that they helped them renovate their school. Sometimes, I hear, they invite them to art exhibitions for children in Ein Hod or organize picnics for the children and parents of both villages. The people of Ein Hod who engage in these activities really are well meaning, peace-loving people, at least the one or two of them that I have encountered are, but, understandably, none of would dream of evacuating their lovely "olde worlde" homes and giving them back to their original owners. And they seem to fail to see the cruel irony of their well-meaning actions.

Maybe the good people of Metzer should be a bit more humble, a little less sure of themselves in blaming "the occupation" for the murderous attack in their kibbutz. Maybe it wasn't an attempt to show that coexistence doesn't work, as the kibbutzniks claim. Maybe someone is trying to tell them that their famous coexistence is a fake. Will they be able to see this? I doubt it. For them, the difference between this occupation and that occupation is existential. It very well could be for all of us.

It's so easy to believe in simple solutions. Even Harel, in his conclusion to the article, says a rapid end to the war is the answer. I think he means by using harsher means, although he is careful not to spell it out.

Ignoring the difficulties and complexities of the situation by both the Israeli left and right will not make them go away. We're no angels, but then angels get to be angels because they are too good, don't they?

Survivors can't be angels, it seems. Take your pick, people. Time for us to be a bit more honest about who we are.

But let us not forget that, with all our faults, we have been the ones prepared to make painful compromises for peace and coexistence all down the line. It was the Palestinians who turned us down again and again. 1948 was avoidable. 1967 was avoidable. 2000 was avoidable. All were forced on us.

[By the way, I hadn't noticed before, that the Ohayun family were not kibbutz members, they just rented their small home there. This being the case, the kibbutz members could hardly be seen as speaking in the name of the Ohayun family, but they could be seen as speaking in the name of Yitzhak Dori, the kibbutz secretary, who was also killed in the attack.]

posted by Imshin 17:00

Israelis’ right to life
Amnon Rubinstein is right to the point, as usual, in his article in Haaretz in which he denounces human rights organizations' inability to get priorities right. This is the reason, he says, that the "Human Rights Watch"' report that condemned Palestinian terrorist suicide attacks was so surprising.

The surprise stems from the difference between the behavior of Human Rights Watch and that of similar organizations that have distorted the concept of human rights in two senses: First, they did not distinguish between a primary right and a secondary one. A person has a right to life, as well as a right not to have his letters opened. Both rights are important, but they are not equally important. The right to life precedes all else; since without it, there are no other rights.

This elementary distinction has been forgotten, such that many reports focusing on human rights - including those from the UN Human Rights Commission - make no distinction between the primary and the secondary, between countries in which human life has no value, and countries that do not strictly enforce all the eavesdropping laws. A large number of these organizations suffer from a total conceptual confusion, which has been intensified by the modern viewpoint that there are no absolute truths, there is no hierarchy of values, and everything is relative.

The second mistake of these organizations - in Israel and abroad - is that their position was not determined by the extent of damage to human rights, but rather by the identity of the party causing the damage. Strong whites are subject to condemnation, weak non-whites are immune to it.

posted by Imshin 16:57

Can’t help loving a world leader who comes right out and says what everyone else is pretending they’re not thinking (and saying in private). And how he says it!
posted by Imshin 23:26

Polly Toynbee went to Afghanistan to see if it was worth it.

It was.

She tells UK Guardian readers:

Who would not be moved by the sheer enthusiasm of those girls returning to school, determined to catch up on their studies? I saw the utter terror of the women who stayed indoors for years rather than risk random beatings, and their joy at escape.

She warns that Afghanistan's new found freedom is very delicate and needs more help from the West than is currently being supplied, if it is to last.

posted by Imshin 23:19

Ilana has some more things in Sharon's defence.
posted by Imshin 17:43

When tired sleep, don't blog.
Never blog when tired. Never blog when angry. Definitely never blog when tired and angry and after watching a bereaved father bury his four and five year old children who have been slaughtered in their beds.

I've told myself this again and again, but I never listen.

Rebecca Blood says it is unethical to alter a post. Hence, update apologies. Meryl Yourish says that these would not be necessary if you manage to not post when angry (I can’t find the exact post). So true. But for that to be possible I'd have to quit my job.

Igor admonished me for going too far with my harsh description of the far-right. He's right, of course.

Diana Moon wonders if extremist settlers are really as unpopular as I say. Probably not.

Who am I to be talking in anyone's name, but my own, anyway?

I have read on American right-wing blogs, and elsewhere, that lefty anti-war-with-Iraq sentiment is all part of some sort of Marxist conspiracy. Lefties think the right is made up of warmongering fascists.

The thing is we don't know what's right. Nobody knows. Is there any one answer to anything? Is there really any one path, which, if taken will bring an end to all, or even most, or even some, ills? Can we ever say that about anything? The results of any action can always be interpreted as being a success or a failure alike, depending on your point of view. You can always blame anything you like as the cause of all ills. No one can really prove if this is accurate or not. It's all speculation, even with the benefit of hindsight.

Religions come along and tell us: This is the right answer. How do we know? Because God told us so. But God has apparently appeared to all sorts of people and told them all sorts of conflicting things. So whose God is the true God? Ours, of course.

Let's take the middle way, said the Buddha, but where does that pass? My middle way is your extreme right. Your middle way is my extreme left. Take away today’s left and the middle becomes the left. Take away the right and the middle becomes the right.

And we all chatter on, because that's what we do. Round and round and round in circles. What's the point?

Well, it passes the time, for one thing.

As long as we don't start believing it means anything.

Right or wrong, good or bad, everyone ends up in the same place. Only the good die young, goes the saying, but I know of so many not so good people who have died young. At least 35 people were killed by tornadoes in the U.S.A. this week. I don't suppose the tornadoes checked out who was good and who was bad. Life is dangerous. There is a 100% mortality rate. No one is saved.

So I'll keep on chattering on this blog. Just don't take me too seriously. Tomorrow I may very well be saying the exact opposite of what I was saying yesterday.

posted by Imshin 17:02

Avi Ohayun, father of Matan and Noam.
There is something about Avi Ohayun. Everything he says is so powerful and
immediately reduces me into tears. And he says quite a lot, and all on TV.
Bish says it's obscene and that they shouldn't be showing it on TV. But Avi
works on TV. He's a film editor or a cameraman or something.
They all know him personally. If he didn't want them to film they wouldn't
film. On the contrary, it seems like he really needs them to be there, to be
filming it, for everyone to witness his pain. Everyone deals with pain
differently, I suppose. The way he shouts out his pain for all to hear, it makes me think of
Iyov (Job).

posted by Imshin 16:30

Sharon the failure.
Yoel Marcus from Haaretz is the latest to wonder why Sharon is so popular, against all odds. The left just can't work it out. They regularly come out with the impassioned cry that Sharon has been a drastic failure on all counts. How is it, they ask with pathos, that he has such popular support when he has not only done nothing to alleviate the problems in security, economy and so on, as they see it, but the situation has become far worse because of him? It's entirely his fault, you see. In this sterile laboratory we inhabit, there are no external influences. No war, no Arafat, no terrorists murdering little children in their beds. It's all down to Sharon. What we need is negotiations with the Palestinian leadership. Give them hope, that's the ticket. Of course, Sharon will kill them all, if we let him. We know this. It's a proven fact. So why, oh, why can't the stupid, uneducated masses see it?

The far right don't get it either. Sharon's a wuss. This isn’t whom we voted for. Bring back the real Sharon. The Palestinians are murdering us freely and we do nothing. Sharon’s inaction is making things worse and worse. We know the answer: What we need is to kick Arafat out and then blow them all to kingdom come, or blow them all to kingdom come and then kick Arafat out. Those murderous bastards. We’ve got to show them who's boss.

But maybe the uneducated masses understand what the far left and the far right fail to understand: That Sharon's way is the only way possible.

The simple logic, clear to the stupid, uneducated masses, but that intellectuals seem quite blind to, is that if we renew negotiations with the present Palestinian leadership, the Palestinian people will see this as a great victory, a sign of Israel's imminent defeat, the best incentive to continue the war. They're breaking, they're breaking. They can't take it, those weak Jews. Just a few more dead, and we'll be there.

On the other hand, it doesn't require a pacifist or a peace activist to grasp that the indiscriminate bombing of Palestinian towns and cities, for instance, would be abhorrent and abominable. Israelis would not be happy with this, to say the least. This could create the very breakdown in Israeli society that Arafat and his cronies are hoping for. This has not happened because we Israelis have our limits. Even the stupid, uneducated Israeli masses can’t accept massacres. And can you imagine the effect pictures of hundreds of thousands of people, being turned out of their homes and put on trucks and buses, will have on Israeli households (even those with stupid, uneducated masses inside), in the unlikely event of the so-called population transfer the furthest-right call for, coming to pass? Why are the settlers in Hebron and on the hills so unpopular among Israeli moderates, both right and left? Because they seem to have none of the moral inhibitions even the stupid, uneducated masses have. I've even heard a religious West Bank settler I know, calling them crazy fanatics.

This, by the way, has little to do with what is said about us outside of Israel. The outside world is outraged regardless of what we do or don't do. We have become completely desensitized to their one-sided cries of "atrocity, atrocity!" even when justified (Where was the outrage, yesterday, of the cold-blooded slaughter of two small children in their beds?).

The far left sees Sharon as a murderous criminal. The far right sees him as too restrained and inactive to be effective, thus failing to protect Israel properly.

But Sharon carefully, oh, so carefully, treads the middle way, refusing to be pressured or blackmailed by either side. And neither the left nor the right seem able to understand why the great majority of the Israeli public is so relieved and grateful for this.

"Don't worry," said a very right wing co-worker of mine, when I conveyed to him my fear that Bibi Netanyahu would be voted as the Likud Party leader at the end of this month and not Sharon. I was amazed, certain that at least he would be rooting for Bibi.

The left underestimates the Israeli electorate, of course, made up as it is of the stupid uneducated masses. Don’t worry, when the time comes, we will vote for a government that will know how to make peace, as we have done before. Now we want a government that is not afraid to wage war, but that doesn’t go overboard. Sharon has proved he is the one who can do it, if not perfectly, at least adequately. In this part of the world, that’s a great deal.

These days, what we need most is patience. A lot of it. Not known to be a particularly Israeli characteristic. Both far right and far left seem to be most lacking.

Oh, and they can try and persuade us that Israel’s ruined economy is Sharon’s fault till they’re blue in the face. We know the truth.

posted by Imshin 23:24

Is the blood of West Bank settlers’ children less red?
The very left-wing UK Independent manages to see the atrocity of Israeli children murdered in their beds, if their parents political views are the right ones. Does this mean that little Danielle Shefi’s death in similar circumstances is not so awful?

posted by Imshin 23:22

Israeli pre-school kids slaughtered in their beds. The world couldn’t care less.
Israel TV is talking about 45 specific (as opposed to general) warnings of planned terrorist attacks. Commentators are talking about the proverbial blanket being too short to cover all the terror planning centers, without calling up reserve soldiers. TV is showing a video of little Matan and Noam, taken by their dad just last week, swinging on swings while wishing their grandparents a happy anniversary. Everyone else, all the foreign channels, have forgotten, already. Moved on. More important news takes precedence. Those poor kids didn’t even make the evening news. Now they’re saying Israel has killed a Palestinian two-year-old in Rafiah. Shot by soldiers. Maybe he was throwing the mortar that fell on Netsarim. The world is watching Blair speak live.

I’m getting crazy. Time for bed.

posted by Imshin 00:03

Four-year-old Noam and five-year-old Matan were cowering in their beds, when they were shot dead.

WHO DOES SUCH A THING?

A new initiative by Ribbity Frog calls to Save the Children by contacting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and asking him to set up an investigation into Palestinian war crimes against Israeli children:

SAVE THE CHILDREN
The current United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is Sergio Vieira de Mello.
His address is: OHCHR-UNOG, 8-14 Avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland.
His telephone number in Geneva is (41-22) 917-9000.
His fax number is (41-22) 917 9010.
Every reader and every blogger should phone him up and ask him when he is going to investigate this war crime against children.

I suggest we all send his details to everyone we know.

Update: My heart breaks for Avi, Noam and Matan's father. He cries how can he say Kaddish for two sons when he is only 34?

posted by Imshin 18:55

Kibbutz Metzer: 5 killed, among them a mother and her two children (4 and 5 years old).

Yes, let’s talk about Israel’s obligations
The comparison of the harsh interrogation of dangerous murderous terrorists, for the sole purpose of preventing further murders, to the torture of Jewish Iranian tradesmen is not a fair one. Can you really compare torture in Iran to what happens here? Are these societies that you can compare so easily?

You agree yourself that those Iranian Jews probably posed no threat to anyone. We’ve seen what happens when Israel eases up on the terrorists. Israel has an obligation to uphold the human rights of the Palestinians. But Israel also has the obligation to protect its innocent civilians going about their lives. No, Israel has an obligation, first and foremost, to protect its innocent civilians going about their lives. Terrorists, who would readily give up their lives to kill Israelis, are hardly going to spill the beans if we ask them nicely.

I have two young daughters. They are sweet and innocent. They have never harmed a soul. My husband lovingly gave my eldest daughter a nickname connected to Mahatma Gandhi, because she is such a peaceful child, who from a very young age served as a mediator between friends who were quarrelling. We have helped them learn to honor those different from them and that the Palestinians are our honored neighbors and friends. They draw doves and sing peace sings.

But their lives are constantly in danger. Tell me, would you not shake terrorists, and worse, to save their pure blameless lives? Are their lives not worth protecting? Would you have us all slaughtered as the mother and her children in Kibbutz Metzer, last night?

By any standards, in the situation Israel finds itself in, whatever your views are and however you think it should be solved, Israel has dealt with terrorists far less harshly than all her neighbors. And I do believe that if any Western European country found itself in the exactly the same situation as Israel, it would be far harsher in it’s dealings with terrorists.

If you call Israeli interrogation tactics atrocious, you have no words left to describe what happens regularly (even with regard to criminal offenses) in the prisons and interrogation rooms of every Arab country and many other countries the world over. The Palestinians themselves have proved to be far, far crueler to their own people than the Israelis ever have been.

Palestinian parents readily turn their sons over, by the dozens, to Israeli security forces, to prevent their perpetrating suicide bombings. They know they will be better off in Israeli prisons and interrogation rooms, than at the hands of their Palestinian commanders, if they fail to carry out their missions. Of course, they would be better off in Israeli prisons, than dead. That goes without saying.

Many say, that if we had done to the Palestinians what the Syrians and the Jordanians and Egyptians and the Libyans and the Iranians and the Saudis (Not to mention the Iraqis), and even the Palestinians themselves, have done to their own people, and continue to do on a regular basis, we would not have a problem of terrorism at all.

OK, you say, but you judge us with different standards. You expect more of us. That, sir, is pure racism. Are you implying that Arabs are not capable of behaving like human beings?

You blame alleged Israeli torture as pushing the tortured Palestinians to become terrorists, increasing their hatred and incentive. But Palestinian terrorism began long before 1967, even before 1948. Even before the Palestinians existed as a separate entity, in fact, and refused to see themselves as anything but Syrians. The horrific suicide bombings, as we now experience them, nearly daily, began when the Oslo Accords where at their highest point; when Israel was retreating from large parts of the territories; when Palestinians had more hope than they had ever had and had not yet learnt that Palestinian rule could be much crueler than Israeli rule. And you forget, The people we interrogated so atrociously, as you claim, were already terrorists, when interrogated.

It always “amuses” me that people say: “you cannot do such and such because it will increase the Palestinians’ hatred”. So they don’t already hate us? So they didn’t already hate us in1929 when they massacred the Jews of the ancient Jewry of Hebron? We weren’t torturing them then. So if we don’t do anything to protect ourselves so as not to infringe on anyone’s human rights, will they love us then? If we unilaterally cease the occupation; dismantle all the settlements; give in to all the demands we already gave in to in 2000 and more, meaning: let all the Palestinian refugees come back to the long-gone houses that their grandparents once occupied in Haifa and Yaffo; make sure not to build any fences so as not to prevent anyone getting into Israel freely and so as not to hurt anyone’s feelings, will they love us then? Do you promise? And what if they don’t? Will you come from America to save my girls? Who will save my girls then? Who will save other mothers sitting in their homes in the Kibbutz, their little children sleeping in the other room?

posted by Imshin 06:23

When Jorg Haider visited Iraq and met with Saddam, he didn't really meet Saddam…
This amusing UK Guardian column (it’s got everything from ridiculing charity balls to jokes about Jewish mothers) tells of the latest BBC “Panorama”, which explains all about Saddam look-alikes. Scroll down, it’s on the last two paragraphs, unless you really want to read about literary festivals in posh English villages.

posted by Imshin 22:06

What is it with BlogSpot that I can never link to the exact post I want to?
Ribbity has posted the great “Bad Sir Brian Botany” by A.A. Milne. It reminds him of someone…

posted by Imshin 21:33

Isn’t this just typical?
At last, I arrive on time at the public library to return my books. No more guilt at being late. This is the new, better me.

But what’s this? Why are the curtains drawn? It’s closed of course. They’re on strike, aren’t they?

Have you had the pleasure of meeting our local Stalin look-alike? Get a load of him here.

posted by Imshin 20:14

Love is all you need
Janice Turner shows UK Guardian readers how social activists become nosey, meddling pains-in-the-neck, when they grow up. Beware of your local anti-globalists. They’ll soon move on from spraying McDonald’s to shouting at you for leaving the car engine running, while dropping your kids off at school. It’s happened to me. It can happen to you. I quite agree we should switch off, if we’re stopping for more than half a second, but having it yelled at me at a quarter to eight on a Friday morning (my free day), by a threatening-looking, fuzzy haired lady in a big home-knitted sweater, brandishing a big black umbrella, and piercing me with a self-righteous glare (Oh, and have I mentioned the snappy little dog?), only provoked me to push my foot down on the gas pedal and glare back, to spite. I’m as petty as they come. (Oh, an enemy! Does that count as valor, Mr. Mackay?)

posted by Imshin 19:53

YES, I'LL MARRY YOU
by
Pam Ayres

Yes, I'll marry you, my dear,
And here's the reason why;
So I can push you out of bed
When the baby starts to cry,
And if we hear a knocking
And it's creepy and it's late,
I hand you the torch you see,
And you investigate.

Yes I'll marry you, my dear,
You may not apprehend it,
But when the tumble-drier goes
It's you that has to mend it,
You have to face the neighbour
Should our labrador attack him,
And if a drunkard fondles me
It's you that has to whack him.

Yes, I'll marry you,
You're virile and you're lean,
My house is like a pigsty
You can help to keep it clean.
That sexy little dinner
Which you served by candlelight,
As I do chipolatas,
You can cook it every night!

It's you who has to work the drill
and put up curtain track,
And when I've got PMT it's you who gets the flak,
I do see great advantages,
But none of them for you,
And so before you see the light,
I do, I do, I do!

[Dedicated to my dear, long-suffering Bish]

posted by Imshin 16:43

As cold as ice?
We've been getting to see quite a bit of Amram Mitzna lately. He's one of three candidates competing for the head of the Labor Party. Right now he looks like he's going to win.

Why don't I like him? Is it because I don't agree with his views? I don't think so. There are a few Israeli politicians with whose views I disagree strongly but can't help liking, and vice versa.

There is something cold and hard about Mitzna that I don't fancy. I don't remember noticing it before. It could be nerves, it could be that he's not accustomed to TV and radio performances yet. Somehow I don't think so. He's been in the public eye as Haifa's mayor for years, and before that, as a high-ranking army officer.

I've heard that, as a commander in the army, he was known as a dedicated professional but not a people's man and not well loved by his subordinates.

Maybe he should keep public appearances to a minimum, so as not to scare away voters with his chilly, supercilious demeanor. Brrrr.

posted by Imshin 16:11

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