The Scribbler

My beloved is celebrating her 61st birthday today. As she enters her 60's, one step closer to hitting three figures, she basks in the glory of the years that have passed her along the way. It hasn't been an easy journey, reaching this 61st anniversary. She has borne many tragedies on her rocky path, but she's still climbing up the mountain, braving the storms, thunder and lightning and overcoming all the obstacles that are hurtled at her on a daily basis. Throughout her 61 years, she has been beaten, battered and bruised, but her friends - her real friends - have been there with her, every step of the way. We, her companions, admirers and devotees know that, despite the harm we may cause ourselves by allying ourselves so selflessly with her cause, it's worth it and always will be. On this special day, the anniversary of your "modern" birth, we salute you and continue to thank G-d for the fact that you are still here and still breathing, emitting a heartbeat th...

"A total of 22,570 men and women have been killed defending the land of Israel since 1860, the year that the first Jewish settlers left the secure walls of Jerusalem to build new Jewish neighborhoods. In the past year, since Remembrance Day 2008, 133 members of the security forces - police, IDF , Border Police, Israel Security Agency and other organizations - have been killed in the service of the state. The last soldier to have died in the line of duty was Capt. Yehonatan Netanel , a deputy company commander in the Paratroopers Brigade, who was killed during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January." This quote can be found on the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. I find it upsetting for many different reasons, not least because it highlights the lie perpetrated by both the Arabs and the media that all the Jews and Arabs who have died defending the land, did so within the last 61 years of Israel's existence. In fact, a fair number had been killed by ...

I have come to the conclusion that often, our Arab cousins have a much better understanding and appreciation of our position than our so called "friends" in the West. This is no more powerfully demonstrated then when reading the following excerpt from MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) which you can also access here . In an article posted April 21, 2009 on the liberal Arab website www.elaph.com , reformist writer Basem Muhammad Habib condemns the Holocaust denial in the Arab world. He states that this trend, which is unreasonable and inhumane, is motivated by political agendas, and by a false belief that empathy for the victims of the Holocaust amounts to a betrayal of the Palestinian cause. He calls on the Arabs to separate these two issues, and to join the world in commemorating the Holocaust, for it was an attack on the very essence of humanity. Following are excerpts: There Is No Connection at All Between the Reality of the Holocaust and What Has ...

I've been digesting the news from around the world for a few weeks and deliberately held back from spewing out the anger that I feel about the injustice that is being purveyed against the State of Israel. I was busy teaching my students instead of doing the following: I didn't get up there at anti-racism conference in Geneva and deliver a vile, racist and rancid rant, on the eve of Yom Hashoah , Israel and the Jewish world's annual remembrance of the Holocaust. I didn't pretend to be a friend of Israel, whilst at the same time encouraging a boycott of good coming out of the country (the Labour Government obviously needs to occupy its mind with other things when its not busy sending out dodgy emails or charging us for porn movie rentals) I didn't spend £20,000 sending a bunch of MP's to a conference where the keynote speaker was a member of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation. I didn't set up a special line to advise anti-Israel boycotters of what produ...

This is great!

As a blogger, I pride myself on the fact that I can write about anything that tickles my fancy. I guess it's lucky that I'm not living in Iran right now. That said, I wonder whether this will go through.

How do I start to describe what's happened since I last posted? What can I write to convey the emotions that have buried themselves inside my biological frame? Should I try? I'm finding life quite difficult right now. I feel that I am at a crossroad, yet, at the same time unable to see the signpost. In one direction,there is the glimmer of a new job on the horizon. I know it's there and I'm excited to jump right in and get cracking. The problem is that the post is across a very long and busy carriageway called the Summer Term. In a week's time, I'm going back to school and frankly, I'm dreading it. The next month promises to be one long pressure pad, from the moment I walk into the school building, until the second my Year 11's walk out at the end of their GCSE's . The pressure I will be under will be almost unbearable and soul destroying - two months of it. Life at home is going to suffer as I will come home tired, harried and irritable. I'll tr...