Dear Mr Cameron,

First, I would like to belatedly congratulate you on your success at the General Election in May and on your efforts to provide stable and good government for the people of the United Kingdom through your coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

It can’t be easy being the Prime Minister at the moment at a time when you are having to bring in austerity measures that are going to hit your people very hard indeed over the next five years - at least. I fully understand your need to reach out to as many people as possible in a bid to appease the financial hardship that will come to pass in the near future, and also your attempts to establish yourself as a pivotal figure on the international diplomatic stage.

Though you constantly deny it (and ‘methinks he doth protest too much‘), I am absolutely certain that there is a high foreheaded determination on your part to be nothing less than the equal of a certain PM Blair, whose mannerisms and style of verbal communication you so uncannily resemble. Certainly Mr Blair made some errors of foreign policy, but to the best of my recollection he didn’t manage to brush up so many people the wrong way in the manner you have achieved in such a short space of time.

That was a bit of a howler wasn’t it, suggesting that Britain was the junior partner to the US in 1940 during WWII, of course a year before the Yanks even joined the war effort and long after Britain stood alone against Germany during the Battle of Britain. You certainly scored a shocker of an own goal there. I see you’ve managed to alienate Pakistan as well, just at a critical time when it is essential for US, British and other intelligence services to maintain the best of relations with the fragile Muslim democracy, in the quest to limit the effects of international terrorism. But not to worry, at least in fawning over the Indians you’ll manage to conclude business deals with the emerging giant that will doubtless cost more British jobs not very far down the line.

And then there was your recent visit to Turkey, about whom your praise was nauseatingly gushing as you stood shoulder to shoulder with PM Erdogan. Remember Dave, Erdogan is the man behind the oppression of the Kurds in the east of his country and a heartfelt supporter of the IHH, the terrorist inclined organization who duped the peace campaigners heading to Gaza last month and inserted known Islamic militants into their midst. Allying yourself so closely with a man who has reached out to Syria and Iran as his two new best friends in the region could be a very dangerous game to play. Mother always told me that if you play with fire you are likely to get burned. We’re having a whip round here to get you a pair of asbestos gloves!

And your comments on Gaza being a “prison camp”. In handing the Turkish leader such a gift of a PR gem you might have ensured your suitcase home was filled with Turkish delight, but you have enraged not only Israel, but a surprising number of other countries around the globe. If Gaza is a “prison camp” as you so subtly describe it, then it would only be fair to say that Hamas are the most evil of prison camp guards. All the suffering and misery brought upon the people of that tiny coastal strip falls squarely at the feet of their own terrorist leadership.

Dave, you seem to have forgotten that Israel unilaterally left Gaza in 2005 as a magnanimous peace gesture, only to find that the volley of missiles and rockets increased dramatically once they had withdrawn. Far from Hamas, (who went to commit the mass murder of their political rivals Fatah in the territory during the following year), accepting the move as a way to a genuine two-state solution, they even more vehemently insisted that that there would only peace in the region if Israel was destroyed and the Jews driven into the sea.

I notice that your Foreign Secretary William Hague, a man who has taken at great deal of time over the years to genuinely familiarize himself with the nuances of the region and who has a genuinely pragmatic view of the way forward in the Middle East, has failed to come out with the same type of rhetoric as your good self. I’d suggest that maybe a crash course on how to tread a successful diplomatic course in this area would do you the world of good.

Or maybe, you were just grandstanding to your coalition partners the Liberals, a party whose only thinly veiled anti-Israeli (and some might suggest in the light of dear Jenny Tong’s comments not so very long ago, anti-Semitic leanings), have been well documented. Maybe dear old ’Cleggie’ had a word in your ear before you departed for Ankara and suggested, ‘Listen Dave, whenever you get the chance, put the boot into Israel ’cos we’ve got to keep these Muslim chappies on side. Wouldn’t want any trouble over here, if you know what I mean.’

And then, having made a bit of an arse of yourself one way or another whilst on your Grand Tour, you find that Cleggie’s been stitching you up in your absence, suggesting you misled your own party in the frenetic negotiations to form a coalition government a couple of months ago and sold out your own colleagues.

If you want my advice Mr Prime Minister, concentrate a good deal more on problems in your own back yard, problems you have some inkling of how to deal with them, and leave maters that you clearly haven’t given enough thought to professional diplomats and negotiators who understand the genuine sentiments on the ground.

PS. I don’t suppose you caught the grand launch of Gaza’s first new hi-tech shopping mall last week . Looks lovely - for a prison camp!

　

　

　

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It's several years now since I was last in the beautiful city of Barcelona, truly one of the most enjoyable cities I've had the pleasure of visiting. When discussing art and Barcelona in the same breath, it is somewhat inevitable that you think automatically of Gaudi, a man whose influence on the capital of Catalonia is almost everywhere. 

Although it's still a work in progress, his Sagrada Familia, the extraordinary cathedral that draws millions of visitors every year to marvel at the architecture and breathtaking beauty of the project, is something to behold. So too is the stunning Park Guell, up on the hillside overlooking the city, and the Gaudi designed buildings in the very heart of the city centre draw gaping admirers at all hours of the day.

For those not quite so enamored with Gaudi, many people trek half way around the world to experience a tremendous collection of works by Pablo Picasso at the Museu Picasso de Barcelona which is housed in the La Ribera Palace. I have to confess that Picasso had never particularly 'turned me on', his paintings often being a little too bizarre for my unrefined taste, until a visit to the museum, moving through his various periods of professional development was tremendously enlightening and most enjoyable. I found myself marveling at the quality of his earlier, more formal work, both as a painter and as a sculptor.

Now, you're probably wondering why on earth I've come over all 'arty' and am rattling on about a dead Spanish genius. Well, it's because this very evening, without having to go through security checks, flight delays and currency exchange,  I had dinner with Picasso here in my home town of Zichron Yaakov! 

I should explain. A couple of years ago a new restaurant opened in town called 'Adama' (which means 'earth' in Hebrew). It's located in a very pretty part of town and is housed in what was once an old cowshed. Lovingly restored and elegantly decorated and furnished, Adama soon built up a good reputation and has carved a niche for itself both locally, and further afield.

Last year a terrible tragedy struck the owners of the restaurant when their teenage son, Gal Azoulay, was killed whilst training with the elite Shayetet navy diving unit in the port of Ashdod. It transpired that a fault in the diving apparatus he was using caused him to suffer oxygen poisoning and he could not be revived. The terrible loss was borne with tremendous dignity by Gal's parents, and the popular restaurateurs received a great deal of support from the local community .

Not long after losing their son, a couple came to dine at Adama and were most impressed by both the food and surroundings. After striking up a conversation with owner Deganit Azoulay, they casually suggested that maybe the restaurant might like to host an exhibition of some of the paintings they had at home. Having been approached before by various local artists of varying abilities and not taken up their offers, Deganit once again did her best to politely move the conversation on, until the couple, (who remain anonymous), mentioned that their collection contained works by Marc Chagal, Modigliani and, Pablo Picasso.

At this point Deganit began to wonder if the couple were, shall we say, living in a world of their own, but it soon became clear that they were deadly serious and for reasons known only to themselves decided that they would make their collection of ten Picasso sketches and drawings, and one bronze sculpture, available without charge to Adama to exhibit to their paying customers. 

And so it was that a probably priceless collection of works of art by one of the most celebrated and sought after artists in the history of the world came to adorn the walls and central dining area of a former cowshed turned restaurant in Zichron Yaakov and was gazed upon by yours truly whilst I tucked into my starter of a platter of smoked aubergine filled with minced beef, tehina and lentils, which I promise you was delicious.

Together with our friends Rami and Yael, Paz and I enjoyed a very good dinner this evening from a creative menu that certainly tested the boundaries of regular cuisine, in parallel with the works of art around us. The food was unfailingly interesting, although Rami's spare ribs in a coffee-based sauce challenged the taste buds to some degree, rather in tandem with the bronze bust of a woman that Picasso had created in the 1930's which gazed rather bulbously across at us. She might not have been a supermodel in her day, but surely she couldn't have been that ugly in real life!

I'd never taken the time to read up on Picasso and so never quite understood just why he created human faces out of perspective, with one half of the head often painted significantly higher than the other, almost as if the artist was drunk when he took up his palette and brushes. As it happened, Rami had suffered a nasty headache earlier in the day and, whilst on the subject, enlightened me to the fact that Picasso suffered many terrible migraines throughout his life, and that whilst in awful discomfort his vision and perspective became warped and he perceived the human face drastically out of symmetry. So, that is one explanation as to how his pictures, lauded by art critics and the general public for nearly a century and the extraordinary artistic style he created, came to be.

Apparently the couple who appeared at the restaurant and donated the Picasso collection to Adama for the season are now considering a further exhibition of works by Chagal. I look forward to viewing the next season of international works of art and having my taste buds challenged at the same time in the comfortable surroundings of our very own local 'art' restaurant. I'd say it's a class or three above the normal restaurant art where superimposed pictures of James Dean, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe, propping up a bar together tend not to be out of the ordinary.

Who needs Barcelona when you can have Zichron Yaakov any time?!  

  

  

  

 

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Two very different stories for you this week; the first about a potentially exciting development in Israeli media outreach, and the second, an uplifting story that restores faith in human nature.

First, I doubt many of you will have been gripped with excitement at the prospect of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu briefing the Knesset's State Control Committee on Monday. This kind of meeting is invariably a media non-event, but on Monday 'Bibi' put forward plans to change the landscape of Israeli media outreach, a plan that I have suggested for years now could make a big difference in how Israel is perceived by the outside world.

Now, I'm not suggesting for one moment that the PM has been listening in to my conversations and has filched my brainwaves, (there would me much to 'filch' on a regular basis, believe me!), so let's just say that on this occasion, we are both thinking along the same lines.

If you switch on your digital TV these days and start flicking through the myriad of news channels, you will come across a host of international stations broadcasting 24 hour news in English from the perspective of their particular domain. Here are a few examples:

1) The Brits have BBC News 24 and SKY News
2) The Americans have CNN, Fox, NBC etc
3) India has the STAR TV news service
4) China have their own station, rather amusingly (in view of their state obsession with monitoring people) called CCTV
5) The Arab world is famously represented by Al Jazeera
6) Russia has its own 24-hour news channel in English
7) Even the French, who generally don't like having to lower themselves to speaking our language, have France 24
8) And the word is that even Iran is contemplating a 24-hour English news channel to sell their idea of what's going on in the world

I have long been of the opinion that it is essential for Israel to enter the 24-hour digital news age and offer our own perspective on the matters that directly affect us, as well as all the major international news stories. The channel would also be a suitable vehicle for showing Israeli culture, arts, cooking and tourism programmes and would redress the imbalance in the impression of the overwhelming majority of people unfamiliar with our country, that this is not a place where you have to wear a tin hat to go to the shops, that has bomb sites all over, and is only marginally more fun than North Korea on a good day –do they have good days in North Korea?

To be fair to Bibi, he suggests taking the idea a stage further and broadcasting separately in English, Hebrew and Arabic. That's a good call. Although it will be very difficult, just exposing the Arab speaking world to unedited Israeli perspectives of the issues in the region might at least make some people think twice about their long held beliefs and prejudices.

So, this is probably the right juncture for me to put in an early job application to the Israeli Broadcasting Authority:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a native English speaker who moved permanently to live in Israel 3 years ago this week, (no card necessary, but a pat on the back for surviving this far wouldn't go amiss)!

I have many years, (very many years) experience as a broadcast journalist in the British media in television, radio, internet etc, and would very much like to be considered for the role of roving reporter for any potential culture/food programmes based in Israel, for the new 24-hour Israeli channel.

As far as 'fressing' goes, I'm up there with the best of them, and really like sampling foods from all culinary backgrounds, (especially if someone else is paying). I was once a fairly accomplished musician, am familiar with many arts and cultural areas of interest, and would be happy for you to provide me with tickets to plays, concerts and art galleries whilst finding the time to say a few words 'on camera' to make it all worthwhile, or, (at a push) joining in on the clarinet or saxophone to play us out over the credits with a couple of choruses of 'Sweet Georgia Brown' in F major, or 'Sunrise, Sunset' in A minor.

I have already thought of a name for the programme – 'Alster's All-Star Israel'. Catchy hey!

Please contact and sign me up at your earliest convenience, to avoid disappointment.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Alster


Second, (and in brief), I would like to offer my thanks to the lovely Arab lady who so kindly came to the rescue of Paz, the kids and I, when I managed to get us lost whilst taking a 'short cut' to avoid a traffic jam on Route 6 but found myself instead in the middle of the Arab town of Baka al Garbieh.

After trying to explain to me how to reach the next junction of the motorway to avoid the crowds, she offered instead to guide us there, even though she was heading in the opposite direction. After a 15 minute drive through back streets and farm tracks she led us to the slip road back to the motorway. We thanked her profusely and she said it had been her pleasure, she hoped we all had a wonderful weekend, but she must rush because her patients would now be waiting for her.

Whether she was a doctor, nurse, physio or acupuncturist, I don't know. But she was tremendously kind and generous with her time, and we were all very grateful to her for seeing us safely on our way.

Good things do happen between Jews and Arabs in this land, but unfortunately it's the bad news that people seem to want to hear and that invariably puts more bums on seats.
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Earlier this week the south Lebanon-based terrorist organization Hizbollah (backed, of course, by Iran and Syria), lost its spiritual leader when Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussain Fadlallah passed away on Sunday at the age of 75. It probably won't come as the greatest surprise that his passing was marked with few if any tears here in Israel or, (I hope) in most of the democratic countries of the world.

Fadlallah was an interesting, complex man admired by the many that followed him as man of charisma and of progressive views in some areas of Islam. He was relatively liberal (as Ayattolah's go), in his views on women, passing down edicts to allow the fairer sex to wear nail polish at prayer, banning female circumcision and granting wives the right to hit their husband back if he hit them first.

Sadly, his progressive views stopped whenever the matter of the State of Israel was raised. He inspired many suicide bombers and had been on the US list of wanted terrorists from as far back as the mid-1980's when he was allegedly involved in aiding and abetting the kidnappers of US citizens in the Middle East. He was passionate about the need for a violent armed struggle against Israel and took delight at any instance of Israeli blood being spilled, regardless of whether or not the victims were soldiers, women, children, the elderly or the infirm. Truly a man of religious conscience and decency, wasn't he?

Fadlallah was noted for his promotion of education in Lebanon and in Shia areas of the Middle East, a commendable quality, save for the fact that in all the institutions he supported, above and beyond the regular daily classes taken by children around the world, he designed the indoctrination of a generation of Muslims and a desire to hate Israel and kill Jews that seems to the impressionable youth attending these classes to be the most natural and correct thing to do. Only last year the Grand Ayatollah issued another fatwa warning of dire consequences for anyone who even suggested the possibility of the normalization of ties with Israel .

Fadlallah was instrumental in inspiring, supporting and planning military conflict on the northern border of Israel, a policy he was doubtless looking forward to testing again in the not too distant future as his militia have undergone extensive re-arming in the four years since the last Lebanon conflict. He is understood to have supported the taking hostage of the staff of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, and of the bombing and consequent loss of 300 lives at the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983.

As recently as March 2008, Hizbullah's Al Manar TV Channel aired his response to the suicide bombing of a yeshiva in Jerusalem, a terrorist act that killed eight young Jewish students, in which he said, "…the heroic operation in Jerusalem proved that the mujahedeen in Palestine are able to hit the Zionists hard."

  Like so many misguided religious leaders before him, Fadlallah would always find a way to justify his violent beliefs by taking passages of the quoran and tailoring them to fit his own needs. For example, when interviewed by the Beirut newspaper Daily Star in June 2002, he said. "Basically it is haram (prohibited by religion) to kill oneself or others; but during jihad (holy war or struggle for the sake of Islam), it is accepted and allowed, as jihad is considered an exceptional case."

Bearing all the above in mind, the reaction to his death from Octavia Nasr, Middle East editor of CNN was particularly distasteful. On her Twitter page, Nasr, who is meant to be an impartial journalist representing a supposedly impartial major media company, wrote: "Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah... One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot."
 
In view of the perceived bias against Israel demonstrated by so many media organizations, it has been somewhat refreshing to learn that CNN moved swiftly to distance itself from Nasr's comments, immediately sacking the veteran journalist on the grounds that "her credibility had been compromised". Good for CNN.

Clearly regretting her faux pas and accepting the lack of thought given to her Twitter from one in a position of such influence in the media, Nasr commented on Tuesday, "Reaction to my tweet was immediate, overwhelming and provides a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East." Indeed. Better to think before you Tweet!

Following the recent removal of the influential veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas for her comments that Israel should "get the hell out of Palestine", and Jews should go back to "Poland. Germany.... and America and everywhere else", there does seem to have been the odd ray of hope of late that some fair play might be seeping back into the reporting of the delicate and sensitive issues surrounding Israel and the Middle East.

Britain's Daily Telegraph has long been a source of irritation to Israel and the British Jewish community, being perceived as fervently anti-Israeli and at times, arguably even anti-Semitic. Refreshing then to read their executive Foreign Editor Con Coughlin's reaction to the passing of Fadlallah, stating in his opening paragraph,

Don’t be fooled by all the tributes that are pouring out following the death in Beirut at the weekend of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the so-called spiritual leader of the radical Shi’ite Muslim militia Hizbollah. The U.S. State Department’s classification of Fadlallah as a terrorist was spot on, and when you look back at his track record you can see he was right up there with other infamous terror masterminds, such as Abu Nidal and Carlos the Jackal – Daily Telegraph, Jul 5, 2010.

The Telegraph's reaction is particularly interesting as in 2002 they printed a feature interview with Fadlallah, generally perceived to be sympathetic to his views, which carried a quote from the Ayattolah as the headline of the piece, trumpeting, "We could provide a million suicide bombers in 24 hours" – Daily Telegraph, Sept.4, 2002.

Of course the overwhelming majority of the Arab media has been gushing in its praise for Fadlallah, but I do think there are a few signs of light on the horizon to give some optimism that people are looking a little beyond the headlines in considering the case for both sides in the conflict here.

Let's hope that the light on the horizon doesn't prove to be another false dawn.
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Like all Israelis, the overwhelming majority of Jews around the world, and millions unconnected with this tragic drama, I can't wait for the day when hostage Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is released by the despicable Hamas regime.

Shalit's incarceration has dominated the news and the thoughts of so many for four years now, since his kidnap on the Gaza border in 2006. His plight is the nightmare of every family here, families who see their sons and daughters join the Israeli army and who, regardless of whether they are religious or not, pray in whatever way they see fit, that their children will come back safe and sound.

Gilad Shalit's fate therefore resonates with everyone in Israel as we are all in this struggle together.

The Israeli people have watched Shalit’s parents have their hopes raised and dashed time and time again, especially some six months or so ago when, following the publication of a video of their son, there did appear to be significant momentum behind the negotiations to secure his release. 

Once again, having apparently been on the brink of a deal, Noam and Aviva Shalit, a couple who have campaigned tirelessly all over the world with tremendous dignity as they seek to persuade governments and leading officials across the globe to do anything they can to help the negotiations and allow medical access for Gilad (something that has been denied him so far but is granted as standard procedure for Palestinian prisoners in Israel), are having to mark another traumatic anniversary of their boy’s internment.

Recently, I sat down to watch the local Israeli news and saw a trailer for an article about a small group of Israelis opposed to negotiating his release, and vehemently opposed to offering a prisoner swop for Shalit (a process of negotiation that if suspended would almost certainly cost the 23-year-old his life), I prepared to be disgusted at this small-minded, selfish and misguided interest group.

The story though, raised a number of significant questions that I had, thus far, failed to give sufficient consideration.

The protest group came from an organization representing the families of victims of terror - parents, brothers and sisters, widows and widowers, and the children of people blown up by fanatical Palestinian suicide bombers, and those murdered in drive-by shootings or random attacks by terrorists over the last 20 years.

Their argument is that (much as they too want to see Shalit returned safely to his family and friends), the handing over of up to 1000 Palestinian bombers from both Hamas and Fatah, murderers, aiders and abettors to murder, and others who have committed heinous crimes against Israel and Israelis, is too high a price to pay for the return of just one man.

They warned that if these 1000 prisoners are handed over, a significant number will return to bomb and kill again and that, tragically, the members of their organization (the families of victims of Palestinian terror), will grow significantly in number.

Put in such terms, the Israeli government is clearly on the horns of a real dilemma. If they don't do everything possible to bring Shalit home alive, the majority will surely turn against them and the willingness of parents to offer their sons and daughters to the army will be seriously challenged.

However, if they choose to give up 1000 Palestinian terrorists and murderers to secure Shalit's release, the government is setting a precedent that (i) could encourage more kidnappings of Israeli soldiers, and, (ii) could rebound disastrously if any of the released prisoners return to wreak havoc and death on the streets of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa etc.

This nightmarish scenario on both sides of the coin has left me struggling to come up with a satisfactory solution to this awful dilemma.

What price freedom?
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