Greetings from England, where the sun doth shine!! No, honestly, it really is shining. Since I arrived late on Thursday night there has been barely a cloud in the sky, temperatures have been in the mid-20’s (centigrade, not Fahrenheit), and the so often grim and grey British Isles are a resplendent, vivid array of lush green fields, brilliant blue sky and stunning spring flower displays.

Normally at this time of year (especially as it is Easter Bank Holiday), the weather remains drab and cold and people shiver along in the hope that in May, June, or July they might be lucky enough to enjoy a week of unbroken sunshine. Whether it is or isn’t down to global warming, the last two weeks have been a fabulous treat for the Brits who have been racing to empty the bottom drawer and get out all those T-shirts and shorts normally only reserved for duty during high summer or a continental holiday.

When the sun shines, my part of England – Yorkshire - is as beautiful a place as you can imagine. The ‘Golden Triangle’, (as the area between north Leeds, Harrogate, and York is often referred), sees rolling hills, cows and sheep grazing happily in the sunshine, stunning blossoms and flowers splashed across a scene that is true picture postcard. But aside of the weather, it seems that there is very little to be cheery about in Britain at the moment as the economic downturn continues, people live in fear for their jobs, and large tax rises and cutbacks to public services show no sign of being eased.

Driving in through downturn Leeds at midnight on Thursday my first impression of the area that was once home to the town’s immigrant Jewish community but is now populated mainly by Afro-Caribbean and Asian families, was one of lockdown. Every shop and public building, and I mean every shop and building was encased in floor to ceiling metal shutters to protect against vandalism. Many shops had ‘Closed Down’ or ‘For Sale’ signs on them and the feeling was of a place that had little hope to offer. It was a fairly grim entry to the city, but the sights began to improve as we ventured further north.

Britain, along with most of Europe and North America, is in the grip of one of the worst recessions in living memory, and yet much troubled Israel is an astounding economic success story in recent years, despite all its much publicised problems. A couple of friends had recommended a book to me called ‘Start-Up Nation’ by Dan Senor and Saul Singer, and I commend the book to you now as a ‘must read’ explanation of the Israeli psyche and the explanation of how Israel has become something of an economic powerhouse, particularly in the hi-tech industries.

I began reading the book on the flight over here and finished it yesterday. It explains in terms that are easy to understand (even for a technophobe like myself), the rationale behind the huge impact Israeli start-up business have had on the modern business environment and why the society structure in Israel, in particularly the compulsory army service where many soldiers are trained to an astoundingly high level, is the breeding ground for revolutionary business and technology ideas and a dazzling spirit of entrepreneurship. It also documents Israel’s frailties and is written with tremendous insight and understanding of the subject.

It is fair to say that ‘Start-Up nation’ leaves one with the impression that creating new businesses is undoubtedly the national sport of Israel.


Back here in Britain I received a phone call yesterday morning from my friend Adam inviting me to join him and his daughter Ellie to watch Leeds Tykes play the Harlequins at Headingley in a ‘must win’ match for the Tykes. They are currently bottom of the table in rugby union’s Premier League and had to win to have a chance of staying in the top flight. On a glorious day, I passed through the stunning Sir Leonard Hutton Gates (in memory of one of the all-time great Yorkshire cricketers), to Headingley sports stadium, a sports complex that also includes the legendary cricket ground.

The last time I had been to watch rugby there was with my grandpa in 1978 when Leeds RL were top of the tree in the halcyon days of Rugby League. Returning to the ground after more than three decades, standing on the West Terrace in warm sunshine brought memories flooding back. It must have been around 1976 when I had been at the very same ground standing alongside Grandpa not far from the centre line, close to the touch line, when Leeds played Hull KR. Leeds had charged down to the opposition line and were driving forward trying to score in a very tight game in front of at least 20,000 fans on a cold winter’s day, when a pass went astray and the Hull KR winger Clive Sullivan, (who I believe was one of the very first black players to play the sport professionally), intercepted the pass and began to sprint to the other end of the pitch.

I can still recall in my mind’s eye the speed with which Sullivan moved. I have never seen anyone move so fast. He flashed by me in his red and white shirt pursued by the blue and yellow of the Leeds team who had no chance of catching him. He was a superb athlete and one of the fastest men ever to play the game. Tragically, Sullivan died in 1985 at the age of just 42, from cancer.

Leeds Tykes are a poor excuse for a rugby team. They lost 38-3 and had neither the talent nor the will to win against a much better side, but the atmosphere amongst the crowd was great and I got to meet the Leeds Tykes mascot, a man dressed up as a giant dog in a rugby shirt, who took exception to me mentioning (politely) that his fur might just need a trim!

On leaving the rugby we ‘popped in’ to the cricket ground a few yards away where Yorkshire were playing Holland in a limited overs match. Holland had made 190-something and I looked forward to seeing Yorkshire smash the ball around against inferior opposition. After three overs Yorkshire had slumped to 15 for 3 and we decided that I must be a jinx and left the ground to give the local side a chance to recover.

All this took place on Easter Sunday, the second holiest day of the year in the Christian calendar, but there is no doubt that Britain’s religion these days is sport. Be it football, rugby, cricket, horse racing, tennis, golf or anything else, this is what makes the Brits passionate. It’s an amazing tradition and a delight to be part of, but will it help pull the country out of the mire and get Britain back on track?

Maybe the 2012 London Olympics will be just the economic boost and tonic to public morale that is needed to kick start the British economy once again? Or maybe a cover to cover read of ‘Start-Up Nation’ might just as likely inspire the type of sporting passion that has made Britain a world leader in the sporting field, into a front-runner once more in the business and economic fields as well.

This week I’m doing a ‘John Craven-style’ Newsround, catching up with a few of the stories that have been making the headlines over here in recent days. 

Israel’s Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein finally announced that he plans to file an indictment against the controversial Foreign Minister and leader of the powerful Russian party Yisrael Beiteinu, Avigdor Lieberman. He is to be charged with (amongst other things) money laundering, harassing witnesses, breach of trust and fraud.

The leader of the right-wing secular party polarises opinion in Israel and abroad. His ante-Arab stance and his far from diplomatic use of language have endeared him to few beyond the borders of this country where people (and the mainstream Israeli media) have long suspected that the former Moldovan nightclub bouncer is mixed up in some rather unsavoury deals. There is no doubting Lieberman’s power though. The current government of Bibi Netanyahu is in power only through the support of his party and Netanyahu, in his lust for power was prepared to close his eyes to the dangers Lieberman might pose to Israeli democracy and agreed to offer him the Foreign Minister’s job, a role in which Lieberman has proved a national embarrassment and a considerable danger to Israeli international legitimacy.

Few people will be sorry if Lieberman is sent for trial and found guilty, on one hand a sad reflection of the quality of person currently occupying prominent position in Israeli politics, but once again proving the independence of Israel’s judiciary and investigative authorities in bringing even the most powerful in the land to book, and even, like former president Moshe Katsav, sending them to jail. Most countries around the world can only dream of having such a strong legal framework that can deal with corrupt politicians that blight on politics around the world.

The uneasy truce between Israel and Gaza has held for about a week but surely won’t last and the south of Israel is bracing itself for a military confrontation in the very near future. One tremendous thing to come out of the recent escalation of violence however is the proof that Israel’s ‘Iron Dome’ protection system really does work and is possibly the most significant step forward in defensive warfare in modern history, and I choose my words carefully. It is extraordinary.

For the first time ever a country can defend itself without having causing casualties to people on either side of the conflict. Put simply, when an enemy, (in this case Hamas) fire a missile towards Israel, the Iron Dome system latches on to the incoming projectile and despatches a counter missile, not to blow up the people on the ground or the enemy hardware, simply to latch on to a coordinate and blows the missile out of the sky. No-one gets hurt and Israel stays safe. However, Iron Dome only deals with short range low flight missiles, and so Israel is soon to roll out the ‘Hetz’ and the ‘David’s Sling’ systems that will do exactly the same job but are designed to counter low-flying Cruise missiles and, if necessary, those ballistic missiles that go out of the earth’s atmosphere and will intercept such dangers many miles above the earth. It’s Israeli technology and ingenuity at its finest and my understanding is that already an astounding number of countries around the world are clamouring to buy themself such a system.

On a related theme, the United States is to formally ask the UN to rescind the Goldstone Report, the document that made Israel international pariah’s but which even the author himself, Richard Goldstone, now accepts was grossly inaccurate, biased, and drew incorrect conclusions about Israel’s intervention in Gaza in 2008.  The world is quicker to condemn Israel without considering the facts of the matter than any other nation and automatically assumed Israel had acted properly. It is time now for an apology to be issued by the UN, but I very much doubt that will happen. The power of the Arab and pro-Palestinian block should ensure that.

The eight-day festival of Passover begins on Monday evening and across Israel and in Jewish homes all around the world families will gather to enjoy the traditional Passover meal and read the Hagaddah; the story of how the Hebrew slaves escaped the clutches of Egypt’s Pharoah and freed themselves from slavery, eventually ending up in the Land of Israel some thousands of years ago. I was saddened to read that while Israel is perceived (and indeed is) a prosperous country, it is estimated that more than 25% of Jews living in this land will struggle to afford even the most basic foods to put on the Passover table.

There are those that say that the sign of a progressive, free market economy is the unfortunate but inevitable growing gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. I don’t see that as anything to be proud of. Just because this is the way in most countries of the world doesn’t mean that poverty in a rich country is acceptable.  There are rich Jews (amongst whom many are philanthropists of great note), but it shouldn’t be forgotten here are a lot of poor Jewish people as well.

And finally, am I getting old or is Justin Bieber’s music really crap! It was always the older generations telling us that our modern music was all noise, no melody, or proper rhythm, but the arrival this week in Israel of teeny pop idol Bieber has brought out the generations old feeling that this younger kids stuff is really awful.

Apparently 21,000 screaming kids, mostly between the ages of 8 and 18, went to see the American teenager in Israel’s Park HaYarkon this week, paying an average of 500 shekel (90 pounds) per ticket. It was impossible to hear any music above the screaming, which in a contrary way, was probably a blessing in disguise, as having listened to his computer generated ‘oo, oo, oo, ah, ah, ah, baby, baby, oo, oo’, drivel, I suspect that the screams probably did the genuine music lover a favour in drowning out the durge. Thankfully, both my daughters think he’s rubbish as well so I didn’t have to face down any request to buy them extortionate tickets!

That’s all for this week. Have a Happy Passover and Shalom From Israel.