tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36076758707160177462024-03-14T06:14:00.446+00:00HerodComments and MemoriesWalterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-89033307073327190392012-08-10T22:04:00.000+01:002012-08-10T22:04:30.360+01:00The Nukeib Action 1962<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
<i><b>Introduction: </b>My interest in this Israeli military action stems from my personal participation in it. </i><br />
<br />
<i>In 1959 I was enrolled for my compulsory national army service. This had been deferred until after I had completed my medical studies in Jerusalem and had graduated. In this way the army gained qualified doctors for two and a half years - at the derisory conscripts’ salary.</i><br />
<br />
<i>After a short course of military medicine, I was posted as Medical Officer to battalion 12 (‘barak’) of the Golani Brigade. I had become 214600 lieutenant doctor Yitzhak Loebl. My work consisted mainly of inspecting the camp's hygiene and sanitation and dealing with the young soldiers' fairly trivial routine medical complaints. After a year, I was promoted to become the Brigade Medical Officer, with the temporary rank of captain. It was 1962 and my army service was due to end some months later.</i><br />
<br />
<i>The following article was published 50 years later on 25.04.2012 in <a href="http://ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4220156,00.html" target="_blank">a special illustrated edition of the ‘Yediot Achronot’ newspaper</a>. Ruth is a 'friend' of Alon, a kibbutz member of Ein Gev. She found the item in his Facebook and forwarded it to me. I translated it from Hebrew and added some more details from the web plus my explanations – [they are shown in brackets].</i>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>REVENGE, HEROISM AND FAILINGS ON THE KINNERET</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>JUBILEE OF THE ‘SNUNIT’ [SWALLOW] OPERATION</b></span></div>
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“The Syrians have been fishing in the Sea of Galilee” shouted the newspaper headlines of 11 March 1962. “The Syrians have continued their provocations in the Sea of Galilee. Syrian fishermen penetrated the lake’s waters at its north-eastern shore [in more than 10 boats] and fished [for over 4 hours] under the protection of the Syrian military positions. As before, the Syrians first fired on the Israeli fishing boats [using machine guns and recoil-less canons].<br />
<br />
This further infringement of the cease-fire agreements between Israel and Syria was recorded in the operations diary in the office of the Chief of Staff. The clash about the sovereignty over the lake at the foot of the Golan Heights, which had been looming for a long time, was only a question of time.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer3/2012/04/23/3883992/111_wa.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer3/2012/04/23/3883992/111_wa.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yediot Achronot newspaper cutting of 11th March 1962</span> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Israel kept warning repeatedly. Again and again they conveyed messages to the Syrians through the U.N. that they are playing with fire, and that there will be no avoidance of a sharp and painful response that will paint the border in bright red blood. Yet the violations continued, the Syrian fishermen cast nets in the water of the lake, shots were fired at the Israeli guard boats and at the fishermen of Tiberias at the height of the fishing season. The Armed forces, commanded by Zvi Tzur, were asked to prepare an operational plan for a retaliatory action – and the file of the “Snunit” operation was placed on the desk of the prime minister and defence minister David Ben Gurion 50 years ago.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3803419/6_a.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3803419/6_a.jpg" width="320" /></a><i>Signboard: Mitzpeh Nukeiv [View of Nukeib]. (Top left corner: the oak symbol of the Golani Brigade). </i></td></tr>
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<br />
The green light was given on 15th March 1962, following the latest Syrian action. “This was again a planned Syrian provocation”, wrote Major Mordechai Shai, operations officer of the Northern Command, in his report to Meir Zorea, Commander of the northern sector – part of the file of the operation which has been disclosed courtesy of the military archive. “Immediately after the previous provocation the Syrians expected a response from us which seemed to them inevitable. We assume that they interpreted the absence of response as our weakness and allowed themselves repetitions of the provocation. If it were to be decided not to respond, the result would be the loss of our standing in this sector - in the eyes of our fishermen, and of the Syrians”.<br />
<br />
That very night, the retaliatory action was on its way. Chief of staff Tzur handed the baton of command to the Golani [infantry] brigade, under the command of Motta [Mordechai] Gur. This was a precedent for the army – a large retaliatory action that was not allocated to a parachutist brigade. The target was the [Syrian] army post of Nukeib and the village of that name, overlooking the Sea of Galilee.<br />
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/02022009/2093035/D360-087_a.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 5em;"><img a="a" alt="" border="0" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/02022009/2093035/D360-087_a.jpg" title="" />
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<td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3749279/Davidi_sharon_a.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 5em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3749279/Davidi_sharon_a.jpg" /></a></td><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer3/2012/04/25/3887534/1_a.jpg" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer3/2012/04/25/3887534/1_a.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
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<td style="text-align: center;">Rehav’am Ze’evi<br />
(Gandhi)</td>
<td style="text-align: left;">Arik Sharon (on the left)<br />
during a different Action</td>
<td style="text-align: center;">Yaakov Dvir: not<br />
located to this day</td>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3804518/014_wa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://www.ynet.co.il/PicServer2/13062011/3804518/014_wa.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Briefing before the action. The photographer received a medal</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Removal of an injured soldier during the battle</span></td></tr>
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No less than 19 ‘mentions in despatches’, ‘recommendations of honour’ and medals were awarded after the action. The unwritten equation according to the tradition of the defence forces suggests, that the number of decorations that are awarded is in proportion to the amount of errors and blunders.<br />
<br />
From the very first minute, the intended clean surgical reprisal turned into a noisy clash, under heavy fire from fortified Syrian forces. Although the Nukeib action was recorded in the annals as a success - Golani had accomplished the goals that it had been set and proved that human resolve can be almost limitless - the price in blood was heavy. Seven fighters were killed and another is still listed as ‘missing’.<br />
<br />
“Very quickly the business became complicated”, remembers former major-general Shlomo Gazit, who was the deputy commander of the Golani brigade at the time. “We had no element of surprise at all. The fighters did perform their task – the position was destroyed. But from a national point of view, such an action, at such a price, was not justified in those circumstances”.<br />
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The armistice agreement determined that the border between Israel and Syria should run at a distance of 10 meters east of the Kinneret and that the Syrians should have no fishing rights. But the rich fish stocks, at the estuaries of brooks flowing into the lake and the pumping installation, induced Syrian fishermen, backed by their army, to violate the agreement – to cast nets and “to paddle” in the lake. Israeli protection boats patrolled to prevent this and removed the Syrian’s fishing nets. The Syrian army, thanks to their topographic advantage, repeatedly attacked the Tiberias fishermen and fired on the Israeli protection boats from their positions at Nukeib and Kursi.<br />
<br />
<i>[Israel was at a double disadvantage as a result of the 1948-9 armistice agreement with Syria: Not only did the Syrians on the Golan heights have a clear view (and easy range) of the Israelis fishing in the lake, but the territory east of the lake was demilitarized and out of bounds for the Israeli military.] </i><br />
<br />
Historical research points to another Syrian motive for breaking the armistice agreement – the political instability in Syria following their military coup, and their struggle vis-à-vis Nasser’s Egypt. In those years Syria and Iraq were conducting negotiations for contracting a military pact. The increasing Syrian confidence in their national power and their realisation that a firm line against Israel would assist their internal stability – all these motivated the Syrians to seek an escalation of the hostilities - and to be prepared to pay the price.<br />
<br />
<b>To break the monopoly of the parachutists</b><br />
<br />
March 1962 was the climax. After the firing on the Israeli protection boats on the 15th, despite Israel’s sharp warnings, it was clear to the area military staff that the telephone call [from the ministry of defence] might come any minute – and it did. Operation “Snunit” to conquer and destroy the positions of Nukeib and Kursi was launched. Motta Gur had been appointed as the commander of the Golani brigade exactly for just events. Until then it had been customary for reprisal actions to be carried out by the parachutists’ brigade. When Ben Gurion asked the Golani and the parachute brigades how long each would need [to prepare] for such an action, Gur answered enthusiastically “today”. The parachutists would have needed four days. Thus, recount the fighters of that event, the die was cast – the operation was Golani’s.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U9qE7jNaScs/UCVzqdCrYEI/AAAAAAAAAOA/KgrV9x_QQq4/s1600/Facsimile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U9qE7jNaScs/UCVzqdCrYEI/AAAAAAAAAOA/KgrV9x_QQq4/s1600/Facsimile.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Facsimile of the operations order courtesy of the Army archive. It is classified as ‘most secret’. It lists the following participating units: the infantry, the navy, armour [tanks], artillery and floodlight</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"There was no time for preparations"</span> </td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Motta Gur divided his force into six teams.<br />
<b># Force A</b> under the command of Tzvika Offer, the head of the Golani special reconnaissance unit, was responsible for occupying the Nukeib position and blowing it up.<br />
<b># Force B</b>, which included a unit from the school of commanders under the command of Beni Inbar, the school’s commanding officer, was responsible for occupying and purging the village, and also demolishing the observation post to the south of it.<br />
<b># Force C</b> under Uri Shilo, the commander of battalion 51, would be a reserve force, riding on ten half-tracks, for use as an extraction unit or to assist the fighters.<br />
<b># Forces D and E</b>, part of them recruits who had been in the army four months at that point, under Yehuda Gavish the commander of battalion 13 and his deputy Moshe Gat, were responsible for isolating the battle zone and blocking and removing any Syrian reinforcements.<br />
<b># Force F</b>, the mortars regiment 334, will wait in Ein Gev for development.<br />
<b># Avraham Vered</b>, a photographer of ‘Bamachaneh’ <i>[the official army journal]</i> also joined the force.<br />
<br />
The <b>naval force</b> consisted of 20 fighting men. They were meant to occupy the Kursi position. But the higher command expressed their reservations about the task, fearing an early detection that would neutralize the element of surprise. That night there was a full moon illuminating the lake. “The navy on the eve of the action raised doubts about the possibility of executing the action” said Yitzhak Rabin, head of operations and the deputy chief of staff, at the investigation that took place a few days after the action. “But on the day, they still rolled the matter forward”. The air force also had their reservations, based on the meteorological forecast of clouds that would hinder their ability to back up the fighters.<br />
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The plan had been submitted to the minister of defence <i>(Ben Gurion)</i> weeks before, but the details of the action were kept secret until the very day. The forces were briefed on the ground, but most had little time to study the task and all its components. “The forces set out to the area with the units of Tzvika [Ofer] and Beni [Inbar] knowing what they had to do. The commanders’ knowledge of the area was not bad, but that of unit A was ‘so – so’,” said Gur at the investigation. “There was no time for preparations”, says today Ya’akov Even, the deputy commander of Force B.<br />
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Sketch map of the action.<br />
<br />
'Blocking force 2'.<br />
Trenches - bunkers.<br />
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The army post.<br />
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<br />
New Nukeib village.<br />
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Position that was blown up.<br />
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Machine gun ambush.<br />
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Anti-vehicle minefield.<br />
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<br />
Old Nukeib village.<br />
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The routes taken by the forces<br />
Beni (dashes left)<br />
and Tzvika (solid curved)<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">At the bottom – northern building of Ein Gev.</span></td></tr>
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“When I reached Ein Gev I was shown a picture – the size of a postcard. That was the map of the action. On the map the intelligence officer pointed to a field of beans on the route leading [northward] from Ein Gev in Israel to Syrian Nukeib. Hours later the fighters would realize that this field of beans was a field of mines.<br />
<br />
The intelligence collected towards the action missed something else – information that turned out to be critical for the action from the moment that it began to get complicated: [It was not realized, nor investigated] that the Syrian forces were well prepared [and alert], as a result of their assumption that Israel would have to respond. The enemy forces turned out to be larger and much more determined than the Israelis expected. The Syrian soldiers demonstrated stubborn resistance. The element of surprise was totally absent.<br />
<br />
According to the brigade’s operations diary, which was on file in the archive, the forces received confirmation at 21.25 and started to move. Force B under Inbar marched first, climbing the slopes towards the village of Nukeib. Already along the way the force encountered firing from a position in the village. The surprise vanished. Yaakov Even, Inbar’s deputy, was sent to clear that position, and simultaneously the force of Inbar began its assault. A group of Syrians soldiers started to run away, and not before they had managed to warn the adjacent position.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Platoon commander Judah Peled, who was seriously injured, being evacuated</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">"All the trenches opened fire"</span></td></tr>
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Force A commanded by Ofer heard the shooting from the village clearly. “The sector began to wake up”, Ofer related at the de-briefing. “I heard the clash of Beni’s force below, but of course that was not part of our task. We started quietly to get nearer and tried to penetrate the target. But the intensity of the shooting grew, the exchange of fire turned into a battle”. Force A Suddenly noticed a horde of people streaming down the slope in flight. “Herds of sheep, women and children started to flee”, described Ofer. “Civilians started to intrude between me and the target”.<br />
<br />
“They were waiting for us”, remembers Zeev Kishon, a fighter in Force A. “We lost the element of surprise when we encountered an ambush on the way to the army position. From that instant the entire sector woke up. The civilians who started to escape separated us from the target and there was nothing we could do. We were instructed by radio not to shoot until the last civilian had passed. That gave the army post more time to get organize and to wake the entire sector”.<br />
<br />
<b>When the commander falls to the ground</b><br />
<br />
At that moment the post opens heavy fire on the force of Ofer. “All the trenches began shooting, including tracer bullets. With the first shots I sustained an injured commander. The fighters were shocked when they saw their commander fall to the ground. Ofer the commander grasped the situation immediately and before the soldiers could develop paralyzing shock, he ordered an assault. As he led his force towards the post, they mingled with the crowd of civilians who were escaping from the village.<br />
<br />
Ofer and his men reached the trenches of the post. They discovered that the Syrian positions were well fortified and the enemy number was greater than they had expected. Whoever stepped forward was hit by the gunfire. Each bend in the trench required its own battle. [Ofer’s men had insufficient magazines [five each] and grenades. Ammunition was passed forward along the trench to the active fighters. And they also used the weapons of the dead Syrians.]<br />
<br />
At 23.21, according to the action diary, Ofer called for help and requested the extraction of a wounded soldier. “I am subjected to strong fire”, he reported to the command in Ein Gev. “I cannot outflank on the right. Stubborn fighting in the trenches, from the direction of the village. I am being fired on, I have many wounded”.<br />
“Are you continuing” Ofer is asked. “Yes, continuing” he replies.<br />
“Beni cannot help yet, but he will soon”, the command replied.<br />
<br />
A minute later, at 23.22, the command instructs Force C (the half-tracks) to move and help to occupy the army post. [Only nine half-tracks had reached Ein Gev in time, and one later shed its track]. Commanded by Uri Shilo, force C left Ein Gev. On their way <i>[north]</i> they crossed the bean field that separated the kibbutz from Nukeib. That revealed the mistake – one half-track struck a mine. Very quickly the force realizes that they were caught in a Syrian minefield. Due to the urgency of the action, no mine clearing personnel had been included. The half-track of the commander Shilo also struck a mine, he was injured and lost his hearing. “I told my commander that we shall enter some 70 to 80 meters and skirt around it” Shilo’s deputy said at the de-briefing. “I reckoned that we might have to throw some stones <i>[to trigger the mines?]</i>; but while I was still considering, we struck a second mine”. The help force itself now required help and extraction by the civilian tractors of Kibbutz Ein Gev, [and Ha’on and Tel Katzir. One of the tractors also struck a mine].<br />
<br />
<b>‘Mivza Arnevet’</b><br />
<br />
Simultaneously, the fighters of Flotilla 13 were on their way across the Kinneret from Ginossar <i>[kibbutz on the western shore of the lake, opposite Ein Gev]</i> to Kursi. “During the last briefing - reported the navy commander Yochai Bin Nun at the de-briefing, “I received a phone call from the regional commander that the <i>[infantry]</i> force had encountered an ambush and therefore the element of surprise will not have a big chance”. The moon shining on the sea rendered the fighters particularly exposed. “The Kinneret was like a shining mirror”, Gazit remembers, “the Syrians saw everything”.<br />
<br />
When the fighters neared the shore, the Syrians fired two coloured rockets. Still, the swimmers were instructed to enter the water. “Confirmation for immersion arrived” related the flotilla commander Shapira. Then shooting began towards the fighters, and the factor of surprise was lost. The naval action was cancelled before it had even begun. Under fire, the fighters returned to their boats and left the area. <i>[This episode was later called unkindly in navy circles the ‘rabbit operation’ – Mivza Arnevet]</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>Extraction of the half-tracks from the minefield – from the de-briefing recordings</b><br />
<br />
Force B commanded by Inbar completed the clearing of Nukeib village after a bitter battle. When Inbar heard of the trapped half-tracks, he suggested to Motta Gur that he combine with force A, under the command of Ofer, and overpower the post where exchanges of heavy firing were taking place. In the fog of the battle, when it seemed that everything was being disrupted, the resourcefulness of Inbar and Ofer brought the task to its successful completion in the end. While they were on the move, they modified the task, and fixed a common boundary for their actions to avoid mutual shooting. Inbar’s deputy, Even, told the de-briefing: “I got to the edge of the trench of the post. Five or six soldiers lay <i>[at the bottom]</i> on their sides with their weapons pointing upward and whenever we advanced they covered us with a salvo. I felt a rustling near my ear. I pulled the safety pin and waited until there was only a second to the explosion”.<br />
<br />
<b>The overpowering of the Nukeib army post - from the de-briefing recordings</b><br />
<br />
The Nukeib post was occupied and blown up. The fighters then made their difficult way out. In the absence of the half-tracks, which were stuck in the mine field, the wounded were evacuated carried on stretchers – all under an artillery barrage that constantly ranged and pin-pointed the fighters. [As the soldiers moved towards Ein Gev,] the shelling advanced towards the kibbutz and the heavy bombardment also hit other settlements in the region. [Some 2,000 shells were fired by the Syrians during the action.] The command wanted to launch the air force to silence the shelling, [and 3 (or 5) Vaotour aircraft* were launched. Two batteries of 120 mm mortars were also used.] But dense clouds interfered with the accuracy of both the aircraft and the artillery.<br />
<br />
<i>[*Sud Aviation – French. Israel was their only foreign customer. They purchased 28, withdrawn in 1973.]</i><br />
<br />
The evacuation back to Israel took a long time. Half-tracks that could not be extracted were stripped of their weapons and blown up, but four were salvaged by the Syrians and exhibited as loot in Damascus.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
At 05.25 the operations officer reported that “Beni and Yossi have passed Congo” – the code for Ein Gev. The action was complete.<br />
<br />
<b>Where is Ya’akov?</b><br />
<br />
In Ein Gev the work of treating the 43 wounded was progressing. Also at that point the number killed was established. Six soldiers were dead – and two were missing. After a few days it became known that one body had been found by the Syrians, and some days later the body was returned in exchange for the single Syrian prisoner who had been captured during the action, But the second missing soldier, Ya’akov Dvir [Ravkind] from Petach Tikva, has not been located to this day.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The report about the missing soldier</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large; text-align: -webkit-auto;">The memorial to the missing soldier Ya’akov Dvir</span>
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During the weeks following the action, elite army units were sent to the area to search for any detail that might shed light on Dvir’s fate. But all the investigations were in vain. Intelligence work has found no indication that the Syrians held Dvir. The assessment was that he had sustained a direct hit from a Syrian shell and his remains were never found. The Israeli spy in Syria, Eli Cohen, also tried to discover details – without success.<br /><br />“The searches continued all the time”, said Dvir’s sister, Yochi Eisenberg. “They tried to find the beginning of a thread but they did not succeed. Even today they are still searching, but until now we know nothing”.<br /><br />Later, in December 1968, one of the heroes of the action, Tzvika Ofer, was killed during an exchange of fire with marauders in Wadi Quelt.<br /><br /><b> “An orgasm of an assault”</b><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">On the day following the action, the prime minister and minister of defence David Ben Gurion got to Yavne’el, met the fighters and congratulated them on completing the task. On that very day, incidentally, the Syrians fired towards the Kinneret, before relative quiet prevailed. The newspapers reported an impressive operational success. The number of casualties and injured on our side was concealed. Radio Damascus, on the other hand, reported that about 200 Israeli soldiers had been killed and much plunder had been found in the area. It was the BBC that discovered contradictions in the Syrian reports. Some 40 Syrian soldiers had been killed and some of their bodies were exhibited as dead Israelis.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ben Gurion visits the fighters at Yavne'el the following day</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The De-Briefing</b></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">On 26th March the general staff forum was convened to investigate the action and to discuss the failings that were found. The discussion was opened by major-general Yitzhak Rabin. “The Israel army is strong and good”, he said, “the achievements of the ‘Snunit’ action are great and numerous. I think that we need to have sufficient courage to define the faults that have been revealed in the preparations for the action and in its execution”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Each of those who participated in a command role in the battle presented his actions during the combat. Much praise was given by the generals to Tzvika Ofer, who had led the assault on the syrian post while under fire – just as the force was absorbing a volley of shots and its fighters were being hit.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">After the fighters had presented their descriptions of the battle, general Ariel Sharon requested leave to speak. Sharon, the acknowledged ‘father’ of the parachutists’ retaliatory actions, wished to cool the enthusiasm a little. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">“I had the opportunity on Friday, in common with a large part of the audience here, to know that there was going to be an action. I exploited my authority and entered the operations centre, where I could follow the course of the battle” began Arik – at the time a brigade commander who was not associated with the ‘snunit’ action. “This is an achievement for the signals setup, that one can follow events right into the bunker. One can hear the breathing of the fighters.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">I do not wish to talk and deal with the topic of the fighting, I think that this makes no difference. The unit has good commanders and trained soldiers. They did assault - it is a fact that they assaulted. I don’t know if I should use the term ‘Orgasm of assault’. We were all excited by the fact that the soldiers had assaulted – but we are not in the year ‘52 but in ‘62 and there is no reason for the soldiers not to assault. We are full of admiration but there is no reason to exaggerate – they did exactly what they were trained for years to do.”</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Sharon also did not spare those who had determined the targets of the action. “I think that we demonstrated a total lack of imagination regarding the topic of the targets. If one wishes to cause casualties, then to tackle an army position is not the right thing. Either the enemy force escapes and then you do not cause losses, or they fight and possess all the elements of combat and of inflicting losses. In practice the losses will then be balanced. It is worth demonstrating more imagination and not adhering to routine actions”.</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">The fog of battle. "There was really no surprise".</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">General Rehav’am Ze’evi [‘Gandhi’], chief of staff of the central command, criticized the surgical method that the armed forces use, of a measured penalty directed only at the post’s soldiers. “There was once a chief of staff who said that every attack on the border has to be totally destroyed. It seems to me that this motto has not lost its relevance. If <i>[the destruction of]</i> Nukeib is wanted, it has to be done with threshing sledges. It could be done by the air force. The aim at Nukeib was not only to enhance the image [?] of the defence forces. The main aim was to emerge victorious.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">Gandhi also criticized the way that the number of Israeli casualties was concealed in the media. “When they say within the defence forces that there are 40 injured whereas in the newspapers they reported 10, that will result in the army not understanding how many there really are. The difference between us and the Arabs is that we publish the truth. We must not be allowed to create a policy of false publications.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>[Later, In 2001, while he served as a government minister, Gandhi was assassinated by 4 Arabs at the Hyatt hotel].</i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">The chief of staff Zvi Tzur wound up the discussion and replied critically to the words of Sharon. “After the deed, everybody is clever. I did hear those who had imagination. There was one possibility, with much imagination, to take a unit of 15 men, move them by air to the Syrian lines and to establish [?] artillery targets. I am not sure whether we would have succeeded.” With regard to the compliments lavished on the assault Tzur said: “I do not understand why one should not get excited? It is a seal of honour for Golani. But I’m sure that the paratroops can also do it, and we also have other units. We should be proud”.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>“We marched with our head into a wall”</b></span></span></span><br />
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Recently [in March 2012] the fighters of Golani marked the jubilee of the ‘Snunit’ action. The ceremony was held on the shore of the Kinneret, near the memorial to the action’s dead. For the army, ‘Snunit’ was the first action that put Golani on the map. “We proved that Golani can perform such a task even in condition that proved to be very difficult”, summarizes Gazit. “Much harder than was expected in the initial assessment.<br />
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In retrospect, we should have delayed. That method of an immediate strike was shown to be a mistake – it would have been better had we waited for optimal conditions”.<br />
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“We did not lose the element of surprise - because from its onset the action did not include such an element” – Ya'akov Even is certain. “The Syrians knew that the blow will come and it will come in the area of the Kinneret. If not tomorrow then the day after. We marched with our head into a wall, and went to fight without any surprise; and we paid a heavy price for completing the task. That was a mistake”.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Walter’s Additional Information</b></span></span></span></div>
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[I copy here parts of my blog from 2008].<br />
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In March 1962 the Israel government decided to attack and demolish the Syrian position. The task was given to the Golani Infantry Brigade, in which I served at the time as the Brigade Medical Officer. So I was put in charge of the casualty clearing station for the action.<br />
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As the brigade medical officer, I had been able to attend the weekly medical rounds at the Rambam hospital in Haifa. But just as I was scheduled to present a case at the next meeting, I was told to cancel my visit - without revealing the planned action at Nukeib, of course.<br />
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On Friday 16th March 1962 all the infantry units reached kibbutz Ein Gev under cover of darkness. I was met by my cousin Reuven, a veteran of the kibbutz, who was in charge of local security. He suggested that I set up my clearing station in one of their underground shelters. But I decided on a location with easy access from the battle area and for medical evacuation, in an open yard just inside the kibbutz gate.<br />
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Later an enclosure for ostriches stood on that spot. We erected the tent for receiving casualties and by the light of the incandescent kerosene lantern we prepared our medical equipment, assembled some intravenous drip sets - and waited.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Map of the Kinneret. Note Syrian Nukeib and Israeli kibbutz Ein Gev on the eastern shore of the lake, opposite Tiberias on the western shore, with Poriya hospital nearby. Further north is kibbutz Ginnosar – the starting point of flotilla 13.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;">When the attack on Nukeib started, the Syrian artillery on the Golan ridge above began an intensive shelling of the area. Some of the shells exploded in the kibbutz yard, quite near to our tent. Several shrapnel fragments actually penetrated the tent’s canvass, but nobody was hit.<br />
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Before long, casualties from the battlefield began to arrive. Ignoring the continuously exploding shells around us, we examined and treated the injured, completed their documentation and arranged their ambulance transport around the lake to Poriya hospital. Several soldiers were dead on arrival at my tent. I cannot now recall the numbers - but later I ascertained that all 30 casualties who had arrived alive at my clearing station also reached the hospital alive.<br />
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One of the dressers in my team had forgotten his steel helmet in camp. I found it most cumbersome to perform my work while wearing my helmet. So I gave it to him. One of my Battalion Medical Officers actually did sustain a penetrating head injury - despite wearing his helmet. Luckily Yochanan later made a full recovery.<br />
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After some hours, the stream of the casualties ceased and I assumed that the fighting was over. But the field telephone wires to the command post had been cut by the shells, despite being repaired twice. Dawn was breaking, but the Syrian shelling was still going on. Thanks to my previous visits to Ein Gev, I was the only person in my tent who knew where the shelter with the command post was located. So I retrieved my helmet and ran there across the kibbutz to ask for instructions. They had forgotten about my medical clearing station. “Of course”, I was told, “dismantle your tent and withdraw to the force's assembly area in the Yavne'el Valley, across Lake Tiberias”.<br />
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When we got there, I lay down in one of the ambulances and promptly fell asleep. As a result, I missed the visits by David Ben Gurion the Prime Minister and by the Chief of Staff Zvi Tzur. In the afternoon we returned to our camps and I was given home leave. For the following few weeks, whenever a door was slammed loudly, it made me start and duck instinctively.<br />
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The next morning two Army reporters arrived at our flat in Jerusalem. They said that I had been recommended for mention in dispatches by the Chief of the General Staff and they required photos. I regarded myself as primarily a doctor, not a soldier. So I was photographed wearing a civilian shirt and tie.<br />
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During the next Independence Day celebrations, I attended President Yitzhak Ben Zvi's customary reception to honour soldiers who had been mentioned in despatches. As usual, this was not followed by any sort of party.<br />
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Some months later I was demobilized. I moved to London for postgraduate medical training. The specialty of rheumatology was not well developed in Israel at that time. Ten years later the Israel embassy unexpectedly phoned us one day. We were told that according to an Act passed in the Knesset in 1973, I was entitled to receive the Israel ‘Medal of Courage’. [There is one higher grade medal – the medal of bravery, in which some of its recipients actually died during their action.] The medal of valour is awarded <i>'for an act of gallantry, at the risk of life, during fulfilment of combat duty'</i>. It may be worn on independence day, but the red bar may be worn at any time. Until then, during the first 34 years of Israel's existence, it had been awarded to only 220 soldiers.<br />
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So my wife Judith and I were invited to the embassy. There, an official made a speech, and handed me the medal in its olive wood case [see photo] and a certificate. No hospitality was provided. I had not experienced any fear during that night's shelling and I did not regard myself as being particularly brave. Had I taken part in this action as a combat officer, instead of as a doctor, my conduct might not have been regarded as all that outstanding. I have never worn the medal, nor had I told any of our friends about it.<br />
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To my knowledge, I only derived benefit from this honour on one occasion, when I applied for a medical post at Bethnal Green hospital. During the interview one of the consultants seemed particularly interested in my award. I was appointed to that post, and later I discovered that Dr Ian Gilliland was a staunch supporter of Israel. He had previously been a volunteer on Yigael Yadin's excavations at Masada.</span><br />
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<b>Post Script</b><br />
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Recently, when I decided to write this blog [in 2008], I could not remember the number of casualties that had passed through our casualty clearance tent. I thought that perhaps Dr Eliyahu Gillon, who had been at the time the Commander of the Army Medical Corps and my professional superior, might be able to obtain access to the relevant archive. I managed to ascertain his address from a mutual acquaintance: he was retired but still doing research at Tel Hashomer hospital. I wrote him a friendly letter asking for his help. I never received a reply. Many Israelis are well known for their reluctance to write letters.<br />
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So I was prepared to skip the casualty figures, but I contacted the Public Relations Section of the Israel Embassy in London. I wished to ensure that my description was no longer classified; and incidentally, could they possibly obtain the casualty data that I was seeking. They replied promptly and assured me, that they did not 'censor' such texts as my memoir. As to the number of casualties - that would be very difficult or impossible to ascertain at this time.<br />
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Like Baldrick (of television notoriety), this gave me the idea for a cunning plan: One of my relatives in Ein Gev is a qualified midwife, who had worked for many years at Poriya Hospital. Perhaps she would be able to obtain the information from the records of her hospital's casualty department? I knew that all the injured had been evacuated to Poriya during that one night, of 16 - 17 March 1962. Within a fortnight she e-mailed me the answer that she had received from the archive: there had been thirty casualties, including two shell-shocked. So now I could write my blog.<br />
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<b>Motta Gur</b><br />
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I liked Motta Gur, the brigade commander. He was clearly intelligent, competent and kind. The newspaper article that I translated above diminishes his achievement in the ‘Snunit’ action. But this is written 50 years after the event. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In any case, Gur’s career continued successfully. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He was chief of Staff from 1974 to 1978; and in 1981 he was elected to the Knesset. Later I heard that in 1995 he had developed widespread cancer. One evening he went into his garden in Tel Aviv and shot himself. He was 65, married, with 4 children. He was honoured with a military funeral.<br />
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Towards my discharge in 1962, I assessed my future prospects. Medical employment in Israel was uncertain<b>:</b> the country had one of the highest ratios of doctors to the population. Israel’s socialist government had created a perverse medical salary structure: low wages were boosted by generous artificial ‘extras’. But these supplements ceased at retirement, resulting in a derisory pension. Later I heard of senior surgeons who still had to augment their income by rotas in the casualty room. As an ‘army reservist’, I was liable for annual compulsory military service to the age 50. That would swallow up my leave, again at very inadequate wages. For any travel abroad I would have to get permission from the army, and also to pay the exit travel tax. So I decided to leave Israel. Judith and I moved to England, where Judith had relatives.<br />
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I arranged my British medical registration and looked for medical employment. I also signed on at the Israel embassy – I was still an Israeli army reservist. However, after the ceremonial award of my medal, when the embassy obviously knew my whereabouts, they never contacted me again. I was not invited to Independence Day celebrations, or notified of any other events. I suspect that in their chauvinistic arrogance they regarded me as a 'Yored', an emigrant from Israel and therefore a renegade - practically a traitor.<br />
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For example, shortly after I had left Israel, a friend described to me his guided tour of Jerusalem’s Talbiyeh quarter. When the group passed our former house at 20 Balfour street, the official guide mentioned that I had lived there, having being mentioned in despatches by the chief of staff – ‘‘and now he is a doctor in Dimona’’. The Israeli nuclear reactor is located there. That was a remote and highly secure location in the Negev, where nobody would be able to locate me. This concealed the fact of my unpatriotic emigration.<br />
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The Yediot Achronot feature that instigated my present work on this subject, and the creation of this blog, was published for the 50th anniversary of the ‘Snunit’ action. It reports the reunion of the participants in March 2012 near the original location of Nukeib, just north of Ein Gev – photo above. I knew nothing about all this until Ruth sent me the newspaper article. Clearly the organizing authorities had decided not to invite me or even to inform me. But by then I was a permanent resident in Britain, and no longer even an Israeli citizen…<br />
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28th July 2012<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-7948411651654841032010-09-19T20:07:00.002+01:002010-09-19T20:07:26.704+01:0064. Synagogue readings<span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">After several months, I'm resuming my blogs.<br />
There is no particular order - this one is topical.<br />
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Judith allocates the readings of haftarot at her synagogue. I have asked her to allocate the reading to me, when the subject is rheumatological = the vision of the dry bones of Ezekiel 37 - one of my favourites.<br />
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To support her, I offer to step in when she cannot find a willing volunteer.<br />
That happened for yesterday's service. Too many services in the week and nobody available. However, the Reform calendar have their own list, often different from the designated haftarot. So instead of the official listing for Shabbat Shuvah / Ha'azinu [David's prayer of thanksgiving from II Samuel XXII] they stipulated some verses from 3 prophets. Not very impressive.<br />
So I decided that I would choose my own: 2 Samuel chapter 11, v.1-15. My reasons were -<br />
# it is on the subject of planned sins and crime - to be atoned for on Yom Kippur;<br />
# it's related to my forthcoming oneg on Bathsheva with some lovely slides,<br />
# it's a brilliant literary episode.<br />
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Our rabbi is quite lenient, and he agreed to my suggested choice.<br />
To save you the trouble of searching, I have included the passage [in italics] - I modified my translation to be as accurate as possible. The key words are, of course, 'hara anochi'. Judith said that my reading of it was very good. Ahh, I love this episode<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> but for the grace of God... If I was younger, and we had a flat roof, and there was a horny young neighbour whose husband was absent...</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%;"><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic;">At the end of the year, when kings go forth to battle, David dispatched Joav [his army commander] to war, together with his servants, and with all </span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">Israel</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">. They destroyed the Ammonites and laid siege on Rabbah.<br />
But David stayed in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">Jerusalem</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />
Towards one evening David got up from his bed and strolled upon the roof of the king’s house. </span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">And from the roof he saw a woman washing herself.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">And the woman was very beautiful.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">David sent to make enquiries about the woman.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">And someone said, ‘is this not Bat-sheva, daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?’<br />
And David sent messengers and fetched her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. She had been purified from her uncleanliness.<br />
Then she returned to her house.<br />
And the woman conceived; and she sent word to David and said 'I am pregnant' [hara anochi]</span></span>.<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"><br />
And David sent word to Joav [his commander] 'Send Uriah the Hittite to me'. And Joav sent Uriah to David.<br />
And when Uriah came to him, David enquired how Joav was, and how the men were, and how the war was progressing. Then David said to Uriah, 'Go down to your house and wash </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">your feet’. And Uriah departed from the king’s house, followed by the king’s gifts.<br />
But Uriah lay down at</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"> the entrance of the king’s house, together with all his master’s servants, and did not go down to his own house. And they told David ‘Uriah has not gone down to his house'.<br />
David said</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"> to Uriah ‘Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not gone down to your house?’ Uriah said to David ‘The Holy Ark, and Israel, and Judah, all sit in tents, and my master Joav and my master’s servants are camped in an open field – shall I, then, go into my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? Upon your life, and upon your soul, I shall not do such a thing.’<br />
David</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"> said to Uriah: ‘Stay here today, and tomorrow I shall dispatch you.’ So Uriah stayed in </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;">Jerusalem</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%; font-style: italic;"> that day and the following day. And David invited him, and he ate and drank before him, and he made him drunk. And in the evening he left – to lie on his bunk together with his master’s servants. But he did not go down to his own house.<br />
And</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> the following morning David wrote a letter to Joav and sent it by the hand of Uriah.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><span style="font-style: italic;">And he wrote in the letter as follows: ‘Place Uriah opposite the fiercest fighting, and then retreat from behind him, so that he shall be hit and he will die.'</span><br />
<br />
</span><span style="font-size: 130%;"><span style="font-family: arial;">When we toured Hittite sites in central Turkey, I entertained our fellow passengers on the coach with the story of this mercenary Hittite, whose wife had 'got a bun in her oven'. One of our fellow-travellers later checked his Bible and was impressed by my accuracy.<br />
<br />
In my planned oneg, I'll elaborate some further points:<br />
#' Bath-sheva' in Hebrew cynically refers to her marriage oath to Uriah, an oath which she broke.<br />
# 'feet' in the Bible is often a euphemism for 'genitals'.<br />
# I hope you'll agree that their adultery was initiated by the woman, and not by David.<br />
# Uriah clearly knew of their adultery, and by staying away from his wife, he refused to accept paternity.<br />
# Therefore he knew that he was now doomed to die - he did not have to read David's letter to Joav.<br />
# It is interesting, that Uriah's wife did not come to see him during his visit to Jerusalem. I seem to remember some Talmudic law about such duplicate intercourse being forbidden.<br />
# The Bible leaves out David's 2 obvious questions:<br />
1. 'Are you sure that you're pregnant?' [-'My period is late, and I'm sick each morning'].<br />
And 2. 'Are you sure your pregnancy is mine?' [-'I lay with nobody else, and you will see that the baby will have red hair'. Like Pricess Diana's second son?].<br />
Nowadays there is science<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> a urine test detects pregnancy, and DNA will establish paternity.<br />
<br />
But that's not the end of this particular Bible narrative. Read on!<br />
.<br />
<br />
</span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-39085263011429029202010-03-15T22:56:00.014+00:002010-03-16T11:35:07.874+00:0063. A Weekend of celebrations and more<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">After a time in the doldrums, things were looking up. It started towards the end of February, when Heather began to celebrate her birthday/month: it's never just a day. Her friend Sally suggested secretly the creation of a book of contributions and photos - and it succeeded brilliantly. Heather had no idea until it was actually presented to her. This took place at the National Gallery. She had invited about 30 of her friends for an hour's guided tour of four paintings from different centuries - from ven der Weyden to Turner, followed by a meal in a reserved section of their restaurant. What her friends did not know was that Heather would be the guide.<br />A week before, we had gone to listen to a rehearsal and she did very well on the day. In fact some casual gallery visitors joined her guests to listen. The book organized by Sally is a brilliant summary of her life. You will not be surprised that I am quoting here just my own contribution:-<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">About Heather</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;">Recording memories about Heather is hard - I'm getting old and do not remember a lot. And I'm also getting forgetful. She is my favourite youngest and tallest daughter, and now she is forty... kilograms - no, forty inches - no, forty something. Ah, years.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">I had been sure that our babies were going to be boys and therefore I would choose the name: William, in memory of my grandfather. So Judith chose Daphne for the first baby. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">And when we made the same agreement for our second child, Judith told me when I came to visit that she had chosen the name Ruth. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">For the third baby we agreed to choose the name together. Still no William. The Forsythe Saga was on television and the character of Irene was a lovely person. But we already had a close relative called Renee. At Westminster hospital one remarkable ward sister was called Heather, and Judith agreed. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">I cannot remember the conception or the pregnancy. Heather was born at Mile End Hospital. We refused a single room, because it was less safe for calling help in an emergency. The other 3 women in Judith's ward were all unmarried mothers. Judith's father was quite amused.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Heather's birth was induced - we suspect that this was because the obstetrician was due to go on leave. With her first breath Heather inhaled a very keen cockney bargaining talent - unlike her elder sisters.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">From Judith, Heather inherited much tact and common sense. And an excellent talent for cooking. From me she inherited an overcrowded dentition that needed correction, but not the myopia - that went to Ruth. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Her judgement and analysis of peoples' characters are superb. </span> <span style="font-style: italic;">She has also inherited my sense of humour - and I'm telling everybody.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span>Alas, Sally herself herself was highly pregnant and could not come. </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span>The next happy event was Jeffrey's upgrade of my computer. There were snags and setbacks, and required several visits, but with a new motherboard and a faster processor life now is certainly vastly less frustrating<span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:130%;">.</span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br />Lastly, the weekend just past. On Saturday we attended the Bat Mitzvah of Hannah, the daughter of David, the son of Judy's cousin</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >. It took place in an orthodox synagogue. Therefore, for a girl, the ceremony took place after the conclusion of the Sabbath service, without prayer shawls, and with the women now sitting (separately) down in the main hall. Hannah gave her dissertation in a clear loud voice, pausing brilliantly between paragraphs: she is a clever girl. The rabbi praised her and presented her with a prayer book, but gave no blessing. After hospitality in the synagogue hall, we walked to the nearby parental home for a lovely fish-based meal. Naturally there was grace after the meal and an entertaining poem written and recited by David. They really are a lovely family.<br /><br />Then, on Sunday, we attended the celebration of Harold's 90th birthday - in the premises of our [former] reform synagogue. Another tasty fish-based meal, and some humourous speeches. No grace after the meal, of course. Unfortunately there was live music throughout, which made conversation almost impossible. But it facilitated the post-prandial dancing - at which point we thanked Harold and Betty and departed.<br /><br />Later we discussed our impressions and agreed that we would certainly not wish to celebrate </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >our own possible event </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:100%;" >in that format. But there is still plenty of time. <br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-41895000362421583942010-01-17T22:09:00.007+00:002010-01-17T23:10:20.437+00:0062. MOONFLEET<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.<br />After some 65 years I have read again <span style="font-style: italic;">Moonfleet</span> by J M Falkner, written in 1898. Although I still remembered all the main events, it was as exciting to read as the first time round and I finished the 250 pages in two days.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Young John Trenchard's peaceful life with his aunt in the Dorset fishing village of Moonfleet ends dramatically when he discovers an underground passage leading from some tombstones in the churchyard to the</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">burial vault of the Mohunes under the church. Soon he is drawn into a dangerous world of smugglers</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">and contraband, and the mysterious legend of the Mohune's cursed diamond</span>.<br /><br />The plot and the narration are very well constructed, with a mixture of gripping descriptions and very touching emotions - all ending happily, of course, despite the killings and the tragic drownings. I agree with the blurb, that the story is <span style="font-style: italic;">'as exciting to read today as it was when it first appeared in 1898</span>'.<br /><br />But I now realize that our primary school English teacher Miss Frankel actually read us a very simplified version [ see my post # 60 ]. So the verses which indicate the location of the diamond are much more cleverly compiled in the full text than the simple wording </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">that I remembered; and the language and nautical terms are those of Falkner's times of 1898. But then, my English has improved too. My intention was to give the book to the children of my niece in Seattle and my nephew in Israel - but I now realize that they are still far too young.<br />.<br /><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-49465439275995608862010-01-05T17:57:00.023+00:002010-02-04T15:22:13.479+00:0061. Second Bar Mizvah<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;">.<br />NOTE: I have been advised not to divulge names in my blogs. To quote captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >'Don't tell him, Pike!'</span><span style="font-size:100%;">. Some readers will still guess, presumably, who Z.G. and D.V. are.<br /><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">We attended Mr.Z.G.'s party to celebrate his second bar mitzvah. The scriptures mention 70 years as a full life span - so if you add another 13, you've qualified for another bar mitzvah celebration when you're 83. It's an excuse for a meal and over the years more and more people live long enough to achieve it.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">We did not plan to attend the synagogue service on the Saturday, when he would read his original Haftarah portion and receive the current rabbi's blessing. But we had been invited to the party on Monday evening - a cleverly lettered invitation to dinner at <span style="font-style: italic;">Me Tsu Yan</span> </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">restaurant </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">[it means <span style="font-style: italic;">'excellent'</span> in Hebrew] in Golders Green. The web site confirmed that it serves strictly kosher Chinese food - and it's quite expensive.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">It was purely and typically Chinese, a multitude of quite delicious dishes too numerous to list. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The 'spare ribs' were of course not pork but sheep or lamb, and the final dish was sorbet, and not milky ice cream. And tea was without milk either. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The waitresses were, what Prince Philip would call, genuine 'slit-eyed', and most efficient. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The chopsticks on their porcelain rest configured a 'John the Baptist' type cross, but nobody commented.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Z had taken over the entire restaurant for the evening and we were 60 people. Judith and I knew absolute nobody: neither his relatives - he has 2 children, and a sister in law, all with their numerous families. Nor did we know any of his friends from Israel or in the UK. We were invited because of our long term friendship. Z and I both speak Hebrew, and we were active in the British Association of Palestine-Israel Philatelists (BAPIP). </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Z used to supply me with Israeli stamps, and I gave him some advice and support when his wife developed cancer and later died - about 7 years ago. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Best of all, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">D.V. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">had not been invited. I was told at the time that he</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> had blocked my nomination to honorary membership, at the conclusion of my editorship of the BAPIP Bulletin.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Z assured me that dinner jackets were not required - just shirt and tie. In the event, we could recognize the Israeli guests. Despite the bitter cold, they came without ties. I had brought my skullcap - but half the men did not wear one. So my worry about an orthodox separation of the genders for </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">seating </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">was unfounded, and I also guessed correctly that there would be no blessing before the meal nor grace afterwards.<br /><br />When I wrote to accept Z's invitation, I had made one of my customary 'bad' jokes. I had suggested that Judith could tutor Z on his Torah reading - as she does for the bar-mitzvah children at her synagogue. Naturally I knew that there was no need. I also tried to frighten Z by offering to give a 'speech' at the dinner. That one, Z accepted in part - he suggested, <span style="font-style: italic;">'</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">could you tell a joke </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">when there is a gap between courses?'<br /><br /></span> Z was wearing a splendid embroidered Bokharan gown and matching skull cap. In due course, he invited me to tell my 'story'</span></span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I chose the Catholic story that I had used some years ago, about Norman Leonard's imaginary 'audience' with the Pope in Rome. I converted it to an Israeli Jewish setting.<br />Stop me if you know it.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Visiting his barber, I began, Z told him of one of his planned regular trips to Israel. </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> <br /></span></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U8BcIXQT1Ro/S0ixTjKa8pI/AAAAAAAAAM0/pMxH7sJRNZo/s1600-h/barmitzvah+of+zeev+2010.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U8BcIXQT1Ro/S0ixTjKa8pI/AAAAAAAAAM0/pMxH7sJRNZo/s320/barmitzvah+of+zeev+2010.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424780700582343314" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">On this occasion, Z told the barber, his friends had managed to get him to meet the President.<br />The barber was not impressed. <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />'You are flying El Al? - Oh dear, It's the worst air line. Never on time. Rude stewardesses.<br />And you are booked into the King Solomon hotel? - </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Oh dear, It's </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">a dump.<br />And your friends have arranged for you to meet the president? - Take binoculars, you won't get near him...<br />Still, enjoy your trip.'</span><br /><br />At his next haircut, after Z had returned, the barber remembered his conversation about Z's journey. <span style="font-style: italic;">'Well, how did it go?' </span>asked the barber.<span style="font-style: italic;"> </span> Z had been quite annoyed by the pessimistic advice that he had received. But now he was able to get his revenge, as he reported: <span style="font-style: italic;">'Not only was El Al on time, but there were some free seats, and they chose to upgrade me to first class. Very comfortable. And the king Solomon hotel has been renovated and raised one more star rating.'<br />'Yes, yes' asked the barber, 'but did you see the president?'<br />'There were only 5 people present. We had a very pleasant talk: he is a very nice man.'<br />'But what did the president say to you?'<br />Z imitated the president's Israeli accent: 'He took one look at me and said, ''Meester G, where did you get this awful haircut?'' '<br /><br /></span>They liked it. And Z had explained that in addition to the age of 70 (plus 13), also 80 years plus 13 can be celebrated - offering a third bar mitzvah at 93. So Z gave us notice of his intention, but I doubt whether anybody will invite me then as an after dinner speaker... if I'm still alive... and whatever the food.<br />.<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-65188100213212853822009-12-11T19:46:00.022+00:002010-03-27T16:09:17.913+00:0060. Death<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.<br />My first English teacher in primary school in Jerusalem was Miss Fraenkel - her father was a professor of mathematics at the university. She was a pleasant person. Later she developed pulmonary Tb and had to drop out. Once we understood some English, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">at the end of each lesson </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Miss Fraenkel would read to us, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">as a treat, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">installments of a simplified version of 'Moonfleet' by John Falkner [1898]</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. After more than 60 years, I still remember the poem on the scrap of paper the boy found in the tomb:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">man may live some Sixty years</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> his Feet walk Down a path of tears</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> use your life Well for death comes soon</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"> from north or South at night or noon...<br /><br /></span>After some guessing they noticed the words written in capitals and </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">worked out that these </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">revealed where the diamond was hidden: 'sixty feet down well south'. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">A clever idea!<br />I loved that story. Soon I bought the paperback and read ahead.<br /><br />In recent years, a growing number of our relatives, friends and acquaintances have 'walked down' that path. Sometimes their path was medically fairly obvious to me, and sometimes treatments have been effective. Others were killed by their chemotherapy. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The BMJ obituaries [which I always read first] usually give the cause of death of former colleagues: mainly strokes, heart attacks, and cancers. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">My own current afflictions are somewhat disabling, but not lethal - so far. Nevertheless, I have obviously given some thought to my own death.<br /><br />My own death may not be rapid but lingering. So if I start to suffer intolerably, I shall commit suicide. The religious ministers of Judaism and Christianity claim falsely, that they forbid it, but the Bible in fact does not criticize it: prior to explosives, Samson was a 'suicide killer' and king Saul tried to fall on his sword - although in the end his servant had to help him. And Judas, the disciple of Jesus who has betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver, hanged himself. Nobody complained - only the cock crowed...<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I will have no need to travel to Switzerland to be helped to commit suicide: A choice of medicaments is available to me at home - as long as I am not discovered prematurely and saved. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">A recent BMJ issue pointed out the risks to someone who might assist me in any way - they can be accused of murder. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">So it will need some very careful planning in secret, on my own. </span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">It may still come as a shock</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> to Judith, to my daughters and to some of my close relatives. But by now at least I'm not too young to depart. And </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I am absolutely sure that there are no after-life or reincarnation: the end is final. The disposal of the dead body is not important. Quite possibly the only comment said during that activity will be that ''he did love cheese''.<br /><br />For some years I have been fully paid up for cremation. Unlike David Hulbert, I am not worried about the pollution caused by the fumes of mercury from the amalgam in my fillings. The undertaker can extract them first - as the Nazis did for gold. And unlike the widow of king Mausolus, whose passion for him made her eat some of his ashes every day, my ashes can be dumped unceremoniously on the nearest tip. Ruth thought that I might fancy having them scattered on the sea of Galilee. But there may be security, customs and </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">public health </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">obstacles</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. For me that would be a wasted journey: I'd rather visit once more, while I'm still alive. (*See end-note)<br /><br />My father is buried in Jerusalem and my mother in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. The distance between them after death is irrelevant, and I have not visited either grave in more than 35 years. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Yet I do not remember them less, just because I cannot touch a slab of stone. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">But one of my second cousins finds my attitude shocking.<br />When I ordered the grave stone for my mother, the stone mason asked what type I had in mind. I replied: 'the heaviest'. He did not comment. But he told me that his own occupation was actually based on a Jewish ritual deception: he was a Cohen, who was not allowed to enter cemeteries. So he had changed his surname - and nobody knew...<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I regard the undertaking industry as profiteering from the bad conscience of the relatives. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Embalming, elaborate coffins, funeral masses, family plots and matching tombstones are all a waste of money. By then it is too late for the deceased to benefit from their generosity.<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Why not be kinder to them during life, or endow a memorial lecture instead?<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">When Daphne was little, we found a dead chick that had fallen out of the nest overnight. We put it in the dustbin. Daphne understood: ''When daddy dies, I'll also put him in the dustbin''.<br />I agreed.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />--------<br />*<span style="font-style: italic;">note</span> (27.03.10): I've just had a comment from my cousin in Israel - in Hebrew, of course. Amos enjoyed reading this blog post but he doubts the possibility of scattering my ashes on the sea of Galilee. By that time, he remarks, there will no longer be water in the lake. That depends on my survival, and the survival of the lake.<br />I am sure that Israel is now trying to slow down the depletion of the water. Formerly, despite available technology and abundant sunshine, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">for many years </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">they neglected action to de-salinate sea water. It is my personal view that they preferred to keep up the pressure on Syria and Jordan, stopping them from using more of the water that they were obliged to pass to their Israeli enemies.<br />.<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-14467296431545898872009-10-18T16:18:00.014+01:002009-10-19T16:28:09.645+01:0059. Medical Gloom<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">This week's BMJ contains an excessive dose of sad or worrying news. And a lot of the problems are insoluble.<br /><br />It begins with an editorial on obesity. Fat people suffer more anxiety and depression, and depressed or anxious people get fatter. Antidepressants cause weight gain - and the manufacturers do not warn of this, as it would reduce their sales.<br /><br />We are all aware of cases of <span style="font-style: italic;">sudden infant death syndrome - SIDS.</span> There have been some notorious cases, including the enigmatic statements in court by professor Meadows. Yet mothers remain ignorant: they continue to sleep together with the baby, especially on a sofa; they smoke, and they drink. Avoiding these factors would reduce <span style="font-style: italic;">SIDS</span> by more than half. Furthermore, mothers' smoking during pregnancy increases stillbirths by 38% and infant deaths by 31%. Perhaps, at the funerals, the priests should tell the parents that it was their fault?<br /><br />Fraud and greed in medical research is frightening. All journal editors have just agreed on a stricter honest and transparent disclosure of their <span style="font-style: italic;">competing interests'. </span><span>But </span>greed is likely to continue. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The bribes involved are enormous. For example, the US government compelled manufacturers of prosthetic hip and knee joints to declare all payments to doctors in 2007. They compared this with the payments from these manufacturers that were declared by orthopaedic surgeons at their annual meeting in the </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">following year</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, when these products were discussed. Sixty doctors concealed </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">payments of </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">12 million dollars in total !<br /><br />In Germany, another scam is being used. Drug companies pay GPs up to £1,000 per patient for prescribing their new drug - and providing them with documentation of its effect. It is estimated that 25% of all </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">German </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">GPs take part in such 'trials', on more than 200 drugs. The patients are not aware, that they are being used as guinea pigs without their consent; and that they are providing the GP with a lot of extra income. Furthermore, the patients, or their insurers, have to pay for these often expensive drugs - they are not donated by the manufacturers.<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Corruption goes deeper still. Dr Hurlstone, an award-winning consultant gastro-enterologist at Sheffield university, has just been discovered falsifying results and forging the signatures of co-authors in 3 published papers since 2007. Such dishonesty does not emerge suddenly: How was he not unmasked during more than ten years of his career progression?<br /><br />And inevitably, fraud by drug manufacturers continues. GlaxoSmithKline are being sued in Philadelphia. They appear to have concealed their research findings, that the antidepressant Seroxat caused serious birth defects in infants of mothers who took it during pregnancy. Remember Thalidomide?<br />Sometimes the fraud is discovered almost by chance. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">GlaxoSmithKline (the same) manufacture 'ready-to-drink' Ribena in cartons. They boast that it contains 'four times as much vitamin C as oranges'. Two girls aged 14 in a school experiment </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">found that </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Ribena in cartons contained almost no vitamin C. They received a 'brush-off ' from GSK but went to a newspaper and a TV company. They won, and in court GSK were fined a hefty sum. The two girls have now been voted New Zealanders of the Year.<br /><br />Among all this gloom, there is one column-inch of good news. Recently a kind and caring nurse exposed poor standards of care at the Brighton and Sussex university hospitals NHS trust. She was tricked by television to give some innocent particulars. For this, the <span style="font-weight: bold;">nursing and midwifery council</span> struck her off: she lost her income and her career. <span style="font-style: italic;">[Later addition: I have just watched this council's spokeswoman explain their verdict: the bitch was brazenly defending the cruelty and incompetence of the Brighton hospital management's mistreatment of these helpless old people!]<br /></span>So I was delighted to read that after appealing to the high court, the nurse has been allowed to return to work.<br /><br />I know what I think of </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the nursing and midwifery counci</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">l... and of the drug manufacturers... and of some academic researchers... and greedy German GPs... and of some members of our parliament...<br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-85452422901645112442009-10-02T21:45:00.025+01:002009-10-18T16:18:28.941+01:0058. Bible Names, Translations and Transliterations<span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Reading Hebrew is complicated by the fact that its </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">basic spelling, as it appears in the Torah, and in modern books and newspapers, has no vowels<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> One has to decide from the context, for example, whether the word 'DG' should be understood and pronounced as 'dig', 'dog', or 'dug'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The rabbis exploited this feature to create their midrashim - as I did in my post #52<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span>Their midrash might claim, for example, that during repeated copying of the sacred text the letter 'N' got omitted by accident<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The complete word was actually 'DGN' pronounced <span style="font-style: italic;">'dagan</span><span style="font-style: italic;">'</span> - wheat, or <span style="font-style: italic;">'Da</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">gon'</span> - the Philistine deity<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">When I started to use an English translation of the Bible, a further obstacle appeared<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> translators misunderstood the Hebrew meaning<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> One classical example is the description of mining in Job chapter 28<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The translators were quite ignorant of the technique of loosening by fire the quarried rock-face<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> But the earliest misleading translation originates from the Septuagint - see details of Jonah below<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Many of the personal names in the Old Testament have symbolic explanatory meanings, that are lost in translation<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Thus we are told that </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Adam</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> was formed 'from dust of the ground' - because earth is </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >adamah</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> in Hebrew<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Without knowledge of Hebrew, this will not be apparent. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Moses</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> is </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Moshe</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> in Hebrew and originates from </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'limshot'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - to pull out of water - he was pulled from the Nile by Pharaoh's daughter<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Some names have a meaning that is not immediately obvious<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> </span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >one has to search the background<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The Hebrew meaning of </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Bathsheba</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> is 'daughter of a vow<span style="font-style: italic;">'</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> She was the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and her name reminds us that she broke her marriage vow to commit adultery with king David<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Sometimes the name's meaning was clearly derogatory, such as the son of king Saul: </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Ish Boshet</span> <span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;">means</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span>man of shame</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, or </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >man of genitals</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. That must be an editorial insertion by the opposition<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Likewise the name </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Naval</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, which means </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >villai</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">n<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> He was the miserly and wicked husband of the clever and beautiful </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Abigail</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - and she did explain his name to David<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Some women were never given a Biblical name at all<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >wife of Lot</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - who disobeyed instructions, looked back at Sodom and turned into a pillar of salt<span style="font-weight: bold;">;</span> </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Lot's two daughters</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, who each committed incest as well as rape </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">with their drunken father</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">;</span> and the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >wife of Potiphar</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, who tried to seduce </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Joseph</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >.</span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The names of places often also have Hebrew meaning<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > Babylon - </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Bavel</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> in Hebrew - derives from </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >balal - 'mixing'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - which refers to the confusion of languages that stopped the builders of its tower<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Bethlehem</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> is named after its principal crop - </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Beit lechem</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> means </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >house of bread</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The river Jordan - </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Yarden </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">in Hebrew - derives from </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >yored</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - to descend - referring to its descending course<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span> Jezreel - </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Yizreel</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> in Hebrew means '</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >God will sow'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Usually, none of these explanations are included in our translated Old Testament texts<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The earliest important translation of the Old Testament was into vernacular Greek<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The Septuagint - the 'seventy' in Latin - was created in Alexandria from the 3rd to the 1st centuries BCE by seventy-two Jewish scholars<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> But these scholars were not botanists<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> In the book of Jonah we read that a plant grew to provide shade for Jonah<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> a </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'KIKAYON</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span>The scholars decided to 'translate' this into a similar-sounding Greek word - </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><em>colocynthis</em></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> - gourd<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So since the 3rd century BCE, Jonah's </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >kikayon</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> is erroneously translated and illustrated as a gourd<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> But in fact, it is the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >castor-oil plant</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, Ricinus communis in Latin<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Castor oil is a powerful remedy for constipation<span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span>and a protein extract of the castor bean is one of the most potent poisons known - Ricin<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> It was injected in Fulham in 1978 by a KGB agent as a pellet from a modified umbrella into the thigh of Georgi Markov, a Bulgarian dissident<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> He died after 3 days<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The Septuagint has caused another major problem, that has also penetrates the English translation of the Old Testament<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> the Greek hardly uses the Hebrew consonants for 'V' and 'W'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Avraham</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> becomes </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Abraham - </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">thus losing the meaning of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'father'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> for</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Av'<span style="font-weight: bold;">;</span> Naval </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and his wife </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Avigayil</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> (mentioned above) become </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Nabal and Abigail<span style="font-weight: bold;">; </span>Batsheva</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> becomes</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > Batsheba, </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and there are scores more examples<span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But these distortions are aggravated further by arbitrary British mutilations of the Hebrew names and their pronunciations<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> So Biblical </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Yerushalayim' </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> becomes </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Jerusalem' </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">king</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > 'Shlomo'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> becomes </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Solomon'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> The pronunciation of the town of </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Lachish</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> has been changed by eminent British scholars to sound like 'Lake-ish'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I grew up in Palestine and I am fluent in the Hebrew Bible<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> During lectures and in texts, I find it difficult to follow these anglicised pronunciations<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Orthodox Jewish publications tend to avoid these English mutilations<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> They will refer correctly to the prophet </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Eliyahu</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, rather than the anglicised </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Elijah</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. And the Israeli post office are making an effort for correctness in their printed cancellations of place names<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> For some time now, they have been using the correct Hebrew-sounding </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Yerushalayim'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">But at other times the post office are still struggling<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> To sound like Hebrew, the anglicised </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Safed' </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">should probably be spelled as </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'Tsfat'</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> but I have noticed three other versions in their handstamps<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > CFAT</span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> [1.8.51]<span style="font-weight: bold;">;</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > SAFAD </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">[1.9.54]<span style="font-weight: bold;">;</span> and</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > ZEFAT </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >with underlined</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > 'Z' </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">[30.9.57] - and there may be more</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >. </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >They resort to a hook above the 's' to signify 'sh', and an underlined 'h' </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >to signify </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >'ch' [as in loch]<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > The </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >transliteration committee</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > are aiming to design a race horse - but so far they have produced a camel<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >The latest attempt at Hebrew transliteration appears in the new Reform prayer book, issued last year<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> It requires a detailed preliminary study of its rules of correct pronunciation<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Once you have mastered this, you can struggle with these </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >transliterated </span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >passages - while everybody else in the congregation follows the Hebrew prayers<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>.</span> And by providing this aid, the children do not have to learn to read Hebrew any longer<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The consensus is that this is an expensive unnecessary edition - an ego trip for its editors, that was forced on some communities against their majority votes<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br />-<br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-60071246494537748302009-09-30T17:30:00.005+01:002009-09-30T18:20:02.150+01:0057. Feline Tales<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Judith's cousin Hugh and his wife Bernadette in Manchester have two </span><span style="font-family:arial;">cats<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> Myfanwy and Mimi<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Recently Myfanwy disappeared for some days, causing </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> her owners some anxiety<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The police were notified, and neighbours were </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> alerted<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> It turns out that she had just stayed for some </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> time in a nearby garden<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> I had wondered whether, despite having been </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> neutered, she was still in heat, seeking males<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> But when I researched the subject it became apparent that this was very unlikely<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> She </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> was just disloyal<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br />Or maybe she was nursing an injury<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">These exciting events reminded me of my own feline experiences<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Towards the end of my secondary education we </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> had a new biology master<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> He suggested that we should watch the dissection </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> of a cat<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> So a few of us set out to catch a cat<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Large numbers of feral cats did swarm in the yards and around the dustbins </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> in Jerusalem, where we lived, but it </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> was quite impossible to catch them<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Hardly anybody kept domesticated cats.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;"> Then one day I found a dead cat lying in the road<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> I put it in a sack and</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> took it to school<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The biology master was delighted and arranged its </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> dissection and</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> anatomical demonstration without delay, before the carcass would decompose<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> We watched fascinated - and I haven't forgotten it<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">My interest in biology certainly influenced my </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> later trend toward medicine<span style="font-weight: bold;">. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> None of our family ever kept animals<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>-</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>except a tortoise, who died the first winter</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Dogs do show genuine recognition, loyalty and affection - </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> but not sufficient to induce us to acquire one<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> And I definitely do not </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> like cats<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> They are only friendly toward people who feed them - they remind </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> me of the classical description of prostitutes.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> My next feline contact was in medical school, where the pharmacology course </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> included a series of practical experiments using cats<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Groups of students </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> were each allocated a living cat in a sack - ferals that had been caught </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> somehow<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The lab technician injected each cat through the sac with</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> a barbiturate solution - aiming for the abdominal cavity<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> After an interval, </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> the sleeping animal could be safely removed from the sac and fixed by its </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> limbs to the work bench<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> More anaesthetic could be injected as required<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> An artery in the groin was tied to the end of a glass cannula and connected to a </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> manometer filled</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> with a solution of heparin to prevent clotting<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The cat's blood pressure</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> was recorded through a stylus onto a 'kymograph' - a slowly revolving </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> cylinder of</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> smooth paper blackened with soot<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> At the conclusion of the experiment, the</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> paper was carefully detached from the cylinder, drawn through a fixing</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> solution of varnish and left to dry<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> The cat was killed - they called it </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> 'sacrifice'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> The members of each of our groups shared sections of the kymograph paper record and we wrote our </span><span style="font-family:arial;">individual reports of the experiment<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> On one occasion there was an unfortunate 'cat-astrophy'<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> the wife of the </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> medical school</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> dean had lost her domesticated pet cat and she suspected foul play<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> At the </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> time, we were</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> the only course that used cats<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">During</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> the following experiment</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> she stormed into the laboratory </span><span style="font-family:arial;">- and actually identified her cat on one of the </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> tables<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> It was too damaged and could not be rescued<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> She was furious and there were </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> embarrassing repercussion - out of our earshot.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"> So when we visit Hugh and Bernadette, we maintain our </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> indifference towards the feigned affection of their cats<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> If the cats </span></span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">persist, </span><span style="font-family:arial;"> I just whisper<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> 'remember pharmacology'... and they soon give up<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">-</span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-18227414096516884662009-09-25T22:11:00.009+01:002009-09-26T22:59:19.433+01:0056. Philately [Stamps]<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I have been collecting stamps for most of my life<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> It starts in earnest in1948<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> We were under Arab siege in Jerusalem and the People's Directorate established a postal service and produced stamps - Jewish National Fund stock overprinted 'POST'<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Here was a chance to start a collection of a new country from the very beginning<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br />The Jordanians were lobbing 3 inch mortars shells into the city, but at 15 years one is not fearful<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> So I hurried the 2 miles to the post office to buy the series of 3 values - on two different occasions [they changed the design] and to post the 'first day covers' to myself<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br />Various other Jewish sites issued their own stamps<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> Haifa, Safed, Rishon le-Zion - partly for postal service for </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">their isolated residents </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and partly as a source of income from local collectors<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Some weeks later the State of Israel was declared and the regular stamps arrived in Jerusalem<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /><br />My father had been an employee of the Palestine Mandate administration - which ceased on 15th May<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> He was now unemployed, pending the establishment of the Israeli institutions<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> We had no income and the new stamps were expensive - so I did not buy them<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Later I had to pay much more<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /><br />But soon I kept buying new issues as mint stamps and first day of issue covers<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> I became a member of the British Association of Palestine-Israel Philatelists [later the Holyland Philatelic Society] and I edited their Bulletin for a time<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> And later I added two other new stamp issues: the United Nations, and the Channel Islands<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> And as I resided in Britain, I also collected GB<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> When Britain started various devices for the mechanical cancellation and sorting of letters, I found it very interesting and joined the Postal Mechanization Study Circle<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /><br />It was clearly the thrill of collecting, and the possession of 'complete series', that motivated me<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Judith was totally indifferent, and none of the children were interested<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> But time marched on<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> I stopped my subscriptions for new stamps<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> At the same time, the world scene of philately changed<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> First, excess stamp issues just milked collectors<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> Who is interested in 'space exploration' issued by Yemen?!? And the designs were becoming far less attractive<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Second, e-mail cut out much of the use of the little colourful labels and the conveyancing of paper letters<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> the aggressive postal workers on strike are cutting off the branch on which they are sitting<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> And third, youngsters have shifted their time, interest and passion from philately to computers and ipods<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /><br />Judith has promised, that if I die before I have disposed of my collection[s], it will all end up as a spectacular bonfire<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> So I am going to sell the lot, while I keep swallowing my pills and taking care when crossing the road, until it is completed<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> I am very doubtful, if anybody among my readers is an interested collector. But if you are, do drop me an email<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br />-<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-91183804328600526902009-09-25T20:50:00.006+01:002009-09-26T09:45:25.968+01:0055. Our shared punch lines<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">My late brother Michael loved good jokes. To aid his memory, he used to enter the punchline on his computer. Unfortunately, he would not always remember the rest of the joke later, and he might contact me to remind him<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> 'how does it go...'. But our youngest daughter, who has an excellent sense of humour, is young enough to remember the whole of the jokes. Over the years, between us, some of the best punch lines have acquired their own life. We no longer have to remind each other of the rest of the joke.<br /><br />Here are a few old examples, that we allude to from time to time, when the punch line is appropriate. For your benefit I shall first outline the joke and then give you </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">IN ITALICS CAPITALS </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the punch line [or lines] that we would use<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br />The devoted son has </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">finally </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">found a birthday present for his mother<span style="font-weight: bold;">: </span>an expensive talking parrot. A week later he phones her to ask<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> how is the bird? His mother says, '<span style="font-style: italic;">IT WAS DELICIOUS!'</span> The son is appalled<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> 'You ate the parrot?!? He spoke five languages!!!' <span style="font-style: italic;">'SO WHY DID HE NOT SAY ANYTHING?'<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span>A man went into a Catholic church and spoke to the priest. 'I'm 83 years old. Last night I picked up two girls and made love twice with each.' The priest finds out that he was Jewish. 'If you are Jewish, why do you come to the church to tell me all this?' The old Jew answers proudly<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">'I AM TELLING EVERYBODY!' </span></span>[It sounds best pronounced 'everybuddy']<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span>Later, we heard a sequel to this event. One of the hookers tells the old man that she is now pregnant. He decides that he is honour bound to marry her, but naturally his family are quite appalled. Finally he agrees to consult his GP.<br />The doctor establishes that he is 83, and his intended wife is 22. 'You realize, Sir, that with such a difference in age, there is a risk that intercourse may be fatal?'<br />The old man thinks about it. 'Vell, doktor,<span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> IF SHE DIES - SHE DIES'.<br /><br /></span></span></span>For his birthday, the mother gives her son two beautiful silk ties.<br />So </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">when he next visits his mother, h</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">e wears one of the new ties. She takes one look at him and asks<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> 'WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE OTHER ONE?'</span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></span></span><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-23750737084661828672009-09-17T14:52:00.009+01:002009-09-17T17:09:36.679+01:0054. Readers Digest: scam in installments<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">n mid-August, well after the</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Readers Digest </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">stipulated deadline</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> described in my blog #46, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I described their prize draw. I considered that it was a scam. I had replied in the 'NO' envelope and I would hear no more - but I was wrong: in September they wrote to me again, to announce the 'Great News': <span style="font-style: italic;">'shortly', they promised, I could be confirmed as the sole winner of their £5,000 Immediate Payout Draw.</span><br /><br />Because £5,000 is a large sum to win, they also wrote to prepare me gently for the Big Event. They would post a large envelope, whose appearance they described. <span style="font-style: italic;">'It contains everything you need to guarantee your chance to take delivery of the Prize Cheque'. </span>Fancy that: delivery of the prize cheque! Another enclosure gave useful advice on what to do, on notifying relatives, and on being interviewed by the media.<br /><br />I was very excited. I have never won anything, nor have I been </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">interviewed by the media.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> I also planned how to spend the money. I was just waiting to <span style="font-style: italic;">'taking delivery of the prize cheque'</span>, as their letter said. Every day I waited for the postman, and I was worried about the postal strike, and thefts from the mail.<br /><br />Four days later the large envelope arrived. Was it delivery of a cheque? No! </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Was it </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">an invitation to subscribe to Readers Digest? YES! But they wrote to assure me of my participation in the prize draw. There were more details: If I also subscribed to Readers Digest - at just over half price - I could use the 'YES' envelope, and I could also win a car. Otherwise I should use the 'NO' </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">envelope, and I might win - - nothing.<br /><br />So when would I know if I had won? I found it in the small print on another page: in February next year. But there was also a single prize of £5,000 (as promised) - to be drawn next month - October 2009. I did not want the Readers Digest. But could I win despite my 'NO' reply?<br /><br />As for winning the grand prize in February 2010 - this was actually an installment plan: it will pay just over £1,000 per month for life, and that was taxable. At my age, I concluded, I must therefore pay more attention to my longevity: I should resume the Aspirin, that was not doing me any good </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">according to the BMJ</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">; I must arrange to see my GP </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">next week</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> for another checkup; and I must think again about joining a synagogue (or a church, or a mosque - whichever is the most potent).<br />Which religious food restrictions should I follow: Yom Kippur, Ramadan, or Lent?<br />- Or should I just have lots of chicken soup and seek a second opinion?<br /><br />But what if, despite everything, my epitaph just says : <span style="font-style: italic;">HE DIDN'T WIN ANY PRIZES </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">IN THE END - BUT HE DIED GOD-FEARING AND HEALTHY. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span><br />What would be the point? </span><span>In France, or Italy, the </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">epitaph </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span> might at least have mentioned 'mourned by his wife, his daughters, and his two most recent mistresses'.</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span>Dream on... Life is certainly a lottery: but what about the Readers Digest draw?</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-46523833706895922862009-09-10T11:47:00.009+01:002009-09-10T17:51:58.695+01:0053. E-mail frauds<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Further to my blog # 46, I should mention that Readers Digest did not contact me again, so their offer of prizes was presumably a fraud. Needless to say they do not publish the names of winners - not even fictitious invented ones. The actual winners of the scam are </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Readers Digest</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, of course.<br /><br />I keep my internet security setting on 'medium' to avoid the blocking of incoming messages in other languages, such as Hebrew; as well as the blocking of the pictures of BBC news and of Lidl sales lists - they both come with pictures. As a result, scams </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">similar to the</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Readers Digest mailing do get through. I just delete them unopened - I understand that this is safe. But despite my urge to reply, giving misleading details - including </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">fictitious </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">age (I'm 124), fake bank account numbers and address (mine is in Downing Street) etc, I was advised not to do so. The scammers would get evidence that my email is 'active' and I might be inundated with enormous amounts of follow-up mail next.<br /><br />For interest, I have logged the following fraudulent emails over the last week:<br /><br /># Rose Perez (later signed 'Parez') - offer of 10 million euro. So what's your real name?<br /><br /># Deborah Russell - offer of cheap drugs.<br /><br /># Mr Edes Abebe from Nigeria (</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">African scammers usually use titles: 'I am Mr </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Edes Abebe'</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">) </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">- 30 million pounds sterling are available for illegal transfer (of course), of which 30% are for me. Terrible grammar: use this money for English lessons, mister!<br /><br /># Petra Newsome - offer of cheap sex drugs. That I find insulting - Petra should come and satisfy herself!<br /><br /># Madam Jeanette from Ghana - offer of 2.7 million US dollars. It is signed by Mrs Jeanette Gideon Arab - presumably a rich hermaphrodite, or a two-faced bisexual freak.<br /><br /># Mrs Angela Nkrumah from Accra, Ghana - 500,000 dollars. I forget whether the owner of the legacy had been a victim of his own body guard, or of a crocodile.<br /><br /># Norris Milligan - cheap drugs.<br /><br /># Fondazion di Vittirio - 500,000 dollars towards my education. They also need English lessons!<br /><br /># Ferdinand Dotson - herbal drugs for slimming.<br /><br /># Kelvin Snyder - </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">cheap </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">sex pills 'for treating erectile men's erectile dysfunction'. I can assure you, Kelvin, that I've never met an 'erectile man'... - have you?<br /><br /># Rosie Sloan - drugs to enhance your sexual life, fast-acting.<br /><br />Potentially, I could be slim, healthy, virile - and stinking rich - - I can but dream...<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-21669500942832939922009-09-07T10:17:00.020+01:002009-09-08T15:07:16.516+01:0052. A Brand new Midrash<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Google explains that <span style="font-style: italic;">''Midrash is a way of interpreting Biblical stories that goes beyond simple distillation of religious, legal or moral teachings. It fills in many gaps left in the biblical narrative regarding events and personalities that are only hinted at.''</span><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I would like to report here a new midrash. It was discovered in one of the Judean desert caves near Qumran. The Essenes who lived there are regarded as physicians, and indeed this new midrash is of medical contents. Some </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">rabbis </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">have been </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">famous physicians </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">- Maimonides was one. So it is not surprising that medical topics entered the rabbinic midrashim. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> I am dedicating this brand-new Midrash to </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Rabbi Larry Becker of Judith's synagogue</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Larry</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> is particularly fond, and very knowledgeable, about this form of religious literature</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The newly discovered midrash concerns the Biblical story of the matriarch Sarah. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The Bible tells us that Sarah could not have children. From this midrash we now learn the reason: she suffered from Chlamydia infection - a well-known cause of sterility. The midrash reported a heated dispute among the rabbis about the correct spelling of Chlamydia. Some of the rabbis claimed that it ended with a 'heh' - the word was '</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Chlamyd-yah, short for Chlamyd-yahu - </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the Chlamyd of God'. But others claimed that the word ended with an Aramaic 'aleph' - in the same way that 'ha-gdi = THE lamb in Hebrew turns into 'gadya = THE lamb </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">in Aramaic</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. These rabbis suggested that </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Chlamydia</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> just meant 'THE Chlamyd' in Aramaic. But those rabbis were in the minority.<br /><br />Next, the new midrash describes how the infected Sarah was given by Abraham to Avimelech, the local king of Gerar. As we would expect, very soon all the women in the palace of Gerar stop having babies - - until king Avimelech understood the source of the infection and returned Sarah to her husband. The rabbis do not say who made the diagnosis. The Bible reports that it was a private consultation by the Lord. Through Sarah, King Avimelech sent the consultant a fee of a thousand pieces of silver, plus sheep, cattle and slaves for Abraham.<br /><br />As is usually the case in Chlamydia, Sarah's partner Abraham was also infected. The Lord was not sure how to help him. So He advised Abraham to eradicate the Chlamydia infection by undergoing circumcision - of himself and all the males in his clan. And then God sent a health visitor to visit them - the Bible calls him an 'angel' but the midrash calls him 'mashkivan' - a sex therapist. The midrash describes very detailed and explicit sexual advice to </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the couple.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> There are descriptions on love making positions, and an interesting explanation why Sarah laughed, when the angel had actually instructed her to moan</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">... But as I may have some delicate readers, I shall skip all these</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> gripping</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> details. You could try to phone me - particularly if you are old and barren yourself.<br /><br />Following the angel's advice, the new midrash </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">vividly </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">describes the circumstances of Sarah's conception. Apparently three of Abraham's sperm reached the egg simultaneously and they started a heated </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">discussion</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">: Which of them should fertilize the ovum. From the </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">arguments </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">it becomes clear, that each sperm represents one Jewish rabbinic discipline: orthodox, reform and liberal. It is a brilliant discussion, and I would strongly recommend that you take the time to read it.<br /><br />But the outcome is quite unexpected, and some scholars suggest that this is a later edited addition to the midrash: the Moslem sperm wins. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Allah hu akbar - Allah is the greatest.<br />-<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-4112915921580230072009-09-04T13:43:00.015+01:002009-09-24T10:08:54.216+01:0051. A French blog<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">When I worked in Casualty during my training, one of the senior medical registrars (one grade below consultant) was called 'Smithy'. I forget his first name. He was universally liked - for two reasons.<br />First, he was helpful and sensible. If you thought a casualty needed admission, most senior registrars who were 'bleeped' would promise to come to casualty to assess the patient themselves. If they were on their consultants' ward round, or in a busy out-patient session, it might take up to two hours or more before they would appear. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">So in the meantime the patient, the relatives, and the casualty nurses all complained. - </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">No </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">limit of </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">four hour in casualty existed in those days. </span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">'Smithy' was different. If you described to him the medical situation over the phone, he would credit you with medical common sense, and he would tell you to admit the patient. At least, that was my personal experience. Possibly he trusted some other casualty officers less, but he certainly never kept me waiting to come to casualty and verify the situation.<br /><br />Smithy's other attraction was his store of superb jokes. As the beer poured into him, so the jokes poured out. Many would cause this typeface to blush bright crimson red; and many I cannot remember. But </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">I think that </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the story of the adulterous wife will not be blocked, and it will not be forgotten.<br /><br />It concerned an Englishman who had a passion for France and for everything French. He visited France whenever he could, and he started reading French novels. But, like most British, he only understood English. So he would mark his books and bring them to his regular bistro. Soon, the local 'patrons' knew him and they liked the liquid generosity of this foreigner. So they gladly helped him to translate difficult phrases. He was particularly puzzled, he told them, by the term <span style="font-style: italic;">'sang froyd'</span>. That's how he pronounced it.<br /><br />'<span style="font-style: italic;">Sang froyd? sang froyd</span>?' they repeated, and they rolled their eyes and shrugged their shoulders in true French style. Then one of the Frenchmen, who was </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">less drunk, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">guessed right: 'Ah, you mean <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span> [= cold blood]'. They all nodded.<br />'Well', said his new French friend, ''let me explain to you <span style="font-style: italic;">'sang froid'</span> with an example. Imaginez-vous a merchant in Paris, who travels to Lyon occasionally on business. But on one occasion, he returns home much earlier. His house is deserted - but as he enters the bedroom - mon Dieu! his wife is in bed with another man!! So the merchant drags the man from the bed, and throws him (naked) down the stairs, and then he does the same with his wife - also naked. That is <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span>, my friend.'<br /><br />'No, no!' shout the other men in the bistro. 'That is not <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span> - that is <span style="font-style: italic;">savoir faire</span>! [= know what to do]' And one of the others in the bistro now offers the correct <span style="font-style: italic;">explication</span>: '</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Imaginez-vous this merchant in Paris, who travels to Lyon occasionally. But on one occasion, he returns home much earlier. His house is deserted - but as he enters the bedroom - Mon Dieu! his wife is in bed with her lover!! So the merchant stops, turns round, leaves the bedroom, and shuts the door. That, my friend, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">is <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span>.'</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">'No, no!' shout all the other men in the bistro. 'That is not <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span> - that is <span style="font-style: italic;">laisser faire</span>!! [= leave alone]'. But </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">then another of his French friends offers the correct explanation. 'Listen to me. You have seen </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">this merchant from Paris, who travelled to Lyon, but when he returned home and entered his bedroom - Mon Dieu! his wife is in bed with this other man!!'<br /><br />The bistro is quiet - everybody is listening.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> Many of them have been in that situation. '- So as you know, the husband finds his wife in bed with her lover. The wife glances at her husband the merchant, and then she turns to her lover and said: carry on, darling. Don't stop now! --and they DO carry on -'<br />- That is <span style="font-style: italic;">sang froid</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, my friend</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.' </span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />'Votre sante!</span><span style="font-family:arial;">' 'Cheers!'</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-9158877208203849822009-09-02T10:20:00.010+01:002009-09-02T13:15:42.506+01:0050. Death and burial<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">We have attended Laura Brody's tomb-stone dedication on Monday (bank holiday) - she had died of mesothelioma. So had Sandra Jacobs. That is curious, because asbestos dust that causes it is inhaled almost always by men - builders, electricians. But their female partners can get contaminated when they wash the dusty work clothes. It can take up to 20 years or more to develop; but once it is noticed and discovered, it is fatal within a year and there is no effective treatment.<br /><br />When we buit our previous house extension, the building rules required an asbestos slab to line the garage ceiling. The carpenter, Dave Heeks, sawed the material without wearing a mask, and both Judith and our neighbour warned him and gave him a mask. We do not know whether he continued to use it, but some 30 years later we heard that Dave had died from mesothelioma.<br /><br />At the cemetery we noticed the adjacent memorials of several other former friends: Jack Rosenberg, Lilian Goldsmith, Cecil Dalton, Rita and Stan Britain. All neat and polished slabs - a final payment for the dead relative. Sometimes I wonder whether a costly memorial suggests the survivors' worse conscience. With the passage of the years, we now attend the cemetery more often. My mother also used to complain: I have more friends in the cemetery than I have in town.<br /><br />The jottings that now follow might upset reader[s]. Certainly Daphne should stop here. But there's no anger, Heather!<br /><br />To begin with, I do not need the physical memorial as a reminders. I have not visited my parents' graves since their funerals decades ago: I can remember them vividly, and no slab of stone is required. In my irreverent humour in 1977 I deeply offended the stone mason in Israel when I ordered my mother's tomb stone. To his question, <span style="font-style: italic;">'what sort of stone I had in mind'</span>, I replied <span style="font-style: italic;">'the heaviest'</span>. There is a tradition of resurrections in the holy land, of course. Why risk it?<br /><br />In fact, if my wishes are fulfilled, I shall not be wasting good plant-growing ground for a grave. I am fully paid up for cremation. This also avoids the possible cold, rainy and mudy funeral at the cemetery. I mentioned this to </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Rabbi Hulbert </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">as we squelched our way towards one burial recently. But he objected: the vapours of my amalgam fillings will pollute the air with mercury vapours. Well, perhaps the undertakers can extract those teeth first - they do it for implanted pacemakers, and the Nazis did it for the gold crowns...<br /><br />Nor do I wish my ashes to be preserved: they belong in the nearest dustbin. Death is the final end of a person - </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">perhaps </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the 'soul' persists in the DNA - but that DNA includes the bad as well as the good! The cremation ashes are waste. I was interested to learn the ideas of professor Isaiah Leibovitz on this topic. He was both highly intelligent and deeply orthodox. I knew the family - his eldest son was a colleague in medical school but died of cancer. Leibovitz said that after death there was 'nothing'. Absolutely true.<br /><br />When I recently mentioned my ideas on cremation and 'no grave' to my relatives in Ein Gev, they were appalled at the thought, of not having a tomb to visit. Indeed, the cemetery at Ein Gev is lovingly tended and visited. But an annual Chinese meal sounds better.<br /><br />Some time ago my cousin Amos and his wife showed me an interesting historical item: a simple metal box with a lid - about the size of one of those saccharin pill containers. It was to be hung around the neck and was used by my grandfather, when he was an artillery soldier in the first world war - on the austro-hungarian side. Inside the box was a small folded form. My grandfather had entered his name -Wilhelm Weis- and the following instruction if he were to be killed: <span style="font-style: italic;">'WO GEFALLEN - RASH BEGRABEN' = </span>where fallen - quickly buried. 'Quickly' was underlined. Ninety years later, I agree.<br />Wilhelm survived, and it is entirely thanks to him that we escaped from the Nazis. But that is another story.<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-49499951682651836122009-08-23T10:07:00.019+01:002009-08-24T20:43:36.437+01:0049.Behind the news<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">T</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">he Scottish Justice minister MacAskill included a perverse argument </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">In his reasons for releasing </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Al Megrahi, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">the Lybian murderer </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">of </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Lockerbie </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">'Mr Al Megrahi now faces a sentence imposed by a higher power. It is one that no court, in any jurisdiction, in any land, could revoke or overrule.'<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">MacAskill is mistaken for two reasons. First, in my opinion the murderer should not have been released</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.<br />And second, that statement clearly suggests, that Megrahi's death sentence, from prostate cancer, is a divine punishment for his crime - from God or, in his case, from Allah. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">MacAskill's false argument </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">is based on the original Biblical doctrine, that life and death, and sickness and health, are all in the exclusive power and control of God, meted out as punishment or reward. That is why there are virtually no human doctors or treatments described </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">in the Bible.<br />Moses, in his final speech, quotes God as saying: <span style="font-style: italic;">'I put to death and I keep alive. I wound and I heal' </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:13pt;" >[Deuteronomy-<u>32</u>:39]</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">. </span>Likewise, God is in control of all illnesses and cures - and fertility, of course: <span style="font-style: italic;">'I will remove all sickness out of your midst... I will grant you a full span of life'. </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:13pt;" >[Exodus-<u>23</u>:25]</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">. </span><br />Furthermore, physical disabilities are also entirely within God's power, as punishment for sins, of course. God tells Moses: <span style="font-style: italic;">'Who is it that gives man speech? Who makes him dumb, or deaf? Who makes him clear-sighted or blind?' </span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:13pt;" >[Exodus-<u>4</u>:11] </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"> </span><br />As the Scottish minister suggested, diseases, cancers and disabilities, are inflicted as divine punishment for sins - incapable of human influence. When we are afflicted, we ask: 'what have I done to deserve it?' The word 'pain' actually means punishment.<br /><br />So the reverse applies as well: anyone who is sick or disabled must have sinned. Therefore, they deserve our scorn and rejection. Leprosy sufferers were shunned by Byzantine society - many centuries before their bacillus was discovered. They bore the hallmarks of sin! That is one of the most harmful legacies of the Bible. And it is still very much alive today. The clergy still use it to explain and justify the suffering of their parishioners: 'maybe you should increase your donation, my son?'<br />And when Glen Hoddle declared, that disabled people are former sinners, who are being punished, nobody objected. So if you see a cripple, you should wonder what sin he had committed.<br />If you are a Moslem, you do not have many crimes to commit. Certainly murder is permitted. Judaism and Christianity, in contrast, cunningly ensured that everybody would have a bad conscience. They defined a great deal of sexual activity as sinful, even within marriage - </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> even single persons masturbating</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. But that will have to be a separate blog.<br />Before that, in the mean time, Al Megrahi, </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">MacAskill, and myself, will all end up in hell</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> - for different reasons</span></span>. <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br />- What about you??</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-832873778155764852009-08-22T19:42:00.008+01:002009-08-24T20:43:05.413+01:0048.Our golden Lodgers<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Hamid and Gita had moved into our former house further up the road and we have remained friends. As they pass our house, they very kindly drop in post that is still addressed </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">for us at</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> our former house - mainly begging letters from charities, that had bought cheap obsolete mailing lists. (The Moslem ones are quite moving).<br />We, in turn, keep a key of their house for them, for the odd occasions when one of their children locks themselves out. We have several such keys from various neighbours: we are mostly at home when needed, and we have honest faces. In case a burglar finds these keys, their labels are in code.<br />Some 3 weeks ago </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Hamid and Gita were going on holiday </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">abroad</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. On this occasion, Gita asked for two favours: to water their plants in the garden and in the house, and to look after their two goldfish. </span><span style="font-family:arial;">Judith agreed, and Gita delivered the large bowl plus a jar of their food.<br />The weather was mostly hot and dry, and Judith looked after the hydration of the plants. But for the first time ever, we were looking not just after our children, but also two live animals. The bowl stood on one of the work surfaces in the kitchen, visible constantly. It is said that goldfish have a memory of several seconds - which is probably true. They never showed any sign of recognition, or getting used to us. They still circle in panic whenever I passed nearby. Neither did they seem to recognize each other, react to one another, or play, or fight.<br />The two fish are identical, without any distinguishing marks. We certainly did not fancy naming them - we are not romantic that way. But I well remember that our niece Miriam also had two goldfish. As she was a child at the time, and with a father who loves Hebrew terms, they were given appropriate names, of course: DAGA [dag = fish] and SHOOTA [shoot = float]. The final 'a' converts each of these words into Aramaic: THE fish, and the imperative form of the verb.<br />I do not know how long they survived. But unlike the joke about the talking parrot that the man gave to his mother, I'm quite certain that they were not eaten as 'most delicious' - and there was no other resident animal in that house that could have consumed them. I think goldfish are of the carp family and edible.<br />Now Miriam has her own son - but no pets as yet, I think. But if Aaron were to have two goldfish, I know what they would be called.</span><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-7937878209326456282009-08-17T20:55:00.010+01:002009-08-24T20:42:40.100+01:0047.What's behind the news<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">From time to time there are news items that cry out for comments. Here are a few:<br /><br />A Puma helicopter crashed in Afghanistan. Two of the occupants were killed, and now the pilot has given evidence</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, hidden from view [why?]. He said the following:-<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">1. Just before the crash, the radio failed. In a cloud of dust, the pilot lost his bearings and crashed. We were told that the radio on the Puma is 'notoriously unreliable'. [how long??]<br /><br />2. The occupants had been unable to fasten the Puma's safety belts over their bulky equipment. This defect was also well known. It might have saved their lives.<br /><br />So, to quote some labour minister or other, the Puma was clearly not 'fit for purpose', and this was well known. Now if I were their commanding officer, I would have refused to order that flight in a grossly faulty helicopter. However, stopping the flight would have blocked any future career prospects or promotion for that commander. Better to risk the lives of the helicopter occupants... </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;">Next, Aung San Suu Kyi</span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">and her dotty American visitor. Across the lake, an elderly American swims to visit her house, and knocks on her door to deliver a warning from God. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Here is a highly intelligent woman, imprisoned and closely watched by Burmese soldiers. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">But instead of calling her guards to arrest the intruder - an obvious <span style="font-style: italic;">agent provocateur,</span> she gives him hospitality overnight - for which she knew that she would receive an additional term of imprisonment.<br />Did her guards tell her at first that it was OK to admit the man, and then pretended otherwise? Or was it a desperate lonely woman's yearning for a one night stand? I do not think so! Why the hell did she let him in?<br /><br />I suspect that the American man was found, briefed and advised by the Burmese. An elderly man and a religious nut, he might even have been assisted by the Burmese in his heroic swim. Once he had caused a legitimate prolongation of Suu Kyi's sentence, to prevent her from taking part in the next elections, the Burmese no longer needed him and they let the US senator take him home. He was checked in a hospital first: was it psychiatric?<br /><br />Next - the alleged torture by MI5 of Binyam Mohamed. He is a British convert to Islam and I am convinced that he was flown around, interrogated and tortured as he claims - including by MI5. The relevant flight records of landings and re-fuelling have just been mysteriously 'lost'. Has anyone been disciplined?<br />So how could Milliband, a respected government minister, truthfully deny that British intelligence was involved? No, Milliband is not lying: it is the civil servants who have briefed him who are. They are anonymous and protected. They know exactly what the minister wants to hear - and so they tell him. Orally, no paperwork!<br />These are the same civil servants who briefed Tony Blair about the 30 minute threat of Iraqui weapons of mass destruction. Except that Blair swallowed this convenient lie, instead of asking questions. He was a barrister!<br /><br />Lastly some questions: I do not believe that Princess Diana was murdered, as poor Fayed claims. The palace and the intelligence services are far too stupid and incompetent. Now if the Israeli Mossad had been involved - maybe...<br />But 3 questions have bothered me ever since - each could have easily saved her life:<br /><br />- Why did Diana and Dodi not stay in the Ritz hotel that night?<br /><br />- Why did none of the intelligent adults in that car instruct the speeding driver to slow down?<br /><br />- Why did Diana, the mother of two young children, not wear her safety belt?<br /><br />- I suspect that we shall never know.<br /><br />Next time - corrupt MPs and the incompetent so-called parliamentary expense committee. Watch this space.<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-19470434089372092032009-08-13T10:07:00.009+01:002009-08-24T20:42:16.884+01:0046.Readers Digest - scam or offer?<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Some weeks ago Readers Digest wrote to warn me that an important letter would arrive and I should not ignore it.<br />Sure enough, within days a large envelope arrives. It was marked 'important', and 'approved release'. A sticker saying </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">'Urgent',and 'time-sensitive' was stuck on it at an angle - except that it was part of the envelope's printing - as was the 'postage stamp' and its cancellation. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">All along the back flap</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> it was stamped 'secured' . By that time I was getting really excited.<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">In his enclosed letter </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Jeremy Jacobs, the Readers Digest finance director, told me that if I should win, anything from £250,000 down to one thousand prizes of £10 each, the provisional payment date was 14th August 2009.<br />There was no cost involved to me: a reply-paid addressed return envelope was enclosed for my response. Except that there were two envelopes: one, the 'YES' envelope, <span style="font-style: italic;">if I agree to examine, on 7 days' approval and with no obligation to buy,</span> a marvellous book, for which Readers Digest are anticipating <span style="font-style: italic;">a high demand - 'it will be a best-seller'</span>. Furthermore, if I said 'YES', I could also win a car.<br /><br />I could hardly contain my excitement. In fairness, if all I wanted was to win one of the cash prizes, without buying the book, Readers Digest offered a response using the other envelope, marked </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> 'NO'</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">.<br /><br />Readers Digest are on to a winner here: every 'YES' response is a book sale of £14.99 [plus postage], whereas all the 'NO' envelope can go straight in the shredder - unopened. And although all the prize money has been <span style="font-style: italic;">'deposited in the bank'</span>, it might not all be won. Also, I'm being kept in the dark about the method of the prize draw, and there is no way of enquiring afterwards.<br /><br />I'll let you know in a few days.<br /><br /><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-79107600134642918412009-08-10T16:29:00.012+01:002009-08-24T20:41:54.383+01:0045.Arafat.<img style="padding-bottom: 9px; height: 169px;" alt="" src="http://www.israelnationalnews.com/static/pictures/resized/244-153/36/36670.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The daily Israeli web programme</span></span> <span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >'Arutz sheva' </span><span style="font-family:arial;">[channel seven]</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> published these charming pictures with the news that </span><span style="font-family:arial;">the Fatah party, which is meeting in Bethlehem, accused Israel of being responsible for the “assassination” of Yasser Arafat, who died in 2004. </span><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Arafat, the terrorist and winner of the Nobel prize, died after his physical condition had deteriorated quite rapidly. He was hospitalized in isolation for two weeks and died while being treated in France. The shroud of security and secrecy at the time, and since, have prevented any medical facts from being known</span><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >.<br /><br />I had followed the story at the time and I was convinced that he had died from AIDS. Comments by many readers in </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">'channel seven' now confirm my diagnosis. Arafat was a paedophile, and one of these </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Arab </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">'rent boys' supplied by his entourage infected the old goat.<br /><br />Significantly, his widow had avoided any physical contact with him towards the end. She and her daughter, [of questionable paternity], continue to live in luxury in France - financed by the vast wealth that Arafat stole from the Palestinian people.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">One aspect of Arafat's cause of death has puzzled me. No Israeli spokesperson has given the true information, about Arafat's AIDS - although it is obviously correct. But this is in line with the chronic deficiency of Israeli counter-propaganda. For many years, their arrogant attitude seems to be that as long as Israel is in the right (in their opinion), they can ignore what other people think or say. But that is a great mistake: it corrupts world public opinion and the Arabs </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">cunningly </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">exploit it all the time. After five years they have resurrected lies about Arafat's 'assasination' in the full knowledge that Israel will not bother to tell the truth.<br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-64183182432853144892009-08-02T12:28:00.031+01:002009-08-24T20:39:44.572+01:0044.Israel Visit<p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >It's high time that I wrote a blog again - for the benefit of my 2 readers!<br /><br />Ruth has her vacation in July and she agreed to be the driver of our hire car.<br />Also in July the tenth season of archaeological excavations </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >took place </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >on the Hellenistic-Byzantine city of Sussita [Hippos]. It is</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" > one of the Decapolis [look it up in Google] and the dig is led by Professor Arthur Segal who is a friend. Sussita is just behind </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Kibbutz </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Ein Gev, east of the sea of Galilee, and m</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >y 93 year old cousin and his family live in Ein Gev. Ruben is my favourite relative, but he is now frail and in the kibbutz's sheltered accommodation. It was time to visit him. So far he has retained his former 'house' - and towards the end of my blog the significance of this situation will become clearer. We stayed there for the duration. </span><br /><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" ><br />The plane for our night flight including some 15 or 20 noisy teen age girls, stimulated by a couple of boys. Their shrill American accents persisted all night, and we got no sleep whatever.<br /><br />En route to Ein Gev we visited Judith's cousin Yona in kibbutz Ramat David. When my late mother lay for many weeks in Affula hospital, having broken her femoral shaft on the road outside Ramat David, Yona visited her with devotion at least twice a week - by 2 buses each way. After almost 60 years of marriage, Yona's husband died last year. She still works in the kibbutz's disabled and dialysis unit.<br /><br />Our next stop along the way was at moshav [seach in Google] Tel Adashim, to see Eva. Her father was a brother of my maternal grandfather - work it out. He was an ordained rabbi in Bohemia and escaped with his family to Palestine around 1940. But he was not orthodox enough for the bigoted Jerusalem rabbinic authorities and those bastards rejected him. To eke out a living he peddled chocolate, sweets and shoelaces from house to house.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Some two years ago Eva lost her husband, a farmer in Tel Adashim. She became very depressed. But by the time we visited she seems to have rallied a bit. She has a resident Phillipino help, whom she does not like - perhaps a good sign of her lessening depression.<br />One of their 2 sons manages his late father's farm. They have cattle and he has installed an automatic machine that entices cows </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >in sequence </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >to enter a milking device. Very clever.<br /><br />Then onward to Ein Gev. The haze spoilt our beloved view of the lake during the descent to the sea of Galilee. We were expected there and welcomed. Radio-controlled barriers have been installed on the internal roads to keep out unauthorized cars. In the afternoon we began to catch up on our sleep deficit - aided by the 2 hour time difference. The temperature was around 40 Celsius by day, and not much less at night. How did they cope [and work] before air conditioning?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >There has been severe drought in the last five years. The level of the sea of Galilee has dropped disastrously and a wide dry shoreline is exposed. The single bonus is the archaeology of the many ancient anchorages that surround the lake. But the water no longer emerges into the Jordan. It has to be pumped up into the site of tourists' baptism ceremony! Beyond, only sewage flows down towards the dead sea - whose lower third is now dry. When we were in Jordan we were told of a project, agreed by the countries concerned, to pump sea water from the red sea down (!) to the dead sea, also generating electricity. But sea water is corrosive and they could not predict the project's time scale.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Israel ought to stop pumping the sea of Galilee dry for agricultural irrigation, but concentrate on technological industries. As someone said, if water is scarce, 'you cannot make the desert bloom'. At the same time, massive investment in de-salination of sea water should have been started years ago. Sea water and sunlight are abundant and the technology does exist. The problem lies in the myopic short-term policies of governments, that cannot think beyond their popularity for the next election. It needs a dictator: King Herod would have done it differently.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >The next planned activity was to visit Sussita. Due to the heat the professor and his team work from 05.15 to 12.00, Sunday to Thursday. For some years now, Friday in Israel is like Saturday here.<br />We set off at 6.00, accompanied by Zvi. The road from the kibbutz to the start of the ascent to the site is less than 2 miles long, but on the way back he cheerfully revealed to us that this road had been constructed in 1948 by the Israel Army and not by the Public Works. Therefore it was unauthorized and is prohibited to all vehicles. I did see the large sign. Sometimes a police patrol waits around the corner to intercept motorists and fine them. We were lucky. Possibly the police stayed away while the excavation is in progress.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >It was a cloudy morning. Obviously no rain was expected, but at least there was no direct sunshine. Lucky again. I have the feeling that the steep path from the road to the plateau is getting steeper every year.<br /><br />Professor Segal was supervising a bulldozer that was clearing a large mound of rocks. For some mysterious reason, the Israel army had piled them there, ignoring the exciting presence of a semicircular structure - a small theatre or odeion. Only the lowest courses have survived, but they show remarkable precise dressing - as good as any at the time.<br />When Sussita was first conquered from the Syrians' occupation in 1948, the Israel army built defensive fortifications that caused a great deal of damage to the ancient structures. Normally, every Israeli is an amateur archaeologist - but not that lot, apparently.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Detailed reports of the excavations are published annually by Haifa University: they are models of clarity and punctuality. Five churches have been found and excavated, including some lovely mosaic floors that have been restored. A beautifully paved main street = cardo, runs east to west along the ridge. As usual, the paving slabs are laid diagonally, to prevent cart wheels from getting caught. There are several side roads [singular = decumanus], a forum with a monument [formerly erroneously thought to be a nymphaeum], with a water cistern </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >below it </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >with a vaulted barrell roof and steps leading down, and an agora. The sophisticated water supply to Sussita has been extensively researched and published. It reached the summit across the saddle and up the slope through a syphon of tubular collared basalt links. A major earthquke in 749 caused severe damage to it and 'flattened the town. The site had to be abandoned and was not resettled - invariably a boon for archaeologists.<br /><br />There are three major obstacles to the development of the site as the major tourist attraction, that it deserves to be after 10 seasons of expert excavation and restoration:<br /><br />a. The steep access to the plateau requires a funicular. That is an expensive project to construct and to run. A cable hoist was costructed by the </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Israel army </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" > </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >in 1948 </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >for the hoisting of supplies </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >[but not personnel] </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >for their garrison at the top</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" ></span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >. At that time, the surrounding area of the side slopes, where the road now runs, was in Syrian hands.<br /><br />b. No synagogue, or other Jewish remains have been found; and Jesus never climbed up to Sussita </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >from the seashore, where he expelled demons out of lunatics</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >: his absence is a tragic oversight of the Gospels. So there is little attraction for religious tourists. Archaeologists are not likely to visit in sufficient numbers either.<br /><br />c. At present there is still a risk that Sussita might be ceded to the Syrians in a final peace settlement.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" > And then there's the heat...<br /><br />Ruth and I invited all our relatives to a meal in the famous fish restaurant. It's air conditioned but that Friday evening there were no other tourists. The food was excellent and I'm proud of having thought of it - particularly as it was very successful and enjoyable. But then our Ein Gev family are extremely nice. My cousin Ruben was one of the early settlers. He would have been classed as a founder except that he was a metal worker and it took time for his lathe and equipment to be transferred to the new 'stockade and tower site. He was in charge of the water pumps and other motors. Before the days of ear protection from acoustic trauma he tragically became profoundly deaf. I well remember my early visits, when the engines generated an explosive 'bang' once a second continuously, day and night. Of course, Ruben took part in the conquest of Sussita from the Syrians in 1948. Later he was also area security commander.<br /><br />Ruben's wife died 10 years ago. It was a very hard blow. His 3 daughters and son and their families rallied round and they continue to support him lovingly.<br />This is the first occasion when we did not visit the kibbutz cemetery. It was too hot and he is quite frail. Also buried there are my aunt Martha - Ruben's mother, and one grandson who was killed in an accident while serving in the army. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >It is beautifully maintained. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Ruben's son Danni came to see us. He is an ex-fighter pilot, now at El Al. On a previous visit he was captain of our plane and we were allowed in the cockpit to watch the landing. Lately he also has a part time government job to upgrade the airline's neglected security ratings - before </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >El Al</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" > lose their landing rights in the US.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Oded, his wife Adi and their lovely three sons came at the weekend. It was an aftermath for Oded's birthday. As the father of 3 daughters, I had offered Oded some help if they wanted a daughter next. But he was not convinced.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Most kibbutzim are losing their traditional communal character - including Ein Gev. Food has been privatized. In the dining hall at each meal members and their guests register all their chosen items and their budget is debited. So nobody has to subsidized other members' guests. To economize, the dining hall is shut at times of poor attendance, such as weekend breakfast. There is a grocery store instead - for payment. At Ramat David the process has gone further: members have to pay if they want help with gardening or for mowing the grass around their house.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Traditionally, a member who leaves the kibbutz or dies can leave no real estate to their descendants or beneficiaries - it all reverts to kibbutz ownership. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >But just these very days Ein Gev is voting on approving the private ownership of their members' houses. It is likely to be agreed. - Thus <span style="font-style: italic;">Tel Katzir</span> south of Ein Gev, for example, 'is no longer a kibbutz'. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >The important question in Ein Gev is the 'operational date' for this </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >decision</span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >. The longer it is postponed, the more elderly members will die, depriving their descendants of their inheritance.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >The last event of our visit was an invitation by Ruthi, one of Ruben's daughters, to a <i>'son et lumiere'</i> performence in the archaeological site of Bet Shean = Scytopolis - another decapolis city [ I know - that's a tautology]. A 10 minute presentation projected onto the back wall of the theatre was followed by a guided tour around the large excavated and restored site. But I do have to criticize, and the guide agreed with me that to leave the unique public latrine unlit was a mistake. The performances are held every summer night since 2006.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Our visit to this event emphasizes the crucial help that Ruth gave me during our visit. My balance is getting deficient and </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" > I had brought my stick </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >to Bet Shean. The ground was quite uneven and it was not well lit. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Ruth always hovered by me, in case I stumbled or fell. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >She must have been anxious - even though nothing happened. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >My memory is getting patchy. Ruth remembered the times of arrangements and even one or two tricky parts of our route - even though I was the actual map reader and navigator. Ruth's driving - on the opposite side of the road to ours - was impeccable. </span><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >In short - I could not have managed the visit without her.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >By driving back straight to the airport on 'route 6', the toll road, one saves time and hassle. But there is not a single petrol station on that road, or at the airport. We did not have time to exit and search, and so we had to return the car 'unfilled' and they charge extra for this.<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:'Arial','sans-serif';font-size:130%;" >Still, we had no accidents, no collisions and no breakdowns. No swine flu or other upset. And it was not a night flight back. All in all it was a very successful visit.</span><o:p></o:p></p>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-31027834459009755822009-03-27T11:07:00.007+00:002009-08-24T20:39:18.457+01:0043.More Web Scams<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">When I mentioned swindles on the web and complained about the absence of Viagra offers, I did not have to wait long. The following day, the following tried to tempt me:<br /><br /></span></span>UN. NATIONAL LOTTERY .<br /><br />Your EMAIL ID, Has won 1,500.000 GBP in the second category of our lottery<br />draws. Contact our Claims Agent: Dr.Brandon Drake mail: <a href="mailto:globalmaxfinanc@aol.com">globalmaxfinanc@aol.com</a><br />with your full names, age, country, occupation, Telephone/Fax Number, For your WINNING claims procedures.<br /><br />Sincerely<br />Terry Anderson<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">- Does Kofi Annan know about this use of UN money??<br /><br />But more tempting was the following </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">mis-spelled notice</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, from Ken Myles:<br />''We Guuarantees bigger pen-nis''<br /><br /></span></span><table style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);" align="center" border="2"> <tbody> <tr> <td bg="" style="color: rgb(173, 255, 47);"> <h1><span style="color:red;">M</span></h1></td> <td rowspan="3"><span style="font-size:130%;"><b>Would you like to have a brand new penis without having to go trough a dangerous and costly surgery? New pills where discovered that will save your time, money and first of all - health. M<span style="float: right;color:white;" > qc </span>ax Ge<span style="float: right;color:white;" > br </span>ntl<span style="float: right;color:white;" > gbj </span>em<span style="float: right;color:white;" > rt </span>an has absolutely no side effects as it contains only herbal ingredients. We offer it - you try it!</b></span></td></tr> <tr> <td bg="" style="color: rgb(135, 206, 250);"> <h1><span style="color:red;">A</span></h1></td></tr> <tr> <td bg="" style="color: rgb(255, 228, 225);"> <h1><span style="color:red;">X</span></h1></td></tr></tbody></table><a href="http://hu.latetag.com/?dd"> <h2>CLI<span style="float: right;font-size:85%;color:white;" > oan </span>CK HE<span style="float: right;font-size:85%;color:white;" > qa </span>RE!!!</h2><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:6px;" ><strong></strong></span> </a><p><span style=";font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >Are you convinced? </span></p><p><br /></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span></span>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-37607554714683854922009-03-24T21:22:00.008+00:002009-08-24T20:38:58.442+01:0042.Swindlers on the web<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">This morning I received the following three emails:</span></span></span><table class="apptable" width="614"><tbody><tr> <td class="apptablecell" colspan="2" width="593"><b> <h1>Alliance & Leicester Confirmation Form</h1></b></td></tr> <tr> <td> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td class="apptablecell" height="319" valign="top"> <p>Dear Alliance & Leicester customer,</p> <p>You have received this alerting message, as you are listed to be an Alliance & Leicester Internet banking user.</p> <p>We would like to inform you that we are currently carrying out scheduled maintenance of banking software, that operates customer database for Alliance & Leicester Internet banking users. Customer database is based on a client-server protocol, so, in order to finish the update procedure, we need customer direct participation. Every Alliance & Leicester Internet banking customer (business and personal) has to complete a Alliance & Leicester Confirmation Form. In order to access the form, please use the link below. The link is unique for each account holder and expires within a certain period of time. If you don't fill in Alliance & Leicester Confirmation Form before your unique link expires, the system will automatically send you a new notification message.</p> <p><a href="http://www.mybank.alliance-leicester.co.uk.vpsdtr.com/customerforms/server10a/form.asp?ct=mybank173945709331719257322165581913887292009128254604862430549318770951341260457&em=wl.herod@loebl.org.uk"><strong>Alliance & Leicester Confirmation Form</strong></a></p> <p>Thank you for your cooperation. We apologize for any inconvenience brought.</p></td></tr> <tr> <td class="apptablecell">Alliance & Leicester plc is authorised and regulated by the <span>Financial Services Authority</span>.<br />Our FSA register number is 189099.<br />Alliance & Leicester plc, <span>Registered office</span> :<br />Carlton Park, Narborough,<br />Leicester LE19 0AL.<br />Company No: 3263713. Registered in England.</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;font-size:130%;" >And:</span><br /><br /><style></style> <div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><div><b>Subject:</b> You Have 1 New Message </div></div> <div><br /></div> <div dir="ltr"><span id="banner_secure" style="display: block;"></span><img alt="The image " src="http://www.themotivationspeaker.com/media/images/logo_egg.gif" com="" media="" images="" cannot="" be="" because="" it="" contains="" height="45" width="142" /><br /><br /><span id="banner_secure" style="display: block;"><img alt="Secure account log in." src="https://new.egg.com/com.egg/images/NewHeader/head_secure_login_380x30.gif" border="0" height="25" width="306" /></span><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" > <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="331"> <tbody> <tr style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);"> <td colspan="4" bgcolor="#70b323"><img src="http://new.egg.com/com.egg/images/spacer.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></td></tr> <tr> <td style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);" bgcolor="#70b323"><img src="http://new.egg.com/com.egg/images/spacer.gif" border="0" height="1" width="1" /></td> <td> <table style="width: 441px; height: 2087px;"> <tbody> <tr> <td><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:130%;" ><span style="color: rgb(192, 192, 192);">Egg Message Center</span></span> <p><b><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">Welcome to "My Message" Service</span></b><span style=";font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:85%;" ><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">,<br /><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">A New message Of deposition has just been sent to your Egg online Message Center and here is an alert to inform you that you have 1 new message from Egg Account Message Center.</span> <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">Egg UK customers may use this service to contact us with enquiries regarding your accounts or the products and services we offer. From time to time, we will also use 'My messages' to contact you. This may be in relation to existing products and services which you have with us or to keep you informed of enhancements to our products and services. Be sure to check 'My messages' regularly for any new messages. 'My messages' will only retain 10 messages so you may want to delete those you do not need. Click to view</span> <a href="http://www.zint.pt/zaccess/security/customers/youraccounts/Login.htm">'My Message"</a> <span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">to read your new messages now</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">.</span></span></p><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;">I phoned Alliance and Leicester, who confirmed that it was a fraudulent message and I should delete it.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />With EGG we do not have an account. So I deleted that too.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">I also received the following third email:</span><br /><br /></span></span><div><strong>WINNING NOTIFICATION<br />From: Ms. Cynthia Chalkie<br />Canada Lottery/Ontario 49 Soccer World Cup 2010 Promotional Draw<br />1550 Princess Street<br />Kingston, ON, Canada, K7M 9E3<br />Attention: Customer AFRSA680 A<br />Ref: EAAL/851OYHI/08<br />Batch No. Ontario 49 </strong></div> <div><strong></strong> </div> <div><strong><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);">FIND THE ATTACHED LETTER BELOW</span></strong><br /></div> <div><strong></strong> </div> <div><strong>WINNING NOTIFICATION </strong></div> <div><strong>The Canadian Government sponsors this lottery for the promotion of the 2010 Soccer World cup to be hosted in South Africa. We happily announce to you the draw of the Special Global 2010 World Cup Promotional Draw held on the WEDNESDAY MARCH 18 2009 in Essex United Kingdom and Ontario Canada. Your e-mail address attached to Ticket Number: B9564 75604545 100, with Serial Number 46563760 drew the winning numbers Wed Mar 181 2 8 14 28 48<br />with a bonus Number 44 for Ontario 49 Lotto under the choice of the lottery in the 2nd category of bi- weekly six. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$1,000, 000.00 (One Million United States Dollars) in cash credited to file EAAL/851OYHI/08. This is from a total cash prize of US $130,000, 000.00 Million dollars, shared amongst the first One Hundred and thirty (130) lucky winners in this category Worldwide.<br /><br />Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our Afro booklet representative office in Africa as indicated in your electronic play coupon, because this particular draw was selected to promote the 2010 World Cup to be hosted in South Africa hence your winning information must be kept to enable you participate in our subsequent draws which will see 500 participants traveling on an all expense paid trip to South Africa for the Soccer World Cup 2010. In view of this, your US$1,000,000.00 (One Million United States Dollars) will be released to you by an accredited commercial Bank in South Africa. Our African agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contact our African Agent's office. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draws system and extracted from over 10,000,000 companies and personal e-mails. For security reasons, you are<br />advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims, is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.<br /><br />This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by unscrupulous elements. Please be warned!<br />To file for your claim, please contact our corresponding payment Agent in South Africa immediately you read this message for quick and urgent release of your fund, contact information is as follows:<br /></strong></div> <div><strong></strong> </div> <div><strong>MR. SEASON RICHARD.<br />TEL: +27-79-64444-37<br />CONTACT EMAIL IS: </strong><strong><a href="mailto:uk_ml005@hotmail.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">uk_ml005@hotmail.com</a></strong><br /></div><strong></strong> <div><strong></strong> </div> <div><strong>To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference numbers in any correspondences with our designated agents. Congratulations! Once more from all members and staff of this program that has ensured that you won this competition.<br />Thank you for being part of our Promotional Lottery program.<br />Yours Sincerely,<br />Ms. Cynthia Chalkier<br />NOTE to confirm that you have the winning number for the<br />Wed Mar 18 2009 draw, do confirm under Ontario 49.<br /></strong><a href="http://www.canada.com/findit/lotteries/results.aspx?id=8" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><strong>http://www.canada.com/findit/lotteries/results.aspx?id=8</strong></a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >As you will realize, this scam has grammatical errors.<br />I feel insulted and shall resist the million dollar temptation.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">I deleted it.</span></span><br /><strong> </strong></div><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">For the last few months I no longer receive emails advertising VIAGRA. Why???<br /><br />My blog post 'A Cautionary Tale' (05.09.2008) on a similar subject has received three comments:<br /></span></span></span></span><dl id="comments-block"><dt style="font-style: italic;" class="comment-author blogger-comment-icon" id="c5864688412562844695"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/08176931262023297944" rel="nofollow">The Redundant Girl</a> said... </span></dt><dd class="comment-body"> <p>Thank you for posting this - I received one of these letters today, as part of a something I ordered. I am always wary of these types of things so didn't pay any heed to it until a friend said I should check the club out. I Googled them and came across your post which confirmed my suspicions. Thank you for taking the time to post it as I'm sure it's a warning for other people.</p> </dd><dd class="comment-footer"> <span class="comment-timestamp"> <a href="http://herodblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/cautionery-tale.html?showComment=1228994880000#c5864688412562844695" title="comment permalink"><br /></a><span class="item-control blog-admin pid-152177301"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=3607675870716017746&postID=5864688412562844695" title="Delete Comment"> </a> </span> </span> </dd><dt class="comment-author blogger-comment-icon" id="c118879166173766089"> <a name="c118879166173766089"></a> <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/07633633359832877760" rel="nofollow">Su</a> said... </span></dt><dd class="comment-body"> <p>I too received a letter offering a 'free' gift. I checked google and came across your comments - I will now put the letter in the bin. No-one should phone for these prizes - it's all a con - the more people know to ignore these letters, the better.</p> </dd><dd class="comment-footer"> <span class="comment-timestamp"> <a href="http://herodblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/cautionery-tale.html?showComment=1236006600000#c118879166173766089" title="comment permalink"><br /></a><span class="item-control blog-admin pid-986529461"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=3607675870716017746&postID=118879166173766089" title="Delete Comment"> </a> </span> </span> </dd><dt class="comment-author anon-comment-icon" id="c3260695918229077393"> <a name="c3260695918229077393"></a> <span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >And <span style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);">Anonymous</span> said... </span></dt><dd class="comment-body"> <p>I just received a Loyalt Awards letter in my Sky Magazine bundle. I was quite tempted thinking this might for once be genuine "I had definitely been selected", but before calling decided to google as inevitably all these letters and any chain letters received by email are ALWAYS scams. Glad I did, just saved myself £15.</p></dd></dl><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;">So there is some benefit from publicising these scams!<br />Keep suspicious and be safe!<br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><br /><br /></span></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3607675870716017746.post-86956907212043905852008-11-30T15:47:00.009+00:002009-08-24T20:38:23.266+01:0041.In Memory of Zvi Alexander<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U8BcIXQT1Ro/STK10nN4I6I/AAAAAAAAALY/hF3gYTxto5Q/s1600-h/zvi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 396px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_U8BcIXQT1Ro/STK10nN4I6I/AAAAAAAAALY/hF3gYTxto5Q/s400/zvi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5274478029089285026" border="0" /></a>(Zvi is on the right<span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span> Photo<span style="font-weight: bold;">:</span> Ze'ev Galibov)<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Zvi Alexander passed away two days ago in Switzerland after suffering excruciating </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">back pain</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> for many weeks. He was 86 and was being treated for widespread cancer, but his physicians were unable to find a cause for the back pain, or to give him sufficient help. From a distance, this was most frustrating and perplexing </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">to me</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. Through my occasional phone calls I could feel his gradual deterioration, but his mind remained crystal clear. I am not sure how much the cancer responded to the treatment, but the final heart attack would have been a merciful and rapid relief.<br /><br />I became aquainted with Zvi at the Palestine-Israel philatelic meetings, when these still took place at the Victory Club. Whereas I was an amateur, he was clearly a top expert of Holy Land postal history from Turkish times to the War of Independence. His knowledge was phenomenal. His wisdom and wealth enabled him to create an outstanding collection and he reaped the top prizes at exhibitions. This is now housed at the Ha'aretz Museum in Tel Aviv (see: 'A New Book' 09. 06. 08). Despite all this, and his high former position in Isreal business management, there was not a trace of elitism or snobbishness about him. He was always very friendly and he had a marvellous sense of humour.<br /><br />I was at the time editor of the </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">Palestine-Israel philatelic Bulletin, to which he contributed occasionally. By chance, one day, Zvi discovered my past history and decoration in the Israel Army (See 'Nuqueib' 26. &27. 04. 08). My senior army medical officer at the time, Gillon, is one of Zvi's good friends and his medical advisers. Later, for a time, I was able to help Rachel with a medical problem - a sign of his trust.<br /><br />One day in 2000 Zvi showed me the manuscript of his memoirs about his directorship of Israel's oil industry. I found it fascinating. The book was published in Hebrew, but I suggested that he ought to publish it in English. Twice, Zvi angrily rejected examples of the translated English versions that had been produced by the Gefen Publishers in Jerusalem - they failed to preserve the nuances of Zvi's Hebrew style. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> We solved the problem</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> with the help of modern technology. Gefen e-mailed me their proposed English translation</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">, chapter by chapter</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">. By reference to the published Hebrew text, and knowing Zvi, I would modify the English style - including the technical details of oil exploration. This I then emailed to Zvi. There would then follow a very long phone conversation between us to sort out Zvi's misgivings. Once it was all agreed, I would email the final version to Zvi, and back to Gefen for type setting.<br /><br />I advised Gefen not to touch </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">chapter 9</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">: it dealt with Zvi's family, and it had already been 'edited' by them - Shaula and Kobi and even Rachel, I think. All ended well. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">The book "OIL - Israel's Covert Efforts to Secure Oil Supplies" appeared in 2004. But it is really of interest mainly to readers who know about Israel's personalities of the 1950s to 1970s. </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">At my request, Zvi did not mention my work - it was purely technical and linguistic. Zvi gave me a generous and practical present.<br /><br />Zvi's phenomenal memory and lucid style did not seem to diminish with the years. The book reflects Zvi's immense hard work and tenacity - qualities that he demonstrated in all his many fields of activity. Although Zvi encountered some unsavoury charachters and suffered occasional disappointments, he was never bitter in his comments.<br /><br />When he told me the diagnosis of cancer, we both knew that the outlook was bleak. He said, "this is not the end that had I envisaged." None of us did.<br /><br />May his memory be for a blessing.<br /><br /></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /> <br /></span></span></div></div>Walterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12145876914639833423noreply@blogger.com1