I’ve never felt so old.

I am an almost 74-year-old male and every hour, some or other news programme informs me that I belong to the endangered group, one of those most at risk. Reluctantly, I now stopped going to wild raves and orgies and instead spend my time zoom-lecturing youngsters to stop behaving irresponsibly. Why should they have fun, if I can’t. 

If they don’t have pasta, let them eat ...

Empty Frankfurt Airport

The first thing I did, coming back from Germany a few days ago, was to go the supermarket and get some food. There, I was able to see it for myself: the pasta, toilet paper and paracetamol-emptied shelves. 

Yet, fresh produce, meat, fish, cold meats, cheese etc were to be found in abundance. You will, I hope, understand that I had no alternative: I had to compromise and have lobster instead of spaghetti for dinner.

One out of Four

Of the four countries, the politics of which I regularly follow, Israel, Great Britain, Germany and the USA, only Germany has a head of the executive branch, who is believable and trustworthy. Trump is not only a notorious liar, he is also incapable of handling difficult issues. So there is no hope there. Unlike Trump, party-boy Boris Johnson is intellectually capable of understanding complicated problems, but he lacks the stamina for anything beyond PR. Netanyahu has both intelligence and stamina, but his interests lie elsewhere: his only aim is to stay out of jail. 

I raise my glass to Angela Merkel!

The sad story of Israel

Netanyahu’s Israel is the first country to exploit COVID in order to dismantle democracy. A day before the first hearing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s corruption trial, his appointee as minister of justice conveniently issued a decree closing the courts. 

Then, by stealth, behind the parliament’s back, the government instructed the internal security service to use its technological  surveillance appartus to follow anyone suspected of having been in touch with infected persons. 

And now, Netanyahu and the coterie of scoundrels, who he has painstakingly appointed over the last few years, are trying to close parliament.  

I can understand that Netanyahu wants to avoid going to jail. But why do all those Israeli politicians help him? This is after all the country, that likes to constantly tell the world that it is “the only democracy in the middle east”. What despicable imps they all are. Despicable collaborators.

Collaborators are not forgotten. We will not forget, just as we have not forgotten those who collaborated with other so well-known dictators.

Burglary

I was burgled last week, and the thieves stole several items of emotional value to me. Items that are unlikely to bring them much money but that I will really miss.

This watch was my maternal great grandfather’s. He bequeathed it to my grandmother, who in turn left it to me.

This watch was a present my paternal grandmother made to my father and it is inscribed in the back.

Two more watches were stolen, including the watch my parents gave me sixty years ago, for my 13^th birthday.

Other items stolen included silver napkin rings with initials of my grandparents and a couple of old Russian salt cellars. 

Racism in the Jewish State

Israel’s population has once again demonstrated how widespread racism and hatred are in the country, 20 per cent the population of which is Arab. A few days ago – in response to the demand by the Arab party’s demand for civic equality – Israel’s Transport Minister, a religious Jew aptly named Smutrich (spelled Smotrich, I believe), quoted from Numbers 33:55 (the bible is always a useful source for whatever needs one may have): “If you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides.”   

Since Netanyahu came to power, incitement against Arab citizens, by his own party and by most other political parties, has reached unbelievable lows. Legally Arabs have the same rights as Jews, but the attitude has always been that whereas Arab citizens might be tolerated, they should not have a say in the running of the state. Some, and they are not a few, come up with land-swap and population-swap ideas that would in effect eject certain areas with a predominantly Arab population to become part of a Palestinian territory.

Establishing and embedding the outrageous perception of an ethnic minority as an enemy within, as disloyal, as a fifth column, is not an Israeli invention. Our Jewish history bears witness to it. Israeli Arabs are in an unenviable situation and the onus is upon the Jewish majority not to do to others what they do not want done to themselves.

It is high time that, Diaspora Jewry, which regularly raises alarm about Antisemitism, acts to disassociate itself from the racist reality of the Jewish State.

The Panic

The general view seems to be that the virus on a personal level is not that dangerous, but that rapid contagion would collapse the health systems around the world.

Personally, quarantine at home, would be ok, even useful. The only thing is timing – could it be timed so as not to interfere with my travel plans? Having said that, with the collapse of the stock exchanges, can I still afford the travel?

Thuringia

The published facts about the situation in the German state of Thuringia are known to anyone who is interested in German politics. I will not repeat them.   

The main recipient of beatings in this matter has been the FDP, the party whose representative was elected as Prime-Minister of Thuringia. The FDP did indeed furnish the man, without whom this whole AfD ploy would not have been possible. But the FDP – which has form with its leanings – is a small party and with a bit of luck will not make it into the next Bundestag.

The real worry is CDU, which is so eager not to collaborate with the left wing Linke that it found itself in (an as yet unconsummated) bed with the AfD. In a curious notion of fairness, the CDU maintains equal-unacceptability of the left-wing Linke and the fascist AfD, some of whose leaders are considered to be neo-Nazis.

From their point of view, the CDU’s wish not to cooperate with the Linke may be understandable, but a balanced approach to both Linke and AfD is wrong and morally questionable. Historical comparisons must be sensitively employed and yet...

The woman who married Rabin’s assassin

Israel’s political system has over the years produced some politically truly unattractive parties. Some even disgusting. Occasionally you get ridiculous constructs, such as was the case of M. Flatto Sharon, a French embezzler, who took advantage of Israel’s Law of Return (that gives any Jew the right to move to Israel and get Israeli citizenship). In 1977, he established his own party and became a member of the Knesset, to avoid extradition to France, which had issued an international arrest warrant for him. Surprise, surprise, Flatto Sharon was later found guilt by an Israeli court of having bribed voters, in order to get their votes.

The latest “I wouldn’t touch with a barge-pole” is Ms. Larissa Trimbobler. I have no idea what caused this divorcee with four children, to marry the prisoner Ygal Amir, Yitzhak Rabin’s murderer. Amir was allowed to impregnate Trimbobler and in 2007, she gave birth to a son. 

There is no accounting for what makes people fall in love. And yet, wanting to marry that man, is quite something. Giving birth, producing a child with him – is at best irresponsible. The son of the murderer and the woman who chose to devote herself to him, will forever be known as the murderer’s son. 

There is, of course, the possibility that she is in it for the money, that she is being funded by Amir supporters.Taking her exciting life one step further, Trimbobler has established a political party, which demands Amir’s retrial. The next elections in Israel will take place on 2 March. 

Surveillance and Decency

Years ago, I felt that all those security cameras actually added to my security. But it has been creeping upon us. Not creeping, taking great leaps. More and more surveillance technology. And technological development (the word development used to have a positive connotation), has the tendency to find itself serving nasty masters.

Après moi le déluge. I say, hoping that nothing too dramatic will happen in my lifetime. The next generation needs to either revolt if that is at all possible or accept that they are totally transparent.

An interesting question is whether we become more decent, or just more law abiding, as we become more visible?

And then, the big what. What happens when our system changes and we become a China? It is, by the way, not what if but what when. Information is already being hacked by blackmailers. We will be at the mercy of private nasties and state nasties.