Another year… another year

In this, my first article in the new secular year 2018, I remember how my mother used to describe the annual calendar change. “Another year….another year.” Will 2018 be any different than 2017?

The happy-go-lucky cuckoo Americans and foreign tourists are spending at least 10 hours or more in long lines at New York City’s Time Square in a freezing temperature of 12 degrees below 0 Celcius in order to watch a ball go down from the Times tower to welcome in another year of much of the same.

I predict a new year of more conflicts around the world. North Korea and the United States are very close to a nuclear war. There will be no peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis. Settlements will grow in numbers and, unfortunately, so will the attacks.

Traffic on the Ayalon highway, already over-crowded, will increase, New highways are desperately needed. So are parking spaces, always at a premium, Bus rides are cheaper but much longer.

Perhaps we shall see a change in government with a new and stronger determination to strive for peace while maintaining our national security.

Maybe, if vox populi (the voice of the people) rumbles like thunder there may be a change in the Iranian regime, something that would please the hungry Iranian population and the rest of humanity with them.

Sadly, attempting regime changes in dictatorial regimes brings with it mass killings of innocent protesters. The Revolutionary Guard has announced its intention to shoot to kill citizens who cry out for the end of the Islamic rule and death to the nation’s president. It is the French Revolution lacking only the guillotine.

Mordechai van Zuiden will continue to write about revolutionizing sex and same- sex affairs with very little hope of seeing any laws passed granting recognition to those seeking an alternative to conventional marriage.

Other countries will follow Guatemala and Honduras with promises to move their respective embassies out of commercial Tel-Aviv and into holy Jerusalem where there is little available space to put them.

Arab terrorism will increase as long as there are Arabs. Hagar should have left Ishmael to die of thirst under the tree where he sat. Without an Ishmael 3500 years ago, the Middle East might know some solitude today.

Sara will stop demanding champagne from Milchan and Bibi will take up pipe smoking in place of imported cigars…. Maybe even a hookah (water pipe which bubbles the tobacco).

Shas will recuse itself from the government and the haredi parties will leave the coalition. Halevai !!!

The dream of Jabotinsky.. a nation on both banks of the Jordan River.. will remain unfulfilled.

The price of decent housing will continue to increase and young newly-weds will have to move in with abba and ima. (Whose? His or hers?)

Our Jewish population will increase, God willing, and will eventually grow into fine young men and women, defenders of our country, who will not sign letters refusing to enlist for mandatory military service.

Other than that, since I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, I see little change in 2018 from what we have experienced in 2017.

Mothers are always right. And my mother was among them. As she used to say:

“Another year….another year”.

Nu? ma od chadash?   So … what else is new?

Another year is still an opportunity for giving thanks. May it be a new  year of life, health and peace for us, our families and our loved ones…wherever they may be.