Retaining Belief in the Future

Here we go again. Waking up to a new round of missiles and sirens (from Iran, Lebanon, Yemen – it doesn’t make that much difference). All so futile. Israel isn’t going to disappear (but neither has it “won” this war or come anywhere near winning despite all the bombastic statements by the government and its leaders). The Iran regime (so it would appear) isn’t going to collapse, and Hezbollah isn’t going to be controlled by the much weaker Lebanon government. The Gaza Strip is not going to be depopulated, just as it never will be the Singapore of the Middle East. Peace (or more correctly meaningful and long lasting ceasfires) aren’t going to emerge in this region, while the regional geopolitics has undergone, and is continuing to undergo, major change with new alliances (it is quite amazing how the Israel -Gulf alliances based on the Abraham Accords have held up in the past three years and indicates clearly who the Gulf States see as their common enemy), while as for a “resolution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict, it ain’t unfortunately going to happen in my lifetime, if ever (I used to be an eternal optimist in this respect, but not any longer).

Lives continue to get lost, a life is a life whether it be your friend and neighbour or your enemy – or the many (the majority) who are simply “in the way” and are innocent bystanders. Families are destroyed. To what purpose??

Will the forthcoming elections in Israel change anything in this respect? Unlikely, even if there is a change in government (spurred on by what is happening internally, rather than on the external front). And it is by no means certain that there will actually be any change.

So it’s back to life’s daily activities – I have to get a new shower for the bathroom, pick up a TEMU package (which was delivered to the wrong address) and attend a twice-weekly workout as part of cardiological treatment (have shed almost 15 kilo in the past 6 months and hope to shed the same amount again over the next 12 months). Devote some time to my ongoing “hobby” research into the history of Anglo Jewry and its institutions. Gear up for the World Cup which starts in a few days, and two concerts (one in Meitar and one in Jerusalem) due to take place in a few days’ time. No doubt the world will be up in arms if the conflict here does anything to disrupt this global sporting event which will be watched everywhere – from Israel to Iran, from the USA to Europe.

Maybe I am too cold (some would say detached) an Englishman, but I don’t get worked up by the missiles, too much of a fatalist. Which is why also I decided a few years ago to stop writing media commentaries, or analysing events as a professor of Geopolitics, and just get on with life. And to think that the person pulling the strings behind all of this, the man in the White House, doesn’t seem to have any clear idea of where he is going on a daily basis. The Track II events, bringing together protagonists from all sides (or as some would call it “the peace business (or) industry”) which dominated Israel-Palestine discussions for almost three decades, offering a small glimmer of (mistaken?) hope and optimism, have all but disappeared altogether.

If I worry, it is about what the future holds for my growing tribe of lively, lovely and challenging grandchildren (14 at the latest count), still quite young and innocent (the oldest is but 10 years old), but they too, so it would appear, will soon encounter the realities of life in this region.

Almost forty years ago when I purchased my first PC (with a floppy disk of 128K!!!, black and white screen, pre-internet), I had an opening screen when I turned it on, which stated as follows:

“If you believe that the Messiah will come or that there will be real peace in the Middle East, you may even believe that Tottenham will one day win the Premier League”.

As true today, as then, only – sad to say – even harder to believe in all respects. I am not qualified to comment on the first of the three events, but the latter two seem light-years away – not in my lifetime!!! (Although, as an act of absolute belief, I have renewed my Tottenham season ticket, as I have done annually for the past 40 years).

I recall the learned and quite famous professor who, many years ago (more than I care to remember) wrote a letter to a newspaper in which I had published a political commentary at the time (around the time of the Oslo Accords in the early 1990’s) to state that he “understands that the writer is as misplaced in his political convictions as he is in his sporting preferences”. As they say in Hebrew

אין חדש תחת השמש

There isn’t much new under the sun.

I am here, this is where, despite everything, I believe that I belong (along with plenty of time sharing with my favourite place – London) and we have to hope that the next generation will find solutions which our generation have failed to achieve. Belief in what appears to be the impossible remains central to our maintaining sanity in this troublesome world.

Have a good day