Next week Prime Minister Natanyahu will be in Washington D.C. for “peace talks” with Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who is the Palestinian President, although he has not been re-elected (there were no more elections and his term was over long ago).

Abbas who belongs to the “Patach” faction is hated by “Hamas” and even fears to enter the Gaza Strip where they rule, which also means he does not represent all the “Palestinians” and is really unable to make serious decisions.

Even so he is making many demands before the talks even begin, and it is doubtful if anything will come of them.

Israel also has some demands, the most important being recognition of Israel as JEWISH State and of course security guarantees and the non-militarization of a Palestinian State.

We’ll have to wait and see what the outcome of the talks will be - one thing is certain, we can’t be pressured into terms which will endanger our safety. Jerusalem is of course another problem.

A bit of history remembered

43 Years ago, I kept a personal diary of the Six-Day-War and want to copy here some lines from the date ; June the 7th , 1967.

“The Old City of Jerusalem is ours! After nearly 2,000 years, Jerusalem has come back to its rightful owner. How can I describe in words my feeling when I heard this?

“My eyes grew moist and I seemed to swallow or choke down my tears. I felt that I had to shout this news out loud - I wanted everyone to share my delight.

“I smiled at my sons (aged 15 and 13 then) - who came home punctually every hour to listen to the news broadcast and we all looked at one another, but the words we said, like “How wonderful” etc. carried no meaning, because we all felt something in our hearts that couldn’t be put into words.

“I am not a religious person and even strongly dislike the behaviour of those ultra-pious who try and force others against their wishes to observe religious laws and even throw stones at those travelling on the Sabbath, but Jerusalem is something special for me.

“Jerusalem is Zion. Jerusalem is Judaism, and as a Jew it is part of me. I can’t explain it.

“When I’ll be able to visit the Old City, I will surely go to the Wailing (Western) Wall, and may even give a prayer of thanks. I’ve been praying inside myself for the last few days, but this will be something different.”

And nothing has changed, I and most of us, still feel the same.

Today’s hardship is from nature

The latest great heat wave in Israel has caused much damage to agriculture.

I saw a program on TV yesterday showing orchards with rotting fruit, saw chickens dead of the heat, we were told of the hens laying less eggs and other agricultural ruins.

The prices of fruit and vegetables have also gone up lately, presumably this is the reason.

Now for something good to end my blog with:

Prof. Elon Lindenstrauss of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was awarded the 2010 Fields Medal for mathematics - considered the “Nobel Prize” in the field , for outstanding work.

This prestigious prize was awarded in Hyderbad, India, at the opening of the International Congress of Mathemeticians, which is convened by the International Mathematical Union (IMU).

This is the first time an Israeli has received this award, for leading mathematicians aged 40 and below.

And with these words I end today. Shalom from Irene

Although many of our armed forces and police were on alert because of possible dangers, the Yom Kippur festival passed peacefully and we can all get back to our usual routine.

Last week Ahmadinejad, the Iranian President gave a speech, a very violent, anti-Semitic and anti-Israel one, full of lies and inaccuracies in the assembly of the United Nations, and some member states left the assembly as a protest, a fact which Israel very much appreciated. The next day, Thursday, Israel’s Prime Minister, Benyamin Natanyahu gave a reply to this.

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