The Little Zionist

I was in a taxi in Jerusalem speaking to Blade on my Israeli telephone at a cost of three hundred pounds an hour. I put down my Israeli telephone and chatted to the taxi driver, which was free. The nice driver offered me a simple Hebrew newspaper, which I glanced at, pretending to read it in order that he would not read it whilst driving one-handed. We talked about some new flats that had been built on a big ridge that reared up beside the road. I finally established that they were nice flats for rich people. The conversation was somewhat stilted. We then began talking about the situation in Gaza, which was mentioned in the newpaper he had given me. I suggested that perhaps all the Arabs would kill each other. He expressed the desire that they would do so. We then drove on to the railway station, from where I caught the train to visit my friend binyaminah, with whom I had an excellent time.

Blade and I have entertained. I will relate the menu before he does.

Halal milk bottle sweets.

American ‘natural’ Cheetos (only for thelittlezionist).

Lychee puddings (only for Ru).

Jelly Beans.

Yeo’s chrysantheme juice with vodka.

White wine left over from Cambridge Limmud 2006.

Publix root beer with rum.

Tamarind chink drink with rum.

Marks and Spencer’s Alpho mango cocktail mixer with water and vodka.

Sadly Galloway is coming to Cambridge again. He’s at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on the 12th. Here’s an email I sent to the executive director of the theatre. I doubt he will take much notice of it. The director’s email address, by the way, is davejmurphy@btopenworld.com

Dear Mr. Murphy,

I am writing to you to express my disappointment at the decision to schedule the forthcoming event An Audience With George Galloway. I saw Mr. Galloway speak at a political meeting in London in July, and was disturbed and intimidated by the atmosphere he created. Instead of levelling legitimate critism at the government, or at Israel, he exploited existing prejudices and tensions to whip up what became a manic fervour in some sections of the crowd.

As I am sure you are aware, Mr. Galloway recently spoke at the Cambridge Union as part of a debate on the efficacy of military action in combating terrorism. In this context, I found him significantly less repugnant. It is important that Galloway’s stance be debated rigorously, and I believe that it is in the context of debate that his views are best aired. Sadly, you have given a forum for Mr. Galloway to go unchallenged, and I fear that he will use the occasion to whip up hatred as I have watched him do in the past.

Although I am disappointed by your decision, I am consoled by the fact that Mr. Galloway seems to have utterly discredited himself in recent weeks.

Yours sincerely,

Little Zionist

Some advice to anyone requesting audiobooks, or audiopoems, whatever. My T. S. Eliot has arrived, late and dishevelled and accompanied by a group of ‘artists’ calling themselves ‘Spleen’. Sadly, somewhere between Amazon marketplace and my pigeonhole, Eliot appears to have been kidnapped, and forced to read his poems to the strains of horrible death/thrash/speed metal music, and some kind of dance beat.
I did not stop to read what was on the CD, as I hurried to push it into my computer, eager to get my fix of modernist despair. Had I been calmer, I may have stopped and read: ‘Vocals: T. S. Eliot, Everything else: Spleen’. Itunes, sensibly refused to play the horrible thing, but MSN Music actually recognised it.
Ahh. The horror, the horror…

Soon I will be at the heart of the international Zionist conspiracy. This summer I will be working at the Israeli embassy in London

At the moment I don’t know precisely what this means, and the word ‘liberal’ doesn’t have much resonance for me. I am going to read some things. I am not totally sure what to read though. Hmmm.

Christmas was finally completely finished yesterday. Unless you are of the Eastern Orthodox persuasion, which I am not. It is the only time of year I resent being nominally Christian. Everything else is to my liking; I always liked New Testament stories as a child, and I like Evensong and Paradise Lost, and Creme Eggs and the St. John Passion at Easter. Maybe next Christmas I should go to Israel and practise Hebrew for a bit.
Bad things always seem to happen to me just before Christmas, so that they are magnified tenfold when I am plunged into that Christmas feeling of utter boredom. Christmas probably has some kind of cathartic effect though; – hundreds of people simultaneously plunged into their own little pits of unhappiness, resentment or irritation for 12 hours or so, then gradually starting to feel better, until they emerge chrysalis-like on Twelfth Night.
Well I am completely exaggerating, but Christmas really is pretty rubbish the way we do it, and really ought to be stopped.

Welcome to my blog. I am a small Zionist, and will be using my webpage to share my (wholly original) thoughts on Israel, Zionism, and these Jews. Since you’re probably already wondering if (or suspecting that) I am Jewish, I’ll tell you that I’m not. I’ve found that any positive interest in Israel consistently provokes this question from Jews and gentiles alike. To support Israel, you must be Jewish; surely there could be no other reason for supporting such a corrupt, racist, colonialist state. I suppose the attitude expressed by the asking of this question - and the incredulity shown when I answer in the negative - pretty well expresses the view that to support Israel one must be biased (and therefore dishonest or wrong). i.e. one must be Jewish.

I suppose, looking at the asker more favourably, in statistical terms, it’s an utterly logical question; moderate, secular Zionism seems to be a mainstay of contemporary diaspora Jewish thought, whereas the rest of us seem to be staunchly pro-Palestinian. Or at least anti-Zionist. Surely, then, it is this minority - these Jews brought up on a diet of Zionist youth groups and Israel tours, who are prejudiced, and unable to see reason. Or perhaps it is the majority which is wrong. This is what my small Zionist blog will begin by considering: is it the thoughts of the Zionist Jew, or the gentile that have been perverted from reason by prejudice?