SHARON AND STROKES AND MORE

If it weren't so important, and if I didn't know better through personal experience, I'd probably be ok with Sharon making decisions so soon after his stroke. I remember mine quite vividly and do not buy for a minute that he is mentally capable of running things. They say he never lost consciousness, but later said that he had trouble talking. Well, I was conscious the whole time too and never had trouble talking, but I was far from lucid. I argued with the doctor about which hospital to go to, and after I won the argument, went to the bus station to take a bus to the hospital! I did have the good sense to call Irit who had the good sense to grab a taxi and rescue me from my insanity. Granted, Sharon never had the chance to do anything quite that stupid ( I was convinced of the logic of the decision to take a bus to the hospital in Haifa) he does think he can function as PM. Sorry, but he can't and shouldn't, especially not now with kassam rockets being fired at the western Negev and Ashkelon, and with Al Kaeda shooting katyushas at us and scoring direct hits on buildings in town. Our intelligence lads say it was Al Kaeda and the rockets had Russian writing on them, and time delayed fuses. As usual, very little was done about it other than complaining at the UN. Like they are going to anything about it. Syria is the bad guy in this. Russia supplies Assad with the rockets and they end up in houses in Kiryat Shmonah, and we run to the UN? Being shot twice in one month is just not an option, and saying that the Lebanese government is responsible just doesn't cut it when the rockets were supplied by Syria thanks to the Russians. The fact that our response is negligible encourages them to keep right on shooting at us. I'm really not sure what our response should be, but it should not be to sit back and send letters to the UN. If that's the best Sharon can come up with, we are in deep trouble. Terror leaders are openly proclaiming that it's only a matter of time before they run us out of "their land" The got us out of Southern Lebanon and Gaza by using terror, and they'll get rid us completely by the same means eventually. And all Sharon and Mofaz do is write letters and make noise. Restraint is going to push us all into the Med swimming for our lives before too long.

RENEWED HOPE

The Likud actually had the good sense to elect Natanyahu chairman. The very thought of Silvan Shalom being elected was making me physically ill. I enjoyed watching the special broadcast after the polls closed. Sharon's people were so transparent in their attempts to color the Likud as far right and almost reactionary right that I couldn't help but grin through it. If they weren't such a bunch of corrupt liars, it might work. But they ARE a bunch of corrupt liars and it seems that people are realizing it. Sharon is the worst of the lot. All Bibi has to do is show Sharon's flip flops and let Sharon's record speak for itself. He totally ignored party decisions and did as he pleased, blatantly flaunting any semblance of democracy. His new party, Sleaze United doesn't even have appearance of democracy-it's run by him and he doesn't even have plans for any kind of primary to put his list for Knesset together. For every election promise he makes it will be child's play to show what his word is worth; -0. It was truly funny to channel surf and watch all the SU spin artists say the same thing again and again. Granted, the Israeli public has proven itself time after time to be stupid and to fall for the worst of the lot, but I think that maybe this time it won't work. Sharon and his corrupt band of thugs are just too transparent and have already overreached themselves.
It was also interesting to watch the reactions of the so called Palestinians to Sharon's stroke. They were celebrating his imminent demise in the streets.

Speaking of Sharon's stroke, I would like to point out, from personal experience, that even though he came through it without any trouble, there are some very scary psychological aspects that his people are doing their best to minimize. Been there, done that. Even without lasting physical side effects, things change. I was a complete nut case for a year after my stroke, and my physical problems were not stroke related, I just couldn't think straight. Everything was overshadowed by that close call. I had mine when I was 48, Sharon had his at 77, an age when he can not help but be thinking of his mortality unless he really does have delusions of immortality from watching Highlander reruns. Believe me, no matter what his people say, the man can not be trusted to lead his party, never mind the country. The talking heads trotted out just about everyone in the country who had a stroke and survived, to talk about the effects, but not one of them went into the psychological aspects.
I ran into Eli Zafrani(Bibi's man up here) yesterday and told him that. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if I get a call from them asking for my take on it. They'll get it with pleasure. Sharon is more dangerous than ever and surviving the stroke might have made him more megalomanic than ever. He should be a posted hazard.

STROKES ARE NOT CHILD'S PLAY

I'm not as bitter as I might be about the stroke I had in 1998. I tend to look at it as just another hurdle in the adventure that is life. Most of the time, that is. Then along comes Ariel Sharon who has a minor stroke but is lucky enough to have it diagnosed in time for no permanent damage to done. That's when I get pissed off at the quack who missed mine by a country mile. Just another game at the craps table of life that I lost, and what ifs are useless. I have to deal with it.
So Sharon had a stroke on the eve of elections. I can only hope that Israelis, in their medical ignorance will decide to send him home in March. Not that the alternatives are all that great. Whiskers (Amir Peretz) just isn't up to it, and if the Likud runs Silvan Shalom I might just have another stroke/heart attack at the thought of his wife in the PM's bed. That obviously leaves me rooting for Bibi Netanyahu who is actually capable of doing the job. Whiskers and SS are talking 'help the poor' while Sharon is stirring the terror kettle. I really don't want a guy who just had a stroke doing that. It's just too dangerous and transparent. The only person capable of turning the so called Palestinian lies back on them is Netanyahu. They are doing an amazingly good job of telling lies often enough to convince the whole world that what they say is true. It just isn't. If you don't believe me, go read what Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had to say about this patch of earth when he was here. It's just this simple. There were very few Arabs here until Jewish pioneers started arriving from Russia and created jobs for them. They moved here from all over the Arab world to take advantage of opportunities we made for them and now they want it all for themselves. That's fact, historical fact, not spin. It's gotten so bad that even we have forgotten that. It's about time we remember it before it's too late, if it isn't already. We've allowed them to turn us into our own worst enemy and have us believing that we are the bad guys here, that we occupied the West Bank and Gaza for no reason other than to occupy them. We didn't start the Six Day War. We just won it and found ourselves saddle with the territories. The fact that we messed up big time then is our own fault. Had we been a little smarter and a bit less arrogant, things would be very different today. We weren't and here we are today, in deep trouble. Repeating a lie endlessly doesn't make it the truth.

THEY MUST BE STOPPED

Sharon, Mofaz and the United Sleaze must be stopped. Unfortunately they are still in office and have every chance of staying there even after the elections. It's almost a given because they are in a position to manipulate things in such a way to convince voters to reelect them.
When Sharon pulled us out of Gaza he promised heavy retaliation for every mortar rocket shot at us. What he didn't tell anyone, much less the public, was that he had every intention of provoking them to shoot at us by continuing to take out top terrorists. As far as I'm concerned, he can flatten the whole place, but the deliberate provocation of attacks is just plain wrong. And to do it right after the young Fatah members who won the primaries in the PA went on a rampage against the old guard (Tunisian Thugs) because the youngsters won the primaries was just plain stupid. We all know that Abu Mazzen isn't going to do jack-shit to disarm the terror factions, but the young 'uns might. Of course they could as easily become as jaded and corrupt as the old timers, but they deserve a chance. By shooting missiles at baddies all Sharon accomplished was to turn attention and anger back towards us, and away from the Tunisian Thugs. The pre election spin will be to point to the killings and tell us that he is protecting Israel. Sorry, but any one who believes a word the man says should check into the nearest mental hospital for a reality check.
I'll save the Iranian insanity for another time.

OUT OF CONTROL

This country is spiraling out of control at warp speed. People don't even bother to think of laws as recommendations anymore, they simply ignore them and do as they please. Why not? Our duly elected leaders have absolutely no concept of honesty or morality, so why should we?
Sharon trampled any semblance of democracy when he thumbed his nose at the whole country by going ahead with the Gaza withdrawal in direct defiance of his party's express wishes. He then broke away from the Likud and started his own party, and filled it with members who are under police investigation for a variety of criminal activities. Our very own mayor joined as well. *He* was forced to resign yesterday after the police recommended that he stand trial for election bribery. How good of him to spare Sharon's party the embarrassment of his pending trial. He should have retired as mayor as well fact he should have done that before leaving Sharon. Actually, it's ok as the city council is now pretty much solid opposition to him. The opposition now is the majority and it is likely that they will force him out. It can't happen soon enough for me.
If our highest elected officials can get away with so much, why in the world should we bother with being moral law abiding citizens?
One day our Defence Minister says he will stay in the Likud, then a few days later leaves it for Sharon's gang of thugs, giving the exact same reasons on both occasions. And we are supposed to not only believe him, but vote for him. He's not the only one. Several others did the very same thing. Opinion polls show a huge election win for that lot and if they indeed win, we deserve it. I can only hope and pray that Sharon loses and loses big and that we, the voters have enough sense to demand changes and accountability from our politicians. I don't have much hope of that happening, but I can and do pray for it.

A VOTING WE WILL GO

When I got off the plane in Israel for the first time in 1970, I knew I was home. Ok, it might have been the jet fuel fumes that did it, but I knew I was home. It was pretty much the same with Kiryat Shmonah. I felt right here, and still do. Last night I finally figured out that this country and town are home, and like any home, it's never finished just right. There are always things to fix and redo. Also, like a house, you don't throw up your hands in frustration and leave it because it needs work. You repaint, buy new furniture and look for ways to make it ever nicer. This country and town bring out the same feeling in me. You don't walk away because there are things you don't like; you stay and try to fix the things that need fixing.
Whiskers (Amir Peretz) got himself elected head of the Labor Party and will be running for Prime Minister. The first thing he did as Big Boss of the party was to pull the Labor ministers out of the coalition with Sharon and force elections. Sharon then broke away from the Likud and formed his own party that has attracted most of the politicians I detest really should call their new party United Sleaze, rather than Forward. A more corrupt group will be hard to find, unless you look here. Our corrupt incompetent mayor also joined Sharon and actually believes he'll be elected to the Knesset.
The surveys are all predicting almost a landslide for Sleaze United, but, I have my doubts. Surveys are fine and well, but something happens to people when they get to the polls. Dewey v Truman, for example. If we, in our stupidity, reelect Sharon, we will deserve what we get. Whiskers is as bad, if not worse, but at least he isn't corrupt, just brutal. Brutal I can live with, corrupt is another story. There could very well be a backlash vote for Whiskers, but I hope not. I talked to one of the Likud guys yesterday and told him I want to rejoin, now that the worst of the baddies are gone. I intend to support Netanyahu for PM. He really is the only one who can get the things done that need doing. He *is* the right one for this country. Whisker's people will go on and on about his stint in the Finance Ministry and that he pushed thousands of families below the poverty line. What actually did that was the decades long unquestioning acceptance of welfare. All Bibi did was try to get people off welfare and back to work. He didn't take anything away from us, the crips. Ok, he also didn't give us anything, and our benefits are at the same level they were 6 years ago and costs have spiraled up. Something really has to be done about that, but Whiskers won't do a thing about it, except spin a good tale about it to get elected. I just hope that when it comes down to it, voters will see through the BS and do some political house cleaning. Optimism is a good thing, isn't it?