Dear friends and family,
This week some really sad things happened here in Israel. On Tuesday one of our most beloved and famous singers, Shoshana Damari, passed away.
I was very sad about this as I always am when someone dies. Dying is just the worst thing that can happen to a person. I'm sure that no matter how much suffering there is during life it's nothing compared with the suffering of dying.
She had a very unusual style of singing. It was a combination of Yemenite yodeling and deep Paul Robeson singing.
Her songs spoke the heart of the people in the process of rebirth. You could litteraly hear the suffering of the rebirth pangs of a nation in her voice.
She had come here as a little girl of 2 in the 1920's. She had lived through all the struggle and turmoil and she inspired the nation to move on with courage. She gave everyone hope when there was very little to be optimistic about.
Omri Sharon, Ariel Sharon's son, thank God didn't die this week but was given a very severe punishment by the Israeli courts. 9 months in prison must be a lot of suffering for a man like Sharon. But he broke the law, illegally collecting money for his father's political campaigns.
This must be a very sad day for the Sharon family. I wonder if his father Ariel didn't have some idea that this was going to happen and went into a coma so that he wouldn't be able to hear the terrible punishment his son has been given.
Israel is a country of justice and nobody, not even Sharon is above the law. As sad as I am about Sharon's suffering I am proud to be living in a country where justice is carried out.
This week was also sad for the Zeev Rosenstein family. They all came to the prison to say farewell to their father who is being extradited to the USA to stand trial for smuggling ecstasy tablets into the US. We hope that if he's found guilty he'll be put away for at least 20 years. This is the least we can do to keep drugs off our streets.
Husni Mubarak is a great optimist. He told Mofaz, our minister of defence, that he thinks the Hamas terrorist organisation will come round to acknowledging Israel's existence and put a stop to their policy of terror war against Israel. The Hamas, however, cocked a snoot in Mubarak's face by firing off a couple of Katyusha rockets into Israel.
I'm sure that Hamas and all the Palestinians would love to live at peace with Israel. I agree with Mubarak's optimism. But the powerful Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran are certainly not going to let Hamas and the Palestinian people make peace with Israel.
They've got them tied up by purse strings and by Arab loyalty to one another. This loyalty applies only when they oppose Israel's existence.
Israeli help for the Palestinians can't ever match the help the Palestinians receive from their Arab brothers. Even if the amount of money that Israel gives to the Palestinians is far greater than the help they get from the Arab countries they will never draw close to Israel because they would be ostracised by their Arab brothers for doing that.
Israel doesn't have any problem to make peace with the Palestinians. Our actions would be supported by all the Jewish world. The Palestinian do have a problem to make peace with Israel because such an act would not be accepted by the Arabs in the rest of the world.
Wishing you a great no news day
Yours truly
Leon Gork