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There is absolutely no need for another superfluous ship to the Gaza Strip. Gaza is open to all civilian goods, a fact known the Libyan government.

Israel has already taken a major measure to improve conditions in Gaza. In a move called a “welcome development” by the international Quartet (US, EU, UN and Russia), on 20 June, the government of Israel decided to end all restrictions on the entry of civilian goods into Gaza. Now restrictions will be placed only on weapons, war materiel and items that can be used for military purposes. Still, it is important that all goods are checked to ensure that they are not on the restricted list of dangerous items.

Israel allows the transfer to the Gaza Strip of approximately 800 truckloads of supplies (15,000 tons) per week. The projected amount of supplies on the ship is less than the amount that Israel transfers to Gaza in a single day. This ship has nothing to do with humanitarian aid, and everything to do with creating a provocation.

“You’ve got too much to say!”

So North-West London’s most famous French teacher [see http://melchettmike.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/hasmo-legends-iii-cyril-aka-mr-bloomberg/] would often chide his loquacious (he preferred “yapping”) pupils.

And not always having to say something – especially if, as my parents would remind me, that “something” is not worth saying – is an English attitude that the Israeli would do well to consider. Indeed, while silence and Jerusalem may both be golden, only one of them is “blue and white” too (for the time being, at least).

Pam Smith is an Area Representative of Christian Friends of Israel and a Methodist preacher married to a Methodist minister.

Writing to the Methodist Recorder, Pam Smith states, "Last week I watched the "debate" at conference re Israel. To have a true debate at least two opinions, sets of accurate facts and information are needed so that those voting can discuss the issue, assess the facts and then make up their minds as to the truth of the matter and their response to it. This was not the case at conference. It was a totally one sided tirade against Israel with numerous inaccuracies drawn solely (as far as I could see) from individuals, books and organizations who at best are blinkered about, and at worst hate, Israel ..... There has been no mention of the fact that the boycott they want will hurt the very people they say they are concerned for as many of them are employed by those who grow or produce these goods and so stand the risk of losing their jobs if the boycott becomes widespread; nothing about the fact that the Palestinians have repeatedly said that the whole of the land is theirs and that Israel should be destroyed and are teaching their children this, even in TV cartoons... I could go on with the many injustices and inaccuracies of this report as I have only scratched the surface."

....

This has now been published. Highly recommended.

http://www.boardofdeputies.org.uk/page.php/JusticeForPalestineAndIsraelR....

In PDF form:

We must hope that our national faith leaders find paths of reconciliation, but what about us in the holiest road in Middlesex, Oaklands Gate!? And indeed in our homes and streets with our neighbours who are Methodist believers? This afternoon, I went to wish Sue Male, the Reverend of the Methodist Church in Oaklands Gate, ‘mazal tov,’ on her ordination at the same Methodist Conference. The Conference certainly got one thing right as Sue is a friend of our Community and to my mind understands how one can most affectively work towards a common purpose, just like the French football team of 98, working together.

Our common purpose is peace for everyone in the Middle East, Arab and Israeli, Christian, Jew and Muslim and all those who have found themselves to be living in one of history’s hot-spots. So how do we work together?

http://www.npls.org.uk/Sermons/New/Pinchas%205770.html

http://thejc.com/news/uk-news/33742/two-more-brighton-activists-cleared-...

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6117164/the-hellish-histrioni...

The acquittal of the seven who admitted causing £180,000 of criminal damage in the EDO factory in Brighton is an utter disgrace. This Judge George Bathurst-Norman - who reportedly effectively directed the jury to the 'not guilty' verdict - is a sick joke.

I am delighted to announce that we have been able to arrange a gig at NPLS, with Avital Raz an Israeli musician who is currently somewhere in Wales mid-way through a UK tour of the summer folk festivals. She will be with us with her sound artist, Amos Ungar, weaving their magic influenced by a wide range of sources Judah Ha'Levi to Indian Druphad, opera to piyyutim with a tad of blues and rock thrown in for good measure. Do come and join me for what will be a cracking event.

In Doss vs. Chiloni: Two Sides of the Same Shekel, written during a slight down period (with Tel Aviv especially), I expressed my despair at the ultra-Orthodox/secular polarisation of Israeli society and my longing for the mutual tolerance and respect – relative, at least – which I had known in the Jewish community in the UK.

While I snapped out of that downer some time ago, and am once again certain that I much prefer being a Jew here than anywhere else, I am again feeling the deep, often ugly, religious – and even racial – chasm within even the purely Jewish constituency of this country.

Firstly, there has been the shocking – at least to idealists, like me, who believed (or wanted to) that they were living in a modern democratic Jewish state – case of the charedi (ultra-Orthodox) Ashkenazim (Jews of European origin) segregating their daughters from charedi Sephardi/Mizrachi (of North African/Middle Eastern descent) girls, at a school in the West Bank town of Immanuel.