“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not”

Well that basically sums it up in a nutshell, well at least for those of us in Melbourne, Australia. Here the temperature has soared not only to historically high levels, but as to the duration of the hot spell at those temperatures.

Suffice to say those of us here will not be looking forward to a very comfortable w/end. Unless of course you're one of the lucky few with air conditioning. But then you might get hit with a power blackout and then like the rest of us be suffering for a while longer.

Following on from an earlier post , where I wrote that Rosanne Barr blamed Israel for the rise in oil prices, news today that a Judge in Spain (of all places noch!) has passed a decision to open a probe of seven former top security officials for alleged war crimes in the 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed top Hamas terrorist Salah Shehadeh as well as 14 other people. But wait, there is more.

Turkey's Prime Minister had a message Thursday for US President Barack Obama: Redefine terror and terrorism in the Middle East and use it as the basis for a new American policy.

"President Obama must redefine terror and terrorist organizations in the Middle East, and based on this new definition, a new American policy must be deployed in the Middle East,"

So now lets see, Israel has to face war crimes for killing a terrorist and Hamas and Hezbollah should not be classified as terrorist organizations. This is how peace in the middle east will become a reality!

I am wondering where the heatwave is, here or in the European capitals where Israel is still seen as the problem.

Of course much of this is opportunism as a new U.S. President starts his term and Israel is in the throws of an election campaign. Whatever the outcome of the two stories above will be , it however continues the relentless demonization of Israel, even if only perceptually. The long term view is , say it often enough for long enough and eventually it will be become the perceived truth by enough people who make the important decisions.

As the Gaza war becomes a shadow, many stories of human suffering start to emerge. Some with credibility, as war and bullets are by no means polite or discriminating.

This episode happened to Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Gaza physician well known throughout Israel’s medical community. Abuelaish had been providing many journalists with updates, in fluent Hebrew, on Israel’s operation in Gaza against Hamas.

The army had attacked the home of Abuelaish, 53, who researches and practices medicine part time in Israel.

Live on the air, viewers heard what Aboul Aish had to say: “They died on the spot — on the spot, Shlomi!” he cried. “Oh Lord, God, God, God!”

Abuelaish was referring to his three young daughters.

Please read the rest of the story. Israel has always held it self to be the most careful army in the world. I don't believe this has changed. However the tragedy is that no matter how hard you try , innocents will always suffer. As Jews we must and should continue to support those who are genuine bystanders, at times when the choices are somewhat murky.

As the sun sets here in Melbourne and the heat sits like rock unwilling to move, I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom