We came over for the first time as anti-religious rather than secular but tolerant
“We came over for the first time as anti-religious, rather than secular but tolerant.”The fundamental argument – sometimes raging within individual Israelis – is between Israel as a chosen country and Israel as a normal country. These ideas are in the air and will influence Labour not because some people have written books, but because they correspond to common feelings, repeated in newspapers and MPs’ surgeries.Does this mean that the gurus and their enemies are equally irrelevant? Not at all. Thinkers, never a terribly popular lot in Britain, have a role and responsibility in arming and equipping political leaders to subvert and challenge public opinion, but also to educate and inform it. Whether they congregate in tanks or move like free spirits along the M40, we all need more, not less, thinking..
Magellan did it through his straits Francis Drake did it on his Hind. Captain James Cook would have done it – had the natives not been so friendly. It was still relatively interesting when Chay Blyth did it single-handedly on a boat commemorating a nationalised industry. But a quarter of a century later, it has to be said that, however it is done, whether east to west, back to front, in a canoe or a catamaran, circumnavigation of the globe has become a bit of a ritual.
Two-and-a-half cheers only, then, for Samantha Brewster and her feat of lone sailoring. The tang of the salt off Tierra del Fuego, the threat of typhoons in Celebes; nothing can detract from the drama of this odyssey except that repeat mariners know what to expect.. Sir: John Gummer’s “real anger” (Letters, 5 July) at Labour’s lack of environmental commitment would be more convincing if he had not been supporting the international effort of some neo-liberal economists to “monetise” nature and amenity. Their theory is that human lives should be valued according to whether they are lived in rich countries or poor ones, so that the life of a North American or a West European is many tens of times more valuable than that of a Bangladeshi.
The same doctrine seeks to find a money value for individual components of the environment by asking what financial compensation affected individuals might accept for the loss of them.Both these doctrines are expressions of that monetarist philosophy which has proved incapable of understanding that, in allowing misuse of “the environment”, governments are exacting subsidies from today’s poor, and from all future generations, for the benefit of today’s fat cats.
These subsidies are what need sorting out by the world’s official economists, including Mr Gummer’s, and they can’t do it using the vocabulary of “the market”.WAYLAND KENNET(Lord Kennet)House of LordsLondon SW1. Sir: This morning (8 July) I received a Christmas card from the president of Help the Aged, together with a catalogue of their cards for purchase. With almost half the year still to go, I wonder, is this a record?
SUE MILLER
Oxford. Sir: Speaking as a relative pro (GP and mother of four) I would like to encourage people who don’t “stay in control” and use painkillers during birth (reports, 5 July). We strive to be in charge of our partners, our midwives, our doctors and ourselves, but can we really be in control of the baby?
My first was an epidural because I couldn’t stand the pain, the next was natural but uncomfortable, the third was a dream birth, and the last was the worst, despite gas and air. This was nothing to do with my attitude or the hospital’s, but because presumably the baby was a different shape and the labour took a different path.
If you have a perfect birth, say thanks to the baby, and when it’s hard and you need help remember it is the beginning of allowing freedom to your child.Dr E T MANNHarrogate, North Yorkshire. A Jewish life.”The battles within Israeli society are sometimes presented as a struggle between secular liberals and religious conservatives Such a struggle does exist and sometimes turns violent.
“What does it mean to be a Jew in a Jewish state,” she asks, “if you end up living in a little America? Why do we take all this heavy stuff on ourselves [she waves towards the bookshelves full of Hebrew texts] when our children say they want to be American? Eighty per cent of young people in Israel don’t know the Ten Commandments That’s the problem we have We have to make the life of our children meaningful In the Jewish way Jewish values. Israel is going through an identity crisis more wrenching than any in its brief history.Part Two: Jerusalem, Golan and Tel Aviv Any course in “the Middle East for beginners” should include 10 minutes among the tribes of modern Israel at the Jerusalem central bus station. A young woman sells pirated rock ‘n’ roll CDs; two ultra-Orthodox young men in dark suits and broad-brimmed black hats shove each other for a seat on the bus; a black (Ethiopian) Israeli serves kosher sandwiches to an impatient queue wearing a selection of black hats and baseball caps.Last month’s election, the most important in Israeli history, was shaped as much by questions Israelis asked of, and about, themselves: Who are we? Why are we here? Do we want to become a “normal” Western state? Or do we want to create something uniquely Jewish? What are Jewish values?To this should be added a related question, which Israelis tend not to ask: Would a renewed emphasis on Jewishness – something promised by Mr Netanyahu – make peace with the Arabs easier or more difficult?Ilit Eitam is a farmer on the Golan Heights, mother of seven, and wife of a general. It is a commonplace among Israelis – even those who voted for him – to complain: “Who is Bibi Netanyahu? No one knows.” In this, if in nothing else, Mr Netanyahu is a man perfectly matched to the moment.