Spain 4,

Oct. 17, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ to quote Dickens.

Today they killed Sinwar. Should I be happy that a fellow human being was killed? I am sorry to say, yes. Personally, he tried to kill me twice and I take that very personally. If you have read my blog, you will see that I feel that I was personally attacked twice. My opinion never changes. A war ends when 1 side drops his weapons, puts his hands over his head, drops to his knees and says ‘nicht schissen ’. Nothin has changed since 45, and for 50,000 years for that matter.

In a war, there are 5 constants. 1, there is a winner and there is a loser. 2, the winner writes the history. 3, money changes hands. 4, territory changes hands. 5, some people have to move. This has been a rule for 50,000 years. Why does this rule not apply to Israel?

Sinwar spent many years in an Israeli prison for terrorism. He was released on a prisoner exchange and continued his terrorism. He had a brain tumour. He was operated on in an Israeli hospital where doctors saved his life. Oct. 7 was the thanks that Israel received. With him gone, Hamas should surrender and move forward with peace and rebuilding. But they would have to change the Hamas Charter which is available on the internet and which should be compulsory reading for those woke people before they continue with their demonstrations.

I am in Torremolinos, on the Canadian National Triathlon Team, Age Group 75-79 Sprint. I am very proud to represent Canada here. I took part in the Parade of Nations last evening, which unfortunately was not as well organized as in Hamburg last year. Nevertheless, the atmosphere here is electric. The streets in Torremolinos have been cordoned off for the race. We all had our start times. I was in the over 70 age group. Wet suits were an option but not obligatory. That was my first mistake as I usually don’t swim well with a wetsuit and as I am from Quebec, am used to cold water. Sometimes I don’t run well, rarely do I not swim well. Today was one of those days. I won’t go into the details as the stats are obvious. The organization here and the strict adherence to rules in difficult conditions was over the top. There were 1 foot waves, and a 750m course took 1100m. There will be many complaints. My language was not exemplary. I have never run so many ….. words together in 1 ‘sentence’.

I rented my bike until Sunday and will take a trip to Malaga 1 day and to Marbella another day. I pick up my motorcycle on Monday. I have a brunch with the team tomorrow.

Love,

Brian

Israel 49,

May 8, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

This is my last day in Israel as I fly out late this evening to New York for a stop over and then on to Montreal. Am I sorry to leave Israel? Yes. Am I happy to be returning to Montreal? Yes. A dichotomy, yes. Will I return in the near future? Yes, in 6 months, in 1 year? I don’t know. Will I volunteer again with Sar-El and the IDF or will I try to exchange my temporary licence for a permanent licence that will permit me to practice in a hospital? Even though everyone speaks English here, I will study Hebrew this year allowing me to communicate with my Israeli friends in their language.

I spent 2 days with MDA on the ambulance as usual and had a great experience with 2 different teams. I have never met a more dedicated group as the MDA Para-Medics. I was able to speak with Moshe and Vickie who were instrumental in obtaining my place in MDA. Most of the cases were quite routine except for 2 that stand out and are worth a mention. We were called to the beach in Bat Yam where some one had hurt himself while swimming. It was chilly in the morning and I was wearing a sweat shirt. The sea was rough with a lot of breakers and the water had not yet warmed up. An 82 year old man, while swimming with his buddies of the same age, was washed up onto the rocks, banging himself up and receiving several cuts. We took a history, bandaged him up as best as we could and transported him to a hospital. What impressed me the most was that this group of 80 year old men had risked going out early in the morning, in unfriendly conditions for their morning dip. It seems that they do this every morning rain or shine.

The second case involved a 28 year old female with end stage cancer. She was cachectic, unconscious, lying on the floor of her mother’s house with 1 of her brothers present. As she had not signed a ‘do not resuscitate form’ and as per her family’s wishes we were obligated to perform CPR for 20 minutes before calling a physician with a full Israeli licence to get permission to stop. I only have a temporary licence that does not allow me to pronounce someone as dead. In Canada, the resuscitation orders seem to be more clear. Afterwards, I discussed the ‘end of life’ possibilities in Israel. It does not appear that this is routine in Israel. ‘End of life’ decisions can be made by the patient after going through a committee and has been possible for about 5 years in Canada. 13,500 patients chose this way of terminating themselves in Canada this year.

2 evenings ago, I took the train to Jerusalem and stayed the night at a downtown hotel. I was advised not to stay in the old city. Jerusalem is rather cold in the evening but this did not stop many people from eating outside with over head heaters. Yesterday, I went to Vad Vashem, the holocaust museum, for the first time. The architecture by Safdie is wonderful while at the same time sober and respectful. I planned to visit for 2 hours but in the end I stayed for 6 hours. I could have stayed much longer and spent more time visiting the grounds but I had to get back to Tel Aviv.

Visiting the museum is of course a very moving experience. My grandparents and great grandparents came from Russia in 1903-1905 during the pogroms. My parents were both born in Canada and my father served in the Canadian Army. I have no direct relationship to the holocaust although I have met people who went through that era. My father liberated a Polish Camp in Germany but would not talk about it. I have never spoken directly to a holocaust surviver. Visiting the museum is a very sobering experience. It takes you through the rise of anti-semitism in Europe leading up to the holocaust. It then describes what took place in the various camps. There are exhibitions on the Warsaw Ghetto up risking and on the Jewish partisans who fought against Germany. 500.000 Jews fought in the Russian army. 550,000 fought in the American army. 17,000 Jews out of a Jewish population of 168,000 at that time, fought in the Canadian army. It also showed the efforts by different countries and individuals who risked their lives by hiding Jews. There is a wall with names of the Righteous Among Nations honouring those individuals. Schindler and Wallenberg are mentioned, to name two. There are many films and interviews with holocaust survivors which I viewed. I will return again on my next visit.

At 1 point a group of 20 soldiers entered a room where I was watching an interview with a survivor. I leaned over and told the soldier beside me that ‘I felt very proud to be sitting with a group of Israeli soldiers’. The man asked me where I was from. I told them that I was from Canada and had been in Israel for 8 weeks volunteering with the IDF and MDA. He thanked be profusely and shook my hand as did 2 other soldiers who had over heard the conversation.

2 days ago I was in Holon, on Holocaust Memorial Day. At 10:00 AM the sirens went off. I was in the waiting room of a hospital, having just delivered a patient, watching the TV ceremony. They showed many clips of politicians, and various areas in Israel. Israel stops for 2 minutes! Everything stops!! I saw movies of streets filled with cars stopped in the middle of the road with people standing at attention beside their cars. In Canada, on Nov 11, at 11:00, it is sad to say that many people go about their routine without even stopping for 1 minute. We have forgotten the sacrifices that the generation of our parents made 80 years ago.

We say, ‘Never Again’. We say ‘Forgive, but do not Forget’. There were Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, demonstrating in front of Auschwitz. They are clueless. These are the people that ‘don’t want to know’. Anti-semitism which lay dormant for 80 years is now on the rise all over the world. Why? I can’t answer that question.

This will probably be my last entry in my blog unless I choose to write an addendum at a later date.

Love,

Brian

Clinics and hospitals

MDA

Vad Vashem

Israel 48,

May 5, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

In Sept. 1973, I had just returned from my 2nd year in medical school in France. I was standing in front of the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah morning. It was a good place to meet some of my old friends and perhaps to meet some girls. I certainly had no intention of going inside as that would have been against my ‘religion’. A gentleman of about 40-45 years of age approached me and asked me ‘what are you doing here?’ Me; “same as you, standing at the corner watching all the girls go by”. Him; ‘you should be in Israel’. (The Yom Kippur war was going on) Me; ‘why’. Him; ‘you should be there fighting for Israel’. My father was standing beside me and over heard the discussion. My father; ‘ tell me, you are the same age as me’. Him; ‘so what has that have to do with anything’. My father; ‘you were never in the army and if you were you certainly didn’t go overseas’. Him; staring at my father ‘hmm’. My father; ‘it’s always the same with these guys, always willing to send someone else’s boy, forgot to go when it was his turn’. Him; ‘huff and puff’ and walks away. Me… proud of my father!!

From this story we can easily draw the parallel with what is going on in Gaza today. The 3 leaders of Hamas are living safely in Qatar in luxury. They are multi billionaires who made their fortunes on the backs of innocent and poorly informed Gazans. You don’t see them in Gaza leading the charge. It is easy for them to say ‘keep fighting, your sacrifices will be rewarded in the after life’. ‘Always willing to send someone else’s boy…’ Sinwar surrounds himself with kidnapped Israelis, using them as human shields. He knows that he is safe while he pushes his troops forward. The Hamas fighters use their women and children as shields. They hide their artillery in mosques, schools and hospitals. They fire and launch rockets with impunity and complain about international law when the Israelis fire back saying that the mosques, schools and hospitals are under attack.

Sar-El is an organization that usually sends 4000 volunteers to Israel to work on IDF bases taking the place of soldiers. This year they have sent 40,000 volunteers. Over 50-100,000 volunteers have come to Israel to help Israel defend herself. 30% of these people are Christians. Non of these people are involved in fighting. As for the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators, it is very easy to demonstrate in front of synagogues and scare elderly men and women. It is very easy to demonstrate in front of Jewish schools and scare 12 year old children. It is easy to demonstrate in front of a building at McGill called the Bronfman Building. Has a Muslim ever been refused entry to the management program because of his religion? Is there a Mohammed Building at McGill? The same is true about the demonstration that took place in front of the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto that was founded by the Jewish population in Toronto. Has a Muslim ever been refused treatment at the hospital? Has a Muslim ever been refused a position as an employee at the hospital? A quick survey of the patients and the staff would immediately prove the contrary. Why have 50-100,000 volunteers not come to either Gaza or the West Bank to help their good friends the Palestinians? It is true that 7 workers were killed delivering food in Gaza. Unfortunately this is collateral damage that occurs in any war. The difference is that if you heard the interview given by the wife of one of the victims, you would have understood that these workers were highly paid workers who went into a war zone knowing the dangers. They were not in any sense of the word ‘volunteers’.

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators are now camping out on campuses in the US and Canada. They want the universities to follow the BDS movement. They want the universities to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, as well as companies and universities that do business with Israel. But, are they willing to do this themselves or would this be too much trouble to ask? Tel Aviv is the 2nd largest IT development city in the world next to Silicone Valley. Will they no longer use Waze to find their way around? Will they no longer buy Dell Computers because of the inventor? Will they not use USBs, an Israeli invention? Will they not drink Soda Stream, an Israeli company, that was purchased by Pepsi? Will they not drink Pepsi products? Will they not go to Hollywood movies because all of the major companies were founded by Jews and everyone knows that ‘Hollywood is controlled by ‘Jews’? Will they divest themselves from purchasing Nvidia products, many of which are developed in Tel Aviv? Will they no longer play ‘Israeli developed games’ and avoid AI? Jews represent 0.2% of the world population but have received over 22% of Nobel Prizes and are represented in all categories. This is 110 times what you would expect given their numbers. Will they divest from using Jewish made products invented by Novel laureates or their modern derivatives? Which medicines will they not take as they were developed by Jews?

I am very disturbed to see what is happening on the college campuses in the USA and Canada. In the 60s, the French students and the American students had something personal to complain about. What have the students in the universities now have to complain about? Is anyone sending them into battle to fight someone else’s war? Has there been prejudice against Palestinian students on campus here? Why have the students taken the side of the Palestinians? Why has this degenerated into severe antisemitism. Why is there a call for intifada? Why are Jewish students being harassed on campus? Why do the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators feel that Jew=Israeli=Zionist? If this is not the case, why are they demonstrating in front of ‘Jewish institutions’? Why are they telling us to leave Palestine and go back to Poland? Have they never heard of WW2 and the Holocaust or do they believe that the whole thing is a hoax and that the numbers are exaggerated?

During a discussion that I had at dinner in my Tel Aviv hotel, I asked my colleagues, ‘what is woke’ and am I woke’? I was told that I am the opposite of woke. I suppose, seeing the crowd that I was with, I should take this as a compliment. We recently received a notice from the Royal College that as physicians we should be striving for DEI. Really? I finished ‘school’ at age 33 when I passed my final Royal College exams to receive my fellowship and was allowed to write, MD and FRCS after my name. Is that what we want in medicine today, DEI? I always thought that excellence was what we should be striving for in medicine to fight cancer and take care of trauma among other things. I have always practiced medicine with RAMQ Medicare and I personally don’t want to practice any other way. Medicare should be free and education should be given at a low cost to allow students for all backgrounds to educate themselves and improve their social status. I went to medical school in France where education was quasi free and state supported.

It is most unfortunate but I feel that we have raised a generation and a second generation that is 100% ignorant of history. How else could the university students support an organization, Hamas, that wishes to make Palestine into a country modelled after other countries in the Middle East where the rule of law is not supreme in the land? Which country in the Middle East except for Israel is a democracy that votes for its leaders? Which country does not have a dictator, a king, an emperor, iatolla, or a system based strictly on religious or ethnic terms?

Many of our students raised my us or by our children’s children, fall into the ‘don’t know because they don’t want to know’ category of my previous essay. Ask them a question and they pull out a cell phone and immediately give you an instagram or tic-toc answer. I would be most happy to engage in a discussion with one of these enlightened demonstrators but not to play tit for tat in 3 minutes. I would want to discuss the current Israeli-Hamas/Palestinian conflict on a level playing field for 1 hour with people who have read and understand what I am about to write.

What does ‘from the river to the sea’ mean? Which river and which sea? What does ‘free Palestine’ mean? Do you wish to return Palestine to a free Palestine like it was before Oct 7 with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority in control? When was the last election in Gaza? When was the last election in the West Bank? Are elections supposed to take place every 4 years or every 19 to 25 years? How many political parties are there in Gaza? How many political parties are there in the West Bank? If there are no political parties, who will be the king, emperor, dictator or iatolla? Which county will the government be patterned after, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Algeria to name a few?

Now let’s discuss some history. What were the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire? Who divided up the Ottoman Empire after WW1. Who made the boundaries of the countries to their advantage? What is the Sykes-Picot Agreement in 1916? What was the San Remo Conference? What happened at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 which gave us the Treaty of Versailles? How did the Paris Peace Conference end up being a major cause of WW2 30 years later. What were the boundaries of the Palestine Mandate? How was given the power to oversee the Palestine Mandate? Where and when did the name Palestine come into being? When and why was Cis-Jordan split off from Trans-Jordan to form Jordan? What was the Arab revolt? Who was Lawrence of Arabia and what did he want? What was the Balfour Declaration and why did the British come out with it? What was the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement and what was pencilled in at the last moment? What was the Peel Commission? This is crucial to understanding the present conflict. What were the goals of the British? I will give you the answer. It was to protect the Suez Canal and the Iraq-Haifa Pipeline!! What did the French want and what did they get? What was a Jewish Homeland meant to be? What was the decision of the UN to the partition of what remained of the Palestine Mandate? Who accepted the partition and who refused the partition? When was the State of Israel declared? Why was Palestine not declared as a state? Which 5 countries invaded the fledging State of Israel? Who took over Gaza in 1949? Who took over the West Bank in 1949? If you do not know this history, you can not discuss the present situation with any intelligence at a university level? Why is this so hard to understand? Yes you will have to do some homework if you want to discuss the current situation with me.

Man has been at war for over 50,000 years and for 5000 years of written history. There are 5 common rules of conflict. 1) There is a winner and a loser very rarely a cease fire. 2) The victor writes the history. 3) Money changes hands. 4) Territory changes hands. 5) People are forced to move from 1 place to another. The only conflict where these rules don’t tend to be followed is in the 75 year saga of the on going Middle East conflict. I once heard an Israeli general speak He said, ‘we live in a rough neighbourhood. We have enemies on 3 sides and another set of enemies without a touching border. We are out numbered 100 to 1 and their birth rate is higher than ours. The Mediterranean is our 4th border. The Arabs can lose 100 wars and the Arab countries will still exist. If Israel loses 1 war, they will drive us into the sea and nobody will stand up for us. They never have in the past 2000 years and they never will. Israel stands alone and must look after themselves or we will cease to exist’.

Love,

Brian

Israel 47,

May 4, 2024

HI Everyone,

The 1960s was a time of revolt all over the world. I will discuss 3 countries with which I am most familiar leaving out others where I have less expertise.

In 1968, France was still recovering from the war. Unfortunately very little had changed from the class structure that had existed prior to the war. Hence, the occurrence of Mai 68. This period is still looked upon with nostalgia by many persons of my generation who lived through these events. I only came to France in 1970 and lived in France from 1971 to 1976. Therefore much of what I know is second hand information that I received through discussions with my friends and what I have read from my personal research. There was a major crisis in housing. Low cost housing was not available and what was available was expensive, hard to come by and often lacked modern conveniences. Education was elitist in nature. The ‘ecoles’ were expensive and hard to get into. The universities were poorly funded. Medicare existed but was not well run.

In France, the students and the workers had reason to complain and eventually to begin demonstrating. The revolt began with the students in May, 1968 and quickly spread to the factory workers. In a short period of time, the entire country was shut down. Nothing was running. There were demonstrations every day. Everyone had an opinion and every group was giving out pamphlets on the streets. France was close to a major revolt and it was not clear who the victor would be and whether or not this would be a success or be detrimental to the Republic. A brilliant leader, Charles de Gaulle arose and took charge. (I personally have not forgiven him for what he said in Quebec, probably due to a lack of knowledge.) The universities changed and improved the curriculum. HLMs and ILMs were rapidly built to house the workers and students. A minimum wage was established. New hospitals were built. Medical education was moved to the universities allowing better access for entry. The country took a new course for the benefit of the citizens.

In the USA there were reasons to complain and to demonstrate on the streets. In the early 60s, Blacks were not treated as equal citizens. There were laws against them. The white population in the South and even to some extent in the North treated them as second class citizens. Voting rights were suppressed. Lynchings occurred. Listen to the words of ‘Strange Fruit’ hanging from the trees, sung by Billie Holiday and written by a Jew, Meeropol and you will understand what lynchings were all about. The Civil Rights Movement began with marches in the south lead by Rev. King. We watched on tv, the beatings meeted out to freedom marchers by the local police force. Eventually civil rights laws were passed nationally by strangely enough, LBJ.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the students once again had something to complain about. The war in Vietnam was in full swing. The French had left, leaving a vacuum and a mess. There were over 500,000 American soldiers in Vietnam. There were over 50,000 American deaths and 1 million Vietnamese deaths both from the North and the South. Many believed that the war was an illegal war as it had not been approved by Congress. Other young people were against the war because of the draft. Why should they be sent to fight a war in another country that they did not believe to be right. There were demonstrations against America in European countries. Eventually a peace conference ended the war. The American soldiers came home. The North finished by invading the South and formed 1 country. America has now become a good friend of Vietnam and has put aside their differences.

In Canada, by and large we watched these 2 countries with some what indifference. Mai 68 was not well understood and was not our problem. We sympathized with the Blacks in the US. We can not say that there was no prejudice against the Blacks or for the Jews for that ,matter in Canada. However, those prejudices were not written into law. As for the war in Vietnam, some Canadians supported the war against communism, while others sided with the students against the war. There were demonstrations against the war which I did not participate in. As I have said in the past, I am allergic to demonstrations of any kind and stay away from them. If there are 3 people in a line up, I come back later when there are less people. The Vietnam war was taking place in another country between the Americans and the Vietnamese. It was not my war and I was not going to defend either side.

Tomorrow, I will give my negative opinion on the Pro-Palestinian demonstrations that are happening all over the world.

Love,

Brian

Israel 46,

May 4, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

There is an old Arab expression that says the following, ‘If you let the camel put his head in your tent, he will come into the tent, and he will push you out of the tent’. Unfortunately that is what we have done in the USA, in Canada and in Western European countries. France realized this some years ago, Sweden and the USA are starting to realize this now, and Canada has not yet come to the inevitable conclusion.

My grandparents and great grandparents came to Canada in about 1905. The left what was called the Russian Empire, which is now Russia, Belarus, Romania, Lithuania and Moldova. They left because of the pogroms which began in the1980s and only stopped in 1917 when the Russian Revolution put a stop to them. Many people today don’t know what a pogrom was. They managed to kill 1.5 million Jews over a 35 year period. 2 million Jews left Russia to come to America, the promised land. A promised land it was compared to what they had left, but easy it was not. Anti-semitism was rife in the USA and Canada. Although Jews were not killed outright, they were limited in where they could buy a home, which hotel they could go to, what school they could send their children to, what hospital would accept them and to some extent what job they could apply for. Nevertheless they survived and many of us became very successful.

My parents who were born in Canada told me on multiple occasions: ‘You are lucky to be born in Canada. You should be happy to live here. You have the opportunity to study, work and make something of your self. You don’t know what it is like in other places. Don’t forget that you are Jewish, but don’t stand out. It does not have to be written on your forehead. Integrate yourself with the majority of Canadians and accept the culture here and they will accept you’. It is the last statement that is the most important and which I hold most dear.

Unfortunately these truths have been left at the wayside. This year Canada will accept 500,000 immigrants and another 500,000 for the next 5 years. I have nothing against accepting immigrants, Most Canadians are 1-3 generations away from being immigrants themselves. The difference is that my parents, 1st generation to be born in Canada, 3rd generation to have Canadian citizenship, were proud to be Canadian. They would never dream of going to another country as they had heard stories of life in Russia from their parents and grandparents. In spite of the anti-semitism here, they loved Canada. They lived through the depression. They never felt that Canada owed something to them. On the contrary, when Canada went to war, they served both in the army and on the home front to make Canada a better place to live for their children.

The Canadian government, lead by JT, is accepting large numbers of immigrants without enough planning. Over 50% of the immigrants feel that we are accepting too many immigrants. There is no thought as to where we will house them and how can we send them to schools if the schools are already over crowded. Medicare in Canada is already in a shambles. 50% of Canadians still don’t have a family physician. Patients wait 3 months to see a specialist. People languish in emergency rooms for hours. Compare that to Israel where the waiting time from when we arrive in the ER to the time that a nurse and then a physician sees the patient, examines him/her and provides a bed is never more that 2, (yes 2) minutes. How will we provide Medicare to these people if the system is swollen to bursting now?

The main problem as I see it, is have we vetted these immigrants properly before coming to Canada because once they arrive here it is all readily too late? Have we told them that women are equal to men and have they accepted this? Do they accept gay rights? Do they understand that antisemitism and other forms of racism is illegal in Canada? Blacks, Jews, and Asians are protected by law in our land. In Ontario several years ago, a group of people asked to be allowed to have Sharia law. I am astounded to say that this was actually debated by the authorities before saying, no. No should have been the 1st thing that should have been said. There is 1 law in Canada and that is Canadian law which must be respected and to which we are all equal.

We bring people and encourage them to create your little Palestine here and don’t worry about expressing your prejudices. Free speech is allowed here. I have always said, if you come to Canada, and want to make your home here, leave your baggage in the old country. I don’t want to hear about Greeks hating Turks here. I don’t want to see Palestinians and their uninformed supporters demonstrating in the streets and on the campuses against Israel and now clearly against Jews who have lived here as Canadians for well over 150 years. If you want to fight a battle with the Jews-Israelis-Zionists, go to Palestine and fight. For them, Jews-Israelis-Zionists are all the same. How else could you explain demonstrations in front of Jewish schools, synagogues, ‘Jewish’ hospitals (Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto) and ‘Jewish’ buildings (the Bronfman building) on the McGill campus? I am Jewish-not Israeli-Zionist and I came here, to Israel to do my part here. I did not and will not demonstrate in Canada for an overseas battle. Yes, it is your right to peacefully demonstrate, although I would not do so myself, but listen to the rhetoric that is being yelled in the streets and ask yourself, is this what we want in Canada. If you want to fight an overseas battle, go there and fight it out there. You are not welcome to do that fight in Canada.

To be continued this evening with my feelings about the student demonstrations.

Love,

Brian

Israel 45,

May 3, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I have delayed making a statement on the recent student demonstrations that have rocked Canada, the USA and Europe. These demonstrations are also being copied in other parts of the world. I wanted to do some basic research as well, and combine that with what I already know to be fact. It is obvious to my followers that I will take the Israeli side, otherwise what have I been doing in Israel as a volunteer for 8 weeks.

I have learned in my discussions that certain people, when you aboard a topic of discussion, just ‘don’t know’.

1. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they have never studied the subject. This is usually quite simple if you are the one who is better informed. These people, if they are reasonably intelligent, can be taught the subject. This is what we do in universities. Afterwards, you can engage in conversation with these persons and discuss their point of view and perhaps learn from the exchange.

2. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they are incapable of learning. Unfortunately in our society, there is a vast number of people that are uneducated and incapable of understanding certain topics. These people can be influenced by good leaders or bad leaders to have certain beliefs and then to do certain deeds, some of which may be good, some of which may be bad. A good example is what happened in the 1930s. Germany was unlucky, Hitler was their leader. Russia was unlucky, Stalin was their leader. The UK was lucky, Churchill was their leader. The USA was lucky, Roosevelt was their leader. Had the UK and the USA not had these men as leaders, the world would be a very different place today.

3. Certain people ‘don’t know’ because they don’t want to know. In many cases they are capable of learning, however they just don’t want to understand often based on the prejudices that they bring to the table by poor upbringing or poor information which they are incapable of sifting through. This group is the most dangerous group as they are incapable of engaging in an intelligent discussion. They have learned all that they want to learn in Twitter and Instagram. They read pamphlets, they don’t read books. They have no clue about historical events and what has brought us to the present situation. They shout slogans which they can not define past the time that it took them to pronounce the phrase. This unfortunately is the group that we are dealing with and who is camping out in tents on our university grounds.

I was born in the 1st half of the last century (1949). I was brought up in the 60s with the slogan ‘make love not war’. To some extent I still believe this to be true. If that is so, why may you ask have I chosen at age 74 to volunteer to go to a war in Israel and spend 8 weeks here with the IDF and MDA. The answer lies in the 43 entries that I have written in gobriantravel.com What I have done here is a small drop in the bucket if I compare it to the 6 years that my father spent in the Canadian Army defending freedom and democracy. I believe that that I have contributed to defending the same principles here in Israel where Israel once again is fighting for her very survival. Lofty goals you may say, yes but I must say that I have spent the last 74 years of my life preparing for the 8 weeks that I have spent here with these 2 organizations, in Israel.

To be continued tomorrow as I have only scratched the surface of what I want to write.

Love,

Brian

Israel 44,

May 2, 2024,

Hi Everyone,

I just an evening shift with MDA and will do the same this evening. The shifts are always longer than 8 hours as I plan for 1 hour travel time to arrive a little early. We usually finish 1 hour late and the return traffic it takes 1 hour to get back to the hotel.

I often like to visit small museums in a city just as I like to go to small medical conferences. I find the smaller ones tend to be more personal and allow me to ask questions with ease. I decided to visit the Yemenite Museum in Natanaya, half an hour from Tel Aviv and on the route to my MDA station. I met the curator of the museum, Ester, a charming woman, my age, who is of Yemenite origin. She spent 1 hour with me explaining the Yemenite Jewish people and their culture. The Yemenite Jews left Israel, Judea, around the time of the destruction to the first temple and settled on the peninsula which is now called Yemen. They have a 2000 year old history in that place. They are part of the Mezrahi Jews as opposed to the Sephardic Jewish community. They developed a rich and very different culture.

The Yemenite Jews began to come to Mandate Palestine at the beginning of the 20th century. Due to the severe anti-semitism that developed in the Muslim/Arab countries beginning with the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. They were forced to leave a place where they had lived peacefully for 2000 years. The world often talks about the 600,000 Palestinian refugees that left Israel in 1948. They forget about the 600,000-900,000 Jewish refugees that left Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Yemen, etc. etc.

The Palestinian refugees were often not absorbed into the Arab countries. Instead, they lived in ‘camps’ and accepted 2 billion dollars a year for support from UNRWA for 75 years. A Palestinian refugee was defined as anyone who lived in Mandate Palestine (British governed Palestine) for 2 years. This is the broadest definition of a refugee.

3 things happen to a refugee: 1 he/she dies, 2 he/she receives citizen ship in his/her new country, 3 he/she returns home. On the other hand the refugee status of a Palestinian is inherited from generation to generation no matter who the Palestinian marries. Hence we now have 6 million people claiming refugee status. In 20 years, there will be 12 million. This makes them the fastest growing refugee population in the world with their own private UN refugee organization, UNRWA. Hence the problem of today. UNRWA has been infiltrated by Hamas. There are 16,000 UNRWA workers on theUN payroll in Gaza and another 14,000 in other Middle East countries. How can I get that job? All other refugees in the world fall under the UNHCR. (The United Nations High Commission for Refugees) Wow. No Palestinian refugee had to move more than 50K. The Jewish refugees had to move 2000-5000K from their homes with no compensation. They were absorbed in the USA, Canada, France and Israel and given immediate citizenship.

Life was not easy for the Yemenites in 1948 in Israel. Israel had to absorb 600,000 refugees from Europe and the Arab countries in 1 year in the newly founded country. To make matters worse, Israel was attacked by its 5 neighbours in an independence war that lasted 2 years. Israel had accepted the partition by the UN. The Palestinians and the Arab countries did not accept the partition. Many new immigrants had to live in tents for years. Israel now has a varied population after 75 years of intermarriage with the Ashkenazie Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, the Sephardic Jews from North Africa and the Mezrahi Jews from the eastern part of the Middle East.

Love,

Brian