stop worrying, enjoy yourselves!

By David Verveer

We Israelis are not fooling ourselves, we know that a next war (campaign is a more suitable indication) is imminent, irrelevant who is to blame, our hawkish government or the terrorist regimes bordering with Israel or regaining power in the Palestine Authority Western Bank. A peaceful solution, what every normal person wants and dreams about will not have sufficient pressure to retain and tip the scales from war and chaos to living in harmony.

The last effective leaders who could have caused such evolution were Yitzchak Rabin, the king Husain of Jordan and Anwar Sadat from Egypt. But those heroes were slain by extremist nationals or died from cancer. Their removal from the political scene became a dire warning to the current politicians and leaders, which sounds something like this: don't even try to make peace, nobody believes in it and nobody will back you on this, be happy and make war (but make speeches and dramatic pleas for peace, in order to get some World PR).

Don't get me wrong, most (literate) citizens in the Middle East want peace and get on with life, and certainly do not want another skirmish which demands sacrifices and innocent deaths, but on the other hand, we do not take our future in our own hands, we rely on others to decide on war and peace. Is Israel, with a relative democratic election system, and with our Arab neighbors, a mixed autocratic and dictatorial semi democratic system, which provides power on both fronts to extremists and nationalists, who do not believe in giving any space for the opponent, and see only their own narrow point of view as a God given aims.

It is a question of time, until a massive terrorist act or kidnap causes the next flare of war, or a preventive action thought necessary by our current leaders, in order to prevent nuclear power to the Ayatollahs is Iran, not that this will change anything, just the opposite, it will encourage the Anti Israel campaigners worldwide (specially due to Europe's and USA depending on the Arab oil and the growing Islam power in Europe. Sounds pessimistic, doesn't it? But that is not my purpose, "ADRABA" we would say in Hebrew, which is an original Aramaic word which means something like "just instead of this", as I believe that we have to make the best of the time we spend on this earth, if we, unlike our neighboring Slavic and Hellenic cultures, enjoy and celebrate tragedies, but bless everyday we have left without murder and bloodshed.

In my opinion it does not make sense to celebrate the catastrophic paste, but believe we should concentrate on making the best of today, even more, I would suggest, let us forget about the tragedies of the past, stop blaming everybody else, instead be patient with your co-players on earth, even when you think, their way of live stinks and is totally wrong.

I have a feeling that my feelings and attitude to life is shared by many Israelis, who started to go out in the evenings, make trips and enjoy holidays, even risk some financial difficulties, only to enjoy the day. It doesn't make sense to cry on calamities in future, just like those of the past. One thing we have to remember, we live today, what happens tomorrow is still far away, what happened yesterday is like spilled milk.
I hate questions such as, what will we do if……., I have no idea, and only when playing chess you should worry and find solutions for the next five moves, but in real live, this does not make sense, as nobody can prophesize the future, and believe me that is a good thing.

Take for example, the doomsday warning every autumn on a possible draught year without sufficient precipitation to replenish our annual water shortage, crying about it, will not help at all, the only solution are desalination plants, the technology is there, the money can be found, but nobody cuts the Gordian knot, because perhaps the coming year we have a blessed year with lots of rain. And instead of crying on spoiled milk, with spoilt water is the case entirely different, we are able to recycle all waste water and use it in agriculture, no drop has to stream to the sea, we have the know-how. We sell it worldwide, but like anything else, the Sandler goes bare feet, it is easier to tax the citizen with huge water bills, than setting up treatment and desalination plants solving the problem for now and in the future.

But such nonsense is not only here in Israel, but worldwide, especially with the hoax of Global warming and the restrictions on CO2, again like with water, we have the solutions by using air pollution free energy solutions, but don't punish the poor, cut of their cheap food supply by using cereals in order to produce methanol, that will make some crooks rich, but doesn't solve anything.

But again, you and I do not have the power to change anything, or put the world in the correct direction, and nobody will be thankful for our suffering in order to save the world, just the opposite, our descendents will judge us as fighters against windmills and will ask, why did they not enjoy their lives as much as possible, and I have no answer other than promising to try my utmost to have a nice day, wishing you the same,

David Verveer