I have to admit, that I was always envious of our Jewish and Christian friends and neighbors as I see them get in their cars with their families, wife and children included and head to the church or the synagogue.
My twin daughters, Laila and Diala always raised me the questions as to why the Muslim mosque does not take a role similar to that of the church and synagogue. I always struggled with an answer and I too ask my self time and time why the mosques does not serve and provide the same support a church or a synagogue its members, not only fulfill the members spiritual needs but social needs and economic connections.
To reach a conclusion for this posting, I had to travel back in time to the time I arrived in the US as a young boy of 16 to the City of Gary, Indiana on a snowy March 1962. Believe it or not, Gary, Indiana of all places had a thriving Muslim community of several hundred families, Lebanese, Palestinians, Syrian, Turkish, Yugoslav, with Indians and Pakistanis coming in on Sunday from Chicago. Though it was a small community, it built a small mosque on West 11th street. The mosques were small compared to the surrounding churches and synagogue. My late father, who was back home in Palestine a mason, helped build the mosque together with many other participants who worked on the weekend to make sure the mosque, was ready for occupancy in less than two years.
During those days before more radical Muslims where able to take over the mosques all over the US and force their own brand of Islam, we used to go the mosque as a family. My late mother would cook and take food like other families so that after prayer and lesson we all would sit down at the tables and enjoy a meal together. In addition to my late mother and father, sisters and brothers will also join. Indeed the mosque in those days took us in and we participated in its affairs as an entire family and not male dominated institutions with no rooms for the family to be together.
Since those days when Islam was a more enlightened and much more enriching and supportive of the families and their needs, the mosques have changed quite a bit.
New Imams who for the most part do not speak good English and do not know much about the US let alone the city or the community they are, they took over the mosques and transformed the mosques in their own image and as they have back at home, where the mosques was not an institution oriented toward the families, but a place where men meet to pray, listen to some mediocre Imam tells them all the things they are doing, living in the land of non-believers. Of course and for the most part these new Imam have a very strict order of Islam, where women and children are not to be seen let alone heard. The mosque since those days in Gary, Indiana lost its unique place as both a spiritual and a social place, where families, made up of men and women, of children boys and girls would go and attend the prayers together, in the same room with a thin curtain erected during prayer, and once that is done, the entire family would rejoin each other and listen to the lecture and then go down stair and every one join together for a meal and family get together.
Unlike the mosques of these days, the churches and synagogue serve such an important community service to its members who also decide on the priest or the rabbi who lead their community and who also provide lots of social and spiritual advice. The members have a say so on all issues and policies with an executive board elected with real power and real authority unlike our mosques where small group of person appoint themselves as the guardian of our soul and sins and our mosques. In the church as well as in the synagogue, there is a real since of community, men and women, grandparents and children all are members of the community body and soul. The church and the synagogue plays a major role in helping introducing new families to the community, even help with business and commercial relation and of course support the families other social and families needs. There is sense of community that is totally messing in our mosques.
Yes, I want to sit together with my wife and children, listen to the lecture and the discussion. Yes I do accept the need to separate, men and women at prayer time, but not to banish them to the basement, but to give them a special section not to far from their families, and yes, I want us as family to get together with other families and not to be separate from my wife and children after the prayer time. This is time for the entire families to meet other families, husband and wife, and children. This is time for the entire family to meet another entire family. These days, at least away from the Muslim world there is major and urgent need to redefine the role of the mosques as a religious and social venue and not place where we hear retarded Imam tell us that Allah will roast us in hell rather than tell us that Allah loves us and care for us. We need to transform the mosque into a fee based membership organization where the members can make the decision as to who, yes, who will join our community, making sure that there is no room for the “takfeerieen” those who look at any one that does not obey them as a “kafer” a non believer. We need a mosque where the community makes the decision on employment and qualification and where members can question him/her as to where they stand on certain theological and social issues. Yes, we do need mosques where the Imams not only speak and understand the language of the country very well, but someone who also understand the culture and values of the country. We need Imams who also able and willing to build bridged within the community we live in and who are able to reach out to all members of the community, Christians and Jews and Hindus and others. Imams who knows and understand both the Jewish and Christian faiths and who also read the Torah and the Holy Bible. We need mosques that can take their rightful place within the Muslim community, taking us in as an entire family. Yes, I do look forward to the days when I can go together with the entire members of the family and share with them what Islam is all about. We need a mosques of the future not one of the past and not one of the Taliban type. We need enlightened Imam who sees us as members of the community, not living in the margins. After all we are part of this much larger community. Do not expect us to live in isolation from our neighbors and friends. Yes, there is nothing wrong and nothing in Islam that prevents a woman to lead prayer or for women to be active board members. Islam is not made up of men, only; it is made up of families.

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On Monday, in the Palestinian city of Hebron over 100 armed Jewish settlers, no doubt believers in the Talmud teaching, decided under the watchful and protective eye of the Israeli army to take over and occupy a Palestinian house with the intended purpose of making it a memorial to Jewish soldiers who died killing Arabs.
Of course the news should not be news since Hebron’s Jewish settlers, for the most parts Jewish misfits from Brooklyn and Jersey, with no purposeful employment, have a habit of taking over and claiming Palestinian property as their own using the Talmud and Torah as their real estate guide in taking over stolen Palestinian property.
Of course these unemployed settlers, who also happened to be student of the Torah and Talmud (there is so much similarity with the young Talibans in the Madras in Pakistan), have hundreds of thousands perhaps millions of US dollars, in generous funding from the American Jewish community to go out and commit grand larceny of stealing Arab homes and buildings. These criminal settlers they claim according to the spokesman of the Hebron Jewish community, that the house belonging to the Palestinian Mohammed Al-Baradei was “bought for over $700,000 through a complex transaction” in Jordan and that these Jewish settlers have the deed for the house. No doubt the deed was issued in heaven by G-d Himself though the house belong to El-Baradei who have the deed in his possession and made copies available to the Jewish Army and Police who of course promised to “investigate”
One has to wonder if stealing and robbing homes is a Jewish value, or a Talmudic value or a Zionist value of simply a criminal act of trespassing and larceny. How could any religion, even a Jewish religion could ever justify the theft of property and land.
It is so interesting that in the Palestinian City of Hebron with some 500 Jewish settlers have made life a living hell for the Palestinians in the city. The Israeli Army well known for its racism and hate of Arabs, made sure they put over 100,000 under permanent curfew to make the streets safe for the 500 Jewish settlers.
More interesting about these Jewish settlers is the fact that they are all over the place in the West Bank, stealing and robbing and committing acts of larceny even they steal olive crops and have poisoned score of sheep. Of course all the while protected by the IDF and funded by some very rich American Jews who happens to make their millions of dollars out of very poor American playing Bingo.
While Israel is building hundreds of thousand of housing units on stolen Palestinians properties there are over 20,000 demolition orders in the process of execution against Arabs who happens to build an additional room to accommodate an additional member of the family, or have waited for years for a permission from the Israeli army to build a house. This is of course at the same time where a Jew can simply walk over to Palestinian house, point a gun and take over the house. It is that simple and it seems this is part of the Jewish and Talmudic values of modern day Israel.
One has to see these settlers on the very well known PBS program Frontline and one can see what danger these people are to Israel and the Palestinians.
One of the very many reader’s posts in today’s Haaretz tell the story. The reader posts the questions and asks how many ways can an Israeli enter and Arab home? And he answers with “ bulldozers, with an Arab-child as a human shield and of course with a deed from G-d”.
I always wanted to understand what makes these people who happened to read and study the Torah and the Talmud to do what they do and I could never find an answer. Perhaps they find the answer in the Torah and the Talmud.
I am sure these people could not get away with it in George Bush’s country. I am sure that will shoot them with a double barrel shot gun will plast them to pieces making a paste out of them on doors and walls, whether they have a deed from G-d or not.
The question is when Israel and behind it the Jewish community at large will put an end to such criminal trespassing and simply thuggery and simple criminal behavior? Not soon since the money to do these things keep flowing from the US Jewish community, all in the name of populating God country with his people as if the Palestinians are simply a mistake and with no God of their own. I am sure that true Jewish values and tradition is far, far from what these people are committing in crimes. The Jewish Settlers are the Brown Shirts of Zionism.

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The Cheney-Bush War on Iraq is not going as planned and is not going like all those who planned it, organized it, managed said it will go. The Cheney-Bush administration will no doubt go down in America and world history as the worst, the most incompetent administration in the history of the US. Read the rest of this entry »

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Before there was the Israel Defense Forces “IDF” there were the Jewish terrorist groups in Mandated Palestine. Before there was state terrorism committed by an army of the state, IDF, there was Jewish terrorism and terrorists committing crimes and murder against Arabs, British and even Jews.
Before the State of Israel became an independent state, Jewish terrorist organizations carried out a number of operations not so much different from those committed by so called Palestinian “terrorists”. Moshe Sneh, the chief of Hagnah wrote a letter to Menachem Begin, head of the Irgun prompting him to carry out the bombing of the King David Hotel which took place on July 1946, killing 28 British, 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and 5 others. The terrorist walked in disguised as Arabs and unloaded 225 Kg of high explosive.
Of course the terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel was to set the pace for things to come. Between April 9-11, 1948 members of the Jewish terrorists organization, the Irgun killed and massacred between 100-120 villagers in the village of Deir Yassin. Similar Jewish terrorist crimes where to become standard practice where in some cases, Arabs were rounded in mosques and killed in cold blood.
This tradition of cold blooded murder continued with the IDF where the man dubbed by George Bush as “man of peace” Ariel Sharon commanded unit 101 of the IDF in October, 1953 raided the West Bank village of Qibya, crossing the armistice lines killing and murdering over 60 villagers in their homes. Even the US State Department on October 18, 1953 demanded those responsible “brought to account”. Of course the US State Department no longer has the courage to demand such things any more.
While the world Jewish community takes such a great pride in its army “IDF”, and reminding us of the great feats of its members such as the Six Days War, the raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor, the heroic stories of the “War of Independence” as seen in the movie “Exodus”, there is almost total silent on the actions and acts of the IDF and its behavior in war and as a occupational force.

Recent news and documentary of the cold blooded murder of more than 250 Egyptian war prisoners during 1967 War with their hands tied behind their backs, to the deliberate bombing of the Egyptian school at Dir Albaqar killing several hundreds of innocent students.

Targeting civilians is nothing new from the days of the “War of Independence “ until today. The IDF continues to use the same tactics committing cold-blooded murder like the case of killing over 100 Lebanese civilians in Qana shelled by the IDF as they sought refuge in a UN compound. There was another Qana massacre in August 2006 where scores of young Lebanese children were targeted and shelled while they sought refuge in the basement of a building. Not to mention the targeting of the infrastructure and the dumping of over 1,500,000 cluster bombs gift from George Bush and Candy Rice to the Lebanese people with the IDF making this special delivery.

Throughout the almost 40 years of Occupation, the IDF have carried out systematic plans to kill, murder and destroy any thing and every thing that is Palestinians including the very brave use of Palestinians as “human shields” as the IDF moved in to commit the massacres in Jenin in April 2002. Not to mention the arrest and detention of over 700,000 Palestinians ( out of 3.5 millions) at one time or another.

With the numbers of cold blooded murder reaching more than 4,000 the IDF did not only target Palestinians, young and old but also targeted foreign nationals the likes of the American Rachel Corrie, the British journalist James Miller, the British volunteer Tom Hurndall, the killing of 10 years old Nourhan Eid by tank fires, the killing of 3 years old Rahma AbuShams and of course the much televised murder of young Mohammed Al-Dura as he tried to hid in his father arms. The IDF being the perfect shot they are of course killed the father and the son, total innocence, just mean spirited murder.
The IDF also was the first army to ever introduce the Caterpillar Bulldozers to tear down and destroy tens of thousands of homes and farm, in a way unseen and unmatched by any armies in the world including the German or the Japanese armies in WWII. The Israeli Defense Forces continue to maintain over 500“security” road blocks and check points where Palestinians civilians have to wait for hours to go through from one town to town, even from one neighborhood to another, where many pregnant women lost their lives and their new born babies while waiting for a young immigrant soldiers to let them go through. And where Palestinians have to wait for hours while young Israeli soldiers force a young Palestinians to play fiddle while they lounged around smoking their cigarettes, looking at the young and old, women and children as they suffer.
We all have seen what the IDF did as they moved into Bethlehem deliberately using their tanks to destroy and run over parked cars, destroy light poles and sidewalks. Every thing and every mean was used to simply destroy and cause maximum property damage.
The IDF is also the first army to ever down a civilian airliner killing all on board, the first to ever carry out a raid and destroy over 13 jetliners sitting at Beirut Airport, the first army to ever hijack a civilian airlines and bring it down to check its passengers and the first to target and kill innocent and simple fishermen and destroy an entire neighborhood to secure the Apartheid Wall Israel’s is building and the first army to protect Jewish Settlers as they harass, intimidate and even murder Palestinian civilians in Hebron, and protect the Jewish Settlers as they destroy, steal property, land and olive crops and the first to build “Jewish Road” for Jews only.
With the exceptions of the German Nazi Army and the Japanese Occupation Forces during WW II, all armies have a code of conduct that prohibits the killing and murder of civilians and the use of civilians as human shields and the prohibit deliberate destruction of private property. The Israel Defense Forces have their own code of conduct and it include the killing, murder, and destruction of any thing and every thing in its way and don’t give a damn about what Arabs and Gentiles say, supported by edits from Jewish Rabbis. If officers and members of the IDF were in the armies of the US, Germany, France, Italy even England, half of the members will be in the “brigs” while the other half will be waiting for court martial. It is the only army in the world where officers and soldiers simply get away with murder because it is simply Ok to kill Arabs.

Of course one need to recognize the very courageous Israeli soldiers who refused to go on missions that targeted civilians and members of infantry, tanks and even air force who simply refuse to participate in offensive war targeting civilians and within the Occupied Territories. To those soldiers and the entire Israeli and Jewish group that support such proud and honorable soldiers, we salute their courage and they are models of what soldiers should be. We thank you. Shalom, Peace, Salam.
Special Note: soon to come a website www.idfarmyofshame.com that will document the IDF in action and why it deserve the name, the army of shame.

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In the March 3rd edition of the Arabic Magazine “Al-majalla” I read with much enjoyment the last page, which is the domain page of the very well known, and much accomplished Sudanese writer and novelist Altayb Saleh.
Mr. Altayeb Saleh wrote about a certain Dr. Freeman Dyson who was during WW II a researcher in the physics department of the British Royal Air force planning the daily bombardment of German towns and cities.
The allies waged an aerial war unmatched for years to come with the exception of the attack on Iraq during the first gulf war and then during the War on Iraq waged by George Bush and Dick Cheney knowing the majority of casualties are civilians.
During the war, hundreds of thousands of civilians where burned to death, defined as collateral damage to the war against the Nazi war machine. Total cities and towns where completely wiped off the ground. Cities like Frankfurt, Hamburg and Dresden where totally destroyed. So much for war efficiency and Western morality.
Altayeb Saleh narrates the story of this Dr. Freeman Dyson who in 1984 decided to come out and say what he wanted to say during the war. Dr. Dyson was sick to his stomach from the daily and high numbers of victims killed by the allies during day and night bombing of Germany to the point where he just wanted to take his clothes off, go out to the streets and simply scream and vent his anger. However, he was too coward to do that and did his best to do his shares in keeping the number of causality to an acceptable low.
Being a coward reminds me of myself, when back in 1989 during a business visit to Tangier, Morocco I read with much dismay and anger an editorial written by one of the dean of Moroccan journalist, Abdul-Kareem Ghallab, a well-known Arab nationalist was the chief editor of Al Alam daily newspaper. On that day he came out with a scathing attack against French newspapers and politicians for raising questions about and protesting the massacre of 300 protestors by Algerian police the day before in Algiers. Mr. Ghallab was too angry at French newspapers and journalist, for “intervening in the internal affairs” of Algeria. Of course NO Arab paper and no Arab politicians and NO Arab intellectual spoke out against such massacres. It is seems it is a well-established tradition within the Arab World for all to remain silent when Arabs kill Arabs, and when government commit mass murder. Very brave tradition among Arab intellectuals and journalists.
I could not help but sit down in my hotel room at El-Minzah Hotel and write Mr. Ghallab a long letter, challenging him and other Arab journalists and intellectuals on the issue of when (killing and murdering citizen becomes a matter of “internal affairs” of a country.) Did the killing and murdering of 6 millions Jews is a matter of internal affairs for Nazi Germany? Is the killing and murder of thousands of Palestinians by the Israeli Army an internal affair of the State of Israel and no have a right to say something about? Is the murder of over 500,000 Rwandans is an internal affairs of Rwanda and no one has a right to protest? Is the killing and murder of tens of thousand of Iraqis by Saddam is an internal affair of Iraq? Or when the killing and cold-blooded murder of over 25,000 Syrians in City of Hamah becomes internal affairs of the state? I put to Mr. Ghallab, a very straight question. When does the killing by security forces does not become a matter of internal affairs? Of course I never got an answer back, since I signed the letter under the name “coward” and I was coward at the time, since I did not dare to reveal my real name, certainly not in 1989.
Two years ago and before his retirement, I did send Mr. Ghallab a copy of the same letter I sent him some years ago, and gave him my name and address. As expected I never did get a response. It is not in the style of Arab editors to write back.
Altayb Saleh story of Dr. Dyson just reminded me that at one time or another we are cowards and for one reason or another do not wish to come out and say what we should say. say or speak out on something we know is dead wrong.
However major changes took place in the Arab World since then, and especially in Morocco where newspapers and editors enjoy freedoms not available in most Arab countries, and things has changed where young editors and journalist never been on the payroll of government agencies either as employees or as informers. Times have changed for the most part where investigative journalism now fill the airways, where even Arab heads of states are not a taboo subjects. Yes, I was at one time a coward.

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As someone who travels through Tel-Aviv and have seen young, disrespectful, cocky and racist security officers in actions. The article by Musa Budeiri is most interesting and enjoyable to read.Please enjoy.
Sami Jamil Jadallah

Musa Budeiri wrote
Mac Books, Zaa’tar & the Everlasting State of ExceptionTraveling from Jerusalem to Lod airport I am reflecting that come summer, it will be forty years since the conquest of those parts of mandated Palestine (now termed the West Bank & Gaza Strip) which had escaped Israeli control in 1948, in addition to the Syrian Heights. I calculate that if I have traveled an average four times a year from Lod and back that would make one hundred and sixty times that I have been through the various security regimes instituted by the Shin Bit at the airport. And I am still a threat.Arriving early there is only a couple of people in the line ahead of me waiting to go through the security check. I can not help overhearing the conversation taking place right in front of me between a fellow passenger who is holding a European community passport, and who, like me, is obviously a “non ethnic” European, and the young woman whose job it is to usher people to the bulky X-ray machine through which everybody has to have their luggage examined. Trying to ascertain the passenger’s ethnic origins, the “usherette” is fielding the usual indirect questions which presumably are designed to avoid giving offence to “innocent” travelers. This of course requires some measure of cooperation on the part of the traveler being questioned. In this case, my fellow passenger is either oblivious of this rite, or is not in a mood to cooperate. The conversation is taking place in English, and suddenly the “usherette” asks what language the passenger speaks at home. The reply is English. Unable to accept this as it does not fit the stereotype she has already established for the person being questioned, she offers a list of languages and asks if she perhaps speaks “Indian” or some such language. The passenger seems to catch on. She makes it clear that she does not speak “Indian”, but that she does speak Gujarati. This seems to mystify the questioner. So she tries a different tack. She asks what religious festivals the passenger celebrates at home. But it appears her world view is restricted to the three monotheistic creeds, because when the woman replies “Divali“, there is a vacant look on her face. She then excuses herself and is replaced by another, presumably “more experienced” questioner. This is entertaining, but being an experienced “answerer” I do not anticipate much trouble navigating my way into the X-ray machine and further along the “safe to fly” process. I usually immediately confess my national/ethnic origins and point out that the European community passport I travel on is merely that, a travel document. Increasingly since September 11, I also make a declaration of a non existent religious affiliation. I always feel that perhaps coming clean, like admitting that one is an ex murderer, a past inmate of a lunatic asylum, or a reformed habitual sexual offender, would put the questioners at ease. Additionally, I am only carrying a small shoulder bag with next to nothing in it and my brand new ten days old Mac book.Not having to pretend that I celebrate Divali, or that I am in the habit of having a Hanukah Bush in my home at some date in December, I soon find myself waiting for my two items to return to my safe keeping after having journeyed through the all knowing and all seeing large X ray contraption, a rite of passage which is supposed to make me feel that air travel is safe and secure, even from myself. Once I have retrieved my luggage I proceed to the search area and two pleasant and seemingly user friendly girls begin to shower me with the VIP treatment. Not having much to examine does not stop them from doing their job thoroughly, methodically and painstakingly slowly. I am carrying one pair of trousers, one pair of pants, training shorts, digital camera, cellular, heart monitor watch & accompanying exercise strap, a bag of thyme, a book on mizrahi Jews by S‡mi Shetrit, all sorts of medical reports, and the usual assortment of pills which constitute my daily intake for a couple of weeks. Obviously, now that I think about it in retrospect, not very “convincing” luggage for a seemingly innocent passenger who already fits a suspicious “profile”. Once this process is well under way, I am informed that I will not be allowed to travel with the Mac book. I am further told that it will not be possible for the Mac book to travel on the same flight. When I ask the reason for this, I am referred to another person, who abruptly tells me that she cannot divulge the reason, but that as a result of the security procedure in operation, the Mac book is not allowed to travel on the same flight as me. I ask for a written statement to this effect, and for her name. She declines both, but informs me that I can of course lodge a complaint if I so desire, and to address it to the airport authority. I ask for a receipt, but she again says she cannot give me one. I ask how the Mac book will be delivered to me when she does not know my address or even where I am traveling to. She replies that it is not her job to arrange delivery. She directs me to approach the lost and found at Heathrow airport in London and to inquire about my laptop there. When I try to protest further, she tells me that she cannot waste any more time and leaves while I am in mid sentence. I address the two women who are still leisurely entertaining themselves with the empty shoulder bag that I want to talk to the person in charge, and they inform me that I have just talked to their supervisor. By now I am getting angrier and my voice is getting louder, probably slightly hysterical, whereupon one of the women tells me not to shout at her as it is not her decision and that she is only doing her job. Then the other one volunteers that there is another supervisor and she will call him for me, which she does. A man appears and mid way through my protests to him, the woman supervisor makes another appearance, and this time they both leave together after telling me that I have a choice. Either I don’t fly, or I can leave the laptop behind! They further tell me that I cannot fly with the computer cable, the thyme, and the heart monitor band in my shoulder bag, and that these will be put in a box and stored in the hold of the plane but that I can retrieve them when the plane arrives at Heathrow. They also think that the pills I am carrying are suspicious though they do not think it necessary to ask me what they are for or why I am carrying them. Shortly, two boxes appear. One with red markings and one with blue. They are both entitled Israel Airports Authority - Ben Gurion International Airport…Security. The Mac book goes into the box with red markings, the monitor strap, cable and thyme go into the blue marked box. They are then taken away by a non uniformed person who presumably is a security officer. There is still the body search of course. I am escorted by a young man to another room who while doing a thorough body search, keeps telling me that he is very sorry he has to do this and that he understands my objections (not that I am making any. By then I have entered the resignation phase). My half hearted attempt to illicit some follow up to his apologies only elicits the response that he is doing his job. I am escorted to the checking-in desk and later taken straight through to the police cubicles to have my passport stamped for exit. For about five minutes the policewoman stares in silence at her computer and at my passport, then she asks me for my ID card. I dutifully present it, whereupon she asks me for my father’s name. I point out that it is written in my passport, in my ID card and presumably on the computer screen. She insists that she wants me to tell her, so I do. By then I have no more fight, having already failed to save the Mac book. I reflect how one defeat makes it easier to succumb to succeeding defeats. It is already two hours since I have joined the queue behind the Divali celebrating traveler. After some reflection she asks for my grandfather’s name. After more staring at the monitor, she calls a colleague in another booth. Another uniformed policewoman joins her and now they are both staring at the monitor screen. After a few minutes and the exchange of a few comments the guest policewoman goes back to her booth. We are now back into staring at the screen, then she picks up the phone and speaks to somebody. I decide that I have been patient enough and that it is time I am a bit more interventionist. After all I keep hearing and reading that I have “agency”. So I ask what the problem is. She ignores me. I am simply not there, and obviously not relevant. A non uniformed person appears. They confer; the new arrival collects my passport, ID card, ticket and boarding pass and commands me to follow her. I do. We approach another larger cubicle with a uniformed officer inside. She motions for me to sit down outside the cubicle, hands in my documents and leaves. I sit. Fifteen minutes later, a middle aged police woman comes out of the cubicle. I feel relief. It must be the age. She hands me back my documents. Inside my passport she has found my latest ECG test. She asks me what that is. For my part I half heartedly inquire what the problem is. She informs me that it is to do with a “similar” name. She tells me that she has penned a note that I am/was not the “other” person! I wonder how she knows? Two and half hours after arriving at the airport, I enter the departure lounge. I wish I was still a smoker. I arrive at Heathrow and wait at the baggage carousel. Eventually I notice the blue marked box, not at the main carousel but at a small conveyer belt to the side. I explain to the attendant that this is mine and after examining my ticket he allows me to take it. Success. I now have the cable, the thyme and the exercise belt. I allow myself a delusion. Perhaps “they” placed the Mac Book on the same flight! I approach the British Airways desk and tell them I am looking for the “lost and found”. They want to know why. I explain. They cannot grasp the story. They tell me that BA will not carry unaccompanied luggage. So perhaps the Mac Book will be put on al EL AL flight. They direct me to an office outside the arrival hall. It is the left luggage office and it deals with lost property. I talk to the attendant and he confirms that lost luggage eventually finds its way there. He is of course rather incredulous, and thinks that if the box is eventually sent from Lod airport, it will arrive at the luggage carousel, and of course will not be collected, so it will go round and round and round. Eventually it will be taken of the carousel and dispatched to his counter, as by then it will be classified as lost or abandoned property. But he has no idea if and when it will arrive. British Airways have two daily flights from Lod to Heathrow, and then of course there is El AL. As far as he is concerned there is no procedure for what I have narrated. My Mac Book will just be another piece of lost luggage. For the next couple of days I harass the left luggage counter at Heathrow with constant phone calls. It is a different attendant every time; some find the story hard to comprehend, others do not even bother. I start thinking that there must be tens of thousands of lost pieces of luggage floating around the airports of the world, and that mine is just a matter of financial loss, no different from the loss of people who have actually “lost” their luggage. But this is not satisfactory. I feel my many sojourns at the airport are the price I have paid and continue to pay for the Mac Book. I reason with myself that I need to make one last effort, which is to go to the airport and do an “on the spot “search. If this fails I can resign myself to the fact, and if my attorney is agreeable launch a complaint and perhaps demand financial compensation. But this has to await my return to Jerusalem. I choose a Sunday, as the traffic will not be so bad. I do the hour and a half drive to the airport in an hour. Already I am feeling buoyed. I approach the lost and found. No success. I ask to be allowed into the arrival hall. Not seriously of course. Perhaps the box with the red markings is lying around along with other hundreds of unclaimed pieces of luggage. I do not think that I will be allowed to of course. I am given a number and directed to a free phone. I find myself talking to an airport authority official. I explain, as well as I could. By now I have explained the story so many times I am no longer sure of the facts. He directs me to a small door which will lead me to the arrival hall. I go through a door, take of my shoes, undergo a security check, put my belongings through the x-ray machine, and eventually find myself with the arriving passengers and the carousels doing their merry go rounds. To my astonishment I find myself talking to a BA clerk who actually understands the story. He has been to Tel Aviv and knows how things are done there. After a few minutes searching through the computer, he directs me to a lost and found office inside the arrival hall. I make my way there with no expectations. At the last minute I had decided to bring the box with blue markings with me. I thought this would make it easier to explain what I am looking for. I approach the desk and place the box on the counter. I explain to the attendant that I am looking for a similar box but with red markings instead of blue. I can see part of the store room behind him through the open door. Racks and racks of “lost” luggage, Suddenly I see a similar box. I point it out. He goes to retrieve it. Yes it has red markings. Yes it has Ben Gurion airport on it, and yes it has my name. Success. What a feeling. The attendant is more experienced at this sort of thing. He asks me to open it and to check and see that the computer is there and that it is in working order. I do as he instructs.In a couple of days, I will be taking a British Airways flight to Lod. I tell myself that I am racking up “security miles” in preparation for the 40th anniversary of the June 1967 occupation, and the 59th anniversary for the establishment of the state. There is little consolation in the fact that we are all living in “a state of exception”.

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