Gaza consequences and Leigh’s new play
Israel and Sharon reap the rewards of Gaza withdrawal
Ariel Sharon strode on to the world stage this week to reap the diplomatic rewards of taking the bold step of withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank. Yesterday, Mr Sharon was scheduled to become the first Israeli Prime Minister to address the UN General Assembly. Embarking on Wednesday on a five-day visit to New York and Washington, the Israeli leader was due to hold talks at the UN with not only allies such as US President George W. Bush, Jordan’s King Abdullah II and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but also with Qatari Emir Hamed Bin Khalifa al Thani. Mr Sharon also had a friendly talk with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. At his meeting on Wednesday with Mr Bush, the US President said: “Your leadership is inspiring,” noting how “difficult” it was to carry out the disengagemenPresident Bush said it was now time for the Palestinians “to come together and establish a government that will be peaceful to Israel. I know that the Israeli government wants to see that happen as well.”
Anger in Israel as Gaza residents raze synagogues
Israeli political and religious leaders this week condemned the destruction of 26 abandoned settlement synagogues by Palestinian mobs after the army finished evacuating the Gaza Strip on Monday. The withdrawal brought to a close 38 years of occupation. Rabbi Zion Tawil, of the former Netzarim settlement, accused the Palestinians of adding sin to crime. “Burning the synagogues did not merely hurt our physical homes,” he said. “It hurt our souls, our hearts. Synagogues are not dead museums. They are living places that give power to the people of Israel.”
Leigh tackles the meaning of Jewish life
Mike Leigh’s new comedy, “Two Thousand Years,” which opened this week, is not going to win plaudits from every pulpit.… It is not often the London stage features a character laying tefilin. But now meet Josh, the aggressively brooding 28-year-old dentist’s son. Josh still lives at home with his parents, without a job, seven years after gaining his first-class maths degree, and is experiencing a Jewish identity crisis. One day his mother, just home from holiday, catches him in the conservatory davening in a kipah. She responds with the sort of look an Orthodox rabbi would give if he found his son in bed smoking pot with the vicar’s daughter.