Coming Home Anniversary

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This week marks my umpteenth aliyahversary — my arrival in Israel as a new immigrant and my return to the homeland of the Jews. Although I reap the benefits every day I am here, it’s good to take time out to consciously mark the occasion and say thanks.

I love living life to a Jewish beat, to a Jewish rhythm.

Instead of going from New Year to Easter to Christmas, I go from Rosh Hashanah, via Yom Kippur, to Sukkot, Chanukah, Purim, and Pesach — with a few fast days thrown in.

I love seeing the various Jewish festivals being marked in the shops, on buses, on the streets, and in the media.

I love that I live my life as a Jew, free from worries about the temperamental hostility of my fellow citizens. I can wear a kippah, should I choose to do so, and it’s not like putting a target on my back unlike in the rest of the world. (Isn’t that shocking and sad?)

Instead of going from Monday to Sunday, I go from Sunday to Shabbat.

I love the growing calm, peace, and quiet that Friday afternoon brings as people get ready for Shabbat, however they may mark it.

And Friday night dinner is a major family occasion here, regardless of religious belief or observance. It’s wonderful and life affirming to experience and see it. Sometimes, on my way to shul on a Friday night, I see visitors coming to our apartment block, typically loaded with one or more trays of food, joining family or friends or both to enjoy a Shabbat evening meal.

I love the regular surprises that the Israeli people bring to the world. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not arguing any superiority, just celebrating our successes. And, yes, we have our failures to mourn, mainly our political leaders. Our current Prime Minister and government are an embarrassment. Hopefully the next election will sort that out. If not, next year’s aliyahversary post may be more somber!

So, another glorious year of living in Israel has gone by. Here’s to the next one, and many more.

(Let’s not forget this benefit.)

Judgement Time

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Who said this:

I believe that a strong, independent court allows for the existence of all other institutions in a democracy…  Show me one dictatorship, one undemocratic society, where a strong independent court system exists. There’s no such thing. In places with no strong and independent court system, rights cannot be protected. In fact, the difference between countries in which rights are only on paper and those in which there are actual rights — that difference is a strong, independent court. That is the reason that I am doing, and will continue to do, everything I can to protect the court system [so that it remains] strong and independent…

Over the past few months alone, I have scrapped every law that threatened to harm the independence of the system — from the attempt to hold hearings for judges in the Knesset, through limiting petitions to the court, to changing the composition of the committee for selecting judges. I will continue to operate this way. Every time a bill comes across my desk that could harm the independence of Israeli courts, we’ll take it off the table

Was it:

a) Bibi Netanyahu

b) Yehud Olmert

c) Arik Sharon

And the answer is… Bibi Netanyahu.

The hypocrisy is off the scale. The brazen self-interest he promotes is shocking. And yet, there’s every chance he will win the next election. When people say democracy is a poor system — though better than all the rest — this is an outstanding example.

I do, however, wish to make one clarification. Much of the hateful invective towards Israel is allegedly driven only — ha! — by antipathy and worse towards Bibi. If we had a different prime minister, things would be different. That’s what people say. But I don’t believe it. Israel is facing a relentless campaign against the country and all it institutions. Regardless of who is prime minister, they won’t stop Fortunately, we won’t either.

Am Yisrael Chai. Despite Bibi.

Diplomatic Coup

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A sign of the times. Yesterday, I successfully negotiated a tear-free and tantrum-free transit of my two-and-a-half-year-old granddaughter from play room to bath. As things stand, this may be the most significant achievement of my week.

Games Played — June 2026

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The games I played included the following:

Old School Tactical: Battle for France 1940

I’m a sucker for WW2 tactical level games. This is the latest series I have started playing, though I am still committed to ASL.

I played the first scenario in the French 1940 expansion, primarily to familiarize myself with the rules again. Although the system is quite solitaire friendly, I dislike playing tactical games solitaire unless they are specifically designed to be played that way.

Overall, I like the system, but there are a number of house rules that I am trying out as sometimes the design doesn’t deliver as well as I think it can, even if the emphasis is on game ahead of simulation.

Commands and Colors: Ancients

I played the Piraeus — 403 BC scenario from Expansion Pack #6 which has an Athenian force (whose forward line is atop hills) facing a slightly bigger Spartan force (14 units to 13).

The Spartan advantage is that their hoplite units are 5 blocks (as opposed to 4) so are more durable. The Athenian advantages include the terrain and a superiority in missile units.

This was one of the classic battles as it went down to the wire, victory being attained (by a one point margin) on the last combat. A thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Advanced Squad Leader

I played Curries Favor (AP141), an August 1944 encounter in France between Commonwealth (Canadian) tanks and infantry tasked with seizing strategic points from a small German infantry force stiffened by an 88 gun and an 81mm mortar and set up in good defensive terrain.

I was the Canadians. I probably chose the wrong entry point but I got through the first turn without casualties and my forces in semi-decent threatening positions. At the start of turn 2, my key tank (with an armor leader) was perfectly positioned to place smoke to cover my advance. Unfortunately, I rolled a 12 which meant no smoke, no main gun, and no cover for the advancing forces.

Things went downhill from there and I conceded the game half way through. Although I could blame my luck, not choosing the best entry point didn’t help. All part of the continuing (and losing) ASL education.

Combat!

After playing the introductory scenarios a few times, to get the rules clear in my mind, I moved onto the regular scenarios. The first involves attacking a farmhouse. I played it twice as the first time I made a mess of too many rules. The second scenario is about defending the farmhouse. This one I managed to complete without screwing up the rules. I won both scenarios.

The rules, as mentioned before, are lacking. I secured a copy of the newest rules which helped a fair bit, though there are still gaps. I have yet to make time to gather all the queries and submit them to one of the online forums for clarifications.

Seapower and the State

This WW3 naval game has been on my radar for a long time. It’s a strategic (i.e. broad-brush) view of what might have happened had WW3 broken out in 1984, 1989, or 1994. The system seems to pack a lot into a system that isn’t complex, as you might expect, and offers plenty of opportunity for house rules to tweak the parts that may not suit you. For example, BGG has a great suggestion about alternative targeting rules.

I have only managed to set the game up and try out some combats. It’s going to be a long game and I need to be in the right state of mind to start playing it.

Memoir ’44

Breakthrough is one of the expansions for Memoir ’44, a WW2 game in the Commands and Colors family. The expansion includes a double-sided hex game board for both beach landings and countryside combat and 15 scenarios. I played the Operation Crusader scenario as the Germans and was crushed 12-4.

I started with enough cards to get my key units moving, but then went through about six or seven turns with the wrong cards and being unable to get my units into combat. That was probably the tipping point.

The dice weren’t exactly helping, though my trusty opponent also had a couple of encounters on the fringes of the probability graph.

A couple of things to stress.

  • Despite the one-sided result, it was great fun. This is a game that never forgets its mission is to entertain and it does that repeatedly.
  • Of all the Commands and Colors type games, this is probably my least favorite and yet I love playing it! See the preceding paragraph.

Back to School

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I’ve gone back to school. I’m taking a summer course at Reichman University, Herzliya.

The course runs 08:30-13:00 Sunday to Thursday until the end of July, ensuring a bit more hectic life as I try and pack the usual errands and leisure activities into the reduced free time.

It’s strange being back on a university campus after such a long time. In a way it reminds me of working here — surrounded by people most of whom are decades younger than me.

Reichman is a modern campus with just a few hints of its history. It’s interesting to compare it to my first university campus, the University of Strathclyde. It was a city center collection of disparate buildings of varying ages from old to modern. Reichman is almost completely modern though a sprinkling of the older stuff — like what now forms the student union building — remains. The campus is compact, with plenty of open space. Its country setting gives it an added air of detachment.

Modern and old buildings at Reichman University.

The university is on land that was a Royal Air Force base during the British Mandate. In the War of Independence, it housed the Israeli Air Force’s very first squadron, becoming the main base of the IDF’s anti-aircraft force. Herzliya airport, which I presume was part of the original setup, is across the road. You are reminded of this by the regular buzzing as small one and two-engined planes land and take off in close proximity.

The IDF gave up the land in 1994, title passing (I believe) to the local authority. At this time, law professor Uriel Reichman stepped in. He wanted to establish a new kind of Israeli higher education institute modeled after elite, private Ivy League schools in the United States. Thus was born the private, non-profit college called the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, or IDC Herzliya.

The first year there were about 240 students learning in classrooms made from repurposed military barracks. Since then, it’s grown into a full, private university and one of the major centers in the country for international students. For example, my classmates include students from Argentina, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Panama, Russia, Switzerland, South Korea, Ukraine, and the USA

In 2021, the name changed from IDC to Reichmann University to honor its founder.

This place is one of the many jewels in the Israeli state. As much as I’m enjoying my time, I remind myself that I’m lucky to be able to be here and do this.

Duality of Antisemitism

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Much of the hateful discourse in the media (mainstream and social) during the hot war with Iran has been about the relationship between Trump/USA and Netanyahu/Israel.

The general thrust of the poison was (and is) to the effect that Trump does what Netanyahu wants, that the war was Israel’s, and that the USA had no option but do what its Zionist overlords ordered. In other words, The Jews controlled America.

This, of course, is hateful nonsense.

As Sartre said:

Never believe that anti-Semites are completely unaware of the absurdity of their replies.  They know that their remarks are frivolous, open to challenge.  But they are amusing themselves, for it is their adversary who is obliged to use words responsibly, since he believes in words…

The anti-Semites…like to play with discourse for, by giving ridiculous reasons, they discredit the seriousness of their interlocutors.  They delight in acting in bad faith, since they seek not to persuade by sound argument but to intimidate and disconcert.  If you press them too closely, they will abruptly fall silent, loftily indicating by some phrase that the time for argument is past.

Source: Anti-Semite and Jew by Jean-Paul Sartre, 1944

With that in mind, let’s turn to an article in today’s Times of Israel:

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warns that the US-Iran memorandum of understanding obligates US President Donald Trump to “muzzle” Israel and prevent it from militarily threatening Iran, in response to remarks by Defense Minister Israel Katz.

“The terms of the Islamabad MoU are crystal clear and public for all to see. POTUS has committed the US to muzzling its pets in Tel Aviv. If they ignore their master, Iran will school them. Any threat against our People and Leadership will receive Immediate Powerful Response,” Araghchi warns in a post on X.

Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, the story has changed: now it’s America that controls Israel.

Truly, to be an antisemite is to be especially blessed: you have the capacity, if not the requirement, to hold two conflicting racist tropes in your mind at the same time. Such is the duality of antisemitism.

The Wasp Trap

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Mark Edwards

The front cover of The Wasp Trap by Mark Edwrads. It shows an image, in dark light, of a multi-storey house whose reflection is shown in the lake to the front of the building.

Note: this is a spoiler-free zone!

This is a contemporary, UK set, psychological thriller. The author presents a typical thriller buildup of friends — who for one reason or another haven’t met for several years — gathering for a dinner party. Once they were involved in an internet startup. What happened and why?

From the arrival of the first guest the tension mounts and the twists wait in ambush.

The evening is full of long-held secrets being revealed and the inevitable consequences as the friends learn all sorts of new stuff about each other and themselves.

The writing is taut with little flowery detours or other time-wasting. The core characters are all well done: they are human, believable, and interesting. I was less impressed by the supporting cast, but perhaps I gave them less attention while being carried along by the story and a more patient read might have meant they were more appreciated.

The plot unfolds at a decent pace and it’s not long before you realize you are engrossed in a real page-turner.

This is a fine, entertaining, exciting novel. It’s not going to feature as an award winner in the corridors of the literary establishment but it deserves recognition as a damn good piece of work.

If you like modern thrillers, you should not miss The Wasp Trap.

Aliyah — A Surprise Benefit

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One of the surprising benefits of me making aliyah (emigrating to Israel) is seeing how much it gets under the skin of many of the antizionists antisemites out there, especially on social media platforms. My aliyah drives them nearly insane. Cue the usual insults and libels.

But no matter how much rage they direct at me, the situation remains the same:

  1. I made aliyah and am enjoying it.
  2. They hate that I made aliyah and I am enjoying that too.

Shroud

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Adrian Tchaikovsky

Cover of Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky showing a futuristic pod-shaped vehicle entrapped by many tentacles.

Note: once you know this book is about first contact with alien life, this is a spoiler-free zone!

Set in the far future, with humanity still on its own, trying to spread out far and wide across the universe, the story focuses on one particular colonial encounter.

In the Prospector413 system, the spaceship Garveneer approaches a moon that is always on the dark side of the planet.

Juna Ceelander and others are brought out of cold-storage to explore the planet to determine its suitability for exploitation by way of strip-mining. One irony is that Ceelander lives in a corporate world that exploits her and she has, it seems, no choice but to extend the influence and reach of her bosses and exploit the alien moon.

To put the plot at its simplest, Ceelander and company encounter alien life. The book describes this from the perspective of the humans — driven on by corporate budgets, goals, timetables, and internal politics — and the aliens. The communications gulf and the consequential challenges are patiently and logically shown. The writing is evocative and engrossing as you are drawn in to the struggle for comprehension. The human characters are well drawn. Their interactions are meaninful and authentic. The alien parts are outstanding — fresh, new, and challenging. The backdrop is as much a character in the drama as anyone else. The pacing is just right, maintaining the tension without overdoing things.

This is the best science-fiction book I have read in a long, long time. To keep the review spoiler free, it’s short. But don’t let that fool you. There is a lot packed into Shroud and you will be missing out if you don’t read it. I have had some misses in the past with this author, however Shroud is definitely a hit. Highly recommended.

Bonnie Scotland

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The (soccer) World Cup kicks off later today with the first match — Mexico against South Africa — at 22:00 Israel time. Scotland have qualified after 28 years of missing out and it would appear that the football-fever I remember from my time living in Scotland has not subsided. If anything, it looks more intense.

My Facebook feed is full of Scottish World Cup material ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous and beyond. There are backward glances at the qualifying games and past World Cup campaigns, there are several Scottish Team World Cup Songs (of varying quality), lots of videos of fans departing from airports throughout the world, often accompanied by pipe bands. And, inevitably, the Irn Bru advert:

I wish the Scotland team well.

I hope Israel will qualify for a future World Cup but I’m not optimistic. If they do qualify, I hope they’ll be allowed to participate but I’m not optimistic.