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The British are bashing! The British are bashing!
By Bruce S. Ticker
Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA –This is a tale of two David Camerons. Each of them is known as the prime minister of Britain and leader of the Conservative Party.
There is the David Cameron who proclaims himself a “Conservative Friend of Israel” on the Web site of Conservative Friends of Israel, which promotes support for Israel and conservative ideas in Britain.
Then there is the other David Cameron who bashed Israel and European leaders during his visit to Turkey on Tuesday, July 27, and met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This David Cameron uttered these words about Israel:
“The situation in Gaza has to change. Humanitarian goods and people must flow in both directions. Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp…The Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable. I have told prime minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu we will expect the Israeli inquiry to be swift, transparent and rigorous. Let me also be clear that the situation in Gaza has to change.”
The Guardian, a London daily newspaper, suggests that Cameron’s hissy fit amounted to an overheated intensification of past criticisms of Israel. Cameron told the House of Commons on June 28: “Everybody knows that we are not going to sort out the problem of the Middle East peace process while there is, effectively, a giant open prison in Gaza.”
No mention of Israeli Sgt. Gilad Shalit’s four-year imprisonment in Gaza. Or Hamas’ rocket attacks, weapons smuggling and its pledge to destroy Israel. Or that Hamas murders, tortures and terrorizes its own people. Or that the flotilla committed an act of war by attempting to breach the blockade. Or that Turkish terrorists on the Mavi Marmora attacked Israeli commandos.
The Guardian also reported that he accused France and Germany of double standards for refusing Turkey membership in the European Union while expecting Turkey to guard Europe’s borders as a NATO member.
Of that situation, it turns out that Turkey operates a blockade of its own – against Cyprus.
Cameron forgets to mention that the EU has barred Turkey from membership partly because it denies ships from Cyprus entry to Turkish ports. Cyprus is an EU member and the northern part of the island is occupied by Turkey.
Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in the wake of a power struggle with Greece; Cyprus is populated mainly by ethnic Greeks and Turks, respectively 80 percent and 20 percent.
Most of us would have noticed if past British prime ministers attacked Israel so viciously. In fact, with their English accents and refined manner, who can imagine a British prime minister behaving in such an abrasive manner? Cameron’s words were so blunt he could not even sound ironic or sarcastic.
Cameron’s style – if you can call it a style – was pure bullying. To He is intellectually dishonest and contradicts himself in a number of areas. Worse, his rant is downright dangerous.
Past prime ministers like Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, whose ideologies were far apart from one another, conducted themselves with a measure of class and decorum. Of course, their jobs were more stable. Cameron sounds like a desperate politician who expects to be in trouble in the next election. He must understand by now that his fellow Brits did not return the Conservative Party to power out of love for it.
The Conservatives exploited a set of circumstances to oust the Labor Party from controlling Parliament a few months ago. Fresh from their defeat, Labor leaders are carefully examining what went wrong. Cameron knows that continuation of Conservative power is by no means ensured in the next election.
One would think that the leader of the Conservative Party would be more supportive of Israel, or at least more careful with his words.
The Wall Street Journal relates this explanation from Wolfango Piccoli, analyst at Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy: “Support for Turkey is nothing new, but the economy is the bottom line. One of the aims of the Cameron administration is to raise the level of exports – and Turkey is part of that.”
At Israel’s expense, no less.
Perhaps the Liberal Democrats, his coalition partner, influenced him. Or he is mining votes among British Muslims. Maybe he hopes that liberal Britons will consider voting Conservative.
After this performance, how can Cameron make any claim to credibility? He is prime minister of one of the world’s greatest powers. Does he believe that his hypocrisy will go unnoticed?
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Bruce S Ticker is a Philadelphia freelance journalist
Daren Scott just right in ‘The 7 Year Itch’ at New Village Arts
Daren Scott and Jacque Wilke in 'The 7-Year Itch' Photo: Adam Brock
By Carol Davis
Carol Davis
CARLSBAD, California —It’s not unusual to credit Daren Scott with the great photos seen in so many of my reviews. He’s one busy guy with a camera strapped over his shoulder, seen around town at so may theatre companies, clicking away and arranging groups for theatre memories. Lest we forget though, he’s also one heck of an actor.
Scott is starring in, is in every scene and carries the show, The 7 Year Itch , from beginning to end in a solid production at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad. His timing is impeccable, his look is refreshing and his facial expressions are timeless.
George Axelrod’s three act play The 7 Year Itch that opened on Broadway in 1952 is probably best known for the film version (1955) starring Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell, directed by Billy Wilder. It’s the one with the famous shot of Monroe standing over the subway grate with her dress blowing above her knees from a passing train. (It has been said that that was the last straw in their marriage for hubby Joe DiMaggio).
Richard Sherman (Daren Scott) sends his wife of seven years, Helen (Melissa Fernandes) and their son Ricky (Jonah Gercke) on vacation to Maine (they live in NY) to escape a suffocating heat wave. While relaxing, listening to the ball game and proofreading a book by Dr. Brubaker (Eddie Yaroch) on his patio, a huge tomato plant falls from an upper floor balcony and nearly hits him on the head.
It turns out the apartment is being rented by The Girl (Jacque Wilke) in the apartment just above him. We learn that she is a model in town about to make a television commercial. On one of her jobs she posed nude in a specialty magazine. Richard, a magazine editor just happens to have that edition on his bookshelves. Yes he did check it out.
Two things happen that turn Richard on his head. Based on some findings in the good Dr’s book that after seven years men get a yen to look for excitement outside the marriage (The 7 Year Itch) Richard’s imagination turns 180 degrees. His subconscious takes him places never before gone and The Girl upstairs, who comes down to rescue her plants, is interested in having an affair but not marriage or a commitment. She’s sexy looking, ditsy and carefree. Sounds like a perfect deal for Richard’s dalliances.
He is 38 she is 22. He has fantasies that he is irresistible conjuring up all kinds of situations to bed this gal while a trio of muses, (Kelly Iverson, Frances Regal and Lisa Dempsey) some of the other women in his life like his secretary reprimand and act as his conscience. To justify his wandering mind he fantasizes that his wife is having an affair with their neighbor Tom (John De Carlo). She pooh pooh’s his claim laughing her way in and out of his dreams.
While all this is playing out in his head, we are privy to see what he’s thinking and that’s where the fun comes in. The problem Richard has is that in his imaginary conquests he is suave and smooth. In real life, he’s a klutz. The transitions from real to imaginary aided by Jason Bieber’s lighting, keeps the play afloat and Scott is the perfect candidate for all this fun.
Locked in the time warp of the 50’s The 7 Year Itch is no doubt dated but let’s not get confused. It might have been groundbreaking news in the 50’s but our appetites for scandal doesn’t exclude extra marital affairs and all the sensation that goes along with them on our 24 hour news cycle.
That said director Amanda Sitton, associate artist at NVA isn’t far off the mark by concentrating more on the fun side than the morality side. Everyone can leave drawing his or her own conclusions about the goings on in the male libido. This reviewer, for one, doesn’t have the patience for that and thoroughly enjoyed watching Scott squirm and worm his way out of a predicament conjured up in his own mind.
Scott is the perfect foil for this show. He’s funny, engaging and just fits the bill as the poor lonesome bachelor facing a mid life crisis. Melissa Fernandes is a strong presence in both the dream sequences and in the moment. Once again, her timing and body language fit the mood of the play and she sails through as Helen. Eddie Yaroch is great as the fussy and flummoxed doctor and John De Carlo’s is a hoot as the might be cheatin’ neighbor.
Jacque Wilke a fine actor in her own right is ditsy enough as The Girl, she just didn’t convince. Her voice is too high pitched for clarity. I found myself straining to understand half of what she said.
Tim Wallace’s three level set works well on the long NVA stage and Susan Kerner’s cloths for the characters are period right, if I recall. Adam Brick’s baseball tidbits are fun.
Sitton (a talented actor in her own right) and company should have a ball with this light summer fare through August.
Congrats to NVA on their 10th birthday.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: July 29th-Aug.22nd
Organization: New Village Arts Theatre
Phone: 760-433-3245
Production Type: Comedy
Where: 2787 State Street, Carlsbad, Ca 92008
Ticket Prices: $25.00-$30.00
Web: newvillagearts.org
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Theatre critic Davis is based in San Diego
Raucous, rambunctious and riotous, but not a rip-roaring revival
Ann Noble and Scott Roberts in 'Bedroom Farce'
By Cynthia Citron
Cynthia Citron
LOS ANGELES — Whole lotta screamin’ goin’ on. And it isn’t coming from the audience. In fact, the audience becomes quieter and quieter as the evening wears on. Not a good sign for what is supposed to be a rip-roaring comedy.
Sir Alan Ayckbourn has written 73 plays, so it stands to reason that not all of them can be smash hits. Even Neil Simon has a bad day once in a while. But I’m not sure if Ayckbourn’s 1975 play Bedroom Farce, now onstage at the Odyssey, should be blamed on him or the actors or the director.
Darcy Prevost has designed an interesting set—three distinctive bedrooms that reflect the personalities of the couples who inhabit them. From left to right they are Nick and Jan (Scott Roberts and Ann Noble), Malcolm and Kate (Jamie Donovan and Kate Hollinshead), and Ernest and Delia (Robert Mandan and Maggie Peach). And bouncing between them and creating havoc wherever they land are Trevor and Susannah (Anthony Michael Jones and Regina Peluso).
As the play begins, Malcolm and Kate are preparing for a housewarming party in their new flat. Jan is preparing to come, but without Nick, who is laid up with a back problem and whose dialogue consists almost exclusively of groans and plaintive wails of “Why me?” And Ernest and Delia, who are Trevor’s parents, are preparing to go to dinner to celebrate their umpteenth wedding anniversary.
Trevor and Susannah have a troubled marriage, which might be partially explained by the mantra that she repeats obsessively: “I’m attractive! And I’m not afraid of people!” When she and Trevor arrive at the party—separately—they begin fighting immediately, and so viciously that all the other party guests go home.
Trevor and Jan have had a previous relationship and they eventually wind up in an impulsive and passionate kiss that the consistently overwrought Susannah oversees. More screaming.
And so it goes. The play, ostensibly, is about how four different couples handle marriage, with Ernest and Delia, the elderly couple, providing the template for successful companionship. Delia is full of wisdom, giving her daughter-in-law Susannah pithy bits of advice, like “Don’t tell him anything you don’t have to,” and “Keep him well fed and his clothes clean.”
The play is too improbably farcical to be all that funny, but it might be more amusing if played well. The younger actors, however, are uniformly screechy, with everyone continually exhibiting unmodified hysteria. With a little less volume and more moderate pacing, more variety in delivery, the humor, such as it is, might have been better received. As it stands now, only Ernest and Delia and the bedridden Nick do justice to their roles. And, unfortunately, director Ron Bottitta doesn’t do justice to his.
And finally, you get a clue that there is something wrong with a comedy when the funniest things in it are the vintage ‘70s outfits put together by costume designer Kathryn Poppen.
Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce will continue at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 South Sepulveda Blvd. in West Los Angeles, Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 through September 26th. Call (310) 477-2055 for reservations.
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Citron is Los Angeles bureau chief for San Diego Jewish World
Resolution on U.S. money for UNRWA makes way through House
Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In January 2010, the Canadian government announced that its aid would be redirected from UNRWA to “specific projects in the Palestinian Authority that will ensure accountability and foster democracy in the PA.” The total amount of money was the same, but the president of Canada’s Treasury Board said, “It is now being redirected in accordance with Canadian values.”
In the U.S., House Resolution 5065, known as the UNRWA Humanitarian Accountability Act, was introduced in Congress in April 2010 (it has 26 co-sponsors) to help ensure that the $267 million American tax dollars spent on UNRWA is spent in accordance with American values. The bill requires that funds go to UNRWA only if the following is certified:
- No official, employee, consultant, contractor, subcontractor, representative, or affiliate of UNRWA is a member of a Foreign Terrorist Organization; has propagated, disseminated, or incited anti-American anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric or propaganda; or has used any UNRWA resources, including publications or Web sites, to propagate or disseminate political materials, including political rhetoric regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
- No UNRWA school, hospital, clinic, other facility, or other infrastructure or resource is being used by a Foreign Terrorist Organization for operations, planning, training, recruitment, fundraising, indoctrination, communications, sanctuary, storage of weapons or other materials, or any other purposes;
- UNRWA is subject to comprehensive financial audits by an internationally recognized third party independent auditing firm and has implemented an effective system of vetting and oversight to prevent the use, receipt, or diversion of any UNRWA resources by any foreign terrorist organization or members thereof;
- No UNRWA-funded school or educational institution uses textbooks or other educational materials that propagate or disseminate anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric, propaganda or incitement;
- No recipient of UNRWA funds or loans is a member of a Foreign Terrorist Organization; and
- UNRWA holds no accounts or other affiliations with financial institutions that the United States deems or believes to be complicit in money laundering and terror financing.
The bill includes a sense of the Congress section, stating:
- The President and Secretary of State should take the lead in holding UNRWA to account, but should involve other donor nations;
- UNRWA’s definition of a ‘Palestine refugee’ should be changed to that used for a refugee by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; and
- Responsibility for those refugees should be fully transferred to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
When your representative holds his/her Town Hall meeting this Congressional recess, please go and ask whether he/she is willing to be a co-sponsor.
Let us know what you find out.
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Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.
If cars can have Jewish plates, boats can have Jewish names
A Jewish boat
SAN DIEGO–Our inveterate Jewish license plate scout Melanie Rubin didn’t let a thing like water stop her search for finding Jewish vehicles everywhere.
Rubin spotted a boat named “Chavala”–reminiscent of the affectionate way in Fiddler on the Roof that Tevye referred to his daughter, Chava. She sent us the photo, asserting: “This is like a license plate.”
We agree, and we’ll add it to the online collection.
Cantor seeks suspension of U.S. aid to Lebanese Armed Forces
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– House Republican Whip Eric Cantor on Monday issued the following statement regarding Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) relationship with Hezbollah:
“Since 2006, America has provided the Lebanese army with $720 million in aid. This includes stocks of M16 rifles, missile launchers, grenade launchers and night-vision devices. The purpose of the assistance was to build up a Lebanese fighting force that would serve as a check on the growing power of the radical Islamist Hezbollah movement.
“For the past few years, the U.S. and the international community looked the other way as the lines between Hezbollah and the Lebanese military and government became blurred. But the days of ignoring the LAF’s provocations against Israel and protection of Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon are over. The LAF’s unprovoked attack on the Israeli defense forces in undisputed Israeli territory demands a sweeping reassessment of how we distribute our foreign aid.
“Lebanon cannot have it both ways. If it wants to align itself with Hezbollah against the forces of democracy, stability and moderation, there will be consequences. Congress must convey that message by blocking the roughly $100 million in 2011 assistance to the LAF until we find out the details of last week’s attack and can certify that the Lebanese army is not cooperating with Hezbollah.”
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Preceding provided by Congressman Cantor
Israeli photographer freed by Libya
JERUSALEM (WJC) — Rafael Haddad, an Israeli citizen arrested and imprisoned in Libya in March while photographing Jewish sites, has returned to Israel after being freed in a deal reportedly engineered by Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
Haddad, who has dual Israeli-Tunisian citizenship, had gone to Libya in March to photograph former Jewish community buildings in Tripoli for a Jewish heritage association. He was arrested and turned over to Libyan intelligence on suspicion of espionage, and until Sunday his whereabouts were unknown. Israeli officials now announced that he had been freed by Libyan authorities and flown to Vienna, following prolonged negotiations.
Reportedly, the case involved international efforts and was linked to Israel’s treatment of a pro-Palestinian ship sponsored by Libya that tried to run the blockade of Gaza last month. “The Foreign Ministry and the foreign minister worked for a long time to have him freed, along with other international bodies, and we thank all involved for their help,” an Israeli spokesman said, but did not provide further details. Libyan authorities have not commented.
Israeli nationals are banned from visiting the north African country. Haddad was traveling on his Tunisian passport when he was arrested.
Israeli officials said the efforts to free Haddad involved Italy, which has close ties to Libya and is home to a Libyan Jewish exile community, as well as France, Tunisia and the United States. Israeli officials quoted by AP said the final deal was arranged by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Austrian-Jewish businessman Martin Schlaff.
Haddad was flown to Vienna on Schlaff’s private jet, the officials said, and was greeted at the airport by Lieberman. As part of the deal Israel allowed 20 prefabricated houses from the Libyan-sponsored ship, which tried to reach Gaza in July, to be delivered to the Strip. The Libyan ship was diverted to Egypt.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
New Zealand stays restrictions on kosher slaughtering
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (WJC)–Jews in New Zealand have won a temporary exemption from a new legal requirement that animals must first be stunned before being slaughtered. Representatives of the Jewish community last week filed legal proceedings against Agriculture Minister David Carter and on Monday said said a Wellington court had ordered a temporary exemption until the case is decided next year.
Carter had announced in May that he was requiring pre-slaughter stunning for all commercial killing of livestock. About 300 lambs and 2000 chickens were commercially slaughtered according to ‘shechita’ last year. The minister later apologized to the Jewish community for any offense caused when he told veterinarians: “We may have upset a relatively small religious minority, and I do appreciate their strong feelings for this issue, but frankly I don’t think any animal should suffer in the slaughter process.”
More than half New Zealand’s sheep are killed by halal slaughtermen for the Islamic market, by cutting the throats of electrically stunned animals. However, shechita slaughter requires the trachea, oesophagus, carotid arteries and jugular veins to be cut using a sharp blade to allow the blood to drain out. The animal cannot be stunned or unconscious.
The New Zealand National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee first recommended a dispensation for the kosher slaughter in 2001, but most recently said it would prefer there were no exemptions from the requirement that all animals slaughtered commercially were first stunned. It said there was evidence calves which simply had their throats cut experienced pain, and it had the “strongly held” view that the cattle, sheep, goats and possibly poultry would experience similar pain.
Wellington Jewish Council Chairman David Zwartz predicted the case would be argued on the grounds that the Bill of Rights allowed for freedom of religious practice, and the requirement for stunning was an infringement of the right of Jews to observe their religion.
Other countries to ban shechita include Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, and the European Parliament earlier this year voted in favor of a new regulation which could lead to kosher meat being labeled as “meat from slaughter without stunning”.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
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