A couple of days ago, Don Sensing posted here about former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s endorsement of forceful intervention in the West Bank by Jordan. I have some commentary about that.

On Thursday, I drove out to the Golan with my friend Udi to watch the summer solstice sunset, watch the stars, and have a sandwich or two in the ruins of the Gilgal Refiam, an ancient circle of stones with reputed astronomical alignments. I am the resident astronomer in our village and Udi and I often spend clear nights looking at planets and talking politics.

First thing out of Udi’s mouth when we started our hour drive to the Golan was, “What is Netanyahu thinking? Cannot we do better than these two bums-Barak and Netanyahu? We need fresh faces, let me tell you.”

When I first came to first came to the Galilee, Udi was one of the first people to greet me-in fact, he greeted me like a long lost brother to everyone’s astonishment. Right away he began my tutorial into regional politics, land, and the economics of farming. Udi, the son of Yemeni immigrants graduated with a master’s degree in ecnomics and worked for many years in the Golan as a municipal manager as well as farmed. His wife, Hadas, the daughter of Bronx immigrants graduated with her third degree, a doctorate in what she calls bugs and mould, worked with him in the agricultural service helping farmers battle all that ails and attacks green growing things. They moved from the Golan to the Galilee after some 18 years because they wanted to minimize their involvement with collective farming conflicts and be independent farmers. They specialized in fruit trees and speciality vegetables (such as pepper seeds for other farmers to grow), and when the market turned sour, they had to look for other options. Over several glasses of his outstanding basement dry red wine, I suggested he grow grapes and make table wine.

Udi is a man of action. Last July, he came to get me on his all terrain vehicle and sped me up the slopes of Mount Turan just behind the village in which we live. He showed me with pride the new vineyard he just planted. First, he had to cut down the old orchard that was no longer profitable. He said it was old and Hadas had nothing to save the trees from whatever was eating them. He obtained the vines, planted them, and arranged with the local agricultural official about water and other technicalities while he tried his 6 dunam project.

To everyone’s surprise, the vines took off and now Udi is wrestling with trestles and wires and spraying and weeds. He has a few years to go on before his vineyard can be used for wine making, but he is hopeful.

So, when I called Udi to see if he was free to watch the stars in the Golan, he jumped at the chance to go and came down the mountain from his vineyard to shower, change, make the sandwiches, and make coffee.

During the hour drive to the Golan, he downloaded the recent political outrage and discussed the Labor elections and the behind the deal deals that earned Barak the Israeli Arab vote in exchange for utility hook-ups to illegal buildings in the Arab villages. During the five hours we were watching the stars, we talked about life in the Golan and listened to the hyenas laughing about us, mad, he said, because we had occupied their ruins.

But on the road home, he finally got down to what bothers him the most.

“Look, Daniel, Hadas and I have spent our entire lives working the Land. We are like farmers around the world-we are barely holding on. But, here, we and those like us who have come from all over the world to farm here not because we want to farm. This is not land-it’s The Land. The whole idea of Land For Peace was suppposed to show our neighbors that we were giving up something precious to us-something of sacred value-The Land that Hashem charged us to guard, nuture, and make flourish. But look what has happened during the last 40 years. While Hadas and I, and our fellow farmers, have worked and put everything into our farming, look what the Palestinians have done with their money and all of the money given to them from all around the world. What have they done with this money? They have invested billions in bullets and bombs! We work the same land but we put the same amount of money into irrigation and soil development as well as the economic development of agricultural products. What products do they grow-olives! Nu? And what happens to the price of olive oil when everyone’s olive orchards produce their fruit on the same day?

“What bothers me is that no one out there seems to be holding these politicians in the West Bank or Gaza or even in the Knesset to accounts. No one is saying to them change how your invest in your part of The Land or you get no more.

“Now comes Netanyahu and what does the Prince have to say? Let the Jordanians handle the situation. Has he taken leave of his mind? You know, Bibi’s his own worst enemy. He is very smart until he opens his mouth. He could be the next PM. But, with him, he always opens his mouth.”

— this post linked to OOTB’s Traffic Jam.