May 16, 2021

 

I have the solution to the Israeli Palestinian problem.  Blow up the Knesset. Ha.

I get infuriated when I hear Netanyahu talk about beating the hell out of the Palestinians in the name of law and order. He, the Israelis, have been ignoring international law for years now and continue to build more apartments in the West Bank, against international law…. It just continues.

   Now Netanyahu blames the obliteration of Gaza on the rockets coming from Hamas. As I see it, the provocation was the other way round, when the Israeli settlers were evicting Palestinians what had legal title deed to their properties, and then the Israeli police going into the Al Aqsa mosque, a sacred place, to me, was the last straw provocation of the Hamas boys to start shooting rockets into Southern Israel, not the other way around.

    It is useless to expect the Palestinians to stop fighting as long as the evictions go on, and as long as the Israel settlers continue to build more houses in the occupied West Bank. Get the Israelis to stop evicting and building and the Hamas may consider stopping rocketing Israel. It is unrealistic to expect Hamas to one-sidedly stop the rockets when the Israelis continue to break the international law.

    Unfortunately, it is sad that the Palestinians can’t get their act together and act as one, and I wonder about Hamas, how long they will continue to throw rockets at Israel, knowing that the Israelis will continue to bomb, and maybe even invade, Gaza until “not a stone is left upon a stone”. Maybe they should consider some other ways of dealing with the Israelis.

    I support Biden when he says that the Israelis have a right to defend themselves, but  I don’t support him when he doesn’t recognize the fact that the ordinary Palestinians have a right to protest against oppression, and the Israeli continued breaking of the law. UN resolution 446, among many others, regards the occupation of the West Bank anEast Jerusalem, as illegal. And Netanyahu dares to talk about law and order.

 

But let me change the subject now and talk about my health. Many people ask, how are you doing? Well, here is how I am doing.

   My last BP reading was 144 / 61 (not  bad for an 85 yr. old)  No diabetes. General good health.

But when it comes to the knee replacement, it is a different story. It continues to  bug me. The spasms continue though the medication seems to have helped to calm them down somewhat. I was at the orthopaedic surgeon’s last Wednesday, May 12^th. I had a 3:15 appointment in the afternoon. He got around to seeing me by about 3:30. He didn’t finish till  5:15. I have been finding it harder and harder to walk with my one elbow crutch. I am beginning to think that there is a trade off involved here… less pain but more instability on the knee which affects the walking (not sure when or if the knee is going to collapse at any time) The doctor compared three x-rays that had been taken previously, including one that was taken a year ago, all showing that the op was perfect.  The one taken last Wednesday seemed to show a small gap between the bone (maybe it receded a bit) and the metal of the replacement. I said he should just put some cement in there and close the gap. The suspicion was that perhaps that gap was causing the knee to wobble a bit . Inconclusive.  However, he explained that if we wanted to do some repairs on the knee, it would mean removing the replacement (which would not be very easy as it was pretty much pounded into the bones) and putting in a new replacement, and there was no guarantee that things would be better after the repaired replacement. Plus, at my age, it was more risky than, say, a 20 yr. old. So I guess that it answered my question, do I have to hobble around like this forever. The answer is…yes. Breaks of the game. The spasms are part of a different equation. But, he said to come back in 6 weeks (at the end of June) and we would check another x-ray and see it there was more receding from the bone and see where we would go from there. Ah, the joys of old age.

   Otherwise, I still take services at Savannah Park every Sunday and at the Hospital on Tuesday and Friday (the crowd is never more than 3, or 4 o4 5), but it keeps up my relationship with the hospital and it gives me a chance to pray for MY hospital, the staff and patients. It is my commitment to the good (spiritual) health of the hospital and its patients and staff.

   Blessedly, I can still drive and the spasms leave me alone there. Amen to that. Now that the virus has been a bit more quiet lately, I have taken advantage of that, and if the family agrees, to visit several families. I say I am having withdrawal symptoms, I need people. We still observe social distancing, masks and sanitizing, but are not too paranoid about these things, just common sense.

     I think we over 60’s are supposed to be getting our vaccinations this coming week. But, there could be crowds and crowds, so we will have to see how they plan this thing. We may go in a group from here, as we did for the test for positivity or not. We shall see.

      It is getting close to my bedtime so I had better bring this scintillating report to a close. Good night. Try, like me, to avoid corona at all costs. And stay or get well. Love and peace, Cas.