ISRAEL V ENGLAND

i must admit that on Friday i was busy cooking and waiting for the man from HOT tv to come and finally connect me to cable TV and i forgot about the draw for the European Championship qualifiers. england and israel have never been drawn in the same group and as much as i loved the idea of england playing here in my new homeland i never thought it would really happen. the closest weve got is when israel played ireland in march last year which was great fun (i was up till 4am drinking with the irish after the game) but it wouldnt compare to watching england.

ive been a big supporter of the national team since i was very young. i nevr had a proper club team to follow when i was a kid (i used to "support" liverpool) but gave up after the hooliganism in heysel in 1985. but ive always lived a few minutes drive from wembley stadium and from when i was about seven years old i used to go to nearly all the home games. ive seen the best play and not manage to beat england - from brazil in 1987 (1-1 draw) to the great 1988 holland team (2-2) as well as the emerging French side in 1992 (cant remeber the score!).

so u can imagine the shock i got when my brother andrew rang me from work all over excited that england had just been placed in group E with england. "of course im going to fly out for the game" my bro said.

it of course got me thinking about the age old questoin of whowould you support in such a match. england have never played israel in a competitive game, and the last friendly was about 20 years ago! for me theres no doubts - its got to be england. so hopefully im going to get andrew to get tickets from the fa and we can sitwith the hooligan travelling support and see rooney, beckham and co wallop avi nimni and tal ben haim.

by the way, i have started writing a column for the jerusalem post about football. the first one was published today. heres a link to it http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605944103&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull and ill copy it below. (its called The Last Word and theres even a little pic of me in the paper on page ten, although not on the internet!)

jeremy

Israel vs England - who to root for?By JEREMY LAST

Having made aliya, most olim aim to immerse themselves into Israeli society and take on the local culture. The national soccer team's matches in Ramat Gan have always provided an opportunity for newly-arrived and long-term residents of Israel to join together with their fellow countrymen and show their true Zionist values.
Who can forget the atmosphere in March last year as Israel somehow managed to gain credible draws against Ireland and France?
However, on Friday, the thousands of Englishmen living in Israel were handed both an exciting prospect and a test of their commitment to this country when England and Israel were drawn together in Group E of the qualifying round for the 2008 European championships.
Now the age-old question, "Who would you support if England played Israel?", has to be answered. Never before have the two countries faced each other in a competitive game.
Many of the Brits who will be fervently cheering on Rooney, Beckham and Co. during this summer's World Cup (if they can afford the pay-TV prices) will be willing to forgo their national upbringing and pledge their allegiance to Dror Kashtan's side.
But for others it won't be so easy. Growing up in England, the national team is pervasive, especially during major tournaments. When England is playing in a World Cup or European Championship finals, the team's fortunes seem to be the main news story and talking point wherever you go, and a lifetime of support may leave its mark on some.
There were few soccer fans, for example, who stayed in bed that Friday morning in June 2002 when England played Brazil in a World Cup quarterfinal.
What soccer fans always crave is that little bit of quality to go with the passion. And the Israel vs England game promises to provide just that, and more. On paper it seems that Israel has no chance to beat the English. Israel has only ever qualified for one major tournament - the 1970 World Cup - and is 35 places below England in the FIFA rankings.
However, the Israelis have clearly been improving in recent years and only just missed out on qualification for this summer's World Cup. Another home draw against a top team is not out of the question
Yossi Benayoun's success at West Ham and the potential of Yaniv Katan to gain Premiership experience alongside him can only help the national team.
There is also the prospect of emerging youngsters such as Betar Jerusalem's Maor Melikson and Aviram Bruchian and Maccabi Haifa's Shlomi Arbitman making an impact, as well as the other more established stars.
For its part, England's experience and class can not be doubted. The team exudes quality, from John Terry in central defense through to Lampard and Rooney. But, the side lacks strength in depth and, with a few injuries, England could be vulnerable, as seen in its shock defeat to Northern Ireland in last year's World Cup campaign.
One thing the two sides will have in common will be a new manager/coach at the helm. Kashtan, one of the most successful Israeli coaches, has already been named as the man taking charge of the Israeli team, but as yet we do not know who will replace Sven Goran Eriksson. If, as feared by many fans, Bolton boss Sam Allardyce gets the job, then who knows what will happen!
Either way, whenever the matches will be held (all the teams in the group will meet next month to decide the schedule), they will be full of excitement and passion. Expect two unforgettable nights. Let's just hope the English fans behave themselves as well as the Irish did when they came to Tel Aviv.
jeremylast@yahoo.com

back in israel, poor sharon!

i just read an entry on a friends blog saying how he had just returned from a 3 week holiday in england and was even contemplating going back for a bit - his justisfication was that he was an israeli so theres no reason why he couldnt live abroad!

my friend has so far not acted on his instincts and decided to continue his job hunting in israel. but it made me think. ive just come back from a 6 day break in england, the second time ive been back since i made aliya, and i feel completely the opposite to my friend. i remember the first time i went back, in august last year, i said i was going home, then felt bad, like i should feel like israel was my home but i still felt more at home in england. but despite this, the whole time i was back, i just couldnt wait to get back to israel. this time i really didnt feel like england was my home and again was really looking forward to coming back here.

i am feeling more and more at home here. i know i cant call myself a proper israeli yet but i always knew it would take time. israel is of course not an easy country. the people arent overly polite, its someteimes a nightmare to get things sorted out. but the thing is i had been here many times before i made aliya so i think i was used to alot of the negative things and had aleady accepted them before i came.

there was another suicide bomb on thursday afternoon, the day after i got back. it again hit home how these terrorists can strike anywhere at any time. i thought it was funny that the bombing got little international coverage, simply because no one was killed. the bbc decided to not even put it on their front page. it seems bad reporting to me, but as i know after working in journalism for a few years, its just not as big news. the fact is the bomber wanted to kill as many people as possible and just failed in his task. the intention was there. when i found the story in the bbc middle east section i saw they said "one killed in suicide attack". the one killed was of course the suicide bomber. thats a bit silly isnt it. when someone commits suicide they arent killed, they kill themselves!

one other thing i wanted to mention was about our, currently "incapacitated", prime minister ariel sharon. poor man. its been a strange few weeks. its now been more than 2 weeks since he was rushed to hospital with a "severe stroke". that wednesday night i stayed up till 4am listneing to the radio and watching the news thinking he was going to die. by friday he still hadnt died but everyone thought he was going to over the weekend. friday night i had dinner at my cousins and we spent an hour and a half watching the channel 2 news where people were paying tribute to sharon.
but he didnt die! and by the next thursday when i flew to london things were looking up and reports were talking about how the doctors were going to bring him out of the induced come and he could recover. that hasnt happened and a week later he still seems completely comatosed. i wonder if he will ever wake up.
whats been amazing for me has been to see how ehud olmert went from being a relative political nobody to prime minister in just a few days.
u never know in politics!

crazy sakhnin fans 

betar owner arkadi gaydamak is clearly living in a dream world. he has donated lots of money to bnei sachnin and told me he thinks he can bring peace between the two teams....clearlynot 

the broken window that gave me a cold 

the teams line up before the game 

the brick that broke the window 

crazy riots in sachnin

here i am tucked up in bed in jerusalem, but it all could have been so different.
last night i saw first hand the ugly side of israeli football. i was asked to travel to the arab town of Sachnin to cover the Bnei Sachnin Vs Betar Jerusalem game for the Jerusalem Post.
its fair to say that the fans of the two teams dont get on. Betar are the right wingest club in israel and the only team to never field an arab player; while sachnin are the only arab team in the israeli top division.
tensions were clearly high during the game, but when it finished, as i was sitting in the vip area furiously typing up my match report, things got out of hand.
i saw the 500 or so betar fans running on to the pitch. as they got near the halfwayline they were surronded by police and local security.
i have since been told the sakhnin fans started the problems by pelting the israelis with stones, forcing them on to thepitch.
the minor scuffles which followed were on thingm but i needed a rde home.
i had travelled to sachnin on egged, via haia with no way of getting back. finally i found out there were caoches taking people to jerusalem, bt when i dound the coach in the car park some of the windows had been smashed by crazy sakhnin fans.
in the end i got back to jerusalem safely, albeit in a cold bus with a window missing.
this is just not the way it should be. im worried someone is going to get killed or seruously injured in the next game.
and ive got a really bad cold!
j.

the soup was lovely! a mexican restaurant in interlaken! 

how strange. u can learn israeli martial arts in the tiniest little town in the swiss alps 

me and adriana in interlaken, switzerland in november. how cute! 

me and barak yitzchaki. a future superstar. it was an honour. i was starstruck. 

me and lior asulin. at the press conference anouncing fernandez's appointment.  

me and aviram bruchian. the new nimni. 

a betar press conference. from the left: vladamir shklar, betar president; jerome leroy, betars french signing (first game on sunday v sachnin); arkadi gaydamak, betars russian billionaire owner; luis fernandez, betars french manager; philip soloman, fernanez's advisor/translator 

jamie and ben came to stay with me in israel in august. we had a good time. this was friday night dinner in a restaurant in jerusalem. very posh! 

the boy levin! hes a soldier. this was a few months ago not long after he started. thats his girlfriend chava there with him. hes been in the sanchanim paratropper unit for about five months now. www.orev.co.il 

back once again

er hi,

today someone told me they saw my blog. my blog i asked? i havent written anything there for about six months. but they seemed to like it, at least they had looked at the pictures. so i thought why not, im going to write something again. maybe ill start it up again.

i dont think i can sit here and write everything ive done in the last six months. ive been busy enough. met some new people, done some new things.

the best thing thats happened to me is that ive been working regularly for the jerusalem post. of course this is ironic after what happened with me and the post earlier last year (scrol down a bit and u can read about how pissed off i was). but this time its been better and also good for me. before i was just sitting at home on my bum and now i have been able to have another job where i get out the house and speak to people! ive been mostly editing the sports pages which is fun and also writing some sports and features (mostly about betar)

if u want to read - heres one: this is one of the features i did, although i cant find it on jpost.com but its here - http://www.unitedjerusalem.org/index2.asp?id=671167

ive been going alot to betar still, even though mikes now in the army so i hardly go with him.
the teams doing alot better this season, and the gaydamak money hasnt even had an impact on the team except with the management.

im excited about all this because its rare that the team you support becomes the focus of the nation and gets all the money.i feel like those fulham fans after al fayed put all that money into the club. hopefully we will be more like chelsea though.

whatsbeen cool was that iam now apparently the jerusalme post betar correspondant. on sunday im sypposed to be going to sachnin and covering the betar v bnei sachnin game. i hope i gcan get a lift. it will be a bit dodgy up there in the arab town. but will make a good story for the paper. im going to try and interview some sachnin fans and some betar fans.

anyway, its bedtime
work to do in the mornng
heres some picutures

a little explanation - me and adriana went on holiday to switzerland in november and she iscoming here next week.

jeremy