Speaker of the Knesset at Mt. Herzl
Speech for the Eve of Independence Day 5763/2003
Happy Independence Day, my brothers and sisters of Israel:
Our flag has just been raised to full mast, and once again it is flying proudly over our Holy City, on the mount of memorial and heroism, as though it were natural and self-evident; as though it were always so.
But the "Yizkor" [memorial] prayer, and the sad trumpet fanfare still echoing in our ears, and the distress of Memorial day still in our hearts--these remind us, today, as they do each year, how far all this is from self-evident.
At this time, during this ongoing war against terrorism, we are not, unfortunately, in need of any reminder.
For this year, like last year, we remember well, on each and every day, the terrible price of our freedom.
This freedom, on whose altar were offered up such heroes as the soldier of the 51st Golan Battalion, 1st Class Sergeant Matanya Robinson, of blessed memory, who fell in the battle of Jenin, only a year ago; and Master Sergeant Tiran Arazi, of blessed memory, from the Nachshon Battalion of the Fifth Infantry Brigade, who fell the following day, on Holocaust Day last year, together with twelve other heroes, in that terrible alley of death in the Jenin Refugee Camp.
May God avenge their blood.
Yardena, the twelve-year-old sister of Matanya (who was twenty two when he fell), and Mor, the eleven-year old daughter of Tiran (who was thirty three when he fell), may they live long, good lives, are standing here at my side, as we close the gates of tears and sanctify the festival of our resurrection, the Day of Independence. They are honouring us with their presence and will participate in the ceremony.
In every generation, each person must feel as though he himself came from slavery to redemption, to freedom, to independence.
Each year, as the flag is raised here, I remember several historical flag raisings, that have been branded in our memory, in Israel's collective memory.
I recall the raising of the official flag of the young State of Israel in front of the United Nations building in full view of the whole world, when Israel proudly joined the family of nations; I remember the improvised "Ink Flag", the flag of excited fighters that was flown at Um Rash Rash, now Eilat....
I remember the flag that was flown at the end of the battle, on the top of the Mt. Hermon outpost, by the members of the Golani Brigade, when they conquered "the Eyes of the State," after having lost dozens of their comrades; and I remember the flag flown at the official ceremony, in the center of Cairo, by Israel's first ambassador to Egypt.
But this flying of our flag on high, in the open, in full view, is not so s elf-evident. So much meaning is encompassed in this simple act. There is no symbol more pure to express our resurrection from the ashes, from the piles of ruins, from the blood.
This raising of our flag expresses hope and determination, optimism and power, pride and even a small amount of protest against the whole world: "Look and see: We are here! This is our place, and here we will stay"!
Today too, even as we celebrate fifty-five years of our independence, as a sovereign nation sure of itself, we still feel the need to wave our flag in full view, just to show them all, in a very Israeli way.
Perhaps this is because today, after our great and true dream--of peace, of a little tranquility--has burst over our heads, and has been proved a terrible illusion, after the great sobering up,
It seems that we are all returning to take a stronger grasp on our old and good Eretz Yisrael [Land of Israel], of the songs, the culture, the symbols, and, of course, our blue and white flag.
And it's true, everyone can feel it: We are once again gathering around our group bonfire; we are removing our robe of cynicism; we are returning closer to our Israeliness, in a sort of protest: against the situation, against the terrorism, against the broken dream of peace.
Independence Day, despite the situation, or perhaps just because of it, has become again a day of popular, real, and simple rejoicing, shared by us all; a day when we are not ashamed to express our love--as we once did--for this Land, for our own State.
And despite the situation, and perhaps just because of the situation--just because we once again understand that nothing here is self-evident--we are filled with pride, with joy and with gratitude for what we have achieved here in fifty five years.
True, we had not expected to meet our fifty fifth Independence Day like this, still in the midst of a war against horrific terrorism.
If only I could truly stand here this evening, at the beginning of our Independence Day, and make a promise to all of us that everything will be fine; that the longed-for peace - is just outside our walls; and that tomorrow a new, a promising dawn will break through the skies of this wounded and bleeding land.
Instead we can, all of us, look reality in the eyes, and promise ourselves and our children, that as always, as we have done throughout the past fifty five years, even if sometimes we must grit our teeth, together we shall continue to dream and to try to make it happen; together we shall continue to hope and to build; and together we shall wave the flag.
Happy Independence Day, Israel!
Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Monday, May 05, 2003
Yom HaZikaron - Remembrance Day
Soldiers and security personnel who have fallen since the War of Independence: 19,914
Total number fallen (including the pre-State period: 21,540
(This number includes disabled IDF veterans who later died from their wounds and non-IDF personnel who fell in the line of duty).
Number of soldiers killed since Remembrance Day last year 254
-------------------------------------------------
The Parade of The Fallen
Hayim Hefer
They come from the mountains,
from the valley, from the desert,
They come - names, faces, eyes -
and they stand for the parade.
They come in a masculine step,
strong and sun-tanned,
They emerge from the shattered planes
and from the burnt tanks;
They rise from behind the rocks, from across
the dunes, from connecting ditches,
Brave as lions, tough as tigers, swift as eagles,
And they pass one by one
beween two rows of angels,
Who feed them candy and place flowers
around their necks;
And I look at them, and all of them are happy.
These are my brothers my friends, these are my brothers.
And they meet one another,
black eyes and blue and brown,
And they remind each other of names,
of weapons, and of places,
And they pour each other cups of coffee and tea
And burst out suddenly together shouting: "Huzza! Hurra!"
And they meet in the large assemblage,
friends and comrades,
And officers slap the privates' shoulders
and the privates shake the officers' hands,
And they burst out in song and clap their hands
And all the dwellers of heaven listen to them
awe struck,
And the get-together lasts day and night,
and night and day,
Because such a bunch has not yet been seen above!
And then suddenly they hear familiar voices crying,
And they look homeward at father and mother,
at their wives, their children and their brothers,
And their faces are silent
and they stand ill at ease
And then someone quickly whispers:
Forgive us, but we had to!
We won the battles and now we are resting.
These are my brothers my friends, these are my brothers.
And so they stand, the light bright on their faces,
And only the Lord Himself passes among them,
With tears in His eyes He kisses their wounds
And He says in a trembling voice
to the white angels:
These are my sons my friends,
these are my sons!
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00490
-------------------------------------------------
Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance for those who fell in the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel and in its defense, is marked during the 24 hours preceding Yom Ha'atsma'ut (Israel's Independence Day). On YomHazikaron the entire nation remembers its debt and expresses eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters who gave their lives for the achievement of the country's independence and its continued existence.
Yom Hazikaron is a day of collective and personal anguish mingled with awe and honor for the fallen. It is a day on which the living rededicate themselves to the State of Israel, so that they may be worthy of the sacrifice of those who died for its survival.
In Israel, Yom Hazikaron commences countrywide with the sound of sirens proclaiming a two-minute silence during which all activity and traffic cease. Flags are flown at half mast and memorial ceremonies are held all over the country. Ending at sundown, the somber, reflective mood of Yom Hazikaron gives way to the celebration of Yom Ha'atsma'ut, a transition which emphasizes the lasting tie between the sacrifice of the country's fallen and the continued existence of a vibrant and dynamic State of Israel.
Lighting the Remembrance Torch
We light this remembrance torch as a symbol, to honor all the heroes and heroines of our generation; the partisan groups, the ghetto fighters and the underground defenders, the innocent victims of terror attacks, and those who fought in the wars to defend the State of Israel since its establishment.
Every home in Israel traditionaly lights its own 24 hour candle, allowing the flicker to remind us every moment of the sacrifice of the few on behalf of the many.
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
----------------------------------------------------
Selected Readings for Remembrance Day
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
The Paratroopers Cry
Hayim Hefer
This wall has heard many prayers
This wall has seen the fall of many other walls
This wall has felt the touch of mourning women
This wall has felt petitions lodged between its stones.
This wall saw Rabbi Yehuda Halevi trampled before it
This wall has seen Caesars rise and fall
But this wall had never seen paratroopers cry.
This wall saw them tired and wrung out
This wall saw them wounded, mutilated
Running to it with excitement, cries and silence.
And creeping as torn creatures in the alleys of the
Old City
And they are covered with dust and with parched lips
They whisper, "If I forget thee, if I forget thee Jerusalem"
They are swift as eagles and strong as lions
And their tanks - the fiery chariot of Elijah the Prophet
They pass by with noise
They pass by a stream
They remember the 2,000 awful years
In which we had not even a wall to place our tears
before –
And here they stand before it and breathe in dust
Here they look at it with sweet pain
And tears run down and they look at one another perplexed
How does it happen that paratroopers cry?
How does it happen that they touch this wall
with great emotion?
How does it happen that their weeping
changes to song?
Perhaps because these boys of 19,
born at the same time as the state,
carry on their shoulders - 2,000 years.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG004a0
-------------------------------------------
Yizkor
May God remember the valiant men and women who braved mortal danger in the days of struggle prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and the soldiers who fell in the wars of Israel.
May the people of Israel cherish them in their memory; let them mourn the splendor of youth, the altruism of valor, the dedication of will and the dignity of self-sacrifice which came to an end on the battlefield.
May the loyal and courageous heroes of freedom and victory be sealed forever within the hearts of all Israel, in this generation and forevermore.
Hebrew text: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005l0
-------------------------------------------------
Memorial Service for Members of the Israel Defense Forces
O God, full of mercy, Who dwells on high, grant proper rest in the wings of the Divine Presence – in the lofty level of the holy and the pure ones, who shine like the glow of the firmament – for the souls of the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces who met their deaths in the wars of Israel, in action of defense, retaliation and security, while fulfilling their missions and during their service, and to the souls of all the fighters of the underground organizations and the fighting units in the nation's battles, and all the men and women of the intelligence community and the security and police forces who gave their lives in the sanctification of God's Name and, with the help of the God of the armies of Israel, brought about the rebirth of the nation and the state and the redemption of the Land and the City of God, as well as all those who were murdered, in Israel and abroad, by murderers of the terrorist organizations, by virtue of our prayers for the ascent of their souls.
May the Merciful One therefore shelter them in the shelter of his wings for eternity; and may He bind their souls in the Bond of Life. The Lord is their heritage, Eden their place of rest. May they repose in peace in their resting places, may their merit reflect on all of Israel, and may they meet their destiny in the End of Days.
Now let us all respond: Amen.
Hebrew text: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005m0
-------------------------------------------------------
The Silver Platter
Nathan Altermam
"A State is not handed to a people on a silver platter" -
Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel
The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
-- Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night
Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair.
-- Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
"Who are you, the silent two?"
And they reply: "We are the silver platter
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you."
And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's feet.
Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005p0
---------------------------------------------------
And my Brother Said Nothing
Amir Gilboa
My brother came back from the field
dressed in gray. And I was afraid that
my dream might prove false, so at once
I began to count his wounds.
And my brother said nothing
Then I rummaged in the pockets of the trench-coat
and found a field-dressing, stained and dry.
And on a frayed postcard, her name -
beneath a picture of poppies.
And my brother said nothing.
Then I undid the pack
and took out his belongings, memory by memory.
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
now I've found your decorations!
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
I shall proudly hymn your name!
And my brother said nothing.
And my brother said nothing.
And his blood was crying out from the ground.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00460
---------------------------------------------------
Those who Live by their Virtue Will Say
Uri Zvi Greenberg
They were the chosen... They sang... Now their voices are silent.
The true sons of the race of David that fell with their sword in
their hand.
Simple and lovely like young David of the Shepherd Clan...
And they shall praise Thee, O Lord, from the dust they've returned
to!
The dust Thou created them from is the dust of death...
This kind of dust whereof Thou createth primeval man.
The Temple Mount and the Rock -
From that dust they'll praise Thee...Immortal are they!
There is no truth, there is no glory but them.
And we, in this world, do live by their virtue.
And by their splendor we prosper.
Whoever looks unto their graves will ne'er be enslaved any longer.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00470
-------------------------------------------------------
The Third Mother
Nathan Alterman
Mothers are singing. Mothers are singing.
A fist of thunder bangs down. Strong silence.
Red-bearded lamps are marching
in the empty streets in rows.
Autumn mortally ill, weary,
inconsolable autumn,
rain without beginning or end.
No candle in the window, no light in the world,
three mothers sing.
I hear one of them say:
"He was here but yesterday.
I shall kiss his every fingernail and finger.
I see a tall ship in a calm bay,
and my son from the topmast hanging."
And the second one says:
"My son is tall and quiet.
I am sewing a holiday shirt for my dear.
He's walking in the fields. He will soon be here.
And he holds in his heart a lead bullet."
And the third mother says with her wandering eyes:
"No one was dearer or kinder...
Who shall weep when he comes if I cannot see?
I do not know where he finds him."
And she bathed her eyelashes with weeping.
Perhaps he is only resting. Perhaps
in foreign places he measures
the paths of Your world, O God,
(Like a wandering monk) with kisses.
-------------------------------------------
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Speech at the Yad-Lebanim Gathering on the Eve of Remembrance Day
(05/05/2003)
Dear Families,
Night is falling on the eve of Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers. The State flag has been lowered, and soon a siren will sound. From thousands of pasts, from all battlefields, it is as though a convoy of shadows is winding its way to Jerusalem. It is a convoy which is over one hundred years old, comprising the protectors of the people who marked the path of revival and victory with blood and glory the convoy of Israels freedom.
On Remembrance Day, as is customary in Israel, memorial candles will be lit in every home, and in every heart the flame of memory for a fallen warrior will be kindled a precious family member or beloved friend who is gone. For there is not one person in Israel who has not lost someone close or familiar over the years, nor is there anyone in Israel who does not remember.
It is you, the families, who will forever preserve their memory. It is the shadow which follows you during the day and the light which illuminates your nights. It is a painting engraved deep within your souls, and fragments of life which will never be forgotten.
I share your pain, because in my heart, I also feel that constant sorrow for the absence of my brothers-in-arms companions with whom I went into battle, and only blind fate decided who would be buried and who would fight the next battle. Most of my life, I shouldered the heavy and unavoidable burden of responsibility as an IDF commander, as a member of the government and as Prime Minister the responsibility of sending young fighters to the front line. Only one who has experienced this can understand and appreciate the awesome burden of this decision, which often involves the inevitable loss of life in war, retaliatory operations and both covert and overt missions which are unavoidable in these times.
Thus, I have made the following commitment and vow: I shall do my utmost to bring about a breakthrough towards peace. There is hope in the air this spring, a hope rooted in constant and persistent combat; the battle of IDF soldiers, Israeli Police and the security services, who include in their ranks many good and courageous people who dedicated their lives to repelling and defeating terror; a hope which has recently been raised by the decisive victory of the Allies in Iraq, and from the inspiration and determination that some of the leaders of the free world, headed by the President of the United States, demonstrated against the evil regimes in our region. If indeed this hope is realized, and conditions evolve depending, first and foremost, on the actions of the new Palestinian Government this opportunity must not be missed. I also take into account the painful sacrifice, which, I admit, will be very difficult for me to make. However, I will not be deterred if I know that this is the time to end war and bloodshed and to bring peace for generations. I have only one condition, firm and unshakable: the security of Israel will in no way, and under no circumstances, be compromised.
Night is falling, and when memories are rising in our hearts we will cherish our fallen. And you, the bereaved families, shall be enveloped with love. My personal wish is expressed in the following lines by the poet from the revival and freedom generation, Nathan Alterman:
I have one wish: that your extinguished hearts
Will be illuminated by only one light tonight.
It is the light of brotherhood and the radiance of angels
Who see us with a thousand eyes.
May the memory of those who fell in battle and while fulfilling
their duties be forever bound to the Jewish People and the State of
Israel.
(Communicated by the Office of the Prime Minister)
-----------------------------------------------
"The Ambassadors of Peace Shall Weep Bitterly..." (Isaiah 33:7)
In memory of those who have fallen while on duty in the Israeli foreign service
Every year, as the State of Israel remembers those who fell in the struggle for its establishment and defense, the Israel Foreign Ministry commemorates the men and women of the Foreign Service, who lost their lives while serving as Israel's representatives to the nations of the world.
Edna Peer
4 May 1970, Asuncion
Efraim Elrom
23 May 1971, Istanbul
Dr. Ami Shehori
19 September 1972, London
Giora Raviv
29 April 1975, Johannesburg
Ety Tal-Orr
19 March 1986, Cairo
Ehud Sadan
7 March 1992, Ankara
David Ben-Rafael
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
March 2002: 10th Anniversary of the terror attack on the Israeli
embassy in Buenos Aires
Eli Ben-Zeev
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
Eliora Carmon
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
Shira Arnon
2 January 1995, Lagos
Aviv Cohen
27 September 1996, Santo Domingo
Sorek Gefen
2 March 1999, Amman
Azi-Elazar Brosh
3 August 2001, Bishkek
Orit Ozerov
March 9, 2002, Jerusalem
David Diego Ladowski
July 31, 2002, Jerusalem
Shlomo Argov
February 23, 2003
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Total number fallen (including the pre-State period: 21,540
(This number includes disabled IDF veterans who later died from their wounds and non-IDF personnel who fell in the line of duty).
Number of soldiers killed since Remembrance Day last year 254
-------------------------------------------------
The Parade of The Fallen
Hayim Hefer
They come from the mountains,
from the valley, from the desert,
They come - names, faces, eyes -
and they stand for the parade.
They come in a masculine step,
strong and sun-tanned,
They emerge from the shattered planes
and from the burnt tanks;
They rise from behind the rocks, from across
the dunes, from connecting ditches,
Brave as lions, tough as tigers, swift as eagles,
And they pass one by one
beween two rows of angels,
Who feed them candy and place flowers
around their necks;
And I look at them, and all of them are happy.
These are my brothers my friends, these are my brothers.
And they meet one another,
black eyes and blue and brown,
And they remind each other of names,
of weapons, and of places,
And they pour each other cups of coffee and tea
And burst out suddenly together shouting: "Huzza! Hurra!"
And they meet in the large assemblage,
friends and comrades,
And officers slap the privates' shoulders
and the privates shake the officers' hands,
And they burst out in song and clap their hands
And all the dwellers of heaven listen to them
awe struck,
And the get-together lasts day and night,
and night and day,
Because such a bunch has not yet been seen above!
And then suddenly they hear familiar voices crying,
And they look homeward at father and mother,
at their wives, their children and their brothers,
And their faces are silent
and they stand ill at ease
And then someone quickly whispers:
Forgive us, but we had to!
We won the battles and now we are resting.
These are my brothers my friends, these are my brothers.
And so they stand, the light bright on their faces,
And only the Lord Himself passes among them,
With tears in His eyes He kisses their wounds
And He says in a trembling voice
to the white angels:
These are my sons my friends,
these are my sons!
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00490
-------------------------------------------------
Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance for those who fell in the struggle for the establishment of the State of Israel and in its defense, is marked during the 24 hours preceding Yom Ha'atsma'ut (Israel's Independence Day). On YomHazikaron the entire nation remembers its debt and expresses eternal gratitude to its sons and daughters who gave their lives for the achievement of the country's independence and its continued existence.
Yom Hazikaron is a day of collective and personal anguish mingled with awe and honor for the fallen. It is a day on which the living rededicate themselves to the State of Israel, so that they may be worthy of the sacrifice of those who died for its survival.
In Israel, Yom Hazikaron commences countrywide with the sound of sirens proclaiming a two-minute silence during which all activity and traffic cease. Flags are flown at half mast and memorial ceremonies are held all over the country. Ending at sundown, the somber, reflective mood of Yom Hazikaron gives way to the celebration of Yom Ha'atsma'ut, a transition which emphasizes the lasting tie between the sacrifice of the country's fallen and the continued existence of a vibrant and dynamic State of Israel.
Lighting the Remembrance Torch
We light this remembrance torch as a symbol, to honor all the heroes and heroines of our generation; the partisan groups, the ghetto fighters and the underground defenders, the innocent victims of terror attacks, and those who fought in the wars to defend the State of Israel since its establishment.
Every home in Israel traditionaly lights its own 24 hour candle, allowing the flicker to remind us every moment of the sacrifice of the few on behalf of the many.
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
----------------------------------------------------
Selected Readings for Remembrance Day
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
The Paratroopers Cry
Hayim Hefer
This wall has heard many prayers
This wall has seen the fall of many other walls
This wall has felt the touch of mourning women
This wall has felt petitions lodged between its stones.
This wall saw Rabbi Yehuda Halevi trampled before it
This wall has seen Caesars rise and fall
But this wall had never seen paratroopers cry.
This wall saw them tired and wrung out
This wall saw them wounded, mutilated
Running to it with excitement, cries and silence.
And creeping as torn creatures in the alleys of the
Old City
And they are covered with dust and with parched lips
They whisper, "If I forget thee, if I forget thee Jerusalem"
They are swift as eagles and strong as lions
And their tanks - the fiery chariot of Elijah the Prophet
They pass by with noise
They pass by a stream
They remember the 2,000 awful years
In which we had not even a wall to place our tears
before –
And here they stand before it and breathe in dust
Here they look at it with sweet pain
And tears run down and they look at one another perplexed
How does it happen that paratroopers cry?
How does it happen that they touch this wall
with great emotion?
How does it happen that their weeping
changes to song?
Perhaps because these boys of 19,
born at the same time as the state,
carry on their shoulders - 2,000 years.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG004a0
-------------------------------------------
Yizkor
May God remember the valiant men and women who braved mortal danger in the days of struggle prior to the establishment of the State of Israel and the soldiers who fell in the wars of Israel.
May the people of Israel cherish them in their memory; let them mourn the splendor of youth, the altruism of valor, the dedication of will and the dignity of self-sacrifice which came to an end on the battlefield.
May the loyal and courageous heroes of freedom and victory be sealed forever within the hearts of all Israel, in this generation and forevermore.
Hebrew text: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005l0
-------------------------------------------------
Memorial Service for Members of the Israel Defense Forces
O God, full of mercy, Who dwells on high, grant proper rest in the wings of the Divine Presence – in the lofty level of the holy and the pure ones, who shine like the glow of the firmament – for the souls of the men and women of the Israel Defense Forces who met their deaths in the wars of Israel, in action of defense, retaliation and security, while fulfilling their missions and during their service, and to the souls of all the fighters of the underground organizations and the fighting units in the nation's battles, and all the men and women of the intelligence community and the security and police forces who gave their lives in the sanctification of God's Name and, with the help of the God of the armies of Israel, brought about the rebirth of the nation and the state and the redemption of the Land and the City of God, as well as all those who were murdered, in Israel and abroad, by murderers of the terrorist organizations, by virtue of our prayers for the ascent of their souls.
May the Merciful One therefore shelter them in the shelter of his wings for eternity; and may He bind their souls in the Bond of Life. The Lord is their heritage, Eden their place of rest. May they repose in peace in their resting places, may their merit reflect on all of Israel, and may they meet their destiny in the End of Days.
Now let us all respond: Amen.
Hebrew text: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005m0
-------------------------------------------------------
The Silver Platter
Nathan Altermam
"A State is not handed to a people on a silver platter" -
Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel
The Earth grows still.
The lurid sky slowly pales
Over smoking borders.
Heartsick, but still living, a people stand by
To greet the uniqueness
of the miracle.
Readied, they wait beneath the moon,
Wrapped in awesome joy, before the light.
-- Then, soon,
A girl and boy step forward,
And slowly walk before the waiting nation;
In work garb and heavy-shod
They climb
In stillness.
Wearing yet the dress of battle, the grime
Of aching day and fire-filled night
Unwashed, weary unto death, not knowing rest,
But wearing youth like dewdrops in their hair.
-- Silently the two approach
And stand.
Are they of the quick or of the dead?
Through wondering tears, the people stare.
"Who are you, the silent two?"
And they reply: "We are the silver platter
Upon which the Jewish State was served to you."
And speaking, fall in shadow at the nation's feet.
Let the rest in Israel's chronicles be told.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG005p0
---------------------------------------------------
And my Brother Said Nothing
Amir Gilboa
My brother came back from the field
dressed in gray. And I was afraid that
my dream might prove false, so at once
I began to count his wounds.
And my brother said nothing
Then I rummaged in the pockets of the trench-coat
and found a field-dressing, stained and dry.
And on a frayed postcard, her name -
beneath a picture of poppies.
And my brother said nothing.
Then I undid the pack
and took out his belongings, memory by memory.
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
now I've found your decorations!
Hurrah, my brother, my brother, the hero,
I shall proudly hymn your name!
And my brother said nothing.
And my brother said nothing.
And his blood was crying out from the ground.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00460
---------------------------------------------------
Those who Live by their Virtue Will Say
Uri Zvi Greenberg
They were the chosen... They sang... Now their voices are silent.
The true sons of the race of David that fell with their sword in
their hand.
Simple and lovely like young David of the Shepherd Clan...
And they shall praise Thee, O Lord, from the dust they've returned
to!
The dust Thou created them from is the dust of death...
This kind of dust whereof Thou createth primeval man.
The Temple Mount and the Rock -
From that dust they'll praise Thee...Immortal are they!
There is no truth, there is no glory but them.
And we, in this world, do live by their virtue.
And by their splendor we prosper.
Whoever looks unto their graves will ne'er be enslaved any longer.
Hebrew lyrics: http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/go-visual.asp?MFAG00470
-------------------------------------------------------
The Third Mother
Nathan Alterman
Mothers are singing. Mothers are singing.
A fist of thunder bangs down. Strong silence.
Red-bearded lamps are marching
in the empty streets in rows.
Autumn mortally ill, weary,
inconsolable autumn,
rain without beginning or end.
No candle in the window, no light in the world,
three mothers sing.
I hear one of them say:
"He was here but yesterday.
I shall kiss his every fingernail and finger.
I see a tall ship in a calm bay,
and my son from the topmast hanging."
And the second one says:
"My son is tall and quiet.
I am sewing a holiday shirt for my dear.
He's walking in the fields. He will soon be here.
And he holds in his heart a lead bullet."
And the third mother says with her wandering eyes:
"No one was dearer or kinder...
Who shall weep when he comes if I cannot see?
I do not know where he finds him."
And she bathed her eyelashes with weeping.
Perhaps he is only resting. Perhaps
in foreign places he measures
the paths of Your world, O God,
(Like a wandering monk) with kisses.
-------------------------------------------
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Speech at the Yad-Lebanim Gathering on the Eve of Remembrance Day
(05/05/2003)
Dear Families,
Night is falling on the eve of Remembrance Day for the Fallen Soldiers. The State flag has been lowered, and soon a siren will sound. From thousands of pasts, from all battlefields, it is as though a convoy of shadows is winding its way to Jerusalem. It is a convoy which is over one hundred years old, comprising the protectors of the people who marked the path of revival and victory with blood and glory the convoy of Israels freedom.
On Remembrance Day, as is customary in Israel, memorial candles will be lit in every home, and in every heart the flame of memory for a fallen warrior will be kindled a precious family member or beloved friend who is gone. For there is not one person in Israel who has not lost someone close or familiar over the years, nor is there anyone in Israel who does not remember.
It is you, the families, who will forever preserve their memory. It is the shadow which follows you during the day and the light which illuminates your nights. It is a painting engraved deep within your souls, and fragments of life which will never be forgotten.
I share your pain, because in my heart, I also feel that constant sorrow for the absence of my brothers-in-arms companions with whom I went into battle, and only blind fate decided who would be buried and who would fight the next battle. Most of my life, I shouldered the heavy and unavoidable burden of responsibility as an IDF commander, as a member of the government and as Prime Minister the responsibility of sending young fighters to the front line. Only one who has experienced this can understand and appreciate the awesome burden of this decision, which often involves the inevitable loss of life in war, retaliatory operations and both covert and overt missions which are unavoidable in these times.
Thus, I have made the following commitment and vow: I shall do my utmost to bring about a breakthrough towards peace. There is hope in the air this spring, a hope rooted in constant and persistent combat; the battle of IDF soldiers, Israeli Police and the security services, who include in their ranks many good and courageous people who dedicated their lives to repelling and defeating terror; a hope which has recently been raised by the decisive victory of the Allies in Iraq, and from the inspiration and determination that some of the leaders of the free world, headed by the President of the United States, demonstrated against the evil regimes in our region. If indeed this hope is realized, and conditions evolve depending, first and foremost, on the actions of the new Palestinian Government this opportunity must not be missed. I also take into account the painful sacrifice, which, I admit, will be very difficult for me to make. However, I will not be deterred if I know that this is the time to end war and bloodshed and to bring peace for generations. I have only one condition, firm and unshakable: the security of Israel will in no way, and under no circumstances, be compromised.
Night is falling, and when memories are rising in our hearts we will cherish our fallen. And you, the bereaved families, shall be enveloped with love. My personal wish is expressed in the following lines by the poet from the revival and freedom generation, Nathan Alterman:
I have one wish: that your extinguished hearts
Will be illuminated by only one light tonight.
It is the light of brotherhood and the radiance of angels
Who see us with a thousand eyes.
May the memory of those who fell in battle and while fulfilling
their duties be forever bound to the Jewish People and the State of
Israel.
(Communicated by the Office of the Prime Minister)
-----------------------------------------------
"The Ambassadors of Peace Shall Weep Bitterly..." (Isaiah 33:7)
In memory of those who have fallen while on duty in the Israeli foreign service
Every year, as the State of Israel remembers those who fell in the struggle for its establishment and defense, the Israel Foreign Ministry commemorates the men and women of the Foreign Service, who lost their lives while serving as Israel's representatives to the nations of the world.
Edna Peer
4 May 1970, Asuncion
Efraim Elrom
23 May 1971, Istanbul
Dr. Ami Shehori
19 September 1972, London
Giora Raviv
29 April 1975, Johannesburg
Ety Tal-Orr
19 March 1986, Cairo
Ehud Sadan
7 March 1992, Ankara
David Ben-Rafael
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
March 2002: 10th Anniversary of the terror attack on the Israeli
embassy in Buenos Aires
Eli Ben-Zeev
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
Eliora Carmon
17 March 1992, Buenos Aires
Shira Arnon
2 January 1995, Lagos
Aviv Cohen
27 September 1996, Santo Domingo
Sorek Gefen
2 March 1999, Amman
Azi-Elazar Brosh
3 August 2001, Bishkek
Orit Ozerov
March 9, 2002, Jerusalem
David Diego Ladowski
July 31, 2002, Jerusalem
Shlomo Argov
February 23, 2003
(Communicated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
Monday, April 21, 2003
Lies, More Lies, and CNN's Lies
Exclusive commentary to Naomi Ragen's mail list
by Marc J. Rauch
Apr 17, 2003
As I opined in a recent essay, the first lesson that has hopefully been learned from the Iraq War is that the treacherous and cowardly acts perpetrated by Saddam Hussein and his goons are the same nefarious tactics that Israel has had to contend with for the past hundred years in order to defend themselves and build a homeland.
The second lesson that should be learned from the war is the extent to which lies have been told to protect the Arab governments and regimes.
Over the years, the world has heard from an incredible coterie of fraudulent Arab leaders and spokespersons who seem to grossly distort every fact and event related to the history of their people; not to defend themselves and their homelands against an aggressor that doesn't exist, but to defend their unjustified aggression against the Jewish State, as well as the atrocities that they commit each and every day against their own Muslim brothers and sisters.
On the leader side of the liar-ledger there was Haj Amin al-Husseini, Gamel Abdel Nasser, Hafez al-Assad, and there still is Yasser Arafat and Saddam Hussein (although whether Hussein is a is or was is still in question). Al-Husseini, by the way, was the notorious Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and disciple of Josef Goebbels.
For charlatan spokespersons, we've had to endure Saeb Erakat, Hasan Abded Rahman, Hanan Ashwari, and Diana Buttu (all representing the Palestinian Arab position). Twelve years ago, on behalf of the preposterous Iraqi position that took us into the Gulf War, the free world came to know and loathe Tariq Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq (who is also now a questionable is or was).
Previously, these people were able to hide behind the cloak of time and distance in order to make their distortions sound plausible.* Communications technology was such that no immediate comparison between live reality and political commentary could be made. In many instances days and weeks would go by before any news of an event was reported to the public. And those reports would often be subject to the time and space limitations of the particular media that was disseminating the information. Arab propagandists relied upon abridged and time-dulled testimony, or information stemming from subsequent unrelated events, to color, diffuse, and obfuscate the facts and truth. When confronted with substantive contrary evidence, he or she often excused their prevarications from criticism by arguing that there are no objective facts, only subjective points of view.
However, as any sane person knows, there are indeed objective facts and truths. And over the last couple of weeks, thanks to the inadvertent efforts of one man, the historic pattern of Islamic propaganda tap dancing was exposed for the sham that it has always been. That man is Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq's Minister of Information.
Al-Sahhaf (or as the media like to call him, Baghdad Bob) is as skilled a liar as any of the above mentioned people. One might even say that Baghdad Bob is the epitome of all Arab propagandists, the would-be poster boy for Liars Anonymous. What set Baghdad Bob apart from the other liars are his comical visage and the use of live split-screen television. With humorous, almost humane eyes, ample rounded nose, and a beret jauntily perched upon his head, Baghdad Bob instantly brought back memories of live television's other great comedic liar, Jon Lovitz' hilarious Pathological Liar from SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.
On a daily basis, Baghdad Bob point-blankly insisted to the world that Saddam Hussein and his regime were peaceful, God-fearing people. He railed against the atrocities that he claimed America, Britain, and its Zionist-handlers were committing against Islamic peoples. Bob fervently assured the global audience that Iraq would be victorious, cut the heads of the American invaders, and kick the soldiers in their asses as they ran away.
During the opening hours of the war, who could forget the humorous sight of Baghdad Bob and his cronies trying to conduct a serious press conference while ignoring the sounds of American bombing and the shaking of the studio's cloth backdrop from the resultant explosions? This was something straight from a Johnny Carson Tonight Show skit.
Then there was the bit with Baghdad Bob rejecting the notion that Saddam International Airport had been captured, while on the other side of the screen we saw footage of American troops walking through the airport's shopping concourse. The piece de resistance (excuse my French-no really, excuse my use of anything French) was his dogged denial that American tanks were parked along the Tigris River in downtown Baghdad. As a viewer, I felt certain that in any moment a U.S. soldier would walk up behind Bob, tap him on the shoulder, Bob would turn the opposite way, peer off into the distance, and then turn back to the camera and say, "Where? I don't see any American tanks. The only thing missing from Baghdad Bob's diatribes to truly make them classic comic masterpieces was a tag line to equal Lovitz' "Yeah, that's the ticket."
Humor aside, what these episodes with Baghdad Bob prove is that even in the face of undeniable, incontrovertible evidence, these people will lie at any cost, rather than to admit a truth that is unfavorable to their position.
Fortunately for Yasser Arafat, last year when he was screaming on live television about a massacre occurring in Jenin, that CNN didn't do a live split-screen feed to show what was really happening. But there may be a reason why CNN didn't supply a live split-screen feed that would have exposed Arafat's lies, and the reason is much deeper than just the obvious. This brings up my final point in the lessons to be learned from the Iraq War. It is also the most disturbing revelation of all.
While we may not have yet discovered the so-called smoking gun in Saddam Hussein's arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction, we do now have the smoking gun in the Arab's arsenal of Weapons of Mass Disinformation. And that smoking gun is CNN, the cable television network headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. On Friday, April 11, in a letter to the New York Times, CNN's senior news executive Eason Jordan confessed that for the past dozen years they have been hiding the truth about what has been happening in the Middle East, and that they were pressured into reporting stories that were favorable to the Iraqi regime. Jordan cited several situations in which the Iraqi government threatened, tortured, and murdered members of the press. And Jordan admitted that in order to retain their press office in Iraq that he and CNN had to cover up information about these situations and more.
For years, like many others, I watched in horror as CNN broadcast stories that defended the vicious acts being committed by the Arab governments, their leaders, and many of their people against Jews, Christians, and even other Muslims. Story after story portrayed the perpetrators as the victims. Time and again, the deaths of Jewish women and children were overshadowed by the heart-wrenching stories of the perpetrators' families-not the victims' families mind you, the perpetrators' families.
When questioned about this bias, CNN reporters and executives would deny it existed. And with all the vigor of a Baghdad Bob they would insist that they were merely presenting both sides of the story. When reminded that there was no way to balance the story of the bombing of a Jewish family religious dinner with the posthumous celebration of the bomber's family, CNN resorted to the same kind of perverted moral-equivalency rationale used by Islam's worst dictators when defending their atrocities: there's no objective facts, only subjective points of view. In other words, CNN claimed the bomber's family was suffering, too.
There is no moral-equivalency between the two. It's an insane, irrational position. For a while, I figured it was just a remnant of Ted Turner's legacy as CNN's founder. After all, Turner's mouth has often made him appear as insane and irrational as any dictator, and he even has the moustache to go with it. However, the situation is far worse than simply being influenced by a possibly demented founder, it involves having sick, self-absorbed news executives and reporters who think that their jobs are more important than the truth and people's lives.
Eason Jordan says he covered up the truth to protect lives, but whose lives was he referring to: only the people that worked for him. At any point, Jordan and CNN could have pulled their people and from the Middle East, and then told the truth. In doing so, perhaps they could have helped saved the lives of people that didn't work for him, you know, ordinary people. But then, that would require integrity, and sadly corporate integrity can be as much of an oxymoron as Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
There's a significant connection to CNN's confession and the events in Israel. Saddam Hussein paid millions of dollars to the families of the Palestinian Arab bombers that killed or maimed innocent Jews. Hussein also supported Arafat and the other Palestinian Arab terrorist groups. Portraying those connections solely as evil, and portraying the suicide bombings solely as being evil would have been damaging to Saddam Hussein's reputation. Hussein and his thugs had access to CNN; they had the ability to watch and hear everything that was said about them.
Moreover, like all the other similarities that exist between the despotic Arab regimes, Yasser Arafat and the PLO employ the exact same fear tactics. They kill and torture anyone they can get their hands on that disseminates a dissenting opinion. It's impossible to think that CNN hasn't received additional threats from Arafat, and that CNN isn't also caving into this pressure to protect their precious network, by covering up more truths.
I believe that CNN's actions have been as damaging to democracy and the free world as any of the vilest propaganda ever spread by Josef Goebbels, Josef Stalin, the Grand Mufti, Yasser Arafat, or Saddam Hussein. For twelve years CNN hid the truth, covered-up facts, and fabricated ridiculous moral-equivalency scenarios. Millions of people around the world have been influenced by these lies and deceptions. We have almost an entire generation of people who have heard that it's justified to blow up school buses; that there's honor to be gained in doing so. Is there any wonder why there are thousands of students willing to create civil disobedience to protest the war? They don't know Saddam Hussein was a maniac-by his own admission, Eason Jordan refused to tell this to the world. They don't know that Yasser Arafat is a murderer; thanks to CNN they think he's the George Washington of the Palestinian Arabs. They watch CNN; they get to see CNN propaganda on their televisions at school. If there's a positive spin that could be put on Jordan's revelation I guess it's that we should be grateful that CNN wasn't more successful in brainwashing our children.
The television network that calls itself the most THE MOST TRUSTED NAME IN NEWS is a fraud. It's been nothing more than a public relations outlet for dictatorial Islamic regimes. Eason Jordan titled his letter to the Times, "The News We Keep To Ourselves." I submit that we would be better off not getting any news, than only getting news that cover-ups the truth and spreads lies. I wish Eason Jordan and his news staff well in their next career, far, far away from any media outlet.
*Ironically, some of the men even hid behind the cloak of women's clothing in order to deceive their adversaries.
_____
Marc J. Rauch was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1952, and lived in the metropolitan area until "emigrating" to the West Coast in the early 80s. He is a multi-award winning TV/film writer, producer, and director, and has been a broadcasting and marketing executive since the 1975. Marc lectures on various subjects concerning broadcasting, new media, and the Middle East at conferences and seminars throughout the U.S. and Europe. In 1994, he authored a book on advertising and has had several business and industry articles published in a variety of related magazines. His political commentaries are regularly published in several print and online publications.
=======================================
Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com and subscribe to my mailing list by sending an empty email to: naomiragen-on@mail-list.com email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com
Saturday, March 15, 2003
PALESTINE FOR SALE FOR 5,000 STERLING!
The Coming Storm
By Solly Ganor
One doesn’t have to be a great strategist to see the storm approaching our shores, and I am not referring to the weather. While President Bush in his speech today left enough space for us to breath in, Tony Blair held a press conference that was only dedicated to the Palestinian Israeli conflict. “Wait and see, the Palestinian State is under way, and no one is going to stop us from establishing it, and Israel better get used to the idea.” That is my summary of what he said. In other words, the usual Jewish scapegoat comes in handy once more, to pacify the Arabs. It is interesting that Tony Blair is the prime ministeer of the same government, that after World War One sold two-thirds of Palestine to prince Abdulla for five thousand pounds sterling, while at the same time declaring in their famous Balfour declaration, Palestine as the home for the Jewish poeple.
On the way from Los Angeles to Israel I picked up from the rack a British magazine, 'The Economist'. I think it was a September issue. I found there a two-page article about Palestine and Israel. The writer describes nonchalantly how the British, after capturing the area from the Turks, decided to carve up the land. Given the authority by the Versailles treaty, they simple took two thirds of Eastern Palestine, and gave it to the deserving Sharif of Meca's family. It was Churchill himself who gave it its name. "Let's call it Jordan", he declared. Just like that! G-d was an Englishman and divided the land of Israel as per his whim. Except, he didn’t quite give it away, he sold the land for 5,000 pounds sterling to prince Abdulla!
Tom Segev, in his book, 'One Palestine Complete', writes on page 158, as a footnote: "The Versailles peace conference had decided to carve a state, Transjordan, out of the Ottoman territory-and include a large area of Eastern Palestine-to give to the Sharif of Mecca's family in an effort to satisfy its territorial claims. Prince Abdullah, brother of Faisal and son of the Sharif, had agreed to the arrangement in exchange for five thousand pounds. Thus the Arabs received independence, the French received Syria, and the Jews received Palestine. But no one in Palestine was happy; the Arabs felt that the country was torn away from Syria. The Zionist were bitter because Transjordan had been torn away from Palestine."
You don't have to be an extremist to realise what an enormous 'hutzpa' they had to do so. None of the Arab nations had any objections, including the Arabs living here. The world thinks it is all right for the British to give away two-thirds of Palestine to one ruling family from Mecca! Imagine, one family was given two-thirds of Palestine, a family that had nothing to do with this part of the world. Speaking of justice and what belongs to whom in this region!!
If Jordan is part of Eastern Palestine, and 70% of its population are Palestinians, then it should be declared as the Palestinian state. Like the British who relinquished the mandate in 1948, so the Hashemites should relinquish their rule.
The British should give back the five thousand pounds sterling they received from prince Abdulla plus interest, and this should be the future Palestinian state. There is lots of uninhabited land in Jordan and if the international community wishes to solve the Middle East conflict, they should help in reshaping and resettling the refugees who are one of the main obstacles for a peace settlement. The kingdom of Jordan is not a holy cow that can not be touched. It should be obvious that Israel will never accept the millions of self-described 'refugees' dreaming to come back here.
Anyone who listened to the recent speech by Arafat, echoed by Mobarak, probably noted that they both said something which we should pay close attention to. They both said that Israel should leave Arab land. They didn’t say Palestinian, they said Arab! One wonders why they said that. What actually is Arab land? Surely Arab land is the major part of the Middle East.. They effectively are telling us, that actually it isn’t Palestine they want us to get out of, but from Arab land. Curiously, the student that I met at Sidni Ally, expressed the same political ideas. He too spoke of 300 million Arab facing us. The truth of the matter, is that they are all Arabs. When it suits them, they are Arabs, part of the greater Arab nations, when it suits them otherwise, they become Palestinians.
The only possible solution to the problem is making the Kingdom of Jordan part of the solution. We accepted a million Jewish refugees from the Arab countries, who had to flee for their lives, leaving everything behind. There is no earthly reason why the Arabs can’t reciprocate in order to solve the problem.
SOLLY GANOR
HERZELIA PITUACH, ISRAEL
March 13, 2003
If you wish confirmation on the above subject, it comes from the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill himself.
The Wall Street Journal
COMMENTARY
'My Grandfather Invented Iraq'
By WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
HOUSTON -- As thunderclouds gather over the Middle East, America and Britain stand once again shoulder to shoulder preparing to draw the sword in defense of freedom, democracy and human rights. A line has been drawn in the sands of the Arabian desert. By this week, we will have deployed some 200,000 American troops, together with more than 40,000 British, who will shortly be committed to battle.
Meanwhile, I have a confession to make: It was my grandfather, Winston Churchill, who invented Iraq and laid the foundation for much of the modern Middle East. In 1921, as British colonial secretary, Churchill was responsible for creating Jordan and Iraq and for placing the Hashemite rulers, Abdullah and Feisal, on their respective thrones in Amman and Baghdad. Furthermore, he delineated for the first time the political boundaries of Biblical Palestine. Eighty years later, it falls to us to liberate Iraq from the scourge of one of the most ruthless dictators in history. As we stand poised on the brink of war, my grandfather's experience has lessons for us.
By Solly Ganor
One doesn’t have to be a great strategist to see the storm approaching our shores, and I am not referring to the weather. While President Bush in his speech today left enough space for us to breath in, Tony Blair held a press conference that was only dedicated to the Palestinian Israeli conflict. “Wait and see, the Palestinian State is under way, and no one is going to stop us from establishing it, and Israel better get used to the idea.” That is my summary of what he said. In other words, the usual Jewish scapegoat comes in handy once more, to pacify the Arabs. It is interesting that Tony Blair is the prime ministeer of the same government, that after World War One sold two-thirds of Palestine to prince Abdulla for five thousand pounds sterling, while at the same time declaring in their famous Balfour declaration, Palestine as the home for the Jewish poeple.
On the way from Los Angeles to Israel I picked up from the rack a British magazine, 'The Economist'. I think it was a September issue. I found there a two-page article about Palestine and Israel. The writer describes nonchalantly how the British, after capturing the area from the Turks, decided to carve up the land. Given the authority by the Versailles treaty, they simple took two thirds of Eastern Palestine, and gave it to the deserving Sharif of Meca's family. It was Churchill himself who gave it its name. "Let's call it Jordan", he declared. Just like that! G-d was an Englishman and divided the land of Israel as per his whim. Except, he didn’t quite give it away, he sold the land for 5,000 pounds sterling to prince Abdulla!
Tom Segev, in his book, 'One Palestine Complete', writes on page 158, as a footnote: "The Versailles peace conference had decided to carve a state, Transjordan, out of the Ottoman territory-and include a large area of Eastern Palestine-to give to the Sharif of Mecca's family in an effort to satisfy its territorial claims. Prince Abdullah, brother of Faisal and son of the Sharif, had agreed to the arrangement in exchange for five thousand pounds. Thus the Arabs received independence, the French received Syria, and the Jews received Palestine. But no one in Palestine was happy; the Arabs felt that the country was torn away from Syria. The Zionist were bitter because Transjordan had been torn away from Palestine."
You don't have to be an extremist to realise what an enormous 'hutzpa' they had to do so. None of the Arab nations had any objections, including the Arabs living here. The world thinks it is all right for the British to give away two-thirds of Palestine to one ruling family from Mecca! Imagine, one family was given two-thirds of Palestine, a family that had nothing to do with this part of the world. Speaking of justice and what belongs to whom in this region!!
If Jordan is part of Eastern Palestine, and 70% of its population are Palestinians, then it should be declared as the Palestinian state. Like the British who relinquished the mandate in 1948, so the Hashemites should relinquish their rule.
The British should give back the five thousand pounds sterling they received from prince Abdulla plus interest, and this should be the future Palestinian state. There is lots of uninhabited land in Jordan and if the international community wishes to solve the Middle East conflict, they should help in reshaping and resettling the refugees who are one of the main obstacles for a peace settlement. The kingdom of Jordan is not a holy cow that can not be touched. It should be obvious that Israel will never accept the millions of self-described 'refugees' dreaming to come back here.
Anyone who listened to the recent speech by Arafat, echoed by Mobarak, probably noted that they both said something which we should pay close attention to. They both said that Israel should leave Arab land. They didn’t say Palestinian, they said Arab! One wonders why they said that. What actually is Arab land? Surely Arab land is the major part of the Middle East.. They effectively are telling us, that actually it isn’t Palestine they want us to get out of, but from Arab land. Curiously, the student that I met at Sidni Ally, expressed the same political ideas. He too spoke of 300 million Arab facing us. The truth of the matter, is that they are all Arabs. When it suits them, they are Arabs, part of the greater Arab nations, when it suits them otherwise, they become Palestinians.
The only possible solution to the problem is making the Kingdom of Jordan part of the solution. We accepted a million Jewish refugees from the Arab countries, who had to flee for their lives, leaving everything behind. There is no earthly reason why the Arabs can’t reciprocate in order to solve the problem.
SOLLY GANOR
HERZELIA PITUACH, ISRAEL
March 13, 2003
If you wish confirmation on the above subject, it comes from the grandson of Sir Winston Churchill himself.
The Wall Street Journal
COMMENTARY
'My Grandfather Invented Iraq'
By WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
HOUSTON -- As thunderclouds gather over the Middle East, America and Britain stand once again shoulder to shoulder preparing to draw the sword in defense of freedom, democracy and human rights. A line has been drawn in the sands of the Arabian desert. By this week, we will have deployed some 200,000 American troops, together with more than 40,000 British, who will shortly be committed to battle.
Meanwhile, I have a confession to make: It was my grandfather, Winston Churchill, who invented Iraq and laid the foundation for much of the modern Middle East. In 1921, as British colonial secretary, Churchill was responsible for creating Jordan and Iraq and for placing the Hashemite rulers, Abdullah and Feisal, on their respective thrones in Amman and Baghdad. Furthermore, he delineated for the first time the political boundaries of Biblical Palestine. Eighty years later, it falls to us to liberate Iraq from the scourge of one of the most ruthless dictators in history. As we stand poised on the brink of war, my grandfather's experience has lessons for us.
PURIM IN DACHAU
By Solly Ganor
They arrived from Auschwitz in several groups. Each group counted about twenty people. Of course, they didn’t look like people. They looked more like walking skeletons. They had triangular faces with pointed chins, and sunken cheeks. Even the lips had shrunken to thin blue lines. The only prominent feature were their eyes; they were unusually large and with a strange sheen, almost luminous. They were known in concentration camp slang, as ‘Muselman’. That was usually the last stage before death. They spoke Yiddish with an accent, which to us Lithuanian Jews, sounded strange.
They told us that they came from the ghetto of Lodz through Auschwitz, before they were sent to our camp. Our camp was known as the ‘Outer camp of Dachau, number 10’ and it was situated near the picturesque town of Utting, by lake Amersee. Our camp was sitting in the middle of a small forest with surrounding green meadows and beautiful landscapes. I remember the day when we were brought there, I thought to myself, ‘How can anything bad happen to us among all this beauty?’
I soon found out that the beauty was in the landscape only. the Germans in charge of us were sadists and murderers. The Lodz people fell into the same deceptive trap. They thought that after Auschwitz, our camp looked like paradise. Most of them died soon after their arrival, from hard labour, beatings and starvation, still they preferred to die here than in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. It was from them that we heard the incredible stories of gas chambers, and crematoriums, where thousands of our people were murdered every day. Some of them told us that they were standing naked before the gas chambers when they were suddenly ordered to get dressed and were sent to us .
Around March 1945, there were only a few of them left alive. One of them was known as the ‘Chaim the Rabbi’. We never found out whether he was actually a rabbi, but he always washed his hands and made a bracha before eating. He knew the dates of the Jewish calendar, and also knew all the prayers by heart. From time to time when the Germans were not looking, he would invite us to participate in the evening prayers,. Our Jewish camp commander, Burgin, heard about him and tried to get him easier jobs. Most people died when they had to carry a hundred pounds of cement sacks on their backs, or other chores of heavy labour. He wouldn’t have lasted a day on a job like this. He once told me that if he would survive he would get married and have at least a dozen children.
Around the middle of March, we were given a day off. It was a Sunday. The camp was covered with snow, but here and there the first signs of spring was in the air. We heard vague rumours of the American break through into Germany and a glimmer of hope was kindled in our hearts. After breakfast, consisting of a slice of mouldy bread, a tiny piece of margarine, and brown water, known as ‘Ersatz Coffee’, we returned to our barrack to get some extra sleep.
Suddenly we noticed ‘Chaim the Rabbi’ standing in the snow and shouting “ Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows!” On his head he had a paper crown made of a cement sack, and he was draped in a blanket which had cut out stars from the same paper attached to it. We stood like petrified before this strange apparition, barely able to trust our eyes, while he performed a dance in the snow, singing: “I am Achashwerosch, Achashwerosh, the king of the Persians.” Then he stood still straightened himself out, chin pointed to the sky, his right arm extended in an imperial gesture and shouted: “Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows! And when I say Haman to the gallows, we all know which Hamman we are talking about!”
We were sure that he has lost his wits, as so many did in these impossible times. By now there was about fifty of us standing gaping at the “Rabbi”, when he said: “Yiddn wos iz mit ajch! Haint is Purim, lomir shpilen a purim shpil!” “Fellow Jews, what is the matter with you?! today is Purim, let us play a Purim Shpil!” Then it dawned on us that back home, a million years ago, this was the time of the year when we children were dressing up for Purim, playing draidlach, and eating ‘Hommen Taschen’.
It took the ‘Rabbi’ to remember the exact date by the Jewish calendar when Purim was. We hardly knew what day it was. He then divided the roles of Ester Hamalka, Mordechai, Vashti and Hamman among the onlookers.. I was honoured to receive the role of Mordechai, and we all ended up dancing in the snow. And so we had our Purim Shpil in Dachau.
But that was not the end of the story. The “Rabbi” promised us that we will get today our ‘Shalach Manot’, and we thought that it was hardly likely to happen. But, miracle of miracles, the same afternoon, a delegation of the International Red Cross, came to the camp. It was the first time that they bothered about us. Still, we welcomed them with open arms, because they brought us the “Shalach Manot” the ‘Rabbi’ promised. Each one of us received a parcel, containing, a tin of sweet condensed milk, a small bar of chocolate, a box of sugar cubes, and a pack of cigarettes. It is impossible to describe our joy! Here we were starving to death as suddenly on Purim, we received these heavenly gifts.
Since then we never doubted the ‘Rabbi’ anymore. His prediction also came true. Two months later ‘Haman-Hitler’ went to the gallows, and shot himself in Berlin, while we, those of us who were still alive, were rescued by the American army, on May 2, 1945.
I lost track of the ‘Rabbi’ on our ‘Death March’, from Dachau to Tyrol, but I hope that he survived and had many children as he always wanted. I always remember him when Purim comes around, for the unforgettable ‘Purim Shpil’ in Dachau.
Solly Ganor
Herzelia Pituach, Israel
Purim
Yud Daled, HadarMarch 16, 2003
They arrived from Auschwitz in several groups. Each group counted about twenty people. Of course, they didn’t look like people. They looked more like walking skeletons. They had triangular faces with pointed chins, and sunken cheeks. Even the lips had shrunken to thin blue lines. The only prominent feature were their eyes; they were unusually large and with a strange sheen, almost luminous. They were known in concentration camp slang, as ‘Muselman’. That was usually the last stage before death. They spoke Yiddish with an accent, which to us Lithuanian Jews, sounded strange.
They told us that they came from the ghetto of Lodz through Auschwitz, before they were sent to our camp. Our camp was known as the ‘Outer camp of Dachau, number 10’ and it was situated near the picturesque town of Utting, by lake Amersee. Our camp was sitting in the middle of a small forest with surrounding green meadows and beautiful landscapes. I remember the day when we were brought there, I thought to myself, ‘How can anything bad happen to us among all this beauty?’
I soon found out that the beauty was in the landscape only. the Germans in charge of us were sadists and murderers. The Lodz people fell into the same deceptive trap. They thought that after Auschwitz, our camp looked like paradise. Most of them died soon after their arrival, from hard labour, beatings and starvation, still they preferred to die here than in the gas chambers of Auschwitz. It was from them that we heard the incredible stories of gas chambers, and crematoriums, where thousands of our people were murdered every day. Some of them told us that they were standing naked before the gas chambers when they were suddenly ordered to get dressed and were sent to us .
Around March 1945, there were only a few of them left alive. One of them was known as the ‘Chaim the Rabbi’. We never found out whether he was actually a rabbi, but he always washed his hands and made a bracha before eating. He knew the dates of the Jewish calendar, and also knew all the prayers by heart. From time to time when the Germans were not looking, he would invite us to participate in the evening prayers,. Our Jewish camp commander, Burgin, heard about him and tried to get him easier jobs. Most people died when they had to carry a hundred pounds of cement sacks on their backs, or other chores of heavy labour. He wouldn’t have lasted a day on a job like this. He once told me that if he would survive he would get married and have at least a dozen children.
Around the middle of March, we were given a day off. It was a Sunday. The camp was covered with snow, but here and there the first signs of spring was in the air. We heard vague rumours of the American break through into Germany and a glimmer of hope was kindled in our hearts. After breakfast, consisting of a slice of mouldy bread, a tiny piece of margarine, and brown water, known as ‘Ersatz Coffee’, we returned to our barrack to get some extra sleep.
Suddenly we noticed ‘Chaim the Rabbi’ standing in the snow and shouting “ Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows!” On his head he had a paper crown made of a cement sack, and he was draped in a blanket which had cut out stars from the same paper attached to it. We stood like petrified before this strange apparition, barely able to trust our eyes, while he performed a dance in the snow, singing: “I am Achashwerosch, Achashwerosh, the king of the Persians.” Then he stood still straightened himself out, chin pointed to the sky, his right arm extended in an imperial gesture and shouted: “Haman to the gallows! Haman to the gallows! And when I say Haman to the gallows, we all know which Hamman we are talking about!”
We were sure that he has lost his wits, as so many did in these impossible times. By now there was about fifty of us standing gaping at the “Rabbi”, when he said: “Yiddn wos iz mit ajch! Haint is Purim, lomir shpilen a purim shpil!” “Fellow Jews, what is the matter with you?! today is Purim, let us play a Purim Shpil!” Then it dawned on us that back home, a million years ago, this was the time of the year when we children were dressing up for Purim, playing draidlach, and eating ‘Hommen Taschen’.
It took the ‘Rabbi’ to remember the exact date by the Jewish calendar when Purim was. We hardly knew what day it was. He then divided the roles of Ester Hamalka, Mordechai, Vashti and Hamman among the onlookers.. I was honoured to receive the role of Mordechai, and we all ended up dancing in the snow. And so we had our Purim Shpil in Dachau.
But that was not the end of the story. The “Rabbi” promised us that we will get today our ‘Shalach Manot’, and we thought that it was hardly likely to happen. But, miracle of miracles, the same afternoon, a delegation of the International Red Cross, came to the camp. It was the first time that they bothered about us. Still, we welcomed them with open arms, because they brought us the “Shalach Manot” the ‘Rabbi’ promised. Each one of us received a parcel, containing, a tin of sweet condensed milk, a small bar of chocolate, a box of sugar cubes, and a pack of cigarettes. It is impossible to describe our joy! Here we were starving to death as suddenly on Purim, we received these heavenly gifts.
Since then we never doubted the ‘Rabbi’ anymore. His prediction also came true. Two months later ‘Haman-Hitler’ went to the gallows, and shot himself in Berlin, while we, those of us who were still alive, were rescued by the American army, on May 2, 1945.
I lost track of the ‘Rabbi’ on our ‘Death March’, from Dachau to Tyrol, but I hope that he survived and had many children as he always wanted. I always remember him when Purim comes around, for the unforgettable ‘Purim Shpil’ in Dachau.
Solly Ganor
Herzelia Pituach, Israel
Purim
Yud Daled, HadarMarch 16, 2003
Monday, March 10, 2003
Death of my teacher
By Elisheva Harrow
"Elisheva, come see what I did...it took me hours, but I finally organized all the hundreds of pictures we've taken over the last couple of years and put together an album...there's some pictures of your graduation, and a great one of you hugging Ha'Mora (the teacher) Dina...”
Regular, every day conversation. Life goes on. Small sentences like a roulette wheel...
Fast forward to the next morning.
On my way into synagogue, I see my brother outside with a friend of his. Serious faces mean bad news. "A pigua (terrorist attack) last night, in Kiryat Arba... an older couple was murdered in their home-apartment 35."
That's all they know. Kiryat Arba is where I went to high school...Quick search through memory...older couples, older couples. No one comes to mind. No point in getting all worried now anyway, there's no way to find out until after Shabbat.
After synagogue. Back at home, playing a game before lunch. Relaxing, fun, laughter… my Mom comes in. "...Do you know a Horowitz, from Kiryat Arba…?" The name sparks in my brain. Cards lowered, I already understand, want to ignore, ignore… "Yes, Dina Horowitz- my teacher." "Dina? Is her husband a Rabbi? " "Yes..." We look at each other, already knowing, denying..."but there are a bunch of Horowitzes there...maybe..." I say the final words:
"They said apartment 35..." My mom goes for the phonebook. flipping through pages...in a second we'll know. Cards forgotten...my heart pounding, brain screaming...already knowing, already KNOWING. Feelings familiar, so familiar, too familiar. We already recognize this darkest of shadows; horror and evil left in its wake, greatest destroyer of light and love.
And she looks at me. Her face says it all.
I can't move, can't speak. Words so trite, tears so common. How to grieve in first moments of shock. Why, why them, why like this. Futile questions searing through every heartbeat. It seems that being amazing condemns you to an early grave...
I don't know how many of you have been taught by an amazing person before. How many had the privilege of knowing a real, passionate, gentle, loving teacher. In Hebrew, the word "Morah" means teacher and guide- someone who shows you the way, who gives you love and encouragement, helping you make your own way in this complicated world. A Morah is someone who gives you the tools to deal with whatever should happen along your path. Such a person was Dina. She was my Morah. She loved all her students so very much, always believed in us and in our abilities. She never gave up on us, always tried to listen and to do her best to help...
The Shabbat queen takes her leave. The phone calls start. So many people to tell…our class once again united in grief… and the need- "we have to do something"… A "melaveh malka" (post-Sabbath get together) is quickly organized at someone's house…"bring a guitar"... Girls come, we sit around the table and sing the songs that she loved, the soft melodies put to verses, to psalms. And we talk, comforting each other, expressing how much we all loved her back, each in our own way. Stories...we smile at the small things, cry at the big ones.
She loved the Torah (Bible) with such passion, really reliving, breathing it each time she gave a class on the subject. It was so real and vibrant to her...but her passion was mostly wasted in class; we wanted to just learn the material needed for the next test, not get into torah philosophy. My friend and I kept telling her that she should go teach in a midrasha (yeshiva for girls), because there there are no tests, girls learn for the sake of learning. At the end of 12th grade she announced to my class that that's precisely what she was planning on doing the following year. She thanked my friend and me for all of our support and 'nagging' on the matter... At the Melave Malka tonight a friend told me she had just spoken to Dina a few weeks ago, and Dina had said that she was so happy, so happy to be teaching in a midrasha. She mentioned me and my friend, expressing her gratitude at our insistence once again. So strange. One of my greatest teachers thanking me for helping her along her way..
A friend and I recalled a D'var Torah (sermon) we heard Dina say once, about the greatness of women. It was at the beginning of this whole intifada, people were being killed every day, we were feeling so helpless, we didn't want to be sitting in class, studying as usual, we were scared, confused, hurting.. Dina listened, smiled in that gentle way she had and told us the following: It says in the book of Shmot (Exodus) that after the miracle of the splitting of the sea Miriam (Moshe’s sister) led the women of Israel in song and dance, in God's honor. I quote: "And Miriam...took the timbrel in her hand and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances..." Shmot, 15,20. But where did they get the musical instruments from? Rashi (a known commentator) answers: "The righteous women in that generation were confident that God would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt." Here you see the immense strength of these women- they could see past all the horror and slavery to a better time, a time of peace, when our enemies would be vanquished and we could walk as a free people without fear. A vision they had no recollection of, but were so sure in their faith that they knew the ending would be great. (Note: until today the tambourine is called a "tof miriam" in Hebrew- literally meaning "Miriam's timbrel").
Today, again, we are facing hardships. We, our families, friends, neighbours, relatives, are being targeted and killed. Young and old, armed or unarmed, it makes no difference to our enemy. We're scared, we're angry, we're frustrated. We try, but many times it's very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet we have to learn from those amazing women, from our ancestors whose blood flows in our veins and whose stubbornness and tenacity has kept us going for almost 4,000 years... This was so very much Dina's way of comforting- getting us to focus on the bigger picture, identify with our predecessors, strengthen our faith in the master plan. And so we were comforted, so much so that today, a day after her death- "al Kiddush Hashem" (in sanctifying Gods' name), these powerful words of hers are what we call upon to comfort us once again. Dina died for what she so strongly believed in, for Israel and the whole Jewish people. I could go on and on about the Zionism that lived in the core of her very being, about her personal sacrifices for the whole including making aliyah from the US and taking an active part in the horrible "Yamit" evacuation in the early 80s. (Yamit was a beautiful Jewish town in the Sinai desert that was dismantled by force when we gave the entire Sinai over to Egypt).
But how do you really explain a person? How do you capture an essence, an entire being on a blank screen? Her kindness, her gentleness, her dedication...She will live forever in the minds and hearts of those who knew and loved her.
Dina, The light you were, you still are...but now you've just moved to the end of the tunnel, accumulating with the millions of lights already there. You're now burning ever more brightly for us- the ones still down here, the ones trying to catch a glimpse.
I'll start working on my "tof Miriam", Dina. With the memory of your words, cited from the book you so loved and lived by I'll see past all this horror, envision the better time that you taught me to look for, a time of true peace.
In closing, I want to share with all of you a beautiful vision from the book of Isaiah. The prophet writes about the future, of days yet to come: "…And Death will be abolished forever, and the Lord God will wipe every tear from every face, and the humiliation of his people will be eliminated from this earth, for God has spoken." (Isaiah, 25,8)
And in the meantime, life goes on.
I love you, my Morah Dina. Shalom.
Elisheva
Elisheva Harrow, age 21, is a resident of Efrat. She wrote the following after hearing of the murder of Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz at their Shabbat table Friday night in Kiryat Arba. After graduating the Ulpana High School in Kiryat Arba 2 years ago, Elisheva studied for a year in Midreshet Nov, and is now completing the first of 2 years of her National Service with Livnot Ve'Lehibanot, based in Tzfat and Jerusalem.
This article was originally posted by The Israel Resource Center.
=======================================
Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com and subscribe to my mailing list by sending an empty email to: naomiragen-on@mail-list.com
My email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com
"Elisheva, come see what I did...it took me hours, but I finally organized all the hundreds of pictures we've taken over the last couple of years and put together an album...there's some pictures of your graduation, and a great one of you hugging Ha'Mora (the teacher) Dina...”
Regular, every day conversation. Life goes on. Small sentences like a roulette wheel...
Fast forward to the next morning.
On my way into synagogue, I see my brother outside with a friend of his. Serious faces mean bad news. "A pigua (terrorist attack) last night, in Kiryat Arba... an older couple was murdered in their home-apartment 35."
That's all they know. Kiryat Arba is where I went to high school...Quick search through memory...older couples, older couples. No one comes to mind. No point in getting all worried now anyway, there's no way to find out until after Shabbat.
After synagogue. Back at home, playing a game before lunch. Relaxing, fun, laughter… my Mom comes in. "...Do you know a Horowitz, from Kiryat Arba…?" The name sparks in my brain. Cards lowered, I already understand, want to ignore, ignore… "Yes, Dina Horowitz- my teacher." "Dina? Is her husband a Rabbi? " "Yes..." We look at each other, already knowing, denying..."but there are a bunch of Horowitzes there...maybe..." I say the final words:
"They said apartment 35..." My mom goes for the phonebook. flipping through pages...in a second we'll know. Cards forgotten...my heart pounding, brain screaming...already knowing, already KNOWING. Feelings familiar, so familiar, too familiar. We already recognize this darkest of shadows; horror and evil left in its wake, greatest destroyer of light and love.
And she looks at me. Her face says it all.
I can't move, can't speak. Words so trite, tears so common. How to grieve in first moments of shock. Why, why them, why like this. Futile questions searing through every heartbeat. It seems that being amazing condemns you to an early grave...
I don't know how many of you have been taught by an amazing person before. How many had the privilege of knowing a real, passionate, gentle, loving teacher. In Hebrew, the word "Morah" means teacher and guide- someone who shows you the way, who gives you love and encouragement, helping you make your own way in this complicated world. A Morah is someone who gives you the tools to deal with whatever should happen along your path. Such a person was Dina. She was my Morah. She loved all her students so very much, always believed in us and in our abilities. She never gave up on us, always tried to listen and to do her best to help...
The Shabbat queen takes her leave. The phone calls start. So many people to tell…our class once again united in grief… and the need- "we have to do something"… A "melaveh malka" (post-Sabbath get together) is quickly organized at someone's house…"bring a guitar"... Girls come, we sit around the table and sing the songs that she loved, the soft melodies put to verses, to psalms. And we talk, comforting each other, expressing how much we all loved her back, each in our own way. Stories...we smile at the small things, cry at the big ones.
She loved the Torah (Bible) with such passion, really reliving, breathing it each time she gave a class on the subject. It was so real and vibrant to her...but her passion was mostly wasted in class; we wanted to just learn the material needed for the next test, not get into torah philosophy. My friend and I kept telling her that she should go teach in a midrasha (yeshiva for girls), because there there are no tests, girls learn for the sake of learning. At the end of 12th grade she announced to my class that that's precisely what she was planning on doing the following year. She thanked my friend and me for all of our support and 'nagging' on the matter... At the Melave Malka tonight a friend told me she had just spoken to Dina a few weeks ago, and Dina had said that she was so happy, so happy to be teaching in a midrasha. She mentioned me and my friend, expressing her gratitude at our insistence once again. So strange. One of my greatest teachers thanking me for helping her along her way..
A friend and I recalled a D'var Torah (sermon) we heard Dina say once, about the greatness of women. It was at the beginning of this whole intifada, people were being killed every day, we were feeling so helpless, we didn't want to be sitting in class, studying as usual, we were scared, confused, hurting.. Dina listened, smiled in that gentle way she had and told us the following: It says in the book of Shmot (Exodus) that after the miracle of the splitting of the sea Miriam (Moshe’s sister) led the women of Israel in song and dance, in God's honor. I quote: "And Miriam...took the timbrel in her hand and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances..." Shmot, 15,20. But where did they get the musical instruments from? Rashi (a known commentator) answers: "The righteous women in that generation were confident that God would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt." Here you see the immense strength of these women- they could see past all the horror and slavery to a better time, a time of peace, when our enemies would be vanquished and we could walk as a free people without fear. A vision they had no recollection of, but were so sure in their faith that they knew the ending would be great. (Note: until today the tambourine is called a "tof miriam" in Hebrew- literally meaning "Miriam's timbrel").
Today, again, we are facing hardships. We, our families, friends, neighbours, relatives, are being targeted and killed. Young and old, armed or unarmed, it makes no difference to our enemy. We're scared, we're angry, we're frustrated. We try, but many times it's very hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Yet we have to learn from those amazing women, from our ancestors whose blood flows in our veins and whose stubbornness and tenacity has kept us going for almost 4,000 years... This was so very much Dina's way of comforting- getting us to focus on the bigger picture, identify with our predecessors, strengthen our faith in the master plan. And so we were comforted, so much so that today, a day after her death- "al Kiddush Hashem" (in sanctifying Gods' name), these powerful words of hers are what we call upon to comfort us once again. Dina died for what she so strongly believed in, for Israel and the whole Jewish people. I could go on and on about the Zionism that lived in the core of her very being, about her personal sacrifices for the whole including making aliyah from the US and taking an active part in the horrible "Yamit" evacuation in the early 80s. (Yamit was a beautiful Jewish town in the Sinai desert that was dismantled by force when we gave the entire Sinai over to Egypt).
But how do you really explain a person? How do you capture an essence, an entire being on a blank screen? Her kindness, her gentleness, her dedication...She will live forever in the minds and hearts of those who knew and loved her.
Dina, The light you were, you still are...but now you've just moved to the end of the tunnel, accumulating with the millions of lights already there. You're now burning ever more brightly for us- the ones still down here, the ones trying to catch a glimpse.
I'll start working on my "tof Miriam", Dina. With the memory of your words, cited from the book you so loved and lived by I'll see past all this horror, envision the better time that you taught me to look for, a time of true peace.
In closing, I want to share with all of you a beautiful vision from the book of Isaiah. The prophet writes about the future, of days yet to come: "…And Death will be abolished forever, and the Lord God will wipe every tear from every face, and the humiliation of his people will be eliminated from this earth, for God has spoken." (Isaiah, 25,8)
And in the meantime, life goes on.
I love you, my Morah Dina. Shalom.
Elisheva
Elisheva Harrow, age 21, is a resident of Efrat. She wrote the following after hearing of the murder of Rabbi Eli and Dina Horowitz at their Shabbat table Friday night in Kiryat Arba. After graduating the Ulpana High School in Kiryat Arba 2 years ago, Elisheva studied for a year in Midreshet Nov, and is now completing the first of 2 years of her National Service with Livnot Ve'Lehibanot, based in Tzfat and Jerusalem.
This article was originally posted by The Israel Resource Center.
=======================================
Naomi Ragen
Please visit my Web page at: http://www.NaomiRagen.com and subscribe to my mailing list by sending an empty email to: naomiragen-on@mail-list.com
My email:Naomi@NaomiRagen.com
Thursday, February 27, 2003
The history of the Gulf wars
This outstanding site is beautifully designed and has excellent and authoritative articles on the history of Israel, "Palestinian" demands, and the Gulf wars.
Tuesday, February 25, 2003
Joseph Farah: An Unconventional Arab Viewpoint
This came from Women in Green, who add: The following is adapted from remarks made by Joseph Farah at a Christian Coalition symposium on Islam, Feb. 15 in Washington, D.C This is an abbreviation of that speech.
I've been really bugged, especially since Sept. 11, 2001, by all the self-proclaimed Arab-American and Muslim-American spokesmen I see on the talking-head shows. What bugs me is the way they show no appreciation for just how tolerant and open-minded and non-judgmental the American people really are toward them and the Arab and Muslim world. Americans are so good, so fair and so understanding. They are anything but quick to generalize and stereotype even when doing so would clearly be in their best interest.
Over a two-day period this week, I had to take nine different airline flights and go through nine different airport security checkpoints. Not once during that two-day period did I ever get a second glance from any security person. Not once was I subject to any extra checks.
Now, I am an Arab-American. I have an Arab face and an Arab name. But I didn't get a second look. Meanwhile, I saw young mothers with little babies struggling to make it through extra security. I saw little old grandmothers facing the indignities of extra checks. And all the while, the Muslim-American lobbies and the Arab-American anti-discrimination groups are denouncing this country for being racist and for profiling.
It's just not true. Worse yet, there is every common-sense reason for it to be so. The threat of terrorism in the United States does come largely, if not exclusively, from Arabs and from Muslims. We ignore that fact at our own peril. When I fly to the Middle East, I often fly El Al. In fact, it is my preferred carrier. Why? Because it has great security. I know, because of my name and my Arabic ancestry, I'm going to have my bags searched more scrupulously than the average American. Do I mind? Absolutely not. In fact, I am grateful. Because I know these security people are not only protecting the other passengers, they are protecting me. It only makes sense to do this kind of profiling especially when we are in a war where our very way of life is at stake.
For those of you who have not read my writings on the Middle East and the Islamic-West conflicts, I don't think these battles are over misunderstandings. I don't believe they are the result of a failure to communicate. I don't believe they are caused by an inability to compromise. I believe they are caused by evil people doing evil things, pure and simple. I come at this issue of the Middle East a little bit differently than just about anyone else. I'm an Arab-American Christian journalist. I've arrived at my conclusions largely through first-hand experience covering the Mideast on the ground.
Throughout my 25-year career as a daily newspaperman, I've had two principal beats Hollywood and the Middle East. You might wonder what these two beats have in common. The common denominator is that they both deal in the realm of unreality. They both rely on myths. In fact, the imagination of the Arabs in crafting fables, reinventing history and fictionalizing facts would make Oliver Stone blush. And it is those myths of the Middle East that I want to address today in the short time we have.
What is this debate all about? What are the real roots of this conflict? If you believe what you read in most news sources, Palestinians want a homeland and Muslims want control over sites they consider holy. Simple, right? Wrong. In fact, these two demands are nothing more than strategic deceptions propaganda ploys. They are nothing more than phony excuses and rationalizations for the terrorism and the murdering of Jews. The real goal of those making these demands is the destruction of the state of Israel.
The proof of the pudding is that prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious movement for a Palestinian homeland. Why? In 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Israelis captured Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. But they didn't capture these territories from Yasser Arafat. They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein. Why did the so-called Palestinians suddenly discover their national identity after Israel won the war. Why wasn't there a demand for a Palestinian homeland before?
The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. The first time the name was used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. The name was derived, we think, from the Philistines, a people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier.
Contrary to what Yasser Arafat will tell you, the Philistines were extinct by that time. Arafat likes to pretend his people are the descendants of the Philistines. Actually, the name was simply a way for the Romans to add insult to injury to the Jews not only were they annihilated, but their land was renamed after people they had conquered.
Palestine has never existed before or since as a nation state. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland. Who rejected that idea? The Arabs. The Jews could have no place in the Mideast. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Now, at least to Western audiences, Arafat and some other so-called "moderate" Arab leaders will tell you that it's OK for the Jews to have their homeland, too side-by-side with the Arabs. Why wasn't it OK in 1948?
There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.
But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough. Arafat himself explained the ploy of negotiations with Israel in a 1994 speech in South Africa in English. He's explained it in Arabic dozens of times. First we create our own state, then we use that state to liberate all of Palestine. That's the goal. It's always been the goal. Arafat and his supporters will tell you the reason a Palestinian Arab state is needed is because Arabs were forcibly removed from their property in the 1948 war. But listen to what the Arabs were saying about the refugee issue after that war.
* "The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph Sept. 6, 1948.
* "The Arab state which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees." The Jordanian daily newspaper Falastin, Feb. 19, 1949.
* "Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honor? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it." The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-Shay, Aug. 19, 1951.
* "The 15th May, 1948, arrived ... On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead." The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963.
* "For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... By spreading rumors of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy." The Jordanian daily newspaper Al Urdun, April 9, 1953.
I could go on and on with this forgotten or deliberately obscured history. But you get the point. There was no Jewish conspiracy to chase Arabs out of their homes in 1948. It never happened. There are, instead, plenty of historical records showing the Jews pleading with their Arab neighbors to stay and live in peace and harmony. Yet, despite the clear, unambiguous words of the Arab observers at the time, history has been successfully rewritten to turn the Jews into the bad guys.
The Arab states that initiated the hostilities have never accepted responsibility despite their enormous wealth and their ability to assimilate tens of millions of refugees in their largely under-populated nations. And other states have failed to hold them accountable. Today, of course, this cruel charade continues. The suffering of millions of Arabs is perpetuated only for political purposes by the Arab states. They are merely pawns in the war to destroy Israel.
There were some 100 million refugees around the world following World War II. The Palestinian Arab group is the only one in the world not absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Since then, millions of Jewish refugees from around the world have been absorbed in the tiny nation of Israel. It makes no sense to expect that same tiny Jewish state to solve a refugee crisis it did not create. Do you think the Arabs really care about the plight of their refugees? I would submit to you that Israel, of all the Middle East states, has treated the Arab refugees with more fairness and more compassion. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about:
The Jordan Times reports that "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who have long been denied many civil rights including the right to work, now face a new obstacle in their precarious lives." Under a bill introduced by parliament last year, Palestinian Arabs will be deprived of their right to own property. Those who already own property will not be able to pass it on to their children. Now just imagine if Israel passed such a law? Can you imagine the international outcry? What would the United Nations have to say about this? How would the media establishment in the West view such a Draconian ploy? Yet, this is happening in an Arab country virtually without comment except here. And take a look at the transparent rationale for this action in Lebanon, as described in the Jordan Times: "The Lebanese parliament passed the law on the grounds that it wants to protect the right of the Palestinian refugees to return eventually to their homes which they fled after the creation of the state of Israel on Palestinian lands in 1948."
Don't you love that? "We are protecting your rights by denying your rights." While Israel has bent over backwards to accommodate the Palestinian Arabs especially those victimized by the 1948 war the Arab nations have only sought to exploit their misery. That exploitation continues today. It is overt. It is a matter of law. Yet the world sees it not. Ever since I wrote a column in October 2000 called "Myths of the Middle East," readers from around the world have asked me what is meant by the term "Palestinian." The simple answer is that it means what Yasser Arafat wants it to mean.
Arafat himself was born in Egypt. He later moved to Jerusalem. Indeed, most of the Arabs living within the borders of Israel today have come from some other Arab country at some time in their life. Arabs continue to flock into Israel today. They continue to move into the Palestinian Authority. They immigrated there even before it left Israeli control. The Arabs have built 261 settlements in the West Bank since 1967. We don't hear much about those settlements. We hear instead about the number of Jewish settlements that have been created. We hear how destabilizing they are how provocative they are. Yet, by comparison, only 144 Jewish settlements have been built since 1967 including those surrounding Jerusalem, in the West Bank and in Gaza.
Is this a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. This has always been the case. Arabs have been flocking to Israel and its environs ever since it was created and even before, coinciding with the wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine prior to 1948. Winston Churchill said in 1939: "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population."
And that raises a question I never hear anyone ask: If Israel's policies make life so intolerable for Arabs, why do they continue to flock to the Jewish state? This is an important question as we see the Palestinian debate now shift to the issue of "the right of return." According to the most liberal claims by Arab sources, some 600,000 to 700,000 Arabs left Israel in and around 1948 when the Jewish state was created. Most were not forced out by Jews, but rather left at the urging of Arab leaders who had declared war on Israel. Yet, there are far more Arabs living in these territories now than ever before. And many of those who left in 1948 and thereafter actually had roots in other Arab nations. This is why it is so difficult to define the term "Palestinian." It always has been. What does it mean? Who is a "Palestinian"? Is it someone who came to work in Palestine because of a bustling economy and job opportunities? Is it someone who lived in the region for two years? Five years? Ten years? Is it someone who once visited the area? Is it any Arab who wants to live in the area?
Though Arabs outnumber Jews in the Middle East by a factor of about 100 to one, the Arab population of Palestine was historically extremely low prior to the Jews' renewed interest in the area beginning in the early 1900s. For instance, a travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker, illustrates the fact that, even when the Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled the region, the Muslim population in Jerusalem was minimal. The book estimates the total population of the city at 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians and 40,000 were Jews.
"The number of Jews has greatly risen in the last few decades, in spite of the fact that they are forbidden to immigrate or to possess landed property," the book states. Even though the Jews were persecuted, still they came to Jerusalem and represented the overwhelming majority of the population as early as 1906. Why was the Muslim population so low? After all, we're told that Jerusalem is the third holiest city in Islam. Surely, if this were a widely held belief in 1906, more of the devout would have settled there. The truth is that the Jewish presence in Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land persisted throughout its bloody history, as is documented in Joan Peters' milestone history on the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict in the region, "From Time Immemorial." It is also true that the Arab population increased following Jewish immigration into the region. The Arabs came because of economic activity. And, believe it or not, they came because there was more freedom and more opportunity in Israel than in their own homelands.
It's time to inject the component of freedom into the discussion. In recent years Freedom House, the human-rights organization that monitors the way the nations of the world treat their own citizens, has found a there's a big trend worldwide away from totalitarianism and authoritarianism and toward freedom except in the Arab world. There are 22 Arab states all varying degrees of police states. If the U.S. continues pushing for a Palestinian state under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, there will be 23.
Let's hope and pray that this administration is beginning to get it. There are some strong indications that is the case. The impending Iraq campaign could represent a watershed event in the history of the Middle East. Imagine a free Iraq. Imagine a free Afghanistan. Imagine a free Iran. Imagine a free Lebanon. It could happen. If we set out goals high and we act responsibly and we are courageous and steadfast in waging this war on terrorism this war we did not start it could happen.
Joseph Farah is founder and CEO of World Net Daily.
I've been really bugged, especially since Sept. 11, 2001, by all the self-proclaimed Arab-American and Muslim-American spokesmen I see on the talking-head shows. What bugs me is the way they show no appreciation for just how tolerant and open-minded and non-judgmental the American people really are toward them and the Arab and Muslim world. Americans are so good, so fair and so understanding. They are anything but quick to generalize and stereotype even when doing so would clearly be in their best interest.
Over a two-day period this week, I had to take nine different airline flights and go through nine different airport security checkpoints. Not once during that two-day period did I ever get a second glance from any security person. Not once was I subject to any extra checks.
Now, I am an Arab-American. I have an Arab face and an Arab name. But I didn't get a second look. Meanwhile, I saw young mothers with little babies struggling to make it through extra security. I saw little old grandmothers facing the indignities of extra checks. And all the while, the Muslim-American lobbies and the Arab-American anti-discrimination groups are denouncing this country for being racist and for profiling.
It's just not true. Worse yet, there is every common-sense reason for it to be so. The threat of terrorism in the United States does come largely, if not exclusively, from Arabs and from Muslims. We ignore that fact at our own peril. When I fly to the Middle East, I often fly El Al. In fact, it is my preferred carrier. Why? Because it has great security. I know, because of my name and my Arabic ancestry, I'm going to have my bags searched more scrupulously than the average American. Do I mind? Absolutely not. In fact, I am grateful. Because I know these security people are not only protecting the other passengers, they are protecting me. It only makes sense to do this kind of profiling especially when we are in a war where our very way of life is at stake.
For those of you who have not read my writings on the Middle East and the Islamic-West conflicts, I don't think these battles are over misunderstandings. I don't believe they are the result of a failure to communicate. I don't believe they are caused by an inability to compromise. I believe they are caused by evil people doing evil things, pure and simple. I come at this issue of the Middle East a little bit differently than just about anyone else. I'm an Arab-American Christian journalist. I've arrived at my conclusions largely through first-hand experience covering the Mideast on the ground.
Throughout my 25-year career as a daily newspaperman, I've had two principal beats Hollywood and the Middle East. You might wonder what these two beats have in common. The common denominator is that they both deal in the realm of unreality. They both rely on myths. In fact, the imagination of the Arabs in crafting fables, reinventing history and fictionalizing facts would make Oliver Stone blush. And it is those myths of the Middle East that I want to address today in the short time we have.
What is this debate all about? What are the real roots of this conflict? If you believe what you read in most news sources, Palestinians want a homeland and Muslims want control over sites they consider holy. Simple, right? Wrong. In fact, these two demands are nothing more than strategic deceptions propaganda ploys. They are nothing more than phony excuses and rationalizations for the terrorism and the murdering of Jews. The real goal of those making these demands is the destruction of the state of Israel.
The proof of the pudding is that prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, there was no serious movement for a Palestinian homeland. Why? In 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Israelis captured Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. But they didn't capture these territories from Yasser Arafat. They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein. Why did the so-called Palestinians suddenly discover their national identity after Israel won the war. Why wasn't there a demand for a Palestinian homeland before?
The truth is that Palestine is no more real than Never-Never Land. The first time the name was used was in 70 A.D. when the Romans committed genocide against the Jews, smashed the Temple and declared the land of Israel would be no more. From then on, the Romans promised, it would be known as Palestine. The name was derived, we think, from the Philistines, a people conquered by the Jews centuries earlier.
Contrary to what Yasser Arafat will tell you, the Philistines were extinct by that time. Arafat likes to pretend his people are the descendants of the Philistines. Actually, the name was simply a way for the Romans to add insult to injury to the Jews not only were they annihilated, but their land was renamed after people they had conquered.
Palestine has never existed before or since as a nation state. It was ruled alternately by Rome, by Islamic and Christian crusaders, by the Ottoman Empire and, briefly, by the British after World War I. The British agreed to restore at least part of the land to the Jewish people as their homeland. Who rejected that idea? The Arabs. The Jews could have no place in the Mideast. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Now, at least to Western audiences, Arafat and some other so-called "moderate" Arab leaders will tell you that it's OK for the Jews to have their homeland, too side-by-side with the Arabs. Why wasn't it OK in 1948?
There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass.
But that's too much for the Arabs. They want it all. And that is ultimately what the fighting in Israel is about today. No matter how many land concessions the Israelis make, it will never be enough. Arafat himself explained the ploy of negotiations with Israel in a 1994 speech in South Africa in English. He's explained it in Arabic dozens of times. First we create our own state, then we use that state to liberate all of Palestine. That's the goal. It's always been the goal. Arafat and his supporters will tell you the reason a Palestinian Arab state is needed is because Arabs were forcibly removed from their property in the 1948 war. But listen to what the Arabs were saying about the refugee issue after that war.
* "The fact that there are these refugees is the direct consequence of the act of the Arab states in opposing partition and the Jewish state. The Arab states agree upon this policy unanimously and they must share in the solution of the problem." Emile Ghoury, secretary of the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee, in an interview with the Beirut Telegraph Sept. 6, 1948.
* "The Arab state which had encouraged the Palestine Arabs to leave their homes temporarily in order to be out of the way of the Arab invasion armies, have failed to keep their promise to help these refugees." The Jordanian daily newspaper Falastin, Feb. 19, 1949.
* "Who brought the Palestinians to Lebanon as refugees, suffering now from the malign attitude of newspapers and communal leaders, who have neither honor nor conscience? Who brought them over in dire straits and penniless, after they lost their honor? The Arab states, and Lebanon amongst them, did it." The Beirut Muslim weekly Kul-Shay, Aug. 19, 1951.
* "The 15th May, 1948, arrived ... On that day the mufti of Jerusalem appealed to the Arabs of Palestine to leave the country, because the Arab armies were about to enter and fight in their stead." The Cairo daily Akhbar el Yom, Oct. 12, 1963.
* "For the flight and fall of the other villages it is our leaders who are responsible because of their dissemination of rumors exaggerating Jewish crimes and describing them as atrocities in order to inflame the Arabs ... By spreading rumors of Jewish atrocities, killings of women and children etc., they instilled fear and terror in the hearts of the Arabs in Palestine, until they fled leaving their homes and properties to the enemy." The Jordanian daily newspaper Al Urdun, April 9, 1953.
I could go on and on with this forgotten or deliberately obscured history. But you get the point. There was no Jewish conspiracy to chase Arabs out of their homes in 1948. It never happened. There are, instead, plenty of historical records showing the Jews pleading with their Arab neighbors to stay and live in peace and harmony. Yet, despite the clear, unambiguous words of the Arab observers at the time, history has been successfully rewritten to turn the Jews into the bad guys.
The Arab states that initiated the hostilities have never accepted responsibility despite their enormous wealth and their ability to assimilate tens of millions of refugees in their largely under-populated nations. And other states have failed to hold them accountable. Today, of course, this cruel charade continues. The suffering of millions of Arabs is perpetuated only for political purposes by the Arab states. They are merely pawns in the war to destroy Israel.
There were some 100 million refugees around the world following World War II. The Palestinian Arab group is the only one in the world not absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Since then, millions of Jewish refugees from around the world have been absorbed in the tiny nation of Israel. It makes no sense to expect that same tiny Jewish state to solve a refugee crisis it did not create. Do you think the Arabs really care about the plight of their refugees? I would submit to you that Israel, of all the Middle East states, has treated the Arab refugees with more fairness and more compassion. Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about:
The Jordan Times reports that "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who have long been denied many civil rights including the right to work, now face a new obstacle in their precarious lives." Under a bill introduced by parliament last year, Palestinian Arabs will be deprived of their right to own property. Those who already own property will not be able to pass it on to their children. Now just imagine if Israel passed such a law? Can you imagine the international outcry? What would the United Nations have to say about this? How would the media establishment in the West view such a Draconian ploy? Yet, this is happening in an Arab country virtually without comment except here. And take a look at the transparent rationale for this action in Lebanon, as described in the Jordan Times: "The Lebanese parliament passed the law on the grounds that it wants to protect the right of the Palestinian refugees to return eventually to their homes which they fled after the creation of the state of Israel on Palestinian lands in 1948."
Don't you love that? "We are protecting your rights by denying your rights." While Israel has bent over backwards to accommodate the Palestinian Arabs especially those victimized by the 1948 war the Arab nations have only sought to exploit their misery. That exploitation continues today. It is overt. It is a matter of law. Yet the world sees it not. Ever since I wrote a column in October 2000 called "Myths of the Middle East," readers from around the world have asked me what is meant by the term "Palestinian." The simple answer is that it means what Yasser Arafat wants it to mean.
Arafat himself was born in Egypt. He later moved to Jerusalem. Indeed, most of the Arabs living within the borders of Israel today have come from some other Arab country at some time in their life. Arabs continue to flock into Israel today. They continue to move into the Palestinian Authority. They immigrated there even before it left Israeli control. The Arabs have built 261 settlements in the West Bank since 1967. We don't hear much about those settlements. We hear instead about the number of Jewish settlements that have been created. We hear how destabilizing they are how provocative they are. Yet, by comparison, only 144 Jewish settlements have been built since 1967 including those surrounding Jerusalem, in the West Bank and in Gaza.
Is this a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. This has always been the case. Arabs have been flocking to Israel and its environs ever since it was created and even before, coinciding with the wave of Jewish immigration into Palestine prior to 1948. Winston Churchill said in 1939: "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population."
And that raises a question I never hear anyone ask: If Israel's policies make life so intolerable for Arabs, why do they continue to flock to the Jewish state? This is an important question as we see the Palestinian debate now shift to the issue of "the right of return." According to the most liberal claims by Arab sources, some 600,000 to 700,000 Arabs left Israel in and around 1948 when the Jewish state was created. Most were not forced out by Jews, but rather left at the urging of Arab leaders who had declared war on Israel. Yet, there are far more Arabs living in these territories now than ever before. And many of those who left in 1948 and thereafter actually had roots in other Arab nations. This is why it is so difficult to define the term "Palestinian." It always has been. What does it mean? Who is a "Palestinian"? Is it someone who came to work in Palestine because of a bustling economy and job opportunities? Is it someone who lived in the region for two years? Five years? Ten years? Is it someone who once visited the area? Is it any Arab who wants to live in the area?
Though Arabs outnumber Jews in the Middle East by a factor of about 100 to one, the Arab population of Palestine was historically extremely low prior to the Jews' renewed interest in the area beginning in the early 1900s. For instance, a travel guide to Palestine and Syria, published in 1906 by Karl Baedeker, illustrates the fact that, even when the Islamic Ottoman Empire ruled the region, the Muslim population in Jerusalem was minimal. The book estimates the total population of the city at 60,000, of whom 7,000 were Muslims, 13,000 were Christians and 40,000 were Jews.
"The number of Jews has greatly risen in the last few decades, in spite of the fact that they are forbidden to immigrate or to possess landed property," the book states. Even though the Jews were persecuted, still they came to Jerusalem and represented the overwhelming majority of the population as early as 1906. Why was the Muslim population so low? After all, we're told that Jerusalem is the third holiest city in Islam. Surely, if this were a widely held belief in 1906, more of the devout would have settled there. The truth is that the Jewish presence in Jerusalem and throughout the Holy Land persisted throughout its bloody history, as is documented in Joan Peters' milestone history on the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict in the region, "From Time Immemorial." It is also true that the Arab population increased following Jewish immigration into the region. The Arabs came because of economic activity. And, believe it or not, they came because there was more freedom and more opportunity in Israel than in their own homelands.
It's time to inject the component of freedom into the discussion. In recent years Freedom House, the human-rights organization that monitors the way the nations of the world treat their own citizens, has found a there's a big trend worldwide away from totalitarianism and authoritarianism and toward freedom except in the Arab world. There are 22 Arab states all varying degrees of police states. If the U.S. continues pushing for a Palestinian state under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, there will be 23.
Let's hope and pray that this administration is beginning to get it. There are some strong indications that is the case. The impending Iraq campaign could represent a watershed event in the history of the Middle East. Imagine a free Iraq. Imagine a free Afghanistan. Imagine a free Iran. Imagine a free Lebanon. It could happen. If we set out goals high and we act responsibly and we are courageous and steadfast in waging this war on terrorism this war we did not start it could happen.
Joseph Farah is founder and CEO of World Net Daily.
Sunday, February 23, 2003
Thursday, February 20, 2003
Thomas Sowell: Undeclared Wars
This excellent piece by Sowell reminds me of a quote I recently heard, attributed to Ross Perot: "Going to war without France is like going deer-hunting without an accordian."
Monday, February 17, 2003
Friday, February 14, 2003
A Japanese View of the Palestinians
by Yashiko Sagamori (from Women in Green)
If you are so sure that "Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history", I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine:
When was it founded and by whom?
What were its borders?
What was its capital?
What were its major cities?
What constituted the basis of its economy?
What was its form of government?
Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
What was the language of the country of Palestine?
What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.
The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people" and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza, respectively?
The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel, and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel's ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?
You are absolutely correct in your understanding of the "Palestinians" murderous motives. I am afraid however that you, along with 99% of the population of this planet have missed the beginning of WWIII (the enemy call it Jihad) quite a few years ago. The siege of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event to which the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner had so miserably failed to respond, can be very well used as the day WWIII stepped out of the pages of the Koran and into the current events.
I pray the United States and Israel lead the world to victory in this war. Come to think of it, there is no choice, be you a Christian, or even, believe it or not, a Muslim.
If you are so sure that "Palestine, the country, goes back through most of recorded history", I expect you to be able to answer a few basic questions about that country of Palestine:
When was it founded and by whom?
What were its borders?
What was its capital?
What were its major cities?
What constituted the basis of its economy?
What was its form of government?
Can you name at least one Palestinian leader before Arafat?
Was Palestine ever recognized by a country whose existence, at that time or now, leaves no room for interpretation?
What was the language of the country of Palestine?
What was the prevalent religion of the country of Palestine?
What was the name of its currency? Choose any date in history and tell what was the approximate exchange rate of the Palestinian monetary unit against the US dollar, German mark, GB pound, Japanese yen, or Chinese yuan on that date.
And, finally, since there is no such country today, what caused its demise and when did it occur?
You are lamenting the "low sinking" of a "once proud" nation. Please tell me, when exactly was that "nation" proud and what was it so proud of?
And here is the least sarcastic question of all: If the people you mistakenly call "Palestinians" are anything but generic Arabs collected from all over -- or thrown out of -- the Arab world, if they really have a genuine ethnic identity that gives them right for self-determination, why did they never try to become independent until Arabs suffered their devastating defeat in the Six Day War?
I hope you avoid the temptation to trace the modern day "Palestinians" to the Biblical Philistines: substituting etymology for history won't work here.
The truth should be obvious to everyone who wants to know it. Arab countries have never abandoned the dream of destroying Israel; they still cherish it today. Having time and again failed to achieve their evil goal with military means, they decided to fight Israel by proxy. For that purpose, they created a terrorist organization, cynically called it "the Palestinian people" and installed it in Gaza, Judea, and Samaria. How else can you explain the refusal by Jordan and Egypt to unconditionally accept back the "West Bank" and Gaza, respectively?
The fact is, Arabs populating Gaza, Judea, and Samaria have much less claim to nationhood than that Indian tribe that successfully emerged in Connecticut with the purpose of starting a tax-exempt casino: at least that tribe had a constructive goal that motivated them. The so called "Palestinians" have only one motivation: the destruction of Israel, and in my book that is not sufficient to consider them a nation" -- or anything else except what they really are: a terrorist organization that will one day be dismantled.
In fact, there is only one way to achieve peace in the Middle East. Arab countries must acknowledge and accept their defeat in their war against Israel and, as the losing side should, pay Israel reparations for the more than 50 years of devastation they have visited on it. The most appropriate form of such reparations would be the removal of their terrorist organization from the land of Israel and accepting Israel's ancient sovereignty over Gaza, Judea, and Samaria.
That will mark the end of the Palestinian people. What are you saying again was its beginning?
You are absolutely correct in your understanding of the "Palestinians" murderous motives. I am afraid however that you, along with 99% of the population of this planet have missed the beginning of WWIII (the enemy call it Jihad) quite a few years ago. The siege of the US embassy in Tehran in 1979, an event to which the latest Nobel Peace Prize winner had so miserably failed to respond, can be very well used as the day WWIII stepped out of the pages of the Koran and into the current events.
I pray the United States and Israel lead the world to victory in this war. Come to think of it, there is no choice, be you a Christian, or even, believe it or not, a Muslim.
Wednesday, February 12, 2003
Tuesday, February 11, 2003
MEDIA BLUNDER OF THE WEEK: Associated Press published the headline (Feb. 6): "Arab Man Killed in Stabbing in Northern Israel."
You have to read the article to find out it was the Arab who did the stabbing, and was only killed in order to save the life of the Israeli policeman that he was stabbing!
Read it here: http://honestreporting.com/a/r/347.asp
Comments to: feedback@ap.org
Read it here: http://honestreporting.com/a/r/347.asp
Comments to: feedback@ap.org
Saturday, February 08, 2003
Israel's War Against Palestinian Terror
Israel's War Against Palestinian Terror - http://www.oslo-war.com is well-designed, with good information.
Sunday, February 02, 2003
"ILAN RAMON - IN MEMORIAM"
HonestReporting Communique 02 February 2003
* * *
HonestReporting joins the people of Israel in mourning the tragic loss of Col. Ilan Ramon and his Columbia Shuttle crewmates.
We wish to share the following inspirational tribute, "Shattered Dreams," by Dina Coopersmith of http://aish.com/.
HonestReporting.com
====== ILAN RAMON: SHATTERED DREAMS ======
The mind reels in disbelief as reports come in about the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle.
We in Israel have become accustomed to announcements of terror attacks. We have even attuned ourselves to hearing the nuances of seriousness in the voice of the radio announcer as he or she introduces the hourly news so that we can steel ourselves against receiving the inevitable tragic information. Particularly on Saturday night, after spending an entire Shabbat disconnected from the outside world, the first moment of the post-Shabbat news is fraught with a special kind of tension.
But nothing prepared us for this.
It was just not possible.
After 16 days of almost constant news coverage about Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, we all felt we knew him. He was family. He represented us all -- our country, our people, our past and our future. He was our hero at a time when we sorely needed one.
The son of Holocaust survivors, he expressed all that was characteristic of the proud Israeli Jew. As a pilot in the Israeli air force, he was a war hero who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, as well as fighting in the Yom Kippur and Lebanon Wars. Although not religious, Ilan felt compelled to keep some significant religious observances in space to fulfill his dream of uniting the Jewish people and representing our nation. He took a book of Psalms and a picture drawn by a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed in Auschwitz; he ate only kosher food and made Kiddush Friday night and recited Shema Yisrael as the shuttle flew over Jerusalem.
He said he wanted to "emphasize the unity of the people of Israel and the Jewish communities abroad."
Among my friends, we spoke about him creating a Kiddush Hashem -- sanctification of God's name.
How could he be gone?
How could all our hopes and dreams disintegrate into the thin layer of atmosphere that protects the earth?
We anxiously awaited his landing, to celebrate the triumph of our new national hero. The possibility of mishap was very far from our minds.
"It's much more dangerous to drive in a car in this country that to travel in space," Ilan's brother, Gadi, said of his attitude. "Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine that there would be any problem."
Ilan's father said early Saturday morning, as he eagerly anticipated the imminent arrival of his son, "The only problem might be in the weather, and that might only delay the landing by a day or two."
The tragedy brought home to us once again the fragility of human endeavor. We are shocked when the frontiers of science and technology, in which we place our unflagging trust, reveal themselves to be so shaky and limited.
Colonel Ramon took great delight in taking a "surprise" with him to space -- a Torah scroll that survived the hell of the Holocaust. The scroll symbolized for him his dream of a unified people under God, with an indomitable spirit.
That Torah scroll exploded along with Ramon and his fellow astronauts at an altitude of 200,000 feet over a Texas town called Palestine (did I hear that correctly?).
The Midrash tells us that "the Jewish nation will not be redeemed until they are one unit." Ilan Ramon was a devoted husband, father, pilot, and scientist. But his greatest legacy is that he brought healing to a wounded nation.
Our hearts and prayers are with Ilan Ramon's parents and his wife, Rona, and their four children. Our nation mourns with you. Unfortunately, it is in grief that we have fulfilled Ilan's dream of unity.
Ilan commented this past Thursday on what the world looked like to him in space. "The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile."
Now we can turn that comment eerily around and say to Ilan, "You looked so marvelous from down here, so peaceful, so wonderful... and so fragile."
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* * *
HonestReporting joins the people of Israel in mourning the tragic loss of Col. Ilan Ramon and his Columbia Shuttle crewmates.
We wish to share the following inspirational tribute, "Shattered Dreams," by Dina Coopersmith of http://aish.com/.
HonestReporting.com
====== ILAN RAMON: SHATTERED DREAMS ======
The mind reels in disbelief as reports come in about the explosion of the Columbia space shuttle.
We in Israel have become accustomed to announcements of terror attacks. We have even attuned ourselves to hearing the nuances of seriousness in the voice of the radio announcer as he or she introduces the hourly news so that we can steel ourselves against receiving the inevitable tragic information. Particularly on Saturday night, after spending an entire Shabbat disconnected from the outside world, the first moment of the post-Shabbat news is fraught with a special kind of tension.
But nothing prepared us for this.
It was just not possible.
After 16 days of almost constant news coverage about Ilan Ramon, Israel's first astronaut, we all felt we knew him. He was family. He represented us all -- our country, our people, our past and our future. He was our hero at a time when we sorely needed one.
The son of Holocaust survivors, he expressed all that was characteristic of the proud Israeli Jew. As a pilot in the Israeli air force, he was a war hero who bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, as well as fighting in the Yom Kippur and Lebanon Wars. Although not religious, Ilan felt compelled to keep some significant religious observances in space to fulfill his dream of uniting the Jewish people and representing our nation. He took a book of Psalms and a picture drawn by a 14-year-old Jewish boy who was killed in Auschwitz; he ate only kosher food and made Kiddush Friday night and recited Shema Yisrael as the shuttle flew over Jerusalem.
He said he wanted to "emphasize the unity of the people of Israel and the Jewish communities abroad."
Among my friends, we spoke about him creating a Kiddush Hashem -- sanctification of God's name.
How could he be gone?
How could all our hopes and dreams disintegrate into the thin layer of atmosphere that protects the earth?
We anxiously awaited his landing, to celebrate the triumph of our new national hero. The possibility of mishap was very far from our minds.
"It's much more dangerous to drive in a car in this country that to travel in space," Ilan's brother, Gadi, said of his attitude. "Not in our wildest dreams did we imagine that there would be any problem."
Ilan's father said early Saturday morning, as he eagerly anticipated the imminent arrival of his son, "The only problem might be in the weather, and that might only delay the landing by a day or two."
The tragedy brought home to us once again the fragility of human endeavor. We are shocked when the frontiers of science and technology, in which we place our unflagging trust, reveal themselves to be so shaky and limited.
Colonel Ramon took great delight in taking a "surprise" with him to space -- a Torah scroll that survived the hell of the Holocaust. The scroll symbolized for him his dream of a unified people under God, with an indomitable spirit.
That Torah scroll exploded along with Ramon and his fellow astronauts at an altitude of 200,000 feet over a Texas town called Palestine (did I hear that correctly?).
The Midrash tells us that "the Jewish nation will not be redeemed until they are one unit." Ilan Ramon was a devoted husband, father, pilot, and scientist. But his greatest legacy is that he brought healing to a wounded nation.
Our hearts and prayers are with Ilan Ramon's parents and his wife, Rona, and their four children. Our nation mourns with you. Unfortunately, it is in grief that we have fulfilled Ilan's dream of unity.
Ilan commented this past Thursday on what the world looked like to him in space. "The world looks marvelous from up here, so peaceful, so wonderful and so fragile."
Now we can turn that comment eerily around and say to Ilan, "You looked so marvelous from down here, so peaceful, so wonderful... and so fragile."
========== ABOUT HONESTREPORTING ============
HonestReporting welcomes you to submit media critiques for possible inclusion in future communiques. Be sure to include a URL of the article you are critiquing, and send to: action@honestreporting.com
Encourage your friends to join HonestReporting. Send a friendly info message from: http://honestreporting.com/a/Tell_a_Friend.asp
HONESTREPORTING INFO SHEET to print out, post on bulletin boards, photocopy and distribute. Get the word out to schools, places of worship, community centers. Go to: http://www.honestreporting.com/a/HRPrintout.pdf
Privacy Guarantee: HonestReporting will never share your e-mail address or personal details with anyone. Our web servers feature the latest hack-proof technology.
======================================
HonestReporting involves considerable research and manpower costs. Your donations are greatly appreciated and will help Israel win the media battle. "Middle East Media Watch" (DBA HonestReporting) is a section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, contributions to which are deductible for U.S. income tax purposes. Please send contributions to:
HonestReporting 156 West 56th Street, Suite 1201 New York, NY 10019 USA
Or you can donate online with your credit card, using our secure server: http://honestreporting.com/a/Donate.asp
======================================
HonestReporting has 55,000 members worldwide, and is growing daily.
(C) 2003 HonestReporting - Permission granted to post and redistribute. E-mail: action@honestreporting.com
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Sunday, January 19, 2003
MY TRUE HERO
By Solly Ganor
solganor@netvision.net.il
I don’t think there was a person in Israel who didn't watch the Shuttle Columbia blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, yesterday.
We watched with trepidation and anxiety, but above all pride as the graceful white shuttle lifted off into the blue Florida sky, trailing a white plume behind it. For us Israelis, it was a special flight, because our own astronaut, colonel Ilan Ramon was among the crew, the first Israeli to enter space.
For a short while we allowed ourselves to forget our problems, our differences, even the coming elections, and were united in hailing colonel Illan Ramon as our hero.
But for me, there was another hero: someone that was hardly mentioned in the Israeli media. If it weren’t for an American TV station, which briefly stated that colonel Illan Ramon’s mother was an Auschwitz survivor, I too would have been ignorant of the fact.
To most us the fact that his mother was a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz, would be baffling why I would call her a hero.
I will tell you why.
After the collapse of Hitler’s Reich and our liberation in the beginning of May, 1945, I served in the US army as an interpreter. I was fortunate enough to have learned English during the war, a language that very few survivors spoke.
I served in a unit that was attached to the CIC, (Army Intelligence). We were eleven men, all of them, beside myself, American service men, who knew a second language besides their native English. Our Job was to find Nazis hiding among the displaced persons in the DP camps.
However, we also visited camps were only Jews lived, such as Feldafing, Fherenwald and more. For a while I was the interpreter for a colonel Woodhouse, who for some reason was attached to our unit. Colonel Woodhouse was an English psychiatrist who was sent to evaluate the mental state of the Jewish concentration camp survivors.
I will never forget his official evaluation. He didn’t keep it a secret and I was able to read it. “I came to the conclusion that the trauma caused to Jewish inmates of concentration camps was unprecedented in its severity and that they would never be able to live normal lives, get married and have children. “ I have known patients who were subjected to trauma that weren’t even a fraction of the trauma the Jews were subjected to and they were psychologically disabled for life. Therefore, I see no hope for them.”
Well, colonel Woodhouse, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Ramon, a Auschwitz survivor, who not only got married and brought children to this world, but brought up a son that anyone in the world would be proud of to call as his own, despite your prognosis.
Perhaps, from the medical point of few he was right, but he didn’t count on the spirit of the survivors. When we were liberated we were almost naked, bereft of all possessions, clad in a prisoner’s striped uniform and wooden clogs. We owned nothing, not even underwear, socks or a handkerchief. We were like walking skeletons, all skin and bones. My schooling was interrupted when I was twelve, and I was subjected to brutalities that mankind has never known. I was liberated from the Nazis, but what next? So I stood before a world, I considered hostile, age seventeen, and I had to make my way through it. And yet I did it and I did it well.
I don’t know Mrs. Ramon, but today when I watched her son taking off into space, I am sure that she did more than well. Therefore, Mrs. Ramon, I salute you. You too are my hero.
Solly Ganor,
Herzelia Pituach, Israel
solganor@netvision.net.il
I don’t think there was a person in Israel who didn't watch the Shuttle Columbia blasting off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, yesterday.
We watched with trepidation and anxiety, but above all pride as the graceful white shuttle lifted off into the blue Florida sky, trailing a white plume behind it. For us Israelis, it was a special flight, because our own astronaut, colonel Ilan Ramon was among the crew, the first Israeli to enter space.
For a short while we allowed ourselves to forget our problems, our differences, even the coming elections, and were united in hailing colonel Illan Ramon as our hero.
But for me, there was another hero: someone that was hardly mentioned in the Israeli media. If it weren’t for an American TV station, which briefly stated that colonel Illan Ramon’s mother was an Auschwitz survivor, I too would have been ignorant of the fact.
To most us the fact that his mother was a Holocaust survivor from Auschwitz, would be baffling why I would call her a hero.
I will tell you why.
After the collapse of Hitler’s Reich and our liberation in the beginning of May, 1945, I served in the US army as an interpreter. I was fortunate enough to have learned English during the war, a language that very few survivors spoke.
I served in a unit that was attached to the CIC, (Army Intelligence). We were eleven men, all of them, beside myself, American service men, who knew a second language besides their native English. Our Job was to find Nazis hiding among the displaced persons in the DP camps.
However, we also visited camps were only Jews lived, such as Feldafing, Fherenwald and more. For a while I was the interpreter for a colonel Woodhouse, who for some reason was attached to our unit. Colonel Woodhouse was an English psychiatrist who was sent to evaluate the mental state of the Jewish concentration camp survivors.
I will never forget his official evaluation. He didn’t keep it a secret and I was able to read it. “I came to the conclusion that the trauma caused to Jewish inmates of concentration camps was unprecedented in its severity and that they would never be able to live normal lives, get married and have children. “ I have known patients who were subjected to trauma that weren’t even a fraction of the trauma the Jews were subjected to and they were psychologically disabled for life. Therefore, I see no hope for them.”
Well, colonel Woodhouse, allow me to introduce you to Mrs. Ramon, a Auschwitz survivor, who not only got married and brought children to this world, but brought up a son that anyone in the world would be proud of to call as his own, despite your prognosis.
Perhaps, from the medical point of few he was right, but he didn’t count on the spirit of the survivors. When we were liberated we were almost naked, bereft of all possessions, clad in a prisoner’s striped uniform and wooden clogs. We owned nothing, not even underwear, socks or a handkerchief. We were like walking skeletons, all skin and bones. My schooling was interrupted when I was twelve, and I was subjected to brutalities that mankind has never known. I was liberated from the Nazis, but what next? So I stood before a world, I considered hostile, age seventeen, and I had to make my way through it. And yet I did it and I did it well.
I don’t know Mrs. Ramon, but today when I watched her son taking off into space, I am sure that she did more than well. Therefore, Mrs. Ramon, I salute you. You too are my hero.
Solly Ganor,
Herzelia Pituach, Israel
Thursday, January 16, 2003
THIS PURIM -- SHOW YOU CARE
Just for a moment, picture a young Israel soldier in an isolated outpost far from family and home. It's Purim, and he's serving under extremely trying conditions. Then, out of the blue, he's handed a traditional Purim basket -- mishloach manot-- filled with goodies. Follow this link to send a Purim basket to an IDF soldier.
Saturday, January 11, 2003
A story of cold-blooded murder
By Joseph Farah
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Last week, Massoud Mahlouf Elon, a 72-year-old Israeli from the town of Menahemya, did something he had done for years.
He drove into the Jordan Valley, a desolate Arab area where he often brought clothes to donate to poor Bedouin tribes people.
"I begged him not to travel there," said his son Ya'acov.
But Elon enjoyed friendly relations with the local people. They knew him. He knew them. Despite rising tensions between Jews and Arabs, Elon believed his own personal relationships built up over many years would overshadow the dangers just any Israeli might face in the area.
Elon was wrong.
After a 12-hour search of the Jordan Valley using jeeps, helicopters and dogs, Israeli security forces discovered first his charred automobile and later his mutilated and incinerated remains last Thursday. He is believed to have been stoned to death. His face had been bashed beyond recognition.
The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an Arab terrorist group under the command of Yasser Arafat, immediately began circulating leaflets taking responsibility for the murder.
I have written tens of thousands of words over the years about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I have tried to find new ways of looking at old facts. I have tried to shed light on the mysteries of this ancient blood feud. I have tried to explain the geo-political context of this explosive struggle. I have delved into the spiritual issues. I have reported facts I felt certain would change people's perceptions. I have attempted to shatter myths and misconceptions.
Sometimes, however, the simplest, most direct and most effective way to reach people with the truth is through the personal story.
Massoud Mahlouf Elon's story.
I didn't know Elon. But I feel like I did after reading about him. I've met many men like him in the Middle East, nice men who got along with their neighbors, nice men who would give you the shirt off their back, nice men who didn't care about politics and power.
This man was no threat to anyone. He took no sides in any conflict. He was a Jew who simply loved and cared for his neighbors, his Arab neighbors. And he paid for that love with his life in the cruelest imaginable way.
In the past, I have made the case that Yasser Arafat should be tried, convicted and executed for the murders of high-profile U.S. diplomats. I have made the case that Arafat should pay with his own life for the murders of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jews. I have made the case that he should be held accountable for the murder of dozens of America citizens.
But today, I suggest we put all that aside for the moment and simply arrest Yasser Arafat for the murder of Massoud Mahlouf Elon, the 72-year-old Jew with failing eyesight who wanted only to help his Arab neighbors.
I don't care how such an action might inflame his cohorts. I don't care how such an action might impact the "peace process." I don't care how Washington might react to such a move. I don't care.
It's time for justice. It's time to do the right thing.
What good will it do for Israel to lash out and attack some mid-level terrorist in Arafat's chain of command? What good will it do to steamroll over some terrorists' houses? What good will it do to blame anyone else but the mastermind of this cold-blooded murder as well as 40 years of similar atrocities?
Arafat did this. He claims responsibility for the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. This group is an offshoot of his own Fatah Party. Now let him be responsible for their actions.
Arafat needs to pay for Massoud Mahlouf Elon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate.
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Last week, Massoud Mahlouf Elon, a 72-year-old Israeli from the town of Menahemya, did something he had done for years.
He drove into the Jordan Valley, a desolate Arab area where he often brought clothes to donate to poor Bedouin tribes people.
"I begged him not to travel there," said his son Ya'acov.
But Elon enjoyed friendly relations with the local people. They knew him. He knew them. Despite rising tensions between Jews and Arabs, Elon believed his own personal relationships built up over many years would overshadow the dangers just any Israeli might face in the area.
Elon was wrong.
After a 12-hour search of the Jordan Valley using jeeps, helicopters and dogs, Israeli security forces discovered first his charred automobile and later his mutilated and incinerated remains last Thursday. He is believed to have been stoned to death. His face had been bashed beyond recognition.
The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades, an Arab terrorist group under the command of Yasser Arafat, immediately began circulating leaflets taking responsibility for the murder.
I have written tens of thousands of words over the years about the Arab-Israeli conflict. I have tried to find new ways of looking at old facts. I have tried to shed light on the mysteries of this ancient blood feud. I have tried to explain the geo-political context of this explosive struggle. I have delved into the spiritual issues. I have reported facts I felt certain would change people's perceptions. I have attempted to shatter myths and misconceptions.
Sometimes, however, the simplest, most direct and most effective way to reach people with the truth is through the personal story.
Massoud Mahlouf Elon's story.
I didn't know Elon. But I feel like I did after reading about him. I've met many men like him in the Middle East, nice men who got along with their neighbors, nice men who would give you the shirt off their back, nice men who didn't care about politics and power.
This man was no threat to anyone. He took no sides in any conflict. He was a Jew who simply loved and cared for his neighbors, his Arab neighbors. And he paid for that love with his life in the cruelest imaginable way.
In the past, I have made the case that Yasser Arafat should be tried, convicted and executed for the murders of high-profile U.S. diplomats. I have made the case that Arafat should pay with his own life for the murders of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Jews. I have made the case that he should be held accountable for the murder of dozens of America citizens.
But today, I suggest we put all that aside for the moment and simply arrest Yasser Arafat for the murder of Massoud Mahlouf Elon, the 72-year-old Jew with failing eyesight who wanted only to help his Arab neighbors.
I don't care how such an action might inflame his cohorts. I don't care how such an action might impact the "peace process." I don't care how Washington might react to such a move. I don't care.
It's time for justice. It's time to do the right thing.
What good will it do for Israel to lash out and attack some mid-level terrorist in Arafat's chain of command? What good will it do to steamroll over some terrorists' houses? What good will it do to blame anyone else but the mastermind of this cold-blooded murder as well as 40 years of similar atrocities?
Arafat did this. He claims responsibility for the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades. This group is an offshoot of his own Fatah Party. Now let him be responsible for their actions.
Arafat needs to pay for Massoud Mahlouf Elon.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Farah's nationally syndicated column originates at WorldNetDaily, where he serves as editor and chief executive officer. If you would like to see the column in your local newspaper, contact your local editor. Tell your paper the column is available through Creators Syndicate.
Sunday, January 05, 2003
KADDISH FOR ZELIG
Dear Friends,
When I sent out Holocaust survivor and author Solly Ganor's "Conversation on the Beach," had no idea who the author was--man, woman, background, age--nothing. Only now, having read Mr. Ganor's "Kaddish for Zelig," do I understand the full, incredible impact of that conversation between Mr. Ganor and the arrogant Muslim student on an Israeli beach. Read the following article, and then re-read "Conversation on the Beach." Do this, and I promise you that you will finally understand the whole truth about the people of Israel, and the Jewish State. It will put into perspective the media lies, Muslim propaganda, and the Jewish Left's sickeningly wrong perspective. It's long, but you will never have to read another word on this subject again.
I promise you. I promise you.
With every blessing,
Naomi Ragen
http://www.naomiragen.com
KADDISH FOR ZELIG
by Solly Ganor
solganor@netvision.net.il
Holocaust survivor
Israel, June 12, 2002
If I needed a reminder why we live in Israel and cling to it with heart and soul, despite the endless wars and the suicide bombings, this recent journey supplied us with the answer. The flight from Tel Aviv to Munich lasts less than four hours, but my memory takes me back fifty seven years, when I was a teenage slave laborer for the Nazis in one of the outer camps of Dachau. Towards the end of the war, they were so desperately in need of labor that the Nazis reluctantly gave up the idea of gassing all Jews, irrespective of their gender or age.
They continued to gas women with children and old people, but those whom they considered still capable of work, were temporarily spared. They even coined a phrase for those of us: "Vernichtung durch Arbeit"--"Annihilation through Work" In fact, they starved us and made us work twelve hours a day at hard labor, condemning us to a slow agonizing death.
There were in all eleven outer camps of Dachau, where in nine months fifteen thousand Jewish slaves out of a total of thirty thousand, died of starvation, hard labor and beatings by the German supervisors and the SS guards. I was in an outer camp of Dachau, known as Lager X, by Utting, a picturesque little town by the Amersee. Before the war writers and artists used to live there. I was told that the famous Kurt Weil lived there before Hitler came to power.
In July 1944, with the Soviet troops approaching Kaunas ghetto where I was incarcerated for three years, the Nazis transported us half across Europe to Bavaria. There, near the medieval town of Landsberg and surroundings, Hitler decided in the last phases of the war to build gigantic underground factories where the jet fighter Messerschmit M62 was to be built. This was Hitler's promised secret weapon that would sweep the American and British planes out of the German skies.
We, the half starved Jews of Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary were to build these gigantic factories, and perish while building it.
The construction sight was called Moll, named after the owner of the building company, Leonard Moll. I will never forget the day when I first laid eyes on it. We were driving from Utting in a truck, to deliver a load of potatoes . In our camp it was known that the Germans were building some kind of underground factory, and we heard terrible stories about it. We traveled for what seemed like an hour along a tree-lined dirt road. Darkness had fallen, and in the distance we could hear the low grinding roar of heavy machinery. The din increased just before we emerged into a huge clearing lit by the glare of floodlights. The road dropped into a vast excavation, and from it rose an enormous concrete vault, bristling with vertical reinforcing rods so that it looked like some monstrous hedgehog. Narrow railroad tracks curved towards the opening.
The installation was a half-cylinder of concrete, 1,300 feet long and spanning more than 275 feet at the base. It rose some 95 feet into the air at the top of the arch. Under the glaring lights, cranes and bulldozers moved into and around its mouth. Scores of tractors, trucks, and other heavy equipment created an ear-shattering roar. Along the sides, scores of prisoners stood on platforms handling huge flexible hoses that spewed wet cement into the spiked grid work, while others moved about with shovels and buckets. Everywhere we looked we saw what looked like thousands of men in striped uniforms moving about the compound, carrying lumber, iron rods and sacks of cement.
It was like an enormous, evil hive. Even as we watched we heard inhuman screams coming from above. The men who were maneuvering the huge hose had lost their grip, and the pipe began writhing about, spewing concrete in all directions. The men desperately tried to seize it, but it whipped and flailed and knocked several men off their feet. One after another they fell screaming onto the spikes, while the hose poured hundreds of pounds of concrete on top of them. The scene I described took place towards the end of 1944.
The men I saw fall into the concrete are still entombed in its massive construction to this day. Among the men who slaved on this project was my childhood friends Uri Chanoch and Chaim Konwitz, Avraham Fein, Monchik Levin, and many others. Fifty-eight years later we had returned to "Moll" to say Kadish for these men.
One of the man entombed I knew personally. His name was Zelig. I never found out his last name, but I knew he was from a small town in Lithuania. He was one of the "human horses" who were engaged in pulling a food cart from the village of Utting to a German worker's kitchen. I too was a horse, and in all we were four teenagers who were given that job.
The German kitchen was near the site where we were slaving at hard labor, a place known as Dyckerhof and Wydman. (Dyckerhof and Wydman, by the way, is one of the largest construction companies in Germany today.) At that stage of the war, gasoline became a very precious commodity, and we the Jewish slaves, were used as 'horses'. Make no mistake, being a "horse" was a coveted job in the camp, the alternative was to carry hundred pounds of cement on your back, or iron rails to build tracks for the trolleys. There was another advantage in being a "horse" the cart we were pulling was filled with food for the kitchen, and we always managed to scrounge a crust of bread or a bowl of soup in Utting.
Zelig was an ardent Zionist and always talked about how he would work the land of Israel if he ever survived the war. "If I will ever survive this hell and get to the land of Israel, I will kiss every grain of sand, and work twenty four hour a day to build it up," he would say, and he would say it with so much longing in his voice that it had an effect on all of us.
But his wish never came true. He fell into the roof of "Moll" and became entombed with the others, by sheer mistake, and I was there to see him fall. I will never forget his screams as he fell to his horrible death. Fifty-eight years later we stood quietly reciting kadish for the dead and I spoke to Zelig of the land of Israel that he loved so much, and like Moses, never got to see it.
Yes, Zelig, I want to tell you of the true miracle of Israel, that puts to shame the miracles of the Bible. Yes, Zelig, I survived and saw your beloved land. I still remember the mountains of Carmel rising from the morning mist, as our ship approached Haifa.
We were a ship full of penniless Holocaust survivors, and we all sang (what was later to become our National Anthem) the Hatikvah (the Hope) with tears in our eyes. No sooner had we landed on its shore, as we were called to defend the newly proclaimed land of Israel. Five Arab armies descended on us trying to strangle us at our birth.
I will never forget the moment when I was given a rifle and was told by my commanding officer: "This is your land now, defend it with all you have got, for you will never have another chance to have your own country."
And defend it we did, Zelig. Many of us died, some of them the last sons of once glorious Jewish families of Europe, but they died for the only cause worth while fighting for. I was only sorry, Zelig, that you couldn't be there by my side fighting for the land you loved so much. With the onslaught of the combined Arab armies, the world gave us a week to survive and what is more, no one lifted a finger to help us. The Arabs were to finish what Hitler had started.
So what else is new? But the world didn't reckon with one small thing, Zelig.. We were not the defenseless Jews anymore. We were now back in our homeland fighting for the resurrected State of Israel. Against all odds we won the war, and set out to prepare the ground for another million penniless refugees. Jews, who escaped with their lives from the Arabic countries, where they were robbed of their properties, possessions and money.
And soon another million arrived from all over the world, and another million, from Poland and the Baltics. From six hundred thousands in 1948, we grew into a population of two and half million within a few years of the creation of the State. Ironically, when the Jewish Agency asked for sevent-five thousands certificates to save some Jews from Hitler's gas chambers, the British claimed that the country couldn't absorb such a vast number of Jews. That was the infamous White Paper.
The fledgling state soon ran out of money to buy the basic needs for the swelling population. We lived in tents and ate what the small agricultural settlements could provide us with. It wasn't enough, but we weren't starving.
Very soon we began to build a healthy democratic society, creating wealth by our brains and hard work, as the country had no natural resources. Soon Jews from over fifty countries full of enthusiasm came to help build the State of Israel. Our population grew even more, and despite the predictions of international experts, that no country can absorb so many millions without an economical collapse, Israel continued to develop in every field. The Jews, who hadn't tilled the land for two thousands years became experts in agriculture, achieving internationally unprecedented results.
Ironically, the stereotyped Jew, the merchant, the money lender, the usurer, went all over the world to teach agriculture and know-how in many fields, and what is even more ironic, we became experts in warfare. "The people of the book," as we were known for two thousand years, soft and cowardly, as proclaimed by the anti-Semites, soon learned to become experts in that field as well. The fact is, that in 1967, we stunned the world by defeating the combined Arab armies in six days.
The Arab countries, unwilling to accept their defeat in the battlefield, and unwilling to accept us in their midst, launched war after war, trying to eliminate the State of Israel. Every time they suffered crushing defeats, despite their superior numbers and new-technology weapons the Soviets supplied them with.
Today we are a modern society of six million people. The country that once was a mosquito-infested swamp land, or dry desert land, blossomed into a modern society of six million people. From nothing we created a land that not only boasts of the highest standards in every field of achievement, but also developed one of the highest high-tech industries in the world. We export per capita in dollars more than any other country in the world. And we did it all with hard work, brains, and guts.
Yes, Zelig, I always admired you for you love of that distant land called Eretz Israel. I never believed that I could have such emotions for any land. Today, after having fought for it in four bloody wars, and after spending a life time in helping rebuild it, I can finally say that I do share your feelings for the land of Israel. Yes, Zelig, you can be proud of us. We, the survivors of the Holocaust, have risen from the ashes of Europe and helped create the miracle of Israel. Never again will they line us up defenseless before the gas chambers of Europe!
Rest in peace, my friend Zelig, rest in peace.
Herzelia, Israel
June 12, 2002
A Letter from Solly Ganor
Dear Harry,
I thought that I would interest you in an article I wrote after I was invited to Germany by the German government. My book, 'Light One Candle,' was translated into German and was recently introduced to the German High Schools as a study book for the subject on the Holocaust. Therefore I am frequently invited to Germany to give lectures on the Holocaust in German High, universities and even the army and air force.
You can imagine that it is not an easy matter for me to do that, especially the lectures in the German army. Standing before 450 German officers and lecturing them on what their grand parents did to us, is almost a surrealistic scene for me. The uniforms are pretty much the same as they were under the Nazis, and the faces haven't changed much, yet they are different from their grand parents.
One general told me that one of my lectures are worth more than a 1000 hours of learning history. I guess this is what keeps me coming back to Germany.
And the ironic fact that the Germany is almost the only country in Europe that is supporting Israel within the European Union. We desperately need allies there, even if they are Germans. Recently I visited the site by Landsberg, where we were used as forced labor. A friend of mine by the name of Zelig is entombed in the twelve-foot-thick roof that we built during the war. The bunker was meant to be a factory for the German jet fighter Me-62, the first jet to be employed during the war.
Visiting the place brought back bitter memories, one of them, the entombing of Zelig. I call the article 'Kadish for Zelig,' and so far only sent it to some friends. If you think that it would be of interest to put it on your Web site, please do. I think all Jews should read such personal accounts of what happened to us during the Holocaust.
Thanks and Shalom,
Solly
When I sent out Holocaust survivor and author Solly Ganor's "Conversation on the Beach," had no idea who the author was--man, woman, background, age--nothing. Only now, having read Mr. Ganor's "Kaddish for Zelig," do I understand the full, incredible impact of that conversation between Mr. Ganor and the arrogant Muslim student on an Israeli beach. Read the following article, and then re-read "Conversation on the Beach." Do this, and I promise you that you will finally understand the whole truth about the people of Israel, and the Jewish State. It will put into perspective the media lies, Muslim propaganda, and the Jewish Left's sickeningly wrong perspective. It's long, but you will never have to read another word on this subject again.
I promise you. I promise you.
With every blessing,
Naomi Ragen
http://www.naomiragen.com
KADDISH FOR ZELIG
by Solly Ganor
solganor@netvision.net.il
Holocaust survivor
Israel, June 12, 2002
If I needed a reminder why we live in Israel and cling to it with heart and soul, despite the endless wars and the suicide bombings, this recent journey supplied us with the answer. The flight from Tel Aviv to Munich lasts less than four hours, but my memory takes me back fifty seven years, when I was a teenage slave laborer for the Nazis in one of the outer camps of Dachau. Towards the end of the war, they were so desperately in need of labor that the Nazis reluctantly gave up the idea of gassing all Jews, irrespective of their gender or age.
They continued to gas women with children and old people, but those whom they considered still capable of work, were temporarily spared. They even coined a phrase for those of us: "Vernichtung durch Arbeit"--"Annihilation through Work" In fact, they starved us and made us work twelve hours a day at hard labor, condemning us to a slow agonizing death.
There were in all eleven outer camps of Dachau, where in nine months fifteen thousand Jewish slaves out of a total of thirty thousand, died of starvation, hard labor and beatings by the German supervisors and the SS guards. I was in an outer camp of Dachau, known as Lager X, by Utting, a picturesque little town by the Amersee. Before the war writers and artists used to live there. I was told that the famous Kurt Weil lived there before Hitler came to power.
In July 1944, with the Soviet troops approaching Kaunas ghetto where I was incarcerated for three years, the Nazis transported us half across Europe to Bavaria. There, near the medieval town of Landsberg and surroundings, Hitler decided in the last phases of the war to build gigantic underground factories where the jet fighter Messerschmit M62 was to be built. This was Hitler's promised secret weapon that would sweep the American and British planes out of the German skies.
We, the half starved Jews of Lithuania, Poland, and Hungary were to build these gigantic factories, and perish while building it.
The construction sight was called Moll, named after the owner of the building company, Leonard Moll. I will never forget the day when I first laid eyes on it. We were driving from Utting in a truck, to deliver a load of potatoes . In our camp it was known that the Germans were building some kind of underground factory, and we heard terrible stories about it. We traveled for what seemed like an hour along a tree-lined dirt road. Darkness had fallen, and in the distance we could hear the low grinding roar of heavy machinery. The din increased just before we emerged into a huge clearing lit by the glare of floodlights. The road dropped into a vast excavation, and from it rose an enormous concrete vault, bristling with vertical reinforcing rods so that it looked like some monstrous hedgehog. Narrow railroad tracks curved towards the opening.
The installation was a half-cylinder of concrete, 1,300 feet long and spanning more than 275 feet at the base. It rose some 95 feet into the air at the top of the arch. Under the glaring lights, cranes and bulldozers moved into and around its mouth. Scores of tractors, trucks, and other heavy equipment created an ear-shattering roar. Along the sides, scores of prisoners stood on platforms handling huge flexible hoses that spewed wet cement into the spiked grid work, while others moved about with shovels and buckets. Everywhere we looked we saw what looked like thousands of men in striped uniforms moving about the compound, carrying lumber, iron rods and sacks of cement.
It was like an enormous, evil hive. Even as we watched we heard inhuman screams coming from above. The men who were maneuvering the huge hose had lost their grip, and the pipe began writhing about, spewing concrete in all directions. The men desperately tried to seize it, but it whipped and flailed and knocked several men off their feet. One after another they fell screaming onto the spikes, while the hose poured hundreds of pounds of concrete on top of them. The scene I described took place towards the end of 1944.
The men I saw fall into the concrete are still entombed in its massive construction to this day. Among the men who slaved on this project was my childhood friends Uri Chanoch and Chaim Konwitz, Avraham Fein, Monchik Levin, and many others. Fifty-eight years later we had returned to "Moll" to say Kadish for these men.
One of the man entombed I knew personally. His name was Zelig. I never found out his last name, but I knew he was from a small town in Lithuania. He was one of the "human horses" who were engaged in pulling a food cart from the village of Utting to a German worker's kitchen. I too was a horse, and in all we were four teenagers who were given that job.
The German kitchen was near the site where we were slaving at hard labor, a place known as Dyckerhof and Wydman. (Dyckerhof and Wydman, by the way, is one of the largest construction companies in Germany today.) At that stage of the war, gasoline became a very precious commodity, and we the Jewish slaves, were used as 'horses'. Make no mistake, being a "horse" was a coveted job in the camp, the alternative was to carry hundred pounds of cement on your back, or iron rails to build tracks for the trolleys. There was another advantage in being a "horse" the cart we were pulling was filled with food for the kitchen, and we always managed to scrounge a crust of bread or a bowl of soup in Utting.
Zelig was an ardent Zionist and always talked about how he would work the land of Israel if he ever survived the war. "If I will ever survive this hell and get to the land of Israel, I will kiss every grain of sand, and work twenty four hour a day to build it up," he would say, and he would say it with so much longing in his voice that it had an effect on all of us.
But his wish never came true. He fell into the roof of "Moll" and became entombed with the others, by sheer mistake, and I was there to see him fall. I will never forget his screams as he fell to his horrible death. Fifty-eight years later we stood quietly reciting kadish for the dead and I spoke to Zelig of the land of Israel that he loved so much, and like Moses, never got to see it.
Yes, Zelig, I want to tell you of the true miracle of Israel, that puts to shame the miracles of the Bible. Yes, Zelig, I survived and saw your beloved land. I still remember the mountains of Carmel rising from the morning mist, as our ship approached Haifa.
We were a ship full of penniless Holocaust survivors, and we all sang (what was later to become our National Anthem) the Hatikvah (the Hope) with tears in our eyes. No sooner had we landed on its shore, as we were called to defend the newly proclaimed land of Israel. Five Arab armies descended on us trying to strangle us at our birth.
I will never forget the moment when I was given a rifle and was told by my commanding officer: "This is your land now, defend it with all you have got, for you will never have another chance to have your own country."
And defend it we did, Zelig. Many of us died, some of them the last sons of once glorious Jewish families of Europe, but they died for the only cause worth while fighting for. I was only sorry, Zelig, that you couldn't be there by my side fighting for the land you loved so much. With the onslaught of the combined Arab armies, the world gave us a week to survive and what is more, no one lifted a finger to help us. The Arabs were to finish what Hitler had started.
So what else is new? But the world didn't reckon with one small thing, Zelig.. We were not the defenseless Jews anymore. We were now back in our homeland fighting for the resurrected State of Israel. Against all odds we won the war, and set out to prepare the ground for another million penniless refugees. Jews, who escaped with their lives from the Arabic countries, where they were robbed of their properties, possessions and money.
And soon another million arrived from all over the world, and another million, from Poland and the Baltics. From six hundred thousands in 1948, we grew into a population of two and half million within a few years of the creation of the State. Ironically, when the Jewish Agency asked for sevent-five thousands certificates to save some Jews from Hitler's gas chambers, the British claimed that the country couldn't absorb such a vast number of Jews. That was the infamous White Paper.
The fledgling state soon ran out of money to buy the basic needs for the swelling population. We lived in tents and ate what the small agricultural settlements could provide us with. It wasn't enough, but we weren't starving.
Very soon we began to build a healthy democratic society, creating wealth by our brains and hard work, as the country had no natural resources. Soon Jews from over fifty countries full of enthusiasm came to help build the State of Israel. Our population grew even more, and despite the predictions of international experts, that no country can absorb so many millions without an economical collapse, Israel continued to develop in every field. The Jews, who hadn't tilled the land for two thousands years became experts in agriculture, achieving internationally unprecedented results.
Ironically, the stereotyped Jew, the merchant, the money lender, the usurer, went all over the world to teach agriculture and know-how in many fields, and what is even more ironic, we became experts in warfare. "The people of the book," as we were known for two thousand years, soft and cowardly, as proclaimed by the anti-Semites, soon learned to become experts in that field as well. The fact is, that in 1967, we stunned the world by defeating the combined Arab armies in six days.
The Arab countries, unwilling to accept their defeat in the battlefield, and unwilling to accept us in their midst, launched war after war, trying to eliminate the State of Israel. Every time they suffered crushing defeats, despite their superior numbers and new-technology weapons the Soviets supplied them with.
Today we are a modern society of six million people. The country that once was a mosquito-infested swamp land, or dry desert land, blossomed into a modern society of six million people. From nothing we created a land that not only boasts of the highest standards in every field of achievement, but also developed one of the highest high-tech industries in the world. We export per capita in dollars more than any other country in the world. And we did it all with hard work, brains, and guts.
Yes, Zelig, I always admired you for you love of that distant land called Eretz Israel. I never believed that I could have such emotions for any land. Today, after having fought for it in four bloody wars, and after spending a life time in helping rebuild it, I can finally say that I do share your feelings for the land of Israel. Yes, Zelig, you can be proud of us. We, the survivors of the Holocaust, have risen from the ashes of Europe and helped create the miracle of Israel. Never again will they line us up defenseless before the gas chambers of Europe!
Rest in peace, my friend Zelig, rest in peace.
Herzelia, Israel
June 12, 2002
A Letter from Solly Ganor
Dear Harry,
I thought that I would interest you in an article I wrote after I was invited to Germany by the German government. My book, 'Light One Candle,' was translated into German and was recently introduced to the German High Schools as a study book for the subject on the Holocaust. Therefore I am frequently invited to Germany to give lectures on the Holocaust in German High, universities and even the army and air force.
You can imagine that it is not an easy matter for me to do that, especially the lectures in the German army. Standing before 450 German officers and lecturing them on what their grand parents did to us, is almost a surrealistic scene for me. The uniforms are pretty much the same as they were under the Nazis, and the faces haven't changed much, yet they are different from their grand parents.
One general told me that one of my lectures are worth more than a 1000 hours of learning history. I guess this is what keeps me coming back to Germany.
And the ironic fact that the Germany is almost the only country in Europe that is supporting Israel within the European Union. We desperately need allies there, even if they are Germans. Recently I visited the site by Landsberg, where we were used as forced labor. A friend of mine by the name of Zelig is entombed in the twelve-foot-thick roof that we built during the war. The bunker was meant to be a factory for the German jet fighter Me-62, the first jet to be employed during the war.
Visiting the place brought back bitter memories, one of them, the entombing of Zelig. I call the article 'Kadish for Zelig,' and so far only sent it to some friends. If you think that it would be of interest to put it on your Web site, please do. I think all Jews should read such personal accounts of what happened to us during the Holocaust.
Thanks and Shalom,
Solly
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