Etikett: History

When I travel out of Israel, I see local people traveling, going to work, meet for coffee – the routines of life. In my heart I feel hope that one day I can walk in my home without fear, that within my home I will be safe, that no one would claim that my home is not mine.
Is my hope strange to you? We have no other country to live in.
Wherever you go in Israel, you can find a piece of Jewish history: coins, scrolls, houses, synagogues…
A small region that has always been inhabited by the Jewish nation.
Although many argue otherwise, it is a proven fact.

Everywhere else in the world we will always be strangers, not belong.
It’s sad to hear people discuss the situation in my country, and always choose one side..I’ll tell you a story, a true story:

Many years ago, in a faraway land, there was a Jewish man, a father of seven sons. He had a croft – a small farm, but he was not a farmer.
He was a Dayan – a Jewish Judge, who travelled from village to village.
He was very important to the Jewish community. He would rule according to Jewish law in all sorts of topics: money, inheritance, and he also gave certificates for weddings, divorce.
Most of the time he was on the road, and his family saw him only five times a year.

He told his sons about a land far away, of a great king who lived in a holy great city.
He told them how his family was sent for a mission many, many years ago… and when they wanted to return their country was occupied and looted by other nations and all their people scattered around the world.

He promised his children that one day… and gave them hope…

One day our hero went away again, but he never returned.
Simply disappeared.
Like the story of Joseph from the Torah scroll, found was only his clothes, stained with blood.

His wife and their sons decided to leave.
They knew it was a matter of time until the neighbors would deport them and confiscate their property.
According to the law in that country, a widow was not entitled to own property and the children could be taken into slavery and convert.
They reached the port city where they asked permission to board the ship to the holy land.
Everyone received approval, except the youngest.

I can continue my story, but then you will need to read a whole book…
The ending is a happy ending.
The youngest son was my my great-grandfather .
His ”little” family currently includes almost 450 people, all born and raised in Israel.

Lital

Dear Kim,

By chance I learnt about your Blog on The Times of Israel and I am writing to thank you for taking this important initiative. Your words of love and understanding are like a beacon at the end of a very long and dark tunnel!

To me as an Israeli I feel that one of the most frightening things in our world is the appalling anti-Israel sentiment which exists throughout much of the European and British media. To that we can certainly add influential American media, like The New York Times, where the obsession with “nasty Israel” is pathological. Obviously this hasn’t happened overnight but as a result of an extensive and very expensive campaign by the Arab nations over many years. They use American and European Advertising agencies, infiltrate trade unions, the Universities and other important centres in the UK and Europe and it has reached a stage where many decent people who don’t consider themselves anti-Semitic are unable to remember how this political situation started, who caused the wars and which side refuses to negotiate a final settlement.

The Arab leaders, unwilling to take responsibility for their non acceptance of the UN Partition in 1947 and the subsequent war and refugee problem, have kept the poor refugees as pawns in a vicious political game whilst Israel welcomed nearly one million refugees from the Arab lands. The situation was worsened in 1967 which must be the classic just war, where a tiny nation faced annihiliation and won.

I can remember the 1967 war, as a young mother with a 6 month old daughter and a husband fighting in a tank unit on the front. I can remember the 1973 war, now with three small children and again the same husband serving on the Syrian and Egyptian front with the tanks. I never thought then that we would reach the year 2012 without a settlement but that is the case and it is very sad indeed.

I am not blind to Israel’s mistakes and personally am opposed to the current settlement policies and the ongoing financial funding over the green line whilst so many projects and people within Israel don’t receive the support they deserve and need. To me the indiscriminate building on the West Bank is just a waste of public money and doesn’t strengthen us one little bit. However we need to respect every government even if we didn’t vote for it!

The people opposing Israel don’t seem to understand that there are many Israelis who yearn for a peaceful solution but choose to punish anyone just because he carries Israeli nationality. The recent effort to boycott the performances of our national theatre, Habima, at the Shakespeare Festival is a perfect example of this attempt to blame every Israeli for our so-called crimes. I often wonder if the eminent actor Emma Thompson, who was a co-signer of the letter demanding the boycott, feels personally responsible for the actions of the British army in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they murdered and maimed countless Muslims. Should she be boycotted outside Britain because of the actions of her army?

Kim – again I thank you for your kind words and intentions. Even if your Blog influences only a few people and encourages them to rethink their attitude towards this political conflict, it will be worthwhile.

With best wishes,

Ruth, an Israeli grandma

The obsession with Israel is something I’ve really struggled… I honestly don’t get it why people obsess over us this much when there are places who need the world’s attention much more than those ”Palestinians”. For example, the Tibetan people… China has been occupying their lands for a long long time… and no one (well, except maybe Richard Gere) is doing anything. But maybe that’s because it’s China doing the occupation.

Besides, I’m not sure how the conflict between us and the Arabs is portrayed in the Swedish media, but I guess since people don’t know the history and origins of this conflict, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the ”visual”.

I guess that if you ask me how I view things, well, we have this saying about Jewish holidays: ”They tried to kill us, they failed, let’s eat”. I guess that sums up the Jewish ”experience”.

I guess the best way to describe the way I feel when I see what is written about Israel is first frustration, then anger, and sometimes even amusement (at the ignorance of people). I think that most of the time those of us who support our country (even though we don’t agree with everything it does), feel just alone.

Take the recent ”round” of violence that was in Gaza a couple of weeks ago. Luckily for us there were no fatalities on Israel’s side, and the Arabs had around 20 dead, the overwhelming majority of them were people who actively fired rockets. How was it portrayed? That Israel attacked and ”Palestinians” were killed. No mention of the fact that these were surgical strikes against people aiming at cities, towns and specifically civilians. No mention that Israel takes the most care (out of any country in the world, including all European countries) to avoid hitting civilians.

But I guess that in order to change the minds of people, they first have to be educated about history. I guess you could put a poll up on your blog with a question asking something like this:

”When did Jews come to what is known today as Israel?” and give the following options to answer:

1. Jews have always lived there
2. The middle-ages
3. The 18 hundreds
4. After the second world war.

I guess that based on how many people answer either 3 and 4 you’ll know how much ignorance there is. The correct answer is 1. 🙂

”A dude”