Jewish kids meet Israel
They met her and they loved her - Yishai and I just got back from a wonderful 10 day Birthright trip to Israel in which we escorted 40 first-timers to Israel throughout their ancestral home. With all of the painful issues at the forefront (what else is new?), this trip was the opposite of gut-wrenching, the opposite of painful or sorrowful. It was beautiful.
To see these young people experience their land for the first time, watching them absorb the curves and colors, the society and the other-worldliness, was such a joy and inspiration. They hiked, they swam, they talked and they prayed. They asked the difficult questions that belie their desire for truth, and they cried for the problems we all face - in Israel, in Judaism, in life...
And on the last night, hours after a suicide bomber blew up 20 of their brothers and sisters, sitting in a circle, they summed up their experiences. Some of them, who had never before been out of the country, meekly offered to the group that they might like to come back and make their lives here, "If I'm lucky enough."
It was sweet and special and real. Not the kind of real that everyone's focused on these days - the death and the politics and the money - but the kind of real that everyone wants to hear about but no one seeks out, the revolution of Jewish youth, one person at a time. Yishai and I feel extremely blessed to have had the opportunity to meet these people, the future of Israel, because that's exactly what they will be.
Painful Concessions
Well today I was at a non-comforting press conference/rally, led by the American Conference of Presidents of Jewish Organizations--an extremely important sounding Jewish organization--directly across the street from the United Nations. The event was attended was closed off to the public, but open to the video cameras. Speeches were given by Mayor Bloomberg, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, New York State Speaker Sheldon Silver, Israeli UN Representative Dan Gillerman, Israeli Ambassador Alon Pincus, Malcolm Hoenlein and a few others.
They all spoke resolutely on the need to confront terror immediately. I felt as though the message was good, but I had heard it before--many times. Mayor Bloomberg read a list of names of some of those murdered visciously at the event. I really wasn't emotionally moved or comforted at any point during the event, until the end, when El Malei Rachamim was recited. Then my heart was touched.
Many times I have questioned the leadership of the Jewish People. Particularly, I have snickered at the idea that our Prime Minister throws around, you know the one where he says the Jewish People will have to make "painful concessions" to achieve peace. Yesterday the Jewish nation made 20 painful concessions, and that doesn't count the scores of maimed and injured. Those concessions are equally painful.
These are not the type of painful concessions the Jewish People can afford to make.
But I realized during the speeches, while staring at the magnificent United Nations complex in front of me, that painful concessions would definately be neccessary in order for the Israel to finally achieve peace.
Should Israel finally take matters into her own hands on this terrorism issue, and deal with our ruthless enemies in a way which will eradicate terror and secure Israeli territory for years to come, Israel will be forced to painfully let go of many of the notions that our young nation has been carrying for years.
We will have to concede the idea that in the future we will be a nation, just like any other, recognized by the United Nations and the international community. We will NOT be a regular modern democratic nation just like the other modern, democratic, secular nations of the world. We will be branded for what we are: as Jews (who did or will do a "not so nice thing" to our refugee neighbors). We will be known only as the Jewish nation, and this will be a painful concession for many secular Israelis. Our perverted sense of morality will painfully shattered.
Our economy will take a strong hit, when we will painfully struggle to replace the billions of dollars of international aid we receive from the United States. Some may argue that the international aid actually handcuffs the Israeli government, and many may suggest we will pick up the pieces of our economy with extra dollars from tourism; but even still, losing billions of dollars from one place may be very painful for some.
(One thing that is nice about writing on a blog is that you can conclude your idea wherever you want, and you don't have to worry about who will publish it. )
But in conclusion, we lost a great deal of manpower this week, and it hurts. It hurts the individuals, families, and friends of all involved. And it hurts the Jewish people as a whole. Mr. Sharon is right. To achieve peace we must make painful concessions, but Jewish lives are too painful, and they are worth much more than anything else we strive for in this world.
My sincere condolences to the mourners of all those lost in terror in Israel. May you be comforted among all the mourners of Zion.
What can we do?
Today is a day of mourning - at current count, 20 Jews were murdered in a Jerusalem bus bombing today. We failed to react when 7 Jews were killed since the start of the "hudna," since they weren't all killed on the same day, so they were just "minor incidents." So the terrorists had to increase the death toll to make us notice. Will we notice this time? We will temporarily notice, but then forget in a few days? How many times has the same thing happened, and how many times have we not reacted? The terrorists keep trying to wake us up, but we refuse to be awakened.
Israel was not the only place where Moslems struck a blow against humanity today. In Iraq, 20 people were killed by a suicide bomber.
What can be done? The first thing we must do is to react, to wake up to what is going on around us. We have been fighting the
Al Aqsa Intifada (Arabic for The Struggle for the Temple Mount) for three years. Actually, the Arabs have been fighting this struggle. We have merely been dealing with a
matzav (Hebrew for situation). It's just a situation; no big deal. We've had worse before.
Why not at least recognize the nature of the current war? Why do we need to use an Arabic word to define it? Why not translate it into Hebrew -
Milhemet Har Habayit, the War for the Temple Mount.
Uri Tzvi Greenberg said, "He who rules over the Temple Mount, will rule over the land." Arafat knows this - that's why he is so opposed to Jews being allowed up. We need to know this as well, and make a strong, positive statement about our rights to our land.
You may ask: Won't this just make things worse, at a time when things are already so tense? Won't this just evoke more Arab anger?
What does that mean? That if the Arabs were really angry, they would used a bigger bomb on the bus today? If they had been really angry, if the Temple Mount had been open to Jewish prayer, then the Arabs would have killed more that the 850 Jews they killed already in this war? No - we should know by now that trying to appease terrorists by trying to conceal our deepest values does not work. In fact, it probably makes things worse, by sending the messase that we will do anything to make the Arab terrorists happy; that our values are not as important as even a short period of calm.
The Jerusalem Post
reports that the Jerusalem police plan to reopen the Temple Mount to Jews by the end of this week. Hopefully this move will not be postponed due to the bombing, but rather, will be strengthened. That is a good start. But we have to respond. Jews in Israel, and those who are visiting soon, perhaps for the
hagim, make a special effort to visit the Temple Mount. For more details, contact the Temple Institute, at 24 Misgav Ladach in the Old City of Jerusalem, 02-6264545.
Update: The Temple Mount is now
open to visitors. Go today!
