Nurit
Greenger
In 1967, in front of the Western Wall, which the Israeli
paratroopers division recently returned to the hands of its owner, Israel,
Yossi Kelin Halevi, at that time at the impressionable age of 14 year old, fell
in love with Israel. At the very same time, his father, a Holocaust survivor,
who lost his belief in G-D, gained his belief – and Jewish pride - when he
said, "I now forgive G-D."
Yossi was born in the United States and that day by the
Wall, was the day his life has changed. Now an observant Israeli and a
journalist, Yossi is the author of the new book 'Like
Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and
Divided a Nation': http://www.amazon.com/Like-Dreamers-Paratroopers-Reunited-Jerusalem/dp/0060545763/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380901254&sr=8-1&keywords=like+dreamers/
| The Book Cover |
This week, in Sinai Temple, Los Angeles, to a full hall
of audience, Rabbi David Wolpe hosted Yossi Kelin Halevi and they conducted a fascinating
and mesmerizing discuss about book.
| L-Rabbi David Wolpe and Yossi Klein Halevi-Photo by Nurit Greenger |
I personally learned a great deal from the discussion and
certainly the book discusses the same and more in depth.
Here is some of what I took home from the evening:
While the 1967 Six Day War was the highest point in
history for Israel, a war that was won by the military generals, the 1973 Yom
Kippur War was won by the soldiers, by the people. The Yom Kippur War brought
about the Oslo Accords and the intifada.
The lowest point in Israel's history was the second
intifada, which began in late September 2000 and ended in 2005.
How can a nation fall from such height to such low is
such a short time?
Israel was built by people, members of the Zionist Kibbutz
movement, who had a socialistic utopian vision and they formed the core of Jews
who essentially built Israel. Today's "settlers" in Judea and Samaria
have a messianic utopian vision of settling the land G-D allocated to His
people, the Israelites.
The seven paratroopers, who fought the 1967 and 1973
wars, whom Yossi interviewed for his book by following them for years till the
book was concluded, some are members of the former group and some of the
latter. They represent the polarity in Israeli society that must end. They
represent the Left and the Right, the height and lowest of Israeli society.
Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin was the first Israeli leader to open the doors for the
new Zionist movement to settle in Judea and Samaria; Prime Minister Menachem
Begin made those doors open floodgates.
As
it turned to be, the Left in Israel had brought terrorism to the heart of
Israel while, thus far, it was only the Right that has destroyed Jewish
settlements and uprooted Jews.
Prime
minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows all well that to achieve an agreement with
the Arabs, that will yield real peace, some Jews will have to be uprooted from their
homes and the price, as history shows, that terrorists will fill that vacuum.
Therefore Israel is at a stalemate against itself because a Palestinian state
is existential matter to Israel and at the same time it is dangerous to Israel.
If Israel allows a Palestine it is taking a risk in creating one other failed
Arab state in her back yard.
The
disconcerting point is that both sides, the Jews and the Arabs, have a claim to
the same sliver of land and both sides have compelling arguments, though the
Jews' argument is stronger.
Halevi
states that the two state solution and for Jews to leave any part of Judea and
Samaria will be a tragedy and historical injustice.
Halevi
believes that only a real Jewish leader who believes that ALL the land, from
the river to the sea, belongs to the nation of Israel will be able to make such
tough concessional decisions, to withdraw from some parts of Judea and Samaria,
IF the Arabs will make the same concessions. That we can have peace if we,
Jews, ALL Jews, believe that all the land belongs to us.
As
for the Europeans anti-Israel policy and even anti-Semitism, Halevi believes
that Europe carries two humps on its back:
1.
2000 years of anti-Semitism that culminated in the Holocaust, and
2.
Colonialism.
When
Europe can blame the Jews-Israel for being a colonial state they clear
themselves of both anti-Semitism and colonialism. Since Europe is desperate to
free itself of both, Israel is the perfect target as the Jews have taken the
two humps off Europe's back and put them on themselves by European design and
distortion of truth. That is why we see how the Europeans hysterically converge
on attacking the "settlements," that represent colonial Jews.
So
what can we do more for Israel?
Halevi:
"Pay more closer attention to what is really going on in Israel, not what
the papers tell you. Get to know more about the 'settlers' and the
'settlements' and about Israel as a whole."
Yossi Kelin Halevi interviews well; during the entire
interview one could not hear a pin drop and that is most unusual for Jewish
audience.
| Yossie Klein Halevi-Photo by Nurit Greenger |
During the 1967 Six Day War Meir Ariel served in the reserve
servicemen paratroopers' 55th Brigade that conquered
Jerusalem. After freeing Jerusalem
he wrote the song he called "Jerusalem of Iron," based
on Naomi Shemer's song "Jerusalem
of Gold" its words and rhymes deliberately remind
of the song "Jerusalem of Gold". Ariel sang his song during the meeting of the Paratroopers'
Brigade at the end of the war and
became known as the "Singing
paratrooper" and he made waves.
Shuli Natan – Jerusalem of Gold - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYp_c4YsiKo
So what will the future bring? Jerusalem of Gold, or Jerusalem of Iron, or Jerusalem of Gold and Iron?
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