Israel's Independence Day
and the Jewish People's Return to History
Frederick Krantz
As Pesah, the Passover commemoration of Jewish liberation, is upon us, and the fifty-third celebration of Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day, approaches, Arafat's murderous intifada continues into its seventh month. There is an old Yiddish saying, reflecting much Jewish history--Shver ist a yid tsu sein, "It's hard to be a Jew". Israel's modern history makes it clear that it is also hard to be a democratic Jewish state, in a region full of Arab dictatorships and authoritarian regimes and Jew-hating Muslim populations.
Another, different saying, this one Hebrew, is similarly laden with history, and also applicable in this case: Ein brera, there is no alternative. Israel, the center of the Jewish people, represents, as Emil Fackenheim has written, "The Jewish return to history", after 2,000 years of exile and oppression, capped by the long night of the Shoa. Israel, after over half a century, and despite unending surrounding enmity, has flourished and is home to stay: Ein brera.
Let us, despite the current struggle, celebrate our Jewish miracle: the historically unparalleled return of a people to its homeland after two millennia; the unexpected triumph of a tiny population over five Arab armies in the War of Independence; the absorption of wave after wave of survivors and refugees; the greening of arid desert; the building of a modern, high-technology Western society; the creation of one of the world's most vibrant democracies.
Israel represents a novum, a new fact, in modern general, and Jewish, history, the Jewish people's revival as a sovereign, democratic state, as an active subject making its own history, instead of a largely passive object suffering the history imposed on it by others.
It is not, however, a novum in Jewish history generally, for Judaism was never merely a "religion", but a civilization, a Covenanted People sovereign on its own Land, a fact commemorated, and prophetically guaranteed, in its Tanakh, or Bible. Miraculously, this consciousness of being a People, surviving Exile and dispersion, provided the foundation on which the Zionist "return to history" was built.
Arafat & Co. may do what they can to destroy this
"new-old" state; they may reject proferred peace, blow up buses, attack Jerusalem suburbs and murder 10-month-old infants; and the world and the U.N. will, as usual, turn a largely blind eye to this viciousness, and even blame those nasty Jewish victims for their own suffering. But Jewish history generally, and Israel's remarkable half-century of restored independence, indicate that they cannot, and in the end will not,
prevail.
Shver ist a yid tsu sein, yes--but Ein brera! Let us then, here in Diaspora and there, in our embattled Land, re-affirm our solidarity, unity and peoplehood and, remembering the sacrifices of our fallen and our martyrs, celebrate together the miracle of
Pesach and of Yom Ha'atzmaut--our survival, and our freedom.
(Prof. Krantz, the Editor of ISRAFAX, is also Director
of the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research)
FOCUS:
DEEPENING CRISIS
AND ESCALATING
PALESTINIAN VIOLENCE
Israel's Response to Palestinian Terrorism:
Security Cabinet Communiqué
Sharon Updates Bush and Powell
The UN Security Council Vote
F.M. Peres on the Arab Summit
Palestinians Pledge More Suicide Bombings
Security Cabinet Communiqué
1. The Government of Israel announces that targets in the Palestinian Authority areas have been attacked. These are specific targets associated with terrorist elements
[Yasser Arafat's elite Force 17] and are carefully selected to avoid civilian injuries.
2. Regrettably, there are elements within the P.A. who are intensively involved in terrorism, violence and incitement. Israel holds the P.A. responsible for the current wave of attacks and calls on the international community to use its influence on the P.A. and its leader...In the absence of preventive actions by the P.A., Israel has and will continue to exercise its right to
self-defense.
3. The principle guiding the government is constant and consistent action against the terrorists, as well as against those who both dispatch and assist them...Measures to ease the living conditions of the Palestinian civilian population have and will continue to be taken, subject to security considerations. Israel is not interested in a confrontation with the Palestinian people. Rather, it wants peace and co-existence. However, these goals can only be achieved through dialogue and by peaceful means...
(Jerusalem, March 28, 2001)
_____________________________________
Sharon Updates Bush and Powell
(Jerusalem, March 28)--P.M. Ariel Sharon spoke by phone...with U.S. President George Bush and updated him on the wave of attacks perpetrated at the initiative of the Palestinian Authority, and headed by Yasser Arafat. The Prime Minister told President Bush that Arafat has refrained from ordering a halt to the terror, and emphasized that while Israel was allowing for the easing of restrictions on the Palestinian population, Arafat has taken advantage of this: he has not stopped the violence, but has even increased it, while the thrust behind the perpetration of these acts of terror is Force 17, Arafat's Presidential Guard...
P.M. Sharon expressed his opposition to any international involvement in the conflict on the grounds that this would be a reward for terrorism. The Prime Minister emphasized that those who perpetrate acts of terrorism...as well as those who both dispatch and assist the perpetrators...will not escape punishment and added that Arafat and the P.A. will bear the consequences.
_____________________________________
(Jerusalem, March 28)--The adoption of a one-sided resolution by the UN Security Council, which would have ignored Palestinian responsibility for the violence, was prevented. Israel welcomes this decision.
Israel wishes to express its appreciation for the American decision...to exercise its veto and thus to prevent the adoption of a resolution which would only have had the effect of aggravating the crisis in our region. Israel also appreciates the Ukrainian decision not to take part in the vote. Israel is disappointed at the surprising change in Russia's position and at the support given...
It is ironic that the members of the Security Council put forward an unbalanced proposal regarding the protection of Palestinian civilians precisely at this time, when Israeli citizens, victims of Palestinian terrorism, are being killed and injured...
_____________________________________
The Arab Summit: Response of Foreign Minister Peres
(Jerusalem, March 28)--The closing statement issued by the Arab Summit in Amman is an obstacle to peace and only serves to exasperate the animosity between the parties. It attempts to dictate a one-sided policy instead of advocating a return to negotiations between two equal partners who are willing to compromise. The world community cannot accept the summit's interpretation of the
"land for peace" formula according to which Israel gives up land but does not receive peace.
Israel does not wish to rule over another people and its government has ruled out the use of collective punishment. Currently, Israel is in the process of easing many restrictions previously placed on the Palestinian civilian population. Even though faced with a wave of terrorism, Israel remains faithful to its desire to bring peace to the entire region.
Palestinians Pledge More Suicide Bombings
"Scores of Islamist 'suspended martyrs' reportedly have sworn to carry out martyrdom operations against Zionist targets inside 1948-Palestine. Islamist circles, which asked for anonymity, intimated that at least two-dozen 'martyr-bombers' were undergoing the final psychological and physical preparations for their fateful mission. The sources said the Islamist guerrillas would seek to strike terror in the hearts of 'Nazi Jews who are murdering our children with utter callousness. The evil Zionists understand only one language: martyrdom operations'."--Islamic Association for Palestine, March 29
_____________________________________
"Whoever thinks that the Intifada broke out because of the despised Sharon's visit to the
Al-Aqsa Mosque, is wrong...This Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return from the Camp David
negotiations..."--P.A. Communications Minister, Imad Al-Falouji, at the Ein
Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon
(Al-Safir, March 3, Trans. by MEMRI)
"There is a difference between the strategic goal of the Palestinian people, who are not willing to give up even one grain of Palestinian soil and the political [tactical] effort...We may lose or win [tactically] but our eyes will continue to aspire to the strategic goal, namely, to Palestine from the river to the sea."--P.A. Minister for Jerusalem Affairs
Faysal Al-Husseini (Al-Safir, March 21, Trans. by MEMRI)
"The U.S. is really missing a very important point, namely that what we are facing is an Israeli occupation that is deepening...When you talk about the responsibility for violence you first start talking about the responsibility of the occupying [power] and then you talk about the responsibility of the occupied...I wish the U.S. would...take the side of the victims for a change."--P.A. Int'l Cooperation Minister Nabil Sha'ath (Reuters, March 30)
"In contrast [to the Israelis] we've seen absolutely no response from Arafat to our urgings to him to now bring the violence to a stop. He has made no statements that would indicate that he even wants to see it stopped. In fact he has called for the continuation of the intifada. He has not given any orders secret or otherwise to his forces which would bring some measure of control to the situation. His forces are prepared to do what he wants them to do. So we're perplexed."--U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Edward Walker (Jer. Post, April 1)
"If there is any message encoded in the Palestinian struggle, and in the record of Islamic militancy over 20 years, it is that nothing now on the horizon is likely to end such fanaticism. Indeed, many who study Islamic martyrdom predict more such attacks, and even deadlier ones if the militants master a new generation of chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons...Prophet Muhammad led his followers in battle, teaching them, according to a verse from the Koran, to wage aggressive war against infidels: 'When the sacred months are past, then kill the idolaters wherever you find them.' Thus [Arab armies] were inspired...by their faith, which promised those falling in battle instant transport to Paradise...The rewards of martyrdom make anything the Romans envisaged in their Elysian fields seem tame."--Columnist John F. Burns (N.Y.T., April 1)
YOM
HA'ATZMAUT, REFLECTIONS ON ISRAEL AT 53
Prof. Harold
Waller
Prof. Gil Troy
Prof. Jean Ouellette
Prof. Harvey Shulman
Baruch Cohen
PROF. HAROLD WALLER (CIJR Fellow, McGill
University)
Each year on Yom Ha'atzmaut we marvel at the wonder that is modern Israel. Comparing Israel at its birth in 1948 with today's mature Israel is a never-ending source of amazement. In that long-term context the present conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is a cause for concern and reflection, but it should not be a cause for despair. Ironically it feels like early 1948 all over again, with armed attacks between Jews and Arabs rampant. True, there is now an IDF to defend the Jewish population, a much more formidable presence than the
Haganah. But the notion that any Israeli is a target and that attacks can come from anywhere does produce a sad sense of deja vu. As well, this uprising is demonstrating that it is indeed difficult to use a regular army to bring terrorists under control. In 1948 the conflict shifted from informal inter-communal fighting to a war between regular armies. But now the
IDF, a superb fighting force that is well prepared to take on conventional opponents, is understandably finding it difficult to put an end to the random terror that is afflicting so many parts of
Eretz Yisrael.
Difficult as it may be for Israelis to endure the reality that terror may be just around the corner, Israel's independence signifies that its people are no longer helpless victims. Their state has assumed the responsibility for their personal and collective security and for the destiny of the Jewish people. That was the promise of 1948. It is still imperfectly fulfilled today but Israel has the human and material resources to achieve that goal. That is why despair, despite the cascade of tragic news, is not warranted.
_____________________________________
PROF. GIL TROY (CIJR Fellow, McGill
University)
On this Yom Ha'atzmaut, we need to search for peace, and pursue justice more aggressively than ever. We have learned this year, unfortunately, how fragile a flower a peace process can be, and that a peace of the deluded is no peace at all.
Amid our pain, our anger, our fear, we must vow not only to continue to support a strong and safe Israel, but we must vow to learn how to view Israel in proper perspective. My problem with the media this year is not only that too many reports are distorted and simplistic, trying to fit a complicated conflict into a facile black and white paradigm. My problem with the media is not only that the loudest and most polarizing voices drown out the more tempered and subtler tones. My problem is that all of us are too dependent on the media, we only see Israel through the lens of CNN or
CBC. The true miracle of this year is that, despite all the trauma, Israel remains overwhelming safe and sound. Most Israelis continue to go about their daily lives. Contrary to the impression even of most of its supporters, Israel is not a war zone.
For next year, let us all unite to revitalize our relationship with Israel, seeing it and embracing it in all its maddening, frustrating, rich, complicated, and inspiring reality.
_____________________________________
PROF. JEAN OUELLETTE (CIJR Fellow, Université de
Montréal)
L'indépendance d'Israël représente pour moi le triomphe d'un idéal démocratique qui a permis aux Juifs de retrouver les vertus oubliées de la
normalité. Même si le sionisme avait pour objectif de libérer des terres, il a surtout contribué
à sauver des personnes. L'État juif retrouve peu à peu sa place dans le concert des nations, mais il demeure confronté
à l'hostilité des états voisins qui n'ont pas encore franchi le seuil de la démocratie et dont les populations n'ont pas fait l'expérience purifiante de l'émancipation intellectuelle et
religieuse.
_____________________________________
PROF. HARVEY SHULMAN (Concordia
University)
Independence Day commemorates the modern reconstitution of the Jewish State. Sovereignty, however, is very different from peace, and Israel continues to suffer the loss of many innocents in an on-going conflict whose end is not in
sight.
It is imperative now that Jews understand that all problems do not have easy or immediate solutions. The true believers and idealists of all ideological camps, who long for political normalcy for the Jewish state, will become increasingly frustrated. Accommodation and concessions to Arafat did not, and will not, produce peace, any more than Israeli power and force will end terrorism. Yet Israel still needs its visionaries who can see beyond the current strife and despair, and a prepared military to act in defense of Israel's
security.
Israel's political institutions and never-ending electoral campaign have produced minority governments in which the two largest parties together constitute only one-third of the Knesset. This instability and polarization has contributed to a politics of divisiveness and fragmentation, rather than building a larger national and strategic
policy.
Ariel Sharon and Shimon Peres, the septuagenarian "odd couple," both demonized by their respective legions of haters within and outside of Israel, have a shared responsibility. They must present a national, strategic plan, and prepare Israel's next generation of leaders, who will succeed where Netanyahu and Barak failed.
____________________________________
BARUCH COHEN (CIJR Research Chairman)
"In the historical struggle of the Jewish people--just as in the story of the Passover
Haggadah--are great moments when heaven's gates open wide and one's dreams become reality." So David Ben Gurion said in 1933, recalling these words 15 years later at the establishment of the State of Israel
in1948.
As "the heavens" opened widely, a poor and starving Yishuv, together some six hundred thousand people, surrounded on all sides by fierce enemies, succeeded in creating a prosperous, strong, and beautiful nation of six million Israelis. Few nations have endured such constant warfare and so much turmoil. Today, Jewish Israel is more than a country. It is an idea that continues to inspire millions of Jews around the world. From the ruins of a devastated Europe, from Russia, Ethiopia, America and other places around the world, our people created a new, modern country reflecting an ancient, and glorious faith. Today, fifty-three years later, and despite current travails, there is much for us all to be thankful for, and to celebrate.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Why
I Was Not in Transnistria
Polish Face Truth of Jedwabne
Why I Was Not in
Transnistria
Miriam Shvili
I was born on May 3, 1935, in the village of Nisporeni, in the Kishinev district, the only child of Esther and Feivel Gitnik. My name was Miriam. In July 1941, the retreating Romanian armies crossed the River Prut into Bessarabia and began massacring the Jews. When they entered our village, they pulled the Jews out of their homes. Then, we, the children, were separated from our parents, who were then shot right in front of our eyes! My grandparents were shot in front of their factory. Others were herded into the ghetto. What a terrible day that
was!
The day after that nightmare, Vera Svirchevsky, a neighbour, heard cries from our yard. She came in and found me, covered in blood, lying on my mother's body. Vera took me to her house, gave me a bath, and tended my wounds. Shortly after, she took me to the village church where I was baptized and given the name Minodora. Vera and Ion, her husband, treated me as a servant and I had to do very hard
chores.
After a while, some neighbours informed the police that I was Jewish and I was taken to the ghetto, where I endured terrible
suffering.
Vera used to come to the ghetto to see me occasionally. One day, her girlfriend, Simcha Rothstein, from Beltz, came to see me. She told me of a childless couple, the Herschovitzes, in Bucharest, who wanted to adopt me. She offered Vera money to smuggle me out of the
ghetto.
I arrived in Bucharest in October 1942, and I stayed with Simcha's brother. From the terrible life in the ghetto, I had many sores and severe painful ear infections. I was also very frightened, especially since I heard about the Jews from some parts of Romania being deported to death camps in
Transnistria.
After a while, I moved in with the Herschovitz family. Because of these dangerous times, it was decided that I officially register as Minodora Svirchevsky, and as such I was sent to a Christian
school.
Shortly after Passover 1945, an official request came from the Kishinev authorities that I must be returned to my birthplace (now under the Russians), since I represented a
"danger" to the Romanian State. I was 10 years old! Subsequently, I was kept for many days at the Romanian police station. Finally, in exchange for a large sum of money handed over by Mr. Herschovitz to
"my uncle" Ion Svirchevsky, the latter managed to liberate me from the clutches of the
police.
At the end of 1946, Rosa and Yaacov Herschovitz adopted me. They surrounded me with sincere, warm love and care. They enrolled me in the best Jewish school and after graduation I went into
nursing.
In 1950, our family immigrated to Israel and settled in Haifa, where we built a new life. In 1955, I got married and now I am the proud mother of three children and two
grandchildren.
(Miriam Taylor and Baruch Cohen edited the above memoir by Miriam Shvili.)
_____________________________________
Polish Face Truth of
Jedwabne
Beata Pasek
The rough stone monument in this farming village shocks with its terse language:
"Site of a massacre of Jews. Gestapo and Nazi soldiers burned 1,600 people."
But the Polish words etched into the small grey stone belie an even more horrible truth. Communist officials who had it erected surely knew. So did most of the villagers, though they rarely spoke of it.
Now all Poland is being jolted awake to the awful reality: The Jews of Jedwabne were locked in a barn and burned to death on July 10, 1941, not by Nazis, but by their neighbors--fellow Poles.
Grim details laid out in Neighbors, a book by Polish emigre Jan Tomasz Gross, have helped blow the cover off decades of Communist propaganda, and forced Poles into sober reassessment of their self-image as victims--and never collaborators--in Nazi oppression.
The nation's president is offering an apology, and the head of its Roman Catholic Church plans special joint prayers of Catholics and Jews. Jedwabne (pronounced Yed-VAB-neh) was not the only wartime pogrom by Poles, but it was the biggest--and perhaps now the best documented. Poland's reluctance to confront the truth has nurtured among many Jews an image of Polish complicity in Nazi horrors, in stark contrast to a national memory that emphasizes heroic resistance...
Gross writes that when Nazi commanders moved into the eastern Polish village, they
"easily reached agreement" with town officials on what do about the Jews. Hundreds, including women and children, were soon brought to the town square. They were beaten with clubs and stones, then herded into a barn, which was locked and set ablaze...
Uproar over Neighbors has been building steadily since a few thousand copies were published last spring and the issue is now being aired abroad. Gross published a long account of the massacre in...New Yorker magazine, and an English-language version of his book is being released in April by Princeton University Press...
President Aleksander Kwasniewski, an ex-communist, said last week he will issue a formal apology for Jedwabne on the 60th anniversary of the massacre in July, and change the inscription on the 1963 monument. But he rejects any notion that Poland accept collective responsibility...
(Associated Press, March 12, 2001)