March 14 th, 2003
Dear Friends,
I am sending this a little early since several of you have asked how we are doing here as war approaches. If this letter seems a little more disjointed than the others, it is because life here is on a roller coaster with war imminent and being delayed over and over again.
Ursula was supposed to leave 3/11 for NY and then arrive on the 17th in Atlanta. She did not go -- partly because of the imminent war (not wanting to leave the boys and me alone, and some Zionist feelings too) and partly because she and all the children here were sick with a late winter flu. Her current plans are to leave on the 20th, probably for Atlanta. My own plans are to leave and arrive on the 24th in Atlanta. However, as I have already advised the conference organizers, if there is war, I am not leaving; period. So, we have plans to come but we are not sure.
THE "SITUATION"
(3/3) The range of responses I have had to my"liberal material" is amazing. Some of you have been outraged; others have been glad to hear that there really is another side. However, my letters do reflect the reality here. For the record, there are those of you who appreciate and distribute my "anti-Islamic material" as well. The "problem" itself, however, is not as simple as either side sees it though each wants to think that they are right and the other at fault. The Palestinians simply do not have another land to go to and, when we had the chance to go to another one (Uganda), we rejected it. So, how does one proceed -- not ideologically, but practically?
As to the war: If President Bush "wimps out" of this war, he will look like a complete fool and will have been outmaneuvered by Saddam Hussein and the Europeans (Chirac threatening eastern Europe with non-membership in the EU!!). But, c'est la vie -- sometimes you lose big. However, as a Jew living here now, I would not be very upset if there were no war because any war will enflame the region and the innocents will suffer on all sides. Without war, things will just continue as they are -- occupation and bombings -- until the Arab-European coalition tries to force Israel into granting a Palestinian state and, by then, America's support will be useless. (Blumenthal's prophecy: The Euro-Arab axis will be in full swing by 2033, in time to celebrate the100th anniversary of Hitler's election to the chancellorship of Germany.) The real fear here is that, after the war, the Americans and the Europeans will put all their respective frustrations into forcing the Israeli-Palestinian issue although neither side is really ready for a change yet.
Meanwhile, preparations are proceeding for war. Ursula has sealed rooms for us and for Philippe. We have enough water and food to hold us through forty days of seige, and Philippe has 200 bottles of new wine. We even have makeshift toilets. Our gas masks have not arrived, but they will.
(3/7) Here, it is erev Shabbat and, as I do every week, I say 'We've made it this far again' / 'al nisekha shebekhol yom imanu' ('We thank you, God, for Your miracles that are with us each day'). The individual stories from Haifa bus bombing are heartrending. The headline on Yediot Aharonot was: "Yuval, answer me!" -- a father was talking to his son who was on the bus... Today's story: A Christian girl who was working on Arab-Jewish understanding was among those killed. It's enough to turn anyone into a rabid rightist.
(3/9) No one here can understand why President Bush is hesitating once again. Does he really think that giving Iraq one more week will bring around either Iraq or Europe? Saddam Hussein believes he will survive this, or at least go down as the second most famous person in Islamic history. And the Europeans are so close to humiliating America and asserting their lost place on the world stage that they, too, cannot back down at this point. (Chirac's triumphal voyage to Algeria was disgusting, given what the French did there. Only hate of a common enemy, America and the Jews, could bring these two forces together.) One more aircraft carrier will not make the difference. Nor will formal approval for the informal arrangement with Turkey. Not to speak of the demoralization of the troops who have been waiting in battle gear for months. Maybe Bush is waiting for Purim (the story of Esther's triumph over Haman) which will be next Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. Somehow, that explanation seems the most logical.
(3/13) We picked up our gas masks today. And a man and his son were shot to death in their car around the corner from Philippe.
ONLY IN ISRAEL
Philippe and I went to the theater a few weeks ago. The play was very, very funny -- impeccable timing -- and the cast had to come back for many bows, which they deserved. At the last bow, the central comic signaled for silence and then thanked us, the audience (no tourists because the play was all in rapid Hebrew) for coming, given the conditions in Israel today.
I went to have my hair cut and was sitting quietly, thinking. The hairdresser noticed it and asked, "What are you thinking about?" I replied that I was puzzling over a problem in Jewish mysticism that had come up in class. So, we began to talk Kabbala. It turns out that he knows a lot more than he lets on and has even been instrumental in anonymously building a yeshiva for young boys to study in. They started with 15 and are up to 150. At the end, instead of giving him the usual tip, I said, "This is for your yeshiva." So he pulled out the charity box for his school and put the money right into it.
Melila Hellner Eshed, who has written a splendid thesis on the Zohar and gives a class on that subject to undergraduates which I attend, announced to class, "There will be a mid-term on March 23 rd. The only valid excuses for not taking it are: giving birth and being called up to the reserves." While I have announced many mid-terms, I've never had to set those conditions. Sure enough, two students came up to apologize for their irregular attendance: they are in the reserves. In another class, Melila was discussing the heavy exam schedule that her students had in the weeks approaching Purim. On that holiday, which celebrates the victory of the Jews over the first state-sponsored genocidal attack on them by Haman, it is customary to drink alcohol to celebrate. Melila, who is very much a part of secular but open Israeli culture, casually commented, "Okay, friends; this year only light drugs this Purim." No one batted an eyelash though I cannot imagine an American instructor saying anything like that to a class. (Remember that most of the students are older and have already completed military service, some of it pretty dangerous.)
THE WALL
As war approaches, it seems to me to be important to pray with all the prayergroups at the Wall. So, I moved over to the small sefardi group, next to my usual ashkenasi one. They were so impressed that I had joined them. One said, "Welcome. Have you been redeemed?" I sat down and I closed my eyes to pray, as I always do and, when I opened them, a reading stand had magically appeared before me. Even the beggars were more respectful than usual. At the end of the service, the leader said to me that he would even marry an ashkenasia. To this his friends said that he is trying hard to be an ashkenasi but just can't make it. All this is, of course, in good fun though it does reflect the sense that Jews of oriental origin have of being somehow less acceptable to all but God.
As spring approaches, the sun rises earlier each morning. During the early winter months, however, when the earth was at its furthest point from the sun, sunrise advanced at about four minutes a week. Now, as we pull closer to the sun, sunrise advances at about a minute a day. This means that I have to get up earlier and earlier to make sunrise services and, in turn, I am home earlier. I am already up to a 4:15 wake up, a 4:45 departure, and a 6:45 arrival back home. It is a great time of the day: no one is up and moving except those of us, Jews and Muslims, who get up for sunrise services.
OTHER NEWS
The snow made quite a splash here. I've put up a few pictures on the web for those of you who can get to them: http://www.emory.edu/UDR/BLUMENTHAL/snow1.html and < http://www.emory.edu/UDR/BLUMENTHAL/snow2.html>. Like Atlanta, Jerusalem just came to a full stop though young Arab boys did throw snowballs at our car with some vigor.
Ursula was reporting on a very lively discussion she had had with a prominent French prelate of the Catholic Church at a Christian-Jewish meeting we attended. Her arguments had been rather forceful and, when a friend commented on it, she replied, "I was not trying to convince him or pressure him; I was just making sure he was on our side."
It has finally happened: I came to the breakfast table and Ursula asked, "What's new?" To which I replied, "I sent you two emails." What is this modern world coming to?
I was in the desert the other day. What a beautiful place! We have not had so much rain since the early 1960s and there are flowers, and it is green. Just amazing.
It is also still cold. I don't remember the Jerusalem winter as being so long and so wet. The Sea of Galilee, which is the main water reservoir for Israel and the West Bank, has risen a great deal but it is still two meters short of its low-level red line. It will take another year of such heavy and sustained rains to bring it up to above the critical level.
Meanwhile, life proceeds here. Ursula has 2 1/2 hours of Hebrew a day, three times a week; plus 3 hours a week in archaeology; plus many hours of homework which she does with me. As I said to someone, she is getting more work done than I am. I hope she really tries a class in Talmud; it is right up her alley. Not to worry about her becoming orthodox.
Shalom, U&D
For all those of you who think that only war poses risks for innocent people, I would like to tell you of our experiences here in Israel.
Nine years ago, we in Israel, encouraged by our own Peace-Nowers, signed a Peace Accord with a known terrorist, pulled our army out, handed him land and then sat around singing songs and painting doves because we were tired of fighting. And this is what happened: he brought in thousands of weapons, taught children to kill and be killed, set up bomb factories, and encouraged religious leaders to preach suicide bombing as a way to reach paradise. And we looked on and said: He doesn't mean it. It's just talk. And anyone who said out loud: 'There is no peace, just preparation for war from one side,' was drowned out and vilified, called a war-monger and a traitor, told they had killed Yitzchak Rabin and told to shut up and let the party continue.
And then our buses started blowing up, and our discos, and our wedding halls, and our Seder nights, and our Bar Mitzvahs and restaurants. Babies were blown up or shot in their carriages along with their grandmothers. Our country dug hundreds of graves. Thousands wound up injured, crippled for life, sitting in wheelchairs, and burn units, brain damaged on life-support; their lives destroyed.
And still the peace-nowers continued to preach: War is not the answer. There is no military solution.
At that point, we understood we'd been had. We started to speak out against them, to vote them out, to pick up our guns, and retake the areas we'd left, uproot the arms caches, the bomb factories, hunt down the terrorists...And then the bombings got less...and less...and less. Every day, our soldiers fought the war, and every single day, new innocent lives were saved.
But because we didn't have courage to speak out at the beginning, our lives were forever changed. Every place we go is now under armed guards. Half our restaurants closed down. The center of Jerusalem is like a ghost town. Our people are unemployed. No tourists come. Our children live with fears no child should have to endure. Thousands of families are in mourning. All because we listened to the appeasers, the peace-nowers. All because we let ourselves be intimidated.
We let them make us think we were wrong, and they were right, because we let them hijack the word 'Peace" until it became meaningless. Ten million British citizens signed a petition for 'peace' in 1941. As a result Neville Chamberlain signed a pact with Hitler. He declared it meant "Peace in our time." And ten million people turned out to be wrongheaded idiots. And these ten million idiots brought disaster down not only on the heads of their own children but also on the heads of children whose parents understood the truth, but had lacked the courage to fight for it.
And this is what I learned from living in Israel and I would like to share with you, to prevent your countries from suffering as mine has:
Anyone who tries to prevent a just war against terrorism, is on the side of the terrorists, an accomplice. No, they don't have an opinion that needs to be respected. No, they don't have an equally valuable point of view. No, no, no. They are as dangerous as the terrorists themselves, and will get you and your children killed just as fast.
As for the morality of war, the Bible tells us when someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first. As King Solomon said: " To every thing, there is a season, a time for peace, and a time for war."
And one more piece of wisdom. Those who condemn the war against terror aren't in favor of peace. They are in favor of a one-sided war in which the innocent can't defend themselves cleverly enough to win.
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Naomi Ragen is a well-known author and playwright. Visit her website at
<www.NaomiRagen.com>