Day 11 (Sunday, 3/30)

Dear Friends,

NOT THE WAR 

First of all, my thanks to all of you. Everyone has been very understanding of my decision not to come to Atlanta and many have written to say that they are praying for us. Thank you. Our Israeli friends and acquaintances have been very, very grateful for our decision; they can hardly believe it. It was definitely the right thing to do though, as you know, nothing has happened here. Life continues. I have been working on my taxes, running errands, answering emails, and so on. Ursula has moved into book two of her intensive Hebrew class. This morning, she said, "I think I'll take it with me. I'm having separation anxiety from it."

Our good friend, Michael Bar Zohar, whom some of you may remember from his time in Atlanta, arranged for me to be part of an interview, together with Rabbi and Mrs. Stanley Davids, with Shimon Peres. Michael is his official biographer now. So, there we were with a legend in Israeli history. We later learned from Michael that, in addition to being one of the architects of the Oslo accords and the dream of peace with the Palestinians, Peres is responsible for the building of Nazareth Illit (the Jewish city above the old city) and of Mizpeh Ramon, among many, many other projects. We asked questions and he, having heard them all before, gave very suave answers. He noted that Saddam Hussein is probably the most important war criminal alive today and finds the war totally justified. He did not think that there was any real danger to Israel which is much more secure today than it was in 1948, 1967, or 1973. He pointed out that the UN has never been effective in these kinds of conflicts and reminded us of David Ben Gurion's famous dictum "Umm Shmumm," roughly rendered as "Joe Schmo" except in reference to the United Nations. He said that France was the one in charge of supervising the Versailles Treaty, the results of which supervision allowed Hitler to rearm. He is sure that peace with the Palestinians is the only way to go and he remains an optimist. He did not answer a question about how he would have avoided his greatest failure. When I noted that Jimmy Carter is forthright on that issue, he said that Carter would be, but he wouldn't. It was an honor to be with him, though I found him distant, formal, and not an open person.

Michael also arranged for us to be at the Knesset (Israeli parliament) for a motion honoring Bulgaria for having saved its Jews. Michael, who is himself Bulgarian in origin, did the research on this book while he was at Emory and, if you have seen the documentary, Emory is given credit. We were very proud to be with him and his community, as well as being in the Knesset for the formal vote honoring the Bulgarian people. Bulgarian Jewry is the only Jewry of wartime Europe to have actually increased in population during the war.

Philippe and I attended one of the most unusual britot (circumcisions) we've ever been at. Dov Maimon, the father of the child, lived in France where he held a prestigious job in the corporate world. He gave it up and became ultra-orthodox. So his rebbe, the ritual circumciser, and members of his community were present. Dov is the one who organizes the dialogue group that meets in Nazareth in which I participate. So, the Israelis, Israeli Arabs, and myself were there. He is also working on a doctorate from the Sorbonne in Jewish Studies. So, his professor was present. His wife's family comes from North Africa. So, we had a sefardi contingent. Ritually, it was a little complex and the collection of languages spoken included Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic, French, and English.

Philippe and I also went to a Bar Mitsva reception. The father comes from North Africa and prays with Rabbi Darzy, Philippe's Iraqi kabbalist. The music and food were very different from what we usually have. The highlight was the appearance of Rabbi Darzy. They announced his entry and, as he came in and sat down, people came up to him, kissed his hand, and received his blessing. For those of us from the west, this is strange to see but he is much appreciated by his people.

We took off a day from the war on Friday, 3/28, and drove down into the Judean desert. The hills are just beautiful; they are covered with a film of green vegetation and many flowers, especially red poppies. Israelis tell me that they have not seen the desert like this since 1962. We stopped at Ein Hogla, the monastery built above the Jordan River at the spot said to be the point where John, the baptist, did his work. Then, we went to Qumran. It was a first visit for us to the site of the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is so barren that one wonders why the Romans would even have tried to occupy it. Then further down, along the Dead Sea, to Ein Gedi where we only had time to look at the oasis and go into the hot baths for a few minutes. We will return to see the chalcolithic temple and byzantine synagogue. It was good to be away for a day, and to be warm.

It is the beginning of spring here, though it is still quite cold. I don't think I've been this cold for this long since we were in New York for sabbatical years ago. The apartment is not well heated and, as a result, the towels don't dry (not to speak of the laundry) though the flowers do well in our refrigerator-like temperatures. We have pushed our clocks forward so, if you are planning on calling anyone in Israel, be aware of this.

For the record, I made an error in my last letter while trying to explain why sunrise appears to be advancing more quickly than it did earlier in the year. The reason for this has to do with the axis of the earth and the angle at which light spreads across the surface of our globe. I do not fully understand this yet and my thanks to Maurice Glicksman and Diane Lavett for their help.

Every once in a while, one gets jarred back into reality. I saw three busloads of children who form their respective school choirs. They came for a perfomance -- all carrying their gas masks! Today's Zohar class began with an announcement from one of the boys: "We have successfully negotiated with the administration of the University so that those of you who have been doing reserve duty for more than thirty days [that is, have missed so much class that they cannot complete the requirements] can enroll in the course again next year without charge."

THE WAR

The war has stopped being evening entertainment in which the good guys always win. As someone said, "This is war, not tv." We have suffered reverses; Saddam has fought back. I do not understand why we do what we do. Where are the troops from Jordan? Why was a force not airlifted earlier into northern Iraq? I thought we could fly troops over Turkey; where are they? Why are we extended beyond our supply lines? The more I listen, the more this sounds like a chess game -- with humans as pieces. I was never very good at chess and I understand "military chess" even less. However, the key rule for the weaker player in chess is: a stalemate is a win. All Saddam needs to win is a stalemate, which is always easier than a victory, and he knows it. A stalemate will leave him in power. It seems to me he has two tools. First, he needs just to keep fighting intelligently and, two, as soon as the US gets close or into Baghdad, he needs to have his Euro-Arab allies, sue for a cessation of hostilities.

I admit that, aside from a nuclear outcome, I cannot think of a worse solution because the moral of that story will be: Anyone can produce, use, and spread weapons of mass destruction, even to international terrorist groups and, when someone tries to stop them, all one needs to do is hold out long enough. Crime pays; or, has no long range personal cost to the leader. Iraq, Iran, and others will continue to produce weapons of mass destruction, use them with impunity on their own people, and distribute them for use by international terrorist groups for use against the US, Israel, and eventually western Europe (even the French discovered a cache of ricin in the Gare de Lyon). We will, all of us, live in a regime of terror and many, many innocents among us will die as suicide bombers increase their destructive capacity. (I was glad to see that Safire, at least, agreed with me in a recent article.)

Killing Saddam will not bring peace to Israel or anyone. Nor will it bring democracy or freedom to the people of Iraq. It would, however, establish the fact that, at least the US, will not tolerate government support of terrorism. That is a point worth making, even at a price. My fear is that Bush will give up when the going gets tough. To put it differently: If Saddam survives, the moral of the story will be: 'You can make, use, and distribute weapons of mass destruction -- and no one can stop you. You might get clobbered but your friends whom you have bought with lucrative contracts and deposits will save you. Not to worry about the losses of your own people; it is your right as a ruler to let them be killed.' Do we really want that lesson to resound through the Arab world? Did it help anyone when a weaker version of it circulated after Cambodia? Or after Rwanda? Someone has to draw a line here.

Having chosen last week not to leave Israel in time of danger, we now face the problem again. Ursula and Philippe are slated to leave this week and I next week for New York for Passover with Ursula's mother but it does not look as if there will be any resolution of the Iraq war by then; not even a lessening of the danger to Israel. We shall see. Meanwhile, life continues.

Shalom, Ursula and David