Tuesday, January 03, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
Tel Aviv, British
Mandate Palestine:
Heart pounding, a
12 year old girl Jewish girl runs down the street. Her legs pumping as fast as
they can go. She looks behind her. Fear gripping her stomach, she sees that the
gang of Arab men is gaining on her, their knives flashing in the sunlight.
If they catch her
they will kill her.
To them it is a
game. Sport. She knows that what’s at stake is her life.
She hears laughter
from above. Looking up, she sees British soldiers on the rooftops.
For a fleeting
moment, she thinks they will help her. They could stop the men. They could save
her!
To her horror, she
realizes that the British soldiers are laughing at HER. They were taking
wagers, betting on the chances of the Jewish girl escaping death.
Hope fades as
quickly as it had been ignited.
She runs till she
feels her heart is about to burst, her little legs collapse beneath her. Then,
suddenly, a door opens. A hand stretches out and grabs her, pulling her inside.
An Arab woman was
bending over her, gesturing for the Jewish girl to be quiet. Urgently she
pulled the girl to the back of her house.
What did this
woman want from her? It took the girl a moment to understand that the woman was
ushering her out the back door of the house. The Arab woman was providing an
escape route, offering the girl life.
I am alive today
because that Arab woman saved my grandmother’s life.
The 12 year old
girl grew up to be my grandmother. My Jewish Palestinian grandmother had an Israeli
daughter. The Arab woman was also a Palestinian. At the time the term referred
to Jews and Arabs who lived in the land of Zion. The land was renamed by the
foreign occupying power to diminish its legacy as the home of the Jewish people
but at the same time the Jews of Europe were being told to “go home to
Palestine.” Everyone knew that Palestine was Zion, the land of Israel, home of
the Jewish people.
The Arab woman who
saved my grandmother was a hero. She, not the British soldiers, rescued my grandmother
from the lynch mob of Arab men. She saw the danger, understood how terrible the
consequences would be and acted morally – at her own personal risk. The
soldiers also saw the danger, they also understood the consequences. Their
reaction was to laugh.
Oh, so civilized…
Fast forward to
2016, the UN Security Council. The representatives of the world vote, declaring
biblical Israel, Judea and Samaria, the Golan and Jewish Jerusalem occupied
Palestinian land. Jewish presence is, they declare, illegal. Israeli towns,
holy sites including the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the heart of
Jerusalem are “illegal settlements.” Suddenly, everything that tied Jews to
Zion for thousands of years, the places that served as inspiration for the
world, have nothing to do with Jews and Israelis have no right to be there.
One after another
the representatives of the world vote to wipe Israel’s legacy off the books of
history, knowing what this will mean for Israel’s present and future.
Israel’s eyes
lifted to the American representative. America has a history of standing for
right when the rest of the world is wrong. America, the land whose founders
declared it the New Zion wouldn’t let the rest of the world declare that Zion
never existed… would she?
The wars against
Israel, fought and lost could not disconnect the Jews from Zion.
The terror tactics
meant to push Jews off the land only made the Jewish people cling harder to
their only homeland.
Now, in the
comfort of a room half way around the world, the nations of the world declared
victory for those who wish to remove Israel from Zion.
And they laughed.
The crowd of spectators applauding, gleefully. History doesn’t matter,
scientific proof doesn’t matter, international law doesn’t matter. “Getting the
Jews” is fun. Sport. A reason to cheer.
How civilized.
And then there are
the Egyptians. At first, they were convinced that submitting the UN resolution
was a good idea. Realizing the damage it would do to Israel, they pulled the
resolution.
Then the Americans
found a different way to make sure the resolution was submitted and passed. The
Egyptians were privy to the American betrayal of Israel and wanted to no part
in it.
Even though Israel
decided to hold back the details of the American plot, the Egyptians rushed to
release the information, signaling to Israel: “We want peace, not your
destruction. We want to help, not create damage.”
Watching these
events unfold I am left to wonder, who is civilized and who is the savage?
We may have
advanced but the world hasn’t changed. Sometimes the most “civilized” people or
nations are the most vicious and to this day, many consider “getting the Jew”
good sport.
The Jewish people
must never be beholden to the mercy of the “civilized.” There is no one we can
count on for security – but ourselves.
It is actions that
count, not words. Content of character is all that matters – moral clarity, not
titles or declarations of friendship. Sometimes true friends are found in
unexpected places. Sometimes they are the ones that pull us out of the jaws of
death. Or at least they try.
