In Jerusalem there is in progress the 4th Festival of Light - it will continue until 14th of June.
Just see for yourselves!!!!! It is amazing!!!!! Wish I was there!
pictures
movie and article
more pictures
Like a fairy tale :)
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
Monday, 11 June 2012
SHAME
Tonight on Yad Vashem's wall the inscription in Hebrew appeared saying "Hitler thank you for the Holocaust".
The police has been notified and among the gloomy (as always) news around the world many probably won't even hear about it - another hateful graffitti.
But that is not true. It is not "another one", this one is very special!
Shoah, the extermination of 98% of European Jewry, is probably the best documented genocide in history, certainly among the most horrifying ever (if not THE most horrifying as I personally believe) thanks to it's merciless biurocracy, good-organisation, cool calculation and complete inhumanity. The perpetrators not only dehumanized their victims, they firstly and most importantly dehumanized themselves (acts of rage and cruelty are, sadly, as old as humanity, acts of calculated, economically counted to cost the least, efficiently and publicly conducted genocide are something very different and much more horrifying) and unveiled dehumanization of all onlookers (and there were many).
Holocaust is also one of the most abused words on the planet during last few years. Without going back to those horrible days - still vividly remembered by not-so-few - I want to concentrate on what we see and experience today and why this inscription on Yad Vashem's wall is THE SHAME today to all who do not clearly express their lack of acceptance for such acts.
Let me start with what Yad Vashem means: it is the name and the place. Usually if some kind of catastrophe befalls on people killing some of them there are family members, neighbours, offices, hospitals, mortuaries, army officials to identify those who perished, let know their near and dear, give witness. If the catastrophe is big enough there are those who remain unrecognised - unknown soldiers, victims of purges, massacres, somebody's nears and dears who won't come back. We create memorials, burial places for unknown soldiers, exhumate and try to identify bodies. If the catastrophe is total there are no people to identify those who perished, there are no neighbours, no family neighbours, no communities, nothing..... That was Shoah. 6 million people - nearly all who lived in Europe and were Jewish. It took (and still takes) years of painful research to identify some - to preserve names of the victims and places of their origin.
When the Shoah was taking place the world was watching. Many (everyday people) didn't know. More still didn't want to know, many (and among them most of those who were making decisions) did know but have chosen to turn blind eye. PM Churchill and president Roosevelt knew - they were afraid that Hitler might offer them chance to take survivors and they will have to face the dilemma if to take so many refugees or let them be killed (no worry, Hitler never did, but his being aware of those thoughts, and nowadays we know he was, presumably encouraged him to many acts). It is bringing guilt on oneself to watch others being killed and do nothing even when we can't really do anything, how much more if we could? Bomb tracks to Auschwitz, shorten the war (it could have finished in the fall of 1944 but The Big Three were too preoccupied with deciding about future shape of the world and beginnings of the Cold War)?
But it is not only history that we are guilty of. Israel was many a time accused in media about "doing the same Nazi did" - there is now 6 time more Palestinians than in 1948, all being Israeli citizens have the same rights (vote, are educated, cared for), all from the PA, without Israeli citizenship, have chance to use Israeli medical facilities why in need, the energy, water and necessities are supplied paid for with Israeli taxpayers money (not only of course but in most part). In Gaza people are the 6th in the risk of obesity - worldwide. Yet there are accusations about Israel acting like Nazis and they are hardly protested against in some places. On the contrary - "Mein Kampf", "Protocols of Elders of Zion" (Russian XIX century antisemitic forgery) or articles like straight from "Sturmer" can be found in every European country. It is not considered dangerous or even important except by few who are named "overreacting" (few were "overreacting" to Hitler when in 1933 it would have taken few steps to finish his rule and Pilsudski - Polish marshall - was proposing France preemptive strike on Germany; few were "overreacting" to persecution leading to boycotts, depravation of rights by Nurnberg laws and Cristal Night; few were "overreacting" during Shoah - we have less than 70.000 who gained "Righteous Among Nations" medal).
It is not "others" it is us who like to turn blind eye and thus we are guilty unless we try to do something, to prevent evil (with regards to all the world, far from only anti-semitism, but it is and always in history has been very good indicator). What can be more evil than thanking somebody who started the war that consumed 60 million people, 10% of them Jewish, who wanted to murder all Jews, who considered all Eastern Europeans "subhuman" and Jews not human at all?
Here is the link to Shoah victims pictures. Look at them and think about this "thanksgiving" (sardonic sounds in this instance). And if keeping silence about this horrendous act makes you feel uncomfortable and guilty as it does myself - share it or write to the media or alarm your priest/ pastor or your MP - act. It only takes good people to keep silent to make evil prevail!!!!!
* "Shoah" in Hebrew means "calamity", "Holocaust" - an English word - means "burnt offering" or "sacrifice to God". European Jews were not sacrificed, they were murdered!!! Thus I try to use the Hebrew word "Shoah" rather than more known English "Holocaust", it fits better.
The police has been notified and among the gloomy (as always) news around the world many probably won't even hear about it - another hateful graffitti.
But that is not true. It is not "another one", this one is very special!
Shoah, the extermination of 98% of European Jewry, is probably the best documented genocide in history, certainly among the most horrifying ever (if not THE most horrifying as I personally believe) thanks to it's merciless biurocracy, good-organisation, cool calculation and complete inhumanity. The perpetrators not only dehumanized their victims, they firstly and most importantly dehumanized themselves (acts of rage and cruelty are, sadly, as old as humanity, acts of calculated, economically counted to cost the least, efficiently and publicly conducted genocide are something very different and much more horrifying) and unveiled dehumanization of all onlookers (and there were many).
Holocaust is also one of the most abused words on the planet during last few years. Without going back to those horrible days - still vividly remembered by not-so-few - I want to concentrate on what we see and experience today and why this inscription on Yad Vashem's wall is THE SHAME today to all who do not clearly express their lack of acceptance for such acts.
Let me start with what Yad Vashem means: it is the name and the place. Usually if some kind of catastrophe befalls on people killing some of them there are family members, neighbours, offices, hospitals, mortuaries, army officials to identify those who perished, let know their near and dear, give witness. If the catastrophe is big enough there are those who remain unrecognised - unknown soldiers, victims of purges, massacres, somebody's nears and dears who won't come back. We create memorials, burial places for unknown soldiers, exhumate and try to identify bodies. If the catastrophe is total there are no people to identify those who perished, there are no neighbours, no family neighbours, no communities, nothing..... That was Shoah. 6 million people - nearly all who lived in Europe and were Jewish. It took (and still takes) years of painful research to identify some - to preserve names of the victims and places of their origin.
When the Shoah was taking place the world was watching. Many (everyday people) didn't know. More still didn't want to know, many (and among them most of those who were making decisions) did know but have chosen to turn blind eye. PM Churchill and president Roosevelt knew - they were afraid that Hitler might offer them chance to take survivors and they will have to face the dilemma if to take so many refugees or let them be killed (no worry, Hitler never did, but his being aware of those thoughts, and nowadays we know he was, presumably encouraged him to many acts). It is bringing guilt on oneself to watch others being killed and do nothing even when we can't really do anything, how much more if we could? Bomb tracks to Auschwitz, shorten the war (it could have finished in the fall of 1944 but The Big Three were too preoccupied with deciding about future shape of the world and beginnings of the Cold War)?
But it is not only history that we are guilty of. Israel was many a time accused in media about "doing the same Nazi did" - there is now 6 time more Palestinians than in 1948, all being Israeli citizens have the same rights (vote, are educated, cared for), all from the PA, without Israeli citizenship, have chance to use Israeli medical facilities why in need, the energy, water and necessities are supplied paid for with Israeli taxpayers money (not only of course but in most part). In Gaza people are the 6th in the risk of obesity - worldwide. Yet there are accusations about Israel acting like Nazis and they are hardly protested against in some places. On the contrary - "Mein Kampf", "Protocols of Elders of Zion" (Russian XIX century antisemitic forgery) or articles like straight from "Sturmer" can be found in every European country. It is not considered dangerous or even important except by few who are named "overreacting" (few were "overreacting" to Hitler when in 1933 it would have taken few steps to finish his rule and Pilsudski - Polish marshall - was proposing France preemptive strike on Germany; few were "overreacting" to persecution leading to boycotts, depravation of rights by Nurnberg laws and Cristal Night; few were "overreacting" during Shoah - we have less than 70.000 who gained "Righteous Among Nations" medal).
It is not "others" it is us who like to turn blind eye and thus we are guilty unless we try to do something, to prevent evil (with regards to all the world, far from only anti-semitism, but it is and always in history has been very good indicator). What can be more evil than thanking somebody who started the war that consumed 60 million people, 10% of them Jewish, who wanted to murder all Jews, who considered all Eastern Europeans "subhuman" and Jews not human at all?
Here is the link to Shoah victims pictures. Look at them and think about this "thanksgiving" (sardonic sounds in this instance). And if keeping silence about this horrendous act makes you feel uncomfortable and guilty as it does myself - share it or write to the media or alarm your priest/ pastor or your MP - act. It only takes good people to keep silent to make evil prevail!!!!!
* "Shoah" in Hebrew means "calamity", "Holocaust" - an English word - means "burnt offering" or "sacrifice to God". European Jews were not sacrificed, they were murdered!!! Thus I try to use the Hebrew word "Shoah" rather than more known English "Holocaust", it fits better.
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Displaced Persons - Jews after the IIWW
Sorry for a while when I was not writing - things got in a way, but I am back with my blog and you :).
Today I want to go back to the end of II WW. The end of war has found approximately 9 million displaced persons all over Europe, and more were to be added due to border changes. Their fates were different depending on where the end of the war has found them, who they were and also how much personal luck they had. First I want to scatch a general picture and than move to one, specific group of people - displaced Jews.
There were many groups who for various reasons couldn't or wouldn't return "home" after the end of the war. The obvious one was not having abywhere to go, other (as obvvious) was fear that returning where one came from could mean only death (or labour camp at best). Some 5 million people originating from USSR and territories annexed by USSR as a result of the war (Lithuania, Latva, Esthonia to name a few) constituted one large group. Mostly they were former camp prisoners or forced laborers taken by Germans. They were treated as "traitors" by Stalinist USSR and either shot or sent to gulags on return. Yet they had no way of legally applying for a right to stay on the West. Many ships with such people have been sent to USSR - for most it was journey to their death. Another group were citizens of countries under Soviet occupation (like Poland) - those who took part in war together with Western allies (battle for Great Britain, Anders' army fighting along Alexander's one, tank divisions liberating Netherlands and so on) faced death sentencies or life-long prison on returning to Soviet-occupied Poland (only after 1956 it has changed). There were also German civilians thrown from the territories that were annexed by Poland and Chechoslovakia, and people considered to be Germans (sometimes just because of wrong name or wrong church and being accused of treason after fighting with German forces on resistance movement side). But during 2 years after the war their fate - for good or bad or sometimes horrible - was somehow resolved.
There was one group of people who were left as nobody seemed to know what to do about them. And they were among most horribly affected by the war, the most victimized and the most neglected (if it is possible to build such statements with regards to those horrors) - they were Jewish citizens of Germany, Austria and Eastern European countries who found themselves on the western side of the iron curtain (or were quick enough to cross to the western side when it was still possible during first months after the war).
They survived Shoah, they survived camps and atrocities in ghettoes yet they had nowhere to go. For obvious reasons those who held before the war German or Austrian citizenship were very reluctant to go back - their families murdered, their neighbours turned into their murderers, their homes non-existent, their humanity questioned (at best) by their co-patriots for many years they wanted to go away from what was one big cementary. The USA and UK were not allowing any refugees and in fact they were getting rid of those on their territory (at least UK was, I remember the tale of Polish pilot taking part in Battle for Great Britain, having recieved his high medals yet given 3 days in 1945 to leave UK when it was obvious he could apply for Swiss citizenship - he was turned into persona non grata overnight). Those who came from Eastern Europe didn't want to return to Soviet occupied territory with Nazi built and run camps still standing. Palestine under British mandate remaind off-limits as Britons didn't want to offend Arabs (despite the fact that grand mufti of Jerusalem spent war years in Berlin as personal guest and friend of Adolf Hitler). So they stayed in camps - former concentration camps - trying to cross illigally to British Palestine or find a way to go to the USA or just wait for what will happen to them after all those horrible years.
Earl Harrison - special emmissary of President Truman to European DP camps -was trying to open the way for the Jews to go to Palestine but UK was blocking it with whole might. Many former Nazi concentration camps inmates were living behind barbered wire in Cyprus camps or were sent to Mauritius by British if caught trying to enter Palestine - many died in those camps seeing just turning Nazi guards to British ones (yes, they were fed and clothed and they were still kept as prisoners) - many British soldiers who witnessed liberation of camps in Nazi Germany objected to being turned into camp guards themselves - to no avail. It added to the horror that many of the camps for DPs were former concentration camps.
There is the story of Ulysses - the ship that tried to bring DPs (many women and children) and met tragic end. You know the story...
When Polish II Army under general Anders (later deprived of Polish citizenship by Soviets as "traitor" after the army faught under Tobruk and Monte Cassino) consisting from former Polish gulag inmates, many Jewish, was crossing British Palestine in 1942-1943 the personal order of general was to turn blind eye to desertions of Polish Jews in order to join Hagganah.
Only after creation of Israel and partly (due to British influence) only after the end of War of Independance, the DP camps in Europe gradually disappeared. The last one - in Germany - was closed in 1953, 8 years after the war. The last people to leave it were all Jews - not wanted by anybody.
Countries forming allience against Nazi Germany and fighting the war were horrified that somehow they might be offered the chance to give asylum for those being murdered. They wanted no refugees - not before the war during persecution, not during the war, not after the war.
And this is one of the saddest and most shameful histories in Europe's history, but the one we have to know and remember....
Today I want to go back to the end of II WW. The end of war has found approximately 9 million displaced persons all over Europe, and more were to be added due to border changes. Their fates were different depending on where the end of the war has found them, who they were and also how much personal luck they had. First I want to scatch a general picture and than move to one, specific group of people - displaced Jews.
There were many groups who for various reasons couldn't or wouldn't return "home" after the end of the war. The obvious one was not having abywhere to go, other (as obvvious) was fear that returning where one came from could mean only death (or labour camp at best). Some 5 million people originating from USSR and territories annexed by USSR as a result of the war (Lithuania, Latva, Esthonia to name a few) constituted one large group. Mostly they were former camp prisoners or forced laborers taken by Germans. They were treated as "traitors" by Stalinist USSR and either shot or sent to gulags on return. Yet they had no way of legally applying for a right to stay on the West. Many ships with such people have been sent to USSR - for most it was journey to their death. Another group were citizens of countries under Soviet occupation (like Poland) - those who took part in war together with Western allies (battle for Great Britain, Anders' army fighting along Alexander's one, tank divisions liberating Netherlands and so on) faced death sentencies or life-long prison on returning to Soviet-occupied Poland (only after 1956 it has changed). There were also German civilians thrown from the territories that were annexed by Poland and Chechoslovakia, and people considered to be Germans (sometimes just because of wrong name or wrong church and being accused of treason after fighting with German forces on resistance movement side). But during 2 years after the war their fate - for good or bad or sometimes horrible - was somehow resolved.
There was one group of people who were left as nobody seemed to know what to do about them. And they were among most horribly affected by the war, the most victimized and the most neglected (if it is possible to build such statements with regards to those horrors) - they were Jewish citizens of Germany, Austria and Eastern European countries who found themselves on the western side of the iron curtain (or were quick enough to cross to the western side when it was still possible during first months after the war).
They survived Shoah, they survived camps and atrocities in ghettoes yet they had nowhere to go. For obvious reasons those who held before the war German or Austrian citizenship were very reluctant to go back - their families murdered, their neighbours turned into their murderers, their homes non-existent, their humanity questioned (at best) by their co-patriots for many years they wanted to go away from what was one big cementary. The USA and UK were not allowing any refugees and in fact they were getting rid of those on their territory (at least UK was, I remember the tale of Polish pilot taking part in Battle for Great Britain, having recieved his high medals yet given 3 days in 1945 to leave UK when it was obvious he could apply for Swiss citizenship - he was turned into persona non grata overnight). Those who came from Eastern Europe didn't want to return to Soviet occupied territory with Nazi built and run camps still standing. Palestine under British mandate remaind off-limits as Britons didn't want to offend Arabs (despite the fact that grand mufti of Jerusalem spent war years in Berlin as personal guest and friend of Adolf Hitler). So they stayed in camps - former concentration camps - trying to cross illigally to British Palestine or find a way to go to the USA or just wait for what will happen to them after all those horrible years.
Earl Harrison - special emmissary of President Truman to European DP camps -was trying to open the way for the Jews to go to Palestine but UK was blocking it with whole might. Many former Nazi concentration camps inmates were living behind barbered wire in Cyprus camps or were sent to Mauritius by British if caught trying to enter Palestine - many died in those camps seeing just turning Nazi guards to British ones (yes, they were fed and clothed and they were still kept as prisoners) - many British soldiers who witnessed liberation of camps in Nazi Germany objected to being turned into camp guards themselves - to no avail. It added to the horror that many of the camps for DPs were former concentration camps.
There is the story of Ulysses - the ship that tried to bring DPs (many women and children) and met tragic end. You know the story...
When Polish II Army under general Anders (later deprived of Polish citizenship by Soviets as "traitor" after the army faught under Tobruk and Monte Cassino) consisting from former Polish gulag inmates, many Jewish, was crossing British Palestine in 1942-1943 the personal order of general was to turn blind eye to desertions of Polish Jews in order to join Hagganah.
Only after creation of Israel and partly (due to British influence) only after the end of War of Independance, the DP camps in Europe gradually disappeared. The last one - in Germany - was closed in 1953, 8 years after the war. The last people to leave it were all Jews - not wanted by anybody.
Countries forming allience against Nazi Germany and fighting the war were horrified that somehow they might be offered the chance to give asylum for those being murdered. They wanted no refugees - not before the war during persecution, not during the war, not after the war.
And this is one of the saddest and most shameful histories in Europe's history, but the one we have to know and remember....
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Shavuot
Tomorrow is Shavuot, one of the biggest Jewish holidays.
Here is a link to a wonderful article about it
Shavuot
It is about recieving Torah - law, teaching, aiming at (translations from Hebrew). Interestingly enough one of the words for sin means "missing the sign" Torah being THE sign.
I just wanted to add that while in New Testament, in acts, there is described this wonderful moment when Holy Spirit descends few people ask why were all the apostoles in Jerusalem? Why were there crowds in Jerusalem? Why so many Jews speaking so different languages and arriving from so many places afar. Well, it was Shavuot. That was the reason for them to come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And of course apostoles - observant Jews - were celebrating it either.
What better occasion to celebrate than recieving God's word!
Here is a link to a wonderful article about it
Shavuot
It is about recieving Torah - law, teaching, aiming at (translations from Hebrew). Interestingly enough one of the words for sin means "missing the sign" Torah being THE sign.
I just wanted to add that while in New Testament, in acts, there is described this wonderful moment when Holy Spirit descends few people ask why were all the apostoles in Jerusalem? Why were there crowds in Jerusalem? Why so many Jews speaking so different languages and arriving from so many places afar. Well, it was Shavuot. That was the reason for them to come on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And of course apostoles - observant Jews - were celebrating it either.
What better occasion to celebrate than recieving God's word!
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Hamtanah
This Hebrew word means "waiting" and generally refers to one very special period of waiting in Israeli history - 3 weeks before 6 Days War when it was decided if the war can be avoided and how should Israel prepare and act.
In April there were daily raids of Syrian troops - most notably Fatah ones - on Israeli territory and practicaly daily exchange of fire. Syria has been backed up by Soviet Union (as the whole episode was inbedded in cold war being something of a crossing between cold war and Arab hostility towards Jews). It was Soviet ambassador to Syria who most visciously pursued UN condemnation of Israeli response to Syrian aggression. Levi Eshkol proposed to take him for the tour along the Syrian border - ambassador declined offer and worked towards condemnation of Israel.
There were few more incidents with Syrians - putting mines on roads in Israel, firing at the kibbutz in Galilee and so on.
On 13 May, Nasser already a leader of Syrian-Egyptian coalition against Israel into which he also coopted Jordan, Egyptian troops moved into Sinai that - after 1956 war - was demilitarized area with UN troops guarding the truce. But in contrast to e.g. truce line between Koreas they weren't very much involved in the task.
Nasser said (absolute lie) that Israel intended to invade Syria on 17 May and on 16th May he himself ordered UN troops to leave Sinai. To complete surprise not only of Israelis but of Nasser as well Secretary General ordered troops to leave Sinai without even calling counsel and in 3 days Egypt was in sole possession of Sinai peninsula. Israel had to get started for war.
With Egyptian saber rattling and Nasser's speeches ("we aim at the destruction of the State of Israel"; "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel."; "This is our chance Arabs, to deal Israel a mortal blow of annihilation, to blot out its entire presence in our holy land" ; "The Arab people is firmly resolved to wipe Israel off the map" - all quotes from Nasser) there was nothing but preparation for war. It was decided that as long as Gulf of Acaba will remain open for Israeli ships there is a chance to avoid war, but on 23rd of May Nasser closed it for all Israeli traffic.
This is how historian Michael Oren describes last days before the war:
"Throughout the country thousands were hurrying to dig trenches, build shelters, and fill sandbags. In Jerusalem... schools were refitted as bomb shelters, and air raid drills were practiced daily. An urgent request for surgeons... was submitted to the Red Cross, and extra units of plasma ordered from abroad. Upwards of 14,000 hospital beds were readied, and antidotes stockpiled for poison gas victims, expected to arrive in waves of 200. Some 10,000 graves were dug".
Doomsday scenario never materialized.
Why do I write it today?
For few reasons:
1. It is kind of anniversary - 45 years to the day it was the first act of war, the closing of Straits of Tiran by Egypt.
2. I want you to imagine people., many of whom have survived Holocaust, lost everything, their citizenship rights were denied to them who again confronted threat of annihilation. Try to imagine what it meant to them - it was not the war for terrain or border, it was desperate fight for survival.
3. Israel is a small country, to get ready for war it had to mobilise all citizens leaving country and economy at standstill - all ceased work and were mobilised. You can't go on like that very long, waiting. Something that Nasser was perfectly aware of. Closing Straits of Tiran, calling for annihilation of Israel, ordering UN troops to leave Sinai and making Israel mobilise all people available were acts of war - Israel had to respond while there were still some resources. And according to international law the act of war was indeed committed by Egypt.
4. But most of all I want you to imagine this tiny piece of land, so valuable for those rejected by other countries, doomed, nearly annihilated in Europe merely 20 years previously. A country one forth size of Ireland threatened by armies of 3 other countries. Here you have it map - Sinai alone is just as big as the whole Israel and it was just demilitariased zone remilitarised by Egypt just before the war. Imagine how would it be for you had you been there with your family hearing threts, seeing international community backing away, feeling you are all alone and it is your survival at stake
In April there were daily raids of Syrian troops - most notably Fatah ones - on Israeli territory and practicaly daily exchange of fire. Syria has been backed up by Soviet Union (as the whole episode was inbedded in cold war being something of a crossing between cold war and Arab hostility towards Jews). It was Soviet ambassador to Syria who most visciously pursued UN condemnation of Israeli response to Syrian aggression. Levi Eshkol proposed to take him for the tour along the Syrian border - ambassador declined offer and worked towards condemnation of Israel.
There were few more incidents with Syrians - putting mines on roads in Israel, firing at the kibbutz in Galilee and so on.
On 13 May, Nasser already a leader of Syrian-Egyptian coalition against Israel into which he also coopted Jordan, Egyptian troops moved into Sinai that - after 1956 war - was demilitarized area with UN troops guarding the truce. But in contrast to e.g. truce line between Koreas they weren't very much involved in the task.
Nasser said (absolute lie) that Israel intended to invade Syria on 17 May and on 16th May he himself ordered UN troops to leave Sinai. To complete surprise not only of Israelis but of Nasser as well Secretary General ordered troops to leave Sinai without even calling counsel and in 3 days Egypt was in sole possession of Sinai peninsula. Israel had to get started for war.
With Egyptian saber rattling and Nasser's speeches ("we aim at the destruction of the State of Israel"; "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel."; "This is our chance Arabs, to deal Israel a mortal blow of annihilation, to blot out its entire presence in our holy land" ; "The Arab people is firmly resolved to wipe Israel off the map" - all quotes from Nasser) there was nothing but preparation for war. It was decided that as long as Gulf of Acaba will remain open for Israeli ships there is a chance to avoid war, but on 23rd of May Nasser closed it for all Israeli traffic.
This is how historian Michael Oren describes last days before the war:
"Throughout the country thousands were hurrying to dig trenches, build shelters, and fill sandbags. In Jerusalem... schools were refitted as bomb shelters, and air raid drills were practiced daily. An urgent request for surgeons... was submitted to the Red Cross, and extra units of plasma ordered from abroad. Upwards of 14,000 hospital beds were readied, and antidotes stockpiled for poison gas victims, expected to arrive in waves of 200. Some 10,000 graves were dug".
Doomsday scenario never materialized.
Why do I write it today?
For few reasons:
1. It is kind of anniversary - 45 years to the day it was the first act of war, the closing of Straits of Tiran by Egypt.
2. I want you to imagine people., many of whom have survived Holocaust, lost everything, their citizenship rights were denied to them who again confronted threat of annihilation. Try to imagine what it meant to them - it was not the war for terrain or border, it was desperate fight for survival.
3. Israel is a small country, to get ready for war it had to mobilise all citizens leaving country and economy at standstill - all ceased work and were mobilised. You can't go on like that very long, waiting. Something that Nasser was perfectly aware of. Closing Straits of Tiran, calling for annihilation of Israel, ordering UN troops to leave Sinai and making Israel mobilise all people available were acts of war - Israel had to respond while there were still some resources. And according to international law the act of war was indeed committed by Egypt.
4. But most of all I want you to imagine this tiny piece of land, so valuable for those rejected by other countries, doomed, nearly annihilated in Europe merely 20 years previously. A country one forth size of Ireland threatened by armies of 3 other countries. Here you have it map - Sinai alone is just as big as the whole Israel and it was just demilitariased zone remilitarised by Egypt just before the war. Imagine how would it be for you had you been there with your family hearing threts, seeing international community backing away, feeling you are all alone and it is your survival at stake
Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Fate of petition
AVAAZ - provider in making petitions decided to remove petition not to boycott Israeli goods as it is against their standards (!!!!). They did it after it has reached more than 1,000 signatures.
They have broken the right to express opinion and freedom of speech - I encourage you to share the story and NOT use this firm as provider of your petitions (you may discover just like my friend did that after you're being succesful they will remove it as they don't support your cause and God alone knows what they want to support, they are just dishonest and cheating)
Here is a message from my friend who started the petition
They have broken the right to express opinion and freedom of speech - I encourage you to share the story and NOT use this firm as provider of your petitions (you may discover just like my friend did that after you're being succesful they will remove it as they don't support your cause and God alone knows what they want to support, they are just dishonest and cheating)
Here is a message from my friend who started the petition
Monday, 21 May 2012
Ancient infaticide - Hellenistic and Jewish worlds
So many of the values all the western culture, as we know it, are based on Jewish law and history and social norms. It should not be surprising as Christianity was originally a branch of Judaism and even after the connection was severed by early church it was not before absorbing lots of Jewish culture.
Biblie is Jewish sacred book - God's word - and although for centuries Christian churches were trying to hide this connection they couldn't destroy essentials of Christianity and those are in Judaism. And no matter how much the hellenistic values were added into it after Christianity became official Roman religion the essence was already there. Centuries passed before we started going back to source but the source is and always was there.
One of the very self-evident examples is Western culture's approach to infanticide.
We take it for granted (at least most of us) that babies are precious, we should protect them, care for them. We feel angered reading about throwing away newborns for certain death or disposing through abortion from female foetuses or killing babies because they are girls or because they have been born against "one child policy" or for any other reason. I do not intend to start discussion on abortion here but I am sure most of us feel offended at least by pictures of baby girls lying in severs in China (for example).
But where does our reverence for life from the birth (or sometimes earlier but let's stick to this) come from? Why do we recognise right to live (so obvious nowadays) of human being? How did it start?
Well, it started with Jews.... In anticity in Europe hellenistic world was all in favour - philosophically and practically - of disposing of unwanted children. Unwanted for various reasons. If the baby in Greece or specially in Rome was born tiny, weak, demaged, ill or just a girl instead of awaited boy it was left to die. It was - according to Roman law - family father's prerogative to decide if the baby is to be kept or to be disposed off. Yet the social values of the society ruled in favour of getting rid of the unwanted babies. Let me give you few examples:
Roman citizen, Hilarion, wrote in a letter to his pregnant wife to Rome in 1 CE: “Know that I am still in Alexandria. And do not worry if they all come back and I remain in Alexandria. I ask and beg of you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I will send it up to you. If you deliver a child [before I get home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl discard it…”
Aristotele in his Politics writes: “There must be a law that no imperfect or maimed child shall be brought up. And to avoid an excess in population, some children must be exposed. For a limit must be fixed to the population of the state.” (Politics VII.16)
Children with even minor defects were abandoned in woods, thrown into rivers or down the wells. Archeology gives us quite few examples e.g. in Athens when the well from the time of Polis with remains of 175 newborns was found not so long ago.
Another practice - if the unwanted babies were left alive - was maiming them to allow them to beg more efficiently, their legs or arms or eyes were removed and those that survived made better beggers. It was morally justifable for Romans. Here is what Seneca writes about such practices:
“Look on the blind wandering about the streets leaning on their sticks, and those with crushed feet, and still again look on those with broken limbs. This one is without arms, that one has had his shoulder pulled down out of shape in order that his grotesqueries may excite laughter ... Let us go to the origin of those ills—a laboratory for the manufacture of human wrecks—a cavern filled with the limbs torn from living children ... What wrong has been done to the Republic? On the contrary, have not these children been done a service inasmuch as their parents had cast them out?”
So where do we take our reverence for life and for not hurting babies from? Well, listen what Tacit had to say about Jewish customs:
In his major work, the Histories, Tacitus attacks the Jews as "wicked," stubborn," and "lascivious." Turning his attention to the Jewish religion, he notes that:
Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral.
Tacitus then lists a number of these Jewish moral perversions. Among the beliefs he found particularly "sinister and revolting" was the fact that, for Jews, "it is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child."
So for one of the most famous Roman historians one of the main sins of Jews was their reverence for life. Jews were keeping all babies who made it into this world. True enough, infant mortality was horrendous, both among Romans and among Jews, but there was no purposful killing of babies who seemed not fit. On the contrary, they were taken care of (as were all baby girls, while to the Romans disposing of them, even healthy ones, was "natural"; it was explicite stated by Roman law in early Republic and did not change until very late empire when Christianity took over). Torah had forbidden killing and life was regarded as God's gift, blessing, it would have been madness and sin to dispose of such a gift, it would mean rejection of blessing.
And, as Roman philosopher and senator, Deo Cassius, has written expressing his disapproval “The Jews are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life. In particular ... they do not honor any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence to only one God.” So they could NOT go against this God's given law even if it meant going agains the dominant culture to the extent of clashing with it in the most bloody way.
BTW the excess of young male adults, who could not grow families (as there were not enough women) was one of the reasons responsibles for Roman wars and expansion. They had to push them out of Rome to avoid revolt and thus the empire has started.
So, our reverence for individual life, recognition of individuality that in time gave way to ban on slavery and on torture and was the origin of recognition of individual rights as "natural" all that is taken from Judaism. We think about it as a part of western culture pointing that in many other cultures it was family or clan that mattered and not individual. We think with pride about individual approach, reverence for life, human rights. Yes, it is something to look at with pride but only as long as we will remember when do those values origin from.
Let me remind the quote from John Adams, the 2nd president of the USA and one of the fathers of American constitution:
“I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.”
Biblie is Jewish sacred book - God's word - and although for centuries Christian churches were trying to hide this connection they couldn't destroy essentials of Christianity and those are in Judaism. And no matter how much the hellenistic values were added into it after Christianity became official Roman religion the essence was already there. Centuries passed before we started going back to source but the source is and always was there.
One of the very self-evident examples is Western culture's approach to infanticide.
We take it for granted (at least most of us) that babies are precious, we should protect them, care for them. We feel angered reading about throwing away newborns for certain death or disposing through abortion from female foetuses or killing babies because they are girls or because they have been born against "one child policy" or for any other reason. I do not intend to start discussion on abortion here but I am sure most of us feel offended at least by pictures of baby girls lying in severs in China (for example).
But where does our reverence for life from the birth (or sometimes earlier but let's stick to this) come from? Why do we recognise right to live (so obvious nowadays) of human being? How did it start?
Well, it started with Jews.... In anticity in Europe hellenistic world was all in favour - philosophically and practically - of disposing of unwanted children. Unwanted for various reasons. If the baby in Greece or specially in Rome was born tiny, weak, demaged, ill or just a girl instead of awaited boy it was left to die. It was - according to Roman law - family father's prerogative to decide if the baby is to be kept or to be disposed off. Yet the social values of the society ruled in favour of getting rid of the unwanted babies. Let me give you few examples:
Roman citizen, Hilarion, wrote in a letter to his pregnant wife to Rome in 1 CE: “Know that I am still in Alexandria. And do not worry if they all come back and I remain in Alexandria. I ask and beg of you to take good care of our baby son, and as soon as I receive payment I will send it up to you. If you deliver a child [before I get home], if it is a boy, keep it, if a girl discard it…”
Aristotele in his Politics writes: “There must be a law that no imperfect or maimed child shall be brought up. And to avoid an excess in population, some children must be exposed. For a limit must be fixed to the population of the state.” (Politics VII.16)
Children with even minor defects were abandoned in woods, thrown into rivers or down the wells. Archeology gives us quite few examples e.g. in Athens when the well from the time of Polis with remains of 175 newborns was found not so long ago.
Another practice - if the unwanted babies were left alive - was maiming them to allow them to beg more efficiently, their legs or arms or eyes were removed and those that survived made better beggers. It was morally justifable for Romans. Here is what Seneca writes about such practices:
“Look on the blind wandering about the streets leaning on their sticks, and those with crushed feet, and still again look on those with broken limbs. This one is without arms, that one has had his shoulder pulled down out of shape in order that his grotesqueries may excite laughter ... Let us go to the origin of those ills—a laboratory for the manufacture of human wrecks—a cavern filled with the limbs torn from living children ... What wrong has been done to the Republic? On the contrary, have not these children been done a service inasmuch as their parents had cast them out?”
So where do we take our reverence for life and for not hurting babies from? Well, listen what Tacit had to say about Jewish customs:
In his major work, the Histories, Tacitus attacks the Jews as "wicked," stubborn," and "lascivious." Turning his attention to the Jewish religion, he notes that:
Among the Jews all things are profane that we hold sacred; on the other hand they regard as permissible what seems to us immoral.
Tacitus then lists a number of these Jewish moral perversions. Among the beliefs he found particularly "sinister and revolting" was the fact that, for Jews, "it is a deadly sin to kill an unwanted child."
So for one of the most famous Roman historians one of the main sins of Jews was their reverence for life. Jews were keeping all babies who made it into this world. True enough, infant mortality was horrendous, both among Romans and among Jews, but there was no purposful killing of babies who seemed not fit. On the contrary, they were taken care of (as were all baby girls, while to the Romans disposing of them, even healthy ones, was "natural"; it was explicite stated by Roman law in early Republic and did not change until very late empire when Christianity took over). Torah had forbidden killing and life was regarded as God's gift, blessing, it would have been madness and sin to dispose of such a gift, it would mean rejection of blessing.
And, as Roman philosopher and senator, Deo Cassius, has written expressing his disapproval “The Jews are distinguished from the rest of mankind in practically every detail of life. In particular ... they do not honor any of the usual gods, but show extreme reverence to only one God.” So they could NOT go against this God's given law even if it meant going agains the dominant culture to the extent of clashing with it in the most bloody way.
BTW the excess of young male adults, who could not grow families (as there were not enough women) was one of the reasons responsibles for Roman wars and expansion. They had to push them out of Rome to avoid revolt and thus the empire has started.
So, our reverence for individual life, recognition of individuality that in time gave way to ban on slavery and on torture and was the origin of recognition of individual rights as "natural" all that is taken from Judaism. We think about it as a part of western culture pointing that in many other cultures it was family or clan that mattered and not individual. We think with pride about individual approach, reverence for life, human rights. Yes, it is something to look at with pride but only as long as we will remember when do those values origin from.
Let me remind the quote from John Adams, the 2nd president of the USA and one of the fathers of American constitution:
“I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.”
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