100903
September 3rd 2010.
Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Shabbat Shalom as we enter the last period of Atonement before the New Jewish Year. Actually it is a misnomer because it is the seventh month of the year but as always, in Judaism things are not as they seem – but for very good reason! http://judaism.about.com/od/holidays/a/roshhashanah.htm
Everybody's eyes are on Washington as we watched King Abdullah, President Mubarak, Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas come forward to the rostrum with President Obama able to temper our cynicism with another portion of hope. Every one of the four Middle Eastern leaders came to the table aware that despite American pressure this dispute will not be settled in a day, a month nor a year.
PM Netanyahu spoke brilliantly of his willingness to go far in return for a secure and true peace and reminded those present of the heinous killing the day before next to Kiriat Arba, of Yitzhak Ames and his wife Tali, Kochava Even-Haim and Avishai Schindler. He knew that one of the first people on the scene was a ZAKA volunteer paramedic who discovered that his wife Kochava was one of the victims in this cowardly attempt to scupper the talks.
May their souls rest in peace and their families, especially the 7 orphans, know no more sorrow.
What complicates any attempt at a peaceful solution, is that Hamas, quite apart from encouraging children to celebrate in the streets over the "success" of killing Jews, has declared its intent to continue the killings.
All four of the leaders present at the Washington talks are serious – they all face the same enemy, including Mahmoud Abbas; they face Hamas, Hezb-Allah, Islamic Jihad, Al Qaeeda, Moslem Broterhood….. fundamentalists who are bent on changing the face of the M.E. and then Europe and the USA- all supported by Iran, the new and proud owner of a nuclear facility.
Among the elements which must be considered before any agreement can be reached – Before considering the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees to the 4th generation – the rights of 900,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries who have never been compensated; before recreating history -historic rights, biblical rights, national rights; before talking of human rights - oppression, corruption, ethnic cleansing of Christians in both sectors of the PA and violent terrorism and the abuse of children by taking away their childhood and teaching hatred and war in schools. Deputy Minister Danny Ayalon wrote "As a descendant of a family forced out of Algeria, my father and I – and the millions of other Jews from families who were expelled from Arab countries after 1948 – are entitled to redress. " http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=186742
When I explained the elements of the dispute that are not reported in the media and oft ignored by diplomats to a friend, her response was "The PA a kleptocracy ruled by armed thugs, cronyism and corruption running rampant, etc. not to mention HAMAS. It does remind me of someone who's delusional to make airy-fairy claims about "Peace" given the realities." While a large part of me agrees wit every word, we must try, we must move forward and leave our battles behind us; change as Sadat and Begin did, FOR A REAL PEACE.
Israel stands ready to provide 800 trucks a day to Gaza but there is zero demand for any goods by the PA more than 140 trucks maximum.From the slightly surreal to the ridiculous. Former MP George Galloway, not satisfied with being evicted by Egypt for his Gaza escapades, is now planning a "Free Gaza" Convoy and is trying to raise funding from a Florida Mosque. Do you think someone should tell him that Gaza is free of Jews, has been for years now, and that they don't need any food or aid because Israel is ready to provide 800 trucks of aid a day to Gaza but there is zero demand for any goods by the PA more than 140 trucks maximum. (Thanks to Barry Shaw for the statistics)
Finally on the news front to the utterly insane. Israeli Knesset Member Hanin Zou'bi: I Do Not Represent the State of Israel but the Palestinian Struggle In an interview for the website Elaph.com, Israeli Arab Knesset Member Hanin Zou'bi of the Balad party said that she sees herself as a representative not of Israel but rather of the struggle of the Palestinian people, and as such does not recognize Israel as a Jewish state. http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/30001.htm Are we crazy? A few rights have been taken from her for lying and taking part in the Flotilla but if she doesn't represent Israel, she is in the Knesset under false pretenses and false oaths of allegiance. THROW HER OUT!!! I don't care how many screams come from the civil rights groups she is a traitor!
On Monday I went to the movies with our dear friends Rosa and Bernardo. We went to see the movie La Rafle – The Round up, about the rounding up of France's Jews during WW2. The presentation is astonishing, the acting excellent and the story excruciatingly true. It makes essential viewing as one realizes how easy it is to dehumanise, separate and then cull those with whom you disagree. On Tuesday I went to Mamilla with Irit Lev to see some of her sculptures which are on display. Mamilla Mall is always busy, always a hive of activity which inevitably involves eating, either sitting in the multitude of kerbside restaurants or eating the delicious ice creams as one walks. In Israel even a visit to the Botanical Gardens involves eating phenomenal salads!! Come to think of it, a visit to the Petrol Station in Nayot is a culinary delight for Zvi's Parliament!!
Last night Zvi came back from Argentina and Uruguay for the Jewish Agency. He visited schools, synagogues, homes, community centers and spoke of Israel, every aspect, every view and answered the inevitable questions. My husband is the best and I do not apologise for bragging!! His knowledge is so broad, is voice so clear, is vocabulary so rich and he makes it all sound so exciting and interesting even when he quotes historical dates and events!!!
Jerusalem is preparing for Shabbat. The roads are emptying, the houses fill with aromas of ethnic cooking representing not only the Ashkenazi epicurean delights but those of so many Arab countries from whence the refugees came – not refugees for long because they did not need to seek asylum they came home. The people of my generation understand what it meant to live in a world without Israel; the fragility of the Jewish situation whereby "The Roundup" could happen any time any where. We have to protect our country, we have to ensure that it really never happens again, because it can and it may if we don't stop the rot now.
For your New Years Tikkun Olam resolution, promise to stand up for yourselves, your beliefs, your rights and your people while always caring what happens to others.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem , heart of our world
Sheila
Showing posts with label Jewish Refugees from arab countries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jewish Refugees from arab countries. Show all posts
Friday, 3 September 2010
Friday, 5 March 2010
Sheila's Shabbat Shalom Letter
100304
March 4th 2010.
Shabbat Shalom!
History often repeats itself but similar situations take on dissimilar perspectives as facts are slewed and reinvented over time. Two historic areas under British rule, India and Palestine, claimed their independence receiving initial promises in 1919 to complete their partition in 1947. Both India and Israel decided to accept a two state solution; for India Moslem to the north and Hindu to the South as per Lord Mountbatten's plan. Few in this world question the Indian partition although India has been battling violent insurgents ever since. In the double standards which are the scourge of our world today no face is turned to India claiming occupation. "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance." -Jawarhalal Nehru http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html
New legislation giving refugee status to Jews who fled persecution in Arab lands not only accords them their rightful status it ensures that in future negotiations not only Palestinians will demand compensation. Over 800,000 Jews fled persecution but never received refugee status, nor a penny in aid, because finding refuge in Israel is considered coming home. http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=169434
British journalist Andrew Gilligan produced a documentary called Britain's Islamic Republic which investigates a fundamentalist Islamic group headquartered in Britain, which claims to have placed 'brothers' in positions of political power. Using undercover recordings, Gilligan reveals the group's ambitions to create a worldwide "Islamic social and political order"; the concerns of a mainstream party being 'infiltrated'; he also talks to mainstream British Moslems who want it to stop. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-54/episode-1
I am saddened by the changing face of Britain – the land which gave my parents safe haven when no-one else accepted Jews fleeing Eastern Europe. The British Bulldog is a poodle in the face of new and insidious internal influences hung by her own petard of freedom and democracy. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/7333420/Islamic-radicals-infiltrate-the-Labour-Party.html
The USA should not lay back on its democratic laurels and gloat as Steve Emerson points to a similar phenomenon across the Atlantic in this linked article http://www.investigativeproject.org/1826/the-uk-and-the-future-of-islamist-subversion
Khaled Abu Toameh warns us that the Palestinian Authority is once again trying to divert attention from its deep internal problems by escalating tension with Israel - the Palestinian Authority’s policy since its inception after signing the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/palestinian-authority-direct-the-heat-toward-israel.php
Christiane Amanpour conducted an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef the son of the founder of Hamas. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is currently serving in an Israeli prison. For 10 years Yousef worked with the Shin Bet "because he came to believe that Hamas was practicing "exceptional cruelty" against its members and "killed people for no reason". Yousef fled to the US and became a Christian. Please watch both the interview and the Analysis http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/02/hamas.spy/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/03/03/amanpour.yousef.analysis.cnn.
And now for something completely different (you have to be a Monty Python fan to understand that one!)
Esti Ginsburg is an international model and unlike many of her successful young compatriots she has taken on her duty and right as an 18 year old Israeli and enlisted in the IDF "Not all Israeli celebrities take their duties seriously but I grew up in this country and owe a debt of loyalty" Kol Hakavod! http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=xDY3O2bExxo&feature=related
Since coming to Israel one experience touched my heart above all others. The morning after the Jewish Agency's Operation Solomon brought thousands of Jews from Ethiopia, May 24th 1991; Israelis poured forth their hearts and emptied their closets to clothe a people who arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Zvi and I chose to take new underwear and on our way to the hotel we shopped and loaded the car with socks, underpants and knickers for adults and children.
Rather than the expected traumatised newcomers we found a fine dignified people dressed in draped white Shabbat garb. A Kes, or leader stood proudly observing his people, a head and shoulders above the others, and then, across the room I saw her, a tiny beautiful woman standing on a table smiling in wonder at her new Jerusalem home. I was drawn to her and as I got closer I realised that even on her tabletop perch she was barely taller than I. We had no common language but there was a magical connection. I held out my rose to her and she took it, tears of joy running down her face.
Silence fell as Ambassador Uri Lubrani, the man who brought Operation Solomon to fruition, entered the hall. There was no whooping, no shouting or clapping as 3,000 white clad, dignified people silently raised their arms and pointed a rose to honour their hero. Uri Lubrani had brought them out of 2,000 years of exile as Falashasha (Outsiders); they were home in the Jerusalem of their songs, dreams and prayers.
Through ignorance, not ill-will, we have not always done right by the Ethiopian immigrants but we are doing better. Shlomo Molla is a Member of Knesset http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=810 , Danny Adeno Abebe is an influential journalist; we have doctors, nurses and social workers and above of all fine soldiers. The community has its own website to tell their story. http://www.iaej.co.il/pages/our_projects.htm http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1030
Our dear friend Herman Schotanus from Holland is in Jerusalem with experts to lovingly restore the windmill in Yemin Moshe as a gift to the people of Jerusalem. The windmill, built by Moses Montefiore was a working mill for a mere 17 years before running into disrepair. It will once again become a working mill and provide not only flour but a source for memories of Jerusalem's rich modern history as well as her Biblical one. http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/site_form_atar_eng.asp?site_id=2298&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9&type_id=197
Tuesday evening saw me on the fast road from Jerusalem to Netanya for the annual St. David's Day Party for ex-Pat Welsh organized by Gerald and Mimi Rapport and Les and Viv Greenbaum. In a seaside hotel in central Israel, amid shouts of "Good grief is that really you? I haven't seen you in forty years!", Gerald Rapport entered the proceedings wearing a Welsh dragon sweatshirt and welcomed us in fluent Welsh. It was only later that we found his poetic rendition in the ancient Gaelic language was actually a traffic violation or some such!! We sang "Myfanwy" "Calon Llan" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akmjOZ6-3Xg&feature=related and other Welsh classics including the Welsh National Anthem "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Land of my fathers) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMI5wpwXTCY&feature=related; it didn't sound like the breathtaking chorus at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium but it wasn't bad!! One of the evening's highlights was when my friend Madeleine's Israeli daughter Orly suddenly pulled out a big Welsh hat and proudly placed it on her head!!! As the party came to a close we got to our feet to sing Hatikva and while fondly remembering the country which nurtured us, every single person in the room knew that he had come home to the real Land of Our Fathers.
So the sun shone and then it rained and then it shone and then it rained…. every drop is precious and fills our beautiful Lake Kinneret. The changeable weather is turning our veranda into a jungle! Purim is over, and the Passover cleaning has begun. Carpets hang over railings to receive the beating of their lives and men and women share the preparation of homes for the big change to make this night different to all other nights. We are lucky to have a big Seder this year, a house filled with family and friends, although I always feel a sense of desolation that none of my family will be with me. This evening I was so lucky that there was a break in the gathering clouds as the moon began to rise as a huge translucent orb on the horizon creating a perfect silhouette of Jerusalem before it.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem, city of my forefathers and yours.
Sheila
March 4th 2010.
Shabbat Shalom!
History often repeats itself but similar situations take on dissimilar perspectives as facts are slewed and reinvented over time. Two historic areas under British rule, India and Palestine, claimed their independence receiving initial promises in 1919 to complete their partition in 1947. Both India and Israel decided to accept a two state solution; for India Moslem to the north and Hindu to the South as per Lord Mountbatten's plan. Few in this world question the Indian partition although India has been battling violent insurgents ever since. In the double standards which are the scourge of our world today no face is turned to India claiming occupation. "A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance." -Jawarhalal Nehru http://www.english.emory.edu/Bahri/Part.html
New legislation giving refugee status to Jews who fled persecution in Arab lands not only accords them their rightful status it ensures that in future negotiations not only Palestinians will demand compensation. Over 800,000 Jews fled persecution but never received refugee status, nor a penny in aid, because finding refuge in Israel is considered coming home. http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=169434
British journalist Andrew Gilligan produced a documentary called Britain's Islamic Republic which investigates a fundamentalist Islamic group headquartered in Britain, which claims to have placed 'brothers' in positions of political power. Using undercover recordings, Gilligan reveals the group's ambitions to create a worldwide "Islamic social and political order"; the concerns of a mainstream party being 'infiltrated'; he also talks to mainstream British Moslems who want it to stop. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/episode-guide/series-54/episode-1
I am saddened by the changing face of Britain – the land which gave my parents safe haven when no-one else accepted Jews fleeing Eastern Europe. The British Bulldog is a poodle in the face of new and insidious internal influences hung by her own petard of freedom and democracy. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/7333420/Islamic-radicals-infiltrate-the-Labour-Party.html
The USA should not lay back on its democratic laurels and gloat as Steve Emerson points to a similar phenomenon across the Atlantic in this linked article http://www.investigativeproject.org/1826/the-uk-and-the-future-of-islamist-subversion
Khaled Abu Toameh warns us that the Palestinian Authority is once again trying to divert attention from its deep internal problems by escalating tension with Israel - the Palestinian Authority’s policy since its inception after signing the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993. http://www.hudsonny.org/2010/03/palestinian-authority-direct-the-heat-toward-israel.php
Christiane Amanpour conducted an interview with Mosab Hassan Yousef the son of the founder of Hamas. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is currently serving in an Israeli prison. For 10 years Yousef worked with the Shin Bet "because he came to believe that Hamas was practicing "exceptional cruelty" against its members and "killed people for no reason". Yousef fled to the US and became a Christian. Please watch both the interview and the Analysis http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/03/02/hamas.spy/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2010/03/03/amanpour.yousef.analysis.cnn.
And now for something completely different (you have to be a Monty Python fan to understand that one!)
Esti Ginsburg is an international model and unlike many of her successful young compatriots she has taken on her duty and right as an 18 year old Israeli and enlisted in the IDF "Not all Israeli celebrities take their duties seriously but I grew up in this country and owe a debt of loyalty" Kol Hakavod! http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=xDY3O2bExxo&feature=related
Since coming to Israel one experience touched my heart above all others. The morning after the Jewish Agency's Operation Solomon brought thousands of Jews from Ethiopia, May 24th 1991; Israelis poured forth their hearts and emptied their closets to clothe a people who arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Zvi and I chose to take new underwear and on our way to the hotel we shopped and loaded the car with socks, underpants and knickers for adults and children.
Rather than the expected traumatised newcomers we found a fine dignified people dressed in draped white Shabbat garb. A Kes, or leader stood proudly observing his people, a head and shoulders above the others, and then, across the room I saw her, a tiny beautiful woman standing on a table smiling in wonder at her new Jerusalem home. I was drawn to her and as I got closer I realised that even on her tabletop perch she was barely taller than I. We had no common language but there was a magical connection. I held out my rose to her and she took it, tears of joy running down her face.
Silence fell as Ambassador Uri Lubrani, the man who brought Operation Solomon to fruition, entered the hall. There was no whooping, no shouting or clapping as 3,000 white clad, dignified people silently raised their arms and pointed a rose to honour their hero. Uri Lubrani had brought them out of 2,000 years of exile as Falashasha (Outsiders); they were home in the Jerusalem of their songs, dreams and prayers.
Through ignorance, not ill-will, we have not always done right by the Ethiopian immigrants but we are doing better. Shlomo Molla is a Member of Knesset http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mk_eng.asp?mk_individual_id_t=810 , Danny Adeno Abebe is an influential journalist; we have doctors, nurses and social workers and above of all fine soldiers. The community has its own website to tell their story. http://www.iaej.co.il/pages/our_projects.htm http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1030
Our dear friend Herman Schotanus from Holland is in Jerusalem with experts to lovingly restore the windmill in Yemin Moshe as a gift to the people of Jerusalem. The windmill, built by Moses Montefiore was a working mill for a mere 17 years before running into disrepair. It will once again become a working mill and provide not only flour but a source for memories of Jerusalem's rich modern history as well as her Biblical one. http://www.jerusalem.muni.il/jer_sys/picture/atarim/site_form_atar_eng.asp?site_id=2298&pic_cat=4&icon_cat=6&york_cat=9&type_id=197
Tuesday evening saw me on the fast road from Jerusalem to Netanya for the annual St. David's Day Party for ex-Pat Welsh organized by Gerald and Mimi Rapport and Les and Viv Greenbaum. In a seaside hotel in central Israel, amid shouts of "Good grief is that really you? I haven't seen you in forty years!", Gerald Rapport entered the proceedings wearing a Welsh dragon sweatshirt and welcomed us in fluent Welsh. It was only later that we found his poetic rendition in the ancient Gaelic language was actually a traffic violation or some such!! We sang "Myfanwy" "Calon Llan" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akmjOZ6-3Xg&feature=related and other Welsh classics including the Welsh National Anthem "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau" (Land of my fathers) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMI5wpwXTCY&feature=related; it didn't sound like the breathtaking chorus at the Cardiff Millennium Stadium but it wasn't bad!! One of the evening's highlights was when my friend Madeleine's Israeli daughter Orly suddenly pulled out a big Welsh hat and proudly placed it on her head!!! As the party came to a close we got to our feet to sing Hatikva and while fondly remembering the country which nurtured us, every single person in the room knew that he had come home to the real Land of Our Fathers.
So the sun shone and then it rained and then it shone and then it rained…. every drop is precious and fills our beautiful Lake Kinneret. The changeable weather is turning our veranda into a jungle! Purim is over, and the Passover cleaning has begun. Carpets hang over railings to receive the beating of their lives and men and women share the preparation of homes for the big change to make this night different to all other nights. We are lucky to have a big Seder this year, a house filled with family and friends, although I always feel a sense of desolation that none of my family will be with me. This evening I was so lucky that there was a break in the gathering clouds as the moon began to rise as a huge translucent orb on the horizon creating a perfect silhouette of Jerusalem before it.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem, city of my forefathers and yours.
Sheila
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