Month: April 2023

AGAINST ALL THE ODDS

The ruthlessness of the Holocaust and the dignity of Jewish resistance

By  Alex Ryvchin, ABC

(First featured in the ABC online)

The historian and resistance fighter in the Vilna Ghetto, Meir Dworzecki, demanded that when we examine the question of resistance during the Holocaust we do so only by seeking truth. “Do not depict the Jews of the ghettos and the camps as better than they were”, he said. “Do not engage in apologetics. But do not portray them as lesser than they were.” So let us consider this question of resistance in this spirit.

In his book, The Destruction of the European Jews, Raul Hilberg gives what is perhaps the most sobering, confronting assessment of how the Jews reacted to their immaculately choreographed extermination. He explains that the 2,000 years of Jewish exile and dispersal, and the experience of living in almost constant danger, had given rise to a precise, formulaic and deeply internalised reaction to danger.

Benefiting from Bloodshed. Seen here are Lithuanian civilians, auctioning property once owned by Jewish neighbours murdered in mass shootings nearby. Some locals had helped in the round-up and killing, while others looted the furniture, clothing, and other possessions.

The Jews had come to believe that in order to survive they had to refrain from resistance. When faced with a persecutor, they would try to appease or placate them. They could try to ransom themselves, make appeals to people in high places or to public opinion  –  failing that, they accepted their fate. As the deluge would set in, they waited for it to pass over them and then subside. They could not reason with the Crusaders or the Cossack horsemen, but they could outlast them; they collectively outlived them all. The Jews had come to believe that, because of the nature of God or man, they could not be annihilated. This too shall pass. Am Yisrael Chai.

They did not comprehend that Nazism was unique. Whereas Rome or Spain or Tsarist Russia were satisfied to exploit and brutalise or expel the Jews in their midst, Nazism would not rest until it hunted and destroyed every single living Jew. As Hilberg concludes, the Jews could not make the switch. A 2,000-year lesson could not be unlearned. And so, they were helpless.

NAZI INFERNO

The Germans, for their part, exhibited a chilling genius in their understanding of human nature, of how people can be broken so absolutely as to comply in their own destruction. In the ghettos, the Germans appointed former Jewish communal leaders to form Jewish Councils with which they would liaise. This appealed to vanity and created the illusion that these Councils had some agency, some ability to influence what was unfolding.

They undoubtedly believed they were acting in the best interests of their people, doing all they could to obtain information, negotiate concessions, additional medical supplies or hygienic products, maintain some semblance of routine for the condemned Jews by overseeing education, cultural performances and support services. We now know they should have been consumed with escape or rebellion and nothing else. Instead, they busied themselves educating children who would never become adults.

Armed resistance was strictly discouraged. It would only aggravate the Germans more and lead to even greater suffering. It seemed things could always get worse. Instead, these Council leaders believed their powerful intellects could tame the beasts. They appealed to the Germans, wrote letters to them, each word carefully weighed by men of esteem, believing their fine rhetoric, wit and logic must surely have some effect. In reality, they were helping to maintain order and achieve the pacification of the enslaved people that made their extermination considerably easier.

The Nazis also extinguished the capacity for resistance among those they enslaved by employing every psychological device used by the captor and the torturer. They engaged in deception, assuring the Jews that deportation to death camps meant resettlement, gas chambers meant showers, and forced marches to pre-dug graves meant reporting for work assignments. Jewish leaders were forever trying to find out from the Nazis what was going to happen next. The answers were always vague, dismissive or dishonest. The truth that their annihilation was imminent was always kept from them.

The Nazis used the element of surprise, conducting pre-dawn raids of ghettos using baying dogs and live fire to shock the ghetto population into submission. They degraded the Jews so completely as to crush any individualistic spirit. They used startling, unspeakable brutality to both shock and desensitise the Jews to suffering, and they could insert the occasional moment of respite, even a word of reassurance, to nurture docile compliance.

All of which is to say they kept the Jews off balance at all times. Nothing stayed the same for very long. There were constant transports, new labour assignments to factories, movements from ghetto to camp, camp to camp.

Alexander Pechersky, a captured Jewish soldier of the Red Army, spoke of this process as like the circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno. You constantly wondered what was next and when it would all end. In this uncertainty, doing nothing seemed a better option than stepping out of line and facing the sadism of the guards and the certainty of an immediate and violent death. By the time death became an inescapable fact, it was much too late and the Jews usually fell into a paralysis and drifted to their graves.

In addition to the nature and magnitude of the cruelty, the speed and efficiency of the Nazis meant that the Jews had no time, no space, no means, and no physical capacity to resist in any meaningful or organised way. We commonly speak of the gradual process of destruction, beginning with the rise of Nazism and the Nuremberg laws and ending in the camps a decade later. But the actual process of mass-killing, still a quantum leap from the intense persecution that preceded it, occurred not gradually but as a blitzkrieg.

In March 1942, almost 80% of the eventual victims of the Holocaust were still alive. By February 1943, just 11 months later, that number was reversed. 80% of the 6 million were already dead. When the Final Solution became policy, murder became industrialised — and not a moment or a life was spared.

ACTS OF JEWISH RESISTANCE 

There were Jews who did manage to escape; who somehow slipped away when being led to the killing-field or made their getaway when being marched from their slave labour back to the camp. There was almost never a happy ending to their stories.

In the Lublin area of Poland, police battalions were given the task of combing the forests to find any last hiding Jews. The battalions called this the “Jew hunt”. Squads of three or four would ride out eagerly each morning to discover the underground bunkers in which starving, petrified individuals or sometimes whole families hid, finishing them off with hand grenades or pistols, often subjecting them to torture first. The only real choice the Jews had was to comply with an anonymous death among the hundreds and thousands or hiding in the soil of a forest waiting for death to find them.

But acts of resistance great and small, organised and individual, can be found in every aspect and in every phase of the Holocaust. Jews being deported to the camps, travelling in cattle cars for days with no food or water, would rip planks off the carriages with their bare hands, jumping from moving trains in the hope of making their escape.

In the Polish ghettos, clandestine publications were created and smuggled out beyond the ghetto walls to alert the outside world to the fate of the deported Jews. Tens of thousands of Jews were saved by Jewish resistance organisations which obtained false identity papers, established smuggling routes and sheltered hiding Jews.

In Poland and the former Soviet republics, tens of thousands of Jews who managed to evade identification and capture, participated in armed resistance. As many as 25,000 Jews fled the ghettos of western and central Poland to join partisan groups. Some 10,000 Jewish men and women from Lithuania did likewise. A Jewish commando succeeded in blowing up a convoy bound for Auschwitz, allowing 231 Jews to flee.

The most incredible instances of organised resistance occurred at the Sobibor death camp and in the Warsaw Ghetto. Sobibor was a purpose-built extermination camp. Whereas at Auschwitz, prisoners and new arrivals were selected for the gas chambers if they could not be worked to death, at Sobibor this process was reversed. Everyone was immediately gassed unless they were of the tiny minority selected for some form of work detail. As a result, almost no one survived Sobibor.

Neighbors Watch and Profit as Jews Deported. In plain sight, onlookers watch from a balcony above while children peek from behind the line as Nazis round up Jews in October 1940 in the small German town of Lörrach. Most of the 65 Jewish people deported from Lörrach that day were later transported to Auschwitz. Few survived.

By October 1943, transports to the camp were becoming less frequent because there were so few Jews left to kill, and rumours began to circulate that the camp would soon be dismantled. When the nearby Belzec death camp was dismantled, the last remaining prisoners were assured that, after they completed the work of exhuming and burning bodies and concealing the evidence of genocide, they would be transferred to a camp in Germany. Instead, they were sent to Sobibor to die.

One of the men from Belzec managed to sew a note into his clothing to the last inmates of Sobibor, which was discovered by a prisoner assigned to sort the clothing of Jews killed in the gas chambers. The note said: 

“Be aware that you will be killed also! Avenge us!”

The uprising was instigated by a Polish Jew, Leon Feldhendler. He knew most of the long-suffering prisoners in the camp were too broken to resist. But the arrival of Jewish Red Army prisoners of war gave Feldhendler hope. Among the new arrivals selected for work, he noticed a man named Alexander Pechersky.

Inspiring Resistance. The son of a rabbi, Leon Feldhendler, co-organizer of the Sobibor revolt, pictured in 1933.

When Pechersky saw a senior SS officer mercilessly beating a Jew who had collapsed while chopping wood, Pechersky leaned on his axe and stopped working himself. Intrigued by this defiance, the SS man proposed a challenge for his own sadistic pleasure. If Pechersky could split a tree stump in under five minutes, he would give him a pack of cigarettes. If he failed, he would be lashed twenty-five times. Pechersky completed the task in four-and-a-half minutes. To demonstrate he was a man of his word, the SS man offered up the cigarettes. Pechersky declined, saying that he didn’t smoke. The SS man suggested some additional rations instead. The starving Pechersky replied that he found the standard camp provisions to be adequate.


The Great Escape. Alexander Pechersky, the principal organizer of the Sobibor revolt on 14 October 1943, the most successful uprising and mass-escape of Jews from a Nazi extermination camp during World War II

Feldhendler recognised in Pechersky, a rare coolness and steel, and knew he was the only man who could lead the uprising. Together, these men coordinated the simultaneous killings of several of the camp guards. They killed the acting commandant of the camp with an axe while the camp tailor was fitting him for a jacket that had belonged to a murdered Jew. The resistors then killed ten more SS guards before rushing the perimeter fence.

Only 58 Jews of the 300,000 who were sent to Sobibor survived. The majority of those who participated in the uprising were either shot, blown up by land mines surrounding the camp, or mopped up by German patrols or Polish nationalists in the forests. Feldhendler himself survived, only to be murdered by Polish antisemites in his apartment in Lublin in 1945. Pechersky, the magnetic leader of the uprising survived in the forest, joined the partisans, returned to Soviet territory, survived Stalinism and died in old age in the Soviet Union.

RESISTANCE IN WARSAW

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising – whose eightieth anniversary we marked on 19 April 2023 – is one of the most significant events in Jewish history.

In November 1940, the Germans established the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in Europe. Around 450,000 Jews had been taken from Warsaw and its environs and crammed into an area of just over a square mile. By April 1942, 75% of those Jews were dead. Most had been deported to Treblinka and gassed, others were shot in the ghetto, or succumbed to disease and starvation.

Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. These two women, soon to be executed, were members of the Jewish resistance. Dispatches by SS and Police General J. Stroop reported that “……The Jewesses carried loaded pistols in their clothing with the safety catches off… At the last moment, they would pull hand grenades out…and throw them at the soldiers….”
(Photo credit: Meczenstwo Walka, Zaglada Zydów Polsce 1939-1945.)

A force of 700 Jews led by Zionist and Communist groups led the uprising. It unified Jewish nationalists and internationalists, hitherto bitter political foes. They created a network of dugouts linked to the sewage system. They smuggled in small arms, fashioned molotov cocktails, and took down collaborators, informers, and policemen inside the ghetto before engaging in combat with the SS.

They held the factories for as long as they could — jumping from collapsing buildings or escaping through the sewers when the SS battalions began the systematic destruction of the ghetto, scorching or toppling buildings and all inside them, to end the uprising. For all their valour and determination, the Jewish fighters killed no more than 16 of their tormentors. The uprising was crushed. The remaining Jews of the ghetto were either shot on site or deported to the death camps.

But the 2,000 year pattern of helplessness in the face of torment that Raul Hilberg had observed had been forever broken. Emanuel Ringelblum, who managed to escape the ghetto before being betrayed in hiding and executed along with the Polish family that hid him, wrote in lamentation:

“Why didn’t we resist when they began to resettle 300,000 Jews from Warsaw to the camps? Why did we allow ourselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter? Why did everything come so easy to the enemy? Why didn’t the hangmen suffer a single casualty? Why could 50 SS men and 200 Ukrainian guards carry out the operation so smoothly?”

No one among us can judge the actions of those placed in that purest rendering of hell that was the Holocaust. No one can say how they would have conducted themselves if faced with their circumstances.

DIGNITY.MEMORY, HOPE

Perhaps the greatest difference between those who could resist and those who could not was their conception of hope. The resistors did not engage in self-delusion or false hope. They did not kid themselves that the killing process would just exhaust itself. Or that anyone was coming to liberate them. They knew they would die. Their hope was that by rebelling they could briefly create a new reality — a dawn they knew they would never see.

They resisted to restore their dignity and that of their people, to assert their honour, to restore some individualism, wrest back some scrap of freedom after everything good in this world had been burned and choked off. This, to me, is the height of bravery and nobility.

They also sought to inspire others, and in this they succeeded. As Yehuda Bauer notes:

 “armed groups resisted the Nazis in 110 ghettos and camps. There were 63 armed underground groups.”

Trio from Treblinka. Three participants in the Treblinka uprising who escaped and survived the war. Photograph taken in Warsaw, Poland, 1945. (l-r) Abraham Kolski, Lachman and Brenner. After participating in the Treblinka uprising, they escaped from the camp and found temporary refuge in the nearby forest. Afterwards they hid with a Christian family until liberation.

In addition to the uprising at Sobibor, Jews rose up in Treblinka and Birkenau. The Jewish resistance in Warsaw sparked major ghetto uprisings in Minsk and Bialystok.

In the dying words of the resistors, we see another common theme. Amid it all was a crushing loneliness, a sense that they existed and were being erased as if on an island, unseen, unknown, cut off from all the world that was indifferent and oblivious to their tortured fate. That no one would know they ever lived and died.

But the resistors speak to us now. They tell us that they lived, did not succumb, they did not go quietly, they did not give up. They teach us what it means to have courage, to be strong even when faced with an unstoppable force. To see a world and a destiny beyond our own lives. And we, even here, so far in space and time from the scenes of the crimes, honour them, remember them — we speak their names and we marvel at their greatness.


CHAIM ENGEL DESCRIBES PLANS FOR THE SOBIBOR UPRISING





About the writer:

Alex Ryvchin is the Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. His new book on antisemitism, The Seven Deadly Myths, will be published next month. This piece is based on speeches delivered at Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and the Sunshine Coast on Sunday, 16 April 2023.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 27 April 2023

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond

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Articles

(1)

DO THE MATH

Still defining who and what it is, Israel at 75 is plugging full steam ahead

By David E. Kaplan

Number 1 in Numbers. Israel’s female winning team at the European Mathematics Olympiad for Girls.

From political mess to proven math, the win at the girl’s European Mathematics Olympiad by Israel, augers well for Israel’s future. Imbedded in modern Israel’s DNA is the pursuit of excellence.

DO THE MATH

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(2)

A LOVE LETTER

From driving “me crazy” to “no place I’d rather be” the author writes to her beloved Israel on her 75th Birthday

By Andi Saitowitz

It’s Personal. Through good times and tough times, Israel is our country for now and forever more.

“Even when things feel as messy as they feel these days,” this is the nature of long-term relationships. But Israel is not just ‘any’ relationship. On the occasion of Israel’s 75th, the writer explores this profound relationship through a personal letter.

A LOVE LETTER

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(3)

THE FOOLISH PRICE ISRAEL PAID TO RESTORE SCHOOL TRIPS TO POLAND

Will our kids really be taught the Polish government line that no Poles helped murder their Jewish neighbors?

By Dr Efraim Zuroff

Education vs Polish Propaganda. Israeli schoolkids on an educational trip to Auschwitz, Poland.

With Israel embroiled in a standoff with Poland over the latter’s insistence on ‘regulated’ Holocaust educational trips to present narrative of Polish resistance rather than collaboration, has Israel “surrendered” over a controversial signed deal?

THE FOOLISH PRICE ISRAEL PAID TO RESTORE SCHOOL TRIPS TO POLAND

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(4)

TWO SIDES OF A FENCE AND A WORLD APART

An illuminating crossover visit to kibbutz Ha’on and the formerly owned now privatized Daria Resort on the Sea of Galilee

By Motti Verses

Ponder at the Border. The writer near the fence separating stunning Daria Resort from kibbutz Ha’on.

As much exploration as holiday visit, travel writer Motti Verses is fascinated how a wooden fence separating a once-thriving kibbutz and an adjacent lakeside resort on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, reveal insights about Israel’s past and its future.

TWO SIDES OF A FENCE AND A WORLD APART

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While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The Israel Brief- 24-27 April 2023

The Israel Brief – 24 April 2023 – President Herzog launches new initiative. Joint statement from leaders appealing for political disagreements to be kept away from Yom Hazikaron ceremonies. Female students are maths champions! Yom Hazikaron.



The Israel Brief – 25 April 2023 – Yom Hazikaron. Terror attacks. Australia congratulates Israel on 75 years of Independence. Israel prepares to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut. 



The Israel Brief – 26 April 2023 – Chag Haatzmaut Sameach!!!






The Israel Brief – 27 April 2023 – Pro-reform march planned. Turkey honours Israeli rescuers. President of Brazil comment. Israel leads again!



While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

DO THE MATH

Still defining who and what it is, Israel at 75 is plugging full steam ahead

By David E. Kaplan

Yom Ha’atzmaut has arrived this year at a time of internal turmoil and uncertainty. If the flags are out every Saturday night in justifiable protest – in my view – they will be out this Independence Day in no less justifiable pride as we celebrate how far we have come despite the challenges. It’s okay if at 75 the country is still trying to work out what it’s going to be when it grows up.

Determining Direction. Israelis take to the streets in weeks of protest to determine the country’s future.

Looking back to 1948, the naysayers and voices of gloom were lining up at the starting block warning that we stood no chance. Just review the choice of words of US Secretary of Defence, James V. Forrestal who was trying to influence President Truman not to support the Jewish state’s quest for independence:

“You fellows over at the White House are just not facing up to the realities in the Middle East. There are thirty million Arabs on one side and about six hundred thousand Jews on the other. It is clear that in any contest, the Arabs are going to overwhelm the Jews. Why don’t you face up to the realities? Just look at the numbers!”

It’s not only about the numbers.

Polly the Pioneer. Polly Resnick kneeling (right) on the refugee boat she took from Italy to Palestine in 1938. Seated on her right is the famous Zionist leader, Menachem Ussishkin.

I thought of some of the early South African pioneers I have interviewed over the years like Polly Resnick (née Salber), ordinary people caught up in doing extraordinary things.  Arriving from Cape Town to Haifa in 1938 on a small refugee boat,  she boarded a bus to Tel Aviv. Chugging along the old coastal road, “we were not yet halfway to Tel Aviv when the bus driver told us to get quickly under our seats because we were being shot at. Bullets  whistled through the windows. So this was my warm welcome to Palestine.” I loved her story, when later married and living in Jerusalem, a British officer came to her door. “It was during the curfew soon after the bombing of the King David Hotel and he asked, “Madam, do you speak English? I wanted to say to him that I speak a better English then him but instead, I invited him in and seated him on the couch which underneath was hidden five rifles.” Polly had had been a member of the  Haganah since her early days living with her aunt in Tel Aviv. Now she thought:

“Oh my God, if he finds these firearms, not only will they be confiscated, I WILL BE CONFISCATED!” My heart was pounding. I offered him a cup of English tea to which he replied, “Oh Madam, I would love it.” We sat and chatted. All I wanted to do was get rid of him, and he asked if he could please have another cup of tea. I was crazy with fear and all the while my neighbours were shouting to me in Hebrew from their balconies, “Don’t worry Polly; It will be alright. You’ll be okay.”

Meanwhile soldiers were swarming the road and randomly searching houses for firearms. “Finally, he finished his second cup of tea and left with a smile. Little did he know he was sitting on the very illegal items he was searching for.”

Well, sometimes you have to look beyond the numbers that Defence Secretary Forrestal alluded to but to the core values and the will of the people at the time. I recall when moderating a debate in 2015 at a WIZO conference at the Hiton Tel Aviv, to my question “How relevant today is Zionism to the lives of Jews both living in Israel and in the Diaspora?” the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Rachel Azaria, answered as follows:

“There is a lovely story of two chalutzim (pioneers) on their kibbutz, Afikim, while under siege during the War of Independence. While shells were falling all around them, they spoke of establishing a state, not caring if it lasted one day or more but it had to come into being. That was their task. After the war, every year on Yom Haatzmaut, whenever they walked passed each other on the kibbutz, they would defiantly hold up the number of fingers displaying how old Israel was. As the years wore on, they would run out of fingers and smile. They got the job done and it was now up to the next generation to secure it.” And so it has been, continued Azaria, “that each generation since independence was confronted with “getting the job done’.”

How Wrong Was James. Defence Secretary James V. Forrestal warned the American administration that there  no millage in officially supporting a Jewish state as it had little chance of  surviving a combined Arab attack.

And while that is still the case today of “getting the job done”, today’s generation  – as we pass further from the defining epochs of the Shoah (Holocaust) and the independence – need to figure out who we are, what we stand for and to define our Zionism that will have traction for future generations. In part that is what the national protests are about, which at this Yom Haatzmaut is now into its 17th week.

But where one can look at the ‘numbers’ to see where today’ generation is taking Israel, look no further than today’s news headline:

Israeli high schoolers sweep international math competition

“In a historic first,” the report read in The Jerusalem Post, that “an all-female team of young Israeli mathematics students took home every medal possible at the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO) in Slovenia. These young Israeli math enthusiasts won the gold, silver, and bronze medals after competing against 214 contestants from 54 countries worldwide. 

Number One in Numbers. Israel’s female winning team at the European Mathematics Olympiad for Girls. Since Israel’s involvement in the competitive series began in 2012, Israeli female math enthusiasts have won an impressive 19 medals in the Olympiad. (credit: FUTURE SCIENTISTS CENTER AND MINISTRY OF EDUCATION)

Not only was this an extraordinary achievement for these young students, but one student, in particular, stood out from the crowd. Participant Noga Friedman not only took home the gold medal for her achievements but ranked 1st, competition wide with a “perfect score.”

Its also an extraordinary achievement for Israel.

So yes,  we ‘do the math’. Israel at 75, despite the challenges, has the talent and the temerity to continue: “to get the job done”.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

A LOVE LETTER

From driving “me crazy” to “no place I’d rather be” the author writes to her beloved Israel on her 75th Birthday

By Andi Saitowitz

Dear Israel,

I sit here listening to the radio programmes preparing for tomorrow, tears streaming down my face, each story and song piercing my heartstrings. 

How deeply you are cherished. 

How precious you are to us. 

Even now, especially now.

You are protected by living and fallen heroes, brave and courageous, and you are an eternal treasured sacrifice that our people make every day just to ensure your survival. 

As this difficult week will slowly turn into a festive one, I wanted to take a few minutes and wish you a very happy 75th Independence Day! 

Just as everything about you is extreme, that’s how I feel today; extreme loss and pain and extreme gratitude and will for better. I feel privileged, grateful and blessed to be able to celebrate you. Even when things feel as messy as they feel these days. 

I realize more and more as my life unfolds, how this honor was denied to many before me and painfully many today who don’t get to experience your glory and share their everyday with you. 

I know that despite all the fragility at the moment, there is no place I’d rather be.

You continue to amaze me in countless ways and with each passing year, your growth and accomplishments leave me in awe. And yes – you sometimes drive me crazy too….and what’s happening within you, this turmoil, upsets me more than you can imagine. 

While the uncertainty, division and unrest keep me up at night, I hold on to faith and hope, knowing we’ve come this far, despite all odds. 

And I specifically want to acknowledge all that you are, because all that you’re not, is what everyone is focusing on and what we focus on grows so I want to look for your good and grow that. 

In just 75 years – you have achieved unparalleled greatness. 

In every field, you excel.

How utterly proud you should be, knowing that you are a pioneer and world leader: in medicine, technology, agriculture, science, security, education, sport and culture and above all – the willingness to help whoever you can, wherever possible – no matter what. 

You have earned stature and status, recognition and power, you are often considered the center of the world’s stage and your position is so well-deserved.

In your humble, quiet and unassuming way, you have embodied the very meaning of transformation. Against all odds – you have not only endured tremendous pain and suffering, loss and agony – but you have thrived and shone and continue to be a bright light unto the nations.

It’s not easy having so many people wish you harm. I don’t doubt that for a second.

I can’t imagine the pressure you feel every day from trying to progress, using all of your might to advance and reach new goals, develop and expand and at the same time, facing harsh resistance internally and externally – every single step of the way. 

So many people want to see you fail. And yet so many people want to see you win. Because when you do, we all do. Everything in the world is better when you are at your best.

You know your values, you know your principles and your worth and you continue to live by them with integrity and authenticity. I wish all our leaders would live your values more. I wish we all would. Truthfully. 

It’s not always easy to like you – believe me, we’ve had our ups and downs, frustrations and reconcilements, I don’t always understand you, but it is completely effortless to love you – unconditionally. 

And I know there are huge improvements to make – internally – we all do. We all have to do better. We all have to work on ourselves.

I wish I could heal some of your deepest wounds. 

I wish I could tell you that next year will be so much simpler for you. 

I wish I could guarantee that your obstacles and enemies will soon see your magnificence. 

I wish I could promise that your contributions to the goodness of the world will be celebrated by everyone – but I can’t. 

I can only promise that we will keep trying to make you proud.

We will keep creating, inventing, contributing, helping, giving – and in time, more and more will know your worth and acknowledge your legacy.

I can only share with you that the people who already love you – want to see you win – and the same very faith and unwavering belief in justice and G-d’s miracles will always continue to guide and support you. 

I love that my children think in Hebrew. 

I love that the supermarkets and gyms light a Chanukiah and the buses and highways wish us all a Chag Sameach. 

I love that the entire country is wearing white tomorrow night and that on Yom Kippur, there isn’t a car to be seen. 

I love the “only in Israel” moments because they are uniquely ours and one has to be here to feel it, to truly appreciate and understand it – you and your incredible polarities and idiosyncrasies. 

I love the chutzpah, the deepest love and energy of your people for what they believe in and for one another. 

I love that this tiny country has such a vibrant non-profit charitable sector.

I love representing you in the sports arena, you have instilled a spirit in your people that is filled with passionate fire and I try my hardest to showcase your beauty to all those who don’t know you well, or haven’t had the utter nachas of spending time with you and getting to know your incomparable personality.

Israel – thank you for inspiring me.

Israel – thank you for challenging me.

Israel – thank you for allowing me to live a meaningful life.

Israel – thank you for being my home.

I only wish you peace. In every single prayer.

G..d knows, it’s more than anything I wish you. 

You bring me joy. 

You make me smile and give me so many reasons to be thankful.

May you be showered with Hashem’s richest blessings. 

May you grow from strength to strength. 

May you remain true to your spirit and continue to drive change, empower others to bring out their best, and leave your indelible mark of greatness, excellence and contribution to whatever you develop, create, touch, grow and share with us and the world.

Here’s to many more happy, healthy and wonderful years ahead filled with plenty of new dreams coming true.

I know that when things seem like they’re falling apart, very often it means they just might be falling into place. Hold on. 

Hold tight. The craziness inside you right now is necessary for transformation. It’s how all worthwhile change occurs; with cracks, discomfort, fear, pain, courage and hope. 

We haven’t lost hope. 

עוד לא אבדה תקוותנו





About the author:

Heroes of Israel4

Andi Saitowitz, a mom, wife, sister, daughter, friend, published author and lover of inspiration. Also a Personal Development Strategist, Life Coach, Mentor and Transformation Leader.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

THE FOOLISH PRICE ISRAEL PAID TO RESTORE SCHOOL TRIPS TO POLAND

Will our kids really be taught the Polish government line that no Poles helped murder their Jewish neighbors?

By Dr Efraim Zuroff

(First appeared in Times of Israel)

After reading the draft agreement between Israel and Poland on the resumption of educational trips to Poland for Israeli high school students, I understand why there was little publicity in the Israeli media on its specific details. In fact, if Israel was willing to sign such a terrible agreement, one which did not solve the two important reasons that the trips were stopped (besides Corona), one has to wonder why it took so long to “surrender” to the Poles.

Nazism Derailed. Israeli students symbolically block the track into Auschwitz Concentration Camp with the flags of the Jewish state. (Photo: Giora Smolansky)

Originally, the two major points of contention between Israel and Poland about the trips were regarding security and educational content. From the very beginning of the trips, and in fact, for decades, Israeli students were accompanied by Israeli security personnel, and everything went smoothly in that respect.

Once the right-wing Polish political party “Law and Justice” came to power, they began insisting on Polish security guards for Israeli students, a demand that normally Israel would have rejected.

A second highly problematic demand further complicated the situation. The Poles demanded that a meeting of Israeli and Polish teenagers be included in the itinerary of every delegation. This was driven by the Poles’ feeling that the Israeli teachers, survivors, and guides were often promulgating a very negative narrative about the role of the Polish neighbors during the Shoah. 

Polish Propaganda. Museum of Cursed Soldiers in Warsaw which includes honoring Poles who murdered Jews in the Holocaust, is one of the suggested sites the Prime Minister of Poland – seen here laying a wreath at the museum – wants Israeli students on group trips to visit.

Why the Polish officials thought that the Israeli students’ Polish contemporaries could convince them otherwise, makes little sense, but that was one of the demands, both of which the Israeli government rejected.

So why did the current Israeli government sign an agreement which included both demands? Very simple, because the government that initially rightly rejected them was headed by Yair Lapid, and the current government that signed such a shameful document is headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, who has time and again, apparently for political reasons, refused to combat, or even criticize, dangerous Holocaust distortion by post-Communist countries. And indeed, Lapid lashed out at the agreement saying he was “ashamed of the Israeli government for giving up on its morals and principles.”

What is clear to anyone who reads the text of the agreement, is that it is based on two totally false assumptions. The first is that of symmetrical historical narratives, as if Jews and Poles had wonderful relations ever since the former arrived in Poland, and that during World War II, both peoples were equally persecuted by the despicable Nazis. This assumption ignores centuries of Polish antisemitism, especially during the thirties, which paved the way for collaboration with the Nazis in the destruction of Polish Jewry. 

In that respect, a central tenet of the lies regarding the latter period is that numerous Poles supposedly did everything possible to save their Jewish neighbors and that none, G-d forbid, helped murder Jews or turn them over to the Germans to be executed. According to recent research, however, by scholars of the Holocaust in Poland, such as Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking, the number of Jews killed by Poles and/or who were turned over by Poles to be murdered is at least 200,000. The second false assumption is that many young Poles visit Israel, which has never been the case, so insisting on meetings of young Israelis with their visiting Polish contemporaries is meaningless – it was only apparently included to be able to claim that the demands from each side were symmetrical.

Polish Pressure. Research by Holocaust scholars Barbara Engelking (l) and Jan Grabowski (r) reveal that the number of Jews killed by Poles and/or who were turned over by Poles to be murdered is at least 200,000. Both scholars have been harassed by the Polish authorities who believe that discussions of Polish wrongdoing is unfair to Poles. (Photo Yad Vashem via AP / courtesy)

And if genuine symmetry is the issue, all one has to do is compare the lists of the places recommended for visits by the students. The Polish list consists of 29 museums dealing with Polish history, and only three in any way related to the history of Polish Jewry. Even worse, is the fact that some of the places listed commemorate Poles who murdered Jews during the Shoah, such as the Museum of Cursed Soldiers in Warsaw, and the Museum of Remembrance of the Inhabitants of the Land of Oswiecim, which according to former Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydio is a “counterbalance to the Auschwitz Museum.” 

Polish Sidetracking. While young students in the annual ‘March of the Living” participate in the yearly Holocaust remembrance march between the former death camps of Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland, the present Polish government prefers to sidetrack the focus to include other sites that glorify Polish conduct during WWII, whitewashing the collaboration that took place in the murder of Jews.(photo Czarek Sokolowski / AP)

But what is really shocking is the list prepared by the Israeli team, for reciprocal visits from Poland to Israel – more a pretense as few believe it will ever happen – which is almost completely made up of tourist sites, with only one (!) Holocaust museum (Yad Vashem) listed, despite the fact that we have numerous museums and institutions dedicated to the Shoah, such as Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum, Massuah Institute for the Study of the Holocaust, the Yad Mordechai Museum, Shem Olam Faith & the Holocaust Institute for Education, the Kiddush Hashem Archive, and numerous memorial sites dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust. Even more shocking is the omission of Anu (Beit Hatfutsot), if we are truly interested in teaching young Poles about the Jewish people.

Unearthing the Truth. Archaeologist Yoram Haimi talking to young people from Israel’s Dror School on his findings at the former German Nazi death camp of Sobibor, in eastern Poland in 2012. (photo credit: AP/Czarek Sokolowski)

Having participated as a scholar in residence in several educational tours to Poland, I am an enthusiastic supporter of such trips. I also believe, based on ten years of reserve duty, 30 days a year, for the IDF’s Speakers’ Bureau, that the trips to Poland have made a highly significant contribution to the participants’ knowledge of Holocaust history, and a strong feeling of identification of Israeli youth with the victims of the Shoah, two highly important aspects of contemporary Jewish identity. One can only hope that the positive aspects of the trips will not be lost because of this foolish, one-sided agreement.



About the author:

Dr. Efraim Zuroff is the chief Nazi hunter of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the director of the Center’s Israel Office and Eastern European Affairs.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

TWO SIDES OF A FENCE AND A WORLD APART

An illuminating crossover visit to kibbutz Ha’on and the formerly owned now privatized Daria Resort on the Sea of Galilee

By Motti Verses

Some of the most inviting beaches on the Kinneret – the Sea of Galilee – are along its eastern shore. They are located some distance away from the bustling but ancient city  of Tiberias with its restaurant-lined Yigal Allon Promenade, hotels, marina and a fish market on the western shore, as well as the connecting arterial highways from central and northern Israel.

It is here, under the shadow of the imposing Golan Heights that three shorefront Kibbutzim were established during the pioneering era preceding and following Israel’s independence in 1948. They are Ein Gev more to the north established in 1937, in the south Ma’agan  established in 1949 and sandwiched between the two, Ha’on, founded the same year.

Seaside Setting. With the backdrop of the majestic Golan Heights, the beautiful beachfront of Daria Resort. (photo M. Verses)
 

Only a terrifying stone’s throw from the once pre-1967 militarized Syrian border, these settlements were a display of Israeli defiance – bravely staking ownership and permanent presence. Syria had used its hold of the high ground of the Golan Heights up to the 1967 Six Day War  – not as a tourist lookout – but as a military stronghold from which its troops would randomly shoot at the farming Jewish communities below. While mostly abandoned before Israel’s independence in 1948, this threatened eastern side of the Sea of Galilee in the immediate post-independence began a new chapter of permanent settlement and in 1949, Ha’on was founded with 120 members.

As a child living in Jerusalem, I kept hearing this name – Ha’on and the constant confrontations with the hostile Syrians from across the raised border. The kibbutz residents trying to live ‘normal’ lives were at the mercy of the Syrian soldiers above and children my age were forced to sleep in bomb shelters. Photographs of this daily deadly routine appeared at the time in all the newspapers. As a child, I could never understand why they stayed there but these pioneering settlers hung on bravely. Ha’on steadily grew in membership and following the 1967 war, when Israel took control over the Golan Heights, the settlers below began to enjoy for the first time peace and tranquility. In the mid-1980s, believing in tourism, they adventurously decided to invest in establishing a pastoral resort village next to the beach.

That was all history.

CHANGE OF SCENERY

When I recently walked on the beach of Ha’on, I knew the scenery in 2023 would be totally different. Until July 2007, Ha’on operated as a kibbutz, but debts of NIS 50 million meant that it had to sell its businesses and return its land to state ownership. Only 30 families live there today. Most of the houses look neglected with backyards covered with weeds and thorns. The Kibbutz synagogue too had seen better days appearing in a state of sad decay. A large structure, one could only imagine all the lively activities and celebrations that had taken place within. It reminded me of a beach shell, its owner within long gone.

Religious Relic. Prayer and singing once dominated within these walls. Today, the kibbutz synagogue today is in a sad state of decay. (photo M. Verses)

The only occupied residences, clearly unmaintained, were for students of the nearby Kinneret Academic College who rented accommodation. I thought, “Hardly an ideal home for them,” seeing the place littered with  old furniture and scattered laundry and the public walls telling their own stories by its graffiti!

The paths were cracked; broken and assaulted by overgrown weeds – a metaphor of the direction not of the paths themselves but the failed future of the kibbutz itself. They led to decrepit buildings that seemed to have voluntary collapsed by themselves with no reason to be  – casualties of emptiness. Occasionally the imagery of collapsed walls and roofs which didn’t seem like anyone was in a hurry to clear, was met, like an oasis, by a well-kept house, one that had life within.

Seen Better Days. Once the homes of the kibbutz residents, these aging structures are the residences of students studying at a nearby collage. (photo M.Verses)

The dining room – once the hub of the kibbutz where all the residents would have congregated for meals, events and festivities  – has been closed for years. A group of dogs bark at us, protecting a land without people. The only pleasing sight remaining from a once-pulsating past was a tree, an impressive tree – a gigantic Ficus benghalensis right in the center of Ha’on. So sad!

Almost 20 years have passed since the government decided to dismantle cash-strapped kibbutz Ha’on saddled with heavy debts. The plan was to sell its assets, divide the land and establish a community settlement in its place. This is still pending. What a sad story for the Kibbutz movement that was traditionally based on agriculture and its visual vegetation today – for the most part – weeds!

While Ha’on’s land is perfect for banana growing, it is really its paradise beachfront with its mountainous backdrops that makes projects catering for tourism so much more appealing.

And so on these banks on the Kinneret, kibbutz members with a vision embarked on a private venture creating Ha’on Village Resort, which in recent years was rebranded as the Daria Resort, within the Rimonim hotel portfolio chain. The operators were determined to continue running the hotel with the same pioneering concept as the founders with the result that Daria offers today environmentally friendly accommodation – chalets that blend into the pastoral landscape, providing an authentic Kibbutz-style feeling. There are different styles of rooms to choose from, all of which are surrounded by luscious green lawns and incredible views with direct access to the beach. The paths of the village have been named after celebrated Israeli poets and singers that are the pillar stones of Israeli culture from the past to the present. It pleased me to see how a resort chose to immortalize its country’s cultural icons. Usually Israeli songs can be heard in the background while walking the streets of the resort, although unfortunately not while we were there.

Poetic Passage. The paths of Daria Resort are named after acclaimed Israeli singers and poets. (photo M. Verses)

That’s an ‘unfinished symphony’ for next time….

I met with the Hotel Manager Dor Sircovich, formerly a successful young Israeli businessman in Jerusalem, who during the Covid pandemic, was forced to pursue alternate options. He moved with his small family to live and manage Daria Resort and it looks like he made a wise choice.

“I am very proud that we carry the torch and preserve the feeling of the Kibbutz. This is Israel at its best,” he says. “Ha’on founders focused for years on overseas tourists, mainly pilgrims. We are still hosting them, however we have learned like most hotels in Israel that domestic tourism is no less important. The pandemic taught us a lesson”, he says.

BEYOND BIBLICAL

For those less familiar with the traditional lifestyle of an Israeli kibbutz, a reminder may prove instructive to better understanding and appreciating Daria. While not “luxury” in the traditional sense, it  exudes a ‘traditional’ charm – a special type of ambiance synonymous with Israel’s unique collective country living. With Daria however, it’s even better being at the water’s edge of the majestic Sea of Galilee – and its breakfasts in the dining hall are totally Kibbutz style offering an array of farm-fresh Israeli produce.

The gorgeous stretch of beach is clean, the water crystal clear and we experienced there moments that I can only describe as ‘heaven on earth’. Is it any wonder that this region is so associated with the Bible?

Picturesque and Pastoral. Daria Resort chalet a steppingstone away from the water’s edge of the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). (photo M.verses)

Daria and Ha’on coexists shoulder to shoulder with open gates separating the two and one is free to cross over. However doing so, like we did, was like entering another world, an age past. Even the old kibbutz beach was charmless, overgrown with bushes stretching all the way into the water. It was a picture of man having retreated, leaving nature to reclaim it.

Serene Setting. The newer homes of the kibbutz residents on Daria Resort. (photo M. Verses)

Standing there and staring at the two worlds – the old, failed kibbutz with its rusting relics of yesterday and the vibrant and successful lakeside resort of today’s Daria, I could not resist pondering the question whether passing through that gate was like the passing from the past to the future –  from failed kibbutz socialism to the triumph of modern capitalism embodied in the Israel of today branded as the ‘Start-Up Nation’.

Sadly in this case, it is.


Stunning Sunset. The ageless tranquil transition from day to night from Daria’s delightful beachfront. (photo M.Verses)
 




About the writer:

The writer, Motti Verses, is a Travel Flash Tips publisher. His travel stories are published on THE TIMES OF ISRAEL  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/motti-verses/. 

And his hospitality analysis reviews on THE JERUSALEM POST, are available on his Linkedin page LinkedIn Israelhttps://il.linkedin.com › motti-verse…Motti Verses – Publisher and Chief Editor – TRAVEL FLASH TIPS






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 20 April 2023

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond

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YOM HA’ZIKAROM followed by YOM HA’ATZMAUT

From Monday 24, April through to Wednesday 26, April 2023

Lay of the Land joins with the people of Israel on its day of national remembrance to solemnly commemorate soldiers and civilians who lost their lives during the struggle to defend the State of Israel and to joyously celebrate thereafter as it leads the next day to Israel’s 75th birthday.



What’s happening in Israel today? See from every Monday – Thursday LOTL’s The Israel Brief broadcasts and on our Facebook page and YouTube by seasoned TV & radio broadcaster, Rolene Marks familiar to Chai FM listeners in South Africaand millions of American listeners to the News/Talk/Sports radio station WINA, broadcasting out of Virginia, USA.

The Israel Brief

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Articles

(1)

RAIN OF TERROR

Rockets and terror attacks rain sorrow on Israelis

By Rolene Marks

There’s hardly an Israeli family untouched by the “icy grip of loss” from war or terrorism. Although no formal declarations, it has recently felt like WAR with too many casualties on Israel’s streets from terrorism and barrages of rockets from Lebanon, Gaza and Syria.  Sadly, too many fresh names to mourn this upcoming Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day).

RAIN OF TERROR

(Click on the blue title)



(2)

A CAUTIONARY TALE

Realpolitik-Israel and Poland April 2023

By Stephen Schulman

Poles Apart. It’s important that visitors to camps in Poland are not side-tracked by Polish propaganda

With the Polish government’s attempts to “create a squeaky-clean past” of its countrymen during the Shoah by “sweeping under the carpet” war crimes of its citizens against its Jewry, educational trips to Poland have become complicated and controversial.

A CAUTIONARY TALE

(Click on the blue title)



(3)

“WHY, WHAT FOR?”

Israelis question the senseless murder of its civilians in public places

By Jonathan Feldstein

Community Comforts. Youth gather for prayer in Dee family’s neighbourhood after the terror strike.

Jerusalem one day Tel Aviv the next – the hand of a terrorist could be clutching a firearm, a knife or the steering wheel of a car. The word “why” in Hebrew is “lama” but “lama” is similar to “le ma”, which in English means “what for”. With the uptick in terror, Israelis are not only asking “Why?” but also “What for”.

“WHY, WHAT FOR?”

(Click on the blue title)



LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

The Israel Brief- 17-18 April 2023

The Israel Brief – 17 April 2023 – Iranian Crown Prince visits Israel. Moody’s downgrades Israel’s credit rating. UN special rapporteur at it again. Yom Hashoa.



The Israel Brief – 18 April 2023 – Israel commemorates Yom Hashoa. Terror attack in Jerusalem. Iran’s President threatens Haifa and Tel Aviv. Crown Prince Pahlavi in Israel.




While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

RAIN OF TERROR

Rockets and terror attacks rain sorrow on Israelis

By Rolene Marks

The image is seared in my mind. A radiant, vivacious mother poses proudly with her two beautiful daughters. There is no mistaking the family resemblance and you can feel the love and pride radiating out of their smiles. Lucy Dee, and her two daughters, Maia (20) and Rina (15) were traveling to the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) when Palestinian terrorists caused their car to swerve and crash – some say they were rammed, others their car was shot at. The terrorists then shot them at close range, killing Maia and Rina and critically injuring Lucy. She died several days later in hospital. Over twenty shell casings were found at the site. Their crime?

They were Jewish and Israeli.

Senseless Slaying. Lucy and her daughters Maia (20) and Rina (15) shot in their vehicle traveling to Tiberias.

The murders broke the hearts of Israelis, already reeling from a wave of terror that had already claimed 15 lives. Maia and Lucy were the third set of siblings murdered by terrorists this year.

I do not think many of us will forget the shattering images as thousands gathered in Kfar Etzion cemetery, thousands more watched the coverage as Maia, and Rina were laid to rest. Their siblings clung to the covered bodies of their sisters. The grief was palpable throughout the country.

Millions around the world continued to pray for Lucy, their mother who was in a coma fighting for her life. We prayed that the family would be spared further grief. Lucy Dee passed away the next morning.

As news of Lucy Dee’s passing broke, the heavens rumbled and the rain started to fall over Israel. G-d was crying along with all of us. The tears, like the rain, have not stopped.

It has been said that The Almighty counts the tears of women. In the last few days, He has lost count. Lucy’s final selfless act was the donation of her organs to five people whose lives have now been saved.

Israel is a country where every loss is felt very personally. We are a country that may have many divisions and squabbles but when we grieve, it is together, regardless of political leanings, whether one is religious or secular or whatever divides us.

Summoning what I can only describe as superhuman strength, Rabbi Leo Dee, the grief-stricken father and husband addressed the global media and in his speech, appealed that “If you feel that it was wrong to shoot dead at close range 3 beautiful innocent young ladies in the prime of their lives please post a picture of you with an Israeli flag or just post a picture of an Israeli flag & share on social media.” April the 10th was designated #DeesDay, and Israeli flags proudly lit up social media platforms all around the world.

Terror strikes indiscriminately and following the brutal murders of Lucy, Maia and Rina, an Italian citizen was killed and several injured when a terrorist rammed his car into them the following Saturday night. Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome was killed. Once again, Israelis united to mourn his death – and stand in solidarity with Italy. The victims of these senseless murders were honoured at protests that night and Israelis laid flowers and lit candles at a makeshift memorial for Parini at the site of his murder. His coffin, draped in an Italian flag was sent back to Italy days later with a solemn ceremony of honour.

Tourists Targeted. Italian tourist Alessandro Parini, a 35-year-old lawyer from Rome was killed when a terrorist rammed the car he had stollen into tourists on Tel Aviv’s beachfront promenade.

If murdering our citizens with guns and cars was not enough, Iranian-sponsored proxies rained rockets down on Israel over the Passover weekend. Terror groups in the south of Lebanon fired 34 rockets into Israel, the highest escalation since the Second Lebanon war in 2006. The iron Dome intercepted the majority but a few managed to strike a chicken coup, land near a children’s playground and wounded several when shrapnel fell on cars. Iranian terror groups in Gaza fired 44 at Israel’s southern citizens, hitting a house and 6 rockets were fired from Syria. The IDF struck in all three areas in response.

These terror groups fired rockets towards Israeli civilians using the excuse that “the Al Aqsa is under threat”. In a carefully coordinated campaign, terror organisations cited “resistance against the Israeli attack on Al Aqsa”.

What happened inside the Mosque? Groups of masked Palestinian hooligans entered the holy site, armed with fireworks and rocks which they threw at police, disrupted peaceful prayer and desecrated the sanctity of the site. Police were forced to enter and quell them. This is the same tactic used in recent years to draw attention back to the Palestinian “cause” as the world turns further away from them. Incite, clash and attack. Rinse and repeat.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers had prayed at the Al Aqsa peacefully for three weeks during Ramadan but was it a coincidence these disruptions occurred during the start of Passover and Easter? I think not. If anyone cannot see that the clashes on Al Aqsa, designed for maximum media impact (it worked) along with terror attacks and rockets wasn’t carefully coordinated by Iran, then they really are naïve. This had Iran’s grubby fingerprints all over it.

The response from the international community and mainstream media was outrage at the audacity of Israel to dare safeguard the safety of worshipers at Al Aqsa. Glaringly missing was the condemnation of brutal terror attacks of Jews and Christians the same weekend. British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, admonished after his initial letter of condemnation, rewrote it to condemn the heinous acts.

Condemning Palestinian Terrorism. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s letter to British national Rabbi Leo Dee condemning terrorism faced by Israel and expressing condolences over the “brutal” murder of his wife and daughters. (Getty Images)

Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, no stranger to appalling antisemitic invective, tweeted this:

This has resulted in a renewed call for the UN Secretary General, to fire her.

Next week Israel will mark Yom Hazikaron, Memorial Day. Every Israeli is acutely aware of the price paid by so many, both in the armed forces and victims of terror, for our freedom to live in our ancient and historical homeland. There is not a single family that has not been touched in some way by the icy grip of loss.

Next week Israelis will join to mourn. We will grieve for those we have lost and brutal theft of futures that were rich with promise. We cry endless tears as the sirens will wail and we will remain locked in our private thoughts and unique memories. We will stand silent and resolute.

And just like that, at 20h00 on Tuesday evening, as we ring in Independence Day, the mood of the country will change to that of celebration. This year Israel celebrates 75 years of modern independence in our ancient homeland. As many Israelis contemplate the Israel that we hope to have, we will have Lucy, Maia, Rina, Alessandro and all the victims of terror and brave soldiers who fell in our hearts. We live, not just for us but for them as well. May the memories of all we have lost be eternally bless


In full: Exclusive interview with father and husband of British-Israelis killed in West Bank, Rabbi Leo Dee.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).