Posted on 05/26/2002 4:50:15 AM PDT by knighthawk
It was my 50th journey to Israel. I returned earlier this month. Jubilees are generally joyous. Not this one. This trip was taken with 24 colleagues and 15 lay leaders of Conservative synagogues from the United States and Canada. We went as a show of solidarity with Israel, which is beleaguered by terrorism.
An hour after leaving Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, we already were visiting with families in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. They and their homes had been fired upon sporadically by Palestinian militants during the past 18 months. A long, protective wall has been erected in the most dangerous areas of Gilo. Bulletproof glass is installed in the windows of many homes. But life goes on for the 70,000 inhabitants of this Jerusalem neighborhood.
During the four days of our mission, we spent an hour with the personable U.S. ambassador to Israel, Daniel Kurtzer. We met with several members of the Israeli parliament who were representative of right, left and centrist positions, among them Colette Avital, well known for her sensitive service as Israel's consul general in New York. We were hosted by the mayors of Jerusalem and Haifa. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres addressed us.
The most heartbreaking experience of our mission was being in the hotel in Netanya where the Passover massacre was perpetrated on March 27. Electrical fixtures still hang askew. We could only dimly grasp the enormity of the horror. (Once again, last Sunday, Netanya suffered a suicide bomber attack. Three people were killed. Dozens were wounded.)
I was asked to lead evening service prayers in the very hall where 28 people had been murdered and 140 wounded. In that hall, replete with the memory of death and pain, I felt especially remote from my God. Nevertheless, at the conclusion of that choked and tearful service, the Kaddish, a prayer for the dead, was recited. And then, spontaneously, we sang "Hatikvah," Israel's national anthem, whose title means "the hope." It was a heart-rending experience.
Outside the hotel, we mingled with the multitude of people who were strolling by the sea. In this lovely town, life now seemed so normal. I thought of this as Israel's way of saying yes to life no matter what. Until last Sunday. Now I ponder: How much more can the people of Netanya be expected to suffer?
Such normality seemed evident in Jerusalem, too, where the center city was bustling anew. As a result of Operation Protective Shield, people were now feeling safe enough to shop in stores on Ben Yehuda Street and Jaffe Road. I am sure that the suicide bomb attacks in Rishon Letzion on May 7 and 22, the most recent Netanya atrocity and the possibility of an incursion into Gaza give Israelis the feeling that the worst may not be over. But at least there was some respite while we were there.
Jenin, of course, was on everyone's mind. We were informed, or reminded, by spokesmen from Israel's news media that Jenin was the source of at least 14 suicide bombers. It was the manufacturing center of the paraphernalia that bombers carried. The Israel Defense Forces could have bombed it to rubble from hovering aircraft - as coalition forces have done to pockets of al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. But out of concern for innocent people, the Israeli army risked the lives of its soldiers to go house to house, giving inhabitants time to evacuate. Tragically, in the process, 23 Israeli soldiers lost their lives.
As for the "Jenin massacre," it is now accepted by human rights groups that no more than about 52 Palestinians were killed, most of them militants. Of course, it is terrible that innocent people were surely killed or hurt and certainly humiliated. And homes and structures were destroyed that may not have harbored weaponry and terrorists. But officers told us of strict orders to minimize collateral damage in that operation. The term "Jenin massacre" is a calumny.
All this need not have happened if Yasser Arafat had proved himself a statesman. I am sickened by his treachery against his own people with the Al-Aqsa intifada that began September 2000. However ill-advised the visit of Ariel Sharon to the area of the Dome of the Rock at that fateful time, it has been objectively verified by the Mitchell report that the subsequent intifada was maliciously instigated.
Immediately after the Netanya massacre, one of Israel's most popular newspapers, Yediot Acharonot, published a poll in which 66 percent of Israelis surveyed supported the dismantling of all settlements in Gaza. Seventy percent supported the dismantling of settlements in the West Bank. Close to 60 percent of Israelis supported the idea of a Palestinian state.
I am not a pacifist. If a family member of mine were killed or maimed by a homicide bomber, I would act. I tremble at the terrible loss of life and suffering of my people in Israel. And I join in spirit with the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are distressed at the deaths and suffering of innocent Palestinians - especially at their subjugation and humiliation as a result of Israeli occupation. (Recent rallies and demonstrations in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv with thousands of participants are indicative of such intense feelings.)
My 50th journey to Israel strengthens my determination to support the quest for reconciliation between the descendants of Isaac and the descendants of Ishmael, both the children of our common patriarch Abraham.
My prayer is for a speedy, just peace accord between Israelis and Palestinians, and for the creation of a state of Palestine alongside the state of Israel. May they both be secure. May they both flourish in a region that knows terror and war no more.
Stanley M. Kessler is rabbi emeritus of Beth El in West Hartford, the largest conservative Jewish congregation in the state, where he served for 39 years as the first rabbi.
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