Israel Letters

Dear Family and Friends,
            I am sorry many of you have not heard from me in a long time.  Each time I sit down to write to you, I try to think of cheerful, upbeat things to write about, but it is hard to be upbeat when your heart is breaking and you feel paralyzed by fear.

            Today and tomorrow I will attend more funerals. I will express my condolences to more grieving relatives in more Shiva houses.  Worst of all, I will look into the eyes of my children and see confusion, anger, fear and a mature sadness no child should ever know. My neighbors and I will talk in quiet, strained voices and ask each other, How can we change things? Why doesn't anyone seem to care?

            When Hitler, yemach shemo, was exterminating the Jews of Europe, the world, along with most Jews, remained silent. As a child growing up in the Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, I heard my teachers, many of whom were Holocaust survivors, try to make some sense of this. They would say that no one knew what was going on.  That no one outside Europe could imagine or accept the horror of what was going on.  That the Jews in North America were afraid of the consequences should they call too much attention to themselves or to the fact that they identified with a people on foreign soil.  Some American Jews deluded themselves into believing it was not those people's Jewishness that lead to their deaths, but rather their supposed affiliation with communism, orbolshevicism or some other political -ism.  So most people wrung their hands and sighed and said oh dear; and six million men, women and children from all walks of life and all religious and political philosophies were murdered.

            Everyday in Israel Jewish men, women and children are being murdered. Not because of where in Israel we live, or what we believe, or how we express those beliefs politically or religiously. We are being murdered because we are Jews. The Arabs, the media, the political spin-doctors and some members of the Israeli government would have you believe differently. They will tell you that it is politics, or economics, or settlements, or entitlements, or refugees. I beg you, do not believe this.

        It is said that in every generation another evildoer rises up to destroy the Jewish people. Haman, Hilter, Arafat, yemach shemam: all the same. Arafat and the Arabs want us dead.  Are you listening? It has nothing to do with history or geopolitics. The PLO was founded in 1964, three years before Israel captured Judea, Samaria and Gaza. Their purpose was to get rid of the Jews. The names have changed, but the goal remains the same.
Jews are being murdered every day here. My children are angry and afraid. Yitzchak (age 13) lost one of his closest friends a few weeks ago: a boy his age, brutally murdered by Arabs, his body so badly mutilated positive identification was made only through fingerprints. Shoshana (age 9)has nightmares, especially the nights before the days that I travel to Jerusalem to work. Rivka (age 16) commutes to Jerusalem for school.  She was evacuated from Jerusalem’s central bus station last Friday during a bomb scare. Several times the buses she has been traveling in have been fired upon.  She suffers from headaches and fatigue; the doctor say it’s stress. Ariella, (age 4) asks me to promise I’ll come home each time I go to work.

        Many of you write or call to express concern, and I appreciate it.  But we have reached a point where that is not enough. We, here in Israel, are on the front lines.  We are facing an enemy determined to kill us or drive us out of Israel ENTIRELY. Read that part again.  This is not about the territories.  This is not about settlements. This is not even about Jerusalem.  This is about the People of Israel being driven out of the Land of Israel, the WHOLE land. This is about Arabs murdering Jews. That's it. That's the whole deal. Straightforward. Simple. Final.

        Now you know. So what are you going to do about it? I remember during the '67 and '73 wars, how we in the U.S. marched in the streets in support of Israel.  We wrote letters to members of Congress, we called radio stations, we signed petitions. We prayed in private and we prayed in public. Using every means we could think of we tried to communicate two ideas: we supported the State of Israel and WE WERE NOT PREPARED TO SIT IDLY BY WHILE JEWS WERE DYING. So, where are you? What have you done today to save my life and the lives of my children? I keep asking myself, why are things different now than in '67 and '73? Where is all the noise?

            It occurs to me that the big difference now is that Jews outside Israel are confused by the dissension in the ranks of the Israeli government. They hear government ministers blaming different sectors of the Israeli populace for our troubles. Its the leftists! It’s the right-wingers! It’s the secularists! It’s the ultra-orthodox! It’s the Tel-Aviv yuppies! Its the settlers! So people think this is a political issue, and the Government of Israel should handle it. Well, right now they are handling it by letting Jews die.  There seems to be this message coming from the government that if Israel does everything the U.S. wants it to do, the U.S. will realize that we are the good guys and the Arabs are the bad guys and then the U.S. will somehow force Arafat and the Arabs to uphold the agreements they've already signed. Do you think the U.S. would be pressuring Arafat this way if they thought American Jews cared? Do you think the Israeli government would give in so easily if they thought the same thing?  

        Listen people, I am not some anonymous columnist with a political ax to grind and a publication deadline. This is me, Esther, and I am speaking to you with all my heart.  Jews are dying. I am afraid. What are you going to do about it? Please help us.


Love,
Esther
maymail@netvision.net.il