National Masochism

I'm glad that I live in this "protective Jewish bubble" of Shiloh, where our souls breathe the scent of the ancient Ketoret, and we are surrounded by the walls of the Shechina.

The other day I was in Jerusalem helping someone shop for gifts, and we overheard a disturbing exchange in a shop. A customer had requested that the crafts store censor the artist's identification page. The artist lives in YESHA and writes that the ancient views are an inspiration. The customer demanded that the shopkeeper delete that as a condition for buying the gift. Of course, the store agreed to the request, and I have no idea if the artist was informed. People are in business to make money.

The night before, on Israel TV, there were similarly disturbing statements by Israeli politicians about how marginal Jerusalem was to the Zionist movement and how wonderful Israel was before the burdening and unnecessary expansion do to the results of the Six Days War. "We did fine without the territories," he claimed.

Now that's selective memory for sure. The most popular joke in pre-Six Days War Israel, was the request that "the last one leaving, please turn out the lights." The long "peculiar" Auschwitz borders were impossible to defend by all means of human logic. There were constant terror attacks and snipers from the "neighboring" Arab countries on Jerusalem, the Negev and the Galilee.

The standard of living ranked with the "Third World." When we made aliyah in 1970, people in Israel were living under conditions which resembled pre-WWII United States and worse.

Ben Gurion and his followers re-wrote Jewish History. They invented a school curriculum to brainwash the population to believe that what was included in the 1949 "green line" was the true Jewish Nation. Nothing else was necessary for post-Holocaust Jewish survival and the Jewish State, which was to be a country like all others.

In 1967, when the Arabs threatened to attack us, annihilate us, "drive us into the sea," which were their exact words," all the Israeli Government wanted was to preserve those indefensible borders. There were no battle plans to liberate the Old City of Jerusalem or to free Judea and Samaria from Arab rule. Not only didn't they want to allow Jews to visit Joseph's Tomb in Shechem or the site of the Tablernacle in Shiloh or the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, they didn't even dream of freeing Gush Etzion, which had been the home of Jewish kibbutzim, which were destroyed by the Arabs during the War for Independence in 1948.

This year some of us will be celebrating 40 years since the liberation of Judea and Samaria and the Golan, while others will just be "celebrating" the survival of the country. Israel had existed for only 19 years before that war.

Think about those numbers! The post 1967 Six Days War period is more than twice the time that pre-dates it.

The chasm in Israeli society has deepened both financially and spiritually. Israel's nouveau riche is oblivious to the lives of the majority, and most Israelis only know Judea and Samaria and even our capital, Jerusalem, from army service.

When I was an elementary school student in New York, we had to memorize the map of the United States, know the names and locations of all of the states and the names of the state capitals. Israeli high school graduates are so ignorant of the geography our tiny country that I've heard soldiers waiting for rides in Beit El asking if a ride to Jerusalem passes Ariel. I wish I was kidding. The clerks answering the phone at our washing machine service in Petach Tikvah pronounces שילה "Shilah," instead of Shiloh, totally unfamiliar and oblivious to the historic and religious significance of my home town.

I can't lie to you. The situation is not good. We have a lot of work to do to save our nation and country. We tried massive demonstrations and prayer vigils before Disengagement, and they weren't successful. I wish I knew the magic formula to immediately stop this "National Masochism," but I don't.

What I do know is that I'm not giving up, and I'm not alone. We have to just keep on doing everything we can.

Shabbat Shalom from the Holy City of Shiloh