Geula Cohen, Remembered, 30 Shloshim

Tzachi Hanegbi speaking at his mother's shloshim

Last night I attended the Geula Cohen, ZaTza"L, event in the Beit ATza"G, Uri Tzvi Greenberg Center to commemorate her Shloshim, 30 days since she had passed away. For us, Geula was family. My husband had worked for her and with her for decades.

The hall was packed mostly with older people who had known Geula personally in her various roles, crusades and projects. There were very few politicians, but many activists and ordinary Israelis who had been inspired by Geula's history and contributions, yes, in the plural, to the establishment of the State of Israel, her unwavering support of Jewish Rights and Sovereignty in all of the Land of Israel and her promotion of the teaching of the poetry of Uri Tzvi Greenberg and the legendary fighters/member of Lechi and Etzel.

Tzachi Hanegbi, Geula's son, spoke beautifully and very suitably especially given the location of the event. I'll just repeat one very telling story, which he revealed to us last night. For a relatively short period of time they both served as Members of Knesset, Geula representing Techiya and Tzachi the Likud. Then there was the elections in which Techiya didn't get enough votes to be in the Knesset. Tzachi was nervous about how his mother would take it but forced himself to visit her soon after the results were out.

Instead of finding Geula depressed and/or angry, Tzachi was amazed to find his mother already galvanized, lobbying for her next project/cause. Geula's forced retirement from the Knesset was dedicated to the promotion of the teaching of  Uri Tzvi Greenberg, his contributions to Hebrew and Jewish Literature, poetry and more. If it wasn't for the vision of Geula Cohen, Uri Tzvi Greenberg would be forgotten.

We must never forget Geula Cohen who was a great Jewish fighter for the Jewish Land, State, People, History and Literature.

Geula Cohen, Genuine Israeli Hero

Yesterday morning I woke up to the sad news that Geula Cohen, Jewish patriot, fighter for Israeli Independence and Jewish Rights in all of the Land of Israel had passed away. Age-wise few of her peers and brothers in arms are still alive, but she had no peer in terms of her accomplishments.

Geula Cohen was an old soldier who didn't fade away.

After Israel's victorious War for Independence, Geula became a journalist, Knesset Member, party leader of Techiya, but never a politician who mastered or treasured the art of compromise.  Geula Cohen was an idealist to the end. Ideals and principles were foremost for her.

We knew Geula personally. She had been a guest in our home and family occasions, and we also attended her joyous events. My husband worked for her for many years. She'd travel to Shiloh by bus before she had a car. As a Knesset Member, Geula Cohen took advantage of the perk that offered all MKs free public transportation.

For me, personally, the death of Geula Cohen is the death of an old aunt. Geula was a role model for women trying to make it in a man's world. She didn't play the Feminist card. Geula was a mother, grandmother and proud Jew.

I'll never forget hearing her at a pre-election "Parlour Meeting" in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem, promoting the Techiya Party. Someone asked if Techiya was a religious party.

"Religious party?" Geula repeated. "No, Techiya is a Jewish party."

Geula didn't like the labeling according to Jewish observance. Judaism for her was much larger than one's kitchen or Shabbat. She saw being Jewish as being part of a great People with its own Land and History.

At one point Geula and her son Tzachi Hanegbi both served in the Knesset, though representing different political parties. Geula was a Techiya MK, while Tzachi was with Likud. For the following election campaign Tzachi featured in a very unique Likud ad saying, as my memory serves me:

"People keep coming up to me saying they want to vote Techiya, because they love my mother. I also love my mother, but vote Likud."

I don't have the film of that, but I've included Geula's reaction to Prime Minster Menachem Begin's Camp David treaty with Egypt.

ברוך דיין האמת

Baruch Dayan Ha'emet

Blessed Be The True Judge

2019, 5779 Israeli Elections, Party Time, Bennett-Shaked Shake Things Up

Tonight, Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked announced that they were breaking away from the NRP (National Religious Party) aka Jewish Home Party and establishing a new political party that would be to the Right of the political spectrum and open to all shades of religiosity. Bennett and Shaked are calling their party the "New Right."

In all honesty, I'm not surprised. I'm more surprised that they managed to stay in the rather staid NRP for five years. When Bennett told the old leadership, the ones who handle the money and property of the venerable old party, that the secular and female Ayelet Shaked was an indispensable part of his leadership package, I have no doubt that they were more shaken up than the British Royal Family when Harry made his relationship with Meghan Markle public.

Just under forty years ago, the Techiya Party was established by legendary Geula Cohen and Yuval Neeman. It was a straight-talking Right party, which I supported and mourn its demise. In the 1992 elections, it didn't receive enough votes to pass the minimum threshold and ceased to exist.

My guess is that the New Right is a 21st century version of Techiya, and from what Bennett and Shaked said at the press conference tonight, they would be happy adopting something I heard Geula Cohen say at a Parlour Meeting in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem.

Geula was asked:

"Is Techiya a religious party?"

Geula replied:

"Techiya isn't a religious party; it's a Jewish party."

I have never liked religion as a criteria for politics and government. We have to work together.

What do you think?

Geula Cohen, Israeli Heroine and Icon 90!

We've known Geula Cohen and her family, her late husband Emanuel (Adam, his underground Lechi name) Hanegbi and son Tzachi Hanegbi, pretty much ever since we came to Israel. My husband first met Emanuel before our aliyah when he had been a student in Machon Hamadrichei Chutz L'Aretz.

The Begin Heritage Center Auditorium and meeting rooms (set up with screens and speakers so people could see and hear the event) were packed, while many others found themselves even closed out of those extra venues, since there just wasn't enough space for all who wanted to attend this very special tribute/birthday celebrating Geula Cohen's 90th. It's so wonderful when someone who contributed so much to the Jewish People and the State of Israel is alive to hear what quite often just gets said at memorials.

Geula began her contribution to the Jewish People when still a teenager in what was then called Palestine, part of the Mandate the British were entrusted with to establish a Jewish State. When the British refused to facilitate the establishment of a Jewish State, a number of underground groups were formed to "convince" the British to leave. Among them, and the least compromising of all, was Lechi aka the Stern Group. As its iconic radio announcer Geula made her mark. At one point the British succeeded in arresting and trying her for the "crime." Actually, she was tried and sentenced for two crimes, her radio work and having a gun on her. They sentenced her for seven years for carrying a gun and two for broadcasting on the radio. She could not understand why they thought the gun was more a danger to their rule than her broadcasting, because she believed firmly in the power of words. No surprise that later on she made her mark as a journalist, and after that, when she was a Knesset Member, her speeches and phraseology were electrifying.

Geula has kept to her principles to this day, earning the respect of the Israeli establishment, even those who don't agree with her. In 2003 she received the coveted Israel Prize on Independence Day for her lifetime achievement and special contribution to society and the State.

Here are some photos I took at the celebrations:

We should all be thanking Geula Cohen, ad me'ah vi'esrim...

Bernie Sanders: Vote for Him Since He's Jewish or Davka Don't?

When I was growing up, in the middle of the previous century in New York, the accepted "rule" was to support anyone Jewish, because we could trust Jews to do the best for us. And also, when voting in the Herut (prior to Likud primaries) I'd look for any female name on the list and vote for her, just because I wanted to support women in that bastion of male power politics. I've come a long way, baby, and now I'm most suspicious of Jews in politics/office, out of Israel, and I check out female candidates/wannabes as carefully as the males before giving them my vote.

And one thing I've learned when it comes to Jews trying to make it in foreign politics is that they overcompensate their Jewish identity by being extra-anti-Israel to prove that they are loyal Americans, Brits etc.

AP Photo/John Locher

I'm relieved that Bernie Sanders seems to be well out of the running for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, because Hillary has an unbeatable lead in delegates. As an Israeli, one who recognizes the historical and strategic importance of our Biblical Homeland, I was very suspicious and wary of Sanders's extreme radical ideology/politics, because his philosophical bedfellows support and identify with the Arabs here, not the Jews.

There is no doubt in my mind that Israel's capitulation and trust in America as a friend in 1973, which blinded our leaders here to the  then upcoming surprise Yom Kippur War was because Henry Kissinger, yes, a Jew, was Secretary of State for Nixon. The harrowing stories of those early days of the war show how close we were to defeat. The Nixon-Kissinger Government carefully allowed just enough additional arms to create a stalemate between Israel and Egypt, but Gd planned differently and enabled us to defeat Egypt and Syria. This caused great dispapointmt to Nixon and Kissinger who had planned on moving in as peacekeepers. The American army units were waiting in Europe since late that summer. Yes, although Israel was taken by surprise, the USA knew in advance!

And I've long since those innocent days in the early 1970's ceased to vote for "any female." I always supported Geula Cohen, may she live and be well, for her dedicated and consistent pro-Land of Israel politics, not because she was born with a womb. I davka consider voting for someone just because she is a woman is as sexist as voting against someone because of their sex. And voting for someone because he's black, asian or whatever is just as racist as voting against for the same reason.

Ture equality is looking at what's in the person, their achievements and ideology. We should never let sentiment get in the way of our voting choices!

The Problems Being a Jewish Mother Patriot

Ruthie Blum reveals just how hard it is for a Jewish mother to be a patriot at the time of war.

Maternal cognitive dissonance
On Thursday night, after 10 days of aerial warfare between Hamas terrorists and Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved a ground incursion into Gaza. It was a move that much of the public, many members of the political echelon and the thousands of reservists who had been called up eight days earlier, felt was long overdue...
...Because of this, when rumors that the infantry was given the order to enter Gaza were confirmed, I was among many Israelis who heaved a huge sigh of relief. I even apologized to Netanyahu under my breath and on Facebook for having doubted the skillful manner in which he was handling Operation Protective Edge.
I simultaneously began to panic.
It is one thing to be convinced, as I was and still am, that a ground incursion (with Israeli soldiers going literally and figuratively door-to-door to snuff and stomp out terrorists and tunnels) is the way to go. It is quite another to cheer on such a campaign when one's own child is taking part in it.

An infantry reservist, my son was called up on July 9.

Geula Cohen with son
MK Tzachi Hanegbi

It doesn't matter how gung-ho a mother may be, she's still a mother and a Jewish mother is among the most paranoid and overprotective you'll find anyplace in this world.

Geula Cohen and I

Ruthie is in good company. Former MK and Jewish Underground Lechi (Stern Gang) heroine Geula Cohen has been heard to say during the time, those years that Gilad Schalit was being held by Hamas Arab Terrorists that if it were her son she'd fight like mad to get him released no matter what the cost, but she would also hope that nobody would listen to her. Because a mother's protective instinct isn't always what's best for the nation.

As hard as it is at times to send our sons off to war, or when they are independent married adults, know that they are in danger on the front-lines, we also know that for the safety and security and future of The State of Israel sometimes we must fight. When I look at the graves of the young men who were killed by Arab terrorists in our Shiloh Cemetery, I know too well that if we don't go out to fight our enemies, they will come to us. That's what terrorism is, the "convenient war." One doesn't even need to wear an army uniform to be killed.

It's better to go down fighting and to kill, destroy the Arab terrorists or they will just come here to kill us and destroy the State of Israel.

May this war be the war to destroy the Hamas Arab terrorists, speedily and with as few Jewish casualties as possible.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach!

May We all Have a Peaceful and Blessed Shabbat!

Israeli Sovereignty, the Key to True and Lasting Peace

I'm sure some chemist of physicist could turn this into a very simple irrefutable formula.

• a lack of firm Israeli sovereignty attracts anarchists and terrorists who support an additional Arab state aka Palestine sic in the vacuum

The esteemed and veteran Israeli politician and role model for many, Geula Cohen, is quoted in a very interesting and convincing article in the Jewish Press, which they have reprinted from the new magazine Sovereignty of the Women in Green.

In a conversation with ‘Sovereignty,’ Israel Prize Laureate Geula Cohen alerts and states that “every day that passes without the application of sovereignty advances the establishment of the Palestinian state.” “The correct and proper solution is Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” she says and calls for extra-parliamentary action in addition to the parliamentary action to advance the idea. “The road to achieving this doesn't pass only through conventions and committees but also through parliamentary preparation and waiting for the appropriate historical opportunity to pass the sovereignty bill. There needs to be a group of MKs that will present the bill and bring it up at the right time and pass it in Knesset. That requires parliamentary work.” “There is no group in the Knesset currently dedicated to this purpose. This must be their official goal, a goal which they push and raise in Knesset, even if the bill fails again and again,” she says and recalls the days when she passed the Golan Heights bill and the Jerusalem bill. Then too the bill passed after failing and being rejected and waiting for the right time. “The infrastructure must be prepared and then the matter must be raised on the agenda every single day, because you never know when it’s this bill’s day or that. When I tried to raise the Jerusalem bill I went from MK to MK to prepare for the political moment. As long as there are leaders like Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar the matter won’t come off the agenda. They stand guard and I see them looking for the historical crack in order to raise the matter on the agenda.
Read more at: http://www.jewishpress.com/indepth/columns/sovereignty-columns/every-day-without-israeli-sovereignty-advances-the-palestinian-state/2013/10/31/ 

We've had a personal relationship with Geula and her family for well over forty years, so I wouldn't feel comfortable writing all of this without being honest about it.  I know for sure, as a fact that she is totally honest and sincere about her feelings for the Land and State of Israel.  I feel safe trusting her and am rather insecure and unsure of the present generation of MK's.

I find it very interesting that just about the only journalists (with only one exception I can think of) whom I can trust and agree with are women.  All of the popular psychology comparing men and women usually concentrate on how the differences impact on relationships, but I see that difference in politics.  There are women such as Ruth and Nadia Matar, Caroline Glick, Ruthie Blum, Arlene Kushner and Ellen Horowitz whom I agree with and look up to.  When the "maternal instinct" latches onto the Land of Israel and the Jewish Religion-People there's a very special power.

It's almost Shabbat, and I just want to leave you with an excerpt of Caroline Glick's latest article. 

On Sunday, PLO officials leaked to the media a position paper that Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat presented to Justice Minister Tzipi Livni outlining the PLO’s position on a finalpeace settlement. In a nutshell, the paper requires Israel to destroy itself demographically, democratically, militarily, legally and politically and that it relinquish its water supply. Six months after it does all these things, the Palestinians will agree to sign a peace treaty with it.
The Palestinian document claims not only all of Judea and Samaria, (except for 1.9 percent of the territory that Israel can keep in exchange for money and more land within sovereign Israel), and eastern, northern and southern Jerusalem. It demands the northern Negev, the Hula Valley, Latrun and the Elah Valley. And it demands them all free of all Jewish presence.
They demand that Israel relinquish its rights under international law to Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem by agreeing that they are “occupied.”
They demand full control over the airspace over Judea, Samaria, Gaza and Jerusalem, and over the waters off the Gaza coast. They demand an end of air force overflights of those areas.
They demand control over all the underground aquifiers, and over the electromagnetic spectrum.
Moreover, the Palestinians are demanding that Israel allow 5 million foreign-born Arabs the right to freely immigrate to its remaining territory.
They refuse to accept Israel’s right to exist and claim they have sovereign rights over all of Israel.
The Palestinian document reveals that there is no chance whatsoever that the current negotiations will lead to peace. PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies don’t want peace. They want to destroy Israel.
And yet, to demonstrate Israel’s good faith with the cause of peace, and genuine devotion to the goal of appeasing Abbas, on Sunday the cabinet approved the release of another 26 Palestinian murderers from its jails. On Tuesday night, Abbas threw them a party in Ramallah and pledged that he would force Israel to release all Palestinian terrorists from its prisons.

The Arabs feel confident making these demands, because we Israelis haven't asserted sovereignty.

• We won't have peace unless we are sovereign in the entire Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.
• There won't be peace for the State of Israel if there is a Palestinian sic State.
• There won't be a State of Israel if there's a Palestinian sic State.

Shabbat Shalom u'Mevorach 

  May You Have a Peaceful and Blessed Sabbath 

It Takes Guts To Be A Leader

On Shabbat I read a speech by Tzachi Hanegbi in the Jerusalem Post, Can Israel rely on the US?   It was originally presented at  Washington Institute for Near East Policy.  I found some of it disturbing.  He had no problem mentioning what he considers his mother's mistake.

In November 1947, 10 years before I was born, the United Nations General Assembly voted in favor of the creation of the State of Israel. Tens of thousands of Jews took to the streets in spontaneous celebration, overwhelmed with joy.
Not everyone took part in this outpouring of bliss. My mother, then 22, was one of the daring fighters in the underground movement who opposed the British rule.
Yet, on the eve of the renewal of Jewish sovereignty in our ancient homeland, she wrote this in her autobiography: “From a rooftop in downtown Tel Aviv, I watched the crowd with an empty heart. The United Nations approved a Jewish state without Jerusalem, without Hebron and Bethlehem, without Judea and Samaria... I could not share in the joy of the crowds below... I felt only the infinite grief of a slaughtered dream....”
In historical perspective, those who celebrated were justified. My mother – and others – would have preferred to wait until their vision of Greater Israel could be fully attained. They did not appreciate the advantage of realpolitik over lofty dreams. Leaders must come to terms with imperfect realities. Years may pass before the wisdom and foresight of their decisions become apparent.

But although later in the article he said that Disengagement had made it easier for the Arab terrorists to attack Israel, he didn't apologize for his role in it.  During the time leading to Disengagement Tzachi and many other Israelis in all walks of life took the easy way.  They didn't risk their jobs, their cabinet positions, their comfort to stop that terrible mistake from happening.  At best they claimed that they opposed Disengagement, but they didn't "shake the boat." They whispered when we needed shouting and banging!

Our history, however, has also proved that such pragmatism can be ill founded. The consequences of the unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and from the Gaza Strip in 2005, illustrate this. Hezbollah turned South Lebanon into a fundamentalist Iranian proxy.
Hamas turned Gaza into a terrorist launching pad, from which tens of thousands of rockets have been fired at innocent civilians.

I wrote quite a lot about the fact that he had no problem staying in the Sharon government during Disengagement and then was among those who deserted the Likud and founded Kadima.

As individuals the majority of Israelis, including soldiers and policemen don’t want Disengagement to take place. The majority, in their hearts, wants Jews to have the freedom to live in all of Eretz Yisrael. The majority knows, in their hearts and minds that Disengagement endangers the entire country and each of them individually, whether they live in Ma’ale Adumim or Ramat Gan or Ramat HaGolan or Beer Sheva.
Ordinary Israelis look at politicians like Tzachi Hanegbi and Limor Livnat who claim to oppose Disengagement but remain in the cabinet, unwilling to give up their cushy jobs, and they can understand their dilemmas. I look at these people as weak and pathetic hypocrites. I have no respect for them. Bibi Netanyahu’s late resignation from the cabinet is too late to buy my respect.

I've known Tzachi for many years.  He is Geula Cohen's son, and Geula is like family for us.  it breaks my heart that her intelligent, talented son has turned to the Left.  He calls it "pragmatism."  I call his ideology that of an opportunist. 

Tzachi's not a leader.  A true leader has guts, takes risks for what he/she believes in.  A leader shows passion when talking about his/her beliefs.  That's the key element in charisma.  Unfortunately there are some amoral/immoral people with that sort of power to lead.

I consider myself the pragmatic one, and I'm as far to the Right as his mother is, if not further.  Pragmatists look at the facts, at history; they don't keep trying the same failed "experiments."  Life was a lot more peaceful here before they started all of these "peace" agreements.  We Israelis have ended up looking weak, which encourages the Arabs to attack, both as terrorists and in their so-called "negotiation tactics."

Again Hanegbi is sitting in a government coalition with MKs and ministers who aim to destroy Jewish homes in the Land of Israel.

Welfare minister: Dismantle isolated settlements now
Finance Minister and Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid echoed Cohen's opinion about dismantling settlements on Tuesday when he said  at his party's faction meeting that he thought it was  “heartbreaking” that tens of thousands of Jews would have to be removed from their homes in “remote settlements.”

Why haven't we seen some leadership stopping them? Where are our leaders?  Is it that nobody has the necessary guts?

Gush Etzion Helps Sderot Merchants

This was sent to me by Sharon Katz of Voices Magazine and Raise Your Spirits Theater.

Honestly, there's nothing like Gush Etzion for action. Maybe it's the high percentage of immigrants. There's something different in our mentality even compared to the most dedicated Zionist. Gush Etzion has both Nadia Matar and Sharon. The only comparable Israeli-raised Eretz Yisrael activists I can think of are Daniella Weiss and Geula Cohen, until old-age began to crimp her activity.

Notice, that they're all women!

PS Does anyone have more information about the various "video hosts?" I had trouble setting up a youtube for A Package From Home, so I set them up with yideoz, which gave me trouble posting the movies on blogger last night. This movie is on WEJEW, which I had never heard of before. I'm now volunteering for A Package From Home, so any advice you have is very welcome. Thanks