Avigdor Lieberman takes his seat in the Knesset on the afternoon of May 30 in his new role as defence minister. (photo from Ashernet)
For some time now Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been trying to enlarge his right-wing coalition government. Apart from holding several important portfolios, including foreign affairs and economy, it was becoming increasingly difficult for the government to carry out its policies with a majority of only one seat in the 120-seat Knesset. As well, within the coalition there was pressure over issues that were of special interest to particular factions.
A Knesset vote of 55-43 approved Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beitenu (Israel Our Home) party to join the coalition and gives Netanyahu 66 seats. Lieberman was appointed minister of defence. In the Israel Defence Forces, he attained the rank of corporal.
Lieberman’s predecessor was Moshe Ya’alon, a former IDF chief of staff, who had warned of the rising tide of extremism in the Likud and resigned from the party and the Knesset on May 20.
Jerusalem Day celebrations in Israel (photo by Ashernet)
This Jerusalem Day – 28 Iyar (June 5) – marks 49 years since the city split in two by Jordanian occupation became reunited. Nowadays, the names of battle sites are just part of our everyday language – French Hill, Ammunition Hill, Government House – but back in 1967, these were the places where armies were pitted against each other in battle.
We didn’t have Ramat Eshkol then; the hilltops of Gilo were barren and windswept. The Israeli army fought to win territory to the north and the south, until only the walled Old City was still in Jordanian hands.
The war, not of our making, was sparked on April 7, 1967, when the Syrians opened fire on Israeli tractors working near Kibbutz Ha’On, east of the Kinneret. The Israel Defence Forces returned fire, so the Syrians began shelling settlements. Israel Air Force jets were sent to destroy Syria’s artillery batteries. Then Syrian MiGs were sent to intercept them, resulting in dogfights above Kibbutz Shamir. Eventually, six Syrian planes were downed and Syria demanded that Egypt issue a response, which posed a dilemma for president Gamal Abdel Nasser. To prod him, Syria said Israel was amassing forces on the northern border, which was untrue, but Nasser sent massive forces to Sinai on May 14 and 15.
Israel had to call up its reserves, as all United Nations troops had left the Sinai and Gaza. Volunteers swarmed to help with transportation, distributing food and preparing bomb shelters, helping in factories and kibbutzim. Thousands of our soldiers were deployed along the Egyptian border waiting for cabinet to make a decision.
There were frequent meetings between prime minister Levi Eshkol and chief-of-staff Yitzhak Rabin, who said that the IDF was strong and could repel any Arab attack. There were messages from U.S. president Lyndon Johnson calling – as is always the case! – for Israel to show restraint. Egypt also was asked not to escalate the situation.
Eshkol announced that Israel did not seek war, but to no avail. The Egyptians closed the Tiran Straits. On June 5, the war began. Two hundred IAF jets destroyed the entire air forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan: 374 planes were destroyed on the ground and the rest in dogfights. Israel had complete aerial supremacy during the six days of battle.
On the ground, the IDF entered Sinai in three columns. Jordan started shelling Jerusalem, firing day and night, resulting in many casualties, while Syrian jets raided Haifa Bay and northern settlements.
On June 6, our paratroopers surrounded the Old City and, at 10 a.m. on June 7, they broke through the Lions’ Gate, liberating the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Lt.-Gen. Motta Gur stood near the Wall, and announced on the radio: “The Temple Mount is in our hands!”
After hours of fierce battles, the paratroopers burst into tears. According to Mordechai Rechschafner, a volunteer from Australia, “There was no sense of jubilation. We had lost too many friends. We had paid for our victory with blood and sacrifice.” When Maj.-Gen. Shlomo Goren, the chief military rabbi, arrived at the Kotel, he blew the shofar and said a prayer: “This is the day we have been yearning for. Let us rejoice in it!”
The Six Day War ended two days later, after the Israel Navy conquered the Tiran Straits and seized Egyptian army bases and airfields in Sinai, and Israel captured the Syrian fortified posts. When the Golan Heights was conquered, the war ended.
There was both great euphoria and terrible sadness. Jerusalem was the focus of the greatest celebration, but a great toll had been exacted. All day the radio played Naomi Shemer’s “Jerusalem of Gold” – it became a victory anthem.
It was three years later that I arrived with my husband and four children in Jerusalem. Forty-six years have passed, and my love for the city has deepened every day. There have been hard times and there was heartache when each of our children served in the army. When our son was a paratrooper in Lebanon, we questioned whether we had made the right decision in bringing them from the safety of their birthplace Australia. Now, most of their children have served in the army or are soon to be inducted, but none of them has ever felt we made a wrong decision. They grew up in Jerusalem and know as we do that it is special. Our feet walk over the stones that King David danced on. We pray at the Western Wall where the Holy Presence, the Shekhinah, still lingers. We travel roads on which kings, soldiers, priests and other holy men have traveled for thousands of years, century after century. Every day, we bathe in the unique quality of golden light that artists have striven to capture.
Each neighborhood in Jerusalem is different. Quiet alleyways that meander, bustling markets filled with the color and spicy smells of the Middle East, walled courtyards softened with a glimpse of greenery. Holy sites where prayers are whispered and blessings invoked. Quiet hills silhouetted with pine trees. Graveyards for the old and military cemeteries for the young. Parks where children laugh and dimpled babies are wheeled in prams. So ancient, and yet also a modern metropolis where people work, play, shop, drive, argue and love.
This Jerusalem Day, as I have for more than four decades, I will thank G-d for the privilege of living here and pray for the peace of Jerusalem forevermore.
Those of us who live and work in Israel as journalists and book reviewers for international publications often have to wait until an Israeli bestseller is translated from Hebrew into English. I, for one, am very excited when this occurs, and especially for a biography like Miriam’s Song: The Story of Miriam Peretz (Gefen Publishing House, 2016) by Smadar Shir.
Shirat Miriam was published in Israel in 2011 and became a bestseller, with more than 20,000 copies sold. It is Peretz’s story, as recounted to Shir, who is a prolific author and composer, as well as a senior journalist at the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth.
Peretz was born in Casablanca, where her family lived until she was 10 years old. In 1963, they immigrated to Israel, initially living in an immigrant camp in Beersheva. After graduating high school, Peretz went to Ben-Gurion University and became a teacher.
When she was 21, she met Eliezer Peretz, who was 31, also Moroccan. They married, and he returned to his work in Sharm el-Sheikh. She eventually joined him there, until the city was evacuated. Meanwhile, she began teaching, and they started their family, ultimately having six children.
In November 1998, Uriel, their 22-year-old son, a Golani (special forces) officer was killed in Lebanon, while in the army. Peretz kept going.
“My husband was overcome with sadness and wouldn’t go to work, but I had no choice but to continue functioning,” she says.
Peretz got a master’s degree in educational administration. Her second son joined the army, while she and her husband continued processing their grief for Uriel. She began visiting schools and military bases to talk about her son.
In 2005, her husband died – only 56 years old. And then, in March 2010, her son, Eliraz, married with four children, was killed while in the army.
In December 2010, then-Israel Defence Forces Chief of General Staff Lt.-Col. Gabi Ashkenazi awarded her a medal of appreciation. He said: “Miriam’s ability to continue to express her deep pain and channel it into a contribution to the education and formation of future generations, serves as an example and model of inspiration for us all.”
The next chapters of Miriam’s Song are told by each of Peretz’s four surviving children.
Miriam left her principal position after 27 years to become a Jerusalem district supervisor with the education ministry. After Miriam’s Song was published in Hebrew, Peretz began to travel to the United States for the organization Friends of the Israel Defence Forces. In 2014, she was a torchbearer on Israel Independence Day.
For a feature on International Women’s Day this year in the Jerusalem Post, Peretz was interviewed and photographed along with two other mothers who had each lost a son. Journalist Tal Ariel Amir writes, “these three courageous women have risen from the ashes of their despair.”
People ask what it is like to live in Israel. Although Miriam’s Song is replete with courage, faith and commitment, it is also about tragedy and sacrifice. It is a book to read to understand what it means to be a woman, a wife, a mother in Israel today.
Sybil Kaplanis a journalist, foreign correspondent, lecturer, food writer and book reviewer who lives in Jerusalem. She also does the restaurant features for janglo.net and leads weekly walks in English in Jerusalem’s market.
(screenshot of IDF Twitter page via israel21c.org)
Smugglers of drugs and illegal migrants using tunnels along the U.S.-Mexico border may want to keep an eye on Israel. The American government, after all, is co-sponsoring the tunnel-detection technology now being developed by Israeli engineers.
Described by the Hebrew media as the underground equivalent of Iron Dome anti-missile defence system, this latest innovation made world headlines upon the announcement that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) uncovered a two-kilometre-long, concrete-lined tunnel on Israel’s Gaza border.
While the Israeli government has been funding its development for five years, few details about the new system have been reported until now. News reports say that up to 100 companies – including Iron Dome’s developers, Elbit Systems and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems – are involved in assembling the detection system. Military units, Shin Bet security agency officers, civilian engineering, infrastructure contractors and tunnel construction experts are also credited with helping.
“The search for tunnels is at the top of our priority list … and we will not spare any efforts,” said Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, following the IDF announcement that it found a tunnel extending from southern Gaza into Israeli territory.
The fine details about how the anti-tunnel technology works are still under wraps but, according to Yedioth Ahronoth, dozens of Israeli-developed sensors gather information from the field and transmit it to a control system for analysis using advanced algorithms. The system, says the report, can identify the length of the tunnel and its exact location without false alarms.
“We do whatever we can to find a technological solution,” Maj. Gen. Nitsan Alon, head of the IDF operations directorate, said at a briefing. “Dealing with the phenomenon of tunnels is very complex, and the state of Israel is a world leader in this field. This battle demands from us persistence, creativity, and also responsibility and good judgment.”
According to a report in Defence News, Israel’s Ministry of Defence has invested more than $60 million in anti-tunnel technologies. In February of this year, the Financial Times reported that the United States will provide $120 million over the next three years to help develop complementary technologies.
An Israel Today report says Israel is building a counter-tunnel barrier along its Gaza border that “will also feature a state-of-the-art fence, complete with sensors, observation balloons, see-shoot systems and intelligence gathering measures, as well as an underground wall.”
Israel21Cis a nonprofit educational foundation with a mission to focus media and public attention on the 21st-century Israel that exists beyond the conflict. For more, or to donate, visit israel21c.org.
What happened last month in Hebron is heartbreaking. A young soldier is being vilified for killing a terrorist who had come for the sole purpose of murdering Jews. He is now facing charges of manslaughter.
One of the most difficult things about our decision to make aliyah was knowing our four children would have to serve in the Israel Defence Forces. After all, it was our decision, not theirs, to leave the safety, security and comfort of their birthplace, Australia, to make a new life in Israel.
That was in 1971, two years before the Yom Kippur War erupted. But we stayed, and they grew up here knowing that it was a duty, even a privilege, to set aside their ambitions temporarily and devote a few years to serving their country. They became Israeli gradually and, by the time they were 18, regarded army service as a natural rite of passage.
Nevertheless, as a mother, I found it hard. I will never forget the trauma of standing on the beach at Palmachim (near Ashkelon) with the other parents and watching our younger son make his first parachute jump. Forty young paratroopers jumped that day. Because of the altitude of the planes, it was impossible to see our sons’ faces until they almost landed. We watched breathlessly to see the parachutes open, one by one. I thought each one was my son and, finally came to the realization that they were all my sons.
The years passed. Our sons and daughters enlisted, with one son fighting in Lebanon. They went to university, married, had children of their own. It was lovely to be grandparents of babies, toddlers and then young children. But now, most of them are grown up and following in their parents’ footsteps. Some have completed army service, some are currently serving and some will soon reach that significant age of 18.
We have attended numerous ceremonies where we have watched hundreds of boys take an oath of allegiance. We sang “Hatikvah” with that catch in the throat one gets at moments of high emotion. We laughed as they threw their caps in the air, signaling the end of the formal proceedings. We were so proud of them, and so afraid of what they might be called to do, what decisions they would have to make.
Just like the young soldier in Hebron.
To every parent whose children have served in the IDF, how can our hearts not go out to this young soldier’s family?
Israeli field hospital personnel look after those injured in the earthquake in Nepal. (photo by Sam Amiel)
Cardiac surgeon Lt.-Col. (res.) Dr. Ofer Merin is deputy director general of Shaare Zedek Medical Centre and lectures at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He heads the Israel Defence Forces Home Front Command’s field hospital, and was part of the IDF’s relief efforts in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, in Japan after the 2011 tsunami, in the Philippines after the 2013 typhoon and in Nepal after the earthquake in April this year. With various colleagues, he has written about these experiences, as well as about the provision of trauma care at Shaare Zedek.
From the New England Journal of Medicine, March 2010: Within two days of the earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, Israel had sent “a military task force consisting of 230 people” who “landed in Port-au-Prince 15 hours after leaving Tel Aviv and began to deploy immediately…. In its 10 days of operation, the field hospital treated more than 1,100 patients.”
From the Journal of the American Medical Association, July 2015: After the earthquake in Nepal in April 2015, the IDF sent a medical team of 126, and the field hospital was “deployed as a stand-alone facility 82 hours after the earthquake.” Over 11 days, “we treated 1,668 patients, performed 85 operations and delivered eight babies.”
From the Lancet, April 2015: “There were 11 terror attacks in Jerusalem, Israel, between October–December 2014 alone. Two of the injured terrorists arrived at our institution and, following standing triage protocol, we prioritized one terrorist to undergo surgery first since his medical condition was more critical than that of the victims.”
These are but a few examples of the work Merin and his colleagues do, and the challenges they face. When Merin was in Vancouver recently, he shared some of his experiences and discussed the ethical issues surrounding trauma care. He spoke to the Jewish community on Aug. 20 and to physicians in the trauma unit at Vancouver General Hospital the day prior.
Dr. Rick Schreiber – professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, director of the B.C. Pediatric Liver Transplant Program and president-elect of the Canadian Association for the Study of the Liver – was the catalyst for Merin’s visit. Yet his connection to Merin was not, as it first might appear, through his work as a fellow medical professional, but through Merin’s wife, Ora.
Schreiber was on an adult March of the Living mission earlier this year that was organized by the Montreal Jewish community.
“I’m originally from Montreal. I’ve been out here about 20 years,” said Schreiber, who is very involved with Jewish causes in Israel, overseas and elsewhere, including here with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver. On this recent mission, he explained in a phone interview with the Independent, all of the tours and activities in Israel were organized by Ora Merin and her company,
Giant Leaps. “I was very impressed with how the program was laid out for the Israel aspects of the mission and the level of the people [we met] and the things that we did. We got to places that most people wouldn’t get to….”
Ofer Merin attended the mission’s closing dinner with his wife. With medicine in common, he and Schreiber started talking, and Merin’s involvement with the Israel Defences Forces disaster response team came up.
The next day, as Schreiber was leaving Israel, he saw Ora Merin again. She told Schreiber that her husband had left for Nepal, which had just experienced an earthquake. “I got to tell you,” said Schreiber, “within six hours, they had up and going a launch – and they bring everything.… It’s amazing what the Israelis do to be first responders, and they are recognized around the world as being the best. They get there very quickly and they set up all the units, like an intensive care and operating tents and all this kind of stuff, and triage, and get rescue things going long before other countries are even getting their finances together.”
“It’s amazing what the Israelis do to be first responders, and they are recognized around the world as being the best. They get there very quickly and they set up all the units, like an intensive care and operating tents … long before other countries are even getting their finances together.”
During that conversation, Ora mentioned that their family (she and Ofer have four adult children) was going to be in the United States – Ofer has a brother in Seattle – in the summer, and Schreiber suggested they think about coming up to Vancouver on that trip. He said that it would be good for her, because of her travel agency, to meet with Federation, which runs missions to Israel, and maybe her husband could give a talk on his work. “So, that’s how that all started, back in Israel, back last May,” he said.
In addition to the community meetings and talk, Schreiber also organized for Ofer Merin to speak at VGH. “There is a big group of trauma people at VGH, and they jumped on this because they had heard of him and they knew of him, and we organized for him to give rounds…. There was very good attendance at that rounds, and he talked about what he does. But he didn’t talk about all the people they deal with and how they set up, he talked about a lot of ethical things, like how do you decide to save this person versus that person – you only have limited space to save people.”
Merin spoke at VGH about treating such large numbers of injured after a natural disaster, and about handling the stress of that, said Schreiber. “The next thing he talked about, the ethics. You’re not able to provide the same level of care as you’re accustomed to, like we supply for trauma people in Vancouver, we can’t give the same level of care … you’ve got to treat people and turn them over quickly, so you can treat the next person.”
Merin also discussed how, at Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, they have to treat victims of terror attacks, including, at times, the terrorist. Of the victims and the perpetrator(s), who do you take care of first? At Shaare Zedek, Merin said, such decisions are made on the basis of triage, who is the most badly injured.
The Independent caught up with Merin by email after his Vancouver visit.
JI: What interested you in cardiac medicine/surgery versus other specialties? Did you always want to be in medicine?
OM: My decision to go into medicine was relatively late, in my early 20s, not something I was born with. My decision to go into cardiac surgery, I guess, was based first on my “nature” to choose something surgical – more adrenalin, very quick results. Cardiac surgery in specific is a great combination of both surgery and the need of good clinical and physiology understanding.
JI: The burnout rate for doctors in general is quite high. It must be higher for trauma physicians. How do you (and/or your colleagues) manage the stress?
OM: I would divide [my response]. There are things done on the group level – discussions, sharing, etc. Especially these days in Jerusalem, there is an extra challenge – dealing with treatment of terror victims, and many times treatment of the terrorists themselves…. We have a psychologist who is doing some group work especially with the ER people and the intensive care unit. And, on the personal level, everyone has to find his ways to vent. I jog almost every day. For me, it’s a good way to relax. In missions abroad, I write every day. Also a great way to vent.
JI: The enormity of being part of a disaster-response team is almost beyond comprehension for anyone who has not had the experience. If it’s possible to outline a general order of events, from the time a natural disaster hits to when the Israeli unit is on the ground in another country providing care, could you please share the main points?
OM: One of the important things is to work in parallel. We bring in the team way before there is a full understanding of the scale of the disaster, so we are prepared before there is a governmental decision to send a team. Once a decision is taken, we are prepared to leave. We send immediately a small forward team, which can report back, and prepare whatever is needed for deployment. We drill every year, so we maintain a high level of preparedness.
JI: In a couple of articles, you mention collaboration/integration with local facilities in a disaster-response situation. What types of factors enter the decision of where the Israeli unit fits into the overall aid effort?
OM: To be honest, in the last natural disasters around the globe, Israel is almost always the largest and first to be on ground. Therefore, we communicate with the local health providers and make a mutual decision where it is best to deploy.
The decision if to deploy as a self-sufficient unit or to operate (like in the Philippines) as an integrated unit is based mainly on the question if the local services are still functional. If they are, it is many times better to assist them and not “compete” with them, as we are arriving for a short term.
Former British Columbian Gill Rosenberg spent nine months fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. (photo from Gill Rosenberg)
Gill Rosenberg returned to Israel a month ago, after spending nine months fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Born in Surrey, Rosenberg, 31, grew up in White Rock and graduated from King David High School before continuing her studies at B.C. Institute of Technology, finishing a program in airport operations management. She moved to Israel in 2006 to serve in the Israel Defence Forces, volunteering through a program called Mahal (the overseas volunteer IDF program). During the course of her service, she made aliya. She now lives in Jerusalem.
“I served as a search and rescue NCO (non-commissioned officer) and as an instructor at the Search, Rescue and Civil Defence School,” Rosenberg told the Independent. “It was a great experience.”
She also spent time training the Kenyan Armed Forces and helped them establish a disaster response unit in their country.
Growing up in British Columbia taught Rosenberg “to respect the diversity of culture, beliefs and religion,” she said. “As well, being raised Jewish, I had a strong education on the Shoah and participated in the March of the Living, visiting the concentration camps in Poland.”
After that experience, Rosenberg was invited to speak at the B.C. Legislature on behalf of Jewish youth when the government voted to enact Holocaust Memorial Day legislation, when Ujjal Dosanjh was premier.
Intolerance and totalitarianism are two things that she has vowed to never tolerate. “I fully believe that when we say ‘Never again,’ we don’t mean just for us Jews,” she said. “We can’t stand by and stay silent to any genocide taking place – and that’s what I saw happening to the Yazidi population on Sinjar Mountain. The Christians and Yazidis in Iraq have lost the most in this war.”
Rosenberg fought in Syria with the YPG/YPJ (Kurdish militia groups) for three months and then headed to Iraq for six months, fighting with the Assyrian Christian militia, Dwekh Nawsha.
“In Syria, I was in Serekaniye and it was a pretty static front over the winter months,” she said. “It was bitterly cold, always raining, muddy, and darkness like I’ve never experienced anywhere else.
“There’d be a firefight at least once a day, but it was mostly from a distance of over one kilometre. My first day on the frontline, a suicide bomber blew himself up about 50 feet from our checkpoint. He intended to get closer, but because of the deep mud, his vehicle got stuck and, thank God, he was the only casualty that day.
“In Iraq,” she continued, “I was at a frontline 25 kilometres from the city centre of Mosul. They were in Baqofa and Telskuf, and the next town over, called Batnay, was already Daesh-occupied.
“The Daesh [ISIS] are hitting that position with mortars, Katyusha rockets and heavy machine gun fire daily and especially at night. They attempt to ambush, but both Dwekh Nawsha and the Peshmerga at that frontline have prevented any advancement of ISIS forces.”
Rosenberg said she was treated with the utmost respect and not any differently than other fighters. “They feel like the world has forgotten them, so for an Israeli Jewish woman to pick up a weapon and stand with them on the frontlines meant a lot to them,” she said. “I still keep in touch with the leader there and he tells me I’ll be a part of them forever, that we’re family.”
As she was fighting, Rosenberg wore the Canadian flag on her uniform proudly. “I feel that Canada is one of few countries that still stands tall and supports democracy and freedom, and it isn’t afraid to condemn those committing evil in this world. And that’s something to be very proud of.”
Earlier in the interview, she noted, “Stephen Harper is the only world leader condemning the nuclear deal with Iran and speaking out against the evils of this world and standing with our best allies.”
Since returning to Israel, Rosenberg has met with several members of the Knesset and shared with them some of her experiences. She also has been approached by several nongovernmental organizations working in Syria and Iraq for her help with their efforts.
“I want to continue helping women and children in Syria and Iraq,” she said, “so I have to determine where my experience and abilities can be best put to use. As far as returning to the frontline, I have no plans to return at this stage.”
Rosenberg was very clear that she does not see herself as a recruiter. “I very adamantly would advise against anyone traveling to the region to fight,” she said. “There are many ways to help, including a Montreal Jewish foundation called CYCI (the Liberation of Christian and Yazidi Children of Iraq), which are buying and liberating the children that are sold like sheep in the market in ISIS-controlled areas.
“Pikuach nefesh [to save a life] is an obligation we have as Jews, and the Talmud even requires us to spend money to save a life if we have that ability,” she said. “This organization [CYCI] gives us that ability.”
Another Canadian organization, also coming from the Jewish community, is Rape Is No Joke (RINJ). This group provides medical care to women and children who have been victims of rape and other brutality in Syria and Iraq.
From what Rosenberg has been hearing, the dynamics on the battlefield have changed in recent weeks, with the Iranians making gains in Iraq against ISIS. However, she was quick to add, “They might be fighting ISIS just as I was, but, ultimately, they’re not a friend and I believe they’re a much greater threat than is ISIS.”
Reiterating her discouragement of anyone traveling to the region to fight, Rosenberg said, “I believe that if we don’t stop ISIS now, they’ll be at our doorstep before we know it. ISIS are geniuses at social media and media and know how to look strong and strike fear in the hearts of the West.
“I can tell you, from my personal experience on the ground, that they fight in a very cowardly manner and often run away when challenged. This is especially true when it’s the women of the YPJ. Their beliefs are such that they think if they’re killed by a woman, they will go to hell. So, my only question is this, What happens to them when that woman is also Jewish and Israeli?”
The eight visiting Israel Defence Forces veterans at Stanley Park. (photo by David Schwartz)
Eight Israel Defence Forces war veterans, all of them part of the rehabilitation program at Beit Halochem, visited Vancouver earlier this month for eight days. They were guests of Temple Sholom and each of them was hosted by a family here.
Temple Sholom president David Schwartz was one of those hosts. “It’s the fifth visit we’ve had, ever since we joined the Beit Halochem program 10 years ago, and each visit brings us, as a community, to new heights of emotional inspiration,” he said. “Our congregation’s response to this program was amazing and we had some members on the waiting list for the next time. Unfortunately, our group included only eight veterans – if we had more, there would have been no problem to find them a suitable accommodation. It is such a great privilege to host these brave people who sacrificed … for the state of Israel. Each one of them has an amazing story of personal heroism; it is just feels so honorable to have them among us even for a short while.”
Infantry Col. Eitan Matmon, who was injured three times during his military career, the last time on Lebanese soil during the 2006 war, was the highest rank officer among the visitors. It was Matmon’s second visit to Canada, but the first to the West Coast, and the warm weather matched the community’s hospitality. “From the first moment we landed in Vancouver,” he said, “our hosts took care of us and greeted us with the biggest hearts and smiles we could wish for.
“Our guys are struggling every single day to recover, both physically and mentally, from the horrible effects of war,” he continued. “For them to come here and enjoy this amazing scenery, to meet the local Jewish community and to relax and enjoy such a visit is just priceless. We are so thankful to our hosts from Temple Sholom, King David High School, Rabbi [Philip] Bregman from Hillel and everybody else who contributed to this successful visit. We can’t wait to show our friends and family at home what kind of warm support we have found here, on the other side of the planet.”
The group landed in Vancouver on Tuesday, May 5, and visited King David on Thursday, Hillel at the University of British Columbia on Friday, then joined Temple Sholom for Shabbat dinner. They toured Stanley Park and Granville Island, went shopping at Pacific Centre, attended a Vancouver Whitecaps game and traveled to Whistler and Bowen Island before leaving on May 14 for Calgary for five days. Separately, Matmon was among a group of about 50 people who joined a Jewish Museum and Archives of British Columbia tour of historical Jewish sites in Strathcona and Gastown on Sunday, which was when he had a chance to talk with the Jewish Independent.
The first connection between Beit Halochem and Temple Sholom was made by Bregman 10 years ago. Since then, five delegations have visited Vancouver, and Bregman is still excited by the special event. “For us, as North American educators,” he said, “this connection provides such a great opportunity to show our young generation something they have never seen before: personal sacrifice. Our country doesn’t ask for anything from local high school grads, right? You went to school, you graduated, you say thank you and move on with your life. In Israel, they say, ‘No, now you’re going to give us back three years of your life.’ And the young people of Israel keep on doing their mandatory service in such a devotion that can only be admired by our local youth. I’m so glad and proud that this connection has turned into a tradition. The IDF veterans’ visit at the Hillel centre has left our students with a powerful and inspiring message of hope and courage that can only come from one place in the world: Israel.”
For more details on Beit Halochem in Canada, visit beithalochem.ca.
Shahar Ben Haleviis a writer and filmmaker living in Vancouver.
Israel is contributing to efforts to aid and assist the Nepalese government to reach, rescue and treat injured victims of the recent earthquake. The IDF has set up a comprehensive field hospital and also has flown out emergency rations and tents. (photos by IDF via Ashernet)
After Nepal was hit by the biggest earthquake in 80 years, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) is aiding thousands of survivors through its relief efforts with partners on the ground, and is dispatching its disaster relief team from Kathmandu to remote villages to deliver aid and assess emerging needs in hard-hit areas. The team is assisting in the delivery of first-aid and shelter supplies, hygiene items, oral re-hydration solution, food packages and other supplies to 1,400 families over the coming days.
“Even while we’re helping survivors to heal throughout Nepal, we know more must be done and urge the public to continue its generous support of critically needed relief in this devastated country,” said Mandie Winston, director of JDC’s International Development Program. “Millions of Nepalese are facing harrowing conditions and the need for their immediate care, recovery and reconstruction efforts is required to secure Nepal’s future. Our efforts are focused on that path and to ensure the dignity of every human life along the way.”
To date, JDC has operated on three fronts in Nepal: the deployment of its expert disaster relief team on the ground; the support of locally based partners to ensure medical care and relief supplies within days of the quake; and the packing and shipping of medical and humanitarian supplies from the United States. These efforts have ensured life-saving medical treatment, food, clean water and shelter for Nepalese victims still reeling from the disaster. It has also enabled the assessment of needs and delivery of aid in real time, in tandem with changes on the ground, and the coordination of JDC’s network of local and international non-governmental partners working in Nepal.
These partners include the IDF Field Hospital, Tevel b’Tzedek, UNICEF, the Afya Foundation, the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, Sarvodaya – Teach for Nepal, Heart to Heart International and Magen David Adom.
JDC has provided immediate relief and long-term assistance to victims of natural and man-made disasters around the globe, including the Philippines, Haiti, Japan and South Asia after the Indian Ocean tsunami, and continues to operate programs designed to rebuild infrastructure and community life in disaster-stricken regions.
JDC’s disaster relief programs are funded by special appeals of the Jewish Federations of North America and tens of thousands of individual donors to JDC. JDC coordinates its relief activities with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, Interaction, the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Israeli agencies and the UN coordination mechanism OCHA.
To contribute to the Nepal relief efforts, contact Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver at 604-257-5100 or visit jewishvancouver.com/nepal-relief-fund.
Duvdevan elite unit veterans who visited Vancouver on the weekend are, left to right, Gilad Waldman, Daniel Kolver, noted singer and actor Tzahi Halevi, who sang at the event, Ariel Rubin and Boaz Faschler. (photo by Robert Albanese Photography)
The historical, contemporary and future impacts of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem were celebrated Sunday night at Congregation Beth Israel.
Several hundred members of the community gathered to mark the 90th anniversary of what has become one of the world’s great academic institutions.
Founded in 1925 by some of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century, including Martin Buber, Chaim Weizmann, Chaim Nahman Bialik and Albert Einstein, the university has produced seven Nobel laureates and is routinely recognized as one of the 100 best universities in the world.
The culmination of the evening focused on four young Israeli soldier-students and a scholarship project intended to both reward dedication to the state of Israel and to ensure that individuals who have demonstrated that they are among the foremost citizens of that country will continue to contribute productively throughout their lives.
The young men who addressed the audience are recent veterans of Duvdevan, an elite anti-terror undercover unit of the Israel Defence Forces.
Daniel Kolver was motivated to strive to become a member of the elite unit after being a teenage eyewitness to the Passover massacre at the Park Hotel in Netanya, in 2002, at which 30 Israelis were murdered by a terrorist at a seder.
He explained that Duvdevan members often operate as “Trojan horses,” charged with locating and arresting – or killing – the most dangerous terrorists, those “ticking bombs” who are minutes or hours away from executing attacks.
Each year, about 15,000 17-year-old Israelis apply to serve in Duvdevan and 150 are accepted. After some of the most intensive military training in the world, these soldiers are entrusted with hostage rescues, capturing terrorists in extremely dangerous urban warfare situations and delicate counter-terrorism operations.
Last year alone, the unit participated in more than 400 missions – each one of which involved at least one suspect. Kolver screened dramatic video of an operation in which his unit had two minutes to get through a labyrinthine neighborhood, detonate an explosive to blow the door off the home of a terrorist, identify the man hiding behind his wife and extricate the target and the unit from the premises within 10 seconds.
Another speaker, Ariel Rubin, admitted that he initially sought acceptance to Duvdevan to show off that he got into the elite unit. But the excruciatingly tough training eliminated all ego and superfluous motives.
“You disconnect your head from the physicality and you say, I’m doing this for my country … to protect Israel, to protect the Jewish people, because if we’re not there, nobody’s going to do it for us,” he said.
Fellow unit veterans, Boaz Faschler and Gilad Waldman, spoke of the difficult transition from being in one of the most secretive military units to assimilating into everyday life.
Among the purposes of the presentation was to raise support for the scholarship fund at Hebrew U, which awards 50 scholarships annually to soldiers from Duvdevan after their years of service.
The evening event, organized by the Vancouver chapter of Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University, featured two other presentations.
Ambassador Ido Aharoni, consul general of Israel in New York, acknowledged that Israel is not winning the global war for public opinion. Significant to the problem Israel faces is that a huge proportion – 40% of North Americans and Europeans and 30% of much of the developing world – can be defined as “infosumers,” a tech-savvy group of individualists who seek out their own information and share specific traits. Among the characteristics of this growing demographic is that they see themselves as part of an expanding global identity whose national identities are eroding. They are also significantly unfavorable toward force, whether by the military or police. Aharoni’s thesis was reinforced by the fact that riots had been taking place for days in the United States over police brutality and murders of African-American civilians.
Screening a photograph of a presumably Palestinian youth throwing a rock at a tank, Aharoni noted that this is the global image most associated with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But he also noted that polls indicate that in both Europe and North America, small numbers of people identify with either side in that conflict, most falling in the middle. Israel’s contradictory message of being both victim and victor, he said, is difficult to comprehend. And images of tanks versus stone-throwers, however unrepresentative this might be of the genuine power dynamic or context in the Israeli-Arab conflict, is not being successfully countered.
A more successful approach, he said, would be to appeal not to those who identify as opposed to the Israeli narrative, but to the large majority who subscribe to neither narrative. He called for greater emphasis on Israel’s contributions in fields of medicine, science, culture and other areas that benefit humankind.
Following the ambassador’s presentation, Prof. Noam Shoval of Hebrew U’s department of geography, spoke about the geographic realities of the city of Jerusalem.
Using a range of GPS and technological tools, researchers have studied the movement of Jerusalem’s residents and visitors, day and night, over time, to discover that the perception of Jerusalem as a culturally divided city is not accurate. There is an enormous amount of interaction by Jewish, Muslim and other residents of Jerusalem throughout and across areas of the city that are otherwise generally acknowledged as Jewish or Arab.
Shoval acknowledged that he would like to see Jerusalem remain united under Israeli jurisdiction, but he acknowledged that others might see a unified Jerusalem jointly administered by Israel and a future Palestinian state, or unified under some sort of international governance as was proposed in 1947. He concluded that dividing the city is not an ideal resolution.
“A division of the city is an outcome of war – not of peace,” he said.