SIDES OF LIFE

     Tomorrow's post may well be delayed as tonite we fly to an ancient homeland, one to which or for which I have been praying, thinking of, valuing, and treasuring. I also do much worrying about it. That is the State of Israel, the land of Zion, the ancient homeland of the Jews from time immemorial. From the time that Abraham bought a piece of land, a cave, in which he buried Sarah, his beloved wife, we Jews have owned land in Israel. When we returned to it after centuries of slavery in Egypt, we had to reconquer, replant, rebuild, and we did, but as with all good things, our country shrank from enemies within and without, until thelast kingdom, that of Judea, was sent into exile. 
      But we came back, again and again, undertook great and perilous journeys to it, to the Wailing Wall, the Western Wall, sent messages to G-d via the crevices of the Wall, and always, always and forever, there were Jews living in the Holy Land, always. But over the centuries with no established state or homeland for the Jews, we settled around the world, with great danger to us, for we became scapegoats, targets, even as we remained loyal to the countries of residence, took part in every movement to better the standard of lives for all, to legislate justice, yet something was missing.
     What was missing was a place for Jews among the nations of the world. It seemed that every group, every religion was being given the homeland they wanted but for us - nothing. Too much oil. Too much religion. Yet when the Jews had guardianship over holy places of all religions, these places were open to all, kept up, honored, in contrast to when Jordan illegally held those lands, or other countries, denied visitation by Jews, desecrated graves by the thousands, paved urinals and walkways with ancient tombstones of Jews, and shot at those walking on the other side, the side of Israel.
     All we wished for was a state of our own, a country wherein Jews would be welcomed, safe, and what we got instead was a fractured proposal of a state which still, we accepted, just to have that country, to have that land again, to have a place for Jews to be welcome, to be a place where refugees running for their lives from murderers, such as the Nazis, the Ustase, the NKVD, the Arrows Cross, anyone, would be safe. Think of Dreyfus and think if this would have been so if there had been a land of Israel who would have fought for him.
     When we got that land we were attacked, others wanting to deny us that fraction of a land. So we fought, and Holocaust survivors grabbed a gun as they got off their ships and ran to defend their country, their fellow Jews, other citizens of their new land and they died in doing so, well aware that they died for something rather than because they were Jews, treated as vermin by the nations - yes, all the nations - of the world.
     And we fought again and again and again and always. Mistakes were made on both sides in the heat of an impassioned enmity, and for Israel, a fight for survival, for they knew this was a fight to the death.And we returned. We did not 'seize' land from Jordan, for they did not own it, simply refused to give it up as they should have way before the war, so when they attacked us in 1967 after Israel said, asked, pleaded with the King to stay out of the war and the land would remain with them, he thought he had the advantage and attacked and guess what- Shavnu l'Artzeinu. We returned to our land. We conquered it from those who would kill us, and we did not seize it!!
     Today, anti Semitism is poorly disguised as Anti Zionism, as a request for a binational state, all the better to neuter the Jews, their homeland. Whines and threats are heard all day long, yet no one seems to notice the prosperity of the Arabs within the State. No one seems to notice the palatial buildings and homes they build for families. No one notices theArabs in Knesset, in the armed forces, in every single profession, working right alongside fellow Israelis, Jewish ones. No one sees the Arabs who walk freely in the malls and streets of Israel. No one seems to notice the Arabs who move to live within the boundaries of the country, of Jerusalem, so they can remain there in safety and prosperity. And no one seems to notice the forbearance their young soldiers display as they are attacked, threatened, spit at, harmed, as the borders of the country are swarmed by those wishing to gain entry into the smaller villages and kibbutzim, on formal Israeli land and slaughter all within. No one. And no one seems to pay attention as they shout Death to the Jews, the Yahud, as they chant their deadly and so telling a theme - From the river to the sea, Palestine (a made up name) is free. The Jews within - into the sea and you can bet every last farthing and cent - not one country would take in Jewish refugees. Been there, done that, suffered that, slaughtered wholesale and later the crocodile tears and the excuses ran  on and on even as Nazis were 'cleansed' and rewarded with new lives and jobs.
     No, Israel is a necessity, a right, not a gift from one state to another. It was a gift, a promise witten in the same Bible that the three major religions treasure.They just ignore what they do not like. Israel is a Jewish homeland, even as we retain loyalty to our respective lands where we live, where our ancestors had lived and have lived for centuries, yet with all this, history has proven that the Land of Israel is the Land of the Jews, whether we live there or not, for always it has been in our prayers, in our yearnings, in our pleas and desperate need for sanctuary. And it has grown into a country of great advancements which it shares with the world, the only democracy in the Middle East (not that that counts for much with the new oligarchs - including you know who!)
       Am I emotional at the thought of this visit though I have been there double digit times? Yes, emphatically so, especially so, for this time we are going to meet remnants of European Jewry, remnants of my family whom we never knew had made it out. Truly, it is the land where from all four corners of the world Jews are gathered and returned to safety, to a home where they are valued, to a country which shares space in their heart with the country of their inhabitation and there is no conflict there. None at all.