Neither my wife nor I are feeling good about the Middle East this morning. Some background first: Elly is Jewish by descent and I am from an Episcopalian household. Although neither of us are believers in a God or practitioners of a religion, it doesn’t remove a cultural background from our family.
Our son Bud, who is now in his mid twenties and in the process of applying to grad schools, is, by default, half Jewish by cultural descent.
Israel has a Right of Return program which lets all American Jews (since it is his mother who is Jewish, Bud is, by cultural definition, as much a Jew as if both his parents were) which Bud was accepted in and is scheduled to make his trip to Israel very early in 2009. Everything is paid for by the Israelis and extreme precautions are taken to keep participants safe during the trip. Bud is in the last year that he qualifies for this trip… and after 2009 he will no longer be eligible… and he wants to go.
Now the Fighting over the Gaza Strip actions has brought Israel and Hamas to the point of extreme violence: missiles being fired by Hamas at Israel which have killed 4 people as of this morning, and jets bombing the Gaza strip which has killed over 300 Palestinians as of this morning. A 48-hour cease fire that was supposed to be in effect since yesterday didn’t hold, and they are back at it.
On top of that, Iranian fundamentalists are seeking their government’s approval to send suicide bombers from Iran into the Gaza strip to worm their way over the Israeli border and kill civilians deep into Israeli territory.
This is where our fear really bubbles up. No matter how far the Israeli organizers of this program go to keep their American charges safe, there is nothing stopping a suicide bomber attack at a seemingly safe location… a mall, or a movie theatre, or a cafe… and we could lose our son.
Up until yesterday, I don’t think Bud was really worried about it, but now he informs us that he has requested information on the possibility of getting his travel deposit (we pay the plane fare) back. I’m sure he hopes he doesn’t have to do that. And if he doesn’t go this year, he won’t be able to do it at all.
So we keep our attention glued to MSNBC and CNN and are waiting to see what happens… and we don’t feel very good about it.
I find it heartless.
.
Settlers, extremists and the Right of Return …
“‘[The hilltop youth] are our children,’ said Minister [of Internal Security] Avi Dichter. No, Mr. Dichter, these are not my children. That arrangement is over. Their people is not my people. Their god is not my god. Where they live is not my country.” (Fania Oz-Salzberger , author, Haaretz, Dec. 7.)
The Palestinian people expelled by
IrgunIsrael and their right of return? Eretz Israel"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."I have to agree with Mattes – while it is right for you to be concerned – even worried sick – about your son’s safety, there is a monstrous horror staring you in the face & you are focused on only a very small part of it.
Maybe you ought to look at that & chalk up any lost monies to “a learning experience”.
There is no lost money. This is the equivalent of the “free trips” offered by the people who sell timeshare condos. It’s all expenses paid, and by the time they are finished with you you have signed up for a lifetime.
Oh, yes, I am aware of these all-expenses-paid recruitment trips by an Israel desperate to persuade young American Jews to immigrate and, of course defend their new country by joining the military. It’s kind of like the equivalent of those free trips to get you to buy a timeshare, only the high pressure tactics are a lot more personal. And after all, with a 10:1 kill rate of Palestinians to Israelis, they certainly need your son to come and defend them from the deadly Palestinians (oh, and by the way, contrary to the propaganda, most of the Israelis killed by Palestinians are occupation forces, not civilians).
As for the Iranian suicide bombers, that is a load of nonsense as is the whole “Iranian threat” thing. Iran has not attacked another country in nearly 300 years, and there is no indication that they intend to change that any time soon.
Iranians have never been into the suicide bombing thing (it is more of a Sunni thing, anyway), and the Iranian government, contrary to the bullbleep Americans have been fed, are not a bunch of wild eyed lunatics. They are Ayatullahs who have achieved that title in recognition of their status as learned men. They know that suicide is haram (absolutely forbidden), as is killing innocents, so even if they ARE being approached by wannabe suicide bombers, which I seriously doubt, they are not likely to spoil their chances when they ae judged by giving anyone permission to commit two haram acts in one. And how, exactly, are a bunch of Iranian fundamentalists going to sneak surreptitiously into Israel, and keep their identities a secret long enough to suicide a bunch of Americans on a government-paid marketing trip anyway? For heaven’s sake, there are always bunches of them visiting the holy shrines in Iraq, and Damascus, and they are unmistakable. They’d be even more obvious in Israel.
Oh – and that recent statement of Khamenei that got so many pairs of knickers in a bunch? Try to find an accurate translation that is not distorted by being removed from its context. Takes on a whole different meaning when you do that (ditto that BS about Ahmadinajad supposedly saying Israel should be wiped off the map – that’s a deliberate mistranslation by a radical Zionist organization known for that kind of thing, and he was quoting someone else anyway, so it wasn’t even coming from him).
I don’t think you have much to worry about in terms of your son’s physical safety. And if you are not concerned for his soul sending him on an all-expenses-paid marketing trip to get him to buy into the idea that his heritage as a Jew is a country that is holding 1.5 million human beings in the equivalent of the Warsaw ghetto, collectively punishing them by denying them the most basic human necessities, and murdering a captive people at the average rate of about 100 per day, then go for it. His body is safer than his soul by a lot.
By the way, did you know that the Israeli military scheduled the first attack on Gaza – you know, the one that no one would expect or be prepared for – exactly at the time that school let out so that hundreds of thousands of school children would be on the streets headed toward home, and thus exposed with no shelter at all when they started bombing? Oh yes, and they have bombed at least one kindergarten so far that I know of – I guess it was run by Hamas, though, so it was an acceptable target. It’s OK, they say Israel does not target children, even though they manage to kill thousands of them – guess their aim is just not that good.
If you are OK with the idea of your son being sold the idea that his heritage and his future is a country like that, then by all means encourage him to go.