Beginnings

I've been talking with some Israelis back from the war in Lebanon, and the tales they tell are harrowing. What do you do, for example, if you are a tank commander, and suddenly, as your tank is...

...I rather doubt that their feelings of belonging are enhanced by such casually contemptuous references to their loyalty...
...What nice Jewish girls, and women, are doing in that place is defending two very compelling principles that belong together, for both seek to fight against stereotyping, discrimination, depriving people of their full humanity...
...May you also have an expectant one...
...And what if, just as you've stopped, the crowd parts, and soldiers who'd been secreted amidst the crowd start firing rockets at you...
...Though it hasn't much seemed so these last weeks, there are other matters of interest in the Jewish world, aside from Lebanon...
...OK, off the soapbox...
...What do you do, for example, if you are a tank commander, and suddenly, as your tank is firing on an enemy emplacement, a crowd of women and children walk onto the road and start moving towards you...
...Readers who are positively disposed to the Jewish National Fund, an institution with a very distinguished history, might want to consider dropping a note to the JNF anent their recent fund-raising letter...
...he tarries, to be sure, but he will come...
...Two articles that appear later in these pages were written before the war in Lebanon—Gadi Bossin's memoir on Independence Day in Kiryat Shmoneh, and Steve Cohen's presentation of new and fascinating data on the attitudes of American Jews towards Israel...
...But the Arabs in those villages are citizens of the State of Israel...
...One does not, of course, wish people a "happy Tisha B'Av...
...I think we'd best get ready a bit faster...
...I am relieved that instead of turning their backs on the movement, numbers of Jewish women proudly and energetically insist on their place in it, and insist at the same time that it give bigotry no sanction...
...Why, you stop firing, of course...
...I'm very pleased that we can make Letty Cottin Pogrebin's article on anti-Semitism in the women's movement available to moment's readers...
...I am sorry there is anti-Semitism in the women's movement...
...But I feel obliged to add that we hesitated before printing it, for fear that some of our readers might end up saying, "What's a nice Jewish girl doing in a movement like that...
...And change again next week...
...I think you'll agree that it's uncommonly interesting...
...Talk about American Jewish interference in domestic Israeli affairs...
...the classic formula is "May you have an easy fast...
...As soon as we're ready...
...The settlers at these hilltop outposts are guardians of Israel's future, preventing illegal Arab land grabs and curtailing the expansion of Arab villages that breed and harbor terrorists...
...That letter, dated June 11, 1982, suggests that one reason for contributing to the JNF is that "As Israel's soldiers fought to secure Galilee by pushing beyond the Northern borders into the enemy's midst, JNF planners and builders embarked on an intensive program to consolidate the Jewish presence inside Galilee by widening the network of outpost settlements in sparsely populated areas...
...There may be many good reasons for supporting outpost settlements, but a racist appeal that smears a 16 percent minority population in Israel is not one of them, and it should not be permitted to pass unchallenged...
...Today (July 8) it begins to seem likely that the PLO will emerge from the war with a major political victory—but by tomorrow, that might change...
...I've tried, in my own reflections on Lebanon later in these pages, to sort out some of these issues, recognizing that for all of us, it will be many, many months before we will be able to assess with any accuracy the consequences of the war...
...The moral and military decisions are deeply entangled, at the level of individual decision-making and at the broader level ?f national policy, as well...
...Tisha B'Av is coming, the time not only of destruction, but, so goes the story, of the birth of the Moshiach—the Messiah...
...I hope and expect that we'll be able to present reports from Cohen, who is deeply involved in studies of Jewish attitudes and behavior, more frequently in the months ahead...
...And what will you do the next time women and children appear on the road...
...I think it interesting, in the meantime, that Yehoshafat Harkabi's new book on Bar Kochva—the gist of which he conveyed in his interview with us in June's moment—is now a best-seller in Israel...

Vol. 7 • July 1982 • No. 7


 
Developed by
Kanda Sofware
  Kanda Software, Inc.