These are two opinion pieces from Ynetnews that are important voices that need to be heard. Enjoy! Op-ed: Israel has warmth, intimacy, an enchanted language. Our home may need some repairing, but it’s ours.
On the eve of Rosh Hashana, my friend Leo sent me an email expressing his hope that “we manage to remember how good things are in this wonderful country” and that we learn how to simply say “I feel good” instead of competing against each other with “how bad I feel.”
This greeting has a special meaning in an era in which one must almost apologize for being a proud “Zionist” and for having a wonderful country.
I am a pronounced secular, an offspring of Berl Katznelson’s family from my paternal side and the daughter of a woman who was an illegal immigrate during the British Mandate period, and I love Israel with all my heart. It appears that I am not alone.
Although an up-to-date index of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ranked Israel in particularly low places in housing, the labor market and education, the country ranks high the happiness index. How is that possible?
The following story will perhaps make it clear: Yesterday evening, the cashier at the local supermarket apologized for having to answer an important phone call during work because of her birthday. The customers burst into a “Happy Birthday” song in her honor. I thought to myself that this “intimacy,” which is sometimes irritating, is also the Israeli belonging’s charm. It might be the secret to the happiness of the citizens who answered the questionnaire.
I am in love with the warmth emitted by the human landscape here. Sometimes it’s too tacky and smells of lack of privacy and discreetness, or in a nutshell: Israeli chutzpah.
I deeply love our language. Enchanted sounds derived from our Jewish holy and literary sources, which resemble no other language in the world. Have you ever thought about the magnificent Zionism of the Hebrew writers in the early 20th century like Brenner, Baron, Shofman, Bialik? They chose in Russia to create a new language, although it is not their mother tongue and they have no clear readership.
Sometimes when I walk the pavements I think we really are the People of the Book. In the global village, foreign languages are still being spoken. And even if Berlin has changed completely to become the capital of intellect and tolerance, the language spoken there is still the one used to oil the wheels of hatred against us not so long ago.
Work on the atmosphere first
I love this nation which in times of disaster or war becomes a global country. People accommodate in their home missile refugees who were matched through captions on television. Show me one other country in the world where people welcome strangers into their home not as part of a sofa exchange of interests.
At times of peace we can take pride in our fine fashion which does not fall short in quality from European capitals and is also sold for saner prices. Israeli movies have also turned long ago from “burekas films” into gourmet meals. It’s a shame that some of the filmmaking forces are still taking it upon themselves to emphasize the shortcomings instead of getting carried away with the achievements.
I like meeting soldiers, especially those in combat service. I am against the occupation but I am very grateful to them for choosing to dedicate their best years to defending us. I really regret the fact that the salt of the earth have been turned into heartless troops in some people’s eyes and I feel a special need to thank them very much.
In my Tel Aviv home I have set up a weekend guestroom for combat soldiers so that they get a taste of the pleasures of the city and ignore the defamation. As far as I am concerned, if all the “bleeding hearts” in the secular sector would join the army, burden would be eases substantially and we would be spared the phenomenon of brutalization at the roadblocks.
The whiners complain that we don’t act like the gentiles in apple-pie order, “by the book,” that we improvise, do a sloppy job, manipulate and cause a lot of damage out of negligence. Out of that same poor tendency, we can take pride in the fact that despite the difficulties in education and higher education – we are among the leaders in the field of startups.
Not just relative to the population, but in an absolute manner. We can take pride in the fact that as a surviving people, we are very creative in our solutions.
Above all, we have a home of our own and we must take care of it. Like every other house it requires a lot of renovation, but it’s ours. As a psychologist, I suggest that we work on the atmosphere first. Even today we can declare for certain, “We have a wonderful country.”
Op-ed: Israel is obligated to do just one thing for those who abandon it – tell them the truth
By Yoaz Hendel
The new emigrants are the old emigrants. There have always been people who left the country, and there have always been people who were angry at them for it. There is nothing new under the sun. There are only new politicians who are saying the same things.
In December 2011 the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption launched a campaign targeting Israelis who live abroad. The message was direct and harsh. Regardless of how Israeli you feel, you’re children do not, the announcer said. The Israelis were insulted. The American Jews switched the word “Israelis” with the word “Jews” and were insulted as well. A crisis erupted – one of many. The complaints made it all the way to the PM’s Office. The American Jews, mostly the affluent ones, like to feel that they are at the center, bestowing their grace on little Israel. The campaign disrupted their sense of ideological comfort in the Diaspora.
Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver did not know what hit her. She approved the campaign as a means of encouraging aliyah. She said what many before her had said. What is the call to “come home” compared with Yitzhak Rabin’s famous “leftover weaklings” remark about the emigrants? What are TV campaigns featuring smiling parents and detached children compared with past Israeli leaders calling on Jews living abroad to leave their homeland and go to the place where they are told to go? The campaign was taken off the air quickly, without any discussion or thought about what message Israel was sending to the Diaspora Jews.
A recent poll showed that 58% of all American Jews marry outside the faith. The Jewish nation is shrinking. The parents feel Jewish, the children less so. Young Jews are becoming detached from Israel. Some of it is our fault; most of it is their fault. This is also true for Israeli emigrants. The first generation is committed; the second generation is becoming detached from Israel. This is the way of the world.
Considering the statistics, Minister Landver’s campaign was incredibly accurate and polite. Sixty-five years after the inception of the state of the Jews, half of the Jews in the world still prefer to sit by the meat pots in the Diaspora rather than eat falafel in Israel. The emissaries of the Jewish Agency, which used to focus all of its efforts on encouraging aliyah, are working on educational initiatives in the Diaspora – a kind of acceptance of Jewish life overseas, far from the Zionist vision.
The message is completely different nowadays. Israeli emigrants who make it abroad are cultural heroes and the wealthy Jews are a great help. In a state of such harmony, no one wants to be disrupted by facts and statistics.
I recently read an article about the youngsters from the Rothschild social revolution who have left the country over the past two years due to disappointment and financial difficulties. I do not have any contempt for them; only for the ideology they have created to support their departure from Israel. There is no angry generation, there are detached youngsters. I am also surrounded by childhood friends and friends from the army – secular, religious, leftists and rightists – who have lived abroad. All of them, except one, returned to Israel. They did not consider leaving Israel permanently an option. It is a matter of education, values and a sense of shame.
Lapid is right. Uzi Dayan is right. Sofa Landver was right. The State of Israel’s job is to remind people that the Zionist vision is the establishment of a national home in the Land of Israel. Those who leave are abandoning the Zionist vision. It may sound outdated and hurtful at times, but the words must be said. Israel is obligated to do at least one thing for those who abandon it – tell them the truth.
