| You hear it on
CNN and ABC and NPR, you read it in the LA Times,
you hear it from world leaders and organizations
devoted to humanitarian causes. The Portuguese
Nobel Laureate, Jose Saramago visited the
Palestinian West Bank as one of a group of famous
authors, called the International Parliament of
Writers and declared that "what is happening
here is a crime that may be compared to
Auschwitz". Robert Sheer, in the Los Angeles
Time, compares Ariel Sharon to the Serbian
butcher, Slobodan Milosevic. This, after a weekend of
prominent, front page articles describing the
wanton destruction and ruthless mass murder
carried out by Israeli soldiers against
Palestinian civilians in Nablus and Jenin. (And
you had to read to the fifth paragraph of the
story to discover that none of the reports were
independently confirmed, verified, or
corroborated.) The annual session of the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights, last week,
condemned Israel for "mass killings" of
Palestinians, "gross violations" of
humanitarian law" and affirmed the
"legitimate right of Palestinian people to
resist." Amnesty International and Human
Rights Watch condemned Israel's "brutal
practices in the occupied Palestinian
territories." UNESCO issued a resolution
condemning the Israeli attacks on the cultural
centres and holy sites in Palestine. (Strangely,
they said nothing of synagogues burned in France
or exploded in Tunisia.) The European Parliament
adopted a resolution last week that called on the
European Union to suspend its 6-year-old trade
Treaty with Israel. You, our children, you hear
these things, you read these things.
You witness
demonstrations on college campuses and in the
great cities of the world. And you have to
wonder: Is this the truth? Are these really my
people? What kind of people are we? What kind of
society is Israel? What happened to the dream
that once was Zionism?
Koffi Annan, the
Secretary General of The European Parliament
adopted a resolution last week that called on the
European Union to suspend its 6-year-old trade
Treaty with Israel. You, our children, you hear
these things, you read these things. You witness
demonstrations on college campuses and in the
great cities of the world. And you have to
wonder: Is this the truth? Are these really my
people? What revered Roman power and Akiba risked
his life to teach Torah. And it's true today.
Because the world has no memory. They forget, but
we remember.
- In 1947 the
United Nations voted to partition
Palestine and to create two states
between the Jordan and the Mediterranean:
One, the Jewish state of Israel. The
other, a homeland for Palestinian Arabs.
- The Zionist
leadership, the acting government of the
Yishuv, accepted the plan. In 1947, we
affirmed our desire to live in peace,
side by side with a Palestinian State.
But the armies
of nine Arab states came pouring over the
borders, to extinguish the nascent state of
Israel and to murder yet another million Jew.
When a truce came, the territory for the
Palestinian Arab State had been devoured by Egypt
and Jordan and Syria. They forget, but we
remember that thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled
in the face of that Arab invasion. But when they
reached the borders of Jordan and Egypt, they
were not permitted to enter.
Israel, tiny
beleaguered Israel managed to absorb and settle
millions of Jewish refugees from Europe and the
Middle East. But the entire Arab League and all
26 Muslim nations, with all their oil-wealth,
couldn't find room for their poor Palestinian
brothers and sisters -- and left them to rot in
squalid refugee camps, festering in hatred and
rage.
They forget, but
we remember every time they came across our
border to murder and to destroy.
We
remember 1948, 1967, 1973. We remember the
Olympics in Munich and the school in Maalot. And
we remember that when Sadat came to Jerusalem, we
dismantled settlements, and relocated whole
cities, and gave Egypt back the entire Sinai, in
return for peace. We remember Yitzchak Rabin and
his dream. And we remember that his protégé, Ehud
Barak went to Camp David and then to Taba, and
offered, for the second time in 50 years, to
create a Palestinian State, comprised of 97% of
the West Bank and all of Gaza with sovereignty
over half of Jerusalem including the Temple
Mount, and $30 billion in world economic aid.
And we remember
the answer.
They forget, but
we remember, just months ago, a bomber in the
Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv killed 21 teens.
And what did we do in retaliation, what did we
hit?
Nothing. We
practiced restraint.
And months later
when another bomber destroyed Sbarro's Pizza and
dozens more were killed. What was our
retaliation?
Nothing. We
practiced restraint.
And the Bat
Mitzvah in Hadera and the mall in Netanya and the
restaurants and cafes in Jerusalem and Afula and
in Haifa -- we retaliated by destroying
buildings.
Empty
buildings.
Because we
called them hours in advance of each mission, to
warn them to evacuate.
And then came
Pesach. This year, the Angel of Death did not
pass over. Whole families were murdered at the
Seder table. But even now, do we bomb from the
air, like America? Risk hitting hospitals and
schools and embassies like America did in Bosnia
and Afghanistan?
No.
We send our kids
through the alleyways and byways -- to face booby
traps and snipers and mines. Tonight, your
parents and grandparents, your rabbis and
teachers, your community have gathered here in
the thousands to testify that the whole world is
wrong and Israel is right. And we will not
apologize for doing what's right -- for defending
our children and their dreams from murderers. We
mourn for innocents, Palestinian and Israeli, who
are caught in the struggle. We take no pleasure
in the suffering of any human being -- we dip out
wine from our cups -- but we will not apologize for taking steps to
survive in that vicious corner of the world
where, mesmerized by murder and blood, they dance
and sing when their children blow themselves up.
We will not
apologize
for demanding our land and our freedom and our
security in this world.
Jews
no longer apologize for surviving.
You must not be
apologetic for Israel or ashamed of Israel. You
must not be embarrassed by Israel or afraid to
stand up for Israel. And you must never, ever
grow bitter, cynical, or dark. The prophet
Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of all he
loved: Jerusalem, the Temple, his people. And
through his tears he wrote, lo yeshama b'aray
yehuda, uv'chutzot yerushalayeem, kol sasson,
v'kol simcha, kol chatan v'kol kalah. Never again
will Judah or Jerusalem hear the sounds of joy
and the voices of gladness, the song of the bride
and grooms. But the Rabbis who came generations
later knew the prophet got it wrong. They
believed that one day, we would return to Judah
and to Jerusalem.
But only if we
hold fast to hope and resist despair; only if we
cling tight to our dreams and refuse to surrender
to bitterness.
The Rabbis knew
that the death of our faith is a greater tragedy
than the destruction of our city; and the
crushing of our vision, a bigger disaster than
the ruin of the Temple. And so they changed one
word in the prophecy. Instead of Lo yeshama, we
sing Od yeshama.
In every bride
and groom, in every Jewish family, in every
community and synagogue, in every place where
Jewish life lives, Jeremiah is proved wrong. Od
yeshama b'aray yehuda. For once again, the hills
of Judah and the streets of Yerushalim will ring
with the sounds of joy and celebration, with the
music of love and melody of hope and the song of
peace.
May you,
children, grow to witness it. May we all live to
witness it. Bimheyro B'yamaeinu Amen (speedily in
our generation. Amen).
|
