My Peretz
Among the emails that get passed around are announcements about funds and collections for families in need. Even when I can verify that it's not a scam I just delete them. At best I'll say a short word of prayer. I don't care until it touches me.
Last week a friend of mine's family was shattered. Their car skidded and rolled while they were driving. He and his mother landed in the hospital while his father and sister did not survive. It's now a week later, he's at home weak and depressed, his mother is still in the hospital though thankfully out of the ICU.
A story is told about a little boy who slips and cuts his leg. As he is sitting there crying, one of his neighbors sees him, scoops him up and starts carring him home. He turns onto his street and from the distance a woman sees her neighbor walking, carrying a crying little boy. She calls out "Don't worry mamaleh, it'll be ok!" As he get closer she again calls to the little boy "Don't cry, don't cry."
The man and the boy come a few houses closer and the woman can now see the little boy clearly. She drops her gardening fork and runs toward the pair. "Osseleh! My Osseleh! What happened?!"
What changed between the calm reassuring woman and the panicked woman running up the street? The fact that it was "MY Osseleh". Everything was fine and everything would be ok until the hurt little boy became HER hurt little boy.
Do I really feel other peoples pain? No.
Do we have to?
Thoughts?
If you would like to contribute to the
Golding Family Emergency Fund, you can help a mother and son who now have no income and some hefty medical debts.
Thank you.
He said, She said.
The following was an exchange of comments following part 3 of my case for Israel's right-to-exist.
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YS said...
In closing: do you truly believe that if Israel would return to the pre-'67 lines, none of it's neighboring countries would attack anymore? I ask this with zero sarcasm or malice - do you really think that such a retreat would bring peace and harmony to our region?
Elizabeth said...
Yes, I do. Because it would be enforced by the United Nations. No one could really object to it because the Palestinians have already said they would agree to it.
Of course, the borders issue does not resolve the refugee issue. That would also have to be resolved.
You have the classic paranoid, "they're all out to destroy us" view that so many Jews have. It's sad. It leads to a belief that there's nothing to do but try to kill the Arabs or beat them into submission, which of course is impossible and absurd.
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Elizabeth,
If I understand your comment correctly, we could retreat to 1967 borders for two reasons:
1)The UN would enforce it.
2)Palestinians would not object as they have already said they would agree to it.
I feel that a few points have been born out by the past 50 years of history:
1)The UN and other foreign powers have proven themselves unreliable in protecting Israel. Case(s) in point: UNIFIL, who's officers claimed "We never saw any Hezbollah."1 and when asked what UNIFIL would do if they saw Hezballah fighters attacking Israel the response was "We would not stop them. We would notify the Lebanese army and they could act as they see proper."2. Nasser sending the UN home before closing the Suez Canal in '67. General lack of UN support for Israeli defensive measures this summer and specifically the statements of Kofi Anan during this summer's conflict in the north. Lack of protest to Aminjahad's speech in the UN Gen. Assem. in which he openly spoke of destroying another UN member state.
2)The Arab nations in the middle east ARE looking to get rid of the Jews in the region. Case(s) in point: Arab League and PLO documents have never, despite assurances to the contrary, been changed and the goal of destroying Israel is still touted. Our Iranian neighbors who pay for our Lebanese neighbors to bring rockets from Syria to kill Israeli civilians! While these are not Palestinian Arab per say, the overall pan-Arabian sentiment seems to be in line with an Israeli-free Middle East.
I feel that for us to retreat to the Israeli borders pre-67 would be one of three things:
Either, sticking our heads in the sand and believing that: One, The Arab world will keep it's unwritten (and often unspoken or contradicted) promise. And two, should they not, the UN and other world powers will step in and help us.
Alternately, you may feel that Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state in the Middle East regardless of it's borders. Hence we should all leave or submit to being dhimmi in a Muslim state. Assuming we're not all killed.
Lastly, you may be one who intellectually understands the above mentioned facts but do not want to believe them because they run contrary to the fantasy "New Middle East" we all (myself included) would like to believe in.
Thoughts? Oooh, this should be fun!
1. Heard on a radio interview with the commander of a UNIFIL base near the Lebanese-Israeli border. He said they had only a handful of staff and their actions in the region consisted of a patrol route every few days.
2. Paraphrased from a J-Post interview published Fri, Sept. 22.
A blog is a writer clearing junk out of his head by bouncing around the room of chipmunks that we call society.