I'm an Irish Girl, A Dubliner, with the 'Gift of the Gab' ... I like to talk & to tell you things. In Celtic times news, views and comment were carried from place to place by wandering Seanachaí ~ Storytellers ~ who relied on their host's hospitality and appreciation. I will need that from you too, as I venture to share Politics, Poetry, Laughter, Love, Life & everything in-between ... from Bog to Blog!!
"Then the angel of HaShem, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s
army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from
in front and stood behind them, coming between the armies of Egypt and
Israel". ~ Bamidbar 14.19+20 ~
The midrash on this section ~ which is cited by Rashi ~ is that they
[the Egyptians] shot arrows and catapult stones at them, but the angel
and cloud caught them. For a campaign intended to halt the barrage of
rockets rained down on Southern Israel in the last week, “Pillar of
Cloud” is thus a particularly apt title. Just as the cloud protected
B'nei Yisrael from Egyptian projectiles, so to does the IDF protect
Israel’s citizens from the Rockets of the philishti. However, a literal translation of עמוד ענן ~
“Pillar of Cloud” ~ fails to convey fully the meaning of the allusion with
total clarity to an audience not well versed in Torah. As such, the IDF
chose “Pillar of Defence” as the campaign’s English designation, a
conceptual translation which makes clear the intended meaning of the
Hebrew. And we KNOW in our hearts as Jews that it is HaShem who is our
protection today, as always, B"H!!
"And Ha'Shem went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them
the way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that
they might go by day and by night ...." ~ Shemot 13.21 ~
During this week of war I actually posted a great deal, mostly posters & pictures with brief comments just not here on my blog which I have somewhat neglected. For that I apologise & I aim to rectify this weekend with an amalgam of those postings in this as a start to a series of blogs portraying Israel's Week at War!
On November 14th, in response to incessant rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip, the IDF launched Operation Pillar of Defense. The operation opened when the IDF surgically targeted Ahmed Jabri, the head of Hamas' military wing, in the
Gaza Strip. Jabri was a senior Hamas operative who served in the upper
echelon of the Hamas' command and was directly responsible for executing
terror attacks against Israel in the past, most notable perhaps being commanding the operation to Kidnap & detain Sgt. Gilad Shalit in a Gaza dungeon for five years. It was successful as you can see in the footage below, B"H!
Since Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip in 2007, the terrorist group
has turned the coastal area into a forward base for showering the South of Israel with Rocket Fire. But the Missiles didn't start then ..... In
fact, Hamas has been targeting the Israeli Home Front since 2001, and
firing rockets on a near-daily basis for years. The number of rocket attacks coming from the Gaza Strip, since 2001, has
been put at 7,882, with an estimated 4,890 mortar attacks, for a total
of 12,791 attacks. The rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip are
responsible for approximately 60 Israeli deaths and 1,650 Israelis
injured in that time. The media has failed to show the seriousness of what living under such bombardment means. How terrifying and traumatising it actually is!!!
Would you live like this and then be branded as the Agressor??????
For no matter what Israel does, nor how moral or defensive her actions, harsh international condemnation persists unabated. The IAF & the IDF are the Most Moral Fighting Force in the History
of Warfare itself .... Calling Off Airstrikes when
Civilians are seen near Target areas, Mass leafletting of warning of impending airstrikes in the area and advising civilians on how best to stay safe. Thousands of telephone calls and Text messages were made to civilians. A far cry from considering civilians and children as the 'Human Shields' Hamas considers them to be. Yet, Biased Broadcasting, Hostility and Outright Lies have persisted throughout this defensive operation in a disgraceful show of anti semitism.
I shall take up that question separately as it is deserving of a blog to itself. I have dozens of photographs which tell the tale of the toll of this war ...... Images of Israel will be posted next!!
And I will send fire into the wall of Gaza, and it shall consume its Palaces ~ Amos 1.7 ~ Could Ha'Shem get any Clearer????
"This is not a relaxation, it's an
Israeli agreement to the rearming of Hamas. What are we getting for
this?" ~ Bibi on Olmert's 2008 Ceasefire ~
And yet Israel agrees to a Ceasefire in the same day as a
bus is bombed in Tel Aviv? What was the American threat or bribe,
Bibi? What caused you to sign up to such a sell out?
I would so love if you would answer my questions, Mr Prime Minister.
We
had a chance three years ago to destroy Hamas in Operation Cast Lead. Instead we cowed to
international pressure. We had a chance now to destroy Hamas. This time
with less international pressure and the supposed support of Obama. At
least that is what he has spoken to his media. Instead of continuing our
assault and removing Hamas for good, we've Retreated. We needed
to keep going, to Crush hamas, Flatten gaza and re-establish the land as
part of Israel, populate the land with Jews and rebuild the cities as
peaceful areas for Jews and any arabs willing to accept the sovereignity
of the Jewish State. This strategy would secure the South from Rocket
Rain but also be the best guarantee of arab lives too, which are
squandered by hamas. The citizens of the South wanted this, the IDF
wanted to 'finish the job'. Why didn't we?
Fox News has said that as
part of the Ceasefire deal Israel agreed to open all border crossings
with Gaza, including between Gaza and Egypt. What has Egypt got to do with anything and why was this deal brokered there? Why were such Jew haters even included? It obviously wasn't for Israel's good. Israel also agreed to ease
the sea blockade. Could we really have agreed to this? And for what ....
another failed cycle of 'ceasefires'?
This is not a 'win'. It is
a sell out of our Torah & our people. It's time to speak out. It's
time we let our government know we will only support it when it truly
protects its citizens. And this it has failed to do. It is time to for
this government to remember that elections are in the offing & if
they don't represent our interests then we will look to elect those who
will actually Lead Am Yisrael. To those who will secure our land,
destroy our enemies and raise our profile & pride as Jews to the
anti semtic world in which we live.
"But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the Land from before you,
then those whom you leave over will be as spikes in your eyes and
thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you
settle". ~ Ba'midbar 33.55 ~
So, it's back to the Sound of the South, the Soundtrack of Southern Israel - פסקול החיים בארץ
"In a pillar of cloud He would speak to them ... they kept His testimonies and the statutes He gave them" ~ Tehillim 99.7 ~
My thoughts today are with the families of the four people who were killed in a rocket attack on Kiryat Malachi this week and the six injured, including this Israeli baby girl. With those struck today, a direct hit on a car in the Negev town of Ofakim injured four Jews, one seriously. A Missile struck an Ashkelon Apartment block with again one seriously injured and five others less so. My thoughts and prayers are there too. With the million men, women and children who spent Shabbat in shelters. With the brave soldiers who are putting their life on the line. With all who defend Eretz Yisrael in this War .... Yasher Koach!!!!
School in Sderot ~ Classes Commence
It's faintly familiar. A war that began a few weeks after Barack Obama’s presidential election. Hamas in Gaza had been raining hundreds of Qassam rockets onto southern Israeli towns and cities, along with long-range missiles supplied by the Mad Mullahs of Iran. With just 15 seconds to run to a shelter before impact, the rockets rained in streets and schools. And into homes. This was the situation four years ago and this is the situation today in Eretz Yisrael. Four years on ..... Four years of intermittent yet intense Rocket Fire from terrorist controlled Gaza. For Four years the warning Sirens have announced Tzeva Adom. Colour Red. The twenty second warning to Run for Shelter. For Four years. Would you live like this??
Breakfast in Ashkelon
Four years ago, Israel launched Operation Cast lead to stop the rockets from Gaza. Now four years and 12,000 rockets later, we go again to war, this time with Operation Pillar of Defense (Amud Anan). Little has changed. On the heels of another U.S. presidential election, nearly 500 rockets have struck Israel from Gaza in the last week. One million Israelis are living in bomb shelters and Iranian-made Fajir missiles have put Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and 50 percent of Israel’s population within striking range. Rocket Range has increased.
Morning Stroll in Tel Aviv
Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system has successfully intercepted another 150 rockets this week. Yet the system is not fool-proof. Some dozen Israelis have been injured and three civilians were killed when a Hamas rocket hit their home in the town of Kiryat Malachi. And over Shabbat, neither Shalom nor Safety prevailed despite Israel and the IDF shielding it's citizenry from this continued terror. Israel has decimated over 100 rocket production and launching facilities in Gaza, Baruch Ha'Shem. Israel eliminated arch-terrorist Ahmed Jabari, the commander-in-chief of Hamas terror activity who directed a decade of rockets, bombings, and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. The brave & brilliant IDF perseveres with it's protection, B"H, may they stay safe & finish the job properly this time. May Ha'Shem guide them until Hamas is History & Gaza is Ours. Gush Katif returned to rightful ownership & repopulated by Jews to bloom once again as Ha'Shem has promised. And Safety Secured for Am Yisrael.
Assisting the Aged to Shelter in Ashkelon ~ 20 Seconds to Spare
Seriously, would YOU live with this Terror and then be branded as the Agressor by an anti semitic media?? Over One Million Israelis do daily. Tzeva Adom. Colour Red. How would YOU Cope ..... 20 Seconds to Shelter?
The Armistice that ended "The Great War"
(World War I) was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th
month ~ November 11th, 1918. Europeans commemorate this day as "Armistice Day", Americans as "Veterans Day", and citizens of the UK & it's Commonwealth as "Remembrance Day". That is this day.
Poppies grow in profusion in Belgium, in the disturbed earth of the Battlefields and cemeteries where many many of the war dead lie. And the Poppy is the symobl of Soldierly Sacrifice. The most famous bloom of poppies in the war was in 'Ypres', a town in Flanders, Northern Belgium,
which was crucial to the Allied defence. There were three battles
there, but it was the second, which was calamitous to the allies since
it heralded the first use of the new chlorine gas the Germans were
experimenting with, which brought forth the poppies in greatest
abundance.
But, this day not only recalls the horrors of the'Great' war for no war is great, and the 'war to end all wars' didn't'!
"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them".
~ Laurence Binyon ... For the Fallen, written in September 1914 ~
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And finally, I want to add two selections which move me personally .....
"We owe a responsibility not only to those who are in Israel but also to
those generations that are no more, to those millions who have died
within our lifetime, to Jews all over the world, and to generations of
Jews to come. We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice
when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in
Israel. ~ Golda Meir ~
Ha'tikva. The Hope. If there can be hope here, then we have no right to despair. (that's by me, lol!).
“They watched the Jews come down the road like a catalogue of colours. That wasn’t how the book thief described them, but I can tell you that that’s exactly what they were, for many of them would die. They would each greet me like their last true friend, with bones like smoke, and their souls trailing behind.”
Last Night, the Night of November 9/10th, marked the 74thAnniversary of 'Kristallnacht'~ the Night of Broken Glass, a National Pogrom which began in Germany against Jews and is widely considered to be the Start of the Shoah, the first step in the planned extermination of the Jewish people leading to the eventual murder of six million in the Nazi programme of genocide. The well-oiled machine made-up of German youths known as the Hitler-Jugend dispersed into Germany’s Jewish neighbourhoods. (These kids 7,000+ strong, were White christian Nationalists armed & assisted by assorted Nazi thugs) and their mission was to break all the Jewish glass, Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass. But it is not just about broken glass, but broken lives ..... 30,000 men were gathered up and taken to Camps. And Jewish Life in Germany Changed forever. Kristallnacht was Not a Night of Broken Glass. It was a Night of Broken Lives. Singed. Shattered. The Shoah begun!!
On the night of November 9/10th, 1938, gangs of Nazi youth, with the unofficial but clear encouragement of Nazi leaders in a carefully orchestrated outbreak of government sponsored violence, committed attrocities in Jewish neighbourhoods throughout Germany, Austria and the Sudetenlands of Czechoslovakia. They smashed Jewish storefronts and homes, destroyed and burned over 1,600 synagogues, and vandalized over 175,000 Jewish stores and businesses. Close to 2,500 Jews were killed, and 30,000 were arrested and sent to concentration camps. This nationwide anti-Jewish pogrom took place during peacetime across the entire territory of the Third Reich.
Instigated by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels, this murderous onslaught against German Jewry, cynically described as the "Night of Broken Glass", was a major turning point on the road to the "Final solution" of the so-called "Jewish question." It signified that the Nazi regime had crossed a Rubicon and would no longer be deterred by Western public opinion in its "War against the Jews."
The economic expropriation of German Jewry, its complete social ostracism and public humiliation swiftly followed. Jews were banned from public transport, from frequenting concerts, theatres, cinemas, commercial centres or beaches, from using public benches. Only a fortnight after "Crystal Night," the SS journal, Das Schwarze Korps, chillingly prophesied the final end of German Jewry through "Fire and sword" and its imminent complete annihilation. For that reason it is certainly proper to commemorate this harbinger of horror, the infamous date that marks the onset of this spiral of unimaginable hatred unloosed among a supposedly civilized people. What is unfathomable to me, though, is the name by which this commemoration continues to be known.
Last Night, Jewish communities throughout the world gathered in Shul to celebrate Shabbat & to recall Kristallnacht ~ and will unwittingly allow themselves, in some measure, to verbally embrace the very heresy that abetted the Holocaust. 'Kristallnacht' ..... 'Crystal Night' .... conjures mental pictures of something pleasant. Like the effect of the Cool Crystal Clear Waters of a lake on a Summer's day, perhaps. I have Crystal's hanging in my bedroom window. They are beautiful, reflecting the light & magically producing Rainbows, a thing of beauty, a joy to possess. Kristallnacht does not come close to being any of those things. Only the Anti-Semitism Shines Clear as Crystal.
It took 6 months to manufacture new glass so much was broken
And, 74 years after the horrible events of 1938 should have given us by now sufficient perspective to expose the lie of a horrible term that is designed to deceive, to promote something that is it quite clearly not .... a deceptively descriptive term that epitomizes the key to the most powerful methodology for murder perfected by the Nazis. How, after all, were the Nazis able to commit their crimes under the veneer of civilized respectability? Upon analysis, the answer is obvious. They glorified the principle of murder by euphemism.
Let's look at the language of the Nazi perpetrators .... Sonderbehandlung ("special treatment") was the way to describe gassing victims. Euthanasia was the "polite" way to speak of the mass murder of retarded or physically handicapped patients. Arbeit Macht Frei ("Work Makes you Free") were the words that greeted new arrivals at the entrance to the death camp of Auschwitz. When the Nazis launched their plan to annihilate the remaining Jews in Poland in the autumn of 1943, they called it "Erntefest" or Harvest Festival! And perhaps most cynical of all was the use of the term, "Endloesung der Judenfrage" ~ in English "The Final Solution" ~ to express the concept for which civilized language as yet had no term. (The word ‘genocide' was introduced in 1944 by Raphael Lemkin, who had escaped from German-occupied Poland to the US.)
Euphemisms, as Quentin Crisp so aptly quipped, are "unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne." On the simplest level the name Kristallnacht suggests that the only terrible thing that happened was breakage of a tremendous amount of glass that would have to be replaced ~ a financial loss caused by wasteful vandalism that the government subsequently dealt with by taxing the Jewish community to pay for the damages inflicted upon them.
30,000 Jewish Men Marched to Camps ~ Kristallnacht 1938
Kristallnacht was the German euphemism for a time of sanctioned killing. The word takes into account only the loss of 'Crystal', not humans, and is one reason why its continued usage is so appalling to me. I'm a lover of language, the beauties of it's usage, the correct application of it's grammar & perhaps that is why this is so abhorrent to me. We need to reclaim that beauty from the Nazis & not allow further horror to be wrought from the holocaust.
But there is much more than even that .....
Dr. Walter H. Pehle, a historian specializing in modern Germany, has already pointed out that Kristallnacht's original intent was cynically propagandizing the violence into something metaphorically holding "sparkle and gleam" for Germany & the Globe. It is that very connection that played no small role in Goebbel's choice of descriptive for a moment that the German Minister of Propaganda wanted to immortalize as a sparkling and glowing portend of a future rid of its "Jewish parasites."
Why then would we choose to identify the night of initial mass murders with a word that not only ignores everything other than broken glass, but in fact glorifies its results as gifts of crystal clear light to the distorted truths of Nazi ideology?
To remember Kristallnacht properly we must first renounce its German-given name.
We must proclaim that we commemorate not broken windows but shattered lives.
We must pledge never again to allow evil to enter our lives disguised as the good and the noble.
We must declare that no euphemisms will ever again be permitted to cloak the horrors they intend to conceal.
Anti Semitism on the Rise, Worldwide
Today, shocking to relate, the spectre of such apocalyptic anti-Semitism has returned to haunt Europe and other continents, while assuming radically new forms. In the Middle East, it has taken on a particularly dangerous, toxic and potentially genocidal aura of hatred, closely linked to the "mission" of holy war or "jihad" against the Jews. There is nothing 'holy' about Jihad!!!
Islamist anti-Semitism is thoroughly soaked in many of the most inflammatory themes that initially made possible the attrocities of "Crystal Night" and its horrific aftermath during the Holocaust. To the grotesque inventions of the Nazi era one must add such up-to-date libels as Holocaust denial, which has become a state-sponsored project in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Iran and is increasingly pervasive in Europe & the Arab world. Equally fashionable (and increasingly popular in Europe) is the slanderous identification of Israel with Nazism or the "ethnic cleansing" of the supposed palestinians. Americans 'occupy' so many streets shouting slogans of Jewish expulsion, This modernized version of inverted anti-Semitism which sails under the mask of "anti-Zionism" is today a global phenomenon, but it has special resonance in the Middle East as a result of the fraudulent "Palestinian question."
Horrifyingly, 'Kristallnacht' or indeed the Shoah that followed has not dented or neutralized the scourge of anti-Semitism one iota. In a sinister and sometimes devious manner, the widespread defamation and demonization of Israel has, in effect, revived fantasies of completing the murderous work of the Third Reich. We need to recognise these libels of language for what they really are. We need to stop masking the murderous intent behind seemingly "innocent" terminology. Are we at all capable of learning from history?? This may well be a decisive factor in determining the future when the Jewish people once again have to stand alone in the face of concrete threats to annihilate it. Let's no longer Stand in the Shadow of the Shoah.
Yesterday, 7th November, was the Yahrzeit of Hannah Szenes, one of my childhood heroines. On November 7th, 1944 in Hungary, Hannah came up before a tribunal for trial, and with no legal assistance elegantly pleaded her own cause but was convicted as a Spy,sentenced to death and shot, aged only 22. Parachutist, Poetess & a Jew Girl! Hannah Szenes was born in Budapest on July 17th, 1921, to a wealthy, distinguished, and assimilated Hungarian Jewish family. Her father, Bela Szenes (1874-1929), an esteemed Hungarian playwright died when she was just six years old .... she grew up in his shadow to become one of Israel's most esteemed poetesses. Her works have been read throughout Israel and have inspired many to continue in the Zionist tradition of Aliyah, of building the Jewish State and eventually giving their lives for their Judaism. Hannah is no exception here.
Her mother, Katharine, a lady of culture and an elegant homemaker, raised her and her brother, Giora, who was one year older than Hannah, in relative affluence and comfort in Hungary. Little was heard about Judaism in their house. Although their family never denied their Jewishness, they paid no importance to Torah learning of doing Mitzvoh on a daily basis. Her father had in fact believed in Humanism and encouraged it, both in action and in speech. At an early age, Hannah stood out as an exemplary student. She was enrolled in a Prestigious Protestant girls' school and was quickly seen by her teachers and fellow students as being an exceptional student. In addition to her academic standing, she had a charming personality and admirable speaking abilities that made her friends among the staff and student body. She was elected to the school's Literary society as her grade representative and most excited about this. Unfortunately, the school rules barred a Jew from holding an office in the society. This was a very severe blow to Hannah.
So, Hannah, having been given a modern Hungarian education, wasn't expecting the antisemitism she was exposed to during her high school years, but this propelled her to began an exploration of what it meant to be a Jew and return to her Jewish origins. At the age of seventeen, she discovered the Zionist movement, and increasingly came to feelthat there was no room in the Hungarian world for Jews. She joined a Zionist youth movement and began learning Hebrew in preparation for Aliyah to Eretz Ha'Kodesh.
At the same time, Nazism was on the upturn and Europe was witnessing major Nazi aggression. In 1937, the question of Anschluss, the political unification of Germany and Austria was debated in Europe. Germany demanded the resignation of the Austrian Chancellor, Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg. Suddenly Germany invaded Austria compelling them to submit and Schuschnigg left Austria. These events caused tension to build indescribably in Hungary. It became the main topic of discussion. Shortly afterwards in 1938, the Hungarian parliament began a debate on the "Jewish Law". This became the Jewish Bill which reduced the ratio of Jewish representation in the various fields to a specific percentage. It also stated that the "expansion of the Jews is detrimental to the nation and dangerous".
Hannah in Hungary
With this came the 'Arrow-Crossers', the young Hungarian Nazis who began to proliferate in the schools and streets. Although at this point they were not threatened, yet it was a sign of the Nazi influence in the daily life in Hungary. Again in 1938, the Nazi threat began to encroach on life in Europe as Hilter made his demand on Czechoslovakian Sudetenlands. British Lord Chamberlain entered into negotiations with him, and with the seccession of the Sudeten to Germany, Hungary began its own mobilization. As the second Jewish Law was announced in 1939, the numbers of Jews in all walks of Hungarian life were to be reduced even further. No Jew was allowed to be a member of the Parliament, a Judge, a lawyer, teacher ... the list goes on & on!! On February 1939, a bomb was thrown into the largest synagogue in Budapest during the Friday evening service resulting in deaths and many injuries. War was advancing in the world's most Cultured & Civilised Continent!
As all of these tragic events were taking place, Hannah increased her identification with the Zionist movement as the only possible solution to European Jewry's problems. She was so Correct!! She took deep pride in being a Jew and prepared for her life in "Palestine", as Eretz Israel was called before Independence. She defined Zionist in the words of Nachum Sokolov, the Zionist leader of that period, as "the movement of the Jewish people for its revival." She began to realize, that the only hope of lessening or ending anti-Semitism is to realize the ideals of Zionism. Only when Jews live in their own Jewish State, granted eternally to them by Ha'Shem Himself, with the ingathering of the exiles, could she exist without the cancerous anti-Semitism that she knew too well in Europe.
In 1939, after finishing her high school studies, Hannah came to Eretz Yisrael to study at the girls agricultural school in Nahalal, continuing the diary that she had begun in Hungary. She threw herself into her chores & her studies and soon became an exemplary student yet again. Hebrew too soon became an important part of her life and she began to compose her poems in Hebrew. She relates that she only wished that she could find her chosen spouse, but although the boys were in amour of her, she only would maintain a platonic relationship with them, preferring to wait until the "right" person would come her way. She was now inbued with Zionist ideology, studying works of many of the various Zionist and Jewish thinkers.
Hannah in Israel
Having completed a two-year course in Agriculture, Hannah joined the S'dot Yam kibbutz at Caesarea. She worked in the kitchen and in the kibbutz laundry, and the difficulties that she encountered are echoed in her diary. She was given a tent and survived a difficult and freezing winter there. She lists as one of her accomplishments as washing 150 pairs of socks with out going mad. Eventually she was accepted as a member and was elected as the Supply Officer of the kibbutz. Her choice was motivated by the preference of maintaining an anonymous status, rather than being known as "the daughter of Bela Szenes," something that would have been likely had she joined one of the kibbutz groups whose members were primarily of Hungarian origin.
In 1940 she wrote her first poem in Hebrew .....
In the fires of war, in the flame, in the flare, In the eye-blinding, searing glare My little lantern I carry high To search, to search for true Man.
In the glare, the light of my lantern burns dim, In the fire-glow my eye cannot see; How to look, to see, to discover, to know When he stands there facing me?
Set a sign, O Lo-d, set a sign on his brow That in heat, fire and burning I may Know the pure, the eternal spark Of what I seek: true Man.
At this time the war was raging in Europe and her heart was with her mother in Hungary and her brother who was in occupied France. A representative of the Palmach, the armed forces of the Jewish Agency contacted her concerning a mission in Hungary. The purpose of this was to organize and prepare the Jews for escape from the Inferno of Europe. Her answer was that she was ready. After a delay of several months she was accepted but her assignment required special training and enlistment in the British army. For this she was transferred to Egypt. Upon completion of her training she returned to Haifa where she met her brother, Giora, who finally was in Israel. Their reunion lasted for only one day.
Parachutist & Poetess
In March of 1944, Hannah and her comrades were parachuted into Yugoslavia in order to aid the anti-Nazi forces until they would be able to commence their true mission and enter Hungary. Hannah was the only woman in a group of infiltrators. According to the reports that were given by her comrades, she was a compelling and reassuring force in the darkness during their hiding. Hiding in the forests with the partisans, she earned their respect and admiration. She was always enthusiastic and warm, radiating energy in the face of death. During this time she wrote one of her most famous poems, entitled Blessed is the Match ......
Blessed is the match consumed in kindling flame Blessed is the flame that burns in the secret fastness of the heart Blessed is the heart with strength to stop its beating for honour's sake Blessed is the match consumed in kindling fame. The Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944 postponed their plans, and Szenes only crossed the border to her former motherland in June of that year. Captured within hours of having stepped on to Hungarian soil, she was sent to prison in Budapest where she was tortured by Hungarian authorities in the hope of receiving information regarding Allied wireless codes. Within days of entering Hungary, her two co-parachutists were also captured, unaware of Hannah's whereabouts. Only one of them-Yoel Palgi-was to survive the war. When the Hungarian authorities realized that Hannah would not be broken, they arrested her mother and the two women came face to face with each other for the first time in almost five years. Katherine Szenes had no idea that her daughter had left Palestine-not to speak of the fact that she was now in Hungary. Initially shocked as they brought in the young woman with bruised eyes and who had lost a front tooth in the torture process, she rapidly regained her composure, and both mother and daughter refused to give the authorities the performance that would lead to the information they had sought.
For three months the two women were near yet far, sharing the same prison walls but unable to catch more than short glimpses of each other. In September 1944, after Katharine Szenes was suddenly released, she spent most of her waking hours seeking legal assistance for her daughter, who-being a Hungarian national-was to be tried as a spy. On November 7th, 1944 in Hungary, Hannah came up before a tribunal for trial, and with no legal assistance elegantly pleaded her own cause but was convicted as a Spy, sentenced to death and shot. Hannah went to her death at age twenty-two in a snow-covered Budapest courtyard, refusing a blindfold in order to face her murderers in the moments before her death. Her body was buried by unknown persons in the Jewish graveyard at Budapest.
(Katharine Szenes who escaped from the infamous Budapest "Death March," hid in that city until its liberation by the Soviet forces in January 1945. She made Aliyah to EY where she joined her surviving child, Giora, she became an instrumental part of the Hannah Szenes legend, based on her daughter's courageous life. She brought to public knowledge by fifteen editions of her daughters diary, poetry, and plays, that have since been published in Hebrew. In 1950 Hannah Szenes' remains were brought to Israel where they were buried in the "Parachutists' section" in the Military Cemetery on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. In the same year a Kibbutz was founded and called Yad Hannah in her memory.
To Die ....
To die… so young to die… no, no, not I. I love the warm sunny skies, Light, songs, shining eyes, I want no war, no battle cry – No, no…not I. But if it must be that I live today With blood and death on every hand, Praised be He for the grace, I’ll say To live, if I should die this day… Upon your soil, my home, my land. Two movies have been made about the life of Hannah Szenes .... 'Blessed is the Match'.
From Sundown, this Shabbat, 18th Cheshvan will be the 22nd Yahrzeit of Rabbi Meir Kehane, HY”D, Inspirational writer & founder of the Jewish Defence League and Israel’s Kach Party. With the motto of "Never Again," the stated goal of the Jewish Defence League was
to protect Jews from anti-Semitism in all its forms everywhere. In
1971, he moved his family to Israel, founding the Kach Political Party,
and he was elected to the Knesset in 1984. In 1986, Kach was inexplicibly and treasonably declared to be a "racist" party by the Israeli government
and banned from the Knesset, and, in 1994, the movement was outlawed
completely. Kahane’s Knesset career was ended by section 7a of Basic
Law: The Knesset (1958): “Prevention of Participation of Candidates
List.” Unjust and Unbelievable!!
In 1990, following a speech in Manhattan Meir
Kahane was Murdered. The prime suspect, El Sayyid Nosair, was traitorously acquitted of murder but convicted on gun possession
charges, of which he was later convicted only as a result of his participation in the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing. Kehane is buried in Jerusalem, where Memorial events will be held this coming Sunday in his Merit. May his Neshama receive an Aliyah!
His very last speech, delivered on the night of November 5th, 1990 ~ Cheshvan, 18th, 5751, at the New York Marriott hotel, although more than 20 years old rings even more true today than then, and reads like words of Prophecy. I reproduce here in his honour .....
"I was born in this country, and I can’t recall ever, in my life, as much
open and vicious Jew-hatred as I have seen in our time right now, in
this country. I travel around from city to city, and in every city Jews
tell me it is unbearable. Attacks upon synagogues, attacks upon Jews,
all of which are of course buried. Because the synagogue doesn’t want
it to be know. The ADL wants to report “there were 55 incidents this
year in the United States”, when actually, there were 55 incidents in
one hour in the United States. On radio programs which I am on – the
telephone calls – open, open (anti-Semitism).
Two Reasons for Increased Anti-Semitism
What has happened? What has happened in natural terms? Of course, in
divine terms, the Almighty is ending it for us. But what is happening
in natural terms? Two basic changes have taken place in this country
over the last twenty years. It began slowly, now it is reaching its
crescendo. We have seen the death of what I call the “Auschwitz
syndrome”. What is the “Auschwitz syndrome”? After World War II, it
was hard to be an anti-Semite, even for an anti-Semite. It was just
difficult. And then the years passed – ten years, twenty years,
twenty-five years, thirty years, and a generation arose which was not
born at that time. And the “Auschwitz syndrome” began to fade away, and
the guilt began to fade away. No matter how many Holocaust programs
were shown on television, every year they had less and less impact.
Indeed, they reach a point whereby they encourage anti-Semitism,
whereupon the anti-Semite says: “ Hey, you know, I know Jews, and the
Nazis, and they were probably right.” That’s what happens today. It
fades away. And to help things along, there was the rise of a strong
Israel. Suddenly, Israel was winning. And that allowed the anti-Semite
to cut the albatross. Now it was OK. You see, the Jew are Nazis, and
they persecute the Palestinians, and now it was OK. So the “Auschwitz
syndrome” faded, and it’s gone for all practical purposes. And you hear
people speak about the holocaust that the Israelis are perpetrating
upon the Palestinians. A Holocaust…So all the Israelis and all the Jews
who ever called me a Nazi and didn’t realize that when you call a Jew a
Nazi, you cheapen the Holocaust. And you cheapen the concept of Nazi,
which is a very unique thing. And by you calling a second Jew a Nazi,
what you are telling the world is” Jews can also be Nazis. Foolish
people and tiny dwarfs and pygmies, grasshoppers.
So the “Auschwitz syndrome” is gone. And another thing has happened.
After World War II, and until perhaps ten years ago, the American people
lived in an economic luxury such as we have not seen ever in world
history. No Roman emperor lived as well as the average American did
from World War II on, until fairly recently. Life was good. And when
life is good, the anti-Semite hates Jews quietly. It’s not a big deal
to him. He hates Jews, but he’s too interested in the Monday night
football game. I myself am amazed that so many people are here tonight
that don’t want to see the Giants massacre the Colts…
The Economic Crises
So when times are good and he has his job, he has his beer and he has
his TV set, he has everything – he hates Jews, but it’s not that
important to him. But as the economic sands of time begin to run out,
and as things get bad and they get worse and suddenly there is a chill,
there is a fear. I can sense a fear in this country – people are afraid
of what is going to happen, and they have every right to fear it. This
is a country which is on the verge of economic horror, horror. In two
years they expect the national debt to go from 3.7 trillion to 5
trillion dollars, so they work for months and months – this fiasco
between Congress and this administration – and they say, “we are going
to cut 500 million dollars in five years”. Five years! It is a joke –
It’s a drop in the bucket. This is a country which is dying because the
thing that was saving it was the fact that the Japanese are buying
Rockefeller Center, Rockefeller Plaza – don’t be angry. If they stopped
buying it, no one is going to cover the national debt. And they are
stopping.
The dollar is a weak dollar today. Can you imagine: The Israeli shekel
has held its own against the dollar now for a year. Don’t clap! It
doesn’t mean that the Israeli shekel is strong. The shekel is weak; the
dollar is just as weak. The Japanese don’t want dollars anymore, they
want German marks. And they’re investing now in South Korea, Thailand,
Singapore. The banks here are shaking, they’re tottering. In their
greed, in the 1960’s and 70’s, they gave loans to anybody. The Congo
came – you want money, take the money. Mexico came – take 100 million
dollars – take, take it, take. Suddenly, the Congo couldn’t pay back.
If that’s what a banker is…did he expect the Congo to ever pay back in
total? So hundreds of millions of bad loans are being held by major
banks: Chase Manhattan, Citicorp – and they are in deep, deep trouble
today. And on top of that, suddenly the real estate market has
collapsed and they are now holding several more hundred million dollars
of bad mortgages. That’s the tragedy. That’s why suddenly, there’s a
hurry talk bout Chase merging with City.
There’s a myth that your money is insured for $100,000. If the FDIC had
60 cents for every hundred dollars that you have, I’ll swim back to
Israel. There is a myth that they are going to bail out the Savings
& Loan with 40 billion dollars. If they can make it with less than
half a trillion, it will be a miracle.
So for years, the new economists said, “Don’t worry about deficits, it
doesn’t matter. Deficits don’t matter? I know that when my bank
account is in deficit, it matters to me. The bank calls me up and says,
“Rav Kahane, we have a little problem. Would you like to come and
cover it?” A city can go a little deeper into debt than I can, and a
state deeper yet, and a country can go a little deeper yet; but, in the
end you have to pay the piper. So, America has lived beyond its means –
extra credit, credit cards – and give anybody credit, give kids credit
cards – anybody. Now it’s time to pay the piper, there is no money,
there is no money. And should the economic collapse come it is the Jew
who will be blamed. It is the Jew. You can hear it already. You can
small it in the air.
The Racial tension – In all Colors
I was on a radio program in Chicago. Every single caller blamed the
Gulf oil crisis on the Jews. Every single call. What you have now is
the getting together of all these crises – the economic crisis, the
racial crisis – and there is a serious racial crisis in the country.
It’s a serious one. It is a dangerous one. Whites hate Blacks and
Blacks hate Whites and they both hate Jews. It is a terrible, terrible
thing. It’s not just Whites and Blacks. Now in the West, it’s the
Hispanics and the Anglos – tremendous crises, which only proves all the
more the myth of the melting pot. Uh nechtiga tag –what melting pot? A
melting pot is fine until there is a terrible crisis and then two
“objects’ occupy the same job at the same time. That’s a law of
physics, which I’ve changed a bit…
So it’s not an accident that Jesse Helms is now putting on TV ads
talking about the unfairness of quotas. Quotas are unfair. Of course,
that is his trump card. People are angry about quotas and affirmative
action, etc. And Blacks are angry. You think that Blacks have no
argument? You think they are all bad? – that everything the Blacks do
is wrong? You think that Bob Grant is your kind of guy? G-d forbid!
This Jew-hating fascist type. That he says something good many, many
times –you’re right. You think that bad people don’t often say correct
things? Of course they do – but watch him, watch him and be careful of
such people! People who are anti-Black will always be anti-Jewish too.
One doesn’t have to love Farrakhan or Jesse Jackson to realize that he
should be careful of racism of all kinds – White and Black – be careful,
because we get stuck in the middle. Because the Whites and Blacks hate
us both.
The Pre-War Depression: Not a Criteria
We have a serious problem – the economic crisis cannot be averted. There
is no way. This country is in for terrible, terrible times. People
tell me in the depression it was also bad. It’s true. But first of
all, who knows what would have happened in this country if World War II
had not ended the depression? If you think that Roosevelt ended it, you
don’t know history. World War II ended it. It gave jobs finally, but
more to the point, it was a different era back then. The American
people at that time were a much stronger people in character. Today,
after 40-50 years of good life and soft life, and the materialistic
life, people are into themselves. Unbelievable ego. Everything is me,
me – my life, my body, my-me, my-mine. People are incapable today of
making sacrifices and that’s the great, great difference between today
and what happened in the depression. The person who is fairly poor and
gets poorer – not so terrible. The person who has it and lost it becomes
a wild animal, a raging animal. He’ll not accept it and will look for a
scapegoat. He’ll look for some target to blame. We Jews are the most
visible, the most highly visible in terms of power, in terms of money.
Of course, Wasps have more money than Jews have. Certainly, Jews are
not into U.S. Steel and banking and so on, and the real, real money is
not Jewish money, but that doesn’t matter because Jews are in those
professions that are most visible.
How to Gauge anti-Semitism: Go to a Bar
So in the bars, it sits the jealousy and the envy of the Jews which
leads to hate. The tragedy as I’ve said a million times is that the
average Jewish leader in this country has no idea what people say ago
about Jews in bars, because the average Jew doesn’t go into a bar – and
he should; he should be compelled to go into a bar. Every rabbi before
getting “smicha”, before being ordained, should be compelled to go into a
bar and find out what the real world is like. It isn’t a joke. I’m
serious. To hide in some little ghetto, you never know what the world
is. They hate us with a passion out there, with a virulence which is
frightening to see and to hear. On every radio program I go on, I hear,
“why should we give you guys three billion dollars a year”? Anytime
some fellow from the Israeli consulate is asked that question, he comes
up with the answer, “well, we help you too, etc.” Baloney! The only
way to get rid of that question is to answer as I do, “I don’t want the
money! I want Israel to be a free enterprise state and allow private
enterprise to flourish and then we don’t want your money, I don’t want
your charity.” So, that of course gets rid of the question, but it
doesn’t get rid of the anti-Semite. He’ll go home mutter in his beer
and pretzels. He’s still there. He’s still there.
Role of the Prophet – To See It and say It
The rabbis tell us that G-d told Moses and Aaron. “I’ll make you Jewish
leaders on one condition that if they throw stones at you, you’ll
accept it.” Rather to be pelted with stones and not with dollars.
That’s what a Jewish leader has to be! Say the bitter truth, even
though they won’t like you. They won’t like you; they’ll attack you,
but tell the Jews the truth if you love them. If you love Jews, tell
them the things which will make them angry, but which can save their
lives. That’s what you have to do! Think carefully about what I’m
saying, and that is why we created this group called ZEERO, Zionist
Emergency Evacuation Rescue Organization. It’s a name that provokes.
And we hope that as we spread this idea it will provoke Jewish leaders
to attack so we can debate the controversy that arises. People will say
he’s right; he’s wrong, and so on. Of course, this is probably the
worst thing you can ever tell any Jewish leader, any Federation leader –
that he should leave here, and go to Israel. What’ill do there? .
The rabbis say: “Who is wise? He who sees the future”. It’s no big deal to see “today.” A Jewish leader has to see tomorrow. Living in Israel – Difficult; Living Elsewhere – Impossible!
It is coming here! It is coming here! Friday night I spoke in Brooklyn
in shul, and I had to walk through Bensonhurst, a white neighborhood –
nice people, because they’re white…Watching the people, the kids, you
can smell the violence, you can see the hate, you can see the envy –
frustrated, bored, looking for action. You can see it. Those are the
potential mobs. And G-d forbid, we will see it. So ZEERO is a very
serious project of Kach, and I mean a serious one. And I know how hard
it is to go to Israel – it is really hard. Hard to make a living. My
son goes into the army every single year. It’s dangerous and so on.
All of it is true. Everything that’s all true. That’s all true. It’s
hard to live in Israel, but it will be impossible to live here, and if
we go to Israel, at least there we can change the country. Of course we
can change it and make it better and make it tremendous and make it
safe. Of curse we can do that if we have the power in the government,
but here there is nothing you can do to change it, it’s out of our
hands. We are a minority and we are strangers here. We’re stranger in
this land, no matter how many years we’ve been here.
It’s not an accident that so few German Jews survived the camps. The
Polish Jew did better. Why? Because the Polish Jew wasn’t surprised.
It didn’t shock him that gentiles could behave like this. It didn’t
surprise him, so he wasn’t shattered inside, he wasn’t’ broken. But the
German Jew was psychologically shattered. How could this be? I’m a
German. I’m a German. How could it be? How can you do this to me? The
Pole knew he was a Jew. The German was broken because his whole
illusion was shattered. And that’s how the American Jew lives. “I’m an
American”. It’s the gentile who will teach you so quickly that you’re a
Jew.
It’s no just in the bars, in the working class bars the anti-Semitism
that you see. When you see the news media and their attitude towards
Israel; it’s not anti-Israel – it’s anti-Semitism. Do you know why they
hate Jews? Because among intellectuals there is a jealousy of Jews.
When Truman Capote, the famous author, a sickness, a disease who
represents all that is sick about Western culture – when he spoke about
the publishing business being a Jewish mafia – you can see the jealousy.
[He writes] how Jews are over represented in publishing, in broadcast,
in movies, etc. Of course it’s so – they have talent. Untalented
people don’t like to think it is because of talent. They like to think
they run it because their friends, their uncles, their aunts and so on
and so forth. The hate runs across the board. You can see Peter
Jennings’ anti-Semitism. You can see it! And when I hold press
conferences in Israel and I see them sitting around, you can watch them
all – the hatred".
Perceptive? ..... Undoubtedly! Prophetic?? .... I'll let you decide!!!!
