“Living in Poland in 1924, my grandfather was assaulted and called a ‘dirty Jew,’ ” writes Judea Pearl. “He came home beaten and bleeding and told his family: Pack your bags—we are going home. Home, of course, was Israel.”
|
Comments
97
Commenting has been turned off for this post
I am not Jewish. I have many Jewish friends, support Israel and deplore the anti-Semitism sweeping around the world particularly in the western democracies.
It would appear, however, that 'such rumors were routinely fabricated and spread by local Arab leaders in an attempt to convince neighboring Arab countries to come to their aid' were not all fabricated.
I draw Mr Pearl's attention to Khirbet Khizeh - a novel - by S. Yizhar: the penname of Yizhar Smilansky, a longtime member of the Knesset. Khirbet Khizeh is a firsthand description of the violent expulsion of Arab villagers by Israeli troops in the 1948 war.
This is a wonderful piece, but I'm struggling to understand how it fits in the category of teaching me how to age gracefully.
Israel is the most "legally" created country on earth.
Not according to the laws of the native inhabitants that were displaced by the settlers and refugees from Europe.
A true and wise memory that I also experienced as a three year old on a kibbutz in the Galilee in 1948. My parents had also left Poland in their early twenties and founded a far left kibbutz, Beit Alpha. Because of that choice they survived , while all my grandparents and uncles and aunts and first cousins were killed in the holocaust. My father served in the elite underground force, the Palmach. We achieved nationhood, yet since 1948 we have had to defend that nationhood against terrorism and attack more times than any other western country. Thank god for America, my second country , for standing with us. Shua Bar-Lev
A wonderful piece. As a visitor to Israel decades ago and as a Christian who supports the
country and its right to exist, I was moved. Success was bought dearly.
Prof. Pearl is also the father of journalist Daniel Pearl z”l, murdered by jihadist Nazis in 2002.
Whoa!!! I remember Daniel Pearl being murdered savagely by a Muslim terrorist in Pakistan and you making that connection with Judea Pearl gives me the chills!!
He came home beaten and bleeding and told his family: Pack your bags—we are going home" imagine palestinians feel the same way but keep getting murdered by Israelis.
If only they'd stop asking for it.
There was an old Soviet joke that "we Russians drive Volgas and Ladas when driving in Russia, but when we go abroad we drive tanks."
You should be complaining about Hamas, not Israel.
> heeding rumors of Jewish atrocities. Such rumors were routinely fabricated and spread by local Arab leaders
Seems like little's changed, sadly.
Go whine elsewhere
DFTT
Beautiful. Thank you for your story.
Some people base their support of Israel on religious terms, that the land of Israel was promised to them by God. Not me. Some feel they are colonizers, and don’t belong there, and any means to expel them is justified. I am 100 percent FOR the state of Israel, but not on religious terms. There is no doubt that Jews historical roots are there, and can anyone doubt they have throughout history been oppressed from place to place. Do you think many years ago, Jews thought to themselves, “oh how nice the beaches are in Poland!”. Do you wonder why Arab lands like Iraq had Jewish communities, but now, no more? I support Israel because, well, not only is “enough is enough” but also because they blossom on the place they live, and that land blossoms too. As to the Palestinian complaint, I can’t help but notice in all my years, every single time you’ve been offered a state, a state side by side with a Jewish state, instead of embracing it, you call for intifada. Sorry, it is absolutely true, back through 5 decades. So your voice falls on deaf ears for me, you could have had a beautiful place to live with all the aid provided, but you live within the rubble of your hate. I hope for better times, but the state of Israel exists because the Jews matter, and deserve to live and pursue liberty and happiness.
He came home beaten and bleeding and told his family: Pack your bags—we are going home" imagine palestinians feel the same way but keep getting murdered by Israelis.
Go whine somewhere else. Palestinians are the architect of their own problems.
Doesn’t have to be that way, and it wouldn’t be that way… for decades it wouldn’t. They have rejected every effort at a 2 state solution. I wish better for them, but they refuse to be a part of peace.
💯there a bill Clinton quote to this effect. They’ve been offered many times. They just hate Jews and want them dead or on their knees as terrified dhimmis. So they will accept no peace that leaves free independent Israel. I’m not Jewish btw.
you may not want to express it religiously, but Psalm 87 does so anyway
Of course, and I do appreciate your faith, but faith is not required to support the State of Israel, common human feeling is more than enough. I am not religious, I don’t buy into religious dogmas on any side, that says “god it on my side!!”. Not for me, thank you. But you might not easily accept my non-faith justification for the State of Israel, but the fact of the matter remains, this is where the Jews came from, and they deserve a place free to live, free from persecution, free to be happy. It is important to me that people consider that is true, whether you have a god based faith or not, because… it is true whether you have a god based faith or not.
I not only accept the non-faith justification, i wholeheartedly agree with it. By the 20th century, and even in 19th century Europe, there was a recognition that the peoples of an empire deserve self-determination. That started in Europe in the 19th century with Dutch, Belgium and Greek independence, and subsequently Italian and German unification. The same zeitgeist drove the earliest expressions of Zionism, the only differences being that the homeland of the Jews had been under uninterrupted imperial control for 1800 years at that time, and that the larger part of the Jewish nation was no longer inside its land.
Yet the hope ('hatikvah') of returning was never diminished, and it was crystallized in every one of our three daily prayers, in our thanksgiving every time we have a meal, in the very structure of our buildings, in our rites of passage, in the four days of mourning for our homeland we have every year, in the three weeks of more intense mourning, and in the one day of super-intense mourning where we mourn the loss of our homeland more intensely than if we had lost our own mother or father
Thanks for this, Adam.
Wonderful and moving! This piece helps us remember that the creation of the State of Israel was a miracle. I am so angry that so many today, including some young Jews, have forgotten that. Thank God for the Zionists and for Israel!
Reading this is moving. If it could only be read by a an entire generation of profoundly antisemitic single women in the USA who seek to hasten the destruction of Jews and the Western world.
He came home beaten and bleeding and told his family: Pack your bags—we are going home" imagine palestinians feel the same way but keep getting murdered by Israelis.
An imaginary thought, indeed, as in: pure fantasy. If the Palestinians surrender Hamas, forswear antisemitism and stop shaking down other governments to support their failed State, there would be peace.
DFTT
On the night of November 29, 1947, no one slept. I challenge you to find a Jew of my generation who does not remember the color of the radio he listened to as he awaited the result of the UN vote on the partition of Palestine.
Reading this article about the birth of the amazing State of Israel is like having a hot shower to wash off the lies we constantly hear from the Jew-haters.
תודה יהודה
I have very few heroes. Judah Pearl is one of them.
I'm grateful for the two times I've met him and had a chance to talk with him, albeit briefly both times.
And I'm grateful for his words, then and now.
Thank you for sharing this. My prayers are for Israel. May the Lord give Israel victory and comfort his Jewish sons and daughters. Blessings