COMMUNITY VIEWS

The Land Of Israel:
A View From The Heights

LISA SOBLE SIEGMANN AND
DR. TAL SIEGMANN

Special to the Jewish News

I

n December, we traveled to Israel
to visit family and friends who we
hadn't seen in two years — since
before we were married.
Our trip was full and hurried, as
these trips tend to be when you have to
squeeze in seeing loved ones who live
far away. On our trip, we took a few
days to spend time in the Golan, where
Tal's best friend, Rani Keren (formerly
of Haifa), lives on Kibbutz Ortal with
his wife, Irit, and their 2-year-old son,
Rotem. We all wanted to share our
thoughts and feelings about the Golan.
Tal and I come from very different per-
spectives: Tal is an Israeli, who grew up
in Haifa; I am an American, who gre'b'e
up in Cleveland, Ohio. Rani Keren has
grown to love the Golan.
When Tal and I drove the hour and
a half from Haifa to Rani's kibbutz in
the Golan, the ride was beautiful.
Winding roads led us up and down
the hills that gave us beautiful land-
scapes and mostly uninhibited space.
It is so open, so beautiful, so wild.
We spoke to Israelis all over the
country about the Golan issue. It is a

Lisa Siegmann is director of the Agency
for Jewish Education of Metropolitan
Detroit's Jewish Experiences For Fami-
lies. Dr. Tal Siegmann is a veterinari-
an. They plan to raise their family in
Israel.

tough issue. It's a sensitive issue. Israel is
not a big country, and every inch of
land is important. The population of
Israel is only increasing, while the size of
it is shrinking in the name of peace —
in the hope for peace. Giving back Sinai
hurt. Giving parts of Judea and Samaria
(the West Bank) hurts as well. All of the
Israelis we spoke to said that if giving up
the Golan meant that there would be
peace with Syria, they were willing to
give up the Golan. Not that they haven't
agonized over the thought of giving up
the land. Not that they haven't discussed
the issues of security, and water resources
— not to mention the billions of dollars
of invested and lost monies that would
come out of that region. But the Israelis
we spoke to felt that giving up the
Golan would create peace not only with
Syria, but it would create peace with
Lebanon, maybe even (according to the
papers), Iran and Iraq!
When I asked how they could be sure
that giving away land will ensure peace,
every Israeli I spoke to said that a cold
peace (like with Egypt, for example) is
better than no peace at all. The Israelis
we spoke with were hopeful about the
possibility of "land for peace." They see
it as inevitable. As one Israeli said, "I
would rather give up some land then
send my son to war over it."
As Americans, we don't really know
what the reality is because we don't
live there. I think that if peace is in
the future, and I am hopeful that it is,
then we can look forward to peace. I
know that "if you will it, it is not a

The Siegmanns are shown repelling at a
mountain near Kiryat Shemona, near
the Lebanese border. The idea was to
create an adventure park by "reclaim-
ing" an area where there used to be big
swamps. Today, the park offers moun-
tain biking, a cable car, hiking trails
and a view of the Chula Valley.

dream." Can't we will it?
Rani has been living here since
1990. He left his home in Haifa and
came to the Golan to fulfill a lifetime
dream: to live in a kibbutz. The Golan
is his home. His family is happy here
and they thought that they were going
to spend the rest of their lives in the
Golan. Rani supports the peace
process with all his heart and knows
that he will have to pay a big price for
peace with Syria.

This is just one opinion. Other kib-
butznikim in Ortal are against giving
back the Golan. It is such a heated
issue on the kibbutz that the members
have decided not to discuss it, formal-
ly, until they absolutely have to. But
for Rani, the answer is "there is no too
heavy price for peace. I am willing to
give up my home for it."
Whatever your political beliefs, can
you imagine, for a moment, living in
Israel, or coming to visit "the Holy
Land" when you didn't have to think
about the potential of terrorism?
Could you, as a parent, send your teen
on a summer experience and not
worry every time you read the news?
What if nothing happened? What if
the paper was filled with human-inter-
est stories about life in Israel that was
void of vocabulary like Hezbollah,
extremists, terror and destruction? We
think that Israel has the right to try to
live in peace, like we do!
The Golan has 17,000 people liv-
ing in different cities, kibbutzim and
moshavim (those having individual
ownership). It is not a large number,
but the thought of forcing someone to
leave his or her home is awful. I don't
think that the number has any signifi-
cance; the price will be a heavy one
and the Syrians have to realize that.
As for Tal, he is for it. Why?
Because, "I want my future children
to grow up in a safer area with no ene-
mies surrounding Israel. It is time to
continue and develop this country to
the next millennium." El

LETTERS

Israel. Mr. Peres has been prime min-
ister of Israel several times, but he has
not been president of Israel yet.
Frieda S. Leemon

world vice president,
Na'amat USA
Boca Raton, FL

Make Peace,
Stay Strong?

Zgs

1/21
2000

34

As David Landau writes ("A Hard
Sell," Jan. 14), Prime Minister Ehud
Barak will have a difficult challenge
persuading the Israeli electorate that a
peace agreement with Syria, yielding
back the Golan Heights, is worth the
risk.
Israel, unlike its neighbors, does
not have the luxury of losing a war
and expecting to survive. How, then,

does Barak negotiate a peace treaty
with Syria without weakening Israel
unnecessarily?
One approach is to include in a peace
treaty a "penalty clause" that defines the
cost of aggression, whether direct or
indirect, through proxy action. The cost
would be heavy, a permanent loss of ter-
ritory, in this way providing an incentive
to keep the peace,
The "land for peace" formula offers
no such incentive. In fact, it may
ensure that another war will occur
since the aggressor need not fear a per-
manent loss of territory. If Israel is suf-
ficiently weakened by a flawed peace
agreement, the temptation to attack
Israel may prove irresistible.
Also, to make the penalty clause
binding, it should be presented to the
United Nations for approval, in this
way providing it the status of interna-

tional law. For Syria, such a clause
holds no disadvantage it if does not
attack Israel, either directly or indi-
rectly, through proxy action. By
addressing the pitfalls in a land-for-
peace formula, Barak may, as a result,
be in a better position to persuade the
Israeli electorate that peace with Syria
is worth the risks involved. On the
other hand, if an acceptable peace
agreement cannot be worked out with
Syria, then, clearly, it would be wiser
to wait until one can be.
Irving Warshawsky

West Bloomfield

Helping Preserve
Sinai's Heritage

I was touched by the article on plans
to list the names of people who con-

tributed money to Sinai Hospital
("Writing On The Wall," Jan. 14).
My father, Sam Kutnick, was a man
who was ardent about having a Jewish
hospital in Detroit and so he left
money in his will to Sinai.
The hospital was opened in 1953
and it is ironic that he lived to see
his dream come true. Unfortunately,
he died in Sinai on Aug. 15, 1953.
In fact, in the Feb. 26, 1999, issue
of the Jewish News, there was a picture
of Rabbi Abraham Hershman, along
with Max Osnos, Sam Rubiner and
Nate Shapero, taken in 1951 at the
Sinai Hospital groundbreaking. Much
to my surprise, I spotted my parents,
Sam and Ida Kutnick, toward the back
of the picture.
A Jewish hospital was my dad's
dream for many years. I am sure that
he was proud to attend this momen-

