COMMUNITY VIEWS

A Glimmer Of Hope

D

ness on the part of the Arab employee
ear Terry Ahwal:
who
saved him, and neither do I.
Salaam and Shalom! It
Also,
he never lost hope for an
was with great interest that
eventual
peace between Jews and
I read your "Searching For
Arabs,
although
he didn't believe it
Truth And Respect" (Community
would
happen
in
his lifetime — per-
Views, Nov. 3, page 38) and found
haps
in
the
time
of
their grandchil-
compelling commonalities between us
dren
or
great-grandchildren,
as he and
— beyond the obvious difference of
my
mother
used
to
say.
me being a Jew and you being
When
I
witnessed
the
an Arab.
incredible handshake
Both of us were born in
between Israeli Prime Min-
the land of Palestine, which
ister Yitzhak Rabin and
we in the Jewish yeshuv (corn-
Palestinian Authority
munity) preferred to call Eretz
Chairman
Yasser Arafat, I
Israel (Land of Israel). That's
shed tears of gratitude. My
where my parents and their
only regret was that my
contemporaries returned in
dear parents didn't live to
the early 1920s, after a
see
the day. Now, seeing the
lengthy exile, to reclaim and
RACHEL
profound
hatred by Pales-
build it. You were born in
KAP EN
tinians
towards
Israeli Jews,
Ramallah and I was born in
Special to
I
am
left
with
a
sense of
Tel Aviv, a city my parents
the Jewish News
deep
disillusionment
and
helped build.
despair. The lynching of the
You say the Jews beat
two Israeli reservists, to the gleeful
your father and took your mother's
cheers
of a bloodthirsty Ramallah
house, yet they harbored no hatred
mob,
was
especially devastating. Now
for Israel. It so happened that fol-
I thank God that my parents are no
longer alive to witness barbarity wor-
thy of the worst of the Nazis.
No, I do not intend to ignore
the daily killings of Palestinians, but
one shouldn't forget that these are
not innocent bystanders. They are
people engaged in serious acts of
violence against mostly young sol-
diers vvho find themselves in life-
and-death situations, and where
lowing the day of the United
their only protection is shooting
Nations Partition Resolution on
into the violent crowd; hence, the
Nov. 29, 1947, a resolution that, in
most lamentable deaths.
essence, divided the land between

We must strive to
find a fair solution
for both our peoples.

Jews and Arabs and which the Jews
accepted but the Arabs did not, my
father went to his small factory in
Jaffa — despite strong urgings not
to do so. He believed that in light of
good relations with his Arab neigh-
bors and clients, plus that he was
much loved by his Arab employees,
no one would want to harm him.
As it turned out, his factory was
torched by an Arab mob opposed to
the resolution. My father was wound-
ed and in shock, but an Arab employ-
ee rescued him and smuggled him to
safety.

Hope Didn't Fade

Despite my father's financial losses
brought on by the burning of his fac-
tory, from which he never really recov-
ered, he didn't harbor hatred toward
Arabs. Needless to say, he never forgot
the singular act of courage and selfless-

11/24
2000

38

Rachel Kapen is a West Bloomfield res-
ident and an Israeli native.

Coming To Grips

My friend, Terry, we come from dia-
metrically opposed viewpoints.
Although we were both born and
reared in the same land, we actually
belong to different worlds.
I was reared on the idea of Zion-
ism, the idea of the Jewish people
returning to their ancient land of Zion
to reclaim and rebuild it; you were
reared on the premise that Palestine is
all Arab and that the Jews are interlop-
ers.
Yet, we manage to rise above dis-
parate legacies and feelings of past
injustices to strive to find a fair solu-
tion for both our peoples, bearing in
mind it will take painful compromises
on the part of each.
Although we really can't solve this
seemingly insurmountable problem in
the safety of West Bloomfield or Can-
ton, just reading your article gives me
a little glimmer of hope when I need
it so much.

COMMUNITY VIEWS
Is It Worth It?

riot gear, visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
hen I was 16, I went to
I
watched Israelis fire on Palestinians
Israel with a group of
from
helicopters, and I grieved when
teenagers. The experi-
three
Israeli soldiers were kidnapped
ence was one of the
and abducted to Lebanon.
most profound and powerful things
that ever happened to me.
Talmudic Flashback
It was an experience in roots, identity
I
can't keep score anymore. One act of
and defining my place in the world. It
violence by the Israelis, two
was an experience in history,
by the Palestinians, two more
politics and anthropology.
by the Israelis . . . Like some
Never before, and never since,
kind of sick tennis match, I
has a six-week period defined
have lost track of the score.
my life in such profound and
These days, I find myself
lasting ways.
thinking
about a debate in
When I was 22, I left
the
Talmud
between the
Israel after living there for
schools
of
Hillel
and Sham-
almost five years. I left still
mai.
They
are
debating
about
in love with the country I
whether
it
is
good
to
have
had met as a teenager, but I
RABBI T AMARA been born — whether life is
was aware that loving this
KO L TON
worth living. Hillel says that
country was no simple mat-
Speci at to
it is good to have been born.
ter. This was indeed a land
the Jewi sh News
Shammai disagrees and states
of beauty. But it was also a
that given all our suffering, it
land of violence, perpetual
would
be
better not to have been
anger and enmity.
born.
In
the
end, the schools suspend
I watched the footage of the Israeli
their
debate
stating,
"We have been
soldier being fed to the Arab crowd
born, so we must embrace life."
Given all the bloodshed, given that
ever since 1921 when Arab rioting
began in an attempt to block a Jewish
presence in Israel, is it worth it? Is the
presence of a Jewish homeland worth
the price that we continually pay in
our own bloodshed and in shedding
the blood of others?
I am haunted by what a kibbutznik
named Avraham said to me as he
watched his son go off to serve in the
West Bank. He looked at me and asked
me what I thought the occupation was
doing to the Jewish soul? What does it
mean when we who have travailed this
4,000-year journey, finding our way
through persecution, what does it mean
when we have become the persecutors?
Given all of this, is it worth it?

This is not a matter
of Jewish paranoia.
It is not a matter of
seeing ourselves
perpetually as
victims. It is a
matter of
understanding your
own history.

from a window in Ramallah. Like
meat being tossed into a cage of hun-
gry lions, he was devoured whole. I
watched with my Israeli husband, who
sat there frozen as CNN (Cable News
Network) rolled the footage over and
over again. "What a way to die," he
said, and hung his head, looking half
civilian and still half soldier.
I watched as the body of the 12
year old Arab boy was hit by a stray
bullet, twitched and emptied itself of
life. And before that, I watched when
[Likud Party leader] Ariel Sharon, sur-
rounded by about 1,000 people in full

-

-

Rabbi Tamara Kolton is a spiritual
leader at the Birmingham Temple.

Worthy Endeavor -
There are two reasons why I answer this
complicated question overwhelmingly,
"yes." The first is historic; the second has
to do with Israel's unprecedented offer
to the Palestinians in the last round of
negotiations at Camp David.
First, given the world's historic and
remarkable inhospitality ro Jews, given
that our Golden Ages have always
turned into eras of persecution, given
that in the end, no one can rescue the
Jews but the Jews, we must preserve -
our homeland. It is not only about
Jewish dignity. It is a matter of our
own survival.
Our experience has taught us that
we need a place of ingathering. We
need somewhere to return. We must