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The Soldiers Of Tel Hashomer
Tel Hashomer, Israel
and was airlifted to Israel when he was
is 1 a.m. and the lobby of the
8), they relate to each other as family.
rehabilitation unit in Tel
"One Family," an organization that
Hashomer Hospital is full of
provides emotional and financial sup-
life.
port to both soldiers and civilians who
Most family and
are victims of
friends have gone
terrorist
home (except for me,
attacks, has
because the last bus
given me
left at 11:30 p.m.) and
names of sol-
the soldiers are sitting
diers to visit
around talking and
during my
smoking. They look
three-week
like teenagers, until
stint with
you sit next to them.
Volunteers for
Then you notice that
Israel. The
Guy has lost both legs,
other two
and Avi and Gideon
times I
are quadriplegics, and
worked with
Ayal is blind and wears David Loeffler with Avi, a wounded
VFI on army
soldier, and his mother, Rivka
a hearing aid.
bases (the last
Although their ori-
time, ironical-
gins are very different (Avi's family
ly, in a base at Tel Hashomer), but
comes from Morocco, for example,
this time I asked to volunteer in a
while Gideon walked with his family
hospital, so I've been assigned to a
across the Ethiopian desert to Sudan
nursing home in Rishon LeZion.
The greater amount of free time that
David Loeffler is an Oak Park resident. I have while working here has given me
I
the opportunity to make the
staff and patients at the nursing
run up to Tel Hashomer every
home, with the soldiers I've met
few days. The trip involves a
at the hospital, and even with
20-minute walk to the old cen-
my fellow bus riders (most of
tral bus station in Rishon, then
whom speak with me in
bus 164 to the AlufSadeh inter-
Russian-accented Hebrew).
change in north Tel Aviv, then
When people learn that I'm
bus 35 to Shaar Tzafon (north
here as a volunteer, the typical
gate) of the base at Tel
response is kol hakavod, liter-
DAVID
Hashomer in Ramat Gan, then LOEFFLER
ally "all the honor," or rough-
a short walk to the rehab build-
ly "that's great." (It's only back
Community
ing.
in the States that the common
Views
Traveling by bus in Israel is
-
response was "you're nuts.")
always an adventure, and unfortunately
I tell them that the kavod is due to
it's become more dangerous over the past
my wife for supporting my wish to
two years. Still, it's a unique experience.
come here as often as I can. I can't
I've had the same bus driver the past two
think of a more fulfilling way to
trips to the hospital, and I guess he trusts
spend three weeks. ❑
me. Why else would he leave the bus
running, and me the only passenger in it,
while he stopped to buy something to eat
Contact Volunteers for Israel at
just before we arrived at Tel Hashomer?
330 West 42nd Street, Suite 1618,
(He brought me back a pickle.)
New York, NY 10036-6902;
Israel is clearly under extreme conch-
phone (212) 643-4848; FAX
tions at the moment; yet, just as when I
(212) 643-4855. To contact One
visited in December 1990 before the
Family, e-mail Chantal Belzberg:
Gulf War, adversity pulls the country
belzberg@netvision.netil
together. I feel a strong bond with the
France Surrenders ... Again
co
South Windsor, Conn.
pen J.A.S. Grenville's behe-
moth A History of the World
in the Twentieth Century to
the first paragraph of the
third chapter. It reads:
"France was generally seen as a country
divided, whose politicians' antics could
scarcely be taken seriously, a society sink-
ing into corruption and impotence ... Yet
the better-off flocked to France. Paris was
acknowledged as perhaps the most beau-
tiful city in the world, certainly the artis-
tic capital of Europe."
Not much has changed. Yes, they suf-
fered a couple of spectacular defeats or
near-defeats in the world wars. France
enacted a brutal colonization of Africa,
carved the Middle East with Britain, sup-
pressed Algerians and bloodied Indochina.
But the French, in classic post-mod-
ern fashion, believe history is over;
who cares anyhow? Have you been to
Cannes lately?
The ambivalence of the French is
"De Galling." On the one hand, the
French coined the term "Liberte-
egalite-fraternite." They are fanatical
devotees to human rights, and serve as
3/28
2003
32
Joshua Lessard is the grandson of the
late Rabbi Milton Rosenbaum of Temple
Emanu-El in Oak Park and the late
Sanford Gordon, past president of
Ahavas Achim Synagogue in Detroit.
His e-mail address is Jlessard@aol.com
lead cheerleader of the U.N. It is a
country that makes important contri-
butions to civilization in the fields of
art, philosophy, and science.
America owes a debt of gratitude to
the French, who helped secure
American independence from Great
Britain; thus, helping to create the para-
digm of government we live with today.
But on the other hand, France has a
long, sordid history of anti-American
sentiment, anti-Semitism, and suffers a
woeful lack of historical perspective.
France's credibility as a competent world
leader is long gone, but the French
remain unwilling to vacate center stage
with any sense of dignity or grace.
Instead, the elite sit on high in judg-
ment, secure in their salons and diplo-
matic offices. How delighted they are to
lecture the world on the naivete of les
Americans, how joyful it is to have a
president to mock that is so ... American.
One can only imagine the ecstasy
they feel in being joined by such
notable American patriots as Tom
Cruise and Jessica Lange.
The French choose not to address
their anti-Semitic past and increasingly
ignore their present complacency. Who
can forget the Dreyfus affair? Or the
Vichy collaboration with the Nazis,
leading to the deportation of France's
Jews to the death camps in Poland?
Today, France's 700,000 Jews are
imperiled by the government's blind-
ness to growing internal
France will always remain
Muslim agitation, which has
under the aegis of U.S. power.
led to a serious rise in anti-
France has grown too compla-
Semitic incidents.
cent, too sure that they are
How the elite forget the
above recrimination.
sheer enormity of American
But this is the last straw. If
and British blood that was
France continues to lead the
shed for their continued,
opposition to the war with
JOS HUA
ungrateful existence! The
Iraq, then they should be left
LESS ARD
blood and bodies of our sol-
to twist in the wind. •
Spe cial
diers lie in the fields and
Although the diplomatic
Comm entary dance between them and us will
forests next to theirs. Our debt
for the American Revolution
not end, President Bush should
has been paid in full, and then some.
very clearly let the French know (and
It is no surprise to see the response
those that follow France's lead) that we
to France's treachery from our side of
will remember this serious slight.
the big puddle. Christopher Hitchens
Secretary of State Colin Powell was livid
denounced Chirac recently in the Wall when he was humiliated by the French
Street Journal as "a positive monster of foreign minister's response to a compelling
conceit ... the abject procurer for
case against Iraq. M. de Villepin whined,
Saddam ... the rat that tried to roar."
"Nothing justifies military action."
France's complacency toward the
France is living in a parallel universe.
Iraqi threat of nuclear and biological
The government has surrendered its
proliferation it helped create is summed morality for moral relativity and reneged
up poignantly by David Brooks:
on its responsibilities to the allies.
"They simply would rather see
Cosmopolitan Paris, with its art and
American men and women — rather
architecture, high culture and holier-
than French and German men and
than-thou attitude, is on the brink of
women — dying to preserve their safety."
a spectacular display of irrelevance.
But the back and forth is cliche. We
Grenville's introduction, that France
are aware of France's turning away when at the turn of the century could scarcely
faced with true challenge, instead pass-
be taken seriously, and was a society
ing the burden to America, then spit-
sinking into corruption and impotence,
ting on our tactics.
is just as true today as it was then. The
France knows inherently the benefits French have offered nothing and should
of being allied with the United States:
receive nothing in return. ❑