Benny Morris recently published an interview here with Shimon Peres.  The interview is in a relatively new magazine called Tablet - we have linked to it on the right. Worth a read!

Benny Morris’ interview of Shimon Peres is a wide-ranging interview that covers a variety of historical and current topics.

Here is one excerpt, the latter part of which was picked up by a “shocked” British press:

How do you explain the rise in the delegitimization of Israel in the world in recent years? Do you agree that this is happening?

Let me give you a contrary picture: Israel is the most popular country in the world. [Peres’s media aide giggles. “Benny, you won’t leave here depressed,” she says.] For 2,000 years there was friction between the Vatican and the Jews. There are, what is it, 1.3 billion Christians? Now we have excellent relations with the Vatican. This is no small thing. And we have good relations with India, also hit by Muslim terrorists. And that’s together 3 billion. And [we now have] excellent relations with China.

Right. But why the delegitimization, especially in the West?

Firstly, there is a problem in the Scandinavian countries. They always want to appear like yefei nefesh [the Hebraism roughly translates as “bleeding hearts,” with an undertone of hypocrisy]. And I don’t expect them to understand us. Sweden doesn’t understand why we are at war. For 150 years they have not had a war. There were even Hitler and Stalin, but they kept out of the picture. As did Switzerland. So, they don’t understand why we are “for war,” as if we really like wars. It’s like Marie Antoinette didn’t understand why the people didn’t bake cakes. The same logic.

But it goes a bit beyond [Sweden and Switzerland]?

Our next big problem is England. There are several million Muslim voters. And for many members of parliament, that’s the difference between getting elected and not getting elected. And in England there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment. They abstained in the [pro-Zionist] 1947 U.N. Partition Resolution, despite [issuing the pro-Zionist] Balfour Declaration [in 1917]. They maintained an arms embargo against us [in the 1950s]; they had a defense treaty with Jordan; they always worked against us.

But England changed after the 1940s and 1950s. They supported us in 1967, there was Harold Brown and Mrs. Thatcher [who were pro-Israeli].

There is also support for Israel today [on the British right].

But in Labor there was always a deep pro-Israeli current.

But [the late 1940s prime minister and Labor leader Clement] Attlee was [anti-Israel].

Anyway, this [pro-Israeli current] vanished because they think the Palestinians are the underdog. In their eyes the Arabs are the underdog. Even though this is irrational. Take the Gaza Strip. We unilaterally evacuated the Gaza Strip [in 2005]. We evacuated 8,000 settlers and it was very difficult, after mobilizing 47,000 policemen [and soldiers]. It cost us $2.5 billion in compensation. We left the Gaza Strip completely. Why did they fire rockets at us, for years they fired rockets at us. Why?

Maybe because they don’t like us?

Peres: You fire rockets at everyone you don’t like? For eight years they fired and we refrained from retaliating. When they fired at us, the British didn’t say a word.

Maybe it is anti-Semitism?

Yes, there is also anti-Semitism. There is in England a saying that an anti-Semite is someone who hates the Jews more than is necessary. But with Germany relations are pretty good, as with Italy and France.

But there is erosion of public pro-Israel sentiment—at the universities, in the press. I’m not talking about the governments.

I’ll tell you why. On television there is an asymmetry that can’t be corrected. What the terrorists do is never broadcast. Only the response is broadcast. And then critics charge: “This is disproportionate.” You don’t see the terrorist act. When a lawful nation fights a lawless nation there is a problem in the media. When an open regime fights a secret regime there is a problem.

February 1948 was the month when Jewish civilians were targeted in 2 terrorist attacks - a bombing on February 1st at the Palestine Post, the leading Jewish newspaper, and forerunner of the Jerusalem Post;  and a second bombing on February 22nd in the central Ben Yehuda Street.

Alexander Zvielli relives this time through the eyes of Gershon Agron, the founder and first editor of the Palestine Post in this article.   A stirring Palestine Post editorial response was published on the following day, as reproduced here.

The Ben Yehuda Street bombing as described here claimed 54 lives and many more injured.  As described, “at about 6:30 in the morning, three men dressed as British soldiers and police drove to the corner of Ben Yehuda and Ben Hillel Streets. They passed through British and Jewish checkpoints with no problems, owing to their seeming British identity. One of these men was Azmi Djaoumi, a Palestinian Arab. The others were Eddie Brown and Peter Madison, British deserters. They were driving an armored car and two truck bombs loaded with explosives, prepared by SS-trained Fawzi el Kuttub, the master saboteur of the Arab Palestinians in Jerusalem. The bombings had been ordered by Abdel Khader El Husseini, who intended to terrorize the Jews into leaving Jerusalem.  Brown and Madison had previously carried out the Palestine Post bombing.  For the Ben Yehuda bombing, they were supposed to get a thousand pounds sterling from the Grand Mufti.”   

I was interested to read that Princess Alice, the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is buried on the Mount of Olives.   The Frommers guide has a fascinating paragraph about Princess Alice, as part of their tour of East Jerusalem. 

The guide states that “in 1943, during the Nazi occupation of Greece, Princess Alice learned that the widow and children of close friend Haim Cohen were desperately trying to escape deportation to the death camps in Poland. At the risk of her life and with the help of two servants, Princess Alice hid her Jewish friends on the grounds of the royal palace in Athens for 13 months until Greece was liberated. Princess Alice died at Buckingham Palace in 1969, and in 1988, in accordance with her dying wish, was reinterred on the Mount of Olives.

In 1994, Prince Philip and his sister, Princess Sophie, traveled to Jerusalem to receive Yad VaShem’s Medal of Honor of Righteous Among the Nations, awarded to their late mother. A tree in memory of Princess Alice has been planted at Yad VaShem.  More about her is contained on the Yad Vashem site here which includes Prince Philip’s poignant talk at the ceremony honouring her.

Since the Gaza war, the persecution of the remaining Jews living in Yemen has markedly increased, together with further signs of instability in the country.

Many of the Jews have managed to escape, the majority to Israel but also some to the U.S.  The Wall Street Journal has a good description of the rescue mission.

Earlier in the year, Jews left quietly for Israel.  The recent Haaretz article noted that President Ali Abdullah Saleh had been publicly supportive of the remaining Jews, as has been the main Islamist opposition party, Islah.

“The Yemeni Jews are citizens. They should have their own life as Yemenis,” said Mohammed al-Sadi, the party’s assistant secretary-general. “I prefer for them to stay in Yemen, not move to another country, because they are part of this society.”  Unfortunately, the Presidents support has not quelled the popular sentiment against the Jews still living in Yemen.

The flight of the Jews under threat brings to mind Operation Magic Carpet in 1949 when 45,000 Yemenite Jews were airlifted to Israel.  Following the 1947 UN Partition Plan, Muslim rioters had engaged in clashes in Aden that killed 82 people and destroyed a number of Jewish homes. Early in 1948, the accusation of the murder of two Muslim Yemeni girls led to looting of Jewish property. Aden’s Jewish community was economically paralyzed, as most of the Jewish stores and businesses were destroyed.  This article by Sarah Symkowicz from the Jewish Virtual Library provides a fascinating reminder of both the rich history and cultural life of the Yemenite Jews, and also how they coped with Islamic restrictions in Yemen.

.. and from Israel a reminder of the superb Yemenite-Israeli talent of Ofra Haza here, here, and here (the last beautiful song in a concert for Yitzhak Rabin)

The 14th year of Memorium for Yitzhak Rabin will be commemorated in the upcoming days when his multifaceted legacy will be honoured.  For the Sydney evening, see the State Zionist Council website - the evening will also include the premiere screening of the film “Unsettled”.

The Rabin Centre in Israel provides a rich tapestry of his life, with the educational goals of the Centre strongly emphasising democratic values.

Rabin’s inspiring lecture on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 is shown here.  It begins:

“At an age when most youngsters are struggling to unravel the secrets of mathematics and the mysteries of the Bible; at an age when first love blooms; at the tender age of sixteen, I was handed a rifle so that I could defend myself - and also, unfortunately, so that I could kill in an hour of danger.

That was not my dream. I wanted to be a water engineer. I studied in an agricultural school and I thought that being a water engineer was an important profession in the parched Middle East. I still think so today.”

Corresponding with the first Parasha of the new Torah cycle, we are initiating a regular column, taken with permission, from the book - Brush Up Your Jewish History,  by Oswald B Tofler. 

The preface by the author states:  “I believe that Jewish history is an essential part of Judaism.  I suspect that awareness of Jewish history, which is intertwined with world history, is a major factor in the resolve of individuals to be part of that history and not to disappear with their offspring into the amorphous world around us.  In addition, the prayers mean much more if their historical background is appreciated.  I have tried to make a precis of each subject or period, borrowing from as many sources as were available at home and acknowledging these sources.  It is an imagined hope that families might make each short summary the basis of discussion at the Friday night table.”

…. Rather than starting at #1 we will start with #201 - in part because of the recent blog item about the anti-Israel manipulations often seen at Reuters…

Israel Beer Josephat, who was born in 1829 in Kassel in Germany, settled in Berlin in 1844 where he converted to Christianity and assumed the name of Reuter.  He then embarked on a career of news gathering, exploiting the extension of telegraph lines as well as the use of pigeons.  In 1851 he moved to London when the Dover-Calais cable was laid.  In 1891 Queen Victoria confirmed his title as a Baron, a title which had previously only been bestowed by a European sovereign.

In the mid 1850s the Jewish press began to play a very important role in the strengthening of ties between Jewish communities in the various countries.  The press was published in the language of the various countries and served as evidence of the integration of the Jews and allegiance to their countries, but the press in Eastern Europe was mostly Hebrew.

In 1851 Zacharia Frankel, the German Rabbi, founded a “Monthly for the History and Scientific Study of Judaism” which came out regularly until 1939.  Also in the same year, Nachman Krochmal, a Galician philosopher and historian, to some extent anticipated Arnold Toynbee by advancing the idea that nations undergo three phases; growth, blossoming and decay.  Toynbee maintained that Israel was a fossil nation, but Krochmal claimed some 80 years before Toynbee that, unlike other nations, Israel always rises to begin the cycle.

In 1853, the year when the Crimean War began, when Turkey declared war on Russia, the French diplomat, Joseph de Gobineau, wrote “Essai Sur L’Inegalite des Races Humaines”, a systematic presentation of a general racist theory which was seized upon by German antisemites.

Heinrich Graetz was born in 1817 in Poznan.  At first, he studied with the “neo-orthodox” Samson Rafael Hirsch, but later came under the influence of the reform Rabbi Zacharia Frankel.  Graetz was appointed Lecturer in Jewish History and Bible of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Breslau, the year in which the first of his 11 volume “History of the Jews” was published.  The history, which was written in German for German Jews and later translated into many languages, had a great influence for over 100 years.  However he had little understanding of Kabbalah and mysticism, contempt for “fossilised” Polish Talmudists and regarded Yiddish as gibberish.

In the same year, Abraham Mapu, a Russian Haskala educator wrote Ahavat Zion, a Hebrew novel.  Like Graetz’s History of the Jews, it was translated into many languages.

………

See here for more information on Israel Beer Josephat (Reuter), Zecharia Frankel, Nachman Krochman  Joseph de Gobineau, Heinrich Graetz, Abraham Mapu 1 and 2.  Dr Sanity in an Oct 14 blog posting also refers to de Gobineau - in comments on Ketman - the oriental art of dissimulation; by which the Russians are currently frustrating Hillary Clinton’s efforts on shoring up sanctions on Iran.

For those interested in Australian Jewish History and World War I, it is worth noting that tonight and tomorrow Wednesday night and Thursday 15th October (27th Tishrei) is the Jewish date or Yahrzeit of Jewish and Australian hero of World War I Sir John Monash who died on the morning of 8 October 1931 — 78 years ago.

A crowd of 300,000 people lined the streets as his coffin made its way to Brighton Cemetery, with 60,000 in attendance at the grave site. Why was he so loved, and knighted by King George V?

Because his strategic genius plus his respect and love for the lives of his soldiers enabled him to bring World War I to an end through his victories against the German army on the Western Front. The most significant of these, the Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918, ought to be taught about and memorialised as the first major victory for the ‘five Australian divisions’ under his command.

Although Monash himself was behind the memorial day of Anzac Day where he himself fought, Paul Keating was right when he said it was time we celebrated our victories on the Western front and not just our massive defeat at Gallipoli. Let’s celebrate August 8 and Tishrei 27.

According to Roland Perry’s book ‘Monash: The Outsider who won a war’, Monash was so popular amongst ex-diggers that Prime Minister Billy Hughes deliberately snubbed Monash after the war so he would not be a political threat to him. It’s time a major box-office movie was made about the man and his genius.

On the Monash Unversity website, it states that “Sir John Monash was a famous Australian who made a contribution to almost every level of Australian life. The University is named after him, not because of his fame but because of the many and important ways in which he contributed to the community. The motto of Monash University, Ancora Imparo (’I am still learning’), captures the essence of the achievements of Sir John the man and the spirit of our university.”

The preface to the book “My Mission in Israel”  by James G McDonald, first US ambassador to Israel,  includes the words

“I had spent much time in Europe, talked much, read more, listened still more.  I had met Hitler; and I had become convinced that the battle against the Jew was the first skirmish in a war on Christianity, on all religion, indeed on all humanity.  And I, a Middle Western American of Scotch and German ancestry, a teacher and student by profession and inclination, found myself increasingly engaged in an active career which gave me the privilege of fighting a good fight.  The right of the Jew not only to life but to his own life is in its way a symbol of every man’s right.  It is that spirit that I have sought, and continue to seek, to champion this right.”

… these words from more than 60 years ago, remain very true today .. and need people of McDonald’s clarity to state them.

As President Truman’s appointment, McDonald was well aware of the tension and differences in opinion between Truman and the more pro-Arab US State Department.  He managed to successfully steer a course that was loyal to Truman and supportive of Israel. 

Recently his grandson talked about his grandfather James G McDonald.

His role in Israel’s early days is commemorated by the presence of McDonald Street in Netanya and the Shule known as McDonald’s on the same street - which is frequented by English speakers.  Netanya, whose name is derived from the philanthropist Nathan Strauss, is a popular home for Jews from various Western countries including Britain according to the OneJerusalem website … (on a totally unrelated item from the same website, you have to like any hit song with the word Mazaltov in it)…

That’ll be one McShwarma with pickles

After celebrating Rosh Hashanah,  here is an important reminder - a link to an October 1944 Jewish service for US soldiers in Aachen, Germany that was broadcast both to the US, and then back to Germany  - 

“the Nazis were unable to crush the heart of man” 

“the need to speak out for democracy and mutual respect”

picking fruit, sky-dive instructor, selling paintings .. a new holiday job for Israelis that provides travel opportunities seems to be security on cruise liners.

According to this article recently published in the English Times, the Italian cruise ship MSC Melody was attacked by Somali Pirates.

“They started firing like crazy at the ship,” Commander Pinto said of the attackers, who struck in international waters 200 miles north of Victoria in the Seychelles and 600 miles off the Somali coast. Fortunately, the pirates were repelled by Israelis security guards on the ship who responded by firing pistols into the air and spraying them with a firehose. Domenico Pellegrino, the managing director of MSC, confirmed that the ship was protected by Israeli security guards. “We use them because they are the best — and we have just had a demonstration of that,” he said.

Comments ranged

from: Well now we the Israelis are waiting to hear how we are aggressors and violent. We expect all western countries to condemn the Israeli attack on poor Somalian pirates.

to: Thank G-d for Israel!

and: Fortunate that the British Navy had not been engaged to defend the cruise liner - no doubt a quick surrender would have taken place, hostages taken, ipods removed and fags smoked.

Although pirates have lost some of their cachet, it’s hard to not wonder whether there were ever Jewish pirates. And of course there were! Fortunately, in 2008, New Yorker Edward Kritzler published a book about Jewish Pirates of the Carribean and talks about it here.

He describes how the Spanish Inquisition forced many Jews to flee Spain, and some became pirates in the Prophet Samuel, Queen Esther, and Shield of Abraham, among other ships.

They plundered the Spanish fleet and helped provide safety to Jews fleeing the inquisition. Figures included “The Great Jewish Pirate” Sinan, Barbarossa’s second-in-command; the pirate rabbi Samuel Palache; and Moses Henriques, who captured the Spanish silver fleet in 1628–supposedly the largest heist in pirate history.

In Jewish Pirates of the Carribean, you can also read the author’s response to a popular conversation topic - Christopher Columbus’s possible Jewish ancestory.

The Jerusalem Post chimes in with an article about who may be the most famous Jewish pirate, Jean Lafitte (pictured), who eventually became an American citizen in New Orleans and then Galveston, Texas.

Flavius Josephus makes probably the earliest reference to Jewish pirates, setting out from Caesaria, (which incidentally has been wonderfully restored and is a great tourist visit if you haven’t seen it for a few years)