It’s all down to timing.
Jewish Israelis Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi were in the wrong place at the wrong time in Tel
Aviv on New Year’s Day afternoon and so became the victims of crazed Arab
Israeli gunman, Nashat Milhemal.
And as Ruimi was interred
on Sunday in Ofakim near Beersheva, Bakal was buried where I live - his
home-town of Karmiel. Again, with perfect, quite filmic
timing, the knife-cold, black weather gave way to patchy blue
sky and pallid sunlight, thus allowing short-lived relief to the thousands of
well-wishers milling around the cemetery gates.
I’ve visited
Karmiel’s cemetery too often of late and only a few weeks ago was present at the
burial of another much loved young man and father. He had succumbed to cancer.
That occasion also saw hundreds of out-of-town mourners paying their
final respects.
But this latest interment
was somehow extra-special. It was not only the size of the ever-swelling,
bussed-in crowd; the presence of political VIPs; the police escort or even the
uniformed soldiers bearing wreaths that gave it a different
feel.
When my acquaintances’
son died, he was released from a horrible illness. His loved ones may have seen
it as a blessed relief for him, if not for themselves.
But Bakal and Ruimi were
two fine, healthy people, adored as sons, lovers, friends who in turn relished
life and were slain suddenly – without warning – during an outrageous game of
target practice.
So, we’re all
angry about the mindless waste of life; furious that the double murders have
gone on to serve as a starkly sinister backdrop to the coincidental arrests of
the young Jews allegedly responsible for the massacre of the Arab Dawabsha family in
Duma.
But what enrages me
yet further are two things – apparently poles apart - yet strangely
linked:
First is that
the so-called ‘hilltop youth’ are being incited directly by ultra-Orthodox
rabbis who state unequivocally that they support the killing of innocent
non-Jewish children to stop them growing into future
terrorists.
And the second? The
grandiose but empty tosh of the sort spewed by young Anglo-Jewish
left-wingers at the winter Limmud conference in Birmingham, U.K.
Indeed, their anti-Israel
bias so annoyed writer and former Israel resident, David Collier that he wishes he had walked away from a
panel discussion debating how Jewish led anti-Zionist forces were now
controlling sections of university campuses.
So I’ll conclude here on
a despairing note with some lines from Collier’s blog post, ‘Breaking My
Silence, Discussing the ‘Theoretical Zionist’:
“It cannot be said often enough or strongly enough that Israel is at war. Not a
theoretical ‘cold war’ but a real battle, a battle that they cannot afford to
lose. Israel is only there today because the IDF is strong …
“Limmud was
overrun by ‘theoretical Zionists’. On every platform, people who represent a
tiny minority in Israel were given massive coverage. Activists roamed the halls
trying to persuade others to follow their vision. This isn’t Zionism, it is the
demise of Zionism in the UK. Israel is only your state if you make it your
state. Pack your bags and work to change it from within.
“What arrogance to
sit in the comfort of the US or Europe and decide from afar what is best for a
people who truly know the price of war. Being Jewish doesn’t give these groups
any additional validity. If Israel was to follow or be pressured (as seems to be
Yachad’s wish) into making massive territorial compromise within the current
environment, what would Yachad activists do if it crumbled? When the rockets
started to fly, who would be there to fight for the state – these activists
certainly wouldn’t. The world these activists live in is built on a load of
theoretical poppycock. Just like their Zionism”.
Indeed. Yes. And I am
sure Collier’s words will be warmly endorsed by the families of Alon Bakal and Shimon Ruimi. May both men rest in
peace.
© Natalie Wood
(04 January 2016)
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