29 November: A Day To Remember

29 November:  A Day To Remember

Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman

In their dark and cold cells at the Nazi-run prison in the city of Pesc, Hungary, the three inmates—two men and a woman—probably didn’t sleep all night.  Scheduled to be hanged the next morning, they must have spent their final hours reflecting on what they had succeeded in doing—saving hundreds of Jewish lives—and what they failed:  to save themselves.  In those last moments, they probably thought of their families and of the many friends who would now have to complete their journey to safety on their own, without the crucial help only these three could provide.

But there was nothing else they could do.  And so, counting the hours and minutes, they waited for the executioner.  It was the night of November 28, 1944.

Three years later, the United Nations took an historic vote.  On the table was a plan to partition the land that the world called “Palestine,” a land Jews never stopped calling “Eretz Yisrael”—the Land of Israel.  Years earlier, at the end of World War One, the British were awarded a mandate over that part of what used to be the Turkish Ottoman Empire.  The British announced their intent to create a homeland for the Jews within the borders of that land.  Chopping one piece of it after another, they finally came up with a patchwork map organized around Moslem and Jewish centers of population. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted to approve the partition of the Land of Israel according to this map.  The United States cast the deciding vote for partition.  Israel accepted.  The Arabs, however, refused to recognize the vote and declared their intention to destroy any Jewish state that would arise on what they considered Moslem property. 

The day after Israel declared its independence, armies from seven Arab countries attacked the fledgling state.  They were repulsed, but that did not stop them.  They tried again and again, in 1956, 1967 and 1973.  Defeated in full out war, they did not give up and turned to other violent means:  Terrorism, suicide bombings, two intifadas and a handful of limited, “regional” wars. 

Then came the thousands of Katyusha and Kassam rockets fired from Lebanon and Gaza, followed more recently by the longer-range Fajr 5 missiles that reached the outskirts of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Still the Arabs failed.  And so they turned to legal battles. 

Last week, on November 29, ironically the same date as the 1947 vote on the first Partition of the Land of Israel, the United Nations took another vote, this time voting to upgrade the status of the Palestinian Authority to that of observer state.  Yet one more step toward the legitimization of the Arabs’ murderous claims on Jews and the Jewish homeland in Israel. 

The diplomatic victory that this vote represents was celebrated throughout the Arab world—and, sadly, in many western capitals as well.  Its clear meaning is that the Arabs are now one step closer to their sworn goal of destroying Israel.  Though not quite a full-fledged state, “Palestine” can now join the World Court and sue Israel on any number of “war crimes.”  Forget the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israeli civilian population centers; forget the suicide bombings of homes, restaurants and synagogues.  Forget even the Iranian-funded and planned attacks on embassies, schools and Jewish community centers in California, Buenos Aires and elsewhere.  It’s Israel’s “crimes” that the world, led by Arabs, the world’s worst violators of human rights, will see fit to judge.

Israel’s reaction to the UN vote—announcing the building of more housing units in disputed areas—is probably the most peaceful protest against this injustice that Israel could make.  It could, of course, follow the example set by the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt—assaulting and raping protesters in Tahrir Square.  It could engage in the kind of war Syria’s dictator Assad is waging against his own people. Israel could indiscriminately bomb the civilians population centers where Hamas and Hezbollah hide the weapons they aim and shoot against Israeli towns and schools.  But Israel won’t.  For Israel lives and fights by a different standard of morals and values.  Israel respects the lives of innocent men, women and children—especially those who have been exploited, abused and kept in ignorance and abject poverty for decades now by their own Arab leaders. 

Israel believes in justice and compassion, often willing to pay a high price in following its ideals.

But Israel is not suicidal. 

Israel knows better than to show weakness.  The long history of Jewish life in the Diaspora has taught us that perceived weakness is an excuse for further and ever-more violent attacks.  If the Palestinians want a piece of the Land of Israel, they need to make peace with Israel and recognize the legitimacy of Jewish presence in its own historical homeland, something they have adamantly refused to do so far.  Israel has repeatedly given up land, most recently withdrawing from the entire Gaza Strip without any reciprocal commitment to peace.  What Israel got in return was thousands of rockets fired at her.  Israel will not repeat this mistake.  Land for peace is its current philosophy.  Sophisticated attempts at grabbing pieces of Israel in the halls of the UN and the world court will only be met by more settlements and the building of more housing units.  It’s a clear message.

Languishing in prison, the three Jewish heroes imprisoned by the Nazis for trying to save Jewish lives awaited their execution.  Instead, miraculously, on November 29, 1944, on the very day set for their execution, the Russians liberated Pesc and freed the prisoners.  Danusha Firstenberg (now Deena Gilboa), Oleg Gutman (Gatmon) of blessed memory and Emil Brigg of blessed memory, three heroes, members of a Zionist youth group of which my mother was also a member, made their way to Israel and helped found, establish and secure the State of Israel.  Starting new lives and families, they set the date of their liberation (coincidentally also Danusha’s birthday) as a day of annual celebration, a get-together of all those youth group members who survived.  They, their children, grandchildren and now great-grandchildren, have been gathering on that day year after year now to tell and retell the stories of heroism, to celebrate their survival and to repeat the oath they took: that Jews will never again allow themselves to be led to the slaughter without armed resistance.

November 29—a day to remember; a day to repeat this oath of Jewish survival despite all obstacles.

©2012 by Boaz D. Heilman