Musings on Yom Ha'Atzmaut
It's hard for me to imagine; my mother-in-law was born into a world in which Israel did not exist. For two entire years of her life, there was no Jewish homeland, no refuge. Then again, there was also no Jewish/Palestinian conflict, jihad, suicide bombings, or assassinations of a Jewish Prime Minister by another Jew. There was no war, thus no need for peace, no Oslo Accord, no Camp David meetings, no UN sanction threats or United States political pressure. Bleeding heart liberalism was not yet to sweep through the American and European landscapes and militant Islam had yet to mature. On the other hand, the soil of Poland was still soaked with Jewish blood, the rivers still clogged with Jewish ash and the world still confounded about what to do with us. The stakes for the Jews were higher everywhere else in the world, but British-controlled Palestine was quiet, and swampy, and relatively peaceful. My, how times have changed. ...
