Dragging Israel back to the Shtetl
“Is Bibi is dragging the entire State of Israel back to the shtetl?” I jokingly asked 92 year old Sabra and Israeli national hero Uri Bar-Lev. His reply shocked me:
“On April 1, 1948, I was drafted into pre-State Israel’s Palmach army to fight for Israel’s Independence. I was only sixteen and a half. My father never dreamed he would live to see a Jewish State. For my parents, a Jewish state in the land of Israel defied imagination. They were seventeen when alone they each fled from Russia’s communism. They arrived in Israel in the 1920’s as pioneers to build a just and socialist society for the New Jew, whose religion would be working the land and who would thrive in a secular land of equality.
During my life, I served in four wars for my beloved Israel. But I never suspected — until now — that our greatest existential threat would come from within and that it would come so quickly. In a matter of three months, the members of the new Knesset are on the verge of stealing our democracy from us. Of course, it is all being done legally and according to the rule of law (as soon as the necessary laws can be manipulated). Clever dictators over the past eras have claimed the same.
The creation of the State of Israel was the dream of my parents and the dream of my life. So many people died tragically in pursuit of this dream and now our sacrifices are on the verge of being in vain — all orchestrated by one family’s greed and narcissism.
Seventy-five years ago, my young friends and I crowded around a small cafe in Haifa, where we listened to a radio broadcasting the U.N. votes to establish the Jewish State. Celebrating, we ran down to the sea where we danced and sang until dawn. As soon as the sun rose, we were forced to fight for Israel. I feel as though we have never rested.
Today, at my advanced age, I am unable to continue the fight to preserve Israel by participating in the demonstrations now sweeping our country. But my children and grandchildren are demonstrating in the streets, fighting for Israel so my parents’ dream does not die. I am proud of the democratic Israel we struggled to create and of how strenuously we are fighting to save it. Please publish the words, as this is my protest.”
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Uri Bar-Lev is a retired El Al pilot (the only pilot to ever foil an in-air hijacking attempt) and grew up on Moshav Avihayil, where he still lives to this day. Uri’s extraordinary autobiography is being published in Israel and in the U.S.. For more information, visit www.UriBarLev.com