Homecoming Weekend
A brief, and admittedly somewhat bewildered well-intentioned meditation for Memorial Day
A brief, and admittedly somewhat bewildered well-intentioned meditation for Memorial Day (in the States, but applicable elsewhere, like - obvs - here):
Miri and I spent a really blissful Shavout/Shabbat in Tzfat (more like a somewhat nostalgic "Homecoming Weekend" even though we're commonly here during the week, too - but the Shabbat vibe is very different), and attended, among others, some services at the Artists Quarter Minyan: Saturday night, I happened to wander in, since we were renting a Zimmer (Airbnb), literally, across the alley at Laurie Sendler Rappeport's superb lodgings.
There, out in the synagogue courtyard, a slim, tall guy in a natty black suit and shock of well-coiffed hair (guessing a visitor from the US) was expounding to several attendees on his position about military service - I didn't get if he was talking about the IDF or military service in general:
Standing a few meters away, I just listened thoughtfully, quietly, as he (imho) glibly told the group how, "when a terrorist shoots at a soldier, he's - by definition - not a terrorist," and that he'd never let his kids wear a uniform that says, essentially, "Shoot me."
"I don't believe in flags, man," he noted about his putative allegiances and added that he wouldn't put his children in the line of fire, as though they were tin soldiers in a shooting gallery.
He either didn't get that - while attacking uniformed troops may not be" terrorism, "strictly speaking - the user of a primarily defensive military is to deter aggressors trying to reach the civilians the soldier is meant to protect: the true meaning of a "human shield."
I didn't butt in but rather entered the well-run and appointed Chabad synagogue to conclude services. But, in chat later at night, after we returned home, with Miri (herself a 24-year US Army retiree) I wondered aloud how someone could be so blithely unfamiliar with where they were - literally - standing when he made his stirring declaration: the AQM is situated at the heart of the pre-1948 War of Independence Arab quarter, and that, in fact, the chief mosque (now defunct) of the town is situated scant meters away.
Arab League soldiers from across the Mideast, "irregulars," (what he'd have to term "terrorists" I guess), and anyone else who could hold and fire a gun, while madly screaming "Allah Akbar," poured fire into the besieged Jewish Quarter.
From the Jewish Virtual Library:
"Safed had a pre-war population of 10,000–12,000 Arabs and 1,500 Jews and was the base for 700-800 local and foreign irregulars. Jewish forces were outnumbered over 20 to 1 and the Arab forces promised the Jews that they would slaughter them when they conquered the city."
But that's not" terrorism," by his account, I guess. And my children, wife, and I (20 yrs, IDF infantry conscript, and field artillery noncom reservist) would "deserve" to die for his political ideological certainties.
I'm, however, uncertain if he understood the significance of the fact that we were standing about 15km from southern Lebanon - aka, "Hezbollahstan," and that ATV - mounted Iranian armed and backed "Radwan" Unit squads had, only days earlier held a media-and-weapons-saturated fête bragging how they could cover that distance to take hostages within minutes.
Nor, I guess, did he comprehend that the nearby alleyways he and family safely strolled were the target of dozens of Hezbollah rockets during the 2006 fighting, and the city was practically emptied out as terrified residents dropped everything and fled south to escape the lethal steel rain.
And, mulling it over this morning (pls excuse the numerous edits), I wondered if he even had a clue of how many of those around him may have actually served in the American or Israeli militaries, like Miri and I, or had several of our own children in uniform; how many were witness to or literal victims of terrorism or real wars or battle, and if he was cognizant that he might have been sharing that sacred space with widowed survivors of all of the above.
So tell me: when does one" get" to say to well-meaning, but totally oblivious individuals that they're simply, well, contemptible fools, and not deserving to take part in adult conversation, or breed for that matter, and pass on such deformed genetic material?
I, actually, had much more to say on this, but, didn't feel it was fair to hammer away at a stranger. But the assumed sense of entitled conceit was stupifying.
A brief video I helped produce a few years back on the battles for the exact area we were standing in is below: youtu.be/4LZPjQGwlAc