When I was still a university student thirty-six years ago, I lived in the North Bronx in an apartment covered with a giant Israeli flag on one wall, and a huge map of the country on the other. My fellow roommates and I dreamt of moving to a kibbutz in the Arava valley, known today as Yotvata.
We immersed ourselves in the politics of the country and of the region as much as we were able with the books and radio broadcasts available and discussed the security of the country, and what it needed to do to make it truly secure, and how the Arabs could possibly defeat the country. While we ate Halvah bought in Arab stores on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, we conjured up scenarios that Anwar el-Sadat could use in attacking Israel and posssibly defeating it. Scenarios in hand, we tried to figure out counter-strategies that would stop him...
You'd be surprised what a couple of ignorant college kids could dream up munching Halvah in their bull sessions — a coordinated attack by Syria, Jordan, and Egypt on a Yom Kippur that fell also on the Sabbath, bridges over the Suez to move tanks, airborne troop landings in Sharm el-Sheikh to seize the point from Israel, a tank assault across the Golan by Syria...
So imagine how I felt when on Yom Kippur in 1973, during a break in the services, I walked along Kings Highway in Brooklyn and saw the New York Post blaring out the news headline of the day in huge letters...
EGYPT AND SYRIA IN SURPRISE ATTACK ON ISRAEL!!
Yom Kippur that day fell on the Sabbath...
But let's return a year earlier to the apartment in the Bronx. I had wanted to be a science fiction writer. One day while eating a can of tuna in the apartment in 1971 or 1972, a strange idea came to me for a plotline, one that was very vivid and clear.
The story was set in the future, in the year 1994 or 1995, the Hebrew year 5755, (taf, shin, nun heh), letters which form the Hebrew word, "she will change." A modus vivendi of some sort had been reached between Arabs living under Israeli occupation and Israelis, and between Israel and the confrontation states around it, Jordan and Lebanon. In fact a treaty of sorts had been signed with Egypt by which the Israelis agreed to an international border running from the coast of the Sinai just west of El-Arish down to Sharm el-Sheikh, which remained under Israel's control.
Article comments
1 - moonraven
I don't know that it is necessary to be an Arab to hate Israelis....
2 - High Heels
Politics aside (!) this is beautifully written, thanks. HH
3 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Marthe,
I see you haven't forgotten that old commercial - "you don't have to be Jewish to like Levy's rye bread" - you just turned it around a bit...
No, it is not necessary to be an Arab to hate Israelis....
I picked the Arabs because even though they cannot be proven to be the actual descendants of 'Amaleq, their behavior most matches 'Amaleq, from what little we know of them in the Bible and other sources. Most other Israelis would take the same view.
4 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you for the kind words, HH. I view myself as a writer and not a politician, or even as a reporter...
5 - moonraven
Ruvy,
I have forgotten nothing.
6 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Marthe,
I agree it is very good to have an excellent memory. But I have let much go - or at least recede from the surface. Life is much less bitter that way.
In one of your comments, I remember you mentioning something called "radical forgiveness". Is this something you use for yourself?
7 - moonraven
I took a workshop in Radical Forgiveness in April after an old boyfriend who was being treated for lung cancer decided to die rather than a) quit smoking and b) read the RF book his oncologist had given him.
I figured there must be something to it....
You can investigate it in Internet. I believe you can even do some of the program online.
It is not, however, about forgetting.
8 - Lumpy
I fins it hard to forgive radicals. They are always causing trouble.
9 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you, Marthe. I'll check it out. It may be that I figured out many of its concepts myself while living on the streets, but one can always learn...
10 - bliffle
Ah, forgiveness. After all the betraying lovers, lying spouses, malevolent bosses, ungrateful children, it remains that the hardest to forgive are ones parents. Even if their crime was neglect rather than abuse.
I wonder how my children are doing?
11 - Irritating Goy
I know I am a pain in the keister, but your last answer to me was so kind, I thought I'd come back to see what you were up to.
Ruvy, you already OWN a Book on Radical Forgiveness. I am reminding you of things you know already.
Joseph, son of Jacob, gave radical forgiveness to his brothers who sold him into slavery in Egypt. David didn't forget the evil Saul did to him, but he was patient for his Creator to be the Avenger. And it all worked out.
Radical forgiveness is letting go of the NEED to be recompensed for evil, the need for even an apology. Forgetting is rarely a part of forgiving, which is a process that starts with a decision and may be made perfect or complete after days, months, years maybe, of remembering in prayer.
Radical forgiveness means waiting for the Creator (or the "Universe," for people who have not yet met the Creator) to act on your behalf. "Vengeance is mine," saith the Lord.
You know you've really forgiven your enemy if you can pray for their good. And what if, Ruvy...just dreaming here...what if the Creator wants to make things right by changing the heart of your enemy to love righteousness? That's what Joseph's Creator did for Joseph's brothers.
They sure didn't deserve it though.
Joseph was like his Creator in many ways. "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow..." "As far as East is from West, so far I have removed your sins from me."
12 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Irritating Goy,
Every now and again I need to be reminded that the Tana"kh is the book of "radical forgiving." Thank you.
But I have to be honest with you. Jewish thought is not as forgiving as Christian thought, though Jewish practice is usually a lot more forgiving that Christian practice...
13 - troll
Luc Besson stoled you story and made a movie out of it...seek residuals
or maybe it's an archtypical dream
great writing o' mystical one
14 - moonraven
Actually, these are the four steps to Radical forgiveness:
1. Look what I created.
2. I notice my judgments and love myself anyway.
3. I am willing to see the perfection in the situation.
4. I choose the power of peace.
The process of RF is that of being willing to let go of being a victim.
15 - Ruvy in Jerusalem
Thank you again, Marthe. I'll have to ponder what you wrote. The process I underwent while living on the streets was not quite the same as what you describe above, but it helped me deal with my bitterness against my ex, and her parents, not to mention my anger at myself for failing in law school and failing at a marriage.
I made a number of resolutions after that experience, and have been able to keep them - most of the time. One result is that I've been a lot happier than I might have been over the last 22 years...
16 - moonraven
You can ponder it with the help of the Radical Forgiveness website.
I am not saying it's for everyone--some folks are way too insecure to step out of their victim roles--and that's okay.