Passover in the Holy Land

Passover in the Holy Land
By Naomi Ragen

You know that Passover is coming when the Arab workers in
the supermarket start cleaning up the crumbs from the bread
aisle, and marking the shelves "Hametz." You can see the
special matzo lining the shelves: Organic whole wheat,
wheat bran, egg, chocolate-covered.

People take this holiday very seriously here in Israel.
Everyone is buying gifts for their Seder evening hosts. Or
they are stocking up on food for the groups that will
descend on them to be hosted.

And although forty rockets were fired from Gaza (gee, that
unilateral pull-out was such a brilliant move, saving so
many lives...) people don't seem worried, or even vaguely
concerned, except of course, if you were one of the workers
in that mattress factory in Ashkelon which took a direct
hit, sending at least one person to the hospital. As our
friends in Reuters wrote: 'The makeshift rockets fall
harmlessly into Israel.' Thanks, Reuters for putting all
our fears into perspective! I hope one of your reporters
doesn't happen to be standing in a spot where that
amateurish little bomb falls, because despite the lack of
professionalism, he might actually find himself
unprofessionally beheaded! But hey, that's unlikely.
Reuters doesn't usually send its reporters to places where
they are likely to actually witness any news first-hand.
They have their "sources" in "Palestine' call them on their
cell-phones. I say this all allegedly, of course. Don't
believe me if you don't want to.

This morning I heard the sound of jets roar overhead --a
sure sign that the nation is in defensive-mode. I read that
air strikes had targeted terrorists returning from "training
camp for freedom fighters" in Gaza, with their "Everything
you need to know about firing missiles at civilians" manual.
A few were killed, along with the child or children of a
"freedom fighter" who brought along the tots to participate
in the fun and games. What a lovely parent!
My son got a week off from the army, and now he has to go
back. He doesn't know if they'll let him out for the Seder.
Given the security situation, and the fact that his unit
will no doubt be on full-alert, I doubt it. I'll miss him.
He's still my baby, whatever his commanding officer thinks.
I guess I'll have to ask the Four Questions, as I'll be the
youngest.

I have a few more than four to ask, though. As I was
cleaning for Passover, I came across an unopened envelope
that I guess I set aside until after the elections. It was
from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
(jcpa@netvision.net.il). It was called: Defensible Borders,
A Fundamental Necessity for Israeli Security." Only in
Israel would one need to actually research such an obvious
statement. In it, I learned a few things I didn't know.
A Kassam II rocket has a range of 6-7 kilometers. A
katyusha has a range of 22 kilometers. This means, that if
Ehud Olmert and his merry band of losers have their way, and
Israel pulls back to the '67 borders, rockets from Hebron
will be able to hit Beersheba and Kiryat Gat; rockets from
Bethlehem will be able to hit Jerusalem; rockets from Bodrus
will be in range of Ben Gurion Airport. Rockets from Rantis
can hit Tel Aviv. Rockets from Kalkilya can hit Kfar Saba;
Rockets from Tulkarem can hit Netanya; Rockets from Jenin
can hit Afula and Nazareth. By the way, there are.04
kilometers separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem, and 07
kilometers separating Kalkilya (home of the Hamas terrorist
who blew up the Park Hotel in Netanya during Seder night)
from Kfar Saba.

As General John Foss, former commander of the 82nd airborne
division of the U.S. Armed Forces once said: "As a military
man I have to say that the '67 borders are not defensible in
the long term. The State of Israel absolutely cannot exist
within these borders."

But who cares? Israel's leaders are on their merry way, led
by people who wrote books like: The New Middle East, just
before the entire world was engulfed by the primitive
barbarism of the old Middle East. They were just
re-elected by the Israeli public to serve yet another term
in office after their brilliant success in their last term.

And the average person, like me, who isn't an idiot, who
packs off her son in his uniform knowing all that I know,
and having no way to influence events except to type away
and publish the facts, alerting those few who actually give
a damn what is really going on here, how do we go on?

We go on because we remember who we are, and the precarious
state of our people and our nation that has survived and
triumphed so many times over innumerable odds in the past.
We go on because we remember that in the blink of an eye, we
can have salvation come our way, not through the normal
channels, because if that were true, we'd have been extinct
a few thousand years ago. We go on, because we need to make
a Seder this Wednesday night, and our sons and daughters and
grandchildren will be joining us. And if we're lucky,our
soldier sons as well. We will drink our wine, and dip our
herbs in the salty water of tears, remembering how we called
out to our God in Egypt and how He brought down the plagues
on the houses of our enemies, and brought us to the Promised
Land. And even though we went through the desert kicking
and screaming --we didn't like the food (we want meat, not
manna! Oh, those watermelons we ate in Egypt!), building a
Golden Calf, and challenging our wonderful leader, Moses,
still God kept His promise. Whilly, nilly, He brought us
home.

And when I say: Next Year in Jerusalem, unlike most Jews in
the world, I will know that I am already there, and that it
is a dream come true. I hope that your 'Next Year in
Jerusalem" will also be a dream that comes true, and that
next year we will truly be free of fear, and want, and
stupidity.

God Bless you all, and a happy holiday.

Naomi

_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.