THURSDAY. Swords of Iron War (251).

13.6.24. Nahariya, Israel.

BC, Canada

Sunny, quiet, warm, peaceful ... maybe everyone stopped fighting? A day-dream? It is good this morning to have a peaceful break.

I've been thinking this week about racism, holocaust, antisemitism. How could I not, It is all around me? It comes with the 250 rockets that were fired on North Israel yesterday, with the overseas news of demonstrations – none too peaceful, with kangaroo courts in Hug.

I live in Israel. In fact, I was born a Jew and raised here as an Israeli Jew. Overall, I lived 40 years in a foreign land and 38 years in Israel. The lines separating Jews and Arabs were always very clear. “The Christian Arabs, the Bedouin, The Druze, and the Baha'i are friends and you can trust them. The Muslim Arabs are to be respected and approached with caution”. No one said it outright, but somehow I learned it as a part of my survival.

The subtle change in the relationships today appeared with the Muslim extremists that brought terror.

In IDF these lines are blurred. The soldiers fight together, live and sleep in the same barracks, they see the terrorists as the enemy of Israel, as a whole. This is the unity we, as a people, are trying to achieve in the land: Respect and trust for all Israelis, regardless of their religion or racial background.

I hear of different winds blowing across the globe.

The Canada of today is not the one I experienced. In all the years that I lived in Western Canada, antisemitism was not an issue for me personally. The hateful acts against my people seem to be concentrated in the East and in Europe. I felt safe, and I did not see a reason to return to my birthplace.

If Willie had not insisted on returning and God did not wake me up from an afternoon nap to command me to do so, I might have stayed on the beautiful Vancouver Island. I always said that Canada was my adoptive land, and I loved it.

The hateful acts and terrorist behaviour I hear about lately from my family and friends, do not sound Canadian. They sound antisemitic and, what is worse, they sound as if the Canadian government is approving them all.

Maybe the time of the hunters arrived.

“...” For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them, and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. (Jeremiah 16:15-16)

It does not compute when you live outside of Israel. One feels safe, financially secure, and settled. I know it from my own experience.

When my mother's ancestors arrived here in the 2^nd Aliyah in 1904, or thereabout, they found only sand dunes, malaria and swamps. When my father's family came here in the 4^th Aliyah around 1924, they had to become farmers although they never worked the land before. It was a culture shock to both groups.

It is not less of a culture shock for the Olim today. Even though I returned as an Israeli and knew Hebrew, my husband did not. We both experienced a difficult culture shock. The changeover does not get easier. One is concerned about being in the army or the war, or the lack of the language or lack of economic stability for the family. I understand that it is very hard to move to Israel and that until the persecution is as bad as they were in WW2, we resist the change.

However, today Israel is a state, not a desert land. Today, it is free, not ruled by the Turks or the British or anyone else. It is time for the nation to return.

The living Holocaust survivors are reaching old age. We met a few who are over 100. The strength and stamina of these individuals are a sight to behold.

I was thinking that their lives were full of purpose. If a leader and an organizer can gather some of them and take them on a journey to tell the younger Jews in Exile of their own journey, maybe they'll be able to show that staying in other countries is more dangerous than the culture shock and difficulties that will occur during Aliyah time in Israel.

It is time to return home.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)