I have no other country
by Dana Bar-Zuri
Here I sit as another week begins, and again I am hopeful that this week will be quiet. We ask ourselves the question of whether this “quiet” is relative. Is Israeli “quiet” different to Australian “quiet”? I am sure that it is. The “quiet” that I am searching for is a quiet in the media, and quiet on the war-front, and not the quiet that comes before a storm. This has been the kind of scary “quiet” that I have felt for over a year now, ever since Operation Cast Lead.
For the first time this week, I had a scary thought that managed to prevent me from even resting my eyes as sleep eluded me. Dear community, I am happy to share with you that thought:
I was born in 1980 to a reality that was relatively comfortable, where the State of Israel was already in existence, already alive and kicking. It is true that not everyone felt comfortable with her existence, but the channels of communication were not asking the question that today is so painful to the ear: Does Israel have a right to exist?
Perhaps I am a naïve Israeli who lives in a protective bubble (yeah, yeah, you can laugh that living in Israel is like living in a warm and cozy bubble, where we do not need to deal with anti-Semitic remarks, question our Judaism or worry about the high price of kosher meat!). Perhaps as an Israeli I never heard the quiet voice which was suddenly given a microphone and now can be heard loud and clear in every newspaper (though perhaps not from the Jewish News).
So what happened? When did it all start and who lit the fire? Is it us, the Israelis, who made the mistake of doing what we would not have wanted to be done unto us? Or was it the terrorist organizations, who received weapons, and disguised as noble freedom fighters, managed to rise on top of the bleeding hearted, left-wing wave of nationalism and be embraced by the world with both arms, leaving behind the simple Palestinian - wounded, hungry, unemployed, angry and walking blind like the allegory of Plato’s Cave, looking for knowledge.
Who is to blame?
For even if I could place the blame the thought will not leave me that it is possible that Israel will not exist forever!
Even my parents were born into a reality where every year they would celebrate with drums and dancing, the birthday of the Jewish State, they would continue to praise her very existence, and prime ministers from all over the world, even from this big island, would send their warm wishes and raise their glasses in a toast.
But what will happen if this stops? What will happen the morning after? How are you, my dearest Jewish community, going to comfort us Israelis? How will you comfort those bereaved mothers who lost their sons in vain? Can you really return back to those years when the words “Israel” and “Jerusalem” were uttered with a painful sense of longing and tears? Would you really agree to give up that same country, so far but the only one, that for every Jew holds a little bit of magic, where he can experience a little bit of G-d?
No - I know that you won’t let her lose her way, and you will continue to support her. I know you will shed some light on her way and give her a big hug, even from a 20-hour flight away. But the big question is how and what can you do?
What can you do? Speak! Write! Comment! Shout from the top of your lungs to the sky and back - “I care!” Shout it to whoever is willing to listen, and also to those who are not. Just please , please do not tell me “tomorrow” - “tomorrow I will write” and “tomorrow I will respond” - because in the technological world of today, tomorrow could be irrelevant.
I dedicate the song of Ehud Manor z”l - “I have no other country” - because this country is not just mine, and is not only my responsibility. It is your country too, and the responsibility is yours as well.
I HAVE NO OTHER COUNTRY by Ehud Manor
I have no other country
even if my land is in flame
Just a word in Hebrew
pierces my veins and my soul -
With a painful body, with a hungry heart,
Here is my home.
I will not stay silent
because my country changed her face
I will not give up reminding her
And sing in her ears
until she will open her eyes
I won’t be silent because my country
has changed her face.
I will not give up reminding her
And sing in her ears
until she will open her eyes
With a painful body, with a hungry heart,
Here is my home.
