Does Romania love Israel so much?

The recent declaration the social-democrat Romanian prime-minister Viorica Dancile made during her (second time) AIPAC speech regarding a moving of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem created a bit of international turmoil. A country often featured in the international media for the rampant corruption and the problematic economic achievements, besides a highly incoherent and (again) corrupt political establishment, it suceeded to get its moment of glory. What a brave country, the only one in the European Union - who is never the less currently president of the Council of the EU - that dared to express its support for the state of Israel. The fact that the president - belongong to the German minority in the country, openly reprimanded the Madame PM for her bold declaration might be the result of his complete trust into Germany's political guidance, among others. The King of Jordan (facing terrible pressure from the local terrorism threatening his throne every single moment if he is not taking a stronger stance in Israel/Palestinian-related issues) who was expected to visit Romania and participate among others on a round table regarding terrorism in the region cancelled his visit and the Palestinian ambassador in the country was recalled from consultations.

But is Romania such a big lover of Israel and the Jews in general. Or rather some of the Romanian politicians would rather love Israel than the Jews? Or, in fact, any of them?

This country's position towards Israel and the Jews during the Cold War - to focus only on the recent times -  was always ambigous and circumstantial and most probably the recent declaration should be intelligently read in the context, without too many expectations, including for a coherent and heartwarming policy towards Jews and the state of Israel in general.

Partially good point: Romania was the only communist country to not break diplomatic relations with Israel. (Some well-informed naysayers will rather say that in fact Bucharest continued to play a very clear pawn position, sending to Moscow - with whom it was officially 'en froid', especially after the 1968 Prague Spring - various information received through its open channels with Israel. Gossips, of course...) 

Several other not-so-good points: 

- Ceaucescu was a great friend of Arafat who was a brother-in-arms of the Soviets. Romanians generously trained locally and also fed his PLO friends with made in Romania weapons (those weapons were used for...guess for what?). 

- In 1974, Romania recognized PLO and a representative office was open here, and Ceaucescu tried to mediate near president Carter for an American recognition of the PLO. The same Romania openly supported the Palestinian cause to the United Nations. Students of Palestinian origin were allowed to come to study to Romania especially in the medical and engineering field, not few of them involved in various non-academic PLO-related activities.

- The despicable terrorist Carlos the Jackal, author of several deadly attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was used by Ceaucescu - for money and comrade's kisses - against his political opponents abroad.

- Following very intense negotiations, with a high financial stake in exchange for money that ended up in Ceaucescu's personal budget,  a high percentage of the Romanian Jews were allowed to emigrate to Israel. This emigration had a humiliating price: people were fired months in advance being allowed to leave the country and they had to leave all their properties to the state - based on a signed declaration that made impossible any post-communist restitution because it looked as it was done willingly. Once in a while, among those Jews, the 'intelligence' local services succeeded to sent their own people too. Love was so strong, you see...

- The Jewish life was under permanent observation from the same 'intelligence' that continued to keep a careful and skeptical eye on everything that has to do with Jewish life after the communist was no more a state description. In the 1980s, a wave of institutional, state supported anti-Semitism was the state policy in a country with a decreasing number of Jews. Truly believers communist Jews who helped at the very beginning the local communists when they were hardly able to read and write their own country's alphabet and language were eliminated from the rangs of the Romanian Communist Party and often humiliated, although they did their best to be like the rest - including by changing their names, giving up totally the religious practice and identity in general. After the end of the communism, the promoters of the nationalist ideology were safe and alive and very popular guests of  the local media channels, talking freely, among others, about the 'Jewish conspirations'. This point of view was amplificated ad nauseam by the state church and its humble representatives. 

That's only a (very) short account of some random facts. Will an eventual embassy move really change anything? Let's say past is far away and there is a new future and the Israeli political consultants that often visit Romania to keep themselves in shape in-between the many Israeli elections might know a different reality but...what is the international political weight and relevance of such a decision? Does it really help a cause? Any cause?

The Mizrahi Nation

This balanced and well-documented essay written by Matti Friedman a couple of years ago, Mizrahi Nation, adds a very welcomed perspective on the sometimes very fierce and subjective debate between the Jews of Middle Eastern versus European descent.

Although there are many facts and personal stories that sometimes support a narrative favoring a discrimination-based narrative, in the last decade the gap is rather tends to narrow. There are many more mixed families - although having a darker skin might burden you with additional identity controls - and although there is still no prime-minister of Middle Eastern descent, at least there are more people in the Israeli government with such a background - I am not talking about Aryeh Deri (whose family was not religious and in fact got his religious training in very Askenazi learning institutions). Nothing is set to stay like this and sooner or later things will rather improve if not the rift will be completely overdone by other new realities. 

The Orientalism-based perspective does not offer too many chances (if any) of a change, but the reality on the ground is a bit faster and fairer that the academic minds would like it. In reality, the ethnic realities are permanently changing and you might need new theories to grasp and codify them according to the facts and not to a reality that suits a certain ideological mindset.

More explorations and book reviews on such topics in coming posts (including the much recommended book by Friedman: Spies of No Country. Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel, featuring the stories of those Jews of Middle Eastern origin that served the new Jewish state serving as spies in their countries of origin.

'The Western Wall is long enough to accommodate everyone'

A short quote from the speech delivered by the Blue&White Party Chairman Benny Gantz at the 2019 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington DC:

'In Bergen-Belsen no one asked, who is Reform and who is Conservative; who is Orthodox and who is secular. Before going into battle, I never checked to see who had a kippa under their helmet. The divisive dialogue tearing our strong nation apart may serve political purposes, but is shredding the fabric that holds us together.

As a proud owner of a red beret, worn by the liberators of the Kotel, I can tell you with confidence that the Western Wall is long enough to accommodate everyone. Everyone! There will be no radicals, from either side of the political map, ruling. There will be no “Kahanists” running our country. There will be no racists leading our state institutions. There will be no corruption leading our way. No corruption whatsoever! The leaders of Israel cannot be led by anything else other than the best interest of Israel and its people'.

It is Never Enough

Sometimes I am deeply annoyed of being too much focused on noticing negative facts and declarations in the community and feeling so much sorry for not sharing the joy and the beauty and the uniqueness of the Torah learning.

Regardless how much I practice it nowadays in my daily life, the good things are always in my heart and are hopefully a source of light for those around me, but at the same time I cannot ignore the enormity of some declarations and intentions. It is not only about a negative focus, but an outrageous feeling to see how a beautiful lesson is perverted for political or power-related reasons. Unfortunatelly, power and politics are also a way of getting influence and support in the Torah world and it seems that some of them are clearly using it without thinking twice about the consequences or if it is really in conformity with the very generous spirit of the Torah learning.

This specific news caught my attention and rose a bit under the usual limit my anger (anger might be justly likened to avodah zarah - idol worshipping - but...): At the launch of the electoral campaign of the United Torah Judaism, Rabbi Aviezer Filtz, head of the Yeshivat Toshia in Tifrah made the following shocking remark, approaching the issue of separate-gender riding on public buses: 

'Start to organize, to ride separately', he urged his listeners, then explained that the principle is so fundamental that even the Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust held to the policy. 'Even the Nazis, may their names be erased, understood that there has to be separate housing for women and men, and here (in Israel), it's forbidden!'. 

Ribono shel olam...how a proeminent rabbi can utter such an outrageous nonsense! The fact that although illegal within the state, in the private buses to Bet Shemesh, among others, do sent women to the back of the bus and Gd forbid to stay near a 'pious' bochur or rabbi in the front rows. Sometimes, there is a 'gentlmen's agreement' to simply avoid as a eoman sitting near a religous men in the public buses. Not talking about the Haredi publications where not only the faces of women are blurred, but also their names not mentioned - for the so-called 'modesty' reasons. Or that in some communities on the occasion of the high holidays women are walking on separate walks than women. That the haredi school are totally gender-separated...That the usual haredi children books do have only men characters, as their mothers and wives and educators are only looking and doing their works from up in the shamayim (skies).

None of those current 'minhagim' - traditions -, were practiced by the more pious and Torah-educated generation of Jews that were sent to death by the Nazis - imakh shemo (may their name be erased) - mentioned so wrongly here. How lost shall your minds be to make such a comparison - although among Haredi such comparisons between those murderers and the state of Israel is way too often, especially in public statements or various electoral contexts? 

Why they accept to stay in such a state where they don't pay taxes, don't defend as they avoid going to the Army and still want to control and expect from it to turn it into a state where the principles of the holy Torah are perverted. After all, why shall a rabbi make politics after all? 

True is that everything is going crazily wrong those elections and it seems that the evils of non-sense, hate and craziness are out in the wild, but nothing saddened me more today that reading such an outrageous remark for people that should fiercely fear Gd and think more than twice before uttering words - especially such words and terrible comparisons. 

What's next?

The Issue of the Golan Heights

'After 52 years it is time for the United States to fully recognize Israel's sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is of critical strategic and security importance to the state of Israel and Regional Stability'. @realDonaldTrump (Twitter)

Purim shpiel? Surprise?

The 'declaration' was launched by the American president while secretary of state Pompeo was visiting Jerusalem, meeting prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. An official declaration to officially assess the position of the American authorities might be signed the next week, during Netanyahu's visit to Washington DC. Besides tacitly agreeing the display of the big posters with Bibi and Trump displayed all over Israel, the support for the official recognition of Golan Heights was considered  another hand given to Netanyahu in the battle to win the coming elections, that he is desperately trying to win again, despite the many corruption files he is the main (bad) character.

Surprise?

Following Trump's Twitter declaration, there were sources both in Jerusalem and Washington that displayed in the media their surprise about the announcement. Maybe - with a probability of 3% - the very moment when such a declaration would be made was not shared between partners, but the recognition of Israel's authority over Golan Heights is for at least 2 years on the political agenda in Capitol Hill and not only. Last December, for instance, two senators Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton submitted a Senate resolution in this respect. The lobby and outlines of the strategic interest were publicly and clearly stated more than once.

Shortly, surprise is the last word to use for describing the post-declaration reactions. 

The History

The Golan Heights ('Ramat HaGolan', in Hebrew) were captured from Syria after the 1967 Six Days War. Syrians tried to take it back in 1973 but failed. In 1981, the Israeli law was extended to the territory. Since Reagan administration, US and the international community considers it 'Syrian territory under Israeli occupation'. 

Efforts for an international mediation failed several times, and involved a lot of regional and international mediators, including Turkey in 2008. In 2010, Bashar al-Assad requested through a letter to the then pres. Obama to help set up new peace talks with Israel on this issue, but after that the war started in 2011 and the momentum was lost.

Although moderately compared to other symbolic places in the region - such as Jerusalem - the Golan was assigned a political symbolism on both sides of the border. Under Hafez al Assad, the father of the current Syrian president, during whose reign political activities were strictly prohibited, big rallies in favor of Golan were organised and school children sung chants for Golan. On the other side of the border, in Israel in the 1990s, the bumper stickers with 'The Nation with the Golan', were very popular.

Currently, there are a couple of druze villages, with a population of 26,000 people - out of which only few of them applied for Israeli citizenship, most of them being considered 'Syrians abroad' - and several settlements built since the 1970s. Israeli authorities invested a lot in the area, with popular wineries being created there and the popular ski resort - the only in Israel - on Mt. Hermon. 

The Strategic importance

Golan is a buffer zone overlooking Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. During the last years of war in Syria, shells were often shot in the direction of Golan, but also the Syrian rebels brought some of their people in Israel for medical care. Without Golan, the industrial's heartland of Israel - Haifa, for instance - is overexposed to military threats. For instance, between 1948-1967 when the Golan was under Syrian authority, Syrians shot offen in the direction of Hula Valley, threatening permanently the kibbutzim in the area.

Besides the obvious military importance, the role of resources is very important in order to understand the overall assessment of the Golan Heights. 

In 1995, Yitzhak Rabin said that: 'the greatest danger Israel has to face in the negotiations with Syria is the possibility of losing control over Golan Heights water resources'. In this region, water is gold and Syrians tried already in 1964 to divert the water course. Currently, Golan is one of the three sources of Israel's fresh water. With 200 springs and sources of streams, it offers direct access to two major water systems: the draining barage of the Jordan River and the Lake Tiberias and Yarmuk River to the South. The Military Order 120 gives to the state exclusive access to the Golan's water resources. Accordingly, owning the land does not entail ownership over the water on or under it.

Apparently, there might be other resources on Golan too, and drilling in order to explore the potential for oil was done several times in the last years. 

Otherwise, the area is calm, without any potential of conflict and Trump's declaration only catches more attention for a situation that was more or less tacitly accepted as such for years. 

Qui Prodest?

Besides the obvious support on behalf of Netanyahu, why Trump made this declaration now? What are the consequences internationally?

The Americans are pulling their troops from Syria in the next weeks and it is unclear what will happen in Syria. Will it stay united or will it be split into smaller territories? Will it be any partition of Syria? Russia which is actively involved in the region wants a united one and the lack of commitment on the American side only helps Russia (again). 

On the side of Assad, he will not have any complex now to mobilize even more help from Iran that would likely love to get one more reason to get involved. 

As for a possible peace between Syria and Israel...is now less likely than ever, so forget about this...

The main problem - not only in this case - is what will it happen when after Trump's mandate will finish, the new administration will reverse completely - most likely - the decisions took during those times. What are the administrative and strategic and political consequences of this merry-go-round?

The boat of fools is in the open. 

'The Yemenite Babies Affair'

Once in a while, there are news or various media reports regarding the situation of the babies of Yemeni origin that disappeared in unclear conditions during the mass immigration of Jews from Yemen to Israel in the 1950s. 

In Israeli Media and the Framing of Internal Conflict: The Yemenite Babies Affair, Shoshana Madmoni-Gerber, herself of Yemeni origin, documented not only the story as such, but reflected extensively about the ways in which Israeli media and opinion makers positioned themselves to the issue. At a great extent, the different approaches are part of the biggest picture of the dramatic rift between Jews of European (Askenazi) and Oriental (Mizrahi) origin, that continues until today.

The 'Yemenite Babies Affair' affected apparently 'hundreds or even thousands of families' whose children disappeared from hospitals or directly from the camps where those Jews were settled after landing in Israel. Some of those kids that were declared dead, reappeared later as they were given for adoption to families of European origin, from Israel or America. Although most of the families affected were of Yemenite origin, families of the Jews from Iraq, Tunesia, Algeria or Libya were also affected.

This is how those kids disappeared, according to the findings of many of the commissions created to investigate the issue in the last decades: '(...) a baby was taken to the hospital despite parental assertion that the child was healthy. The baby was then taken to one of several institutions around the country, such as WIZO, an international women's organisation with centers in Safad, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The parents were told that their baby had died, even as state institutional workers later testified in such cases that these ''parents were not interested in their children'''.

A couple of years ago, when I've read about this issue for the first time, I've asked a friend that used to live in Rosh Ha'ayin, one of the immigrant camps from where children disappeared, about the case. Nonchalantly, she answered that it was quite known this situation, but...

The 'new Jew' that Ben Gurion endeavoured was: 'secular, cultural Westerner with light skin, who was attached to his land: he was newly settled from Europe with no traces of Mizrahi image, culture or history'. But not all Jews coming from Europe were equal, actually. In the book it is mentioned the case of a Jew originally from Iraq that upon arriving to Israel, dressed in his best clothes with suit and tie, he was sprayed with DDT desinfection powder. Actually, I've heard more than once such a history about DDT desinfectant used for those coming from Eastern European countries. 

Using extensively Edward Said's theory on Orientalism, the author is outlining the persistence of political projections of the European-oriented establishment against the Jews of Oriental origin. The 'Yemenite Babies Affair' is one of the most outrageous examples in this respect, because it cumulates all the mispercetions and stereotypes associated with the non-European Jews, not few of them still persistent. The indifference of the public opinion and the diluted news reports on the issue - with some noticeable exceptions - is a common denominator of the approach. Ironically, the left media who is extensively covering Palestinian-related affairs, played numb and so did the politicians. The dovish Shimon Peres is quoted in the book in relation with the 'forgiveness' that Askenazim owe to Mizrahim: 'Whare are we apologizing for? For establishing this great country?'. 

I personally think that operating under the frame of the 'Orientalism' - which says that the 'West' created a convenient, master-to-servant relationship towards the 'East' - although it offers a relatively simple/simplistic operational and conceptual framework it doesn't necessarily cover all the aspects related to a problem. It is unidirectional and risks to create a reverse syncretism that in fact enforces the initial stereotype. In the very specific case study of the Yemenite Babies this theoretical framework brings meaning to the problem,  but the relationship between Askenazim and Mizrahim are by far more complex and deserve a case-by-case approach and understanding, taking into account all the specific details of the problem. 

The episode of the Yemenite babies is heartbreaking and very hard to grasp and accept. The new generation that grew up as Israeli not necessarily Askenazi or Mizrahi is probably more open towards each other to interact, work or fall in love. But the shadow of the past ignites sometimes and the right answers and solutions cannot be found unless all the aspects of the problem are known in (their ugly) details.

What If?

I wonder sometimes what would have been that in the 1960s and 1980s, instead of blowing up buses and supermarkets and pizzerias and many other public places, the Palestinian leaders would have stay at the same table with their Israeli counterparts looking seriously for a long-term peaceful solutions. The Israeli leaders at the time were many of them old warriors in Independence War but they had a political sense and intelligence of the moment that would have for sure help in finding a way. Much smarter and experienced that what you have to deal with nowadays, anyway. 

The tactics of terror didn't lead to anything and only increased the enormous gap between 'we' and 'them', almost deleting the chances of peace. If any. The fact that nowadays people that were directly involved in terrorist acts are still considered heroes is completely out of my understanding. The fact that terrorism left for a long time the Middle East where it polished its methods - and, as in the case of the RAF, also trained its perpetrators, often with a little help from their Russian friends and their weapons - and is ready to claim its victims of any religion and from anywhere in the world shall give a lot of food for thought. 

A couple of days ago, a convicted terrorist, the Jordanian-born Rasmea Odeh was scheduled to be a speaker in Berlin, at an event organised by BDS supporters. A military member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine she perpetrated the bombing of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem in 1969 that killed two people. She spent 10 years in an Israeli prison and was released following a prisoner exchange for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Through fraud, she tried to get the American citizenship and following deportation she is living currently in Jordan. 

As usual, the German authorities do their meandering game. She was allowed to enter the country, but following protests on behalf of the Jewish community and some politicians and scholars, she was requested to leave the country.

Inviting a person like Rasmea Odeh to speak shows how much care for a peaceful solution is worth i the eyes of the BDS. Terror haven't lead anyway and will never do. Terror will only bring more terror and retaliation, a sequel of a never ending conflict with no peaceful/political solution in sight. If you want a war, expect the laws of war to apply. Why should innocent people pay for your political fantasies? And you expect a stage after all? Terrorism has no place in the political fight and all those who are trying to prove it otherwise shall pay the biggest possible price. The fact that Rasmea Odeh is free and is openly sharing her 'experiences' after killing 2 innocent people is part of this abnormality that rules in the Middle East for way too long.