Grapevine January 26, 2024: A time of sadness - a time of joy

President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal Herzog, have visited the Negev many times over the past three months and chose to do so again on Tuesday.

The day was both happy and sad. The sad part was a visit to the Yeshivat Hesder in Yeruham, where the president met with 120 yeshiva students and lit a memorial candle for the eight who had fallen in battle. The happy parts were visiting the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Innovation and planting of an olive tree sapling in Kerem Ashalim in honor of Tu Bishvat.

Before setting out for the South of the country, Herzog was already aware of the enormous tragedy of the loss in one fell swoop of 21 IDF reservists. The message he posted was: “An unbearably difficult morning in which 21 IDF Reservists were killed. An unbearably difficult morning, during which more names of the best of our boys – a silver platter [magash hakesef] in every sense – are added to the list of heroes in a war which is more just than any.”

The even greater tragedy is the knowledge that many more young men and women will die before the war with Hamas is over.

One has to wonder not only how many more lives will be lost, but also how many children will become orphans, and how many will be born as orphans, never knowing their fathers.

What is remarkable is that when parents, spouses, and common law partners of fallen soldiers participate in the daily rounds of radio and television interviews about their loved ones, there is no bitterness. Most control themselves, though some do break down in tears – but for the most part, they discuss the characteristics and ambitions of the fallen soldiers and their great love for the army and the nation. Some parents even said that their sons were wild and undisciplined until they had to do their mandatory military service – and that the army straightened them out and brought out the best in them.

Knesset committee discussed hateful education that led to October 7 violence

■ TUESDAY HAPPENED to be just ahead of World Education Day, with its theme this year: Education for Sustainable Peace. This prompted Yitzhak Eldan, the founding president of the Ambassadors Club of Israel and a former chief of State Protocol to propose a discussion by the Knesset Education Committee on the subject of the Palestinian education of hatred that led to the violence, carnage, and kidnapping by Hamas. Participating in the discussion were legislators, educators, psychologists, and representatives of the families of the hostages and those of an organization of mothers of soldiers in combat units.

Knesset celebrates 75 years in a somber way

■ ON WEDNESDAY, the Knesset’s 75th anniversary was far less of a joyous occasion than had initially been planned. Herzog dedicated his address to the heroic soldiers who have paid the supreme sacrifice, including those who lost their lives on missions to rescue the hostages in Gaza, and he voiced the hope that the nation would be worthy of the price paid by its heroes.

Former foreign Prime Ministers arrive in Israel to show solidarity 

■ AMONG THE foreign dignitaries who have come to demonstrate solidarity with Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas massacre were some who are no longer in office but who felt the need to do more than just send messages of sympathy and support. Among them were former Australian and British prime ministers Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson, who came to Israel together in early November. It may be remembered that in his youth, Johnson worked as a volunteer on kibbutz.

This month, Morrison announced his retirement from parliament and politics and is rumored to be taking a job in the United Kingdom’s defense industry. Throughout his political career, Morrison had an excellent relationship with Australia’s Jewish community and with Israel. Following the announcement of his retirement, he was saluted by the Zionist Federation of Australia, whose president, Jeremy Leibler, said: “Scott Morrison has long been a close friend of the Australian Jewish community and of Israel, and we salute his leadership in this regard. He held to some simple truths: that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that Israel is a fellow democracy embattled by tyrannical enemies. We were honored to present him with the Jerusalem Prize in 2019, the first time a sitting prime minister has received it.”

Although aware of the criticism leveled at Morrison in certain quarters because he goes to the UK defense industry knowing some of the most sensitive secrets of the Australian government, Leibler nonetheless wished Morrison the best in his future endeavors.

L.A. locals can get deeper insight on the ongoing war

■ ANYONE WHO happens to be in Los Angeles on January 30 and is interested in getting a perspective on critical Middle East issues and their implications for American foreign policy – especially with American elections on the horizon and possibly Israeli elections as well – is invited to attend a luncheon with Middle East Forum (MEF) director Gregg Roman, a former foreign and defense ministries official. Prior to joining the MEF in 2015, he was director of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. He has also been a journalist with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA).

In his talk, Roman will focus on the escalating Israel-Hamas conflict, the dangers of a full-scale Israel-Hezbollah war, the role of the Houthis in Yemen, and the influence of Iran in the region. He will propose strategic actions for the United States to regain its leadership and ensure global safety, including re-designating the Houthis as a terrorist organization, refreezing Iranian assets to prevent funding of terrorism, and rethinking cooperation with the Palestinian Authority (PA) as well as how Gaza should look the “day after” the Israel-Hamas war ends.

There’s a saying in Yiddish: “A gast oif a vayl zeht oif a mayil” (“A guest for a while sees for a mile”), meaning that people see more at a distance than they do close up, so whatever Roman has to say will have certain points of difference from what anyone in Israel’s war cabinet might say.

Roman is familiar to viewers of Israeli television channels i24, 12, and 13 as well as Fox News and BBC World News. He is also an alumnus of Reichman University in its former identity as the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya where he completed courses in national security studies and political communications. For reservations and venue details for the luncheon contact MEFevents@meforum.org

Special zoom event for American public figures on Israel-Hamas war

■ AMERICAN PUBLIC figures are also eager to make their voices heard in Israel and can be seen and heard via Zoom at the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Wednesday, January 31, at 7.30 p.m. Former US National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams and Dennis Ross – former diplomat and adviser to the State Department and the White House, who have spoken in Israel many times, will be speaking at an event titled Allies: The Israeli-American fight against terror and antisemitism.

The two men concur that the war against Hamas is not only a fight for security for Israel’s citizens; it’s part of a much wider struggle against the forces of Islamist terror in the Middle East and globally, as can be seen on university campuses where life for Jewish students veers from uncomfortable to frightening. Elsewhere around the world, security for Jewish communities is also part of the fight against antisemitism. Most Israelis agree that in this war against antisemitism and terrorism, Israel has no greater ally than the United States and that this will remain so, regardless of who wins the US presidential elections.

For all that, there has been a significant spike in antisemitic incidents in the US. But politicians in both parties, regardless of whether or not they have goodwill towards Israel, know the truth of what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the Knesset: If Israel loses this war, the countries of the free world will be next.

Also appearing with a special message at the Zoom event will be talk show host Bill Maher who will be the recipient of a special award in recognition of his principled defense of Israel as a liberal democratic ally of the US. The event will be recorded and sent out as a link.

Japanese Embassy employs tradition in solidarity with hostages

■ IN LAST Wednesday’s Grapevine, there was an item about the Japanese tradition of kakizome (“first writing”), using calligraphy at the start of the new year to write meaningful words that create a force for something good to happen. The Japanese Embassy used this tradition as a means of helping to bring home the hostages from Gaza. Now it is going a step further, and together with the Shodo Center for Calligraphy and Japanese Art will hold a Zoom event at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 31, in the hope of strengthening the force that will bring home the hostages.

Multilingual signs in Israel plagued with inconsistencies

■ ALTHOUGH MANY languages are spoken in Israel given that it’s a multicultural immigrant society, only three of them: Hebrew, Arabic, and English are used for official purposes, Translations, however, often lead to confusion. So does lack of familiarity with a city or inadequate attention paid to ensure that signs in all three languages carry identical information. Reader Eric Mack passed the home of former Jerusalem mayor Yitzhak Kariv this week and in reading the sign mounted on the fence noted that there were discrepancies in translation between the three languages.

As for being unfamiliar with the city, it appears that among those employed to record the names of streets close to bus stops, there are those who are not aware that there is a France Square (Kikar Tsarfat) in Jerusalem. Signs for Safra Square (Kikar Safra), home to the Jerusalem Municipality, and for the Edmond Safra Campus (previously Givat Ram) of the Hebrew University (named for the late banker and philanthropist Edmond Safra) are correctly translated. But since “France” in Hebrew is “Tsarfat” which sounds very similar to “Safra,” what passengers hear on a particular bus route passing France Square is “Kikar Safra” instead of “Kikar Tzarfat.”

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