Grapevine March 29, 2024: Expanding the Israel Prize

Yet an additional Israel Prize category should be introduced in recognition of the bravery of former hostage Amit Soussana who was released from Hamas captivity and cruelty and submitted to eight hours of questioning about her ordeal to reporters Patrick Kingsley and Ronen Bergman, whose major story in the The New York Times (NYT) went viral. It takes an enormous amount of courage for a sexually abused woman to reveal in detail what happened to her. But with the turning of the media tide against Israel and in favor of the Palestinians, it was essential to make the world realize what Hamas is all about. In going public, Soussana opened not only that particular door, but also a door for other sexually abused women to go beyond saying that they were raped, and spell out what the men who abused them actually did.

Her story is also a form of vindication for the NYT in its claims that its reporting is unbiased. For a long time now, the NYT, despite the Jewish lineage of its owners, and the many Jewish writers on its staff, has been accused by prominent Jewish figures of being anti-Jewish and anti-Israel. It’s a sad situation when the media tries to be objective by publishing the good and the bad about any country or movement, and is accused of bias whenever it brings the negative aspects to light. The accusers seldom measure the positive reports against the negative. If they did, they might find that in several cases the positive reports outnumber the negative.

Legislators fail to meet the bare minimum of behavior

■ “HOW IS it that a guy like this is elected to the Knesset?” asked Reshet Bet broadcaster Ran Benyamini. He was referring to United Torah Judaism MK Yitzhak Pindros who is known for his disrespectful manner and lack of sensitivity. On Tuesday Pindrus got into a brouhaha at the Knesset with some of the families of hostages who queried the urgency of the Knesset going out on recess when no agreement on the return of the hostages had yet been reached. The question was legitimate given that legislators earn far in excess of the basic wage and get far more vacation time. Moreover, they are not penalized by a cut in salary for nonattendance.

The least they could do is to provide ongoing moral support for families whose loved ones were abducted by Hamas, murdered by Hamas, abused by Hamas, and provided with bare starvation rations by Hamas. Living with uncertainty, not knowing what has happened to their relatives in captivity, and whether or not they are still alive is a painful daily experience. It is part of Jewish tradition not to judge people in their grief. If members of the families of the hostages happen to say something that legislators find offensive, they should just let it pass instead of harming the dignity of the Knesset with their outbursts and their coarse remarks. There are legislators who behave decently, who care and who do meet frequently with the families – but unfortunately, the majority do not.

In Hebrew, MKs are often referred to as the elected members of the public, which brings to mind something that Shimon Peres often sought to have members of Knesset understand.“They are not the masters of the public, but the servants of the public,” he used to say. MKs should remember that the public can vote them out of office in the next elections.

Sara Netanyahu meets with hostage families

■ FOR MANY years a butt of the Israeli media, Sara Netanyahu may not be anywhere near as black as she’s painted. A group of mothers of hostages who asked to meet with her and were welcomed into her home in Jerusalem, found her to be both sympathetic and empathetic, and pronounced the meeting to have been a very positive experience.

A wedding celebration at home

■ UNABLE TO invite all their many friends to the recent wedding of their grandchildren Yonatan and Chaya Neckameyer, Jerusalemites Dorraine and Barry Weiss invited some dozen of their friends to join them at their home in celebrating the union of the young couple. As everyone at the table had been married at least once, Dorraine Gilbert Weiss asked each person to give the newlyweds advice on what makes for a happy marriage.

Tips included remembering to say ‘I love you’; apologizing when necessary, but knowing the reason for the apology; keeping lines of communication open; being each other’s best friend; always making up after a quarrel before going to bed; finding reasons to laugh together; and most important making time for each other every day.

The groom who with his siblings grew up in the ultra-Orthodox city of Beitar Illit, is not affected by the controversy surrounding the possibility of mandatory enlistment by all young men – including ultra-Orthodox – into the defense forces. He and his two brothers have completed full army service. He is a reservist in the paratroopers and was called to duty in Gaza prior to his wedding. When asked how many people from Beitar Illit had signed on for service, his reply was “Not many.”

Among the guests at the dinner hosted by his grandparents, was their friend and neighbor Hanna Lindwer, who with her husband, Dutch documentary filmmaker, producer, director, and author Willy Lindwer, was in Amsterdam for the official opening earlier this month of the National Holocaust Museum. From what she was able to observe, antisemitism in the Dutch capital is quite frightening.

She was in the Portuguese synagogue where the ceremony was held with the participation of Dutch Holocaust survivors, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, President of the German Federal Council Manuela Schwesig and the Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema along with leaders of the Jewish community and other dignitaries.

The pro-Palestinian demonstration outside was so loud, said Lindwer, that it almost drowned out the king’s speech. When all the participants had to go to another building for the luncheon that followed the ceremony, they had to be escorted in small groups by security personnel.

Mobileye finally opens, a billion shekels later

■ SEVEN YEARS after the announcement of its proposed construction, Mobileye this week inaugurated its new office campus at the Har Hotzvim technological park in Jerusalem. The cost of the project was in excess of NIS 1 billion in addition to which there were a number of bureaucratic hurdles to overcome along the way.

The vast 128,000 sq.m. complex that serves as Mobileye’s key R&D facility and its global headquarters, represents part of the dream of Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, that Jerusalem will become the Silicon Valley of Israel.

A large part of the complex is underground, ensuring that in the event that Jerusalem is under attack, work can continue as usual.

Amnon Shashua, a computer scientist and Israel Prize laureate, who 25 years ago was one of three cofounders of Mobileye, and is today its president and CEO, apparently shares the dream of Israel’s capital becoming the Silicon Valley of the Middle East.

“Mobileye was born in Jerusalem, and as you can see it will stay in Jerusalem,” he said at the opening ceremony for the spacious new facility at which some 2,700 R&D scientists and technologists will be employed.

Of the 3,600 people that Mobileye has on its payroll, 3,300 work in Israel.

Herzog, who attended the opening, commented: “Seeing Israeli industry thriving at full strength – that’s the real victory.”

Relating to the stalled negotiations for the release of the hostages, Herzog said: “The reality is this – and the world and we must face it – everything begins and ends with Yahya Sinwar. He’s the one who decided on the October massacre; he’s been seeking to shed the blood of the innocent ever since; it is he who aims to escalate the regional situation, to desecrate Ramadan, to do everything to shatter coexistence in our country and in the whole region; to sow discord among us and around the world. He seeks terror, and the entire world and our entire region must know that the responsibility lies with him, and with him alone. It won’t work. We won’t allow it.”

Herzog also emphasized the need to be united and determined at this time, adding that there is no choice other than to continue fighting and getting to Sinwar – alive or dead – in order to bring home the hostages.

He assured the families of the hostages that Israel will continue to do everything in its power to achieve this goal.

Meanwhile, Israel appears to be making little or no progress on the hostage issue.

Alan Dershowitz says it's worse than it looks

■ CURRENTLY IN Israel, eminent American attorney and law professor Alan Dershowitz has been reported by various Israeli media outlets as saying that the state of relations between America and Israel is actually much worse than projected, and is no longer a bipartisan issue.

He was also quoted as saying that this time around he would not vote Democrat because this would be a vote against Israel in light of the US decision not to veto the UN ceasefire resolution. This was a terrible decision both for the US and for Israel, he said, adding that for him to vote Democrat would be to vote against Israel.

greerfc@gmail.com