By Donald H. Harrison
LA JOLLA, Calif.— There were cheers as Israeli and American
officials expressed solidarity against terrorism, but there were tears of hope
as 40 Arab and Jewish teenagers spoke and sang of their friendship and mutual
desire for peace.
The occasion was an outdoor rally sponsored by the United Jewish Federation
and 37 other Jewish organizations, agencies and synagogues in over 90-degree
afternoon temperatures on Sunday, July 23, on the fields of the Lawrence
Family Jewish Community Center. Organizers said that 2,000 people
attended the rally—500 seated in chairs set out for the occasion, three
times as many standing. Similar rallies were held in three other
California metropolitan areas—San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County.
Some
15 speakers addressed an audience that donned blue-and-white T-shirts that
proclaimed "Israel we stand with you." Numerous standard-size
Israeli flags were on display, while hand-held Israeli and American flags,
distributed for the occasion, were waved during the rally that began with the
singing of the Star Spangled Banner and ended with the singing of Hatikvah.
Both national anthems were led by youth from Young Judaea, an arm of
Hadassah that also distributed the free T-shirts.
U.S.
Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, the
headliners on the American political side, told respectively of a friend and
an in-law who reside on Israeli kibbutzim. Davis, who lived on a kibbutz
herself in the 1960s, shortly after graduation from college, said she had one
kibbutznik friend who wanted to pass on a message to the rally: "Our wish for peace is genuine; all we require is
to have someone come to terms with us. Someone
who will respect their own commitments, someone who will recognize our right
to life in a free country, a country where Jews are always welcome."
Sanders, who is married to Rana Sampson, a member of the Jewish community,
told the crowd, "My sister-in-law lives in Israel. She has lived on a
kibbutz there for the last 36 years. My
wife— during the election (for mayor)
Mayor
Sanders and Congresswoman Davis
— she spent six weeks on the kibbutz with her when she was sick.
And I understand the concerns that each of you feel about your family
members because we feel the same about our own family members who are there
right now."
Moving from the personal to the political, Davis took note that
members of the international community have criticized Israel for
what they call a disproportionate response to the killing and kidnapping
of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah forces which made a cross-border raid from
Lebanon. However, she said, when it comes to taking measures to protect
civilian lives, Israel has a far better record than its foes.
"I have seen the Hezbollah’s military capability
and I know that they are not a benign force," Davis said.
"Unfortunately reading about Hezbollah’s capabilities in the paper, or
even by watching CNN, does not tell the whole story. Thanks to Iran and Syria,
Hezbollah has acquired thousands of rockets with the potential for massive
damage. This includes radar-guided
munitions. Sadly Hezbollah has also transformed Syrian-made rockets into a
weapon of true terror by loading them up with ball bearings. We are all aware
that the use of ball bearings is a tactic suicide bombers have used for years
to maximize casualties, and we have seen on the buildings in Haifa the impact
of these ball bearings as they have been introduced into these rockets. This is the reality Israel faces."
Davis, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, contrasted this
approach with Israel's which she said has involved taking "numerous
measures to minimize harm to the civilian population of Lebanon." Among
these, she said, are "the dropping of warning pamphlets at least 12 hours
in advance of Israeli missions in civilian areas" and "the use of
advanced weaponry that targets a military objective without harming civilians
or civilian infrastructure." Nevertheless,
with reports of more than 300 deaths in Lebanon since the outbreak of
hostilities, "I have to say to all of you, we must be
honest—when engaged in armed conflict, it is difficult to ensure the safety
of civilians."
Sanders drew a parallel between the anxiety of Israeli families and that felt
by American families for U.S. servicemen in places around the world (such as
Iraq and Afghanistan). He then declared to the approving crowd:
"Extremists must not be allowed to continue to dictate the terms, to
continue to break the peace, to continue to harm our family members, our
allies, or people all over the world but especially in Israel.
"Extremists should not be the ones dictating the terms. It
should be people who want peace and
freedom, who want safety for their families, the same that each of us do.
May that day come very soon. May there be a lasting peace in the Middle
East and may we help to bring
that just by our very presence here today."
A score of protesters waving Arab flags stood across Executive Drive
from the Lawrence Family JCC, attracting interviews on local media that in the
case of KFMB-Channel 8 received as much air time as the rally involving
100 times as many Jews. One of the protesters echoed comments heard on
international media that Israel's response in Lebanon has been
"disproportionate."
Gilad
Millo, consul for public affairs in the Consulate General of Israel in Los
Angeles, said "the reality today is that Israel is facing a war
on two fronts. In the south, Ashkelon and Sderot are being bombed daily by
Hamas-made Qassam rockets. In the
north, all of our cities are being bombarded.
Just yesterday, Shabbat, the Sabbath, 150 missiles landed in Israel.
On both these fronts, ladies and gentlemen, more than 1,500 rockets and
missiles have landed in Israel. For 12 days now, a quarter of a million
Israelis, your relatives, your friends, brothers and sisters, have been
sitting in bomb shelters. Over 2 million Israelis are in the line of fire
of
Gilad Millo checks speech while heading for podium
these deadly missiles.
"We will do what must be
done to defeat these terrorists," Millo declared to cheers. "We will
do whatever we have to do to keep our nation safe, and we will do whatever is
in our power to bring Gilad (Shalit), Ehud (Goldwasser) and Eldad (Regev)"—
the captive of Hamas, and two captives of Hezbollah—"home safely to
their families. UN Resolution
1559 called for the disarming of Hezbollah, but Hezbollah
remains armed with 12,000 missiles intended for Israel. We will not
live like this anymore! If the world will not disarm Hezbollah, then Israel will
disarm Hezbollah!"
Jacob
Fine, a young Northern Californian recently returned from service in a
paratrooper battalion of the Israel Defense Forces, was wearing his IDF
uniform when introduced to the crowd, which immediately rose to give him, as
the personification of all Israeli soldiers, an emotional standing ovation.
Fine said he decided to volunteer for the Israeli military after participating
in 2004 in the "life-altering experience" of the "March
of the Living" program which takes high school students first to the
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps, and then on to Israel.
"Although my duty has ended, my brothers-in-arms, young men who are now
my friends for life, are now on the front lines in a war that must be
won," Fine said. "Each
day they are risking their lives, not just to protect the State of Israel, but
to protect each and every Jew throughout the world, all of us today.
"I know what it means to my Israeli comrades to have the love and
concern of Jews in America. I know what it means to the families displaced by rocket
attacks that the Jewish Federation of San Diego cares, and as an IDF soldier,
as a 'lone soldier,' I know what your support and solidarity means. I know how
important it is for soldiers on the front lines to receive care packages from
the friends of the IDF."
Michael Rassler, UJF's executive vice president, during the course of emceeing
the event, explained that "Lone Soldiers" is a program recognizing
people like Fine, who come to Israel on their own, to join the military and
are without family connections. Friends of the IDF has programs to help
these soldiers in their off duty hours, by providing them with recreational
opportunities, a friendly place to have a meal, even an occasional home
visit.
Friends of the IDF is one emergency program the UJF has been
contributing to since the crisis with Lebanon erupted earlier this month,
Rassler said. Another is a program to send Jewish, Arab and Druze
children of northern Israel to summer camps in areas of
central and southern Israel, away from the Katyusha rockets. The same
program also provides aid to the elderly and the infirm in northern Israel who
are trapped in bomb shelters, Rassler said. Prior to the rally,
UJF had raised $125,000 in emergency funds for such Israeli causes, he said.
The
crowd gave a warm reception to Greg Stevens, regional director for Christians
United for Israel, a group whose sign-holding members helped to fill the
crowd. Stevens enjoyed one of the few laughs of the afternoon when he
told the rally, "Today I represent millions of evangelical Christians who
are aware we are repenting of our past of being meshugenahs (crazy
people), and we are your friends standing with Israel."
He went on to say that his group lobbies Congress to support
Israel. Just last Wednesday, Christians United for Israel had
members from all 50 states in Washington D.C. to confer with more than 300
members of Congress concerning Israel's security. "We encouraged every representative to use every
means at their disposal to permit Israel to continue its anti-terror
operations in Gaza and Lebanon as long as Israel deems necessary!"
he said.
As the rally emphasized Jewish and Christian unity, so too did organizers make
a point of illustrating the broad consensus within the religious Jewish
community for supporting Israel.
Rabbinical
representation—Rabbis Jeffrey Wohlgelernter and Avram Bogopulsky, left, and
Rabbi
Deborah Prinz, illustrated that pro-Israel support covers the spectrum from
Orthodox to Reform
Orthodox Rabbis Jeffrey Wohlgelernter of Congregation Adat Yeshurun and Avram
Bogopulsky of Beth Jacob Congregation teamed up for the recitation of Psalm
130 which reads, in part: "Let Israel
hope for Hashem, for with Hashem is kindness, and with Him is
abundant redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from its iniquities.
"
Reform Rabbi Deborah Prinz, representing both the San Diego Rabbinical
Association and her own Temple Adat Shalom of Poway, quoted the prayer of a
student rabbi studying at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in
Israel. "Strengthen our soldiers to refrain from embracing hatred while
they fulfill their duty to safeguard the lives of the citizens of
Israel," was one of the supplications expressed in the prayer.
Gary Jacobs, a former president of both the Lawrence Family JCC and the United
Jewish Federation, also spoke to the avoidance-of-hatred theme in his capacity
as the founder, and financer, of the Jacobs International Teen Leadership
Institute (JITLI). This group brings together 40 Arabs and Jewish students
from Israel and the United States for joint travel and encounter. The
program now is in its seventh year, with the current class leaving on Monday,
July 24, for a week in Spain to explore historic Jewish-Muslim relations,
followed by a week together in Israel.
Gary
Jacobs, at podium, is cheered by Jewish and Bedouin Arab students during
presentation at Israel rally.
"One of the things that we have to think about is
how do we create an environment that creates peace
in the region so that we do not continue this cycle of violence,"
Jacobs said. "One of the ways we can do that is by working with
the teenagers in the area to get them to talk to each other, to
get them to know each other, to get them to break down the stereotypes."
He said that in a previous class "we had a young lady from Gaza, who said
'I am a member of Hamas, I live in a refugee camp, and I understand and watch
what happens to our young men, and I understand why they go and blow up a
bus.' And then she said, 'but now
that I have had a chance to get to know
you and to meet you, I know that is not the right answer….'"
The current group of 40 includes 20 Bedouin Arabs from Israeli villages, 10
Israeli Jews and 10 American Jews. Three JITLI members spoke at the
rally. San Diegan Saul Moch said that in the five days the group had
been together they all felt a bond and a sense of connectedness.
Further, he said, "we have come with a message that the war should stop
on both sides" —certainly not the prevailing sentiment at the rally,
but a viewpoint that was respected.
A Bedouin, introduced only as Mohammed, said that he has relatives in Gaza who
have lived without water and electricity, and who are suffering. Since
joining the program, he said, he has heard of the effects of the Qassam rocket
attacks on Sderot and Ashkelon and has come to the realization that "both
sides are suffering from the situation. I
hope we really all have the chance to live in peaceful
world."
Mayan, an Israeli from one of the kibbutzim of Sha'ar Hanegev, the partnership
region for San Diego's United Jewish Federation, said that her brother,
Yonatan, had served in the very same unit as the soldiers who were killed and
kidnapped along the Lebanese border. Yonatan was spared because his release
from the IDF came only one day prior to the incident.
"
It hurts for me when people, even from
the other side, get hurt," she said.
"I think this war should end; Israel needs peace.
"
One of the most electrifying moments of the rally came when the JITLI students
linked arms in front of the podium and earnestly sang the song, "Salaam,
Shalom," expressing in both Arabic and Hebrew a mutual desire for
peace.
The rally also included speeches by UJF President Ken Polin; by Dan
Gardenswartz, executive committee chairman of the regional Anti-Defamation
League; and by Leslie Caspi, regional chair of the America-Israel Public
Affairs Committee (AIPAC).