By Tal Bahar, Community Shlicha
Fifty-eight years of Assad family rule, an era, is over.
One of the moments when, while the present was being written, we all realized that we were witnessing history. Several different groups, with different names, and different interests, which at this point in time are united, of course, by the strongest glue in the world – a common enemy.
As a result, what they call together are the “Rebels,” and together they succeeded, despite their differences, in just 11 days to overthrow a regime.
Uncontrollably, my thoughts wandered to a nightmare, about what could have been, about a “what if” reality, about 11 days that could have occurred more than a year-and-a-half ago on another land, not far from Syria, between much narrower borders.
What if all our enemies, all the terrorist groups with different names, and different reasons, and other interests, were united around the glue of the common enemy, namely the “Zionist entity” – could they then overthrow us too?
Would it have taken them only 11 days, or perhaps less, to topple the young 76-year-old state?
And what if, in fact, we too could have been like Syria today, or almost any other country in the Middle East, that what would have brought us down was precisely the interior, not the exterior.
What if we were a country where the internal rift was so deep, to the point of “Milchemet Achim,”siblings war in Hebrew, civil war? We were already there during the Second Temple period.
And to find a worthy answer to the worthy question – let’s take a case study from the history of the Jewish people. Not from the great days of the Bible, but from the great days of the revival of the modern State of Israel.
Before the State of Israel was established, Jewish-Zionist underground groups operated in the Land of Israel whose goal was to protect the Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel, and in certain periods, for example during the Holocaust and for the purposes of Aliyah, also outside it.
During the British Mandate, three major underground groups operated: the Haganah (1920), the Irgun (Etzel) (1931) and the Lehi (1940). Each of them, with different ideologies, different leaders and different views regarding the efforts to implement the defense mission, in a way that was expressed, among other things, in the choice in which diplomatic or armed means were used.
From 1945 to 1946, the three groups united temporarily under an umbrella organization called the “Jewish Resistance Movement” and coordinated the armed resistance activities against the British rule.
Due to deep differences of opinion regarding the manner in which the operations should be carried out, their unity broke apart and the underground groups continued to operate independently to ensure the safety of the Jewish settlement in Israel and for Jewish return to Israel, according to each of their compasses.
With the proclamation of the new state and the invasion of Arab armies into its territory, it was realized that a new order was needed regarding the defense forces. After David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, proposed the order to establish a unified army, the Israel Defense Forces, was approved on May 26, 1948.
Its establishment required two main conditions – the organization of soldiers in brigades and battalions, and the disbandment of all underground groups. This turned the Haganah (incidentally, the organization to which David Ben-Gurion belonged) into a regular army subordinate to a sovereign state.
U.S Navy ship LST 138
Briefly and in general terms, I would like to tell you about the former U.S. Navy ship LST 138, which was purchased in the summer of 1947, before the establishment of the state, by a branch of the Irgun in North America.
The ship’s name was changed to “Altalena.” The name means swing in Italian, the pen name of Ze’ev Jabotinsky.
After months in which the ship was loaded with very large quantities of weapons and ammunition intended for the Irgun, hundreds of immigrants and fighters (some of whom were Holocaust Survivors) boarded it and it sailed from France to the shores of the Land of Israel.
The ship, which set sail with a month’s delay, docked off the shores of Israel in June 1948, in the midst of the War of Independence. This delay sealed its fate, as both the government and the Irgun signed an agreement to disband the underground and integrate the Irgun into the IDF before it docked.
A deep and difficult dispute broke out between Menachem Begin, the commander of the Irgun at the time, later the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel, and David Ben-Gurion. Begin demanded that the Irgun’s “Jerusalem Battalion” receive some of the weapons, and Ben-Gurion insisted that all the weapons be transferred to the IDF.
Initially, IDF soldiers surrounded the ship, and when they tried to confiscate the equipment, violent clashes and exchanges of fire began, in which IDF soldiers and Irgun members were killed and wounded.
The ship fled to Tel Aviv. There, too, violent clashes occurred, until Ben-Gurion, backed by the government, ordered the security forces to use all necessary force to bring the affair to a quick end if the Irgun did not surrender immediately.
The Irgun forces surrendered after several shells were fired at the ship and it caught fire. Probably contrary to justice, interests, and perhaps even the emotion of the moment, Begin chose to stop.
He chose to stop and said, “Never a civil war,” “There will be no war of Jews against Jews in the land.” He did so, because what stood on the other side was much more important than an organization or weapons.
What stood on the other side represented the righteousness of the path and the realization of the dream of our ancestors – a united Jewish people living on their historic land, in the Eretz Israel.
You know the rule – a happy ending, all is happy.
But what would have actually happened if Menachem Begin had chosen not to stop? To fight back, with all his might, not to give in to Ben Gurion.
Begin could have continued with the same line of thought of “so, what if he said,” or “so what if we made a commitment,” he could have ordered “fire!”
Then, maybe Ben Gurion would not have ordered fire again. But maybe he would have, and then Begin would have stopped. But maybe not.
Maybe he would not have stopped, and we would have lost the War of Independence because we would have entered a sibling’s war.
And maybe, somehow, we would have won, but what would have happened is that the Israeli of today would have been completely different. There would have been the IDF, but also underground groups, with different interests and different ideologies, different ideas for different ways of operating.
Maybe this would’ve also grown several terrorist organizations, because where there are no borders and laws, there is no real freedom, there are only hacks for extremists to realize extremist opinions and turn them into even more extremist actions.
Not much would have distinguished us, apart from religion, in the Middle East. Maybe again, we would have sinned in division, in conflict, in gratuitous hatred, in sibling’s war and the third state would have fallen even without a third temple.
Ben Gurion tried to teach a lesson by leaving the ship burning on the shores of Tel Aviv for many days until it sank into the sea.
“For them to see and fear,” so, that every boy and girl and every man and woman may know what is right to do for unity. And not just for show – the Altalena affair has been included in the history textbook syllabus of the Israeli education system.
The controversy and the burning ship of that time, during the days of the founding of the state, in my opinion, have become the roots of Israeli unity and cohesion today.
And in the days when the state is maturing, sobering up, and rising up again after the greatest trauma in its history, skeptics emerge. Those doubters, who have been living among us for years, are gaining legitimacy and making the claim that we will not be able to live together. That we were not meant for this.
You see, there are many names for factionalism: “The First Israel and The Second Israel,” “the State of Israel and the State of Judea,” “the Four Tribes,” and with the help of all these and many other slogans, the idea of division penetrates our veins.
I argue that the concept of “sibling’s war” that has become a common term in the Israeli lexicon, even though we have always been wary of it as a people like fire – is also one of the concepts designed to confuse us.
To make us think that’s where we are marching. Toward eternal division and disconnection from each other. And how easy it is to shout the words “sibling’s war” when holding on to such superficial scare tactics, without understanding that a spiritual and mental sibling’s war can be as destructive and dangerous as, if not more so, than a physical sibling’s war.
And perhaps, if those subversives say it enough times – the public will begin to believe that it is the truth, especially when public figures are those to use it.
The question begs to be asked –
What is today’s Altalena?
Is it this or that prime minister?
Is it this or that government?
Is it one state or two?
Is it judicial reform or judicial revolution?
Is it the drafting of Haredim into the IDF or exemption from service?
Is it the question of Judea and Samaria, the West Bank?
Is it a hostage deal that is considered only after the absolute victory comes, or giving everything, including everything, in order to bring our brothers and sisters home?
And what if all of those written above are just symptoms of a much larger fundamental question – what will be the face and personality of the only Jewish and democratic state in the world?
Let us not forget – the State of Israel is the absolute proof that it is possible to live with several truths together, even when they contradict each other!
What is the State of Israel, if not an island of stability, unique in its kind, in the midst of the chaotic sea called the “Middle East.”
An island of democracy and progress, of society and liberalism, beautifully intertwined with history, religion, peoplehood, and values of loyalty and love of the homeland, as deep as the roots of the oldest olive trees in our tiny country.
An island of both Safra and Saifa, of unity and cohesion, over it flies a flag on which is imprinted the shared commitment to live in the light of Jewish values in an egalitarian manner.
And those skeptics will tell stories about how it is not possible, because religion automatically takes away from rights, or alternatively, rights immediately take away from religion. They do not see, or do not want to see, no matter how easy it is, so easy, that Jewish values are in fact those glorified global values!
Values of family, of curiosity and learning, of goodness, of love, of loyalty, of social justice and of giving. of Tikun Olam. And the hand is extended, to all who choose to grasp it. Those symbols and ideas that tell the story of a people, nation, society, culture, religion and shared history of Judaism, may become the same values that could also tell the story of all those who simply choose to live in their light and in true partnership. Who chooses to help fix and illuminate the world.
And after so many big words, I’d like to summarize all this with a wise sentence that my grandmother has been telling me since I was a child: “Lovers have a place in the eye of the needle, and haters have no place even in the whole world together.”
There is a place here for everyone who agrees on the basis – and that is the vast majority of us.
So, what do we do from here?
How much longer will the “modern Altalena” continue to burn until we learn?
We can continue to make irresponsible accusations whose purpose is nothing but abdication of responsibility.
Or we can look inward.
Continue to express an opinion, because it is part of our character
and ask questions, because it’s part of who and how we are.
Although it is difficult, we will recognize the fact
that there are not always answers
and continue to work hard to reach
the day when we stand firm inside and out
that we are truly loved, a love that does not
depend on anything
and then we will all have a place within the “eye”
of the Land of Israel.
