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How poignant to affirm the special relationship between the United States and Israel, two close democratic allies, in our own Hampton Roads and commonwealth of Virginia. Hampton Roads’ military might is ever ready to stand by beleaguered Israel. Early in the Gaza war, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, where I had lectured on Holocaust lessons, rushed to the Mediterranean to deter Israel’s Iran-led enemies.
Currently the USS Harry Truman aircraft carrier is there hitting Yemen’s Houthis, who hit Israel. Uniquely, The Virginia Israel Advisory Board established in 1996, a Virginia government agency, advises the governor on promoting economic, cultural and educational ties with Israel. Israel’s 77th anniversary takes place in the long and dark shadow of the transforming events of Oct.
7, 2023, which continues to impact the survival and meaning of the Jewish state from within and without. All those seeking searing reflection should turn to an essential book of blood, pain and love. A gifted Israeli author and noted journalist, Amir Tibon’s recent “The Gates of Gaza: A Story of Betrayal, Survival, and Hope in Israel’s Borderlands” is bound to be a classic.
This literary masterpiece offers eyewitness reports from that “Black Sabbath,” with its shocking Holocaust images, which continues to shake up the state of Israel, the Middle East and beyond. Tibon, his wife and two very young daughters survived a harrowing nightmare in their home’s safe room in Kibbutz Nahal Oz, the closest Israeli community to Gaza. On that day, which will also live in infamy, they were terrorized in darkness and very small quarters until liberated by Amir’s father Noam, a retired Israeli general, who rushed with his wife from Tel Aviv to save their family.
Both Amir and Noam were invited to share with then-President Joe Biden when he arrived in Israel on Oct. 17. Both father and son firmly requested the release of barbarically treated 251 hostages, including American citizens.
Captives’ redemption is a top Jewish commandment and an honored Israeli tradition. Saving the remaining hostages is paramount. The author’s angst is with the Nazi-like Hamas leaders as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government for the colossal failure to forestall the Oct.
7 debacle, which requires a state inquiry commission. Sign up for Viewpoints, an opinion newsletter A disturbing inclusion is the eulogy by the late Moshe Dayan, the iconic Israeli leader who on April 30,1956, spoke at Nahal Oz’s first funeral. Dayan, initially arriving the day before for planned four weddings only to face the brutal murder of Roi Rutberg, Nahal Oz’s security chief, by infiltrating Gazans.
Dayan’s words created a stir in the young community for its pessimistic message relevant years later for the much larger Oct. 7 calamity, raising troubling questions about a peaceful future: “Have we forgotten that this group of young people dwelling at Nahal Oz is bearing the heavy gates of Gaza on its shoulders? Beyond the furrow of the border, a sea of hatred and desire for revenge is swelling awaiting the day when serenity will dull our path ..
. This is our life’s choice: to be prepared and armed, strong and determined, lest the sword be stricken from our fist and our lives cut down.” Yet, unsettling as the current scenario is, we are duty-bound at this significant 77th celebration of an Israel reborn, representing 4,000 years of Jewish experience and persistence, to keep a balanced perspective.
Israel’s monumental accomplishments and substantial power — though it is still vulnerable — since its fragile 1948 establishment in the Holocaust’s consuming shadow are promising. However, its internal conflicting core issues demand resolution and reconciliation to guarantee a robust democracy in a pluralistic Jewish context, eschewing both secular authoritarianism and oppressive theocracy. Otherwise, the gates of Gaza (the book’s title) that biblical Samson carried facing the threatening Philistines, would now prove too heavy for heroic Israel at multi-front war.
Rabbi Israel Zoberman is founder of Temple of Lev Tikvah in Virginia Beach..
