First Visit to Israel

It dawned on me about a week ago that my first visit to Israel was in 1970. Yikes....40 years ago....

It was a time when Israel felt invincible. I travelled the length and breadth of Israel without any fear or apprehension. Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Jericho, Sinai were within bounds to visit.

The Arab market in the Old City of Jerusalem teemed with people every day.

We had access to the Temple Mount where the Al Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock stand. We went into the mosques and felt safe.

So many of the places mentioned above are now off limits,or have been given back or are now ruled by the Palestinian Authority. Those young soldiers who patrolled and fought for their country who were the same age as I was then, are now the parents and in some cases the grandparents or grandparents to be of the current soldiers.

The period between the Six Day War in 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973 were considered to be the Golden Age of Israel...people felt safe, as they were lulled into a false sense of security and comfort.

Although many of the creature comforts that we were used to in North America were not available in Israel at the time, it really did not seem to matter. We felt connected and part of the nation building process. Naive? Idealistic? Perhaps.

Forty years later, so much has changed. Israel is a technological powerhouse. The 'Russian" immigration helped to propel the explosion of high tech innovations and discoveries. Every creature comfort you could possibly ask for is there....

But in spite of all the changes one thing remains elusive...for every step forward there always seem to be two steps back...in the pursuit of a lasting and true peace.

No matter how one feels about the current status of the peace efforts being undertaken...there is one thing that remains unshakeable to me: the importance that Israel plays in the lives of the Jewish people and the critical role that Israel plays in the identity of Jews worldwide.

Yes, the political forces that create roadblocks and seemingly senseless objections to peace from both sides frustrate and anger us. Our underlying support for Israel at times becomes shaky and suspect in light of what some see as unrealistic postions taken by politicians. But we must also remember that only 62 short years ago we could not have even had these disagreements...one segment of our people chose to join those who had lived in Israel for generations to rebuild a Jewish homeland where any Jew could reside in dignity and "peace".

Well we do now live with dignity in Israel....the peaceful part however is still elusive.

Yet we all have to believe that peace is attainable....as difficult as it always seems....one step forward 2 steps back. And I guess that is where the naive and idealistic parts of me return.

Over the years, we have heard that if peace does not happen now, it will never happen...For 25 years Israel was at war with Egypt...yet peace was achieved.....Jordan entered into peace with Israel years later....so even though we thought it could never happen, it did.

Prospects of peace with the Palestinians are so close but yet so far...and even if a peace treaty were signed tomorrow with the Palestinian Authority, what happens with Gaza and the ruling Hamas?

Yet, Israel is too important and vital to us to forget why it was finally reestablished as a sovereign country in 1948. As outdated and parochial as it sound today..It is a homeland for all Jews. And we are all better off because of it.