This lesson plan is based on a speech delivered by Rabbi Feinstein at a Yom Haatzmaut gathering at the Milken Community Center in Los Angeles, California, on April 16, 2002 It expresses eloquently sentiments many of us feel. It is also a wonderful vehicle for teaching our students to be proud of Israel, and giving them the ammunition to rebut many of the fabrications they are exposed to daily in the media.

Goals:

• To understand that just because something is repeated often does not necessarily make it the truth.
• To be aware that nothing in history exists in a vacuum - and that it is dishonest to view any event out of context.
• To reassure Jews, both children and adults, that Israel is not simply what the anchors on news programs or correspondents for major newspapers say it is.

Questions to ask before reading the article:

• Did you see anything on television this past week about Israel? What did you see?
• How did what you saw and heard make you feel?
• Do your parents ever discuss Israel at home? What do they say? Do they include you in their conversations about Israel?

Read Part I of the following article. After reading Part I, ask:

• What are some of Israel’s alleged negative actions the article refers to?
• Who is saying these things?
• How does it make you feel to hear these things about Israel?

Say:

• After hearing what the first part of the article says about Israel, you probably are a little angry or at least embar- rassed about supporting Israel. After all, who would want to be associated with a country that does these terrible things?
• In Part II of the article, Rabbi Feinstein explains some of the background to what is happening now. Ask yourselves the following question before you read Part II:
  • During World War II, 6 million Jews were murdered by the Nazis and their sympathizers. Partly in response to that tragedy, the United Nations voted to create two countries in what had been part of the British Mandate in Palestine. Some Jewish leaders said the Jewish country would be too small to survive. What did the Zionist leaders do? What did their Arab neighbor countries do?

Read Part II. After reading Part II, ask:

• How have the Arab countries treated the Palestinian refugees?
• How has Israel treated the Jewish refugees who came there?
• What are some of the acts that led up to the Israeli military actions in the disputed territories over the past several months?
• Why do you think the Israel-Army did not go into the territories until after the Passover massacre at the hotel in Netanya and the rash of suicide bombings that preceded it?
• How has Israel behaved in the Palestinian cities it occupied for a short time?
• What is the difference between the Palestinian actions in Israel and the Israeli actions in the territories (e.g. Jenin, Bethlehem)?
• What is the difference between acts of aggression and acts of self-defense?
• Which term (acts of aggression or acts of self-defense) better describes the actions of the Palestinian suicide bombers and snipers? Why?
• Which terms better describes the actions of the Israeli Army? Why?

Read part III. After reading part III, ask:

• Why should we all be proud of Israel?
• What are some ways we can express our pride?
• What would you like to say to the leaders of the Palestinian people?
• What would you like to say to the leaders of Israel?

Final Thought:
On Sunday, May 5, there was a huge parade in New York City -- the largest ever in that city, expressing solidarity with Israel. There were people there from all streams of Judaism, both as marchers and as spectators. It was exciting to be there, and to see how many thousands of people from New York and other communities support Israel, especially now.

Traffic in the city was horrible - there were other parades that day as well and many streets were closed. There were police all over and the driving was quite slow.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but there was a terrible incident on a city bus that day - a passenger wanted the driver of the bus he was on to go faster, which was impossible. The passenger took out a knife and stabbed him. The driver was able to wrestle the knife from the attacker and saved himself from being killed. In the course of the struggle, he stabbed the attacker, who later died.

We can all be sorry for the death of a person, but, in this case, the person who died perished as a result of his own actions - he was trying to kill someone else. Let us think of this when we read about the “innocent civilians” killed during Israel's incursion into the territories. While we must remember that some Palestinians plan and participate in acts of violence in Israel, we must also remember that many, many Palestinians are innocent bystanders. Just as Israel tries to protect its innocent Palestinians when it takes military action in Palestinian territory, any country has the right to protect itself and its citizens in the same manner as an individual.

We can be proud of Israel at this time when she is protecting herself, while also protecting innocent citizens on both sides of the issue.

I want to talk to the children tonight. Because I’m concerned for your souls and your faith.

You’ve heard that we are aggressors — savagely invading, occupying, oppressing a sovereign people. You’ve heard we have brutally destroyed their cities and towns, their homes and shops, desecrating holy places, turning once-thriving centers of life into fields of destruction and death.

You’ve heard that we have committed atrocity; that we have massacred hundreds of innocents, bulldozed living people into rubble, shot pregnant women and little children, halted ambulances from attending to the wounded. They say we’ve even prevented the burial of their dead. And when we did bury the dead, it was only to cover up the mass murder.

And it seems that everyone says it. You hear it on CNN and ABC and NPR, you read it in the LA Times, you hear it from world leaders and organizations devoted to humanitarian causes.

The Portuguese Nobel Laureate, Jose Saramago visited the Palestinian West Bank as one of a group of famous authors called the International Parliament of Writers and declared that “what is happening here is a crime that may be compared to Auschwitz.”

The annual session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemned Israel for “mass killings” of Palestinians, “gross violations” of humanitarian law” and affirmed the “legitimate right of Palestinian people to resist.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch condemned Israel’s “brutal practices in the occupied Palestinian territories.” UNESCO issued a resolution condemning the Israeli attacks on the cultural centers and holy sites in Palestine. (Strangely, they said nothing of synagogues burned in France or exploded in Tunisia.)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution that called on the European Union to suspend its 6-year-old trade Treaty with Israel.

You, our children, you hear these things, you read these things. You witness demonstrations on college campuses and in the great cities of the world. And you have to wonder: Is this the truth? Are these really my people? What kind of people are we? What kind of society is Israel? What happened to the dream that once was Zionism?

Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of the United Nations, put it succinctly: “Is it possible,” he asked, “that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong?”

As long as you live, I want you to remember this night. Tonight, something extraordinary is happening. Tonight, we have come, your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers, distinguished leaders from every corner of the Jewish community — Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, religious and secular, right-wing and left-wing, to say one thing: Is it possible that Israel is right and the whole world is wrong? You bet your life it is. You bet your life, because we’ve bet our lives. It is true now and it always has been. From the time the world worshipped rocks and trees and Abraham discovered the Creator of all. From the time the world bowed low to Pharoah and Moses commanded that we stand up and be free. From the time when the world idolized and revered Roman power and Akiba risked his life to teach Torah.

And it’s true today. Because the world has no memory. They forget, but we remember. In 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine and to create two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean: One, the Jewish state of Israel. The other, a homeland for Palestinian Arabs. The Zionist leadership, the acting government of the Yishuv, accepted the plan. In 1947, we affirmed our desire to live in peace, side by side with a Palestinian State. But the armies of nine Arab states came pouring over the borders, to extinguish the nascent state of Israel and to murder yet another million Jews. When a truce came, the territory for the Palestinian Arab State had been devoured by Egypt and Jordan and Syria.

They forget, but we remember that thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled in the face of that Arab invasion. But when they reached the borders of Jordan and Egypt, they were not permitted to enter. Israel, tiny beleaguered Israel managed to absorb and settle millions of Jewish refugees from Europe and the Middle East. But the entire Arab League and all 26 Muslim nations, with all their oil-wealth, couldn’t find room for their poor Palestinian brothers and sisters — and left them to rot in squalid refugee camps, festering in hatred and rage.

They forget, but we remember every time they came across our border to murder and to destroy. We remember 1948,¹ 1967,² 1973.³ We remember the Olympics in Munich⁴ and the school in Maalot.⁵

And, we remember that when Sadat came to Jerusalem, we dismantled settlements, and relocated whole cities, and gave Egypt back the entire Sinai, in return for peace.⁶

We remember Yitzchak Rabin and his dream.⁷ And we remember that his protege, Ehud Barak went to Camp David and then to Taba, and offered, for the second time in 50 years, to create a Palestinian State, comprised of 97% of the West Bank and all of Gaza with sovereignty over half of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount, and $30 billion in world economic aid.⁸ And we remember the answer.

They forget, but we remember, just months ago, a bomber in the Dolphinarium Disco in Tel Aviv killed 21 young adults. And what did we do in retaliation, what did we hit? Nothing. We practiced restraint. And, months later when another bomber destroyed Sbarro’s Pizza in Jerusalem and dozens more were killed. What was our retaliation? Nothing. We practiced restraint. And the Bat Mitzvah in Hadera and the mall in Netanya and the restaurants and cafes in Jerusalem and Afula and in Haifa⁹ — we retaliated by destroying buildings. Empty buildings. Because we called them hours in advance of each mission, to warn them to evacuate.

And then came Pesach, 2002. This year, the Angel of Death did not pass over. Whole families were murdered at the Seder table. But even now, do we bomb from the air, like America? Risk hitting hospitals and schools and embassies like America did in Bosnia and Afghanistan? No. We send our kids through the alleyways and byways — to face booby traps and snipers and mines. Tonight, your parents and grandparents, your rabbis and teachers, your community have gathered here in the thousands to testify that the whole world is wrong and Israel is right. And we will not apologize for doing what’s right — for defending our children and their dreams from murderers.

We mourn for innocents, Palestinian and Israeli, who are caught in the struggle. We take no pleasure in the suffering of any human being – we dip out wine from our cups — but we will not apologize for taking steps to survive in that vicious corner of the world where, mesmerized by murder and blood, they dance and sing when their children blow themselves up. We will not apologize for demanding our land and our freedom and our security in this world. Jews no longer apologize for surviving.

You must not be apologetic for Israel or be ashamed of Israel. You must not be embarrassed by Israel or afraid to stand up for Israel.

And you must never, ever grow bitter, cynical, or dark.

The prophet Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of all he loved: Jerusalem, the Temple, his people. And, through his tears, he wrote,

Lo yeshama b’aray yehuda, uv’chutzot yerushalayeem, kol sasson, v’kol simcha, kol chatan v’kol kalah.

Never again will Judah or Jerusalem hear the sounds of joy and the voices of gladness, the song of the bride and groom.

But the Rabbis who came generations later knew the prophet got it wrong.

They believed that one day, we would return to Judah and to Jerusalem. But, only if we hold fast to hope and resist despair, only if we cling tight to our dreams and refuse to surrender to bitterness. The Rabbis knew that the death of our faith is a greater tragedy than the destruction of our city; and the crushing of our vision, a bigger disaster than the ruin of the Temple. And, so they changed one word in the prophecy. Instead of Lo yeshama (meaning “never again”), we sing Od yeshama (meaning “again”). In every bride and groom, in every Jewish family, in every community and synagogue, in every place where Jewish life lives, Jeremiah is proven wrong. Od yeshama b’aray yehuda. For once again, the hills of Judah and the streets of Yerushalayim will ring with the sounds of joy and celebration, with the music of love and melody of hope and the song of peace. Amen.

1. Israel became an independent state on May 14, 1948.
2. The Six-Day War took place in June 1967. Please see Time Line B.
3. The Yom Kippur War took place in 1973. Please see Time Line B.
4. At the l972 Olympics, held in Munich, Germany, Arab terrorists from a PLO faction called Black September, massacred 11 Israeli athletes.
5. On May 15, 1974, the PLO attacked a kindergarten in Maalot, Israel. Twenty-five children were murdered and 66 were wounded.
6. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat came to Jerusalem in November 1977. A peace treaty with the Egyptians was signed in 1979.
7. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat signed the first Israel-PLO framework for auton- omy in West Bank and Gaza in 1993. In 1994, Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan ended a 46-year of state of war
8. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made his offer to Arafat at Camp David, in the United States, in 2000.
9. These suicide bombings took place in 2001 and 2002.

Rabbi Ed M. Feinstein serves as rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom, in Encino, California, and as a lecturer in the Ziegler Rabbinical School at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles.

Betty Ann Ross is the coordinator of Educational Resources at BJE Nassau/Queens Center.