A Jerusalem Summer

by Gil Troy
CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS, September 9, 2004

Whenever we allow the Palestinian question to define Israel or Zionism, we grant Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat a victory he does not deserve.

This is not to endorse pie-in-the-sky or head-in-the-sand approaches. We must learn about Israel’s challenges, Palestinian and otherwise. But a real relationship with the Jewish state demands a more balanced conversation than the one currently taking place among Jews, let alone reporters, politicians or diplomats.

This summer, optimism returned to the streets of Jerusalem, thanks to the strategy of hunting terrorists in their home base, building a fence to keep them out, and mobilizing soldiers, security guards and citizens to stop potential mass murderers.

This summer, the boom-boom-boom occasionally punctuating the cool Jerusalem evenings sent Jerusalemites scurrying to view fireworks that enveloped the Old City walls in colourful blues, yellows, reds and whites.

This summer, the Moment Cafe', ravaged by terrorists in 2002, battled the Israeli tax authorities rather than Palestinian murderers – while its frustrated owner nobly refused donations from strangers, saying, "I don’t want charity; come for dinner instead."

This summer, Steve Averbach, a father of four paralyzed by a suicide bomber he tried to stop in May 2003, returned home, defying predictions he would never leave the hospital.

This summer, tears of pride flowed as Israel’s first gold medalist sang Hatikvah in Athens, and his mother boasted on national TV that he got the words right.

For my family, summertime in Jerusalem meant guaranteed sunny days, with appropriately sympathetic sighs for our rain-soaked friends in Montreal. It meant attending bar and bat mitzvahs in creative settings – a kibbutz, the Western Wall excavations, the Israel Museum and Neot Kedumim, a site on which every Biblical plant is cultivated.

Summertime in Jerusalem meant sampling Ramah’s Jerusalem Day Camp, with its charming spirit and beautiful values; the YMCA’s sports camp, with Arabs, Jews and Christians united by a love of basketball and soccer; and the Ein Yael "Biblical Village," with its creative crafts, set in a 3,200-year-old farm.

Summertime in Jerusalem meant distributing goodies to security guards – the often overlooked invisible army protecting Israelis. One long, sweaty Friday morning was spent pondering with our nine-year-old daughter her question: "Why is it easier to make mischief than do mitzvot?" Our seven-year-old son played the 17 songs of his Suzuki music "Book One," fiddling at a park overlooking the Old City. Our four-year-old scampered atop the Old City walls, joyfully confusing the Romans and the British, proudly pointing to every spot as being the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Isaac and where Solomon the Wise built the Temple. Our two-year-old daughter learned to say bakasha, a toddler version of the word B’vakasha meaning "please," while bastardizing with equal glee the song Salaam, with its hopeful lyrics, "Peace will soon come."

Summertime in Jerusalem exposed us to some of the performance artists populating the city – the rabbi who hosts dozens at his home every Shabbat meal; the British teacher who delightedly introduces the uninitiated to chassidic tishes, the Friday-night gatherings where hundreds of Mea Shearim Chassidim sing until 4 a.m. Summertime in Jerusalem meant chanting with these Chassidim one night; chanting with thousands of Betar Yerushalayim soccer fans the next night.

Summertime in Jerusalem was about starlit concerts and dinners, about contemplating how to convey the beauty of Israel in a conversation with 40 Canadian Birthright Israel students and a dozen Israeli soldiers, who learned that they are not alone – and are fighting not just for their homeland but for the Jewish people.

Israel has defeated Arafat’s war to destroy the Jewish state by combining military might, creative strategizing and true grit. Friends of Israel need to defeat Arafatism through an equally effective combination of political power, creative education and a truer understanding of this modern miracle by the Mediterranean – acknowledging its flaws but also its strengths.

This year, in schools and in shuls, on campus and in the media, let’s reject Arafat’s caricature, while engaging with the Israel that people experience and love.

And this year, let’s visit Israel, so that each of us can attest to the beauty of the land, the vitality of the society, the spirit of the people, and the alluring, enduring peace of Jerusalem.

Gil Troy is Professor of History at McGill University and the author of Why I Am a Zionist: Israel, Jewish Identity and the Challenges of Today