Article circulated by email, written by Shalom Pollack, Israeli tour guide
During the "Simchat Torah" service at the "hesder yeshiva" in Hispin (on the Golan Heights) on Shabbat, October 7, I experienced something very similar fifty years ago. Call it deja vu.
A half a century ago I was an "exchange " student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
On Yom Kippur of 1973, I was lying down during the afternoon synagogue break when the most unexpected thing occurred;
I heard sirens.
After inquiring of Danny, my Israeli floor counselor, what it could possibly mean, he said "oh sheet! Dis means war man"!
After the first astonished moment I reassured myself that if those stupid Arabs really did attack us again, we would beat them as quickly as we did in the last wars. Our air force would stop them in their tracks no doubt. (Former air force chief, Ezer Weizman said that after the Six day War, the next one would be the “Six Minute" war)
I was not afraid and I was not alone in my confidence and arrogance.
Israel has never quite recovered from that war which we in fact almost did lose. To this day the experts are still arguing about how we were caught so off guard as to allow the Arab enemy to catch us by surprise and quickly wash over our sophisticated, impenetrable "Bar Lev" line along the Suez Canal.
Thousands of our soldiers were slaughtered. Israel was almost destroyed.
In real time, we did not know just how close we were to destruction. There was no social media at the time
Never again would we be so complacent or miscalculate and underestimate our enemy.
No more surprises.
Never again
Israel was supposed to have learned her lesson and changed its attitude; always be prepared for a similar. Surprise, always.
Yesterday while praying together with the special young men of the hesder yeshiva (where they combine army service and Torah study) a young man, rifle strapped across his back, approached the Rosh yeshiva(dean) and exchanged a few words accompanied by very serious expressions. A few moments later he announced to the young congregation that all those in certain units should have their phones open and ready for instructions.
He said, “It seems there is some tension in the south, but God willing it will all be well."
My thoughts were actually similar to those I had fifty years ago, almost to the day.
I was used to the periodic "rounds" with Hamas in Gaza.
The scenario is familiar to all by now.
They decide when another: “round " begins. They shoot rockets at our civilians near the border. Our people hide in terror. We shoot back, making every effort not to God forbid hurt anyone until they agree to a ceasefire.
After closing their lifeline line with Israel for a couple of days we resume the transfer of goods and money used to rebuild and restock their arsenals, for another round timed at their choosing
This is the pattern ever since Israel expelled thousands of Jews from Gaza and left the entire area to the Arabs who turned it into a terror fortress. That was supposed to bring peace.
I remember clearly the day in the summer of 2005 (Tisha Ba'av) that the Jewish pioneers of faith and courage were dragged from their homes by the Sharon government supported by willing underlings, including the "elites' and army command. They joyously pointed to the naked emperor’s very fine clothes.
As the wretched Jews were dragged and shoved out of their homes onto the road of exile their neighbors in the Leftist kibbutzim along the Gaza border jeered and mocked at the misfortune of their fellow Jews.
They were different, after all.
The religious Jews that brought Jewish blessing to the biblical lands were just not their type. They were "messianic" , religious, unashamedly patriotic..
They had no place in a promising new progressive post Zionist, post Jewish world. No room for obstacles to peace with our neighbors.
Those types are, "Not my brother."
Yesterday, I had no idea that Israel would make the same fatal mistake as they did half a century ago.
But It happened again.
Thousands of Hamas terrorists managed to penetrate the world’s most most sophisticated defense network along the Gaza border (remember the peace border of the 2005 expulsions?)
For half a day the terrorists swarmed over the border unopposed, entering at will ito an entire string of Jewish communities facing Gaza and proceeded to murder , torture, rape and abduct thousands of Jews.
Never since the Holocaust have more Jews been slaughtered in one day.
Never since the Final Solution were Jews hunted down in their homes as they quivered at the sound of their killers breaking into their hiding spots to quarry the Jews. Not until yesterday
Read that again.
That was just Saturday, October 7, 2023, a half century after; it would never happen again.
This time it was far worse than the Yom Kippur debacle.
Whole families were terrorized and murdered.
In 1973 the civilians were safe behind the lines. It was soldiers who were slaughtered and captured
Yesterday civilians were in the lines.
How could it have happened?
What are the possibilities?
One - Israel’s entire political, military and intelligence communities didn't just fail but were criminally derelict in the utmost extreme. Somehow, they were blinded and deaf.
How likely is that?
So, what is it?
The wakeup calls of Yom Kippur half a century ago clearly did not work
Will it work this time?
Shared with permission.
shalompollack613@gmail, com
tour guide and author
"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"
