BS”D michtavei jerry #2
Sderot Israel. May, 2009
Attention:
The Honorable Binyamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Open Letter to Binyamin Netanyahu
from Sderot Israel
by Jerry Waxman
Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu;
The first time I traveled to Israel was July 6, 1976, two days after celebrating America’s Bicentennial. The plane my brother and I were on was delayed at the airport in Paris due to a bomb threat. When the plane finally landed in Lod without exploding, the passengers clapped loudly. A bomb threat followed by such appreciation for arriving safely – that was my introduction to the “Israel experience.”
At the time, for me, touring in Israel was the same as touring any other country. I’ll admit that for much of my life I didn’t want people to know I was Jewish. I didn’t even think of myself as a Jew. I was ashamed of the fact. All that I knew of Jews then was that they were meak, and they were victims.
The first days in Israel put an end to that belief. People were still jubilant over the Entebbe Rescue mission. That mission told me a lot about Israel. It told me that the country stood for all Jews everywhere; not just the citizens of Israel. It told me that Israel would not rely on the rest of the world to do anything when Jews were the ones in trouble.
And for the first time in my life, I saw Jews as heroes, not victims. Heroes!
Five years later I was privileged to wear the uniform of Jewish heroes; I served in the IDF only months after making aliya. I was greatly inspired by a book, “Michtavei Yoni,” letters of Yonatan Netanyahu, the commander of the Entebbe Rescue operation.
Sadly, Yonatan was killed in that mission. But his letters, his thoughts about doing well at everything, and his commitment to preserving a homeland for Jews – they were inspiration not only for me, but for many men and women like me who would look to Yoni as a role model.
Well, that was some years ago. But I have to tell you, I still get inspiration from Yoni’s thoughts, and his actions.
I was outside of Israel for a long time. But I’m back now. I came to live in Sderot. I chose Sderot because I read that people were leaving. For me, the right thing to do is to do the opposite of what the terrorists want you to do. They want us to leave Sderot – so I came to live in Sderot.
Mr. Prime Minister, in a few days you will meet with the president of the United States, Barack Obama. The rhetoric that we hear from Washington is that the U.S. is pushing for a plan for Israel to relinquish land for the Palestinians to form a state. As you well know, implementing this plan at this time would subject all of Israel to the type of rocket attacks Sderot has endured for the past 8 years.
Obviously you are under a lot of pressure. Not only do the U.S. officials seem to be barricading you into a corner, but also the Israeli press and the president of Israel are urging you to “cave in.” Many American Jews believe you should go along with U.S. policy.
Please don’t cave in, Mr.Prime Minister. Any weakness that you display will be an invitation for more terrorist activity. You know that. Furthermore, if you give in to the U.S. demands at this time, you will be letting down more Jews than you satisfy. You would let down not only all those who voted for you or for the parties that are in your coalition, you would also let down millions of Jews who are not in Israel.
In an ironic way, you would even let down all those Jews who are calling for you to cave in.
And you would let down yourself, and your family, and all those Jews, including Yoni, who have given their lives so that there could be this homeland for Jews.
Please remember these things, Mr. Prime Minister. When you choose to be a hero there will be many more Jews with you than against you.
Respectfully,
Jerry Waxman
Sderot Israel
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