How History Really Gets Made – The Rescue Of Ethiopian Jews, Part 1
Here's something you didn't learn in Hebrew school…
How Israel was pushed into doing Operation Moses.
What you'll read below is one of a several things that pushed Israel to rescue Ethiopian Jews. Perhaps soon I'll post on others.
This part revolves around my friend, film producer and Naked Archaeologist, Simcha Jacobovici.
Simcha is profiled in today's English-language Web version of Ha'aretz. It's a nice profile but it has some irritating mistakes (including Ha'aretz translating "North American Jewish Students Network" as "North American Jewish Student Alliance").
But there is also very much good (if you can decipher Ha'aretz's errors), including this bit of history you won't learn from your local rabbi or Federation [everything in bold type surrounded by square brackets [ ] is my commentary]:
…It was the late 1970s, a very stormy period on Canadian campuses. There were demonstrations against the Iron Curtain and calls for freeing Soviet Jewry on the one hand, and extensive fundraising for Israel, which had suffered a harsh blow in the 1973 war, on the other. Slowly, and somewhat overshadowed by these events, news on the situation of Ethiopian Jewry also began trickling in.
"The government of Israel didn't take any interest in them," Jacobovici remembers. "I couldn't understand that: Black Jews are being killed, raped and harmed, yet the Jewish People is remaining silent."
He decided to act, but the ideology of the Student Alliance [i.e., North American Jewish Students Network] did not support him. [This is another Ha'aretz error. Network not only supported Simcha, we founded the Canadian Association for Ethiopian Jews and ran an ongoing nationwide Ethiopian Jewry campaign in the US. Simcha is criticizing then-UJA-Federation leadership, not Network, as the next sentence makes clear.] "The message was to 'go raise money and donate it to Israel,'" he relates. "The Jewish community suppressed us. [I.e., the Jewish community suppressed the Jewish Students Network.] No one wanted to hear difficult questions."
The Mossad confiscates
Jacobovici decided he would not keep quiet. Parallel to his political activity, he became an investigative journalist, and in 1980 and 1981, published three articles in The New York Times about the situation of Ethiopian Jews. [There was also an article in 1984. Simcha pitched an op ed to the Times. The Times asked Simcha to find another author because Simcha had already written on the issue too many often. Simcha asked me to do it, and I agreed. I rewrote Simcha's piece and added new material. Later, to make sure the maximum impact was made and that nothing was left out, we spent almost two hours editing each other on the phone, Simcha in Toronto, me in Saint Paul - calls to Canada then more than $1.00 per minute, neither of us with any money. The Times agreed to run the new piece under my name and slotted it. I was then contacted by a 'representative' of the Israeli government who conveyed a message: Pull the piece. If I agreed to pull it, the Israelis promised they would get clean drinkable water into the Sudanese refugee camps where Ethiopian Jews were hiding. After much soul searching, I made the wrong decision – I pulled the piece, conditional on that water getting into Um Rakuba and other camps. The Times ran the piece under Simcha's name. The Times told me I was being hondled by the Israelis. They were right. No water arrived. No water purification systems arrived. Nothing arrived – except death. ] He says he wanted to spread a message "that didn't interest anyone, because Africa is far away."
In 1981 he borrowed a book on documentary filmmaking, raised a few thousand dollars and set out with a crew to the refugee camps in Sudan and Ethiopia. During the trip, he suffered from malaria, was bitten by a poisonous spider and nearly lost a leg - but he returned to Israel with dozens of hours of footage that documented the difficult situation of the Jews in Africa.
At the airport, several Mossad agents were waiting for him. "Just a few weeks earlier I had taken out a book of basic instructions for filming and all of a sudden I'm sitting in the Prime Minister's Office, shivering with malaria, facing the head of the Mossad who is explaining to me that he is confiscating the material I had filmed because I am doing damage to Israel."
The material was released after Jacobovici threatened to tell an international news conference about the confiscation, and it later became a film that won an honorable mention in a pre-Academy Award ceremony in 1985. According to The Economist, the film footage was one of the factors that prompted Israel to decide to bring over the Ethiopian Jews. …
The profile also discusses the film business, Simcha's recent move to Israel, his family's survival in the Holocaust, and more.
Here's an earlier piece I wrote for the Minneapolis StarTribune on Ethiopian Jewry. It was written in early June 1984 and published on 6-26-1984. While I caught flack for writing this, the irritation level was much lower than a New York Times piece would have been.
I was also careful to identify myself as a committee chairperson rather than as the chair of the entire US section of Network, a position I also held. As strange as this seems to Americans, student politics was then (and still is now) a big deal in Israel and in many European countries, and the difference between a committee chair and a country chair is significant.
[Please click to enlarge. If this does not work, please download the PDF below.]
Jewish code snarls probe into Crown Heights attack
BY LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, May 9th 2008, 4:00 AM
Long before the first rapper stopped snitching or any Mafiosi swore an oath of omertà, there was the Jewish law of mesira.
The tenet that forbids Jews from informing on fellow Jews is one of the hurdles facing Brooklyn prosecutors probing the April 14 attack on a black man by two Jewish men, sources told the Daily News.
Authorities - invoking a complaint long cited in cases involving rappers - said the initial probe was hindered by the local Hasidim's refusal to cooperate.
One source suggested the Orthodox community was taking a page from the rap world's "stop snitching" handbook. But it was actually lifted directly from the Code of Jewish Law.
"The Hebrew word is mesira, which means basically you are not allowed to be an informant," said Rabbi Shea Hecht, a well-known figure in Crown Heights.
"In essence, I am not allowed to snitch, period."
The attack in Crown Heights led Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes to empanel an investigative grand jury to try to shake loose reluctant witnesses. It's the same technique prosecutors tried unsuccessfully in the slaying of rapper Busta Rhymes' bodyguard in 2006.
Rhymes and about 50 other witnesses refused to cooperate with cops. Their decision was based on street cred. The slaying remains unsolved.
When college student Andrew Charles was attacked in Crown Heights by two men wearing yarmulkes last month, police quickly identified a suspect - the driver of the getaway SUV.
Menachem Ezagui came to the 71st Precinct stationhouse with a lawyer after the vehicle was discovered. Police sources said he refused to answer any questions.
Charles, 20, the son of a city cop, was walking on Albany Ave. when a bicycle-riding assailant sprayed him with Mace. The SUV then pulled up, with a second man jumping out to smash the college sophomore twice with a nightstick, police said.
Cops have made no arrests. A lawyer sought to broker a deal that would have led two Jewish suspects to surrender on reduced charges. Sources said the district attorney's office rejected the deal, insisting the attack was too severe.
According to Hecht, mesira is not an all-encompassing concept - common sense supersedes the law, as does the responsibility of preventing injury to others. "You're not allowed to stand on the blood of your brother," he said.
I'm still waiting for mandatory reporting in yeshivos
That comes with a loophole, too. If Jews are convinced that one of their own will not get a fair shake from authorities, they have no obligation to cooperate.
"There are double standards - sometimes they work to your advantage," Hecht said. "To think there's no political element to justice in America would be foolish."
Posted by: steve | May 09, 2008 at 07:59 AM
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627047368&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Another Jew killed today by terror after the "disengagment". SO much for less terror garbage from the secularists who brought more terror.
Posted by: avrohom | May 09, 2008 at 11:53 AM
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1209627050284&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFullFighting between the IDF and Hamas gunmen escalated over the weekend, after a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza near the northern Gaza Strip was killed by a mortar shell on Friday evening.
Rockets pound western Negev
Jimmy Kedoshim, 48, was fatally wounded by a mortar shell as he was gardening in his front yard.
Hamas radio announced Friday night that the group took responsibility for the attack.
On Saturday, the Islamist group fired more than 20 rockets at the western Negev, wounding several people and damaging numerous buildings and courtyard areas, after five Hamas gunmen were killed and six wounded in air strikes on Hamas police stations in Khan Yunis and Rafah, the IDF said.
SO much for the great disengagement and expulsion of 9,000 JEws! and the threat to the lvies of residents in sderot after the wonderful stupid actions of the secular idol worshippers of "piece shmess".
Posted by: avrohom | May 10, 2008 at 11:23 PM
As I've pointed out previously, it is not enough to simply be opposed to the current situation.
You MUST have a clear plan that can work in the real world – WITHOUT RELYING ON MIRACLES.
You have been asked many times. You have no plan.
Posted by: Shmarya | May 11, 2008 at 01:25 AM
JPost.com » Israel » Article
May 11, 2008 12:59 | Updated May 11, 2008 14:57
'Lebanon is a Hizbullah state, gov't has become irrelevant'
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
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"Lebanon must be related to as a Hizbullah state," Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Sunday.
[Deputy Defense Minister Matan...]
Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai.
Photo: Courtesy
Slideshow: Pictures of the week
"Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant," Ramon said at the weekly cabinet meeting.
"The notion that there is another government apart from Hizbullah is entirely fictional," added the vice premier.
Ramon's remarks came after head of Military Intelligence, General Amos Yadlin, provided an intelligence briefing to the cabinet ministers on the recent clashes in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was paying close attention to the unfolding crisis.
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* Hizbullah gunmen quit Beirut streets
Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that "Hizbullah continues to be in control of Lebanon, without carrying the responsibility of managing the country,"
"[They] continue to create problems for Israel, like during the Second Lebanon War, and this prevents us from fighting against terror."
Dichter also commented on the upcoming visit of Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Israel, saying that he doubted the official would be successful in efforts to produce a ceasefire, as he has so far failed to keep Palestinians from firing Kassam rockets into the western Negev.
Meanwhile, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i told Army Radio that Israel was prepared for the possibility of the situation in Lebanon deteriorating into another civil war and was closely monitoring the situation's developments, though would not get involved in the latest outbreak of violence there.
The Lebanese violence that has killed at least 38 people in four days was sparked when the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora tried to crack down on Hizbullah last week.
Hizbullah responded by seizing control of many Beirut neighborhoods loyal to the government.
Beirut, which experienced four days of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shi'ites, spent a quiet night Sunday. But many of its roads remained blocked, including the one to the airport, however, by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign of the opposition, and heavy fighting broke out between pro and anti-government supporters in northern Lebanon, security officials reported.
Vilna'i said the current sectarian fighting could end with a Hizbullah takeover of the government.
"We need to keep our eyes peeled and be especially sensitive regarding all that is happening there," Vilna'i said.
"We shouldn't get involved. We need to watch and should follow this very closely even when we are dealing with other fronts," he said, referring to continued fighting against Hamas.
Israel is especially concerned about the situation in Lebanon in light of the Hamas's control of Gaza, Vilna'i said. Hamas and Hizbullah, as Iranian proxies, are mutually dependent, he said.
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should not yet take any action, but warned that things could change if Hizbullah takes over Lebanon.
"I think it's very dangerous, the (possible) situation in which Iran is in fact sitting on our border, and controlling Lebanon," Sheetrit said. "It's really dangerous in the long term because now its plain to everyone that ... Hizbullah is just the long arm of Iran and that's the way we should relate to it."
Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven, who served as deputy head of the Northern Command during the Second Lebanon War, said Hizbullah's increasing strength stems from the 2006 conflict.
"I must say, as one who deeply participated in the Second Lebanon War, I feel sad, because if we then would have done what we needed to do and turned Hizbullah into a failed force, we would be in a different situation today," Ben-Reuven told Army Radio.
The false secular messiahs have blood in their hands!
Posted by: avrohom | May 11, 2008 at 07:22 AM
ANALYSIS: Clashes in Beirut - not only Lebanon's problem
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Israel, Fouad Siniora
The minor civil war that was going on in Lebanon over the last few days, which apparently reached a temporary time-out on Saturday, should not immediately impact Israel's security situation. Hezbollah appears focused on improving its status in the Lebanese domestic arena, and does not seem to be seeking a direct confrontation with Israel. But on the slightly longer term, Israel's leaders should worry. One of the Olmert administration's few achievements from the Second Lebanon War may be undermined: the (partial) distancing of Hezbollah from Southern Lebanon by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701.
Israeli intelligence recognizes that Hezbollah has recovered from the shock of the war in 2006. It has tripled its rocket supply, and weapons smuggling from Syria has continued uninterrupted. Its main consideration is ratcheting up pressure on its domestic adversaries, in complete coordination with its patron, Iran.
At a press conference on Saturday in Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora appeared shocked by Hezbollah's violence, and at times ready to cry, as he did in August 2006. However Siniora and the other members of the anti-Syrian camp should not be surprised at the military capabilities of the Shi'ite group or its willingness to turn its weapons on its political rivals. For years, successive Lebanese governments have not demanded unconditionally that Hezbollah lay down its arms. They may have deluded themselves that Hezbollah's joining the parliament, and later the government, would moderate the group (like Hamas and the Palestinian
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uthority).
Siniora was forced to remind his listeners on Saturday that Hezbollah had pledged not to resort to armed resistence, except against Israel, and he attacked Hezbollah over its attempted coup. But in the end he raised a white flag: His government, he said, had not published a decision to dismantle the Hezbollah communication network. The Lebanese army has also not done so.
Siniora said Saturday Hezbollah is "all of Lebanon's problem." But it is not only Lebanon's. On Israel's southern and northern borders are pro-Iranian extensions, and conflict with them is not a question of if but rather when.
Hezbollah has so far not outrightly contravened Resolution 1701 and renewed its armed presence along Israel's border. But with a weak Lebanese military and a hesitant UNIFIL, Nasrallah might do so in the future. For Israel, preoccupied with Olmert's latest investigation, apparently preparing for elections and hesitating in the face of rocket ttacks from Gaza, this might be another serious challenge, coming at a not particularly convenient time.
Posted by: avrohom | May 11, 2008 at 07:26 AM
1. You're off topic.
2. Stop pasting entire articles as comments.
3. As I've pointed out previously, it is not enough to simply be opposed to the current situation.
You MUST have a clear plan that can work in the real world – WITHOUT RELYING ON MIRACLES.
You have been asked many times. You have no plan.
Posted by: Shmarya | May 11, 2008 at 07:48 AM
Rocket Victim Kedoshim Killed by Iranian Rocket
May 11, 2008
kassam47.jpgIDF officials announced the rocket that killed Kibbutz Kfar Aza resident Jimmy Kedoshim on Friday, close to candle lighting time, was manufactured in Iran and sent to Gaza via Philadelphi Route.
IDF officials report that Iran is supplying large quantities of military grade weapons to terrorists in Gaza in addition to training terrorists in Iran and sending instructors to Gaza, all towards assisting Hamas in stepping up attacks against Israel.
At least 28 Kassam rockets and mortar shells pounded southern Israeli residents on Friday and Shabbos, with residents of Kfar Aza calling on the government and the IDF to take action to bring an end to the warfare.
“We are ducks in a shooting range,” stated neighbors of Jimmy Kedoshim after the fatal rocket killed the 48-year-old father of three.
One Kassam slammed into a Sderot home, resulting in heavy property damage. Fortunately, there was no loss of life or injuries.
Attacking terrorists in Gaza from the air, the air force following the fatal Friday evening attack targeted and eliminated at least six Hamas terrorists, leaving others injured.
Addressing a Tel Aviv forum, Defense Minister Ehud Barak stated “we must deal wisely” with the situation towards bringing an end to the rocket attacks. (Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
1) It is on topic of this blog,
2) which attempts to portray observant judaism at fault for all ills of the world;
3) but "Tul korah miben eynecha" you are hte worshipper of the secular gods.
4) I gave you a solution: When there is Kassam attack from a location. Warn the people of that location to vacate because they weill razr that palce,
5) You were shown the falaccy and shallowness of the secular owshippers position. Just because in you mind there is no solution does not absolve you or give you any right to put more jews in graver danger.
6) The disengagment brought the creation of hamas as hamastan and gave rise to greatest of infiltrations of weapons by IRAN and talibans.
7) you and other antisemites (including those who became the worse antisemites because their hatred to observant jews and juudaism) will defend soneh yisroel Aand excoriate every single observant jew.
8) declare officially that you belong to anothere religion!
Posted by: avrohom | May 11, 2008 at 07:53 AM
I gave you a solution: When there is Kassam attack from a location. Warn the people of that location to vacate because they weill razr that palce,
Explain how that solution works in the real world:
1. The West and the UN won't tolerate it. How do you overcome the problems this will cause?
2. Hamas WANTS Israel to kill civilians. It STRENGTHENS Hamas, just as carpet bombing would STRENGTHEN Hamas.
3. Carpet bombing doesn't work tactically, and there is ample evidence for this. The US Army stopped doing it because it is COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.
Your "solution" is, as pointed out before, no solution at all.
Posted by: Shmarya | May 11, 2008 at 08:05 AM
Back to topic.
I am currently hosting two Israelis who walked out of Ethiopia and came to Israel via Sudan. Wonderful stories re the trek, kletah in Israel, etc. Discrimination continues to be a problem but less so for the youngest generation. Great people, wonderful sense of Yahadut and understanding of the role of education.
Posted by: state of the Jews | May 11, 2008 at 08:47 AM
how about when JWB hijacks a thread. No comments then.
Posted by: anonymous | May 11, 2008 at 03:50 PM
I email him and ask him to stop.
Posted by: Shmarya | May 11, 2008 at 03:53 PM
Scott,
You spew bobbeh mayssohs. Nothing was tried. What was tried was the idol worshippers of the secular gods which leads to the destruction of normal life
Posted by: avrohom | May 11, 2008 at 09:33 PM
Actually, the US tried carpet bombing in Vietnam. It didn't work. And it fails in all advanced war games run by the US, NATO and Israel.
You've been told this before.
Posted by: Shmarya | May 12, 2008 at 12:09 AM
Carpet bombing is too old school. But Israel can still be more aggressive in defending itself, in my opinion. Unfortunately, any industrialized nation that relies on trade has to concern itself somewhat with world opinion. But as they say "Die Oylam iz ah Goylem." Clinton used B-52's against the Serbs, when no side in that war was clearly in the right or free of atrocities. An old airliner, converted to a heavy bomber and loaded with smart munitions might be the thing.
The Alon Plan would produce defensive borders, preserve some of Eretz Yisrael as a side benefit, and is non-messianic.
Posted by: Yochanan Lavie | May 12, 2008 at 09:02 AM
to all idiotic antisemites who won't attack hamas because it strengthens hamas (what a chelemer stupditiy) and their worship of false secular gods another woman was today sacrificed in the altar of the idol worshippers:
REad here:
Woman killed as rocket directly hits Negev home
By Avi Issacharoff, Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Ashkelon, Israel, Qassams
A 70-year-old woman was killed Monday in a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip, the rescue service said.
The victim was named as Shuli Katz, of Kibbutz Gvaram.
The rocket hit a house in Moshav Yesha, where Katz was a guest, 15 kilometers (9 miles) east of Gaza. The rocket struck farther away than the usual targets of rockets fired by Gaza militants.
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No one else was hurt, the rescue service said.
The attack came as the Egyptian chief of intelligence wrapped up talks with Israel about a truce with Hamas to end rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the deadly rocket, apparently a Grad, after two similar rockets exploded in the southern city of Ashkelon in the morning. Islamic Jihad has fired most of the Grad rockets, while other Gaza militant groups aim crude homemade rockets at Israeli villages.
Israel has charged that Islamic Jihad receives its rockets from Iran.
Government spokesman Mark Regev denounced the attack but did not say it would halt the truce talks. "The rocket fire into Israel will end, it will end either because calm will be achieved, or Israel will act to protect its people," he said.
President Shimon Peres commented on the tragic incident Monday evening, saying "the war continues ? we are not free of worries, but we must remain hopeful and never succumb to the ongoing terror from the Strip."
Earlier Monday, two rockets hit Ashkelon. One of the rockets struck an area crowded with many schools and kindergartens at 7 A.M., only minutes before children normally flood the area.
The second rocket struck the Ashkelon National Park.
One woman was treated for shock and some homes sustained damage.
On Sunday, Gaza militants fired three rockets at the western Negev, one of which exploded next to a schoolbus carrying children.
Two of the rockets, fired Sunday afternoon, hit populated areas in Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council.
There were no injuries in either of the strikes. The first rocket landed near Sapir College, damaging a local construction site.
The second Qassam exploded near a local gas station, causing damage to the school bus. There were no casualties reported, but several people were treated for shock.
On Saturday, an Israeli civilian was killed when a mortar shell exploded as he tended his garden in the community of Kfar Aza. Jimmy Kdoshim, 48, was laid to rest in the cemetery near his home.
At least 21 rockets hit the western Negev over the weekend.
Israel resumes fuel supply to Gaza
A senior Gaza energy official said Monday that Israel had resumed its supply of fuel for a Gaza power plant idled two days ago.
The official, Kaanan Obeid, said he expected the power plant to start operating again later Monday.
Obeid said the plant was shut down Saturday because it ran out of fuel, normally supplied by Israel. It was not clear whether the plant actually ran out of fuel or whether Gaza energy officials were trying to exaggerate the impression of crisis.
Israel has severely limited shipments to pressure Palestinian militants to halt their rocket barrages.
The idled power plant supplies electricity to about 400,000 people. However, most of Gaza's electricity is piped directly from Israel, so residents still received electricity for about six hours a day despite the plant shutdown.
Posted by: avrohom | May 12, 2008 at 06:42 PM