April 24/2015

Israel 67 independence Day – Cause for Celebration

This week, during Yom Ha’zikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day), we Israelis reflected on the price we have paid, and continue to pay, for our freedom and independence.

The following day we celebrated that independence bestowed upon us by the many heroes who sacrificed their lives so that Israel may exist.

Israel’s independence is, indeed, an occasion for celebration, rejoicing in the rebirth of our national freedom in our historic homeland, the Land of Israel.

We celebrate the fulfillment in our times of the words of the prophets of Israel, and the culmination of 2000 years of yearning. We celebrate the reunification of Jerusalem, the historic capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years. 

We celebrate the integration of immigrants from all corners of the earth into our society. We celebrate an Israeli society in which all citizens are equal under the law, Arab and Jew alike, within a robust democracy in which human rights for all are enshrined in our laws.

We celebrate the miraculous revival of our ancient tongue, Hebrew, last used as a spoken language in antiquity, transformed today into an official spoken language of the Jewish state. We celebrate having made the desert bloom. We celebrate building a vibrant hi-tech economy, at the forefront of global technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. We celebrate Israel being a proud and contributing member of the international community, sharing its expertise with the rest of the world, with the goal of making our planet a better place for all.

We must keep in mind that these accomplishments and so many others had to be earned; they were no entitlement. Israel faces significant challenges ahead, both externally and internally. Together, united and determined, we have proven that we are able to overcome any obstacle. Thus, united and resolved, we will meet the challenges ahead and continue fulfilling Israel’s promise of being a Jewish and democratic country, with equality and freedom for all citizens. 

 

Thank you and חג עצמאות שמח

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

Apr 17/2015

Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day 2015: The Anguish of Liberation and the Return to Life: Seventy Years since the End of WWII

This week we commemorated the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust.  Holocaust survivor and poet Abba Kovner strikingly illustrates the conflicted state of anguish in light of liberation. He wrote of a story of a Jewish woman survivor he met in Vilna who he met her when he arrived at the site of the destroyed ghetto with liberating Soviet soldiers. For almost a year, the woman and her young daughter had hidden in a small nook, and had come out from their hiding place for the first time after liberation. As her mother broke down in tears, relating their experiences for the first time, the child asked her, surprised: "Mame, men tor shoyn weinen? – Mommy, is it okay to cry now?"

On May 8^th, the defeated Germans capitulated to the Allied Forces. That day of liberation, the one for which every Jew had longed throughout the years of the Holocaust, was for most of them a day of crisis and emptiness, a feeling of overwhelming loneliness as they grasped the sheer scale of the destruction on both the personal and communal level.

Piercing questions arose in the minds of the survivors: How would they be able to go back to living a normal life, to build homes and families?

During the Holocaust, many Jews lived with the feeling that they were the last Jews to survive. Having survived against all odds, what obligation did they bear towards those who had not - was it their duty to preserve and commemorate their legacy? Were the survivors to avenge them, as they demanded before their death?

The overwhelming majority of survivors set out on a path of rehabilitation, while commemorating the world that was no more. As early as the first days and weeks after liberation, survivors began to recover and organize themselves. Many of them became a significant factor in the Zionist movement's international aspirations towards the establishment of a Jewish state.

About two-thirds of the survivors who chose not to remain in Europe after the war set their sights on Eretz Israel, despite the policies imposed by the British Mandate that barred them from entering into the Land

The illegal immigration movement – the Ha'apala – was a pivotal stage in the survivors' postwar recovery process. Holocaust survivors contributed, each in their own way, to building a better world for themselves, for their children and for future generations. They contributed immensely to the building of the nascent State of Israel.

Today, as we commemorate the memory of the six million Jews who perished, we should also reaffirm our commitment to continue assisting those survivors in need to build that better world for themselves, their children and future generations – a  world that will never again know and experience the horrors of the holocaust. 

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region

Apr 3/2015

Why Deniers of Freedom Should Be Denied Nuclear Weapons, and Why a Deal With Iran is Bad

Tomorrow and for the following eight days we will be celebrating the holiday of Passover.  Passover is all about freedom. For thousands of years, since the time our people gained their freedom some 3,000 years ago, we have been passing the concept of freedom from one generation to the next, year after year, in every Jewish house hold.

Freedom and all that derives from it – equality, respect for the other, human rights, freedom of  religion, pluralism – is, thus, solidly embedded in our personal and collective psyches. It is part of our DNA as a Jewish People, and it is part of Israel’s DNA as a Jewish state.

Not every country subscribes to that set of values, which we all hold dear and which unite us, as individuals and as free and democratic societies.

Iran is one such country. Iran’s regime practices and preaches a different set of values - of hate, destruction, violence and death.

Iran’s Murderous regime produces, in its words and actions, evidence to that effect on a daily basis. Here is a sample from recent days:

This week an Iranian general brazenly declared that: “Israel's destruction is non-negotiable”. Iran's claim that its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes doesn't square with its insistence on keeping underground nuclear facilities, advanced centrifuges and a heavy water reactor. Nor does it square with Iran's insistence on developing intercontinental ballistic missiles and its refusal to come clean on its past weaponization efforts. At the same time, Iran is accelerating its campaign of terror, subjugation and conquest throughout the region, most recently in Yemen.

In light of this, it ought to be abundantly clear why under no circumstances Iran should be allowed a path to the development of a nuclear weapon.

The proposed framework for a deal with Iran that was announced this week, unfortunately, provides Iran with that path and, hence,  poses a grave danger to the region, to the world and threatens the very survival of the State of Israel.

This deal would not shut down a single nuclear facility in Iran, would not destroy a single centrifuge in Iran and will not stop R&D on Iran's advanced centrifuges.

On the contrary. The deal would legitimize Iran's illegal nuclear program. It would leave Iran with a vast nuclear infrastructure. The deal would lift sanctions almost immediately; at the very time when Iran is stepping up its aggression and terror in the region and beyond.

In a few years, the deal would remove the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program. This would enable Iran to have the massive enrichment capacity to produce many nuclear bombs within a matter of months.

The deal would greatly bolster Iran's economy. It would give Iran tremendous means to propel its aggression and terrorism throughout the Middle East.

Such a deal does not block Iran's path to the bomb.

Such a deal paves Iran's path to the bomb.

Now is the time for the international community to insist on a superior deal. One that would significantly roll back Iran's nuclear infrastructure and link the eventual lifting of the restrictions on Iran's nuclear program to a change in Iran's behavior.

Shabbat Shalom,

  

Yaron Sideman
Consul General Of Israel,
Mid-Atlantic Region