EXCUSE ME, MR. PRIME MINISTER Eli Kenin "Itini il hawiya minfadlak - identity card please," I said, as I stopped a powder blue Mercedes with five Arab males which fit the description of a car from which shots had been fired, a few kilometers down the road. It was at the beginning of my first reserve duty, a few years back, during the days of the intifada. I had made a quick decision to use the few words of American-accented Arabic I had learned, rather than my similarly-accented Hebrew. I remember being self-conscious about using the word minfadlak (please). Was I being too polite, unauthoritative? How would a sabra handle it? The identity cards were produced and the Mercedes passed on into a cloud of dust, like so many routine incidents in a-day-of-a-life of an "Anglo-Saxon" reservist. No one expected the real perpetrators to come barreling down the main road, anyway. Covering me from the guard booth a few meters above was another "Anglo," an American rabbinical student who belonged to one of the more liberal movements of Judaism. I didn't share his views on Israel's future. We spent many a freezing night during that wintry month in heated discussion. What united us far beyond our common language and background was a commitment to live in Israel and a desire to make whatever small contribution, however routine and unheroic it may be, to its security. Prime Minister Rabin, you recently told an angry crowd of "Anglo-Saxon" immigrants at a gathering at the Wingate Institute that we English-speakers "didn't fight for the land, didn't build it [and] came here only recently." I agree, although I happen to know personally a few "Anglos" who fought in Israel's wars. I cannot, however, agree with your conclusion that we therefore "don't have the right to judge its actions or its directions." I'm sorry, Mr. Prime Minister, I just immigrated too late to be handed a rifle and sent to the front lines shortly after landing on a deserted beach, as did many a heroic refugee during the War of Independence. Some gave their lives in their first days as Israelis in order to establish the State. No, I came on El Al, with a one-way ticket largely financed by the Jewish Agency and was sent to an absorption center to learn Hebrew. Today, thanks to you and those who fought to make Israel a reality, a Jew can arrive from anywhere in the world and become an instant citizen with full voting rights. Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but I don't recall your complaining when thousands of Russian immigrants, many fresh off the plane, helped create the dramatic power shift in Israeli politics that brought you and the Labor Party to power in the last elections. They also "didn't fight for the land, didn't build it [and] came only recently," and now

that they have become a vibrant part of Israeli society, I don't find you vehemently denying them a role in the future decisions of the State. I'm sorry, Mr. Prime Minister, for not having lent a hand in draining the swamps of the Hula Valley and clearing the barren hills of stones. I suppose I was just born too late. Today, thanks to those of your generation who toiled to build a vibrant economy out of the wastelands, an immigrant can find work in any number of fields. Allow me to remind you, however, that most of us "Anglos" had much better economic prospects in our home countries and many of us struggle to get by. Having come here out of choice, we tend to be ideologically-oriented. If you look closely, you'll find us represented not just in the settlements, but like that fellow-soldier from my first reserve duty mentioned earlier, in Peace Now, as well. Excuse me, Mr. Prime Minister, but I grew up in a climate that encouraged political activism, and yes, as a caring Jew I had formed opinions about Israel's future even before stepping off the plane. I took up the challenge of those who, like yourself, feel that Diaspora Jews have no right to criticize Israeli government policies I was born too late to lend a hand in draining the swamps of the Hula Valley... without coming to live here. Shortly after arriving, I was asked, at the last minute, to replace the master of ceremonies at a small political gathering for overseas students. I recall repeating to myself a number of times the name of a three syllable, decidedly right-of-center political party before introducing its spokesman. The truth was that Israeli politics, with its myriad complexities was, at the time, still a grey zone for me. Had I been given a test in the intricacies of Israeli democracy, I most certainly would have failed. But so would those, then, recently-arrived Russian immigrants who, equating "robot-work" with Labor and the jobs the party promised, brought you to power, allowing you to undertake your present "peace" policies--policies that many of us "Anglos" and thousands of other Israelis feel are being carried out on the borderlines of representative democracy. I'm sorry, Mr. Prime Minister, that you were shouted down when you tried to speak at the Wingate Institute, although I understand the anger. I wasn't there. If I had been, I would have listened to what you had to say, because I believe in Hillel's maxim, "Do not do unto others what you find hateful unto yourself." That's right, Mr. Prime Minister, you're not listening to us, not to the English-speaking community or anyone else who opposes your policies--not even to the public opinion polls that state that the majority of Israelis believe that there should (Continued on p.6)

November 1995               - 5 -               Outpost