Page 29 - Kol Bogrei Habonim - September 14
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are you here? What is this place? What does it two represented the general feelings of the
mean? What kind of a land are we building? audience. Maybe my remarks were
The dream such as it was began collapsing for inappropriate but I think they were accurate.
me after the Lebanese war. Post 1982 I was no Often I think of England and wonder what
longer sure. And unfortunately as the years went would have happened had I stayed. For my sins
by I began to see a rift growing with some of my I once worked as a solicitor in Wimpole Street,
kibbutz friends. To my mind many of them and can easily picture myself ensconced in
refused to see the reality of what Israel had Hampstead Garden Suburb, with the Jaguar, slim
become. wife and two public schooled kids. But would I
The climax came at a IBH reunion a year ago have been happy with that? I now see living in
where I was showing one of my films about Ikey England as something like a lukewarm bath. It’s
Solomon, a receiver of stolen goods, who was not hot enough that you enjoy it, but not cold
possibly the inspiration for Dickens’ character of enough that you have to get out, in short, a
Fagin in “Oliver Twist.” Before the film a nice drifting, non demanding environment. In
middle aged lady from London gave a talk on contrast Israel sparks the adrenalin. No day is
the greatness of Israel, and how every Jewish the same. It is confirmation of the old Chinese
boy and girl of 18 in England and the USA curse...”You should live in interesting times.”
should come and see the wonders of this Well, masochistically, I’ve come to enjoy the
glorious land. It seemed to me an inspirational curse.
talk fit for arm-chair Golders Green Zionists, Now the subject of this piece is “It sounded like
and totally out of place for mature Israelis. a good idea at the time.” Well that reunion
Unwisely, as it turned out, I ventured a few audience may not have believed it, but it still
sentences to the effect that Israel wasn’t all milk seems a good idea to me. Like everybody else I
and honey and that those abroad should be told can see and deeply appreciate and admire the
the truth. I said something about the debilitating wonders that have been achieved in this small
occupation, the poverty, the corruption, the land in so few years. And my respect for those
decline in moral values, and the crazed obscene who brought it about cannot be measured. To
ugliness of the actions of some hill settlers. By paraphrase the Bard, I still believe it can be this
way of response I was promptly told by one other Eden, a demi paradise. But this will only
member of the audience that I should stay in happen when we stop burying our heads in the
England…she didn’t believe I’d been forty years sand, face reality, see how the dream has been
in Jerusalem. Then someone else told me to go tarnished and soiled, and work to build a
back to London, where I belonged, as I was different future. Can it be done? I have to think
soiling Israel’s great name. And I think those so.
Part of Alan’s portfolio
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