PA Minister Claims Israel’s Western Wall as Palestinian Land

Jerusalem- The Wailing Wall
June 7, 1967

Sometime around 10:15 on the morning of June 7, 1967 

The first reservist paratroopers of Brigade 55 broke through the Lion’s Gate leading into the Old City of Jerusalem and reached the narrow enclave of the Western Wall. Having just fought a fierce two-day battle in the streets of east Jerusalem, they grieved for lost friends, and grieved as well for their own lost innocence in what for many was their first experience of combat. They leaned against the Wall, some in exhaustion, some in prayer. Several wept, instinctively connecting to the Wall’s tradition of mourning the destruction of the Temple and the loss of Jewish sovereignty—precisely at the moment when Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem had been restored.

Several hours later, Yitzhak Yifat, a twenty-four-year-old reservist about to begin medical school, reached the Wall. As part of the brigade’s 66th Battalion, he and his friends had fought in the Six Day War’s toughest battle: Intimate combat against elite Jordanian Legionnaires in the trenches of Ammunition Hill, on the road to Mount Scopus.

“The Photograph: A Search For June 1967″
Yossi Klein Halevi
Azure
Summer 2007

This week PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al Habbash claimed the Western Wall belonged to Palestine.
The Jerusalem Post reported:

Mahmoud al Habbash demands Western Wall be returned to PA, yet remain open to Jewish worship.

Jerusalem, including the Western Wall, rightfully belongs to the Palestinians, PA Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud al Habbash stated in a Channel 10 interview Monday.

“There will not be peace without putting an end to the Israeli occupation that began in 1967. Every piece of land that Israel conquered then belongs to the Palestinians,” claimed Habbash.

Habbash added that “all the holy places, including the Aksa mosque and the Western Wall” rightfully belong to the Palestinian Authority and must be returned as well.

When asked whether Jews will be able to pray at the Western Wall, Habbash said that politics and religion are two separate things and that there will be no religious limitations.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/

Tour Reveals Jewish History in Arab Galilee Towns

Friday tour shows Jewish priestly communities in Galilee after fall of Second Temple, most stops now Arab towns.

Galilee

Moreshet Ha'galil (Heritage of the Galilee), which investigates Jewish heritage throughout the Galilee, plans to hold a unique tour this Friday along the paths followed by the Jewish priestly communities (mishmarot haKohanim) as they fled to the area from Jerusalem, following the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.

Shabtai Shiran, manager of the organization, told Arutz Sheva about the tour. He notes that the kinot, special prayers recited on Tisha B'avcommemorating the fall of the Temple, detail the stops the priestly communities took in fleeing to the Galilee, which was almost completely Jewish at the time.
While some stops are well-known, others are in what are currently Arab towns, reveals Shiran. Two examples are Deir Hanna, which in the past was Kfar Hanna, and Arabe that was Kfar Arav in the time of thedestruction. According to Shiran, the Arab villages currently occupying several of the stops allow visitors as long the tour doesn't show clear "nationalistic characteristics." 

The Kohanim lived around Jerusalem as part of their priestly service in the Temple. After the destruction they avoided the area, with its heavy Roman presence, going to the Galilee to stay in completely Jewish communities, reports Shiran.

This migration occurred to protect the women from rape, and over concern that proximity with the Romans would affect the status of ritual purity that the Kohanim strictly guarded, following the Roman soldiers' contact with the dead that transmits ritual impurity.

The Kohanim therefore "wandered to a place that was completely Jewish. ...In 200 CE the Galilee was completely Jewish," comments Shiran.

He adds that aside from the Kohanim, the Sanhedrin (Council of Sages) also fled to the Galilee following the destruction, being driven gradually further from Jerusalem along 10 different stops.

Shiran adds that many Arab villages don't deny their Jewish past, giving the example of Shfaram where a sign on the municipality building notes that the Sanhedrin resided at the location. Shfaram further preserves the ancient synagogue at the site, even though Jews do not come to pray there today. 

Another example Shiran gives is Kafr Yasif, where an ancient Jewishcemetery has been preserved.

By Ari Yashar, Arutz Sheva Staff
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Welcome to Hebron: Leave Your Preconceptions At the Door

Even as Palestinians throw fire bombs and commit acts of violence in Hebron, our soldiers risk their lives to uphold freedom and security for all of the city’s residents.  In the face of constant attacks, our values prove stronger the violence against us.

The city of Hebron is one of the oldest cities in the Middle East. It is the spiritual center for the three Abrahamic religions, and where Abraham purchased the Cave of the Patriarchs in order to bury his wife Sarah, according to the Bible. The city has held great significance throughout the ages and has been ruled by a large number of kingdoms and empires.

Even today, this ancient city attracts attention throughout the world, with media constantly focusing on the violence between its Jewish and Muslim populations. What’s left out of international coverage, however, are reports of the trade and cooperation at the heart of the city.

After Israel’s military success against Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War, Israel split the administration into two separate regions: Judea (where Hebron is located, in the south) and Samaria. The new political and security framework allowed Jews to return to the city to pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs, the second holiest site in Judaism.

The map of Hebron since 1997.

The city is more diverse than it may seem, especially around the shrine. Since the Hebron Protocol of 1997, the city has been divided into two sectors: the western sector (called H1), which was placed under the Palestinian Authority; (2) the eastern sector (called H2), which includes the historic Jewish district, the Cave of the Patriarchs and the new town of Kiryat Arba. It is in H2 thatthe Israeli army is deployed to secure the lives of Israelis and allow believers of different religions to come and pray at the holy site.

Keeping Civilians Safe in the Face of Violence

Co-existence of two populations is not accepted by all and violence is common in Hebron, mostly in the form of rock-throwing at Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers. Rock throwing is often downplayed as an innocent provocation, but in fact rocks can seriously injure and kill, as has been the case in Judea and Samaria, including in Hebron. For Captain Naveh Pepper, his mission is to teach soldiers how to react in the face of demonstrations that can sometimes erupt with with violence. “Our mission is not to educate or to stir up tensions, but to protect the civilians who are present. If we were to act violently, it would only make the situation even more tense, which is the opposite of what we want.”

Captain Naveh Pepper does not mince words: “Hamas is very present in Hebron and never misses an opportunity to destabilize the situation with terrorist acts. A month ago, a Hamas terrorist with a knife in one hand and a firebomb in the other, threw himself at a soldier in order to kill him,” he recalls. “Another terrorist tried to carry out an attack against a soldier with a firebomb and a gas bomb. These violent acts happen constantly in Hebron, so we must be vigilant all the time. “Even worse, an IDF soldier, Gabriel Koby, was killed during the Sukkot festival this past September while doing routine work, whose purpose was to defend and protect the Jewish community and the 11,000 civilians who visited the region during one of the principle Jewish holidays.

VIDEO: What Is It Like to Be Attacked By Rocks?

Despite the constant pressure, the image of Hebron that the media shows is far from reality. The role of the IDF in this sensitive area is “to protect Israeli civilians while simultaneously doing so with the least amount of disruption to the normal way of life of the city’s inhabitants,” Cpt. Pepper says.  Interaction between the Israeli army and Palestinians does not only happen during violent situations, but in fact is a common occurrence.

Freedom of Religion Guaranteed to All Worshippers

Cooperation with Palestinian authorities happens regularly. The IDF communicates regularly with Palestinian representatives through the District Coordination and Liaison Office. These exchanges are made in order to better organize life within the city.

In order to uphold the freedom of worship for those who want to pray in the Cave of the Patriarchs, the holy site has been cut in half. In one wing is a synagogue; In the other, a mosque. Furthermore, during important Jewish or Muslim holidays, the building is reserved for that respective faith that is celebrating. For example, for an entire month during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha (one of the most important Muslim holidays), the Cave of the Patriarchs is closed to Jewish worshipers.

Muslim worshippers leaving the Cave of the Forefathers after prayer services during the Eid al-Adha festival

Throughout the holiday, the IDF was on guard in Hebron to ensure free access to Palestinians and to maintain safety amid the heavy crowds. When the 3,000 worshippers left the Cave of the Patriarchs that morning, their eyes met with those of the IDF soldiers. Discussions between the Israeli army and the Waqf (Muslim authority in charge of places of worship) are normal occurrences. There have not been large, disruptive incidents this year and this quiet normality has failed to make ​​headlines around the world.

Providing Aid to Palestinian civilians: Routine for the IDF

In everyday life, the presence of the IDF is an opportunity for soldiers to help both Israelis and Palestinians with everyday problems that arise. It is not uncommon to see a Palestinian child being given first-aid treatment by an Israeli soldier. On one of these days, a Palestinian child child was wounded by a friend who, like him, was throwing rocks at Israeli security forces. A Border Police officer, who was the target of the rock-throwing along with other soldiers, decided to treat the child’s head injury. In everyday incidents like this one, the values ​​of the IDF’s forces prove stronger the regular violence against them.

A Border Police officer treats a Palestinian child who was injured by rocks that his friends were throwing.

Cpt. Naveh Pepper explains that the duty of the IDF toward children, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli is the same. “If a child is accidentally injured in the street, whether Israeli or Palestinian, we provide first aid.”

Examples of IDF helping Palestinians are not limited to children. “A few days ago, an elderly Palestinian civilian could not climb a flight of stairs, so a soldier came over and helped him up each step. This kind of situation is not uncommon here in Hebron.”

The situation in Hebron is complex and challenging. However, the truth about the everyday reality of the city is often misrepresented by media, which presents a one-sided view of the situation. In an area that is regularly the scene of violence and provocation, the IDF will continue to ensure the safety of the city while maintaining tolerance and respect.

IDF

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Sunday, 22 September 2013

NEWS ALERT - IDF Soldier Critically Wounded in Hevron Shooting attack in Hevron Sunday night, probably by an Arab sharpshooter, the IDF said

Arabs Fly Nazi Flag near Hevron

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Op-Ed: Jewish Rights in Judea and Samaria

Israel's former UN Ambassador Yehuda Blum on Jewish rights in Judea and Samaria.


To the attention of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry:

The following excerpt, stated in June 1979, is sadly still relevant 34 years later:

“A corollary of the inalienable right of the Jewish people to its Land is the right to live in any part of Eretz Yisrael [Palestine], including Judea and Samaria which are an itegeral part of  Eretz Yisrael.

"Jews are not foreigners anywhere in the Land of Israel. Anyone who asserts that it is illegal for a Jew to live in Judea and Samaria just because he is a Jew, is in fact advocating a concept that is disturbingly reminiscent of the ‘Judenrein’ policies of Nazi Germany banning Jews from certain spheres of life for no other reason than that they were Jews.

"The Jewish villages in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza district are there as of right and are there to stay.
“The right of Jews to settle in the Land of Israel was also recognised in the League of Nations ‘Mandate for Palestine’ which stressed ‘the historicalconnection of the Jewish people with Palestine and … the grounds for reconstituting’ - I repeat, reconstituting ‘their national home in that country.’

“The Mandatory Power was also entrusted with the duty to encourage ‘close settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and waste lands not required for public purposes.’”



Israel’s Government position as expressed by Professor Yehuda Z. Blum, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations at the Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner of the Zionist Organization of America. (Washington D.C., 11 June 1979)

Eli E. Hertz

 is the president of Myths and Facts, an organization devoted to research and publication of information regarding US interests in the world and particularly in the Middle East. Mr. Hertz served as Chairman of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting

First robbed of their books, now robbed of their history

 Times of Israel have been writing about,  an exhibition has now opened at the National Archives building in Washington D.C. featuring the highlights of a collection of 2,700 Jewish documents.

These documents were miraculously discovered, rescued from a waterlogged Baghdad basement in 2003, shipped to the US and painstakingly restored. They call it the Iraqi-Jewish Geniza: school records, prayer books, precious Bibles, letters, official documents - a unique record of an extinct community. However, controversy stalks the archive: it was stolen by the dictator Saddam Hussein and seized from its Jewish owners. Its return to Iraq would be tantamount to returning looted artworks to the Nazis.

Pleading in the New York Times for the archive not to be sent back to Iraq, Cynthia Kaplan Shamash begins by describing the 1941 Farhud, "the forgotten pogrom of the Holocaust". The murder of over a hundred Jews, seven years before the establishment of Israel, caused Iraqi Jews to conclude that they had no future in the country.

Cynthia's family, however, stayed in Iraq on until the 1970s. She was eight years old when an officer accused her of being a spy. Her doll was taken apart to see if it contained a bugging device. She still has the doll. In their desperation to escape Iraq's anti-Jewish human rights abuses, the family had to leave behind almost all their other possessions. The archive represents essential "lost luggage": it reconnects them with the life they left behind.

In December, a historian called Orit Bashkin is scheduled to give a talk as part of a programme of events associated with the National Archives exhibit. Ms Bashkin is the ‘new kid on the block’ in the field of the history of the Jews of Iraq. Her book “New Babylonians“, “chronicles the lives of these Jews, their urban Arab culture, and their hopes for a democratic nation-state. It studies their ideas about Judaism, Islam, secularism, modernity, and reform, focusing on Iraqi Jews who internalized narratives of Arab and Iraqi nationalisms and on those who turned to communism in the 1940s.”

The blurb on the book jacket of “New Babylonians” continues:

”The ultimate displacement of this community was not the result of perpetual persecution on the part of their Iraqi compatriots, but rather the outcome of misguided state policies during the late 1940s and early 1950s. From a dominant mood of coexistence, friendship and partnership, the impossibility of Arab-Jewish coexistence became the prevailing narrative of the region.”

Let’s run that again, Ms Bashkin.

‘Late 1940s and 1950s’ implies that the Iraqis reacted to the establishment of the state of Israel by making their Jews suffer. Ms Bashkin makes these ‘misguided’ policies sound incoherent, bumbling, almost accidental. Until the late 1940s. Bashkin views Iraqi Jews as ‘patriots’ building the new independent state of Iraq – or seeking a universalist solution in Communism – until Zionism tore their relationships with their Muslim partners asunder.

After the vast majority of Iraqi Jews had voted with their feet, joining the airlift to Israel, how does Orit Bashkin explain why Iraq continued its ‘misguided policies’ against the few thousand Jews, including Cynthia Shamash and her family, who remained behind? From the mid-1960s, these Jews were forced to carry special ID papers, were not allowed to travel or leave the country, had their bank accounts frozen and their telephones cut off. Such was the anti-Jewish campaign of terror unleashed by Saddam Hussein and his thugs, that the Jews were compelled to risk arrest by escaping the country. If this is not ‘perpetual persecution’, what is?

By pegging the start of the Jews’ troubles to the late 1940s and early 1950s, Bashkin downplays the deleterious effects of the 1941 Farhud.The rising influence of Nazism in 1930s, resulting in the sacking of hundreds of Jewish public servants, quotas and restrictions and a deadly antisemitic cocktail of propaganda and incitement culminating in the 1941 pogrom, hardly feature in Ms Bashkin’s book. For her, the Farhud was most notable for the numbers of Muslims who saved the lives of Jews from the raging mob, demonstrating age-old friendship and shared coexistence.

In reality, the Jews of Iraq had a sense of foreboding about their place in an independent Iraq as soon as the British had marched into Iraq after the defeat of the Ottomans in World War l. Between 1918 and 1921 a delegation of Baghdad Jewish notables visited Sir Percy Cox, the British High Commissioner, on three occasions. They requested British nationality, fearful of what Arab rule might bring. This significant episode barely rates a mention in Bashkin’s book.

There persists a real disconnect between how individuals such as Cynthia Shamash experience events and how academics, in their ivory towers, interpret them. As evidenced by a recent conference at the Yale Center for the Study of Antisemitism, Ms Bashkin is not alone, but one of a new crop of rising young stars in the field of Middle Eastern Studies. These scholars emphasise the points of connection between Arab and Jews, while erasing from the historical record, or glossing over, politically-incorrect human rights abuses. Some are eagerly redefining the identity of Jews in Arab countries as ‘hyphenated’ Arab-Jews, conflicted by the Arab-Israeli dispute, itself an aberration after centuries of peaceful coexistence. So desperate are post-modern academics to believe in the pre-Zionist ‘dominant mood of coexistence and friendship’ between Jews and Arabs, that they are willing to give ideological, Nazi-inspired, Arab Muslim antisemitism a free pass.

Thus, while the National Archives exhibit presents the West with a stark reminder of how Iraqi Jews were robbed of their books, they are simultaneously being robbed of their history. And the culprits in this case, are not the thugs of a despotic Middle Eastern regime, but our very own, mild-mannered academics.

blogs.timesofisrael.com

THE SUEZ CRISES - 1956 - How the Armies of Israel, Britain and France stood firm in the face of Nassers fury

The catalyst for the joint Israeli-British-French attack on Egypt was the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian leader General Gamal Abdel Nasser in July 1956. The situation had been brewing for some time. Two years earlier, the Egyptian military had begun pressuring the British to end its military presence (which had been granted in the 1936 Anglo-Egyptian Treaty) in the canal zone. Nasser's armed forces also engaged in sporadic battles with Israeli soldiers along the border between the two nations, and the Egyptian leader did nothing to conceal his antipathy toward the Israeli nation. 

Supported by Soviet arms and money Nasser ordered the Suez Canal seized and nationalized. The British were angry with the move and sought the support of Israel and France as it was also believed that Nasser was using the canal to help rebels ferry weapons.

On November 3^rd1956, Anthony Eden prepared to address the British nation.

In that same speech, Eden went on to explain how we should stand firm, united against Nasser and take action to undo what Nasser had done with regards to the Suez Canal.

In Egypt, civilians were given rifles in an effort to produce a makeshift militia that would support the army. The military in Cairo fully expected a full-scale Anglo-French invasion and wanted as many to help as was physically possible.

When the decision was finally made to go to war, more than 100,000 Israeli soldiers were mobilized in less than 72 hours and the Israeli air force was fully operational within 43 hours. Israeli Paratroopers landed in the Sinai and Israeli forces quickly advanced unopposed toward the Suez Canal before halting in compliance with Britain and France.      



Israeli troops advance

On November 5^th, Britain began its attack as men from the 3^rd Battalion of the Parachute Regiment took off for El Gamil airfield, to the west of Port Said. At 05.00, the first men landed at the airfield – 668 British paratroopers were to parachute into El Gamil in total. The paratroopers faced a mixture of civilians and army fighters.


French paratroopers, with some British in support, landed to the west of Port Said. At El Gamil, the resistance put up by the Egyptians was greater than expected and 3 Para took more casualties than had been anticipated. From El Gamil, 3 Para moved on Port Said itself at the mouth of the Suez Canal. The Royal Air Force gave the men fighter cover as they moved. Despite fierce resistance in a cemetery near Port Said, the allied forces had a successful first day.

However, on that day a letter was received in London – but not shown to the sleeping Eden until the following day – from Bulganin, the Soviet Union’s Prime Minister. As Suez was played out in the background of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, seeming Soviet involvement was a worrying occurrence. Bulganin made it clear that the Soviet Union would take action against any aggressors in Egypt.

In the era of the Cold War and with the world reeling from the Soviet invasion of Hungary, it would have been expected that Britain’s  and Israel's primary ally at the time – the United States of America – would have rallied to support Great Britain and Israel. This did not happen – in fact, the opposite happened.

Dwight Eisenhower, America’s president, was campaigning to be re-elected as President of America. The global image of an American ally acting like an imperial bully against a nation that probably could not protect itself against such a force was unacceptable to Eisenhower. He had already told Eden that the use of force was unacceptable to the Americans. In a letter to Eisenhower, Eden wrote:

“History alone can judge whether we have made the right decision.”

Militarily, Day One went as well as could have been expected. Diplomatically, things were not going well for Eden.

So With America refusing to back Israel, Britain and France on November 6^th, the sea landings took place in support of the paratroopers on the ground. At 04.00, guns from Royal Navy ships started to pound known defences in Port Said. At 04.45, men from 40 and 42 British Commandos, Royal Marines, started their assault on Port Said.

45 Commando Royal Marines went in via helicopters. Faced with a combination of British and French paratroopers, British commandos and the newly powerful Israeli Army in Sinai, it seemed obvious to many that the Egyptian forces would not last for long.

However, on the same day, politics started to take its toll. The Chancellor of the British Exchequer, Harold McMillan, told a cabinet meeting that there was a run on sterling, especially in New York and the Britain faced the real prospect of having to devalue sterling and also face the possibility of an Arab oil embargo due to Arab feeling of strength due to Americas lack of support for the military operation.

Both would have a major negative impact on the British economy. This was also coupled with the prospect of United Nation sanctions against Britain, Israel and France, surprisingly with American approval.

US President Eisenhower had also made it clear to his cabinet that America would not do anything to prop up sterling until Britain Israel and France had started to withdraw their forces from Egypt.

America persistently pressed against British, Israeli and French forces involvement and pressed for the military action to stop.  

By the end of November 6^th, Port Said had been taken and the military estimated that full control of the Suez Canal would only take another 24 hours. Victory was in sight, but with American backed UN pressure, however, they were ordered to stop fighting at midnight on the same day.

By November 7^th, casualty figures could be assessed. It is believed that about 650 Egyptians were killed including civilians, with 2,000 wounded.

The Anglo-French forces lost 26 men killed and 129 wounded – included in these figures were Royal Marines killed and wounded in a friendly-fire incident involving the RAF.

Britain and Israel together with France made the following statement through their governments

“We make no apology and will never make one for the actions which our nations took. We believed then and now that it was the right course of action and future generations will see fit our involvement and bare the consequences of its outcome”

British, Israeli and French troops started to withdraw on December 23^rd.

The Story of an Israeli Paratrooper Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation



Such a famous photograph

Thirty years ago this month, at the end of the Yom Kippur War, Israel found itself in a precarious position, confronting increasing Arab strength and hostilities from countries from afar. Having pressed into Egypt, the Israeli Army camped out on the banks of the Suez Canal, uncertain of their fate. In this excerpt from Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation, New Republiccontributing editor Yossi Klein Halevi follows the lives of one small slice of the army - the 55th Brigade, who had played a crucial role during the 1967 Six-Day War, in particular the Hebrew poet-songwriter Meir Ariel, whose uncertainty reflected larger concerns about the direction of the conflict.

The IDF had beaten back invaders on two fronts under the worst conditions it had faced since the War of Independence, brought the battle into enemy territory ten days after the invasion, and extended its reach to within 95 kilometers from Cairo and 35 kilometers from Damascus.

Yet the people of Israel felt defeated. The initial disarray had shattered Israeli self-confidence. For the first time since 1948, Arab armies had taken the initiative. In eighteen days of combat in Sinai and on the Golan, Israel lost over 2,500 men, a quarter of them officers, along with over 7,000 wounded - the largest number of casualties in any war since 1948. For a population of three million, the losses were devastating. Everyone seemed to know someone who had fallen. Once again, the toll was especially high on kibbutzim.

The 55th Brigade had led the most daring operation of the war and then endured sustained bombardment - more intense, said commander Danny Matt, than in any battle in World War II. Yet the brigade survived relatively intact, losing 57 men (along with 300 wounded) - half the number of its fatalities in the battle for Jerusalem.

Along with grief came rage. The Labor Zionist leadership had led the Jewish people through the twentieth century, remained steady through war and siege and terrorism, through waves of mass immigration and economic devastation. Until now. How had the pioneer statesmen and their hero generals become so complacent, so arrogant, that they had failed to notice the growing strength of Arab armies and the prewar buildup on the borders?

The world had never seemed to Israelis a more hostile place than it did in late October 1973. The Arab oil boycott, which punished pro-Israel countries with a suspension of oil deliveries, pressured Third World countries to sever relations with the Jewish state, while panicked European governments suddenly discovered the Palestinian cause. Only two countries - the United States and Holland - stood with Israel.



And who knew for how much longer? The whole world is against us, Israelis told each other. This fatalism about "the world" was a negation of Zionism, which had aimed to restore the Jews not only to Zion but to the community of nations. Gone now was the Zionist challenge to outwit the curse of Jewish history. The war that began on Yom Kippur threatened the secular Zionist dream of a normal Jewish state, a nation among nations, and seemed to return Israel back to Jewish fate.

Meir Ariel's unit was patrolling along the shore of Suez City when it came upon a bunker. Booted feet protruded from the aperture.

Meir and a friend crouched and entered. Inside, five Egyptian soldiers were asleep. "Brah!" - Out! - shouted Meir in Arabic. The dazed Egyptians lined up. Meir ordered them to empty their pockets. One produced a tag from an Israeli uniform. Meir and his friend looked at each other: he'd obviously taken it from a soldier's body, probably in one of the outposts of the Bar-Lev Line. Meir pointed his gun, finger on the trigger. His friend was surprised to see him acting so decisively, somilitary. Any sudden move from the Egyptian, it seemed, and Meir would have fired.

In mid-November another cease-fire was negotiated, this time directly between Egyptian and Israeli officers. It was a hopeful moment: the first face-to-face negotiations between the two adversaries since the 1949 armistice.

But for Meir and his friends, living in an abandoned youth hostel in Suez City, the cease-fire simply meant a reduction in the level of fighting. Every so often, the Egyptians would remember the Israelis across the way and fire a single mortar, and Meir's crew would fire a single shell back.
Life in Suez City settled into routine. There was guard duty and hunting expeditions for sheep and calves to roast at the campfires where the stubble-faced men in woolen caps chain-smoked and argued into the night about the government's failures and sang the old songs, already nostalgic for a fading Israel.

Meir taught the men his songs. They sang "Legend of the Lawn," about teenage love in the midst of the entangled collective: "There's a pile of hevreh on the grass ..." Someone suggested a post-Yom Kippur version: "There's a pile of grass on the hevreh ..."

The men loved "our Meir," this pure soul who never argued or gossiped or raised his voice, who listened to their woes and was always ready with a kind word or, when words seemed inadequate, a sad empathic smile. "Az mah, hevreh? b'sach hakol ..." (So what, guys? After all, it's only ... ), he said after a shelling, not bothering to complete the sentence. One of the men lost his home leave and was inconsolable; Meir held him until he calmed.

But as the weeks went on, Meir became withdrawn. Let him be, the men said to each other.

Meir was brooding over Tirza. As soon as he returned home from the war, she intended to leave for America to try her luck as an actress. She was beautiful, she had learned English in Detroit, and while doing some modeling in Tel Aviv, she'd met an American movie producer who offered to be her patron. Meir was devastated. He loved Tirza madly, which was the only way to love Tirza, the only way Meir could love. She said she'd be gone for a year. But who knew what could happen in a year?

It wasn't only Tirza. His life moved between army and kibbutz, communal impositions. He showed no anger, only what one friend described as a sad stillness.

The strap of his gun tore, and Meir didn't bother replacing it. He gripped the gun by its barrel, carrying it as an afterthought. One day, on patrol with his jeep, Meir suddenly called out, "I need to go back, I forgot something." The jeep pulled up in front of the hostel, and Meir ran inside and reemerged with his gun.

A friend from home sent Meir marijuana, along with seeds, and he planted those beside the hostel. When he stepped outside "for a smoke," even his commander didn't interfere.
One of the men confided to Meir that he feared he was going to die in Suez City. Wordlessly Meir produced a joint, the only comfort he could manage.

Morning lineup in the courtyard of the hostel. Thirty helmeted men stood at ease in a ragged row, reservist style. The daily inspection: Were the guns oiled? Bullet clips filled?
Strap hanging from his helmet, bootlaces open, Meir dragged his gun on the ground behind him and joined the line.

"Meir," said the commander sympathetically, "I have a suggestion. Why don't you bring your guitar for inspection?"

The next morning Meir showed up with gun and guitar. "Are the strings properly tuned?" the commander asked.

"Everything is in order," replied Meir.

On guard duty around late-night campfires, the reservists in Suez City dissected the war. Who was responsible for the depleted stockpiles of weapons they had found on Yom Kippur? For the intelligence failure to read the most blatant signs of impending invasion? For the doctrine of Israel's invulnerability and the contempt for the fighting capability of the other side? For the strategic stupidity of the Bar-Lev Line? Someone had to answer for this.

The radio played a song that seemed to have been written for the men of the 55th: "We liberated the Wall for you and we drained swamps / We stood watch over you in difficult times / We gave you everything, we asked for nothing in return / ... We knew that soon, soon, a day would come / But now there are those who are not so sure."

Late at night, on a hilltop overlooking the empty harbor, Meir Ariel sat on a chair stripped to its metal frame and strummed his guitar. He was supposed to be keeping watch for Egyptian commandos landing from the sea. But he'd sat here night after night, and no commandos appeared.

Meir and three other men, now sleeping in the adjacent tent, took turns on guard duty. They tried to make life comfortable. They'd hooked up a small generator to a jeep and brought a hot plate into the tent. Though it was against regulations, they'd installed a lightbulb, which they covered with a blanket.

Soon Meir's watch would end and he would drink a cup of tea steeped with apple slices and read a bit of Hemingway's Islands in the Streamand drift into World War II-era Cuba. He imagined a brightly lit casino boat from Havana appearing in the harbor and taking him far from here.

Strumming, he half spoke, half sang the words of a new song: "ReadingIslands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway / translated nicely by Aharon Amir / Soon he's going to amuse her on his wide bed / And he's one of the saddest men in the city."

He continued: "Maybe tomorrow I'll finally go on leave / I'm bound to the binoculars, just not to think / Light and tea with sliced apple await me in the tent / and a cigarette and a story, good and strong / ... And then another gaze at the moon, at the city and the sea / And then a friend comes and says, Your time has passed."

Meir wasn't writing a protest song, just the forlorn cry of a soldier watching his life slip away. A lament for all the vitality consumed by the country's security needs.

Back in the tent, comfort eluded him. "Downed two sliced-apple teas, another four, five cigarettes / The song got stuck here / But now he'll amuse her on his wide bed /...Our forces passed a quiet night in Suez."

On February 21, 1974, the men of the 55th Brigade gathered along the Egyptian shore of the Suez Canal, near the spot where the paratroopers had first crossed. The farewell ceremony had almost been canceled: a tank brigade had been given the honor of being the last Israeli unit out of Africa, and the paratroopers revolted. We were the first ones into Africa, Danny Matt insisted, and we won't leave unless we are the last ones out. The IDF relented.

In June 1967 the paratroopers had ended their war by lining up, parade style, on the Temple Mount. Now they simply gathered around as Danny addressed them. "We, the paratroopers' brigade," he said, "were entrusted with being the lead unit in the force that brought about the turning point in the war and returned the initiative to the IDF. ... You stood day and night beneath a murderous bombardment ... deployed against us with a strength we hadn't known in previous wars. Thanks to our ability to hold the bridgehead, the IDF succeeded in transferring the necessary forces and establishing its great foothold on Egyptian soil.

"I was privileged to command you - veterans of the retaliation raids [of the 1950s], liberators of Jerusalem and trailblazers in the Yom Kippur War. ... Let us hope that the [prophet's] vision will be fulfilled in us, that "nation won't lift sword against nation and won't learn war anymore." "
The Israeli flag was lowered from a pole mounted near the bridge. Then the men released balloons and colored smoke grenades.

Kibbutzniks and religious Zionists, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, university students and workers: they had created an intimate society. Now they were returning to their separate lives in a wounded and divided Israel. Someone scrawled a farewell message onto the side of an armored car: "From the wars of Egypt back to the wars of the Jews."

One more mission accomplished. But how many more times could they keep giving their all, compensating for the failures of their leaders?

Yossi Klein Halevi is a contributing editor of The New Republic and a senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.