Crossing the Yarden

By Yarden Frankl

Vineyards and Prayers

A few years ago, a friend of mine was attending a scientific conference. One of the participants was a scientist from an Arab country. During a break somehow the subject of Israel came up and he made a joke about people with New York accents moving to the West Bank and claiming it as their ancestral land. While some of the other scientists gave a polite laugh, my friend explained that the reason those people had New York accents is that for 2,000 years, they had been kicked out of the land of Israel by other successive groups of people who came and declared it "their land." The "West Bank" was occupied by the Babylonians, the Romans, the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Ottoman Empire, the British, the Jordanians (please forgive me if I left anyone out) long before the return of the Jewish "Occupiers."

So in 1948, a small group of plucky Jews did the unthinkable, they declared that 2,000 years was long enough and that it was time for the return of a Jewish nation. They were joined by thousands of people stepping off leaking boats with tattoos burned into their arms whose first act of freedom from Nazi evil was to learn how to fire a gun to defend their "homeland." Did it matter that they had never been to their homeland before? I don't think so.

For sixty years more and more Jews have been coming to help build this nation. Yes, some of us have New York accents. Some have Scottish, German, Yemenite, Ethiopian, Russian, French, Canadian, and Middle Eastern Accents. (Again forgive me if your accent is missing from the list.) We do not come here to displace and destroy. We come to build, to teach, to plant, and to sanctify this ancient land.

Yet this does not sit well with so many people. This morning, a group of Arabs came (again) to uproot a Jewish vineyard and rip down the Israeli flag not too far from where I live. The people here responded in force and hundreds ran to protect our neighbors' lands and lives.

Contrary to how we are described in the news, we "West Bank Settlers" are not lawless extremists. Planting a vineyard on our own land is not a crime. Defending our homes and our lives is our natural right. It is not something we expect other people (or sadly sometimes even our own government) to do for us. We sat helpless as we were massacred by the Romans, Russians, Romanians (the actual list is too long so I am just using the "R's to make a point) for far too long.

Hey guys, it's over. We're here to stay. No, Israel may not be a perfect State, but it's our State. No matter what they say at the U.N., in Washington, in Gaza, or even sometimes in the office of the most unpopular Prime Minister in the history of the universe (don't take my word for it, check with Guinness), we will not give up.

Tomorrow I will hike to Sde Boaz with many of my neighbors to pray. We will continue praying, planting, and building. Because at the end of the day, these are the most powerful weapons we have. And I will do so proudly, even with a New York accent.

And with that thought, I wish you all a Shabbat Shalom from our blessed nation.

© 2007 Yarden Frankl