Of all that is said negatively about Israel-some of it is vitriolic, all of it anti-Semitic"--Israel does something no other nation (except the US) is willing to do, and that is to rescue its citizens from wherever they might be stranded-no matter the cost, no matter the political consequence. We are all familiar with the famous rescue operations to save Ethiopian Jews (Operations Moses, Joshua, and Solomon), Yemeni Jews ("Operation Magic Carpet)", and Iraqi Jews ("Operation Ezra and Nehemia") from certain devastation.
But the extraordinary example I wish to bring to your attention is the recent-post Iraqi war-rescue of a few elderly Jews from Iraq, those who refused to leave decades ago and never thought they would be given a second chance. These are elderly people whom the Israeli government knew would not contribute economically toward building Israel and who would more than likely be accepting welfare for the rest of their lives.
Take Sassoon Abdul Nabi. His siblings left more than five decades ago. He lost contact, and he thought he would never see his relatives again. And then came a knock on the door from the Jewish Agency, who found he and six others like him in their Baghdad homes where they lived alone. This rescue did not have the great fanfare of previous massive evacuations. Quietly, without scoring any PR points, the Jewish State cared enough about their fellow Jews to risk public censure to save them and give them renewed hope.
Then there was Selima Moshe Nissim, age 79, who was the last Jew living in Basra. Upon arriving in Israel, she was reunited with her sister. Marcel Madar. Though Nissim suffers from diabetes and makes her way with a walker through the convalescent home at Shmuel HaRofeh Hospital in Beer Yaacov, her optimism about the move comes through in broken English.
Abdul Nabi lives across the hall from Nissim. By the mid-1950s, he was fired from his job working for the national railway because he was Jewish. For the next 10 years he worked for a Lebanese car dealer and then started an independent spare auto parts business. But after the 1967 Six-Day War, the Iraqi government forced him to sell the business. For the next 25 years, he was able to live off the proceeds, but the money was running out.
Now they are at peace, basking in the love of their relatives, afraid of nothing and no one.
As the High Holidays approach, we follow the State of Israel's lead, and ask what we can do to support a great Jewish State that is so concerned about each of us that it would do whatever is necessary to save us from oblivion. Had the State of Israel existed when enemies of the Jewish people threatened to annihilate us, Israel would surely have come to our rescue. It is comforting to know that we now have a homeland that will accept us unconditionally if, G-d forbid, our freedom in the Diaspora is threatened.
Pray for the peace of Israel. May you and she have a blessed and sweet year.