Gush Katif Viewpoint 149

GUSH KATIF VIEWPOINT 149 March 17, 2009



FATHER AND SON by Rachel Saperstein, Neve Dekalim/Nitzan



A hot water bottle stuffed into a friendly penguin-shaped covering warms my sciatica-ridden back. Pain radiates down my right leg. Blessed rain beats against the window. I’m stuck in bed.

We had planned to be in Jerusalem at the Begin Center. MK Dr. Aryeh Eldad is welcoming his guests at a gathering marking the publication of a Passover Haggadah with commentary by his father, the late Dr. Israel Eldad.



Dr. Aryeh Eldad is one of our favorite people. Slight of build, scholarly in appearance, he has remained true to his father’s legacy. Staunchly nationalistic, he gave the rallying cry “Walk!” when the Sharon government forbade buses to ferry our supporters to Kfar Maimon during those last weeks before our expulsion. When the buses were stopped by the Israeli police the people heeded Eldad’s simple word, “Walk!” They got off the buses and began the trek to the southern moshav, from which they would then march to Gush Katif. Hundreds and then thousands began to march.



We were in Neve Dekalim waiting for the masses to join us. Our own official leaders prevented people from breaking through the police cordon, supposedly for fear of a deadly attack by the police and army. Our people never came.



Aryeh Eldad often stopped at our house for a quick meal. The couch in our living room was made up if he needed a place to sleep. We didn’t ask too many questions. We simply enjoyed his wit, his courage and his company. He and his family spent the last weeks before the expulsion in the soon-to-be destroyed communities in northern Samaria.



I knew very little about his father, Dr. Israel Eldad, until this weekend. Stuck in bed, I began reading a rather dog-eared copy of the book “The Deed” by Gerald Frank. The book begins with the assassination of Lord Moyne, the British High Commissioner of the Middle East, by two young Jewish Palestinians. The book describes the events in Palestine that led to his death.

Dr. Israel Eldad was a member of the FFI – Freedom Fighters of Israel – often called “the Stern gang”. His writings, poetry and prose, stirred the Jews of pre-state Israel. His underground newspaper, “Hazit”, spoke of the plight of Jews under British rule… the searches, the arrests, the confiscation of weapons for defense against Arabs, imprisonment without charge, but especially the frustration under foreign rule. Dr. Eldad, the father, spent years in jail for his writings.



Dr Eldad, the son, was angered as well, this time at the injustice of the Jewish government towards the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria: the blockades, the threat of imprisonment and the final forced expulsion by the Jewish army and police.

Months later he came to give his support to the settlement at Amona that the Olmert government had decided to destroy to appease American demands.

A noted plastic surgeon and Chairman of the Department of Reconstructive Surgery at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, Dr. Eldad had his thumb torn by Israeli police during the expulsion from Amona. Clearly he was singled out in order to destroy his ability to operate.

This past summer my husband and I attended meetings of his new political party, “Hatikvah” [Hope]. Later he joined with other nationalist parties to form “Ichud HaLeumi” [National Union], which received four mandates in the current Knesset.



We are looking forward to using the Eldad Haggadah with the commentaries by Dr. Israel Eldad [now only in Hebrew], and hope an English translation will soon be available.



We admire the son. I wish we had known the father.



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This Passover, Operation Dignity will provide aid, food and clothing vouchers, for the people of Gush Katif.

Please make your checks payable to Central Fund for Israel, earmarked for Operation Dignity. Send them to

Central Fund for Israel, 13 Hagoel Street, Efrat 90435, Israel

or

Central Fund for Israel, 980 Sixth Avenue, New York 10018, USA

Shekel checks should be sent to

Operation Dignity, POB 445, Nitzan 79287, Israel