Yadin Roman
In 1630, John Winthrop delivered the famous “City on a Hill” Sermon to the settlers about to set sail for New England. The Biblical quote “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid” comes from Matthew 5:14 and was spoken by Jesus during the Sermon on the Mount. The city on the hill referred to in the Sermon was probably Susita, the city perched on a hill overlooking the Sea of Galilee and clearly visible from the surrounding area. John Winthrop and many American presidents have used this phrase to describe a country that spreads goodness to the world.
The same idea was at the base of the founding of the State of Israel. Herzl, Jabotinsky, Haim Weitzman, the philosopher Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, and many others envisioned the Jewish State as a center for spreading development and learning throughout the region and the world. My mother believed in it when she founded the Technical Assistance Department in the Ministry of Agriculture, bent on sending Israeli farmers to third world countries to teach modern agricultural methods – and my father believed in it, in a visionary letter to my mother in 1956 – that one day Israel will be at peace with its neighbors, a technical and economic hub in the Middle East.
Somewhere along the road, all these utopian ideas were derailed. It is easiest to blame it on the Arabs who did not agree to the creation of Israel, but, seventy-seven years later, sitting in my safe room with missiles raining down and interceptors whooshing up, it got me thinking as to why this is happening.
Over the years there have been many wars that we have won. But, only for a brief period in the 1980s, peace was in the air – a vibe quickly killed by extremists on both sides.
Missiles and bombs have become a way of life in the last two decades, with massive arsenals on both sides. We are constantly living in an oxymoronic status defined as “regular emergency”, which is gradually developing a unique culture of its own.
These next few articles are about the new “regular emergency” Israeli culture – a small psychological release from the pressure we are living in, remembering that there are many casualties from these attacks. People have been killed, wounded, and traumatized.
“The time has come, the Walrus said, to talk of many things.” Tweedledum and Tweedledee sang to Alice in Wonderland about The Carpenter and the Walrus, and indeed it seems that the time has come to rethink a lot of things, before, like the oysters in the poem, we will all be eaten up.
