Grandma's army

THE INTERVENTION OF WORLD POWERS IN ISRAEL’S WARS From the end of World War I, both the US and the UK played a significant role in Israel’s struggle for Independence. The isolationist  policy which the United States exhibited towards Israel prevented any significant relations being fostered – even before the War of Independence. The exception was the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgentau, who sympathised with the plight of the starving Jewish population in the Old Yishuv. It was due to his efforts that Jewish organisations abroad established a special Fund, which eventually became the JOINT. Following WWI, and the forming of the British Mandate in Palestine, relations between the US and the Palestinian Jews were weakened even further. The only activities which remained were the Jewish Hadassah medical establishment and the recruiting of funds by the Zionist organization in America. With the Nazi persecution of the Jews in the end of the 1930’s, the US a...

It was only in my teens that I became aware of a country called Israel. Someone introduced me to a Zionist movement - and that was the major turning point  in my life. I eventually joined a training farm in England run by the movement . My goal was to eventually become part of an agricultural community in Israel. My farming experience in England was centered around the cowshed where I had become very proficient in milking cows. I emigrated at the end of 1954 but, by the time I was able to join a moshav in 1960, I was already married with two small children aged three and one-and-a-half years old. Neither my husband nor myself knew anything about farming but we were both determined to become pioneers. The moshav, which had just been founded, was located in the northen Negev. We had no financial means but were helped by the government who wanted to develop the country, especially the Negev. It was like a barren wilderness with nothing but bare land. Today, it is a...

I was unable to continue with my blog for some time since I am visiting my daughter and family who are living in London and had no access to a computer. I will be coming back to Israel in a few day’s  time and, meanwhile, will confine my writing to my impressions of what is being said about Israel from an outsider’s viewpoint. The people with whom I have come into contact are mostly ignorant of what is going on in Israel and probably couldn’t care less. The exceptions are those who have been to Israel. Those who do come often have a built-in prejudice, mainly as the result of the anti-Israeli media to which they have been exposed. The following poetic-like piece  was written by Oliver Marjot, a sophomore medieval history concentrator from Guilford, England. He was one of a group of Harvard students, of all backgrounds and faiths. He expected the ten-day Israeli Trek to be a confirmation of his “European certainty of your arrogant oppression”. “I came to you, Israel,...