Older and Weiser

If Shimon Peres and Benjamin Netanyahu sought to divert our attention from a subject about which they cannot be completely frank, Iran, to a subject they can, economics, then Brigadeer General (Ret.) Effi Eitam succeeded at riveting our attention on the hard truth that is before all Jews: Israel may soon be at war.

Eitam knows a lot about the subject of war.  On the Yom Kippur afternoon in 1973 when Syria moved against Israel, then-Lt. Eitam became a national hero when he held off a column of tanks with a single World War II-era bazooka and three missiles.  Three years later, he helped to command the chutzpadick raid on Entebbe, in which Israeli hostages were rescued from Idi Amin’s Uganda.  Then, Eitam was in the cockpit of the lead C-130, which found itself in a blinding thunderstorm on final approach to Entebbe.

“I began to have a very arrogant discourse with God,” recalls Eitam.  “’We have done everything we could, we have assembled good men and our arms but we cannot clear away the clouds and storm.”

As if on cue, the plane “whooshed” into the clear and onto the Entebbe runway.

“At the time, I was not a religious man,” says Eitam.  “But it had begun to occur to me that we were not alone.”
“Not alone” is very much the purpose for Eitam joining our group for a dinner at Eretz Breishis, a beautiful setting above the Judean hills.  It’s an American audience with influence: a governor, an influential House member, CEOs of two listed energy companies and a lone blogger (with you as his readers.)

Looking east, the lights in the valley below are Jordan.  Eitam first reminds us that Israel made peace with that country and Egypt when it was given the chance to by their leaders.

“We are not looking for wars but, if we are challenged, we will be tough as a stone.  We are very near to the point where we are all ready to say: enough is enough.”

Now a Knesset member (MK for short in the newspapers) and head of the Renewed Religious National Zionist Party (part of the Likud coalition that rules Israel), Eitam has not yet mastered the art of diplomacy-speak.

“If someone will think that he will build a nuclear bomb and turn back the clock to make our home a new gas chamber, he will find us resolved.  We are coming near the time when a decision will have to be made.  A lot of time has been wasted on wishful thinking.  We shall need moral, diplomatic and some logistical support…When you come here to be with us, we feel we are not alone.”

The last statement is as chilling as the night desert air for it signals inevitable confrontation with Iran.

“We are in a time that reminds me of the late-30s in Europe; the way we thought of Hitler in the 30s and the way we sought to appease him with Poland and Czecheslovakia.  We are back in a time when evil is back in its pure form.”

Eitam and his wife are the children of survivors of prison camps in Asia and Europe, the siege of Stalingrad and Auschwitz.  To him, the situation facing Israel is neither complex, nor nuanced.

“Out of the womb of these horrible experiences, the State of Israel was born…Our parents gave us a mission to defend this country.”

Filed under: Israel by Michael Weiser