THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

ecause of the Shoah. In contrast, we have never done anything similar for thePalestinian refugees and their descendants. We did not fulfill what we demanded ofothers. Therefore we must stand on the tallest mountain and declare clearly andloudly: we know that solving the Shoah refugee problem directly and indirectlycaused the Palestinian refugee problem. Only then can we give our excuses andexplanations: we were drowning and grabbing at straws; we were busy savingourselves. We will tell them of our Talmudic heritage, by which we live. For example:Two men are walking down the road and one of them has a bottle ofwater. If both of them drink, both will die. If one drinks, he will reachthe city. Ben Petura argued: Better for both of them drink and die soneither sees his friend die. Then Rabbi Akiva came and taught: “Andyour friend shall live with you,” which means that your life hasprecedence over the life of your friend. 4Ben Petura’s position was rejected because of the waste of precious human life andtherefore Rabbi Akiva’s position was accepted as a norm. We have to admit that,post-Shoah, we valued our lives because we wanted to live after so much death. Wewere not sufficiently sensitive to the lives of others and to the price that they paid forour salvation. Please forgive us, and together we will put an end to the unhealthyrefugee mindset that torments us all. Let us stand together for our common future. Wewant to live in peace. Therefore let us start anew, with memories but without anger,with knowledge of the past, but with a bigger hope for the future. Most will beunderstood and much will be accepted, as this is how a reasonable person behaveswhen fighting for his life and the lives of his dear ones. What is most important is therecognition of the suffering and assuming of responsibility, even partial and belated,for the distress of the Palestinian refugees. Only with recognition and sharing will it bepossible to rebuild the relations between the two great refugee cultures that came tothe same piece of land to build anew from the ruins.Although the creation of Israel led to the problem of refugees, it does not meanthat Israel’s existence prevents the solution. Yet the refugee problem haunts usrelentlessly and is used to justify the harshest criticism of Israel by its most unabashedattackers. The heirs and descendants of our old European persecutors, who hadslaughtered us and expelled us from Europe beaten and injured, take advantage ofIsrael’s toughness and insensitivity to continue persecuting us by other means. They