In Memory of Robert F. Kennedy on the 45th Anniversary of his Assassination

http://www.israeldailypicture.com/

Posted: 05 Jun 2013 08:48 PM PDT

Robert F. Kennedy 

Nov. 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

- a strong supporter of Israel

We leave our regular historical features to pay tribute to Robert Kennedy who was murdered on this day in 1968.  

Several special features about Kennedy make this posting very appropriate for this site today:

1. Kennedy visited the Holy Land prior to Israel's establishment as a young newspaper correspondent and described Israel's armed struggle and economic development.

2. Several historic photographs of Kennedy's 1948 visit to Israel were provided by the Kennedy family.

Kennedy "firing a slingshot" outside of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, March 1948 (from the Kennedy family)

3. Kennedy, as a young college graduate, wrote several feature articles for The Boston Post on his visit.  The newspaper went out of business in 1956 and for many years the articles were virtually lost.  

Several years ago, The Israel Daily Picture's

Kennedy on King David Street, north of the hotel. Note the armored British vehicle and British checkpoint behind him

publisher, Lenny Ben-David, found the articles, published them, and posted them on the "Robert Kennedy and Israel" website.   

Read the full-length articles by RFK here. 

4. Kennedy's family points out that he was murdered by a 

Bobby Kennedy deplaning from a RAF plane at Lod airport

Palestinian Arab terrorist, Sirhan Sirhan, who was angry about Kennedy's strong support for Israel.  The assassination took place on the first anniversary of Israel's victory in the Six Day War, and the timing was no accident, the family insists.

5. Kennedy visited the Middle East in March 1948 and departed Palestine before Israel's declaration of independence on May 14 and Ben-Gurion’s announcement of the name of the new country. RFK, therefore, does not refer to “Israel” or to “Israelis” in his articles.

Read several excerpts of Robert Kennedy's articles: 

The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence.

It is an unfortunate fact that because there are such well founded arguments on either side each grows more and more bitter toward the other. Confidence in their right increases in proportion to the hatred and mistrust for the other side for not acknowledging it.

The Jewish people in Palestine who believe in and have been working toward this national state have become an immensely proud and determined people. It is already a truly great modern example of the birth of a nation with the primary ingredients of dignity and self-respect.

Read the full-length articles by RFK here. 

Israel celebrates reunification of Jerusalem

Wednesday, May 08, 2013 |  Israel Today Staff  

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Israelis on Wednesday marked Jerusalem Day, the 46th anniversary of the reunification of the city during the Six Day War.

Israel never intended to reunite Jerusalem when it launched a preemptive strike on the gathering armies of Egypt and Syria in 1967. But when Jordan's King Hussein succumbed to Egyptian pressure and opened a third front against the Jewish state, the opportunity to fulfill the hopes of generations presented itself.

Ever since the final Roman conquest nearly 2,000 years earlier, the Jewish people had hoped, prayed and dreamed about returning to and exercising sovereignty over their ancient, biblical capital.

Today, Jerusalem Day is marked with large parades through the cities streets and concerts at various public parks.

Jerusalem has always been the heart and soul of the Jewish nation, and it shows in the joyous way most Israelis engage in Jerusalem Day festivities.

1967: Reunification of Jerusalem

1967: Reunification of Jerusalem

Despite Israel’s appeal to Jordan to stay out of the war, Jordanian forces fired artillery barrages from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Although Israeli forces did not respond initially, not wanting to open up a Jordanian front in the war, Jordan continued to attack and occupied UN headquarters in Jerusalem.   Israeli forces fought back and within two days managed to repulse the Jordanian forces and retake eastern Jerusalem. (For more details, see War: Jordanian Front)   Israeli paratroopers at the Western Wall On June 7, 1967, IDF paratroopers advanced through the Old City toward the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, bringing Jerusalem’s holiest site under Jewish control for the first time in 2000 years.   There are sound recordings of the scene, as the commander of the brigade,Lt. General Mordechai (Motta) Gur, approaches the Old City and announces to his company commanders, “We’re sitting right now on the ridge and we’re seeing the Old City. Shortly we’re going to go in to the Old City of Jerusalem, that all generations have dreamed about. We will be the first to enter the Old City...” and shortly afterwards, “The Temple Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!”   General Rabbi Shlomo Goren, chief chaplain of the IDF, sounded the Shofar at the Western Wall to signify its liberation. To Israelis and Jews all over the world, this was a joyous and momentous occasion. Many considered it a gift from God.     Israeli Reaction to the Recapture of the Western Wall and the Old City of Jerusalem “For some two thousand years the Temple Mount was forbidden to the Jews. Until you came — you, the paratroopers — and returned it to the bosom of the nation. The Western Wall, for which every heart beats, is ours once again. Many Jews have taken their lives into their hands throughout our long history, in order to reach Jerusalem and live here. Endless words of longing have expressed the deep yearning for Jerusalem that beats within the Jewish heart..You have been given the great privilege of completing the circle, of returning to the nation its capital and its holy center...Jerusalem is yours forever.” –Commander Motta Gur to his brigade upon their recapture of Jerusalem’s Old City and holy sites “We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned never to be parted from it again.” –Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, upon reaching the Western Wall “The Wall was before us. I trembled. There it was as I had known it—immense, mighty, in all its splendor...overcome, I bowed my head in silence.” –General Uzi Narkiss, Head of Central Command during the Six Day War “I felt truly shaken and stood there murmuring a prayer for peace. Motta Gur’s paratroopers were struggling to reach the Wall and toudh it. We stood among a tangle of rugged, battle-weary men who were unable to believe their eyes or restrain their emotions. Their eyes were moist with tears, their speech incoherent. The overwhelming desire was to cling to the Wall, to hold on to that great moment as long as possible.” –Chief of Staff Yitzchak Rabin “I am speaking to you from the plaza of the Western Wall, the remnant of our Holy Temple. ‘Comfort my people, comfort them, says the Lord your God.’ This is the day we have hoped for, let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation. The vision of all generations is being realized before our eyes: The city of God, the site of the Temple, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, the symbol of the nation’s redemption, have been redeemed today by you, heroes of the Israel Defense Forces. By doing so you have fulfilled the oath of generations, ‘If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its cunning.’ Indeed, we have not forgotten you, Jerusalem, our holy city, our glory. In the name of the entire Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora, I hereby recite with supreme joy, Blessed art Thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who has kept us in life, who has preserved us, and enabled us to reach this day. This year in Jerusalem – rebuilt! “ –General Shlomo Goren, Chaplain of the Israeli Defense Forces, at the Western Wall       In a statement at the Western Wall, Minister of Defense Moshe Dayan indicated Israel’s peaceful intent and pledged to preserve religious freedom for all faiths in Jerusalem: To our Arab neighbors we extend, especially at this hour, the hand of peace. To members of the other religions, Christians and Muslims, I hereby promise faithfully that their full freedom and all their religious rights will be preserved. We did not come to Jerusalem to conquer the Holy Places of others. Before visiting the Western Wall, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol met with the spiritual leaders of different faiths in his office and issued a declaration of peace, assuring that all holy sites would be protected and that all faiths would be free to worship at their holy sites in Jerusalem.   He declared his intention to give the spiritual leaders of the various religions internal management of their own Holy Sites. Defense Minister Dayan immediately ceded internal administrative control of the Temple Mount compound to the Jordanian Waqf (Islamic trust) while overall security control of the area was maintained by Israel. Dayan announced that Jews would be allowed to visit the Temple Mount, but not to hold religious services there.   Dayan also gave immediate orders to demolish the anti-sniping walls, clear the minefields and removed the barbed-wire barriers which marked the partition of Jerusalem. Within weeks, free movement through Jerusalem became possible and hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews flocked to the Old City to glimpse the Western Wall and touch its stones.   Israeli Muslims were permitted to pray at the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock for the first time since 1948. And Israeli Christians came to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.   On June 27, 1967, the Israeli Knesset extended Israel’s legal and administrative jurisdiction to all of Jerusalem, and expanded the city’s municipal borders. Eshkol again assured the spiritual leaders of all faiths that Israel was determined to protect the Holy Places.   The Knesset passed the Protection of Holy Places Law granting special legal status to the Holy Sites and making it a criminal offence to desecrate or violate them, or to impede freedom of access to them. Jerusalem became a reunified city that ensured freedom of religion and access to holy sites for all.   The religious freedoms enjoyed by Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the reunified Jerusalem had been un heard of during Jordanian occupation of the city, prompting even a former Jordanian ambassador to the United Nations, Adnan Abu Odeh, to acknowledge that "the situation in Jerusalem prior to 1967 [under Jordanian rule] was one of ... religious exclusion" whereas post-1967, Israel seeks "to reach a point of religious inclusion ..." (The Catholic University of America Law Review, Spring 1996).   http://www.sixdaywar.org/content/ReunificationJerusalem.asp

Jewish Refugees History a Warning to the West

By Julie Stahl and Chris Mitchell

CBN News Mideast Bureau

April 05, 2013

 

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JERUSALEM, Israel -- In the Middle East, much of the talk surrounding the Israeli-Arab conflict deals with land.

 

Israel wants the world to know about hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands as a result of the 1948 rebirth of the state of Israel.

 

"Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent, almost 900,000 of these Jews were exiled forcibly from their homes throughout the Middle East and North Africa beginning in 1948 when the State of Israel was founded," Dan Diker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, told CBN News.

 

Another major wave of persecution hit after the 1967 Six Day War that forced most of the remaining Jews to leave 11 Middle Eastern and North African countries.
 

 

 

 

 

Linda Menuchin became one of those refugees.

 

"Nobody would want anything with the Jews, especially with the incitement going on in the mosques, so we were labeled like the fifth column," she recalled. "And also more constraints were put -- like you couldn't take out from your own [bank] account … more than 100 dinars a month."

 

In 1970, Menuchin and her brother left Baghdad for Israel, keeping their flight secret from their father, a prominent lawyer.

 

"We didn't even kiss goodbye because I thought we will meet again one day," she said. "I had to run away through Iran."

 

They escaped into the unknown.

 

"So we had only a very small suitcase with us, both of us, and just little money," Menuchin recalled. "I was disguised like an Arab woman and my brother bought a very old coat. It was very cold winter."

 

"To our big luck, everything went smoothly because at the time Jews were not allowed to be away from home more than 80 or 100 kilometers," she said.

 

Such incidents happened all across the Middle East -- expulsions, seizure of property, and murder of the Jews.

 

 

 

"In the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967, the mob in Libya, especially in Tripoli and Benghazi, took to the streets and started burning the homes of Jewish people and ransacking our warehouses," said American Gina Waldman, founder of Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa, or JIMENA.

 

"And my father's warehouse was burnt and then they came along and started pouring gasoline around my house," she continued. "And a Muslim neighbor came down from the building and convinced the mob that the Jewish family wasn't living there anymore, and of course he saved our lives."

 

"I always felt that there was a sense of injustice, that even though we really made a good life for ourselves in whichever country hosted us, nonetheless we were never recognized for the wrongs that were done to us," she said.

 

Two-thirds of the Jewish refugees resettled in Israel and the rest in other Western countries.

 

Waldman and Menuchin both say they were traumatized.

 

Menuchin said there's a message for the Western world. "Eight-hundred-fifty-thousand Jews were expelled or were forced to leave or persecuted from Arab countries," she said. "And when we try to overlook these issues they come again in a different way," "So now it's the turn of the Christians who are being killed, shot, and we cannot see really any effective action from the West," she added.

 

For Israel, sharing the saga of Jewish refugees is part of gaining international recognition for their sufferings.

 

"We say, well, there are two sets of refugees," Diker said. "There are Jewish refugees and there are Arab refugees and both sides should be compensated together."
 

http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2013/April/Jewish-Refugees-Recall-Aftermath-of-Israels-Rebirth/