Eighty Years On

In an increasingly fractured world the Dutch and Israelis remember the last time things went horribly wrong

Yesterday I touched down on Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport after a few weeks in Europe. A lot of people have asked me what the situation is like here and the short answer is: fine, on the surface. Israelis go about their day, the traffic manners are as bad as always, people sip their coffees and chat, construction is going full throttle and the garbage collectors do as terrible a job as ever. This is Israel. Yet the undercurrent is dark. The news is not good, not on the hostage front where the last deal seemed to have collapsed, not on the war itself where a Hamas attack killed four IDF soldiers this weekend and where the controversial offensive into Rafah is now gaining momentum. The people I have spoken to so far take a very dim view of the current Israeli leadership. And not just Nethanyahu, it applies to most of the political and military establishment. One person told me that ‘common sense’ approaches no longer work, the level of complexity of the problems are unprecedented. Nethanyahu’s fatal flaw is that his political mastery - even his opponents give him that - no longer works in the current situation and that the man himself is oblivious to this painful fact.

More updates from the ground here in the days ahead.

A Week of Remembering

The Dutch on Saturday had their national remembrance day, and in the evening there were ceremonies all over the country commemorating the 250,000 Dutch World War II casualties which includes 102,000 Jews. The big event is always held on the Dam square in Amsterdam where usually 20,000 attendees get together to see the King and survivors (the few that are left) lay wreaths on the national monument. It is a moving ceremony, believe me. This year, things were quite different. A mere 4,400 turned up after the decision was made to only allow 10,000 in, and only then if they had obtained a free ticket online. Some 700 police officers were on hand to search all attendees before entry and keep a tight level of security perimeter around the square. The entire event, not helped by the cold weather and rain, had a grim and depressing feel. Why?

The anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protestors and organizations had announced to disrupt the ceremonies and this time the city of Amsterdam took no chances given the debacle when the Holocaust Museum was opened earlier this year. And these were not mere threats, a real online campaign had been launched to make an effort to trample over the souls of the wartime victims to make a tenuous political point. The two minutes of silence in particular was the target. Many Dutch I spoke to were embarrassed and disgusted. The war that restored freedom is now being remembered in an atmosphere of restrictions and police cohorts because well, increasingly large groups can no longer responsibly handle this freedom. They give their disrespect on the most solemn moment for all and wave the Hamas flag.

Not a day later I landed in Israel which today is remembering the Holocaust, or Yom HaShoah. It does that on the day that coincides with the uprising in the Warzaw Ghetto and it starts with a ceremony at Yad Vashem where the country’s leaders and survivors (the few that are left) get together. The following day, today, the sirens ring out at 10AM and public life stops: everyone stands up, drivers step out of their cars and for a few minutes it is silent. I witnessed it on one of the busier squares here in the seaside town of Ashdod and decided not to take a video but take in and focus on the silence and respect the moment. It is quite special to experience it and here is a collection on YouTube. The sad thing this year was that children here had to be told it was not another missile attack that prompted the sirens, but a remembrance.

After the sirens quiet down life carries on: drivers get back in their cars and drive, the folks sipping their lattes sit down and continue to chat and the garbage collectors go about their work again. But only by remembering where you came from can you pick up things and move forward and Israelis and Jews worldwide understand that better than anyone else. That is the essence: to give the past the right context in the present. The Jews figured out life the hard way long before anyone else did which is why after 3,000 years they are still here.

Contrast that with the botched remembrance in Amsterdam. The latter points to the corrosive effect of a lack of unity and the normalization of disrespect in a society. Some countries can hold it together while others can’t. So you can ask yourself: which of the two societies will last the longest? The question answers itself.

Photos: Arrival at Tel-Aviv’s Ben-Gurion airport. The ramp on which arriving and departing passengers walk is architecturally quite something under normal circumstances, but now each side is flanked by the photos and names of the remaining hostages. Lots of people were stopping to write messages of hope on these posters. Also, a sparsely populated Dam square on Dutch remembrance day.