If Menachem Begin brings peace to Israel he will become a hero of Jewish history. He will share the Nobel Peace Prize with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt. He will be hailed and feted as a statesman of giant stature–and deservedly so. He will receive the accolades of his countrymen, and the honest apologies of those who questioned the wisdom of his policies and actions. And deservedly so.
How will he have done it? How does one explain the evident paradox of the dyed-in-the-wool hard-liner coming to terms with the enemy when for 30 years the ostensible moderates who led Israel failed to do so? Of course the "de Gaulle syndrome" is readily available as a suitable scientific explanation, complete with historical precedents to prove its pertinence/validity.
Indeed, it was this thesis–that only a hard-line opposition leader of unimpeachable moral authority can ultimately push through an unpopular, even humiliating, withdrawal–that comforted some of us in Israel and some of Israel’s friends around the world when Begin was swept to power last May. And, indeed, current political events inside Israel show there is much truth in it.
THE BEGIN-SADAT EQUATION
But the "deGaulle syndrome" alone is too facile, too pat to provide a genuinely comprehensive and incisive explanation of what has happened in Israeli policy-making. It is useful as shorthand for describing the internal political situation. But it does{SPAN}###
Yet when speaking to men like Rossano and Pinto I understood why, although reduced to a handful, Cairo’s Jewish community had miraculously survived and was able to greet its brothers from Israel after President Sadat’s historic Jerusalem journey.
Thanks to the efforts of Iscaki and others, the Adly Street Synagogue functions as a living house of prayer for Sabbaths and festivals. Memorial lights are kindled for the dead and, I was assured, Cairo’s many other synagogues still stand, even though their former members are scattered all over the world. The tiny community even maintains a home for elderly infirm people in Heliopolis.
‘NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE’
"Nothing is impossible," declared Rossano as Israeli and other Jewish journalists filled the synagogue last Friday night. With tears in his clear blue eyes, he recalled his visit to Israel long before 1948, when it was called "The Jewish National Home" and when Meir Dizengoff, Tel Aviv’s first mayor, was still in office.
"What we need most of all is a rabbi," said Pinto as he showed me the week’s portion in one of the synagogue’s 15 Torah scrolls in their handsome caskets. That and peace which will surely bring new Jews–Israelis and others–back to Egypt. If the peace hopes collapse, even a rabbi may be unable to save this once great community from disappearing completely.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
