Kids, hot soup & ‘Occupied Territories’

April 18, 2005 - 9:32 AM by Dave

I’ve been tele-fundraising from Israel to the UK in recent days for a small, but very intensive Jerusalem-based charity (http://www.ezranet.com) that distributes food baskets, clothing and related aid to the really poverty-stricken throughout the country; 2,500 baskets weekly, 10,000 by Pessach in a special campaign.

Several of those I spoke with in Great Britain – Jews, mind you – in London and Manchester were, and although a minority, quite adamant in their refusal to donate food to near-starving Israeli children… until Israel “changed its policies in the Occupied Territories.”

Now, while on-line with them, I bit my tongue and stayed professional and on-message, clarifying that the donations were totally non-political (as is the organization), non-sectarian and were meant, as in the Passover passage, “Kol Dichfin, y’tee v’uchal – “May all who are hungry come and eat.” Lot of good professionalism did for these kids.

One woman I spoke with (and I now wonder if she ever carried a child in her arms OR her womb) – insisted, despite my repeated attempts to sway her to understand that we were discussing hot soup for a cold and hungry child, and not politics – that “everything was politics.”

Another I spoke with opened the conversation with a hearty chuckle, and, “I’m not sure you understand just how un-sympathetic I am.” (Sigh). Talk about a callous heart.

I guess what struck me the most was the obsessive, near-gleeful, meaness of their attitude; hungry kids be damned – politics first!

And while we cavil about high-level academic snubbing of Israelis at UK universities and the like, in-duh-viduals like these are really ok, “quite fine thank you,” in the local parlance, I suppose with poverty-stricken Jewish children going hungry – as long as their noxious ideological appetite get a good meal out of it.

I suggest we show them and their ilk where we stand: please go over to http://www.ezranet.com, click onto the donations page in the upper right-hand corner of the home page and send a kid a few hot meals for this coming Shabbat and Pessach. They accept dollars and UK pounds, with over 90 percent of it going toward real food and it’s a tax-deductible donation in the US and UK.

May we all, the House of Israel and her supporters worldwide have a healthy and happy Passover festival.

(Cross-posted at http://betbender.blogspot.com)

Share with others