Shalom Pollack: Yellow Ribbons

 

Yellow ribbons are everywhere in Israel, popular as a result of the hostages taken on Oct 7, 2023. It has a different meaning in and outside of Israel.

In the "Diaspora", it is a reminder of the barbaric acts of our Arab neighbors on that black day and demands their freedom. Bring them home NOW is a demand and an accusing finger at the barbarian kidnappers.
In Israel, the same yellow ribbons mean something quite different. The message to "bring them home NOW" (remember "Peace Now") is directed with malice toward not the kidnappers, but the Israeli government.
True, the prime minister,  the government, and the entire security and legal establishment, should have avoided the Holocaust that day had they not been blinded by the "Oslo conception". They should be held accountable.
 That "conception" posits that our Arab neighbors "love their children just as we do". The era of wars was over. We can all relax. To suggest otherwise, one is labeled a primitive die-hard. 

Those who finance and participate in the yellow ribbon mass psychosis today in Israel are not the "primitive" voices that opposed the "Oslo"  mind set ( the "messianic" settler types). Indeed, the yellow ribbon people created the  Oslo illusion. They enabled our monster neighbors to do Oct 7.

Still, rather than demand the monster be destroyed, they feed and encourage it, as they pressure the government to surrender to all their demands.
Why?
To free our hostages.
 This is exactly what the enemy anticipated. It has worked before.  Why not again?
One way of explaining this demand to surrender and thus endanger the future of the country lies in a basic worldview. They value only the IMMEDIATE concerns, comforts and "rights" of the individual.
Another world view considers the good, indeed, the survival of one's people or country as paramount. (How would the USA or the UK deal with a similar situation in WW 2?)
Some families of hostages consider more the former, and some the latter. What happens to seven million Jews after the country loses the war by surrendering to all the demands of the devil? That doesn't interest them. It is an annoying, immoral question. Morality means me and now.
 Period.

I saw a documentary about Israelis who recently left the country for Canada in the middle of this war(something that would be a badge of shame at another time).
They explained that they just wanted a quiet life and were proud of their choice to "relocate".

They proudly displayed a yellow ribbon in their new home.
 What does the ribbon represent for Israelis who have just abandoned their country and people during the war?
Is it still the "Israeli" yellow ribbon of surrender or the "Diaspora" ribbon of Jewish solidarity, pride and rage at Hamas?


shalompollack613@gmail.com
author
"Jews, Israelis and Arabs"