Singing "Hatikvah" and waving the blue-and-white flag without apologizing or hesitating

...As an anthem, "Hatikvah" does indeed give expression to an identity. The Bohemian believer who wrote the poem on which "Hatikvah" is based, Naftali Herz Imber, gave form to the phrase "Know from where you came [and] where you are going" in the nine verses of "Tikvateinu" ("Our Hope," the poem's original title). From the time we were exiled from our land and until we returned to it, we have come from the land of Zion and Jerusalem and we are going there. That is the essence of our historical cycle.

Nadav Shragai..
Israel Hayom..
08 May '16..

Israel's national anthem "Hatikvah" is one of the best-known Hebrew songs in the Jewish world, like "Jerusalem of Gold" though much older. For generations, it was sung by Jews who did not know a word of Hebrew; a song with words that were not taken from the Bible or the Jewish prayer book, and yet it is a very Jewish song. Now, the Arab Knesset members are again demanding that the anthem's words be changed or replaced altogether. They claim, and rightfully so, that they feel its content is not connected to them, and that they cannot be expected to identify with it.

This is understandable. Truthfully speaking, what connection do they have to "the Jewish spirit yearning" or "looking toward Zion"? The blue-and-white flag, with its colors taken from the Jewish prayer shawl and its Star of David, as well as the state's emblem, with the menorah from the Temple at its center, are also far-removed from them. What connection do they have to the Jewish prayer shawl? To King David? To the menorah from the Temple? Even "Israel," the country's name, which is mentioned in the Bible more than 2,000 times, is taken from Jewish history and has no connection to the country's Arab citizens.

But the national anthem, the flag and the state emblem are not supposed to reflect the common denominator of the entire population. The anthem, Professor Shlomo Avineri once rightfully noted, gives expression to the country's historical identity, and in most democratic societies, there are people who do not agree with that identity.

As an anthem, "Hatikvah" does indeed give expression to an identity. The Bohemian believer who wrote the poem on which "Hatikvah" is based, Naftali Herz Imber, gave form to the phrase "Know from where you came [and] where you are going" in the nine verses of "Tikvateinu" ("Our Hope," the poem's original title). From the time we were exiled from our land and until we returned to it, we have come from the land of Zion and Jerusalem and we are going there. That is the essence of our historical cycle.

Surprised? ‘Hatikvah’ Banned at the Tel Aviv Opera

...This is not the crown jewel Golinkin had imagined, and not the impassioned cultural institution the Jewish state needs if it is to absorb the waves of those who rush to it in search of safety. Surely the municipal funds that currently make up 40 percent of the company’s budget have some other, better use.

Tel Aviv Opera conductor Frédéric Chaslin. (Vico Chamla)

Liel Leibovitz..
Tablet..
13 January '15..

In 1917, a Russian conductor named Mordechai Golinkin was moved to the core after hearing news of the Balfour Declaration. Denied the baton at St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theatre because he was Jewish, Golinkin imagined a thriving opera company in the soon-to-be reclaimed Promised Land, with himself at the helm. To anyone who would listen, he thundered that national revival was impossible without an artistic renaissance, which was yet another reason why Tel Aviv needed a hall for the tenors to boom just as they did in St. Petersburg or Warsaw or Milan. Golinkin cobbled together a small choir and took it on the road, with all income dedicated to the cause. The tour’s highlight was a gala performance in St. Petersburg, now called Petrograd: before Golinkin and his crooners took the stage, Feodor Chaliapin, one of the world’s most celebrated opera singers, stepped forward and sang “Hatikvah”. It was an expression of solidarity and of hope, one musician ensuring another that art will always triumph over bigotry.

Except, apparently, in Tel Aviv’s opera: the company Golinkin himself eventually helped create disgraced his memory on Saturday night when it denied a request by its Parisian-born conductor, Frédéric Chaslin, to commemorate the killing of 17 people in his native town earlier in the week by playing “Hatikvah” and saying a few words. Denied this basic gesture, Chaslin refused to take the podium and sat the concert out.

(Video) Only Israel has an anthem of hope and freedom

firstonethrough..
31 December '12..




The national anthems of the countries in the Middle East are full of calls for violence, revenge and martyrdom. Only Israel has an anthem of hope and freedom. Hope and Freedom are foundations for a strong and peaceful country.




The concluding words as well as the music in the video are from "Hope Has A Place" by Enya

For More Researched, Fact-based Humor and Politics Visit firstonethrough.

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Sultan Knish - I Can't Believe It's Not Israel

Daniel Greenfield..
Sultan Knish..
30 April '12..

In times past the Forward newspaper celebrated the fast of Yom Kippur with a feast and in keeping with that tradition it celebrated Israel's Independence Day by rewriting its anthem to remove the word "Jew" from it. The linguistic purge from the notoriously anti-Israel paper was meant as a way to help Muslims feel better about singing the Israeli national anthem.

The yearning of the Jewish soul becomes the yearning of the Israeli soul and the eyes turned east no longer long for Zion, but the generic "our country". The proposal made by a self-proclaimed linguist seems rather devoid of understanding when it comes to the origin and meaning of words. Purging Jewish souls from the anthem and replacing them with Israeli souls doesn't actually solve anything.

Jews are Judeans, dating back to the Kingdom of Judah, contrasted with the breakaway Kingdom of Israel and its tribes. The Jews are also Israelites, being sons of the patriarch Israel, a category that still does not encompass Muslims. Rewriting Jewish soul as Israeli soul still leaves one with Jews, and as the Forward has discovered, Jews are rather hard to get rid of. Shoot them, gas them and write them out of their own anthem and they still pop back up.

It will take more than a few switched words to write Jews out of Hatikvah. Even if we were to no longer call them Israelis, but perhaps Homo Sapiens or oxygen breathing mammals, so as to leave no one out at all, there is the eastern problem. Why were these carbon breathing lifeforms looking east, when most of the region's Muslims look westward to Israel? And why were they longing for a country for 2000 years when the only Arabs around then were Roman mercenaries carving up Jewish refugees and searching for gold in their stomachs?

Gordon - By Israeli Left’s Standard, U.S. Pledge Would Be Fascist

Evelyn Gordon
Commentary/Contentions
19 July '11



http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/07/19/by-israeli-left%E2%80%99s-standard-u-s-pledge-would-be-fascist-too/

Did you know most Americans would be considered fascist by a significant portion of Israel’s left? Neither did I, until a few days ago. But that’s the inescapable conclusion from the left’s reaction to a new Israeli Education Ministry directive requiring Jewish kindergartens (Arab schools would be exempt) to start the week by raising the Israeli flag and singing the national anthem, Hatikvah.

“It looks like a competition between members of the Likud [the ruling party] to see who can push us faster into the arms of fascism,” thundered Prof. Gabi Solomon of the University of Haifa.

“Part of a growing trend of inculcating nationalistic and militaristic values,” screamed an Arab nongovernmental organization.

“This directive is reminiscent of education in a totalitarian society; it gives me the shivers,” charged a lecturer at a leading teacher’s college [Hebrew only].

“It’s brainwashing,” added a kindergarten teacher.

Like millions of other Americans, I attended a public kindergarten and elementary school that raised the flag every day and had its students recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning. I certainly never thought that made the American school system fascist, nor, I imagine, did most Americans. But by comparison, the Israeli directive is mild: It’s only once a week; it only applies to kindergartens; it a priori exempts an entire sector of society (the Arabs) that might be expected to find the practice uncomfortable; and unlike the Pledge, with its controversial reference to “one nation under God,” Hatikvah includes no mention of God at all. So if this directive makes Israel a fascist, totalitarian state, I can only conclude the America I grew up in was even more so.

Because the roots of Israel’s legal system are European rather than American, certain Israeli laws understandably make Americans uncomfortable. Like most European states, for instance, Israel allows greater restrictions on freedom of speech than America’s First Amendment would permit; hence certain statements that would be protected speech in America could be prosecutable as incitement to violence or incitement to racism in Israel. These differences make it easier for Americans to believe Israeli leftists who claim Israel is becoming an undemocratic country.

But what most Americans don’t realize is that what Israeli leftists term “anti-democratic” includes a lot of things Americans would consider perfectly legitimate. For instance, Israel’s leading civil rights organization, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, asserts that a law denying state funding to commemorations of the Nakba (literally, “catastrophe,” the Arabic term for Israel’s establishment) “crosses a red line in suppressing freedom of expression.” Yet how many Americans would feel that “freedom of expression” required their government to actually finance ceremonies mourning their country’s establishment as a catastrophe?

So next time you hear Israeli leftists talking about how Israel is turning fascist, just remember: If you don’t have a problem with schoolchildren reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, then in their eyes, so are you.

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