Our history, our heritage, is the answer - by Michael Lobovikov

...The depth of our history, and the understanding of our national rights that stem from it, are a weapon no less powerful than an armored division or Iron Dome battery.

Michael Lobovikov..
Israel Hayom..
10 July '17..
Link: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19397

UNESCO's outrageous decision last week to designate the Old City of Hebron, including the Cave of the Patriarchs, as a Palestinian world heritage site reminded me of something an Israeli archaeologist once told me on a tour of Samaria. Describing how he discovered the historical site we were visiting that day, he said: "I saw several chiseled stones in a field and rubbed one of them, to clean off the dust. All of a sudden I saw two words engraved in ancient Hebrew: 'High Cohen' ['priest']. Turns out I was standing in the middle of a Hebrew village abandoned after the destruction of the First Temple, during the Babylonian exile, and had been sitting there untouched for 2,600 years!"

The words he discovered were engraved in a stone situated above the entrance to the home of the high priest who had lived there. In an area of 5 square kilometers (1.9 square miles), the remnants of new fewer than six Jewish communities from that period were found. This incredible heritage site stands abandoned to this day. Aside from minimal excavations and documentation, it has not been comprehensively researched yet. The general public has no access to it because it is in a military zone and is opened up to visitors only on rare occasions.

The same is true of most historical sites in Israel. While we are all familiar with popular sites such as Masada, the City of David, the Cave of the Patriarchs, Herodium and Beit Shearim, the vast majority of Jewish heritage sites are still insufficiently accessible to the public. We all know about Caesarea, Beit Shean, Atlit and Crusader-era fortresses such as Montfort Castle and Belvoir Fortress -- but these are not Jewish heritage sites. Gamla, Beitar, Hippos-Sussita, Alexandrium (or Sartaba in Hebrew) and hundreds of other sites are still waiting for the Israeli public to visit them, and even just hear about them for the first time. The overwhelming majority of these sites have not been excavated and studied by archaeologists, and the few people who do "visit" them are antique robbers who plunder the depths of our national history with their destructive pirate excavations.

If a site has not been excavated, it has not been studied. And when it is not studied, it remains unknown to the general public, which consequently cannot connect with its heritage and roots. This creates a cycle of ignorance and contempt for our national history and for our link to the past and the land. We do not invest enough in preserving our heritage sites, and we open the door to the type of political opportunism exemplified by UNESCO's recent decision on Hebron.

The worthy challenge facing Education Minister Naftali Bennett - by Isi Liebler

...Restoring a climate that nurtures love of Israel and promotes pride in Jewish heritage will be a real test for Bennett. This requires courage and will lead to a vicious debate in which he will undoubtedly be accused of extreme nationalism and fascism. But Bennett is articulate and if he makes his case and demonstrates that he is not imposing religious coercion, the majority of Israelis will support efforts to ensure that their schools inculcate love of our land and people, and promote patriotism and pride in our democratic Jewish state. If Bennett succeeds, he will leave a lasting legacy that will benefit the entire nation.

Isi Liebler..
Candidly Speaking from Jerusalem..
20 January '16..

Anyone following the leftist media in Israel could be forgiven for believing that Israel is undergoing a Kulturkampf and that a desperate struggle is taking place in the secular school stream to retain freedom of expression from an extremist government seeking to subvert democracy and promote fascism.

A recent example was the headline reports in the Haaretz newspaper accusing Education Minister Naftali Bennett of Stalinist behavior and seeking to brainwash Israeli children and deny them access to good literature. He was charged with instituting a “boycott” of a recent novel, “Borderlife” by Dorit Rabinyan, which deals with a love affair between a Palestinian man and an Israeli Jewish woman.

The Education Ministry stated that aside from other considerations, the book was not included as a compulsory text because “young people of adolescent age tend to romanticize and in many cases don’t have the systematic vision that includes considerations involving maintaining the national ethnic identity of the people.”

The condemnations suggesting that extremist nationalist elements are imposing a draconian censorship on the nation are simply hysterical and untrue. There is not and has never been a call for a boycott of this book. There are hundreds of new novels appearing every year and those not selected as compulsory reading in the school curriculum are not being boycotted. In fact, the publicity has now transformed “Borderlife” into a best seller and those who wish can purchase it at any bookstore.

Contrary to media accusations, Bennett did not initiate his ministry’s decision. Nevertheless, he emphatically endorsed the ruling, noting that in addition to the Palestinian’s affair with an Israeli, the book also contained sections that “depict IDF soldiers as sadistic war criminals” and equated them with Hamas.

Bennett recommended that schools promote authors like Natan Alterman and Yehuda Halevy for Israeli students to read rather than a book extolling intermarriage between Jews and Arabs and besmirching the IDF. The vast majority of Israelis would undoubtedly endorse this.

But this issue is merely one example of the bogus efforts by the delusional leftists in Haaretz and other anti-government media outlets to demonize the government. Culture Minister Miri Regev faced an uproar when, some months ago, she announced that government funds would no longer subsidize cultural initiatives that slandered or delegitimized Israel. She did not propose banning such activities but refused to endorse the use of taxpayers’ funds to vilify the state. This action was triggered by a government-sponsored play that glorified and humanized the abductor and murderer of IDF soldier Moshe Tamam and scorned his surviving family. To cap it, groups of schoolchildren were being taken to see this lamentable play.

Again, in this case there was not even a hint of boycott. Just the logical assertion that the government was not obliged to subsidize demonization of the nation. Yet Regev was accused of acting as a commissar and stifling free speech.

An early-summer reflection on asymmetry - Educating the next generation

Frimet/Arnold Roth..
This Ongoing War..
03 July '13..

It's a perfect summer afternoon here in Jerusalem. Sky fiercely blue; sun shining and very warm, with the first hints of the wonderful Jerusalem breezes that make evenings here such a pleasure.

A good moment to pause, while we take stock of some of the turbulence happening in the neighbourhood:

The rising drama unfolding on the streets of Cairo as an army-imposed deadline on the government of Egypt rapidly approaches;

The barbaric Arab-on-Arab bloodbath that is decimating ancient cities across Syria day after day;

The step by step assault by Islamists on the glittering Gulf States and their incomprehensible waste and wealth;

Turkey, beset with angry protests and demands for protecting its democratic institutions, standing at the crossroads;

and on and on. It's not a quiet area where we live, and has not been in the past. But for now, at least, we have the privilege of being in an island of calm and quiet achievement.

Achievement? Yes. After the anger and hatred and killing and confrontation have spent themselves, it's education on which we hang our hopes for a better future. And we have a thought to share about this.

In the framework of the generations-long conflict between the Arabs and Israel, the role played by education has been stunningly asymmetrical. We know the word is used - we would say greatly overused - to characterize the efficiency and effectiveness of a well-organized Israeli military versus the Arab irregulars, the terror gangs, the religiously-inspired masses with blood and jihad on their minds.

But it's not only the ongoing war against the terrorists that expresses this asymmetry. It's also what the people on the other side do to their children in the name of a whole range of values: religious, national, historical, honor-related and on and on.

(Continue)

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Israel's place in "Education at a Glance" ? Doing very well.

Sarah Honig..
Another Tack..
19 February '13..

How many in Israel realize that this country was recently declared the second-best educated in the world (after Canada)? How many know that a recent survey declared Israel the first in the world in hi-tech Research and Development intensity?

Odds are that very few do. In our society, bad news is given resonance and the good is relegated to the margins. When Israeli fifth-graders do badly in international math evaluations, the entire country seethes. This feeds political recriminations that generate more headlines for days to follow. Our successes rarely, if ever, receive notice.

Israelis are without a doubt more self-scrutinizing than the citizens of most other nations. Clearly, self-criticism is not readily quantifiable, but we are probably second to none in that characteristic. It often works to our detriment, but it does also almost certainly reinforce our democracy. It constitutes an inestimable source of intellectual ferment and strength. In that sense, we are unique in our region.

And yet elsewhere, contrary to our own proven penchant for griping, our strength does not go unrecognized – even if we fail to crow about it. Thus two enlightening news items went almost ignored by local media.

A new OECD study – its Education at a Glance report for 2012 – ranks Israel second (among all 34 OECD members as well as eight other major economies) in the proportion of adults with higher-education degrees.

Canada came in first with 51 percent. Israel followed with 46%, ahead of Japan (45%), the US (42%) and New Zealand (41%). Next, from the sixth to 10th slots, respectively, came South Korea, Norway, the UK, Australia and Finland.

Glick - Netanyahu's Post-Zionist Education Ministry

Caroline Glick..
carolineglick.com..
17 January '12..


One of the declared goals of the Netanyahu government is to ensure that Israeli schoolchildren receive a strong Zionist education. To this end, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu appointed Gideon Sa'ar as his education minister.

Sa'ar has long distinguished himself as a critic of post-Zionist initiatives to transform Israel's educational curriculum from a Zionist curriculum which in accordance with the Education Law of 1953 is charged with inculcating school children with "the values of Jewish culture," "love of the homeland," and "loyalty to the Jewish state," into one that indoctrinates Israel's youth to adopt a post-nationalist, universalist perspective that does not value Jewish nationalism and rejects patriotism as atavistic and even racist.

In light of the importance that the government has placed on Zionist education, it is quite shocking that under Sa'ar, the Education Ministry approved a new citizenship textbook for high school students that embraces the post- Zionist narrative.

This fall, the new textbook, Setting off on the path to citizenship: Israel - society, state and its citizens (Yotzim l'derech ezrachit: Yisrael - hevra, medina v'ezracheya) was introduced into the state's official citizenship curriculum. In everything from its discussion of the War of Independence, to globalization and transnational institutions, to Israeli politics, to the peace process, to Israel's constitutional debate, to Operation Cast Lead, the textbook adopts positions that are post-Zionist and even anti-Zionist. It champions these positions while denying students the basic facts necessary to make informed decisions on how they relate to their country, their people and their rights and duties as citizens.

In a letter to Sa'ar written on October 4, 2011, Bar-Ilan University law professor Gideon Sapir set out four ways the textbook distorts history and reality. First, in its discussion of the historical background of Israel's founding, the book gives only passing mention to the international legal foundation of the state - the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine from 1922. The Mandate called for the reconstitution of the Jewish commonwealth in the land of Israel. It granted sovereignty to the Jewish state over all the territory that today makes up Israel, Judea, Samaria and Jordan.

The textbook provides no map of the Mandate.

Instead it suffices with a map of the UN's 1947 partition plan, a map of the territory controlled by the Jewish forces before the establishment of the state, and a map of the 1949 armistice lines.

Rubin - Reflections on the First Day of School in Israel

Barry Rubin
Rubin Reports
01 September '11

http://pajamasmedia.com/barryrubin/2011/09/01/reflections-on-the-first-day-of-school-in-israel/?singlepage=true


I ask my son how the first day of his elementary school (sixth grade) went. He tells me that the number of guards has been upped from two to five, and now they have metal detector wands. One of the guards, as before, carries a .38 caliber pistol. For good measure, he adds that the guard at the nearby clothing store is now carrying a G36C fully automatic Heckler & Koch. (Daniel’s an expert on small arms and has a high opinion of this weapon, one of his many hobbies.)

They are not carrying this equipment because of concern over random trespassers or shoplifters. I often reflect that if terrorists were to attack the elementary school successfully, they would be regarded as heroes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and among millions of Arabs and Muslims.

In contrast, of course, Palestinian schools, stores, and malls do not have to fear attack. On the contrary, certainly in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser extent on the West Bank, they are being taught in textbooks that it is proper and virtuous to slay Israelis wherever they find them. Would all this change overnight if there were an internationally recognized Palestinian state? Of course not.

And incidentally, in high school my daughter did a course on comparative religion, including a fair and accurate study of Islam. In the schooling of both children there has never been the slightest demonization of Arabs or Muslims while there has been a genuine effort to understand (without apologizing for or advocating) the viewpoint of those peoples.

Whatever the real shortcomings of the Israeli school system (don’t get me started!), my son isn’t subjected to the very conscious indoctrination that he faced during a stint in an American public school. (Long-time readers of my blog know the details. A personal favorite is how the math teacher used “Vote for Obama” playing cards for some math exercises.)

Fresnozionism - Kindergarten Zionism

Little Zionists celebrate Purim
in Kibbutz Sarid, 1930's

Fresnozionism.org
20 July '11

http://fresnozionism.org/2011/07/kindergarten-zionism/

You’d think that this doesn’t deserve mention in a newspaper:

Beginning this September, Jewish nursery and kindergarten teachers will be required to open the week with the raising of the Israeli flag and the singing of “Hatikva,” in accordance with new directives issued by the Education Ministry.

The preschool teachers will also be required to teach the children the state symbols once a week. The directives state that by next Independence Day, “All the children will know the words to the national anthem.”

Could anything be less exceptional? This is done in the US and certainly in many other nations.

According to the Education Ministry, the directives will not be implemented in the Arab sector. “We are conducting discussions in the Preschool Department to see how we can adapt [the directives] to this sector,” the ministry said.

Oh — a problem. OK, leave Arab schools out. Israel is a special country where a large part of a large minority identifies with its enemies. That’s a subject for another post. I just hope ‘adapting’ doesn’t mean that they will be allowed to raise a Palestinian flag and sing the Palestinian national anthem, which, by the way, includes this:

With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the guns
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire,
Palestine is my revenge and the land of endurance

But some Israeli Jews are unhappy. The article continues,

(It would seem that this is what is being objected to. Yosef)