POLITICS AND PROSTHETIC ARMS

 

Correct me if I’m wrong, it seems that the electronic news media is far more widely accessed than the printed news format. Just the same, once a week I read Yediot Aharonot’s Friday supplement. I enjoy feeling the texture of the paper almost as much as reading some of its news content.

Columnist Ben-Dror Yamini often writes something quotable. Last week he cited Likud Knesset member Ofir Katz’s Twitter post. “It’s about time the ‘Left’ got used to the new political reality-‘Nobody counts you anymore!’” Katz asserted. He was referring not only to Meretz, and Labour, but to almost the whole outgoing coalition government. The political swath Katz calls “Left” provides much of the financial backing for Israel’s industries, exports and hi-tech sectors. In fact, the “Left” that Ofir Katz has excluded numbers 49.5 percent of Israel’s citizens that didn’t vote for the Likud-Haredi bloc. The same “Left” pays about 89 percent of the taxes which are used to pay Ofir Katz’s salary and to transfer monies in accordance with the new coalition agreement’s directives that will encourage Haredim to ‘dodge’ military service and avoid productive work. In addition, it gives them carte blanche exemption from including core subjects - English and Mathematics in their schools’ syllabus. Clearly it will increase poverty in the Haredi sector depriving their children of the benefits of a modern education.

Soon, maybe sooner than expected, prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu will tell President Isaac Herzog- “I have succeeded in forming a coalition government. Yet his success might be a Pyrrhic victory! Some commentators claim he will have to keep or break promises he has made to both Likud party members and especially to some of his more extremist coalition partners

According to a Politico report published on Tuesday citing two U.S. officials, the Biden administration plans to hold Netanyahu personally responsible for the actions of cabinet members. This is in part due to Netanyahu's reassurance that he will lead and navigate the government despite fears that far-right lawmakers will lead and navigate him.  

At this juncture I want to digress and mention a news item best described as ‘trivia.’ 

Joseph Trumpeldor lost his arm while serving in the Russian army, fighting in the Russo-Japanese war in 1904. More than a century after his death Trumpeldor remains the nation’s most iconic hero. Nevertheless, conflicting accounts of the events that took place at Tel Hai where he died, continue to reverberate, providing material for numerous multimedia productions, articles, books etc.,

 Moreover, Trumpeldor’s prosthetic arm became perhaps the image most associated with the man himself. In the early 1950s a fierce debate was waged regarding where it would be exhibited: in the museum at Kibbutz Tel Yosef that bears his name or in the Tel Hai courtyard museum. A special committee was convened to settle the matter and in 1955 the prosthetic arm was transferred from the Zionist archive to the "Beit Trumpeldor" museum at Kibbutz Tel Yosef.

However, in recent years the "Beit Trumpeldor " museum has ‘lost a lot of its lustre’ attracting fewer visitors. The condition of the prosthetic arm was deteriorating and the Zionist archive decided to reclaim the exhibit fearing that that it would deteriorate further beyond repair.
In an online interview the archive's curator Jessica Levine described the restoration work carried out in order to preserve the prosthesis and how she made an exact replica of the arm. 

However, it transpires that Trumpeldor had a number of ‘spares’ including a ‘dress’ model with a glove like hand. There is some confusion regarding the original prosthetic arm. According to one account he received it when he was a prisoner of war in Japan. However, after he was repatriated he was recognised as a Russian war hero. He was the first Russian Jew to receive an officer’s commission and was decorated by Tsar Nicolai II. It’s recorded that Tsarina Alexandra pinned the medals on his uniform and presented him with a prosthetic arm. I’m sure I haven’t exhausted this topic.

Likewise, the debate concerning Trumpeldor's dying words. Did he really say in fluent Hebrew “It’s good to die for our country” or, a variant of the same phrase. Avraham Avidan, and others, were with Trumpeldor when he died. Avidan claimed that he swore in Russian when he realised the gravity of his wound. Later on Avidan joined Ein Harod and is reported to have insisted that Trumpeldor grunted his dying  words in Russian and not Hebrew.

That being said, the poetic “It’s good to die for our country” remains the accepted undeniable traditional version.

I’ll conclude with a personal anecdote. I don’t remember exactly when, perhaps twenty years ago, I took two non-Jewish Russian visitors on a tour of Upper Galilee.

I pointed out landmarks along the way while driving near Tel Hai. One of my guests recognised the name and said referring to Trumpeldor, “Yes, one of our heroes is buried here. Anyway, we agreed to share the glory. But, I couldn’t resist the temptation to repeat the Russian phrase Avidan used when quoting Trumpeldor’s last words - "yob tvoyu mat.
" Both my guests burst out laughing. I’m not sure if it was because of Avidan’s vulgar remark or my faulty pronunciation.

 

 Chag Hanukkah Sameach

 

Beni,               22^nd of December, 2022