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Geula Cohen: "I Still Want to Change the World." Israel today

2019-12-18T23:17:12.350Z


Bridal of Israel Prize Who Didn't Miss Politics • Full interview given by Geula Cohen 6 years ago to Israel Today Israel This Week - Political Supplement


After her bold escapes from British prison during the Lehi and political wars in the Knesset, Geula Cohen talks about the missed opportunity of her life: The Minister of Education's role and also admits mistakes: "We made a mistake when we overthrew the Shamir government because it brought us the Oslo Accords" • A burning beacon

  • The walls of her house speak history. Geula Cohen in her home in Jerusalem

    Photography:

    Lior Mizrahi

Writer Eli Wiesel once called Geula Cohen "a fiery soul." The energetic and agitated Cohen herself also testified several years ago that she had no power to be tired. Despite this, the years have given her their signals. 88-year-old Cohen today is a slightly more conciliatory and calm person. Twenty-two years after leaving the Knesset, the bride of the Israel Prize and the Liberty and Liberation Movements are still a kind of semblance, the legendary river that emits stones and whirls a wave-chasing swirl and a whirlwind wave, but the interruptions between them have been lengthened.

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Proper Disclosure: Geula Cohen is one of my childhood heroes. In high school, I eagerly and breathlessly snapped up her book "The Story of a Warrior," which documented the struggles and struggles of Lehi's friends for Israel's freedom. Years later, in her opinion, she grew up as an entrepreneur and passed the Jerusalem Law, which installed another lock on the odors of this city. , Such marble that do not stop in its division.

Years ago, when "Israel Today" and "First Origin" were still a dream in the epidemic, I attended a series of meetings of journalists with a Jewish-national worldview, which Cohen's home served as a hostel. Defend a media revolution there and change the agenda of public opinion designers.

Now, before Passover, I returned to that house, in one of Jerusalem's northern neighborhoods, the home of a woman of fiery faith that political rivals also envy; A house whose walls speak history. Almost every wall piece in the living room of Cohen's house shows space. One direction overlooks a huge photographic painting, which shows redemption and her son Hanegbi cuddling on a balcony in a marine city, on the eve of its demolition in 1982; Cohen has a framed photographic clock in the Knesset, ripping a Kabbalah and filling the peace agreement with Egypt.

Next to them is another historical photo: Cohen is planting a tree in Sebastia in Samaria with her long-distance road partners, those of religious Zionism and those of practical Zionism: Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Hacohen Kook, the spiritual teacher of the founders of Gush Emunim, and Ariel Sharon, the great builder of the settlements. Cohen made sure to bring the two together. Only during the conversation will it become clear how special and unusual the relationship between Sharon and Cohen was. She is having trouble talking about him to this day, even after "destroying Gush Katif" and evicting its residents.

And three more pictures: Yair's first, after all, is Yair Stern, the fighter, thinker and leader of the Lehi underground, who was part of it before the founding of the state; the second: an enlarged photograph of Nili heroes, Avshalom Feinberg and Sarah Aharonson, holding this loving look In one's hand, innocently, the sentient priest has melted away to this day; And three cartoons, in which Cohen was immortalized by two of the branches of the industry that are no longer with us - Dosh M'ariv and Ze'ev of Haaretz.

Two of them sketch Cohen's public portrait in those days. In the first instance of Dosh, Menachem Begin appears to be leading his movement, the Herut movement, in the form of a man whose coarse stitch is marked instead of his heart. The uprooted heart (akin to Redemption Cohen) steps in the opposite direction. Ze'ev, on the other hand, sketches another face of Cohen: Begin looks there in the image of a smug man returning to his happy and good-hearted home (after having made peace with Egypt) when Cohen, his allegedly betrayed wife, lurks with a rolling pin behind the door, burning with anger.

Pursuit of Bethlehem

Cohen is also burning today. She loves the Land of Israel to brides and believes that the agreement with Egypt led to the formation of a slippery rebel, which ended up a very real threat to the integrity of Jerusalem. On Independence Day, she will honor and honor us all by lighting one of the beacons. She says this time it is even more exciting than winning the Israel Prize in 2003 for a special contribution to society and the country. "In the beacon there is a flame, like me," her eyes sparkle, "so it suits me."

The conversation with her also opens with a kind of flame. Cohen has just returned from a visit to Rachel's Tomb, along with her best friend Gen. (res.) Yossi Ben Hanan. She had trouble relaxing: "What did they do to this place? I really cried there." Cohen, it turns out, like many good ones before her, found it difficult to bear the new look of Rachel's tomb, which became a formidable fortress. In her memory is still the innocent and intimate look of the little domed structure that an olive tree shades - that is, in the collective memory as a Jewish icon of the Land of Israel.

"If I had dynamite, I would have blown that thing up. It's Rachel's grave? Does it fit Rachel our mother? She buried it a second time under cement and concrete piles."

Cohen's specific agitation draws from her personal history of Lehi, and more precisely - from the time the British interrupted her mythical underground broadcast on Kol Zion being released on Hashomer Street in Tel Aviv.

The year was 1946. Cohen was arrested and imprisoned in the women's prison in Bethlehem. Her mother, Miriam, made sure to visit her daughter frequently, "and on the way she would stop at Rachel to sob and pray that I be released from prison. She had long conversations with her and swore that she begged me before God," Cohen says. Redemption herself had planned to escape from prison from the very beginning. She tried to execute her plan for Passover and to symbolically reclaim her freedom, especially then.

Thus, one evening in March 1946, Cohen found a hiding place behind a bush in the prison yard. A headscarf, similar to the Christian women in Bethlehem, is wearing a blue sneakers and a roll-up skirt, fastened with safety pins. She waited for the consensual whistle from her detained friends, through which she would notify her if the afternoon's prisoner count had passed safely. The arrest is also outside.

Bloodstain, but light-footed, severed itself from the barbed-wire fence and burst into a mad run down the hill, toward the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. As she began to climb the next hill, the guards noticed her and began the pursuit. Many of the residents of nearby villages joined them. "Half Bethlehem chased me," she recalls. Cohen stopped only when a bullet hit her leg. She fell, and when her pursuers got her they angrily chanted: "Binat al-Sheitan" (the devil's daughter) and ordered her to raise both hands to surrender. The British prison commander was furious with her and refused to provide medical assistance. He was personally hurt by the fact that a woman managed to trick him and escape from his prison.

Cohen was thrown into a dungeon, where she took off her shoes and began pounding on the thick iron door. Four other Jewish prisoners then in prison - Hassia Shapiro and Noah (Nechama) Cohen of the Lehi, and Bracha Shomron and Deborah Shapira of the Irgun - joined her. All that night, five Jewish girls were constantly pounding on their steel doors. "It gave us strength, and it would certainly drive you crazy

British, "she laughs today.

It was only a year later that she managed to escape with the help of an Arab costume that left her two Abu Ghosh Arabs in the government cell of the government hospital in Jerusalem. Cohen's friends outside the prison devised an escape plan for her, and ordered her to start, but her attempts to fake an illness failed. Cohen finally arrived at the hospital following a real pneumonia. With the loss of Arabs and their families, she maintained a warm connection for many years. "The state has betrayed them," she blames today, and tells how after the Swedish diplomat, Polka Brandot, by the Lehi organization, the temporary government led by Ben-Gurion arrested Yusuf Abu Ghosh, himself a member of Lehi, and expropriated his house and thousands The acres he owned. "In the 1960s, Joseph fell into depression and died after many years," Cohen remembers. With his son, Thabat, Cohen remains in touch to this day. From Joseph she felt a strong need to ask for forgiveness, "In the name of my ungrateful people, under whose leadership there are those who know how to love our haters, but hate our lovers."

A torn letter to Eric

Passover eve, almost 70 years after, and Cohen returned to closer memories in the form of Seder Nights at Ariel Sharon's house. "Eric was a leader," she says, "he gave orders like a military officer, even at the Seder at the table. Sharon read the Haggadah word for word. He didn't skip any section, and actually lived the incident of the Exodus, just as we were told: It was - not just for him - Israel's first Independence Day, leading thousands of years later to Israel's first Independence Day. It was very disturbing to him that Passover Haggadah was skipping Moses. ? ' He asked every year. I didn't have a good enough answer for him. The commentators also find it difficult.

You talk about him with great longing.

"That's right. We spent years together in Judea and Samaria to cultivate and care for the 'soft seedlings', the settlements that were planted there (Cohen herself lived in a trailer in Kiryat Arba for six years; NC), but the displacement of Gush Katif injured my heart. My wounds are more painful, and Sharon once loved this settlement. For the first time, I understood the meaning of the phrase 'weep bitterly'.

"Eric invited me to him, before he made his decision in public. He informed me that he had decided to 'bring the communities together.' I said to him: 'What is it for a conference? It is an expulsion! This is an eviction! What are you talking about?' "I have come to the conclusion that I should do so." Since then, I wrote him dozens of letters with harsh words of reproof and he did not answer until one day I told him to post my words in the media. Since then, I asked him to write to him regularly. If I skipped, his secretary would call me so I could write to her. He answered me briefly and in writing. He assured me that I would destroy his letters. I did. In retrospect, I regret it. I once even sent him a torn letter to prove that I was true to my words. "

You had a great friendship and knew him well. What motivated him in his decision? Indeed, as some of his former friends claim, "as the depth of the investigation, so the depth of the displacement"?

"I don't know. I'm having a hard time believing that. In my impression, Eric was in disarray with himself for what he did. One day, after he destroyed Gush Katif, he came home to me. I saw his eyes fluttered with tears. I asked him: 'Eric, you cry "Yes, salvation," he replied. "What?", And he replied, "I have an account with Gd that brought me to it." It was very touching. I am neither a doctor nor a Gd, but I am impressed that his heart was decisive. His head. They were both at odds. The cerebral stroke from which he no longer rose was part of the matter. "

Maybe if Lily was around him history would have been different.

"Maybe. Lily had a very good influence on him. They were a perfect couple. There's one picture, many years ago, that doesn't get out of my mind: Lily is in the kitchen with them at home, and Eric calls from the battlefield during the Yom Kippur War. Lily brings her mouth to the earpiece and sings to him Softly and romanticly the song 'We're both from the same village.' 'Eric so needs it,' Lily explained to me as she replaced the tube. 'Always before he goes to battle and sometimes in the midst of a fight he calls me and asks me to sing to him the songs of the Land of Israel he loves. "".

"It's impossible without ideology"

Like her relationship with Sharon, her relationship with Yitzhak Shamir also knew its ups and downs. "Yitzhak Shamir, the commanders of the Lehi, was a rock, who knew how to stand for the dignity and interests of the people of Israel, without any account," Cohen concludes, "on the other hand, he was also cruel."

cruel?

"Cruel in the sense of calm, sometimes amazingly cool. I remember him making one of the most difficult decisions in Lehi - to execute Elijah Giladi, who was a bold and irresponsible adventurer. Giladi had a plan to execute Ben-Gurion and all the heads of the agency on the grounds that they were "traitors," and it became known to Shamir. Even before that, he disliked his immoral character. Giladi would also kill Shamir. Joshua Cohen pleaded with Shamir Almighty to eliminate him. It was eliminated in Rishon Lezion. His ruling was approved by members of the Lehi Center.

"I also remember Shamir excitedly in front of Elijah Hakim's and Elijah Beit Tzuri's coffins, sent by him to assassinate Lord Moin in Cairo, because the two were put to death in Cairo. They were his nurturers and he made sure to return their bodies home in a prisoner exchange with Egypt. "Shamir knew how to face the US and the world and not move a millimeter from Palestine."

But your and your friends' political behavior in the "revival" has brought down his government.

"That's right. We thought Shamir's participation in the Madrid conference, where for the first time formally recognized PLO killers as Palestinian representatives, would lead to a slippery slope. We were right in that assessment, but we were wrong in bringing it down. Abolishing Shamir brought up Yitzhak Rabin and rolled out the disastrous Oslo Accords to us. "

Although Cohen does not miss politics, she regrets that "the level of commitment of representatives of the National Camp for the Integrity of the Land is less today." Also, she was happy to see more women in politics.

On her great rival, Shulamit Aloni, who passed away a few months ago, she has good words and harsh words. "We liked each other and fought each other. At one point, she called on the Arab Knesset to set up their own Lehi, freedom fighters Ishmael. I immediately got up, approached her - not violently - and yelled at her to get off the stage. It made me angry.

"On the other hand, she was an ideological opponent I respected. We have had many conversations. I still respect people who are fighting for their opinions, even from a minority position, and do not hesitate to pay a price."

Does ideology in politics still exist, or has it been replaced by personal interests?

"It is impossible without ideology, but it is very weakened. To die completely it cannot. I know that today it is constantly talking about pragmatism. It is very much in fashion. I also knew how to be pragmatic when it needed to. After Begin cleared Sinai and marine rope, my friends and B "We were joined, to everyone's surprise, by his government. I was the one who pushed for that. We received the Ministerial Committee on Settlement, headed by Prof. Yuval Ne'eman. This committee decided to establish 80 communities in Judea and Samaria. It was pragmatic without giving up ideology."

"Alterman was a genius and madman"

If there is one thing that Cohen defines as a miss, it is the role of the education minister. "I really wanted a job, but Begin was committed to the bitter Zebulon from the IDF," she says. "If I had, I would have been Jewishizing and Zionizing the entire educational system, and at the same time investing in Arabic teaching and heritage and Middle East history. We know nothing about our neighbors' culture, their history. I have grandchildren. What do they know about the history of the Middle East and the Arab countries? Instead, we are taught about the US and Europe. It's important, but we live here! "

The Palestinians, who also live here, want a state. Netanyahu has stated that he is willing to give it to them, provided they meet several conditions. Once upon a time, he was at your place too. Maybe as Sharon said, things seen from there do not see from here?

Cohen annoys the question and wonders: "And maybe people are just weakening over the years, and their minds are weakening with them? What, suddenly have they discovered from their seat another landscape and everything that was true before - fades away? A Palestinian state is a historical and moral distortion, at the expense of the rights and security of the Jewish people. The settlements are the epitome of Jewish justice, like Jerusalem, like the entire state of Israel, and as far as the Palestinians are concerned, we are all one big settlement - only we separate the settlement from the settlement.

"The Palestinians say and write that someday they will kill the Jewish people. Only we are blind, close our eyes, shut our ears and imagine another reality. I do not want to ban any Arabs from his home, but not willing to be expelled from my home."

From her years of public activity, she especially creates the "exciting moments with the Jews who immigrated from Ethiopia. I remember myself at the Israeli Consulate compound in Addis Ababa, and whenever I mention Jerusalem, the children clap with immense enthusiasm, and Casey - the high priest of Ethiopian Jews - explains to me: "A patient goes to the doctor, a thirst goes to the water, and a Jew goes to Jerusalem."

"A few months later, I found myself standing in a small military airport in the north of the country, next to a huge IDF aircraft ramp, one of many that had flown the immigrants to Operation Israel that day. Prime Minister Shamir next to me, reaches out to one of the girls and asks her for her name and she replies: "Jerusalem." Shamir was amazed. One of the agency's employees, who also came from Ethiopia, explained that it is a very common name for Ethiopian Jews. Then I heard then-Chief of Staff Ehud Barak asking who was introduced to him as the case manager, 'How long have you been waiting in Ethiopia until immigrating to Israel?' And the priest replies, "Two thousand and five hundred years since the destruction of the first Temple."

Do you still get up in the morning, get upset and want to change things?

"I'm not looking for new feathers to flaunt and regenerate every day, but there are still quite a few mornings that I get up and want to change the world. Not to make it, but to change it. At my age it's a privilege to feel that way. At the will level, but the fact that the will still exists is encouraging. "

What, for example, would you like to change?

"I would like to change the name of the state from the State of Israel to the State of Eretz Israel, because that is the correct name. I once made a bill like that and I was not allowed to file it. Ask me - 'Are you crazy? Who will vote for that?' But this is the biblical, historical land of Israel. It is spiritual. It's literary. You say 'France', 'Italy', and not 'State of France'. So why not the State of Israel? "

And what about her cultural preferences? In the field of poetry she loves Uri Zvi Greenberg. "Ehud Olmert's credit will be recalled for his help in the establishment of the EZG House in Jerusalem, which I chair today," Cohen notes. "Uri Zvi was a huge poet. It is a pity that his works are not taught in schools. I am still waiting for a floor-level translator to know how to translate his words into other languages. The day it happens - the world will go crazy. there are no such things. Who else wrote about the Holocaust in this way? "She also mentions Yehuda Amichai, Chaim Guri and" Of course you gave Alterman. Bialik is less interesting to me.

"In the field of literature I appreciate SJ Agnon, Moshe Shamir, Aharon Megad and also in this category the Alterman the writer. He was genius and crazy. His madness was not madness, but genius. No wonder Uri Zvi, who did not appreciate many people, appreciated him. "

You have defined the interview with you on the NRG website as "my last interview". Why did you say that?

"I had that feeling. It's hard for me to explain, but to my delight, I'm interviewing again."

The end keeps you busy?

"Sometimes yes and sometimes not. It's not something that doesn't let go of me, but age is hard. You deserve to do things, you want to jump, but you can only walk. You want to go - but you can only limp. Everything you want - you do with devaluation "It is good that the head is still working most of the time. I live alone every day and say to myself that this is how Gd created the world and it may be my last day, even though I so much want to live on and on."

Source: israelhayom

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