Our friend and Aliyah Diary author has been truant for quite a while. Too busy writing books and patrolling Jerusalem by bicycle, armed - but he sent this in yesterday:
For the 40th anniversary celebration, a few moments from the ceremonies at the Kenneset building in front of Chagal's mosaic.
Eliaz Cohen's Yeru-shalem has been set to music and was sung beautifully; a play on words - everyone "yeru" (throws, shoots) peace, (Shalem) at Yerushalem.
Yehuda Amichai, whose widow was there, wrote: "Yerushalem is God's Venice." Films of Amichai walking up the steps through the old city or Mahane Yehuda.
And Shuli Natan, before singing Naomi Shemer's Yershalaim Zahav, said that Teddy Kolek, before he died last year, asked Shuli Natan to sing Naomi Shemer's song in his memory. So she did. And so did everyone, everyone - Knesset members, Yithak Navon, Supreme Court justice.
And an Ethiopian singer sang a song of return to Jerusalem both in Amharic and Hebrew. As she sang, night-time movies of the first Operation Solomon, flying Ethiopian Jews to Israel was shown. Some were flown in the cargo section of a plane. And no complaints.
As I watched the films of the recapture of Jerusalem in 1967, the soldiers slamming into walls before peering over to shoot, men climbing out from under tanks to run across the narrow streets that I now walk, I thought of one of my soldiers, whose father, Chanan Porat, was one of these soldiers.
Altogether, I wish I could transmit how moving this was.
Weds., I go on a hike to see some of the critical battle sites.
Editor's Note: One of these days, we will post an excerpt from one of Nathan's books (linked above), which mainly consists of in-depth interviews with Israeli citizen-soldiers from elite combat units.
Today is the day we celebrate the time when back in 1967, Israel liberated this city from Jordanian rule.
Tracked: May 16, 10:33