Effects of Fighting in the Middle East Felt in the U.S.

October 9, 2000

Source: Los Angeles Times

On October 9, 2000, The Los Angeles Times reported that "The ghosts of past wars and the threat of a new one weighed heavily on Israelis on Sunday as the nation began its observance of Yom Kippur, Judaism's holiest day, a day of fasting and 'affliction of the soul.' Preparing their sermons before the holiday began at sundown, some rabbis said that events had unfolded so rapidly in the past 11 days that they had been hard pressed to keep up with the changes in their congregants' moods. Some rabbis who had planned to concentrate on relations between Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs in the wake of rioting in Israeli Arab communities revised those sermons Sunday morning, after Prime Minister Ehud Barak seemed to be preparing the nation for the end of peace negotiations with the Palestinians and the possibility of war. Others said they were simply struggling to help themselves and their flocks cope with what many here were calling the most somber Day of Atonement since 1973. Egypt attacked Israeli forces in the Sinai on Yom Kippur then, catching the nation unprepared and temporarily overrunning its defenses before Israel regrouped and fought back. Many Israelis feel that once again, they have been caught unprepared, this time by a wave of violence that erupted in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Sept. 28, spread into Israel proper and now threatens to spiral into a war with Lebanon and Syria. 'Mine is a congregation where many are involved in peace activities, and there is a real feeling that everything we have worked for is blowing up in our faces,' said Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kalman, who heads a progressive synagogue in Jerusalem. 'People are looking for comfort, but I'm afraid the comforter is feeling in need of comfort himself.'"