Jonathan Burkan is a great friend, a political activist, and a man who lives and breathes what is best for Israel. And that’s why he told me earlier this week that he wants to be there to show his support for the one and only Jewish state.
Jonathan is a Wall Street executive and through our mutual friends, Dr. Joe Frager and Rabbi David Katz of the Israel Heritage Foundation, we’ve been to Israel over the last half dozen summers where we met with a series of Knesset Members and government officials, visited some of the most interesting parts of the country, and hope to do the same in the week leading into Lag B’Omer.
It’s a historic time in Israel, basically because of the ongoing battles in Gaza, the occasional missile fires from Lebanon and Gaza, and the ongoing strain taking place between Israel and the Biden administration.
These trips to Israel are vital because of the truth that gets exposed during a time when the CNN’s and The New York Times, the Washington Post, and other members of the fake news cabal are determined to assist Hamas in damaging Israel’s international image. And it’s important to note that they are watching us in Washington, D.C., and they want to see for themselves whether it’s important for us as American Jews, who care deeply enough to put our lives on hold to demonstrate our love and support for the State of Israel, and the hundreds of thousands of young people who are on the front lines protecting all Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere.
This time around we have a full and fascinating schedule over the course of our trip. One of the first stops will be Ofakim, a community that is less than sixteen miles from the Gaza border. The attacking horde of terrorists made it into Ofakim on October 7, where they murdered 48 people before being repelled by a combination of the IDF and local police.
While in Ofakim, we will be accompanied by MK Almog Cohen, who is a former policeman who spent October 7 fighting behind a makeshift barricade to protect his hometown. It is still frightening to conjure up the fact that the terror mob that penetrated into Israel on Shemini Atzeres managed to make it sixteen miles inside Israel before being stopped.
After Ofakim, we will move closer to the Gaza border, to the grounds of the Super Nova festival where more than 350 young people were murdered on that fateful, tragic morning. From there, we will move on to Moshav Tkuma, a religious moshav northwest of Netivot where the carcasses of burnt and bullet-ridden cars lie baking in the desert sun. We visited the area in southern Israel during Chanukah, where cars were still being downloaded from tow trucks after members of Zaka carefully searched them for any human remains that could be recovered and identified.
Later that day, we will also tour one of the kibbutzim that bore the brunt of the October 7th attack with many of its residents either murdered or kidnapped to Gaza. Afterwards, we will stop at an IDF base and have the opportunity to talk directly with soldiers.
As is the case with many of these trips to Israel, we keep part of the schedule open because we never know what interesting meeting will just suddenly happen. Last summer, for instance, while we were in the King David Hotel, there was a simultaneous visit by a group of Democratic Congressmen, including Congressmen Hakeem Jeffries and Steny Hoyer.
Over this weekend, there is supposed to be a group of Republican Congressmen, so while I cannot identify the representatives, those who run the Israel Heritage Foundation are working on setting up a meeting for us to give us the chance to express how we feel about the current state of U.S.-Israeli relations.
It’s odd how American officials have to pretend to downplay the importance of the connection between the U.S. and Israel, but as we know, Israel is not just another blip on the Middle Eastern radar. It may be geographically tiny, with a population just over seven million, but it’s impossible to ignore the fact that they are surrounded by almost a billion Muslims in more than 22 countries.
On Friday, we will be in the Moslem Quarter of Jerusalem where we will visit the Ateret Cohanim Yeshiva, which has been the anchor of Jewish life in a unified Jerusalem for decades.
Early next week, we will be in Hebron, and in between, we will walk through and contemplate our history at Yad Vashem. Many in our delegation have not been to Israel before, so this will be a first-time experience for them. That is one of the amazing things about these visits to Israel with a group like this. Many are American Jews, while others are non-Jewish supporters of Israel. The important aspect of this trip is that they have been doing what they do for Israel from a distance, without really knowing the country. Now, for the first time, they will get to walk her streets, see her people, see the countryside, and feel and experience it up close and personal.
On one hand, this is another conflagration in the battle for Israel. But this time there is a difference because as we have learned, the battle for Israel is certainly in Gaza as well as northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. But unlike the past, the war today ripples throughout the Jewish world and inside all our communities. Until this point, we could watch the goings on in Israel from our safe vantage point, but that is not the case anymore, and that is why it is so important to be there at every opportunity. To show our support, to give our time and attention to the people on the front lines.
Jonathan Burkan, Joe Frager, and David Katz have put together an itinerary that will make a huge impact on American Jews first, the Israelis we meet on the ground, and also for those who will be accompanying us to Israel for the very first time.
