Yesterday, I had the opportunity to meet Natan Sharansky and shake his hand. I can't remember the first time I heard about him. It was probably in the late seventies or early 1980's when he was still rotting in a Soviet jail and his wife was conducting a worldwide campaign to free him. As one of the founders of the Refusnik movement in the Soviet Union in the 1970's he was already well known and considered a hero by the time Ronald Reagan's government pressured Gorbochov to release him in 1986. After he immigrated to Israel he became involved in politics, even forming his own political party, Yisrael B'aliyah in 1995. He served in various governments, then became part of the Shalem Center think tank and now is Chief of the executive of the Jewish Agency. Sharansky is a symbol of democratic values for Israelis and Palestinians as well as a staunch advocate of Israel in the world arena.
It would be wonderful to report that I met him at a social reception or educational forum where we had the opportunity to talk. Unfortunately I met him while he was surrounded by a multitude of people all vying for his attention. I managed to introduce myself, shake his hand and say thank you before he was whisked away to meet with some local Miami Jewish Community leaders. Unfortunately, this opportunity to shake hands with such an incredible hero of the Jewish people occurred at a community summit to Combat the Deligitimization of Israel.
Organized by the Greater Miami Jewish Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council, this summit gathered together an impressive array of speakers including Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH), Alan Dershowitz, Natan Sharansky, Irwin Cotler, Daniel Pipes and Rabbi David Saperstein as well as Michael Oren, Israel's Ambassador to the United States. It was wonderful to hear all of them speak, each expressing their opinion, each giving good advice, each laying the ground for how the current war against Israel is being fought. It was particularly inspiring to hear the story of Rachel Fish, a doctoral candidate in Israel studies at Brandeis University who, as a graduate student at Harvard University started the student organization "Students for an Ethical Divinity School" which managed to convince the university to reject a 2.5 million dollar endowment from Sheik Zayed, ruler of the United Arab Emirates who had founded an anti-Semitic and anti-American "think tank." Over 1200 attended this event. It inspired a real sense of community and spotlights the seriousness and concern so many feel about the current phase of the war against Israel.
It is sad that after 19years of attempts at direct negotiations, the Madrid Peace Process, the Oslo Peace Process with all its interim agreements, Camp David summer of 2000, the follow up talks December, 2000-January, 2001, the Abbas-Olmert agreement which didn't come to fruition, the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the Northern West Bank—all of this and peace is still as distant as ever. What several of the speakers pointed out was that the war against Israel doesn't stop—it just changes. The first phase was the attempt to destroy Israel by military means which began in 1948 and ended in 1973. The second phase was by terrorism which began after the Yom Kippur War and which the second intifada was the last gasp of this tactic (I would argue that this is still being used as a tactic with missiles being shot at Israeli population centers from Hamas Ruled Gaza). The third phase, it can be argued began with 1975's UN resolution equating Zionism with Racism and has increased in intensity over the last few years especially with the growing "lawfare" tactics-using international courts and foreign governments who have "universal jurisdiction" to attempt to indict and try Israeli politicians, government officials and soldiers as war criminals.
Yes, I met Natan Sharansky and shook his hand. Hopefully, the next time I meet him I will be able to talk with him for a few minutes and it will be at an occasion where we can celebrate a victory over the latest phase in the continuous war against Israel.