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Last update - 05:52 08/06/2008 Remembering when our cause was just By Yossi Melman Tags: Ehud Barak, Israel  The shareholders arrived at the board meeting. They arrived from every corner of the land. They came from the cities and the villages. They walked slowly, their backs slightly hunched. Some used a walking stick, some leaned on their companions. Some were even spotted in wheelchairs. But there were also many who marched proudly, spines erect. They hailed from different political camps: left, right, center, religious, and secular. There were the native-born Israelis (sabras), there were immigrants, there were women and men. There were not there to collect profits or dividends. They came for one reason only - to hear someone say thank you. The youngest are now 77 years old, while the older ones are 90. They are the warriors of the generation of 1948, the "original shareholders of the defense establishment," as Defense Minister Ehud Barak put it. Advertisement This wasn't just any nostalgic meeting of fair-haired, handsome Palmachniks we are accustomed to seeing. For this gathering included fighters from all the underground organizations that fought for Israel's independence, including the Etzel (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern Gang), men and women who in the first few decades of the state were pushed to the periphery of the national memory and the official historiography. It happened last Sunday, a moving ceremony on the lawn of Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv. The population of the yishuv, the pre-state Jewish community, numbered 600,000 when the United Nations approved the partition plan dividing Mandatory Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. When the War of Independence broke out, on the fifth day of the Hebrew month of Iyar (May 15), there were 110,000 men and women serving in the newly created Israel Defense Forces. The soldier-civilian ratio, which gave new meaning to the concept of "a mobilized society," was unprecedented. If one takes into account the fact that between one-third and one-half of the population was youth and children, it would be reasonable to conclude that, in practice, every third able-bodied adult fought in the 18-month war. "This was one of the most difficult tasks I've ever had," said Raya Biran, an aide in the Defense Minister's Bureau and one of the key organizers of the event. "We wanted to invite everyone who took part in the battle against the British, and those who later on donned the IDF uniform in the war. But it was tremendously difficult to find them. The lists in the IDF Archives were not up to date. As a result, we asked dozens of associations, like Beit Palmach and veterans groups affiliated with Etzel and Lehi, brigades and battalions. We expected 10,000 people to come. We got 12,000. There weren't enough chairs for everyone." The IDF orchestra provided the music; letters by soldiers on the front lines were read aloud, and songs from that period blared on the loudspeakers. Here and there an Etzel veteran wondered aloud to his Lehi comrade why they were playing "their" songs, and not the Betar anthem and Lehi's "Unknown Soldier." "Their" songs, however, are now a staple of Israeli culture, much like the poems of Haim Gouri, whose more noted works include "Poem of Friendship" and "Here Our Dead Bodies Lie." They are no longer identified solely with the Palmach, whose fighters inspired the poems. Gouri's works speak for all the generation's fighters. In his remarks at the ceremony, Gouri reminded those present - though he perhaps meant to remind those not present - how many axioms have been forgotten on Israel's 60th anniversary. "I still hear David Ben-Gurion declaring before the British authorities in 1945: 'There are three things for which we are ready to die and which we won't compromise on - the freedom to absorb Jewish immigration, our right to build on the barren lands of our country, and the political independence of our people in our land.' I'm still waiting to hear the voice of an elected, national leader who can define with such succinctness, with such forcefulness, our war aims, in an Israeli society which today is fractured and divided, struggling to both fight or to make peace." Geula Cohen, who was an announcer on Lehi's underground radio broadcasts, concurred with most of Gouri's observations. For Cohen, the ceremony was a singular event, an emphatic statement of unity. "There were ceremonies in the past where we, the underground fighters, were given official state medal and decorations," Cohen said. "But these were separate ceremonies, because the Palmach and Haganah veterans refused to appear with us. There has never been an event like this, where all the underground groups were represented together." Cohen said one of her foremost regrets is missing out on IDF service. Though she did, like most Lehi members, complete the full enlistment process when the state was declared, she was once again forced underground after Lehi gunmen assassinated UN envoy Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem in September 1948. On a radio broadcast, it was Cohen who announced the news of Lehi's death sentence for the Swedish diplomat. The most senior of the speakers at the event, perhaps the oldest person there, was 94-year-old General Shlomo Shamir. Clear, lucid and still straight-backed, Shamir is the last remaining member of the 1948 war's General Staff. He was also the sole speaker who did not have a prepared speech. "This event is proof that we haven't been forgotten," said the commander of the 7th Brigade, who led his troops onto the blood-soaked fields of Latrun in an effort to break the Arab siege on Jerusalem. Shamir also holds the distinction of being the only commander to have led two separate branches of the IDF. He was the second commander of the Israel Navy and the third chief of the Israel Air Force. Gouri cited a column by Davar editor Moshe Beilinson, from 1936, the year the Arab Revolt broke out. "Until when, goes the question, until when? Until the strength of the nation of Israel in its land spells defeat for any enemy attack." Gouri acknowledged that this statement can apply today, too. He does not doubt for a second that Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi did not come to the ceremony just to say a polite thank you. "They had a psychological need to make this gesture to the generation of '48 in order to remind themselves, for today's generation, of an era when our cause was just," he said. Thus, Barak's statements reverberated in their sharpness and clarity. "To our sorrow, in the 60-year-old State of Israel, whose revival and existence you defended with your self-sacrifice, the values you have instilled can no longer be taken for granted. Tonight, however, let us behold the state's abundance of light, its achievements in science and culture, its advanced economy, and we will see its prosperity. We have seen its population grow tenfold, and we behold our IDF in all its might and impenetrability." Related articles: IDF identifies bodies of 5 soldiers killed in 1948 war Black, white and bloody The war that created the outlines for peace Bookmark to del.icio.us   Knowing when to fold Ehud Olmert tells Kadima to begin preparations for party primaries. Time for vegetarianism? Kosher meat prices in the U.S. are likely to soar after a raid on an Iowa plant.   1.   So Gouri thinks "our Cause" no longer "just"? 09:23  |  Rowan 08/06/08   2.   children 10:29  |  ron 08/06/08   3.   remembering 12:05  |  colinc 08/06/08   4.   Terrorism is in the eye of the beholder 13:27  |  Marlene N. 08/06/08   5.   dunno 14:37  |  ganno 08/06/08   6.   to #4 Learn the facts first dear 15:15  |  B`Galil 08/06/08   7.   Of course Etzel and Lehi were pushed to the side 15:29  |  newageblues 08/06/08   8.   Whats sad is These Veterans Have To See How Bad Kadima Is 17:18  |  Shepherd 08/06/08   9.   the cause is as just as it ever was. 17:37  |  frenz 08/06/08   10.   The cause never was just 19:28  |  Colin Wright 08/06/08   11.   re #6 `to #4 Learn the facts first dear` 19:30  |  Colin Wright 08/06/08   12.   #4 Never Read a Book 20:03  |  Reality Check 08/06/08   13.   "Just" war crimes ? 20:34  |  Jan Elshout 08/06/08   14.   Stopping religious imperialsm has always been just. 21:39  |  Gupta 08/06/08   15.   Here`s The Problem Nowadays 21:47  |  Yosemite 08/06/08   16.   where were olmert & peres on the lebanon aniversry 22:25  |  zionist forever 08/06/08   17.   It was never just. 23:21  |  Deborah 08/06/08   18.   Jan Elshout 23:43  |  Commonsense 08/06/08   19.   Jew elect said terrorists to high office,Sharon, Rabin 03:32  |  lydia 09/06/08   20.   Remember Mickey Marcus, Paul Shulman, Bill Bernstein 04:57  |  Machal 09/06/08   21.   Whether it was just or not 10:15  |  Rowan 09/06/08   22.   1948 jews were not `the weakers` but the strongest 15:06  |  Manolo peaceful man 09/06/08   23.   #22 Manolo, "peaceful" ="deceitful" 20:48  |  Bob 09/06/08   24.   answering bob 15:21  |  Manolo peaceful man 10/06/08   25.   pals as japs in USA WWII movies 15:59  |  Manolo peaceful man 10/06/08   26.   # 24 Manolo, whitewashing Arab terrorism does not work anymore 20:16  |  Bob 10/06/08   27.   You denied Lod -former Lyddah- facts??? 17:18  |  Manolo peaceful man 11/06/08   28.   immigrants never are `expelled` 17:26  |  Manolo peaceful man 11/06/08   29.   Percentages over ethnic cleansing 17:35  |  Manolo peaceful man 11/06/08   30.   your cause was always just;it`s just that mert in his corruption 18:07  |  glenna 11/06/08   31.   Re: B`Galil 20:42  |  David Bennison 11/06/08

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