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National Anthems say a
lot about an entity's character. The Israeli National Anthem is about peace
for the Jewish people and about hope, not about violence and revenge.
It seems as though the
Palestinian "National" anthem is specifically designed to a) strenghthen
Palestinian claims to the land of Israel and b) encourage further bloodshed and
violence. Is this something that us in the west should condone? Compare the
anthem below to the "Palestine"
National Anthem
- there is NO comparison. There is no talk of violence and revenge for past
injustices in the Israeli National Anthem, of which there have been many.
Source:
Jewish
Virtual Library
In The Jewish heart
A Jewish spirit still sings,
And the eyes look east
Toward Zion
Our hope is not lost,
Our hope of two thousand years,
To be a free nation in our land,
In the land of Zion and Jerusalem
The title of the Israeli
national anthem is HATIKVA, which means “The
Hope.” It was written by Naftali Herz Imber, a Galician Jew, and set to
music in Palestine in the early 1880s. Hatikva is about “hope,” the
undying hope of the Jewish people, through the long years of exile, that
they would someday return to independence in their homeland.
In 70 C.E. Titus led his
Roman soldiers in their destruction of Jerusalem. Most of the Jews were
carried away as captives and scattered across the lands of the world.
During the two thousand
years of exile, the Jewish people always kept a heartfelt prayer in their
hearts for return to Israel. They said special daily prayers for return and
they celebrated the holidays according to Israeli seasons and calendar. This
is the message of the Hatikvah's first stanza. Zion is another name for
Israel and Jerusalem. When the Jewish people pray their eyes, hearts and
prayers are directed toward Israel and Jerusalem. For many long painful
years, the land of Israel was in the hands of foreigners. The Jews who lived
in Palestine were not free. Yet their hope for freedom and independence
never died. The second stanza of the Hatikva recalls the undying hope of
Jews through the generation, Jews who lived in other countries and Jews who
had remained in Palestine.
When we sing the Hatikva
together, we are doing much more than just singing a nice melody. We are
making a promise that we will never forget the undying Jewish hope for
independence and that we will do all within our power to help the State of
Israel prosper.
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