While many official duties are put on hold during a war, there are some that must be carried out in order to enable people to do their jobs. One such duty for the head of state is to accept the letters of credence of foreign ambassadors. Until he does that, they cannot be fully functional in their roles. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose Chief of Protocol meets and greets new ambassadors and apprises them of how Israel plays the rules of the game, had a backlog of new heads of foreign missions.
Usually between four to six ambassadors present credentials on any given day, but not knowing how long the war will last, Chief of Protocol Gil Haskel decided that all 13 ambassadors-designate should wait no longer and invited them to the President’s Residence on Tuesday. President Isaac Herzog received them one at a time in the reception room and subsequently addressed them all together in the main hall in lieu of the usual tete-a-tete.
As if he didn’t have enough on his plate – having met earlier in the day with French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he frequently speaks on the phone; giving interviews to foreign media; meeting families of victims and hostages; visiting the wounded in hospitals and evacuees in hotels; going to army bases to thank soldiers for their service; and keeping abreast of the latest developments within the country and on the battlefront, not to mention meeting the myriad of dignitaries flooding into the country to demonstrate their solidarity with Israel – Herzog performed that duty as well.
The new ambassadors are: Finland – Dr Nina Nordstrom; Norway – Per Egil Selvaag; Albania – Meri Kumbe; Lithuania: Audrius Bruzga; Czech Republic – Veronika Kuchynova Smigolova; Netherlands – Marriet Schuurman; Bulgaria – Slavena Gergova; Hungary – Zoltán Szentgyörgyi; Honduras – Roberto Martínez Castañeda; Denmark – Thomas Winkler; Dominican Republic – Michel Cohen; Uzbekistan – Jakhongir Aminov; and Serbia – Miroljub Petrovic.
As her name suggests, Michel Cohen is Jewish. She is also religiously observant, but more than that, she is a second-generation diplomat who presented her credentials to a second-generation president. Her father was also a diplomat who served in Israel during the term of the president’s father, president Chaim Herzog. Cohen grew up in Jerusalem and the United States and studied in Spain, England, France, and the Dominican Republic. She is a lawyer and a career diplomat with a string of degrees from universities in different countries.
In his address to the ambassadors, Herzog said: “You are here in extraordinary times, and also very painful times for the Israeli people. I don’t have to tell you because you arrived here during the war. The first month here was under sirens, you read and hear about how much shock and pain, the tears and sadness and agony that is going through our nation. Never since the Holocaust, even during the establishment of the State of Israel, have we gone through such a horrific national trauma.
“So one issue is of course the national trauma, and the other issue is: How do we exit from this national trauma. Part of it will have to be done by way of using force in order to move and remove the Hamas threat from our borders.”
Herzog also urged those who haven’t yet done so to visit bereaved families and those who were uprooted from the North and South because of the danger in order to “understand their “innermost feelings, a lack of self-confidence. Their trust in the nation has been shattered.” They ask who will protect them when they go back to their homes bordering Hamas. “That is the question that everybody will face.
“The other issue, of course, is what is going to be the reality in Gaza the day after – a very, very delicate question. But above all looms the issue of the fate of the hostages.”
Some of the ambassadors represent countries whose citizens are among the hostages taken by Hamas.
“We are dealing with an enemy who has no mercy, who does not operate according to the rules of humanitarian international law, who do not obey the order of nations as we know it, and their life-long vision basically is to get us out of here and then next will be Europe,” the president warned. “Don’t delude yourselves, the vision of this ISIS-Al Qaeda-Hamas is we are first, but then Europe is next, and I think Europe and the international community need to understand and comprehend this and inseminate it in their understanding of the real clash of civilizations in modern world politics and affairs. This impacts so many other issues in our lives.”
Charity with dignity
While it warms the heart to see tens of thousands of people across the country rushing to help the victims of Hamas and Hezbollah aggression in both the South and the North, many are losing sight of the need to preserve the dignity of the people they want to help.
So says Chani Canterman, who, together with her husband Rabbi Eli Canterman, is the director of Chabad of Talbiya and Mamilla in Jerusalem, as well as of its Friendship Circle offshoot.
Canterman cites, as an example, the refusal by evacuees – whom she has helped to find accommodation in Jerusalem – to accept invitations for Shabbat dinners. Neither she nor the many families who offered to host evacuees over Shabbat could understand why.
But as she internalized the situation, Canterman realized that the evacuees did not want to go to homes of people they did not know and sit around a table with even more strangers who would endlessly ask probing questions.Having come to this realization, Canterman contacted the people who had declined invitations and asked if they would prefer to have Shabbat meals sent to them. That was an option that no one refused.
Aware that many of the evacuees left their homes with little or nothing more than the clothes they were wearing, the majority of volunteer groups have been asking for donations of good-quality used clothing.
But according to Canterman and Bernice Fogel, another stalwart who is working closely with her, the evacuees don’t want used clothing. They don’t want to feel like charity cases. All the new clothing that was donated was quickly distributed. Much of the used clothing, which has been sorted into sizes and styles, remains to be taken only when there is no other choice.
Canterman also understands the importance of giving evacuees something useful to do. She asked some to deliver food to another neighborhood. They were delighted to oblige.
She organized two challah bakes that involved members of the Friendship Circle, who are mostly Ashkenazi, and a large group of evacuees who are mostly Sephardi of North African background. The approach of the two groups was different, with the latter making challah baking a more ceremonial affair. The Ashkenazi women were fascinated. It was something they had never seen before.
As the mother of a large family, Canterman was also conscious of the fact that activities had to be provided for evacuee children, and she organized an entertainment event and pizza for everyone.
One of the principles of the Friendship Circle, which essentially cares for children and adults with special needs, is a buddy system. The Cantermans have gone to great lengths to get supporters to understand that while financial donations are important to keep the work going, giving of oneself is no less important. The couple has encouraged the donors’ families to adopt a family that has a member or members with special needs. The system has worked well, and Chani Canterman now wants to introduce it as a way of helping the families from the South, many of whom have lost their homes and all their possessions.
When they arrive at the President Hotel in Jerusalem, which many years ago ceased to function as such and now operates as a community center, the evacuees will be given a large tote bag containing all necessary toiletries and hygiene products. They will also be told that they should feel free to come back and replenish, and take anything else they might need, from a supply depot in the basement.
But supplies are not enough. When “adopted” by a family who asks them what they need, what they want to do, how they can be helped in finding work – and all the other things that family members do for one another – it could be a great help in overcoming trauma.
The knowledge that someone genuinely cares and demonstrates that caring is a crucial factor on the road to recovery.
Something that happens in Israel all year round, but even more so during this crisis period, is duplication of effort with the result that some people get assistance from several sources, while others miss out entirely. Canterman and her husband are dealing with evacuees who are being accommodated in eight Jerusalem hotels. She learned by chance that a cousin of hers, engaged in similar work, was also dealing with one of the hotels on their list. There must be more cooperation and coordination between the different volunteer groups to ensure that there is no duplication and that no one who needs assistance is overlooked, Canterman stresses.
More volunteers are needed, even for something as mundane as babysitting in order to give parents a breather.Anyone who wants to volunteer or who is in need of help should telephone Noa at 053 2901085 or Eliora at 058 6508418.greerfc@gmail.com