{"id":57342,"date":"2017-11-08T18:05:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-08T16:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=57342"},"modified":"2017-11-08T16:50:31","modified_gmt":"2017-11-08T14:50:31","slug":"16-05-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=57342","title":{"rendered":"Leonard Cohen Was a Zionist \u2013 I Know Because He Told Me So"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Leonard Cohen Was a Zionist
\n\u2013 I Know Because He Told Me So<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Dovid Efune<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Leonard Cohen in concert in 2008. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.<\/span><\/p>\n

A year has now passed since the death of the great poet and singer Leonard Cohen. He\u2019s been remembered no doubt for his music, but also \u2014 among Jews \u2014 for his deep sense of pride in his Jewish identity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Israel, he was lauded as a great friend of the Jewish state. Both the country\u2019s president and prime minister issued statements of mourning upon his passing, remembering Cohen\u2019s historic visit to Israel in 1973. \u201cI will not forget how he came to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in order to sing to IDF soldiers, out of a deep feeling of partnership,\u201d Netanyahu said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was during that trip to Israel that Cohen wrote the song \u201cLover Come Back To Me,\u201d composed amid falling bombs in the Sinai desert. The ode ends with the words, \u201cAnd may the spirit of this song, may it rise up pure and free. May it be a shield for you, a shield against the enemy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But doubts were also raised. An article published by the Forward asked, \u201cWas Leonard Cohen a Zionist?\u201d and answered, \u201cThe short answer is no.\u201d The article asserted, \u201cThe characterization of Cohen as a straightforward Zionist is nonsense,\u201d citing a poem from Cohen\u2019s 1984 poetry compilation The Book of Mercy:<\/span><\/p>\n

Israel, and you who call yourself Israel, the Church that calls itself Israel, and the revolt that calls itself Israel, and every nation chosen to be a nation \u2014 none of these lands is yours, all of you are thieves of holiness, all of you at war with Mercy.<\/em><\/p>\n

With this discussion surrounding Cohen\u2019s views on Israel, it struck me that his first yartzheit \u2014 today \u2014 may present an apt occasion to shed some light on the matter. Having discussed the issue with Cohen at great length \u2014 and not so long ago \u2014 I felt duty bound to contribute to the conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is with respect and humility that I do so, and with the full understanding that, as the Forward noted, \u201cLeonard Cohen was far from dreaming in black and white.\u201d I also acknowledge that, as with many of us, it is quite feasible that his views may have evolved throughout the course of his life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was first introduced to Cohen in mid-2015 by The Algemeiner\u2019s chairman and publisher Simon Jacobson, who had connected with the singer decades earlier on more spiritual grounds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cohen was a regular reader of The Algemeiner and when I informed him of a planned trip to Los Angeles that summer, he invited me to come meet with him at his home.<\/span><\/p>\n

He lived in a small, simple two-story house in the city\u2019s Mid-Wilshire neighborhood and when I pulled up at his place late that June afternoon, he was sitting on a deckchair on the lawn out front and beckoned for me to sit down beside him.<\/span><\/p>\n

And there we sat \u2014 for close to three hours \u2014 discussing the intricacies of Middle East politics, as we chewed on kosher cookies and his housekeeper served cup after cup of strong Turkish coffee.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was struck firstly by the depth of his knowledge on the subject, especially his familiarity with lesser-known Syrian rebel groups and the complex web of alliances in the war-torn region. Throughout the discussion, he maintained a deep sense of sympathy and concern for the victims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our discussion soon turned to Israel. We spoke about his \u201cConcert for Reconciliation, Tolerance and Peace\u201d in 2009, at a Ramat Gan soccer stadium, which was attended by a crowd of 47,000. He had faced criticism from the boycott Israel crowd for the show and had attempted to schedule a parallel performance in Ramallah, but had been rebuffed by the Palestinians. In our conversation, he seemed frustrated that his overtures had been rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

He appeared equally vexed by the outcome of the peace effort he had hoped to initiate with his donation of the proceeds \u2014 some $2 million \u2014 to a project aimed at bringing Israeli and Palestinian children together. I haven\u2019t delved into the details of how that project turned out, but got the sense that Cohen felt the money had gone to waste.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an effort to better understand his current perspective of the issue, I asked if there was a particular Israeli politician who resonated with him, whose ideas he found appealing. \u201cMoshe Feiglin,\u201d he responded, referring to the former leader of the Manhigut Yehudit faction of the governing Likud party.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was surprised by Cohen\u2019s familiarity with Feiglin, no less that the nationalist leader\u2019s views had found favor with the octogenarian star. \u201cWe need to separate from them (the Palestinians),\u201d he told me. \u201cBut it must be humane.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Feiglin has long held the view, as he explained in an AFP interview in 2008, that the Palestinians \u201cwill have to seek the right to self-determination in Arab states.\u201d Feiglin added, \u201cIsrael will encourage the Arabs to emigrate to their countries and assist any Arab who wishes to do so.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We didn\u2019t discuss any of Feiglin\u2019s other controversial views, some of which Cohen would most likely have rejected.<\/span><\/p>\n

I stayed in touch with Cohen until a few months before his death. He was always warm, graceful, selfless, humble and very Jewish. In all our correspondence he signed off with his Hebrew name, Eliezer, and often included the traditional priestly blessing.<\/span><\/p>\n

He was certainly a man of peace, and made great efforts to contribute to the healing of the region. But \u2014 not unlike the journey traveled by many Israelis \u2014 it seemed that the obstructionism he encountered left him more sympathetic with the Israeli view best expressed by the great Zionist leader Ze\u2019ev Jabotinsky, in eloquent testimony before the British Peel Commission on Palestine in 1937:<\/span><\/p>\n

It is quite understandable that the Arabs of Palestine also prefer to be the Arab state No. 4, or No. 6 \u2014 that I understand. But when the Arab claim is confronted with our Jewish demand to be saved, it is like the claims of appetite versus the claims of starvation.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Dovid Efune<\/strong> is the editor-in-chief and CEO of The Algemeiner.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n

twoje uwagi, linki, wlasne artykuly, lub wiadomosci przeslij do: webmaster@reunion68.com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leonard Cohen Was a Zionist \u2013 I Know Because He Told Me So Dovid Efune Leonard Cohen in concert in 2008. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. A year has now passed since the death of the great poet and singer Leonard Cohen. He\u2019s been remembered no doubt for his music, but also \u2014 among Jews \u2014 for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57342"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57342"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57394,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57342\/revisions\/57394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}