Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Arye Lova Eliav, RIP

In all the excitement about the Turkish thugs and our inept attempt to thwart them, let's not forget the passing of Lova Eliav, who died two days ago at the age of 88 or 89.

Lova was an active member of the generation of young men and women who actually did the business of fighting for Israel at its beginning, then struggling for its success and its soul for the rest of their lives. By the time he died the country had long since ceased to be the socialist Jewish paradise he thought he was working towards; most of us had belatedly accepted his position on the need for a Palestinian state alongside Israel, and then understood that it can't happen. Through all of this, however, even when his positions were far from the mainstream, Lova was always respected for his integrity, loved for his idealism, celebrated for his sincerity. He was an unusual politician even at his prime; today he wouldn't stand a chance of political survival for more than five minutes - more's our loss.

I can't think of a single politician, from any party, who remotely approaches his moral stature.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your attempt at thwarting wasn't inept it was a most likely unavoidable mishap - nobody foresaw "stormtrooper" act alikes would be on board

if even the relatives of the military accused of treason don't know anything about parallel combat forces training going on then how could Israeli intelligence have known http://www.tnr.com/article/world/75123/turkey’s-other-dirty-war

I protest because inept is what the "others" will be gloating about like in the IDF has lost it and other such nonsense.

Silke

Anonymous said...

What about Benny Begin?

DG

AKUS said...

A fine tribute to Lova, whose work would fill pages of an obituary - he did enough in one lifetime to fill the lives of four ordinary people. I was always impressed by the combination of warm humanity and steely resolve that allowed him to achieve so much for others. I think his most recent work was with the Ethiopian immigrants and with development towns in the Negev, if I remember correctly.

RK said...

He was someone I always admired a great deal. Barukh dayan emet.

Yaacov said...

DG -

OK, Benny Begin as remote second, for his integrity. Lova, however, even deep into his 80s, was still frantically engaged in pioneer schemes to make the world better; among his last efforts there seems to have been setting up a school or boarding school for troubled kids way out in the Negev, or some such.