Teller From Jerusalem

A considerate individual thinks about the needs of others and recognizes that they are greater than your own needs or conveniences. Primarily, it means not living with a “me-first” approach. On this episode we shall explore consideration regarding driving, being punctual and not wasting other people’s time.  
We will also discuss the rabbinic concept of “say a little, but do a lot” and not raising other people’s expectations, only to disappoint them in the end. Good manners also govern how we should refrain from conduct that will annoy others, and how to properly compliment a fellow person.

Israel’s War of Independence resulted in three distinct refugee problems: 70,000 Israelis that were displaced from their homes and villages because of the war, 700,000 Arabs that fled Israel because of the war, and over 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands that had to flee for their lives. Teller From Jerusalem filters between the truth and the propaganda concerning the misery and suffering of those disposed. It is very telling how Israel and her neighbors reacted to the refugees of their respective peoples. Were they embraced as brethren or manipulated to become a political opportunity and ultimately a time bomb.

TFJ Season 2 Episode 21  Foreign Volunteers, The Battle for Lod and the Displacement of Non-Combatants

Foreign volunteers were critical to Israel’s victory in the War of Independence. Israel’s fledgling air force was made up of Jewish English speaking pilots, veterans of WWII. It became clear that the only way that Israel could persevere through the difficult beginning of the War of Independence would be if she would seize the initiative and Plan Danny was launched. Part of this operation was to capture Lod (Lydda) which was an Arab stronghold. In the fighting tens of thousands of Arabs either fled their homes or were instructed by their leaders to leave with the assurance that they would return with victorious Arab armies. 

TFJ Season 2 Episode 20  The Arab Revolt, The White Paper and the Évian Conference

With the rise of Jewish immigration to Palestine in the 1930s the Arabs lodged their protest with violence, attacks, murder and mayhem that became known as the Arab Revolt (1936-1939). In response to the revolt, famous appeaser Neville Chamberlin, far more interested in Arab oil than the plight of millions of desperate Jews whose lives were in imminent danger, issued The White Paper of 1939. This entailed a severe limitation of Jewish immigration to Palestine. Despite the fact that the White Paper stated that the future of Jewish immigration would be determined by the Arab majority and limited if not curtailed the ability of Jews to buy land, it was still rejected by Palestine Arabs led by Haj Amin al-Husseini.  
With the number of Jewish refugees in Europe at catastrophic dimensions consequential to the Nazi rise to power in Germany and in Austria, the Évian Conference was convened to ease their plight. The conference was a fiasco never intending to be of any help, and in fact, gravely worsened their condition.

Gratitude should not be short-term. Ideally one should feel and express gratitude for favors done to family members and the community, yet minimize the favors that you have done for others. Otherwise, you may walk around in a constant state of annoyance for not being recognized for the good that you have performed.
Gratitude is the most important component to achieve happiness, but even gratitude cannot help if happiness is confused with pleasure. There are many who believe that the pursuit of pleasure is the goal of life and will sacrifice their lives in the process. 

Close to 100,000 Jewish residents in Jerusalem were starving because of an Arab siege of the city. A garrison manned by Jordanian gunners in the high grounds of Latrun overlooking the sole road to Jerusalem saw to it that no trucks bringing relief to the city could pass. 
Ben Gurion ordered that Latrun be taken, but Israel had neither the manpower nor the weaponry to launch a successful assault and each of its attacks were futile and very costly. A shepherd path was accidentally discovered beyond the view of the Arab gunners, and hundreds of Israeli volunteers worked around the clock to convert this winding path strewn with rocks and pits into a viable road for trucks to bring desperately needed supplies to Jerusalem. The miraculous road, discovered and created so providentially, was named the Burma Road because of its similarity of circumstances to the road built by the Allies during world War II connecting Burma to Southwest China to avert the Japanese sea blockade. This episode has been enhanced by the excellent “History of Israel Explained/Unpacked” series.

At the beginning of the War of Independence Israel was vastly outnumbered and did not had sufficient weapons to defend herself. In those initial weeks before weapons began to arrive, primarily form Czechoslovakia, it was only the daring and ingenuity of lone Israeli soldiers coupled with industrial helpings of Divine Providence that enabled Israel to hold on. Ron Feller is one such hero who single-handedly took on and defeated an entire Egyptian mechanized platoon. 
Swedish diplomat Count Folk Bernadotte was chosen to be the United Nations Security Council mediator in Israel’s War of Independence. Bernadotte labored to turn the cease-fire into a binding peace treaty which he figured would earn him a Nobel Peace Prize. It certainly earned him disdain.

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  In TFJ’s first installment on gratitude, the correlation between gratitude and happiness is explored.

  Although goals are critically important, expectations are a recipe for misery. Furthermore, the less you

  expect the more grateful you will be, and the more you expect the less grateful you will be. Counting

  your blessings is not merely a phrase, but a mantra for a grateful person. It is the only way to avoid the

  all-too common appreciating what you have, only when it is taken away.

Once Israel declared her independence, she was attacked by all of her neighbors.  The Hagana, which will become the Israel Defense Forces, mobilized any able-bodied man or woman and this amounted to barely 30,000. The Arabs had significant manpower and far greater firepower and air forces. The Jews had nothing comparable. Lacking defense in depth the Jews could not afford to give ground on any of their four fronts.

But now that the British mandate was over, the Jews were able to import weapons that had previously been forbidden. The greatest Jewish resource was the dedication of their troops, and the talent of their leaders. If Israel was to hang on, she would have to survive the first two weeks.