August 5

— Conversations with Arabs: “Arabs seem to respect strength”
— New Israeli factories with French financial backing
— Haifa Port: Speaking with Israeli sailors about “Sinai Campaign”
— School & farm for refugee children from 20 different lands

In the 1950 Israel used French buses as part of a financial arrangement between Israel and France.

August 5, 1957 Monday
Dear Mom, Dad and Alan,

Thank G-d everything is fine and I’m having a wonderful time and learning many things about Israel and its people – both Jews & Arabs. The Arabs seem to respect strength as the number one ideal – goodness helpfulness etc., follow a very poor second. This was evident in all your conversations and talks with them. The younger ones learning Hebrew quickly and the older ones slower.

Sunday morning we left the Kibbutz & began touring parts of the Galil, Israel’s bread basket, the Valley of Jezreel, and finally Haifa and the huge industrial plants. Of course the latter was most interesting, especially some of the new factories going up for the manufacture of buses trucks etc. all with French financial backing.

The port of Haifa was seen in the distance with many ships including the captured Egyptian destroyer. Speaking to some sailors which was later verified by someone, a vet from the air force, I found out some very interesting things about the boat & the Sinai Campaign.

I am now stopped at a combination school & farm for refugee children of broken homes from about 20 different lands. It is really a modern miracle while being done after you hear their backgrounds & meet the latest group of arrivals and see what they look like.

Until tomorrow then
Your Loving son & of course Alan’s Pal,
Bob

Comments:

August 5, 1957 Monday


“…We began touring parts of the Galil, Israel’s breadbasket, the Valley of Jezreel”
The Jezreel Valley (עמק יזראל) is termed “the bread basket of Israel”  because this area is home to some of the most fertile farmland in Israel and is known as the  agricultural heartland of the country. 

“The Arabs seem to respect strength as the number one idea – goodness helpfulness etc. follow a very poor second. This was evident in all your conversations & talks with them.”
There’s a prevailing belief by Westerners that the way to achieve peace with your neighbor is by being nice and offering gestures of goodwill. However, the Middle East mentality is quite different: Here, peace overtures and goodwill is seen as a sign of weakness and only “peace through strength” has been been proven to work. My father sensed this in his conversations with the Arabs.

“The new factories going up for the manufacture of buses trucks etc., all with French financial backing. “
In the 1950’S France was a great ally of Israel. In fact, Israel got most of its weapons from the French. Sometime around 1967 the relationship between France and Israel deteriorated. Perhaps today America is considered to be Israel’s closest ally, but the first time American weapons were sold to Israel was 1962 under John F. Kennedy. While Harry Truman may have officially recognized Israel in 1948, he placed an arms embargo on Israel, which continued through the Eisenhower-Dulles administrations.

“The port of Haifa was seen in the distance with many ships including the captured Egyptian destroyer.“

“Speaking to some sailors…I found out some very interesting things about the boat & the Sinai Campaign.” (see Sinai Campaign 1956 topic page)


“I am now stopped at a combination school & farm for refugee children of broken homes from about 20 different lands. It is really a modern miracle while being done after you hear their backgrounds & meet the latest group of arrivals and see what they look like.”
The name of the youth village my parents visited was Meir Shfeya, located near the Israeli city of Zikhron Yaakov. The land where the youth village was located was purchased by Junior Hadassah in 1929 as a farm where graduates of the school would engage in agriculture. A budget of $7,500 was allotted for this project over a period of three years until the farm became self-supporting. A youth village for new immigrants was later built on the land which was funded by the Hadassah Women’s organization.