TWO ISRAELI CIVILIANS by all accounts voluntarily crossed into Hamastan (Gaza). One person, identified as Avraham Mengistu, 28, an immigrant from Ethiopia, apparently voluntarily climbed the fence separating Gaza from Israel in September of 2014. Now, his brother is playing the race card claiming Israel has not done enough to repatriate his brother. Hamas and the PA leadership deny either man is in Gaza.
ASSUMING THAT the two Israelis-in-Gaza crossed the border sans permission from the Israeli government, why should Israel make any effort to retrieve them from Hamas' hands? According to the Times of Israel article, “We’re sick of it. We want to go public with the story,” Mengistu’s oldest brother Yalo Mengistu told the Israeli daily Haaretz, adding that during the first two weeks after Avraham’s disappearance, the family was not briefed by IDF or security officials. Hamas has denied holding Mengistu, saying he left Gaza for Ethiopia via Egypt, a claim Israel denies. HOW Israel can know with any certainty that Mengistu stayed in Gaza - if he climbed one fence, he surely could climb another to enter Egypt, or go via a Hamas' tunnel - is beyond my ken. Spies, perhaps. Ashkelon Mayor Itamar Shimoni told a local radio station that Mengistu’s crossing into Gaza was the result of the socioeconomic plight of the Ethiopian-Israeli community, the Times reported. IS THE RACE CARD JUSTIFIED? Maybe. Israeli absorption history would suggest that new comers are not immediately integrated into the community, even with the help of Hebrew language and Israeli culture ulpans and special immigrant housing. North Africans who made aliyah in the 50s and 60s are only now taking their place in the national government. Unlike the Russians that came to Israel in the 70s - I know many - the North Africans lacked Vitamin "P" in government; they didn't have "connections." Conversely, the "Russians" (Ukrainians for the most part) I knew had relatives in place to make their integration easier. The fact they looked more like the Ashkenazis controlling the nation helped. Anyone remember the David Levy jokes? How about Amir Peretz's insistence that Israel develop and deploy the Iron Dome? Because both were Moroccan, they were dismissed as not worth anyone's time. Still, David Levy turned out to be a very good Deputy Prime Minister and Amir's Iron Dome saved thousands of lives. I happen to know Mr. Levy personally. I have known people - a "Russian" named Anna as it happens - who was unable to adjust to Israeli life. We were in an ulpan together in 1975. She departed Israel before I returned to the States. I know that even then the government and Jewish Agency made every effort to integrate her into the national community. She went back to "Russia," not to a state that wants to wipe Israel off the map. I don't know where an Ethiopian immigrant could go if he wanted out of Israel. Could he have appealed to any of the embassies and consulates in Israel for assistance, for a visa? Was Mengistu mentally stable? The bottom line is that he - an another unnamed Israeli - literally went over the fence to Gaza and Hamas. Given that, why would anyone expect Israel to make any effort to being him back? Let him stay in Gaza or go where he may; as soon as he crossed the border into enemy territory he ceased to be Israel's concern. Who does he think he is? A Member of Knesset ?
