Sid: My guest Shira-Sorko-Ram, I have known for many years, personally read her newsletter; I think that it’s the best newsletter from the Middle East. And she is a walking history because forty years ago, in 1967 she went to Israel and she’s been there for forty years, it happened to be right at the Six Day war. And then they had the Independence Day Celebration, I’ve been in Israel for Independence Day, everyone goes out in the streets and they act just a little Mischugah. Is that right Shira-Sorko-Ram, a little crazy?
Shira: Well, it’s completely Israel; it’s not like anything else. You know the soldiers and the people get out in the streets and they dance in circles, especially up in Jerusalem; yeah it’s a happy time, but it’s not like a bad time; they’re not doing crazy things like you know, the carnivals.
Sid: No, but what I’m saying is that they get so excited, I mean it’s a happening is what I’m saying.
Shira: Right.
Sid: So, you were talking about that first celebration just after the Western Wall was in Jewish hands for the first time in how long?
Shira: Well, since 70 AD.
Sid: Wow.
Shira: Jerusalem came back into the hands of the Jewish people, that’s a long, long time; nineteen hundred years.
Sid: So the euphoria must have been over the top at that time!
Shira: It was, it was and some of the things that people would say I couldn’t help but be excited about it even though I knew it wasn’t going to happen the way they thought. They were saying things like this, “The Jewish people have now shown the Arabs that the Arab’s can’t win. So this is going to be the last war; these are the days of the Messiah, this is the last war, there’s never going to be another war because Arabs know they can’t win. And there were these little stickers that everybody had on their cars and it said, kol hakavod l’tsahal which means all the honor goes to the army and I knew that (HA) I knew that wasn’t a very smart thing to say; And let me jump six years ahead in 1973 when the terrible Yom Kippur surprise war came against Israel. You didn’t see any more all honor to the army, the sign changed. The stickers were different, they said, “Israel trust in God,” that was big difference. But the euphoria lasted for six years, it lasted from ’67 to ’73 when the terrible Yom Kippur surprise war when the Arab countries attacked Israel.
Sid: Were you living there, I know that you were living there, but were you there at the time of the ’73 war?
Shira: I was not, my Father had passed away and so I was in the states with my family at that time. Now when the war took place oh, I was absolutely stunned as everybody was because it was a complete surprise. And I wanted to get back there; I wanted to get back into Israel, but my family asked me that I stay a little bit longer with them. So I went back about three months later and the country was completely different Sid.
Sid: In what way?
Shira: People were depressed, stunned; from that time on even violence in the country went up. And back in 1967; yeah there were sometimes somebody would break into a car and steal, but I mean you never heard of murder or violence; it just didn’t happen; it was remarkable. And I came from Dallas where you couldn’t even walk down the street back in 1967 at night in certain parts of the city. But in Jerusalem you could walk anywhere at any time, it was a really interesting change in culture. But ‘73 happened and our country, Israel started going downhill, it’s never recovered since then.
Sid: Now looking, remembering what Israel was like forty years ago and looking at Jerusalem, looking at Tel Aviv would you have ever thought it would make that kind of transition?
Shira: No, it’s completely impossible to figure how this has happened. Here is Israel surrounded completely by those who want to destroy the country and yet the economy booms, skyscrapers are going up; the shekel, our money is stronger than the dollar. I mean can you imagine?
Sid: Now, listen I wish all of my money was in shekels rather than dollars; I know what’s going on with the Israeli shekel. With all of the deal with Iran and all these nations I mean nothing has changed; it’s still an impossible situation and yet Israel was prospering!
Shira: It’s a start up nation; it’s a start up nation! It has more start ups per a person than anything country in the world! It’s a remarkable sign to me that God has not left the Jewish people; they, I know that the Jewish people are brilliant, but they’re not that brilliant! I mean is amazing that this nation is growing, it is so much higher standard of living than any nation around it and yet it has to defend itself against total destruction every moment of every day.
Sid: Now, going back to the Yom Kippur war in 1973, I have heard many accounts of miraculous things that occurred for Israel to have won that war!
Shira: Oh, it is, it is! I think that the war lasted nineteen days. And you know Syria was on its way into Northern Galilee. The Jordanians actually stayed out of the war; that which was very smart of them by the way; but Egypt attacked and came up the Sinai and it could have gone either way. It could have gone either way when you have those two large armies doing a pincher act against Israel; it is amazing and miraculous! There’s many, many stories; there is one fellow that had a, that was in a tank going up the Golan Heights and his unit all the rest of the tanks were knocked out by the Syrians and he took this tank and zig zagged it up the Golan Heights. And it was at night so that the Syrians thought it was several tanks you know; they couldn’t imagine that this is one tank it was finally blown out. He found a couple of other tanks twice and he changed tanks and went zig zagging all over the place you know with his tank and knocking positions of the Syrians out and he is today one of the Israel’s greatest heroes. I do not believe this man could have done this without the hand of God, because the Syrians were coming down the Golan Heights, they were ready to take over the Galilee. And you know what that would have been, that would have been a slaughter of all the Jewish people in the Galilee area, which did not happen.
Sid: To me, the greatest reality that our God is interested in us as individuals is the creation of modern day Israel and the survival of modern day Israel.
Shira: Yes!
Sid: I mean there is no other explanation to why Israel exists so that begs the question; here you have Iran; Iran wants to nuke, its very obvious wants to nuke Israel. How do you live under that pressure? As a believer I know how you live, but how does a nonbeliever live under that pressure?
Shira: I want you to know that Israeli’s are very very fearful, they know what Iran is saying she’s going to do. Iran, Ahmadinejad is talking exactly like Hitler did, exactly. And back in Hitler’s day this is what Israel says, the nations did not take him seriously and their not taking Ahmadinejad seriously, when he says that he’s going to wipe Israel out; and so there’s great fear, there is great great fear over this.
Sid: As a believer, you’re obviously concerned; do you believe he’s going to nuke Israel?
Shira: Well, Israel is very tiny, so I don’t see that God is going to let Ahmadinejad nuke Israel; I just don’t see how that can happen because it would knock the country out you know with the radiation and everything else.
Sid: You know Shira; I’m much more concerned about the United States than Israel, because the Bible does talk about what happens to nations that divide the land of Israel. You know were out of time right now.
