By Solly Ganor
"'For twenty generations we were filled with the desire of returning to Zion, our ancient homeland, and were praying to God for the rebirth of the State of Israel. When it finally came and she was born, we needed a miracle to survive the onslaught of our enemies, and many more miracles to get where we are today. Given the fact that we started out as a pauper state and trebled our population with impoverished immigrants in a very short time, our achievements were unprecedented in human history. Today, once more, we are facing grave dangers, but there is no reason to despair. We should look back at the dangers we had faced in the past and still managed to achieve something that no other country in the world was able to do. And that despite of all the wars that were forced on us and, what seemed at the time, insurmountable obstacles. I was there from the beginning and was proud to be an active witness to the miracle of Israel. Let me tell to about an episode in our humble beginnings."
THE MIRACLE OF ISRAEL
After surviving the War of Independence in 1948, I decided to join the fledgling Israeli merchant marine. Israel at that time possessed about ten rickety ships, which belonged more to the scrap heap than floating on the high seas. Yet, thousands upon thousands of new immigrants were brought to Israel on these floating wrecks.
There were hundreds of young men who were determined to join the merchant marine, waiting to be called to sign on, but there were very few places available. I had registered like all the others, but as a Holocaust survivor, I knew that unless I use my head, I would never get on a ship if I waited for my turn. I made myself available day and night, hanging around the harbor and the Zim line offices. Sure enough, one day a sailor fell ill on a ship that was about to sail, and I was there on the spot to take his place. The ship's name was 'Kommemiut'. To my surprise and delight, it was the same ship that brought me from Marseilles to Israel two years earlier. Except, in 1948 its name was Pan York and she was bringing up to five thousand immigrants each trip. Actually it was a four thousand ton ancient cargo vessel that had no business taking on cargo, let alone people. To bring five thousand people on that "luxurious passenger liner", was a 'Huzpa', even by Israeli standards, yet that is what they did.
When I came aboard with my meagre possessions the chief mate, an old Italian seaman, who was probably as old as the ship itself, singed me on and the ship immediately sailed from Haifa to Triest. In the meantime, from an immigrant ship she reverted to its original form of a cargo ship.
As soon as the vessel was on its way, I was called to the bridge to speak to the captain. I was quite surprised that the captain would want to speak to a new and ordinary seamen, but I soon found out the reason.
The captain was even older than the Italian chief mate and his name was captain Weil. He was a short man with a considerable belly, snowy white hair and sharp grey eyes. He came straight to the point:
" The office tells me, that you speak German, English and Hebrew." He addressed me in German. " Aye, aye, Sir" , I answered in German, showing my surprise. "Good. You will make yourself available whenever I need you. None of these blasted crew members speak any civilized languages."
I soon found out that the good captain was from Elsas-Lothringen, a part of Europe that changed hands between Germany and France. The older population still spoke German, while the younger once spoke French. Captain Weil was old indeed. When we became better acquainted, he told me that he was an officer in the Kaiser's navy during World War One.
He naturally, spoke German, but here and there he would exclaim in French, 'Naturelmant!' He would address me as 'matrosse', which is means 'sailor' in German.
On our way to Trieste, he would often come to the bridge when I was on my watch at the helm and he would talk to me. It was more of a monologue than a conversation. He kept saying the same things over and over; Always in an agitated , loud voice. He would say, 'we need a miracle, no thousands of miracles!', until we began calling him captain Miracle.
''It's a damn miracle that we won this bloody war with the Goddam Arabs, and now, how are we supposed to become a state? Just by declaring it? We have no money, no raw material, no coal, no oil, no water, just Jaffa oranges! Ha, Jaffa oranges! And look how many penniless beggars they are bringing in! Just look at them! Worn out bedraggled, and traumatised Holocaust survivors, with a psychological hang up the size of Mount Everest! And they are supposed to help build this country?! It is sure as hell that we will have to support them for the rest of their natural life. . And if that is not enough, look what the fools are doing now! They are bringing in equally bedraggled, poverty stricken Jews from the Arab countries. Most of them have no money or a useful trade to speak of, as their money and possessions were robbed by their Arab neighbours before they could escape. Another endless bunch of mouths to feed. How are we going to feed them, house them, cloth them, and provide them with the barest minimum to sustain life? How many bloody miracles do they want from God?! Surely, the miracles of the bible pales in comparison to the miracles we expect him to perform now! Ha! The fools!
Why do you think that all countries have immigration quotas? For very good reasons! It is because no country can afford to allow in more immigrants than they can absorb without disrupting the economy, for God sake! And what are these fools doing? They are flooding this pauper state with more paupers! Millions of paupers! Have you ever heard of anything as ridiculous as that!
Don't they know what it takes to build a new country from scratch, with no capital, and a bunch of penniless wretches, assembled from hell itself! And if that is not enough hundreds of millions of hostile Arabs surrounding us from all directions, just waiting for us to make a mistake. And what are we doing?! We are making hundreds of mistakes daily! Given the enormous problems we are facing, the fools running this so called state of Israel, have brought us to the brink of an abyss where we are tittering at the moment. The slightest push, and we are in for a fall never to rise again! After two thousand years we have finally returned to our ancient home only to lose it once more for good! And all because the fools took such insane risks! Unless, unless, a Miracle will happen, the biggest miracles of them all! Yes, may God grant us a Miracle, many, many miracles!"
I saw captain Weil once more eight years later. He came to visit us on the new passenger liner the 'Zion'. I was a second mate by then, preparing the bridge for departure to New York. He came with the captain, who showed him the bridge and introduced him to the latest equipment.
He looked somewhat older, but not much. When the captain introduced me to him, he smiled. His grey eyes were as sharp as then. "Well, matrose, I see you are an officer now. Another bloody miracle. Ha, ha.." We looked at each other and we both laughed. " I know, I know, you guys called me captain miracle. I was quite aware of that. Well, you tell me then, wasn't it a miracle that we got were we got, against the craziest odds? And I will tell you another thing, we won't need anymore miracles to survive here. We have made it."
We looked out at the harbor, that was bustling with dozens of new ships entering and leaving the port, flying the Israeli flag. I could see the pride in his eyes and I was touched. He was a nice old man after all, even though he tended to be somewhat pompous at occasions.
Before he left the bridge we shook hands. "Perhaps the miracles happened because we prayed to God, but it helped a lot that we have brains. As for you personally, I wish you many fathoms under the keel when you will be master of your own vessel." While he was getting out of the door, he turned around once more and said, and there was a smile in his eyes: "As for Israel, all I can say is: 'Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!'"
Today, forty five years later, I am thinking of what captain Weil said. It was such a long time ago, but his motto is very relevant today. All I can say to those who waver, are frightened and think that doomsday is near.
"Israel, Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
Herzelia, February 9, 2003