---Note: This was posted a week ago, but Ron never saw it, so I removed it to further protect his privacy. So if you read it then, nothing added here. He told me he is interested in the response.-----
I first met Ron a few months before 9-11-2001 by responding to a sign asking for a B+ player for a weekly doubles tennis game. This was shortly after our moving to Escondido California from N.Y. I had been looking for such a game, so I quickly called and was invited to his house where he did a quick interview. After my answering his questions, seemingly to his satisfaction, I asked where he was from, noting a slight accent. He said he was born in Palestine, and I asked if he was Jewish, as I am. He responded, "No, I was brought up as a Muslim."
The matches were enjoyable, as he and the two other men were of comparable ability and were challenged, and the short conversations during changeovers allowed us to get to know each other. Then early on that fateful September morning everything changed. The first game afterwards we watched the F-16s circling the area of many military bases with great interest, as we had no idea what was in store. For Ron the difference, the effect on his life was greater in more ways then he could completely describe
Ron was born into an educated family in Palestine, then under the British Mandate, in 1933. He was only 7 when WWII began, and 12 when the surviving Jews of the Nazi genocide tried to break the embargo to live in his country. And only slightly older when the war of independence of what was to be called Israel ended with the establishment of a new Jewish state. He moved to the U.S. in his early twenties to complete his higher education in Chemistry, where he earned a Ph.D and had a successful career here researching industrial applications.
After 911, although he is beyond being an enlightened Muslim, but rather like myself and most scientists, an atheist; his ethnic background reflected in his last name began to haunt him. He considered changing it, as so many Jews did during to avoid the stigma against them, but decided not to. He was, and is, friendly and outgoing, yet, he understands our country. Last Friday, after playing tennis with him, now at a different public court in Escondido, I engaged him in a conversation, actually more of a challenge. I pulled him off to the side as we were leaving and made my case something like this:
Ron, you are one of the few alive who actually lived during the period of Israel's occupying and then banishing some of your people from your homeland. There are pundits and political activists who are describing this time, what actually happened, but they have an agenda. You don't. And it won't be long before your generation will be gone, and the first person story that you could tell will no longer be available.
He responded, "Al, nobody cares. You are one of the only people I can talk to about this. I can tell you I hate those who carry guns in the name of God." I said, "You mean Jihadists?" "Not only them, but the right wing in this country who are ready to kill in the name of God and Country."
I implored him to tell his story, not for today when people mostly want to listen just long enough to decide whom to hate, but for another more enlightened future, when people will thirst to understand experiences that he went through as a child. Ron was getting uncomfortable, as people were leaving the courts and might be able to overhear our conversation and started towards his car. I told him I would write it up, keeping his name private (as I have in this essay) saying that his personal story could only add to understanding this contentious time when he was a child, the echo of which continues on to this day.
I understand why Ron doesn't want to address this issue or even think about it. He is an American as much as any who accepts this label. He is torn between his ethnic identify that must still be there, as it is with me as a Jew, and his desire to remain to all the world a true American. He knows that he won't change our country or our attitudes and believes that his allowing me to share his experiences during the creation of Israel would only be painful and divisive.
I decided to write this Dailykos diary for the readers who comment to encourage Ron to share this story of growing up in Palestine during this historic moment. He is a decent person who raised a family and contributed to scientific advancement-living the American dream. What he may not have fully embraced is that this country is built on stories such as his, that people choose to tell to perpetuate the freedom we all enjoy.
Ron recently had a heart attack while swimming at the beach, which made him very aware of his own mortality-and doesn't need any more stress. While this very web site discourages what is called I.P. diaries, which are those that express anger and hatred against one side or the other, first person stories such as yours would be unique, and would not be so excluded, as it would become the raw data to possibly build a solution.
And Ron, remember your telling me about how you and your Israeli friend in Graduate school had said, "If they only let us work it out, we could solve this conflict." Well, you missed that opportunity, so consider this a second chance.