October 29

1957: Moshe Dwek lobs a grenade. Dwek was born in Aleppo, Mandatory Syria into a Jewish family in 1931. In 1944, he was part of a group of Jewish boys who immigrated to Mandate Palestine and initially lived on kibbutz Forot and then on kibbutz Glil Yam. He fought in the Israeli War of Independence and in 1950, his entire family including parents and siblings immigrated to Israel. There are some references to a childhood injury that may have left him mentally unstable. There are also reports that he suffered a second injury after coming to Palestine, before Israel was founded.

Dwek attempted to sue the Jewish Agency for $66,000 for injuries but lost his case. He sent a series of threatening letters to the judge and was arrested but was found unfit to stand trial. He later tried to stow away on a plane bound for New York City, unsuccessfully. He was affiliated with no political parties. He was distraught over the lack of medical care and his inability to receive national insurance for his declining health. On this day, he entered the Frumin House where the Knesset was meeting. The unicameral portion of the Israeli government is the legislative branch responsible for passing all laws and electing the President and Prime Minister.

Rabbi Haim-Moshe Shapira of the National Religious Party was seriously injured. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Foreign Minister Golda Meir, and Transport Minister Moshe Carmel were all injured by shrapnel. Ben-Gurion and Meir were the intended targets. Dwek was examined by experts and found fit to stand trial. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, part of the time he was incarcerated was spent in a psychiatric hospital. He requested a retrial and was denied as was his request for a pardon after serving ten years of his sentence.

After his release, Dwek started his own political party, Tarshish. He made his own run for the Knesset in 1988 based on ending Ashkenazi hegemony (giving Jews returning from Diaspora the chance to be full Israeli citizens). He also demanded Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews be given greater control of government functionality. He included demands for building a university, college, and religious polytechnic institute in the city of Netanya. His commercials began with him chanting No’ar, No’ar, No’ar (literally “youth, youth, youth”). He received only 1,654 votes which was not enough to gain him his longed for seat in the Knesset.

In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles. – David Ben-Gurion

We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel. – Golda Meir

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom. – John F. Kennedy

Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury. – Mahmoud Ahmadinejad