Date: Fri, 15 Mar 91 20:19:57 +0200 From: Shahar Steiff Subject: Re: TV star! To Odd and Nancy. Following is the story from the Israely Paper. I translated it as well as I could. It was published on Mar. 15th, 1991 in "Ha'aretz". THE PHYLOSOPHER AND THE BOY. / Tommy Segev ============================ Proffessor Asa Kasher, a Phylosophy lecturer in the Tel-Aviv University, is connected for some time now to an international communication network encouraging kids from all over the world to talk to each other through their home personal computers. "KIDS-91" is operated from Seltroud, Norway, and is supposed to be active untill May 12th. The computers are connected by phone lines through a small metal box called a "modem". Upon joining the network, every kid is asked to answer four questions : Who am I, What do I want to be when I grow up, How do I want to see the world better, What can I do to achieve it. One day, a Israely boy apeared on Kasher's console, introducing himself to the kids of the world with these words : 1. My name is Nachshon Steiff. I live in Ramat Yochanan, I'm 15 years old and go to the 9th grade at school. I have 2 brothers and one maried sister (I am an uncle as well). I also had a brother who was killed in an accident in the army. All my brothers are older than me. My parrents do not live together - I live with my father, but my mother lives in the kibbutz as well. I also have a little dog, her name is "Kfitz", The hebrew word for a spring that always jumps -just like my dog. I play Water-Polo, I am the goal keeper - and I like it. I also like to listen to music (the Beatles). 2. I am not sure what I want to be when I'll grow up, maybe a writer, maybe not. 3. I want the world to be nicer. I want no air polution, and no more wars. I want peace, and that all people would have food and a place to live in. I want the world to be the best it can be - so we would live without problems and worries. 4. I think that only the people who rule the countries can do something to achieve peace - so I can't do nothing except protest about it. But I can keep the world clean if I won't destroy the nature. And if every body will give a little help it could be very good - but there must be a person who should do the first step. A short while after Nachshon joined "KIDS-91" the Gulf War broke out, and Nachshon's computer was flooded with tens of messages. Kids from Brazil to India wanted to know how does the war effect him, if his house was hit by a SCUD missile. At the begining Nachshon replied every one personally, but at a certain point he composed a letter to all of the kids on the list, and sent it in the global channel, for everyone to read, and that's what he wrote : Hi there ! This is Nachshon from Israel ! I have read with interest the postings to this list about the war in the gulf. I especialy liked the parts where the authors gave advice to Israel to stay out of the war... I would like to share my experiences from the two missile attacks on Israel last week. The first atack took place at friday morning (02:00 at night to be correct). I woke up from the explosions. The missiles fell about 10 km from my home. I had to put on my gas mask (everyone in Israel has a gas mask, just in case Dear Sadam decides to try out his chemical warheads..). There was another siren at friday night (21:00) but this time it was a false alarm. I went with my father to the stadium to see the missiles in the sky, but there were no missiles... (seems strange to go to the stadioum instead of hiding ? well, I guess, Sadam doesn't aim on my home, but on the other hand, maybe that is what should worry me, because he never hits what he aims for...). The third siren was on saturday morning 07:15, this time there were missiles on Tel-Aviv, My home is near Haifa, and Haifa was not hit in the second attack. Now that we have the "Patriot" anty-missile-missiles, I sleep better at night, and the last three nights were realy quiet. What I "kind of like" in this war is that there is no school in Israel for the last week. It's not that I like scool that much, but I prefer school more that these missiles. My two older brothers went to the army. I hope everyone gets home soon in peace and in one piece. It's not so nice to be a kid under air attacks,Thinking of the poor kids in Baghdad, who suffer ten times more than me, I just hate Sadam for me and for them too ! I hope one day I could meet some kids from Iraq, In peace, and we would all share our bad memories from this war. Bye bye and SHALOM ! From Nachshon. On the following days Nachshon's computer was flooded with responses: Every one was impressed by the last parragraph of his letter. Asa Kasher followed, in his computer, the correspondence. He was impressed too : "For his morality Nachshon deserves high appreciation" he wrote in his war diary, to be published soon, and parts of it appeared in the last eddition of the "Politics" magazine. "Maybe the future of the moral left is in the hands of boys and girls like him", Kasher wrote in his diary: "Meanwhile I give much hope in Nachshon that he will never be unhonest. I give much hope that he will never follow the lies of some people, still trying to sell us the principal distinction between moral aspects and 'Real-Politics' aspects, as if there is a time for morality and a time for war. In Nachshon, kids, boys and girls, maybe only in them, one can rely today with the big hope - a world of dignity, an era of justice, a life of peace." Kaser is a member of a small group of Israelys, most of them are lecturers in the Tel-Aviv University, who demanded that Israel will act to prevent the war by an agreement to withdraw from the West-Bank, The establishment of a Palestinian state, and general disarmament. He doesn't know Nachshon personaly, but "Nachshon makes me curious" he writes in his diary. He made me curious too: This week I went to visit him. Ramat Yochanan is a welthy and a nice looking kibbutz next to Kiriyat-Ata. It has a Plastic factory. It was established in the early 30's and is named after John Smats, from the founders of South Africa. A libaral and a racist. Nachshon can tell that he supported Zionism. The kibbutz was involved twice in a political crisis. During the 40's there was what a special commitee of L.I.L.P (Land of Israel's Labour Party - later to be the main stream in the Israely Labour Party - [Shahar]), cited in Meir Avizohar's book "The crack in the mirror", described as a "Transfer"; Peolpe of "The Young-Guard" left Ramat-Yochanan and moved to Kibbutz Beit-Alfa, while people of L.I.L.P. from Beit-Alfa moved to Ramat-Yochanan. Nachshon said he doesn't really know what the fighting was about those days, but the story is still in the atmosphere. Yes, he said, even him, a third generation in the Kibbutz, knows which of his friends was born to parrents whose parrents came from Beit-Alfa. In the 50's came some more members who droped from Kibbutzes of "The Young-Guard" movement. Today Ramat Yochanan is in "The United Kibbutz's Movement"; The majority of the members give their votes to the Labour Party. Nachshon finds himself some where in the middle of the various trends in the Labour party, he said; His father, an economist, brings home the "Davar" News Paper. (A small paper, read mostly by Kibbutzniks, and Intellectuals. Published by the Labour Union's Organization, closely related to the Labour Party. [Shahar]). He has no principal rejection to the idea of giving up some teritory, but not all of it, and the least the better. He has no principal rejection to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but he preffers not to, and maybe there could be a way to make the Palestinians feel good as residents of Israel, and that's the best, because we can keep the teritories that way. We have agread that all that needs some more thinking, before making the future of the moral left. Nachshon said he doesn't want to be the future of the moral left at all. All those who already saw the last edition of "Politics" lough at him because of that sentence. And they have reason: Who is he, Mooky Zoor ? ( The chairman of the United Kibbut's Movement, a writer. [Shahar]). He is a Sympathic kid, who just started working in the cowshed after school; He wrote a few stories and songs, hopes to learn art, and seems to enjoy the fuss arround him. The letter that excited Asa Kasher was cited a few weeks ago in the "Washington-Post", and was handed to a Senator as well. Just before I came, the producer of Gaby-Gazit (a popular interview TV show) called. He is "an Item" says father Eithan Steiff cheerfully.