Word: bloom
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Bloom is just the kind of person the Israeli government was looking for. He has been to Israel three times, has taken three semesters of Hebrew here, and has been intensely involved over the last five years with various Boston area Jewish organizations, particularly the militant Jewish Defense League...
Sherut La'am, the local Jewish organization which recruited and selected the Boston area people going to the kibbutzim, turned down quite a few people who wanted to go to Israel, Bloom says. "They didn't want people who all of a sudden got turned on about Israel," he says. "Kibbutz work is boring-six or seven days a week, ten hours a day. Sherut La'am isn't interested in people who want to go hear the bombs falling for a couple of weeks and then come running back...
...Bloom agrees fervently with all of Israel's military goals. He says Israel should occupy and establish civilian settlements in the Sinai peninsula; that it should hold the Golan Heights for its strategic value; and that the United States should heavily arm Israel...
...final object of Israel, Bloom says, should be to "bring the war home to the Arabs without too many civilian casualties so that they won't ever make war on Israel again. Also I hope the Syrians will be forced to release the 7000 Jews they are holding in Syria. Life for them is one continual hell-torture and intimidation. The Syrians won't let them return to Israel...
...Bloom doesn't feel alone at Harvard in his strong support of Israel. "I'm not surprised that people aren't actually going to Israel," he says. "You really had only two or three days to make a decision, because after that you would lose a lot of tuition money if you went this semester. If it had happened in late summer, there would be many more. There's been a lot of good reaction here, both among Jews and non-Jews-a lot of money's been given...