What did YOU do for Israel today?

This is an open letter to American Jews everywhere.  It's time to draw a line in the sand and say you will either spend every waking moment defending Israel or you will make the same mistake of silence the American Jews of the 1920's, 1930's and the 1940's made.

You know, I believed, because my mother believed, that Jews were silent once and the result was catastrophic, but the same mistake will never be repeated.  Events of the last ten years proved her, and therefore me, wrong. 

We here in Israel can continue to write and talk and sermonize to Jews in the US and very other place on the planet, but it is a waste of breath.

Here ladies and gentlemen is the face of our neighbors:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T64JIgs5C6k

Out of the mouth of a 92 year old woman "Palestinians Should Massacre Jews Like We Massacred Them in Hebron".

The 92 year old is happily reminiscing about the 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron.  For the benefit of the innocent, for those who did not get the memo or read it on facebook: we did not have a country in 1929.  Please learn more about this massacre:

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/hebron29.html 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Hebron_massacre

The truth is real simple and you should learn to repeat it to everyone you know:

·         This is our land.

·         There are no 'palestinians'.

·        The Arabs massacred us in Hebron in 1929 when we were only a small minority in our country, before we declared our STATEHOOD in 1948.

·         Since then the Arabs (all our Arab "neighbors") have never stopped denying our right to this land.

·         Since then the Arabs (all our Arab "neighbors") have never stopped threatening to annihilate us.

You know, a wise, wise Rabbi once said "if someone says they are going to kill you, believe them."

·         The Arabs are not interested in this tiny strip of land we call home, this claim is only an excuse to kill us. 

Now, what are YOU going to do?

Glenn Beck Got It Right

As has been the case, many times in the past, Glenn Beck got it right again!  What was and still is obscene is the fact that the Arabs celebrated in Aza!  They gave out candies for crying out loud. 

That's the message!  (Thanks Batsheva for sending me the link!)  Send it out to your friends.  Get the message out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjK8M4uxcjM

Thanks Glenn!

So tell me, how many houses is a 3-month old baby's life worth?

Ah, how cheap is Jewish blood?  So now we build houses and neighborhoods in Israel only when we are slaughtered. So tell me the life of the 3-month old baby is worth how many houses? And the life of an 11-year old - how many houses is it worth?


What is our problem? We feel better in the role of the victim than the victor. We feel more comfortable seeing rows of Jewish graves than rows of Jewish soldiers marching and rows of Jews houses with trees and gardens surrounding them.


The long years of exile have changed our DNA. We understand the role of victim. We are supremely comfortable in this role. We even believe it suits us. What's more, victims, especially dead ones make great photo opportunities. Making a shiva call is an even better photo op, especially if you are a politician. Crying to the world when we are harmed is such a good feeling, because it is a feeling we are used to.


Showing strength is scary. Being proud is scary. After over sixty years as an independent country, we are still not comfortable with these feelings, because sixty years is not long enough to change our DNA.


We are so comfortable with death, loss and pain that we enjoy using terms like "painful concessions", when talking about giving up our country. I got news for you, it's only painful if you DO NOT believe this is our country. It is outrageous and obscene if you believe this is our country and we don't have to prove anything to anyone!


Netanyahu told the grieving Fogel family at his Shiva call that "… we are not stupid, we know who we are dealing with…". He was no doubt talking about himself and the terrorists - yimach shmum v'zichrum and in that order. But he was only partly right; we know who are dealing with – an Israeli government that blindly follows US policy. Unfortunately we are stupid; the world, like a child with learning disabilities, needs short, catchy messages repeated again and again and again and again ad nauseam, until the message and the lesson is learned and internalized. We, Israel, the Jews (take your pick) only stand up and scream when something happens and then we brush ourselves off and get on with our lives. This pattern of dealing with our tragedies is both our strength and our weakness.


Just ask yourself this: why is it that we continue to hammer the lessons of the holocaust (I prefer the word 'Shoah') again and again and again TO THE ENTIRE WORLD? [There's even a theory that states that eventually every conversation will contain some kind of mention of the Shoah.] Why are there national and international Shoah Days? Why is the Shoah considered a 'worthy' topic for nearly all Jews to discuss; create and invest in movies, films and mini-series; raise funds and contribute millions to commemorate? Well, why? Because it has to do with dead Jews. While Israel is no longer part of the "consensus", the Shoah is 'our' rallying cry. Why? Because we feel good in the role of the victim.


You know the word consensus comes from the Latin, meaning 'feel together'. Well we Jews would rather FEEL TOGETHER in sadness, than in pride and happiness.


You know we also commemorate the destruction of our two Batei Mikdash every year on Tisha Bi'Av, but there is no longer a consensus surrounding their memories. We can't count how many Jews were murdered by the Babylonians (First Beit Mikdash) and the Romans (Second Beit Mikdash). We can't count the number of children or women massacred. And let's be honest, today the magnitude of the loss of both Batei Mikdash is really only felt and remembered for the most part by Orthodox Jewry and in some gospel songs (remember "By the rivers of Bablyon, we laid down and wept…"?)


And we are comfortable in counting our dead. We count our dead, add up the numbers, divide by the number of maimed and multiply by the number of widows and orphans. When we count our dead we take control of a situation that, until some 60 years ago, was out of our control. So why do we still continue to count?


I guess it's because of the same DNA makeup that allows us to create a mathematical equation from massacred infants and the building of houses.


We are just days away from Purim. For the Fogel and Ben-Yishai families, Purim time will never be the same. Perhaps we can finally take a lesson from Megilat Esther and unite as one people, trusting only ourselves to take our own destiny in our hands and change this time of grief and sorrow to happiness and joy.