WHAT IS REAL?

     Another beautiful day in the city of Jerusalem after a wonderful day and night last night with a small reunion of family and friends. The hotel lobby was bursting, alive with conversation and as I looked around I said to myself, "Thank G-d for the Christians!"  as they filled the hotel and were there at breakfast bright and early.
     Israel is a country like all other countries yet different. People strive for jobs, for homes, costs are high and often the price for living here is unbearable, yet bear it they do, but why? Because this is our land. I am an American, born and bred and go back three generations or four counting the immigrants, but Israel is the home of my soul. There are swastikas drawn on the sidewalk in front of my old home in Cedarhurst, but not here. Here, if I show up one day and say, "I am home" I will get  a hug and a welcome and more paperwork than one can lift.
     When I go on a bus and the bus becomes crowded, a mother with a little one will plop the child on my lap with a statement, "Sit on Grandma's lap" which she does and to which I reply, "Hello, sweetie." All this in Hebrew of course, though the sounds of French, Russian, English, Rumanian, Ethiopian and others are heard almost as much as Hebrew.
     It is a country where when I ask directions I get a four page instruction complete with suggestions as to what I should buy in the store I am looking for. I receive not a G-d bless you from a beggar, but a "good month" for the new month, a Shabbat Shalom, for the impending Shabbat and a Chag Sameach for the soon to be holiday of Purim. I even get a guard on the door of the men's room when the ladies room was being cleaned. The lovely man told me I was like his daughter and he chased away three guys! I love this country!
     I wish that the people of the world would understand what makes us tick. What makes our minds and hearts function and feel and why despite the fact that we are of so many opinions, when push comes to shove - we are one and a peacenik will go to the guys on the front lines and bring them warm clothes or cold drinks and candy - for remember , most of these "soldiers" are kids.
     David Israel, you fret about power here, about being a dictator over all, about loyalty!!! to you as if that really mattered and in any case, loyalty should be inspired by friendship and not fear, for that is not loyalty. You engage in petty behavior and encourage these poor dupes to defend you and put their reputations on the line. Why not go pay a visit to the land of your name and see what it is all about, a people and a country which will not disappear, and will fight back with guitars or missiles, with the knives from our own necks to the stones in the street if we have to. And we will do so all the while having a falafel or malaweh and washing it down with a cold drink.
     In fact, I invite all of you, Jew and non Jew, friend or foe, to organize a trip to Israel. See what is truly important in life and what is not. But......I will continue to fight for what is right here so the two are not mutually exclusive of each other.
     In the meanwhile, Chodesh Tov - a good month,  Shabbat Shalom - have a wonderful and peaceful Sabbath, and Chag Sameach - a happy holiday of Purim.