Home

For Israeli citizens, life is different than for Americans in the United States. There isn't a day that goes by in Israel without a real threat of rocket attacks or some nut job blowing themselves up for some (un)holy goal. Among the worst we fear here is trying to find out how much money some dirtbag politician took for their personal use.

That may change as our economy sinks deeper into a politically contrived financial cesspool. (It also seems that Israeli politics may also have their own political cesspools to deal with.)

Growing up Jewish in New Jersey, my brothers and I were spared much of the anti-Semitism prevalent in other states or in Europe. I did find that it didn't take much to bring out the old hatreds for special occasions. In Europe, anti-Semitism hides very close to the surface as it has for the last two millennia.

At one time or another, Jews have been expelled or viciously attacked in virtually every center of European culture or at times expelled from entire nations. This was true from Paris to London and even Vienna. The same can be said of much of the major cultural centers of North Africa.

I don't believe most world leaders, ours included, have the slightest clue of what runs through the mind of Jewish Israeli citizens at any given moment. They can't understand the daily fear Israelis live with. Israelis' aren't afforded the luxury citizens of other nations have. Day after day, rocket after rocket, and the world expects Israel to turn the other cheek?

Living in Madrid or Barcelona; Paris or Marseille; Rome or Naples; Berlin or Munich; or ten thousand other locations around the globe, there are no threats of rockets landing in your yard or your religious institutions needing police protection to keep them from being bombed. For Jews around the world, and especially in Israel, the picture is much more blurred.

Many of those that attack Israel for being evil or for having the audacity of defending herself have never walked in Israeli shoes or removed dead bodies after a delusional youth blows himself up in a coffee shop or pizza parlor in Israel. Too many American politicians are actively trashing Israel but not attacking those that seek Israel's destruction.

I do believe peace is possible. It will happen when evil people realize that using their neighbor's children for canon fodder is a sad waste. There are political and religious forces in the Middle East and around the globe (even in the United States) that need a whipping boy. For them, Israel -- should I say the Jews -- naturally fills that role.

If peace were to suddenly break out, what will all the dictators do to protect their power? Having the Israeli as a whipping boy affords an excuse for bad schools, roads, hospitals, and poverty endemic in the native lands of many of Israel's enemies.

Maybe if some of these potentates and tyrants looked across the fence they would realize that Israel holds the key to repairing much of what's wrong in their region of the planet. In medicine, science, and technology, Israel constantly ranks as a world leader. In solar energy, Israel is the world's leader.

I would like to ask President Obama what cloud his head is in. Iran has made the U.S., and much of the free world, look like useful idiots. The truth seems to be that the U.S. will not do anything until it's too late. A nuclear Iran, with madmen at the helm, is a time bomb. My worst fear now is that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will do something stupid, like start a small war or stoke the fires in Iraq just to remove the pressure on himself. We have already seen what he is willing to do to his own people.

In the world of today, Israel is expected to live by a double standard. No other people or nation would willingly allow themselves to be targeted daily with extinction and not forcefully respond. For more than 3,000 years, survival for Jews has always tenuous.

To the people of Israel, I can tell you this: Don't expect outside help with your problems. Most of the world would be happy to see no more Israel. I believe that extends to many American politicians, who would be willing to provide Israel with a gracious eulogy.