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A friend of mine told me that she was at a rally in Georgia (where she lives) and a woman came up to her (she was there with her kippa-wearing sons) and said that Israel was a dangerous place to live, so, she asked, why don't Jews just move somewhere else?

The funny thing is that this woman would never think of asking an Italian to leave Italy, or asking a Mexican to leave Mexico. But she doesn't understand why we fight over Israel.

Because we are generally called "Jews," people forget that in the time of the slavery in Egypt we were called "the Children of Israel" (B'nei Yisrael in Hebrew). We were also called "Israelites" (as opposed to "Israelis," who are people who live in or were born in the modern state of Israel). If we were still referred to as "Israelites" I doubt anyone would have difficulty understanding why it is that we want to live in Israel.

While there are a lot of Jewish people who don't feel a kinship to Israel, I have noticed, though, that most Jews do feel that Israel is their country, whether they are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, New Age, Unaffiliated, Agnostic, Atheistic, whatever. I was actually somewhat amazed the first time I was in Israel to see how many Jewish people from the US and other countries, no matter their religious affiliation, felt that Israel was the soil of their roots, the country they should be growing their "trees" in.

So even if it were true that Israel is a dangerous place, it is our home. In the 50s and 60s living in the south (and many other parts of the US for that matter) was dangerous for African Americans. But they fought for their rights and they fought the system. Many of them died. But they stayed in the U.S. because it was (and is) their country.

We "Children of Israel," throughout the ages, have had to fight for our land. And, when we weren't living in our own land (not just since the year 70 C.E.), but even in Babylonia from the time after the destruction of the first Temple and many other countries, including Persia, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, before the Roman conquest) we had to fight just to exist.

Why would we want to live in Israel? First of all, it is our country and it always will be. Second, it's a heck of a lot safer than just about any other country, especially the countries that surround it. Israel's security problems are mostly not with criminals. It's with outside people fighting an offensive war of attrition with them. And, in the past 60 years especially (when we have had sovereignty over our land) Israel has learned how to deal with these interlopers. Mind you, as several incidents this past year have shown, they aren't perfect. But, for the most part, as long as you stay in the Israeli sections of the country (as opposed to the places currently under Palestinian Authority rule) you're on pretty safe ground. (It's sort of like New York City. Ask your average New Yorker if he's seen any violent crime and, for the most part, they'd say no, just on the news.)

From my perspective, though, the most important reason to want to live in Israel is for the protection of the Jewish people. For those of us who have studied Jewish history, we know that the place of a Jew in the world can change on a dime. So many times in history, a country that was hospitable to Jews turned suddenly into a place where Jews were persecuted and killed. This happened in places like 11th century Europe (during the Crusades), 14th and 15th century Spain (and Portugal), 1930s Germany, and 1970s Iran, for example. And there are many places that were bad for the Jews throughout many generations, like Russia and Poland, for example.

Since 1948, with the establishment of the modern state of Israel, we Jews have a place to go where they have to take us in. Just by its very existence, Israel makes it safer in the world for Jews. Jews now have a place to go when things in their country of birth go horribly wrong. And it isn't just Jews who can use Israel as a sanctuary. Many non-Jews, like Vietnamese boat people, Arab women and gays, the Baha'i people (who are persecuted in Muslim countries), people fleeing from the genocide in the Sudan, and many other groups. Not only do the Jews need Israel, but the world needs Israel.

So what did my friend answer the woman who asked her this question? She smiled and said "Jews go to Israel because it is our home." Debbie Israel is a graphic artist (see