Temple Isaiah Member Since: I was last able to hit a jump shot. Though even back then just barely.
What Israel Means to Me:
I first went to Israel at the age of 20, as a less-than-hugely-valuable volunteer on a kibbutz on the old Syrian border – not far from the current Lebanese one. I saw, and was moved by, the Israelis’ yearning for peace. Over the course of what now comes to 17 trips to Israel (most of them in the last ten years), I have seen that this yearning has not abated—quite the contrary.
I believe without reservation in the right of the Jewish people to a national homeland, just as I believe in the right of Palestinian Arabs to one. It is for that reason that I regard the repeated rejections over the past 65 years by Israel’s neighbors of solutions that would have permitted both peoples to co-exist as tragic. The rejection of Israel’s right to exist, and of its right to know that it will be permitted to continue to exist , that is at the heart of this conflict has consigned both peoples to dreadful suffering.
What I Do to Support the Jewish State:
I have tried to do as much speaking and writing on Israel’s behalf as possible (to the extent of my modest capacity) in the thought that, if nothing else, each of us speaking up can play a role in emboldening others to stand up against the tsunami of anti-Israel fashion that currently exists.
What You Can Do to Support Israel:
This is, in my view, a crucial time, in which everyone who cares about Israel needs to speak up on her behalf—at every water cooler, on every soccer field, on Facebook, on Twitter, and everywhere else, talking about what it is that Israel means to them and why. No one should labor under the misimpression that any organization—no matter how valuable—can replicate the ripple effect of individuals talking to other individuals. I urge us all to re-dedicate ourselves to that—and without delay.