Posted on 10/06/2010 9:13:19 AM PDT by bsaunders
If, like me, you are Jewish, then you probably are often challenged by the Israeli Press and many in our own communities to make Aliyah and return to Israel. Aliyah is always referred to as returning to Israel which is like the lyrics of an old John Denver song Rocky Mountain High, “Comin' home to a place I’ve never been before.” Of course, John is singing about Colorado and Aliyah pertains to Israel, but the concept is the same. The question often posed about making Aliyah is, “How?” The how is followed by leave my family, friends, life, comfort, job, security, on and on. The answer is always that you will find new friends, bring your family, and that only in Israel is a Jew truly safe and secure. Even should one question the terrorism, the answer is it is much better now and it is mostly under control and much is made of it in the World press but it is at similar levels with similar rules as crime in other countries. Just like there are certain areas one avoids traveling in most Western cities and countries, the same applies in Israel, the difference is where outside Israel you are avoiding crime, here you avoid terror.
But I have a different question that needs answering before I take the plunge, so to speak. Why should I move to Israel if, in Israel, Jews are treated as second-class citizens by their own Government, Law Enforcement, and Courts? I can be just as persecuted, and most likely less persecuted, where I live now. Why uproot my entire life just to live where the Government is even more hostile to my rights simply because I am Jewish? Why should I move to Israel if in order to buy a small piece of land to build my dream retirement house if the Governing bodies are going to see that I am a Jew and then make everything next to impossible and at any time intervene simply because any non-Jew files a complaint with the Authorities? Why should I, a Jew, come to what is supposed to be the Jewish homeland if the Jews who run the Government et al enforce an anti-Jewish agenda currently more problematic than where I currently live with complete and total equality? Should I not first demand that you, the Jews in Israel who wish to greet me with loving and open arms, something that would give my heart great joy, first do whatever is necessary to have a truly Jewish Governance of the Jewish State? I do not need to move to Israel to live in a binational or multinational state, I already live in one.
Do not get me wrong; it is my dream to live the rest of my life in Israel. I intend to make Aliyah once my biblical duties as my parents’ first born son and only surviving child before making Aliyah. But, in the meanwhile, do you think you can get your political act in order and straighten out your ruling class just to whom the State of Israel was founded to serve. Honestly, how you expect the Arabs in general and the Palestinians in particular to recognize Israel as the Jewish State if you do not act like a Jewish State. How do you plan to be the place of refuge for the Jews if you treat Jews worse than you treat everyone else? You want to be the Jewish State, then start acting like the Jewish State. You want others to recognize you as the Jewish State, then in all things be the Jewish State. The Muslim and Arab States, the French and Japanese, the Mexican and Chinese, everybody else just about have all figured out that to have an identity you need to do one thing and only one thing, favor those for whom you claim to be their homeland. By that, I do not mean that you treat others poorly, but that you elevate rather than denigrate those whose State you claim to be. As things are now, full equality before the law and the planning boards and the licensing bureau and other government services would be a good first step. But, before you ask me why I am not in Israel yet, look inward and repair those things that are not Jewish, then we will talk.
Ah, now you’ve shaken the hornets nest. :)
I'm sorry, but I have to comment being an orthodox Jew who will make aliyah soon.
My advice: Take it up with Hashem. I did.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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I can’t disagree with him -— I’ve temporaily made reverse Aliyah because of my wife who is reluctant to leave her family and because her family needed a son (me) to run a business. (She is also finishing her medical training here.)
There’s a joke in Israel that the only country where a Jewish guy can’t make a good living is Israel.
That said, there is NOTHING like being back in Israel.
I am a sabra and never really understood about being a stranger in the Diaspora. It’s true. I walk around feeling an oppressive weight on me until I go home.
We just don’t fit in anywhere else.
When are you going to make aliyah? How far along are you? Are you going through NBN? Kol Hakavod!
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