Moving to Israel

Although this is a blog that attempts to encourage people to move to Israel, we usually attempt to do it in a positive way. Unfortunately, this is not always the case and today this is one of those situations. Today I would like to bring a disturbing article to your attention that will probably make one think about moving to Israel but through negative events coming out of the United States.

The article, printed in the World Tribune and brought to my attention by Tamar Yonah, talks about the cool reception received by  Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi upon his visit to Washington. It talks of how the new administration in the United States has viewed Israel of more of a problem in the Middle East than a friend and solution and notes how America has not been very encouraging towards Israel in regards towards Iran.

These are disturbing events and, again, although we prefer to not use fear as a tactic to try and bring Jews home to Israel, sometimes the facts speak for themselves. Please read the article and after viewing it and others like it, it would not surprise me to see many Americans making the move towards Aliyah without much else being said.

Ari

As concerns have grown regarding the new American leadership with regards towards their policies with Israel, there has been at least one encouraging piece of news. The U.S. has anounced that it will be boycotting the Durban II conference on racism unless there are significant changes to what the State Department called “unsalvageable” anti-Israeli resolutions. Israel has been concerned by the new American government’s change in policy to participate in preliminary committee meetings for the convention, which is to be held in Geneva but bears the name of the South African city where the first meeting was held in 2001. The United States walked out of it because of harsh anti-Israeli resolutions.

With the conference planning a clearly anti-Israel agenda the State Department announcement came after growing domestic protests of the Obama administration’s participation in the planning committee.

While it is still too soon to see how the new administration will be working with Israel in the long term, this is a piece of good, encouraging news to let Israelis know that, at least for the moment, America still understands the amount of vitriol that that the world is armed with towards their best friends in the Middle East. Let’s hope this is a sign of things to come for the next four years.

 Ari

Last week I mentioned the elections in the United States and their possible ramifications on Israel. Now that the votes have been tallied and Barack Obama has decidedly overwhelmed John McCain for the Presidency, my conerns for the next four years are really coming to the surface.

While all is in the hands of Hashem and we can just pray that it turns out well for Israel and the Jewish people, you have to really wonder about some of the people who were happy with the results. This article talks about Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sending his congratulations to President-elect Obama on his election win.

Regardless of anyone’s political views, it is pretty clear that Mr. Ahmadinejad is a truly wicked man. Hopefully it doesn’t mean much, but it would not be unreasonable for someone to wonder about being on the same political side (or any side) of this evil dictator. Again, one should not change their political beliefs just because they happen to coincide with some unsavory people. However, let’s just hope that Ahmadinejad doesn’t know something that we don’t.

May the coming four years of President-elect Obama’s reign be peaceful and fruitful for Israel, the Jews and good and decent people all over the world while still encouraging the return of Jews everywhere by moving to Israel.

 Ari 

As we approach Election Day in America the subject on many peoples minds here in Israel has been, not surprisingly, the ramifications of the election in regards to Israel’s well being. While it is very important for all of us Americans to vote and have a say in who will be, in essence, the leader of the free world, it is also extremely important to know all the facts about each candidate’s views on Israel and the Jewish nation at large. On that note, I found this article in IsraelNationalNews.com to be very disturbing.

While I have no idea what will happen in the election on Tuesday I know that I will be praying to Hashem that the new world leader will be a friend of Israel and the Jewish people.

Ari

Easily the article of the week (and maybe the month) for this blog appeared in the Jerusalem Post the other day. It was written by Herb Keinon and does a fantastic job of discussing the conflict we often have as American-Israelis particularly when it comes to election season. Give it a read as it definitely may apply to you (I know it did to me). Good job Herb.

Ari