Moving to Israel

This  weeks must-read article comes in from Laura Ben-David and is entitled “Watching the News Unfold.” Laura, who made aliyah and moved to Israel with her family in 2002 from Boca Raton, Florida, lives in N’vei Daniel and describes her day this past Shabbat/Saturday as it is the day where religious Jews are not allowed to use electricity/listen to news/etc. It is a very inspiring story as she tells of how, while she can’t listen to the news on this day, she ended up getting a “live news feed” throughout the day as she was able to use binoculars and get a view of the Gaza Strip where the latest war is taking place.

Laura’s story is very real and chilling as she describes that, while she was physically out of harms way during the Shabbat, the country is small enough that she was literally watching the events unfold. The article is a strong reminder of how this war affects us and how it is not in some far away land. It is right here being watched and experienced by real, true, good people.

May Hashem watch out for our soldiers and bring peace to the Jewish People as soon as possible.

Ari

This being a blog about moving to Israel and the country of Israel in general, I’ll often comb the Internet for news about Israel and comment on the various stories. I won’t necessarily read the sites that I personally rely on for news but will frequently check out the big international sites to see what the average person is seeing. Today I checked out cnn.com - one of the most popular destinations for news in the world - and noticed something very interesting. I noticed that Israel was not on the front page.

This may not sound like that big of a deal, but to me it was. I was pleasantly surprised. Some of you may ask why? Why would a pro Zionist like myself, who writes about the country on a regular basis trying to encourage people to move here, be happy about the lack of exposure of Israel on one of the most popular sites in the world?

The answer, as many of you are probably aware, is that, unfortunately, Israel is in the news way too often and is usually painted in a less than flattering light (to say the least). The fact that the country is so often demonized is bad enough but to me one of the biggest signs of anti Semitism and anti Zionism is the fact that Israel is so often front page news at all.

All over the world catastrophe reigns. Masses are slaughtered while countries are run by murdering tyrants yet it is the Jews and Israel that are always leading the news. Did Israel build a wall? Are they humiliating the “Palestinians” today? Have they used any “disproportionate responses” to murdering “militants” lately?

How is it that such a tiny country (Israel) can have such a profound effect on the day to day news? How is it that a people (Jews) so miniscule in number can possibly be the obsession of news outlets that has a whole rest of the world to report on?

The answer to these questions, of course, is that Israel does not have such a profound effect and the Jewish people are not worthy of the news obsessions. They receive the attention they do and will continue to do so because of the same old reasons. There is anti Semitism. There is a hatred for Israel and everything Jewish. It may sometimes be passed off as legitimate news and often is. However, the underlying story is usually the same: a negative story about Israel that would not have even made the fringe pieces of the Internet if it were a country of any other people.

Here’s hoping to see more days of Israel not making the news.

Ari