Israel Makes American Jews Crazy

Posted on 03/24/2014 @ 08:28 AM

By Kenneth Cohen

in Israel Forever Blog

"Israel Makes American Jews Crazy."

I have heard it said by activists that Israel makes American Jews crazy.

I agree. Israel makes us crazy. Why so?

Kenneth Cohen

Why do moderate, thoughtful, liberal minded people - who usually support all the "right" political and social causes get so emotional when it comes to Israel?

The reasons always seemed obvious to me, but I have come to realize that many non Jews don't understand that it isn't a matter of just rooting for the home team.

It is about survival. Survival of Israel but also survival of the Jewish people everywhere. It isn't that we see Israel as "the last, best chance" for our survival. It is our *only* chance for survival. If, God forbid, Israel goes under, it will be the end of our long trek through history.

Yes, some tiny Chasidic enclaves in some of our major cities will survive, but that will be about it. We will become a small "opting out" people like the Amish.

Consider this: there are fewer Jews in the world today than there are Muslims in Karachi, Pakistan.

There are about 14 million Jews in the world. Roughly half of those now live in Israel. The majority Jewish children in the world are Israeli. Of the Jews outside Israel, about half don't give two hoots about being Jewish. They are assimilated. At the time of Jesus there were about 20 million Jews in the world, about 10% of the Roman Empire. CLICK THIS TO KEEP READING