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Thursday, August 17, 2006

War Lag

It's like jet lag, but it's for war. It's funny. The day after the war started, many Israeli bloggers saw a tremendous spike in readership. For some, there was well over a 100% increase from normal. Suddenly, every-one wanted to know what was going on in Israel. Over 1,000 Kassamim being fired into the Western Negev wasn't enough to get them moving. Neither, was the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit. No, it was only when Katyushas started being fired all over the north, and 2 soldiers were kidnapped, that's when we got your attention. I've spoken about it before. Israel only gets the worlds' Jewish attention WHEN SOMETHING BAD IS HAPPENING. When good things are happening, no-one's interested in hearing about them. Did you even know that HP bought an Israeli company for a record $4.5 billion? Probably not. Did you know that despite the war, Tel-Aviv's stock exchange actually increased, and the shekel continues to get stronger? Probably not.

4 days into the "cease-fire", and already people are forgetting about what's happpening here. As I've been tracking mine and other Israeli blogs, there's already been a decrease in readership. It's "peace-time" again, so every-one can go back to their daily lives. People are posting about fun stuff like a record number of people making Aliyah yesterday, and nobody really seems to care. READ THE REST...If Israel doesn't appear to be in an existential threat of danger, there's no pressing need to check up and see how she's doing. Those reassuring stories are of no importance. I'm also sure if I checked with Israeli charities, I would find a decrease in funds over the course of the past week. Israel's in good shape again. She doesn't need our money. That is why organizations like ZAKA and MDA suffer so much. They get punished when things are calm. People can't comprehend that two organizations like these actually do more than pick up the remains of terror victims or rush people to the hospital when a bus blows up or when a Katyusha falls. They do so much more, but if it's not on the news, you don't hear about it, and the funds drop. ZAKA's job doesn't start and end with suicide and other terror attacks. They deal with the "mundane" happenings of life, like car accidents. You know, those things that occur more often that terror attacks. MDA's job doesn't start and end when a Katyusha falls. They deal with the more "mundane" things, like when a 90 year-old man is having a hard time breathing.

It's seems like if Israel seems to be doing OK, it's OK to neglect her. It's OK not to pay attention or give to help maintain her. If Israel's prospering, then there's no need to think about her. It's always made be sad to look throughout Jewish history and see that the only time when we came together were in times of trouble. Of course, it shouldn't sadden me since that's human behavior. However, we, as Jews, are supposed to be a light unto the nations. We are supposed to set the example on how civilization is supposed to act and hold them to the highest standards. RIGHT NOW, PRIME MINISTER OLMERT IS PLANNING ON EXPELLING SEVERAL SMALL SETTLEMENTS FROM THE WEST BANK WITHIN THE NEXT SHORT WHILE. WHERE IS THE OUTCRY FROM THE WORLD'S JEWISH COMMUNITY??? If it takes HAMAS and Hezbollah and Hitler to make Western Jews pay attention to the only place that we can call "home", then we Jews are in a very sad state indeed.

4 Comments:

At 4:50 PM, Blogger Avi said...

Absolutely!

Linked to this post on my blog

 
At 7:54 PM, Blogger Ezzie said...

WADR, I'd be more worried if there weren't a spike during a war. Nevertheless, the rest of your points are right on target... which is why today is a good day to put up that post I keep meaning to for you. :)

 
At 9:35 PM, Blogger Olah Chadasha said...

Thanks Ez. I was worried I might offend people, but I had to go with my feelings. I'm glad you understand.
-OC

 
At 1:08 AM, Blogger Fern @ Life on the Balcony said...

While I agree with the general premise of your post, I just want to say that I--a plain vanilla American Jew--started reading jewish blogs and Israeli blogs close to a year ago when I started becoming more observant. And even when I wss pretty secular I regularly read Israeli newspapers, bought books by Israeli authors, read histories of Israel and biographies of famous Israelis (of which there are pitifully few good ones published...). I even bought a Ketuba created by an Israeli artist and convinced my mom to serve Israeli wines at my brother's bar mitzvah. ;-)

I guess my point is that there are Americans who always have Israel and Israelis on their mind...the problem (well, it's not really a problem) is that most of us make aliyah eventually...

 

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