Being here...

Every morning as I dress, sitting in the corner of the room are the two brown boxes containing our gas masks. Usually I forget about them or ignore them, but sometimes I notice them and it leads to a series of thoughts, that usually end up with the acknowledgment that living in Israel is not like living anywhere else. Yes, in the US there is a lot of violent crime, yes in England there are increasing attacks on Jews (Rabbi Pink of Leicester had a brick thrown thru his window last night), but nowhere else do people have to keep gas masks handy.

In the morning newspaper, diametrically opposite views are expressed, Shmuely Boteach, a liberal Orthodox Jew says "Obama is not to be feared" but Caroline Glick, a right-wing Israeli asks "Where is Obama leading Israel?" Truth be known we are worried, we are afraid of Obama in a second term, we are scared of the upcoming UN meeting, where there will be an anti-Israel fest at the General Assembly that will vote to recognize a Palestinian State (even if it's not binding without a similar vote of the Security Council), and we are worried about the newest anti-Israel maneuver, the "Naksa."

You've heard of Nakba (the Palestinian catastrophe of Israel's founding in 1948), now we have the "Naksa" the "setback", which is what the Arabs call their total defeat in the 6-Day war of 1967 (they have a way of deflecting reality). For the Naksa they are planning another march on Israel's borders like that on Nakba day, but actually not one march, but three, on June 3, 5 and 7. Since we celebrate June 1 as Jerusalem Day, the day Jerusalem was reunited, they have avoided that date. June 5 was also the day that basically Israel won the war by destroying the Arab air forces. We know about the Arab plans thru the internet, where they have an Arabic site as well as a Facebook page organizing these marches on Israel's borders, and also planning for a third intifada (or uprising). They claim that the Naksa marches will be peaceful, although the intifada will definitely consist of attacks on Israeli civilians. The IDF has issued a statement saying that this time they will be prepared all along the northern border, as well as elsewhere, and they will try to avoid casualties.

So they keep coming at us, even though they change their tactics and have lost many times. Most decent people would have given up after so many attempts. But, if they want to risk their lives, we will keep defeating them. It does get tiresome, but we have no choice. Our Jerusalem is unique, undivided and Jewish.