Israel needs your support

I would like to address the current state of support for Israel among American Jews. It is sad to see that the most vocal support for Israel today comes from Christian Evangelicals. Not that their support is not needed or wanted, but rather that the Jewish community is not leading the way. Perhaps some Jews have lost interest as Israel is no longer a welfare state, but Israel is still in a very tenuous position surrounded by hostile neighbors. Especially scary is a potential nuclear Iran. It might be comforting to say we have a host of problems here. However, this rationalization does not appear to afflict our friends, the Christian Zionists.

It is no coincidence that American Jewry's stock has risen so dramatically since Israel became a state. We were second class citizens in the 1940s, shut out of certain occupations, communities, clubs, restaurants and, most importantly, political power.

In one recent poll, some Jews have even indicated their lives would not change if there were no longer an Israel. Anyone who knows Jewish history will attest to how Jews lived for 2,000 years prior to the Jewish State. Let us not dare be faced with this potential peril. Support Israel as if the lives of your children and grandchildren depended on it, as they well may.

You might ask what you could do. We are now at a precarious time in American- Israeli relations. You have a State Department that has always been supportive of the Arabs. The administration is headed by a President who is very sympathetic to solving Middle East issues by sacrificing Israel. In the mix, a Secretary of State who claims that the biggest obstacle to an Arab- Israeli peace is the Jewish birthrate in the territories.

Now is the time to get up off the sofa and demand of the president you voted for not to sacrifice Israel. .
Nelson Berman
Cherry Hill