I just touched down and even though this is trip number.....actually too many to count, I still feel a certain thrill as the plane banks over the coast and comes in to Ben Gurion airport. It's a mixture of joy, pride, a weird kind of homecoming, some concern about the work ahead in a week that will be spent with a group of high-powered politicians and community leaders, and the sense that this place I love so much also raises so many complex questions for me.
What is Israel for? What is the purpose of this much fought over state? What is it about this place that speaks to me so deeply? How do I make room in my consciousness for both that which I love about it and that which I do not? What does this place mean for me as a Jew? As an American? How do I square my love of the place as a Jewish state, and admit that any state which assigns priority to a given religion or members of a specific religious group, is pretty much always problematic?
There are no answers right now - I need to get my bag and head to work. But I do hope that the following questions will open a conversation here and now, that continues in the week ahead. Please share your answers and please share them gently. So here we go:
1. When you think of Israel, what do you think of?
2. What is the purpose of the State of Israel?
3. Is Israel a success?
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Author, radio and TV talk show host, and President of CLAL-The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Brad Hirschfield is the author of 
Thank you, Rabbi Brad, for asking some very good questions to open a dialogue. Here would be my answers:
1. The first thought that Israel brings to mind is G-d.
2. It stands as a reminder to all nations that there is a personal G-d to whom we are accountable who is both demanding and loving. It's history and presence reveals the character of G-D. It shows a connection throughout history of G-d's involvement with man and in my case evokes a love and a longing for a relationship with that G-d. Surely one can be secure in believing in a G-d who has loved His people and taken care of them for so many years.
3. Israel is both a success and a failure. The fact that it stands as a nation shows the truth of G-d and His ability and desire to keep His word. That is a success of G-d. The fact that the nation is split into so many sects and divisions is a continuing failure of His people to acknowledge and follow the God they profess to believe in.
Jeremiah
I have visited Israel only once, recently. It was amazing to be in a place where Jews were dominant, Saturday was Shabbat, and everyone spoke Hebrew! I think of Israel as home, a place where all Jews belong. Jerusalem, particularly, resonates with a feeling of holiness, of history, and of a closeness to G-d. Israel was founded to provide safe haven for European Jewry ravaged by pogroms and by the Holocaust. Jews had maintained their ties and longings to their land promised to them through Abraham, and prayed to be reunited "Next year in Jerusalem." It has succeeded beyond the wildest of dreams. But the world today is not the world of the late nineteenth century, or 1948, or even 1967.
The problems that Israel faces today are going to be far more difficult to solve than founding of Israel as a state. Israel was conceived as a Jewish democratic state. However, a democracy. by definition, is secular. Israel (wants) (needs) to maintain a large Jewish majority, but if all (Arabs)(Philippinos)(Palestinians)(Thai) are (equal) (welcome) it will lose its Jewish identity. That is the horrible dilemma Israel faces: either it continue to be (exclusively) Jewish, or it become a democracy that must face a Jewish monority--and perhaps the end of the dream of a homeland for Jews.
Israel today has to face the Palestinian question head-on. It is a poisonous infestation that will not go away. The idea of extablishing a Palestinian stte that will somehow work between Gaza and the already disconnected West Bank communities with the little strip of the Jordan Valley separating Israel from Jordan is pathetic. Israelies and Palestinians will never interact, will continue to feel threatened, will never settle the issue of the control of Jerusalem, of water rights, of appropriate defense, etc. Indeed, the universe may end before the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is settled.
My prayer, which will never happen because Jews need their home land, Palestinians want the right of return, and Arabs can never tolerate Jews on land they call theirs, is the unification of Israel and the Palestinian Occupied Territories under a secular government where all are equal, Jews have a safe haven, mosques and synagogues exist side by side, Arab and Jewish women discuss childcare and education and home, Jewish men and Arab men lunch and work together and discuss business, trade, politics.
What a stupid dreamer I am! But the thought of such peace brings
tears to my eyes.
what do I think of first about Israel-true home of the Jewish people
the purpose of Israel-to have a place where Jews can live as Jews
is Israel a success-well to me a successful country does not need to ask for help from anyone in order for their citizens to enjoy the ability to live there-Israel needs the help of the US and Jews from all countries. So there I would have to say NO.
As we get farther and farther away in time from when Jews supported their wants and needs without question they are going to have to learn SOMEHOW that to protect themselves and just for their daily needs they will have to count on themselves more and more.
Many Jews look at being Jewish as a faith and not a peoplehood and that hurts them.
Once they can stand on their own 2 feet they will be truly successful.
hugs
Laura
I forgot to mention the biggest problem they have is that their enemies are such that they outnumber the Jews who have and will probubly always have smaller numers because Jews who are mainstream tend to have smaller fammilies. As it is the Israel of today is supposidly very crowded! It may be that someday, I hope this never occurs, the enemies will take over just out of their numbers alone both in and out of the country. It will be terrible if the Jews feel that to remain dominent they have to do what whites did in South Africa. It would in fact be a catastrophy! However, Jews-to be honest count on Israel to be there as insurance but also want to be able to live their own lives and not have to support Israel as well.
Economics therefore is a big big problem in their being a truc success.
Laura
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