"The Hope and the Siege"

This is an excerpt from "The Hope and The Siege", an important sermon on American Jews and Israel, featured at The American Thinker. It's yet another wakeup call, so please pass it on


http://www.americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5655

Jewish Americans are optimistic people, as are Americans in general. Most of us either came from somewhere else or our parents and grandparents came here from somewhere else to achieve a better life in America. And we have by and large prospered in America. As Herman Wouk said in his stirring novel Inside Outside, America has been the Golden Medinah for the Jews who were fortunate enough to get here. But optimism does not have to mean false hope, or softness in the face of threats.

A large part of the worldwide Jewish people remains under siege today, in Israel, 58 years after the Jewish state was restored. Unlike any other state in the world, Israel is the target of boycott campaigns, daily terrorism, and threats from its neighbors, threats that include annihilation. The normalcy that was sought as a nation in 1948 has not yet arrived, much as Israelis go about their daily business and build their lives. We need to engage with Israel’s struggle, and help provide the political, strategic and personal support to insure that they are never alone.

This article is based on a sermon delivered at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, Il, July 8, 2006

Richard Baehr is the chief political correspondent of the American Thinker.