| |
 |
|
|
We hope that
you'll feel our website is worthy enough to contribute a few pounds to
the bandwidth bills.
|
|
|
|
Israel Needs You
|
| Last
uploaded : Tuesday 31st Dec 2002 at 17:45 |
| Contributed
by : Joy Wolfe |
|
I have just returned from a 10 day visit and can only marvel at the way people are going about their day to day lives and getting on with things
despite all the terror and the economic hardship that is devastating our beloved Jewish homeland
Sitting in a restaurants in Herzlia and Jerusalem, seeing Israelis sitting
drinking coffee in Jerusalem, visiting two of my favourite projects, Elwyn, a home for people with severe mental handicap in Jerusalem and Kishorit in northern Israel near Carmiel which is a kibbutz for people with special needs from the age of 18 to the end of their lives you could almost forget that Israel is fighting one of the most difficult wars in her history.
Make no mistake THIS IS A WAR, one which pervades every aspect of Israeli life. The only thing that brings home the reality is the security guard on every door of every hotel, cafe, store and shop.
Whether it be the fact that my grandchildren can't go to the cinema, the bowling alley or a city centre cafe, or whether it be the effects of the boycotts, academic, economic, artistic, whether it is the collapse of some of the high tech industry and the fact that thousands of businesses are going to the wall, this war has had a worse effect on Israel than any other
conventional war.
Yet there is only one thing our Israeli friends, family and those we don't know are asking of us -Show us you care.
Prove it by coming to visit us now when we need you more than ever.
Support our hotels, our car hire companies, our taxi drivers, our
restaurants.
I have just spent a really relaxing time with my family. True, I looked over my shoulder when I went on a bus.
True, I didn't venture into the main centre of Jerusalem. But apart from that I carried on as normal, visiting friends, going to meetings etc.
I stood more chance of being knocked down by a car in Manchester than I did of coming to any harm in Israel.
We have to put everything in perspective.
I am glad to say I bumped into quite a few Mancunians in Herzlia, but not nearly enough.
PLEASE GIVE SOME SERIOUS THOUGHT TO GOING TO ISRAEL SOON, WHETHER ON AN ORGANISED VISIT
OR UNDER YOUR OWN STEAM.
If we don't show our support, both moral and practical NOW, we will be guilty of delivering a potentially mortal blow to Israel, more lethal than any terror attack. We have it in our power to be the life blood of the Jewish State, a
transfusion that she desperately needs.
Please don't wait. Do it as soon as you possibly can and encourage others to do the same.
My grandson goes for his army induction course in two weeks, one day before his 17th birthday.
Four young yeshiva students gave their lives when terrorists attacked their Yeshiva last Friday night. These young people should not be expected to fight this battle alone. They need our help and they need it now.
If we are afraid to go, if we choose to spend Pesach in Europe, or in some cases almost incredibly in Dubai, then the Palestinian terrorists have indeed won the battle
We cannot and must not let Israel down.
JOY WOLFE
Manchester Zionist Central Council Media Response co-ordinator.
|
|
|
|
|
