A Letter to Mr Olmert

I appreciate and respect that at the moment your time is both precious and occupied with matters of our State and of our Security, though I hope you will have a moment to read and digest what I have to say.  As an Oleh Haddash I arrived in Israel with my wife just over a year ago with the dream of a better life than England could offer me now and a safer life than it could offer my Jewish children in the future.

It has been an interesting year, and much has changed in this tiny country though to my amazement despite the shrinking of our lands, rains of rockets and wars waged against us, it seems the resolve and strength of my new country folk have remained as strong as ever.  We are truly an amazing people, despite 2000 years of geographical and spiritual seperation we are able to unite under the blue & white flag and hold fast to our individual understanding of what it means to be Jewish and to live in this corner of the Middle East.

Like many Israelies, last year I supported in practice but was emotionally hurt as we disengaged from Gaza.  Unfortunately for our nation hopes of peace always seem destined to follow painful events, and watching our settlers being forced from their dreams for the hope of a brighter future for us all was a confusing event.  Whilst disengagement was supported under the explanation of your predecessor we all knew (and probably Arik also knew) that the outcome would be exactly as it is.  We rewarded terror at the hope of being able to tell the world 'told you so' so we could garner some international sympathy and again attempt to claim our rights to live here in security and safety.  It was not to be.

Just as Mr Barak's decision to withdraw from Lebanon to the complete satisfaction in the hope we may earn some international respect and ensure a secure border in the North. Again its was not to be.

So like many Israelies who supported disengagement I'm afraid I cannot support convergenge, reallignment or disengagement-2.  Unfortunately our experiences of the last month have not just shown us the consequence of withdrawal, but more worryingly we now see the limitations of the 12 foot security fence we thought would keep us safe from the hatemongeres in the West Bank.  The fear of terrorists in Qalkilya, Jenin, Tulkarm and the like being supplied with 15,000 katushas is a thought not bearing consideration.

I like many Israelis and Jews around the world spend much of my time obsessing with International opinion of our little lost nation, with ever worsening world opinion of our apparant moral deviances and subsequently the truth, the truth that is never mentioned and always covered with condemnation of our actions and disgust at our attempts to keep our children safe.  The truth that in the eyes of the world Israel has no legitimate right to exist.  For this is the only thing that makes sense when assessing the complete lack of logic at which we are condemmed, condemmed, condemmed.  Its the only thing that makes sense when the world threatented by an emerging era of an angry Islam fails to see the appetiser to the main event. When the world refuses to see they are not hated because they support israel, but they are hated because israel is a mirror and a taste of the freedoms the west cherishes.