The bond between Judaism and Israel

The connection between Judaism and Israel has long, deep, historic roots. The holy Torah clearly shows, that the land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people, and that the great fathers of the Jewish nation - Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov - lived in "Kenaan" land (which is Israel of nowadays). The modern claim of Arab leaders, that Israel (or, as they call it, "Palestine") belongs historically to the Palestinians, is absolutely false and historians specializing in the Middle east proves that the Jewish people lived in that area much earlier. Further than that, the Muslim religion was founded only 1400 years ago, while historic evidences shows that Judaism was rooted in the land of Israel much earlier than that.

However, the connection between Judaism and Israel is not just historical, and is not similar at all to the connection between other nations and their lands. The importance of Israel to the Jewish people is mainly religious. For over 2000 years, when Jews were not allowed in Israel, they kept praying for their return.

Israel has many sites that are holy to the Jewish people, such as the Western Wall (a wall in Jerusalem which was a part of the original Temple), the tombs of the Jewish biblical characters Avraham, Yitzhak, Yaakov, Sarah, Rivka, Leah, Rachel, Yosef, David, as well as other biblical sites and important Rabbis from the Jewish history.

Although the connection between the Jewish people to the land of Israel is clear and obvious, there are some nations and states that refuse to recognize the existence of the Jewish state of Israel (such as Iran, whose president recently said that Israel should be "wiped off the map", Syria, the Palestinian authority etc.). Actually, the question of the Israeli state is often discussed within international forums (UN, Security Council) and raised in the diplomatic ties between countries in the international community. The legitimacy of Israel to exist is obvious and well-agreed, but the extremist arab countries are trying to narrow the Israeli government ability to fight terror and to defend itself and its citizens from threats by hostile countries (such as Iran, who develops an Atomic program) and terrorist organizations (such as Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah etc.).

For this reason, the support of the Jewish communities across the world in the state of Israel is so important. Most Jewish people, wherever they live, hold the Jewish faith and the Jewish heritage, and they are faithful to the state of Israel and the idea of Zionism. But being faithful is not enough, especially in the current situation when extremist Arab countries are trying to harm Israel and to influence other countries to do so as well. Jewish people must be active (and proactive) in helping Israel to survive, and can do so in several ways: They can influence the representatives in whatever country they live in to defend the interests of Israel in their parliament and in bilateral connections with other countrys; They can contribute directly to Israel and to their institutes (for example, Jewishop - http://www.jewishop.com - is a webstore for Judaica items, Dead sea products and other products that are manufactured and made in Israel); They can write articles to their local media and convince their friends and family to do so as well, etc.
But the most important thing, and the bottom line of my editorial, is not to be silent.

The current situation in the international community is similar to the biblical story of David vs. Goliath: Israel is David - a young, vibrant country with high moral values - and the extremist Arab countries are Goliath - corrupt and despicable, with the oil weapon on its side. But this time we must not leave David alone in the battlefield. We must help David, We must help Israel, for the sake of the free world and the western societies.

About the Author:
Yair Harvard is an Israeli businessman, working as a division manager in Jewishop (http://www.jewishop.com)