NAdine, I have always wondered if the Americans of Jewish descent, go and settle in disputed territiories such as the West Bank, and then they are subjected to attack by the Palestenians, why does it concern the US so much. These US folks were well settled here, and if they decide to go and settle there "just because they are Jewish", then what is wrong with Palestenians branding together to keep the intruders out? I mean here we have the US bringing in all sorts of people from Vietnam, Cambodia etc. Don't you think that branding together only becuase of common religious beliefs is taking something a little too fay just like the Muslims who come together and fight and oppose them?
American Jews Arrive In Israel
Wednesday July 10, 2002 10:50 AM
BEN GURION AIRPORT, Israel (AP) - Braving the worst Mideast violence in years, a group of nearly 400 American immigrants has arrived in Israel to begin new lives in the Jewish state.
``We could have lived a cushy life, but that's not important,'' said, Tamar Rudy, a 27-year-old mother of four who left a legal assistant's job in Baltimore and arrived with the group in Israel on Tuesday. ``Raising our kids here is important.''
Tuesday's contingent was the largest single group in years. More than 21months of fighting and a worsening economy have kept many immigrants away. There were 45,000 newcomers to Israel last year, compared with 60,000 in 2000, according to the Jewish Agency, a quasi-government group that brings
immigrants to Israel. Some of the immigrants who arrived Tuesday said they were tired of waiting for the fighting to end. Others said a desire to be closer to the biblical homeland and to strengthen the Jewish state outweighed their fears.
Essential for others were grants of $5,000 each donated by American Evangelical Christians, who want to encourage Jews to live in the Holy Land - which they see as foretold by the Bible. Bishop Huey Harris of the First Pentecostal Tabernacle Church in Elkton, Md., raised $2,500 from his congregation.
``What I'm seeing is the Scriptures being fulfilled right before our very eyes,'' he said from Maryland. ``What's next? I'm looking for the church to be raptured, Jesus returning for the church ... and the Jews would receive him as their Messiah.''
Some immigrants said they felt awkward about accepting the money but were grateful for it. Many Israelis have mixed feelings about the support of the Evangelicals, since their ultimate goal is to convert Jews to Christianity.
Israel, a country built on immigration, drew nearly 1 million newcomers from the former Soviet Union over the last decade, but bringing Western Jews, with their successful businesses and comfortable lives at home, has been a bigger challenge.
``The U.S. has the biggest Jewish community in the world - 5.5 million people. That's more than Israel,'' Jewish Agency spokesman Efraim Lapid said. ``We see the community in the U.S. as a strategic reservoir.''
The El Al charter flight from New York brought the first group of Jewish immigrants to arrive en masse in recent years. Half are to live in Beit Shemesh, a city just outside Jerusalem. Three families are moving to Gush Etzion, a bloc of Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several hundred other Israelis, many of them American immigrants, greeted the 371 newcomers with hugs in the shade of an airport hangar.
One of the new arrivals was Noa Hirsch, a 22-year-old law student from Pittsburgh. She said she came to Israel ``to join my people in my land.'' Hirsch said she was moving to Jerusalem and didn't worry much that the city has been hard-hit by Palestinian attackers.
``Maybe I'm being foolish, but I don't think so,'' she said. ``Terror is everywhere. I'm not going to let someone tell me how to live my life.'' Palestinians blame Israel for the 21 months of violence, charging that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and its restrictions on their movement have embittered many. Traditionally, Palestinians have opposed Israel's wide-open immigration laws for the world's Jews, while Israel limits Palestinian immigration.
Michal Hershtal, 22, of Memphis, Tenn., is the first from her family to live in Israel. ``Somebody's got to start,'' said Hershtal, who will settle near Tel Aviv with her husband Danny. A few of the passengers came from Canada.
Tamar Rudy plans to join her sister and mother, who already live in Israel. She and her husband Mitch hauled 17 big boxes to their new home in Ramat Beit Shemesh. ``When I'm here, I feel like it's where I belong,'' she said. She wants her four children, the oldest just 7, to be closer to their Jewish identity. It's a big sacrifice. Her husband just finished dental school and the family had a house in Baltimore.
Tamar Rudy's mother, 55-year-old Nomi Malek, 55, was born in Hungary and came to Israel as a girl before moving to the United States. Her father survived the Auschwitz concentration camp; his first wife and three children perished. ``My mother didn't want to raise me in a place where she suffered,'' Malek said. A new generation of immigrants, like her daughter, is coming in search of something spiritual, not for refuge, she said. Malek, who returned to Israel after a divorce, hesitated to encourage her daughters to follow. ``I could not tell them to come,'' she said. ``I feel responsibility. But I'm happy,'' she said, hugging her daughter. At Rudy's new apartment, her children were already at play. Three-year-old Yisraoel was splashing around in a lawn sprinkler and 5-year-old Tzipora searched a box for her favorite doll.
Rudy beamed as she crossed the threshold, shouting, ``Honey, I'm home.''
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