On the evening of Wed March 29th I was asked to attend a dinner with a group made up of families from the Jewish community of Chicago. They were here under the auspices of the UJA, doing a "mission" to Israel. "Mission" is an idiotic term used for trips made by large groups of American Jews, generally from certain communities, who do a whirlwind 10-day tour of Israel, meet with various representatives of Israeli society/army/government and are continually asked by Sokhnut/UJA guides that organize and lead the "mission" that Israel needs their support and that they need to donate money if they wish to see Israel keep making wonderful progress in a variety of areas. So, a bunch of people and I, got up and spoke about ourselves, blah blah blah, yay Israel, blah blah blah, and then joined the families at their tables, where we ate good grub and fielded an array of child-like questions. These people were all from a bunch of Reform and Conservative synagogues in the ultra-rich north Chicago suburbs, and one of their rabbis was a woman named Patty. If that doesn't summarize their ignorance about Israel, Judaism, Jewish identity and the conflict, I don't know what does. Here are some of their questions and statements:

"Oh my G-d, Felix, you went to Dartmouth?! I hope my son gets into a good school like that! Who won the elections? What do you mean "coalition"? Why are IDF soldiers hurting innocent Arabs? Have you seen an Arab? Are you serious, there's an Arab village a mile away and there are army units there arresting people!? Israel can't survive without US aid! What, they have to spend all of it on US arms? I saw lots of people in black at the Western Wall, are they orthodox? Why are so many soldiers wearing kippas? I want to retire and be buried in Israel! Israel needs to do (insert baseless and stupid opinion) to achieve peace. Israel isn't doing enough of (insert opinions on policies that Americans don't understand). Why can't I order an ice cream right now? What do you mean I just had a meat entree... oh right! Why are there all these religious signs and papers on the walls? Where are all these Jews from, they look darker, or are they Arabs? Ah, Mizrahi Jews are from Arabic countries, you don't say, and they speak Hebrew and they are Jewish? Jessica, after this, lets go to a spa and get massages! My daughter, Jessica, and her friend Suzy, are getting their Bat-Mitzva tomorrow here in Jerusalem! Isn't that exciting?!? We have such a big Jewish community in Chicago, and everyone always has really big, really wonderful Bar/Bat-Mitzva's! No way, we're on the other side of Green Line right now?!!?! Kids, we're going to Eilat tomorrow and staying at the Royal Something-or-Other, it's SOOO nice, not as nice as when we were in St. Lucia, but we have to vacation in different places every year. Israel is such a crazy place, it's so dangerous, all these bombings and attacks all the time, how can you live here?!? Don't you worry you're gonna get blown up?! Why would you leave perfectly nice CT suburbia? It's so NOT convenient for people here, they don't have nice lawns and the cars are so small! It's so nice that there's a place for Jews, but it's too bad not enough people are coming here. You're here to do what?!? Oh my G-d, don't you think that's a little bit crazy? Wow, what a commitment, I wish others would do the same."

I can go on, but honestly, I, and others who came with me, we all felt like we were talking to children. And we all agreed that they just don't get it. If you're living an secular, culture-less, house/car/shopping oriented lifestyle in picture perfect suburbs, and your ups and downs are determined by meaningless things, your Israel identity is so marginal and your Judaism is so surface, that it is inevitable that there will be a huge gulf between your world view and knowledge base as compared to someone who lives Israel and who lives the Jewish expression and history of Israel as an everyday reality.