Firstly, let me say that I enjoyed the ceremony we went to for Herzl's birthday. It took place at his tomb on Mt. Herzl. Mostly it was singing, prayers, and a short speech or two. I have to say, I am impressed by how much praying took place. It was like being in synagogue, not at a state event. Clearly, this is a very positive situation. The Arabs are dead scared of religious Israelis, because they fear the power. Hence, the truer we are to our roots and who we really, and have been for 3,500 years, the easier it will be deal with our enemies. On a particularly non-shomer negia note, there was a pair of twins in the group that sang at the ceremony. They were absolutely, subjectively or objectively, the prettiest girls in the world. Had I brought a ring with me, I would've outfought every other male there and proposed on the spot. To both of them. Yes, Yemenite twins would do just fine. Anyhow, Zionism was discussed, prayers were said, Hatikva was sung and reporters took lots of pictures.

After the ceremony, everyone who wanted approached Herzl's tomb. I ripped off the tags on the chairs that the Prime Minister and the Chief of Staff sat on, so now I have two little momentos that say "Rosh Ha'Mimshala" and "Ramat Kal." This doesn't give me any bragging rights though. Israeli politicians are very accessable, it's the equivalent of New York city councilmen for New York residents. Meeting with them is pretty easy. Thus, I got to meet Amir Peretz, who is a complete and total idiot. Seriously, this guy is a union organizer, a socialist and he's got the Stalin mustache. Sure, he's got political skill, but I cannot have any sort of intellectual respect for the man. I also met, and yes shook hands, with Ehud Olmert. What can I say? He's a middle aged Jewish man. The whole Knesset is full of old Jewish men, yelling at each other and planning each other's downfall. What a bizarre group of people. The younger ones are basically powerless, and they have to wait till the old men let them have access to the reins of power. And there are few things more difficult in this world than fooling or getting the best of a wily old Jewish man. Hence, they rule this country. The kind of cambinot (complicated, semi-moral, clever manuevers) they pull, how they keep this place going, how they keep the enemy at the gates and the entire world from stamping us into the sand is nothing short of fantastical. Sometimes I think it would help if the place was run by straight-laced WASPS, but then I think on Israeli society and on our demented neighbors, and I thank G-d for creating the eternally brilliant and somewhat insane creature - the old Jewish man.

The American Jewish Committee was having a centennial celebration last week- one of those idiotic galas, where they include people like Kofi Annan to be honored for ... his continued support of anti-Israel moves by the UN? The AJC, as most American "Jewish" organizations, is a pathetic bunch of kow towing fat cats, obsequiously begging the real rulers of the land for protection. They think they are liberated, powerful and influential, but in reality the American Jewish establishment is nothing but a bunch of wealthy, insecure assimiliationists with a ghetto mentality. They are pathetic. They invited some Israeli big-wigs to the shindig. One was Robert Aumann, a Nobel prize winner in game theory, and an Orthodox Jerusalem Jew. Another was Avraham B. Yehoshua, a left-wing professor and author, a typical Tel-Aviv secular Jew. I don't know if they both planned it or not, but, totally unexpectedly, during one of the major conferences with thousands of top American Jewish leaders in attendance, they both pretty much stated that American Jewry is illegitimate, that it's operating on false premises, that Israel is the only place to be a Jew, that Jewish Israelis are the only legitimate Jews, and that Diaspora Jews can pretty much sit down at the sidelines while Israel builds itself into a nation.

Most American Jews don't even know what the AJC is, and are so unaffiliated or so loosely affiliated with Jewish life that they wouldn't even know, or care, that the above happened. But that is precisely the point. Most American Jews are so out of touch with both their own Jewishness and with the fact that Israel is miracle growing by leaps and bounds, in historical terms, that their involvement in Judaism is dismissed by the Israeli public in general. Sure, there are plenty of Israelis that will disagree with Aumann and Yehoshua, and they will cite how these two personally did this or said that at some point in the past. But the fact remains that these two men are leading thinkers from two very large Israeli Jewish camps. And Israelis do know them, do read what these men write an say. And yes, most Israelis feel estranged from the Diaspora. There are individuals that are connected by family ties, or by grand thoughts of a Diaspora-Israeli coalition that helped build the state in its early years. But most Israelis are so involved in their lives and in the internal issues affecting the Jewish state, that the Diaspora is irrelevant.

Yehoshua and Aumann both stated that Israel is a total Jewish life, where living Jewishly permeates all basic matters of public and civic life. Shabbat is a national, political issue, as is kashrut. Serious Judaic principles involving Jewish land, Jewish public and private life, Jewish relations, as a nation, to the rest of the world are all part of the public discourse here. American Jews don't have to grapple with Judaism in the same way. They live an American life, and choose to include some amount of Judaism in addition to their primary identity as Americans. In Israel, your primary identity is an Israeli Jew. You live on the land that is yours, the government is yours, the army is yours, the legal system is yours. The process of developing Israel is not easy, but the progress that has been made is improbably immense. Diaspora Jewry is simply not a consideration. If anti-Semitism increases somewhere, those Jews are welcome to make aliyah. If not, then not. But this is the only place where being Jewish is one's full, civic, political, personal, public, religious, and emotional expression. There's a totality of Jewishness that the Diaspora cannot have, by definition.

I could go into what the Torah and the Talmud, and the sages say about living in Israel, but that would just be beating a dead horse.

I strongly recommend to every Jew out there to study the Jewish texts and Jewish thought. Not in an Israel context, of course, G-d forbid that a Jew should ask another Jew to think of the very essence of Judaism. But just start learning the knowledge base and the philosophy that makes Greek/Roman/Enlightenment philosophies seem like child's play.