When I ask someone in Israel how they are, they always say, “Personally, I’m fine, but the situation is terrible.”  To the rest of the Jewish world, it may well look like we’re coping and we don’t need help.  But we do.  Really.  We have been fighting the leadership for three years at the cost of our health, wealth, society.  Every month news comes of another criminal charge against a member of parliament, and we protest the ways their punishments are delayed or disappeared.  We donate our time and our children’s time (of my five grandchildren in this country – one (21) is in the army, one (18) is volunteering for the year to help rebuild Metula, one (14) is collecting food for the hungry in Israel, and one (15) is volunteering on Ambulances for the Israeli Magen David. One is still too young.  Almost 30% of the population is living under the poverty level.  

And yet, we always tell each other we’re coping. 

Today I received a link to an article .  it has a different take on the subject, but it is worth reading. 

https://thejewishindependent.com.au/as-an-israeli-jew-i-dont-want-to-be-resilient-anymore

Thw problem is neither of us provide a simple way out.  

As a child, I helped my mother collect old clothes to send to Israel.  I typed out tree certifications, and I bought bonds.  But then I knew how much everything I did would be used to build a country with the ideals I valued.  Now, we have much work to bring it back.

How can you help?  one way is to realize that the population should not be suffering because the government has been hijacked.  Show your resilience, your support. Ask for and buy Israeli products, encourage their sales, protest the boycotts, the prejudices, the violence.  We can all recreate a country we can be proud of.