Dear Israel,

September 28, 1999

Dear Israel,

I’m afraid I have some very bad news for you.

I’m afraid that you are going to have to get very real, very fast.

You are going to have to start to make real peace with some very real enemies, really, really fast.

Why? Because if you are still counting on US aid, both financial and military, I’m afraid you are living in a dream world, and you are about ready for a wake-up call.

You see, Americans have a real problem with a concept called “commitment”. Without delving into such controversial and gray areas such as “moral decay” and “marital infidelity” and so on, let me remind you that, while Americans have been willling, by and large, to commit to airstrike capabilities, they have consistently balked at any military action that involved ground troops. Americans are fat (1/2 of the adult population is overweight), ignorant and lazy. I have lived for at least 4 years in areas of each of the following major population areas of the US: New York, Florida, Washington, DC, and now, California. Even though the city I live in boasts two national defense laboratories and many high-tech industries, most people I know don’t even read a newspaper and couldn’t care less what is happening in Israel or in any other part of the world. In fact, they only know where Israel is located if they have been there on some sort of tour.

Americans are so complacent that if we were faced with a crisis such as faced England during World War II, Winston Churchill’s famous “blood, toil and tears” speech would go nowhere. If it made the newpaper at all, it would probably be buried in the last section after the want ads and stock market quotes. If it made TV news, it would be on after the sports stats while everyone was going to the fridge for another beer.

If you are expecting young Americans to give their lives in a war to defend you, think again. The overhead would be just too great. And stop looking to Congress to keep shipping you your economic co-dependency aids. Recent scandals concerning spying and other illegal activities have seriously tarnished the reputations of powerful Jewish lobbies. And don’t look to the upcoming generation of young Jews to bail you out. The Jewish population is dwindling, due to a low birth rate and assimilation, through marriage and conversion, into the general population. “Zionism is a dead, outdated and racist issue” is a commonly-heard slogan, turning up everywhere in modern Jewish literature.

Well, I’ve told you some bad news, but I have reserved the worst news for last. That is, that while Israeli influence and power is dwindling, Arab and Muslim power is skyrocketing.

Their population, in the US and around the world, is mushrooming. And look at the internet. It is loaded with beautifully-put together sites calling for Panarabic Unity, citing the glories of past eras such as the Umyyads and Abbasids. These sites number their “hits”, that is, visitors, in the tens of thousands. Recent events such as the US embargo and air attacks on Iraq have united the Arab people in outrage. Muslims the world over are also becoming increasingly united and are even showing signs that they would like conciliation and peace with Christians. The black Muslim population of America is putting aside its divisive teachings of earlier times and have become a part of the mainstream Muslim faith called the Nation of Islam. At a recent meeting, I witnessed a black Imam from a mosque in Los Angeles sharing warm embraces with distinguished Koranic scholars from Egypt and Syria.

Israel, it’s time for you to put aside your arrogant and unrealistic attitude and realize that the time has come for you to stop assuming you will do as well in future wars as you have in past wars. The US is not willing to commit itself to you and your struggles any more than to any other nation, and past conflicts have proved that, when the going gets rough, the US pulls out. And it looks like the Arabs and the Muslims plan to make sure the going gets rough, very rough.

It is time for you to stop calling yourself “Israel” and start calling yourself “Is-REAL.”