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Oscar Hauptman's avatar

Thank you Joshua, insightful and very-very important narrative! Knowing Israel in depth, first hand, as child-immigrant in 1960, student from elementary to MSc (Technion), soldier, high-tech incubator’s MD and entrepreneur, I second all you highlight. Loving it is not in doubt, as in my neighborhood, among my mates, all atheists like me, born in Eastern Europe (which means a generation of baby boomers whose parents had to survive the Holocaust to procreate), we dubbed it the “Only Land”! But since 1982, I have returned to Diaspora, first for a prestigious PhD (MIT), then family reasons, and most recently, since about 2020, losing my faith in Israel and Israelis being capable — humane and insightful enough — to bring peace to this land. But since 7/Oct/2023, I realized that engineering peace alone is infeasible, that we do need a partner who is ready to at least reconsider the feasibility, if not the humanity, of their unequivocal goal to exterminate us; this partner is non-existent. Until this partner evolves into existence, we have to persevere and slog it out for several generations, until they realize that attempts to exterminate us are futile.

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Dena Tauber's avatar

First of all, I love your articles and look forward to reading them. I have some comments on this one. I made Aliyah in the late 90s with my then-now ex- husband and our two young children. We lasted two years. Our failure was due largely to lack of preparation and a stars-in—our eyes assumption that everything would work out. One thing I did not expect was the disparity between Anglo olim who enjoyed financial support from parents and those, like us, who did not. It’s hard to be idealistic when your neighbors are building new kitchens and adding bathrooms to their large homes when you are struggling. Today my two step sons have successfully made Aliyah since 2009. But they would not enjoy the lives they have without the dollars my husband and I as well as in laws provide. Unlike decades past there are some enormously wealthy Israelis but many who are decidedly not and the disparity is not only between the traditional classes.

On some other points- chareidi people who live in poverty generally don’t work and if they do it’s in low paying jobs because they don’t seek out training. That’s on them.

On some of your points Israel faces some unique challenges. Israel has always had to maintain its survival amid a hostile population committed to its destruction. After the war of independence the threat was from within as well as from without. So martial law at that time was probably sensible. Im sure mistakes were made because Israelis are human. I have more to say but this is already too long.

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