The tragedy unfolding in Israel is of biblical proportion. The modern children of Israel, whom G-d mercifully returned to their land, are about to: 1) hand to their avowed enemy up to 90 percent of biblical Judea and Samaria; 2) strengthen their enemy by affirming to him a state carved out of Jewish land; 3) offer praise to the god Molech - the US government - for effecting a "peace in our time" that will sacrifice Israel's children to the fire at a later time.

Mr. Arafat is one Mideast dictator among many, and Israel's mortal enemy. Yet from the late Mr. Rabin to today's Mr. Barak, Israel's leaders prepare their nation to place its fate in Arafat's broken promises, though that is not the reason for my sadness. I cry over the sad truth that Arabs covet Israel's land more than do most Jews - except for those few Jews who dared to resettle in Judea and Samaria at a sacrifice. Though this may cost me the friendship of some of my American Jewish friends, a truth must be told. Jewish love of Babylon - the exile in the USA - has aided the thievery of Israel's tiny land by others. There would be no "open spaces" to debate if Western Jews had, at least from the 1967 war to the present, chosen the G-d of Israel rather than the "good life" of America. Instead, they chose ongoing exile in Babylon USA - dubbed their "new promised land" - for its material softness and splendor. They decided to stay here and continue to fight for their right to live as Jews - rather than go to Israel and fight for the right of Jews to live. To the present day, they plan for their offspring to forever remain in Babylon and carry on the good life of exile.

Let me say it straight. Jewish leaders and organizations speak out strongly for Israel's cause but keep their feet strongly planted in the USA. Yet their multitudes of members, moving to Israel, would have filled the country and made the surrender of any land a dead issue. Gutsy Jewish fighters defend their own in exile - but don't have the courage to move to Israel to defend the Jewish right to live there. The rabbis of Jewish orthodoxy faithfully call their people to adherence to Torah but refuse to obey the biblical command to possess the land of their Israelite ancestors, choosing rather to possess their own lands in Brooklyn, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities of comfortable captivity. Why? Putting up old excuses to remain in exile is easier than putting down new roots in Israel. Why leave "the good life" of Babylon.

The Bible says, in II Kings 10:32 that, "In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short." He's doing it again over the same sins - in and out of Israel - of Jewish indifference and rebellion against Him. Israel's Jewish friends in the West, not Israel's enemies in the East, may turn out to be the reason that G-d allows Arabs to take over more and more of the Promised Land, at least temporarily. As long as millions of Jews are content to make a living in America rather than a life in Israel, their "love of the land" will be more rhetoric than reality. But "love of the land" won't come until "love of the Lord" comes first!

(Editors Note: It is obvious that writer Frank Eiklor is referring to the Jewish Defense League when he states that tough Jews remain outside the state of Israel and do their fighting far away from our treasured land. The reasons are not complex. The state of Israel's current and past governments violate the civil rights of followers of Rabbi Meir Kahane, including JDL and other groups. They will not even allow us to wear our logo in the streets of Israel. How effective could we be if we emmigrated to Israel under the current regime?

Additionally, and more important, as long as there is a large Jewish group in diaspora, there has to be a Jewish organization to protect their rights. We don't believe in negative emmigration. Jews should go to Israel on their own free will and not because they are forced to. If the state of Israel lacks Jews, it is their own fault because they haven't properly enticed world Jewry, especially right wing Jews.)