With war raging in the Middle East, with global terror reaching new
heights, with global anti-Semitism on the rise, I thought it might be a good
time to reflect on why I'm proud, more than ever, to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew because Jews don't kidnap.

I'm proud to be a Jew because Jewish education does not consist of
teaching martyrdom and hatred.

I'm proud to be a Jew because my religious leaders and religious
services don't whip me into a frenzy to kill others.

I'm proud to be a Jew because in the middle of a war, Jews still
demonstrate and protest to protect the rights of the Arab-Israeli minority to
voice their opposition to the war.

I'm proud to be a Jew because even when Israel is wrongly and
falsely accused of killing innocent civilians, Jewish leaders apologize
immediately for any loss of life-instead of celebrating these deaths by
passing out candy and shooting celebratory gunshots into the air.

When the world accuses Israel of massacre in Jenin-when the world
accuses Israel of bombing civilians on a Gaza beach-when the world
accuses Israel of shooting a child cowering against a wall-when the world
accuses Israel of bombing a Lebanese apartment building killing 56
civilians-when all of these accusations turn out to be totally false-to be
vicious anti-Semitic lies-and when all along I knew in my heart that these
stories just could not be true-and I'm later proven to be right-then I'm
proud to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew because the Israeli Army is so, so good, that
when it takes more than four weeks to wipe out a sophisticated enemy
who has prepared six years for this war, the world criticizes the IDF for
not getting the job done quickly.

I'm proud to be a Jew when my army, the Israeli army, drops leaflets
and makes calls to Lebanese citizens on their cell phones to warn them
to evacuate before bombing begins.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the democracies of the world talk about
fighting the war on terror, but only Israel is left alone to bear the burden
of eradicating Hezbollah, the proxy army of Iran and Syria.

I'm proud to be a Jew when entire Israeli towns in the
north-Nahariya, Kiryat Shimona, Safed, are reduced to ghost towns due
to the constant shelling, and yet not one looter has appeared to empty out
the property of others.

When Israel must defend its very right to exist, when it must fight a
well armed enemy representing the Islamic fascists, as President
Bush has called them, when Israel must conduct this war on terror
with its hands tied behind its back so as not to take an innocent life
lest the media have something true to report, that it must fight this
war of survival under the cloud of "disproportionality", as if thousands
of Katusha rockets falling on its citizenry is somehow "proportionate"-
when Israel simultaneously pushes back these threats both in the
North and in the South under the added pressure of a biased media,
then I'm proud to be a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the Edinburgh Scottish film festival tells
an Israeli director to stay home although his film is being screened and
the director says "No, I'm coming."

I'm proud to be a Jew because Mel Gibson is not a Jew.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the UN's Human Rights Commission
consists of countries like Syria, Libya and Iran and Israel is not asked
to join.

I'm proud to be a Jew when magician David Blaine announces his trip
to Israel next week to entertain the children living in bomb shelters and
tells the press he's doing it to encourage other performers to stand up for
Israel and its right to defend itself.

I'm proud to be a Jew when a Russian/Israeli businessman
single-handedly creates not one but two tent cities on the beach to
house Israelis fleeing the North and provides shelter, bedding, food and
drink, showers and bathrooms-all done without red tape in a matter of
24 hours-to house over 6,000 Israeli's, one of whom described it as
a "poor man's Club Med."

I am proud to be a Jew when Israelis on the left and on the right
support the government's decision to fight-when 97% of the country
is united in its own defense-when Israeli's from Jerusalem give shelter
to families from Haifa-when food from the Negev is donated to feed
soldiers at the front-when the IDF deploys soldiers on special
assignments to deliver diapers to shelters and to entertain and calm
the frightened children.

I'm proud to be a Jew when the three weeks preceding Tisha B'Av
reminds us of the terrible things we have endured as a people, and, as a
nation-and yet immediately thereafter, Hashem offers us consolation,
redemption and hope-plus the promise that we shall defeat our enemies,
that we shall endure, that Am Yisrael Chai. (Long live Israel)

And I am proud to be a Jew because when we proclaim that God is on
our side, we have the book to prove it.