Creepy Conversations

Shailee, my daughter, asked me to write in a different color today.

Even through all of the crazy turmoil of the past summer, there have been new immigrants arriving in Israel by the plane-load! Israelis say they are flattered that people choose to come from wealthy nations as well as poor. I think it's cool, and a nice boon to Israeli society. They could use the brain-power, money, and rule-following, bill-paying ethics of the immigrants.

At the same time, watching the hoards arrive feels a little creepy-apocalyptic to me. Witness: the ingathering of the Jews. . . It can't be a good portent for the world that Jews are feeling uncomfortable enough in nations like England, France, and the US to forgo the economic and political stability of the First World.

Many of these new arrivals found their way to my town and we meet through friends and at the pool. Conversations have turned to pragmatic topics such as whether one should rent or buy in Israel and the prospects of property values in the future. One jarring factor: Properties are doing pretty well in this area for Israel, except of course if Iran blows us all away with his new nukes.

Real conversation I had with a friend pool-side: If you know that Ahmadinijad will send a nuke in a specified amount of time, would you try to leave Israel? Well, of course, I say. Her husband's position, though, is that a world without a Jewish state would not be worth living in for a Jew. Interesting point, but why are we thinking about this???

I guess people had those sorts of conversations back in the climax of the Cold War, But I remember them feeling a lot more theoretical then. Was that just my age-appropriate feeling of invincibility? These current quandaries feel much closer to real.