Next week on Wednesday, June 1, we (the Jewish people) will mark Jerusalem Day — a holiday that celebrates one of the most enchanting cities in the world.
I was born in Jerusalem; my father’s family still lives there. For me the simplicity and spirituality of that amazing city can be found in every street corner, on the people’s faces and in the air. Something about that place makes you feel like you are home.

As a true history lover, every time I enter the city through Shaar Hagai (the valley gate — the road surrounded by mountains that leads to Jerusalem), I think about its great historical importance. When I think of the battles fought there, something unexplainable awakens in the heart. It is as if the entrance alone is preparing me to change my state of mind — even before I enter this remarkable city.

Jerusalem’s many battles

Who hasn’t fought for Jerusalem? Of course, the Jews, but don’t forget the Babylonians, Assyrians, Persians, Greek, Romans, crusaders, Muslims, Ottomans, British and others. Everyone tried to catch a piece of that G-d plot called Israel. And in doing so, none of them forgot to visit its most important place: Jerusalem.

Jerusalem has 70 different names in Hebrew, all of them describe beauty and holiness. In the Talmud it says that the world got 10 degrees of beauty and Jerusalem got nine of them.

Jerusalem is where they say Kein killed Hevel, where Abraham almost sacrificed Isaac. In this city, 3,000 years ago, one of the most significant events for the Jewish people happened: we became a united people, a nation. By uniting the 12 tribes, King David conquered Jerusalem and made it the eternal capital city of the Jewish people. His son, King Solomon, built the holy temple there, and after centuries, King Herod renewed it.

Through all the exile that the Jewish people had seen, whether it was difficult or comfortable, the Jews have dreamed about the land of Israel, and in it — Jerusalem. Even today, we pray to the East — the direction of Jerusalem. When we get married we break glass to remember the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.

Of course, Jerusalem is the home of a very special place. It’s a place without glamour, a place symbolized by its simplicity and humbleness — the Western Wall. When you walk to the Kotel (Western Wall) through the Jewish quarter, you suddenly come upon this breathtaking sight. Touching the great stones, which came directly from the times of King Solomon, and knowing that you are standing where the temple once stood is magical. But the Western Wall we see is only the tip of the iceberg. The wall stretches wider and deeper than anybody could have thought. You can feel the link that connects the past with the future.

The best time to be at the Western Wall is during the High Holidays, when thousands of Israelis are gathered to pray, sing and dance together, just like biblical times. This experience makes you feel like you suddenly know the pure meaning of the Jewish people, no matter how religious you are. And hearing the shofar brings you as close as you can get to the holy temple.

A sacred city to all

Jerusalem is sacred to Christians and Muslims too, and contains many churches and mosques. While at times it seems everyone in Jerusalem lives in harmony, at other times, the movement of one tiny rock from one place to another, seems to be the cause for a third world war.

Until 1967, Jews couldn’t pray at the Western Wall that was under the control of the Jordanians. The entire city was divided in half and the conditions were unbearable. Then, one day during the 1967 war — a war that was forced on Israel by its neighbors — the Israeli paratroopers liberated eastern Jerusalem, including the Western Wall.

From that day in 1967, Israelis celebrate Yom Yerushalaim (Jerusalem day) to remember the day when finally, a Jewish presence was renewed in east Jerusalem and at the Wall. Let us all remember this special city this month.

Acting against intelligence

Mr. Obama’s diktat  that Israel return to its 1967 borders is a trenchant repudiation of the skilled military assessments upon which American presidents are meant to rely.

Lt.-Gen. Thomas Kelly, director of operations for the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Gulf War, said: “It is impossible to defend Jerusalem unless you hold that high ground [in Judaea-Samaria]. I look out from those heights and look onto the West Bank and say to myself, ‘If I’m the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, I cannot defend this land without that terrain.’ ” (Jerusalem Post, Nov. 7, 1991)

General Kelly was reiterating what previous Joint Chiefs had determined. A study by the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff in June 1967 concluded: “From a strictly military point of view Israel would require the retention of some captured Arab territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders … [including] control of the prominent high ground running north-south through the middle of West Jordan [Judaea-Samaria],” as well as the entire Gaza Strip and the entire Golan Heights.

In an interview with a German news magazine, Abba Eban, the late South African-born, English-educated man who became Israel’s Foreign Minister said it best:

“We have openly said that the map will never again be the same as of June 4, 1967. For us, this is a matter of security and of principles. The June map is for us equivalent to insecurity and danger. I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz. We shudder when we think of what would have awaited us in the circumstances of June, 1967, if we had been defeated; with Syrians on the mountain and we in the valley, with the Jordanian army in sight of the sea, with the Egyptians who hold our throat in their hands in Gaza. This is a situation which will never be repeated in history.” (Der Spiegel, Nov. 5, 1969)

Acting against intelligence assessments from previous Joint Chiefs of Staff, the will of the Congress in 2004 and Israel’s own long-standing assessments, Mr. Obama becomes comforter of and collaborator with brutalists who espouse a 7th Century-mindset. Arafat, Hamas, Hezbollah, et al. literally have the blood of Jewish innocents on their hands.

Israel’s “peace partner” Hamas’ recent outrage, the cold-blooded killing of the Fogel family, proves the point. Father Udi, 37; mother Ruth, 36; 10-year-old Yoav; 4-year-old Elad; and 3-month-old Hadas were all butchered. Hamas did not ‘merely’ stab and slay wee Hadas, they severed her head.

Perhaps The White House doesn’t read the world’s press. More likely, it just doesn’t give a damn about either Israel or the Jewish people. 

J. Scott Brown

Leawood, Kan.

“My house shall be a house of prayer for all people.” This phrase, taken from the prophet Isaiah, adorns the facade of many historical Reform temples in our country. One has to wonder why would such a verse be chosen out of so many in our tradition. Why such a universalistic statement?

Reform Jews have been accused of being “assimilationist,” of trying to become like gentiles while assuaging their guilt for leaving Judaism. I would venture to say that in fact the reality is the opposite.

The goal of Reform Judaism is to make it easier for non-Jews that value our way of life to join us in the Eternal Covenant between God and the People of Israel. We do not set out to be missionaries, yet it is wrong not to share what we have with others that may want it and would benefit from it.

Historically Judaism has taken different approaches to the issue of welcoming proselytes. At first, Judaism was one of the greatest proselytizing religions; then due to Roman and Christian persecution around the 4th century, Jews stopped welcoming converts. In current times, the attitude is still negative toward converts. However, I believe it is beginning to change and should change even more.

There is a famous Midrash that asks: Why did God cause us to be exiled and suffer so much among the peoples of the earth? The answer it provides is that God intended us to bring into our midst worthy proselytes.

Another Talmudic text states that proselytes are like boils to Israel. Rabbi Avraham Haguer (the proselyte) expands on that text by saying that converts are detrimental to the Jewish people only in that they are such good and committed Jews. When God realizes that those born Jews are so lax in their commitment to Judaism as compared with converts, then God punishes those Jews.

Born Jews must change their attitude of surprise about why anyone would wish to convert unless they are getting married. Just because we grew up with Judaism as our birthright, we fail to see what a precious legacy it is.

I have also heard many people say that “converts are not like us born Jews.” I totally agree with that statement but for the opposite reason. Generally converts show far more commitment and devotion.

They help replenish the ranks of our people and we should applaud them for it. Converts cannot weaken or change the “racial constitution” of the Jewish people because race doesn’t exist, it is a cultural construct. Jews are not a race! Jews don’t have a pattern of characteristics. Rather we are mutts, having characteristics of all the peoples that hosted us as well as Mediterranean characteristics.

Having already performed almost 400 conversions (mostly abroad) I wish to make a call to our community to truly make our own homes, our synagogues, houses of prayer for all people even as we are respectful of the beliefs and practices of others.

QUESTION: If one is short for a minyan, I have heard that one can open the Ark and count a Torah scroll for the 10th person. Is that true?

ANSWER: That is not only untrue, but it is somebody’s grandmother’s fable. I have heard this concept quoted from time to time and it is absolutely not based on Jewish law or tradition. One of my out-of-town colleagues had a humorous comment about the myth. He said, “If I could circumcise a Torah then I would count it for a minyan.”

I have no idea where people get these strange concepts and ideas and they live as folklore for generations. I understand that one of the congregations in St. Joseph, Mo., did utilize that practice for many years in the 1960s and 1970s during a period when they did not have a full-time rabbi. The idea of the Torah being so special to fill a role of a human being might be very mystical and romantic; however, it does not fit the bill as far as Jewish law is concerned.

Now that we are on the topic of traditions that are not based on Jewish law, I would like to address a very important topic that comes up all the time. Many Jewish people are under the impression that one has to have a mezuzah on one’s front door. That is very true. However, it is necessary to have a mezuzah on every door of one’s home other than the bathroom. The Bible is very specific when it mandates “you shall affix them, meaning the mezuzah, to the door posts (plural) of your home.” The Torah commands us to affix a mezuzah to every door post of our homes. Any room, in which you live or eat or study or have any kind of activity, requires a mezuzah. Even though many of the synagogues in the community, including my own, have beautiful mezuzot mounted, technically a synagogue, since it is not a place of dwelling, does not really require a mezuzah as your home does.

The other concern that we need to express is that so many mezuzot that are sold either online or even in some gift shops of synagogues around the community are really not “kosher.” By that I mean they have to be written by a scribe and on parchment. You can tell if your mezuzah parchment is not a “kosher one” by just trying to put a little tear into it. If it is parchment it will not tear. It also has to be handwritten by a scribe, like a Torah scroll, and not photocopied. Many mezuzot available online and around town have photocopied insertions to put into the mezuzah. It would be a shame for an individual to spend the money, time and effort of getting a mezuzah and a beautiful one perhaps at that, only to have it be not acceptable by Jewish law. Even though the primary purpose of a mezuzah is fulfilling a biblical commandment, the tradition is that they do protect our homes.

May 10 will be Yom Haatzmaut, Israel’s 63rd Independence Day Anniversary.

It is hard to believe that Jews are the only people capable of returning to their ancestral land after a 2,000-year hiatus. It is true that there has always been a Jewish presence in the land of Israel, albeit very small at times. Yet, no one nation has been able to achieve such a feat. In fact, not only have Jews been able to return to Israel but we speak almost the same language. If in a similar situation to the comedy “Encino Man,” where a frozen caveman comes back to life after being thawed, if an ancient Israelite returned to Israel today, he or she would be able to understand and be understood almost perfectly by any passerby in the streets of Tel Aviv. Furthermore, if he walked into an Apple store and saw a computer, he would understand what that machine does because the word for computer (machsheiv) implies a machine that thinks for you.

Jews have never abandoned their original language and Hebrew writings have existed throughout history even as Jews spoke other languages. They have also developed their own dialects like Yiddish or Ladino. Minimally Hebrew was kept as a language of prayer and scholarly religious writings. In medieval times, the knowledge of Hebrew allowed Jews to be translators and to be intimately involved in voyages of discovery. Whereas an Italian traveler such as Marco Polo had no hope whatsoever to be able to communicate with someone in China, as well as on the countries he would have to transverse in order to get there, he could count on the almost certainty that having a Jewish translator with him would make communication easier as they would encounter other Jews along the way that would speak Hebrew alongside their countries languages.

Modern Hebrew is not exactly the Hebrew of the Bible. The biblical world view and sense of tense (past, present, future) is quite different from ours. Also there are many words required for modern communication that do not exist in the biblical lexicon. Thus, modern Hebrew had to be “invented.” It’s inventor was Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (born Eliezer Yitzhak Perlman in 1858 in Luzhki — present day Belarus). He was a great linguist and scholar who immigrated to Palestine in 1881. He was determined to revive Hebrew as a language for everyday communication for Jews that spoke the different languages from the countries they had come from and had a hard time communicating.

Ben Yehuda was such a believer in the Hebrew language that he decided to raise his son, Ben Zion (the first name meaning “son of Zion”), entirely in Hebrew. He refused to let his son be exposed to other languages during childhood. Ben Zion was the first child raised solely in the Hebrew language. An anecdote is told that exemplifies the commitment Ben Yehuda had for his cause. Apparently Ben Zion must have had some kind of learning disability or developmental delay because he only began to speak at the relatively late age of four. Ben Yehuda and his wife took the boy to the best doctors, who “diagnosed” the problem as being the parents fault for only talking with the boy in a “dead language.” I can only imagine how much flack he got from Mrs. Ben Yehuda and yet he persisted! Ben Zion, who later changed his name to Itamar, grew up to be the first native speaker of Hebrew in almost 2,000 years!

A thank you to the Jewish Community

On behalf of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy board of trustees I want to say thank you to the entire Kansas City Jewish Community for your enthusiastic support of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy! We held the annual HBHA Civic Service Award celebration on April 10 and with your participation it was a huge success. The outpouring of support from the entire community was overwhelming and palpable.

The evening was very emotional as we celebrated our 45th anniversary. With our wonderful hosts, Trish Uhlmann and Dave Porter, we walked down memory lane and honored our long time friends and supporters, Maria and Fred (z”l) Devinki. For those of you who weren’t able to attend, the story was told of how it all began with a brief conversation begun by then Federation VP Sid Deutsch walking out of shul alongside Neil Sosland. Neil then discussed the concept with his wife, Blanche, who took to it without hesitation and thus the school was born. The Soslands gathered an amazing group of dedicated parents who pitched the idea to Hyman Brand, our first board president. He was so impressed with these “young punks” that he not only agreed to be the president, but went on to raise the money needed within two weeks of their meeting. This community has grown from that original school, housed in Congregation Ohev Sholom’s builidng, to what is now a state-of-the-art, top-notch community day school.

We honored Mirra Klausner and Brenda Althouse with the John Weill Uhlmann Young Leadership Award. Those two are such incredible assets to this community and we are all fortunate that Brenda and Mirra are taking such an active role and are accepting of their leadership roles within the Jewish community.

We also heard from Jonathan Edelman, recipient of the Head of School’s Shining Light Award. He spoke eloquently about the similarities and differences between the school from which he is about to graduate and the school that his mother, Debbie Sosland-Edelman (one of the first students at school when it began) graduated from when it was in its infancy. He noted how today’s HBHA is everything that those founding parents dreamed of, and so much more.

One of the great challenges facing that original group was how to serve the entire Jewish community. The school not only serves every denomination of Judaism, but also serves the whole community by providing an outstanding general and Judaic education that will help to attract Jewish professionals to Kansas City. These same attributes also help to bring our kids back home after college to take their places as the leaders in our community.

At this time of year, I feel it is especially appropriate for all of us to take a moment and express our gratitude for the fact that we are free and able to live in a society and a community that embraces and values our Jewish tradition. So, on behalf of the board of trustees, the parents, faculty and staff of the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, I would again like to thank the entire Jewish community for all of your support. Our school is here for, and because of, this Jewish community and we will always strive to carry out our mission to help keep our Jewish community strong and vibrant.

Eric Kaseff
President
HBHA board of trustees

Be inspired: Volunteer

In a recent article in The Chronicle, Village Shalom expressed the need for more volunteers. As a volunteer myself, I have received a tremendous amount of enjoyment and inspiration from the wonderful residents I now consider my friends.

If you choose to volunteer at Village shalom, any amount of your time (even one hour a week) would be greatly appreciated and much needed. The residents are always so excited to see the volunteers and look forward to spending time with them.

There are several ways you can get involved. Village Shalom has a calendar full of activities such as group games, visiting residents and assisting with dinner parties and entertainment. Recently the activities department planned a casino night for the residents. They did a fantastic job which was reflected by all the smiles and laughter heard throughout the room!

Hopefully, this has inspired you to become a volunteer for Village Shalom. If interested, please contact the volunteer coordinator at (913) 266-8310 or at

Betty Stern
Overland Park, Kan.

If someone murdered a loved one of yours would you benevolently erase the atrocity from your mind? If the murderer still lived, would you seek to convict him or merely discover other avenues of interest to preoccupy your time? (Editor’s note: The Jewish community’s annual Yom HaShoah commemoration will take place at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May 1, at the Jewish Community Campus.)

Six million Jews were brutally murdered, yet some wish to conveniently forget. Why live in the past? The dead cannot be revived! Let us speak for the living; let us turn toward other outlets of concern.

The Nazi mentality still exists; we dare not naively believe that anti-Semitism has vanished. Hatred and bigotry is a cancer that eventually returns to haunt its innocent victims. Unless intense treatment and annual diagnostic tests occur, tragedy is inevitable.

Some naively believe that public denunciations and continued documentaries will awaken latent Nazi tendencies. Allow me to suggest the opposite. Those who truly wish to destroy the Jewish nation certainly do not need additional incentives.

Like parasites, they survive at the expense of others. These cannibals of society eagerly await to devour their prey; they feed upon fear and desperately search for defenseless scapegoats. An apathetic approach combined with the fear of retaliation merely furnishes fuel for those seeking scapegoats. Too often we dismiss the obvious in order to achieve peace of mind.

As we travel backward into the time machine of history, this truism becomes evident. The socialist party declared a boycott to begin on April 1, 1933, of all Jewish businesses in Germany. Naively, the following sentiment was expressed in the April 3, 1933, edition of the London Times: “There is no spontaneous hostility to the hard-working small Jewish shopkeeper or trader.” The New York Times reported, “There is an active anti-Semitism in the German masses if they are left alone.”

Eventually the press awakened to the reality of an impending nightmare. In response to Kristallnacht, the New York Times observed: “It is assumed that the Jews, who have now lost most of their possessions and livelihood, will either be thrown into the streets or put into ghettos and concentration camps or impressed into labor brigades and put to work for the Third Reich. As the children of Israel were once before the Pharaohs.” Following the atrocities of Kristallnacht, the London Times exclaimed, “It is not to be believed that the nations cannot find the means of assisting unwarranted citizens to leave Germany and of providing the territory in which those Jews can find a liberated community and recover the right to live and prosper. There is no difficulty which a common will and common action cannot overcome.”

Now we can openly admit, too little too late! Fear and appeasement provided the Nazi party with the subterfuge they eagerly sought. Isolationism blinded the eyes of our so called leadership.

Various pleas remained unheard and unanswered. A cable sent to Breckinridge Long, on March 26, 1943, stated: “Gravest possible news reaching London past week shows massacres now reaching catastrophic climax, particularly Poland, also deportations Bulgarian, Rumanian Jews already begun. European Jewry disappearing while no single organization rescue measure yet takes … extermination reaching peak. Urge allied relief.”

Ironically between 1933 and 1943 there existed more than 400,000 vacant positions in the United States immigration quotas of countries under Nazi domination. Yet, Cordell Hull insisted, “I cannot recommend that we open the question of relaxing  the provision of our immigration laws and run the risk of a prolonged and bitter controversy in congress on the immigration question-considering the generous quantity of refugees we have already received.”

Perhaps if we as a nation would have spoken as one unit, our leaders would have not turned a deaf ear. The Holocaust can happen again. Ruthlessness and hatred still permeate the atmosphere. Awareness and action is our most potent and valued weapon. Silence and inaction is a way of life we dare not accept.

Rabbi Bernhard Rosenberg is the child of Holocaust survivors, Jacob and Rachel Rosenberg. A Kansas City native, he serves as the spiritual leader of congregation Beth El in Edison New Jersey, and as chair of the New York Board of Rabbis Holocaust Education Committee. He recently wrote The Rosenberg Holocaust siddur which can be downloaded for free at www.jewishfreeware.org/downloads/YOM%20HASHOAH/FinalMASTER%203-7-%20ROSENBERGHOLOCAUST.pdf. He also wrote the Rosenberg Holocaust Haggadah which can be downloaded at Holocausthaggadah.com

Support Temple Israel

I read with interest your article on Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn in the Jewish Chronicle. (April 1, 2011)

My wife Karen and I were on a trip to Poland to discover my family roots. Rabbi Cukierkorn provide an unusual service in helping us track our family’s genealogy and helped working with Archive Researchers, who could read Cyrillic and tracked my roots to 1750 in Czestochowa, Poland (formerly Russia).

Spending days driving with Jacques, we were able to hear some of his “visions” for his dream of creating Temple Israel. Jacques’ knowledge of Judaism is encyclopedic and he has strong desire to spread the faith. We have supported his efforts to work with Latin American communities, who have countrymen and woman who desire to convert to Judaism.

I am a “free market” economist and I believe competition is good for the consumer as it gives one more choices. It also makes the competitors improve their product. Therefore I am supportive of Temple Israel coming to the Kansas City area. We are currently members of The Temple, Congregation Bnai Jehudah in Kansas and Bnai Vail in Colorado. We will consider joining Temple Israel, as well, when it is formed.

We are longtime subscribers to your publication and enjoy reading it when we are in town.

Michael E. Herman
Kansas City, Mo.

Some of the most humorous tales in Jewish literature are the stories attributed to “The wise men of Chelm.” Jewish folklore considers the Jewish residents of Chelm fools. There are a lot of popular stories about their “smart”conduct.

For example: One Jewish Chelm resident bought a fish on Friday in order to cook it for Shabbat. He put the live fish underneath his coat and the fish slapped his face with his tail. He went to the Chelm court to submit a charge and the court sentenced the fish to death by drowning. When community leaders behave in a foolish way they are often equated with “The wise men of Chelm.”

Another anecdote is told about the occasion when the Chelemites decided to build a new synagogue. So, some strong, able-bodied men were sent to a mountaintop to gather heavy stones for the foundation. The men put the stones on their shoulders and trudged down the mountain to the town below. When they arrived, the town constable yelled, “Foolish men! You should have rolled the stones down the mountain!” The men agreed this was an excellent idea. So they turned around, and with the stones still on their shoulders, trudged back up the mountain, and rolled the stones back down again.

Growing up I wasn’t sure if Chelm even existed or why it came to be considered a bastion of “Jewish wisdom.” Chełm actually exists — it’s a city in Eastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border. Historically Chelm has been a stronghold of Chasidism and Orthodox Jewish culture. The myth of the Golem apparently started in Chelm, where a famous kabbalist, Rabbi Elija Ben Yehuda, is said to have created a creature of clay into which he breathed life by reciting magical spells that made him obey his orders. Much later this story was transplanted to Prague and the creation of the Golem was attributed to Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the Maharal of Prague. Chelm was a great city of Jewish learning, with many synagogues, Jewish courts and rabbinical academies. So, why was it considered a place of fools? Why did it have such a weird reputation? Because of Zamosc!

Chelm is located north of Zamosc. There was much rivalry between the two cities. Zamosc was also a great center of Jewish scholarship and in the 19th century was a focus of the Haskalah, the Jewish enlightment. The Yiddish writer I.L. Peretz, one of the fathers of Jewish literature, was born and brought up there. And so was the socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg. Followers of the Haskalah considerd the Orthodox Jews and especially the Chasidim to be hicks, retrogrades and much less intelligent than themselves. Since Maskilim (followers of the Haskalah) wrote books and novels for popular culture, rather than purely religious books, they managed to create the anecdotes and spread them around, thus crystallizing the image of the “wise men of Chelm.” Many stories and books have been written mocking the inhabitants of Chelm, the most famous one probably being by Yiddish writer and Nobel prize winner for literature Isaac Bashevis Singer. It is called “The Fools of Chelm and Their History.”

So, it becomes clear that the “Wise men of Chelm” are nothing but the result of literary license and the rivalry between different groups of Jewish intellectuals in Poland long ago. Yet this rivalry has yielded fun and entertaining literature for us, even today.

Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn is the spiritual leader of Temple Israel, Kansas City’s newest congregation.

Finally, Saudi Arabia and Israel have common ground for establishing a temporary strategic alliance similar in history to the one that existed during World War II between the Soviet Union and the Unites States against the Nazi regime. Both countries mistrust President Obama as a reliable ally as well as fear a future nuclear Iran.

Despite the major differences in values, and a history of enmity, it seems only rational that Saudi Arabia should seek the unthinkable and cooperate with the Jewish state in order to preserve its survival and political independence. Otherwise, the Saudis and the other Persian Gulf states will be the first victims of a nuclear Iran, without a capable, strong and reliable ally to come to their aid.

British Defense Secretary Liam Fox told the House of Commons in January that Iran may be capable of developing nuclear weapons by the end of 2012. By then the majority of U.S. and Western military forces will begin leaving the Middle East, and Israel will be the only remaining military power capable and motivated to militarily solve the Iranian problem. But Israel needs strategic cooperation from Saudi Arabia to succeed, including the right to fly over Saudi territory and emergency logistical support. Most importantly, Israel needs Saudi Arabia to delay any international or Arab plan to pressure Israel for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

While the world will be dangerously distracted and waste months on the Palestinian issue, Iran will be off the world radar and much closer to its goal.

The Saudis should be aware by now of the following truths:

First, Israeli leadership is more loyal to an Arab ally than President Obama. While Israel stood by President Mubarak, it took Obama three days to call for Mubarak, a long term U.S. friend, to leave office and to threaten him with cuts in foreign aid. It seems that Obama only confronts and abandons allies but prefers not to meddle in the internal revolts of enemies like Syria and Iran.

Second, continuing a state of war or a campaign of hatred and anti-Semitism against the Jewish state does not any longer guarantee an Arab regime’s political survival as witnessed by the revolts in Syria ,Libya and Yemen.

Third, Iran is the main danger to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states, not Israel, as the WikiLeaks cables revealed when King Abdulla of Saudi Arabia repeatedly implored Washington to “cut off the head of the snake (Iran) while there was still time.”

Fourth, Obama will never advocate a military solution against Iran as we saw during the last two years from his futile policy of engagement and economic sanctions. Only Israel has the will, the self-interest and the know how to stop the Iranian menace. Israel demolished the nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981 and a Syrian reactor in 2007. After the United States withdraws most of its armies from the Middle East, Obama’s ideology will negate the resending of U.S. troops to eliminate the Iranian threat.

Fifth, establishing a Palestinian state is not in the best interest of Saudi Arabia or Israel. As previously happened after Israel withdrew its military forces from Gaza in 2005, Hamas will be able to take over the new state by winning subsequent Palestinian elections, as it did in 2006, or by militarily defeating the PA, as it did in 2007. Such a state would become another Iranian base, threatening Israel but also destabilizing Jordan next door and circling the Saudis from the northwest.

Instead of considering initiatives to rally the Western Countries, including the United States against the International recognition of a Palestinian state, the Israeli prime minister should look into creating new alliances, even with traditional enemies. As the Arab proverb says, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Shoula Romano Horing was born and raised in Israel. She is an attorney in Kansas City and a national speaker. Her blog: www.shoularomanohoring.com.