‘Flood the pages’

‘Flood the pages’

Remember the nerdy kid back in public school? The one everyone picked on? You know, the kid they would hang a sign on his back that said “Kick Me” and everyone would push him around.

For too long the world has thought of the Jews, collectively, as that kid. We walked around as a group with a “Kick Me” sign hanging on our backs. As long as they were able to kick us, there was no problem.

But when we grew up and began to fight back, they didn’t know what to do. If they tried to hang the sign and kick us and we punched them in the mouth, they cried that retaliation was not in proportion to their offense. If we saw them coming and took precautions to prevent their abuse, we were brought to the principal’s office and punished.

That’s exactly what is happening in the world today, not only with Israel, but with all Jews. In the early days of the Arab-Israeli conflict we not only had the high road, but we held the public relations offensive as well. Somehow we slipped and let them hang the “Kick Me” sign on our backs again.

When Hamas sends in a flurry of rockets, that news makes a paragraph or two buried somewhere in the back of the newspaper. But should Israel fight back, it is all over the journalistic sphere.

It is up to the rest of us to ensure that Israel survives. It needs more than financial support. It desperately needs moral support. That means every Jew must make a public statement. Write to newspapers’ opinion and letters sections and express outrage at their coverage and slant toward the Palestinians; express outrage about the lack of coverage of the Hamas rocket attacks and the onus placed on Israel; express outrage at the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit.

Every newspaper’s editorial page carries both a physical address and an e-mail address to which letters may be sent. Urge friends and relatives to write as well. Flood the pages with pro-Israel sentiment. If we sit quietly Israel will become a fond memory – and Jews will once again wear a sign that says “Kick Me.”

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