Israel: Living It, Loving It

As you can see in the sidebar, Sarah just put up two icons, which she designed. Not only do they look awesome, but they convey perfectly one of the most important messages of the J-blogosphere - unity. These icons are apolitical, and are meant to bring us all together rather than create divisions and pointless arguments. Come on, we are the J-bloggers, after all - we can take care of pointless arguments on our own! ; ) Most importantly, however, I think they are a great reminder of why we are really here. Those of us, who live in Israel are not isolated from the rest of the Jewish world. We in Diaspora, do care, and do think of Israel, and Israelis, as a nation (not just the Land, but the nation!) all the time. And for those of us, who live in Israel, we should not fall victims to illusion that once you become an Israeli, you forget about being a Jew. Wherever we are, we are one nation. We have been separated through history, and wound up living in different parts of the world - but all those factors have not succeeded in breaking us, nor taking away our common identity. Israel, the symbol of our nationhood, stands strong, and whether you're religious or not, left-wing, right-wing, or somewhere in the middle, whether you're from Europe or the Middle East or the United States, you're all welcome there. And at the same time, whatever difficulties Israel experience, she is not alone. We're all here, ready to put aside our differences, the moment she needs our help. J-blogosphere may be small, but it's a growing success, helping us bring together Jews from all over the world, helping us communicate, introduce our individual views, and overcome those differences that have once appeared to be insurmontable challenges. Whatever may be the outcome of our debate, if nothing else, it reminds us of our common identity, and common purpose - and that's what counts. I think the icons Sarah designed are great reminders for us, especially during those times when our diffirences seem especially hard to overcome, our arguments especially frustrating, or we simply get stuck on some point and lose sight of the big picture. I hope that whoever you are, whatever denomination or political affiliation or geographic location or any other category you happen to belong in, you'll be reminded of our unity whenever you look at them... and remember that we are out there for each other. All of us. You can click on the icons to get to a link, if you wish to place them on your own blogs. (And thanks to all my fellow editors for developing the concept!)