Tuesday afternoon I finally made it to the Amona vigil outside the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem. When I first arrived there was a crowd of young American teens there, who are probably on some study program. Many were wearing T-shirts from the "lone soldiers" centr and others with a picture of Donald Trump.While I was there, lots of drivers honked their cars horns, the traditional show of support.
There was just a small group of Amona protesters sitting quietly, understandably depressed. I introduced myself to one of the women and mentioned that I can see the hill that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Education and head of the Jewish Home Party had promised them. I had really been wondering if they were sincere in wanting to build a new Amona in the Shiloh area.
When I made a joke about the weather being much nicer east of Shiloh than in Ofra, I got a sincere response that Amona had suffered much more difficult winters than even Ofra. Permanent homes in a more moderate climate definitely sounded good to that tired young woman.
We also "joked" about the "interchangeability" of Bibi and Bennett. The only real difference being that one has hair, while the other is bald with a tiny kippah.
In addition we discussed the complete lack of true leaders in Israel. Neither of us trust any of the political parties to do any better than the mess going on at present here. This yearning for approval of foreign leaders is only weakening us further. Yes, it's all very depressing. How could the State of Israel have deteriorated from a King David giant-killer in 1948/1967 to a cowering terrified Mordechai begging his niece Ester to find a solution to the dangers against the Jewish People from her place in King Achashverosh's Harem in such a short time?
Gd willing our political leaders will become true national leaders speedily in our day...