Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Israel is the size of half of Lake Michigan

I inserted the map of Israel and placed it on top of Lake Michigan.

How big is Israel?

Look for Lake Michigan- upper right corner, and then look for Israel

Some facts about Israel

Israel is the only Democratic Country in the Middle East
Courtsy of WorldAtlas and GraphicMaps.com

We care about the Future because...

Ernest Partridge said ”The alleged need of a well-functioning person to care for the future beyond his own lifetime rests upon a more basic need that I will call "self transcendence." He asserts “ that we have sound personal and social, as well as moral, reasons to care about our impact upon the living conditions of both our contemporaries and of successor generations”.
If Patridge is right then John Donne spoke for all mankind when he wrote: "No man is an island, entire of itself." Thus we cannot regard our decisions and the values that we hold to be restricted to and isolated within our lifetimes.
In that context why do Americans- Jews and non-Jews care about Israel so much while others perceive Israel as an isolated problem so remotely located in the middle East.

Why do we care about the future?

We have always asked ourselves- Why do we care about the future when we have so much on our plates in the present. Why do I have to care about my children’s college tuition when they can fairly easy can get a student loan. Why do we have to bother about AIDES in Africa, and poverty in rural India when unemployment in the US is resting at 10% and millions of Americans live off food stamps. Why do we care about the environment, national parks, and forests. Well, we do it because we have moral and social obligation.