I live in Yerushalayim, right on the border with East Jerusalem. There’s an ever present risk here but isn’t anywhere in the world that’s safer than here. I won’t pretend like I don’t feel more anxious here than I do in the USA, but I do know that Israel has a shemira on it and I’m not any safer anywhere else.
A couple of years ago, during the knife intifada, I was talking to a secular Israeli. He asked me why I live here, being as it’s so dangerous. I told him that I feel like my neshama can only survive here. He told me that his brother lives in Houston because he thinks Israeli isn’t safe. I told him that if Hashem wants to get me, he can get me here or there. It’s not like God won’t find me in America. As if to prove my point, within that week, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston.
Whether he’s your icon or not, here’s a quote from none other than David Ben-Gurion. He said, “In Israel, in order to be a realist you must believe in miracles.” It seems like Ben-Gurion was a bigger maamin than some of the posters here.