We had this thread once before, but its been quite a few years. The whole situation completely disgusts me (yes, I am Jewish, and my parents have lived in Israel, and my grandparents were Holocaust survivors).
OP. Have your backyard and your mall if its more important to you than peace… enjoy it. I don’t think you’re crazy. Just incredibly, and perhaps fatally, selfish.
I wouldn’t be happy,but it’s a bit different for us as we’re renting an apartment; we don’t own a house or apartment here. I imagine it would be quite different if we bought or built a house.
It used to be cheaper to buy a home here, but prices have gone up. They are still not as high as they are in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. There are no financial incentives that I know of to live over the green line. The public transportation is partially subsidized by the government, so it’s cheaper to take buses from out here into the cities.
We actually have dual citizenship. We vote in American elections as well as Israeli elections.
Because as Orthodox Jews, we feel we belong in Israel. It felt hypocritical, to me, to pray every day about returning to Israel without doing it. This is where we belong. We feel the quality of life is better here. I can go by my Hebrew name, and everyone can pronounce it and knows what it means. We live by a Hebrew calendar here, so we don’t worry about working on Shabbat or holidays. My kids are bilingual, and have much more freedom here than the could have in the U.S.
The media seems to have deemed everyone living over the green line a settler. This is just how it is.
That does not necessarily mean you are crazy . . . The determining factor is, is your yishuv east or west of the Wall? If it is to the east, you probably are . . . if not crazy, then lacking in foresight. Every Israeli east of the Wall probably will be forced to evacuate eventually.
OK, it’s a religious thing. I didn’t know that part about praying to go back to Israel. I take it that it’s more of a long term goal, considering that not everybody has packed up and gone.
Perhaps because according to Israeli law - at the moment, the law of the land - she is not violating any law. If any law was broken, it was by the Israeli government for allowing the settlements to be established, not by the settlers for taking them up on their offer.
(I’m not a fan of the settler movement, to say the least, but I object to people being called criminals before they have been tried and convicted before a court of law).
To the OP: would you consider yourself less Zionist if, instead of living in the Territories, you had immigrated to, say, Haifa or Rishon Letzion?