Recently, while in Atlanta for a class reunion - the number of which you could pull my fingernails out and I would not divulge - I think I found the answer to what causes the lack of interest among my fellow Jews. It is, I think, a matter of apathy. People just do not care anymore.



The priorities have changed. My dad came out of the service in the Second World War and knew he had to finish school and get into a business to raise a family. Today, we are lazy and without a clue about the subjects that make a real difference. It is all about the mere acquisition of things, seeing all there is to see, buying a bigger, better car or watching sports on television.



I think that maybe it is because life has turned into a series of sound bytes. That, and the fact that so much of the population has 'dumbed down'. I speak to a lot of Christian radio and Church groups. They may mean well, but for the most part, they have no conception of what the map of Israel even looks like. When I speak of the "new Palestinian State" that the world is pushing for in Gaza and ask how many of them even know how big this fictional country is going to be, usually all I receive are blank stares.



They are always amazed when I say that Gaza is about eight miles by twenty-four miles. Good heavens, we have shopping centers that size! Disneyland's manicured grounds are about that much just to walk around! I have decided that for the most part, the majority of the population has no concept of the Middle East, or of the mindset that is so savage and barbaric that bombings, murder, mayhem and beheadings are a way of life. We just do not want to deal with it.



While on the Christian programs, I have been asked, "Why doesn't the 'Hollywood crowd' support Israel?" Until recently, I just thought that we are, for the most part, so assimilated that the Jews of the West Coast can tell you everything about their trophy wives' (usually Asian or very, very blonde) hobbies, the latest gadgets or cosmetic surgery, but events like Passover can come and go and it doesn't make an impression. Even Israelis living here do not make an effort to inconvenience themselves and march in a rally or really work for an organization like the 'old days'. For the most part, they will write a check and think they have done their obligation.



I, as a journalist, have been somewhat consumed by the events in Israel and the madness of the Islamic and Islamist culture that seems to be taking over the world as we know it. The fear of losing our civilization and lives to a barbaric and evil identity is, to some of us, not only real, but also marching over the hill. Yet, our media focus on moronic events and too many of us are consumed with the daily happenings of Michael Jackson or Scott Peterson, instead of concern for the thousands of other people being killed by Muslim jihadists, or the countries that are being taken over by Islamic law and wars. People, for the most part, just do not care or notice. The world could be crashing down and all our politically correct population notices is whether Britney Spears is pregnant or what's the latest on why Brad and Jen really broke up.



We have mastered the Orwellian talent of double-speak. Love is hate and hate is love. Hey, even I, who once considered herself well-versed in political issues, am confused. We are weary of watching our soldiers sent home in body bags from a barbaric country whose culture still treats their women like farm animals and has no concept of what democracy means. Nor do they ever intend to. Wouldn't matter anyway, as their interpretation will bear no resemblance to our own. Yet, somehow we, as a nation, still want to hold on to the belief that the trashing of our way of life as we know it in defense of this violent culture has a reason behind it that's going to be positive.



As a journalist, I am confused as to what happens to Israel's leaders ten minutes after they take office and follow our presidents like puppy dogs. Israel is not the fifty-first state! Nor is it a banana republic, which has to kowtow to any leaders when they snap their fingers! We are too bored and apathetic. We have gotten used to the beheadings and horrific sights sent to us via the glory of Allah. Maybe, though, before we all smell the blood of jihad on our own shores on a regular basis, maybe it is time to smell the coffee?