Dear Posterity,



In the unlikely event that I will ever be buried with honor in Israel, I want to make something very clear: do not, under any circumstances, give, sell or exchange my gravesite into the ownership of a religious group that may have sprung up hundreds of years after my death and claimed that they somehow need that spot for their religious practices.



Sincerely,



Michelle




Well, I'm glad I said it. After all, you never know what might happen in the future and we must all be prepared. After all, even the gravesite of one of the most obviously Jewish men in history is not safe in Jewish hands these days. In the heretofore secret, now revealed, half-heartedly acknowledged, but still not denied, plans between the Vatican and the Israeli government, the world has learned of arrangements to sell off King David's Tomb, if not the entire Mt. Zion complex, to the Roman Catholic Church. After all, according to the City of Jerusalem, the place is being "underutilized." (Aren't most tombs "underutilized"?)



Right now, the place is home to a few yeshivas, some historical buildings, a tomb and a synagogue. Plans, although they have not been made public as of yet, could include a huge church complex, museums, hotels and, of course, concessions, concessions, concessions. And aren't concessions really what this is all about? There is no government in the world so good at offering concessions as Israel is.



We've already conceded the most holy of all Jewish sites, the Temple Mount, where Arabs pray daily toward Mecca, then the tomb of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs in Hevron, where Arabs will only let us enter with their permission a few days a year, then Jericho, where the Shalom Al Yisrael Synagogue has been turned over to the Palestinian Authority, torched and desecrated by Arabs, and off limits to Jewish worship, and the Tomb of Joseph, which was torched and destroyed by Arabs. Gaza is gone, and now they want to give away all the historic towns in Samaria and Judea, including the tomb of Rachel.



Almost every holy Jewish site has been given away - and now, according to documents, for a nice bribe and the "trade" of a stolen synagogue tuned into a Catholic Church in Toledo, Spain, the Israeli government wants to turn King David's final resting place into another concession from our government to those who have already taken too much from us.



If the government wants to trade with the Roman Catholics, how about we give them the opportunity to make amends for their horrific sins, in exchange for the holy Menorah and other Temple items, a list of all the Jewish children who were taken by Catholic families after the Holocaust and never returned, a monetary settlement to Israel in order to find, educate and reconnect Jews whose ancestors lived in Catholic lands and were forcibly converted, and a return of all the lands and fortunes of the Jews of Spain?



Please, Ariel Sharon, Moshe Katsav and the Kenesset, stop now while you can! We need to hold on to our religious places, our lands and our faith -- even at the expense of tourism! The legacy of the modern Jewish State is swiftly becoming the wholesale destruction, desecration and disassociation of every religious Jewish site left in Israel. At the rate you are moving, there will be nothing left in Israel for my children and grandchildren but an Israeli concessions stand - run by Arabs and Catholics.