It was just a "throw-away' line at the end of an article, a "cute" quote the writer felt would end his story with a "zing." But the moment I saw it, my blood pressure went north.


The news story was about a brutal attack in Lakewood, New Jersey, that left an Orthodox Jew critically wounded. Lakewood is known as one of America's largest frum enclaves. It has a famous yeshiva, once headed by Rabbi Ahron Kotler, z.t.l., as well as a kollel that "exports" young yeshiva families to communities worldwide.


But Lakewood is also a "mixed" community, where Jews, Hispanics and Blacks rub up

Israel is gained only with m'sirat nefesh.

against each other, and where rising tensions have lately led to an increase in anti-Semitic incidents, including verbal abuse, threatening graffiti and physical confrontations. Yet, Lakewoodians, it would seem, are determined to stay in their little corner of Paradise. Which brings us to the parting shot offered by a local resident. "There are places in the world less safe than here," he reasoned, "like Israel, where people are blowing up buses."


That casual bon mot, a Meraglim-microcosm of Diaspora mentality, is what caught my eye - and my ire.


There is this constant sniping away at Israel, in ways both big and small, that will simply not go away. It takes on many forms: Western tourists (including the 70% of Americans who have never set foot in the Holy Land) bypassing Israel while flying to Turkey, Cyprus or Greece; Israeli government spokespeople, selling Bonds or pleading for funds, trying to convince the world just how needy we Israeli shekel-holders are; or average Yankels living in view of the former Twin Towers or King's Cross tube station bemoaning what a dangerous place Israel is.


But G-d and the Torah tend to differ. HaShem commands Avram to make aliyah with the famous phrase, "Lech lecha," which Rashi defines as "for your own good and for your own benefit." In other words, the best thing a Jew can do - lecha - for himself, socially, spiritually, financially and physically, is to fulfill the sacred mitzvah (yes, I said mitzvah) to live in the one and only Jewish land.


Does it mean Israel is risk-free? Of course not; Israel is gained only with m'sirat nefesh, pain and perseverance. But at the end of the day, the shekel will trump the almighty dollar, and Israel will prove the safest place to be.


Don't believe me? Then just ask the Jew of Worms, Seville, Warsaw... or tomorrow's Lakewood.