On this sign, unlike any of the others in the zoo which display Hebrew, English and Arabic, this sign had Hebrew and Arabic in the center, English on the side, and under them all, a brief Yiddish exclamation - "Dos is nisht a chazir." This is not a pig!! One can chuckle at a sign like that, and say "Only in Israel! Or you can ask yourself what that sign actually reveals about Israeli society.

This past Shabbat, when good friends of ours came over for lunch, we caught up with their daughter, now an officer in the IDF's Education Corps. She's working with the most problematic soldiers - kids without high-school diplomas from broken and impoverished homes, kids with a history of violence, young men for whom the army may be the last chance to fashion a life of some worth. One day, she tells us, she's speaking to them about Zionism, and one of them asks her, "How do you know so much about Zionism? Are you a new immigrant?" We all chuckled at the naivete. What, only a new immigrant (which she's not) can know something about Zionism? That's kind of funny. But the laughter dissipated ...

While Israel's decision to defend the citizens of its uncontested, sovereign territory was long overdue, the predictable international condemnation of Operation Cast Lead was virtually immediate. Israel ought to ignore most of it, for despite protestations to the contrary, it comes from people who would just as soon see the Jewish State eroded to the point of indefensibility. But what about those, particularly Jews, who level criticism yet clearly do not wish to see Israel destroyed? So far, most Jews abroad have been supportive. But as Palestinian civilian casualties mount or Israel makes concessions when the conflict abates, Diaspora Jews - and primarily American Jews - are likely to voice opposition, both from the Left and from the rRght. Which leads to that oft-discussed and ...

We didn’t mean to, but we lied to our kids. Almost ten years ago, shortly after we made aliyah, we were sitting with our three young children having dinner. One of the boys, still getting used to the idea that his life was going to be very different in Israel, looked up from his food, and asked out of nowhere, “Is Israel still going to have an army when I’m eighteen?” He was scared. But we knew that he had no reason to be. “Yes, there’ll be an army,” we told him. “But there’s going to be peace by then. By the time you’re eighteen, everything’s going to be different. You’ll see.” I still remember how certain we were, and how relieved he looked. A couple of ...

By pure coincidence, I happened to be in my old Los Angeles neighborhood on Election Day, and like many others, I found the extraordinary power of that day difficult to articulate. At the polling places in which I'd often voted, but had never waited in line, there were lines around the block. Friends who had voted regularly with no more than a mild sense of civic duty now spoke of participating in a moment that - whether they themselves had voted for Obama or McCain - they'd long remember and would tell their grandchildren about. For me, the tears that flowed in Chicago's Grant Park that night were beyond moving. One need neither forgive nor forget Jesse Jackson's abhorrent comments about Jews and Israel to ...

For me, July is the cruelest month. Maybe it's because it's always hotter than I remember. Or the fact that at my age, birthdays feel more ominous than fun. Or maybe I'm just jealous of my kids - they're on vacation while I trudge off to the office each morning. Who knows? A few years ago, my wife took up bird watching. She trolled the relevant Web sites, eventually got the right kind of binoculars and bought a book with all the pictures of the various birds, in which she meticulously writes down which ones she's seen, where and when. She knows the places to go for the best sightings; she's been known to get up at an ungodly hour to go stare at ...