Israel Safer Than USA, Immigrants Say

By Julie Stahl
CNSNews.com Jerusalem Bureau Chief
August 16, 2006

Ben Gurion Airport, Israel (CNSNews.com) - When war broke out in 
northern Israel last month, Marc and Miriam Gottlieb decided it 
would not deter them from fulfilling their lifelong dream of immigrating 
to Israel from America. In fact, Miriam said she thinks it's safer in 
Israel than it is in the U.S.A.

The Gottliebs and their four children, the youngest a baby, traveled 
to Israel on Wednesday on one of three specially chartered flights 
that brought more than 550 new immigrants to Israel from the 
U.S., Canada and England.

They've come despite in defiance of the current security situation.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened to wipe 
Israel off the map; Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah 
spent the last month firing some 4,000 missiles at northern Israel, 
and Syrian President Bashar Assad said future generations would 
find a way to defeat Israel. 

But such concerns seemed far away Wednesday as the new arrivals 
stepped off their planes.

The passengers were tired after the overnight flights but enthusiastic 
about their new home.

As the newcomers descended the steps of their planes - which 
arrived within an hour of each other -- loudspeakers played 
traditional Jewish and Israeli songs. 

Soldiers waving small Israeli flags lined the entrance to the 
airplane hanger, decorated with blue and white banners, as hundreds 
of Israelis waited eagerly behind a barricade to greet family and 
friends as they arrived.

"We are thrilled to be here," said Miriam. "We've been waiting and 
dreaming and planning forever and we're finally here...Where else 
should Jews bring up their children? This is the place [the Lord] 
planned for us. This is the place we planned for us. This is where 
we belong."

The Gottliebs are moving from Cedarhurst, New York, where Marc 
runs his own computer business, to the West Bank settlement 
of Neve Daniel, not far from Jerusalem. Marc is planning to develop 
his business here in Israel, said Miriam. 

She said she is not any more afraid to be here than she was in 
America. "In fact I think we're safer here." Even their families back 
in the States, she said, are "concerned for our safety but they 
would be in America and New York also, and they want us to 
stay safe wherever we are." 

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert welcomed the newcomers at 
a festive airport ceremony.

"We are not an easy country to live in. If you don't know it yet, 
you'll find out soon," Olmert said. Nevertheless, he said, this is 
the only home for the Jewish people.

"We offer you to share in the path of being Israelis, of living in 
Israel, of building this country and of facing all those who are 
challenging the existence of the State of Israel," said Olmert.

"When more than 500 Jews on this day come to the State of Israel, 
what they say to the world is 'We are afraid of no one because 
we trust in the State of Israel, we live in the future of Israel and 
we will build the state of Israel with all the Jewish people.'"

The flights were sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh -- an organization 
that extends financial assistance and practical help to North 
American (and recently British) Jews, who want to to make aliyah 
(immigrate to Israel).

Although Israel has an extensive infrastructure for absorbing 
immigrants - any Jew anywhere in the world may become a 
citizen of Israel - it is often harder for Jews from English-speaking 
countries to leave their comfortable lifestyles behind.

Co-founded in 2002 by Rabbi Joshua Fass and businessman 
Tony Gelbart, in response to the terrorist murder in Israel of a 
relative of Fass, Nefesh B'Nefesh is intended to help Americans 
and now others to overcome their various resettlement difficulties. 

By year's end, NBN, which works in conjunction with the 
semi-governmental Jewish Agency responsible for immigration, 
will have brought some 10,000 North American and British 
immigrants to Israel, the group says.

NBN spokesman Charlie Levine said the flights - particularly at 
this time -- send a message to the world.

"Just as other people were busy this week trying to blow 10 airliners 
out of the sky, we were busy this week...trying to bring people 
here to plant roots, to have peace, to have a better economy. 
That's our style, that's our character and we're very proud of it," 
said Levine who traveled on the plane from England.

Rather than discouraging people from coming, Levine said, 
the security situation has "strengthened everybody's resolve." 
Only about four families postponed their trip and no one cancelled, 
he said.

Indeed, the Gottliebs were not the only new arrivals who said 
they felt just as safe or safer here than in their home countries. 

After raising their nine children, Tzipora and Yonatan Sklar 
decided this was the right time to immigrate to Israel, regardless 
of the security situation.

"It's very clear that there's no security in the world and that 
people have to turn the Master of the Universe. That's the only 
way we're going to be able to have any kind of a Yeshua. 
In America you're not safe," said Tzipora.

"I've been trying to explain it to my [gentile] friends back in the 
United States," said Donna Metreger, 69, from Albuquerque, 
New Mexico, who came alone and was walking with the help of 
a cane. 

"At least you know who your enemy is [here]. With terrorists, 
you never know where they are or when they'll get you. So it really 
doesn't make any difference," she said.

More than a dozen baby strollers -- at least three of them double 
carriages -- were unloaded from the luggage compartment of the 
Canadian flight - the first to arrive -- before the passengers 
disembarked, hinting at the status of the new arrivals.

Noam and his wife Eleanor, both born in Israel but raised in 
Montreal, arrived with their four small children, including twin girls. 

"[We're] very excited to be here. This is our promised land. 
We trust in God. This is the safest place in the world," said Noam. 
They are going to live in the northern Israeli community of Sefat, 
which has been hard hit by rocket attacks during the last month 
but, they said, they will not be going there right away.

Canadian mom Maya Litman (and her husband Mel) said that 
after waiting 20 years to come to Israel, nothing would stop them 
from coming but she drew the line at bomb shelters.

"We decided a year and a half ago [to come], so we weren't going 
to change our plans," said Maya. "Nothing was going to defer 
[the trip]...I just wanted to stay far away from the north, that's all. 
My only criteria was that the children shouldn't go into a bomb 
shelter. Other than that I was fine with everything. This is Israel -- 
you've got to take what you get."

Last week, Maya said, they altered their plans and are moving 
closer to the southern Israeli city of Beersheba, well out of range 
of Hizballah's rocket fire, instead of the northern Israeli city of 
Ma'alot, which has been under rocket attack. "I have two leases 
on two homes now," she said. 

Mark Weinberg, 31, who disembarked from the plane from England 
with his 2-1/2 year old daughter Yona -- but temporarily without 
his very pregnant wife Natalie -- summed up his reasons for 
coming: "In this time it's quite emotional but in the end Jewish 
history is played out in Israel. Outside of the Land, we're just in 
the audience. Here we're in the show."