One of our readers, Paul H., was kind enoug to send us a great message from Naomi Ragen, an Israeli who lives under the threat of daily Palestinian terrorism but keeps her head high. As Paul correctly points out, this great message puts things into perspective and is certainly worthwile to be published on FactsOfIsrael.com:

I am not the least afraid to go any place, by bus or to a mall. I didn't change or stop doing ANY thing I used to do before this mess began! People tend to forget that twice the casualties from terror get killed on the roads! More people still die from heart attack, cancer, and other things; they just don't show them on TV.

Don't understand me wrong, there is a war going on, it's not pleasant, but lets face it.. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!! It's only TV and media that make people think it's the end of the world coming. [...]

We have today a country, and an army, and a strong air force, and hi-tech economy, exporting millions, Intel-Microsoft-IBM develop their stuff here, our doctors win world prizes for medical developments, we made the desert flourish, selling oranges and vegetables to the world.

Israel has sent its own satellite!! In space (three satellites all together!!), we sit proudly with the U.S. (250 million people), Russia (200 million people!), China (1.1 billion), the Europeans -- France-England-Ge rmany (350 million), as the only countries in the world to shoot something into space!!

Israel's population is a bit over 6.5 Million (as you can see from the Stats page).

I particularly like her message since Naomi is a women - I find that many Arab readers go mad after seeing how free women are in Israel and how they stand up to the macho Palestinian terrorists. I copy below the rest of this inspiring message - thanks Paul.

Object: Something to cheer us, something to cheer you for Shabbat
Written by Naomi Ragen,
International writer, one tough lady, one tough nation, 5/11/2002

I am not the least afraid to go any place, by bus or to a mall. I didn't change or stop doing ANY thing I used to do before this mess began! People tend to forget that twice the casualties from terror get killed on the roads! More people still die from heart attack, cancer, and other things; they just don't show them on TV.

Don't understand me wrong, there is a war going on, it's not pleasant, but lets face it.. WE HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER!!!! It's only TV and media that make people think it's the end of the world coming.

Only 60 years ago!! They were leading Jews to their death like sheep to
the slaughter!

No country, no army. 55 years ago!!

Seven Arab countries declared war on the small Jewish state, only a few hours old!! We were then 650,000 Jews! Against the rest of the Arab world! No IDF, no mighty air force, just tough people with nowhere to go (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Saudi Arabia, attacked all at once).

The country the U.N. "gave us" was 65 % desert. The country started from scratch! 35 years ago!! We fought the three strongest armies in the Middle East, and wiped them out in six days. We fought against different coalitions of Arab countries, with modern armies, and masses of Russian soviet weapons, and still won!!!

We have today a country, and an army, and a strong air force, and hi-tech economy, exporting millions, Intel-Microsoft-IBM develop their stuff here, our doctors win world prizes for medical developments, we made the desert flourish, selling oranges and vegetables to the world.

Israel has sent its own satellite!! In space (three satellites all together!!), we sit proudly with the U.S. (250 million people), Russia (200 million people!), China (1.1 billion), the Europeans -- France-England-Ge rmany (350 million), as the only countries in the world to shoot something into space!!

Israel is today in the world nuclear power family with U.S, Russia, China, India, France, and England. (We don't admit it, but every one knows...)

To think that only 60 years ago, we were led, shameful, with no hope, to
our death!!

We crawled out of the burning ashes of Europe, we won our wars here with less than nothing in our hands, we built an "empire" out of nothing. Who the hell is Mr. Arafat to make me scared? Terrified? You make me laugh! Passover is coming, let's not forget what the story is all about. We overcame Pharoah, we overcame the Greeks, the Romans, the inquisition in Spain, we overcame the pogroms in Russia, we overcame Hitler, the Germans, the Holocaust, we overcame seven other Arab countries at once, we overcame Saddam.

Take it easy, folks, we will overcome these ones too.

No matter at what part of human history you try! to think of, for us, the Jewish people, our situation has never been better!!! So let's lift our heads high, and remember: any nation or culture that tried to mess around with us was destroyed to the ground - while we kept going!!! Egypt? Anyone know where their empire disappeared to? The Greeks? Alexander of Macedonia? The Romans? Anyone today speak Latin? The Church?

Anyone care about the Pope as more than a symbol? The Third Reich? Anyone heard any news about it lately?

And look at us, the nation from the Bible, from slavery in Egypt we are still here, speaking the same language!! Right here, right now.

The Arabs don't know it yet, but they will learn there is one God As long as we keep our identity, we are eternal.

So, sorry for not worrying, bitching, crying, or being scared, things are going o.k. here. They surely can go better, but still, don't fall for the media junk, they won't tell you that there are festivals going on, people keep on living, going out, seeing friends. Yes, our morale is low, so what? It's only because we weep for our dead while they enjoy the blood (and this is the same reason why, we will win, after all).

You can forward this e-mail (if you choose) to the whole of the Jewish community in the United States, and the world. They are part of our strength and it might help some of them to keep their head up high. ; tell them there is nothing to worry about. Tell them to think BIG and to see the whole picture.

"See you next year in Jerusalem."

Posted by David Melle
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