Jewish Tradition is filled with images of love. God is often depicted as the bridegroom and the Children of Israel as the bride. Those who wear tefillin at morning prayers betroth themselves to God as they wind on the leather straps. When the Shema is recited we affirm the idea that we are to love God, and act like it. Each week as the sun sets on Friday night, we are urged to dress in white and greet the bride, Shabbat.

But love is not always an easy path. In contrast to the sentiments expressed in the movie "Love Story," love really means constantly having to say you’re sorry. Those closest to us are those most easily able to hurt us, and those we are most easily able to hurt in return. And, since we care about them the most, they are the ones we wish we had never hurt. Love, like the best friendships, also means that we accept the other in spite of, and sometimes because of, their faults.

So it is that I love Israel. I love the softness of the air in Jerusalem. I love the sense of history, my history, our history, that flows over me and through me when I walk on her soil. I love the fact that Israel lives in concert with the cycle of Jewish Tradition. She is the only country in the entire world to do so. And, there is more: Shortly after she came into being, the story is told of a narrow sidewalk and a very wide Jewish man. He was plodding along very slowly on that sidewalk and blocking it as he did so. Impatient with the pace and unable to get around him, someone said, "Can’t you move a little faster or get out of the way?" He responded, "I am a Jew and this is my country, I can walk as slowly as I want."

Here in the seeming security and acceptance of America it is easy to forget that just 60 years ago there were places where Jews were expected to get off the sidewalk into the gutter (far dirtier than ours) to let non-Jews pass unimpeded. Even in America, there were areas where Jews were not allowed to buy houses, join country clubs, and were subject to quotas for admission to medical school and law schools. It is easy to forget that in the face of the attempted Nazi genocide, even this country turned away Jews. I have relatives in Brazil because as they tried to flee certain death in Europe, America shunned them.
In the aftermath of the Holocaust, the world came to understand that Jews could no longer be treated as nonentities in the countries they lived in. We had paid a terrible price and in so doing had earned a place to call our own. In a Solomonic attempt to solve the issue, the Land of Israel was cut into four sections by the United Nations in the first attempt at a two state solution. Let us not forget that we Jews accepted that solution, and the other side did not, forcing war upon us when we desired peace. Let us not forget that the "Law of Return" exists in Israel as a safety net for us and for persecuted Jews throughout the world. Let us not forget that that law was crafted on the Nuremberg laws of 1934 that defined who was a Jew, and ultimately who would live and who would die.

I love Israel. I do not love everything she does, but she is the only Jewish state in the world. The New York Times reported that the world court has been asked to investigate the possibility that war crimes were committed by Israel during the recent Gaza conflict. There are many questions about the jurisdiction of the court in this case, let alone the validity of the charges. Nearly lost in the article was the statement that if such an investigation were undertaken, it would also have to charge Hamas, the Government of Gaza, with the war crime of deliberately targeting Israeli civilians with their rockets.

As we mourn the loss of Bessan Abuelaish, alumnus of the Creativity for Peace Camp, who was tragically killed along with her two siblings, as we come to terms with the destruction in Gaza, let us not forget the Jews of S’derot forced to live in bomb shelters. Let us not forget that the world as a whole has not recanted the decision that Israel has a right to exist. Let us remember that it is Hamas which refuses to acknowledge that right and seeks the destruction of the State of Israel. Let us not forget that that destruction means the killing of our brothers and sisters who have no other place to live.

Israel is not perfect. In ways that are constructive, we should seek to perfect her even as we seek to heal the faults of this country. Yet, as we critique Israel, let us be evenhanded, and let us not forget the lessons of history.