#Jewish motto: better fled than dead

[hero-israel]

The most sensible reasons to move to Israel are:

Deep, meaningful connection to that land, feeling like an empty unfillable gap wherever else one is

Realistic imminent threat to safety / life

Many Americans in particular who make aliyah are unpleasantly surprised by the cost of living in Israel. Right now the economy is weaker than it has been in many years due to wartime drag - plus, there is the war itself.

It's a major step and anyone making it needs to go in absolutely clear-headed. Is Israel your heart? Is your immediate environment becoming immediately unsafe? Or is this 12-hours-after-the-vote-call panic?

By all means, learn more about the process. It may be right for you, and if you go, you take my blessings and well-wishes for a long and happy life there. Depending on how far and how fast America sinks, maybe someday your new neighbor will be me.

The absolute LAST reason I would ever recommend moving to Israel is with the intention of voting out Netanyahu, simply because Israeli politics are much more complicated than Americans are used to and Netanyahu is very very good at building coalitions and staying in power. I'm as disappointed in that as most Israelis and most diaspora Jews but we need to face reality. In Israel you would be able to be politically involved without fear of being excluded due to your Jewishness - and if there was ever a crime aimed your way because you were Jewish, you would be reasonably assured that the government, the military, would take your side. That is the most I think it is reasonable to hope for.

I for one am not making any moves to leave America. Now. Our standard of living is hard to beat, everyone I know is here, I like the food, the weather, and I am privileged enough to live somewhere reasonably safe.

Watch the police, the courts, the security apparatus. If they continue acting like violence against Jews is a crime, I say stay. If they start to act like Ivy League campus security guards, tacitly accepting violence against you - or worse - then it may well be time to go.