I believe it was late Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba who once upon a time said something like “let’s make peace with the Jews, because when there’s peace they’ll be killing each other.” His words were of course met with disparagement and laughter back then. After all, we are members of the chosen people; we’re the greatest. How can we destroy the Jewish state when we achieve peace, which is our greatest dream?

Bourguiba has been dead for a while now, but if he was resurrected he would probably say: I told you so! In January 2011, more than ever before, it seems that Israel has gone mad. Someone or something around here had gone wrong and crazy.

The first grave result of this is the tsunami of de-legitimization among the nations of the world. More and more states, and most certainly more and more communities within those states, are showing increasing doubt as to the necessity of the Jewish state’s existence. What used to be isolated voices in the past that did not dare float above the surface are now becoming cheekier and doubting Israel’s right to exist.

There will surely be many people around here who would say: Who’s even asking them? Who are they to rise up only two decades after the terrible Holocaust and doubt our right to exist? Others will count on God to help us. And here is our answer to them: The same God that did not help our grandfathers and grandmothers at the crematoria will not be helping us at times of distress today.

Losing American support

Yet the de-legitimization that is spreading through more and more countries is merely the first step en route to a much graver blow. This is the start, but one of these days, when military threats will abound, even the great America won’t be coming to our aid. Because there too the administration is becoming sick and tired of us; the same is true, and unbelievably so, for the great Jewish community in the US, without which our lives here would be unbearable.

The Israeli public, or at least those who do not believe that God will come to our rescue in no time, takes notice of the dangerous process that is only beginning now. I think this is the reason for the bad, sad winds that are enveloping many of us today; winds that threaten to topple our homes.

Nothing in the relationship between citizens and their State or between one person and another is the same as it was. People are more unfriendly than ever, they do not welcome others, and they do not compromise on anything. Ties between our political parties border on outright hostility, and the corruption that always existed around here is reaching new heights. Everyone around here is against everyone else, and we’re all against the world.

And so, with great joy we go back to singing our alternative national anthem, “The whole world is against us,” while breaking into dance. According to legend, the ruins of the city of Pompeii in Italy, which was buried under lava, were discovered in 1748, after almost 1,700 years, by some dancing couples.