Do some good

Several people have emailed and left comments asking what they can do to help. 

First and foremost, if you are in Israel, the obvious thing to do is go find a mobile blood donation vehicle (or go to a hospital) and give blood.  The blood supply is almost always critically low, so there is never a bad time to do this.  You can donate every three months.

If you aren't in Israel, come.  I know there are better vacation destinations this time of year (even under the best of circumstance), but Israel's life blood is tourism.  Come to Tel Aviv or Jerusalem (or Eilat if you crave the sun) and show your solidarity in a safe, easy way.  Nothing demonstrates your unwavering support like showing up and supporting the local economy. 

Can't afford a fancy hotel?  Email me and I'll put you up with us or any of a hundred other friends (including some of your favorite bloggers) who would be happy to make you feel at home.  Really!

Another important task is to provide constant feedback to your elected representatives - no matter where you live - asking them to support Israel in any way possible.  No need to get into a long drawn-out discussion of issues or of wrong & right.  They know the issues.  What they don't know is how their constituency feels about the issues.

The rule of thumb that many elected officials use is that every call, email or letter they receive represents 1000 people who feel the same way but didn't bother to make contact.  Put that way, your short email or voice message can have a tremendous impact.  Get a few friends and family to write or call in and you have a groundswell of support for Israel.

Next, monitor your local media (e.g. newspapers, radio and television) and let them know you are there.  Let them know that you notice when they distort the news... and also tell them when they get it right.  The media is in the business of supplying a product.  They make no secret of their willingness to modify their product to suit their audience.  What you have to do is make sure they know that their audience is firmly pro-Israel.  Complaining to your newspaper does nothing.  Complaining to the people who produce the news does everything!

Last but not least, if you have the resources to make even a small contribution to one of the following organizations, please do so.  There are endless organizations that do good things, but the ones I've listed here have a proven track record of service along with a transparent financial stewardship that shows a very small overhead and the lion's share of the contributions going directly to benefit the end-user.  This is in no way a criticism of any other organization.  Feel free to recommend others in the comments.

So go do some good (and encourage your friends and family to do likewise):

Magen David Adom

Hatzolah

Zaka

Yad Sarah