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Last update - 00:00 01/09/2008
Bradley Burston / Hurricane Mahmoud
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Bradley Burston, I srael News 

Click here for more from Bradley Burston

As a small boy, I was fascinated by fallout shelters. I wanted my dad to bury one in the backyard. It was the Cold War then, Soviet missiles were pointed toward New York, and I scoured Popular Science and Mechanix Illustrated for plans to Build Your Own Shelter. I wasn't thinking nuclear holocaust. I was thinking an underground playhouse with a cool vertical escape hatch, part kids' fort, part mockup space capsule.

The memory came back to me this weekend, watching with growing horror as Hurricane Gustav locked onto a storm track bound for New Orleans. Our family just visited New Orleans. We were enchanted, of course. But we were also fascinated, and not a little bewildered, by the extent to which the place felt like home. Like Israel.
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What was it, I kept wondering, that felt so familiar?

My first thoughts, watching the mammoth fireball radar image of Gustav as it neared the coast, were about the terror and the dread and the hardships and upheavals of the evacuees in New Orleans, only recently having begun to reclaim their lives from the devastation of Katrina.

Then I began to think about our own disaster plans. Back here in Israel. About making sure that the suitcase of family photo albums was ready in case we suddenly need to evacuate. About making sure that the bomb shelter in the basement was ready and freshly stocked in case we needed abruptly to take cover.

On paper, how could two places be any more different? But after speaking with people who lived there, it started to make sense.

At root, in Israel as in New Orleans, there is a palpable sense of simchat hayim, a profound joy in being alive, alongside a constant and no less palpable knowledge that serial, unimaginable catastrophe is not only possible, but inevitable.

There is, regarding government in both places, an assumption of corruption, a habituation to ineptitude, a feeling that the very officials whose job is to serve you and protect you, will, when the chips are down, fail you.

There is also the sense, in New Orleans vis a vis the rest of the United States, and in Israel, vis a vis the rest of the Jewish world, that while your people elsewhere truly love you, when push comes to shove, you're on your own.

True, we have no hurricanes here. But we have Iran. And that's more than enough.

The Iran of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has become Israel's hurricane threat, the serial menace who orders his vassals in the West Bank to send us suicide bombers, his vassals in the Gaza Strip to send us Qassams, his vassals in Lebanon to send us Katyushas, his vassals over the next ridge from our house to try to burn us out in an arson fire.

In the back of our minds is Hurricane Mahmoud at Category 5: drawing strength from the warm waters of radical Islam and western inaction and covert western complicity and demonstrated western weakness, the Iranian regime unleashes ballistic missiles tipped with nuclear warheads.

In the back of our minds, shadowing our future, is the threat that Hurricane Mahmoud has made explicit: erasure from this earth.

In the back of our minds is the knowledge and the half-security, half-fear, that when it comes down to it, your friends and family are the only people you can really count on.

The sense, is, of course, exaggerated by isolation and accustomed threat, two elements which make the culture, the history, the very language of New Orleans - and, no less, that of Israel - unique in all the world.

But exaggerated it certainly is, because the feeling is offset, in the end, by great numbers of people of good will, without whose help, both places would long ago have been lost.

In that regard, I would like to take this opportunity to compliment John McCain on an entirely appropriate and morally courageous declaration which put the energy and resources of the Republican Party in the service of aiding the residents of the four-state area at the center of the storm track.

"We have to go from a party event to a call to the nation for action, action to help our fellow citizens in this time of tragedy and disaster, action in the form of volunteering, donations, reaching out our hands and our hearts and our wallets to the people who are under such great threat from this great natural disaster.

"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans not Republicans, because America needs us now, no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat."

I would like to also compliment Barack Obama for pledging to use his e-mail list of supporters to raise funds and provide goods for those affected by the storm.

May the good times soon roll again.


Previous blogs:

What really scares us about Barack Obama
Ten Mideast traps for Barack Obama to avoid
The pleasure that Hezbollah takes in torture
Experiment: People's Peace Plan Number 1
Fear of calling a terrorist a terrorist
Palestinian terrorism as a natural act
How would Jesus vote on Mideast peace?
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Venezuela's Jews
Jewish community head: 'Chavez's government endorses anti-Semitism.'
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WATCH: Israeli company invents radiation-free lung imaging system.
  1.   CATEGORY 5 WILL DESTROY WASHINGTON DC 15:01  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  2.   Israel, not Iran, gavie birth to Hizbollah and Hamas 15:12  |  Natallie Durson 01/09/08
  3.   Mr. Burston.....it is what Americans do 15:28  |  Lynn 01/09/08
  4.   indrajaya & gNatallie Durson 15:30  |  Akiva P 01/09/08
  5.   And what is cutie Burston going to do about it? 15:31  |  Absolute Sweden 01/09/08
  6.   Indrajaya #1 I`m sorry for you, but you need treatment 15:45  |  S 01/09/08
  7.   ...and Laius gave birth to Edipus, and Zeus to Athena... 15:51  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  8.   hurricane...huh...? 15:53  |  ravi 01/09/08
  9.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 15:55  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  10.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 16:05  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  11.   # 6, S (WHAT KIND OF NAME IS THIS) 16:09  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  12.   ...and from Adam`s rib woman was created... 16:12  |  Israeli citizen 01/09/08
  13.   to indrajaya, and to natallie 16:29  |  albert paul ortiz 01/09/08
  14.   Natalie - It must be nice to blame Israel for everything 16:32  |  ERSB 01/09/08
  15.   # 13, ALBERT PAUL ORTIZ 16:42  |  indrajaya 01/09/08
  16.   ERSB - reply to your ramblings 17:09  |  Natallie Durson 01/09/08
  17.   Right on Bradley 18:28  |  Bitin Dawg 01/09/08
  18.   Depraved head winds 18:42  |  allang 01/09/08
  19.   Hurricane Season is open for all. 18:57  |  Stephen 01/09/08
  20.   Nuttalie - wrong again 19:04  |  ERSB 01/09/08
  21.   Bradley It`s Your Call 19:53  |  Yosemite 01/09/08
  22.   Natalie 20:06  |  Yosemite 01/09/08
  23.   Genesis of Shi`a Islam 20:12  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 01/09/08
  24.   Bradley you have surpassed yourself in idiocy! 23:14  |  lakshmi 01/09/08
  25.   How could a third- world state pose a threat to a formidable 23:15  |  American 01/09/08
  26.   Gustav Overrated, Ahmadinijad Too 23:58  |  Mark of Lewiston 01/09/08
  27.   indrajaya 1 00:26  |  Chris 02/09/08
  28.   #15 - Indrajaya 00:56  |  Deborah 02/09/08
  29.   #8 Ravi, you sound like rational person 01:18  |  Bruce 02/09/08
  30.   Everyone should have a `go bag` packed and ready. 02:03  |  Maureen Ann 02/09/08
  31.   # 15, CHRIS 05:14  |  indrajaya 02/09/08
  32.   Indrajaya - Have you been drinking? 05:39  |  MIKE 02/09/08
  33.   How to lessen the missile threat on Israel 06:00  |  John Isenhower 02/09/08
  34.   To #26.So which is the better outcome, of Katrina or Gustav? 08:29  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 02/09/08
  35.   Indrajaya #11 complaining of my name S 09:04  |  S 02/09/08
  36.   Part 3. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 09:26  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  37.   Part 1. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 10:54  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  38.   Part 2. It is the time Hurricane Shiites threaten hurricane Sunni 10:55  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 02/09/08
  39.   Hurricane Mahmoud 12:30  |  Ralph 02/09/08
  40.   Indrajaya # 15: Can you respect other`s faith? 12:34  |  Jan Vlaming 02/09/08
  41.   wow 12:38  |  saseen 02/09/08
  42.   As if the Palestinians suddenly ... 13:33  |  Edith 02/09/08
  43.   Hey Professor #36,37,38 e.m Jordan is Palse! 14:14  |  Mahdi 02/09/08
  44.   ERSB #14 some points 14:22  |  examiner 02/09/08
  45.   to ERSB #14 - ill-informed (2nd try) 15:44  |  zeev 02/09/08
  46.   To #43 Mahdi (you’re back?), what do you say to Amil Imani? 16:04  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 02/09/08
  47.   woulda, coulda, shoulda, but..... 16:07  |  PL 02/09/08
  48.   # 42 Edith...if the Pals in Lebanon are "perfectly 16:30  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  49.   Mahmous is a hurricane that keeps gaining power. 16:33  |  Aounist 02/09/08
  50.   Madhi - you are brainwashed 16:44  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  51.   Hamadan 17:06  |  . 02/09/08
  52.   Indy # 11 17:22  |  Rozz 02/09/08
  53.   # 49 Aounist......... Gaining power? LOL!!! 17:26  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  54.   # 15 Indy....we citizens of the world kindly ask 17:29  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  55.   to Lynn #48 17:33  |  zeev 02/09/08
  56.   The winds of relgious fundamentalism 18:00  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  57.   Poor Natalie is dellusional #2, I dare Natalie to read this post 18:03  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  58.   The wind of tolerance 18:21  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  59.   Restore your WETLANDS !!! NOW !!! 18:22  |  Iranian-American 02/09/08
  60.   Lynn, kindly asking? 18:23  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  61.   #56 Anonymous, you forget the most dangerous fundamentalists 18:29  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  62.   The muslim countries can end up more totalitarian and intolerant 18:39  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  63.   Why fear evangelicals? 18:40  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  64.   American evangelicals have many views 18:43  |  Anonymous 02/09/08
  65.   Mark B. American fundamentalists blew up the twin towers? 18:44  |  x-ray 02/09/08
  66.   To #60 - on false pretences (WMD)? 18:51  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 02/09/08
  67.   Mark B.#60 `forcibly asking`? 18:58  |  Roo 02/09/08
  68.   Anonymous, it´s the old colonial reason you give 19:00  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  69.   #66 Mladen Andrijasevic 19:03  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  70.   x-ray #65 19:08  |  gamma 02/09/08
  71.   #65 x-ray, twisting my words? 19:14  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  72.   To Indy so now that it says in Quran respect Israel when will you 19:26  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  73.   49 Aounist, you make my day! 20:27  |  lakshmi 02/09/08
  74.   Solution: Move back to New York 21:11  |  Ahimaaz 02/09/08
  75.   #72 Say Big Sur 21:14  |  ballistic 02/09/08
  76.   #57 Big Sur, you were lucky to get that! 21:30  |  ballistic 02/09/08
  77.   to Big Sur #57 - delusional 21:51  |  zeev 02/09/08
  78.   Dear Mr.Burston.Well I just read a few,and I am Off.Don`t you?? 22:21  |  KATHY 02/09/08
  79.   #75 another candidate for the loony bin oposts on haaretz 22:31  |  vhardman 02/09/08
  80.   Its always the arabs fault! 23 muslim terror states one Israel! 22:45  |  Avram 02/09/08
  81.   # 60 Mark B....yes, kindly asking 22:54  |  Lynn 02/09/08
  82.   #77 Zeev. IAM A TRUE ZIONIST, I BELIEVE IN ISRAEL 23:06  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  83.   to Ballistic and all her posts Haaretz won`t allow my post to u 23:22  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  84.   #70 V Hardiman, I have noticed that, appreciate your imput 23:26  |  Big Sur 02/09/08
  85.   #81 Lynn 23:29  |  Mark B. 02/09/08
  86.   and if left alone; ahmadinejad will amount to same as gustav 23:35  |  eric 02/09/08
  87.   and if left alone; ahmadinejad will amount to same as gustav 23:35  |  eric 02/09/08
  88.   to Big Sur #82 00:00  |  zeev 03/09/08
  89.   The winds of radical Zionism blew all the way to Georgia! 01:36  |  Maureen Ann 03/09/08
  90.   #89, MAUREEN ANN, i beg to differ 02:49  |  VIPER 03/09/08
  91.   60#Mark B.: I kindly asking: Isn`t all the fault of the Koran 04:05  |  Akram Zekaria 03/09/08
  92.   Big Difference...... 04:27  |  Gray 03/09/08
  93.   To #53 Lynn: Iran pays Hezbollah only 0.1% of their oil revenue 05:11  |  Aounist 03/09/08
  94.   #30, #89 Maureen Ann 05:28  |  Bruce 03/09/08
  95.   #94 Bruce. Your ancestors... 06:03  |  Maureen Ann 03/09/08
  96.   Faith in Almighty 09:14  |  mitch 03/09/08
  97.   #91 Akram Zekaria. I kindly responding-clean out your own house 10:57  |  Uriah Heep 03/09/08
  98.   eric #86-7 Lots of us hope what you`re saying so humorously! 12:18  |  S 03/09/08
  99.   #91 Akram Zekaria. I kindly responding-clean out your own house 12:49  |  Uriah Heep 03/09/08
  100.   What do Israelis and Iranians have in common? 17:28  |  christoph 03/09/08
  101.   Another Professor:Mladen Andrijasevic#46 17:29  |  Mahdi 03/09/08
  102.   Dear Anonymous #50 #62 17:57  |  Mahdi 03/09/08
  103.   to mitch #96 - some questions 18:59  |  zeev 03/09/08
  104.   PS: commemorating traumatic events 19:55  |  christoph 03/09/08
  105.   To 101 Mahdi - Perhaps you may answer a question? 21:41  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 03/09/08
  106.   Maureen Ann, What so hegemonic about America? 05:37  |  Bruce 04/09/08
  107.   to Mladen Andrijasevic #105 08:21  |  zeev 04/09/08
  108.   Re;Ayet Allah Mahdi #43 keep dreaming 11:10  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 04/09/08
  109.   RE;Mahdi . Keep dreamining 11:31  |  e.m Jordan is Palse 04/09/08
  110.   to 107, zeev, - 3 `No`s of Khartoum 13:38  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 04/09/08
  111.   99# Uriah Heep. The Koran speaks for itself !! 03:09  |  Akram Zekaria 05/09/08
  112.   97# Uriah Heep. The house is clean & the entire 03:37  |  Akram Zekaria 05/09/08
  113.   Specially for Uriah Heep. 07:58  |  Akram Zekaria 05/09/08
  114.   to Mladen Andrijasevic #110 09:14  |  zeev 05/09/08
  115.   To zeev #114 How about reading a few dozen books? 13:53  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 05/09/08
  116.   Akram Zekaria 16:18  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  117.   Akram Zekaria 2 16:44  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  118.   to M. Andrijasevic #115 (2) 17:26  |  zeev 05/09/08
  119.   Akram Zekaria 18:57  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  120.   Akram Zekaria 2 18:57  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  121.   Akram Zekaria Final 19:00  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  122.   to M. Andrijasevic #115 - part 1 (2nd try) 20:41  |  zeev 05/09/08
  123.   to M. Andrijasevic #115 - part 2 (2nd try) 20:42  |  zeev 05/09/08
  124.   Akram Zekaria 1 22:12  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  125.   Akram Zekaria 2 22:14  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  126.   Akram Zekaria Final 22:15  |  Uriah Heep 05/09/08
  127.   Akram Zekaria 1 00:39  |  Uriah Heep 06/09/08
  128.   Akram Zekaria 2 00:40  |  Uriah Heep 06/09/08
  129.   To zeev, #122, this is leading nowhere 09:12  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  130.   Uriah Heep . Your 8 posts 119-128 09:24  |  Akram Zekaria 06/09/08
  131.   To zeev, #122, One final remark on ignorance 09:27  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  132.   to M. Andrijasevic #129 - part 1 11:35  |  zeev 06/09/08
  133.   To #132 , zeev , Which of these books on the list have YOU read? 13:53  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  134.   Akram Zekaria 13:54  |  Uriah Heep 06/09/08
  135.   to M. Andrijasevic #129 - part 2 14:18  |  zeev 06/09/08
  136.   To #135 , zeev , Are Gorenberg, Dayan et al experts on Islam? 14:50  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  137.   Mladen Andrijasevic -experts on Islam? 15:41  |  Kyle 06/09/08
  138.   Mladen Andrijasevic -experts on Islam? 19:30  |  Kyle 06/09/08
  139.   To 137, Kyle . I’ve read Karen Armstrong 23:07  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  140.   to M. Andrijasevic #133 - part 1 23:15  |  zeev 06/09/08
  141.   to M. Andrijasevic #133 - part 2/3 23:18  |  zeev 06/09/08
  142.   to M. Andrijasevic #133 - part 3/3 23:19  |  zeev 06/09/08
  143.   To 138, Kyle . Excuses, obfuscations? 23:22  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 06/09/08
  144.   to M. Andrijasevic #136 (2nd try) 23:57  |  zeev 06/09/08
  145.   134# Uriah Heep. See my post 111# 00:29  |  Akram Zekaria 07/09/08
  146.   To 144, zeev , You say: How boring this must have been 09:29  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 07/09/08
  147.   Mladen Andrijasevic and your closed mind 12:16  |  Kyle 07/09/08
  148.   to Mladen Andrijasevic #146 12:32  |  zeev 07/09/08
  149.   o 147 Kyle On the closed mind (take 2) 16:09  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 07/09/08
  150.   Mladen Andrijasevic-silly assumptions and cut and pastes 17:20  |  Kyle 07/09/08
  151.   to M. Andrijasevic #149 18:23  |  zeev 07/09/08
  152.   To Zeev 151, Have you read the sources? 07:54  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 10/09/08
  153.   to M. Andrijasevic #152 - cont. 10:39  |  zeev 11/09/08
  154.   To zeev 153 ; Tragedy in Britain 19:42  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 11/09/08
  155.   To zeev 153 A few quotes from the Hamas Charter 20:14  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 11/09/08
  156.   to M. Andrijasevic #152 (4th try) 21:45  |  zeev 11/09/08
  157.   to M. Andrijasevic #154/155 01:23  |  zeev 12/09/08
  158.   To zeev 156: Replacement 07:47  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 12/09/08
  159.   To 157 zeev, (take2) Inconvenient questions 09:14  |  Mladen Andrijasevic 12/09/08
  160.   Hatred and fear 19:02  |  Molly A 23/09/08
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