I’m still not sure I read this straight…

About the leaders of Communist China reaching out for good PR, for China, from Chinese citizens who are in Israel as students.

During these Olympics especially, they want China presented to the Israelis as warm and cuddly.

Then forget the rest, like the Wuhan Virus, detention camps and the heavy hand it exerts on its people and its neighbors.

Seems to be the fact that they want to impress the Israelis, urgently. They need Israel’s approval.

Since when? Since David was king, or even going back to Moses…even Abraham.

China admires Israel’s advancements in technology…and everything else.

What amazes me, is that China’s leaders should give Israel a second thought. Their population is one and a half billion.

Does President Xi Jinping know?

Population-wise, it’s no contest.

Maybe we shouldn’t tell them that Israel’s population is nine and a half million.

Let them think Israel is a colossus.

As it is in China…with the ambition of replacing the United States as the world’s number one super-power.

Not good. But it is the way of the world that you take what you can get, so meanwhile, China is Israel’s third largest trading partner.

That is good.

For some, like me, it is an astonishment to reflect that this country, Israel, that has never known a moment’s rest, is today counted a mensch unto the nations.

This happened so fast—within 73 years… (without counting its Biblical heritage.)

Other nations need that amount of time to get their socks on.

The respect may be grudging…but respect it is, and it was earned through the blood of her Jewish sons and daughters, the sweat of her fathers, and the tears of her mothers.

This hurts, as only some of us can understand.

As I have it in this novel…:” Indecent Proposal” … She says, “The whole world isn’t Auschwitz, Josh.” He says, “Neither is it Bryn Mawr, Joan.”

China, we’re reminded, appreciates a kinship with Israel as two nations that go back centuries.

Then there’s affinity for the fact that both countries share the same continent.

What?

I remember the Las Vegas TV reporter sitting next to me on the plane, near stupefied when, on landing in Tel Aviv, it turned out we were in Asia.

“Can’t be,” she insisted.

But it is, and the disbelief is common among Americans, especially Jews, visiting Israel for the first time, and imagining it to be like a trip to Katz’s Deli.

They expect heimish, and heimish it is…but you are still in a foreign country!

No…you’re not in Kansas anymore.

You’re not in Brooklyn, either, or Miami.

Israel is the real deal.

Israel IS the Broadway of the Middle East…the lights never dim, and the show is a hit and never stops.

You’re in the western part of Asia…China is in the east. Two different worlds, really, but nonetheless.

Speaking of misconceptions…back when I was editor at KYW-news radio in Philly, good thing I checked Harry J’s script before he went on air.

“Harry,” I said. “I caught your typo.”

“What typo?”

“You have it here that the world’s 140 million Jews are preparing to celebrate Passover.”

“It’s not Passover?”

“It is Passover. But it isn’t 140 million Jews.”

“Of course, it is.”

“Harry, I don’t know where you looked it up, but there are no more than maybe 14 million of us around the world.”

Finally convinced, he scratched his head, and said, “For such a small people, you sure are big.”

Harry was a good guy, and I still take it as a compliment.

Apparently, so does China.

Source: Arutz Sheva – Jack Engelhard