Without that questionable lawsuit or an arrest warrant hanging over him, he could arrange to pay the cell-phone company and the other company suing him for legitimate debts. And nota bene, he does not have hospital bills.

Would running back to America help Rubin? I sincerely doubt it. He is over fifty years old, has spent half his life here, and would have lots of trouble getting work in a country he hasn't lived in for over a quarter century, a country where he would get no help adjusting. He likely has no Social Security because he did not work for "forty quarters" in the States. He left when he was twenty-six years old.

Is falling onto hard times after a quarter century any reason to leave the country? I know a fellow who was in a similar situation a couple of years ago. He had raised 13 kids here, has a grandchild or two, and was in debt up to his eyeballs. He could not get reliable transport to a job, so could not find decent work. He did get help, and thank G-d he is still here.

Let's turn now to Yediot Ahronot, the newspaper that ran this story. Why did they run it with this angle? Here we come to the painful truth of the matter, where we get to see just what kind of beast this paper and the other two major Hebrew dailies really are.

This story, with this headline and this lead paragraph, is designed to kill the basic lifeblood of this country and its raison d'être, "kibútz galuyót," the ingathering of the Jewish exiles, bringing them home to Israel after 1,800 years of wandering and persecution.

What better way to convince the Israeli (and Jewish) reading public that Israel is not a place to live than to have an immigrant (who is here for a quarter century already) in trouble condemn it in his own words? What a sickening sight: The descendants of the glorious enterprise of "settling the Land" taking a knife to their own nation's throat on its English language website.

This is news?

No, this is a tragedy.