During the holiday of Lag BaOmer in Israel every open space is filled with enormous bonfires, boisterous kids, sizzling food, and energetic conversation and laughter. My apartment, or flat as they call it here, is right on the border of civilization and acres of sprawling farmland. I enjoy having the option of going out of my parking lot and choosing either coffee to the left or fresh orange pickings from the orchards to the right.

Last night it seemed that all of Ra'anana decided to camp to the right of my flat. I never cease to be amazed at how holidays seems to pop-up around every corner of the calendar here in Israel. I still don't really understand Lag BaOmer, but it is rather impressive to see massive camp fires throughout densely populated areas. When I say "massive camp-fires" I don't think you can really appreciate it without seeing it. (photos below)

For a few weeks before the holiday school kids are strolling around local grocery store carts on a scavenger hunt for anything that will burn. They dumpster dive for old picture frames and doors, limbs cut from trees to clear roadways and large card board boxes cast off from newly purchased appliances.

After the sun sets on Lag Ba'Omer kids, teachers and parents fill open lots around the city and kindle the fires. I read that during the Middle Ages, Lag BaOmer was called the "scholar's festival" and it became customary to rejoice on this day through various kinds of merrymaking.

In the Talmud it says that 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva died from a plague sent by God to punish them for not showing proper respect to one another. Lag BaOmer was supposedly the day the plague ended.

I think for most Israeli's it is simply a chance to celebrate, and in this highly pressurized country it seems everyone is always ready for another reason to eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow is always uncertain.

Israeli's live with a lot of gusto! It seems almost everything is done to the extreme. I laugh with my husband, Yuval, about the crowded stores when Shabbat comes to a close. On Saturday night, I think every Israeli rejoices in the end of the 24-hour Sabbath rest. I think the fourth commandment is kept through gritted teeth for many Israelis.

Yuval joked that every Saturday night, after the end of Shabbat, is like Black Friday in the U.S. Black Friday being the day after Thanksgiving and the biggest shopping day in the entire year. It's true, there are literally huge lines outside of grocery stores, malls, cinemas and restaurants. How do I know? Well, we usually find ourselves right in the middle of it.

I do things here in Israel that I would never do in the U.S. It just somehow comes naturally to stand in crowded lines, talk to strangers and rush out get a glimpse at any new attraction no matter how many people have the same inclination. Israel's live out the adage well: "Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today."

Back to BaOmer - besides the rowdy teens singing and yelling outside our window till around 3am, I found it a really neat expression of life, community and joy. I still don't know how all the cities in Israel don't go up in flames, but the holiday is truly bigger than life and I can only imagine the magic of the evening in the eyes of children. I love the family-oriented culture here in Israel and the effervescent holiday spirit that seems to permeate every month of the Jewish calendar.

My husband and I attended the festivities at Park Ra'anana this week as Israel celebrated her Day of Independence or Yom Haatzmaut. It is preceded by somber days of remembrance - for the Holocaust and for the fallen soldiers. The celebrations of Independence are always festive, boisterous and joyful - not despite the days leading up to the birthday of the nation, but because of it. The whole country remembers the sacrifice and goes through a process of reflection that leads the people of Israel, especially the younger generation, to remember what this freedom and national holiday cost.

There seemed to be a million and one families at the park with children everywhere. Energetic music pumped through the park and a smorgasbord of food stands filled the air with the aroma of flame grilled meats that seems to accompany every event worth attending. The Mayor of Ra'anana, whom I like very much for his frequent visits to programs at the Absorption Center where I took ulpan, opened the evening with a moving prayer and then the residents of Ra'anana were treated to a ten-minute display of fireworks.

I caught something out of the corner of my eye that made me regret leaving my camera at home. In the swarm of Israeli flags and patriotic anthems sat a small group of Muslims. It isn't strange to see Muslims in Park Ra'anana, but it was interesting to see a family at an Independence celebration. The women wore headdresses and one of the men pulled out a rug and began praying - toward Mecca I imagine since it is not Jerusalem they consider their most sacred location.

My husband and I had a brief conversation about whether the Muslim man was thanking Allah he was in Israeli territory where his wives and daughters had more freedom and protection and where he has more opportunities and government services, or whether he was he pleading with Allah to cast the infidel nation into the sea? Who knows. We didn't try to ask. But we did take an additional moment to marvel at the nation we were celebrating.

Thousands of Israelis were commemorating the birth of their nation after 2,000 years of exile. Each Israeli is evidence of prophecy fulfilled, hopes realized and freedom found. There, in the middle of it all sat a group of religious people that, for the most part, feel Israel has no right to exist. Still, they are welcomed, they are undisturbed and they have the same freedom to dance, eat, buy and even cast down their prayer mats and ask Allah for who knows what. I find it extraordinary and exceptional here in Israel where there are daily threats of terrorist attacks monitored by the Israeli military. A few weeks ago a Palestinian sniper shot at a car on road number 443. Still the Muslims are welcome to attend Israeli Independence Day celebrations.

The international news focuses mainly on the fact that Netanyahu's government will not stop construction in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem while ignoring the fact that the Palestinian leadership of Hamas and hostile neighbors like Hezbollah still refuse to acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist. My home country, under the leadership of Obama, is now pushing to move Israel behind the 67 cease-fire lines and insisting on the establishment of a tolerant Palestinian state free of any Jewish presence and most likely bound for a government built upon Sharia law.

All this while Israel, inside the 67 borders has multiple thriving Muslim villages and allows freedom of worship, benefits and employment. There are Arabs in Israel's government and High Court.The narrative on Israel around the world is skewed and unjust. I love this country and am proud that one day I will have dual citizenship for two of the greatest nations in the world. Israel and America have been shining beacons of hope and strong bastions of freedom for immigrants around the world.

U.S. Presidents of both parties have expressed the deep convictions that bind the nations together. John F. Kennedy stated, "Israel was not created in order to disappear-Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom."

Ronald Reagan conveyed with conviction that "the people of Israel and America are historic partners in the global quest for human dignity and freedom [and] will always remain at each other's side."

William Clinton declared, "America and Israel share a special bond. Our relations are unique among all nations. Like America, Israel is a strong democracy, as a symbol of freedom, and an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted."

And George W. Bush, while visiting Israel stated, "Our two nations both faced great challenges when they were founded, and our two nations have both relied on the same principles to help us succeed. We've built strong democracies to protect the freedoms given to us by an Almighty God. We've welcomed immigrants, who have helped us thrive. We've built prosperous economies by rewarding innovation and risk-taking and trade. And we've built an enduring alliance to confront terrorists and tyrants."

The affinity for and fraternity with the Jewish nation was felt not only by recent presidents but by those who served before the state of Israel had yet to be reborn.

Calvin Coolidge expressed his "sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine."

And in a letter to Mordecai Manuel Noah in 1819, The second president of the United States, John Adams wrote, "I could find it in my heart to wish that you had been at the head of a hundred thousand Israelites . . . & marching with them into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the dominion of it. For I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation."

The values between the two nations are deeply shared and fiercely held in a way that made it not so very strange that many Israelis would hang the Stars and Stripes right next to their beloved flag on Israeli Independence Day. A significant number of Israeli drivers would put an Israeli flag on one window and an American flag on the other. I always appreciated it, though never quite understood it until it was conspicuously absent this year. I did not see one American flag on a car, apartment or business this year and I began to ask myself why it had been there in the past and why it was not there this year?

Without going into a list of political fall-outs between the two nations this year, I think it is obvious that America has pressured Israel in a way it has never done in the past. While Iran is threatening to "wipe Israel off the map" and Syria is allegedly sending Scud missiles to the region that can target any place in Israel, the President of the free world is scolding Israel for allowing "natural growth" in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem while Arabs in West Jerusalem have full rights to rent, buy, build and expand.

Something is awry and it is deeply disturbing. I know the decision by Israelis not to fly American flags means, in no way, that they are anti-American. I think it is more of a statement that they are prepared to go it alone if the United States fails to support the ideals and values upon which both nations were founded. They are exhibiting the same revolutionary spirit that once gripped America and every American should be proud...this one is.

Netanyahu stopped just short of making such a bold announcement. He opened the cabinet meetings this week with a quote by the founder of modern Zionism Theodore Herzl, "Don't rely on the help of foreigners, nor on benefactors. And do not expect stones to become soft because benefactors give humiliating donations. A nation that wants to stand upright must rely on itself alone"

I wish to encourage the Prime Minister for his stand and direct the nation of Israel on her 62nd birthday to this quote from one of the great American founders and voice of true classical liberalism, Benjamin Franklin: "They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

I am on my way to obtaining Israeli citizenship, but I have always considered myself and American first and Israeli second. However, thinking through this Independence Day has made me feel differently. I am a citizen of freedom first - wherever the boundary lines are drawn. I love America deeply, but I love the values that shaped her more. I hope the two nations will always stand shoulder to shoulder on the worldwide battlefront for freedom, but if not I refer again to Benjamin Franklin who wrote in a letter to Benjamin Vaughn in 1783, "Where liberty dwells, there is my country."

Here's hoping that I will always be holding the passports of both countries!

 King Solomon dedicated the Holy Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem with a prayer and a precedent that has been followed by Israeli leadership since they reunited Jerusalem in 1967 and took responsibility for the Holy places - the foreigner is welcomed.

"When a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name's sake...when he comes and prays toward this house, hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name." (I Kings 8:41-4)

It doesn't matter if it is the media, history teachers, tour guides, religious leaders or the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, they all like to refer to the fact that Jerusalem contains holy sites for the three great monotheistic religions of the world. Just not all of those mentioned above are so quick to add that there has only been freedom of worship for every religious group when Jerusalem has been in the hands of the Jews. It isn't an opinion it is an historical fact and it means a great deal for this foreigner.

Jerusalem Day is important and meaningful for me as a Christian. Despite the atrocious history of Crusader brutality in this city, when Israel unified it in 1967 they didn't decide to even the scorecard. No, they unfastened the old latches and broke open the ancient doors to welcome everyone. It was like the Old City finally took in a gasp of fresh air after being locked up for thousands of years.

In Jerusalem, under the rule of the Israeli government, I have complete freedom to go to church, to visit the Garden Tomb, to follow the Via Dolorosa or even walk up to the Western Wall and place my own prayer note in the cracks with the peculiar and comforting knowledge that thousands of years ago King Solomon actually prayed that God would answer my prayer, the prayer of the foreigner.

I don't think most people realize the extravagant cultural and religious freedom that exists in Jerusalem. Watching the news you might think that there is a west side of Jerusalem filled with Jews and and east side filled with Arabs and a clean line of separation down the center. There doesn't seem to be a concept of the stunning, vibrant, interwovern diversity that greets me every time I amble through the well-worn cobblestone streets of this city.

I attended Hebrew classes at one ulpan where Muslim Arabs made up the majority of my class. I sat by Abba Moshe, a Greek orthodox priest, behind me were Catholic priests-in-training from Italy and Brazil, and to my left sat two very quiet sisters from a local order of nuns. Thrown in between were a few of us clad in normal street clothes. I often joke that Jerusalem is the ancient version of Manhattan.

That is just a snap shot of Jerusalem today, and this foreigner hopes it doesn't change. It is one city in the Middle East where Muslim, Christian, Jew - also many other diverse faiths - can mingle in the streets freely and openly as they trot off to their individual places of worship. And this openness remained even in the face of the horrific terrorist acts during the Intifada years. Israelis have paid a great price for the freedom of the foreigner.

For reasons I do not understand, the human rights of cultural and religious freedom that took root and began flourishing in 1967 are the subject of little conversation when the eyes of the world focus on Jerusalem. In fact, it seems the reverse is happening.

Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat recently met with U.S. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Peter Roskan (R-Ill). He responded to the Obama administrations request to freeze construction in East Jerusalem. He came to America, the bastion of freedom, to express his "shock" and "surprise" at what he referenced as Obama's request for discriminatory practices in Jerusalem's city zoning.

"I think in Washington or anywhere in the states its illegal, it's anti constitutional, to ask who's the owner, if he's Jewish or Muslim," Barkat stated. "You're not allowed to discriminate, by race, by color, or by religion. And I'm surprised at the demand and the request to hint to us that we must discriminate...It's against the law."

Does the the US Administration really want to impose segregation? If Jerusalem is divided and east Jerusalem zoned to exlude Jews, would it not be important to have such a zoning law in west Jerusalem to exclude Arabs from building, buying and renting? Why unequal measures for the east and west parts of the city? Is this really 2010? A zone of Arabs and a zone of Jews? It seems common sense has been restricted to the Twilight Zone.

It is especially flabbergasting in the light of what I see today in Jerusalem. The city is such an expression of diversity that is should be a model city for the region. Sure there is room for improvement but maybe we should look to Mecca where the Ministry of Islamic Affairs has barred all non-Muslims from even entering the city if we want to start improving the Middle East.

In any case, celebrating the reunification of the ancient city of Jerusalem has gotten a bit more audacious. Should we really commemorate an event that most world-powers, including some Jewish, would like to reverse?

U.S. President Obama has not helped the cause by entering into the Middle East peace process intent on making the status of Jerusalem a starter at the Mid-East Convivium. So far Israelis seated at the negotiating table have recoiled at the rare-cooked, heavy laden hors d'oeuvres set by the US Administration that must leave them wondering what kind of entrée is to follow. The Palestinians, well they haven't yet made it to the table. But that hasn't stopped Obama from dishing out heaping portions to the Israelis. What was once non-negotiable, Jerusalem, lies poised on the chopping block and it has instigated a bit of a family rumpus in the world-wide Jewish community, especially in the US.

One Jewish leftist organization issued an ad pleading with Obama to "save us from ourselves". And the iconic Eli Wiesel, who stands as the keeper of Holocaust memory, challenged Obama's approach to Jerusalem in an ad so strong it earned him a lunch invitation at the White House. I love the healthy arena of social engagement that democratic republics facilitate and even require. But I think it will take a little more then Obama's beer diplomacy to reduce the growing tension over Jerusalem.

I hope Jerusalem remains united, but Israel is a democracy, and her people will have to decide the future of their capital. They are the ones paying the price and living the reality. However, I think all of us, especially those in places of influence, should ask ourselves a simple question. If Jerusalem, as it exists today, is a barrier to peace in the Middle East then what kind of peace are we asking Israel to seek?

Kasey Barr is a frequent blogger for http://www.Travelujah.com, the only Christian social network focused on travel to the Holy Land. Travelujah is a vibrant online community offering high quality Christian content, user and expert blogs, travel tours and planning services for people interested in connecting with or traveling to the Holy Land.