I've come to a dramatic conclusion.

After covering the Middle East, after analyzing it for decades, after trying to make sense of the nonsensical, I really believe I have figured out Israel's No. 1 problem.

It's not the Palestinians.

It's not the Arabs, in general.

It's not an insensitive international community that seeks to blame Israel first for every problem that rises.

It's not even radical Islam.

The real enemy Israel faces is named Benny Shanon, an Israeli, a professor of cognitive psychology at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

He personifies why Israel is in trouble.

Shanon published a study recently claiming that Moses was high on psychedelic drugs when he heard God deliver the Ten Commandments.

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He further claimed mind-altering substances were at the basis of religious rites for the ancient Israelites.

"As far Moses on Mount Sinai is concerned, it was either a supernatural cosmic event, which I don't believe, or a legend, which I don't believe either, or finally, and this is very probable, an event that joined Moses and the people of Israel under the effect of narcotics," Shanon told Israeli public radio.

Moses was probably also on drugs when he saw the "burning bush," he said.

Shanon admits dabbling in such drugs himself. He mentioned his own experience when he used ayahuasca, a powerful psychotropic plant, during a religious ceremony in Brazil's Amazon forest in 1991.

"I experienced visions that had spiritual-religious connotations," Shanon said.

Now, why do I say this drug-taking lunatic represents the real problem Israel faces – even bigger than the Palestinians and the Islamic Jihad?

I say this because Shanon illustrates Israel's lack of faith – its purposelessness, its sameness with the rest of the world.

My question to Shanon, and any others who agree with him, would be: Why are you living in Israel? What right do you have to be there? Why don't you go live in the Amazon or perhaps the land of your parents or grandparents?

Why do you choose to live in the Promised Land to which Moses led the Israelites? If Moses was just a drug-crazed refugee from Egypt, does Israel really deserve nation status in the world today? Is it truly the homeland of the Jews as ordained by God, or was it just a piece of real estate conquered under the spell of drug-induced hysteria? If the Bible isn't indeed Israel's land deed, what is?

In other words, it's not just Shanon. He's just another poor schnook with no purpose in life. But Israel is filled with schlemiels like him. They've got all the answers. There are no mysteries in life. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were fairytale characters or, worse yet, narcotics-taking barbarians. Their god was not real. He was a figment of their drug stupor.

If you thought like that, if that were your worldview, would you stand and fight for your country? Would you be willing to put your life on the line to protect Eretz Israel? With so little faith, is there really anything worth dying for?

Any way you look at it, Israel is on the verge of another holocaust. And what is Benny Shanon saying? Moses was an acidhead.

How can you help people like this? How can you care for them? How can you pray they defeat their enemies? How can you continue it makes any difference whether they prevail or fall?

It's amazing to me that Jews, of all people, can believe they survived the fall of every empire the world has known without any help from God.

It's amazing to me that Jews, of all people, can have so little faith.

It's amazing to me that Jews, of all people, even those living in the Holy Land, can look around them, ponder their situation, look up at the sky over Jerusalem and believe there's no one watching out for them.

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