I, too, am Israeli

The rest of world knows him as Gene Simmons, rocker in the band KISS, but to his parents, he was born Chaim Witz in Haifa, Israel. Earlier last week, he sent a recorded message to an Israeli soldier who is such a huge Kiss fan, he has a poster of the band in his room. His hospital room. Ron Weinreich is paralyzed from the chest down due to injuries sustained while fighting Hezbollah this past month.

"Hi Ron, this is Gene Simmons. I'm talking to you from my home. I can't tell you how proud I am of you, and how much the world and Israel owes you a debt of gratitude," he said. "From the bottom of my heart, you are a real hero, you are everybody's hero, you are my hero and I wish I could be there with you."

Suddenly switching to confident Hebrew, Simmons added: "My name is Chaim, I was born in Haifa."

He concluded by saying in English: "I wish you my best, a happy life and I hope the wedding comes off and everybody should honor you because you are a real hero."

Now THAT, my friends, is how I'd like to see OUR soldiers honored by Hollywood and musical artists like Simmons.

I'm not much of a Kiss fan... but I'm now a HUGE Chaim Witz fan. I wonder what he thinks about the US soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. I say it's time for a KISS USO tour!