I grew up in the suburbs in Illinois. While the acronym for the state of Illinois and the state of Israel is the same (IL), that is nearly the entire connection between the two. Maybe this will clarify...
I was spending the night in Jerusalem at my friend's grandparents' house. He wanted to stay in to watch March Madness on ESPN America, but some other friends invited me to watch the games somewhere else near center city. It was only about a twentyish minute walk away, but it was a bit cool out so I wore a jacket over my sweatshirt. Usually, that's not an important fact to share, except that on my walk I would be going past the residence of the prime minister of Israel and that there are armed guards at the top and bottom of the street (and another nine or ten you don't see, but see you from the shadows).
As I approached the first guard I removed my headphone from one ear thinking, 'he isn't going to stop me, I'm a very American looking, average kid.' Then he said, יש לך נשק? If you don't know Hebrew, I'm not going to tell you what that says, yet; if you do, then this is the funny part. Partially because I had the headphone in, mostly because I'm American, I looked blankly back at the guard and asked "מה?" (what?) in my very American accent as I slowly reached to my back pocket for my wallet. I figured he just wanted to see my ID.
Just as I touched my wallet I quickly realized that he had asked me if I was carrying a gun. My hands shot back out in front of me, palms open, while I quickly explained, 'no, I don't have any weapons.' He smiled and waved me by; luckily, he was sure I didn't have a gun within two seconds of meeting me.
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