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| An Orthodox Jew embraces the bereaved Palestinian father (Flash 90 via VIN) |
There have been no Jewish casualties in the latest conflict
between Israel and Hamas. Our prayers
and our Hishtadlus are working. Despite a constant barrage of rockets fired at Israel over the last couple of weeks indiscriminately - not a single Jew has been
killed or even seriously injured. Israel’s
Iron Dome defense is working quite well.
The same cannot be said for the Palestinians living in Gaza.
They have had many people killed by Israel’s superior military force. All
without one soldier setting foot in Gaza.
I feel sorry for the residents of Gaza. I really do. They are
suffering greatly from the targeted strikes against Hamas who controls Gaza. Among
those killed are innocent bystanders who just happened to be in the wrong place
at the wrong time. In one case - by admission of the Israeli government - 8 members of a Palestinian family were killed in error.
What bothers me is that when I see suffering Palestinians
complaining about the situation they are in - is that they blame Israel for what is
happening to them. Israel is not at
fault here. Israel is doing what it must to protect its citizens. When hundreds
of rockets come raining down upon your people you have an obligation to stop it.
Israel is doing that as humanely as possible. That some innocent people are
being hurt in the process is unfortunately unavoidable.
I do not understand why the Palestinians of Gaza do not
recognize the true source of their troubles. It is their own leadership. It is
they who insist on killing innocent people with rockets. Their reason for the
current barrage of attacks is the fact that Israel started arresting members of
Hamas suspected of crimes. This was Israel’s reaction to their kidnapping of the
3 Israeli teens.
Hamas’s response to those arrests? Kill some Jews!
Their rocket launchers are everywhere in Gaza, spread out
among the entire population. What do the citizens of Gaza expect will happen to
them when their leaders attack a country with superior military capable of deadly
force? Do they expect Israel to just lie
down and take it? What if the tables were turned and Israel were firing rockets
indiscriminately into Gaza? Would they expect their leaders to just lay back
and allow it to continue? Can’t they see what is really happening?
The images on TV are hard to watch. Palestinian mothers crying
over a lost or injured husband or child; or the sight of a severely wounded and
bloodied Palestinian child lying in a hospital bed with a Palestinian doctor next
to him saying he has never seen such carnage in all his years of service in the
hospital. This can easily evoke a sympathetic reaction by the viewer. Images of
the suffering Palestinian at the hands of a mighty Israeli military whose
people escape without a scratch imply to the world that Israel is to blame. But that is a lie and I don’t think any rational
person is buying it.
The blame for their troubles lies squarely on the shoulders
of their own elected leadership, Hamas. If they want Israel to stop blowing up
their buildings and inadvertently or mistakenly killing and maiming innocent
people, they know exactly what to do. They should tell their leaders to end the
rocket attacks once and for all. It is really as simple as doing that. If their
leaders refuse… well if there was ever a time for a coup, this is it.
Reasonable Palestinians must realize that. And they should have to courage to
do something about it if they want to stop the death and destruction of their
own people.
How sad it is that the hatred they feel for Israel surpasses
the love of they have of own children. It didn’t have to be that way. When they
took over Gaza, they could have made a decision to expend their energies on
building up their country. Instead of building bigger and better rockets, they
could have focused on the needs of their people. Instead of the near 50%
unemployment rate, jobs could have been created by entrepreneurs with a mission
to build up their country instead of a mission to destroy ours.
Had they decided to trade in their guns for butter… and
sought friendly relations with their closest neighbor, Israel would have been the
first in line to help them. Both financially and with its expertise. Imagine
had Gaza gone off on that track instead
of the murderous one they are currently on- chosen for them by Hamas.
Hamas has no real interest in making peace – even if Israel
were to give up all of the West Bank and more. They want it all. Including Tel
Aviv. Their complaints about the ‘occupation’ and ‘the settlements’ are just excuses
to further their goal of making Eretz Yisroel Jundenrien. They want lebensraum
for the population of their overcrowded city. They would be happy to fulfill
the goal of the biblical Pharaoh who wanted to drive the Jewish people into the
sea. They are true believers. They think God is on their side.
I’m not sure how this is all going to end. Prime Minister
Netanyahu has promised to ‘take the gloves off’ and end these rocket attacks
permanently. My guess is that he will not succeed. Gaza will find a way to
rebuild its infrastructure and arsenal – even if Israel destroys all of it in its current action. Personally I
don’t even think they are going to get that far. The international community
won’t let them. They will somehow broker a cease fire… triumphantly claiming
that lives were saved. They probably will have been - until the next time!
While all of this is quite depressing, there is a ray of
hope filtering through all the clouds. There have been hundreds of Jews many of
them Charedi paying condolence calls to the parents of Mohammed Abu Khudair,
the slain Palestinian teenager who died a torturous death by fire at the hands
of some psychopathic Jews.
This is the kind of image we need to see a lot more of. This
is the image that we should be sending to the world. An image saying that we do
not condone spilling the innocent blood of whether it is Jewish blood or not. We cry out in pain and we see that happen. We commiserate
with the parents who suffer at the horrific murder of their son. The more images like this we project to the
world, the more the truth about the Jewish people will be seen.
We want to live
in peace with our neighbors. We need to ‘kill’
them with kindness until they realize that we are not the enemy. And never
were. We are a kind and forgiving people who want peace with our neighbors so
that we can both get on with our own lives in peace and without fear. I know
that it’s possible with people of good will on both sides. But as long as there
is a Hamas and their ilk in the world, it will never happen.
