I am having a really hard time at the moment. I spend hours everyday reading news reports and articles on the current conflict between Hamas and Israel. I am constantly on social media trying to understand how this came to be. Every night I go to bed in tears. I cry for terrible loss that families on both side of this conflict face. As a father, I can’t comprehend what it must feel like to loose a child, or what my family would be going through if my wife or I was suddenly taken from them. I am a cultural Zionist. I believe with strong conviction in the right of Jews to self-determination. I differ with the current Israeli Government on a number of issues, as I have with previous Governments, but I am unwavering in my belief in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. I also am clear on Israel’s right to exist in its current location. Jews have had an uninterrupted presence in the Land of Israel for thousands of years and our claim to the Land is at least as good as any other, and far better then most. I am also pragmatic. I understand that overtime other people have moved into the Lands once only occupied by my people and now, through the passing of time, they also have a claim. I believe strongly in a two state solution with Israel and Palestine side by side. I am convinced that most Jews believe the same. I hope and believe that many Palestinians want the same thing. I know that my upbringing has shaped by position in this regard, but I hope that even had I been brought up in a completely different environment, I would have come to the same conclusions, as I believe that some things are just fundamentally right. Tragically, the elected Government in Gaza does not share the same goal. I know this as a fact, because Hamas admits it openly. Article 13 of the Hamas charter reads as follows: Peaceful Solutions, [Peace] Initiatives and International Conferences [Peace] initiatives, the so-called peaceful solutions, and the international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem, are all contrary to the beliefs of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). This is because Hamas has nothing to do with Palestinian rights, but everything to do with the total destruction of the State of Israel. Article Eight states that: The Slogan of the Hamas: Allah is its goal, the Prophet its model, the Qur’an its Constitution, Jihad its path and death for the case of Allah its most sublime belief. What this really means is that for Hamas to accept an Israel alongside it, it must cease to be Hamas. And so we are faced with a conundrum. Faced with a near constant barrage of missile fire into its cities for almost 9 years, Israel has a moral responsibility to protect its citizens. It does this passively by having invested billions of dollars in bomb shelters, early warning systems and the Iron Dome missile defense system, and actively by attempting to destroy the military infrastructure in Gaza, through targeted missile attacks and with soldiers on the ground. In undertaking this moral responsibility, Israel has to ensure that in defending its own citizens the lives of innocent Palestinians are protected. Hamas has made this almost impossible to do. I know with complete certainty that Israel is not actively targeting innocent people. I know this because of how few people have died in this conflict. I realize how callous this sounds and I am struggling as I write this, because every innocent life lost is a tragedy and I genuinely morn each and every one – but I also understand what the toll on life would be if Israel was targeting the civilians. Still innocent people are dying, and they will continue to die so long as Hamas attacks Israel and hides behind civilians, because Israel has a moral responsibility to protect its citizens. This is completely self evident to me. I wonder at people who don’t see it. What am I missing in this discourse? I understand the pain at the tragic loss of life, because I feel it – but I don’t understand the rage against Israel. Where is the rage against Hamas for starting this terrible war and for its immoral and cynical embracing of innocent death? Why is it that Hamas is romanticized and Israel is vilified when the opposite seems so sensible? Maybe people are just stupid. Maybe for them more Palestinians are dying then Israelis, so Hamas is good and Israel is bad. It’s a pathetic and intellectually bankrupt argument. By the same rationale the United Sates would have been the villain in WWII and Nazi Germany the victim as more Germans died than Americans. Maybe people are Anti-Semitic and in vilifying the one Jewish State, they have found a new and more sanitized outlet for their prejudice. Maybe it’s a bit of both. It’s a pity - because until the world acknowledges who the real villain is and until all of us pull together to defeat this evil, more innocent people will die. It is not only Hamas that has the blood of innocent Palestinians and Israelis on its hands, but also each and every person who is not standing with Israel at this terrible time.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 07:54:18 +0000
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