Over the past week, I have gotten an overly generous amount of grief over how vocal I have been in supporting Israel through its current security crises and ongoing war with Hamas, Lebanon and Syria. I have been called an extremist, f***ing insane, a dirty Jew, a Nazi and conscienceless Israeli. A wise woman once said: if many people like you and many people hate you, youre doing something right. I find it outrageously nauseating and deplorable that people so easily assume a holier-than-thou position, preaching how my reality as an Israeli and a Jew should be properly dealt with, how we Israelis should pursue peace, and what kind of silence I am to keep while my homeland and my people are being senselessly and ruthlessly terrorized. From bleeding heart Canadians to all sorts of Liberals all over the place, to wealthy Miami, NYC and LA kids, and even Palestinians - amongst so many others – so many are all telling me how our reality, as Israelis or Jews, should be lived and coped with. To which I say: live in our shoes before you talk. It is not until your families or friends are cannon fodder and your country is relentlessly brutalized that you get to share your input, let alone criticize our views, behaviours and methods of survival. It is no secret whatsoever that my Facebook is always overly active. If what I post offends anyone, please delete me. I am not one to seek approval. Anyone who knows me well knows I dedicate the majority of my life to making people’s lives better – whether they are my family, friends or complete strangers. One thing I don’t do, nor will I ever, is keep silent when more voices need to be heard. Allow me, for a second, to delve into what allows me to have a voice and an opinion when it comes to all matters Israel and its security related. For starters, I am Jewish. Millennia of wars aside, six million of my kind were slaughtered only 75 years ago. By our postmodern terminology, 75 years out of the gargantuan infinity that is history are a brief nothing. Those six million casualties do not include over 25,000 fallen Israeli soldiers or casualties of war killed over the past 66 years, since Israel declared independence. Of the six million killed during World War II, three of my grandparents’ entire families were amongst those wiped out, as were so many of the families of the Jews I have ever met. Let’s continue. 1968. My grandfather, Leon Shirdan, a marine engineer, was travelling on an El-Al plane from Tel-Aviv to New York City. During a layover in Athens, the plane was attacked by members of the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization. They hurled grenades and sprayed the plane with machine-gun fire, killing my grandfather at the mere age of 50. The murderous terrorist evaded punishment, and eventually found refuge and a happy life in Brantford Ontario, Canada from 1987 until 2013 – during which he raised a family and owned a flower shop. Only in May of 2013, after 45 years since he had committed that heinous crime, Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad was finally deported, thanks largely to Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney and a few others. 1991. Gulf War. I’m 4 years old. Home is no longer a place of comfort and safety. First you masking tape your entire windows, so that in case of a blast, the fragments won’t slash your flesh. Then you sit under blankets in your bedroom, to add to your protection in case of a blast. From time to time, you get to peak out and look at the beautiful rain of fire plummeting from the sky; in my case right over the beautiful port of Haifa by the Mediterranean Sea. You hear helicopters rushing to Rambam Hospital every few minutes, bringing in wounded soldiers. Both Israeli soldiers and enemy soldiers. See, as Israelis, we even value the lives of those who try to slaughter us. Every time you hear a siren (which can be up to several times an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week), you put on your gas mask and run to the shelter. For a 10-floor, 30-apartment building, a bomb shelter would have been a 1,000sqft room at the bottom of the building (over ground), with walls of thick steel. You’re looking at up to a thousand people crammed like sardines in one damn steel box. Gas masks were on. Each mask had a tube to insert food or beverages through, and a filter for oxygen. As for the eyes and the rest of the head, imagine wearing an American Horror Story-esque leather mask which includes just perfectly fogging goggles. Imagine wearing that mask around the clock. It gets so hot and suffocating, that even eating or breathing or forming thoughts is a war on its own. 2001-2004 127 Suicide bombings in those 4 years alone throughout Israel. Each one of those being a bus with your friends, a restaurant with your family, a nightclub with your relatives... all randomly exploding, one by one, because some damn Jew-hating death-worshiper couldnt find 72 virgins while still alive. Imagine streets flooded with blood and countless body parts scattered everywhere. To you this sounds like a horror film; to us, it is reality. Suicide bombings in Israel have come in the form of exploding cars, buses, buildings, bicycles, road junctions, bus stations, shopping centers, cafes, markets, streets, villages, community centers, bridges, industrial zones, business districts, roads, schools, nightclubs, restaurants, train stations, neighbourhoods, supermarkets, hotels, holiday dinners, medical centers, universities, gas stations, parks, ports, checkpoints, border crossings, clubs and bakeries. Where would you EVER feel safe if there were suicide bombings in multiples of each of those locations throughout your country on a regular basis? Let’s throw just a couple statistics your way: - 170 Suicide bombings took place in Israel between 1989 and 2008. - 566 Israelis were killed by suicide bombings between 2001 and 2004 alone. - Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel. Officially, Israel has been through 7 wars in its 66 years of independence. Unofficially, Israel has been through, including the one currently taking place, 15 wars in the past 66 years. That is, on average, one war every 4 years. And why? Because it is holding on to its own land and is not willingly letting its citizens get slaughtered on a daily basis. Oh the nerve. In 6 days of war, thus far, over 800 deadly missiles have been shot at Israel, intended to maim and murder as many civilians as possible while Hamas is cowardly using civilians as human shields. This, like all other wars, is not a war we chose. Hamas has chosen to declare war on Israel, because of anger and jealousy that never seems to cease. It has chosen to inflict genocidal savagery upon Israel’s citizens, as well as Gaza’s Palestinians. Hamas has turned civilians into refugees. If only Hamas loved their people as much as they loathe ours, there would be no war, nor would there be any unnecessary casualties. Having lived through hell on Earth, we dont see reality through the same naive eyes most people do. We dont delude ourselves with unsophisticated, blindly trusting, ignorantly innocent hopes of attainable peace. We say it like is, and deal with what the rest of the world doesnt have the damn balls to. To be clear, I am not just defending Israel’s right to defend itself. It has done so for 66 years, and to no avail, because the threats never stop. No defense has proven so effective that it averts future mayhem. THEY WANT US DEAD is all this comes down to. So I am defending Israel right to end them – so their existence doesnt threaten ours, and doesnt plague the well being of this world. Am Israel Chai.
Posted on: Mon, 14 Jul 2014 07:46:26 +0000