While I do not necessarily agree with all of Israel’s policies, there is no way to deny that Israel’s actions in Gaza are justified. You can call what is going on an offensive, a war, an operation, or whatever you like, but the fact is that Israel is operating against terrorists. Hamas has repeatedly stated its goal is to eliminate Israel and that is exactly what is written in Hamas’ charter. Two weeks ago, I returned from studying in Israel for five months. While I was in Israel, I witnessed and experienced a number of things that relate to Israel’s current operation in Gaza. Last Thursday, there was a gathering of protesters against this at DU. I applaud all of those who took the initiative to make a statement of their beliefs, however, there is a lot that many of these individuals (and all of us) do not know about what is going on in Israel and in Gaza. I’d like to share some of what I experienced and observed with you. To begin, I don’t know about you, but I have never been a target of rocket fire in the United States. The same cannot be said for Israel. Hamas has been firing rockets into Southern Israel since 2000. Its residents live in a constant state of fear. In 2008 alone, 3,278 rockets were fired into Israel. I visited the city of Sderot, the city most often hit by rockets and mortars. It is literally a city of terrorized people. Children do not play outside. When we were in Sderot, we started with a conversation about life and watched video clips of rockets hitting the city – in a bomb shelter. When people drive, they do not wear seatbelts, the radio is off, windows are rolled down and doors are kept unlocked. When a rocket is detected over the Gaza border, residents have 15 seconds at most to stop what they are doing and get to a bomb shelter or protected room. It is virtually impossible. Almost 50 percent of the city suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Last week, I woke up and went online to check Facebook. What I saw made my heart skip a beat. The dorms that I had been living in while a student in Be’er Sheva had been hit by a rocket. How many of you can say that you have had to contact your friends to find out if they had been hit by a rocket while studying abroad? How many of you have tried to speak another language in an effort to find out if your friends from another country had been injured by any sort of terrorist attack? When making your decision about what “side” you may wish to support in Israel’s war to stop its bombardment by terrorists, please remember that you likely have not heard the whole story.
B’hatzlicha l’Tzahal,Joel PortmanJunior
