Meanwhile ....

Meanwhile … 

Over 7,000 acres of Israeli farmland have been burned. Over 10,000 tires are on fire at the border fence with prevailing winds heading across the border into Israel. Terrorist snipers exchange gunfire with Israeli troops through the border fence. Hundreds of Gazan residents, children included, with terrorists among them (urging them, perhaps threatening them), storm the border fence, attempting to knock it down to gain access to Israeli territory. A member of Doctors without Borders, armed with explosive devices and a semi-automatic weapon, attempts to break through the border fence while firing on Israeli troops. Hamas, an acknowledged international terror organization, sends its soldiers to the border area to coordinate attacks on the border fence with the intent on sending Hamas terrorists into Israel if the border fence is breached. All  this occurred in the past month. 

Gazans have lost their lives during these terrorist attacks. Israelis have lost their lives during these terrorist attacks. Since 2005, when Israel unilaterally removed all Israelis from the Gaza strip, there have been terror attacks from within Gaza aimed at civilian and military locations within Israel. Communities in Israel near the border fence have been subjected to rocket attacks almost daily. Hamas, who took control of Gaza in 2007, immediately established a terror network in Gaza, violently destroying any semblance of community or government, which the Palestinian Authority (PA) had begun to establish. Granted, even the PA developed rockets that were fired into Israel almost immediately after Israel vacated the area. Hamas, though, being even more militant, killed many PA  members in 2007 when Hamas took control. 

One of the Hamas' leaders in Gaza said that many of the rocket attacks into Israeli cities are timed for the morning hours, “when children head to school” to increase likelihood of more fatalities. Hamas places rocket launchers on the roofs of hospitals and schools in Gaza. Weapons are stored in homes in Gaza, in densely populated civilian areas. The goal, as stated by a Hamas leader, is to increase civilian deaths in Gaza so the press can accuse Israel of committing war crimes. 

The press is no longer infatuated with the stories at the border, until something sensational occurs, usually from the Israeli side. The press uses words like ‘peaceful protestors’ and ‘activists demonstrating the occupation’ to describe hundreds of people, some armed, lighting kites on fire to send over the border to burn Israeli land; hundreds, if not more, running toward the internationally recognized border of a sovereign nation with explosive devices, wire cutters, semi-automatic weapons, with the intent of entering Israel and killing Israelis. This doesn’t get news. Not newsworthy enough. Same old same old. If it is reported, it’s categorized as more protests against the occupation. 

An Israeli soldier kills a heavily armed person (with weaponry and explosive devices) as that person approaches the border fence, firing at the Israeli soldiers; that gets headline news because the terrorist turns out to be a nurse from Doctors without Borders. Something dramatic. It is reported that this nurse acted alone. Sure. He just decided to somehow acquire explosive devices, semi-automatic weapons and ammunition, and made his way to the border fence, unaided, and began to cut his way through, unaided, and at the same time began firing his weapon and throwing his explosive devices toward Israeli soldiers. Unaided. Alone. Press reports do not explain this. He was a medic, cut down by Israeli soldiers while he was demonstrating. 

Suicide bombers, terrorists who die while attacking and killing Israelis know that their families will receive payments from Hamas for their heroism, their martyrdom. I’m sure this terrorist knew this. Was this terrorist told of this? Was this terrorist encouraged? Hamas is engaged in a battle for the hearts and minds of the weak minded. Weak Arabs, whose lives in Gaza are made worse through the heartless way that Hamas ‘leads’ the government in Gaza. Weak others, who read the press reports and believe that Hamas’ aim is to provide relief to oppressed peoples by attacking the big powerful Israel. Weak minded people everywhere who do not understand. Hamas uses terror on their own people, they use children to hide behind, they manipulate their own press (which is picked up by the mainstream media as truth) and Hamas’ aim is to destroy Israel, “from the river to the sea” (the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea - check google map and see what country lies there - Israel). 

While much of the world is overwhelmed with political intrigue in the United States, and much of the front page news focuses on tweets and ridiculously absurd statements made by the US President, Israel continues to endure violent, constant rocket attacks from Gaza. While the people eat up the ridiculous ‘reality show’ that is American politics, the terror campaign from Gaza intensifies, with nary a sound bite on the TV, or a brief article in the press. 

Meanwhile, Israelis do what is needed to protect their land, protect their sovereignty, protect their people. 

Neal Elyakin

Ann Arbor, MI

August 31, 2018 

Gaza ... again

Gaza … again.
So it goes.
Back and forth, back and forth. Who’s to blame? Who started it? Which side has more responsibility for whatever is happening now?
In 2005, under intense pressure from many in Israel not to, Ariel Sharon, at the time the Prime Minister of Israel, disengaged from Gaza and removed every single Israeli Jew, vacated every single settlement and village that Israel built in Gaza. Over 8,000 Israeli Jews left (some forcibly) over 21 settlements, leaving behind an infrastructure that was earning tens of millions of dollars (greenhouses that produced exportable fruits, vegetables and flowers). At the time, the hope was that the Palestinians would take this on and build on the existing infrastructure that would help them build a nation. On August 22, 2005, the last Israeli Jew left Gaza.
On September 23, 2005, just a month after the disengagement, missiles were fired from Gaza into Israel. It was determined that the missiles originated from a school in Gaza City - the roof of the school building had been converted into a rocket launch pad.
The hope for the future of the Palestinians, the greenhouses, were looted and destroyed; metal parts taken to build rockets.
For the next thirteen years, to today, Gaza has been the source of violent expressions of terror aimed at Israel. Tunnels that went under the border fence (a border fence that predated the 1967 war, a border established in 1947) were dug to ferry terrorists into Israel with the aim to kill and kidnap Jews.
Gaza fell into the hands of Hamas, an internationally described terrorist organization, with the clearly stated aim of killing all the Jews in Israel and wiping Israel off the map. This became the ‘government’ of Gaza. Hamas accused Israel of war crimes, of keeping the residents of Gaza in poverty, oppressing the residents of Gaza with hardships, ignoring the humanity needs of the million plus people living there. Photos of the hardship were published, ruined buildings, destroyed schools and hospitals, little working infrastructure.
Other images also surfaced; those of modern malls, with Beverly Hills type stores and restaurants, large private homes with fancy cars. Israel claimed, as did many European countries, that millions of dollars were being funneled into Gaza to help the population but instead ended up with the Hamas leadership, not with the people. Hundreds of trucks, every day, arrive at the border control checkpoints into Gaza with medical supplies, building supplies, food, and other goods, transferring these goods to trucks belonging to Hamas; goods that disappeared from the people. Tunnels were discovered under the border to Israel. In those tunnels, Israel discovered much of the building supplies were used to support the tunnel construction. Medicine and medical supplies never made it to the hospitals in the refugee camps (yes, Gaza maintains refugee camps; that’s another story) but the clinics next to the fancy malls and homes were well stocked.
Back and forth. Back and forth.
In 1995, the US Congress authorized the US Government to move the United States Embassy from its current location in Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The Act, passed by the US Congress, affirms that every sovereign nation has the right to designate its capital. Israel did so in declaring Jerusalem its capital back in 1948.
Every President since 1995 has signed a waiver, delaying the move on National Security grounds. In February, 2018, the current President of the US declared that the US would open its embassy in Jerusalem by May 14, 2018.
For several months, there was little response from anywhere. Some began, in February and March, to voice opposition to the move, arguing that the move would not move peace negotiations forward between the Palestinian Authority (the Palestinian government in the West Bank) and Israel.
On March 30, the Hamas leadership began what they described as the great march of return, which is meant to demonstrate and force Israel to acknowledge and accept returning Palestinians to return to their former homes, homes they either left or were displaced from in 1947 and/or in 1967. On March 30, large demonstrations were held near the Gaza border fence. Thousands gathered in tents and marched toward the border. Tires were burned by the thousands, creating thick smoke which hid terrorists who fired into Israel at soldiers on the other side of the fence. Others attempted to breach the area near the fence, throwing explosive devices toward the fence, attempting to blow holes in the fence. Others began rushing toward the fence. Violence continued. Every day since the end of April, violence erupted from the camps set up near various locations along the border fences.
Hamas displays daily the names of those killed as innocent protestors. Israel publishes names of terrorists killed attempting to break through the border fence. Hamas claims indiscriminate shooting from Israelis result in dozens of innocent protestors killed or wounded. Israel publishes video accounts showing terrorists shooting from behind groups of people standing near the fence. Independent investigations have established that Hamas members regularly force citizens into buses they arrange, bring them to the border area and walk behind them toward the fence. Many children, according to these sources, are brought to the border area and told to run toward the fence area.
Israel counters the arguments against deadly use with the argument that it has no choice but to defend its sovereignty, as would any nation facing thousands of people attempting to forcibly break through an established border fence; especially a group (Hamas) whose literal mission is to kill Israelis and drive Israel into the sea.
Is the new violence a reaction to the US embassy being moved to Jerusalem? Is Hamas trying a new strategy, using massive numbers of people, burning tires, and daily demonstrations to mask their efforts to breach the border in order to gain access to Israel to once again, carry out their mission to kill Jews? The response by Israel will be to protect its borders, its people, from a terrorist organization, regardless of whether that organization is the recognized ‘government’ in place.
There’s an old saying that “the Arab nations can lose many wars against Israel but Israel cannot lose even one war against the Arab world.” Another one goes something like this; if the Arab countries put down their weapons and recognize Israel, there will be peace. If Israel puts down its weapons, there will no longer be Israel.
Back and forth. Who’s right? Who owns the problem? We all do.
Until and unless both sides recognize that Israel exists and Israel welcomes a Palestinian nation next door, with secure and peaceful borders, we will live blaming each other for the continued violence. Can Israel survive like this? It has no choice. Hamas gives Israel no choice but to defend its borders, its citizens, from an invasion meant to kill Israelis and destroy the nation.