You keep hearing from Israel supporters, “What would you do?” Well, just think about it. What would you do if someone across the street from you, holding a baby, who wants to kill you just because of your religion, no matter where you are, was shooting at your children? Well, what would you do? For those of you who do not know, my parents were Holocaust survivors. My mother was in Auschwitz and my father, after escaping from a forced labor camp, was a partisan fighter against the Nazis. Both of my parents lost nearly everyone in their families, gassed to death and then burned to ashes in concentration camps. When it comes to the Jewish people, children of holocaust survivors or not, we know about genuine genocide and ALL of us are survivors. Through centuries of hatred, the crusades and pogroms, inquisitions, expulsions, forced conversions and sanctioned, organized death. I could go on and on and on. You would do what Israel is doing, and you know it. And you would call the shooters terrorists and not freedom fighters or militants. (I so hate that word, militants. The media just can’t tell it like it is. Those who perpetrated 9/11 can be called terrorists. Those from the same ideology and radical family cannot, if they murder Israelis.)
But some of you ask, “Does that justify killing innocent civilians?” You know what? As brutal as it sounds, yes. Innocent civilians dying is horrible. But the fault lies not with Israel whose soldiers hate doing what they have to, but with the terrorists who value death over life, and who instruct, even demand, Palestinian children from an early age do the same. Even today, as nutty as it sounds, Hamas, as well as other Jew-haters, unabashedly repeat the old Blood Libel, that Jews killed Christian children to get their blood to bake into Passover Matzohs! Again, dealing with crazies like that who are trying to murder your child, what would you do? The choices are bad, but you would be forced to choose, and you would choose the one that saved your family. And, as Israel does, you would call it self-defense.
“You think that Israel is always right.” No, my friends, I don’t, but there is a war on now and war sucks and isn’t perfect. Israel puts its own soldiers at risk to limit Gazan casualties, but as hard as it tries, mistakes happen. And the enemy and its supporters are only too willing to exploit and misrepresent the tragic loss of life, to make you feel bad, to tear at your heartstrings. Please understand this; Israel would hold its soldiers to the highest standards even if the international media, the United Nations and the world weren’t so obsessed with it. And to those of you and others, especially those who are prominent and pampered, who think you know enough to criticize and condemn Israel, I ask, if you had the choice, under whose government would you rather live, Israel’s or Hamas? Try protesting, even for a minute in Gaza against Hamas brutality and corruption, against anything in fact. Try even just writing a letter to complain. You would not last the day. No, Israel isn’t perfect, what democracy is? But you would rather be there than anywhere else in the Middle East. And you know it.
“But it is so lopsided. So many Gazan deaths, so few Israeli deaths.” Would you feel better if 1000 more Israelis had been killed? How about 2000? What number would make you feel more comfortable? Jews do not go quietly to their deaths anymore and that confuses those who wax nostalgic over past stereotypes. My friends, Israel protects its citizens, even its Palestinian Arab citizens, many whose sons and daughters fight in the IDF, alongside, even commanding, Jewish soldiers. When Israel’s citizens are not building and racing into bomb shelters, they are innovating to make the world a better place for everyone, EVERYONE. When they are not creating missile defense systems, they are winning Nobel prizes in chemistry, economics, literature and peace. It is because Israelis want to live, and live normal lives. They do not spend every moment of every day hating and hoping and plotting to kill Arabs. It is just the opposite with the radical Islamists. They are so filled with hatred, they would rather their own people live in squalor and die as human shields, as long as they can kill Jews (and Americans too). And they would rather use every dollar not stolen by their corrupt leadership for mansions and getaway villas, not on hospitals and hotels and schools and an economic infrastructure, but instead to manufacture and buy offensive weapons to use against Israel, and to build tunnels into Israel to kidnap and slaughter men, women and children.