# 263 – Defending My Children

August 1, 2014

I’m starting this (not sure when I shall finish it..) just as the loudest BOOM sounds above our heads. No warning. This one was intercepted by our Iron Dome system. Most, if not all, missiles from Gaza are sent haphazardly – no warning, no idea if it’s going to hit an open field or the densely populated area where I live.

But some get through. One exploded in a populated area of Kiryat Gat, south of Tel Aviv. No casualties this time. (A Hamas leader sent an open letter last week to the Arabs of Israel, saying that they were NOT targeted; only the Jews……Oh, so now their missiles are targeted?)

You’re right, World Opinion, it’s horrible what’s happening to the innocents.

The fact that most blame Israel is what we have grown to expect; we are not easily going to change unchangeable views.

The fact that Hamas is a disaster for their own people and for decent society in general appears to be known by most, but as there is no solution, blame Israel, which, you think, has the power and decency to recognise when to stop. (There are also those of you who do NOT believe Israel is a decent and vibrant democracy. They are not the ones to whom I am writing this. They are a waste of my time and intelligence….I am being diplomatic in an English way).

How about this irrefutable statement: Israel and Palestine are 2 rich little countries fighting each other. In one, there is the usual corruption, mixed with energy, industry, culture and balanced education. In the other, the leaders grabbed the money, investing most in either aggression against their neighbour or lining their pockets.

Their leader is setting a great example, having moved from the disaster zone of Damascus (oooh, too many deaths and too much oppression there) to the cuddling arms of Qatar, the relatively-richest nation in the World.

How can I best put it, so that you understand what it is like to be attacked, and attacked, and attacked ceaselessly by someone who really wants to kill you? 

Try to imagine that most dangerous of animals: the grandfather in charge of his grandchild (especially a granddaughter). An elderly lady once had the gall to push my Naya’s legs together while in her ‘stroller’, as their splayed position was taking up too much space. I did not kick the woman’s hands away, but I imagined doing so.

OK, that’s a joke.

But now compare that with someone who comes to the grandchild and sticks a little knife into the child, again and again and again. And when they come out of prison, they walk up to the child and do it again and again. Let’s expand on that. Imagine ‘they’ are kids aged perhaps 13. Old enough to know, but also scared and stupid enough to be influenced by their big brothers, dads, schoolteachers.

Whom should grandfather defend against?

And my priest, rabbi, pastor or (well-meaning imam) is telling me to turn the other cheek, to buy the little kid a bicycle, to buy their mother some flowers or to contribute to the construction of a community centre for them.

Believe it or not, we’ve actually done all that. And I can prove it.

But the bad advice keeps coming to that kid, and the knife keeps going in to my child.

I cannot imagine even a Jehovah’s Witness holding themselves back. I cannot believe in such blind faith.

We ALL would protect our grandchild.

I’m getting emotional? When someone among you complained to me that the security fence around the West Bank was disrupting Palestinian lives, I said that that means little to me compared to the fact that it had saved my daughters’ lives. You’re being emotional, said that person. My children’s lives against ‘inconvenience? That fence stopped a horrible wave of suicide bombing.

And by the way, those suicide killers came from the West Bank, not Gaza. Look at the West Bank today. There is ‘hope’ of peace. We see their society improving daily. But Hamas is still there, and we have to continue to be careful.

What’s happening today in and from Gaza is another form of suicide bombing. And we are ALSO the victims, and we have every right to protect our daughters.

So, you may still say that 2 wrongs do not make a right. But while we are busy protecting everything we love, everything we have built for ourselves, our very lives, please come up with a long-term solution.

And do not wait too long. Those 13 year-olds are playing in a street near you.

It is Friday morning. The 72-hour ceasefire has started. The silence is deafening…

Stephen

PS – I HAVE to refer you this link – http://www.youtube.com/v/uIEeiDjdUuU&autoplay=1 – Depending on your point of view, it’s funny, stupid, amusing, true and ridiculous. But I tell you 1 thing: the ONLY relatively stable society in the Middle East over the last 60 years has been…you know where. The real Arab Spring?