Am Israel Chai!

As most people have probably heard already, there has been a ceasefire called in the tensions between Israel and Gaza. 

Last Monday, Matthew and I chose to attend a rally in support of Israel at our local Jewish Community Centre - the Schwartz-Reisman Centre - where we listened to speeched from our federal government representatives as well as local representatives.  We also saw (as we were at a satellite location, this was all viewed on a video screen) four young members of the Israel Defense Forces who introduced themselves.  Not one of them was over 22.

During the conflict, I reached out to an officer in the IDF, who I met on my trip to Israel last year.  I wanted to be sure she was safe and well.  She was, and she assured me she did not believe the conflict would last very long.

So now it comes down to my own personal opinions now that the conflict has resolved, for the time being.

What do I think should have occured between Israel and Gaza?

Part of me thinks Gaza should have been "bombed into the Middle Ages" simply because their own political charter is one of extremism, and extreme denial of Israel's right to exist.  They have proven time and time again that their agenda is no more than wiping Israel and all the Jews off the face of the Earth.  

But, on the other hand, that's not to say there aren't innocent people living in Gaza.  Just as there were Nazi dissenters living and acting as though they supported the Nazi party and Hitler's "Final Solution", I am sure there are Gazans living as though they support Hamas (they're a recognized terrorist group - their aim is terror - wouldn't you act as though you supported them, to their face, rather than face the alternative - a painful existence leading up to a painful and humiliating death?) but who in actuality and underground, don't.

On neither side do I feel that a single drop of civilian blood should have been shed.  Unfortunately, in times of war, that is often the case.

It has been well documented that the rockets launched from Gaza were housed in densely populated areas, often from apartment buildings, schoolyards, and near mosques and other areas where civilians would likely be.  Even if the IDF were to have targeted only rocket launch sites, they'd be targeting densely populated areas.  The spilling of innocent blood would be impossible to avoid.

In Israel, several civilians (far, far fewer than in Gaza) were killed by rocket attacks.  Two of the dead were IDF members.

But what made this conflict worse, wasn't the amount of rockets being launched and where they were being launched from, but from what essentially was a war in social media.  Photos of dead and injured babies were posted by the Palestinians claiming the children had been killed or injured in Israeli airstrikes.  Only to have those photos debunked as either being from the conflict still raging in Syria, or in one case, the photo of an injured "Palestinian" baby, actually being of an Israeli baby!  The BBC ran a clip of an 'injured' "Palestinian" and 32 seconds later in the same clip, the injured man is walking around as if nothing had happened.

So, what's the truth? What's really going on?  I think, unless you're actually in the conflict zone, and seeing it all with your own eyes, we'll really never know.

All I can say is "Am Israel Chai!" Whatever is going on, I always stand with Israel.