All Colors of Israel

2006-08-01T02:24:00.000-07:00

Shalon and Assalamu Aleikum,

As I am sitting in my relatively safe apartment in Jerusalem, nearly one million Israelis are sitting in bomb shelters across northern Israel, not knowing where the next Katyusha will land. For the last two and a half weeks, since the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers which resulted in a well calculated Israeli response, thousands of Katyusha missiles have been launched into Israel by the fundamentalist Islamic Shiite terror organization, the Hezbollah. Israeli children, both Arabs and Jews, have been living in constant fear. Entire families have been forced to pack their belongings and move south. Women were forced to give birth while missiles fall only a stone-throw from the hospital.

The photos from Lebanon are naturally terrible. In the last Israeli attack of Kfar Qana, approximately forty Lebanese children were killed. Who likes to see children get killed? Who likes war? Who likes seeing bodies on their TV screen? But in this entire war, more important questions have been deliberately forgotten by Europeans and by liberal Americans. Why has the Hezbollah been using the local population as human shields for the last six years? Why has the Hezbollah been shooting into Israel from people’s private homes and not from a “military base?” Why has the Hezbollah prohibited people from leaving their homes once Israel warned each and every Lebanese citizen that they must leave if they were to avoid being hit? Why have the Hezbollah stored their weapons in Christian and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods; in churches and in schools? Why has Resolution 1559, calling for the immediate disarmament of all military parties in Southern Lebanon, including the Hezbollah, never implemented?

Images taken by international media clearly show that the Hezbollah was using this specific building [where civilians were hiding] as a base from which Katyushas were launched into Haifa, Carmiel, Naharia and a dozen more Israeli cities, killing Israeli civilians nearly every day. Europeans and liberal Americans can continue yelling, “Murder! Murder!” as long as they want and blaming Israel for each and every catastrophe in the Middle East. But the simple (one would think!) fact is that Israel is doing what any other country would do in a similar situation –it is doing everything necessary to defend its citizens. The Hezbollah have used Lebanon for the last two and a half decades as a base for their terrorist activities. They have kidnapped Lebanon and have been raping it, literally. They have transformed a beautiful country known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East” into piles of rubble. They continued doing so, and firing missiles into Israel, even after Israel left Lebanon in 2000 after being there since 1982.

I left the USA after attending college and returned back home to Israel. Being back here has been en eye-opener in many ways. It is obvious to me that Israel can’t stop the fighting against the Hezbollah until the hypocritical, shameless UN decides to send international forces to replace the murderous Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon. When Hezbollah will decide to stop and the UN to act, Israel will also stop. But until then, the Israeli government will continue, must continue, doing what every European country and the US would do –sending the message to Israelis that unlike Lebanese citizens, they are being protected and taken care of.

Smadar BAKOVIC
Jerusalem, Israel

2006-06-20T23:40:00.001-07:00

Shalom and Assalamu Aleikum,

At a time when Israel is facing incredible difficulties due to it having to fight on both fronts, both in the north (due to a Hizbollah terrorist attack) and in the south (in Gaza), I would like to speak about the Hadassa Ein Karem Hospital in Jerusalem. The Hadassa hospital excellently portrays Israel's commitment to peace and the importance it gives to people's lives, regardless of who they are and what they believe.

All through the First and Second Intifadas, the Hadassa hospital has unconditionally treated both Israelis and Palestinians. It has even treated Palestinian terrorists caught before committing a suicide bombing, or those Palestinians who were injured after one of Israel's targeted assassinations. Hadassa does not, and has never differentiated among people based on who they are. In the hospital, hundreds of Arabs (Palestinian and others) receive the best treatment possible in the Middle East. Muslims from Zanzibar and other African countries flock to Hadassa to be treated by Israeli doctors.

If you visit the children's ward, where there are currently 8 beds for children ages 1-18, you'll see an amazing thing. On one bed lays a small baby from Gaza who was severely injured in one of Israel's targeted assassinations. His entire treatment is being paid by the Israeli Defense Force and the doctors are hopeful about his recovery. On another bed, a Jordanian girl is lying, surrounded by members of her family. The family is one of Jordan's wealthiest families, and knowing the committed and unconditional treatment the girl would be getting in Israel, preferred it over the Jordanian hospitals in Amman.

For a country which is always in some kind of war with its neighboring countries, it is not easy to always be forgiving. Imagine how people feel when a terrorist arrives at the hospital, needing medical treatment, just after murdering tens of Israeli civilians. But Hadassa has proven again and again that is an oasis of peace, where everyone is treated equally. What happens between its walls is completely detached from what happens outside of them. Many Palestinians from East Jerusalem, from the West bank and Gaza are also regularly admitted to Hadassa where they receive committed treatment. When Nonie Darwish's brother was to be taken to a hospital, someone asked, "Where should we take him? To Cairo or to Hadassa?" Another member of the family answered, "If you want him to live, take him to Hadassa." Hadassa saved his lives, just as it saves the lives of many other Palestinians and Arabs. Israel has a level of commitment to saving life which is unknown all over the Middle East where different radical fractions of Islam are murdering innocent civilians on a daily basis.

For Israel, human life is the highest value, and this is proven again and again in prisoner swaps where Israel gives hundreds of prisoners, often with blood on their hands, in exchange for one or two Israelis, usually dead. The Jewish tradition says that if you save one life, it's as if you have saved a world in its entirety. Israel has again and again proven that it represents life, even at the most difficult of times when it's under attack.

At this hard time, I am sending strength to Israel and to Israelis who are being bombarded by Hizbollah, a terrorist organization operating from within a sovereign country.

2006-06-20T23:40:00.000-07:00

Shalom and Assalamu Aleikum,

Nearly everyone seems to be preoccupied with the World Cup here in Israel and in the Palestinian Authority. In the afternoon, once the games start, the pubs here in Jerusalem are full of people, from all religions and ethnicities, holding a beer and cheering for one group or another. I watched the UK-Trinidad and Tobago game with my Palestinian friend Haytham and we were both cheering for the same team. I think we were the only ones who actually knew WHERE Trinidad and Tobago are located on the world's map –Sorry, Alake. I'm not a football fan at all, but what can one do when everyone else is watching and it becomes sort of a social thing?

In Israel all seems to be the same, but at the same time it's changing all the time. I guess this is Israel. The weather is becoming hotter, people are living their lives, the Kassam rockets are still being launched from northern Gaza and falling on Sderot (one of the closest Israeli towns to the Gaza Strip). It's strange when one really thinks about it. You occupy Gaza and you get Kassam rockets on Israeli towns and villages. OK, let's be "fair" and say that's what happens in a war. You unjustly occupy people and are resisted. Whether launching Kassam rockets at innocent civilians is the right way is, of course, debatable. But let's keep it this way for the sake of argument. Then you stop occupying Gaza. You uproot people from their homes (which I was definitely for and continue to be so) and move them across the border into Israel. But still, you have Kassam rockets falling on Israeli civilians. So you start wondering, as any other normal person (even if you’re a leftist), “Ok, so when we make more and more compromises and concessions, are there still going to be Kassam rockets flying all over? Suicide bombings, now demanding Tel Aviv and Haifa?” It's ironic, I never asked myself these questions until after the withdrawal from Gaza because I believe that then the Kassam launchings would stop. Am I still for making concessions? YES, most definitely. Am I naïve about the whole situation? No.

You see, the Palestinians deserve much better. Better than the terrible Israeli occupation and the corruption of their own government. Better than leaders who are offered 97% of the West Bank and Gaza and say "no," without coming up with a counter-offer. Better than being caught between the Fatah and Hamas, two groups who apparently care nothing about them whatsoever. Better than having to pass checkpoints whenever wanting to leave their villages and towns and being detained for hours. Better than living under the Israeli occupation and lacking self-determination. They deserve a good education, good jobs, freedom of movement. They deserve everything people in other countries deserve. Just like the Israelis deserve security. A country of their own. The right to exist in the eyes of the world.

Some of the responses I got to my Blog show so well the attitude to Israel. If an Israeli says, "I love Israel, the UN is a hypocritical body and Israel has a right to exist," you are considered a "nationalist and a Palestinian hater." My Jordanian acquaintance loves to pretend that she loves and cares about the Palestinian people. But she is very comfortable living a stone throw away from huge Palestinian refugee camps. Or being from the small Jordanian minority controlling a Palestinian majority. Or living her wealthy life while Jordanian Palestinians rot. Strange, don't you think? My Turkish friend said I am "nationalistic." I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Does he not know that the word “nationalistic” means? When I was in Turkey and Northern Cyprus, all I heard from both sides was how great they were, loved their countries and how the other side is nationalistic. Ironic, don't you think? I wonder why the only country in the world which according to many "has no right to exist" is Israel. Not Saudi Arabia (no democracy, abuse of women and religious minorities), Iran (a country calling for the annihilation of another UN state and which is spreading fundamental Islam), Sudan (ethnic cleansing is taking place every day), Syria (still occupying Lebanon) etc. But the responses only serve my purpose: Israel is being singled out.

I hope and pray that the Kassam rockets will stopped being launched from Gaza so that the peace process can continue without being disturbed and without Israel having to respond with their military. Once the Kassams stop, Israel will stop. This I can assure all of you. The question that also needs to be asked: Once Israel stops, will the fundamental Palestinians stop? Will those who are ruining everything for everyone else stop, on both sides, will stop?

Think about it.

Smadar

2006-06-19T04:12:00.000-07:00

Shalom and Assalamu Aleikum,

When I was 19, I, as most other Jewish Israeli teenagers, joined the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces). I had finished taking my matriculation exams a few months earlier and had returned from a trip to France and England. At that time, I was not really politically involved and I didn't know much about the difficulties facing both Israeli and Palestinian societies. During my army service (I was in the Givati Infantry Platoon), my unit moved from South Lebanon to the Golan Heights and finally to the Gaza Strip. I was quite oblivious to the reality surrounding me.

In August of 1996 I was finished my military service and felt that I had to get out of Israel. Although, as I have mentioned before, I was not at all politically oriented, I did feel that my army service had changed me in an unexplainable way. I felt claustrophobic and that Israel was not for me. I even thought I might never return to it. I worked for a few months and then left for the United States. I intended on staying there for a month of two and then continuing somewhere else, but ended up staying there for approximately 7 years.

In the United States, I attended two colleges. The first college, Northwest College, was located in Powell, Wyoming. Just like as when I was living on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, I was nearly the only Jew living there. Most people around me were religious, observant Christians; many were Mormons. There were hardly any Muslims on campus, and no Palestinians. I wrote about Middle Eastern issues for the college's newspaper and was never really challenged. The second College, Bates College, is located in Lewiston, Maine, about 3 hours north of Boston. That is where I really started feeling how unjustly Israel is being portrayed in a lot of the world's media outlets. It's not that I started believing that Israel is an innocent entity, never capable of making any mistakes. Not at all. There were things Israel did that I was ashamed of --I always condemned these actions. However, I did start to see that many people hated Israel only because it existed, and that many people had blatantly lied about it. I started to see that the "battle" awaiting me, as a lover and supporter of Israel, would be a harsh one.

Bates College never had a large Muslim and/or Palestinian community. But Palestinian propaganda infiltrated the campus more than once and I, as the only Israeli student, found myself in a very hard position: having to defend Israel. How can one defend a country against which so many lies have been told --so many lies, that many people actually believed it? Anti-Israeli movies were shown on the college's campus. A "stick and paste" Palestinian exhibition was brought to campus. A distorted panel-discussion took place. How could I fight against all this?

The worse thing was that most Jewish students had no desire whatsoever to defend Israel. Many of those who did want to defend Israel had no clue how to go about it because they didn't know enough. And I, truthfully speaking, also didn't know all the facts, all the details and all the information needed to "put up a good fight." And if I knew the facts, I didn't necessarily know how to present them to the public. I had all the will, and I had good intention, but I didn't have the tools. Something was lacking.

In the next few years, I became more and more aware of what was going on all over the United States and in Europe, regarding Israel's image. I remember bursting out crying more than once after attending (as an observer) an anti-Israel demonstration, gathering or a UN session. While working for one of the Jewish organizations in Manhattan and serving as a sort of UN Watch for them, I was even more discouraged. How could an organization such as the UN be so hypocritical? How could it allow the Arab and Muslim countries to control it? Why did different standards apply to Israel? Why could the Palestinians pass a resolution for the protection of Palestinian children, and the Israelis could not? Why was everyone blaming Israel all the time, and ignoring other injustices happening in the Middle East or elsewhere? Why did the The World Conference against Racism in Durban (2001) demonize and then isolate Israel while massacres in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe were ignored?

These questions were pounding in my mind.

In June 2006, I attended a PR conference with one of the Jewish American organizations in Washington DC. The aim was to provide us with the necessary tools to defend Israel. It brought everything back home, maybe for the first time. I felt more and more that I was right in my choice of a career - defending Israel.

I write about Israel because I believe it is a wonderful country, full of amazing people. Because it is making an effort to keep its democracy in spite of its geographical and political situation. I am writing about Israel because I want people to know also (not only) about Israel beyond the Israeli-Palestinian/Israeli-Arab conflict. To say that Israel is always innocent would be a lie, but to say that Israel is always wrong, that it does not desire peace and that it is not worthy of existing is every a bigger, more distorted lie which I will not stand for. I now live in Israel (after lving in the USA, Turkey and Switzerland for nearly 9 years) and can't imagine living anywhere else, especially due to growing antisemitism in Europe and other parts fo the world.

I hope to create a respectful and honest discussion here in this blog. All ideas are welcome. I hope that more people will see Israel for what it is: a beautiful country in which real people live, full of good and bad, just like any other place.

Shalom and Salam,
Smadar