For all those who were or are still screaming "free Gaza", please explain to me, if they are being held captive, why are we feeling jailed by them? My family of 8 still sleeps together in one room because of continued rockets to our area. The kids haven't played outside for 2 months. We can't work because it's too dangerous outside.
The summer-vacation-that-never-was is ending and now we can't send our kids to school because of continued rocket fire. (Although the same government who won't end this war, is telling us we are supposed to start school as scheduled , despite the dangers).
There are no sports, no means of excercise, to outlet to let off some steam (and we've got plenty!). I've got little boys who need to release their energy but can't, I've got teenage boys who have no social life, nowhere to just be teenagers , no privacy, no where to get rid of pent up energy. We can't travel, we haven't had a reason to laugh for 2 months, we are stressed , traumatized, scared, and we've been pushed to our limits, to the end of our ropes. If Israel is not a nice place to live, why continue? Why isn't our government doing anything about this? Why aren't there any words from our Prime Minister? Why isn't he out there explaining? When will this end? What is our goal (if there is one)? Why are we negotiating with terrorists? Maybe I'm old school, but from what I've been taught, negotiating with terrorists just brings more terror as we've seen over and over and over again. Why have we let Gaza have complete control of our lives (or deaths) in Israel? The death toll and the injuries from missiles are rising, yet nothing is changing with the government's tactics.
We are willing to give up our lives for our country, send our children into the army, live near the borders. But if our government is just using it's soldiers and it's citizens as decoys waiting for the slaughter, then the sacrifice doesn't hold such honor or appeal .
We've lost 64 soldiers in this war so far. Yes, we got many tunnels, but there are countless others left, we didn't bring Hamas to it's knees, they are still armed and dangerous and the missiles are still flying. So all those deaths were for what? How many of these wars will we have to fight? Will there still be an Israel to fight for when my children grow up ? The way this war, and the others previous, are being fought, we're starting to wonder.
In our area, 7 kilometers from Gaza, we haven't , for all these years had the Iron Dome and we don't have "bomb rooms". But now they've finally started building them for us . The ironic thing is, they are being built by "Palestinian" Arabs. Have you ever heard of such utter foolishness? The government is paying them to build bomb rooms for us, but I'm not sure I could take my family into the room when the sirens go off many times a day and night. Who has a declared enemy build "safe rooms" from their own (or their brother's) missiles (and during a war with them, at that)?
A little 4 year old boy was buried yesterday because he was killed by a missile at his home. How many little kids (or any one for that matter) are supposed to die before the government says "enough"? That little boy was running to a safe room because of a siren. His family lives 5 minutes from us. He could be anyone's little boy. That family will never be the same. If running to the "safe room" isn't good enough to protect ourselves, what is? We are raising a generation of traumatized children that no amount of counseling can fix. How can we let Gaza rockets tear our lives apart while our government does nothing?
I say nothing because although we shoot back, after almost 50 days of "war" they are still shooting almost 200 rockets into Israel everyday. Their terror infrastructure is everywhere. In the middle floors of high rise buildings (so they are protected from the bottom and the top), under schools, hospitals and mosques. They have underground tunnels built like a second city, weapons stashed, computers, bunkers, food, everything they need to continue the fight for a long time hidden amongst their citizens. So although we shoot back, we give the citizens a 10 minute warning to leave first (which gives the terrorists an advantage) , we usually don't shoot at these public places (which saves the terrorists the trouble of having to leave) , and we are very precise on our targets. They know all of this which gives them the advantage. They, on the other hand don't play by the same rules. Their's is pure terror for the sake of terror.
At least 40 Gazans have been shot by Hamas in the town square in broad daylight for the whole of Gaza to see . They were accused of giving information to Israel. There was no trial, to custody, no one phone call. They were just rounded up and killed while the others celebrated. Where were the TV cameras? Where are all the so-called humanitarians who care so much for Gazans? Little Gazan kids are being hung on fence posts by their shirts to act as shields for buildings where Hamas is shooting rockets. Where are the children's rights groups protesting this? Are they silent because Israel isn't to blame or are they just trying to think of a way to blame it on us?
We have been getting missiles now from Syria in the north. They are looking for the opportunity to attack us while we're being attacked from Gaza in the south. And today Abu Mazen announced he's going to the UN to change the map. The borders of Israel will be moved. There are maybe a million Jews living out there. If they draw new borders we will have to displace that many people and find a place to put them. Our army is taxed from all sides and a "safe place to be" is shrinking away. We will no longer have defensible borders to protect citizens from hostile enemies. Just one step closer to turning Israel into "Palestine".
In other news:
Today we saw in a magazine an ad for a motorcycle. On the motorcycle sat the "Ofnobank' . He was a bank robber who robbed many many banks while getting away on a motorcycle before he was caught and put in jail. Now he's out and being paid by motorcycle companies to advertise their motorcycles. There is even a caption saying who he is just in case our children wanted to know. What a role model. So I decided to write to the company and complain.
New children's toys have come out: an Iron Dome with missiles and Kassam missiles so the little kiddies can play real life bad guys vs good guys. What a nice birthday gift! Like we don't have enough of the real ones throught the day. As if guns weren't enough, now we can indoctrine our children with toy missiles. I'm wondering how Disney could fit those into Toy Story 4?
An American Marine originally from Israel came to visit his brother who is serving in the Israeli army. The moment he landed at the airport, the Israelis arrested him. He has been held in jail for a month so far. He left Israel before his draft into the army. Now that he has returned, they arrest him for draft-dodging. Why is he still locked up? Where are his people working to get him out? Will he be used in a terrorist swap for peace?
Is it just me, or Has the World Gone Mad?