Sheltered In Jerusalem
by Gil Troy
This Friday (the) lovely Sabath routine was shattered by the violent sounds of a louder, shriller, scarier siren, shortly after the Sabbath siren. S….. With Israel now more menaced by aerial missiles than suicide bombings, we convinced ourselves that Jerusalem was not only protected geographically from Gaza and Lebanon, but that these Islamic fundamentalist fanatics would not risk hitting the al Aqsa Mosque or neighboring Arab villages, despite their desire to target us.
This air raid siren heralded a new experience, an unwelcome initiation into the conflict. …Does anybody doubt that had the militatnts in Gaza stopped trying to destroy us that Israel would gradually have lifted whatever border restrictions remained?…Instead, the Palestinans, who now control their destiny in Gaza, made that strip of land the world’s largest launching pad for Kassam rockets, pounding Israelis who live within Israel’s internationally recognized, uncontested, post-1948 borders.
Their message has been clear: Jews get out. You don’t belong here. Your presence is so unacceptable to us we would rather invest in destroying you than creating anything for ourselves. …. I thought about how much my family and I have derived from being Jewish, from embracing the Zionist ideal, from living in Israel. We are sustained by the deep sense of belonging, the rich history, the enduring values, the sense of community, the extraordinary friends.
…it also made me angry that we—and so many others who indeed have “suffered 14,000 times worse”—have to pay such a high price,….. Without change on their side, that encourages the compromises, honors the peacemakers, and accepts the Jewish presence in the Middle East, we are all condemned to more rounds of suffering, more air raid sirens, more trauma, and more death. I know that they are not going away. But they should know that neither are we.