Rockets hit Jerusalem, hatred hits Israel
Il Giornale, November 17th 2012
My friend Ruthie lives in the center of Jerusalem. At first she thought it was the siren’s wail that marks the beginning of Shabbat, when people smilingly wish each other Shabbat Shalom, people of Israel, have a peaceful Saturday. It actually was the alarm warning of an incoming rocket. Where will it hit, what will it hit, go, run, you have fifteen seconds to find a concrete ceiling. The prolonged and shrill blast made her then realize it was an air raid siren but she was too far away from a shelter so she went and crouched into the stairwell, as drilled by the radio: drink as soon as you can, breath deeply, do not move for ten minutes, help the elderly, and please even though it’s Shabbat don’t go to the temple, unless it’s protected. Pray at home alone instead.
It was the first time that Jerusalem was hit since 1990, when Palestinians on top of their roofs would invite Saddam Hussein to strike, although their brethren live in some of Jerusalem neighborhoods, too. Now, you hear them firing guns in the air celebrating the good news that Jews are being struck. The foundation of the State caused undaunted, religious hatred, and the responsability falls as well on the irresponsible failure of the West to understand Israel’s reasons to fight its attackers, full of hate, coming from all sides. It’s difficult to understand why the world doesn’t get it, and doesn’t come to the rescue while Egypt and Turkey in chorus are issuing curses in the background of a fogey and bad faith counter-melody which equally urges all sides to the calm.
Don’t say that the situation is complex, puh-leeze, as only a bad faith can prevent from chronologically listing the sequence of events: hundreds of rockets fired from Gaza, two million people under fire, a defense reaction that any country would have duly undertaken. The keys to the peace are in the hands of one side only, i.e. Hamas: if they stopped firing grad and fajr rockets, Israel would not go on, not even for another second, striking terrorists’ nests, missiles depots and tunnels, many of which are in populated areas. The Palestinian population mingled with terrorists would immediately stop suffering. Hamas however didn’t refrain from firing a barrage of rockets, not even during the visit of Egyptian Prime Minister Isham Kandil, while Hanje was lightheartedly walking on the street, whereas Israel on the other hand did refrain from attacking during the meeting.
Unlike Hamas, Israel’s goal is not to destroy its enemy, nor to provoke Egypt, while Hamas really has all the interest in doing so. It was the Jewish State that vacated Gaza just few years ago.. a State that cares about the life and health of each one of its citizens, who doesn’t want to suffer wound or dead soldiers, nor afflicted children, be they its own or Gaza’s. Hamas on the contrary aims at destroying Israel; to this purpose it indoctrinates its own so that they become shahids, martyrs of the holy war; not caring for their lives and well-being, they mix militants with civilians in order to create incidents for which Israel will be blamed.
Do you really need a degree to understand such simple truth? Shabbat Shalom Israel. Friday and dsaturday were loaded with symbols, the Islamic world is delighted that the radio speaker, constantly interrupting programs to say “tzeva adom” red color, alarm, run to shelters, listed with pretended phlegm the names of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv among the other cities under fire. So in Jerusalem the Holy the raid siren is confused with the beginning of the holy day, what else could you possibly do, while the cold wind blows through the black cypresses and people rush to their family dinner on Friday night. What about Tel Aviv on Friday, at the week-end, are you joking? The rocket is fired from Gaza, but you are sitting at a cafe with your friends and rest and fun are about to start. Friends are crowding at cafe tables full of drinks under the sun. Where’s the shelter, where can the gleeful heart of Israel take cover from the attack, where exactly should girls in shorts sit in the silence of concrete, where will Tel Aviv place its old Polish intellectuals, who always stayed a bit communist inside. Israel is made for peace, like all democracies, and has to fight a tough war, and will do it well, as usual. But now the siren wails, children take it off while their mothers take them back and drag them to a shelter, Sderot, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Bersheeba, cities regularly afflicted, not quite interesting areas for the big cities are now bonding with Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in their contrition watching the sky in flames. “Half of the country is under fire. Now you to, tel avivis, can understand what it means to be at home and not to feel safe within your own walls.” that’s what a young man from Beersheba is saying on the radio. He is one of the 75 thousand reservists, who these very hours are taking leave of their wives, parents, and children. The government will decide in the next few hours whether to send them to the front line either as infantry or on tanks, and you would say that when you talk with them, smiling, calm, full of a sense of sad reponsability and of a deep joy of life.