Humble Opinions

Being Israeli for a total of 6 days, I can definitely say I am proud to be so. I am proud to have immigrated during a war and to show my support, and am most proud of how the Israeli army has been handling their strikes thusfar. One might think it somewhat evil of me to be proud of the Israeli army, who in the last 8 days has been responsible for over 50 Palestinian civilian deaths, but I think those people are not seeing the full picture.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, and destroyed the Israeli civilian settlements there, forcing thousands of Israelis from their homes, jobs, communities, and ways of life. This was done to “give the Palestinians a shot” at living without Israeli security in their midst, and as a token for peace. Hamas quickly seized control of the strip, and ousted the ruling Fatah party out of power, blindfolding many Fatah leaders, and throwing them of the roofs of buildings (I’ve seen videos).

Since then, Hamas has been smuggling thousands of Iranian/Syrian rockets, machine guns, and armor into Gaza via underground tunnels they dug from Egypt. From the 2nd day that Israel withdrew from Gaza, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been firing rockets into Israel, at this point totaling to 6,000 - all aimed at civilian settlements. Also, Hamas captured an Israeli solder and has held him hostage, offering to trade him for 1,000 jailed Palestinian/Hamas militants.

Israel has spent 3 years warning Hamas to stop the rocket fire, and have been pushing the political front both in the United States, and at the UN - all to no avail. Also keep in mind that this has been happening simultaneous to Israel’s Hizballah threats and 2006 Lebanan war coming from the North, and an Iranian nuclear threat that has been building.

The reason I am so proud to support the Israeli army is because they are acting in the most humane way an army ever has compared with similar circumstances. Consider what America’s response would be to Hamas shooting rockets into southern California. There has never been a single reported case of an Israeli soldier raping an Egyptian, Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian, Arab, or Palestinian. Israel never knowingly targets civilians, and many times gives civilians warnings about pending Israeli attacks.

In the last week, Israel has done a few very smart things:

1. It allowed around 400 foreigners to safely exit Gaza before any ground invasion took place. I can’t think of another army that has done that.
2. It dropped leaflets all over Gaza written in Arabic, explaining that Hamas militants will be targeted in the Israeli campaigns, and if a civilian hides or helps a Hamas militant, they are putting their life in danger.
3. The IDF called Gazans and left voicemails informing them of the pending attacks, and told specific civilians to leave their areas, to avoid any kind of injury.
4. The IDF has mounted cameras into all of their airplanes, and is capturing every bombing on tape. They opened a YouTube channel and are posting videos of the IDF targeting Hamas militants as they load missiles to fire into Israel. They also have been posting videos of the IDF destroying weapons/explosive warehouses, in which a secondary explosion is seen in the video, caused by the Hamas explosives in the buildings.
5. They even mounted cameras onto the Israeli rockets themselves, and have posted many “rocket view” video clips of them specifically targeting Hamas offices, militants, and ships.

How many armies do any of those? There is no count of Iraqi casualties from the American invasion, but I believe there have been literally millions of Iraqis killed, the overwhelming majority being civilian. Compare that with Israel, who is targeting militants only, doing everything to keep civilian casualties down, and is currently keeping a 20% civilian casualty rate. I’m not saying 20% is good, it’s horrible. I, as well as the IDF, are hoping for a 0% civilian casualty rate, but if you compare that with other world armies, the number is extremely impressive. Compare that with the enemy, Hamas, who solely targets civilians, and whose goals are to inflict as much death and tragedy as they possibly can.

In light of the attacks, Israel has closed many of its schools that are within range of Hamas rockets, and are running classes online for its students instead. Israeli President Shimon Peres kicked this off by giving the first online class in Social Studies himself! Want to guess whether Hamas has done the same for the Palestinians?

Here is a small comparison chart between Israel and Hamas:

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen a clearer picture of good vs evil in my life. I have many friends serving in the Israeli army. On Saturday, when the IDF was calling their troops up preparing for the invasion into Gaza, all 4 of my roommates were called up, and 1 other friend of mine as well. I know the people fighting for Israel. They are good people, and they want to bring peace to Israeli citizens and their children living under barrages of rockets for years. Hamas, on the other hand, beheads Israelis on video and posts it to the Internet.

I can’t understand how any of this blame can be placed on Israel.

Tags: gaza strip, hamas, israel

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