As I started taking notes on this post, so many thoughts came to mind that I didn’t know what to write first. Here is the final copy:
First, the back story of what provoked the current war which we defend was named Operation Protective Edge. Today, July 15, is the seventh day of the ongoing war.
On June 12th, three teens, Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Sha'ar,16, and Naftali Frenkel,16, were hitchhiking in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank. Two Hamas militants were disguised as religious Jews, which is what lured the teens to get in the car. After hearing this news, the IDF, or Israeli Defense Forces (the Army) was searching for the boys and the kidnappers around the area where it took place.
Shortly after the boys entered the car, they realized what was going on and one of the boys called an emergency service center. Just seconds after Gilad had told the operator they have been kidnapped, in panic, the militants fired at the boys ten times. The fact that they used a silenced firearm to kill the boys proves that this they intended to murder teens from the start.
The people behind this evil crime is a terrorist organization called Hamas. “The organization is based on an extreme religious ideology and is as committed to Jihad as its Islamist counterparts now carrying out terrorist atrocities in Kenya, Iraq, Nigeria and elsewhere. Hamas' "added value" is the antisemitism that is engrained in the core of its beliefs and its dedication to the destruction of Israel,” as quoted by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website. Not only did Hamas not take responsibility for the kidnapping, or any of it’s previous crimes against Israel but a Hamas spokesperson said the following: “any Israeli response will open the gates of hell,” as quoted by The Times of Israel article. Throughout the search, over 500 Palestinians thought to be a part of this abduction, mostly Hamas members, were arrested.
After 18 days of tireless searching, the country had received news that the bodies were found in a field less than 20 kilometers away from where they were abducted. Saddened by yet another tragedy, Israel and it’s people, gathered together to pray for these innocent boys’ souls. If you take one Israeli’s life, you take every Israeli’s heart with him. The people of Israel are a pretty united society, in part because of the size of the country. It is roughly the size of Maryland, the ninth smallest country in the US, with a total of 9,774 miles or 25,314 kilometers.
On television, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu declared that "Anyone trying to harm Israeli civilians will be harmed in return.” This is a fair statement considering Israel, just like any other country, has the right to defend itself and it’s people. If missiles are being launched at your citizens, would you take action or stand back and let them harm you?
Since the extremist organization Hamas were so outraged that we arrested so many of their people, including the Palestinian terrorist involved in the Gilad Shalit kidnapping, they started shooting missiles at Israel on July 8th. Another war had begun.
Tel Aviv has the hustle and bustle of a metropolitan city; cafes on every corner, chic restaurants and fashionable people. It has been compared to New York City many times. On the second day of the Operation, I was walking on Dizengoff Street, a main shopping street in Tel Aviv, and could not believe what I heard. No, not a siren. I could actually hear the birds chirping, not the people. It was almost silent. No screaming kids, no shouting friends, no cars honking, and not much laughter. The mood was somber and gloomy, instead of joyful and loud.
With five days of non-stop rocketfire coming into Israel, and the Israeli’s responding, PM Netanyahu warned Hamas that if they don’t take quiet for quiet, the situation will escalate.
40,000 reservists, including some of my friends, have been called to prepare for the next steps in this war. The soldiers will be on standby, ready to make a move at any moment!
Although Hamas is a very extreme terrorist group, they are good at one thing. Their Photoshop skills are up to par. What do I mean? Their people are very good at falsely showing the world what really happened. They edit a picture with Arab men on a mountain of rubble, from another war, and blame Israeli’s in the caption for the outcome of that picture. Oftentimes, the location of the old picture, is actually from another Muslim country, like in the link below. The original picture was taken in Syria a few months ago. Or better yet, they edit a picture to make it seem like the Israeli soldiers are attacking you! Also, all of their empty threats that Hamas will bomb all the cafes, and streets of Israel just proves to show that they know Israel has a stronger military and Air Force.
Once the siren goes off, how long do you have to get to safety? The times range from fifteen seconds to 90 seconds depending on the distance the Israeli city they are targeting is to the Gaza Strip. The neighboring Israeli cities of the Strip have fifteen seconds to run to safety. If the alarm catches a mom in the car with children, chances are they won’t make it to safety. Because of this life-threatening situation, most Israeli residents that surround the terrorists land have a room designated as the bomb shelter. In areas like these, the alarm sounds so often that they often stay in the shelter for hours on end. And if you live in an old building with no bomb shelter than the residents just stand in the stairways or hallways until the siren has ended. Hamas throws missles to cities and towns all across Israel, hoping to kill as many Jewish civilians as possible. But they have not succeeded in doing so.
Why does Israeli have almost no casualties and there are 1000+ dead in the Gaza Strip? The Israeli people can thank the Iron Dome, an anti-missle defence system, for their safety. After detecting the Red Alert siren that warns you to get to a shelter, the system determines under 10 seconds if the missle will land in an open field or hit a building. In case of the latter, the Iron Dome sends a counter-missle to intercept it in mid-air. The accuracy rate of the system is around 90 percent! The Iron Dome batteries are placed in cities where citizens are most threatened by missles. It is literally a lifesaver for all of the Israelis. Let’s look at the numbers, shall we? “Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge seven days ago, the IDF has attacked over 1,220 targets in the Gaza Strip, among them 632 rocket launchers, 130 military basis, 106 "command and control infrastructure” and 222 tunnels,” as read on the Ynetnews Facebook page. There has only been one casualty on the Israeli side and only a handful of wounded.
More details on how it works:
This is the best clip you'll see of the Iron Dome in action (notice the # of missiles):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152235745348225&set=vb.690623224&type=2&theater
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152235745348225&set=vb.690623224&type=2&theater
But what is the reason for such a gap in the death poll? Both the Gazans and Israelis are throwing rockets but both have different strategies and intentions. The Israeli Army’s goal is to kill ONLY the terrorists that threaten the lives of their citizens. It is proven that Israeli’s don’t want to harm those not involved, since their methods of attack is as follow: they drop 2,000 leaflets warning the Palestinians to leave the vicinity, since they will be attacking it shortly. A quote from a New York Times article, July 8th: “A resident of southeast Gaza receives a phone call saying ‘Everyone in the house must leave within five minutes, because it is going to be bombed.’ ” They also make over 100,000 phone calls to the residents telling them to evacuate. This is done to reduce civilian casualties. In addition, there is something called the ‘Roof Knock strategy.’ This is when a small rocket makes a small knock on the target, in order to warn them to evacuate the building before the real rocket hits.
Hamas deliberately tells people NOT to leave their homes when they receive the call or the leaflet. This way, they win either way; if the IAF (Israeli Air Force) does take action then the Palestinians can tell the media that the Israelis killed x number of their citizens. When the IAF doesn’t take action, because they see innocent civilians on the rooftops or around the target, then the terrorist was saved. They take advantage of the humane nature of the Israelis. Each year, Israeli hospitals open their doors to thousands of West Bank and Gaza residents! The picture below proves that Israeli's have a good heart by taking care of innocent people, even if they aren't their citizens. I challenge you to name ONE Army or country that is just as ethical as the IDF!
Hamas takes it one step further by disguising a military training compound (used as training grounds) in a terrorists house that is located in a schools backyard!!! So what does the inside of these ’houses’ look like?
This picture makes you realize that Hamas is protecting their missles with civilians and Israelis are protecting their civilians with missiles.
As
of today, July 15, 2014, the Air Force has the go ahead to resume airstrikes in
Gaza, after Gaza didn’t follow through with the cease-fire early this morning. “Israel had
struck 1,320 sites within Gaza resulting in 170 deaths and over 1,000 injured,”
as printed
on Wikipedia. From July 15th, more than 1,000 rockets
have been launched at Israel from Gaza into Israel. I am praying for the safety of the
Israeli citizens and even more, for the safety of the soldiers, who so bravely
defend our country! Also for this war to stop very soon, because neither side
deserves to live like this!
Here is a great video of ten myths that prevent peace with the Arabs:
This post is not meant to inflict hate on one particular group. It is meant to spread knowledge and the facts of reality.
I want to leave you with two quotes that explain the situation quite simply:
“Peace will come when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.”
-Golda Meir, 4th Prime Minister of Israel in 1969
“If the Arabs lay down their arms there will be no more war, but if Israel lays down its weapons, there would be no more Israel.
-PM Netanyahu
עם ישראל חי
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