Re “No Agreement Superior to a Bad Agreement”
[Editor’s Note: As Hamas terrorists continue firing rockets into Israel, sending frightened residents underground, our correspondent resumes her daily update.]
Dateline Jerusalem — I have a new name. Call me Confused. The cease-fire was supposed to end tonight. Israel stopped train service to the south. All day I heard the rumble, at times thunder, of jets flying fast and low overhead. I even hear them now. I felt secure that the Israeli Air Force was in the sky to protect Israel. The rhetoric in Israel was that the negotiators in Cairo were not to agree to anything that could harm Israeli security. Now there is another cease-fire agreement for an extension of 24 hours, with none of the changes Israel insisted upon.
What is going on? Why did the U.S. guarantee Israel's commitment to any agreement it signed? Will that agreement be another untenable deal forced upon Israel? It should have been the other way around, with the guarantee to Israel that Hamas will comply, considering that they have yet to abide by any agreements entered into in the past. I am confused.
I belong to an English-speaking list in my area. Someone from southern Israel posted a desperate request. “Would anyone care to help my son and I get out of Sderot by renting a tiny unit, possibly temporarily? We need two rooms (in Israel that means a one-bedroom with living room). The situation in Sderot is just impossible to cope with, most especially because I am unable to work when there is nightly bombing, which could happen at any time again. I am looking to do whatever it takes to move to a place with some English speakers and with a baseball field, out of the main war zone. My son is 11. Please let me know ASAP. Thank you.” Tonight she pleaded again, stating that whatever was offered was twice her budget. That simple heartfelt request brought tears to my eyes. No one thinks twice about the 300,000 displaced Israeli civilians that are victims of the Gaza war.
What About Us, Them?
The people in Sderot have been victims of rocket and mortar fire for the last nine years, starting the very day Israel, in a good faith gesture for peace, withdrew from Gaza and gave the area to the Palestinians. So much for “land for peace.” People in southern Israel learned to cope with only 9 to 15 seconds (not minutes) to make it to shelter before the rockets fell. Without an Iron Dome. Now the situation with tunnels from Gaza opening up into Israeli neighborhoods and school yards is more than most parents can bear. Why do they stay? Because it is so much less expensive to live there than the rest of Israel.
Everything Is Fuzzy
As reports come in, my mind is a complete blur with respect to this operation or war or whatever you want to call it. What happened? What was achieved? Why are we in this mess? I have many questions, few answers. As for rumors, each one seems worse. For example, the disarmament of Hamas is not even on the table for the current cease-fire agreement. Wasn't the whole purpose of entering into anything for the security of Israel?
Israel discovered a plot by Hamas to overtake the Abbas government with a coup. Once firmly seated in the “West Bank,” they were going to attack Israel from both sides. If Abbas is so weak that he can be easily overtaken, why is Israel giving the security of its border crossings for the inspection of goods into Gaza to Abbas? Obviously Hamas will overrun Abbas there. It is like giving Hamas the duty of policing itself. Why not just allow Hamas to re-arm, re-dig tunnels, and go for their goal of annihilating Israel? Idiocy.
Put Who in Charge?
Another suggestion is to allow Europe control of the border crossings. Anti-Semitism in Europe is spreading fast.
Israelis know the threat their Biblical “cousins” pose, and the Jews of Europe are fleeing to Israel for safety. For even a war with Gaza is safer than what is in store for them in Europe. It is not just an anti-Israel sentiment. Jews in Europe were harassed prior to the Gaza conflict. These are the people who are going to make sure Israel is protected? People who refuse to supply Israel with already-paid-for weapon components, people who outlaw kosher slaughter of meat, people who outlaw circumcision, people who cannot protect Jews living in their countries?
Not just in Europe, but in Australia, South Africa, much of South America. Fortunately, most Jews around the world are waking up to the reality of anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, those in the United States still seem to be in a dream world, thinking it won't happen there. This is not a Jewish problem. Non-Jews are beginning to see the dangerous relationship between pro-Islam and Shariah law taking over independent countries.
Many of my Jewish and non-Jewish friends in the United States view Israel as the front line, that when the only democracy in the Middle East goes, then the democracy in the U.S. is not far behind. Look how Shariah law has taken over Europe. When tough, husky dockworkers are afraid to unload goods from Israeli merchant ships in U.S. ports for fear of reprisal from pro-Palestinian factions, who will be next to fall under the thumb of extremists and/or terrorists? Even police officers are frightened to enforce laws in England and the United States.
Democracy cannot exist when there is lawlessness, insurrection, mob-mentality, chaos and turmoil. Those are conditions for anarchy. Democracy cannot exist under Shariah law. Wake up, America. Wake up, Europe. Wake up, world.
L'hitraot. Shachar