I am ​completely baffled by ​world ​reaction to​ ​Operation Tzok Eitan. It takes a lot to render me, a wordsmith since birth, ​speechless and yet, ​here I am. I shake my head with utter incredulity every time I hear but what about the children, the women, the hospitals, the mosques, the schools, the puppies Israel’s destroyed. ​ The facts on the ground, in the air and everywhere in between validate Israel’s mission as a defensive one, though few seem to believe it. The math is simple: You try to kill me + I defend myself= only one of us is walking away from this and it ain’t gonna be you!
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People I know, people I don’t know​,​ and celebrities who claim to know what they’re talking about, just aren’t getting it and it’s driving me INSANE! ​Israel does not want to be in a war. We’ve been in too many to count and don’t enter into them lightly. We were presented with the math equation above and are responding in kind. There have been civilian deaths ​in Gaza ​and while truly unfortunate, I believe the people we’re defending ourselves against are largely to blame. ​H​ere’s another equation​: ​ Innocent civilians + unguarded missiles and launch pads= senseless deaths caused by the people shooting the missiles at us. Despite the materials we’re dealing with, this is not actually rocket science.
I am a social worker by profession. As such, my skill set includes listening to all sides of a story, helping folks listen ​to ​each other, and bridging gaps and misunderstandings. There is often quite a bit of pain involved in this process​, as multiple​ and historic layers​ ​of hurt must be peeled away in order to find out why what happened the​n​, matters now. ​ Sometimes ​people are able to make the pieces fit, and sometimes ​they can’t. Conflict resolution​, whether in a clinical setting, group setting, or mediation, ​​involves finding a middle ground that allows for compromise​ ​and is fostered by mutual respect ​.​ Its a bit like a dance that can be beautiful, graceful even, or downright sloppy.
I have heard it said that what ​Israel and Hamas need to ​do is ​sit down, listen to each other, and come to a mutual understanding, a compromise. But here’s the thing. There are certain situations in which compromise is simply not possible. For example, one cannot be a ‘little pregnant’ or ‘sort of dead’; you either are or you aren’t. Two plus two equals four, we need air to breathe, and I will always be short. No matter how much I try to manipulate the numbers, hold my breath, or stand on my tippy toes, none of these will change.
And so it is with this war. I believe that the situation has to change​ (read: stop trying to kill us and we won’t have to defend ourselves)​. ​ ​I also believe that there is no warm, inviting, sensitive way to ​approach ​compromise​ with people actively seeking our physical and spiritual demise. To be clear, Hamas ​and all their cohorts and fellow terrorists want Israel and Jews dead. ​The ​Jews in Israel and abroad want to live; there’s no happy medium here​. You can sing the praises of engaging people, of empathy and sincerity, but it boils down to this: They ​don’t want us to breathe and we do. Remember, you can’t be “sort of” alive or “sort of” dead. ​Clearly ​we have a problem here. ​
It’s exhausting to speak with folks who are pro- Palestinian and think Israel got bored one day and started killing people for the heck of it. Explaining ​who started indiscriminately sending rockets into Israel, who uses their women and children as human shields, who tries to kill ​us and ​then ​ends up taking out their own, well, it’s starting to feel pointless. If I say, “Hamas built tunnels meant for our destruction,” there’s someone there to say, “but if they weren’t occupied, they wouldn’t fight back. ​”​ If I say, “I feel badly for the innocents who’ve been killed,” there’s someone there to say, “Yeah, well at least you have an Iron Dome!” If I say ​”​there’s no excuse for terrorism in any form,​”​ there’s someone there to say, “They don’t have a choice. They are fighting their oppression.”
​Look, love us or leave us because we’re gonna do what we need to do to survive. We get money from other countries, that is true. And there are countries that support our defense and understand both our right and responsibility to protect our people and our Land. But our gratitude for those things cannot include selling our souls to the devil. You don’t have to like us, what we stand for, who we are, how we live, or the air we breathe. But there are boundaries and I’m setting mine in the sand here and now. I do not have to explain myself or why I don’t like ducking missiles. I don’t have to explain why my country’s ability to protect me doesn’t make me spoiled, as much as it highlights how much your leaders lack in the “respect-  for- life” department. I don’t have to explain why I want to live, why I think Hamas’ moral compass is non- existent, or why I think terrorizing those granting you humanitarian aid so you can use it against us, is wrong on every possible level. This isn’t a popularity contest; its a fight for survival.
Our response to a war we did not start personifies ​the unpopular, embodies the unfavorable, and dignifies the undesirable. We get it. You don’t get us and frankly, I’m tired of trying to explain. Death tunnels, kidnappings, mortars and missiles kept in UN sponsored schools, hospitals, private homes and near innocent kids, and plans for a mass murder on Rosh Hashanah. We fight back and we’re wrong? Do you even hear yourselves?
I believe that we complicate things far more than ​necessary. I also believe that there is a ridiculous amount ​o​f stupid in the world and that it breeds and reproduces faster than it should. That said, I also think there are a tremendous amount of intelligent, bright, thinking individuals in the world. And yes, I believe that sometimes, the stupid have moments of bright and the bright have moments of stupid. Of late, it feels like there’s an overabundance of stupid​- loud, blaring, it- doesn’t- matter- what- you- say- ​or- how- you- say- it ​STUPID. ​You want to listen to what we have to say and learn a thing or two? Awesome! You want to stick your head in the sand and pretend we need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya with people who want to annihilate us? You are certainly entitled to your opinion. Regardless, we’re going to continue to forge ahead. That’s what we do. ​
But know this​. ​
If you expose your stupid ​and tell me we should just sit back and let the bombs rain down on us, use restraint, or call another pointless ceasefire, ​ I will call you out on it.
I have simply had enough. ​