Sderot and Gaza

I thought this exchange between two women on opposite sides of the Palestinian/Israel divide was quite instructive.

Israel:

I know this may be difficult to believe based on the way Israel is presented in the Arab world, but the Israeli army does not intend nor want to kill innocent Palestinian women and children. The IDF enters Gaza to eliminate the terrorists who terrorise Israelis.

I feel your pain at the innocent lives taken in this warfare. And remember that most of the rockets are launched from civilian areas like schoolyards and hospitals.

It is very difficult to target Palestinian terrorists when they use women and children as human shields.

Hamas times its rocket fire so that Jewish children will be the most likely targets. It fires Qassam rockets early in the morning when they go to school and in the afternoon when their parents pick them up.

This “symbolic” war by Hamas is not being waged solely against our soldiers, but against us - the Jewish people.

Palestine:

On terrorism… why is launching “crude and inexpensive” weaponry on the children of Sderot considered terrorism, when F16s and Mercava tanks killing children inside their homes in Gaza is not?

Samar and Samah were two sisters, aged 13 and 23, who were together at home in Gaza when an Israeli shell killed them last month. They weren’t resisting anyone.

Complete avoidance of the real issue - the IDF was aiming at terrorists who hid behind children, Hamas was aiming at children, or whoever happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. That is terrorism.

Again from Israel:

You say your family originally came from Ashkelon. I am curious, where did your great-great-great grandparents originally come from? How long had they been here?

I too have family who were displaced. My grandmother left Poland because of the growing fear of Nazi control. She managed to escape to Israel but her entire family was killed in the Holocaust before they could join her. She never went back to Poland.

Do you believe that the Jewish people have a right to live in this land? Do you recognise Israel as a Jewish state?

The response to that?

I don’t care where my great-great-great grandparents came from, or when. History is full of migration and the movement of peoples, including yours.

After three thousand years living around the world, suddenly you remembered your homeland!

You said your family came to Palestine because of the spread of Nazism, to escape the Holocaust.

Why should we Palestinians have to pay the price of others’ crimes? If the Nazis killed your grandmother’s family, why do you kill us in return?

I don’t mean you personally of course, but the Israeli state.

How can I accept the existence of a state which has occupied our land for 40 years, an occupation which has resulted in so many Palestinians being killed?

So:

a) Oh, we moved here too but that doesn’t mean you aren’t at fault - oh, and it’s our land even so.

b) She clearly has no idea as to the history of the Jewish people - they spent 2000 (not 3000*) years telling each other “next year in Jerusalem” - they never forgot. They returned as soon as they were able. Sadly, these apparent mistakes are probably honest beliefs.

c) Israel does not kill palestinians “in return” for Nazism, they kill those who are trying to kill them now.

There’s a lot more bitterness on the Palestinian side, and I don’t think it’s unjustified. Misdirected would be a much better word.

*There’s a lot of difference too - the difference between the time of Christ and the time of David. If there were no Jews in Israel for 3000 years, then all the kings of Israel are basically made up, not to mention the return from exile, the Maccabees and Christ himself.