Several nights ago, when I was in northern Israel attending a celebratory event in honor of the reunification of Jerusalem, a siren went off in my city. I called my wife to see how she and my children were doing. The dissonance between our experiences at that moment was challenging, but all too familiar. In one place in Israel, there was happiness and celebrations, in another – alarm and terror.
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I asked my wife how she explained the sirens and the need to rush to a shelter to our children. She had told them it was a meteor shower drill. I complimented her on her creativity but thought to myself that what we, adults, tell ourselves is not much better than what we say to our children. And while lying to our children to spare them the pain is justifiable, lying to ourselves is no longer a viable option.
Let's call a spade a spade, without sugarcoating or whitewashing. It might not solve the problem, but it will at least make things clearer.
First, these people are not protesters. Protesters carry signs and megaphones, not fireworks. And when those fireworks are aimed at human beings, they are no longer fireworks. They are explosives. Using "kind" descriptions like balloons, kites and fireworks doesn't do us any good.
Second, the Palestinian propaganda has convinced the world that a violent conflict is a game in which the attacked party must respond with the same measures. That is how they reserved themself the right to determine the intensity of the conflict.
As long as one rocket is sent into Israel and Israelis are attacked on the street, the problem will have not been solved, and the military response is appropriate.
Third, it never ends well for us when we turn a blind eye to minor provocations: Arabs slapping Jews on the face on the Jerusalem light rail; throwing stones at those who came to pray at the Western Wall; or attacking joggers and cyclists.
And lastly, the Palestinians might have convinced the Left in the US, but here in Israel, we know very well that this whole surge of violence is not a "natural" response to anything.
They are not defending but attacking. They are not standing up for freedom, but committing war crimes. Not out of desperation, but out of hope. Out of hope to create a kind of religion-based imperialism that will offer very little freedom to its religious minorities.
We understand this clearly, and it does not discourage us or take away from our stubborn optimism. And when the time comes to rebuild that which has been destroyed, make peace, and live our lives alongside each other, we will not forget this. No one will be able to pretend to be innocent ever again.
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