“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

When people meet me, their first impression is usually that I am a calm and caring individual. I am viewed as a nurturer and considering I am a third grade teacher in a Jewish day school, that’s a wonderful thing. But, I am also extremely passionate about the people, places and things that are important to me. Israel holds a special place in my life and when it comes to the safety of my homeland, I could not be more vocal a supporter.

Right now, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” Remember the movie “Network”? Albert Finney lost his mind and got the people of the city of New York to scream out their windows, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!”

That’s how I feel! Another senseless terror attack.  More Israelis soldiers dead. More parents mourn their children. The World seems to be silent. Only Jews connect this attack with others. Abbas and his cronies have been threatening chaos and destruction if President Elect Donald Trump moves the US Embassy to Jerusalem. Well, it’s quite obvious the incitement to violence didn’t wait for any transition of the US Embassy.

I’m confused… Didn’t Abbas just say that they were looking forward to talking peace? Didn’t Abbas just  say that he would come to the table now that the US did not veto the latest horror show at the UN? What peace table is he talking about? What peace preparations has he begun? Why does the world still vilify Israel and not the Palestinians. Why don’t the headlines call the attacker a terrorist? The BBC seems to think the truck drove by itself!

I suppose that’s what upsets me the most. Only a few days earlier, the Israeli military court system, convicted a soldier of manslaughter for shooting a Palestinian terrorist, who had already been subdued. The soldier claimed he was afraid the terrorist continued to pose a threat. The military court did not agree.  Does the world admit that Israel tries to be moral and ethical above all else? I think not. All the world seems to notice is that Israel is building a nation. Some of the areas on which Israel is building is land won in a defensive war. Of course, the Arabs say that land was never Jewish. However, the oldest historical source proves it is so. Read the bible. Ask any archeologist and they will show you proof in the stone remains of ancient Israel. Ask Christians, who make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, who Jesus was before he ascended to heaven. Even ask some Muslim clerics, most recently in Jordan, who claim that Israel is the land of the Jews as stated in the Koran.

We know that Israel is not participating in ethnic cleansing. The only people who wish to ethnically cleanse the land are the Arabs. They expelled the Jews from the Old City of Jerusalem, in 1948. They expelled the Jews from Hebron in 1948. In fact, Jews were expelled from all Arab lands after 1948. Those North African Jews, kicked out of Morocco, Tunisia, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and other Arab countries, were kicked out of their homes and sent packing. They weren’t offered land swaps. They weren’t offered reimbursement for the loss of their homes, their land, their businesses. They were kicked out and sent to Israel, the land where they made a new life and build new homes.

When the Arabs left Israel, they left because their leaders told them to leave. They didn’t have to leave, but they left with the belief that they would be back in no time at all. It was a war. For the 19 years in which Jordan controlled the West Bank, and Egypt controlled Gaza, these people did not build an economy. They did not work to become a part of their new countries. They festered…

In 1967, Israel begged Jordan not to get involved in the war, but Jordan joined Egypt. Jordan was defeated along with Egypt and Syria. The Old City was conquered and our holy lands of Judea and Samaria were regained. We won them back.

But that’s not what the world remembers. The world calls Israelis “colonizers”. However, you can only colonize from a home country, and the Jews do not have any other home country than Israel. You can’t colonize your own home.

Don’t threaten my home Abbas. Don’t threaten my people. The World may not care, but we Jews do. We will not leave our homeland and Jews around the world will stand up to your anti-semitism and evil violence. Don’t hide behind your imagined reality. We know the truth.

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!” We must let our voices be heard. Advocate, write, call, text. We cannot be silent.