Not all rockets are created equal
![Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepts and destroys a rocket that terrorist organization Hamas launched and targeted towards innocent civilians. [photo credit: AFP/JACK GUEZ] Israel's Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepts and destroys a rocket that terrorist organization Hamas launched and targeted towards innocent civilians. [photo credit: AFP/JACK GUEZ]](https://static-cdn.toi-media.com/blogs/uploads/2021/05/000_Nic6363675AFP-PhotoJack-Guez-640x400.jpg)
Not every terrorist rocket is successfully intercepted. Just days ago, at around 6:08 p.m., I was outside walking home when the sudden, alarming blare of “incoming rocket” sirens began to blast here in J’lem. The pervading peace of the Holy City was instantly shattered and anyone within earshot had only seconds to respond….
Now, as you likely know, the international community has recently begun to accuse Israel of being an apartheid state. Which is a strange accusation, given that numerous cities across Israel, including Jerusalem, are inhabited by Arab and Jewish families living side by side.
In fact, when I go shopping at any given super market, half of the tellers are Arab Muslims. In that same supermarket, Arab families leisurely wander the aisles shopping for groceries, all the while brushing shoulders with Jewish families. On the city sidewalks, in the shops and cafes around town, on the buses, and on the Metro trains, the crowd is always a mix of Arabs, Jews.
Anywhere one looks, you can see Arab mothers and fathers out with their children, passing by Jewish grandpas and grandmas out with their grandchildren. All day long, Arab and Jewish taxi drivers zip along the streets picking up and dropping off every kind of customer from identical taxis. At every local park, Arab and Jewish families can be seen regularly gathering to BBQ, enjoy the green trees, grass and flower, toss frisbees, play with the dogs and go for a run.
Like other big cities throughout Israel, Jerusalem is as politically, religiously and ethnically diverse as perhaps any other big city on our Planet. So, the sudden piercing alarm warning of an imminent rocket attack on Jerusalem, was an alarm for every Israeli citizen and inhabitant. The rocket barrage that the Hamas terrorists launched indiscriminately into the heart of the city, was aimed at both Arab and Jewish families alike.
As the sirens blared across the city, everywhere I looked all traffic came to a sudden stop. Right in front of me, two vehicles suddenly pulled over onto the sidewalk itself. Out of one of them, an anxious father leapt from behind the steering wheel and ran around the front of the vehicle as all of the vehicle’s doors sprung open and five children of different ages tumbled out of the vehicle. With a pained look of worry on his face, he briefly glanced at me as he grabbed the youngest child by the hand and all of the passengers ran together to the nearest building leaving the car empty on the sidewalk with its doors wide open. Was it a Jewish family? An Arab family? The Hamas terrorists do not care one way or the other.
A moment later, I heard a loud explosion that rocked the neighborhood. Immediately followed by a second explosion that concussed the air around me and reverberated across the area. I looked up and saw in the sky overhead an expanding, disintegrating ball of smoke. An Iron Dome rocket interception had just spared our entire civilian population of Arabs and Jews from indiscriminate terrorist indifference.
Not all rockets are created equal.
More than 20% of Israel’s population is Arab and throughout Israel Arab and Jewish citizens live and move freely. In contrast, 0% of Gaza’s population is Jewish and any Jew accidentally entering Gaza is liable to be disemboweled or beheaded. While Israel invests in protecting its Arab and Jewish citizens, terrorist Hamas cynically invests in killing innocent civilians: First and foremost, the citizens of Gaza. Secondarily, the citizens of Israel.
The international silence at the daily oppression and terrorism that Hamas exacts upon the residents of Gaza is not only deafening, but also surely the strongest evidence available that the International community doesn’t give one damn about any of the Arabs living in Gaza. If apartheid indeed exists in the Middle East, it is in the terrorist controlled territory of Gaza. The International community knows this and remains chillingly silent.
Not one nation on the planet has demonstrated a willingness to exercise even remotely the amount of restraint that Israel has consistently demonstrated in the face of such pure, unadulterated evil. Yet, astonishingly, the predictable message from the nations is to urge Israel to exercise more “restraint.” Is there any greater form of toxic and immoral insanity than telling a victim of abuse to exercise restraint in defending themselves against the flagrant and psychotic aggression of their attacker…. In the middle of the attack, no less?
It’s clear that the nations are uninterested in defending the innocent Arab and Jewish civilians of Israel against the rabid violence of Islamic terrorism. So, we defend our citizens, our Arab and Jewish families alike, with the singular restraint that we alone have the right and ability to exercise. When the nations cruelly shout that we should do less, Israel courageously does more and boldly protects its Arab and Jewish citizens together.