Tag Archives: war

Peace Please For Israel , The Middle East, The World

10 Jul

Recently  my synagogue’s Men’s Club sponsored a showing of the movie, “To Cast A Giant Shadow,” all about the 1948 formation of the modern State of Israel, the siege of Jerusalem,  and the attacks by five Arab countries to destroy Israel before it was even a day old.

The movie starred Kirk Douglas as Colonel David “Mickey” Marcus, a true hero of the Second World War, who became the first general of Israel and died in a tragic incident concerning friendly fire.

Other stars included Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Yul Brenner, Angie Dickerson, Topol, and Senta Berger, who played the characters of real people involved in the creation and salvation of Israel against the multitude of Arab nations who vowed to destroy them.    It is a fictionalized version.  But it gives a view of Israel from the 1960s when the movie was made and the terror that people were living through then.

Sounds familiar?  It does to me, as once again terrorist forces from the East, the South and the North try to destroy Israel, and anti-Semitism and Jew hatred takes over social media, and the traditional media also seems to favor the terrorists of Hamas over Israel as it defends itself. In fact, the word Zionism has replaced the word Jewish on social media to create Jew hatred around the world.

We were basically defenseless then.  No one would give us weapons. The British were turning everything over to the Arab nations.  The Jews had just suffered through a massive attempt to annihilate them—the largest genocide in human history. Many of the ‘soldiers’ had recently arrived from the concentration camps.  Who would have thought Israel would survive?  It was really a miracle, perhaps the divine intervention included the help of Mickey Marcus.

Now we are not defenseless.  But once again there are fractions in the world that would like to see the destruction of the State of Israel.  The UN made it obvious who they wanted to believe when they would not even admit for months that the Hamas terrorists raped and brutalized Israel victims, both women and men and the horrible murders of children.  The UNWRA seems complicit in the work of Hamas.

On college campuses and in cities around the world people are supporting Hamas, a terrorist group that ended a cease fire and has caused the deaths of thousands of people. It seems to be a world gone insane. But not only in Israel.  Yesterday Russia once again bombed the Ukraine. This time destroying a children’s hospital in Kiev. 

How bad can it get before the world realizes that Israel is a sovereign country?  Ukraine is a sovereign country.  When Iran says it will obliterate Israel, what does that really mean? Nuclear War?  When Russia threatens to use nuclear weapons, what does it mean?  Nuclear War?

In the Middle East the wars between Israel and its neighbors did not stop then with this war for survival.  For the entirety of Israel’s existence, the Arab nations surrounding it have worked for its destruction.  For the past decade, Russia has been trying to chip away at Ukraine’s borders.

Isn’t it time for these continuous battles to end? Isn’t time for children everywhere to be able to sleep a peaceful night without the need for bomb shelters? 

Isn’t it time for Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah to start working to make life better for the people they are entrusted with and use the money they have to rebuild and create a strong economy and society instead of using more and more money to precure arms and build the tunnels and machinery for destruction?

Isn’t it time for Russia to pull back?  So the children and people of Ukraine can have peace again? Before this blows up and more people die on both sides. 

Does anyone think nuclear war will end the battles?  It might –  with the destruction of the world as we know it.  Releasing atomic bombs will not solve the problems.  Ukraine and Russia border each other. Any nuclear bomb will harm both. Israel borders many Arab nations, if Iran obliterate Israel other nations will also be destroyed. It makes me think of another of my favorite movies, “War Games,” in which we find out that thermonuclear war is a non-winner for everyone.

Please Peace.  No more battles, deaths, sleepless nights, and destruction.  It is time for Iran and its terrorist proxies to look at their own plates and solve the problems of their people and stop trying to kill all the Jews in the world.  The same in Ukraine.  I know that the ‘normal’ people of the world who are suffering do not want any more battles.

Please Peace. For Israel. For Ukraine. For the world.

Movie Night in the Catskills Was A Wonderful, Magical Night

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cast_a_Giant_Shadow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

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How A Mother Suffers

1 May

“How a mother suffers!” My mother would moan every so often when one of us got sick, or misbehaved, or had an accident.  Sometimes she would say it in jest when we were all teasing her.

How a mother suffers.  These are words that take on so many more nuances when your child lives in a war zone.  Or when your child is called up to serve in the military. Or when your child is hurting.  My mother-in-law would say, “You are only as happy as your most unhappy child.”  That is also true.

In the past two years I have gone from the highs of motherhood to the lows.  And as a mother I am suffering a bit.  I say a bit because I know there are parents who are suffering way more than I am.  There are mothers whose children are forced to fight for their country against terrorists.  There are mothers of children who are taken hostage and have not seen them for six months.  There are mothers of children in Gaza who have perished as Israel fights for its existence and Hamas refuses all negotiations, using the people of Gaza and the hostages as shields.  Forcing many more mothers to suffer.

My suffering is minor compared to theirs.  But it still resonates in my heart.  When I get off an airplane and turn my phone on to a multitude of messages, including one from my daughter saying, “We are fine. We are in our safe room (bomb shelter).”  When I see the news that Iran is bombarding Israel with 340 missiles, drones and bombs.  When I feel that rise of panic and bile in my throat because I honestly do not know if she is safe.

Too many times in the last 12 years I have woken up to the same message. “We are fine, we are in our safe room.”

Hamas has been targeting Israel with bombs all these years.  Every year, every month, 100s and 1000s of rockets. Because their aim is the total destruction of the state of Israel and the death of all Jews.  All Jews.   And when Hamas is not bombing from the south and west, then Hezbollah bombs from the north. And their rockets are move sophisticated.

Now I see college campuses with ignorant students calling out “We are Hamas. Free Palestine. All Zionists should die.”  Without ever mentioning the fact that Hamas started this war. That Hamas raped, murdered and brutalized 1000s of people. That Hamas took hostages. That Hamas send over 20,000 bombs into Israel. That Hamas does not really care about their own people feeling that they should be martyrs to the cause. Hamas leaders have actually said this! Definitely not mothers.

This mother, who has a master’s degree in journalism, suffers when she sees that the media does not report equally on what Israel has suffered giving more coverage to Gaza.  That the media uses information provided by Hamas to report on what is happening.  That they believe the lies of Hamas, which we have seen over and over again. And when found in a lie, then puts the truth buried on back pages and not the front pages where they put the lies. When they report what Hamas says and not what Israel says.  I find this type of media coverage despicable. And I wonder what happened in the world that the news is so biased. What happened to reporting equally on both sides and not putting personal opinion or bias in the reports.  There are members of the news media who turn my stomach, I can’t imagine why they are allowed on the air.  The BBC is one of these media outlets who actually fired some of their so-called reporters because of their biases.

I think of October 7 and the mothers that I know who really suffered.  I think of my daughter’s friend whose cousin was murdered at the Nova festival.  Three girls went together and only one survived.  The one who survived only did so because she hid under the bodies of the DEAD.  The last time Jewish people had to do that was in the Shoah.

How a mother suffers!  She suffers through the suffering of her children.  She suffers through the suffering of the mothers she knows.  She suffers from the callousness of others who say thoughtless words.

This mother is angry that any mother has to suffer.  But is also angry at the mothers who did not teach their college-age children about right and wrong.  Did not teach them that terrorist groups are not the heroes, they are the villains.  A sovereign country has a right to exist. And through all the suffering initiated by Hamas, we will survive. 

A mother suffers.   A mother is only as happy as her most unhappy child.  Many times a mother suffers in silence, not wanting their children to know how much they hurt and worry about them.  But this mother is strong, supportive and will survive and can speak out for what is right. 

 I say Israel has a right to exist.  Hamas is a terrorist group whose goal is destruction. No mother should have to suffer because Hamas/Hezbullah/Iran started a war. Anti Semitism is alive on college campuses and in the news media.  We all have to speak out. Enough is enough.

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Something Evil this way comes…and it is not Israel

22 Jul

Like many mothers in the United States, I have a child who made aliyah (immigrated) to Israel. My daughter studied for her two master’s degrees at Ben Gurion University in the Negev, where she earned degrees in Middle East Studies and the Politics of Conflict. She currently works for a consultant company that helps NGOs (Non-Government Agencies/non-profits) who work toward community building, understanding, helping women and children throughout Israel.

I taught my daughter from an early age to respect everyone’s right to exist in a peaceful world with no fear. That we need to work for interfaith understanding and community.  She listened to me and has tried to help create such a world.

But she saw her place in Israel. And as a mother of an adult child, I could only accept her choices.

When she studied in Israel she lived through missile attacks from Hamas before the Iron Dome defense system went into effect. She learned to take cover and run to a bomb shelter. When she came home one spring, she was concerned about the tornado sirens in Kansas. Would they sound like bomb sirens, and be just too unsettling? But no our sirens do not sound like the ones she was used to in Israel.  The same sirens she is hearing now as she rides her bicycle to work and must run for cover.

Now she, like millions of other Israelis, have been under attack from Hamas for days, months, years. And the world said nothing. NOTHING. They say nothing about the hundreds of thousands killed in Syria, nothing about those being killed in Libya, Nothing.

But when Israel starts to fight back and Hamas uses innocents as shields, Then the world talks. Israel is doing everything it can not to kill women and children.  And I am not saying they are always successful.  But they try.  Remember when the US was in Afghanistan and Iraq, we, yes we, the USA, killed many more civilians.  War is horrible and civilians die.  But when Israel fights back and bombs rocket launching sites that have purposely been placed near schools, hospitals and  residential areas, Israel is blamed.  The UN even found bombs in one if its schools.

Why, because Anti-Semitism still exists and it is like a snake that comes out of hole in the ground and strikes.

Anti-Semitic riots have occurred in France and other countries. Why is not the world rioting about Syria? Why not about Hamas and what it has been doing? Why doesn’t Egypt want to help the Gaza? Because the government of Egypt is afraid of the evil of Hamas!

Do not ask me if I feel stressed. I Do!

Do not ask me if my child is in the military. It does not matter. She is under attack whether or not she serves in the military.

Do not ask me if I want her to come home. For her she is home. As for me, really what do you think if it was your child?

You want to do something. Then tell those who hate for no reason, that Israel is not the enemy here. That evil comes from within Gaza where financial aid has not been used to help better the life of its citizens, but instead has been used to buy weapons from Syria and Iran. Has been used to build tunnels to attack Israel. Has destroyed what Israelis left behind when they left Gaza.

That’s right. They left Gaza. Gaza is not occupied by anyone but Hamas.

Something evil this way comes, and it is not Israel. It is terrorists. And terrorists/fanatics do not stop. They must be stopped.

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