Can you Imagine if Even One Rocket was Fired on Washington, London, Paris or Moscow?
October 25, 2012 7 Comments
In a moving Huffington Post piece, International Human Rights Lawyer Aren Ostrovsky shares his anger – no, outrage – at the neglect, ignorance, lies, and hatred with which the international community continually approaches Israel.
Ostrovsky explains that it’s not just the 600+ rockets fired from Gaza to Israel in 2012 alone, nor the 80+ fired in the last 24 hours, that outrage him.
Rather, it’s the silence (and sometimes even solidarity) shown by many in the face of terrorism. It’s allowing world leaders who have pledged to destroy Israel to work toward the genocide of the Jewish people. It’s the unchallenged anti-Israel activism of the United Nations, European Union, many mainline churches, and human rights organizations around the world. It’s the failure of so much of the world to consider both sides of a very, very complex situation.
In his article Ostrovsky pointedly asks, “Can you imagine if even one rocket was fired on Washington, London, Paris or Moscow?”
His answer, and ours: “No nation on earth can, or should, tolerate such attacks on its people.”
“You see, as most Americans were waking up this morning, and those in Europe and elsewhere around the world were going about their daily routines, here in Israel — over one million people were running for cover from a hail of rockets being rained down by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza.” – Aren Ostrovsky
This is just so wrong. Unacceptable! Please spare a pray for the people of Israel…
About Fr Stephen Smuts
Amen, most people in the Free World don’t have a clue to the reality of an incoming round or rocket! I have been there myself! And the people of Israel have lived with this for many years! Indeed God keep and bless the people and land of Israel!
Well, perhaps, the violence would abate if Israel behaved a little better and returned Pa\lestinian lands to the Palestinians.
I always suspected you were bascially a liberal Mourad, at least as to Modern Israel! I was in Israel right after Gulf War 1 (and I mean right after), it was not a pleasant place.. having been rocket attacked. I will always stand with the people and land of Israel!
I come from a philo-semite and later philo-Israeli family, moreover, from my mother side we are Sefardi Jews escaped to Italy in 1492 and later converted; I can not imagine the world without Israel. This said I think that the only way to truly support Israel is to criticise it when necessary without giving for granted that whatever Israel does is right. Neither Israel nor Israeli populations and politicians are infallible. A consideration that goes also with Palestinian authorities and population.
On this blog I read so often declarations in favor of Christians of the Middle East, urging Western Christians to be more active in the aid and support of their Eastern brothers (a message I concur with). I believe it would help to keep in mind the historical (and I stress historical since the claims especially of American pro-Israel activists that Palestinians are immigrants from somewhere else) presence of Christians among Palestinian and Israeli Arab population. Moreover, when it comes to Palestinian lands occupied by Israelis it might be useful to keep in mind that a relevant portion of them used to be Christian ones. Giving for granted to stress the right of Israel to exist, it would not be necessary that Western Christians start to bother of their brothers who live in Palestinian territories or of those who live, with limited rights, in Israel? These – and not older antisemitism – are the main reasons why, traditionally, Vatican and Catholic authorities have been regarded as closest to Palestinian rather than to Israeli positions.
A final consideration. Reducing these issues to a mere division liberal/conservative is childish, and dangerous. Using labels like them force us to take stand on preconceived assumptions.
Frederico is right. As it happens, one of the great post-war tragedies was in my view the collapse of Mandate Palestine which had made great progress between the wars in establishing a national home for Jews in Palestine (rather than of. Palestine.
The immediate causes of this British failure were (i) our country was bankrupt after WW2 and (ii) the USA was unwilling to accept the proposal made by Lessing J Rosenwald on behalf of the American Council of Judaism. The link is to the copy of the proposal in the Trueman Presidential Library. The ACJ is, incidentally, much favoured by Sephardi congregations. The prosal should be read very carefully: it was good and workable.
It failed because the WASP Establishment in the USA was very much against granting even temporary admission to European Displaced Persons (the then euphemism for Holocaust Survivors). Nobody wanted persons in skull caps or with ringlets invading their nice country clubs etc (which at the time would not admit either Jews or Catholics).
And the consequence has been a continuing disaster.
The situation now in Israel and the Middle East is simply, hatred for the Jews and Israel! And with radical Islam (Muslim Brotherhood, etc.) pressing on all fronts this is escalating. And also with Palestinian groups and even other groups using words like “apartheid” for Israel, this kind of rhetoric will simply never bring peace in the area!
Might I commend B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories and Gush Shalom – Israeli Peace Blog.
If time permits, read Uri Averny’s Biography and then A Message from Romnyahu