I’m positive I’m not alone in feeling the shock resulting from the rocket attacks on Israel by Hamas militants hiding in the Gaza strip. In the past few days, over a hundred rockets have been hurled at Israeli towns and cities full of innocent people. This past Saturday, this same militant group attacked an Israeli army vehicle with an anti-tank rocket, critically wounding two soldiers and injuring two more. In the city of Sderot, mere kilometers from the terrorist-governed Gaza strip, residents have less than 15 seconds to reach shelter in the event of a rocket attack.
This is not the first time terrorists have reared their ugly heads in Israel. Last year, there was an attack in a small town called Itamar. Two terrorists broke into a family’s home and slaughtered the father, Uri, the mother, Ruth, and three of their children: Yoav, Elad, and Hadas. Hadas was only four months old. The terrorists beheaded her. This act of cruelty that two men would behead a four month old baby for the simple reason that she was a Jew – that says volumes about “Peace in the Middle East”. Mainly: it cannot happen. To quote Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu – “if the Arabs were to put down their weapons, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons, there would be no more Israel.” We are fighting a war against an enemy who cannot be appeased with anything less than the complete annihilation of the Jewish state and its people.
This is why I will join the IDF. I feel like I need to be a part of the solution. We cannot let them get the better of us. Golda Meir, the first female prime minister of Israel, said “When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons.” We have no choice but to defend our land.
Just to point this out for you skeptics, it’s called the Israeli DEFENSE force. Not the Israeli “let’s kill the Muslims” force. All we are trying to do is to live in peace. And it seems like that is too much to ask…..
