"I feel so sad that killing each other seems to be the only response"

I posted yesterday about the current situation in Israel. One of the comments to my post was as follows:

Anonymous said...
"I don't have any answers, Lisa, but I feel so sad that killing each other seems to be the only response from either side. So many wasted lives!"

What would you like Israel's "response" to be exactly? Israel has tried everything to live in peace with Gaza. It unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and since Hamas took power in 2007 Hamas has invested every penny it has in armaments. Israel supplies water to Gaza so what did Hamas do? They dug up many of their water pipes and turned them in rocket launchers. (Google it if you don't believe me). 

Funny isn't it that Gaza is short of everything except rockets?

Israel has allowed thousands of Gazans each day to come into Israel and work. Israel has allowed Qatar to literally send in suitcases of money into Gaza. And at every turn Israel has been met with rockets launched at its cities. And on 7th October 2023, when Israel's guard was down, 2,500 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and tortured and butchered 1,500 people. Whole families, kids, women, the elderly. And then kidnapped another 200 people. What would you have Israel do? What would YOU do in that situation? 

Even now Israel is only trying to eliminate Hamas and avoid harm to Palestinian civilians. That is why Israel gave advanced warning to Palestinians to move to the south of Gaza to avoid being hit. And what did Hamas do? They blocked the exit routes with lorries on the 2 main exit roads to prevent civilians from leaving. Hamas use Palestinian civilians as human shields whilst firing rockets at Israeli civilians. And nothing delights Hamas more than when there are Palestinian casualties, knowing that the western liberal elites will lap it up. Witness the world outcry at the Palestinian hospital that was hit 2 days ago. And when Israel gives categorical proof that it was an Islamic Jihad misfired rocket that hit the hospital, suddenly know one is interested anymore.

Israel is in an impossible situation. Damned if it does, damned if it doesn't. So I repeat, what would you have Israel do? What would YOU do in that situation?

A Time Like No Other

I haven't blogged for quite some time. We lost our soldier son in May 2022 and honestly I haven't felt like there was anything to write about or share here. But I am aware that my blog is called "Handmade in Israel" and that I have shared many wonderful things about the country I live in over the years. It's time to share some not so wonderful news.

On Saturday 7th October "Operation Iron Swords" began with a coordinated surprise offensive on Israel. The attack began in the early morning with a barrage of at least 3,000 rockets launched from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, one of which reached the city that I live in. In parallel, some 2,500 Palestinian terrorists breached the Gaza-Israel barrier and massacred civilians in neighbouring Israeli communities. At least 1,350 Israelis were massacred, including residents of eight kibbutzim in southern Israel and 260 young people at the "Supernova" music festival. 199 unarmed civilian hostages and captured Israeli soldiers were taken to the Gaza Strip, including women, young children and babies. This was the largest sustained slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Hamas, an Islamist terrorist movement, launched its attacks during the end of the Sukkot Jewish holiday and 50 years after the 1973 "Yom Kippur War", which also began with a surprise attack. Israel began conducting retaliatory strikes before formally declaring war on Hamas a day later.

I am not a particularly political person and anyway, I prefer to leave politics out of this blog. But these are the facts. Visiting my son's grave at the local cemetery, I discovered six new graves of young soldiers who have been killed in action in little more than a week. There are more new plots in the non-military section. We hear constant booms in the distance of the Iron Dome, Israel's mobile air defence system, intercepting rockets. Worry, together with the non-stop roar 24/7 of air force jets, keeps me awake at night. We have watched memorial service after memorial service on the television of those murdered and killed in action. Last Friday we stood holding Israeli flags in a guard of honour on the route to the cemetery for a former student at our boys' school. We worry about what will happen to our sons' friends and the children of all our friends when we progress into Gaza.

The terrorist attacks by Hamas are pure evil. Israel has a right to exist and anyway, as Golda Meir said, we have nowhere else to go. The antisemitic demonstrations in London, New York and around the world have shown us that. 

I urge you to keep us in your hearts in the coming days.

* The cards are all commissions I have made over the years for young people who are or were IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers or about to start their military service.

** This post has been shared on My Corner of the World, Little Things Thursday and Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).