Yesterday, a new friend of mine, forwarded an email to me. She knows that I am writing a book about our experiences in Israel. It was during what turned out to be Operation Protective Edge, during summer 2014. Think: touring by day and bomb shelters at night. The book continues on with the results of the remainder of the war, where we are today and finally, who is working on Peace at the grass-roots level.
The organization represented in the email, was comprised, I’m sure, of well-intentioned American Jews working on Peace. She thought I might want to join them. Researching my book, I’ve begun to understand that digging for the truth is the only way to begin to comprehend the complicated, hot mess that is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I can thoroughly agree with their stated mission of being “inspired by Jewish tradition to work together for peace, social justice, equality, human rights, respect for international law, and a U.S. foreign policy based on these ideals.” I definitely can support their intention. However, as the expression says, the devil is in the details. They believe “U.S. military aid to Israel must be suspended until the occupation ends.” They believe the occupation – their term, not mine, is a human rights violation. Unfortunately, they put a precondition on Israel receiving any military aid until another complicated issue is resolved – the settlements. To them, it’s a political bargaining chip. Even on their own website, they purport to support defensive military aid. How many Israelis without military aid in the meantime, will die? The initiative that the Jewish peace organization was working on was the “No Weapons for Israel campaign, calling on the U.S. to halt military aid to Israel.”
Looking more deeply, military aid may not necessarily be what we assume. Military aid paid for our Super Hero, Iron Dome. It is the reason we don’t have thousands of Israelis dead. What is Iron Dome? Let me explain, from our experience…
As we cowered in the bomb shelter, we felt the percussion of the rockets being blown up. You can actually feel the explosions as powerful, intermittent shock waves. The only thing close to the feeling at home is perhaps a “sonic boom” except this is much stronger, scarier and carries with it the possibility that you and your loved ones might die or be seriously injured. You feel the lurching pulse of another wave for each vile rocket as it is detected and destroyed. The Palestinian rockets and Iron Dome missiles shoot toward each other like feral lovers incapable of stopping themselves which will ultimately end in a brutal climax. Far above you, the rockets and missiles dance their angry dance as they collide in the sky. But we are in a bomb shelter without windows, blind to the dance. We feel and hear it and mostly want it to STOP! We have only our overly stimulated imaginations to predict what will happen next, and we try to keep our ugly thoughts at bay. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! We are grateful as one rocket after the next is incapacitated. The rockets had NOT landed and killed Israelis, as intended. Nor did they ultimately harm our group on vacation. Iron Dome is our new found BFF (Best Friend Forever).
The collisions shattered my innocence – before this trip I had always taken my safety for granted. I now realize just how privileged and sheltered I have been all my life. So many others in the world like in Israel, live in fear with the real possibility that they will be harmed. France is now reeling from the latest round of unfathomable terror attacks. 911 was our nation’s wake up call. This dark thread of fear for our safety winds its way slowly soiling our perceptions.
What was actually happening outside the bomb shelter? It’s difficult to understand what’s occurring when you’re first confronted with these situations. Iron Dome had followed the trajectory of the missiles and blew them up in the sky, before they had the opportunity to strike their intended target. After the missiles are destroyed, you have to wait 10 minutes for the shrapnel to fall to the ground so you don’t get wacked in the head. Then you are free to safely leave the bomb shelter. Because this happens so often, Israelis have been known to leave before they should – it’s become almost mundane. It’s part of their life. Damn, another siren, don’t they realize I’ll be late for my meeting!” Really? Is this any way to live?
Iron Dome is an antimilitary rocket device. When Israel finds that a lethal missile is coming their way, it intercepts it and blows it up. That’s a significant factor to why the statistics of dead Palestinians and Israelis are so skewed. During Operation Protective Edge (the conflict during our vacation), 3,839 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel.1 Iron Dome blew up the ones that would have landed and killed Israelis. The ones that aren’t calculated to land in populated areas are allowed to hit the ground. KABOOM! I assure you if the rockets had landed as intended, there would have been thousands more Israelis dead than Palestinians. Would that have been better? The results of the number of dead Palestinians vs. Israelis creates a profoundly, disturbing fact and public relations nightmare for Israel. It’s a horrible reality of war that people die. I don’t mean to diminish in any way the loss of life on the Palestinian side. How many parents have to cry before enough is enough on either side? However, there is more to it, as I’ve indicated.
Israel developed and funded the first two batteries of Iron Dome.2 Military aid from the US allowed the purchase of 8 more Iron Dome batteries as well as funding for a supply of the intercepting missiles.3 It costs $50 million per battery and $20,000 per interception4. The expense in human angst, terror as well as the financial burden to the Israelis, is staggering. I support this kind of military aid. Military aid is not always offensive; in this case it is defensive. Israel is rightfully defending itself against thousands of rockets sent to kill its citizens. These actions solely protect their brethren against the insidious projectiles without harming the Palestinians launching the missiles. True, that does come later – but that’s a discussion for another time. I fully endorse military aid to Israel and God Bless America for having the understanding and funds to have done so.
The email prompting this blog, surprisingly came from a Jewish organization. Sadly, by signing this petition, these well-intending Jews are metaphorically signing death warrants for Israelis. The organization boasts that 65,000 names supporting this initiative were delivered to the State department. 200,000 people throughout the world support their organization. If the United States no longer provided military aid to Israel, tragically Israeli deaths will be the inevitable result. My assumption is that these Jews don’t understand the ramifications of their actions. Surely, this isn’t their intention. Before my research on this book, I didn’t comprehend the complexities of the situation either. I’m just beginning my journey to understand. I know that without Iron Dome, my family, friends and I might be dead. We were just on vacation. Israelis live with this threat every day. Iron Dome, acquired through military aid, has saved countless Israeli lives.
Living far away from Israel affords me the luxury of evaluating and forming opinions from afar. I can never claim to fully understand how Israelis feel, but I can try to be compassionate and empathize. It’s so much easier to be an armchair quarterback from the safety of my home-not so, for the citizens of Israel. Israelis live and breathe this incredibly stressful life. They risk their lives to be able to live in their beloved Israel. Sometimes the missiles are successful, and they die. By trying to stop military aid to Israel, these well-meaning Jewish brothers and sisters are endangering the lives of Israeli Jews. They sign a potential death sentence for their extended mishpocha (family). I pray that they don’t succeed. L’Chaim! (To Life!).
Footnotes
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2014
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome#cite_ref-25
3 Jump up to: a b 10 Iron Domes for IDF Israel Defense 13 June 2012
4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome
Thank you for pointing out that our military aid to Israel goes towards funding Iron Dome. That puts a whole new slant on things; I absolutely support anything that saves lives. It is troubling to me that these folks didn’t bother to check all the important facts before they wrote up this initiative. People who signed this petition most likely trusted that this organization knew what they were talking about. This is a good lesson for all of us to question, and if possible, do our own research before we give our names or donations to any organization.