What Have We Become? | The Jewish Week
What Have We Become?
Hamas is a cruel and cynical enemy, but as an IDF veteran, I ask if Israel has lost respect for human life.
It has been almost four weeks since the military operation “Protective
Edge” commenced in Gaza, and the region yearns for quiet. Three
civilians were killed at the hands of Hamas Militants and the rockets
they fire at Israeli population centers, in the time these sentences
were written.
Sixty-one soldiers and officers were killed throughout the duration of
the operation thus far. As our hearts fill with pain and concern for the
deaths of these young people, the lives of civilians in Southern Israel
have been disturbed for three weeks now by sirens warning against
rockets approaching from Gaza. Many civilians living near the Gaza Strip
have left their homes and are moving between the houses of friends and
family until this fury blows over.
Who fires rockets at a civilian population in Israel? The answer is
clear. The governing force in the Gaza Strip today is Hamas. It is their
will for Israeli civilians to live under the terror of rockets, and it
will take their resolve to diminish this very threat. Hamas presents
their struggle as one for the liberation of the Palestinian people,
though they effectively eliminate Israeli civilians’ right to lead
liberated lives.
