How heartbreaking to wake up yet another day knowing that another promising cease-fire has been eradicated. It is painful to see it in the news so much, to have lived with this feeling of not knowing if my “homeland” would still be here tomorrow, and to see that yet again, my hopes for peace have been shattered.
Broken cease-fires and the conflicts between Israel and its neighbors are nothing new to me. I witnessed it firsthand in 2006 when I was spending a summer in Israel with my family and closest friends.
I was camping on the Israel-Lebanon border after a long three day hike when I was woken up by gunshots and security guards urging us to get onto the buses and into Jerusalem where we would be “safe.” I was there when I had to comfort friends around me when we had all heard that a suicide bomber had been caught and had to pretend it was okay even though I knew that they were trying to bomb the hotel my parents were staying in.
These events were some of the most terrifying of my life. However, it was comforting at the same to see how eager my people were to fight for their country. With so much going on, I felt oddly safe.
America likes to portray Israel as this huge war zone and the fact of the matter is that it is not this way. I was still able to go play on the beach and still capable of going out to the local discos and restaurants. I was not the only one going on like normal. So did everyone else.
This is part of their lives and it is something that they just have to deal with. So when people picture Israel I can only hope that they do not picture fires, bombs and other misfortunate events, because this is only a small fraction of it all. The crime rate in America is much higher than that of Israel’s. More people die in car accidents than they do from warfare. However, I would be lying if I said that the hostilities did not exist.
Why do I still support Israel? I support Israel because it is one of the most wonderful places on Earth. There is so much suffering, yet it is a land rich in history, the history of my ancestors, the Jewish people. It is a land that welcomes me with open arms and land that my friends are glad to fight for. It is a land that I too believe is worth the struggle. No one wants to give up a place that holds so many precious treasures, thus its appeal for both the Jewish people and the Palestinians.
And so, although every time I may log onto the computer or read a paper and see all of the terrible things going on between Gaza and Israel, no matter how discouraged I may get, I hold out hope that the next cease-fire will be the last one.
