A Soldier's Mother..
11 March '12..
So often, when someone sends me a comment - they use the default "Anonymous" and sometimes, yeah, I sort of make fun of it. This time, someone has left a name and I am grateful. Of course, if this is the Mary Shaw I have found, she claims herself to be a "human rights" activist and is proud to call herself a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International. I can't even begin to describe the hypocrisy of Amnesty, but it seems Mary will show you for yourself. So allow me please, to respond to Mary's comments, assumptions, and errors.
I will start, unlike Mary, with an apology. No, not to the Palestinians because what is happening now is of their making. They choose to fire over 160 rockets at Israel - not for the ridiculous things Mary claims, but because we dared to eliminate two clear and present dangers to our citizens - before they attacked; before they killed...again. The two were terrorists and how anyone can equate the elimination of self-proclaimed (and proud of it) killers with attacks on one million civilians confuses me, angers me, bewilders me. I'm angry, more, I'm tired. Tired of trying to explain, tired of hearing people - like Mary - spout lies and twist truth to suit their agenda. But most of all, most of all, I am tired of hearing of more attacks against cities - like the ones you live in. Each is a blow to the country, to the land, and I feel each one deep in the pit of my stomach and it burns.
So let's begin with Mary Shaw and her comments...
2 rockets hit Negev; Iron Dome intercepts 2 other rockets
They are attacking you because you are illegally occupying their land.
So begins Mary, showing her ignorance straight away. Actually, no, Mary, you are wrong. This round is because Israel targeted two senior terrorists. One was serving two life sentences before he was released (with a promise that he would no longer be involved in terrorism) and then immediately contacted his terrorists friends at the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC). The second was the leader of the PRC - mastermind behind the murders of two Israeli soldiers and the kidnapping of Gilad Shalit, the murder of 8 Israelis in coordinated terrorist attacks near Eilat a few months ago (most civilians), and was, at the time of his demise, planning another major terrorist attack.
Nowhere in their firing 140 rockets over a period of 40 hours did Hamas or the Palestinians refer to occupied territory, nor were they firing at those areas you might consider to be occupied and worst of all, from a human rights activists point of view is that no where in your comment do you even attempt to pay lip service, never mind a sincere and honest understanding of the fact that 1 million Israeli citizens are under fire, that 207,000 children were denied the right to go to school today and that more than a dozen Israelis have been hurt by these missiles being fired at our cities. You won't like my source, but check out the IDF site for background on this organization - than just use Google to substantiate it - it's all out there, if you'd bother to learn.
You control all access to their land.
Wrong again. The Egyptians control the Rafiah crossing and ultimately, the real control of all of Gaza's borders is in their hands - all they really have to do is agree to negotiate for a permanent and real solution. The solution has always been in their hands because anyone who takes an honest look at the Middle East will understand when they stop attacking (and planning future attacks), the war will end. Every day - even today - hundreds of trucks cross into Gaza taking essentially, what the Gazans request. Candy, food, clothes - even appliances, cars, and yes, building materials.
Color Red alert sounds in Ashdod; Iron Dome intercepts 4 rockets
You destroyed a town so you could build Yad Vashem- ironic ain't it?
I'm researching and I don't know what the heck you are talking about (and by the way...I've actually never destroyed a town, not even a house, although I did break three windows in my parent's house when I was about 12, but honestly, it was an accident and they had not built on an Arab town either). Ironic ain't it? No, your claims are not ironic, misinformed at best; at worst intentional propaganda - ironic is that a person who wants to call herself a human right activist is so easily led by lies and propaganda and so quick to attempt to mislead others.
Women die in labor and child birth at your check points,
Hmmm....so here I could give the angry answer, the sarcastic one trying to boil out of me. I could ask why don't they try going to Arab hospitals instead of trying to get into Israeli hospitals? Oh wait - probably because the health care is so much better. But the truth is that this too is an intentional lie. Have you ever actually been in an Israeli hospital? I have - including to give birth two times and I can tell you a large number, larger than the 10-12% of the population they represent - were in the wards where I stayed. Arabs where there when my children needed something, when my husband had to go recently.
I have NEVER been in an Israeli hospital without seeing an overwhelming number of Arabs. Never. Not once. How dare you belittle the incredible work our doctors do to help Arab and Jew (and Christian). Four of my children have taken the first aid courses allowing them to serve as volunteers on the ambulance squad - as have my two adopted sons. They have ALL treated Arabs...Palestinians. They have been told - if an Arab attacks in a terrorist attack...the minute he is disarmed, he becomes your patient....can you handle that? Can you treat him? And if they do not answer positively, they will not be accepted.
My children have treated Palestinians - my son was at a check point for many, many months. Not once did a Palestinian woman die in labor; on the contrary, when she approached, she was rushed through. You shame yourself with your baseless lies and insinuations. Worse, you've fallen for the propaganda nonsense again. Sure, women have given birth at the check points - usually assisted by army medics and soldiers - but I have a friend who gave birth in an elevator - is the army to blame for that too? One ended up giving birth at home - do we blame soldiers there?
Yes, there might have been a case or two of women dying - usually not at the check points, by the way, but on their way because their stupid husbands didn't get them medical help in time. I don't know if you have children or have ever given birth. Perhaps you don't know that it isn't the most predicable of events. A Palestinian woman shows up at a check point moments from giving birth - she's not going to make it to the hospital and there are far more cases of soldiers helping in the birth than there are of women losing their lives. From a medical stand point, most women don't die because they don't give birth in a hospital...they just give birth where they are.
The incredibly isolated cases of this happening are nothing compared to the "honor killings" throughout the Arab world. Kind of hypocritical to worry about these isolated cases compared to how women are beaten and abused by their husbands, fathers, and brothers in Gaza and throughout the West Bank (and pretty much every Arab country). Do you find blogs of Arab men and ask them about honor killings? Yeah, I was pretty sure not.
you steal land to build settlements,
I'm sure you can point to land that was stolen, right? I mean, we aren't talking about land that was captured in 1967 when the Arabs attacked - and yes, Jordan attacked Israel and lost the west bank (what we call Judea and Samaria). Do I need to explain what a war is? See - one side attacks the other and if they lose...well, they lose. Jordan lost in a humiliating defeat - no land was "stolen."
I'm really wondering where you come up with this...I could point out that before the Jordanians held the land for all of 19 years (1948 - 1967), the land was "owned" by the Ottomans...nope, not the Palestinians (that didn't actually exist during the Ottoman period). The settlements were, for the most part, founded post 1967 on what had been state-owned land from the Ottomans, to the British, to the Jordanians. And we've had the land for 45 years. More than double the few years the Jordanians claimed the area.
And, to rock your boat a little more, you're actually wrong because while areas of Tel Aviv, for example, might have been built on the ruins of abandoned Arab villages, the settlements - to the very last one - were built on unoccupied land, barren hilltops, etc. Maale Adumim is a perfect example. One need only look at EVERY hill that surrounds Maale Adumim to see that not one of them features an Arab village. Wait, that's not true - I'm wrong - on one hill - to the west of the city - there's an Arab neighborhood called Azzariya and it is still Arab today. Every other hilltop - to the north, to the east, and to the south - is barren, was barren when the city was established, etc.
IAF hits Gaza weapons cache
you build a wall and destroy any hope of a healthy economy,
We built a wall to stop suicide bombers that were coming in and murdering people - something I think a human rights activist would care about. You dare to compare a healthy economy to the value of a human life? The wall, Israel has said repeatedly, is temporary - but effective. Suicide attacks have fallen by 90%. That statistic must really bother you, huh? Nothing worse than being shown to be a fool, and a hate-filled one at that. And by the way, the "wall" is only a wall in about 7% of the whole distance. About 93% of the "wall" is just a fence - and there are numerous crossing points. The purpose of the "wall" was to stop terror. I would assume, as a human rights activist, that would be something you'd be in favor of...
5 rockets hit northwestern Negev
you deny a whole group of people exist.
Do I? Really? And where did you get that from - have I not referred to the Palestinians numerous times? I deny that their history is anything but brief. They did not exist as a people, even in 1900/1910 and doubtful in 1920 - but certainly today no one can argue that there are Palestinians. I do deny there is a Palestine. It was offered to them in 1948 by the United Nations. Their response, then and often now, remains they will get it all...and so they chose war and so that land that might have been is as non-existent as they peace they continue to thwart. Just today, a Palestinian living in London claimed that Palestine exists from the river (he means the Jordan River) to the sea (he means the Mediterranean). Another told me they were against a two-state solution. Both were saying, as you appear to be - that nothing less than the destruction of Israel is acceptable and so, actually, in a classic case of the the kettle calling the pot black, I think it is actually you who wish to deny the existence of a whole group of people...Israelis.
The Israeli government learned nothing from centuries of oppression,
Now that is impressive! Israel has existed for 64 years and we've gained hundreds of years of experience. Wow.
except how to do it to others.
Oh, I understand - you mean the centuries that others persecuted us. Oh, now I get it...interesting...so, you know of any gas chambers in Gaza? Heard about any pogroms? Did the Nazis allow 10% of their government to be Jews? Are Jews accusing Palestinians of cooking Jewish children in soup (and matzoh) and then slaughtering them? Did the Jews have any right to appeal to the courts in any of those countries? Did Jews have the right to shop in German stores? Did any of these countries in which we were persecuted spend millions of dollars/shekels on infrastructure in Jewish villages? School books in Jewish schools? Did they offer medical assistance on a par with the best in the world? Why did they try to burn the synagogue in my grandmother's village - while she hid behind the curtain? And do you honestly think we do the same to the Arabs (except, of course, those in which they store explosives or hide terrorists?)? Why was my mother-in-law put in a gas chamber? Why did my grandfather become orphaned - losing his mother and sisters? THAT was persecution and NONE of this is done to the Palestinians because, you are correct - we learned how it felt to have it done to us. We also learned about the Big Lie - that which you and others spread.
THAT could be a few reasons why you get bombed.
Ah, I see - twisted that one very fine, didn't you? So, YOU find us guilty, but can't prove how, but because Israel did something, whatever the heck you think we did, that justifies bombing 1 million people - including over 200,000 children? You clearly are not only stupid, you're outright racist. You just won't admit that what drives you is a deep hatred of Jews, no? You'd have to be filled with hatred to see in our treatment of the Palestinians anything close to what was done to us in country after country, century after century.
2 rockets explode near Ashdod, Bnei Shimon Regional Council
THEY are terrorized everyday, and it is your government doing it, with tax payer dollars from mine.
Really? THEY are terrorized every day? You know that how? Do you mean the ones allowed in to our hospitals? Those that come to work in our towns and villages? Do you mean the Arab that I make tea for? The one who works in my local supermarket? Do you mean the one I gave bags of clothes to the other week? Or the one who wants me to hire him to build my home?
Terrorized - by any chance do you even know what that word means? Terrorize? Really? How? Do we blow up their buses? Their malls? They restaurants - not a one you can think of, right? But hey, there go those pesky little facts. Ah, your tax payer dollars...well, good news for you, I guess if Obama gets re-elected, right?
2 Grad rockets, Qassam explode in Bnei Shimon, Eshkol Regional Councils
They are ticked off. They are tired, they just want to live their lives without occupation and persecution. Just like you.
I get they are ticked off - although to be honest, it is more about politics than anger and again, you are stupid enough to fall for it. The truth - beyond the deaths of those two terrorists, is that Iran wants the pressure off; Syria wants the pressure off - so the best way to do that is to shift the focus by making their puppets dance (and fire rockets at Israel). Are they tired of hiding in bomb shelters? Ah, they don't have bomb shelters do they... because they don't face an enemy that indiscriminately bombs civilian areas and so most are safe.
Iron Dome intercepts rocket fired at Hof Ashkelon Regional Council
You say they are tired - perhaps, like us, they lack sleep. Perhaps, like us, they just want their children to be safe. Of course, they can't sleep because our war planes are flying overhead, patrolling and when they locate a rocket launching team, with pinpoint accuracy, yes - using some planes that we purchased from your government, we fire and take them out. And our children, why can't they sleep?
What occupation are you talking about? Gaza is not occupied by anything other than Hamas - the government/terrorist organization that the people of Gaza duly elected. The fact is, we are being bombed by Gaza. The only Jew that has been in Gaza in the last 5 years is Gilad Shalit (other than Cast Lead of course, the logical response to having over 130 rockets fired at us in a single month (about the number they fired at us in a single day this week!).
For the record, we unilaterally pulled out of Gaza in 2005. We destroyed beautiful communities - our own - and what we got in exchange (as many of us expected), were rockets - hundreds, thousands of rockets - raining down on our cities, our homes, our children...and you tell me THEY are tired. Wait, we also got a bunch of supposed human rights activists who don't seem to know their elbow from their....well, a bunch of you people who fall for their lies again and again.
4 rockets fired at Beersheba; 1 hits educational institution
You and others like you love to tell the world how powerful our army is - don't you think such a powerful army could just flatten the whole stinking place if we wanted to? And yet we don't. Have you never wondered why? Don't you think most countries would move to flatten another if they dared to fire missiles directly into their cities?
And yet, in exchange of about 160 rockets - probably more - in the last 48 hours or so, what have we done? As shown in IDF videos, we have hit a training camp for terrorists, an arms depot, and several rocket launching sites. Yes, 18 Palestinians have been killed...or so they claim - and yet, even the Palestinians admit that all or most are "martyrs," and "gunmen," and "activists."
4 rockets explode in open area in Eshkol Regional Council
So, back to Mary Shaw...as a human rights activist, perhaps you'd like to condemn what happened a short while ago in the Middle East - a school was hit. A school. By the grace of God and the intelligence of the government and parents, the school was closed today - because it was in Israel and we cherish our children above all else.
No, I don't expect you to condemn the rocket attack - that would be to much to ask of the hypocritical "activists" of Amnesty International...even the so-called "former" ones.
IDF thwarts rocket launching attempt
No, I don't expect you to condemn sending a 14-year-old boy to stab a soldier - though I'm sure you'll condemn the fact that the soldier, bleeding from a neck wound, managed to fire his weapon to defend himself and so, I'm sure you'll condemn his protecting his very life by killing the Palestinian boy.
Rocket explodes in open area south of Netivot; no injuries
So thanks, Mary Shaw - for putting a name to the comment. And if I show little patience and a lot of anger in answering, it's hard, all day long as I sit in my office, every half hour or so, even more actually - more than 40 times today, to hear "Color Red."
2 rockets explode in open area in Eshkol Regional Council
Yes, I'm tired. May the children of Israel's south have a quiet night, a safe night. May we all have a quiet night and may the Mary Shaws of the world understand the most fundamental of truths - that there is a world of difference in pinpoint strikes that target those who perpetrate violence and terror, and those who fire rockets at cities, civilians, schools...and a nation who has done more for peace than almost any other.
Link: http://israelisoldiersmother.blogspot.com/2012/03/to-mary-shaw.html
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