Commenting on comments

First I want to respond to comments and personal emails I received. I'll start by thanking whoever is taking the time to read this blog and respond. I was asked by a number of people if it was okay for them to send my blog to their friends or link to it on their websites - it is most definitely okay with me. A big reason for writing this blog is to tell my story from the Israeli front line and spreading it and other blogs is just the thing to do.

It is very encouraging to see the all the supportive and warm words, it means a lot to me and it gives me hope, that maybe there are still some people out there who support Israel and are don't quietly feed on the anti-Israel propaganda.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first one to admit that Israel makes mistakes too; there is no doubt about it. No country is perfect, and politicians are unfortunately the same everywhere. I do, however, live in a free democracy unlike the rest of the Middle East. I feel free to express my opinions whether they are supportive of Israel or not, and that is the true beauty of Israel.

You'll find Israelis even today, criticizing and demonstrating against the current war (which I personally don't agree with, but as I said, this is the beauty of a democracy). I don't however find the following –

a) Israeli Arabs criticizing Hezbollah openly even though they have had casualties in this war because of Nassrallah's missiles
b) Lebanese (or any other Arab nation) demonstrating against Hezbollah.
I've seen very few (you can count them on two hands at the most) Arabs who were willing to openly condemn Hezbollah.

I got this message today and I have to respond to it personally -

Anonymous said...

We Lebanese people want peace. We don't want any Lebanese or Isreali's to die
any more. Stop this Holocost on us.
10/8/06 19:13

Dear Lebanese Anonymous,
I'm glad to hear that you want the same thing that we Israelis want – peace. Why didn't you go demonstrating for peace all these years? Why did you only demonstrate for the Syrians to leave Lebanon and not for Hezbollah to leave as well? Why didn't you go out to the streets and said you want peace with Israel? Why did you let a terror organization take over your country and did nothing to prevent it?

I did not want to wake up on the morning of July 12th and find out I have to go into a bomb shelter because Hezbollah started bombing my house as they did for over 20 years, and actually continued to do every once in a while even after Israel pulled out of Lebanon in May 2000.
We didn't want this war and we definitely didn't foresee it coming, but we have no choice.
Israel doesn't kill civilians on purpose. If we did then we wouldn't be announcing ahead that we are going to bomb the area, dropping proclamations all around saying to evacuate the area.

Israel holds its fire so many times, believe me, you have no idea. The simple fact is Israel can flatten Lebanon very easily with our capabilities. We can, but we won't. Instead we send infantry inside, and hurt painful loses and injured soldiers in order to protect Lebanese civilians.
In Israel the army service is an obligation, not a voluntary option. Our soldiers have to go to the army, they have to become fighters. Hezbollah terrorists do it because they want to kill.
Why don't the Lebanese go out demonstrating against Hezbollah hiding and/or launching attacks and missiles from within civilians? This a cynical use of innocent civilians made by those who claim to 'protect' the Lebanese people.

Please don't compare what is going on in Lebanon right now to the holocaust. It is simply inappropriate because it is without doubt not what is going on in Lebanon.
If this is the general spirit in Lebanon then I would expect the Lebanese to start making a difference and force out Hezbollah out of Lebanon in order to create a new era of peace between the two countries. In the meantime most of I see in the news is Lebanese supporting Hezbollah. We need more people such as Bridgette Gabriel out there.

15 reservists were killed yesterday in different battles in Lebanon. Some had their tanks directly hit by antitank missiles. Once again Hezbollah is hiding within civilians, taking advantage of the fact that Israel will not attack from the air when civilians are around.

And as this war wasn't enough, it was exposed today that terrorist planned to blow up 10 planes going from Britain to the United States. Once again this is another proof that this war is not just between Israel and Lebanon, or Israel and the Palestinians. This is a global war against fundamentalist Islam that supports and sees terror as a legit method.