It’s hard to believe that exactly one year ago today, I came home from Israel. And then spent the next day throwing up due to food poisoning (airplane food sucks ass man). And now, a year later, Israel is under attack from Hamas. It’s terrifying to think just how common bomb and missile threats are in Israel.
My group was walking back to where we were staying one day, when we found the road blocked off. We asked what was going on, and one of the police officers calmly told us there was a bomb threat. We Americans and Canadians of course freaked out. We’d never had a bomb threat before. However, the Israelis with us acted as though nothing was out of the ordinary because they were used to living with constant bomb and missile threats.
I’m really not sure where I’m going with this. It originally started out as a nostalgic post about my epic trip to Israel and the fact that it’s been a year since I returned, but now I feel like it’s going to turn into me pouring my thoughts out on what is currently going on in the Middle East.
Hate me or disagree with me if you will, but I’m allowed to have my own opinion and this is it. Israel is defending itself against terrorists. Simple as that. Hamas is firing on Israel, so Israel is defending themselves. They are not targeting Palestinians or citizens of Gaza. Hamas are using their own citizens are human shields and cower behind them so that Israel’s rockets and missiles hit the citizens rather than the actual terrorists.
Next, Palestine is not a country. Never was. Israel is. So don’t go around posting pictures of Israel that say this is Palestine. It’s not. It’s Israel. Another thing. How many Muslim countries are there in the world? I don’t know. A lot. How many Christian countries? A lot more. How many Jewish? Oh yeah. That’s right. One. One small little country surrounded by other countries that want nothing more than to see its destruction. Why can’t Jews have one, ONE country where the predominant religion is their own?
Alright, enough of my rant and back to my original intention. Ahem. Israel is a beautiful country that I had the priviliege of spending 5 amazing, wonderful, best weeks of my life in. Exactly one year ago, I returned to the States, and I want nothing more than to return to the place where everything was good. Well, apart from not knowing the language, that was a bit of a problem, but for real though, shwarama and falafel. Heavenly. Milkies? Epic. Choco? That stuff was so good. And the weather. No humidity! Beautiful!
And with all that. Am yisrael chai. For now and always, I stand with Israel.
