I just needed to share
I don't normally like to comment about politics but I just feel like I'd like to share my feelings and thoughts about the past few days. In case you don't know, I was born and raised in Israel and moved to Canada when I was a teen.
These past few days has been hard to sit back and watch how ugly people can get and how it's so easy for people to judge when they are, in fact, never went through it or even felt what it was like even one bit.
I do not remember much from the Gulf War in 1990-1991 as I was a baby, but I am sure it was terrifying for my parents who were new parents at the time. That war was started just a couple months after I was born.
Growing up in Israel was not easy. I was born in a kibbutz near Be'er Sheva and then moved to Rishon Le Zion sometimes before my brother was born (he's 2.5 years younger).
When you live in Israel, protection gas kit becomes part of your life. You learn how to use it as a kid and then as a teenager and you always have to make sure you have the most updated version. You also learn where the safety room in your house is and what to do when there is a missile alarm.
You learn that if you don't have a safety room in your apartment, you need to know how to get to the basement the quickest as possible. You learn that you need to prepare enough food that can be stored for days, and how to stay away from windows. That the perfect safety room has bathroom and the fewest windows as possible.
You learn to know where the basement is in your school, how to listen to your name when the teacher reads out the name to make sure everyone is there. It becomes like a fire drill or an earthquake prep every year at school. I have done so many of those.
Then before you know it, you are 12-13 years old, which means it's time for bat/bar mitavah parties. However, at the same time your parents do not want you to ride the bus because suicidal bombers are everywhere.
Growing up I thought it was normal thing that was part of my everyday life until I moved to Canada. That's when I realized it's not.
Hearing in the news that another soldier was kidnapped, another missile fell or that another suicidal bomber decided to explode himself near a party you were supposed to be nearby was not normal. That constant fear of never seeing your family again because who knows when a missile strikes next or when a bomb would go off, but this time near your friends, family or people you know was not normal.
It is easy for people from outside to judge when they were never part of that. They never had to fear of what was going to happen next or what it is like to hear another missile being shot by the iron dome in the middle of the night. They do not have to open the purses or empty their wallets before entering a mall and going through an electromagnetic machine to make sure you do not have any explosive devices.
Simple things such taking a bus or simply going to a mall should not be accompanied by fear of never coming back home. Or even a simply drive to grandparents where kids have to lay down low in the car to not be seen so that rocks wouldn't be thrown over the cars should not be something normal.
I can tell you that all of the above was my normal life for 14 years. While I am grateful for what I have now, those memories are always with me.
It breaks my heart to see how people so quickly to judge and how many people rallied up against Israel when they have the freedom and they never had to go through all of the above.
