Finding myself in a war zone...

As I write this yet another warning alarm, telling us to take cover,
sounds across the city of Ashqelon in the South of Israel. I drink my
coffee and smoke my smoke and look out the window to make sure the
Iron Dome is doing its thing and I don't need to run for cover. But
given that you only have 15 seconds from the sound of the alarm to
take cover, if it were to fail, that would leave me and my cup of
coffee in a very precarious situation... The last two weeks have been
fundamentally the biggest life changing experience for me and
politically, morally, the way I see the world, the people, the media,
the goat down at the petting zoo who before this was just a goat and
now is a cute thing you can pet because you scared (I will get to that
later), have changed forever. I sit here at a cross roads, not a
actual cross road as ashgelon has traffic circles mostly and this is
not a scene from Super Natural, but a metaphorical cross roads of
should I get involved in this crazy that is the middle east or just
tuck my head back into the sand, where it has been comfortably for
three years, and ignore the most confusing political conundrum or to
voice my opinion, express my anger, and take a side. But there is no
side here. Every story has two sides, "Mommy Jimmy ate my cookie" "No
I didn't the dog ate his cookie"..and then the truth...There was no
cookie. But this situation has so many sides, so much propaganda, so
many miss leading news reporting that clearly take sides either way,
that it is so very hard to see the truth...so this is just my opinion,
from an outsider who has no care about the cookie, other than she
hopes everyone can get a cookie and then no one will be fighting to
eat each others.

Fact: Hatred breads Hatred. I made the mistake of commenting on a
photo that was circulating facebook,  and within minutes the replies
came back about wanting to kill the Zionists..loosely translated for
your benefit: Die jew, die! I was like woah buddy, I am just a little
old girl from Knysna who wants to eventually grow tomatoes and learn
how to bake. I am a person first, with so many awesome qualities (I
mean just ask my friends) and without knowing me, I was labelled as a
Jewish extremist and for that, I should die? for the record I, did not
even mention I was Jewish. Number 2, I  made no comments in Support of
Israel or war on innocent people. I realise we all have our right to
our opinions, and when it comes to religion and politics, everyone
views are very different. Why do we feel we need to kill people for
these views. If the person next to you orders meat in a restaurant,
and you are a vegan, do you stab him through the chest with his steak
knife. Hopefully not. Do you worry about whats on your table and leave
him to worry about his so both of you can just enjoy your respective
meals? Or do you start to hate the meat eater, or the vegan and start
to blame each other for the lack of fries you have or if your fries
are to crispy (Because lets be honest, vegan or not, everyone loves a
fry) and before long the meat eater must die because he single handily
responsible for the genocide of cows and the vegan must die because no
self respecting person gives up cheese burgers...so is the
ridiculousness of fighting wars in the name of religion.

But this is not a religious war at all. This is not a war between the
Palestinian people and Israel. This is a war on Hamas, who for all
intent and purposes is an extreme terror group, think Bin Laden and Al
Quaida, working out of Gaza whose sole purpose is to kill every
Israeli. Let us not forget that once they are finished in Israel,
their aim is to eradicate the whole of western civilisation and that
killing people is a way for them to get into heaven. I by no means
support or condone the killing of innocent people, nor do I condone
this war, but only ask this question, not as a way to make a point but
to generally ask it as I do not have the answers... if a small group
of Canadians decided to start killing people in the name of french
champagne, and were firing rockets into America daily and the world
said nothing, the Canadian government did nothing. What do you think
the American Government would do? Would they sit back and let rockets
take out a local Burger King or a honky tonk bar and not fight back
while everyone sits around the table to talk peace. If Israel stopped
its offencive in Gaza, the rockets would continue. Hamas would
continue. I honestly don't see what other choice they had. Their
biggest problem is they have the worst PR manager I have ever seen and
they are coming off as looking like Carri at the prom, when in truth
they are defending themselves, taking extreme measures to only target
milletry targets. I have seen the videos, like a PC game, aim the
little cross on the car, blow up the car without killing anyone else
near by...booom....100 points...

What people don't see, from the outside, and what the media are not
telling you...If you are looking for the truth, facebook, BBC, CNN,
Die Sunday Times, Lebanon Would news, The action Ads (ha ha) doesn't
have it. because that is not what sells news. pics of bloodied
children and buildings blowing up sells news. Who wants to see another
war on terrorism, the Americans wrote that movie and everyone has seen
the sequel. That's been overplayed, so lets push an angle people
haven't seen to peak their interest and get people angry and hating
because that sells news which increases ratings which means you can
cash in on all the advertising revenue. If you film the rockets that
are coming into Israel, hundred of rockets, its all very boring
because the Iron Dome shoots everything that comes in and nothing is
destroyed. A headline that reads 60 people dead because some
fundamentalist used his whole family as a human shield will warrant
the response "what an asshole" and then there would be no spiking
tension, no world debate, very little sympathy for hamus and then
where would the story be. That doesn't sell news. Through all these
years of a "cease" fire, rockets were still shot daily into Israel.
Not by Palestinian people. By Hamas.So many rockets have been fired
into Israel, that they invented and patented satellite software whose
only job is to detect a rocket, calculate whether it is headed for a
populated city and blow it up in the sky. Not shoot back, not engage
the people shooting these rockets at people at markets, on morning
runs, taking their Children to the park. Just to quietly shoot it down
in a peace loving way |(as quietly and peaceful as a war rocket can
be), so that everyone can carry on with their day making humus,
growing those delicious Israeli Cucumbers we get in woolies and
enjoying the fundamental right as human beings to live their lives in
relevant peace petting goats, like anyone should. But that doesn't
sell news.

The media don't tell you that Israel spends billions a year providing
free electricity to Gaza. The same electricity that Hamas use to post
doctored photos on the internet that hide their own aggression and
genocide towards their  own people. The media does not tell you about
the dozens of trucks that Israel sends with food and medicine aid to
the people, that Hamas destroy, leaving their people to suffer. The
media does not show you how Israel warn people when they are going to
fire on a bunker full of rockets that are planned to enter Israel, and
that the people choose to instead of protecting their Children and
Palestinians, protect instead Humus military leaders instead and run
towards these targets. How even singing at your wedding is a criminal
offence in Gaza. That Instead of playgrounds they have summer gun
training camps for 6 year old boys. How people here rally together,
who family is so important to the Israelis that the people in the
North are offering their homes to people like us living in the south,
how you can now go to thinks like the petting zoo for free, because
petting animals calms the children down and gives them a send of
normalcy. That no one here wants war. Not the Christan's, the Jews or
the Muslims. Fundamentalists, always a small majority, but a loud gun
carrying one, they want war.

If I am within the walls of Israel, who's army sole purpose is to
protect the life of ALL Israeli's, the children of all Israelis, the
eldery, the young, the religious, the non religious, the Ethiopians,
the Sudanese, the Russians, the Americans, the South Africans, the
Palestinians, the Christians, the Jews the Muslims, the gay, the
straight, the goat at the petting zoo....all Israelis. I can only
imagine what it must be like now for the over a Million Palestinians
in Gaza who are under the "protection" of Hamas...who hide rocket
launches in hospitals, schools, peoples homes, who quite literally
hide behind human Shields, who put their woman and Children into the
fire line. Who train their boys, to build bombs, fire guns, to hate.
Who have openly said they do not want to broker peace, they have only
one purpose, to kill every Israeli.  And who preach that standing on a
bus with explosives, killing themselves and everyone on that bus, is
their gate way to heaven forever. This is not a religious issue, this
is not an Israeli Palestine issue, this is a terrorism issue. This is
the same thinking used to highjack planes and drive them into the twin
towers, the same thinking that of the Taliban whose sole purpose is to
bring down the infidels of the whole western community. thinking, That
boarded the subways in the UK, blew up embassies in Africa,  And
millions of people from both sides, are caught up in it. The world is
caught up in it. I am caught up in it.

Today I sit here, sad. Not "Oh no Greys Anatomy's ending  Sad"...I
mean really in my core, not sure I will never be not sad again sad. At
the hatred we have for each other. The lack of respect we have for
other human beings, animals, the planet we live on. At the amount of
money spent by media to cover a war that could eradicate world
poverty. At the amount of money wasted by the guns that fight war, the
rockets that fight war, the people who fight war. without meaning to I
have found myself choosing sides. And believe me, every day, its a
different side. This was not my intention. My intention was to ask
questions, that I don't have the answers to. I do not wish to offend.
I do not wish to condone war. Because I do not. I do not condone war.
And every time I think I have an angle on this crisis, Another video
appears on facebook or another alarm goes off here and I find myself
being caught up in the madness of it all. I only pray that someone
smarter than me, wiser than me, more informed than me can find a
solution that will bring peace to the Palestinians and the Israelis.

I never imagined myself, running to bomb shelters and discussing over
dinner if we should get gas masks or not. No one ever imagines the
worst, until you in it. Its what you let it turn you into, that's what
is important.


xxxx