On May 14, 1948, a nation rejoiced. This nation had returned to its rightful home — the land where their ancestors had been expelled from hundreds of years ago. This land was a barren desert turned into a beautiful beacon of hope and freedom. Thousands poured into the land from all over the world, hoping to find a safe haven for themselves, their children and their children’s children.
This nation that I am referring to is Israel. Today, 67 years after its birth, the nation of Israel continues to find itself under assault. Beginning in the Fall of last year, a series of terrorist attacks has swept the country, targeting and murdering innocent men, women and children just because they are Israeli.
Since Oct. 1, 2015 there have been nearly 200 attacks against civilians. If you have not heard about these stories in the news, this can be attributed to the media’s poor coverage. News anchors such as ABC, BBC, CNN and Worldbulletin headline the death of Palestinians without mentioning that those Palestinians are terrorists murdering civilians in cold blood. For example, The New York Times published a report about a Palestinian woman’s death due to an Israeli airstrike, only mentioning later on in the article that Israel had been attacked first not only with an airstrike from Gaza, but also with dozens of stabbing stacks and vehicle rammings. They completely ignore the fact that Israel has been trying to come to a peace agreement since its birth in 1948, even in the face of the Palestinian Authority’s continuous refusal to recognize Israel as a state.
In the meantime, Palestinian President Mahmoud calls for violence against Israel for killing terrorists, refusing to acknowledge or condemn the attacks that these terrorists carried out. Even the UN’s Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon went so far as to condemn Israel’s self-defense several times, despite his previously admitting that Israel is indeed held to a double standard.
People seem to have forgotten how this wave of stabbings started in the first place. Thursday Oct. 1, 2015 is a day that four children will never forget because it is the day that their parents, Eitam and Naama Henkin, were mercilessly murdered by Palestinian terrorists in the West Bank.
Instead of justifying the murder of innocent Israeli civilians and ignoring the Palestinians’ refusal to recognize Israel as a state, recognize who the true victims are in this situation and what they have done for peace. If giving up Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005, offering the Palestinians a two-state solution countless times (1937’s Peel Commission, 1939’s White Papers, 1979’s Egypt-Israel peace negotiations, etc) and even removing Israelis from their homes in the West Bank is not enough — then what is?
Contributed by Rutgers University CAMERA fellow, Deborah Shamilov.
Originally published in The Daily Targum.
