As a Jew, I feel personally invested in the Gaza bloodshed. Those are my people in that fight.
But does that mean they're making the right choices?
If Israel was to make mistakes, I'd hope to acknowledge them; if not publicly, then at least in my heart.
Yet, I really believe that they're taking the correct action.
Yes, there's terrible human suffering.
But the suffering has a context.
There are theological, political and historical angles that give necessary depth to the present scene, but I'm going to focus on a simple equation: Israel is a country with a large Jewish population, and many of their neighbors want them all dead.
It's simple. Undeniable.
The Hamas charter is chillingly explicit on that front.
He had a novel idea: How about Israel "giving itself back" back to Jordan?!
Regaining my breath after this jaw-dropping suggestion from a Jewish journalist, I asked him what he thought about the ongoing land-for-peace negotiations with Yasser Arafat.
The journalist answered that he speaks Arabic and knows the PLO well. His opinion was firm: If Israel gave more power to Arafat, he himself would move back to England.
Taken aback, I asked why he was so trusting of Hussein and so distrusting of the PLO. He replied that the Palestinian leadership clearly wants every Jew dead.
Period.
He spoke from his experience, and I believe he was correct.
With that in mind, let's consider an interesting piece of Jewish Law:
"When enemies threaten a Jewish border city, even if they're only coming – ostensibly – to take straw and stubble, the populace should take up arms – even in desecration of the Sabbath – to defend itself" (Code of Jewish Law, Orach Chaim 329:6).
Why?
Because when you're threatened by a sworn enemy, you need to keep your borders absolutely secure. The slightest weakness/concession can be disastrous.
Prof. Kenneth Aumann is a Nobel Prize winning economist, specializing in "game theory."
Here's what he said in a 2007 speech, where he addressed the "'game' of life and death, and of existence and annihilation."
I pray for peace, and for an end to the human suffering on all sides.
So I pray for Israel to be strong and defend itself without apology.
It's the only way.
I'm not a fan of people defending occupied territory and acting self righteous about it.
Slice it any way you want, Palestinians were evicted from their homes, Israel doesn't belong there and the remaining Palestinians in the surrounding areas are subjected to an even more overt apartheid than that of South Africa. The only way this is allowed to continue is that Muslim is the new black. Israel exists on the racism of the developed world.
Spend a month with a Palestinian family, they're good people that want their liberty back. It is only the repression of israel upon their neighbors that pushes the Palestinians to extremes.
Peace negotiations are not the solution, pulling out and setting up camp somewhere else is. Zionism is no different than the crusades of the middle ages.
Respond with whatever argument you wish, when the polarization of your emotions and that of your contemporaries fades, those in the future will agree that israel is injustice.