truth about GAZA

The truth about GAZA-not a peaceful protest. Violent terrorist act by thugs to demonize israel

Imagine the mobilization of 30,000 people on your border, less than a mile from the nearest homes, amassing on a border which terror organizations have spent years tunneling under for the express purpose of murdering your citizens, tunnels that have already been used to murder and kidnap your people.

It’s terrifying. And while we Israelis know our country will defend us, it’s painful to watch as the international community plays directly into the hands of Hamas, calling Israel’s response to molotov cocktails and attempted infiltrations “disproportionate” and “a massacre” of “peaceful protestors.”

This “protest” is organized by Hamas, which the United States has deemed a terrorist organization. And eleven of 16 people killed were known militants.

Despite Hamas’s attempts to brand it as such, this demonstration was not one of Gazan civilians seeking to peacefully protest for a better life. We know this because, even within Gaza, Gaza’s residents aren’t allowed to assemble and protest without Hamas’s permission.

The truth of the matter is that there is no democracy in Gaza. If there were, Gazans might demonstrate for all sorts of things they lack. They might ask for adequate sewage facilities, for civil liberties, and religious freedoms. They might ask for Hamas to cease calling for Israel’s destruction and demand that instead of purchasing rockets and building tunnels, Hamas create infrastructure and enter into a peace agreement with Israel. After all, it is Hamas’s refusal to acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and its failure to commit to non-aggression that created the blockade in the first place.

Instead, Gaza’s people are ruled by Hamas’s iron thumb, which in this case, instructed people to protest at the Israeli border.

And because it was a protest organized by our militant enemies, it was not non-violent. 30,000 people amassing at a border fence, burning tires, throwing molotov cocktails and attempting to infiltrate into Israel is not a peaceful protest.

IDF. They are our fathers, daughters and sons. The IDF has no desire to be in Gaza​. It’s why we left in the first place. I do know that in a mass protest with violent rioting, only 16 men were killed and 11 of them are identified as members of terror organizations. I know that two were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades, and opened fire on Israeli soldiers and attempted to breach the security fence, clearly putting the lie to the notion that this ​was​ a “massacre” or indiscriminate and wanton killing.

 If this were happening a mile away from citizens in your country, you would not be so complacent. And yet, when it comes to Israel killing terrorists who try to attack us, it’s called a “massacre.” Meanwhile, the actual slaughter of 500,000 civilians across Israel’s other border by the Syrians and Turks goes ignored.

The borders of both Egypt and Israel closed to the Gaza Strip when Hamas seized control there. They will remain so until Hamas recognizes Israel’s right to exist and agrees to refrain from terror. How is it that out of 800 words given to us by the NYT, it isn’t until word 640 that we read anything about the failure of Palestinian leadership? To lament unemployment yet not discuss foreign aid gone to terror instead of infrastructure, to discuss the closure yet not mention attempted infiltrations, terror tunnels and the thousands of rockets sent into our cities, is blatant deception.

And where is the accuracy in journalism when news agencies repeat claims straight from Hamas, which controls the Gaza Ministry of Health? Hamas knows the media is waiting for proof of Israel’s evil, that eager journalists and activists do not question the accuracy of films fed to them.

Hamas is the entity people should blame when they lament the fate of Gaza. Gaza could — and should — be a Middle Eastern Riviera. Its beaches should be a favored vacation spot, Gaza City a cosmopolitan tourist destination. International aid abounds, yet Hamas leaves its people unemployed, cities and facilities undeveloped — and no one asks why. No one holds Hamas accountable.

The people of Gaza deserve better. They deserve to live their lives free of Hamas. They deserve a leadership that cares for their welfare, not one that uses them as human shields.

The people of Israel deserve better. We deserve secure borders and an international community that uses reason, fact, and rational discourse when judging the situation.

Shoshanna Keats-Jaskoll is the co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, an Israeli NGO dedicated to battling extremism and raising the voice of women in the Jewish conversation. Follow her on Twitter, @skjask.