Imagine, if you will, that you are the mother of three pre-/primary school children. It is a school holiday; your husband is at work; you are caring for the children at home. Your eldest child is in her bedroom, with her computer; the middle boy is outside, playing in the garden; the baby is in the kitchen in a high-chair, as you prepare a meal.
Suddenly, an alarm sounds - a Red Alert alarm. You know that you have fifteen seconds to get to a shelter. You also know that you cannot possibly grab all three of your children in that time. What do you do? Who do you take, and who do you leave? It is a dilemma of major proportion!
Yet such a dilemma regularly faces the inhabitants of many Israeli towns
that are within range of Islamic Jihad (now the largest, and most
influential, Palestinian militant movement) rockets, fired from the Gaza
Strip. [The photographs show part of a consignment of weapons that were recently being smuggled from Iran to Gaza, to be used against Israel. These were intercepted by the IFD (Israeli Defence Force)].
On Wednesday, Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for more than 100 rockets that were fired toward Israel, a spokesman
for Al-Quds (the military wing of Islamic Jihad) told Palestinian news agency Ma'an. "You haven't yet
seen the extent of our capabilities," added the spokesman, who further
threatened to fire extended range missiles. Residents in southern Israel have reported several rocket alerts going off consecutively.
It is worthwhile having such information when so much of the popular media insists on demonising Israel. Yet it is Israel that is the only true democracy in the Middle East. Of its population of just over seven-and-a-half million, over one-and-a-half million are Arabs - a substantial minority! Yet they enjoy equal rights; equal access to education; equal rights in voting and representation - with 10% of the membership of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament); and even equal rights to exhibit, as a table in a Hebrew University clearly demonstrated - it was promoting Hamas (at the time, the leading Palestinian movement!). Israeli hospitals regularly treat Palestinians who have been wounded in the ongoing conflict, with children being particularly well cared for.
So, next time someone speaks to you about those terrible Israelis, and their despicable treatment of the poor Palestinians, please set them right. Let them know the truth - not the propaganda put out by the militants, whose only desire is the complete destruction of the modern State of Israel!
No comments:
Post a Comment