Has it ever occurred to you that something so important to you and your identity can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye? We all know and understand this, but you can’t really relate to it until you actually experience this.
Jewish people are experiencing this as we speak.
The constant and heinous Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East has been going on for decades. Israel has been at the forefront of so much unnecessary harmful damage — not just to the land itself, but also to the Jewish people as a whole.
When you look across the globe, there are a plethora of races, and nearly all of these people have a specific place they can point to and call “home.” Italians have Italy, Japanese have Japan and Russians have Russia.
But what about the Jews? All we have is Israel. We are talking about a state that is tiny, really tiny. At 8,019 square miles, Israel is just barely bigger than New Jersey, and the Palestinians want to take that from us?
Let’s start with Hamas, an internationally recognized militant terrorist group whose single purpose is Israel’s destruction.
Fighting between Hamas and Israel has essentially become the status quo, and attempting to make peace, whether on Israel or Palestine’s behalf, is way too risky.
But as for the Palestinians, they have plenty of places that people can identify with or feel at home, like Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria.
So take Chipotle and Izzo’s, for example. Two delicious restaurants specializing in Mexican cuisine, but almost everyone has very strong views about each.
The way I see it, you are either a crazy Chipotle fan, or you are 100 percent on Izzo’s team. But let’s say Izzo’s wanted to take the island seating area in Chipotle and make it a mini Izzo’s. This would outrage LSU students because it is just unacceptable.
This is exactly how Israel feels about Palestine wanting to take the little bit of land Jews treasure as their own.
The Jews that reside in Israel do not want this fighting. They aren’t fighting because they enjoy it. They are simply fighting to defend themselves and their people.
Contrary to popular belief, Israel has actually helped several injured Palestinians that have sustained injuries in Israel during this time of turmoil and distress.
As for Hamas and other factions, they have fired their rockets from and sometimes within hospitals, schools, mosques and cemeteries.
And to relate, of the approximately 4,500 lethal rockets fired by Hamas into Israel during the 50-day Gaza War, about 875 of them fell inside Gaza. Either by misfires, malfunctions or rockets that landed short, no matter how you look at it, Hamas dropped explosives on their own people leaving them with several casualties. And some of that back explosive was even intentional on behalf of the
Palestinians.
Let me state this a little more clearly — since January 2012, more than 2,530 rockets and mortars fired from Gaza have hit Israeli civilian areas.
But this doesn’t only apply to the 50-day Gaza War. Hamas still fires rockets from schools, hospitals and mosques to this day, several of which land on their own people.
For me and millions of other Jews around the world, Israel is our home. It is the one place we can identify as a safe place to practice Judaism freely, and it is where we are accepted and embraced because we are Jewish.
I couldn’t even begin to describe the lost sense of identity that would develop for myself, as well as many other Jews, if the state of Israel had to be divided up like you would birthday cake to toddlers.
All that is desired is a hope for peace and tranquility, to practice and embrace Judaism and the culture that coexists with it freely, and to have a home and a sense of “self.”
Seems simple for us, but is it really? Only time will tell.
Jen Blate is a 24-year-old sociology junior from Miami, Florida. You can reach her on Twitter @Jblate_TDR.