Our actions are disproportionate

Dear Esther & Friends
Just this morning I received the following e mail . Let me know if you would like me to froward the full text. Maybe it will give you another angle in speaking to your students. Also, check out the web site for the David Project.
http://davidproject.org/
They specialize in teaching how to speak on behalf of Israel. Debbie can tell you more about booking them .


An edited version of the following op-ed piece appeared in the Wednesday March 19, 2008 issue of The New York Jewish Week..
Thinking About Gaza
By Eric H. Yoffie
A few weeks ago, I sat with a Jewish delegation that met with some important Protestant leaders here in the United States . The conversation quickly turned to events in Gaza . In a perfunctory sentence or two, our Protestant colleagues said that of course they condemned the rocket fire directed at Israeli cities, but in their view the real problem was the suffering of the Palestinian population in Gaza and the wildly disproportionate nature of Israel ’s response to Palestinians attacks.
Deeply pained and angry, what I said was this: You are absolutely right. Israel ’s response has been wildly disproportionate because it has been far more restrained than what would be expected from any other civilized, democratic government.
Did they understand that since 2001, more than 7000 rockets had been fired from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel ? Did they realize that a “proportionate” response would involve 7000 Israeli rockets fired at civilians in Gaza ? Did they appreciate that the relatively small number of civilian casualties in Israel resulted not from the humanitarian intentions of Hamas but from the crudeness of their weapons, and that those weapons were now improving? Did they know that the traumatized children of Sderot lived in constant fear? On what basis, I asked, did they expect Israel to tolerate these attacks? And what would their congregants be saying if their churches in Michigan had been subjected to 7 years of hostile fire from across the Canadian border? Would church leaders be calling for “restraint” from the American government in these circumstances? And did they really expect that any American president would show such restraint?
What followed, of course, was the suggestion that the “occupation” was responsible for the rocket fire. I replied: Excuse me, but Prime Minister Sharon pulled out of every inch of Gaza in 2005, and his successor was elected on a platform calling for unilateral withdrawal from most of the remaining territories. And yet there has not been a single day of quiet following that withdrawal. Indeed, rocket strikes significantly increased after it was completed.
Yes, I assured them, I shared their concern for Palestinian suffering in Gaza . But the simple fact is that if terror and rocket fire were to come to an end in Gaza , the suffering of her people would end as well.

Chag Purim Sameach and Shabbat Shalom

Deborah

PS.. To those who didn't get to Swampscott on Wednesday... Kol HaKavod to Rachel for producing a fantastic film and slide show and to Debbie for catching us unaware!!