“Am Yisraeil Chai!” The people of Israel Lives! That was the shout that echoed around the room where 1000 members of the Jewish community gathered Wednesday night for a Solidarity Rally in support of Israel. Recent days have been filled with new but familiar stories of war and conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza; but, let me correct myself, because the war is not between Israel and the Palestinian people. The battle is against Hamas terrorists.

            Let’s know the facts:

• August 2005 – Israel withdraws all soldiers and settlers from Gaza
• 2007 – Hamas wins its internal power struggle with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah organization to control Gaza
• Over three years, Hamas terrorists launch more than 6,300 rockets and mortars into Israel – six a day – from Gaza
• June-July 2008 – Hamas agrees to a six-month cease-fire; rocket attacks do not completely stop
• During the six-month truce, Israel delivers 17,000 truckloads of goods into Gaza
• December 19 – End of the six-month truce; Hamas refuses to extend it and begins firing rockets, missiles and mortars into Israel
• December 22 – Hamas fires 80-plus rockets into Israel
• December 27 – Israel acts in self-defense

            Now Israel is defending its homeland, just as America has defended hers. When Israel fights terrorists, few have come to her defense like the U.S., because America understands that the war on terror isn’t being fought only in Israel. Let’s not forget that it’s been largely American soldiers who have fought against terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last summer (July 2008), President-elect Barak Obama said it best when he was visiting Israel as a Presidential candidate: “I don’t think any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens. The first job of any nation state is to protect its citizens. If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I would do everything to stop that, and would expect Israel to do the same thing.”

            The aftermath of terror is found in every picture displayed by the media. It looks like Israel has dealt Gaza a serious blow. Don’t be fooled. Israel isn’t blind to the carnage of war; it grieves for Gazans as it does for its own citizens. It fights Hamas for one reason: to end the fear and bloodshed and to destroy the possibility of more terror in Israel and Gaza. No one wants peace more than Israel. No one is more willing to accept a peace plan than Israel.

            When will the people of Gaza seek peace and rise up against its murderers who turn their young men, women, and children into murderers strapped with bombs? When will the people of Gaza stop giving up their future into the hands of terrorists? Everyone hopes for peace; but only those who are true guardians of hope will build for tomorrow when engines of war are silenced and the tranquil sounds of peace prevail.

            From my desk to yours, Shalom, Salaam, Peace.

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