Last summer, for the second time in my life, I stood on a hill overlooking Sderot, Israel and the Gaza Strip. As I listened to a local resident explain the trauma that the 7,000-plus missiles have caused this community over the past several years, I pictured a Qassam rocket flying over the border into the quiet neighborhood below me.
After descending from the hill, I entered the home of another resident to encounter a bombed-out living room, kitchen, and bathroom that were destroyed by a Qassam rocket—something the media has routinely made us believe is only a little pock-shot toy rocket.
In the summer of 2005, Israel, in a moment of excruciating national pain, unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip and ceded the territory to the Palestinians. And since that day, the people of Sderot (and more recently Ashkelon, Beersheva, and elsewhere) have lived under constant attack.
During the past three-and-a-half years, the Israeli government proceeded on the diplomatic front, but over the past three-and-a-half weeks—with Hamas firing longer-range Grad missiles, putting nearly one million Israelis in range—Israel resorted to intense military action.
Last week, I returned from my ninth trip to Israel, during which I witnessed the first week of Operation Cast Lead (Israel’s confrontation of Hamas). I had participated in an American-Israel Public Affairs Committee advanced mission as one of 40 student leaders, Jewish and non-Jewish, from campuses around the U.S.
The mission focused on untraveled—yet highly significant—locations and viewpoints in an attempt to broaden our knowledge base. In constant discussions with professors, pundits, politicians, diplomats, journalists, and ordinary civilians, the consensus emerged that Israel is waging a just and necessary defensive war. After years of missile attacks, the Israeli government decided to fulfill its obligation to defend its citizens.
According to the sources I spoke with on all levels, the Gaza operation differs from past operations in the region in a number of respects.
First, all three leading candidates for prime minister in the Israeli elections—slated for Feb. 10—suspended their campaigns to focus on the operation. Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu have acted in harmony over the past few weeks, putting aside what was a rather nasty season of campaigning in the lead-up to the election. The current Kadima government even asked its primary opponent, Likud leader Netanyahu, to apply his renowned English oratory to defend Israel on western media outlets.
Second, the international community, if not overtly supportive, seems to understand what Israel is up against and why it must defeat Hamas. Many world leaders and diplomats see a connection between Hamas and the terrorist organizations behind the London and Madrid train bombings as well as the Mumbai attacks. They view Hamas as part of the global problem of terrorism and fundamentalism and consider Israel’s justification for attacking Hamas valid. International law further affirms the validity of a defensive war to protect one’s borders. Interestingly, several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have slammed Hamas, stating that its constant rocket attacks on Israel are futile and destabilizing. An Egyptian border guard was killed by Hamas fighters in the first few days of the conflict.
In one of the first acts of the 111th U.S. Congress last week, the House voted 390-5, and the Senate voted unanimously in favor of a resolution that recognizes “the right of Israel to defend itself against attacks from Gaza.” President-elect Barack Obama visited Sderot last summer and reaffirmed his position last weekend that “Israelis must not suffer a threat to their lives, to their schools” and that “if missiles were falling where my two daughters sleep, I would do everything in order to stop that.”
The Israelis get it, much of the world gets it, and the United States government gets it. And while all parties are looking forward to a resolution to the conflict and its core causes, the majority of world leaders who are calling for a ceasefire are demanding it with one important caveat—that the rocket attacks on Israel stop.
That very demand is also Israel’s primary demand. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and would much rather see a vibrant Palestinian state flourish as its neighbor than a ruthless terrorist regime, but it must first and foremost win security for its citizens.
As Columbia students and future world leaders, it is vital that we look past the rhetoric and seek the truth. Supporting Israel as a democratic ally in the Middle East and reaffirming the right of Israeli civilians to live in peace and security is one of the rare issues on which Democrats and Republicans agree. With the Obama administration finally in office, it is my sincere hope that lasting peace and prosperity can be brought to the Israeli and Palestinian people.
The author is a List College junior majoring in American history and Talmud. He is the president of LionPAC and a sports page associate editor.