As a resident of the United States and a mother and grandmother of two large families living in Israel, one in Beit El and one in Petach Tikvah, it is very difficult to remain calm when reading "objective", "even-handed" reports of events occurring in Israel. As I read, I shudder at the "balanced" reporting that equates the deliberate execution by an Arab sharpshooter, of an infant held in her mother's arms in a nursery playground in Hebron, with the accidental killing of a baby by Israeli soldiers returning fire at a mortar launching site, immediately after it had shot into an Israeli town, where it could have killed many civilians.
The Palestininan Authority and other Arab militant groups choose to place their military installations inside civilian areas. They want it both ways: teaching the holiness and desirability of child martyrdom and then blaming Israel for their deaths. I believe it is obscene to "balance" the deliberate torture, murder and mutilation of two young Jewish boys only fifteen minutes from their homes in Tekoa, of those who order and carry out the murder of innocent Israeli civilians, with unintentional civilian casualties caused by Israeli defensive action.
The unfairness of this reporting, the lack of the moral absolutes of right and wrong, the acceptance of lies as truth, leaves me filled with a terrible combination of frustration and anger.
Not even mentioned, except in Arutz Sheva, are the many daily miracles, where men, women and children are shot at on the roads they must use to get to and from work, to a hospital and to visit friends and relatives. They are attacked by ambush or drive by shootings or deadly stones. These frequent and terrifying occurrences are not deemed serious enoughby the media for individual reporting, unless someone dies, but are classified as a group of violent events.
Try to imagine driving from Manhattan, or any large city in the United States to a suburb of that city, with the constant fear of being murdered. Men, women or children, old or young, it makes no difference to our enemies. To me these terrible events are not merely reported news. Each and every violent incident, be it fatal or not, fills me with great fear. Every victim could be my child. Many are known personally by me or my family. I grieve for them all.
Arafat could have had 99% of the "West Bank" and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but he refused this offer by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as not being enough. Apparently, having Jews as neighbors is an abomination to him. Do he and his people want all of Israel to be "Judenrein", cleansed of Jews? So it seems by their words and actions.
How do these Jews live surrounded by so much hate? How do they manage to bring up their children to feel loved and protected? How can they celebrate the holidays with the great joy that they do? How do they continue to rejoice and thank our Creator at every happy family event.
My children in Beit El and their friends and neighbors have been demonized enough. I wish to show them as they truly are, valiant and caring men and women who have come to live in Yehuda, the Shomron and Gaza, not because they hate Arabs but because they love their people and their Land, the one and only homeland of the Jews.
The writer is a past National President of Emunah of America. Currently Vice-President for Projects-In-Israel, is Emunah's representative to the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization and serves on the committee of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Professionally, she is a certified speech-language pathologist.
The Palestininan Authority and other Arab militant groups choose to place their military installations inside civilian areas. They want it both ways: teaching the holiness and desirability of child martyrdom and then blaming Israel for their deaths. I believe it is obscene to "balance" the deliberate torture, murder and mutilation of two young Jewish boys only fifteen minutes from their homes in Tekoa, of those who order and carry out the murder of innocent Israeli civilians, with unintentional civilian casualties caused by Israeli defensive action.
The unfairness of this reporting, the lack of the moral absolutes of right and wrong, the acceptance of lies as truth, leaves me filled with a terrible combination of frustration and anger.
Not even mentioned, except in Arutz Sheva, are the many daily miracles, where men, women and children are shot at on the roads they must use to get to and from work, to a hospital and to visit friends and relatives. They are attacked by ambush or drive by shootings or deadly stones. These frequent and terrifying occurrences are not deemed serious enoughby the media for individual reporting, unless someone dies, but are classified as a group of violent events.
Try to imagine driving from Manhattan, or any large city in the United States to a suburb of that city, with the constant fear of being murdered. Men, women or children, old or young, it makes no difference to our enemies. To me these terrible events are not merely reported news. Each and every violent incident, be it fatal or not, fills me with great fear. Every victim could be my child. Many are known personally by me or my family. I grieve for them all.
Arafat could have had 99% of the "West Bank" and the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but he refused this offer by former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as not being enough. Apparently, having Jews as neighbors is an abomination to him. Do he and his people want all of Israel to be "Judenrein", cleansed of Jews? So it seems by their words and actions.
How do these Jews live surrounded by so much hate? How do they manage to bring up their children to feel loved and protected? How can they celebrate the holidays with the great joy that they do? How do they continue to rejoice and thank our Creator at every happy family event.
My children in Beit El and their friends and neighbors have been demonized enough. I wish to show them as they truly are, valiant and caring men and women who have come to live in Yehuda, the Shomron and Gaza, not because they hate Arabs but because they love their people and their Land, the one and only homeland of the Jews.
The writer is a past National President of Emunah of America. Currently Vice-President for Projects-In-Israel, is Emunah's representative to the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization and serves on the committee of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Professionally, she is a certified speech-language pathologist.