By N. M.
My husband and I are Israeli Christian Arabs and we and our families as, are well integrated in the Jewish community on the personal and professional front. I work for a global language school and my husband for a global Israeli based corporation. All our close friends happen to be Jewish. We do not feel in any way different from any Jewish citizen here in the country. In fact we have the luxury of not being required to join the military. We are both proud with our Israeli identity, and we feel a strong sense of belonging to this country. As Christian Arabs, we are extremely fortunate to be living in an advanced, democratic country, constantly aspiring to grow and prosper economically, culturally, technologically etc. Israel is a truly ambitious country.
I wish that all the Arabs in the Arab world will have the same privileges and quality of life that we have here in Israel.
I strongly believe that the world is doing Israel a great deal of injustice. The Israelis are very kind and warm hearted people and they want to live in peace and contribute to humanity. The Islamic fundamentalist organizations are as a matter of fact the true aggressors. Lebanon and Palestinians have been suffering from such groups for many years. They place their civilians as frontiers, aligning the propaganda against Israel. The world seems to overlook how many innocent Israelis died in suicide bombing, Arabs, Jews and tourists for that matter.
They are constantly provoking Israel due to envy of the remarkable accomplishments that Israel has attained in the last 50 years. They persistently choose to blame Israel for their lack of achievements. The "conflict" between the Arab world and Israel is nothing but a manipulating strategy for the Arab regimes to justify the poverty of their simple people. They steel all the money - such as Suha Arafat- and deprive their people of basic human rights and wellbeing, then blame Israel. This way they brain wash the people to hate and kill. The Arabic people are suffering due to their corrupt dictatorship regimes. I have spoken to several academic Arab youngsters from Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine who are anxious for piece and longing to visit Israel. They do not share the same views as their so called leaders.
Regarding the current crisis, the small citizens on both sides Lebanon and Israel are the true victims of the aggressive parasites in the region. Nevertheless I can only share what us Israelis are going through. I would like to explain to the world that all of the Israeli population of the north (Christians, Muslims, Druze, Jews), has been effected badly. We must acknowledge that we are all in the same boat. We are all under the same threat. The rockets fell a hundred meters from our home in Haifa, and a hundred meters from my mother's home in Nazareth and both cities are populated with Arabs. We have been away from home for two weeks, and it doesn't look like we will be going back soon. Further more, both Arabs and Jews have been killed by the attacks of Hezballa. I was appalled and raged by the words that came out of the mouth of the father whose two kids died from a rocket. The man was actually with all ignorance praising Hezballa. Note that, Israel is the one expected to compensate him not Hezbulla. I expected more solidarity from the Arabs here than ignorant accusations and condemnations of Israel. Israel did not start this fight. The radicals anti peace and democracy did. Hamas and Hezballa will never accomplish anything with violence, instead, they are punishing their own people.
Even though I am supportive of Israeli goal to eliminate the threat of Hezballa, I feel deep sorrow for what innocent Lebanese people are going through. I hope that they will regain full sovereignty and rebuild Lebanon, and reflourish in democracy. Israel has no interest in harming Lebanon. The same sentiments go to the Palestinian people. Israel is merely protecting all its citizens and quite rightly so.
On the Israeli side, there are over one million innocent Israelis from the north, who had to leave their homes, and more have been living in shelters in the last three weeks. The north is facing severe economical damages. Fortunately for us, the Israeli government takes good care of the well being of all its citizens, Israeli businesses look after their employees and the Israeli people are compassionate enough with each other to provide safe alternative for those who were forced to leave their homes. Hope we can all go back soon to our homes and families and normal lives.
With hopes and prayers for peace, harmony, and love