Dear World, I am Jeff Hochman and I am a Jew that lives in Israel. I am originally from the USA and was a career Law Enforcement officer in New Orleans Louisiana. Before I was a cop I was and will always be a US Marine. After I retired from Law Enforcement I was recruited by the USA Department of Defense to go to Al Anbar Iraq and work counter terrorism and counter insurgency operations. Between New Orleans and Iraq I have seen war and I have seen death. As a Jewish kid growing up we always had Holocaust classes at Sunday school. Before I moved to Israel I had visited many times and visited the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem (Yad Vashem). I have personally heard the stories of holocaust survivors; I have seen the photos and movies. These visions are forever burned into my memory. As a Jew I have always had strong feelings toward Israel and have had friends in Israel for decades. Many of my friends are in the Israeli National Police, the Israeli Security Agency, and the IDF. They have lived through terror for decades. They lived through the Second Intifada where buses were blown up weekly and hundreds of hundreds of Israelis were slaughtered by terrorist bombs. Many more were forever mentally and physically scarred. I write this because of a recent misguided world opinion that the civilian death toll in Gaza by the IDF is too high, compared to Israeli civilian deaths. They claim that the IDF has killed innocent women and children. Some of the reports are true; in war innocents often pay for the barbarism of their neighbors. In war people die. However Israel did not arbitrarily attack Gaza. Israel did not commit the first strike against Gaza. Israel gave Gaza to the Palestinians in 2005. Since then Hamas has continuously attacked Israel with bombs and rockets, many from Iran. Thousands and thousands of rockets have reigned down on Israel from Hamas. Israel had enough of its citizens being killed, maimed and mentally scarred. They had enough of their children having to run for cover at the sound of sirens. Israel struck back and killed a MILITARY target, the MILITARY leader of Hamas. Keeping this in mind, Hamas, Hezbollah and others do not obey the rule of war and wear uniforms. They choose to hide behind and mingle with the non-combatants making them human shields. They do not target and attack military installations; they target civilians in the cities and towns of Israel. If Israel accidentally killed non-combatants and the world is aghast at that, what does the world opinion say about the intentional targeting of a Civilian Bus in Tel Aviv? Where is the outrage at that heinous attack? So Hamas, with help from Iran retaliated and has been raining missiles down on Israel and Israel went after terror targets in Gaza. There were non-combatants killed by the IDF in Gaza. It was not intentional and Israel did more than any other country in the world to tell the people of Gaza to move away from any Hamas terrorist, as the IDF was hunting them. All Israelis and I are sorry that innocent non-combatants were killed. I however am not sorry that more Israelis have NOT been killed. You see there is no rule that says in order to win a war you must have as many deaths as the enemy your fighting. You do not have to have as much blood on the ground as your enemy. The media and the United Nation, other organizations and political people may want that, but it’s not the rule. In fact it’s the exact opposite. However for numbers sake lets say it was the rule. Then Israel wins (or loses). Because there is no group of people that have shed as much blood and had loss of life as the Jews. The soil of Israel is soaked with Jewish blood. Women and children’s blood, guts and body parts are forever part of Israeli soil from terror attacks by Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and other Islamic terror groups, many based in Gaza. So if the world needs Jewish blood on the ground to pay for the non-combatant deaths in Gaza, then I say that debt has been paid. That debt has been paid in full many times over. In closing more Israelis have not died from the rocket attacks because Israel has had to learn how not to die. On the blood of other Jews Israel has built bomb shelters, safe rooms, stronger buildings, increased security methods (Human and technological) that defeat the acts of terror. So to the world, to the people that say the proportions of non-combatants killed is too high, I say you’re correct. Madmen and terrorist have slaughtered far too many Israelis and Jews around the world. We as a Jewish people have had to learn how not to die by the bus and trainload. Shalom, Jeff Hochman I wrote this in 2012. In addition to what I have written above, I want to add that in the first few months of my sons life in 2012 we spent many hours running up and down stairs to the bomb shelter in our apartment building in Tel Aviv. It is an experience I will never forget and hope my son never remembers.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 14:15:16 +0000
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