Israeli in LA…by Ronen Jacobi

I'm new here – I arrived in the US for my post-doctorate research, leaving behind my family: my mother, kids, my girlfriend and my home – the state of Israel.
I have always been proud, but now these days, more then ever – I'm proud to be an Israeli, and proud to be a Jew.
From here things seems to be totally different, somehow, the 10,000 miles distance makes things and feelings much clearer, much more proportional and understandable. I'm a scientist, and I came to work here in the USA to do my post-doc because I thought that the US is Israel's best friend and I would feel comfortable here – much more comfortable then let's say, in Europe.
I was right… and I was wrong.
I was right in the sense that the US is really a great friend of the state of Israel and as an Israeli, I'm most welcomed around here, everyone knows Israel and even non-Jews are very much fond of Israel and respect it and its people.
Everything was almost perfect until Israel went into Gaza once again…
I had been in Israel on vacation when operation "Cast lead" took off. I had been there during Hanukah, when the cease-fire ended and the population of all the south of Israel, more then one million people, had to take shelter from the rockets, replacing the joy of the holiday with the fear which comes with the "red-alert" blaring out through the emergency response civic speaker systems.
I heard occasionally the question "These are small rockets – what is the big deal?"
Apparently, the person asking had never been in the situation when such a rocket is being fired towards him. The hit may be smaller then a 1000 Lbs. bomb – that's true. But unlike a 1000 Lbs. bomb being deployed from an Israeli F-16 aircraft – the Palestinian rocket is not targeted at a specific object or building. This rocket is like roulette; it's the lottery of the day, of the hour, of the minute. You know it comes towards you because the siren is on, you know it comes really towards you when you hear it's blood-curdling whistle, but you also know that it was not launched with a specific target – but to kill you or your neighbor or anyone else whose only guilt has been to be a Jew in the state of Israel.
In the 2nd Lebanon war in 2006, I lived in a village in the upper Galilee – just 10 miles south of the northern Israeli-Lebanese border. It was 4:35 AM when I woke up and felt that there was something wrong going on – it took about 2 seconds to understand when I heard explosions… It wasn't anything new – for the last week rockets had been exploded all around the Galilee and the village I lived in.
But this time – the explosions were close…
Very close.
And each explosion became louder, closer and kept getting closer still as if they were hunting me down. Then there was a real huge explosion – I was sure it exploded in my backyard, pulling my blanket over my face not to get my face cut by glass, I suddenly heard with horror the blood-curdling whistle of the next rocket – it was coming directly at me!!! I didn't think of anything – but just thanked G_D the kids were with my X-wife that day… I rolled down off my bed, on the floor covering my head as I was trained to do in the army. The roof shook with a tremendous explosion. I was sure it had exploded in my living room but it did not – instead, orange flames were covering the front porch… "The car was directly hit!!" I thought to my self –"thank G_D it's only the car"…
I called the police: "Direct hit!!! I'm going out to check for wounded people"!! The phone stays with me – on.
The policeman asked to have all the data needed while I rushed out – the car was not on fire – it was the neighbors house – the Gas cylinders were on fire and it was going to explode the house shortly – several neighbors gathered together and we knew we had to search the house quickly to find the family inside – or they were doomed.
We broke the door, and found them in a total state of shock in the bed-room. The kids were down in the shelter, the parents had been sleeping in the bed room – the rocket was inside their room: smashed… We all gazed at it, not understanding what had happen here and how they were not killed – the rocket leftovers were inside the room, 3 feet from their bed!!!
The ambulance arrived; the kids were OK, totally terrified but physically OK. The parents had cuts, but other then this – they were fine…
A quick look on the outside wall revealed the horror – the outside of the house was totally shattered, all the windows were smashed, the walls were punched with holes and the house looked demolished. My car, in the parking lot – with its facing side to the neighbors house, was punctured with those devil, tiny, metal ball bearings by the hundreds. All the windows were broken – I was lucky.
Later, I found how lucky I really had been – the rocket hit the roof to my house first, but it hit with one of its fins creating a "V" shaped crater on the roof's corner, jumping from my roof to the neighbor’s house like a stone on a water pond – It had hit the ornament they had above the window – the detonator was activated on that ornament, and the explosive went off before the rocket entered the bedroom with its momentum… That was how this couple had the rocket land 3 feet away from them but were not killed.

I had to live like this for two months – only two months. My kids and X-wife left their house in a near by village to Tel-Aviv. I stayed at home – nobody was going to evacuate me from my home in Israel – I'm an Israeli, and we are stubborn as mules when it comes to this – too many times over history we had pogroms to evacuate us from our homes.
The people in south Israel have been living like this for the past 8 years. Try to remember what did you do eight years ego: where were you? Did you have kids? If you have kids under 8, how would you feel if the only way of living they knew was like this?...
For the last 6 months we had the "Hudna" – some kind of a cease fire during which the Palestinians used to fire about 10 rockets a day… That was a cease fire?
Israel knew they were getting ammunition during all this time through sea and through the Egyptian-Gaza strip border/Philadelphi Route. But besides protesting and warning, closing the border and trying to trace weapons smuggling ships as good as could be done – Israel did nothing. Israel could do nothing.
The rockets kept coming… We knew that they were not buying weapons for the next holiday – we knew how each and every rocket, bullet and bomb will eventually fired upon us.
All the billions of dollars being donated by other countries were not spent to buy food, to improve the heath care services, to improve education and to establish a viable economy – all these billions of dollars were spent just to buy more and more weapons to be fired on us. Do the math yourself: they are short with medications, foods, water and hospital equipment, but have a tremendous arsenal of rockets and bombs. Fortunately, the IDF has been demolishing these, their house wares for the past two weeks.

Then, the cease fire ended.
It took 2 days for the Hamas people to resume heavy rocket fire upon southern Israel. I was there in Israel, feeling the helplessness – what could be done to stop this? We knew that we can have a whole bunch of rockets fired upon us along with the world's sympathy – but the minute Israel moves in – we were once again the bad guys, the murderers, the blood-thirsty people… It went like this for a week or so. The rockets were not decreasing but increasing with every passing day. The Israeli government seemed to be paralyzed by the up coming elections and the fear generated by the results of the previous war in 2006: when although the Hezbollah personnel entered into the state of Israel killing 6 Israeli soldiers and capturing two others with no reason. As a payback, Israel went to attack Hezbollah in Lebanon and did it with extra care –nevertheless, the whole world disapproved of Israel's actions. We, in Israel, knew that it didn't matter what would happen – Israel would always be the one to blame.
It really seemed to be hopeless…
Then came Saturday – The Israeli air force, in a brilliant move, attacked more then a 170 targets in only less then 4 minutes.
Being a former soldier in the Israeli army I know what measures are being taken to prevent the killing of innocents – I'm not at all surprised to hear that Israel calls the Palestinians to notify them of an upcoming attack; this, in order to give them enough time to take shelter. However, by doing this they know that they’re exposing the Israeli pilots to the expected anti-aircraft fire from the ground. I also am not surprised to hear the reports of civilians being held hostage by their own people – the Hamas - on the roofs of the buildings by gun threat, so that the Israeli pilots will see them and avoid bombing the building… The Hamas knows the Israeli sensitivity to civilians and uses it cynically – but this time, the pilots are prepared – they launch tiny missiles at deserted corners of the roofs so the civilians will understand that this pilot means business and so escape from the roof and building. The pilot, takes a spin around the neighborhood, waits a few minutes and comes back – this time releasing the real bombs – he knows, it's either them, or his family just 3 miles away…
What air force acts this way?...

After a week the ground troops entered Gaza strip to finish the job – we didn't want it: we were afraid for our soldiers because every Israeli has to serve in the army. We either have someone we know in the army, or we are in the army, or our kids are going to serve in the army… I myself have two kids, two boys… in a few years they will join the army, and someone who doesn't know them, their sensitive hearts, their dreams, their love towards humanity will try his best to kill them – with every year passing by, with every birthday I'm worried – they are closer and closer to the army and I have to deal with it.
We want to live peacefully, we don't want to send our kids to the army, we want them with us, safe – I want to cover them with the blanket when they are 18 and not have to send them to sleep in the mud and the cold of the desert nights…
But we have to do it – If we don't defend ourselves – nobody will. The memory of the holocaust is still very vivid in our collective memory, how 6,000,000 Jews were murdered and the world was quiet. We have to survive as the state of Israel so the next time a Hitler comes to power there will be a place to escape to. You can be positive – such a Hitler will come to power somewhere, he always has.

From here, Israel is much clearer.
On the way back, the Delta airliner carrying me took a spin around LAX. If this spin had occurred over Israel, it would have flown me, not just over Israel – it would have flown above the Galilee in Israel, Jordan, Saudi-Arabia, the Negev desert of Israel, the Mediterranean Sea and only then down to Ben-Gurion airport. One ordinary spin of the airliner around LAX covers all the state of Israel in just 20 minutes of flight…
From here, Israel is much more vivid – I watch the media reports and I know what is going on there – I have been there. I saw the Terrorists holding their own people hostage under Israeli soldier's attacks knowing how the soldiers will avoid hurting them. I know the booby-trapped house entrances, schools, hospitals. Some of my soldier friends told me about a Palestinian old man shivering in the middle of the summer on his bed when they entered his house. the old man was crying and bagging them not to force him to stand up – only to find that his bed had been booby trapped with the aim of killing Israeli soldiers while promising the old man that he would die as a Shahid. The trap was dismantled carefully, although it was much easier and safer for my friends to leave the room and the old man on the bed, step out from the room, take shelter and shoot the bomb from a far and get back in after it had exploded along with the old man.
I have been there – on the street in Sidon, Lebanon, under attack, seeing how terrorists shoot their own people - Lebanese civilians back in 1983 because they knew how Israeli soldier would rush out to help the civilians… 4 Israeli soldiers were shot while trying to help the civilians.

From here it is all much clearer. I'm also not hurt anymore watching the media – I know how your reporters are being fooled, and I'm not pissed off in spite of what I see on the media, I am proud to be an Israeli! I know our values, I know how my army is working, and I know what they are facing.
I know how your reporters are being fooled… I have been there and this time I'm so proud to hear the Israeli government standing tall against all the verbal attacks and against a totally one-sided UN resolution. Israel is declaring loud and clear: we are solely responsible for our citizens, and nobody will teach us how to act and defend them. This time - we are done only when we feel we are done!