Dear John,
As I write this, over 360 missiles have been flying into Israel from Gaza. When the “Seva Adom”— the “red Alert” siren sounds, millions of innocent Israelis have mere seconds to run into their shelters and sealed rooms. The people living in Sderot and the neighborhoods surrounding Gaza have no more than 15 to 90 seconds run and find shelter.
Do people understand the underlying trauma that this causes? Could you imagine raising your children in conditions such as these?
The reason these missiles are flying has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel’s borders or the shape or contours of Israel’s map. The reason has to do with the constant culture of hatred and incitement to demonize and to kill the Jew and the Israeli that the unfortunate people living in Gaza have been subjected to by their leaders.
The reason these missiles are flying into Israel homes and population centers is because a senior commander of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s (PIJ) Al Quds (Jerusalem) brigade, Baha Attu al Atta, who had been planning on executing a severe terrorist attack that would have cost the lives of hundreds of innocent Israelis was taken out by the Israelis on 4 a.m. Israel time on Tuesday. He was what has been called “a ticking time bomb” by Prime Minister Netanyahu as well as the entire Israeli defense establishment
According to the United Nations Charter, every nation has not only the right, but the responsibility, to protect the lives of its citizens from imminent attack. Says Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, Aviv Kochavi, “In recent days he was working to perpetrate attacks against Israel. We tried to thwart his efforts in different ways without success and we then recommended a targeted killing.”
In fact, even according to Hamas’ exceedingly low standards, al-Ata was considered an agitator . According to Avi Issacharoff, who writes for the Times of Israel, Bahu abu al-Ata was the man behind the recent violence coming out of Gaza. Wrote Issaharoff, ten days ago Al-Ata was serious troublemaker in Gaza who no one wants (now, “wanted”) to confront. That includes Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, who fear him and the possibility of being accused of collaboration if they act against him. Even Ziad al-Nakhala, Islamic Jihad’s leader, hasn’t succeeded in dealing with al-Ata, who is acting from a clear personal and organizational agenda.
However, of course, since Mr. Al-Ata’s demise, Hamas jumped into the fray and launching missiles into millions of Israeli homes and inflicting as much damage and terror as possible.
What EMET is all about is education. Ever since this began, yesterday morning, Israel time, EMET has started sending out Fact Sheets to members of Congress, the administration and staffers, explaining the situation, and trying to get out ahead of Israel’s enemies. Right now, we are busy meeting with members of Congress and their staffers to explain Israel’s story, to explain—the EMET—the TRUTH.
Our enemies are trying to promulgate a lie that Israel intentionally hit a human rights center in Gaza. EMET is on the front line of advocating on behalf of Israel so that lies like that of Israel striking the building of the Palestinian Commission for Human Rights in Gaza are exposed.
We work tirelessly on shifting the public perception of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, especially in crucial times like we are in today, where innocent Israelis are under attack.
When we are in their offices we explain about just how far Israel has gone to attempt to make peace with the Palestinians, starting in 1937 with the Peel Commission to 1947 with the UN Partition Plan to the Khartoum Conference in 1967 to Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s exceedingly generous offer at Camp David in 2000 of 92% of the West Bank or Judea and Samira to Yassir Arafat and the even more generous offer my by Prime Minister Olmert’s even more generous offer in 2008.
We explain how each offer was made with rejection and a greater and more intensive round of violence.
We explain that this has nothing whatsoever to do with the “occupation” or the “settlements” or the shape and counters of Israel, but with an all-encompassing education that the unfortunate Palestinian population has been subjected to, by their own leaders to despise the Israeli and the Jew and to not accept our presence in the land of Israel, whether within or outside of the 1967 borders. We remind people that the PLO was created in 1964, three years before the 1967 War and the so called “Occupation."
We ask staffers and members of Congress how they would feel if missiles were to rain down in their homes, as their children were sleeping at night, from Canada or from Mexico, or from some radical enclave in the heart of the United States.
EMET cannot be expected to change the mindset of the Palestinians who have been inebriated with this constant and daily dosage of unlockable hatred. Our job here is to educate member of Congress, the administration and the public of large, to have a bit of empathy for what the Israeli people have to go through, and why.
Many of these staffers and members of Congress are young and have no idea of the existential threat that Israel is under. They do not remember the 1967 War or the Holocaust, and think that these things are ancient history. They believe that it is totally up to Israel to make peace, and that if only Israel would make a more generous offer, peace would break out, not only between Israel and the Palestinians, but throughout the Middle East.
They forget that it takes two to tango.
And without an organization like EMET, they would get their news entirely from a highly biased media.
It is for times like these that EMET exists. But we cannot do this alone.
That is why we depend on people such as yourselves to be able to continue with our critically important mission. We cannot do this alone. As the Talmud says, “The hour is late. The task is great. It is not ours to desist from doing the task. Nor is it ours to do alone.”
That is why we are asking each and every one of you to please partner with us. We need you to reach down and give as generously as you possibly can, so that we can continue our critically important work of telling the EMET—The Truth, about Israel’s moral clarity and political necessity to survive.
Invest in EMET. Invest in the Truth
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Sincerely,
Sarah N. Stern
Founder and President
Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET)
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For those wishing to donate by check, please make checks payable to EMET and send to:
EMET
P.O. Box 66366
Washington, D.C. 20035
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