by Justine Hemmestad
11-23-23
The Israeli and American governments share a common goal, which is to prevent radical ideologies from overtaking their countries, and ultimately the world. Possibly their clearsightedness in this goal unites them. Itamar Ben David knows the importance of this and stresses that the threat comes from an ideology that manifests violently and threatens to spread world-wide. The threat is led by Iran’s government, and includes a coordinated Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine, the Shiite militias in Iraq, the Shiite militias in Syria, and terror groups in Yemen. The UN has attempted to intervene before, but their forces are afraid to enforce the restrictions that were put on Hamas, Ben David says, or they don’t notice, which resulted in October 7. The threat suppresses everything that Americans fight for. The foundational freedom of religion that so many Americans died to protect would be threatened if another country with similar principles to our own is overcome. Israel is important to the American government because it sees itself in Israel’s fight. On December 16, America will celebrate the 250th year since Bostonians dumped England’s tea shipment into the Boston Harbor, an event that John Adams called, “the most magnificent movement of all.” Thus, to see a religion not only suppressed but mutilated, as was done to the Jews in the Holocaust of the 1940s, and in their own homes a month ago, contradicts the values Americans fight for. Israel is responding to Hamas’ attack by using its military as leverage to get its hostages back. But Hamas has embedded itself so tightly within the infrastructure of Palestine that only the destruction of their shield is seen. Tony Dokoupil of CBS Mornings, says, “I don’t hear calls for Hamas to surrender or give back hostages.” Ben David reminds us that, as denazification was necessary in Germany after WWII, so too will there be a need for an equivalent program in Gaza to remove genocidal ideology. He says that nothing will change in Gaza unless there is, “a completely new education system that doesn’t preach hatred.” Ben David asserts that the war is not just due to a territorial dispute, but rather “the ongoing incitement of the Palestinian Authority against Israel.” A survivor of October 7 is Amit, who escaped the Super Nova music festival, just as his friends, Adir and Shiraz Tamam, were on their way to the festival and ultimately murdered by Hamas. Now, the Tamams’ daughters, Goshen (10) and Gili (7), are orphaned. Amit is doing everything he can to help the girls, including starting a go fund me page. He wants to get the message out about “what is really going on here,” and offers to share his story with others. Helping others to heal emotionally will ultimately help himself to heal emotionally. Ben David says, “Israelis want to live and thrive and prosper and raise their children safely, knowing that their neighbors aren’t hating them and inciting violence against them, seeing every Jewish baby and Jewish child as an enemy. We want to live knowing that no one will ever harm us the way that happened in the barbaric October 7th attack and we’re willing to fight for it.”
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