You have brought me to tears. This beautiful piece describes in painful detail how you have suffered. I can’t begin to imagine the pain you are going through.
I agree that the reaction of the diaspora is shocking and you need support desperately from them. I lived in Israel in the 80s and I still regard it as the most wonderful and beautiful country. The most exciting and beautiful people. I pray that with Trump fighting your corner you will see a return to safety and normality. My husband and I are desperate to return to visit.
All I can say, is that we stand with you and our prayers are with you. 🙏
I support Israel. I support the IDF. I stand with Jews everywhere. I don’t want my brothers and sisters to die. (I don’t want anyone to die, if there is a real choice.) As an American Jew, I don’t presume to know anything except that my people are in danger and I support them. Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱
What sickens me most are not the vile monsters screaming "genocide." It's Israel's supposed friends in the American political system who have sympathy for everyone but Israelis.
This hit home with me. Ours is a military family whose members have fought in America’s wars from 1917 to the present day. The personal costs of war lives with us. But that’s no longer the universal American experience. Since the end of the Second World War, fewer and fewer American families have had a personal stake on our country’s wars. Year by year, the population of American veterans dwindles. The Greatest Generation veterans have is largely passed from the scene, and Vietnam veterans are getting old. I’ve told my daughter, a GWOT/Afghanistan veteran, that by the time she’s forty, she’ll be one of America’s true one-percenters.
But that can never be be the case with Israel. Perforce, the Jewish state will always be a warlike state, a nation in arms, in which military service is not just a family tradition but a national rite of passage.
75 years of almost constant conflict, a state of alert, high alert, rocket alert, a state of war, terrorist attacks, missiles, verbal threats of annihilation ..... just a litany of horror. I cannot imagine what that must feel like and how much it must damage one psychologically. Running to bomb shelters, worrying whether that bag left on the bus will explode, how to explain to a child that people want to kill you simply because you are a Jew. It all just boggles the mind.
I can only say as one person living in Canada that I feel so much for you Gavriella and so incredibly sorry for what you and my Israeli brothers and sisters have to endure. I stand with you and I am too old to fight militarily but since Oct 7th and its aftermath, I have spend much of my time dedicated to doing all i can to support the PR war.
Thank you! We serve with the weapons to which we are most suited. Using your pen and any other resources to tell our truth puts you equally in the Tzivos Hashem- Gd’s army. Keep going! We need you.
Obviously what if going on is horrific. But it’s worrying as a supporter of Israel if such a large proportion of them assume victory and survival. It really isn’t a given, as the tragic events of the 40s revealed. A little more cynicism and pragmatism might do them a world of good, assuming what this author says is true. Rome was unbeatable, unconquerable, until it wasn’t.
I have never been to Israel, but I love Israel. God says choose life, and that is what you have chosen. I don’t hate the Palestinians, I pray for them also, but I will not support their evil choices, and I stand with Israel.
Yes no one person other than Israel can imagine the loss, pain suffering trauma, on all fronts. The toll it is on Israelites. And still the rest of the world procecute Israel. Gods word is true, all will come against the holy land & its people, but I AM will put a hook in their jaws, destroy them, then All will know, I AM THE ONLY ALMIGHTY GOD. I pray for Israel Jerusalem, the people, the PM, leaders, and the rest of the world not to be blinded, deceived by the evil forces, to stand with Israel, to support on all fronts. May our Lord give you His strength, hope, peace victory, guidance, HE Is in control, our Lord will protect you, He will bring deliverance, keep your faith in our Messiah, His Light shines brighter against the dark. Keep praising & glorify YAWEH, HE IS VICTORIOUS
Thank you for this thoughtful essay. I am not Jewish but since 10/7 I have become a Zionist. It is Substacks like this one that inform my understanding of the absurd and unjust double standards to which Israel has been subject by the western press, the UN and by University-employed thought leaders.
I have a question about the section on Israeli labour force. You write: "The Palestinian labor is a quarter of the price of other foreign or domestic labor at their lowest. This workforce has also made up virtually the entire constant new construction industry in Israel."
Does this not translate to Palestinian labor subsidizing the Israeli construction industry by 75%? How is this unequal pay justified?
Please take this as a good-faith question. I have lost many close friendships in the past year over the Israel-Palestinian conflict, so when a fact like the one stated above is offered, I am not sure how to respond. Perhaps a deeper dive into pre-conflict labour relations across the border would clarify?
I will try to address here though it may take some back and forth or as you mentioned be a topic for a more in depth article. We are talking about Palestinians who by choice are not Israeli citizens and choose to live in a refugee status in Judea and Gaza. So by choice they are not part of the giving and taking of Israeli society that would be a part of equality of pay like serving in the army, paying taxes and voting etc. They live on the other side of a border of checkpoints.
Their society has received enormous amounts of aid, support, training opportunities and actual raw materials to build their own functional and successful society, a society that would include economic opportunities. In Gaza alone when the Israelis withdrew they left millions of dollars in gorgeous green houses that would have provided endless work and food for the Gaza people. In the first day the ordinary Gaza people destroyed all of the greenhouses. Their society has chosen to take the billions in support for decades and keep it to fund such activities that are not at all inline with creating a functional economy. Examples include using aid money meant for schools instead to “pay for slay” to fund the enormous PLO benefit of paying families whose members had died in suicide and other terrorist attacks. So the money they have been given to build a society instead they have used to destroy two societies, by choice.
Frankly, I believe that Israel must find another way. Why would any country to obligated to issue work visas to residents of another country/society who use those work visas to then kill and destroy? In my opinion, and as I am unable yet to vote as an Israeli citizen it’s really just my thoughts, is that Israel should stop permanently issuing work visas to Palestinians who live on the other side. But then Israel needs a construction and other workforce solution.
In fact, this is not true. Any employer in Israel is obliged to abide by the laws. No worker from the Palestinian Authority, no foreign worker, no Israeli can receive less than the minimum wage. The employer is obliged to pay vacation pay, the required bonuses and comply with all Israeli laws. Otherwise, he is subject to large fines. Of course, there are unscrupulous employers who violate these rules, and I can tell you why and how this happens, but these are isolated cases. Naturally, the majority receive the minimum wage, but this is true for Israeli and foreign workers. There are certain businesses and types of work where workers from the territories receive increased wages, but in any case it is not a quarter of the cost.
This may be true for an illegal worker who entered Israel illegally without a permit, but this is already a criminal offense for the employer, and these are not the types of jobs that Israel needs. Also, workers doing unskilled and light work receive less, while more skilled workers receive more.
You have brought me to tears. This beautiful piece describes in painful detail how you have suffered. I can’t begin to imagine the pain you are going through.
I agree that the reaction of the diaspora is shocking and you need support desperately from them. I lived in Israel in the 80s and I still regard it as the most wonderful and beautiful country. The most exciting and beautiful people. I pray that with Trump fighting your corner you will see a return to safety and normality. My husband and I are desperate to return to visit.
All I can say, is that we stand with you and our prayers are with you. 🙏
I support Israel. I support the IDF. I stand with Jews everywhere. I don’t want my brothers and sisters to die. (I don’t want anyone to die, if there is a real choice.) As an American Jew, I don’t presume to know anything except that my people are in danger and I support them. Am Yisrael Chai. 🇮🇱
What sickens me most are not the vile monsters screaming "genocide." It's Israel's supposed friends in the American political system who have sympathy for everyone but Israelis.
I agree! It is nonsensical. Maybe because they don’t live in the country. I think they like to take an arrogant and superior view!
We feel for you and all Israelis, @Gavriella.
This hit home with me. Ours is a military family whose members have fought in America’s wars from 1917 to the present day. The personal costs of war lives with us. But that’s no longer the universal American experience. Since the end of the Second World War, fewer and fewer American families have had a personal stake on our country’s wars. Year by year, the population of American veterans dwindles. The Greatest Generation veterans have is largely passed from the scene, and Vietnam veterans are getting old. I’ve told my daughter, a GWOT/Afghanistan veteran, that by the time she’s forty, she’ll be one of America’s true one-percenters.
But that can never be be the case with Israel. Perforce, the Jewish state will always be a warlike state, a nation in arms, in which military service is not just a family tradition but a national rite of passage.
75 years of almost constant conflict, a state of alert, high alert, rocket alert, a state of war, terrorist attacks, missiles, verbal threats of annihilation ..... just a litany of horror. I cannot imagine what that must feel like and how much it must damage one psychologically. Running to bomb shelters, worrying whether that bag left on the bus will explode, how to explain to a child that people want to kill you simply because you are a Jew. It all just boggles the mind.
I can only say as one person living in Canada that I feel so much for you Gavriella and so incredibly sorry for what you and my Israeli brothers and sisters have to endure. I stand with you and I am too old to fight militarily but since Oct 7th and its aftermath, I have spend much of my time dedicated to doing all i can to support the PR war.
With love
papa j
Thank you! We serve with the weapons to which we are most suited. Using your pen and any other resources to tell our truth puts you equally in the Tzivos Hashem- Gd’s army. Keep going! We need you.
Thank you so much. papa j
Obviously what if going on is horrific. But it’s worrying as a supporter of Israel if such a large proportion of them assume victory and survival. It really isn’t a given, as the tragic events of the 40s revealed. A little more cynicism and pragmatism might do them a world of good, assuming what this author says is true. Rome was unbeatable, unconquerable, until it wasn’t.
I have never been to Israel, but I love Israel. God says choose life, and that is what you have chosen. I don’t hate the Palestinians, I pray for them also, but I will not support their evil choices, and I stand with Israel.
Yes no one person other than Israel can imagine the loss, pain suffering trauma, on all fronts. The toll it is on Israelites. And still the rest of the world procecute Israel. Gods word is true, all will come against the holy land & its people, but I AM will put a hook in their jaws, destroy them, then All will know, I AM THE ONLY ALMIGHTY GOD. I pray for Israel Jerusalem, the people, the PM, leaders, and the rest of the world not to be blinded, deceived by the evil forces, to stand with Israel, to support on all fronts. May our Lord give you His strength, hope, peace victory, guidance, HE Is in control, our Lord will protect you, He will bring deliverance, keep your faith in our Messiah, His Light shines brighter against the dark. Keep praising & glorify YAWEH, HE IS VICTORIOUS
Thank you for this thoughtful essay. I am not Jewish but since 10/7 I have become a Zionist. It is Substacks like this one that inform my understanding of the absurd and unjust double standards to which Israel has been subject by the western press, the UN and by University-employed thought leaders.
I have a question about the section on Israeli labour force. You write: "The Palestinian labor is a quarter of the price of other foreign or domestic labor at their lowest. This workforce has also made up virtually the entire constant new construction industry in Israel."
Does this not translate to Palestinian labor subsidizing the Israeli construction industry by 75%? How is this unequal pay justified?
Please take this as a good-faith question. I have lost many close friendships in the past year over the Israel-Palestinian conflict, so when a fact like the one stated above is offered, I am not sure how to respond. Perhaps a deeper dive into pre-conflict labour relations across the border would clarify?
Thank you.
I will try to address here though it may take some back and forth or as you mentioned be a topic for a more in depth article. We are talking about Palestinians who by choice are not Israeli citizens and choose to live in a refugee status in Judea and Gaza. So by choice they are not part of the giving and taking of Israeli society that would be a part of equality of pay like serving in the army, paying taxes and voting etc. They live on the other side of a border of checkpoints.
Their society has received enormous amounts of aid, support, training opportunities and actual raw materials to build their own functional and successful society, a society that would include economic opportunities. In Gaza alone when the Israelis withdrew they left millions of dollars in gorgeous green houses that would have provided endless work and food for the Gaza people. In the first day the ordinary Gaza people destroyed all of the greenhouses. Their society has chosen to take the billions in support for decades and keep it to fund such activities that are not at all inline with creating a functional economy. Examples include using aid money meant for schools instead to “pay for slay” to fund the enormous PLO benefit of paying families whose members had died in suicide and other terrorist attacks. So the money they have been given to build a society instead they have used to destroy two societies, by choice.
Frankly, I believe that Israel must find another way. Why would any country to obligated to issue work visas to residents of another country/society who use those work visas to then kill and destroy? In my opinion, and as I am unable yet to vote as an Israeli citizen it’s really just my thoughts, is that Israel should stop permanently issuing work visas to Palestinians who live on the other side. But then Israel needs a construction and other workforce solution.
In fact, this is not true. Any employer in Israel is obliged to abide by the laws. No worker from the Palestinian Authority, no foreign worker, no Israeli can receive less than the minimum wage. The employer is obliged to pay vacation pay, the required bonuses and comply with all Israeli laws. Otherwise, he is subject to large fines. Of course, there are unscrupulous employers who violate these rules, and I can tell you why and how this happens, but these are isolated cases. Naturally, the majority receive the minimum wage, but this is true for Israeli and foreign workers. There are certain businesses and types of work where workers from the territories receive increased wages, but in any case it is not a quarter of the cost.
This may be true for an illegal worker who entered Israel illegally without a permit, but this is already a criminal offense for the employer, and these are not the types of jobs that Israel needs. Also, workers doing unskilled and light work receive less, while more skilled workers receive more.
Beautifully and poignantly and heartbreaking and TRUE 😢😢😢😢
Thank you for bringing to light the impact of the war on every-day life in Israel beyond the frontline fighting.
You definitely made me feel and understand in ways I have not u til now. Thank you in so many ways.