BACK TO THE FUTURE

Over the last two days Israeli Defense Forces have returned fire into Syria after repeated attacks from Syrian mortar launches into Golan. As stated in the Jerusalem Post: “This is the first direct engagement with Syrian military since 1973.”

I have stood atop a mountain in the Golan Heights several times and marveled at how close Damascus, the capital of Syria is to Israel. If having Iran’s closest Middle Eastern ally’s center of government within eyesight is not troublesome enough, now there is a real possibility there is an intentional attempt to draw Israel into the conflict.

Earlier this year, rockets were fired from Egyptian territory into Israel’s southern towns. Additionally, nearly 1,000 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza in 2012!  The day I left Israel on October 6, 2012, the IDF shot down an unmanned drone in Israeli territory. Reported by REUTERS: “The Israeli air force shot down a drone after it crossed into southern Israel on Saturday, the military said, but it remained unclear where the aircraft had come from. The drone was first spotted above the Mediterranean in the area of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to the west of Israel, said military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich. It was kept under surveillance and followed by Israeli air force jets before it was shot down above a forest in an unpopulated area near the border with the occupied West Bank.”

I am often asked whether there will be another Arab/Israeli war. My question is “has it ever stopped?” The United Nations seems content to do nothing to address these unrelenting rocket barrages. The worldwide media only reluctantly offer tidbits of information about these attacks, reporting them without any of the outrage usually attached to stories they relish reporting of a Jewish family building a home in disputed areas. Rockets fired on Jewish families, docile report, home built on disputed land, sensational commentary. What is wrong here is a very unbalanced scale.

Frankly, there are no winners in these ongoing provocations. Innocent families, both Palestinian and Jewish become pawns in senseless hatreds and disputes.

Must the past be repeated? Must war be the only choice? Must the past be the only future? The prayers of Israeli and Arab mothers are surely heard by God. I join them in asking that a miracle of change take place instead of military conflict. I also state that should we reach a point of no return, where war is the only solution, the worldwide community of nations and the international media will be complicit.

As we in America celebrate the honorable military service of our veterans, let us be grateful for their sacrifices and prayerful that greater conflict in the Middle East be avoided.

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.