IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL

Am going to be very direct, blunt, and realistic in this piece. The views i expressed here will definitely be controversial as it is against majority of public opinion. However, flowing with public opinion is not what i intend to achieve with this article. The state of Israel is surrounded by neighbors hostile to her and committed to her destruction. In the words of former Iranian president Mahmoud ahmedinejad Israel should be "wiped off the map" Israel is bordered by Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon. Of all this countries only 2 can be said to be friendly with Israel. The two are Egypt and Jordan, Israel has a peace treaty with Egypt after the Israeli- Arab war of 1967. As a nation surrounded by enemies Israel places premium on its security. 15% of its GDP is spent on security and every adult in Israel is mandated by law to undergo military training upon the attainment of 18 years. Being a Jewish state in the midst of Arab nations Israel has always been involved in wars and conflicts with her neighbors and most recently terrorists groups. The current standoff between Israel and Hamas-the terrorist group controlling the Gaza strip has provoked outraged, criticisms, and demonstrations directed mostly at Israel. Israel is blamed for the death of women, children, and innocent civilians. A United Nations report stated that 70% of the 208 casualties(as at the time of my writing) are civilians including children under the age of 16. As gory and horrible as the situation in Gaza looks it is totally unfair to place the blame solely at Israel's feet without having a complete picture of the situation. First I ask the question how did we get to this point? Israel and the Palestines have a long history of hatred and bitterness towards one another. They have been sworn enemies since Israel declared her independence in 1948. This deep animosity and mutual suspicion has made mockery of virtually every peace deal proposed to bring about a two state solution in which both parties recognise their right to exist. The current standoff started when Hamas kidnapped 3 Israeli teens between the ages of 16-19 and killed them about 2 weeks ago. In retaliation some far right extremist group in Israel killed a Palestine boy and burnt his body. Tensions flared on both sides and Hamas a terrorist organisation so designated by the US, Canada the EU, and the UN launched rocket attacks into Israel. Israel responded with air strikes as any sovereign state under attack should respond. The criticism directed at Israel centres mainly on the death of women, children and innocent civilians whose houses has been a target for Israeli air strikes. Israel has been accused of crimes against humanity for targeting civilians. While the death of innocent civilians cannot be denied if juxtaposed with the reality on ground israel is not to be blamed. This is because Hamas hides behind civilians to fire rockets at Israel, civilian homes are used for storing and launching rockets into Israel. A house full of civilians if used to launch attack on enemies becomes a legitimate target under international law. It is Hamas that should be blamed for endangering innocent civilians by using them as human shields. Public opinion is against Israel because media houses like al Jazeera with anti Semitic inclinations have painted this as a war of David Vs Goliath. Since the beginning of this conflict Hamas has fired more than 1,300 rockets into Israel. Rockets are being fired from Syria, Lebanon and the West Bank. A rocket hits Israel every 10 mins. 70% of israel's population is within the range of Hamas rockets. Even cities far away from the border are not spared as Hamas now possesses rockets than travel 132km into the heart of Israel. If not for the Iron dome system that shoots down Hamas rockets before they hit populated areas like Jerusalem and tel Aviv casualties on the Israeli side would have exceeded that of Palestine. It is not Israel's fault that they have developed better technology to protect their people. The Israeli defence forces have done their part by warning civilians with recorded phone calls and leaflets urging them to leave areas targeted for air strikes. I agree that the warnings are sometimes too late and civilians sometimes get caught but Israel has demonstrated that it is not interested in killing innocent civilians. Social media is awash with gory pictures of dead children and women but some of this pictures originates from Syria where Assad has killed about 200,000 of his own people. They are the works of propagandists bent on potraying Israel as a rogue state that kills women and children Gaza. If Israel is interested in killing women and children it won't allow foodstuffs, gas, litres of fuel and medical aid to leave for Gaza as they do despite rocket attacks. On Sunday, a Hamas rocket downed a high-power line that supplies electricity to Gaza, plunging 70,000 Gazans into darkness • Despite ongoing rocket fire, Israeli technicians wore bulletproof vests and special helmets to repair the damage. These are incontrovertible facts. Israel cannot watch while its citizens are sitting ducks for Hamas rockets. On Tuesday Israel agreed to a ceasefire brokered by Egypt and for 6 hours all attacks on Gaza were halted. But during those 6 hours Hamas fired over 50 rockets into Israel, it is evident from this that Hamas truly wants war with Israel. What the international community should do is prevail on both sides to exercise caution. There is no denying that #GazaIsUnderAttack but let us not forget that #IsraelIsUnderFire too. @mofeakegbejo