By Erez Ben-Ari, Special to JTNews
The distance from Seattle to Gaza is just a little under 7,000 miles, but for Israelis living in Washington State the conflict is as close as their cell phone. Some can still remember waking up at night to the sound of sirens, running half-naked to a shelter, and hoping the bombs will skip their house this time. Others are just happy that they are safe here, but all are worried about family members who stayed behind.
“It is always sad when people’s lives are taken,” Yaron, a program manager from Redmond, told JTNews. “Conflict is bad, and it is about time they find a solution for this situation.”
Yaron and his family have been living in the U.S. for several years, but sometimes the war still finds its way back into their lives. Back in 2006, Yaron and his family were enjoying a brief vacation in Israel when the rockets started to fall.
“One week into our vacation in Israel, the 2006 war started,” he says. “I was taking a shower in the apartment we rented north [of] Haifa, when my wife asked me what was that loud banging. I told her it’s probably the neighbors upstairs. I could not believe that the rockets had reached Haifa.”
Arik and Shula, who recently moved to Issaquah, were still living in Israel during the 2006 conflict.
“Our relocation process started shortly after things quieted down in 2006,” Arik says, “and as we were arranging things, we kept talking about how we hope we can make the move before the ‘next’ war started.” Apparently, they made it just in time.
“Had we waited just a little more, who knows what could have happened,” he says.
While Shula and Arik don’t hide their happiness about being far from danger, others are in a moral conflict. Shahar Plinner, a tax expert from Kirkland, was seriously considering going to Israel to assist in the effort during the previous conflict.
“I was with one leg on the plane, and I had a major disagreement with my wife and boss about this,” Plinner recalls. “My reserve unit went to Lebanon, and I really wanted to be with them, but eventually I had to stay.”
In recent years the amount of missiles, both from the south and the north, has pushed many moderate Israelis to the right, as is reflected in the political arena.
“I feel that the Israeli people wish for a strong response to the missiles launched regularly by Hamas,” says Rafi, a software engineer who came to the Seattle area several years ago. “It’s difficult to criticize things from out here, but personally, I believe the Israeli government is doing the right thing.
“The public expects the government to defend them, and even though some people want the response to be even stronger, I believe the Israeli government and the decision makers know what they are doing.” he says.
Plinner agrees. “I believe that Israel needs to do whatever it can to stop the Hamas missile attacks. However, in a realistic world, we must also actively pursue a solution to the problem, no matter how hard it is.”
While right now the military operation is of the utmost importance, he added, Israelis both in and out of their home country need to raise their children with the possibility of peace at heart. Yaron feels similarly.
“Everyone has a right to live protected and far from harm in their homes, but there is a bigger picture,” he says. “The government of Israel is putting out fires instead of dealing with the real issue. It seems like efforts are being made to solve the conflict, but a lot is put into this war machine where the balance should change and more resources should be going into finding a solution. It’s been 60 years, the excuses are still there and wars continue.”
Arik also expressed a common pessimistic view: “I feel that Israel has done a lot of wrong to the Arabs throughout the years, but the Arab population in the region was always violently against the very existence of the state of Israel, and Hamas are still actively advocating the same thing, not to mention Iran and the Hezbollah,” he says.
Milena, a student from Sammamish, asked what many, including the Gaza operation’s critics, have wondered since the incursion began on Dec. 27: “Is Israel’s response disproportional? If I ask a child’s mother, what would she do if her kid was systematically attacked by a group of bullies? Would she refrain from touching them because they are kids? You tell me!”
Most everyone is concerned for family members left behind.
“Now that we are here, it hurts even more to see our kids being sent to fight,” Milena says.
“I speak to my mother almost every day and I can’t stop worrying, “says Shula. “Most of my family lives close to the northern border, and I’m really afraid that things will heat up over there too,” she says. “During the [2006 Lebanon] conflict, everyone was living in bomb shelters for several weeks, but the government procrastinated in proclaiming the area a war-zone.”
During that period, Shula’s mother was terrified of going to work every day, but was more concerned about losing her job if she didn’t.
“I guess we were pretty lucky that nothing happened,” says Shula, “and I hope we are so lucky this time too.”
While the fighting has been going on for nearly two weeks, how this current conflict ends nobody can predict.
“My grandmother had a wish through the years of raising us,” says Yaron. “Peace is all she had wished for,…and she got to see the peace signing with Egypt and the beginning of peace talks with Jordan. Unfortunately, it had stopped there and no one knows when or how it will end.”
Many sources interviewed for this piece chose not to be identified by their last names.