Israel in need of its own Obama

It's funny. I sit here in Israel and I watch the news and witness the political fervor and fever that is sweeping across America. Many of my friends who in the past couldn't care less about politics have been taken in by Obama's message of hope and change. I, too, have been taken in, albeit from afar. I've never witnessed anything like this, a wave of momentum so strong that only time will tell how much history will be altered. We shall see, but for now, one can't help but be optimistic that Obama will do as much for the world as MLK and JFK did in their own time. I am cautious though and know that he is a long way from winning the Presidency (and even his own party's nomination).

However, that's not the point of this post. No, I want to go into the situation in Israel now. It's not pretty. I'm not even talking about the situation that the world is always concerned with (the Palestinian conflict, daily bombings from Gaza, and more). No, I'm referring to the complete lack of interest in politics here in the Jewish state and the disillusionment that is felt by so many of its citizens. The Winograd Report ripped apart the status of the army and the debacle of the Second Lebanon War. Morale here is very low and almost no one seems to have trust in the elected officials. Corruption permeates the government on a large scale and it seems to only be getting worse.

For Israel to continue to thrive, we are in need of a new generation of leadership. We need someone who can bring the young together with the old and inspire a new wave of optimism and hope. Where will such a leader come from? I don't know... I, like so many others here, am very pessimistic about Israeli politics and it's hard to know who to have faith in. In the meantime, I do know that we need someone. We need a person to rally around and feel good about. We need someone who hasn't been on the scene forever (Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu, amongst others) and who can unite Israel. I hope in the next election that there is someone who the Israelis can have as much faith in as Obama is inspiring now in the US.

What else can we do?

I have avoided being political in my posts. I like to share the daily happenings of my life and the new experiences I am having. However, I can no longer ignore the reality of the political situation here by omitting it from my blog. While I anticipate sticking to a lighter tone in the future with my blog, I feel compelled to write about what is going on in the Gaza Strip and the surrounding Israeli towns.

First, I would like to give a brief recent history of Gaza. In August 2005, Israel unilaterally pulled all of its troops out of the Gaza Strip. In June 2006, Gilad Shalit, an IDF soldier, was taken hostage and has been held by Palestinian militants ever since. In June 2007, Hamas forcefully took over the Gaza Strip in a bloody coup. For more than a year there have been relentless rocket attacks on the southern Israeli city of Sderot and the surrounding area.

These attacks by terrorists are without provocation. There are no more settlements in Gaza. The IDF and the Israeli public want nothing to do with this piece of land. However, the rockets keep raining down, striking fear into the residents in the south, causing much structural damage and the most frightening, sometimes wounding and killing Israeli citizens. Again, these are baseless attacks. There are no Israeli soldiers in Gaza, no more Jewish settlers either.

So what can we do? This is the subject of great debate amongst Israeli media, politicians and everyday people. We all remember what happened in the summer of 2006 when we went to war against Hezbollah and do not want the same thing repeated. However, we cannot sit back while Israeli citizens are killed without reason and do nothing. Hamas leaves us with little alternative other than to fight back and enter Gaza again.

We have no choice. Just this past week, dozens of rockets fell on Ashkelon and an Israeli was killed. I often take the Ashkelon bound train out to visit my family. Ashkelon is 3 stops after Rehovot.

Even for people who crave peace, the Hamas led terrorists in the Gaza Strip leave us with no choice but to respond. As I write this, clashes are already underway and the IDF is doing its best to prevent further attacks. Already 2 soldiers have been killed and many Gazans have died. Undoubtedly the fighting will continue and maybe there will eventually be an end to the rocket attacks that were the sole reason for our soldiers to get involved in the first place.

No country in the world would put up with bombs being fired on its citizens and neither will we.