In deference to Mr. Shavit

I wanted to begin by "paraphrasing" a comment from an interview of Ha'aretz columnist Ari Shavit were he a stated his "horror" and traumatization of being a "Prison Guard" at a "Detention Camp in Gaza.

I too did several stints of reserve duty, as the Chief Medic of a MASH unit, assigned in the early '90s at Ketziot detention camp in the Negev. In deference to Mr. Shavit I was not "horrified" nor "traumatized" for doing my duty.  I knew exactly why these men were interned.

In deference to Mr Shavit I knew that we had no choice. We slept merely a meter or two away from their tents under the same conditions in the Negev heat. We could hear their "lessons" being taught to them by their fellow internees as we in our Medical tent on the other side of the fence tended to their fellow inmates. We were guided as medics by our motto to “save lives” and the Geneva Convention. They were guided by lessons on vile hatred and means by which to murder us. They did not even spare their own who they would murder at random and leave for us to find to be blamed for their demise. They bullied, beat and tortured each other with a passion. Yet these vile acts of depravity were never spoken of nor mentioned by those of the Ha'aretz ilk.

I remember those days in the post Six Day War period when we did have a relative peace in the "Occupied" West Bank. When Jew and Arab alike were able to do commerce and eat together in peace. From 1967 until 1987 an Israeli Jew was welcomed and could move freely unarmed in the “Liberated Territories” of the once Jordanian “Occupied West Bank” or Egyptian controlled and “Occupied” Gaza Strip. Then there was a hope a slight glimmer of true Peace that could be made.

But in 1987 Arafat and his "Shabb"- youth chose their "Intifada" to defy us and to raise their hands in acts of extreme terrorism and means of violence against us. We were forced by “Our Neighbors" to take action. I witnessed how these neighbors of ours were doing terrible things to us as terrorists, and we in turn were forced to doing oppressive things to them by imprisoning them. They had chosen violence and acts of terrible atrocities to which they accused us of not giving them the fresh air needed to survive and live properly.

In 1993 steps were undertaken to create a new page in our joint history, a new beginning in which we could have shared this land in peace and tranquility. Yet once again as in 1947 the leadership of the “Arabs of the Mandated Area” chose the way of violence. They have shown that they will never sit with us as equals that we as Jews have no right to this land which was that of our forefathers. They insist that we are “usurpers”

There is a saying "good walls make good neighbors" we were forced to create a physical barrier - a wall to prevent these increasing acts of wanton violence. High walls were necessitated in many places where snipers would shoot at those who were once their neighbors. The wall or fence was necessitated to keep out those who would manipulate the "good hearts" of stupid "good meaning" Israelis, and their duped ISM (International Solidarity Movement)  lackeys,to gain entry beyond the 1949 Rhodes Agreement Cease-Fire Lines. This same Cease-Fire (Green) Line that is so mistakenly referred to as a "Border". These poor Arab youth are so full of hate that they carried suicide belts on their bodies to murder Jews in restaurants and on buses. Here are just three examples from the city most identified with Arab - Jewish "Co-existence":

The Matza restaurant suicide bombing occurred on March 31, 2002, when a Palestinian Hamas suicide bomber 22-year-old Shadi Tubasi who originated from the Jenin area detonated his bomb inside the Matza restaurant in Haifa, Israel, near the Grand Canyon shopping mall, killing 15 Israeli Jewish civilians (Two families were completely wiped out) and  an Israeli Arab Suheil Adawi, 32, of Turan. Over 40 people were injured.

On March 5, 2003 on an Egged bus in Haifa, Israel. 20-year-old Mahmoud Umdan Salim Qawasmeh, a student at the Palestine Polytechnic University carried a bomb, strapped to his body, laden with metal shrapnel in order to maximize the number of injuries,Seventeen passengers were killed in the attack - 16 Israeli Jews most of them under the age of 20 the youngest being Yuval Mendelevitch, 13, from Haifa and one Druse youth Kmer Abu Khamed, 12, from Daliyat al Karmel and 53 were injured. Many of the victims were students from Haifa University.

On October 4, 2003, the 28-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat detonated the explosive belt she was wearing inside the co-owned Christian Arab-Jewish Maxim beachfront restaurant located near the south entry to Haifa. 21 Israelis  (3 Christian Arabs and 18 Jews) were killed, and 51 others were wounded.

There are those who vocally decry the barriers construction by describing it as a “Land Grab”. Yet they in turn choose to deny the fact that there is no real border between us, since borders are reached through negotiation, which our neighbors consistently refuse to abide by.

So here we are once again at a sharp corner. Our neighbors are hoping for the intervention of others as they scream “Nakbah” and claim that it is not a self inflicted wound. They have been in total self-denial for 65 years now and there is no end in sight.

They and their lackeys proclaim by screaming at the top of their lungs that we expelled their forefathers and forced them into exile to be interned in squalid refugee camps by their brethren in embarrassment until today.

The (The Arabs of the Mandated Area) or as they have come to call themselves -"Palestinians"  deny that these same “Arab brothers” in 22 Arab lands did the same to our brethren and we in deference to them embraced our brothers and brought them in.

In deference to Mr. Shavit we Jews, born in the Diaspora, do remember. It has only been a mere 70 years ago when our martyred brothers and sisters cried out for a place to leave to in refuge from the hate of Nazism in Europe. Our Arab Neighbors out of their hatred implored the occupying British to close the door to our Promised Homeland as did our other world neighbors who also slammed shut ALL the doors to them. This paved the way for Hitler's plan to murder the Jews.

This Mr Shavit may not be politically correct to you and your friends, but to most of “US” Israelis it is the difference. We Israelis value life above the love of death but above it all we want our one corner of this globe to be our one home.