Part 2: Wartime Solidarity Trip to Israel February 15, 2024, to February 22, 2024 Kathleen Rusnak and Claire Pace
- Kathleen J Rusnak
- Mar 29, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 14
(Please note: This blog does not advocate violence or the destruction of any people or their homes. Besides the factual, verifiable historical information posted in this blog, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.)
At breakfast on 2/19/24 we met Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus who has been an IDF spokesperson. He gave us an update and insights into the current military situation as well as some possibilities for the future. What is to happen in Gaza after the war is a major question.
Below: IDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus
Key points:
Time stopped for us! Five months later Israel remains in shock. Every morning, we wake up to learn the names of soldiers who have died. Everyone knows someone in the IDF. Our communities in the south and North have been evacuated due to ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza and Lebanon. We have internal refugees and live with constant fear- and the world is against us!
The IDF is going through tremendous and unprecedented lengths to get civilians out of the battlefield.
Casualties could have been much less if UNWRA and other UN organizations worked with Israel to create a humanitarian corridor for civilians in Gaza.
Israel is currently involved in the historically unprecedented situation of fighting a war on seven different fronts. No other country has ever had to do this, never mind alone.
UNWRA has been exposed as aiding and funding Hamas rather than dedicating its efforts to the humanitarian aid for which it was mandated.
The Arrow defense system called “Iron Beam” that takes down ballistic missiles has become an important part of Israel's defense.
We then traveled to southern Israel to visit Kfar Aza one of the kibbutzim that was terrorized on 10/7/23 by Hamas terrorists. The kibbutz is located about one mile from Gaza. On the journey to Kfar Aza, our tour guide, Shannie, reviewed how the kibbutz movement came to be in Israel and the importance of these settlements in the early years of the formation of Israel. Israel was quite inhospitable in the early years. Land was bought and swamps and deserts were turned to farmland. The structure of the community was socialistic. Children were not raised by their parents but by all the parents. Shannie had this experience for his upbringing. He saw his own parents each afternoon for a visit.
Below: Chen Kotler Abrahams, a resident of Kfar Aza
Chen Kotler Abrahams, a resident of Kfar Aza met with us. On the morning of 10/7 (6:30 am) people were awakened to the sound of gunfire. The building housing the kibbutz’s weapons was invaded by terrorists. At one point there was a terrorist on her roof.The area of greatest attack was in the homes where the kibbutz young adults lived. (After high school young adults can have their own small apartment on various kibbutzim.)
Kathleen Rusnak standing in the ruins of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz
Claire Pace standing in the ruins of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz
Key points:
Sixty-two persons were murdered at kibbutz Kfar Aza on 10/7, plus 18 were taken as hostage. Kfar Aza is a small close-knit community, these victims were known to everyone who lived there.
People were sleeping when the attack began.
Homes were burned with people inside --they were burned alive!
“Safe” rooms were breached, and inhabitants were shot and burned.
Survivors identified voices of Palestinian workers they knew amongst the perpetrators.
Cars were torched so that people could not escape.
The attack lasted several hours before help came.
“Safe rooms” were developed to protect residents from bombs and air strikes, not this kind of attack.
While at the kibbutz we met the mothers of two girls who remain in captivity.
Above: Mother with images of her daughter, a hostage held by Hamas, standing in the ruins of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz
These mothers fear that their daughters have been raped and could be pregnant.
At right: ruins of the Kfar Aza Kibbutz
The struggle in Israel is tension between getting hostages back versus continuing the war to destroy Hamas.
After our visit to Kfar Aza, we drove to the site of the Nova music festival where 364 were murdered. Nova music festival had been promoted as a “festival of love”!
Memorial for the murder victims at the Nova Music Festival in Re'im
Kathleen and Claire at the Nova Music Festival Memorial in Re'im
Right: Nova Music Festival Memorial in Re'im
The concert took place near kibbutz Re'im and began the evening of 10/6/24. The attack began at 6:29 am on 10/7/24. Concert goers were shot, raped, burned, and mutilated over the period of a several hours.
We witnessed soldiers crying at the memorial for friends and family members.
Volunteering with the A-Team
North of kibbutz Re'im, we then went to a site where IDF soldiers come out of Gaza and get a meal, take a hot shower, and do laundry. Volunteers provide these services and the costs for the services are covered through donations. When we were there, few soldiers were present so there was no need for us to do any cooking. Our group was served hamburgers as we learned from the volunteer leadership about the services provided there.
Dr. Einat Wilf
Upon our return to Tel Aviv, we met with Dr. Einat Wilf, who had been an Intelligence Officer in the IDF. She also served in the Israeli parliament (2010-2013) and acted as a Foreign Policy Advisor to Shimon Peres and a strategic consultant with McKinley & Company.
Books by Einat Wilf:
The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream Has Obstructed the Path to Peace (2020)
(2022)
Key points from her presentation:
After the formation of the state of Israel, conflicts with Arab neighbors were constant. At first it was believed that the conflict was due to land and that if land issues were solved that peace was possible.
As a result of this belief, the idea that returning some land to Arabs--that is the idea named “Land for Peace” would in fact lead to peace. This idea was promoted by the Israeli left, primarily the Labor Party. There was thus a path toward peace that the left, including our speaker, promoted.
When people speak of the pre-1967 borders-- these were never borders, they were cease-fire lines with the Arab countries around Israel – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. The 1948 war was a war against the establishment of the State of Israel which has never ceased.
In the 1990’s the Sinai was returned to Egypt. Eventually peace agreements were made first with Egypt, and then Jordan.
Under Clinton, a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO (Arafat) was made. The agreement addressed the issues of occupation, settlements, and the ruling of Jerusalem.
The agreement gave the PLO 97% of what they wanted, and Arafat refused to make peace. The proposal was going to end Israel's military presence in Gaza and the West Bank giving Palestinians a fully sovereign state.
Arabs were not upset with Arafat for saying no but were upset with him for negotiating.
After the failure of negotiations, an intifada occurred, with months of attacks on Israel.
What did the Arabs want? The elimination of the state of Israel!
In 2005 Israel returned Gaza to Arab leadership. All Jews (80,000) were taken out of the area. The next day attacks from Gaza began against Israel!
The Ottoman Empire which governed the Middle East, ended after WWI. Arab states were formed-- Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. These were Arab lands which included the “Palestinian” Arabs. Israel was formed as a Jewish State. Lebanon was to be for Christians.
The Muslim belief that prevailed after 1948 and the creation of Israel, was that Israel was against the established order. All lands that have had Muslims belong to Muslims. Islamists believe that they are following the will of God by attacking non – Muslims. Thus, the Jews have a state and Arabs do not want Israel to have a state which is an irreconcilable difference.
We need to take Palestinians at their word when they say, “from the river to the sea” This message calls for the elimination of Israel. The number of Arabs to Jews is 60:1 now. Numbers are against the Jews.
Israel needs to be strong to defend itself.
There needs to be a change in priorities by Palestinians that is to build for themselves rather than the destruction of Israel.
In the Middle East there is some effort to reform Islam. Just as Christianity had to reform after the Crusades, Islam needs to reform.
We all need to build on our mutual connection to Abraham.
What Israel now demands to have peace is a recognition that Israel has a right to exist; that Jews recognize the rights of Arabs to live next to Israel; and that there is no “right of return”.
How do Arab Israelis fit into the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? 20% of Israel’s population is Arab. Before 10/7, 40% of Arab Israelis supported Israel. After 10/7, 70% supported Israel.
The Abraham Accords that model a relationship between Israel and Arab nation. are possibly a path to the future.
Visit to Hostage Square:
Below: Empty Shabbat Table awaiting the return of the hostages
Kathleen standing before Hostage Clock showing time held by Hamas
Families of hostages have gathered in Tel Aviv for several weeks and demonstrated for the release of their loved ones. There were displays in support of the families. When we were there the hostages had been in captivity 135 days.
We then had a dinner meeting in Tel Aviv. Dinner was with Yoel Har-Even, the commander of Israel’s humanitarian medical mission to Ukraine, operating the Jewish State field hospital for a six-week deployment. Yoel is the leader in the implementation of the Abraham Accord in health care and medicine, working closely with the governments of UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco. He is part of Sheba’s senior administrative team. Under his direction Sheba has taken the lead in the nation's mental health and counseling work, establishing a training program that will treat thousands of Israelis with acute stress disorder before it becomes PTSD.
Key Point:
Addressing the mental health issues of hostages and soldiers is a priority and a service that will continue for their lifetime.
Stay tuned for:
Part 3: Wartime Solidarity Trip to Israel February 15, 2024, to February 22, 2024 Kathleen Rusnak and Claire Pace
For more on the purpose of this blog, please see: PURPOSE STATEMENT (click here)
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