What is patriotism? Is it a blind loyalty to a cause completely duping citizens? Is it an unmistakable trust in a mistake-filled government? Is it the inability to recognize faults within a country one has nothing but everlasting love for?
I am a patriot. I do not trust blindly, however. I do not believe in everything my government stands for. I can recognize the mistakes of my country. And yet, my loyalty is unwavering.
On October 7th, 2023, Israel was infiltrated and attacked from land, sea, and air, by Hamas, a terrorist group hailing from Gaza. Hamas shot over 5000 missiles into Israeli cities, the death toll rising to over 900 and injuries totalling around 2000 as of October 9th. Terrorists made their way into the cities, kidnapping over a hundred people, most of whom were children, women, and the elderly, to use as hostages. Hamas has now threatened to execute them and broadcast the executions if Israel attacks Gaza back. A music festival counted 260 dead, as terrorists shot down running, defenseless people from behind, raped women and took them back as hostages, or simply shot them dead, and threw grenades and bombs. They bulldozed down an Israeli defense border, before infiltrating multiple towns surrounding the Gaza-Israel border, killing civilians in their homes.
These savage civilian deaths continued into the second and third days of the attack. My relatives detail their windows shaking, sirens blasting, thuds as the Iron Dome intercepts hundreds of rockets and more as the ones it couldn’t intercept explode into civilian buildings. Pro-Palestianian sentiment rises as Israel begins their responding onslaught into the aggressing land, Gaza. They speak of Israelis shooting into buildings and killing children, painting them as inhuman freaks.
What is patriotism? Is it countless tears shared all over the world, praying for our family, our friends, our people, our country? Is it nightmare upon nightmare, our faces buried in our hands, shielding ourselves from the horror that is terrorism? Is it waking up in the middle of the night to check the news, check for new horrors, check for new sorrow?
My cousins are of the age of conscription. One is currently in the army, training at a base. One has been called in to be on the front lines of fighting, once fighting enters Gaza. One is in Sri Lanka, expected to come back to fight for his country.
My aunt has lost her whole family. Her husband has been called to Ashkelon to care for the injured. He has been given a gun, he has been given a uniform, and he has been given a life endangered. Her children are expected to fight. Every day she hears booms. Other than that, there is silence. The eerie silence of fear, and of the absence of lives, and of the 300,000 soldiers which have been conscripted to servitude.
My grandmother is very sick. My father must visit her, because her condition is extremely poor. It is life-threatening. My father must fly into an active-warzone, where there is a chance of full mobilization, where he, as a citizen of Israel, will be expected to serve.
What is patriotism? Is it remembering the weeks I spent in my country just two months ago, and the years before that? Is it remembering the restaurants I visited, the streets I walked in the darkness, feeling utterly safe, the playgrounds I played on and the beaches I reveled in? Is it remembering the people, dark-haired like me, curly-haired like me, dark-eyed like me, filled with hopes and dreams and imagining their peace, their lives, their freedom, disrupted?
Are the shops I bought boogie boards from empty of their owners, sent to war? Will they ever be full again? Has the boy with the beautiful sea-green eyes that I met on the train been called away? Are those green eyes which once took in the beautiful lands of Israel staring at unfamiliar landscapes of desert and fire, fraught with fear? Are the smiling women on the beloved streets of my country in hysterics over their dead or missing sons and husbands? Their friends and uncles? Their cousins and grandpas?
People love to speak of Israel as a domineering occupant, colonizers, heathens, savages. Yet, they have never stepped foot in a country which above all, is a safe haven for Jewish people. They have never laid eyes on its beautiful structures, built from nothing, from sand (Israel was a desert once). They have never walked upon its spacious side walks, joyous teenagers on scooters whizzing by. They have never stood in front of the Western Wall and rested their heads upon the cool stone in synchrony with other Jewish women, prayers and wisdom in the air. They have never walked the streets with young soldiers, boys and girls with hopes and dreams, serving their country, all the people around them looking at them as if they were their own sons and daughters. They have never felt the gentle breezes of Israel, looking out onto an endless sea with the most beautiful sunset you have ever seen in your life, day after day after day, and thinking how beautiful this land was; how lucky I was, with ancestors from the Holocaust, to be able to stand on the ground of the Holy Land, to spectate the beauty that is Israel, to meet the kindest souls and see hundreds of thousands of Jewish people unafraid and free, totally free, to bask in something more than just a country, more than just a faith, but an ideal of freedom, of love, and of hope.
At Pro-Palestine protests in Times Square, supporters screech “Free Palestine” and mock crying faces at Jews come to support Israel at counter-protests. Israelies sing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem, at them. The Palestinian supporters have no other answer but screeching in English back. For they have never and will never step foot in Palestine. They have never and will never step foot in Israel. They have never and will never speak on what they know, and they have never and will never experience what true patriotism, what true faith, and what true camaraderie of a country is.
Israel is hope. It is sacred to the world, but most of all, it is sacred to the Jewish people. Above all, I am Israeli. I will defend this country from my birth to my death.
Patriotism is not blind faith in a country, nor is it excusing blunders of a government. Patriotism is the conscious knowledge that you have chosen a country, and it has chosen you. That you belong with a people, and they welcome you without question. Israel provides ⅔ of Gaza’s electricity. It warns residents of buildings to evacuate before it bombs them, attempting as well as they can to prevent casualties. It houses 1.6 million Palestinians as Israeli citizens, making up 20% of its population. It has offered them nothing but opportunities, life as Israelis, and a feeling of belonging. Israel is faith, it is love, it is hope. This conflict has killed 900 participants of this hope, including Israeli Palestinians. Israel has a right to defend itself- its people and its honor. Now and forever, I will stand with the country of my heart and of my beautiful, suffering people. “Wherever I walk, I am on my way to the Land of Israel.”
