A pissed off Israeli guy
By Oded Levy

I’m telling you guys, I’m pissed off.

My mom is dodging missiles for the last 4 weeks, My brother juggles work, 2 kids, bomb shelters and a doctor for a wife.

And no, I wasn’t born in a circus.

My best friends were called to the army again (Gidi is in his last year of industrial design school, Shai AT LAST met a cute sensible girl, Adi AT LAST broke up with his evil girlfriend and Sefi is trying to figure out what language does a 3 month baby speak). All just pulled out of their life to fight for someone else’s.

And I’m here updating a Myspace profile……Jewish guilt at it’s best….

But it’s just that watching the news in Canada and listening to people talk is too much for me to stay passive.

Thank you very much CBC for the oh so objective coverage of the war in Lebanon…. for showing the destruction in Lebanon and just to balance things, they have to show some of the Israeli side, right? So they show tanks. Just great.

Oh thank you Portia Clark from CBC for the wonderful and balanced interview of the Israeli ambassador in Ottawa , and asking him: ” you apologized for the civilian casualties in Lebanon, you apologized for the bombing of the UN post, how many more apologies do you think you’ll have to give in the future?”

Of course, such trivial things like the Emails sent by the Canadian UN soldier to his HQ just days and hours before the strike, saying that the Hezbollah is shooting from inside the post at Israeli troops. Using the post as it’s own doesn’t seem to interest Ms. Clark and the CBC news.

Apologize…. that’s the whole point, you know?

I don’t hear the US apologies to anyone about wiping out hundreds of villages on the other side of the globe, or Canada apologizing for shooting, by mistake, civilian bystanders on a10 hour flight from it’s border, or NATO apologizing for the Kosovo civilians killed by it’s bombings and so on and so on.

But for some reason, when my friends fight about a 2 hour drive from their homes, it’s a no no……

For some reason, Israel has to justify it’s existence. And that’s why I’m having such a hard time trying to talk about it with people here in Canada, that are not my friends – I always feel like I have to justify my family’s right to live in peace, my little niece’s Ronni right to breath. Why do I have to explain? Why do I have to apologize?

For those of you who still think that any of this has anything to do with dispute over land or anything absurd like that – I think it’s safe to assume that you have never seen the middle east map. Take 40 seconds and google it and tell me how big of a Demo (or Geo) graphic threat you think Israel is to the Arab nations in the Middle East….

So just try to imagine the same – Mexico bombing the US with more rockets per day than the Nazis bombed London in WWII. Or Quebec asking for independence and blowing up a subway on the Yonge Street line in Toronto, or a streetcar every 2 weeks.

How many apologies do you think you’ll make?

How many times you’ll feel the need to explain your wish for quiet?

I’m sick of apologies. Sick of trying to justify the existence of a country that just wants to live in peace and to be left alone, not more territories, not to govern more people.

It’s about terrorism, not land, it’s about religion, not occupation. Israel is on the front line. If you guys think it won’t come to your doorstep eventually, think again.