Israel is a safe haven not only for Jews

A letter from a reserve Israeli soldier

My name is Aron Adler.

I am 25 years old, was born in Brooklyn NY, and raised in Efrat Israel. Though very busy, I don’t view my life as unusual. Most of the time, I am just another Israeli citizen. During the day I work as a paramedic in Magen David Adom, Israel’s national EMS service. At night, I’m in my first year of law school. I got married this October and am starting a new chapter of life together with my wonderful wife Shulamit.

15-20 days out of every year, I’m called up to the Israeli army to do my reserve duty. I serve as a paramedic in an IDF paratrooper unit. My squad is made up of others like me; people living normal lives who step up to serve whenever responsibility calls. The oldest in my squad is 58, a father of four girls and grandfather of two; there are two bankers, one engineer, a holistic healer, and my 24 year old commander who is still trying to figure out what to do with his life. Most of the year we are just normal people living our lives, but for 15-20 days each year we are soldiers on the front lines preparing for a war that we hope we never have to fight.

This year, our reserve unit was stationed on the border between Israel, Egypt and the Gaza Strip in an area called “Kerem Shalom.” Above and beyond the “typical” things for which we train – war, terrorism, border infiltration, etc., – this year we were confronted by a new challenge. Several years ago, a trend started of African refugees crossing the Egyptian border from Sinai into Israel to seek asylum from the atrocities in Darfur.

What started out as a small number of men, women and children fleeing from the machetes of the Janjaweed and violent fundamentalists to seek a better life elsewhere, turned into an organized industry of human trafficking. In return for huge sums of money, sometimes entire life savings paid to Bedouin “guides,” these refugees are promised to be transported from Sudan, Eritrea, and other African countries through Egypt and the Sinai desert, into the safe haven of Israel.

We increasingly hear horror stories of the atrocities these refugees suffer on their way to freedom. They are subject to, and victims of extortion, rape, murder, and even organ theft, their bodies left to rot in the desert. Then, if lucky, after surviving this gruesome experience whose prize is freedom, when only a barbed wire fence separates them from Israel and their goal, they must go through the final death run and try to evade the bullets of the Egyptian soldiers stationed along the border. Egypt’s soldiers are ordered to shoot to kill anyone trying to cross the border OUT of Egypt and into Israel. It’s an almost nightly event.

For those who finally get across the border, the first people they encounter are Israeli soldiers, people like me and those in my unit, who are tasked with a primary mission of defending the lives of the Israeli people. On one side of the border soldiers shoot to kill. On the other side, they know they will be treated with more respect than in any of the countries they crossed to get to this point.

The region where it all happens is highly sensitive and risky from a security point of view, an area stricken with terror at every turn. It’s just a few miles south of the place where Gilad Shalit was kidnapped. And yet the Israeli soldiers who are confronted with these refugees do it not with rifles aimed at them, but with a helping hand and an open heart. The refugees are taken to a nearby IDF base, given clean clothes, a hot drink, food and medical attention. They are finally safe.

Even though I live Israel and am aware through media reports of the events that take place on the Egyptian border, I never understood the intensity and complexity of the scenario until I experienced it myself.

In the course of the past few nights, I have witnessed much. At 9:00 PM last night, the first reports came in of gunfire heard from the Egyptian border. Minutes later, IDF scouts spotted small groups of people trying to get across the fence. In the period of about one hour, we picked up 13 men – cold, barefoot, dehydrated – some wearing nothing except underpants. Their bodies were covered with lacerations and other wounds. We gathered them in a room, gave them blankets, tea and treated their wounds. I don’t speak a word of their language, but the look on their faces said it all and reminded me once again why I am so proud to be a Jew and an Israeli. Sadly, it was later determined that the gunshots we heard were deadly, killing three others fleeing for their lives.

During the 350 days a year when I am not on active duty, when I am just another man trying to get by, the people tasked with doing this amazing job, this amazing deed, the people witnessing these events, are mostly young Israeli soldiers just out of high school, serving their compulsory time in the IDF, some only 18 years old.

The refugees flooding into Israel are a heavy burden on our small country. More than 100,000 refugees have fled this way, and hundreds more cross the border every month. The social, economic, and humanitarian issues created by this influx of refugees are immense. There are serious security consequences for Israel as well. This influx of African refugees poses a crisis for Israel. Israel has yet to come up with the solutions required to deal with this crisis effectively, balancing its’ sensitive social, economic, and security issues, at the same time striving to care for the refugees.

I don’t have the answers to these complex problems which desperately need to be resolved. I’m not writing these words with the intention of taking a political position or a tactical stand on the issue.

I am writing to tell you and the entire world what’s really happening down here on the Egyptian/Israeli border. And to tell you that despite all the serious problems created by this national crisis, these refugees have no reason to fear us. Because they know, as the entire world needs to know, that Israel has not shut its eyes to their suffering and pain. Israel has not looked the other way. The State of Israel has put politics aside to take the ethical and humane path as it has so often done before, in every instance of human suffering and natural disasters around the globe. We Jews know only too well about suffering and pain. The Jewish people have been there. We have been the refugees and the persecuted so many times, over thousands of years, all over the world.

Today, when African refugees flood our borders in search of freedom and better lives, and some for fear of their lives, it is particularly noteworthy how Israel deals with them, despite the enormous strain it puts on our country on so many levels. Our young and thriving Jewish people and country, built from the ashes of the Holocaust, do not turn their backs on humanity. Though I already knew that, this week I once again experienced it firsthand. I am overwhelmed with emotion and immensely proud to be a member of this nation.

With love of Israel,

Aron Adler writing from the Israel/Gaza/Egyptian border.

November 20, 2011 | 9 Comments »

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9 Comments / 9 Comments

  1. Your 11/20/11 piece is the first that I have seen. It was excellent and important. However, based on this first experience with your site it does not appear as though it is providing as broad a coverage of media distortions as honestreporting.org and CAMERA.org. In my view it is important for knowledgable supporters of Israel promptly respond to the media that are publishing or broadcasting distortions. Not enough people are doing this. Getting letters to the editor published providing documentation of erros made in problematic news reports and opinion pieces can be of special value. I am astonished that you believe that my comments were not respectful of you or your site. I hope that you can continue to share essays and observations of the same quality as Aron Adler’s letter. If your site also presents crtiques of media reports then I hope you will also provide your audience with the ability to access previous archived reports using keywords to facilitate review of background issues that will facilitate a quick response to biased or otherwise distorted reports about Israel.

  2. Michael. I consider Israpundit a source for facts and truth. People who just follow Israpundit dfaily will be well informed in the most detailed way about the details. Why would you assume we are in need of those sites. They are doing a great job but so am I. Please a little more respect.

  3. Oops! Some editing on the previous is needed:
    There is a great need for people who are knowledgable about Israel and the Israeli-Arab conflict, but also those interested in learning about how media, in the US, Europe and especially in Muslim countries, spews propaganda masquarading as news to respond promptly. I recommend that those interested in shedding light on this travesty look at honestreporting.org, CAMERA.org and Daniel Pipes’s online opinion pieces. Sitting by while distortions dominate the media is inviting more very harmful lies.

  4. This report from the Isael-Gaza border touched me deeply. It hurts that it will not influence those who believe that Israel is an aparthide state. I lived in the American southern states in the 1960s and experienced racial discrimination….none of those horrible things occur in Israel.and yet the news media is full of reports of anti Israel demonstrations claiming that racial prejudice is rampant in Israel.

  5. email rec’d

    That was a wonderful article. I Am an American Mexican born in this
    country and have seen many oof the things described by this young
    manhappen to the Mexican refuges who come to the Usa to find a better
    life for their families and unfortunately are treated the same way as
    the Egypcian have done. If they get across the border they are hunted
    like animals .I know that a few are bad but the majority are hard
    working people trying toooooo make a better life for their families.
    I have worked with thhhhe Mexican Migatory people who work in jobs no
    one wants like picking cotton and many more. Thanks for showing us an
    example of how wonderful the Jewish people treat these refuges. We can
    learn a lot from them.

  6. Careful not to be shortsighted. These African infiltrators (many economic refugees) may quietly assimilate into Israel, but their children will grow to resent Israel & follow the pattern of Muslim children rebelling in Europe. They should be returned to their homes or to the appropriate UN refugee body.

    http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/149867

    “This immigration has far-reaching social, economic, cultural and demographic implications. Most of the immigrants are Muslims, and the percentage of Muslims in the country will reach 30% in a few years. This population turns the neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv into African slums, and badly hurt the local population. This phenomenon is morally wrong and the state allows it to thrive.”

    Yisrael Sheli suggests solutions that include the construction of a holding installation for infiltrators, completion of the fence on the Egyptian border, enforcement of the law that prohibits employing infiltrators, flying the infiltrators back to their homelands and passage of the Infiltration Act.”

  7. No, it is NOT nor should it be the responsibility of the USA! As an American taxpayer I am beyond tired of paying to police the world, tired of my tax money going to other nations, etc. Hence, you keep your refugees Bert and stop expecting Americans to pay for everything! How humane of you!

  8. These refugees should be the responsibility of the UN and of the United States government as well. Some of these refugees should be taken to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and filmed showing whether or not the U.S. will take them in.
    Also Israel should cut all aid to the Palestinians and divert it to these innocent refugees. This is another public relations defeat where Israel pays the bills while her enemies continue to make hateful propaganda.