In recent years we in the United Kingdom have experienced the consequences of both home grown and International Terrorism that has destroyed innocent lives and thrust us into long-term conflicts in other nations and Political changes in our own land.

Many Nations in the world today do not have the blessing of peace with so many wars and conflicts. Hunger and Human suffering continue to be part of the daily life of many in such nations as Sudan, Zimbabwe, Iraq, and again Ethiopia. There are so many that suffer unimaginable terror, but few have the continuous fight for survival that Israel has experienced in the last sixty years.

Christians for Zion tries to bring an understanding of the suffering of ordinary Jews, whom despite thousands of years of persecution and suffering continue to be the other side of the story of personal sufferring that very few hear or even want to hear.

After the War in 1948 Jews from all around the world began to build a life in Israel on land that previously was regarded as inhabitable. British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers fighting in Southern Israel during 1917 wrote home telling stories of a barren wasteland and asking questions as to why anyone would want to fight for such a desolate land.

However the remnants of the Holocaust with their shovels and bear hands created communities out of the desert and wastelands of the Negev. There battles with nature and the armies of the nations that surrounded them resulted in a success story not only for themselves and their Arab neighbours but also for the world. Such places as Gush Katif situated in the North of Gaza supplied the world with some of the best salad and fruit produce.

Russian, Moroccan and Romanian Jews built communities on undisputed land in the Negev desert which saw Arab and Jewish families sharing a lifestyle that although was always hard gave them a hope and a future.

Nobody, other than these poor and often persecuted immigrants wanted this land in the 1950’s. The lands from which they came certainly gave them the message that nobody wanted them, so they forged communities that offended no one in a dry barren land.

In 2000 Palestinian Arab Terrorists backed by International Muslim Fundamentalists and led by Yasser Arafat began an uprising in Israel That uprising opposed the very essence of democracy and peace which these southern Israeli communities held as precious, not only for themselves, but also for their Arab friends and neighbours with whom they had lived worked and traded with since 1951.  

In 2000 there were nearly 9000 Jews living in 22 separate communities in Gush katif Gaza. The communities had over 4000 children, 24-day centres, 35 kinder gardens, 7 elementary schools, 2 High Schools and a college. The communities were the flagships of Israel’s agriculture. They had the second largest heard of 800 cows. Their hot houses were the pride of organic produce. The total exports from these hothouses were $100,000,000 and represented 15% of the agricultural exports for all of Israel. Many of us here in the UK benefited from such rich produce.  These Jewish communities employed hundreds of Arabs who also benefited greatly from their relationship with the Gush katif farmers.  

Between September 2000 and August 2005 in an effort to destroy this community and take possession of the land Palestinian Arab Terrorists fired more than 5,000 mortar shells and Kassam rockets into Gush Katif. These attacks aided by a continuous flow of shootings and infiltrations against the civilian community resulted in forty-seven fatalities, many of whom were women and children.

In an effort to bring about peace during August 2005 these communities gave this precious land, their homes, their schools and farms to the Arab population of Gaza in the hope and with the promise of peace, not only for themselves but also for all Israel. I wrote then and I re-enforce the message today that  the Palestinian Arab Terrorists would not, despite their promises lay down their arms and would simply move forward deeper into Israel to continue their murderous acts.

These terrorists who once occupied territory Ten miles away from Sderot now occupy the land on which the greenhouses and farms stood in Gush Katif bringing them within two miles of the town of Sderot and the small Kibbutz communities that surround the town. Kassam and Katusha rockets, home made mortars and missiles all became within easy range of their new targets.

Palestinian Arab terrorists have since launched daily attacks on the civilian population of Sderot firing over 5,800 missiles, which have killed fifteen civilians women and children, seriously, injured hundreds and traumatised thousands. I have experienced the sounds and effects of these murderous attacks as the rockets hit buildings and communities with devastating effect. I have stood with women in the street who hold tightly to their screaming children as alarms screech out and rockets reign down on their homes.

For these individuals it is as frightening and as devastating as any trauma experienced by anyone in any other war torn Nation in the world because they like othere innocents are living targets of terrorism. 24,000 civilians lived in Sderot three years ago now only 18,000 remain. The population of 4,500 children are all traumatised and 95% suffer from Post Traumatic Stress all symptoms of war.

On 9th May this year 2008, father of three, Jimmy Kedoshim was standing in the garden of his home in the small Kibbutzim community of eight hundred called “Kfar Aza” when without any warning a rocket fired from Gaza hit him blowing his body to pieces. Our dear friend Noami is close friend and neighbour to Jimmy and his family and when we met her last week she described how she witnessed body parts strewn around Jimmy’s garden and how this, another tragedy, has scarred her and her own three children for life.

On Wednesday 4th June I along with another three Christian for Zion members from the UK visited Kfar Aza and witnessed the silence and abandonment of this community, which is undergoing an evacuation of its families to Youth Hostels, and hotels out of range of the rockets. These families have now become refugees in their own land and now experience empathy rather than sympathy towards their friends of Gush Katif.

The day following our visit to Kfar Aza in the next Kibbutz Nir Oz at 12 noon, Amnon Rozenberg a 59 yr old was working in the Nir Oz paint factory when three mortar shells were fired at the kibbutz. After the first two hit, he and his fellow workers left the building to inspect the damage. Amnon was hit by the third rocket and was killed. Four others were wounded by flying shrapnel, two suffered serious injuries.

These murders are the victory cries of Palestinian Arab Terrorists who have no agenda for peace in any part of Israel. They have in recent weeks been responsible for the murders of Israeli civilians who were supplying Israeli fuel and other Humanitarian aid to the Palestinians of Gaza. HAMAS are actively preventing Israeli aid getting through to the poor in Gaza for their own gain.

So whilst it is really important for ourselves in the relatively peaceful West to pray and do all we can to support those in Sudan, Zimbabwe Ethiopia and may other places it is also crucial that we remember those in Southern Israeli towns whose individual lives are being destroyed by an enemy such as HAMAS who as Mr Blair has just stated can only be part of peace negotiations once they recognise Israel and end terrorism.  

I will be back in the Kibbutz communities of the Negev next month meeting with ordinary, loving families who simply want peace, which is the right of all peoples no matter where they live.

Mike Fryer
12th June 2008.