Why didn't the Gaza Strip become like Hong Kong? - opinion

Shortly before the massacre occurred, my wife and I spent some time on Hong Kong Island.

The Island is 79 sq.km. in size and has a population of approximately 1.3 million people, which means that on average, 16,400 people live on each square kilometer. Kowloon City, just across the bay and part of the same administrative entity, has a population density of 42,000 people per sq.km. Housing people is a huge challenge given the paucity of land and it’s daunting topography.

The authorities have met the challenge by resourcefully building high-rise towers to accommodate their residents. There are also underground tunnels in Hong Kong which are mainly used to transport residents and visitors from point to point using a remarkably quick, efficient, cheap, and safe system.

Hong Kong has never enjoyed independence. In 1997 the British, who ruled from 1842, ceded control of the island and its adjoining territories to China. Differences between Hong Kong people and mainlanders, such as language and economics, have caused tension. There is a significant amount of discontent amongst many Hong Kong citizens who complain of an erosion of civil liberties and autonomy. There have been protests and uprisings over the years resulting in a number of deaths.

Despite these grievances and huge population density, the people of Hong Kong have maintained their humanity, just like so many people in their situation around the world. We felt perfectly secure, both as humans and as Jews. I wore a kippah overtly wherever we went and the occasional reactions we encountered were all positive.

The Gaza Strip on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea has a population of two million on some 365 square kilometers. Its population density is approximately 5,500 people per sq.km. When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it left the territory to be governed by the self-designated Palestinians.

Israel imposed no restrictions, embargo, siege, or any of its like. In the democratic elections held there in 2006, the Hamas Party, with its rallying call of the annihilation of the Jewish State, won 74 of the 132 seats in the Legislative Council.

In just 16 years, the freely elected government of Gaza, in collusion with its people, have systematically inflicted mayhem and misery on themselves, all in pursuit of its Final Solution for the Jews. It has spent the billions of dollars received in international aid designated for development and welfare, on underground tunnels, not for civilian transport, rather on furthering its murderous goals.

It has used its airspace, not to build high rises for its burgeoning population, but to fire missiles aimed at Jewish civilian centers. Instead of using their idyllic coastline to develop a commercial harbor and a prime location for lucrative tourism, they have used it to launch murderers in the direction of the Jews of Israel.

Israel's soldiers: Descendants of Holocaust survivors, refugees

SO IN order to survive, us Jews, with pain in our hearts and tears in our eyes must fight those who murder with joy in their hearts and gleaming smiles. Our soldiers are grandchildren of Holocaust survivors and Jews expelled from Iraq and Egypt. They are great-great-grandchildren of Jews who experienced Eastern European pogroms.

These are majestic boys and girls who are studying medicine and education, science and arts, with dreams of improving the destiny of our people as so many have done through the ages, in defiance of Crusade and Jihad. Before our pilots bomb the buildings housing the terrorists and their weapons, its residents are warned to flee unlike Dresden and Hiroshima.

But as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, our sadistic nemesis will use its children and aged as human shields, blocking escape routes offered by the Israelis, in order to pile up their own body count. And “enlightened” peoples of the world will shriek their condemnation, not of the Palestinian guns but of the Israelis.

If we were not infused with the blood of our ancestors, we would be astounded by the antisemitism flowing through the streets of the western and Arab world right now. Those who are burning Israeli flags are declaring their support for Jewish extermination. As for those who claim that the Hamas barbarians do not represent the people of Gaza, they are at best misguided and at worst, dishonest. And if they really believed what they were saying, they would not be burning the blue and white, rather the green flag of Hamas.

Those same marchers protesting the displacement of a foreign people, were strangely not inclined to leave the comfort of their homes in support of displaced people in 40 countries in the world today. Nor are they protesting Egypt’s locking its gates to fleeing Gazans. As they call for humanitarian aid for the Gazans they are silent on basic human rights for Jewish babies and the elderly brutally kidnapped by Gazans.

By us Jews, the first human right is that of life itself. By us, life supersedes the right to self-imposed misery and degradation, homelessness, and helplessness. The worst humanitarian disasters for us are murder, torture, kidnapping, and rape. We will not apologize for the self-inflicted collateral damage caused in our struggle for survival.

Around European capitals, there are those who define Israel as a colonial venture best dismantled. Where would they suggest we go? I may have missed something, but I have not received any invitation to resettle in Vienna or Vilna. And even if we were invited and were not strong in our belief and resolve, is there any reason to think that repeating the same millennial mistake would result in a different outcome?

Jews have suffered expulsions, pogroms, and the Holocaust. Rather than indulging in victimhood and rotting in refugee camps, we have risen from the dead and rebuilt, again and again. Now we will do the same.

The author writes articles of Jewish and human interest in The Jerusalem Post and other publications.