What Israel Means to Me
By Toni Thrasher
In my hometown, there aren't very many Jewish people, there aren't very many Zionists, and there aren't very many people that care about the people of Israel. I was born a Gentile, but I love the Jewish people with all of my heart. I am one of the few Zionists in my town, and people don't understand why I am a Zionist, especially since I am so young. I've been asked: "Toni, what does Israel mean to you? Why do you stand for Israel?"
In sixth grade my social studies teacher taught our class about the Holocaust. I felt like crying through the whole thing; everything was so terrible: the camps, the massacres, the pictures of innocent people digging their own graves. Such an event as the Holocaust brought out the worst in people. But my teacher never talked about the miracle that came out of such destruction: Israel.
Indeed, Israel is a miracle. She has survived for fifty-six years against all odds. A piece of land about the size of New Jersey, Israel became a country on May 14, 1948, and has been fighting to keep her independence ever since that day. Now she faces suicide bombings and shootouts. The people who carry out theses attacks are not only seeking to wipe out Israelis, but they are also against every person in the world who loves Israel. Those people are against me.
During the first intifada I was too young to know what was going on in Israel. I saw the news footage of the suicide bombings then, but I was just a little child; I wanted to go outside and play. Two weeks before my thirteenth birthday, in 2002, I saw and understood my first news footage of such an attack. The bomber had detonated himself in Jerusalem, in the middle of a street in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood right after Shabbat services. I will never forget the imageS I saw that day: paramedics running around, helping the seriously injured, people screaming, the news reporter's voice that still haunts me: "An eighteen-month-old child was killed." Nor will I forget the decision I made that day: to become a Zionist, to stand for and love Israel and her people. Israel's plight could no longer go unnoticed.
My decision came under much opposition. Those who were close to me thought that I was abandoning America, and others were wary about my making a decision like that at such a young age. Some people thought that it was a phase, and I'd grow out of it, and many others, mostly my peers, tried to change me. I stood my ground, though, and came out a much stronger and more mature person because of it. I am now fifteen years old, and I am still a Zionist, and I will remain one for the rest of my life.
My dream is to visit the land I love after I graduate from high school. I want to talk to someone who has been in one of these horrible terrorist attacks, and I just want them to know that there are many people who love them, including me. I want to see the places that are of great importance in both Christian and Jewish history, but most of all I want to be there, even if I'm doing nothing but resting my head between the massive stones of the Western Wall, and I want my children, and my children's children, to love Israel and her people, just like I do today.
Copywrite © 2004 Toni Thrasher
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