Being raised in a completely Zionist society is a wonderful experience, however at times it could work against us. Let me explain: We sort of live in a “bubble”, a bubble of Zionist Jews that agree with the State of Israel’s existence and want to see it prosper. However, that is not the case in college campuses across the country and it is surely not the case in the world media. College campuses and the world media love to isolate Israel and make Israel look like the bad guy, no matter what situation occurs. If you looked at the headlines during the IDF’s recent Operation, which was known as “Operation Pillar of Defense”, many newspapers had pictures of IDF soldiers controlling the missile defense system known as the “Iron Dome”, but the headline wasn’t “Israeli soldiers defending Israel against rockets from Gaza”, but rather, “Israel launches rockets into Gaza”. This was absolutely unbelievable, the world media did not show the terrorists firing rockets at Israel, but rather chose only to show Israel defending itself. If you head to a college campus, you’ll notice that it is very hostile towards Israel as well.
That is exactly why I, on behalf of the Israel Activism Commission, decided to bring the Israeli Soldiers’ Stories to our Yeshivah. I wanted to make sure that our student body heard actual stories from these former IDF soldiers. This way they know that the IDF does all they can to make sure civilians don’t get injured. After all, there is a very simple reason why the IDF is known as the “Israel Defense Forces”, because they are never an offensive army, they only do what is necessary to defend their citizens. I’d like to thank StandWithUs for offering our Yeshivah this amazing opportunity, I’d like to thank the Yeshivah of Flatbush for letting us host these speakers and most of all, I’d like to thank the two Israeli soldiers, Yishai and Sharon! ~~Tomer Kornfeld, 4-T
