In a conflict situation or time of war it is always the children who suffer. Our hearts have broken over the images of refugees from Syria or starving African children and who can forget the harrowing image of 3 year old Aylan Kurdi, whose lifeless body washed up on a Turkish beach?

I have been sitting in front of my computer wondering how to write this. Would my words do enough justice to express what we are feeling right now as Israel endures a wave of terror that some are calling the “Knife Intifada”?  Several days ago we had 5 attacks before 15h00.

Many of us are writing. We are trying to come to terms with the brutality and futility of it all. Barely a day has gone by without breaking news of yet another stabbing, car ramming or shooting. So far 28 lives have been claimed and many more injured.

I have felt a range of emotions. Rage. Rage at the mistrust this is causing between Jews and Arabs and the ever widening chasm that is growing between our two communities. Disbelief.  Utter shock that while this is happening, the world is silent yet again. Jewish lives do not seem to have the same value as others.

Showing love for the greatest city in the world!

The longer I live here, the more I love this country and her people. The more protective I feel over each life. The harder I feel each loss. Terror will not stop me from going to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv or Ra’anana. Terror will not stop me exploring Modiin. I may be more vigilant but not deterred. Terror will not stop me from celebrating life and if anything, makes my spirit more determined to serve, to speak out and to have gratitude for a blessed life.

Many have failed to acknowledge Israeli victims of terror. It is like we do not exist. Addressing the UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris recently, Secretary General Ban Ki Moon mentioned everyone – except Israelis. Well, no great shocker from the Useless Nations .

Um….forgetting somebody? Map of recent terror attacks around the world neglects to mention Israelis. (courtesy, Eyewitness News)

Every day we are reminded how precious and fragile life is in this tumultuous region. The fundamental difference is that Israelis cling to and celebrate life with a defiance that leaves you breathless. Jihadists in the Palestinian territories extol the virtues of martyrdom, the lure of the 72 virgins or to live in infamy as a street name or stadium seems to be more valuable than building a strong, sustainable society. This has nothing to do with desperation and everything to do with a death worshipping ideology.

Who is perpetrating these violent attacks? Veteran terrorists? No. Hardened criminals? No. The average age of those that are carrying out these heinous attacks ranges from 17-24. The youngest was just 13 years old and law makers are in a conundrum about the best way to respect the law and ensure justice.

Palestinian children grow up fed on a steady diet of hate incitement. From their mother’s breast until university, they are taught that Jews are “usurpers of the land” the “descendants of pigs and apes” and also a large chunk of Hamas approved drivel that reflects the tenets of their genocidal charter. Of course the ubiquitous “Jews control the world” canard is also a hot favourite.

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, addresses the issue of incitement

Recently, Israel’s Shin Bet bust a Hamas terror ring from the West Bank who were planning suicide and car bomb attacks. These were young men were students who attend Birzeit University.   They are educated individuals and certainly not desperate as some leaders and the media would have you believe. Not all the perpetrators are Palestinians, some are Israeli Arabs who enjoy the greatest living standards in the region and not all victims are Jews as was the case with Palestinian, Shadi Arafa.

Educating children to hate is blatant child abuse. Instead of being groomed to be part of the start-up generation or nation builders, Palestinian youth believe that martyrdom is the ultimate goal to aspire to.  This is what they are steadily indoctrinated with.

“Jihadi dolly” – is it healthy for little children to play with toys like this?

Instead of expressing much needed outrage, the media both in the Arab world and the West, places blame on Israel by drawing a moral equivalence between terrorists and Israel.

In my opinion, so called human rights organisations, self-righteous hand-wringing, finger pointing folk  and the media who fail to condemn these attacks and express their outrage at the abuse of Palestinian children through hate education are just as complicit as the terrorist who plunges the knife into the victim.

What chance do we have for peace when the failure to educate for peace on the other side remains a greater obstacle than anything else?

Children on both sides ultimately suffer. The results of this are attacks that leave babies like little Yotam Sitbon, just a little over a year old who started to take his first steps, an amputee. His little leg was crushed in a car ramming attack.

And it is not just physical assaults. It is intellectual assaults like the exchange below between a Cambridge professor and a 13 year old Israeli girl (courtesy of Elder of Ziyon).

Exchange between Professor and 13 year old Israeli girl

Wow. Oozing sanctimonious self-righteousness, this so called human rights activist is so consumed with self-importance she cannot answer a 13 year old child’s question just because she is Israeli?

In as much as certain news agencies, countries and organization eliminate Israel off global maps, so too are Israelis as humans, eradicated from human consciousness.

Israelis are people too. Far be it for me to quote from Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice but hath we not eyes? Do we not bleed?

Israel’s Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, recently addressing Germany’s Bundestag, expressed his concern about product labeling guidelines in Europe. He went on to question if there will come a time when people are labeled.  Israelis already feel labeled and yet we seem to be excluded from the family of humanity in terms of being included as victims of terror.

It all starts with the children. Peace will be built from the ground up. If there is a failure on the part of the global community to recognize and address this soon by stopping the funding of nefarious NGO’s, UNRWA and holding Palestinian leadership responsible then we will be burying more children. If we do not speak up for our children, who will?

Suffer the children no more.