Chronicle poll results: Friends or relatives living in Israel
We asked our readers if they had close friends or relatives living in Israel. Here's what they said.
Last week, the Chronicle asked its readers in an electronic poll the following question: “Do you have close friends or relatives living in Israel?” Of the 355 people who responded, 76% said yes and 24% said no. Comments were submitted by 76 people. A few follow.
My son is serving in the IDF right now.
Yes, many relatives and colleagues and friends. One friend said, when I asked if he and his family were alright, “We’re OK, but the country is not.” I think that captures the situation.
While I have no relatives living in Israel, I consider my friends the family I have chosen. As a result, my heart is filled with worry for those friends in Israel — and for all Israelis experiencing this brutal attack by Hamas. I pray that some miracle will occur and that peace will reign over the region.
Thankfully, I have no relatives or friends in our homeland under siege, but I feel a kinship to all
Israelis as my brothers and sisters. There are no words to properly characterize the atrocities and depravity that have been inflicted on innocent people.
What happens in Israel affects every Jew everywhere.
Very worried about everyone, especially the hostages. My parents and family were Holocaust survivors so this is particularly terrifying for me. My heart hurts for the survivors who have been abducted.
We are Am Yisrael — one people — and all Israelis are my brothers and sisters.
The silence from many of our non-Jewish friends, neighbors and colleagues has been (overall)
deafening.
I pray that Israel will be able to shut down the terrorist monsters once and for all. No other country in the world would be expected to endure such barbarity and live in constant fear.
I am saddened and horrified beyond words. The outpouring of support for Israel has been remarkable, but I am disgusted and distressed by those who continue to blame Israel without looking at the facts and history of what has been occurring for many years.
I used to live in Pittsburgh. I was born and grew up in Squirrel Hill. For the past 43 years I’ve lived in Israel and raised my family here. I am angry, hurting, want nothing except to make Gaza an empty parking lot. It is inconceivable that we will live peacefully next to butchers of infants, kidnappers of babies and grandmothers. It is either us or them.
There is no opportunity for any moral equivalency here. Hamas’ attack on Israeli innocent citizenry living along its borders in peace defies all definitions of human behavior. We must continue to state succinctly and repeatedly that this attack is nothing short of moral depravity and cultural savagery.
Israel owes it to its people and the world to destroy and eradicate this destructive, demonic disease and heinous hatred once and for all. PJC
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