By CATHERINE DONNELLY
Special to the PRESS
While the current Middle East conflict between Hamas and Israel unfolds over 7,000 miles away, its ramifications are reverberating halfway around the world in the Laguna Madre area.
From Laguna Vista to South Padre Island, this area has been the home and workplace of numerous residents and business owners with a vested interest in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including familial ties.
Recently on South Padre Island, a little girl writes down a small prayer to God in Hebrew (translated): “I love Israel. Am Israel Chai (The nation of Israel lives on) to do only good. God bless Israel and His people.” Then, she crossed it out, crumpled it up, and hid it from her parents. Her mother, who we’ll call ‘Sarah,’ found it the next day. She asked for her real name to be omitted for fear of reprisal.
This was no ordinary nighttime prayer. No matter how much her parents tried to shield her from the horrific realities of the latest war erupting in their homeland in the Middle East, the young girl heard enough to cause her to worry about her many close relatives living more than 7,000 miles away. She overheard Sarah talking to her brother in Israel and the girl’s uncle, saying that he had to go because they were being bombed again. There are so many relatives whose location and disposition are unknown at any given time since the Hamas-Israeli conflict began. Some families already know of their dead, but all most of the families can do is worry. Sarah sits at a café table on South Padre Island with dark circles under her eyes and her arms crossed over her stomach for self-comfort.
“When this began, people would ask how I’m doing,” said Sarah, a local dual citizen of Israel and the United States. She added, “At first, I would say, “I’m fine. I’m fine.” But I’m not fine. How could I be fine? It’s time to admit and to say out loud that I’m not fine. I can’t sleep. I cannot eat. I can’t function. I’m worried sick for my family here and in Israel, in my other home. It’s not safe for us in New York or Israel or anywhere. I’m not even sure we’re completely safe here. I jump at every sound.”
According to NPR, at 6:30 a.m. on October 7, 2023, Hamas announced the start of an operation called “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” claiming that they had fired more than 5,000 rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel within a 20-minute span. It is considered the deadliest attack on Israel’s civilians in the country’s 75 years of existence.
“I served in the Israeli Military through the past wars,” said Sarah. “I’m used to the usual wartime skirmishes, but this is beyond comprehension. The rules of engagement are ignored. Why are we being so careful with them when they are butchering our people like this? We should have a right to exist in our home, our ancestral homeland.”
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