עם ישראל חי

I don't like to bring politics into this to much, hence no post about the election this year. However with everything thats been going on in Israel I feel like I have to say something about it. I'm very pro Israel, as is any US citizen that plans on joining the IDF. I spent last summer there and hope to spend a semester there next year, its one of my favorite places on this earth. When I was there this summer my group was taught a lot about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. Our counselors tried to keep the conversation as unbiased as they could, but half of them were Israeli and many had lived in Israel at some point or another, so naturally we did get the Israeli point of view. Regardless we witnessed first hand life by the Gaza strip, and talked to kids our age who's houses had been hit by rockets while they were sleeping. We saw a bomb proof day care center and learned about how little time there is to get to a shelter when a siren goes off.
I know there is no way to keep an open mind with everything that is going on, but what I am asking you to do is please try to see the other persons side, whether that be the Israeli or the Palestinian. The only way that peace can be achieved is through compromise, and the only way compromise can be found is through trying to see the other persons point of view. It isn't easy, and I'm not asking you to change your opinion on the conflict, rather to see where the other side is coming from. I hope that peace, or at least tolerance of the other group of people can be achieved soon, and the loss of innocent lives ended on both sides. In any conflict innocent people are killed, it is inevitable, and this conflict has been going on for decades. My only hope is that the conflict will end soon, no one should live in fear like that.