Pro-Israeli activists gather in Sydney recently.

Pro-Israeli activists gathered in Sydney recently. Photo: Daniel Munoz/Getty Images

I am proud to be Israeli. I’m proud that, in Israel, a bacon-eating Jew and a beer-drinking Muslim can sit in the same parliament as devout co-religionists, and everyone can speak their minds.

 I’m proud  that Israel, like Australia, is a place where journalists, academics and everyone else can air their grievances without fear of retribution. Oh, they might involve themselves in an argument, but they won’t be gaoled or tortured or shot.

Two weeks ago in this paper, an anonymous Israeli declared shame in her citizenship. I’m proud that she has the right to do this, and can do so safely, both here and in Israel. However, her anonymity was insulting. Australia and Israel is not Gaza or Nazi Germany. Israelis and Australian Jews can, and do, criticise Israel.

Although I’m sad that it has been forced to do so, I’m really proud that Israel has invested billions of dollars on bomb shelters and air-raid sirens and radars to detect incoming rockets and missiles to shoot down those rockets, all in the name of protecting its people.

I’m proud that I could do my small part in protecting other Israelis by serving in the army. The army consists of people just like you and me; people who would prefer to start their adult life  earlier, but understand the importance of defending their country. That said, I hated the idea of fighting Palestinians.

For, whether we like it or not – or they like it or not – Israelis and Palestinians share a homeland. We could fight each other for another few generations, or we could divide the land so both sides have a state. I’m proud that successive Israeli governments, buoyed by majority opinion, have been willing to do just that. We have engaged in peace talks, we have made offers. I  know there are Palestinians who also want to stop fighting. I don’t know how many, because their media remain full of calls for Israel’s destruction, many of their politicians describe Jews as sub-human and their leaders keep turning down Israeli peace offers.

But I know peaceful Palestinians exist, and exist in significant numbers, and I look forward to the day that I can safely sit down for a coffee with these people in the centre of Nablus or Khan Yunis to talk about our differences and our collective future.

What I also know is that Hamas hates me – not because I’m an Israeli, but because I’m a Jew. I know  that Hamas sees itself as being in an inter-generational war with my people. That is why it launches rockets and digs tunnels to provoke fighting with Israel. Not because it thinks it will win, but because it thinks that, after another 10, hundred, thousand such rounds of conflict, the Jews will find somewhere else to live.

Well, we won’t. And while I’m proud that the Israeli army does what it must to protect Israelis, it breaks my heart when innocent Palestinians die. I believe that their deaths are the result of Hamas’s unbelievably cynical tactics, and I’m proud of the lengths to which Israel goes to prevent Palestinian casualties.

Israelis and Palestinians have a lot in common, and not just a homeland. We both see in our history a large measure of victimhood. And while I feel the Palestinians’ plight is mostly their own making, that is my opinion, and I can’t take away from Palestinians how they view the world.

I can say, however, that after the Holocaust, Jews had to choose between being shaped by our victimhood or being defined by it. The same went for the nearly one million Jewish refugees from Arab lands. Jews chose the former and this, in part, is a secret of our success.

But Palestinians have chosen to be defined by their victimhood. And for as long as they continue to do so, they will not take hold of their destiny but continue denying responsibility for their fate or actions. Israel cannot change the Palestinian leadership – that is up to the Palestinians.

I would beg of Palestinians, from someone destined to live next to you forever, take hold of your destiny. Be shaped by your past, but don’t be defined by it. Concentrate on building up Palestine, not  tearing down Israel. I will help you. My people will help your people.

In the meantime, Israel will keep protecting its people, by fighting when it needs to, but at all times offering an olive branch in peace. Because Israel and its leadership know the Palestinians are there to stay. It’s just waiting for the Palestinian leadership to come to the same realisation.

Dana Amir is an Israeli living in Australia. She served in the Israel Defence Force from 1998 until 2001.