Mideast violence affects local f

Mideast violence affects local families

All denounce Hezbollah, but support for Israel is split

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 07/15/06

BY TRISTAN J. SCHWEIGER
STAFF WRITER

Hagit Morgan was supposed to have been on her way to Israel on Friday.

Morgan, 39, of Dover Township, is from Israel originally, and still has family in the country. Her 10-year-old daughter flew there two weeks ago, and Morgan planned to join her.

Instead, Morgan's daughter was coming home Friday. As tensions increased in the region, with Hezbollah barraging Israel with rockets and Israeli forces striking targets in Lebanon, Morgan said she thought a trip to her native country simply wasn't worth the risk.

"My sister said, "If I were you, I wouldn't real-ly come,' " Morgan said.

Like other members of the local Jewish community, Morgan said she wholly supported the strikes by Israel's armed forces, attacks that came in response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers. Israel has been criticized by some nations for the extent of its response, but Morgan and others said the nation is clearly acting to defend itself.

Morgan praised President Bush for standing by Israel and supporting its right to do that.

"They need to clean the house. No normal country, nobody, can live under conditions like that. Going to work, you can be bombed. Going to a pub, you can be bombed. Going to a parade, you can be bombed," said Morgan, who immigrated to the United States in 1979.

Maida Averbach of West Long Branch expressed similar feelings. Averbach's son, Steven Averbach, lives in Israel. In 2003, he was left a quadriplegic when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus that Steven Averbach was riding, an attack his mother calls an act of "pathological hate."

"We know the mentality of the terrorists, of Hamas and Hezbollah . . . If you had terrorists in Canada and you had family on the border and they were lobbing rockets, what would your reaction be? Put yourself in their place," Maida Averbach said of the Israeli response.

But the view Friday among members of the local Arab community seemed very different. Hashem Mahmoud, an executive board member and media chair of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee's New Jersey Chapter, condemned the kidnappings of Israeli soldiers by Hamas and Hezbollah.

However, he also lashed out at the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, as well as those in Gaza, and said the United States should step in to mediate a solution to the conflict.

"The situation is very, very serious. And I think what we're dealing with here is what I call state terrorism," Mahmoud said. "I'm not saying it's right, but just because Hamas kidnaps one soldier, you go in and destroy the whole infrastructure in Gaza? I can't believe it."

Other local residents, such as Saliba Sarsar, a political science professor and an associate vice president at Monmouth University who was born in Jerusalem, faulted all sides in the conflict.

Sarsar, who works for Mideast peace, said Hezbollah is doing a "major disservice" to Lebanon, but also said the Israeli attacks had been disproportionately strong.

"Rockets should not be allowed to be fired, either by one side or the other," Sarsar said. "Self-defense does not include killing innocent civilians."

Sarsar also has friends and family spread throughout the region and said he is considering whether to go on a planned visit to Jerusalem later this month.

Meanwhile, as the conflict raged Friday, Averbach and Morgan said their Israeli families and other Israeli citizens are going about their daily lives.

"They're tough. They've been through the Holocaust, a lot of them. They've been through troubled times," Averbach said.

Tristan J. Schweiger: (609) 978-4582 or tschweiger@app.com