by Gail S. Solomon
Special to NJ Jewish News

July 31, 2008

Returning from a recent trip to Israel, New Jersey Rep. Mike Ferguson said he came away with a renewed appreciation for the courage of its people and the challenges Israel faces today.

“It is so important for Americans, who live in relative safety, to understand what Israel is dealing with every day,” Ferguson (R-Dist. 7) told NJJN, alluding to the ongoing terrorism, the continual bombardment of Israeli towns near Gaza, and the growing Iranian nuclear threat.

Ferguson visited Israel from June 29 through July 3 as part of a U.S. congressional delegation under the auspices of the American Israel Education Foundation.

Back home, he took issue with those who argue that the conflict is being waged equally by both sides.

“It is not,” he said. “The terrorists who are attacking Israel are deliberately targeting innocent civilians and are using civilians as shields. When Israel retaliates, as well it should, it chooses only military targets. It is unfair to depict this as equal violence, back and forth. Israel bends over backwards to avoid harming innocents. The other side’s very tactic is to harm innocent people.”

The delegation met with several residents from Sderot, a city of 20,000 in the western Negev that has been under continual missile attack from Gaza, just three miles away, for seven years. Several residents came to Tel Aviv to brief the delegation on the situation there. One woman, said Ferguson, brought the situation home to them in especially poignant terms.

A mother of two, she explained that she no longer visits a local playground with her children because, in the event of an attack, she would be unable to get both children to safety in time. When the siren signals an attack, she told the group, she has just 15 seconds to get to shelter with her children. But in that little time she would be able to save only one of her children. “Which one shall I save?” she said.

“These are choices no mother should have to make,” he said. “And this is part of that woman’s life — every day.”

Worse than the ongoing terrorism, Ferguson said, is the prospect of total annihilation of the Jewish state, as threatened by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. “That is unacceptable for the United Sates and for Israel,” he said. “Israel lives in a very tough neighborhood and Iran is the worst kid on the block.”

Lack of support from China and Russia prevents the United Nations Security Council from enacting stronger sanctions against Iran. “China and Russia could conceivably be powerful brokers in this situation if they had the political will and the courage to do what is right.” But, Ferguson noted, they have economic and oil ties to Iran.

Ferguson and the delegation toured the country by helicopter, visited Jerusalem’s Old City and the Western Wall. They also visited the emergency room at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, which was, thankfully, empty at the time, he said.

Funded by Americans, it was built specifically with the ability to respond to terrorist attacks. Just 24 hours after their visit, Ferguson said, the emergency room was overflowing with casualties from an attack by a terrorist who used his tractor to plow into buses and cars on a Jerusalem street that the delegation itself had gone through the day before. “Our friends in Israel live with that on a daily basis,” the congressman said.

Ferguson said he and his wife, Maureen, who accompanied him, were emotionally moved by their visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum. It was the most personal and powerful experience they had during their visit. “Yad Vashem is an important reminder of what can happen if this kind of evil is left unchecked.”

During the four-day visit, Ferguson met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief David Horovitz, scholar and author (and former New Jerseyan) Michael B. Oren, and Deputy Prime Minister Natan Sharansky.

Accompanying Ferguson were four other Republican congressmen, Mike Pence (Indiana), Joe Wilson (South Carolina), Jerry Moran (Kansas), and Adrian Smith (Nebraska).

Outlook for peace

This was Ferguson’s third trip to Israel. He visited the country in 1995 and again in 2001. “I was so moved the first two times that I visited Israel. I wanted to get an update, a firsthand, on-the-ground look.”

Things have greatly improved in Jerusalem since he was there in 2001, Ferguson said. At that time, terrorism had completely disrupted daily life. Streets and markets were deserted, and merchants begged people to come into their stores. Jerusalem streets are back to normal today, he said. He credited the security barrier with having done a lot to increase security in Israel. Still, he said, suicide bombers are trying to get in.

“It was good to hear about the continued efforts in the peace process,” Ferguson said, noting that he was “pleasantly surprised” by his meeting with Fayyad.

Describing him as “an impressive person as an individual,” Ferguson said that Fayyad “seemed well-intentioned and reasonable.” Yet the NJ leader acknowledged that Hamas is clearly not on the side of peace, making it difficult for more moderate Palestinian elements to come to the fore. This creates a great challenge for Fayyad, Ferguson said.

“I am hopefully — and prayerfully — optimistic that lasting peace in the Middle East will happen,” he said.

“It is so important for us to visit our friends in Israel. They need our support,” he concluded.

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