I had been nervous about how my brother would react when I finally introduced him to Shalzed via video. But Yoni was surprisingly cool. He was asking Shalzed why he liked soft-serve ice cream so much when a breaking-news alert appeared on my phone. It said, “Israel threatens expulsions and attacks due to children’s kites crossing border from Gaza.”

“How can Israel threaten to attack Gaza just because children are flying kites?” Shalzed asked. I swiped to remove the breaking news bubble from covering Yoni’s face.

Yoni clicked his tongue. “Because Hamas uses kites as weapons. They’ve attached burning material to them in order to start fires, and they’ve used kites and balloons to carry explosives.”

Shalzed blinked three times, the way he does when he’s surprised.

“I have friends who live on a kibbutz pretty close to Gaza,” Yoni continued. Yoni’s apartment was in Jerusalem, which I assumed was at least out of range of the kites. “Eight years ago, a fire started by a kite burned a whole wooded area right near their home.”

“Did any of the kites that crossed the border this time start fires?” Shalzed asked.

“No,” Yoni replied.

“So maybe it really isn’t justified for Israel to respond militarily,” Shalzed said.

“The army thinks Hamas was using them as a dry run for a future attack,” Yoni added.

A text message from Rabbi Meyer asking if I would be able to help make a minyan at a shiva house that evening appeared on my phone. I swiped it for later. “I’ve seen a lot of human rights people on Instagram accusing Israel of overreacting to harmless kites,” I said.

“Why wasn’t the fact that kites have been used as weapons included in the news report?” Shalzed asked.

Yoni gave a snort. “One thing is for sure,” he said. “If they’re going to keep calling the kites harmless and won’t even acknowledge that they can be used as weapons, there is no way I’ll pay any attention to their calls for restraint.”

Questions:

Can Israel be overreacting to the kites while still having legitimate reasons to fear them?

Does minimizing the danger of the kites make calls for restraint stronger, or does dismissing Israel’s fear make Israelis less likely to listen at all?

Sources:

For coverage of the kite incursions, see Times of Israel

For question and answer to the UN spokesman, see here.